How Does Cloud Mining Bitcoin Work?
von Satoshi Nakamoto
If you want to invest in bitcoin mining without the hassle of managing your own hardware, there is an alternative. You can use the cloud to earn your coins.
Put very simply, cloud mining means using (generally) shared processing power run from remote data centres. One only needs a home computer for communications, optional local bitcoin wallets and so on.
However, there are certain risks associated with cloud mining that investors need to understand prior to purchase.
Pros
Here's why you might want to consider cloud mining:
A quiet, cooler home – no constantly humming fans
No added electricity costs
No equipment to sell when mining ceases to be profitable
No ventilation problems with hot equipment
Reduced chance of being let down by mining equipment suppliers.
Cons
Here's why you might not want to consider cloud mining:
Risk of fraud
Opaque mining operations
Less fun (if you're a geek who likes system building!)
Lower profits – the operators have to cover their costs after all
Contractual warnings that mining operations may cease depending on the price of bitcoin
Lack of control and flexibility.
Types of cloud mining
In general, there are three forms of remote mining available at the moment:
Hosted mining
Lease a mining machine that is hosted by the provider.
Virtual hosted mining
Create a (general purpose) virtual private server and install your own mining software.
Leased hashing power
Lease an amount of hashing power, without having a dedicated physical or virtual computer. (This is, by far, the most popular method of cloud mining.)
How to determine profitability
We have previously covered ways to calculate mining profitability. However, the web services offered are designed to work with your hardware parameters, not cloud-mining parameters.
Even so, you can still use these calculators by thinking clearly about the costs involved. Profitability calculators (for example, The Genesis Block) often ask for your electricity costs, and sometimes the initial investment in hardware. Effectively, you are being asked for your ongoing costs and your one-off investments.
Therefore, since the provider, not you, is paying the electricity bills, you can enter the monthly mining bill in place of the electricity cost.
The conversion process isn't completely straightforward, though. In the case of hardware miners, you can work out the monthly running cost by multiplying your electricity charge (ie: $ per KWh) by the power consumption of the unit and by a conversion factor of 0.744 (the ratio of seconds per month to joules of energy per KWh).
But, for cloud mining calculations, you need to do the opposite, because the provider gives you an (effective) monthly running cost. Hence, you need to calculate an equivalent cost per kilowatt hour to feed into the mining calculator. This is done by dividing (not multiplying) the monthly running cost by the 0.744 conversion factor mentioned above.
Risk vs reward
When engaging in any type of cryptocurrency mining there are risks, but profitability is possible if you make the right choices. In this article, we've given you some pointers on how to decide which way to go.
In your test calculations, you will likely see that some cloud mining services will be profitable for a few months, but, as the difficulty level of bitcoin increases, you would probably start to make a loss in four to six months and beyond.
A possible remedy to this situation is to reinvest what you have made into maintaining a competitive hashing rate, but this is highly speculative.
As mentioned above, the risk of fraud and mismanagement is all too common in the cloud mining space. Investors should only invest in cloud mining if they are comfortable with these risks – as the saying goes, never invest more than you are willing to lose.
Investigate social media channels, speak with former customers and ask pointed questions of operators prior to investing. Ultimately, you should practice the same kind of due diligence that you would for any investment.
Disclaimer: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement of any of the services mentioned. Please do your own research before considering investing any funds via these services.
Australian mine, server room, accounting and reward and risk images via Shutterstock. Source coindesk
NEXT: HOW TO CALCULATE MINING PROFITABILITY
INDEX: A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BITCOIN AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
What is Bitcoin?
It's a decentralized digital currency
Why Use Bitcoin?
It's fast, cheap to use, and secure
How Can I Buy Bitcoin?
From an exchange or an individual
How to Buy Bitcoin in the UK
Buying bitcoin in the UK
How to Store Your Bitcoin
Use a digital or paper wallet
What Can You Buy with Bitcoin?
Spend your bitcoins
How to Sell Bitcoin
A guide on how to sell your bitcoins
How to Accept Bitcoin Payments for Your Store
Learn about bitcoin POS systems
How do Bitcoin Transactions Work?
Bitcoin addresses and private keys
Is Bitcoin Legal?
The current regulation around bitcoin
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
The founder of bitcoin
How Bitcoin Mining Works
By confirming transactions
How to Set Up a Bitcoin Miner
Generate bitcoins yourself
What are Bitcoin Mining Pools?
What are pools how and how to join them?
How Does Cloud Mining Bitcoin Work?
Alternative bitcoin mining solutions
How to Calculate Mining Profitability
Can you make a ROI?
How to Make a Paper Bitcoin Wallet
Creating an unhackable bitcoin wallet
Can Bitcoin Scale?
