The script of Iceland's biggest robbery: stealing mining machines, stealing electricity, and jailbreaking | pitou death, kata motivasi sadar diri, gintama final

The story of an Icelandic miner stealing electricity across borders is something that even a movie script would not dare to write.

On January 21, according to CCN, the verdict was announced in the largest theft case in Iceland’s history. Based on the degree of involvement of the suspects, a total of 7 of the 11 suspects were eventually prosecuted and sentenced. Among them, the principal criminal Sindri Stephenson received the heaviest criminal penalty-four and a half years in prison.

What was stolen in this incident was computer equipment for mining Bitcoin, that is, 600 mining machines, worth 96 million ISK (approximately 800,000 US dollars), setting a record for the highest amount of theft in Iceland, so the main culprit Sindri is also known as the "Bitcoin Thief."

But what’s interesting is that this case occurred in December 2017. At that time, although the Icelandic police arrested all the theft gangs, the whereabouts of the mining machines remained a mystery. As of March 2018, when the case was announced, the main criminal had escaped from prison and moved to Stockholm, Sweden. There were still no clues about the 600 stolen mining machines.

Coincidentally, at the end of April, Tianjin police uncovered an electricity theft case, in which 600 mining machines for Bitcoin happened to appear. The Icelandic police also sent a letter of inquiry to China. Not surprisingly, these mining machines that disappeared in Iceland were the electricity-stealing mining machines seized by the Tianjin police.

600 mining machines in Iceland were stolen and their whereabouts remain a mystery

Seven suspects were prosecuted and sentenced, but the police found no clues about the stolen mining machines. More than 600 mining machines disappeared out of thin air.

On January 23 this year, the 2018 “Bitcoin Theft Case” in Iceland was officially pronounced in Iceland. Based on the value of the items stolen by the suspects, more than 600 mining machines, totaling $800,000 in crypto mining equipment, the principal criminal, Sindri Stephenson, was sentenced to the heaviest penalty - 4.5 years in prison.

Stephenson, the main criminal with multiple criminal records, did not just give in, but tried his best to escape from the prison in Iceland. You read that right, he escaped from prison in Iceland. Before the incident was over, something even more bizarre happened: he successfully boarded a flight to Stockholm, Sweden, and finally became an international fugitive in Amsterdam.

Stephenson was not punished for escaping from prison because in Iceland, jailbreaking is not a crime.

According to the BBC, during his "escape" in Amsterdam, he accepted an interview with the New York Times and expressed his dissatisfaction with the escape life in the interview. He said that he was extremely eager to return to the prison in Iceland, because not only was he unable to provide daily food and clothing in Amsterdam, but his life was also threatened at any time.

The incident dates back to early December 2017.

At that time, a theft occurred in the southwestern district of Lake Chan Peninsula, which was described by the local police chief as "the most serious theft in history" and "a highly organized crime." At that time, four mining machine thefts occurred in a row, with the first three occurring in December 2017 and the fourth in January 2018.

Local police suspect that it is very likely that these thieves stole the mining machines not to sell them for money, but to obtain encrypted digital currencies. Therefore, local electricity consumption is strictly monitored to gather clues. In order to be able to track the thieves, the police did not disclose the theft to the public in time.

In fact, the suspect carried out detailed planning and stole more than 600 mining machines from the data center in three thefts within a few weeks. According to media reports, the total value of these mining machines at the time was close to $2 million. Now, as the market declines, the value of the mining machines is also shrinking.

Although in addition to the prison sentence, the suspect also needs to pay 33 million Icelandic legal currency (approximately US$272,000) in compensation to the stolen Advania company. However, nearly a year has passed since the theft. If these mining machines are used for mining, the value of the bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies mined is also considerable, and may even be equal to the value of the mining machines themselves.

Bitcoin is currently the most expensive encrypted digital currency and has always maintained the first place in the encrypted digital currency list. Therefore it is sought after by many people. In order to obtain more Bitcoins, miners are willing to spend high prices to purchase more Bitcoin-specific mining machines. It is not surprising that they came to Iceland where electricity is abundant and cheap.

600 mining machines in Tianjin, China stole electricity, and their origins remain a mystery

Shortly after the theft of the Icelandic mining machine, something magical happened on the land of China.

On April 25, 2018, Tianjin police announced that they had cracked a major power theft case and found and confiscated 600 Bitcoin mining machines on the spot.

The situation at that time was that Tianjin's electric power company detected an abnormality in power consumption: the loss of a power line suddenly increased over a period of time, reaching 28% at the peak, so it reported the abnormal power consumption to the Tianjin police.

After investigation, the police discovered that a user's meter junction box was short-circuited. Based on this typical method of avoiding billing, the police discovered a case of electricity theft. 600 mining machines used to mine Bitcoin and 8 high-power fans were seized on the spot. This electricity theft case has also become the largest electricity theft case in Tianjin in recent years. The monthly electricity bill for 600 of these computers is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

When police arrived at the scene, they found a total of five staff members, one of whom was subsequently detained.

After learning that Tianjin police had confiscated 600 computers used to mine Bitcoin, Icelandic media speculated that the seized mining machines were probably the 600 that had been stolen but disappeared in Iceland. Several Icelandic media said, "The 600 Bitcoin mining computers stolen in Iceland may flow into China."

Iceland also sent a letter of inquiry to the Tianjin police, but no details were subsequently disclosed, and it is unclear whether the Tianjin police responded.

It is not yet known whether the mining machines involved in the two incidents are from the same batch, but judging from the incident itself, the stolen mining machines from Iceland traveled across the ocean to Tianjin, China to steal electricity. The dramatic story outweighed the theft itself.

Iceland has always been a favorite place for Bitcoin miners because of its cold climate that is naturally suitable for the operation of mining machines and the cheap electricity provided by large geothermal energy reserves. Therefore, Iceland has naturally become a mining destination for miners in urgent need of electricity, which has even led to a Bitcoin "gold rush" in Iceland. An influx of miners has taken advantage of Iceland's abundant geothermal and water resources to generate electricity.

Iceland Energy estimates that mining operations in Iceland will consume more than 100 megawatts of electricity in 2018, more than the annual household electricity consumption in the country of 340,000 people. Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the significance of 600 mining machines to Iceland.

Source: BlockBeats