So I was surfing around social media as always, I came across a post that talked about cloud mining and it instantly struck me… I have known about cloud mining since my early days in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. So I began to ask myself, is cloud mining still worth it… While I’m not a miner, I’ve been involved in some bitcoin cloud mining years ago, cloud mining has been one of the major talking points when it comes to bitcoin mining…
Cryptocurrency mining, most popularly bitcoin mining and ethereum mining is a term that isn’t new in the cryptocurrency space… Anyone who uses cryptocurrency know what mining is. In fact, it is usually one of the first things that people come across when people jump into the crypto space.
So what is cryptocurrency cloud mining? - Before jumping right into what cryptocurrency cloud mining is, it is important to first explain mining in general. Mining is simply a process of verifying transactions, minting new coins and adding new block of transaction on the blockchain network. Bitcoin and ethereum mining are two of the most popular types of mining and are still very popular today. When we talk about mining, we talk about expensive hardware and mining rigs with a lot of power consumption.
Cloud mining is no different in the sense there are still powerful computers that are running mining process and as such, consume a lot of power. The only difference is that for cloud mining, it runs on the clouds… there are firms who put it upon themselves to own the powerful computers and do all the dirty work, while they lease the computing power to users for mining cryptocurrencies. Cloud mining became popular because of high cost of using mining hardwares and the difficulty acquiring and maintaining these mining machines… People are constantly looking for great alternatives to lower the cost of mining and that is where cloud mining comes into play.
Pros
No risk of owner’s hardware failure
This is adds to one of the advantages of cloud mining because since you don’t have to buy the mining hardware, there is no risk of hardware failure which could negatively affect the mining process. With cloud mining, the cloud mining providers have a farm of computing power that greatly reduces the chances of failure since they have so many computers and equipments running.
Reduction in mining cost
The cost of mining skyrocketed because of the cost of purchasing mining hardwares, high energy consumption fees, maintenance fee and having to replace hardwares in the case of breakdown. With cloud mining, the mining cost have been reduced as all these are handled by the cloud mining provider meaning reduced cost for acquiring cloud mining.
No noise and heat from mining machines
This is a huge plus because we all know the work that these mining machines do to mine these cryprocurrency and as a result of that, there is usually a lot of noise and heat from these mining machines making them not pleasant to have at home.
Having technical skills not a must
This is another benefit as because having technical knowledge is a must as far as the hardware mining is concerned. However, with cloud mining, it is not a must to have technical skills because the cloud mining firm provided the technical skills needed.
Cons of
High risk of scams
This is one of the major risks of cloud mining because there are a lot of scam mining services who just operate as Ponzi schemes and claims to be mining firms. These scam/ponzi cloud mining providers shut down once they rate of new signups are not able to pay the old users anymore or sometimes they vanish when they have reaped enough.
The profits can be very low or zero profits
This is another big problem because cloud mining providers are in business and want to make profits as well for running those expensive mining farms, this means that the profit margins for users can be really small or fluctuates or sometimes users don’t make profits at all depending on different factors. Also the cryptocurrency prices can massively affect whether there will be profit or not.
Cloud mining providers might cease to exist
This is another big problem is the cloud mining world. Like I said above, every cloud mining provider are in business and wants to make profit, so if they are not making profits, they can decide to shutdown the business and cease to exist.
You don’t have control of your mining equipment
This can also add up as one of the cons of cloud mining because you don’t have control of your mining equipments as everything is fully controlled by the mining providers giving them the powers to do whatever they want.
Looking at the pros and cons, is it still worth it to go for cloud mining services especially in this present times?. Would love to hear your thoughts…