Dan GoodinApr 15, 2024

Behold the pyramid scheme known as cryptocurrency mining. Man allegedly consumed $3.5 million of computing resources from Amazon and Microsoft to generate $1 million worth of digital coin.

The real crime here is all the energy consumed.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/nebraska-man-indicted-multi-million-dollar-cryptojacking-scheme

Nebraska Man Indicted for Multi-Million Dollar "Cryptojacking" Scheme

“As alleged, by hijacking cloud providers’ computing power, Parks stole millions worth of powerful computing resources to acquire cryptocurrency,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “This Office will continue to prioritize prosecuting criminal actors who use new, sophisticated technology to engage in the old scheme of fraud and deceit.”

Show threadDan GoodinApr 15, 2024
Some people keep missing my point. The only way to make money mining cryptocurrency is to engage in felony fraud. There's no way to do it lawfully. That makes cryptocurrency mining a pyramid scheme.
Show threadchebra
@dangoodin Three things logically wrong with your statement:
1. do you really believe that 100% of the miners are stealing electricity?
2. if I buy a solar panel, connect it to a computer with GPU and start mining, is that illegal?
3. pyramid schemes must be enriching the higher levels of the pyramid, but that's not happening here with mining (all the less if you believe mining cannot be profitable)
Apr 15, 2024 at 8:53pmWeb
Show threadSimon LucyApr 15, 2024

@chebra @dangoodin

If you use a solar panel and a GPU your great grand children won't even see any yield.

Yes it's impossible to mine Bitcoin without losing money now.

Which leads to point 1.

Show threadMichael KohneApr 16, 2024
@simon_lucy @chebra @dangoodin In fairness, some if the theft is at a remove: like when you get a politician to give you a sweet deal on power, or pay you to shutdown at peak times. There you are getting the politician to steal from the other ratepayers or taxpayers for you, instead of directly stealing yourself.
Show threadchebraApr 16, 2024
@mhkohne Yeah sure, I'm all for eliminating all such "sweet deals", they are basically just legalized corruption. But that's far from being a crypto issue. It would be quite silly to assume that 100% of crypto miners are running only on such deals. You just aren't taking into account that there are places with cheaper electricity, no crime involved.