News ASMR for Gamers? Watch Police Steamroll $1.6 Million in Bitcoin Equipment

[Admin]

Police in the Malaysian city of Miri steamrolled an estimated $1.6 million worth of Bitcoin mining equipment on video.

ASMR for Gamers? Watch Police Steamroll $1.6 Million in Bitcoin Equipment : Read more

 

[King_V]

I guess they haven't heard of electronics recycling? Seems like a better solution than a landfill.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

I guess they haven't heard of electronics recycling? Seems like a better solution than a landfill.

The problem with that is these ASICs can only be used for mining Bitcoin. And if you sell them, the most likely buyers will be Bitcoin miners, who will continue sucking down loads of power — and could very well end up just running them in a different illegal operation that's stealing electricity.

I suspect there was debate and ultimately someone felt this stuff was best treated like illegal drugs. Cops don't normally sell seized crack and meth at auction, right? 🙃

But yes, the environment loses either way. Still satisfying to watch, in a warped sort of way.

 

[salgado18]

By Brazilian law, if the authorities can seize an illegal mining or lumber activity, the standard procedure is to burn the equipment, because it could be impossible to take them out, and if they leave them there, the previous owners or other people can just come back and resume operations.

I guess it's similar. Selling it would just give other miners the equipment, and there may not be a way to recicle them within the law. Well, better than burning them, I guess?

 

[daworstplaya]

More good news.

 

[sstanic]

mmm that was so satisfying..nice and crunchy..

 

[drdccd]

Welldone Malaysia police.

 

[spongiemaster]

I suspect there was debate and ultimately someone felt this stuff was best treated like illegal drugs. Cops don't normally sell seized crack and meth at auction, right? 🙃

No, they're given out as Christmas bonuses.

 

[warezme]

At first I was like why are they destroying all those power supplies, ASIC, ok. Tough little buggers. The roller is having trouble crunching them.

 

[Sippincider]

Tough little buggers. The roller is having trouble crunching them.

Somewhere Malaysia has to have an industrial shredder, one that can literally pull down engine blocks and would have this equipment for appetizers..

 

[ConfusedCounsel]

Stealing power to mine coins, bots to hoard inventory, and using coin to launder money. It seems crypto attracts criminals. Also, people overleveraging to mine coin with Robinhood like investments in GameStop. So, inexperienced investors are setting themselves up for a massive fall. Seriously, time to regulate. Sorry, forgot that has to wait until we determine if this inflation is transitory or sustained.

 

[Krotow]

Part of me want revenge about crypto maddness with IT component price surge at begin of this year. Other part say that this equipment partially is usable for other electronic repairs. Logic said that equipment in video is already done for using elsewhere - seen how ASIC blocks under heavy load deteriorate in tropic climate (not pleasant view for any electronics repairman). Seems those boxes have no use elsewhere than in recycling. Verdict: let crunch them.

 

[King_V]

The problem with that is these ASICs can only be used for mining Bitcoin. And if you sell them, the most likely buyers will be Bitcoin miners, who will continue sucking down loads of power — and could very well end up just running them in a different illegal operation that's stealing electricity.

I was thinking more along the lines of the PSUs and other general types of parts could be sold, but anything that's single-purpose like the ASICs could be melted down. I'm a little behind on this info, but I thought it was actually getting to be worthwhile to take old boards, maybe CPUs, etc., and get specific elements out of them.

I suspect there was debate and ultimately someone felt this stuff was best treated like illegal drugs. Cops don't normally sell seized crack and meth at auction, right? 🙃

Well, not with THAT attitude. But, more forward-thinking departments will be the pioneers of this market 😆

 

[wujj123456]

The problem with that is these ASICs can only be used for mining Bitcoin. And if you sell them, the most likely buyers will be Bitcoin miners, who will continue sucking down loads of power — and could very well end up just running them in a different illegal operation that's stealing electricity.

I suspect there was debate and ultimately someone felt this stuff was best treated like illegal drugs. Cops don't normally sell seized crack and meth at auction, right? 🙃

But yes, the environment loses either way. Still satisfying to watch, in a warped sort of way.

I feel your points are for reusing or reselling, not recycling. Integrated circuits have lots of metal and other material that can be extracted and recycled effectively. There are quite a few recycling facilities near me that accept computer parts no matter how broken they are. I totally get we shouldn't resell or leave them in a way that can be reused, but I still feel they should be treated as outdated hardware and properly recycled for raw material, not crushed like this.

There is probably still good chance recycling is possible afterwards for some material, but my understanding is that generally one wants to pre-sort those parts for different purposes to make recycling more efficient or easier. A pile of mixture with dust isn't friendly for recycling.

 

[carljr77]

On the bright side, the less people stealing electricity to mine Bitcoin helps bolster legit mining companies paying their bills and increases the value/price of the security of the Bitcoin network.

On the downside, the police station could have auctioned the equipment instead, in order to cover the fines and stolen electric costs. By not doing so, the power company will never retrieve their losses.

 

[watzupken]

Is stealing power for the purpose of mining the way such that they can proof that they are getting more power efficient?

 

[thisisaname]

Does seems to be not very efficient way to crush them and I would hope this is the first step in recycling them.

 

[LolaGT]

Meh. The thought that keeps coming to mind is I've seen dumber things, but not lately.
Sort of reminds me of firearms buy back programs, melting down a few as some kind of symbol that humans are fixed now that we have gotten rid of those nasty whatevers(whatever fits the political agenda).

Hopefully someone is going to extract the reusable elements, copper/siver/gold, etc. But yeah, a pile of bits would make that much more difficult.

 

[zodiacfml]

what a waste just for show. they could have sold it to other countries and send the money to charity or something.

 

[z0d]

Music to my ears.

 

[johanpmeert]

If I'm not mistaken, I can see dozens of perfectly good 1200W platinum PSU being rolled over. What a waste.

 

[Krotow]

If I'm not mistaken, I can see dozens of perfectly good 1200W platinum PSU being rolled over. What a waste.

ASIC mining boxes usually have diferent PSU design.

 

[venser]

So there's a world shortage of chips and they are steamrolling computers?

 

[Krotow]

So there's a world shortage of chips and they are steamrolling computers?

Not exactly. You can't play games and even make spreadsheet on these.

 

[Joseph_138]

Let's hope they realize the value of graphics cards and gaming consoles and put them up for sale, instead of destroying them. A police department can fund their budget for a year if they make a large seizure. I hope the police in Ukraine don't do this with all the video cards and PS4's they seized.