Federal Police (AFP) are investigating two Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) workers for allegedly using the bureau's powerful computers to "mine" cryptocurrencies.

Officers showed up at the BOM's headquarters in Melbourne on 28 February.  They sat most of the IT team in a conference room, but isolated two workers for questioning elsewhere.  One of those workers has since gone on leave.  Neither has been arrested nor charged.

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are created through "mining", a process in which a computer solves complex equations.  To be successful, the computer must be fast, powerful, and online with a reliable and speedy internet connection.  The operation requires a lot of electricity, because the computer is always on and working.

But if the operation is successful, there's a payoff.

"If you mine cryptocurrency you're rewarded for doing so in the cryptocurrency that you're mining.  So for instance if you successfully mine Bitcoin, you're going to get 12.5 bitcoins, which is around $170,000," said Dr. Chris Berg from RMIT's Blockchain Innovation Hub to the ABC.