The cryptomining craze may have died down (for now), it’s no secret that there are still some individuals continuing their quest in accumulating the digital currency. In the unfortunate case of one man in China, his quest came to an end when he was fired from his job for mining Ethereum at his work place. As well as racking up a huge power bill.
To further elaborate, the man – who goes by the name Lei Hua, was the principal of a school in located in the Hunan Province of China. He was fired back in October, after it was discovered that he had been running not one, but nine mining rigs in the school’s computer room. In fairness, Hua only owns eight of the rigs. The ninth rig belonged to his deputy principal, who wanted in on the cryptomining action.
The value of the Bitcoin may not be as high as it was in November last year, it’s current value is significantly higher than it was last year. Before its value began to exponentially increase and peak at the RM70000 mark. In the case of Ethereum, the cryptocurrency currently has an average value of RM850 per coin.
Hua ran his mining operation for a little more than a year. However, his secret mining on school grounds began to unravel when the teacher of the school became suspicious of the “loud whirring noise” that droned on day and night. Never seeming to stop. By some miracle, though, Hua allayed their suspicions simply by saying that the sounds were coming from the air conditioners.
The jig was up, however, when the school’s total electricity bill for year had racked up to a total RMB14700 (~RM8871). On top of that, his rigs were reportedly overloading the school’s internet, and in turn, interfered with the school’s teaching process. It’s not clear just how much money Hua had made from mining, but local authorities have reportedly taken possession of his crypto dollars. Along with all his rigs, presumably.
Still, Hua’s folly doesn’t quite come close to the Russian scientists who – short-lived as it was – managed to mine cryptocurrency using a nuclear weapons supercomputer.
