A Czech Pirate Party lawmaker found himself in trouble with parliamentary authorities over a high electricity bill racked up in his official quarters by a high-performance computer used for cryptocurrency mining and, he insists, heating, Czech media reported Friday. Mining virtual currencies, like bitcoin, ethereum or ripple, requires powerful computers that are voracious users of electricity and throw off lots of heat.
Parliamentary authorities noticed that the power bill for last December in a flat used by Pirate MP Tomas Vymazal had risen to some 120 euros ($140), the Aktualne.cz news site reported. The bill was several times higher than those of other lawmakers using similar official quarters in Prague's historic centre. Aktualne said Vymazal had mined "Zcash" cryptocurrency for three weeks in December on a computer using three graphics cards, with his earnings reaching "hundreds of crowns." A hundred crowns is worth four euros ($4.66).
Vymazal, 28, has since apologised and promised to split the difference on the bill and to donate the money he earned crypto mining to charity. But Vymazal also claims he used the computer to heat the flat, as its electric heater had not been working. "The flat was intolerably cold - 16 degrees centigrade. I used the computer for heating until the parliament sent a new heater." "I didn't want to freeze to death," Aktualne quoted Vymazal as saying.
Ivan Bartos, the dreadlocked Pirate Party leader, has slammed Vymazal's behaviour as "absolutely unacceptable." The anti-establishment Pirates stormed into parliament for the first time ever in last October's election, winning 22 seats in the 200-member house, targeting traditional parties under the slogan "Let's fight them!"
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