Crypto mining farms and Marijuana grows can often look rather similar from the outside, and police in Adelaide have proven that they can’t tell the difference. A marijuana grow is distinguishable thanks to the vast amount of heat it emits, leading a grow to show up as rather warm on a thermal imaging camera. Coincidently, crypto mining farms also pump out a lot of heat, often giving the same appearance as a marijuana grow farm through the thermal imaging camera.
One crypto miner in Adelaide came home to find that police had raided his property, believing it to be a marijuana grow – leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.
Missing Hard Drives
Rob Butvila arrived to his home to find the police had raided it, believe it to be a marijuana grow site, but instead found Butvila’s home to be a crypto mining farm. According to Butvila, a hard drive is now missing and security cameras have been disabled. In an attempt to find the missing hard drive and have the damages to his property fixed, he has since contacted the police department, but to no avail. Hopefully, the hard drive didn’t contain cold wallets and his precious crypto.
A Possible Use for Crypto Mining Rigs in the Near Future
Given the similarities in appearances between crypto mining and marijuana grows, using the excess heat from crypto mining rigs could soon be employed by marijuana growers. Marijuana requires a warm and stable temperature in order to grow optimally, and crypto mining rigs could provide this. One crypto miner in Canada is already using this method to farm crickets, and it is incredibly easy to create a ventilation system for this to be viable. Soon we could be looking at a mining landscape where mining rigs are used as a cover for marijuana grows.
Illegal Mining Brings the Boys in Blue Out in Force
There are a few crypto miners out there who are also bending the laws in every way possible. Over in Germany, the police arrested a group of six crypto miners for stealing power in order to mine cryptos. The group stole enough electricity to power 30 homes, costing a whopping $250,053. Fortunately for Butvila, his crypto mining operation was legitimate and didn’t involve power theft.
The police have refused to apologize to Butvila for the damages caused and the missing hard drive. Butvila is now suing the police department to repair the damages they caused unnecessarily. Had they simply asked him to show them around, Butvila would have been more than happy to do so in order to quell their suspicion. Even if you’re mining cryptos illegally, it appears that police brutality knows no bounds.
If you’re worried about a similar incident happening at your home crypto mining farm, consider installing cloud security cameras, or get in touch with the local police and ease any suspicions that could have been raised.
