Russian Church Sentenced To Pay A Fine Of One Million Rubles For Illegal Bitcoin Mining

Russian Church from the city of Irkutsk, Russia made it to our crypto news today for unauthorized Bitcoin mining. The church is now facing charges and must pay a fine of approximately one million rubles which is about $15,000.

The church consumed insane amounts of electricity due to the mining process and in that same building, the police authorities found expensive mining equipment. The church must pay all of the electricity bills which they did eventually but later complained that the electricity tariffs are not legally determined.

In their defense, the church explained that the power consumption was a side effect of the malfunction of the central heating system and the old equipment in the printing office.

The legal frame in Russia for mining cryptocurrencies is such that all of the people that mine bitcoin must pay an extremely expensive electricity rate which is why it’s no wonder why the church denied the allegations.

The regional electricity provider noticed that the church is using a lot of electricity even in 2017 so they decided to send inspectors to check the place out. The court of Irkutsk sided with the electricity provider despite the church denying the allegations.

In that part of the world, energy is much cheaper for individuals and such organizations like the church. The court decided that despite the church consuming so much electricity, it should be charged lower than the usual rate. Now, individual citizens wonder if they will start paying higher rates in order to mine Bitcoin.