Two school principals in China have been caught mining Ethereum (ETH) at their workplace. The situation took place in Hunan’s province and was reported by HK01. Apparently, Lei Hua, Principal of the Puman Middle School in Chenzhou, convinced his wife to mine Ethereum. They wanted to earn some extra income installing 7 cryptocurrency mining GPUs.
Crypto Enthusiasts Caught Mining ETH at School
Virtual currency mining activities have grown all over the world. Although the industry is not as profitable as it was a few months ago, it still attracts individuals that want to make an extra income every month.
After being convinced by a cousin, Lei decided to spend 10,000 yuan ($1,440 dollars) in crypto mining equipment. Nevertheless, this was not enough for Lei. He decided to buy 6 other miners.
In order to mine cryptocurrencies, it is necessary to use a lot of energy. This is why miners tend to search for places with cheaper electricity costs. Mining ETH at their workplace could be very profitable for these principals because they did not have to pay for electricity bills. But between June and November 2018, the school used more than $2,000 dollars in electricity.
However, this does not end here. As mining Ethereum with the school’s electricity was so profitable, the vice-principle Zhipeng joined the mining activities being carried out. But these activities did not last long. Why? Simply because the machines were producing too much noise at the school’s physic’s laboratory.
Nine machines were finally discovered by authorities. All the earnings were seized as well. Additionally, principal Lei was removed from his office, while Zhipeng could keep at the school with an official warning.
Illegal mining is a very profitable activity. As mentioned before, the main costs related to mining cryptocurrencies come from electricity bills to power the mining machines. There were similar cases of individuals mining virtual currencies at their workplace. For example, earlier this year, Russian miners stole 8 million kW/h of electricity worth almost $1 million dollars.
Moreover, two scientists at a top-secret warhead facility in Russia were also caught mining virtual currencies. The interesting thing about these miners is that they were using one of Russia’s supercomputers.
Carlos is an international relations’ analyst specializing in cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Since 2017, Carlos has written extensively for UseTheBitcoin and other leading cryptocurrency sites; with over 2,000 articles published.
