3,800 PS4 Consoles Seized in Ukraine Crypto Mining Raid

Ukrainian authorities uncover an illegal mining operation and seized over 3,800 PS4 consoles, 50 processors, and 500 graphic cards. According to the officials of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), this is the largest crypto farm in the country.

Although PlayStation 4 Consoles may not be the most efficient at mining crypto, that doesn’t matter when you have over 3,800 of them. Here are the complete list things of which the SSU has seized.

• 3800 PS4 consoles
• More than 500 video cards
• 50 processors
• Draft documentation on electricity consumption accounting
• Notebooks, phones, flash drives

In an official statement, SSU shared that the illegal crypto-farm was created by residents of Kyiv and Vinnytsia. More so, they used one of the former warehouses of Vinnytsiaoblenerho JSC, located on the company’s industrial site. The statement claims that its electricity consumption could have left entire neighborhoods without electricity.

Currently, SSU stated that they investigating to establish who was involved in the illegal activity including some city officials. Registered proceedings are under the Criminal Code of Ukraine regarding the theft of water, electricity, or heat through unauthorized use.

It should be noted, this is the second successful shutdown in Ukraine this July. The other one was discovered in Chernihev Oblast, an illegal mining farm using stolen electricity. SSU officials manage to confiscate more than 15 application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

On another note, Ukraine is also making noise relating to their central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital hryvnia (Ukraine’s currency).

In fact, the country’s parliamentary body (Verkhovna Rada), passed a law about payment services on CBDC treating it the same as cash. With this decision, the Ukrainian government clearly shows enthusiasm towards making its economy digital. Although the digital hryvnia is still under a research and development phase, officials have already been considering a CBDC since 2018.