A 150 rigs mining farm, gets shut down by Ukrainian law enforcement officials. These farms were minting cryptocurrencies using stolen electricity. How they operated is by illegally connecting to an electrical transformer substation. Estimations say that they burned over $110,000 worth of energy in just two months.
The Location Of The Substation
According to the officials, extremely important services surrounded the substation making its location a crucial one. Power supplied to, the city’s water supply service and the ambulance service, was through this substation. So it was highly likely that if the theft was not caught, a part of the region would have no electricity. This would further damage the supply chain and caused major emergencies.
Concealing The Theft
To conceal this theft, the operators even tried to lower the meter readings by installing some special equipment. This was the reason the theft went on for two long months.
This Is Not A New Thing
However, this is not the first time something like this has happened in Ukraine. In June, a similar farm illegally connected to the power grid and stole electricity. According to officials, in just over three months, over 350 confiscations of mining rigs occurred.
Ukraine Still Undecided On Regulations
Even though Ukraine is among the world’s top adopters of cryptocurrencies, they are yet to regulate it. Due to no proper regulations, such theft is running rampant in the country. Recently a talk about an updated bill on ‘Virtual Assets’ happened in the parliament. The financial regulators and the National Bank of Ukraine, need more time for further revisions of the draft.`
