Ice Rock mining have just started their ICO after a successful pre sale, according to their website they raised $70,000.
What is Ice Rock Mining?
https://icerockmining.io
Now I will admit when I first heard about this ICO I thought it sounded a little crazy to say the least, but after reading their whitepaperit looks like a decent idea.
They're planning on building a mining farm...in a mountain in Kazakhstan.
During the 1950s the Soviet Union created storage inside mountains, incase of a nuclear war. Ice Rock Mining have decided to use one of these caves as a mining facility due to the cool temperature, the caves remain at around 12 degrees naturally all year round. This means that there will be no expenses for the cooling of the mining rigs. The area also has one of the best prices of electricity in the world, at around $0.03 per KW, thus making them potentially one of the most economical mining operations in the world.
How will it work?
IRM are planning on mining any profitable crypto currencies and selling ming contracts to customers. The customer will decide which currency they wish to mine when they select their contract.
The minimum payment for mining contracts will be set at 5 ROCK tokens which equals $5.
Mining equipment works 24/7 so often there's technical faults, rather than having to send miners away for repair, Ice Rock Mining plan to have 4 staff working on rotation 24/7,365 days per year servicing all of the equipment to avoid too much downtime.
How did the project start?
The founder of the company, Malik Murzashev received a gift of $5s worth of bitcoin for his 25th Birthday from one of his friends.
By 2013 Malik's interest in bitcoin and crypto currency had grown and he started to mine his first coins from home.
After chatting with his business partners he found out that one of them owned a bunker and the project was born. The Ice Rock Mining name was decided on due to the natural cooling from the rocks.
The Market
People wanting to mine crypto currency are faced with the option of either setting up their own mining rig which can be expensive, complicated and time consuming or using a cloud mining company to purchase mining power.
The new company state that they plan to offer contracts that will be 20%-35% cheaper than the competition due to their economical set up allowing for a better profit margin. Their facility won't need much spent on cooling, they don't have to pay rent and the infrastructure is already in place to start the operation.
Cloud mining contracts often work out too expensive, making it hard for the customer to ever ROI with increasing difficulty rates. Meaning that the'd often be better off just buying crypto currency.
At the price IRM are promising to offer it should make them more profitable.
Benefits
Low cooling costs, making their farm more efficient.
Cheap electricity at just $0.03 per KW, Kazakhstan has regional rates with the cave being in one of the cheapest areas.
No construction costs, the cave is already set up and no rent costs due to them already owning the cave.
The cave is located close to a reservoir, meaning that in the future they could potentially install a hydraulic pump to generate electricity.
Pricing plans
Bitcoin: They have 3 different plans for bitcoin, 80,2550 or 24500 GH/S, the plans are priced at $10,$300,$4000.
ETH/ETC: 3 plans for ETH or ETC, 1,30 or 100 MH/S, the plans are priced at $23,$650,$2200
Litecoin: 3 plans for Litecoin, 1,50 or 200 MH/S, the plans are priced at $11,$520,$2050.
DASH: 3 plans for DASH, 1,50 or 500 MH/S, the plans are priced at $5,$240,$2350.
Note: All plans will be paid with ROCK tokens, I've stated the price in $s as its currently set at the same rate.
Economic plan
The new platform will spend most of its money on new mining equipment:
5% engineering work: Development of electrical power routes, air circulation and infrastructural improvements.
80% equipment and installation: The new company will be using the latest and most advanced mining hardware.
5% website development: The platform plans to attract all of its customers online so the website will require constant improvements.
5% on employees: They plan to have 4 people working as technical support, 2 in marketing, 1 technical director and 1 director.
5% on marketing: This includes the 2 marketing employees, they plan to gain most of their customers through referrals.
Key team members
Malik Murzashev, CEO: Has 10 years of experience working in the US and Kazakhstan in software development and retail. Was the founder of the biggest Apple dealer in Kazakhstan.
Mikhail Pluzhnikov, Technical director: 10 years experience working in business development, programming, software development, Blockchain and physical infrastructure of mining farms.
Dias Kurmanov, ICO & Marketing manager: 7 years of experience in marketing, social and Internet projects.
ICO Details
Sale dates: 9th of October until 7th of November.
Platform claims tokens will be listed on exchanges within 2 weeks of the end of the ICO.
Rock tokens can be used to pay for mining contracts.
Coin price: Starts at $0.8, rises to $1 and will be $1.20 for the final week.
Company will begin buying back tokens at $2 in February.
88% of tokens will be sold through the ICO, 10% distributed to the team and 2% for bounties.
Payment methods: ROCK tokens can be purchased with Bitcoin,Ethereum or Litecoin.
Proof of the operation
I'd normally be more skeptical of something like this but the company has posted videos on their youtube of the cave and a small mining farm that they currently run:
Conclusion
The cloud mining market has grown massively in the last year, IRM are planning to offer much better rates than the competition, if you buy the tokens at the initial price of $0.8 then that will make the mining contracts cheap.
The idea at first glance does sound a little strange but the reasons for selecting that location do make sense, they've also shown proof on their youtube account that I posted above.
Links:
Website: https://icerockmining.io
Whitepaper: https://icerockmining.io/whitePaper.pdf
ANN thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2196082.0