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If you thought the days of amateur crypto mining were over, think again. The National University of Singapore (NUS) is currently investigating students after rigs built for crypto mining were discovered in its dormitories.
Citing residents’ safety, NUS’ University Town Residence has ordered the equipment to be removed. The rigs were found during a “routine inspection” last week.
“These [rigs] consume very high levels of energy and emit unusually large amounts of heat, posing a fire hazard and the risk of power outages”, a spokesperson said, adding that the devices were emitting “unusually high heat dissipation”.
The “higher than normal” level of heat posed a fire hazard, according to NUS.
An image of the rig showing six processors was shared online.
Redditors were quick to respond to the discovery, with one Redditor calculating the potential profit earned by the miners.
“Assuming all six are 1080 instead of higher end gpu at 150 watts per hour and 29.90 cents… Thats $193.75 worth of electricity monthly, no wonder NUS complain,” the comment read.
“At roughly 210MH/s, earning will be around USD270 per month just enough to cover dorm rental. Must earn back the rental fee somehow”.
Cryptocurrency mining uses high-powered computers to process transactions by solving complex mathematical problems in return for crypto. Whilst initially popular among tech heads, mining became notorious for its environmental damage.
In 2021, Elon Musk said Tesla would not accept bitcoin due to the environmental concerns surrounding mining. He then clarified that the company would resume use of the cryptocurrency “when there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend.” Most recently, Musk entered into an agreement with Jack Dorsey’s Block (SQ) on a Bitcoin mining project.
