Story by Anirudh Bhargava
Delhi, Jun 2: Police in the UK suspected a certain place to be a location where cannabis (cannabis is a plant whose production is either banned or heavily regulated in most parts of the world) was being grown illegally. They sent a drone to check. The drone’s data found that the building did exude a lot of heat. They guessed that this could be because heaters are used to keep the plants warm.With this data, the police raided the property. But what they found there was quite surprising. The building was stealing a lot of electricity from the main supply line of the Western Power Distribution company. But that electricity was not being used to warm cannabis plants. It was being used to power about 100 computers. These computers were being used to solve complex problems.
Why? Solving complex problems using computers is one way to get bitcoins. (Read our previous editions to understand Bitcoin currency). This is called mining.
The problem, in this case, was not the bitcoin mining. It was the theft of electricity.
Not just Britain
China’s Inner Mongolia region has become a mining centre because of cheap energy costs. China has promised action to reduce the mining. Some electricity blackouts in Iran were also blamed on the amount of energy being used in cryptocurrency mining. Malaysia has also reported massive electricity theft to do crypto mining.