Topic: Chinese man jailed for 3.5 years after stealing electricity to mine bitcoin - page 3. (Read 795 times)

I don't think he was aware of what the consequences of his actions were, because if he did, he would refrain from pulling off something so stupid. It's largely pure ignorance combined with a tint of arrogance.

Some people really believe they found ways to remain unnoticed while doing illegal things, and it time on time again proves that you can't remain unnoticed for a long period of time, especially not when it comes to mining.

The peaks in energy consumption can be measured quite easily, and in case of weird usage patterns you can expect a visit from both the police and the company providing you your energy.

Stealing itself is the against the law whether used for mining or for some other purpose the person is suppose to pay and use it in a right legal way. So anybody who misuse will result in the prison and government has set a good example by sending that person to 3.5 years of jail and now nobody would dare to use it.

Well this is no one above the law and stealing is a crime therefore it is right that he should face the consequence of being a thief. I hope he earned a lot Bitcoin so that there is some will be left to be spend by his family while he is in prison for 3.5 years.

I agree on that, we people are the most greedy species on earth. Even though we know that is already a crime, we still doing it because of money. Stealing is a crime, and those people who committed into this crime must be in jail without any reason. Mining is a low ROI as of now, that's why I don't like mining even and that's the reason they stole electric power supply.

When there is a new job that profitable, human will do anything to achieve it between legal or illegal way.
Crypto mining is new job in this digital era so it's reasonable to happen because as I know that mining require massive amount of electricity.


That's huge, before crypto mining, my people also stole electricity so they can pay their bill with cheap.

one of my neighbours told me a story of his brother getting caught stealing energy from the grid
he was mining Etherium and directly wired to the grid, so when he was caught he had to pay around 9.800$ fine
no jail sentence though, but the guy is very very behind on his ROI now 
as for the sentence being hars in China, come on if he managed to disrupt train operations and people died
it is not as far fetched as you would think , unexpected powerdraw and vouala - an accident

Stealing is stealing and it shouldnt really be tolerated no matter what would be the reason on such act. This man do deserved on what he had done because we all know stealing electricity is
a serious crime and if you abide on paying up the bills on the consumption then you are really violating.Those bitcoin that he had mined would only be pay up on the bail but still he manage to have an extra.
I doubt he wont really commit another one for sure since 2nd offense will really be much bigger.

Greed.


I'm sure that he knows what's coming, he took the risk and now paying for it. Yes, China law is really tough, that's why the crime rate is down, but Chinese still find ways to give it a try, if they can get away with it, its fine, but its a life and death situation for someone if they're caught. So he have to pay for it and serves 3.5 years for stealing electricity. Even high officials being caught for corruption can't do anything about the anti-corruption campaign of Pres. Xi. So I think its fair and he deserves the punishment.

Why do humans resorted into illegal things for the seek of money??

We are too attached to material things that we wanted but we don't particularly need.. This man just an one pity example and this will make a lesson learned the hard way.. 3.5 years is like a lifetime for an amount of bitcoin can be accumulated in legally with an effort to do so..

China isn't a place to do such thing,, it has harsh punishment for such actions..

Ridiculous.. I think it's too much. He committed doing something he can't afford. I think his investment even not right since stealing electricity is the way to get lots of profits is totally not right at all. I wanna suggest him to stop rather than force himself to mine bitcoin that way. I just don't like it, even form of crypto is 'unknown, decentralized, and has no regulation, stealing is stealing, that's what really matter.

That circumstances behind the man who stole the electricity isn't right, and as the Government in china implemented their law that man who committed crime will always be subjected by recommended punishments. There's no problem if that guy who mined bitcoin, will pay for his debts on electricity while doing the mining operations. If he is honest and paid for the electricity consumption fairly for the electric source company who provided his mining power, nothing bad to happen being jailed for 3.5 years.

I have some research on Chinese law，I can answer all your questions about the Chinese law. anyone can ask questions at will here.
This is the English version of the Chinese Criminal Law on theft. Please note that it is not the latest version. The death penalty for theft has been abolished in 2011. Other than that, the other regulations are the same now.


