You have been thinking about mining Bitcoin or cryptocurrency for awhile, but you are not sure about spending thousands of dollars on a mining rig nor the massive quantity of electricity that would be required to mine. Electricity costs vary country to country, region to region. Now, that you have thought this over, it might not be a very profitable venture due to these high start-up costs. That is where cloud mining comes into play. This article will dive into the details about the best cloud mining sites, the best cloud mining services.
The nuts and bolts of mining
Where does cryptocurrency come from? While paper money is printed and distributed by the government, Bitcoin and altcoins are generated in a different way. Miners use special equipment and software to solve mathematical problems and approve transactions – in other words, they sustain faultless functioning of the Blockchain by providing the computing power. Thus, the currency is issued by the miners for incentives.
During the mining process, a hash of a transaction block is created: it’s impossible to forge, which protects the integrity of blockchain and eliminates the need of a centralized system. As a rule, mining is done on a personal computer with a fast and strong CPU. However, considering the complexity of computations, one PC isn’t enough already – a mining rig can provide the optimal computing power.
Why mining at the low speed isn’t an option? Here we tackle the competitive issue: say, several miners are generating a transaction block. The reward will be sent only to the miner who generates it first. Therefore, powerful equipment is essential for staying ahead of competitors and reaping benefits.
Hardware vs cloud mining
The principal difference between traditional and cloud mining lies in whom the mining facilities belong to. Hardware mining presupposes buying all the components for a mining rig, installing it at your place and paying for electricity bills on your own. With cloud mining, you just need to find a suitable package and make an agreement with the provider. The company that provides its mining cloud servers charges some certain fee (as a rule, about 3% from reward + withdrawal fees).
Let’s observe the pros and cons of each solution:
Pros
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Cons
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Hardware mining
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- The hardware belongs to you, you are free to configure and adjust it
- Traditional mining is the only way to develop your IT skills and become more tech-savvy
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- The hardware is expensive, while minor investment isn’t always paid off
- The hardware is up and running on a 24/7 basis, which results in enormously expensive electricity bills and a lot of heat
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Cloud mining
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- Absence, or low maintenance cost
- You don’t have to wait for the hardware to be available – mining starts as soon as you purchase service
- No hash rate fluctuations
- No maintenance, no physical space is required
- Daily payouts
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- The initial cost compared to purchase of your own hardware can still be high enough, though it’s paid off
- Some mining companies are scams
- You don’t educate yourself on mining and don’t experience such excitement as usual miners do
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Benefits of best cloud Bitcoin mining
- You can participate in the best Bitcoin cloud mining without maintaining the hardware on your own.
- No investment in mining equipment necessary, your personal computer will get you started in most cases.
- No ventilation problems with hot equipment--Some hardcore miners use the heat from their mining rigs to heat their homes during the winter! Yes, mining rigs get that hot.
- Start mining with even just one gigahash.
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The basics of Mining
To get started with cloud mining, you must enter into a mining contract. This contract will specify the hash rate and length of time. A higher hashrate will lead to more coins being mined and electricity consumed. You can expect to pay about $170 for a 1000GH/s hash rate. A cloud mining contract’s length can range from six to 36 months or more. Make sure to check into and understand these rates on offer by the cloud mining company. When it comes to making money with cloud mining, your return on investment will be determined by a number of factors:
- Exchange rate of Bitcoin into local fiat currency
- Contract price from cloud mining company (You must pay to play!)
- Any maintenance fees set forth by the mining company
Categories of cloud mining
- Hosted Mining: Leasing a machine that is provided by the cloud mining provider. You will have physical equipment.
- Virtual Hosted Mining: Your own virtual private server with mining software installed.
- Leased hashing power: Lease a portion of the company’s hashing power, without the need for a physical or virtual machine. (This is the most popular method of cloud mining).
Avoid scams
The cryptocurrency sphere is filled with scammers. Almost every day, the headlines flash the latest ICO fraud, where a scammer used an ICO as a front to raise money for a fake company and then make off with all the money. The case is no different for mining, mining pools and cloud-based mining. If you have to pay money, pay attention to where it is going before you invest. The following are some tips to avoid being scammed.
- Data center photos:
It’s important to see the machines you are going to be mining on. You would not buy a car without seeing it first, right? The same applies to cloud mining. If a company is running a legitimate cloud mining business, then there should be photos of its datacenter available to view. If not, then suspicions can arise.
