Cryptocurrencies continue to boom, but to get them you have to mine and that has significant energy costs associated with it. For some countries it has become a national problem. Kazakhstan closed the door to Bitcoin For this reason and now, the latest example, valued at more than 1 billion dollars, arrives from Malaysia.
Malaysia gets seriousto. Malaysian authorities have begun to deploy an unusual surveillance network with the aim of hunt down an illegal Bitcoin mining network. Although the activity is basically legal in this Asian country, there are those who are carrying it out through unorthodox means, something that in turn is causing millionaire losses to the State.
How to buy Bitcoins safely and risk-free
The hunt. In Malaysia, Police search the streets in search of the hottest spots. They are those in which the alarms go off of its sensors due to irregular power consumption peaks. There are also reinforcements in the skywith autonomous drones and helicopters searching for where unexpected thermal signals occur.
The thieves They are protected with heat shields to avoid being discovered and change location from time to time, prioritizing abandoned places, such as ruined houses or disused shopping centers. Behind this peculiar movement is an operation that has become a large-scale “catch-catch” between Bitcoin miners and the country’s police.
A 1 billion dollar network. And, although mining in Malaysia is legal, a recent report has found a large-scale fraud. Since 2020, 14,000 illegal Bitcoin miners have been siphoning more than $1 billion worth of electricity from state-owned energy company Tenaga Nasional (TNB). Far from relaxing with the latest fluctuations of this crypto“business” continues to increase.
A challenge for the Malaysian network. Beyond the considerable economic cost that these bands are causing in the State, the leaders’ concern lies in the very survival of the energy network infrastructure.
The Deputy Minister of Energy Transition and Water Transformation of Malaysia, Akmal Nashrullah Mohd Nasir, has explained that The greatest risk that these fraudulent activities pose for the country is that “they can even damage our facilities. It becomes a challenge for our system.”
A legal activity, with asterisks. Bitcoin mining is legal in Malaysia as long as those involved pay their corresponding taxes and do not make irregular use of energy resources.
The authorities are not convinced and the debate on a total ban is already on the table. In fact, Akmal has recently stated that “Even if mining operations are compliant, the extreme volatility of the market in which they operate remains a major issue. I don’t believe there is any mining company that can be considered a ‘legally successful operation’ today.”
Meanwhile. With the future of Bitcoin mining in doubt in the Malaysian country, the reality today is that the cunning of cybercriminals has become a very lucrative business. From the colossal ElementX shopping center in Melaka, which became another victim of COVID-19, to huge logging yards In Sarawak, miners are occupying unprecedented spaces and causing excessive consumption in the state electricity grid.
To hunt them, autonomous drones that search the ground from the sky looking for thermal signals have become another ally of the authorities in Malaysia.
A global problem. The electricity consumption of Bitcoin mining worldwide exceeds the total consumption of countries such as South Africa or Thailand, according to a report from the University of Cambridge. And although three quarters of this consumption occurs in the United States, for countries with a more unstable network it can become a serious problem.
In Xataka | The latest buzz among drug traffickers is underwater drones. And they are manufacturing them in Spain
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings