Irkutsk, a hub for crypto mining in Russia, seems to be taking action against miners who operate outside the law or in a gray area.
Per a Telegram post from the Irkutsk Prosecution Service, an unnamed crypto miner, aged 35, will “stand trial for stealing electricity” in the town of Cheremkhovo.
Irkutsk: Russian Crypto Mining Hotspot Hopes to Avoid Power Drain
The action was taken soon after Rosseti, the power provider, shut down 17 illicit cryptocurrency mining farms in Khakassia, Omsk, and Krasnoyarsk.
Additionally, Rosseti declared that, since 2022, it had closed 36 “illegal” cryptocurrency mining farms in the Republic of Dagestan.
Similar crackdowns have also been implemented in another unofficial crypto mining hotspot, the neighboring de facto nation of Abkhazia.
The Russian energy ministry’s contentious plans to raise energy prices for miners are something that the Irkutsk Oblast is hoping will move forward.
The Oblast hopes that by taking this action, the influx of new miners into the area will be curbed. Additionally, they hope that this will lessen the load on its power grids.
Irkutsk Looks to Shut Down ‘Grey’ Miners
Photographs of the tools confiscated during a raid on the 35-year-old’s mining “farm” in Cheremkhovo were made public by the prosecution.
The miner has been charged with “causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust” by the prosecutors, who believe he “caused damage” totaling in the neighborhood of $11,000.
Early in 2023, the miner was operating in Cheremkhovo, according to investigators. They stated that the man intended to establish a mining farm on the land he rented.
“A non-residential building with an integrated transformer substation” was part of the plot.
The man allegedly “installed 214 pieces of computer equipment, which was used for mining cryptocurrency.”
This is not illegal in and of itself because cryptocurrency mining is still illegal in Russia. But a lot of the so-called “grey” miners connect to the grid illegally.
The miner “illegally connected jumper wires to the substation’s current transformers,” according to the prosecution.
He could now “unaccountably consume electricity” and receive “proper payment” as a result. In February 2023, the farm was raided by the police.
But the man can only be charged with offenses related to energy theft, which is one of the main reasons the case has taken more than a year to resolve.
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Prosecutors in Krasnoyarsk claimed that a gang of unlicensed cryptocurrency mining farm owners stole $434,800 worth of power from the nearby grid.
Energy suppliers claim to have created new instruments and techniques that enable them to detect illicit miners more quickly.