- Mining address:
A mining company that does not have and address or signed mined block could be the warning sign of a front. Usually, companies can be verified through its address on the Blockchain. Also, the company should sign the blocks that it mines to confirm ownership.
- Avoid claims of limitless processing power:
“As much as you want for one low price.” Really? No. Any mining business will be constricted by how many hashes it is able to rent out to its customers. If a company claims that there is no limit to its hashing power, or does not provide this information, then the firm should be avoided.
- Inability to withdraw balance:
If you can put money in, but can’t take it out, then chances are high it is a scam.
- Hidden domain contact details:
Normal businesses go to great lengths to prove that they are trustworthy. Contact information should be readily available and provided without hesitation if requested. Private domain registration is a scam indicator. Beware!
Looking at the downsides, it is important that you conduct your own due diligence when it comes to cloud mining. Remember to read though contracts thoroughly to understand what you are setting yourself up for. If you don’t understand something or the legal speak is too convoluted, there is a good chance something dubious is trying to be hidden.
However, this not to say that every company in the mining space is illegitimate. Although the cloud hashing business is filled with scams, there are some reputable companies out there, and they could provide you with a profit under the right conditions. Now on to investments and profits, is cloud mining worth the risks?
More on this topic: 10 Best Bitcoin Mining Software 2018
5 Notorious Cloud Mining Scams
Beware of the websites below! They ceased making payoffs and lost credibility.
Fleex
This project was established in July 2017. It allowed mining Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Litecoin offering 2-3% daily revenue. Fleex offered a 100 Gh/s registration gift and two-level partnership program. There was no withdrawal and deposit fee, and the opportunity to rent computing power for an unlimited period of time. Unfortunately, the website closed in August 2018.
Rapidminers
This project promised 3-7% daily income and welcomed newcomers with a 100 GH/s bonus. It allowed mining for BTC, LTC, DOGE and – surprise – USD! Rapidminers leveraged a level system – the more you pay, the more is your income. The scheme seems to be crystal-clear, however, Rapidminers soon proved to be nothing more but a scam. The website was profitable for less than a month.
Cryptomonitor
It is worth noting that Cryptomonitor has been existing for a comparatively long time – it operated almost 1000 days before being shut. It specialized in BTC mining and accepted BTC and USD. The website also provided an exchange platform, blog and referral programs. Cryptomonitor promised daily income from 0.1 to 2.0%, and it used to be profitable until July 2018.
Micro-BTC
Being launched in 2015, Micro-BTC offered lifetime 30 GH/s computing power for the newly registered users. It accepted BTC payments and didn’t charge for deposit and withdrawal. The website provided datacenters in Europe and the USA. Since October 2017, it ceased making payments.
HashPerium
The project was launched in March 2018 for mining Bitcoin and provided 3 datacenters in Iceland, Russia, and China. HashPerium offered 135Gh/s bonus and up to 11% daily profit, which is too generous for a trustworthy project. Another sign of a scam is the fact that there was no information about who’s in charge of HashPerium. Crypto experts also claimed it to be just another Ponzi scheme and were right. In fact, the project existed for two weeks only!
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Worth the investment?
While many reminisce over the early days of Bitcoin mining, when you could use your desktop or laptop to mine and the rewards were much higher, the matter of fact is that it is still a risk. This is because you must make an initial investment to join a cloud mining service and pay overhead costs, which eat into your profits. The more hashing power you lease, the more bitcoin you can mine, but again it comes with higher costs. In other words, it is spend money to make money.
More on this topic: 5 Ways to Earn Passive Income with Cryptocurrency
Another factor to keep in mind is the price volatility. This is akin to gambling because if the price of Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency decreases, you are then losing more of your profit to price volatility. On the flip side of the digital coin, there is the chance the price will increase and you will maximize your earnings. On the contrary, all mining options aside, the simplest investment is to buy a currency from an exchange and hold it until you can sell it for your target price. This way avoids the contracts, the fees, and everything that complicates the direct path to a cryptocurrency profit.
Top 20 best Cloud Mining services
Take some time to browse though these sites to determine the best cloud mining ROI, the best cloud mining Litecoin, the best Ethereum cloud mining, how much the plans are, the fees etc, before you commit. Some contracts can be as long as two years! So you will want to be sure you committed to the right plan that gets you the best earning potential.
