Malaysia: Illegal cryptocurrency miners have stolen more than US$700 million in electricity since 2018

This site (120BtC.coM): As competition among mining companies becomes increasingly fierce, how to reduce mining costs has become the most important issue for mining companies, and where do miners obtain cheap energy, which even involves electricity theft? , has also become one of the common speculations among the public. Many news reports attribute power theft to mining. Whether this is true, or whether it is a statement made by government departments, may still be open to question.

Malaysian miners stole electricity worth more than US$723 million

According to the Malay Mail, illegal crypto miners in Malaysia have stolen a total of US$723 million worth of electricity since 2018.

Malaysian Deputy Minister of Energy Transformation Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir revealed this outrageous data at an event. A total of 2,022 related equipment worth approximately US$467,000 were destroyed and seized during the event, including Bitcoin mining machines and electrical equipment. .

Nasir said that these illegal mining not only caused huge losses to Malaysia’s state-owned power operator Tenaga Nasional Berhad, but also affected local residents.

He pointed out: Electricity thieves usually do not register with the relevant authorities. They find ways to bypass meters or steal power from power lines. However, power companies have many ways to detect abnormal energy consumption in an area.

Malaysia has destroyed thousands of mining machines

Since August 2019, Malaysian officials have been searching for illegal mining machines, and more than 2,000 devices were seized and destroyed in an operation in 2022. Nasir said the destruction process was conducted in accordance with the country's criminal procedure code.

He emphasized that cracking down on illegal crypto miners and increasing Malaysia’s renewable energy sources have always been the two priorities of his ministry.

According to a statement from Universiti Teknologi MARA in December 2022, mining cryptocurrency is not illegal in the country, but stealing electricity for mining is.

Has electricity theft become synonymous with miners?

With the increasingly fierce competition among mining companies, how to reduce mining costs has become the most important issue for mining companies. Where do miners obtain cheap energy, and even if electricity theft is involved, it has become one of the common speculations among the public.

So is there really such a large-scale theft of electricity? If according to Nasir's statement that "power companies are fully capable of monitoring abnormal power supply," how could illegal miners be allowed to steal up to 700 million U.S. dollars of electricity and then find out later?

Malaysian netizens said: It is true that there are many "stealing electricity" for mining, but the amount is unclear. I personally feel that a large part of the electricity theft comes from thieves shouting to catch thieves. Put all electricity theft in a "controversial" comparison For large cryptocurrencies, they will be easier to handle.

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