What is a Mining Farm and how it works
One of the best and legitimate ways to make money with Bitcoins is to mine them. Bitcoin miners earn 12.5 Bitcoins every time they complete one block. Of course, early adopters are the most prominent winners. Before June 2016, Bitcoin mining attracted 25 Bitcoins for completing a single block. Before 2012, miners earned 50 Bitcoins. Today, setting up a mining farm is a little bit complicated but still possible.
What is a Bitcoin Mining Farm?
A mining farm is a room or warehouse dedicated to mining cryptocurrencies. The farm can be a basement in your house with 2 ASIC machines or a large warehouse with dozens of GPUs and ASICs. Mining farms contain large power supplies, huge fans to cool the equipment and more than one person running them. In a way, a mining farm is like a small mining pool with miners housed in a single building.
Bitcoin mining is a simple concept that seems complicated if not well explained. At its core, mining is the process of verifying a transaction so that it is added to the public ledger known as blockchain. Transactions are added in blocks. All you need to verify a Bitcoin transaction is an internet enabled computer with a software program linked to the blockchain.
Bitcoin mining is also the process through which new Bitcoins are released into circulation. As already mentioned, 12.5 Bitcoins are released every time miners complete a block size of transactions. One block of transactions is the equivalent of 1MB and average 1400 transactions.
How to Build a Bitcoin Mining Farm
Mining Bitcoins is not only valuable, but it’s also rewarding to miners. With one Bitcoin valued at $9080, a reward of 12.5 Bitcoins would get you $113,512. If you add the transactions fee you receive for verifying transactions as well, you can turn mining into a profession.
Basic Tools to Start Mining
- A Bitcoin wallet – a wallet is a mobile app, hardware device or a web application with password protection where you store Bitcoins.
- A mining software program – BTC miner and CG miner are examples of software that support ASICs you will need.
- Membership in a mining pool – miners pull their computing power to complete a Bitcoin block fast. When they complete a Bitcoin block, they share the rewards.
- A mining rig – nowadays, professional miners use ASIC machines to mine. ASICs are powerful devices specially designed for mining cryptocurrencies.
- An Internet-enabled computer
- Power source – you need at least 1000 Kilowatts of power every week to run a small mining farm.
- Cooling fan – the mining equipment release a lot of heat. You need a good fan to keep the rig and your house cool.
Important Terms in mining
Mining Difficulty
The reason why professional Bitcoin miners no longer use CPU or GPU computers can be summed up to Bitcoin mining difficulty. The blockchain is developed to auto adjust itself so that a Bitcoin block is only completed within 10 minutes. As such, the math puzzles solved by CPUs and GPUs five years ago were hardened to the point that only ASICs can handle them today. An Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) contains a much higher computing speed than a CPU computer. An ASIC contains a special chip that solves the math puzzles needed to verify transactions at billions of hash rates per second. Some ASICs support trillions of hash rates per second. With the high speeds, they are equitably prepared to verify transactions as long as the mining difficulty is not beyond their speed.
Power Consumption
Bitcoin farming machines consume a lot of energy. Just one ASIC machine can cost you more than $150 in energy bills every month. A good machine should have the high computing power and low energy consumption. If you set up a mining farm with several ASICs, prepare to spend more than $1000 in electricity bills every month. Read more about Bitcoin’s energy consumption on https://www.abitgreedy.com.
Bitcoin’s Value
Like all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin’s value fluctuates. Toward the end of December 2017, one Bitcoin was valued at $19,000. Today its price is much lower. Suppose the price could go down to $5,000, this may affect the profitability of your business negatively.
A Chinese Bitcoin Mining Farm Case Study
In November 2017 in media information about one of the largest Bitcoin mining farms in China was featured. The farm had 3 data centers and 2,500 mining machines. The farm was filled with lots of fans and a messy data center. There were wires hanging around, and the machines looked dirty. A group of young people mined Bitcoins in the warehouse. The work of the farm was poorly organized, and the staff worked only at night. If anyone wanted to learn how to mine Bitcoins on this farm, he had to wait for the night time.
The owner, Ryan, is a businessman who had most of his Bitcoin mining farms China closed down after he promoted them in a TV interview. Since this particular farm is based in Chengdu, Inner Mongolia, and relied on a local hydropower station for power, it was not closed down.
Errors and Solutions
To create an excellent farm to mine Bitcoins, you have to maintain it in proper condition. The mining farm must be registered and operate on the territory where the mining process is permitted. Miners should be trained to manage Bitcoins mining process; they must earn a decent income and have flexible working hours.
Poor Human Resource
Miners in this particular farm felt so underappreciated that they used the equipment on the farm to mine their Bitcoins. They often scrambled for food and a place to sleep.
Solution
If you have to start a mining farm significant enough to require employees, take care of them. Happy employees are hardworking and loyal to the business.
Conclusion
A simple mining farm does not require huge amounts capital to start. With ASIC machines costing as low as $100, it’s possible to start a farm in your basement. However, mining is a fast-changing industry. The Bitcoin mining algorithm changes almost every week. The best ASICs cost in upwards of $2000. Research widely before you decide to start mining Bitcoins. Read about profitable farms on the territory of the former "socialist bloc."