Energy providers have also tracked down home crypto miners in Irkutsk and Buryatia
As law enforcement in Novosibirsk announced the arrest of a resident of the Russian city, more Siberian regions are taking action against home cryptocurrency miners.
The Novosibirsk-based media outlet NGS reported that “security forces” believed the unnamed man had committed a form of electricity fraud.
Home Crypto Miners in Crosshairs
During a meeting with Governor Andrei Travnikov, Kirill Travin, the Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ branch in Novosibirsk Oblast, informed participants about the arrest.
According to Travin, when police searched a property in the Moshkovsky District in the northeast of the area, they found “six administrative violations.”
According to Travin, they filed a criminal case and took a man into custody. According to the official, police were also investigating the specifics of “another [potential] violation.”
The man “managed to earn 12 million rubles [over $123,000]” from his mining operations, Travin continued.
Although posters on a local forum claimed the resident had been caught mining Ethereum (ETH), the official did not specify which coin the man had mined.
“The man was mining using regional power grid equipment to create cryptocurrency in the Moshkovsky District. He mined [coins worth] over 12 million rubles.”Kirill Travin, Deputy Head of the Novosibirsk Oblast’s branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Resident: I Think Lots of People Mine Crypto in Novosibirsk
Sasha (surname withheld at interviewee’s request) is a Novosibirsk resident who spoke to Cryptonews.com on October 28. He explained:
“I believe a lot of people are mining crypto from home in our city. There are apartments with rooms where the windows are always open, even in the dead of winter. Even in my apartment block, I hear strange whirring noises coming from a room not far away.”
Home-based crypto mining is not technically illegal in Russia. Recent legislation has – in fact – legalized “private” mining in Russia.
The new law, however, requires home-based miners to adhere to the electricity caps set by local power providers.
Additionally, President Vladimir Putin signed the country’s second crypto mining law earlier this month, giving regions the authority to order all miners within their jurisdictions to shut down their rigs as of November 1.
The bill is the second law pertaining to cryptocurrency mining that the State Duma has approved in the second half of the year.
But there seem to be a number of blind spots in the law that have confused small-scale Russian miners.
The resident of Novosibirsk seems to have been arrested for powering his rigs with subsidized electricity.
However, home-based miners generally have no access to commercial power. Lawmakers appear keen to return to the matter of “private crypto mining” in future legislation.
Power Companies Step up Their Hunt
This year, power engineers in the area have been pursuing cryptocurrency miners more assiduously.
According to NGS, authorities have discovered “illegal” cryptocurrency mining “farms” throughout Novosibirsk, including in residential areas, outside a city trash dump, close to a sewage treatment plant, and in wooded areas. However, home-based miners usually do not have access to commercial power. It seems that lawmakers are eager to revisit the issue of “private crypto mining” in subsequent legislation.
North Korea's foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, is on her way to Moscow, state media KCNA and Russian officials said, for her second trip to Russia in six weeks amid rising concerns about Pyongyang's involvement in Moscow's war in Ukraine https://t.co/kmRPUPGbue
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The crackdown comes as police conduct similar purges in other parts of Siberia. These include the Bitcoin mining hotspot of Irkutsk and the neighboring Republic of Buryatia.
Cryptonews has also seen videos of Russian miners in Siberia showcasing “mobile crypto mining farms” they claim to operate from vans and cars.
Miners appear to be using these setups to evade detection from power providers and police officials.
In Moscow, meanwhile, politicians are drafting plans to start taxing industrial crypto miners.
Industry officials say that this will help bring hundreds of millions of USD to the Russian Treasury every year.