Last week, the Ukrainian police forces announced that they had got their hands on almost 3800 consoles PlayStation 4 and suspected the use for illegal cryptocurrency mining. However, a recent publication of the Ukrainian media Delo contradicts this version of events. According to the media, PS4S were used to generate content packs and coins for FIFA.
A seizure of 3800 PS4 consoles at the origin of the case
The news had made headlines last week. During a search of the former premises of the JSC Vinnytsiaoblenergo (an electrical supply company), Ukrainian police had discovered a cryptocurrency mining farm .
The authorities had described the premises as ” the largest mining operation [de cryptomonnaies, NDLR] discovery to date in Ukraine”. Indeed, the farm housed no less than 5,000 computer units, including 3,800 consoles PlayStation 4, more than 500 graphics cards, 50 processing units, and many laptops, phones and flash drives.
Reports issued by the authorities over the past week had argued that the consoles PS4 found at the scene were used for illegal mining cryptography operations.
So what were the PlayStation for?
However, many voices from the world of mining, blockchain and cryptocurrencies had risen up to say that the PS4 was by no means the ideal platform to mine and mine cryptocurrencies. Indeed, its outdated configuration makes it an unproductive machine in terms of mining.
Cointribune, a North American media dedicated to the world of cryptocurrencies, had notably explained that” a configuration PS4 at 16 consoles would not produce significant efficiency, compared to its electricity consumption”.
This is Delo , a Ukrainian commercial media that revealed today what the 3800 PS4 entered. These consoles were used to generate content packs and tokens on FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT), a game mode of the franchise FIFA.
These content packs and tokens are normally obtained by players when they win matches in the game. The objective of the farm was then to generate variants of these objects and put them into circulation on the market.
Always according to Delo, the Ukrainian secret service neither confirmed nor denied these findings, nor did it comment on the progress of the investigation.
However, the use of gaming consoles to mine cryptocurrencies is not unprecedented. The shortage of graphics processing units (GPUs) had driven many miners to use graphics cards and game consoles to continue their mining business.
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