Police have found a cryptocurrency operation that used stolen electricity to mine the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency ‘Bitcoin’ in the West Midlands.
West Midlands police officials raided an industrial building on May 18 in anticipation of a cannabis farm, but found a cryptocurrency system operating inside. No arrests have been made yet.
What Is Crypto Mining?
Users acquire bitcoin and other cryptocurrensets through “mining”, which is a process by which computers solve complex mathematical puzzles.
Those puzzles have become more complex as more bitcoin has been given to users, which means that computers require more calculations and more power is needed to make the mining of cryptos profitable.
Still, it can be beneficial. One bitcoin cost $ 36,392 (£ 25,732) as of Friday afternoon. That was below the all-time high of above $ 64,800 but almost five times as early as 2020.
The Investigation
West Midlands police said they had been alerted to the possibility of a marijuana farm as a result of reports of people visiting the factory every day.
A police drone flown overhead “picked up a considerable heat source”, usually associated with heaters used to help cannabis plants grow, the force said.
Photographs of the mine released by the police show lines of computers connected with fans connected to the main pipelines. There were about 100 computer units in total.
Electricity Supply Stealing
Mining bitcoin and other cryptos is not deemed illegal in the UK. However, police said the miner was found to be stealing thousands of of electricity units from mains supply after inquiries to Western Power, the network operator.
Jennifer Griffin, a Sandwell police sergeant, said the findings were “not what we expected”.
“It had all the hallmarks of a cannabis cultivation setup and I believe it’s only the second such crypto mine we’ve encountered in the West Midlands,” she said.