1. Hashflare
Being established in 2015, Hashflare service has quickly gained a stable position on the cryptocurrency mining market. It provides computing power for BTC, ETH, LTC, and other essential altcoins. Hashflare is an independent service that has extended its mining facilities thanks to a partnership with Bitmain, Bitfury, and Inno3d. Hashflare service is easy for starters to use, that’s why it’s exploited by over 2.5 mln clients. In July 2018, Hashflare canceled the contracts and ceased its activity not being able to put up with maintenance expenses. However, there’s still a chance that it can be restored.
2. Genesis Mining
It’s one of the biggest cloud mining services that started providing the facilities since 2014. Genesis Mining works with Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dash, Dogecoin, and Monero. It operates three mining centers (Island, Canada, and Bosnia) and is used by 2 mln miners.
3. Hashing24
This Bitcoin mining service has been around since 2015. Hashing24 offers top-notch data centers in Georgia and Iceland. The website is simple and intuitive, the interface is present in 9 languages. The company partners with leading mining providers, including BitFury, and ensures a decent level of service and customer support. The pricing policy is quite agreeable: the cost of contracts varies from $19 to $68 for 100 Tb/s.
4. Bit Miner
This is not a website that provides Bitcoin cloud mining facilities – Bit Miner is rather a browser extension that promises to bring you 60,000 satoshi every day with $0.04 daily investment only. At first glance, the website looks professional and serious. However, the vast majority of customer reviews prove that Bit Miner is just a scam – as soon as you start withdrawing more or less worthy money, the service fails. It can be used to mine for a few days only. Besides, keeping your browser opened even half a day is inconvenient.
5. OxBtc
At first glance, this cloud mining service can look confusing because it’s a Chinese website (there’s an English version, too). OxBTC is a reliable platform that not only offers cloud mining contracts but allows users for renting their own computing power. OxBtc has a pretty sweet concept of loyalty programs, referral programs, discounts, and free computing power giveaways. A nice choice for starters.
More on this topic: Bitcoin Cloud Mining Profitability- Is It Worth It?
6. The EOBot
This is one of the oldest cryptocurrency cloud mining platforms: it was launched in 2013 and is still among the top cloud mining websites. The EObot allows mining large variety of crypto coins, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Ripple, and Litecoin. Users consider Cloud SHA-256 4.0 5 Year Rental the most profitable option. What makes it a good choice?
- The website is present in many languages, navigation is a no-brainer.
- 8 mining algorithms and a comprehensive choice of packages.
- Low minimum withdrawal threshold.
7. BTCsweet
BTCsweet is one of Top-10 cloud mining websites according to netbusinessrating.com. It supports several payment methods and allows mining Bitcoin only. New users get 5GH/s registration bonus, and there’s a profitable referral program (5-10%). The website has a bare-bones design, but it’s quite user-friendly and convenient. However, customer support leaves a lot to be desired: only tickets and phone calls for VIP members. The absence of maintenance fees is somewhat confusing – it is a typical scammers’ trick, though BTCsweet doesn’t seem to be a fraud yet.
8. Hash Gains
At first glance, the website looks professional and reliable. There’s a wide choice of tariffs – the more you invest, the higher is the revenue percentage. It was founded in 2016 and quickly gained the audience. Hash Gains uses advanced and reliable GPUs sustaining optimal speed and reliability of cloud mining. Hash Gains seems to be a reliable project until you take a closer look to its details: it offers 200% profitability, which is unrealistic.
9. Plan - C
This is a Georgian-based project: the team behind it uses eco-friendly mining facilities that sustain the optimal speed and power. At the moment, Plan – C can be used to mine Ethereum, Dash and Bitcoin, but other coins will be added soon. The website offers 1.5-10% income, which sounds reasonable. Please, note that Plan – C leveraged a so-called ‘Cryptomix’ scheme – it’s a combination of mining and trading. It has a well-established affiliate program, but it only puts the project lifespan under question.
10. JSECOIN
JSEcoin is a browser plugin for mining JSE proprietary coin. The software is easy in use: it’s installed in the browser, and as soon as the user selects the level of loading (from 1 to 9) and activates it, the mining process is started. The process of mining can be controlled. The coins you earn can either be stored on the website, or sent to your Ethereum-compatible wallet. The main advantage of JSEcoin is the fact that no investments are required (unless you bought some coins during ICO), but don’t expect any serious reward: at the moment, 1 JSE = $0,001707.
11. NanoMiner
NanoMiner can be a bit confusing name because it actually allows for mining Monero which can be converted to Nano further on. This website doesn’t charge for transactions, so it’s perfect for handling small payouts. The service is very easy to use: this is a browser mining solution: you install it in your browser and leave up and running. For some users, small payouts may be not worth leaving their browser opened, but this option is pretty good for beginners.
