Chinese school teachers caught mining Ethereum at work

Two principals at a Chinese school have been caught using their employer’s electricity to mine Ethereum, according to local news outlet HK01.

The report details how employees at Puman Middle School in Hunan province had been witnessing excessive noise from computers over the last few months – day and night, even during the holidays. The school’s IT network also slowed to a noticeable level over the same time period, making it difficult for the school’s staff to do their jobs.

As the faculty could no longer stand the noise and slow network, they sought answers to rectify the situation. What they found were seven high-end mining rigs running in one of the school’s presumably vacant classrooms.

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HK01 also reported that the principals had originally been running the Ethereum mining rigs at home, but after realizing just how expensive their electricity bill was becoming, they moved the rigs to their place of work.

The school’s principal, Lei Hua, has been fired, and the vice principal, Wang Zhipeng, has been given a caution.

It really seems like people will try anything to earn themselves some low-cost cryptocurrency.

Indeed, earlier in the year a Chinese man was arrested for stealing electricity from a train station power line to mine Bitcoin.