Mining Hosting Services (Feeler/Advice)

[Royal_47]

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking of offering hosting services for crypto mining. Have capacity for about +-500 GPUs. A few questions from my side to gain an idea if it will be worth it:
-What are some tips/advice you would give? (For someone that has done this before)
-How much would be a reasonable and attractive amount to charge per rig per month?
-Is it necessary for a legal contract?
-Should I consider crypto payments or just a flat fee per rig?
-What can I offer to make this worth while for someone?

What I'll be offering:
-No electricity charge (Just a flat fee per rig)
-Fibre Internet
-Maintenance if needed (Thinking of charging a fee per hour?)
-Security (Electric Fence, Always someone at the premises)

Any advice on do's and don'ts will be appreciated

 

[Voldoverse1]

while I cant answer all your question accurately I will weigh in as a miner what I would typically like in a hosting service

- Lets start with the cost.

I don't think a flat fee would work out the best but I think there is a middle ground to be found and that is if your hosting requires the user to have a smart plug. That way the exact usage can be monitored and the miner can be switched off remotely if needed, then you just need to give a reasonable rate. A reasonable rate in my eyes would be half of the top end of the power sliding scale, so for instance for me I fall in the R3.10 range so for me a no brainer would be R1.50 per unit.

End of month rolls around and you just bill based on the smart plugs usage data. easy as chips.

- Next is internet, you will have to have good stable fiber internet and good quality networking with plenty of ethernet cables, some quick math suggests about 85 ethernet points to be exact give or take

- Security. Each person's perception of security varies I guess, but yeah, when I walk in to a area a want to feel like my investment will be safe there, so no dodgy areas and perhaps a decent security company, a very strong door, no windows, electric fence with tension sensors and anti tamper earth loops and motion detecting cctv.
A permanent security person brings out the trust issues in me and always makes me feel like the inside job will come soon, too many stories where the security person always ends up just "tied up because 6 guys jumped him"

- Maintenance I always feel like I'll do myself. I don't want other people tinkering with my stuff, I'll come get my miner, fix it at home and bring it back instead. What would be handy, but completely optional is a separate area with a table and a air compressor where I can just give my Rig a blow out once a month

- Cooling. Cooling especially in SA has become one of my primary issues with large scale mining. You cant believe how quickly those machines heat a place up, so the place will probably be fine in the beginning if its big and generally cool but will soon need LOTS of ventilation so that will have to be some sort of upgrade commitment unless you want to start losing clients when their rigs start overheating

- Another big concern is fire prevention. Some sort of smoke alarm that can cut all power to the rigs would be great if such a thing even exists as you can land in some hot water if you have a big fire taking everyone's rigs with it

- Legal contract is probably a must but I'm not legal boffin so can't comment there, but all I know that I learned in life is people make lots of promises and tend to break the if there are no repercussions for either party. So yeah a contract is always a good thing for both parties

 

[Royal_47]

while I cant answer all your question accurately I will weigh in as a miner what I would typically like in a hosting service

- Lets start with the cost.

I don't think a flat fee would work out the best but I think there is a middle ground to be found and that is if your hosting requires the user to have a smart plug. That way the exact usage can be monitored and the miner can be switched off remotely if needed, then you just need to give a reasonable rate. A reasonable rate in my eyes would be half of the top end of the power sliding scale, so for instance for me I fall in the R3.10 range so for me a no brainer would be R1.50 per unit.

End of month rolls around and you just bill based on the smart plugs usage data. easy as chips.

- Next is internet, you will have to have good stable fiber internet and good quality networking with plenty of ethernet cables, some quick math suggests about 85 ethernet points to be exact give or take

- Security. Each person's perception of security varies I guess, but yeah, when I walk in to a area a want to feel like my investment will be safe there, so no dodgy areas and perhaps a decent security company, a very strong door, no windows, electric fence with tension sensors and anti tamper earth loops and motion detecting cctv.
A permanent security person brings out the trust issues in me and always makes me feel like the inside job will come soon, too many stories where the security person always ends up just "tied up because 6 guys jumped him"

- Maintenance I always feel like I'll do myself. I don't want other people tinkering with my stuff, I'll come get my miner, fix it at home and bring it back instead. What would be handy, but completely optional is a separate area with a table and a air compressor where I can just give my Rig a blow out once a month

- Cooling. Cooling especially in SA has become one of my primary issues with large scale mining. You cant believe how quickly those machines heat a place up, so the place will probably be fine in the beginning if its big and generally cool but will soon need LOTS of ventilation so that will have to be some sort of upgrade commitment unless you want to start losing clients when their rigs start overheating

- Another big concern is fire prevention. Some sort of smoke alarm that can cut all power to the rigs would be great if such a thing even exists as you can land in some hot water if you have a big fire taking everyone's rigs with it

- Legal contract is probably a must but I'm not legal boffin so can't comment there, but all I know that I learned in life is people make lots of promises and tend to break the if there are no repercussions for either party. So yeah a contract is always a good thing for both parties

Thanks for the input, actually answering a lot of stuff that I might not have thought about, so to reply on what you said:

-I think there are a lot of variables that can cause a lot of admin when not charging a flat fee, but I also understand with a flat fee you have to factor in Loadshedding etc. Hence I want to offer a reasonable price. I don't want someone to tell me after a month that they are not paying because they switched of their rig and didn't use any electricity for that month , but they still use the "storage" space where I could have had someone else's rig there.

-It is a 1GB Fibre line so the internet is stable.

-There is no security guard but I am at the premises 5 days a week and my colleague owns the house (And resides there in one room).

-Maintenance wise I don't mind helping out. I am a miner myself so know the basics of troubleshooting but I don't want people taking advantage and constantly ask for help etc.

-Cooling is not a problem, we build specific rooms with massive ventilation fans. Currently my rigs are running at 50 degrees with fans set to 50. There are also big filters installed which helps for the dust.

-Currently nothing in place for fire prevention.

-I also think a contract will work best.

 

[Voldoverse1]

ah ok you make a solid point about the free storage at any time if someone decides to switch off, perhaps a flat rate will work then in the end but to determine what a good price will be is a bit difficult as the best price is free

but in all seriousness I guess perhaps the best price is whatever a very efficient machine will cost you per month in power like say your typical 6x RTX3060 rig, only thing is the big boys will score and the okes with the RX6600 rigs will cry

Yes 1GB fiber sounds great, just need a nice switch I guess to handle the connections, perhaps the okes who are more into networking can weigh in here

maintenance, yeah.... people will definitely take advantage of your kindness, guaranteed haha just my opinion, I'm cynical SOB you see.

DAMN sounds like cooling heaven, finally good to hear someone taking cooling seriously, started in my garage with no ceiling, that started sucking after 4 rigs, on 10 now and I'm rushing to finish my little mining room outside before full summer hits, similar concept to hobbyist miners mining shed on his YT channel.

As for fire prevention seeing as its at your place, a smoke alarm and fire extinguisher should suffice then.

@TheJudge can draw up a contract for you if hes not too busy giving people kak in the smack talk section

security wise it at least sounds like its residential which already is a plus for me. personally I don't trust factory areas but that's usually where all the power is haha, so perhaps just some security company and electric fence with good failsafe's like a decent energizer backup battery for power outages and the other stuff I mentioned before is all that's needed