12. MyCoinCloud
This Bulgarian-based project has been around for almost 3 years. Although MyCoinCloud cannot boast a large variety of coins for mining (only five coins are supported), it proves to be reliable and trustworthy. There’s a very large variety of contracts: started can get their feet wet using a 37.1 XMR mining contract and make a normal profit within 3 years, while $2995 contract for Bitcoin will be paid off within 2 years. The contracts are lifetime ones. Maintenance fee is $0.10 per KW/h, no referral system provided. Generally, the website is easy to use, and it offers adequate fees.
13. Bitcointrain
The Bitcointrain website provides a lot of crypto-related services, and cloud mining is just one of them. The minimum contract duration is 1 year, and you can start with any deposit amount, even a couple Satoshi. Average profitability is 0.5% daily. Bitcointrain promises that you can use the equipment for as long as you want – sounds too good to be true, but no one complained yet. There’s an interesting affiliate program that allows earning 50% from the faucet, 5% from the purchase of a cloud contract, and 0.5% from browser mining.
14. Hashnest
Present in the Net since 2014, Hashnest (BitMain’s project) allows mining Bitcoin and Litecoin and ordering a miner transferred into hash rate (Antminer models are available). It is one of the biggest cloud mining platforms: in 2015, Hashnest already counted over 43,000 users. The most outstanding feature of Hashnest is Payout Accelerated Cloud Mining Contract (PACMiC): such approach reduces risks and helps users to return the initial investments in case of non-profitability.
15. Elysium
The company was founded in 2016 in Hong Kong, and it offers a decent choice of contracts starting from 0.03 BTC starter package and finishing by 5 BTC VIP package. It should be noted that Elysium puts a heavy focus on the referral program, which is why some suspect it’s a Ponzi scheme. Anyway, the platform allows making regular payouts using various payment platforms and is quite easy in use. There are no withdrawal or exchange limits.
16. IQMining
This is a Russian project that was launched in 2016. The main benefit of IQMining is the fact it allows for mining over 100-150 different altcoins, and there’s a myriad of contracts available (most are 5-year contracts, lifetime contracts have been introduced recently). Such profitability as 50%/month is too good to be true, but the website still functions and makes fair payments. It has data centers in Europe and Asia and ensures 99.5% uptime. If you’re a patient investor, trying this project makes sense.
17. CCG Mining
The website was established in 2017 and allows mining six major cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, ZCash, Monero, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. CCG Mining offers three tariffs – not much to choose from. The maintenance fee is 0.00034$ per 1 GH/s for Mini package, 0,136$ for Starter and 8.5$ for Pro. There’s a profit calculator available, but it’s a bit illogical: it shows 247-day payoff period for all tariffs, and doesn’t consider the maintenance fee. Therefore, you should make your homework before signing a contract with CCG Mining – it’s not a scam, but still can be an unjustified investment.
18. Just-Mining
Number 3 mining website according to netbusinessrating.com, Just-Mining supports cloud mining of 4 coins: BTC, ETH, ETC, and ZEC. The vast majority of reviews are positive, and users claim that payouts are made on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the website is present in French language only, so navigation can be pretty challenging. But if you’re ready to deal with such inconvenience, this is a great chance to rise a bit of cryptocurrency, or EURO – as you choose.
19. Suanlitou
Suanlitous is a Chinese project that was founded in 2017. It offers Bitcoin cloud mining and hash rate trade market. What users like is adequate fees: 0.071USD/kW·h electricity costs and 6% of daily revenue. There are two types of contracts available, but they can be adjusted: the online price calculator will help you to choose an optimal hash rate and contract duration. Just like other Chinese cloud mining websites, Suanlitou uses Antminer devices (S9 in this case). Users are free to sell their hash rate to BTC anytime. There are no signs of scam – use without hesitations.
20. ViaBTC
The world witnesses a true burst of Chinese cloud mining platforms, and ViaBTC is one of them. Being based in 2016, it allows for mining BTC, BCH, and LTC. Just like the previous provider, ViaBTC works with S9 Antminer and offers unlimited contracts. The cost of services is $199 - 1 TH/s for Bitcoin, and $5.90 - 1 MH/s for Litecoin. One interesting function is auto switch option: you can switch from mining Bitcoin to Bitcoin cash depending on what’s more profitable. Payouts are made on a daily basis. The website is available in different languages, so you aren’t likely to face any troubles when navigating it.
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