TNB: Illegal Bitcoin mining causing billions of losses
If electricity theft continue to go up, soon electricity price will go up too
Dear all, in case everyone does not know yet, there are many reasons why the electricity price goes up. It could be due to the cost of inputs, maybe it’s coal, maybe it’s diesel or any other inputs. These may be controllable because it could be due to the world happenings with supply and demand and maybe even logistics which delayed the supply and thus driving up costs.
There is also one more really bad cause. Illegal theft of electricity. For this, the one stealing is benefiting from it because they pay nothing and they used the electricity they stole to gain profits. They profit and soon, common people would have to suffer and pay higher electricity rates. How much is this theft anyway? Well, just over 5 years from one source alone, it has cost Tenaga Nasional (TNB) RM3.4 billion losses and that’s just in Peninsular Malaysia alone.
Article in nst.com.my Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) lost RM3.4 billion in Peninsular Malaysia due to illicit bitcoin mining activities from 2018 to 2023.
Energy Transition and Water Transformation (Petra) Deputy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said, “These losses, stemming solely from Bitcoin mining which should have contributed to revenue, have escalated into billions.”
“Since the inception of Bitcoin mining in 2018, energy suppliers have incurred losses amounting to RM3.4 billion due to these illicit activities.”
He further noted, “Additional losses from meter tampering and illegal electricity connections have resulted in annual losses ranging from RM100 million to RM200 million.” Do read here for more news: Article in nst.com.my
Meter tampering and illegal electricity connections only… RM100 to RM200 million
I think the authorities really have to do a lot more. Perhaps incentives for people who report such cases. Coming back to bitcoin. If bitcoin is to really become a mainstream currency or even replace the fiat currencies as people say, then bitcoin mining has to somehow become low cost yeah. We cannot afford to use any currency which will cost many billions every year just to keep it in use yeah. That’s just Malaysia by the way.
This is the reason why when we buy gold for investment, it’s not transferred to us immediately because the cost of sending it here and there is just too prohibitive. Thus, gold is stored in some vaults somewhere and it’s just moved around within that vault based on who bought and who sold. Let’s see if more positive things can happen somewhere along the journey of this famous cryptocurrency then.
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