How bitcoins are mined in Moscow kitchens

Dmitry Gutov’s Moscow kitchen is home to an automated mining operation. Not for gold and industrial metals like many of his country’s exporters, but for bitcoin-like cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum’s ether. Since installing a DIY system assembled from multiple computer graphics processors in April, Gutov has earned $3,000 of virtual currency and paid off the cost of the equipment used to acquire it.

Gutov, who works in a Moscow-based staff-outsourcing firm by day, is among a growing number of Russians who have embraced mining as the price of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ether has soared. But the government hasn’t provided a clear regulatory framework, forcing some aspiring innovators to operate in the shadows.