Thieves steal 600 Bitcoin mining computers from Icelandic data centers
Eleven people have been arrested in Iceland as a result of what local media are calling the “Big Bitcoin Heist”—600 mining computers were recently stolen from Icelandic data centers in four separate burglaries between December 2017 and January 2018.
According to the Associated Press, which cited Icelandic authorities, it is “the biggest series of thefts ever” in the island nation.
So far, a Reykjanes District Court judge ordered two of the 11 arrested individuals to remain in custody. Apparently, the specialized machines have not yet been located, and are worth approximately $2 million.
"This is a grand theft on a scale unseen before," Olafur Helgi Kjartansson, the police commissioner on the southwestern Reykjanes peninsula (where two of the burglaries took place), told the AP. "Everything points to this being a highly organized crime."
Given that electricity is relatively cheap compared to other parts of Europe thanks to Iceland’s plentiful geothermal energy, Bitcoin mining has been in high demand in Iceland despite a population of just over 300,000 people. Later this year, Bitcoin mining is expected to draw more energy than all of its residents combined.
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