Hong Kong Customs seizes 300 crypto mining GPUs in anti-smuggling operation

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Hong Kong Customs seizes 300 crypto mining GPUs in anti-smuggling operation

Within the waters off Hong Kong Worldwide Authorities on April 2, Hong Kong Customs detected suspicious figures offloading cartons from a fishing b



Within the waters off Hong Kong Worldwide Authorities on April 2, Hong Kong Customs detected suspicious figures offloading cartons from a fishing boat to a close-by speedboat. Whereas the lads efficiently fled, the authorities reportedly detained the fishing vessel and located there a big batch of apparently smuggled items: all the things from dried shark fins and cosmetics to electronics.

Notably, amongst these items — price an estimated $31 million in complete — had been reportedly a stash of over 300 Nvidia CMP 30HX graphics playing cards; a brand new line of GPUs devoted to cryptocurrency mining, which Nvidia launched earlier this yr with a view to be sure that its different GPU {hardware} will stay primarily utilized by players.

“To deal with the precise wants of Ethereum mining, we’re asserting the NVIDIA CMP, or, Cryptocurrency Mining Processor, product line for skilled mining,” Nvidia defined in mid-February. 

The CMP 30HX gives an Ether hash price of as much as 26MH/s and is reportedly primarily based on earlier 12nm Turing structure. It comes with none show outputs, as it isn’t supposed for use for graphics workloads. The 30HX is claimed to have been retailed at over $700, a value level that has been met with some derision by tech reporters, resulting from its unfavorable comparability with different, cheaper GPUs that can be utilized for cryptocurrency mining.

Some have speculated that the smuggled playing cards had been en path to China, the place a number of regional authorities have made strikes to stop cryptocurrency mining operations, though no proof as but exists to substantiate this declare.

Again in Hong Kong, the official announcement signifies that the 43-year-old proprietor of the fishing vessel has been arrested, with an investigation into the foiled operation ongoing. Beneath Hong Kong’s Import and Export Ordinance, anybody discovered responsible of smuggling faces a most nice of $2 million and a jail time period of seven years.