A look at the debate and the tech
What is SegWit?
A new way of storing transaction data
What is the Lightning Network?
Off-chain transaction channels
What is Bitcoin Cash?
Same blockchain, different characteristics.
Hard Fork vs Soft Fork
Why and how do blockchains split?
What is the Difference Between Litecoin and Bitcoin?
It's the silver to bitcoin's gold
How to Buy Litecoin
How to buy the bitcoin alternative litecoin
How to Mine Litecoin and other Altcoins
How to generate your own altcoins
Understanding Bitcoin Price Charts
A primer on bitcoin price charts
Bitcoin E-Commerce Services for Merchants
How to accept bitcoin at your business
What is Blockchain Technology?
A system of distributed data and logic
How Does Blockchain Technology Work?
Cryptographic keys, distributed networks and network servicing protocols
What Can a Blockchain Do?
Identity, recordkeeping, smart contracts and more
What is a Distributed Ledger?
A dynamic, independently maintained database
What is the Difference Between Public and Permissioned Blockchains?
Can anyone read or write to the ledger?
What is the Difference Between a Blockchain and a Database?
It begins with architectural and administrative decisions
What Are the Applications and Use Cases of Blockchains?
Tokenization, auditing, governance, settlement and more
How Could Blockchain Technology Change Finance?
Cross-border payments, new asset classes, regulatory compliance and more
What are Blockchain's Issues and Limitations?
Complexity, size, costs, speed, security, politics and more
Why Use a Blockchain?
To manage and secure digital relationships as part of a system of record
What is Ethereum?
A blockchain application platform and 'world computer'
What is Ether?
The 'fuel' of the ethereum network
How to Use Ethereum
Wallets, trading and ‘dapps’
Who Created Ethereum?
Vitalik Buterin
How Ethereum Mining Works
'Proof of Work' and 'Proof of Stake'
How to Mine Ethereum
GPUs, mining software and pools
How Ethereum Works
'Turing-complete' programming, 'state' and the 'EVM'
What is a Decentralized Application?
A distributed 'smart contract' system
What is a DAO?
A 'decentralized autonomous organization'
How Do Ethereum Smart Contracts Work?
Code, transaction fees and 'gas'
How Will Ethereum Scale?
‘Sharding’ and ‘off-chain’ transactions
What is an ICO?
Initial Coin Offerings refer to the distribution of digital tokens.
Read the full article
Put very simply, cloud mining means using (generally) shared processing power run from remote data centres. One only needs a home computer for communications, optional local bitcoin wallets and so on.
However, there are certain risks associated with cloud mining that investors need to understand prior to purchase.
Pros
Here's why you might want to consider cloud mining:
A quiet, cooler home – no constantly humming fans
No added electricity costs
No equipment to sell when mining ceases to be profitable
No ventilation problems with hot equipment
Reduced chance of being let down by mining equipment suppliers.
Cons
Here's why you might not want to consider cloud mining:
Risk of fraud
Opaque mining operations
Less fun (if you're a geek who likes system building!)
Lower profits – the operators have to cover their costs after all
Contractual warnings that mining operations may cease depending on the price of bitcoin
Lack of control and flexibility.
Types of cloud mining
In general, there are three forms of remote mining available at the moment:
Hosted mining
Lease a mining machine that is hosted by the provider.
Virtual hosted mining
Create a (general purpose) virtual private server and install your own mining software.
Leased hashing power
Lease an amount of hashing power, without having a dedicated physical or virtual computer. (This is, by far, the most popular method of cloud mining.)
How to determine profitability
We have previously covered ways to calculate mining profitability. However, the web services offered are designed to work with your hardware parameters, not cloud-mining parameters.Even so, you can still use these calculators by thinking clearly about the costs involved. Profitability calculators (for example, The Genesis Block) often ask for your electricity costs, and sometimes the initial investment in hardware. Effectively, you are being asked for your ongoing costs and your one-off investments.
Therefore, since the provider, not you, is paying the electricity bills, you can enter the monthly mining bill in place of the electricity cost.
The conversion process isn't completely straightforward, though. In the case of hardware miners, you can work out the monthly running cost by multiplying your electricity charge (ie: $ per KWh) by the power consumption of the unit and by a conversion factor of 0.744 (the ratio of seconds per month to joules of energy per KWh).
But, for cloud mining calculations, you need to do the opposite, because the provider gives you an (effective) monthly running cost. Hence, you need to calculate an equivalent cost per kilowatt hour to feed into the mining calculator. This is done by dividing (not multiplying) the monthly running cost by the 0.744 conversion factor mentioned above.
