Even if you are new to the crypto world, there is every chance that you have heard of mining. Mining is the process of generating cryptocurrency coins. The three major ways of cryptocurrency mining:
- Mining with hardware.
- Cloud mining.
- Pool mining.
How does hardware mining work?
For solo hardware mining, you would need a desktop, a graphics card (which ranges from $100 to $3000), a reliable 24-hour internet connection and electricity and a cooling system for the hardware. A coin wallet, a mining software and membership on an online mining pool and cryptocurrency exchange platform are essential for converting your mined crypto coins to any cryptocurrency.
Hardware mining devices
In hardware mining, you are essentially creating a mining rig or a server room that has to keep running. Earnings from mining are dependent on your hardware hashing power. BitCoin hardware devices currently available are the AntiMiner R4 which costs around $1000, the AntiMiner S9 of > $3000 and the Avalon 7 of $880.
The AntiMiner R4 has a monthly revenue rate of 0.29BTC, the AntiMiner S9 has a monthly revenue rate of 0.5BTC and Avalon 7 produces monthly revenues of 0.14BTC.
What does cloud mining offer?
Cloud mining or Cloud Hashing system provides people with the opportunity to rent the hardware of other people capable of mining crypto coins. There are two methods of cloud mining.
Fixed contract terms
Under fixed-term contracts, you rent hashing or mining capabilities for a fixed period of time. Hashflare the best known cloud mining platform has a fixed contract of one year while Genesis-mining has a two year contract terms. You rent the services once after signing up. After a contract expires, you however have the option to create a roll-over contract if you continue renting monthly hashing power.
Ad-hoc contracts
This contract terms gives you privilege of choosing the amount of hashing power you would like to rent under a particular time frame (also set by you). Hashpower is generally measured in BitCoins/GigaHash/Day (Any cryptocurrency you would like to mine is set back to BitCoins as the product). Nicehash is an example of a platform that offers Ad-Hoc cloud mining contracts.
Pro's of cloud mining
- No extra electricity cost.
- No need to acquire extra expensive hardware for mining.
- No extra monthly internet cost.
- No need for space for the mining hardware.
- No heat and noise from mining hardware.
- No mining pool fees.
- No concerns of overheating mining hardware.
- Provides an opportunity for people who cannot run hardware mining to also mine coins.
Ways of saving money
With Cloud MiningEven after eliminating the extra costs that come with hardware mining, there are still ways of saving even more with cloud mining. Hashflare offers coupons and discount codes of up to 5% of purchases in January. You can get Hashflare discount code to see how much more you can save on your next Hashflare purchase.