Russian nuclear scientists arrested for using top-secret supercomputer to mine bitcoins


Russian scientists working at a top-secret nuclear warhead facility have been arrested for trying to use one of the supercomputers to mine bitcoins, BBC reports.
To obtain bitcoin, so-called miners "use special software to solve math problems and are issued a certain number of bitcoins in exchange," Bitcoinmining.com explains. But "not just any old PC will do," Chris Gayomali explained at The Week. "Dedicated bitcoin mining rigs with the sole purpose of crunching through algorithms can cost you up to $6,000 on eBay."
That might explain why the crafty scientists decided to use one of Russia's most powerful supercomputers, located at the highly-restricted Federal Nuclear Centre in western Russia. The computer has a capacity of one petaflop, which means it can do 1,000 trillion calculations in the span of a second.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
There was only one problem in this grand plan: For security reasons, the supercomputer is never supposed to be connected to the internet — and when the scientists tried to do so, the security department was alerted. "As far as we are aware, a criminal case has been launched against them," reports Russian news service Mash.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
-
The end of ‘golden ticket’ asylum rights
The Explainer Refugees lose automatic right to bring family over and must ‘earn’ indefinite right to remain
-
Grecotel Luxme Dama Dama: Greek luxury with a breezy beach vibe
The Week Recommends Rhodes is reimagined in this refined and relaxed resort
-
Sudoku hard: October 8, 2025
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B deal
speed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits