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The Detection of Illicit Cryptocurrency Mining Farms in Electrical Distribution Systems with Innovative Approaches

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Ömer Gül^*

This version is not peer-reviewed

Submitted:

11 April 2021

Posted:

12 April 2021

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Abstract

Since the most important constituent of the cost of cryptocurrency production is energy bills, use of illegal electricity in cryptocurrency mining farms is very common. For this reason, many countries prohibit cryptocurrency production or restrict it with some legal regulations. This situation raises the problem of how to detect illicit cryptocurrency mining. Therefore, innovative approaches are needed to detect illicit cryptocurrency mining farms. In this study, it has been shown that unique noise and/or harmonic characteristics of machines producing cryptocurrency can be used to detect illicit cryptocurrency mining farms. The unique harmonic characteristics formed by data centers on neutral line have been detected by field measurements performed. Electricity distribution companies can make risk assessments with this approach by monitoring energy quality data. As a result, the necessary legal permissions can be obtained to investigate suspicious high-risk consumers. Illicit cryptocurrency mining farms can be detected by investigating at high-risk consumer facilities.

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Subject: Engineering - Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.