The purpose of technology is to make things easier for mankind and we can all attest to how technology has brought ease and comfort. Also, we have witnessed a lot of daily technological developments/ advancements in almost every sector of life today. The internet being the most outstanding technological advancement as birthed a lot of developments. One of such development is cloud mining of cryptocurrencies (bitcoin and alt coins).
To better understand cloud mining, one must first understand the concept of cryptocurrency mining and cloud computing. Briefly, cryptocurrency mining entails the verification of transactions and adding them (time-stamping) on the blockchain, where it is visible to the whole community. Crypto mining can also be said to be the process where new coins are being released in the form of mining rewards. One can then say that there are majorly two types of cryptocurrency mining which includes; the conventional mining process and cloud mining.
On the other hand, cloud computing has to with the availability of computer system resources, data storage and computing power on the internet, where users can tap into to carry out operations. Note, this resources are only made available and accessible to users who demand (pay) for it. It entails sharing of computing power and other computer system resources hosted at one station by various users via the Internet. ref.
Having established these facts, it is clear that cloud mining is developed based on the cloud computing concept. By definition, one can say that, cloud mining is the process of mining cryptocurrency with the help of purchased computational power. It can also be said to be the process of mining cryptocurrency through leveraging on another person's/station's mining tools (hardware). Cloud mining was being developed owing to the fact that setting up a mining rig could be extremely expensive. As expected, this technology has its merits and demerits. ref.
Merits of Cloud Mining
mining cost reduction: like aforementiined, with cloud mining, a person doesn't need to go buy his own hardwares and other mining devices to set up a mining rig which is usually capital intensive. All you need do is pay a cloud mining station some money and then you have access to mine using their equipment.
management of equipment and maintenance is done by the host station.
the host station bothers about power supply (electricity) for the mining rig
cloud mining allows for even novices in the space to mine cryptocurrencies. With cloud mining, you don't really need to have a high technical knowledge about cryptocurrency mining to participate. All you need do is locate a trusted mining platform and lease computational power.
Demerits of Cloud Mining
mining rewards are low compared to those who mine using their equipment.
cloud miners have no control over the running of the mining rig in the case of an outage.
cloud vendors could fold up anytime and this means, mining stops for the cloud miner.
Cloud Mining Platforms
In case you are in need of cloud mining services, below are a few recommendations;
source: www.hashflare.io
HashFlare Mining Platform
According to Hashflare company about, it is one the largest computational power vendors and they offer cloud mining services for cryptos like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin etc but after you must have paid the stipulated service fee. More so, HashFlare was created in 2015 and it has continued to record an increase in the number of users. Find out more about the company here
The team of HashFlare LP has always put the task of making mining accessible not only for cryptoenthusiasts but also for common users. Through tremendous work made by the engineers, developers and other specialists of the company as well as partner companies, we have succeeded in providing the service to over 2,500,000 users. Source
Genesis Mining Platform
Another popular cloud mining platform is Genesis Mining. They provide computational power to cloud miners with the help of their large mining farms located at various locations. Find out more on their website
Cloud Mining is indeed a great technology in the cryptocurrency space. It has helped in making cryptocurrency mining easier and accessible even to crypto beginners.