Stolen electricity. Again.
A Russian Metro system chief engineer immediately resigned after a scandal involving the use of stolen electricity from the subway to mine bitcoin.
MUP Metroelectrotrans, the company operating the Kazan Metro in Tatarstan, has confirmed the resignation. The unnamed engineer was accused of stealing electricity worth thousands of dollars.
The Tatarstan Investigative Committee said that even before the resignation, it had already opened an investigation for two accused engineers.
Electricity worth $4,700
The authorities said that the stolen electricity has already reached $4,700, and they also found out that the engineers have illegally installed crypto mining equipment on the substation.
But even with this “bold creativity,” this is not the first incident in Russia where engineers were caught stealing electricity to mine bitcoin.
In 2018, engineers of a nuclear research facility were caught using the facility’s supercomputers to mine bitcoin. Not only did they illegally use electricity, but they were also caught using the government’s facilities illegally.
Open for cryptocurrencies
Russia is actually not an anti-crypto country; what it only hates is the illegal use of electricity and facilities just to mine bitcoin. Of course.
In fact, it is starting to lure crypto miners from China who were forced to stop their operations because of the Chinese government’s crackdown on their operations.
Also, Russia has massive assets that are ideal for crypto mining operations such as cheap and large amounts of energy sources (both traditional and renewable). The country also has a cool climate which is ideal for regulating crypto mining machines’ high temperatures.
The Russian Association of Cryptocurrencies, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (RACIB) has confirmed that the country has enough energy to handle cryptocurrency mining.
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