US Authorities Discovers Antennas Linked to Crypto Mining in Utah

US authorities in Utah have discovered antennas in Salt Lake City and have been looking to uncover the owners and purpose of the antennas. Although people familiar with the matter have been unable to identify the individuals that installed the antenna, the authorities are still searching and hoping for a positive result.

According to a report, the said antennas comprise of a locked battery box, a solar panel, and a router. Although a few of the antennas were first discovered about a year ago, their number has doubled as the installation rate increased. Some of the antennas were also discovered on properties managed by the University of Utah and the Forest Service. 

Since installing structures on public land is illegal, authorities have so far removed some of these antennas while others are expected to be removed in the coming weeks even though the terrain has made the process difficult.

Though the owners and the purpose of the antennas are still unknown, Tyler Fonarow, Salt Lake City’s recreational trails manager suspects that they are cell phone boosters. However, there are wide speculations that the antennas are part of a cryptocurrency mining operation and belong to a decentralized blockchain network due to their composition.

Specifically, there are speculations that the antennas belong to Helium, a type of cryptocurrency that uses proof-of-coverage to release token rewards instead of the proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism. To achieve this, the network utilizes antennas to create a long-range wide area network.

Crypto Mining Firms Having a Difficult Season

The crypto mining subsector has not been profitable due to a number of contributory factors. In fact, the sector is encumbered with a huge debt of $4 billion after undertaking massive loans with the top 10 mining companies owing $2.6 billion of that sum.

As a result, some of these miners have had to sell off parts of their holdings to offset part of the loans. A previous report by TheCoinRise reveals that publicly listed miners sold almost 100% of their mined Bitcoin (BTC) in 2022. A total of 40,300 BTC were sold after 40,700 BTC was collectively mined by 10 public miners.

Likewise, the national tax authority of Argentina uncovered an undeclared BTC mining farm during a mega operation raid. Although still under investigation, several items were retrieved from the crypto mining raid.