
Brooklyn Bitcoin Mine Causes Static for T-Mobile Users - aaronjg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-15/bitcoin-mine-causes-harmful-interference-for-t-mobile-users
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URSpider94
People have been speculating about how someone can turn a profit with power
rates in NYC. It’s highly likely that this guy rents an apartment that comes
with power, or he rigged a connection to an outlet in the common area.

I had friends who used to run hydroponics rigs in their apartments (for
veggies!), it made sense because their landlord footed the bill.

The only electricity cheaper than hydro, is electricity where someone else
pays the bill.

~~~
tzs
How much of the power used by something like this ends up as heat? The FCC
notice says it was an "Antminer s5". A bit of Googling suggests it uses a
little under 600 watts.

If most of that ends up as heat in his apartment, that could reduce his need
for other heating which could offset some of the electricity cost, especially
if that other heating is electric heating.

~~~
tinus_hn
As there is no other energy output, all of it.

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fcbrooklyn
I wonder if it wasn't the miner at all. Maybe the guy had an (illegal)
cellphone jammer as well, and somehow managed to convince the feds that it was
his antminer causing the trouble.

~~~
spydum
From the Article (the actual notice):
[https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-349258A1.p...](https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-349258A1.pdf)
They identified the device, and the service impairment stopped when he shut it
off..

"On November 30, 2017, in response to the complaint agents from the
Enforcement Bureau’s New York Office confirmed by direction finding techniques
that radio emissions in the 700 MHz band were emanating from your residence in
Brooklyn, New York. When the interfering device was turned off the
interference ceased. You identified the device as an Antminer s5 Bitcoin
Miner. The device was generating spurious emissions on frequencies assigned to
T-Mobile’s broadband network and causing harmful interference."

~~~
windlep
It says the person shut it off and claimed it was an Antminer s5, not that the
FCC verified what was causing the interference. Was there some additional 3rd
party confirmation of what it actually was?

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lima
As a ham radio operator, this sort of thing is _extremely_ common. Most cheap
Chinese power supplies tend to broadcast a lot of noise.

Nowadays, it's mostly impossible to operate the short wave bands in a city due
to all the static on the air. The regulation agencies have pretty much given
up, save for the most egregious cases, due to how prolific the problem is.

It's pretty sad.

~~~
kawfey
One might imagine with better technology, something like noise-detecting
spread-sprectrum or automatic link establishment, along with advanced DSP
filtering would be able to dodge these sorts of noise generators.

But no. The noise is omnipresent, and there's no way to escape it.
[https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-16-676A1_Rc...](https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-16-676A1_Rcd.pdf)

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immad
Instead of shutting it down couldn't he put the miner in a faraday cage?

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jeremyt
Cages only block external em, they don't block internal em from getting out.

~~~
NateyJay
Yes they do. A Faraday cage is equally good at blocking radio waves going out
as coming in. They don't protect against conducted emissions though - along a
power cable for example - so they're not a complete solution.

~~~
sterlind
Perhaps the radiation wasn't mostly coming from the Antminer box itself - each
700Mhz clock the rig draws current, the transformer propagates it back to the
wall, and the power lines in the flat become a big antenna.

Powerline Ethernet has this problem, but it uses only a 25MHz carrier wave, so
it only bothers hams.

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neom
I presume this was only messin' with the folks next door or something? Could a
device like this impact t-mobile in a meaningful way? If it was just one or
two customers, t-mobile managed to get the FCC to actually go find this
thing??

~~~
SteveNuts
I've heard they take ANY interference very seriously. That's why HAM radio
operators are licensed, and if you operate outside of your allowed bands, yes
they'll probably show up.

~~~
hatsunearu
Unfortunately not... Most ham interference is ignored by the FCC unless it's
especially egregious and extended (14.313 MHz being one example)

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kiwidrew
Somehow it doesn't surprise me that Bitcoin mining hardware is generating
harmful RF interference.

If I was a miner, I'd be quite worried that someone with direction finding
equipment could easily discover a hidden mining location. The FCC or another
government entity finding you is kind of the best case scenario if you think
about it... :)

~~~
softawre
I have also thought about this. If you have a serious mining operation
($$$$$), you have armed security.

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jkbbwr
It bugs me people think you need proof of work to run blockchains.

~~~
thenoblebuffalo
I've seen coins using proof of stake, but I haven't read up enough on it yet
to understand how it works. Are there more methods?

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Mtinie
A single S5 caused the interference? Something doesn’t add up with this story.

A fleet of Antminers, perhaps, but even that would be unlikely.

Edit (addendum):

Details about the stock unit’s noise output; Antminer S5 runs at 61 to 65 dB
at 4 feet. Modified S5 with a higher-quality fan dropped the measured sound
intensity to 48 dB[0].

Follow-up Edit:

I just noticed that I’d clipped a section of my response...which would have
made it clear that my doubt was that the S5 put out emissions that interfered
with T-Mobile. I referenced sound later, but only intended that to be a point
of reference.

Whoops!

——-

[0] [https://www.ccn.com/review-bitcoin-asic-miner-bitmain-
antmin...](https://www.ccn.com/review-bitcoin-asic-miner-bitmain-antminer-s5/)

~~~
ofcourseianal
For some reason I don’t think they were concerned with 700MHz sound waves

