Cloud mining

Cloud Mining is the process of bitcoin mining utilizing a remote datacenter with shared processing power. This type of mining allows users to mine bitcoins or alternative cryptocurrencies without having to manage their own hardware. Since Cloud Mining is provided as a service there is generally some cost and this can result in lower returns for the miner. There have been some scams involving cloud mining.

Types of Hosting

Users of hosted Mining equipment can either lease a physical mining server or a Virtual private server and install mining software on the machine. Instead of leasing a dedicated server, some services offer hashing power hosted in data centers for sale denominated in Gigahash/seconds (GH/s); Users either select a desired amount of hashing power and a period for the contract or in some cases can trade their hashing power.

A mining farm located in Iceland. The picture shows scrypt miners.

Pros and Cons

There are several advantages over the normal home-mining.

Pros:

• A Quiet and cooler home
• Lower electricity usage
• no need to manage the equipment - no need to repair and no need to configure the hardware

Cons:

• Hazardous - there are several Pyramid scheme which have turned out as fraud
• Management Cost - cost for the maintenance of the equipment
• Lack of control - most providers don't offer the possibility for one to choose his desired mining pool