A man has been charged with stealing thousands of dollars worth of electricity after a secret bitcoin mining operation was discovered underneath a school in Massachusetts.
Nadeam Nahas, 39, is accused of setting up 11 machines in the crawl space beneath Cohasset Middle/ High School, which used the school’s electricity to mine cryptocurrency – the process of generating new units of digital currency through solving complex computational puzzles.
The setup was uncovered by the town’s facilities director, who spotted unusual electrical wiring and duct tape during a routine inspection of the school.
Mr Nahas, who served as Cohasset’s assistant facilities director, resigned from his post in early 2022 following a three-month investigation into the machines.
He initially denied any knowledge of the machines, though police say they found credit card receipts in his name for “coleman 48qt coolers, insulated flex ducts, extreme weather foil, insulation sleeves, and a water-based sealant tub, all items located in the crawl space and used to facilitate the mining operation”.
Mr Nahas, who denies the allegations, is due to appear in court on 17 May for a pretrial conference.
Prosecutors estimate that the mining operation cost the school around $17,500 (£14,500) in electricity during an eight month period in 2021.
Bitcoin’s energy consumption has proved controversial in recent years, with estimates suggesting that it is equivalent to that of a small country.
Other leading cryptocurrencies have sought to address environmental concerns by switching from a proof-of-work system to proof-of-stake, which doesn’t require vast computational power in order to operate.
Ethereum managed to cut its energy consumption by 99.9 per cent in September 2022 after making the switch in an event known as the Merge.
