Cryptominers choose unusual hardware: they have mined thousands of Playstation 4 consoles. The high energy consumption even involves the secret services. High energy consumption is not only a huge cost factor in cryptocurrency.
After all, mining a single bitcoin involves consuming several tens of thousands of kilowatt hours. As with hemp plantations, illegal operators of mining farms attract the attention of local authorities with high electricity bills. In Ukraine, the electricity consumption of a mining farm is now undermining the security of supply of an entire region.
PS4 Mining: $260,000 Electricity Bill
The electricity bill for the mining farm in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia is US$260,000. However, the exact amount of electricity consumption and thus the bill can no longer be determined. Operators manipulate electricity meters.
In addition, they transmit false data. In any case, they don't pay for electricity. The police and the secret services have not yet announced who is behind the mining farm. Employees of the local power company may also have been involved.
But what is more interesting for observers. It's that minors use Playstation 4s. They are already eight years old, instead of Nvidia's current graphics cards. In total, investigators found 3,800 of these consoles mining cryptocurrencies. This also explains the exorbitant electricity consumption. According to Golem, the console has a performance of 1.84 teraflops. The Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics card, on the other hand, reaches around 21 teraflops, which is several times more powerful.
Expensive equipment, high electricity costs
In addition, the people in charge of the mining farm probably spent a small six-figure amount on equipment. In addition, 500 unspecified graphics cards and 50 main processors were reportedly in service, the SBU reports. Laptops, smartphones and hard drives were also found. Meanwhile, it is unclear how many bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies have been mined on the farm.
If you don't have any ideas for mining crypto with your consoles, you can use your smartphone. Learn more about Pi Network.
