Recently, there were always noisy roars of machines in the electronic classroom of Puman Middle School in Hunan Province. The electronic classroom is a place where students learn computers. It is not surprising that there is a sound of machines, but the roar has not stopped even on holidays. What's going on?
There was a strange noise in the classroom, and the electricity bill increased
"In July 2017, the electricity consumption was 4575 kWh; in September, the electricity consumption was 5640 kWh; in November, the electricity consumption was 8130 kWh..." The school's electricity volume increased month by month, and Lei, the general affairs director of the school, was full of doubts. He reported this abnormal situation to principal Lei Hua, and the reply he received was "There are too much use of school air conditioners and stoves."
Later, another teacher reported one after another that "when you go to bed at night, there is always a lot of noise in the teaching building", "the school network is very stuck"... Strange things happened, so the teachers went out to find the reason together, and finally found that the culprit was the seven high-power computers in the classroom on the fifth floor of the teaching building.
It turns out that these seven computers are called "mining machines" and are owned by Lei Hua, the principal of the school. The reason why he placed his computer in the school’s electronic classroom was to use the school’s network and electricity to “mine” Ether currency for personal gain.
Principal gets through public appliances and uses "mining machines" to earn extra money
It goes back to 2017. In June 2017, Lei Hua began to engage in the "Ether Coin" project according to his wife's cousin. He spent more than 10,000 yuan to buy a "mining machine" that month and put it at home to mine "Ether Coin".
Ether is similar to Bitcoin. Both are virtual digital currencies on the Internet. They mainly obtain Ether by connecting to the Internet through computers equipped with professional "mining" chips, and burning graphics cards through a large number of operations through specific algorithms. This virtual currency can be exchanged for RMB through foreign online platforms.
But after a period of time, Lei Hua found that the power of the "mining machine" was too high, and a "mining machine" consumed nearly 21 kWh of electricity every day. Lei Hua thought that there was no one living in the school dormitory, so he placed the "mining machine" in the school dormitory to save the electricity bill at home.
9 mining machines are paying for electricity bills. The principal was dismissed from his post.
Seeing that the output of a "mining machine" was too low. From July 2017 to June 2018, Lei Hua spent more than 40,000 yuan in three batches to buy seven "mining machines". Because the dormitory was too small to put it down, he placed all the newly purchased "mining machines" in the school's electronic classroom. From July 2017 to July 2018, Lei Hua's eight "mining machines" connected to the school network and used school electricity to "mine" Ether currency, generating a total of 14,714 yuan in electricity bills, all of which were reported to the school.
Because Lei Hua said that Ether is "mining" to make money, Vice Principal Wang Zhipeng also asked Lei Hua to help him purchase an Ether "mining machine" and placed the "mining machine" in the physics laboratory on the second floor of the school teaching building. Following Lei Hua's example, connecting the school's Internet, using school power to "mine" Ether for personal gain.
99 high-power "mining machines" are turned on every day, and the school circuit cannot be loaded, which almost caused a fire, which greatly slowed down the Internet speed and seriously interfered with the teaching order. In October 2018, Lei Hua was given a serious warning within the party and was removed from the position of party branch secretary and principal; Wang Zhipeng was given a warning within the party. The funds involved in the case have been confiscated by the Jiahe County Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision.
