Thai Law Authorities Raid Illegal Bitcoin Mining Facility: Report

Legal authorities in Thailand recently raided a house occupied by a company that ran Bitcoin mining operations.

According to coverage by the South China Morning Post, the illegally operated Bitcoin mining activities caused frequent power outages in the surrounding area for over 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 mining process. Miners use mining machines and associated equipment to perform this task and be rewarded with BTC. The whole process is an energy-intensive activity, which means that the machines used for the operation consume large amounts of electricity and emit heat.

The Thai government classifies Bitcoin mining as a manufacturing operation. This means that the country’s miners must pay the required tax.

Jamnong Chanwong, a district security officer, led the police and Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) officials who raided the house where the Bitcoin mining operations took place. In a first attempt to gain access to the house, a guard stopped the judicial authorities. After obtaining a search warrant, the squad returned to raid, only to find that most of the mining rigs had been moved.

Investigations showed that an unnamed company rented the house for about four months. However, the power outages began in July when the mining equipment was fully installed.

Highlighting how the company managed to evade the necessary taxation, Chanwong stated:

We found Bitcoin mining rigs, targeting people who used this house to mine and use the energy they didn’t pay for in full.

Chanwong added that no individuals were arrested during the raid.

It’s 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 such raid in the same vicinity.

Meanwhile, other countries have also cracked down on Bitcoin mining operations. A few days ago, CryptoPotato reported that Malaysian legal authorities arrested and charged several people linked to illegal Bitcoin mining activities in the country.

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