HAVE A VIDEO YOU WANT TO FEATURE ON OUR PAGE?

Submit Video

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

Not now
OK
Advert
Advert
Advert

Police Seize Thousands Of PlayStations Being Used To Mine Cryptocurrency

Imogen Mellor

Published 

Police Seize Thousands Of PlayStations Being Used To Mine Cryptocurrency

Featured Image Credit: Ukraine’s Security Service

PlayStation gamers worldwide have been struggling to get their hands on PlayStation 5s since they came out in late 2021, and many Xbox fans are still searching high and low for a Series X - but perhaps the PC community has been suffering the worst, looking everywhere for new GPUs. Since the rise of cryptocurrency, all GeForce 30 series graphic cards have been out of stock, everywhere. They're almost impossible to buy at retail and still hard to find even at scalper prices, and it's ridiculous. Which might be why crypto mines are also turning to the PlayStation 4 for help.

Advert

According to Kotaku and the Kyiv Post, a cryptomine in Ukraine was raided and hundreds of PlayStation 4 Pros were confiscated for stealing energy from an energy distributor. The farm had apparently been stealing power from the city of Vinnytsia, home to almost 400,00 people, when the Ukrainian Security Service (the SBU) intervened.

The PlayStation 4 was (is) a great console, but the PS2 is still iconic - and here is our pick of the system's greatest games...

Loading…

Advert

A total of 5,000 devices were found in use, many of them PlayStation 4s. According to the SBU, $259,000 worth of power had been stolen which had led to shortages in Vinnytsia. However, Nataliya Drik, the CEO of the organisation Blockchain Ukraine, has claimed that these sorts of raids are an abuse of power.

Mining cryptocurrency in Ukraine is completely legal - although it's also entirely unregulated by the government. According to the Kyiv Post, Drik believes that this is just a way for SBU to confiscate valuable equipment without legal justification.

And valuable it certainly is - there seems to have been a total of 3,800 consoles confiscated as part of this raid. And although we don't know for sure how many of them were PlayStation 4 Pros, we can guess that the total cost of the equipment on the site exceeded $1 million, perhaps up to $1.5 million. And that's without counting the other bits of tech needed to support this massive operation. At least shutting this project down will be better for the environment and prevent the power shortages in nearby homes.

Topics: News, PlayStation 4

Imogen Mellor
More like this
Advert
Advert
Advert

Chosen for YouChosen for You

Mass Effect

Mass Effect 3 free download comes with an entirely new ending for you

4 minutes ago

Most Read StoriesMost Read