Bitcoin was hacked again. The Central European clock was 6 minutes slow because of Bitcoin mining?

A strange thing was happening in central Europe: clocks were suddenly running slow—not by a fraction of a second, but by full minutes.

So, is large-scale mining the cause of this situation? And who has become the scapegoat for mining?

Europe's power system has been in an abnormal state since mid-January. The European electricity supply system operator, ENTSO-E, reported that this huge belt of 25 countries, from Spain to Turkey and from Poland to the Netherlands, has been affected by "continuous system frequency deviations from the 50 Hz mean value." The locations of the disturbances have been identified, from Kosovo to Serbia, but the cause is still uncertain.

The power deviations affecting the electrical frequencies produced a strange knock-on effect, which delayed the events by "nearly six minutes," according to the report.

It is not clear how and when the slowdown manifested itself, or whether the clocks can be manually adjusted to show the correct time. Apparently the power consumption to cause the anomaly was enormous: 113 kilowatt-hours, equivalent to Greenland's electricity consumption for six months. The central heating timer was affected by the system.

The European grid is clearly unhappy about the consumption of electricity and its strange side effects. But at the same time, it can’t do anything about it. The situation is largely a political one that requires the cooperation of the countries involved in causing the huge outflow of electricity.

On the Swissnet website, the current deviation can be viewed in real time starting at 50 Hz. The website explains: "There are still many clocks in the grid that change frequency. If the frequency is higher, they go faster. If the frequency is lower, they go slower."

What could be sucking away electricity on such a massive scale remains an unsolved question. It could be a top-secret project involving a particle accelerator similar to the Large Hadron Collider. It could be the result of government misconduct or incompetence, or it could be triggered by cryptocurrency mining.

Electricity rates in Serbia and Kosovo are among the cheapest in Europe, and the price of mining one bitcoin in these regions is estimated at $3,133, on par with China.

"The first step in solving the problem is to stop the deviation, the second is to try to make up for the lost energy," Euronet said.

Until the culprit is found, a huge "rogue" mining operation remains unknown to the public as the cause of the clock running slowly.