BITCOIN MINER SENT TO PRISON FOR STEALING ELECTRICITY FROM TRAIN NETWORK IN CHINA

A man in China has been sentenced to three and a half years
in prison after stealing electricity from a train network in
order to mine bitcoin .
Xu Xinghua from Shanxi province pleaded guilty to stealing
104,000 yuan (£11,300), which was used to mine 3.2 bitcoins.
At the current price of bitcoin, Mr Xinghua's bounty would be
worth around £15,000, however at bitcoin's peak, it would
have been worth close to £48,000.
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Bitcoin mining – the process of generating new units of the
cryptocurrency by confirming transactions on an online ledger
called the blockchain – has become extremely popular in
China in recent years, thanks to relatively cheap electricity
prices in the country.
As the bitcoin network grows, the processing power needed to
mine them also grows. This has led to a government-led
crackdown in China on illegal bitcoin mining operations.
"Local utility agencies and companies will be held accountable
if they failed to shut down illegal bitcoin mining operation," a
government notice issued by the Economic and Information
Commission (EIC) stated in July.
On top of the prison sentence, Mr Xinghua also received a fine
of 100,000 yuan (£10,930), according to local media outlet The
Paper .