NSF Researcher Suspended For Mining Bitcoin

PvtVoid (1252388) writes "In the semiannual report to Congress by the NSF Office of Inspector General, the organization said it received reports of a researcher who was using NSF-funded supercomputers at two universities to mine Bitcoin. The computationally intensive mining took up about $150,000 worth of NSF-supported computer use at the two universities to generate bitcoins worth about $8,000 to $10,000, according to the report. It did not name the researcher or the universities."

Comments

Throw the book... maybe literally at him.

[Shadowmist]

This is pretty much at the lowest of the low category, Someone who takes up taxpayer funded computer time to mine Bitcoin, should essentially be barred for life form the facility... and that's for starters.

Re:Throw the book... maybe literally at him.

[Xicor]

well, most likely the computers werent being used for anything else at the time. he was probably only running it in spare time.

Re:Throw the book... maybe literally at him.

[pete6677]

The $150k is in "government numbers", ie total fantasy.

Re:Throw the book... maybe literally at him.

[iroll]

...because you buy time on modern supercomputers all the time, and can give us the real scoop, right?

Re:Throw the book... maybe literally at him.

[lagomorpha2]

well, most likely the computers werent being used for anything else at the time. he was probably only running it in spare time.

Using close to 100% of processing resources would definitely increase overall power consumption for the computers in question. This would result in increased overall cost of operation.

And yet still less wasteful of money and resources than the vast majority of university administrators.

whoops

[globaljustin]

I used to do funded networking work and this is one of the *first* things I thought when I heard about BTC...a friend who is a router R&D now and I talked all about it of course...never actually **did it**

I would have definitely put a miner bot in a broom closet next to a computer lab in a freshmen dorm or something...nowhere near our program's stuff, for alot of reasons

we just talked though...if my friend had took the time he'd be litterally rich right now...at least 6 figures b/c we were in school from 2008-2010

now, i sure hope they don't "throw the book at them"...I hope they don't get felonies unless unavoidable and either way no prison time...get them on a hardcore probation for 5 years....they can make your life hell now w/ electronic monitoring...let's keep these people out of prison if possible

give them probation.... maybe felony if necessary

[globaljustin]

I suspect you're joking but either way i hope they don't tag them w/ felonies just for this...the DA will surely pull some ridiculous damages figure but there's no reason to cripple good engineers forever w/ a felony for this

Re:give them probation.... maybe felony if necessa

[iroll]

This is a felony. It's fraud and theft. Good engineers don't get fired for stealing 10% or less of what good engineers in the prime of their careers are making.

He didn't download a movie. He didn't copy that floppy. He appropriated a taxpayer resource to line his pockets.

Re:give them probation.... maybe felony if necessa

[DerekLyons]

there's no reason to cripple good engineers forever w/ a felony for this

Yeah, there is a reason to cripple a "good"* engineer forever with a felony for this - he committed a bloody felony.

*Presuming he's "good", something neither you nor I know... but misuse of someone else's property indicates that he has significant ethics problems, which argues against him being "good".

Re:question

[SuricouRaven]

It has exactly as much intrinsic value as the dollar: None. It has value only because people are willing to trade for it.

Not many people though, which is why the value fluctuates so wildly.