Risk vs reward
When engaging in any type of cryptocurrency mining there are risks, but profitability is possible if you make the right choices. In this article, we've given you some pointers on how to decide which way to go.In your test calculations, you will likely see that some cloud mining services will be profitable for a few months, but, as the difficulty level of bitcoin increases, you would probably start to make a loss in four to six months and beyond.
A possible remedy to this situation is to reinvest what you have made into maintaining a competitive hashing rate, but this is highly speculative.
As mentioned above, the risk of fraud and mismanagement is all too common in the cloud mining space. Investors should only invest in cloud mining if they are comfortable with these risks – as the saying goes, never invest more than you are willing to lose.
Investigate social media channels, speak with former customers and ask pointed questions of operators prior to investing. Ultimately, you should practice the same kind of due diligence that you would for any investment.
Disclaimer: This article should not be viewed as an endorsement of any of the services mentioned. Please do your own research before considering investing any funds via these services.
Australian mine, server room, accounting and reward and risk images via Shutterstock. Source coindesk
NEXT: HOW TO CALCULATE MINING PROFITABILITY
INDEX: A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO BITCOIN AND BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY
What is Bitcoin?
It's a decentralized digital currency
Why Use Bitcoin?
It's fast, cheap to use, and secure
How Can I Buy Bitcoin?
From an exchange or an individual
How to Buy Bitcoin in the UK
Buying bitcoin in the UK
How to Store Your Bitcoin
Use a digital or paper wallet
What Can You Buy with Bitcoin?
Spend your bitcoins
How to Sell Bitcoin
A guide on how to sell your bitcoins
How to Accept Bitcoin Payments for Your Store
Learn about bitcoin POS systems
How do Bitcoin Transactions Work?
Bitcoin addresses and private keys
Is Bitcoin Legal?
The current regulation around bitcoin
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?
The founder of bitcoin
How Bitcoin Mining Works
By confirming transactions
How to Set Up a Bitcoin Miner
Generate bitcoins yourself
What are Bitcoin Mining Pools?
What are pools how and how to join them?
How Does Cloud Mining Bitcoin Work?
Alternative bitcoin mining solutions
How to Calculate Mining Profitability
Can you make a ROI?
How to Make a Paper Bitcoin Wallet
Creating an unhackable bitcoin wallet
Can Bitcoin Scale?
A look at the debate and the tech
What is SegWit?
A new way of storing transaction data
What is the Lightning Network?
Off-chain transaction channels
What is Bitcoin Cash?
Same blockchain, different characteristics.
Hard Fork vs Soft Fork
Why and how do blockchains split?
What is the Difference Between Litecoin and Bitcoin?
It's the silver to bitcoin's gold
How to Buy Litecoin
How to buy the bitcoin alternative litecoin
How to Mine Litecoin and other Altcoins
How to generate your own altcoins
Understanding Bitcoin Price Charts
A primer on bitcoin price charts
Bitcoin E-Commerce Services for Merchants
How to accept bitcoin at your business
What is Blockchain Technology?
A system of distributed data and logic
How Does Blockchain Technology Work?
Cryptographic keys, distributed networks and network servicing protocols
What Can a Blockchain Do?
Identity, recordkeeping, smart contracts and more
What is a Distributed Ledger?
A dynamic, independently maintained database
What is the Difference Between Public and Permissioned Blockchains?
Can anyone read or write to the ledger?
What is the Difference Between a Blockchain and a Database?
It begins with architectural and administrative decisions
What Are the Applications and Use Cases of Blockchains?
Tokenization, auditing, governance, settlement and more
How Could Blockchain Technology Change Finance?
Cross-border payments, new asset classes, regulatory compliance and more
What are Blockchain's Issues and Limitations?
Complexity, size, costs, speed, security, politics and more
Why Use a Blockchain?
To manage and secure digital relationships as part of a system of record
What is Ethereum?
A blockchain application platform and 'world computer'
What is Ether?
The 'fuel' of the ethereum network
How to Use Ethereum
Wallets, trading and ‘dapps’
Who Created Ethereum?
Vitalik Buterin
How Ethereum Mining Works
'Proof of Work' and 'Proof of Stake'
How to Mine Ethereum
GPUs, mining software and pools
How Ethereum Works
'Turing-complete' programming, 'state' and the 'EVM'
What is a Decentralized Application?
A distributed 'smart contract' system
What is a DAO?
A 'decentralized autonomous organization'
How Do Ethereum Smart Contracts Work?
Code, transaction fees and 'gas'
How Will Ethereum Scale?
‘Sharding’ and ‘off-chain’ transactions
What is an ICO?
Initial Coin Offerings refer to the distribution of digital tokens.
Read the full article
Satoshi Nakamoto
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