On the afternoon of March 25, Nguyen Quoc Nhut, a 36-year-old man residing in Cam Le district, Da Nang, Vietnam, was arrested and detained for theft, according to a local newspaper Vnexpress.net.

Nhut confessed that he had borrowed money from his family, friends, and banks to invest in Bitmeta 4, a cryptocurrency trading platform, and had lost about VND 150 million ($6,350). With no ability to repay his debts, he planned to steal money from an ATM.

Nguyen Quoc Nhat | @azcoinnews

On the night of March 19, Nhut discovered an ATM across the street from the University of Da Nang, located at 41 Le Duan Street in Hai Chau District, Da Nang. Although the street is bustling with people, the ATM was located in a quiet spot hidden behind trees, with few people passing by.

Nhut did not act recklessly but rather took his time to investigate the area. He shut off the power supply outside the ATM and waited in the distance to observe. Late at night on March 23, after studying the structure of the ATM for several days, Nhut turned off the power supply again, put on gloves, and began to break open the machine using two metal bars.

The ATM machine was vandalized by Nhut | @azcoinnews

When he could not break open the inner safe, he went home and returned with a handheld cutting machine. He managed to open two metal boxes containing a total of VND 175.3 million ($7,450), which he then deposited into his Bitmeta 4 account and lost it all.

On March 23, at around 4:30 pm (local time), Nhut visited the crime scene to check on the situation and saw the police conducting investigations and collecting fingerprints. Fearing for his family’s safety, he decided to stage a suicide scene.

Early in the morning of March 24, Nhut left a suicide note at home, rode his motorbike to Do Bridge (in Hoa Chau Commune, Hoa Vang District), and hung his helmet on the railing, pretending to be ready to jump. According to his confession, he spotted two fishing boats on the river and thought that he could jump into the water, be saved by local fishermen, and escape to Ho Chi Minh City to start a new life.

On March 24, Nhut’s family contacted the police to report his disappearance, and the police found his motorbike near Do Bridge. Nhut was eventually caught and arrested on March 25.

The incident has raised concerns about the security of ATMs in public areas and highlighted the dangers of unregulated cryptocurrency trading platforms. This case serves as a warning to investors to be cautious when investing in cryptocurrency and to avoid borrowing money from friends and family to invest in high-risk investments.

#Vietnam #crypto2023 #ATM #BTC #azcoinnews

This article was republished from azcoinnews.com

Tai Bui’s Pi Node farm in Hoai Nhon district, Binh Dinh Province, Vietnam currently has 250 PCs running continuously, generating over 3,000 Pi every day, according to the local newspaper Vnexpress.

The Pi Node farm was built since November 2020, initially with only four computers of Tai and his relatives, along with 10 computers operated and taken care of by friends. Currently, the total number of operating Nodes is over 250.

“People did not have sufficient qualifications and experience to operate, did not have time to take care, and the electricity and network sources were not stable, so they assigned me to take charge”, Tai said.

Pi Node is software that runs on a computer with the role of creating and storing Pi. Unlike smartphone applications that play the role of registering, logging in, recovering accounts, and “checking in” to receive Pi, Pi Node is responsible for verifying transactions in the Pi Network system.

On online forums, many people said they have invested thousands of dollars to run Pi network nodes, even though this cryptocurrency has no value and cryptocurrency transactions are not yet allowed in Vietnam.

The PC system operates on an individual basis, with each Pi account running on one node and using a dedicated network line. Tai Bui subscribed to an internet package with a minimum speed of 80 Mb/s and a minimum international bandwidth of 2 Mb/s. The cost for electricity each month is over $3,000, and the internet bill is $3,500.

Two technical employees take care of and maintain the equipment, and three online support staff are paid based on their working hours. The machines are kept in a cold room, with a temperature maintained between 20-23 degrees Celsius, so the failure rate is quite low.

The PCs are equipped with two powerful configurations. One version uses a Xeon E5 2686 v4 CPU with 18 cores and 36 threads, 32GB of RAM, a 500GB SSD, and a Gigabyte N210 graphics card. The higher-end version uses two Xeon E5 2686 v4 CPUs and 64GB of RAM. With an average price of 25 million Vietnamese dong per machine, this Pi Node farm is worth over $250,000.

The steel support system is designed to have extra capacity to accommodate new machines, supporting up to around 500 Nodes.

Mr. Tai said that with a locking mechanism of 90-100% over 3 years, the entire Node will generate about 3,000 Pi per day. He predicts that this number will decrease significantly if the Pi Network team makes adjustments in the near future.

Pi Network appeared in 2019 and gained popularity in Vietnam in early 2021. According to statistics from Pi-blockchain, Vietnam is one of the three countries with the largest number of Pi Nodes in the world, with over 14,000. South Korea is in the lead with 23,000, followed by China with 18,000. However, this cryptocurrency has been repeatedly warned by experts about the lack of transparency and the potential for user information collection. After nearly four years, Pi still has no value, and the status of the project is still “closed mainnet”. In addition, trading in this type of cryptocurrency is not allowed and is a violation of Vietnamese law.

#PiNetwork #PI #crypto2023 #azcoinnews #Vietnam

This article was republished from azcoinnews.com