Get the weekly summary of crypto market analysis, news, and forecasts! This Week’s Summary The crypto market ends the week at a total market capitalization of $2,17 trillion. Bitcoin continues to trade at around $62,300. Ethereum experiences no changes and stagnates at around $2,400. XRP is down by 2%, Solana by 1%, and Dogecoin by 3%. Almost all altcoins are trading in the red, with very few exceptions. The DeFi sector decreased the total value of protocols (TVL) to around…
Cloud Mining: Here’s How You Can Mine Bitcoin or Altcoins without the Mining Rigs
From pool mining to solo mining and cloud mining, there are many ways of obtaining Bitcoin. Well, going on point, cloud mining is a form of bitcoin mining that employs a remote data center with shared processing power to allow users to mine bitcoins or alternative cryptocurrencies without owning or managing mining hardware.
In such an arrangement, users must register on the platform and purchase mining contracts or shares with the mining company running and maintaining mining rigs. Crypto mining presents an avenue for crypto enthusiasts to begin mining cryptocurrency without technical knowledge regarding mining or significant capital investment in mining hardware, which is extremely expensive.
While it’s pretty profitable, cloud mining comes with several risks, including the risk of being scammed or receiving lower returns. So, here is a guide on all the nitty-gritty details you need to know about cloud mining.
Cloud Mining in a Nutshell
Cloud Mining is essentially leveraging cloud computing to conduct the process of mining via the cloud. Cloud computing services such as software, databases, servers, or storage are accessed via the cloud. As you may be familiar, Bitcoin mining solves complex computational problems to verify and add transaction records to Bitcoin’s public ledger and, in turn, receive rewards in the form of Bitcoin. Therefore, cloud mining refers to Bitcoin mining from a distant location with miners having little or no knowledge of mining and no hardware infrastructure. They can thus be termed, passive miners.
There are three models of cloud mining as below:
- Hosted mining – Hosted mining refers to cloud mining, where the mining hardware is hosted in a remote data center. Users assume complete control over the mining hardware setup and configuration. Under such an arrangement, users must have in-depth knowledge about mining and technical know-how for controlling mining hardware. In hosted mining, miners pay a fee to the hosting company to cover maintenance and electricity costs. Miners are also required to make an initial investment in the hardware, plus it requires time and technical understanding to manage mining hardware.
- Virtual Host Mining – Virtual Host Mining involves utilizing a Virtual Machine to mine crypto.
- Leashed Hashing Power – As the name implies, leased hashing power is renting to buying hashing power from mining rigs. Buying hashing power is done via an online hash market.
How Does Cloud Mining Work?
Cloud Mining involves purchasing hashing power from a mining company to mine Bitcoin or other cryptos without running the mining hardware. Instead, the company owning the mining rigs can rent a physical or virtual private server and install mining software onto the server. Instead of leasing a dedicated server, some services offer hashing power hosted in data centers for sale marked in Gigahash/seconds (GH/s).
To purchase mining power, a person must open an account with a cloud mining company via its website and select the options in the mining contract, such as the hashing power and the contract period. Users are also allowed to trade their hashing power with other persons.
The mining company or service provider must continuously configure the hardware, maintain uptime, pay electricity fees, and select the most profitable and reliable pools.
Benefits of Cloud Mining
Several benefits come with cloud mining, as discussed below:
- Instant Connection – The primary use of cloud mining is that you begin to mine immediately upon signing up for a mining company’s website. Hardware shipment, wait times, and delivery risks do not come into play.
- The mining company has fixed maintenance and electricity fees, so you don’t need to worry about such.
- Since mining is done remotely, you do not have to keep up with mining nuisances at home with cloud mining, like noise, heat, or space.
- Cloud mining requires no technical experience. You become a miner without having to understand the mining process.
- Cloud mining profitability depends on the customers’ level of investment, as they can purchase any amount of mining power they wish. Thus, the initial capital and level of risk in cloud mining and the subsequent risk are far less than hosting mining equipment.
Disadvantages of Cloud Mining
While it has numerous benefits, cloud mining has its fair share of disadvantages. Here are some downsides:
- Low profitability since the lease expenses increase the final mining cost, thus influencing the final income.
- Centralization and minimum control of the mining rig. Cloud mining company exercises complete control of the mining rigs; therefore, you may be unable to choose a mining approach or mine other cryptos.
- Risk of scams. Cloud mining has witnessed many scams, as any authority does not regulate companies. Additionally, customers are not given leverage.
- Cloud mining companies are not usually transparent and don’t put the mining profitability financial statement to the public. Therefore, you are not sure if the profit you are receiving is true.
- With cloud mining, you don’t get to own mining equipment, which you could later sell at a profit.
- Almost impossible to change the software used in mining.
Scams in Cloud Mining
As mentioned earlier, cloud mining has a history of scams since it’s unregulated, just like ICOs. It’s straightforward to scam people in cloud mining by simply setting up a website and claiming that the company has a large mining facility. Initially, the company may pretend to be legit by sending payments to its customers. However, the company may then make no further payments. Recently, two cloud mining scam companies were uncovered are HashOcean and Bitcoin Cloud Services.
However, there are some legit cloud mining companies in the scammed-filled sector.
Brief Summary
Cloud mining refers to remote mining, where a miner purchases hashing power from a Cloud Mining service provider. The mining company is responsible for maintaining the equipment, configuring the hardware, and paying electricity fees.
Cloud mining is best suited for novice miners who want to mine crypto but don’t have the technical know-how or sufficient capital to purchase mining equipment, which is pretty expensive. It’s also ideal for seasoned miners who can’t handle the risk, expenses, and hassle of mining crypto at home. However, with so many scams associated with cloud mining, you should do sufficient research before settling on a cloud mining service provider.
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