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Principal Fired For Using School's Computer Room To Mine Cryptocurrency (bbc.com)
"A Chinese headmaster has been fired after a secret stack of crypto-currency mining machines was found connected to his school's electricity supply," writes the BBC. An anonymous reader quotes their report:
Teachers at the school in Hunan became suspicious of a whirring noise that continued day and night, local media report. This led to the discovery of the machines, which were mining the crypto-currency Ethereum. They racked up an electricity bill of 14,700 yuan [£1,600, or about $2,100]...
The headmaster had originally spent 10,000 yuan on a single machine for use at home, but allegedly decided to move it to the school after he saw how much electricity it consumed... A total of eight mining machines were installed in the Hunan school's computer room between summer 2017 and summer 2018... The deputy headmaster also became involved in the scheme and allegedly acquired a ninth machine for himself in January, which was also installed at the school. The computer network in the building became overloaded as a result of the mining activity, according to reports, and this "interfered" with teaching.
All the money earned through the mining operation has now been claimed by the local official responsible for "discipline inspection."
The headmaster had originally spent 10,000 yuan on a single machine for use at home, but allegedly decided to move it to the school after he saw how much electricity it consumed... A total of eight mining machines were installed in the Hunan school's computer room between summer 2017 and summer 2018... The deputy headmaster also became involved in the scheme and allegedly acquired a ninth machine for himself in January, which was also installed at the school. The computer network in the building became overloaded as a result of the mining activity, according to reports, and this "interfered" with teaching.
All the money earned through the mining operation has now been claimed by the local official responsible for "discipline inspection."
The entire cryptomining philosophy laid out bare here: Cause and convert someone else's electricity spending into personal profits.
If Enron was still around, they definitely would be lobbying in favor of cryptocurrency.
He have bought the German-engineered Be Quiet silent case fans to replace the cheap Chinese knockoffs.
must be an poor network power is more likely to overload with mining.
Is there some continuing delusion that cryptocurrency serves any real purpose?
There is little doubt in my mind Crypto-Currency is the future of currency. Just not in any of the current iterations. But just like any other technology we must keep iterating before we get to the product that actually works. iPad wasn't the first tablet after all.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
Sounds like an interesting job. How do I apply?
He wasn't really fired for mining crypto currency. He was fired for adding $2,100 to the school's electricity bill, plus probably causing significant wear on eight computers owned by the school. Absolutely should have been fired for that.
I also would completely agree that crypto currency mined on school computers, with the electricity paid for by the school, should be property of the school.
I doubt a single school principal has the knowledge to do this here.
Give the rampant corruption shot through the Chinese nation the principle wouldn't have had that problem if he would have handed over the usual bribe to the correct local member of the party.
Is there some continuing delusion that cryptocurrency serves any real purpose?
Cryptocurrency != wasting electricity. That's a problem with -some- current coins, specifically Bitcoin.
I'd be happy to switch cash payments to some electronic equivalent, provided it comes with the same attributes as cash. Afaik such an e-coin doesn't exist yet (Bitcoin in its current form isn't it, that's for sure!). But I suspect that's only a matter of time. And when such an e-coin gains traction, traditional banks (and perhaps even governments) will be in trouble for sure.
The current crypto-currency craziness is kind of a Wild West shootout, where it's being figured out what works & what doesn't. Once that's fleshed out, the railroads will come, new towns will be built & bank robbery will be a rare occurrence. Figurative speaking, of course...
Principle fired for principal...
No you retard. You biggest retard. Oooga booga.
If u read further he made enough to retire well. :)
[($)]
There's one giant mistake. I'm fairly certain that Ethereum miners use like 1kbps tops to operate. I know DAG files are created but I don't think they're that bandwidth heavy. There is no way that they "interfered with teaching" from network congestion. That is simply impossible.
I'd say the evidence so far is not only has this ship left shore, but it sunk at the first hurdle.
Cryptocurrencies are a solution to a problem nobody has.
I originally wrote a huge list of problems bitcoin has, from its economic absurdity to its poor security to its lack of anonymity, but these are things that could be argued in circle all week. The fact is, the hype died, people lost a lot of money , and all the venture capital is going elsewhere. At the end of the day, unless someone can come up with an adult use-case that isn't "A thing we can already do, but with blockchain for some reason" its a failed experiment.
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
Crypto disrupts central banks. If there was even a 1% chance it becomes successfull, you would be crazy to ignore it.
When you "disrupt" a central bank, that's when you get Venezuela, Zimbabwe or Weimar Germany. Enjoy your Mad Max future of trying to toss Bitcoin at the feet of a howling mob.