This was supposed to make the RTX 3060 undesirable for cryptominers, but Nvidia has now confirmed that it has accidentally unlocked those restrictions with a new driver.

Nvidia spokesperson said that a developer driver inadvertently included code used for internal development which removes the hash rate limiter on RTX 3060 in some configurations. The driver has been removed but the genie is out of the bottle.

Nvidia’s latest 470.05 beta driver automatically unlocks performance for most RTX 3060 cards, boosting hashing rates for Ethereum mining. Mirrors of the driver can easily be found online, and Nvidia will not be able to prevent RTX 3060 owners from continuing to use this driver in the future.

The GPU maker believed its restrictions couldn’t be defeated, even claiming it wasn’t just a driver holding back performance.

Nvidia’s head of communications Bryan Del Rizzo said that the hash moves were not just a driver thing.

“There is a secure handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060 silicon, and the BIOS (firmware) that prevents removal of the hash rate limiter.”

Nvidia clearly wasn’t expecting to release a driver that would accidentally unlock its own restrictions.