The headmaster of a Chinese high school was fired after stealing electricity from the school to mine cryptocurrency for his “side job”.
For about a year, Lei Hua racked up an electricity bill of 14,700 yuan (US$2,120) after deploying eight mining machines in the school. Lei was dismissed from his post after the power theft was detected.
Lei started mining for new cryptocurrency coins at his home in June 2017 after he paid about 10,000 yuan to buy his first mining machine, which consumed nearly 21 kilowatt-hour of electricity per day, according to local news.
In order to save money on his power bill, Lei soon relocated the machine to his school and subsequently installed another seven mining computers in the school’s computer room over the period of a year.
A school employee had reported the unusually high electricity consumption to Lei, but he responded by blaming it on the overuse of air conditioners and heaters.
In January, Lei’s deputy headmaster also began mining cryptocurrency using the school’s power supply after buying one machine with Lei’s help. The report said the county government’s discipline watchdog has seized the cryptocurrency earnings of both teachers, but the amount was not specified.
Cryptocurrency mining is the process where new coins are offered as a reward for building and maintaining the public ledger of every transaction that has taken place for cryptocurrencies. Such activity, requiring high end computing power, is usually undertaken by specialised computing chips that consume large amounts of power.
Headmaster Lei’s side job may not have been that lucrative after all as cryptocurrencies are currently trading at 70% less than its initial market value.