Bail Bloc: The New Inquiry recommends you steal electricity to run Bail Bloc

The New Inquiry’s written a revised FAQ (archive) for their utterly misconceived Bail Bloc initiative, to mine Monero to help fund a bail bond charity. It reads like a direct response to my post, though of course there’s no link to what they’re responding to. I should note that they disagree that you’ll be mining at a loss, by the way — they link to a mining profit calculator that shows a profit right now. (One that doesn’t account for the cost of burning out your graphics card, however. Always figure hardware!)

I said previously:

Of course, the obvious nod-nod wink-wink use for Bail Bloc is corporate theft — take back some of the surplus value you generate for your horrible boss and pass it to a charitable cause. The problem there is that corporate networks tend, for obvious reasons, to have good virus checking; run this and you can quickly share a fate with the sort of people who were fired for running Bitcoin miners at work back in the day.

Guess what they’ve just added to the FAQ?

If you’re worried about even a small increase in your electricity bill–we’re talking $1-2–try using Bail Bloc in a place where an institution pays the bills: at your place of employment, at school, or at a coffee shop.

The New Inquiry is literally recommending you commit electricity theft to fund their wizard wheeze.

While you could conceivably argue a moral case for stealing the electricity, there’s the slight problem that they’re recommending you commit a crime — one you can actually go to jail for — to … pay bail for other people arrested on suspicion of crimes.

Maybe they can do Bail Bloc 2, to bail out people arrested for running Bail Bloc 1!

There’s a reason crypto people have the sort of reputation they do. Monero, it’s a hell of a drug.

Update: The suggestion of who to steal electricity from has been updated — it now specifies a gentrifying coffee shop.