Thai authorities raid illegal Bitcoin mining facility

Thai police authorities recently raided a house occupied by a company running Bitcoin mining operations.

According to the South China Morning Post report, illegal Bitcoin mining activities have triggered frequent power outages in the surrounding area for more than a month.

Illegal Bitcoin Mining Operations

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency, uses a Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus mechanism. This involves transactions being added to the blockchain through the process of mining. Miners use mining machines and associated equipment to perform this task and are rewarded with BTC. The entire process is an energy-intensive activity, which involves the machines used for the operation consuming large amounts of electricity and releasing heat.

The Thai government considers bitcoin mining as a manufacturing activity. This means that miners in the country must pay the required tax.

Jamnong Chanwong, the district security chief, led police and provincial electricity authority (PEA) officials in raiding the house where the bitcoin mining operations were taking place. During an initial attempt to gain access to the house, a guard stopped the police. After obtaining a search warrant, the team returned to raid the house, only to find that most of the mining rigs had been moved.

Investigations showed that an anonymous company had rented the house for about four months. However, the power cuts began in July, just as the mining equipment was fully installed.

Highlighting how the company managed to circumvent the necessary taxation, Chanwong said:

We found Bitcoin mining rigs, indicating that people were using this house to mine and were using electricity that they had not fully paid for.

Chanwong added that no individuals were arrested in the raid.

This is not the first time

This is not the first time that Thai law enforcement authorities have detected illegal bitcoin mining operations in the country. The SCMP report revealed that this was the fourth time such a raid had taken place in the same area.

Meanwhile, other countries have also taken action against Bitcoin mining operations. A few days ago, CryptoPotato Malaysian judicial authorities have reportedly arrested and charged several individuals linked to illegal Bitcoin mining activities in the country.