Month: September 2021

You’ve likely heard of the immense amount of energy that cryptocurrency mining consumes and the negative effects it has on the environment .

It should therefore be alarming to learn that Bitcoin miners have been buying whole power plants in an attempt to make a lot of the speculative asset.

Stronghold Digital Mining, a Pennsylvania-based holding company, is currently operating a Bitcoin mining operation. It uses the Scribgrass power plant, which it bought in Venango County in Pennsylvania this summer.

Stronghold will invest $105 million in a power plant to support its Bitcoin mining ventures. The power plant currently uses coal waste to generate enough energy to power 1 800 mining computers.

Stronghold Digital Mining claims that the company currently uses 600,000 tonnes of coal waste at Scrubgrass each year to power its Bitcoin mining operations. Stronghold Digital Mining has filed this information with the SEC. The company intends to make it public.

It gets worse. Stronghold plans to expand its coal-burning power station operations.

The company opened a second power station in Pennsylvania, known as the Panther Creek power facility, in August. It plans to add a third power plant.

Bitcoin mining requires powerful computer processors to solve complex mathematical equations. This is how the blockchain, or cryptocurrency’s digital ledger, is maintained. Bitcoin miners are rewarded with the cryptocurrency when these math problems have been solved.

The more computational power an individual has, the more equations can be solved and more Bitcoin they can earn. Because of the intense nature of the process, individuals can’t earn Bitcoin just by using the computing power they have. To mine Bitcoin, miners spend thousands to thousands of dollars on equipment. But only multi-million-dollar operations can mine enough Bitcoin to make it profitable.

According to The University of Cambridge’s electricity consumption index , Bitcoin miners will consume around 130 Terawatt-hours of power (TWh). TechCrunch has shown that Bitcoin’s carbon dioxide emissions is roughly equal to that of a country such as Jordan with 10 million inhabitants.

The cherry on top is that Stronghold Digital Mining’s Bitcoin power plants profits are funded by taxpayers.

Bloomberg states that Pennsylvania offers tax credits to burn coal waste. Stronghold estimates that each Bitcoin it mines costs the company less than $3,000.

Bitcoin traded at over $42,000 at the time of this article – a good profit for a taxpayer-subsidized cryptocurrency mine operation that is destroying the environment.

A statue of Satoshi Nakamoto , the creator of Bitcoin, was unveiled today in Budapest, Hungary, in front of a passionate crowd. stated that the statue was created to honor Satoshi Nagamoto’s work.

Gergely Reka, Tamas Gilly sculpted the bronze statue in Graphisoft park. The statue was sculpted by Gergely Reka and Tamas Gilly. They wanted to reflect the mantra “we are all Satoshi”, making Satoshi’s expression reflective. When you look at it, you will see that you have just as important a role in Bitcoin as Satoshi. It is difficult to create a description of Satoshi Nakamoto’s face because his gender, height, weight and age are not known.

This faceless statue is a great example of Elizabeth Warren’s comment this July calling Bitcoiners an “shadowy faceless group super coders”. It doesn’t matter who Satoshi was in his individuality. It doesn’t matter who Satoshi was as an individual.

Satoshi invented a protocol that lets anyone transfer value in real-time without any permission. The world was changed by this “faceless supercoder” who gave people financial opportunity and hope where none existed. Warren is still learning that just because someone has their identity protected online, it does not necessarily mean they have bad intentions.

Satoshi is shown in a hoodie and a Bitcoin logo. This statue was not created by Satoshi when he first started. It’s important to remember that there isn’t an official logo for Bitcoin. However, the most popular is what is being used by Bitcoiners all over the globe.

In June this year, a draft was made and released to the public. The statue was finally built and unveiled a few months later.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), on the hunt for tax fraudsters and money launderers, has sent an undercover agent into a market to trade bitcoin, ether, and other cryptocurrency.

Forbes reviewed a search warrant and found that the undercover IRS agent used the name “Mr. Coins on LocalCryptos.com. This is a site that allows you to exchange cryptocurrency for dollars or other fiat currencies. Mr. Coins’ profile was still online at the time it was published. He had received 100% positive feedback after transferring up to $200,000 digital money.

His greatest success was likely to get rid of an alleged dark-web drug dealer. He tricked him into sending $180,000 to the IRS to buy cryptocurrencies.

Mr. Coins posted an advertisement in June offering bitcoin cash by mail at market prices. Sellers simply needed to contact them via encrypted messaging apps Wickr and WhatsApp.

A person referred to as Lucifallen21 contacted the IRS shortly afterward to inquire about the advertisement, according to the search warrant. Without revealing how, the IRS determined that Lucifallen21 was in fact Chase Hite, a resident of Evansville, Indiana. He had already agreed to purchase from Mr. He wrapped up $15,040 of cash in clothes and sent it to Mr. Coins in exchange for 1.59 bitcoin.

In August, nearly $20,000 was received in exchange for 1.34 bitcoin and 4.5.2 monero. This cryptocurrency promises better privacy protections that its competitors, according to the government. Nearly $65,000 was also sent to the agent in the months that followed.

Investigators began to focus on the conclusion of the sting operation in March. According to the IRS, Hite’s $28,000 cash package was intercepted by the Postal Service and marked as lost. The IRS monitored telephone calls to the Postal Service to wait for Hite to complain. Investigators found that the call was linked to a Hite-paid phone number.

Wickr received further messages indicating Hite was involved with dark web drug sales. Hite claimed to be selling ‘pills & opioids’ along with cocaine and marijuana. The search warrant stated that the undercover officer offered Hite a loan. Hite would receive $79,000 in cryptocurrency and $54,000 in cash. Hite was also linked to Hite by forensics when the last package arrived.

Hite was taken into custody in July. He has not yet submitted a plea. The Eastern District of New York filed the charges. His lawyer declined comment. LocalCryptos has not responded to any requests for comment. The IRS refused to give more information than was provided in court.

The tax collection agency has a history of working undercover to catch cryptocurrency-using criminals. The agency was accused of organizing a payment to Bitcoin Fog, a company that offered to launder money. According to a criminal complaint first reported by, the agents claimed they wanted to launder cryptocurrency that they had earned selling Ecstasy. And in March, the IRS pretended to be a seller of counterfeit Gucci products sourced from China, asking the defendant in that case to convert bitcoin that they claimed to have acquired in selling the merchandise.

This latest sting is rare in that the IRS created a profile on cryptocurrency trading platforms and created what amounts a watering hole for agents, just waiting for criminals.