How to choose a hosting mine for the delicate Ethereum graphics card mining machine?

In the previous article "Ethereum mining has become popular, how should ordinary people enter the market?", we introduced three ways for ordinary people to enter Ethereum graphics card mining: cloud computing power, joint mining, and purchasing mining machines and hosting them in mining farms .

With the first two methods, users can just sit back and receive coins after paying, but the third method is only suitable for experienced miners with relatively large scale. One of the reasons is that graphics card mining machines have very high requirements for the hosting mines.

Today, let’s talk specifically about the hosting of graphics card mining machines, especially the things you need to pay attention to when choosing a mining farm.

01
Safety and reliability always come first

Whether it is an ASIC mining machine for mining Bitcoin or a graphics card mining machine for mining Ethereum , safety and reliability are always the first priority when looking for a hosted mining farm.

Safety refers to the scientific location of the mine and the safety measures in place. Due to the heavy rain during the flood season, Sichuan suffers natural disasters such as floods and mudslides every year. Many small mines are built on open space next to dams and hydropower stations. It is not uncommon for mines to be washed away by floods or flooded. If this unfortunately happens, ordinary miners are in a weak position and have little chance of asking the mine to compensate according to the price.

Figure: A mine suffered a flood disaster

In addition, the safety measures of the mine must be in place. The mine is full of various wires, which are very easy to cause fires. Accidents such as explosions of high-voltage transformers, explosions of third-party mining machine power lines, and circuit short circuits caused by aging lines are common. If safety protection measures are not in place, the entire factory may be burned down. Last year, a fire broke out in a mine in Xinjiang, burning down a factory and destroying thousands of mining machines.

Reliable means operating with integrity. In Sichuan, there are countless mining farms of all sizes, and this year there are signs of "supply exceeding demand". In some WeChat activity groups, we often see people posting tempting advertisements such as "XXX mining farm, XXX machine positions, attractive electricity prices, welcome to chat". If you are attracted by their "cheap electricity bills", you may fall into the trap. Mining farms run away, the managed mining machines are not relocated, malicious price increases, and stealing mining machine computing power are common.

So, the question is, how can ordinary people find a safe and reliable hosting mine?

The following suggestions are worth considering:

1. Choose a mine owner you know, or one recommended by a trustworthy friend , because they are acquaintances and know the mine better.

2. Between old mines and newly built mines, ordinary people recommend choosing old mines , because newly built mines have a lot of things to adjust to, while old mines have been in operation for a long time, have richer practical experience in dealing with emergencies, and require less worry when cooperating.

3. Give priority to mines with large scale and high load. The scale represents the strength of the mine. The larger the scale, the more capital investment is required to build the mine, the higher the sunk cost is, and the lower the possibility of the mine owner running away. A mine with high load has a large space for maneuver and is more stable.

4. Give priority to mining farms with good market reputation and no dark history.

5. Try to cooperate with companies rather than individuals; try not to cooperate with middlemen, and sign a formal custody contract directly with the mine owner.

02
Power stability is crucial

After selecting safe and reliable hosting mines, we will next examine the power stability of the hosting mines.

In previous articles, we repeatedly mentioned that Ethereum graphics card mining machines are "very fragile", with high complexity in software and hardware. Frequent power outages will lead to increased damage rates of various components of the mining machines. After power is restored, the debugging time required for graphics card mining machines is also longer than that of ASIC mining machines, so high requirements are placed on the power stability of the mining farm.

At present, the electricity cost of Ethereum GPU mining machines generally accounts for 10% to 20%, so compared with Bitcoin ASIC mining machines, Ethereum GPU mining machines are not so sensitive to electricity prices. For example, the latest generation of Bitcoin ASIC mining machines, Antminer S19-95T mining machines, according to the current coin price of ¥70440 and the flood season electricity price of ¥0.23, the daily electricity cost accounts for 38%; the Ethereum GPU mining machine 5700XT 8 cards, according to the current coin price of ¥2221 and the electricity price of ¥0.38, the daily electricity cost accounts for 16%.

Figure: Daily electricity cost ratio of Bitcoin S19 mining machine and Ethereum 5700XT 8-card mining machine

Here is a special note on electricity prices. Ethereum graphics card mining machines are relatively large in size, but consume less electricity. For mining farms that make profits from the price difference of electricity, they will naturally charge higher electricity prices for graphics card mining machines. Therefore, in the above example, the electricity cost of graphics card mining machines is calculated based on the market price of ¥0.38, which is much higher than the market electricity price of ASIC mining machines during the flood season of ¥0.23. However, even so, the proportion of electricity costs of Ethereum graphics card mining machines is still much smaller than that of Bitcoin ASIC mining machines.

Therefore, after selecting safe and reliable hosting mines, we should give priority to mines with stable electricity, and the priority of electricity stability is even higher than electricity price. Generally speaking, thermal power mines (year-round electricity) are more stable than hydropower mines, and park power mines are more stable than direct power mines.

03
Operation and maintenance capabilities of graphics card mining machines

After selecting a safe and reliable mining farm with stable electricity and reasonable price, you should also examine the mining farm's graphics card mining machine operation and maintenance capabilities .

The operation and maintenance capability is directly related to the revenue of the graphics card mining machine. The graphics card mining machine has complex software and hardware, and the maintenance is more difficult. The general Bitcoin ASIC mining machine operation and maintenance team cannot do a good job of the graphics card mining machine operation and maintenance in a short time. If the graphics card mining machine is damaged, and the mine does not have professional graphics card mining machine maintenance personnel, it will take ten days to half a month to send the mining machine to the maintenance point for repair, which is a considerable loss for the miners.

In addition, the computing power of graphics card miners is not as stable as Bitcoin ASIC miners, and it takes longer to debug the miners. There are many mining software for Ethereum graphics card miners on the market. Different mining software have different stability and water extraction ratios. How to choose the most suitable and cost-effective mining software depends on the experience of the operation and maintenance team.

Figure : Different Ethereum mining software

04
Other considerations

When selecting a hosting mine for GPU mining machines, in addition to examining whether the mine is safe and reliable, power stability, GPU mining machine operation and maintenance capabilities, there are other considerations:

1. Does the mine have dedicated GPU mining machines? GPU mining machines are relatively large, and general ASIC mining machine shelves are not suitable for GPU mining machines.

2. In addition to the most basic temperature and humidity control, has the mine taken measures to prevent dust particles and static electricity? In the previous article, we mentioned that the better graphics card mining machine rooms in the industry are basically designed and built according to IDC-like specifications.

3. Give priority to mines with convenient transportation. Whether you go to the mine to inspect it yourself or send the damaged mining machine to a repair station for repair, convenient transportation can save a lot of time.

05
summary

From the perspective of participation threshold and cost-effectiveness, the best way for ordinary people to participate in Ethereum graphics card mining is still to purchase a "one-stop" service joint mining product. Only experienced and relatively large miners are suitable to purchase their own mining machines and host them in a mining farm.

When choosing a hosting mine for GPU mining machines, the first thing to consider is whether the mine is safe and reliable. Give priority to mines that you know or are introduced by acquaintances. Between new mines and old mines, ordinary people are better off choosing old mines to reduce the time of running-in; give priority to mines with large scale, high load, good market reputation, and no black history, and try to cooperate with companies instead of individuals.

Secondly, consider the power stability of the hosted mining farm and the operation and maintenance capabilities of the graphics card mining machines, and finally pay attention to the environment and transportation convenience of the mining farm.

Risk warning : The content of this article is only the author’s personal opinion, does not represent the views or position of Zhikuang University, and does not constitute any investment opinion or recommendation.