· February 10, 2018 · 1:30 am
Russian Scientists in Top-Secret Warhead Facility Arrested for Mining Bitcoin
Scientists at a top-secret Russian nuclear research facility have been taken into custody after allegedly attempting to mine bitcoin using a high-powered supercomputer.
In Soviet Russian Nuclear Facility, bitcoin Mines You
Several scientists working in a top-secret nuclear warhead facility in the closed town of Sarov have been arrested by Russian authorities for allegedly attempting to mine bitcoin with the facility’s supercomputer.
“There has been an unsanctioned attempt to use computer facilities for private purposes including so-called mining,” The Federal Nuclear Centre in Sarov stated.
According to , the supercomputer allegedly used for mining was flagged as soon as it connected to the internet, as attempting to do so immediately alerts the center’s security department in an effort to prevent intrusions.
The alleged miners were delivered to the Federal Security Service (FSB), with a criminal case against them likely pending.
Not the Brightest Idea
Mining bitcoin is an incredibly taxing process, requiring tremendous amounts of computational power and energy consumption to turn a profit. Thus, trying to take advantage of a supercomputer is a somewhat understandable decision. Trying to take advantage of a top-secret Russian nuclear warhead facility’s supercomputer, however, is not.
The Federal Nuclear Centre’s supercomputer is one powerful beast, carrying a capacity of 1 petaflop—which equals 1,000 trillion calculations per second. It’s also not supposed to be connected to the internet, which is a crucial step when it comes to mining bitcoin.
As the country’s center for nuclear research, Sarov isn’t listed on Russian maps and produced the USSR’s first nuclear bomb. It’s also tightly guarded, surrounded by barbed wire fencing, and allegedly where the radioactive polonium-210 used to kill ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko came from.
We’d rather just mine bitcoin from home.
On a scale from 1 to stupid, just how stupid was the alleged criminals attempt at mining bitcoin from a top-secret Russian nuclear facility? If you had the chance, would you give it a go? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock
Published at Sat, 10 Feb 2018 06:30:30 +0000
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Legendary Investor Howard Marks Admits ‘I Don’t Understand What’s Behind Bitcoin’
After calling bitcoin a the man who called the dot com bubble has admitted that he does not understand what is driving the value of bitcoin, which keeps rising seemingly unhindered.
While many, including traditional investors, come around to bitcoin and get on board with the digital currency that in terms of its value, some are still stubbornly skeptical, and a little confused.
Oaktree Capital's Howard Marks: I don't understand what's behind bitcoin
— Nicolas Marx (@marxnd)
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Where is the Value?
Howard Marks, the billionaire investor who made his name on Wall Street from calling some major investment bubbles, including the Dotcom bubble, on CNBC’s that he can’t figure out the actual value of bitcoin.
Speaking about this new-age currency, Marks said:
It’s not a medium of exchange, it’s a medium of trading, so I can’t see any intrinsic value, I don’t understand what’s behind bitcoin.
He later added:
For me, there is only one kind of investing: When you look at something, you don’t think, ‘Is it going up or down tomorrow?’ … You say, ‘What is the intrinsic value?’ and then you say, ‘Can I buy it for less? […] There is no intrinsic value in bitcoin.
Value Keeps on Rising
Despite this doyen of traditional investing stating that there is no intrinsic value to the most famous digital currency, its value recently topped $4,000. As such, there are very few assets in the world that can even come close.
Fundstrat co-founder Tom Lee, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management Josh Brown as well as another investing legend Bill Miller, are all in the opposite camp of Marks’ as they have thrown their full support behind this up and coming skyrocketing asset.
Lee believes it will be the at the end of the year while Miller has said that he is the .
Left Behind
Marks was happy to concede on the show that perhaps the digital currency was a technology and an asset that he was simply too old to understand.
“Maybe I’m just too old and too much of a dinosaur to understand bitcoin,” Marks said jokingly.
However, Marks has still been bold enough to compare bitcoin to in the Netherlands. It is through his popular memos that the former Oaktree Capital co-chairman warned about a crash in bitcoin.
Should people worry about what these traditional investors think? Is bitcoin breaking the mold and setting its own precedents? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of CoinMarketCap, Shutterstock, Thomas Lee/Bloomberg
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