In addition, they have an explanation for the amount of theft, but I didn't find the English version for this explanation.So I translate it for you.
This is the latest explanation for the amount of theft，Announced on March 18, 2013，effective till now：


Simply put，as follows:

• 1,000 or 3,000CNY to 30,000CNY=Large amount=Fixed-term imprisonment <3years

• 30,000 or 100,000CNY to 300,000CNY=Amount is huge=Fixed-term imprisonment  3-10years

• More than 300,000 or 500,000CNY=The amount is especially huge=Fixed-term imprisonment > 10years

• Stealing a banking institution/precious cultural relics=Maybe Life imprisonment  or Death penalty

(This article has been abolished since 2011)


There are 3 points to explain to you：
1. In fact, since 2011, China’s criminal law has abolished the death penalty for theft, but in this English version it has not changed, and I did not find the latest version of the English version.
2. Different provinces in China have different standards for the starting point of the amount of theft, so the “Large amount” starting point will range from 1000-3000, and so on.
3. “Large amount” usually is not sentenced to really imprisonment, usually a probation or be fined (this is not really in prison).

In this thread case, this man theft amount 104,000CNY is “Amount is huge” , the corresponding sentence is Fixed-term imprisonment 3-10years, so he was sentenced to Fixed-term imprisonment 3.5 years.
In fact, his punishment is not serious in China because his stealing electricity from a train network is actually aggravated punishment, because the punishment of stealing public property in China is usually more serious than stealing the same amount of private property, Therefore, it is a relatively light sentence to sentence him to 3.5 years of imprisonment. I guess he may have compensated money.

1. CRIMINAL LAW OF THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (English)
2. Explanation for the amount of theft（Chinese）

This punishment is more of sending a message than being to correct a behavior. The margin he got in terms of profit is not enough with the punishment he will have to go through. It will be surprising that the same justice system that commit this man to 3.5 years for literally stealing £11,300 from the public would commit lesser for government official if found guilty of stealing a higher amount. The most fair deal would be to ask him to either pay the money back or collect the entire amount generated from the enterprise then suspend him. But now, he will have to carry the tag 'convict' for the rest of his life for merely wanting to earn a living in other to supplement his income.


It needs to be here though because it talks about a legal system that the focus is not on stealing but what he used it for which is related to bitcoin and he needs to be punished severely for that.

You'd be surprised to hear how crimes like theft can be punished in China, or even other less draconian countries in Asia like mine. China has very strict laws that punish street thieves somewhat more harshly than white collar theft. It has a policy of meting out really harsh sentences when the crime is against public property (like electricity).

These types of theft are still considered petty crime almost, especially because it was used to run a business.

$10,000, by the way, is a lot of money where average monthly wage is less than $200 - that's 4 years of normal working life. So 3.5 years actually does sound like an appropriate sentence. On that basis, doesn't look like its association with Bitcoin had any bearings.

This is now a big challenge that as we progresses into the new dimension of technology, and we were able find our future, then evil will always take its part, I know there's a lot of ICO’s who are promoting renewable energy to be utilized in mining which I think, as a true believers of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology are worth our support. And this of mind set and innovation that we should support.

Well this is new but I am not surprised as a lot of people will do things in order to earn in the crypto industry, I wouldn't think of this clever idea if I wasn't eager to cut down my expenses in mining. He will be imprisoned for almost 4 years just by mining off 3.2 BTC which I think is not worth the risk he took. Mostly criminals are now smarter on how they steal things some call it as "cryptojacking" where the criminals installs a bug or software to use your computer's mining capability without you knowing, there are a lot of cases involve with this but still only a few of them got caught.

He is just one of the unfortunate that got caught. There are so many in China that steal and don't get caught, I heard that the local government even protect it as it creates revenue for the region, or for the local officers.

it is a punishment worthy of paying fines until now individual mining is still dependent on electricity provided by the government, whether we mine cannot use alternative energy as solar power because mining has so far needed so much electricity and as we know the electricity costs are so expensive

It doesn't shock me at all that he's jailed for that long, we're talking about China here. What shocks me is how stupid people are to even attempt this within a country where human rights and moral standards don't exist.

Thus far nothing has been able to beat the news that came out earlier this year about Russian nuclear scientists who used a super computer within a nuclear facility to mine Bitcoin. They must have been desperate.  

I actually wonder what happened with them. Considering how big of a deal it is, I expected far more coverage but there hasn't been anything other than the initial news articles.  

It should not matter if someone is poor or not if someone is smart enough to mine he is also smart enough to know that he should pay for the electricity he is using. If he could not cover the cost with the Bitcoin he did earn with mining he could better spend his time on another way to earn Bitcoin.