As many of us know by now, there can be a lot of money in crypto. But those who really want to go for the digital gold don't just acquire crypto and tuck it into their digital wallets. People who are truly passionate tend to become miners, and this is true throughout the world. But mining, unlike other areas of crypto, does not come cheap. It's a lesson that Armenia learned the hard way recently. For over a year now, a sophisticated and sneaky operation had set up shop in one of the country's hydropower electric plants. Stealing over $150,000 worth of energy to help them mine, an Armenian IT group consumed a whopping 1.5 kilowatt hours of energy during its foray into crime.

It's important to note, however, that the Armenian incident is far from the first time something like this has occurred. In fact, these types of cons have already taken place in many countries — and will most likely continue to flourish as crypto skyrockets. After all, when the price of Bitcoin is flourishing and people begin to see the possible value of mining it — or even mining altcoins — to rake in the big bucks.

When it comes to mining, China tends to come up a great deal. That's because the country is believe to be responsible for an extraordinary 70% of the total mining that happens across the globe. But, as is the case with Armenia and other countries that mine, there are also a lot of illegal operations happening in China. The province of Sichuan has been identified as a hotbed of mining, with over two-thirds of China's mining happening close to the Dadu River Basin. As crypto continues to grow, government regulators across the planet will most likely be forced to struggle with addressing the preponderance of stolen electricity.