Crypto mining is a legit business over the past few years in which good profits can be made. Yet every now and then we see parties cheating by stealing electricity from the grid. Ukraine was recently hit, where the Ukrainian Security Service (SSU) took 5,000 computers confiscated. Remarkably, 3,800 of them were PlayStations!
Official reports from the SSU show that a huge mining operation in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia has been broken up by the SSU. The operation would have drained huge amounts of electricity from the grid, amounts comparable to the consumption of entire districts of the city. A meaningful action by the SSU.
Among the 5,000 computers were 50 processors and 500 video cards. In addition, 3,800 Playstation 4 consoles were also seized. The photos show how the consoles are neatly arranged next to each other in cabinets four shelves high. Overall, the SSU calls the operation “Ukraine’s largest crypto farm.”
Efficiency is key, but it doesn’t matter with tapping
Mining cryptocurrency is mainly about efficiency. The more hash keys a mining device, the better. However, it is important that the consumption of such a device does not exceed the yield. In short, a miner must be frugal enough to be able to generate a profit.
And the PlayStation 4 isn’t exactly one of the more efficient options. Yet it can be mined and the fact that the miners in this case owned 3,800 copies also contributed to the mining being successful. Of course, stealing electricity means that in the end it doesn’t matter at all how much power you use.
To clarify, this is an illegal mining operation that the SSU has rolled up. The Chinese government is currently tackling all forms of bitcoin mining. This has caused panic in the market recently. That panic now seems to be slowly dissolving as more miners become active again and from difficulty his biggest correction ever.
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