Crypto mining has been popular for years, but many people still feel reluctant to approach it because of its high costs, difficult setup, and challenging maintenance.
Crypto mining requires large amounts of electricity and a heavily optimized cooling system (source). Cryptocurrency miners run 24/7 to generate cryptocurrency for the user. They are generally noisy, and hot, and consume more electricity in a day than a normal household does in a month. It is because of these factors that many people interested in mining simply have no option to get started.
While large-scale miners have the ability to continuously scale, at-home miners have to face constant challenges with cooling their systems, rising electricity costs, and tedious maintenance on their setups. To combat this, some of these large-scale mining operations have begun to offer their infrastructure for at-home miners to use.
Companies like Pickaxe Mining have been working to make crypto mining more accessible. Pickaxe runs an industrial-scale mining operation and has been facilitating co-location for its clients. With its co-location, it allows individuals and companies to buy mining equipment directly from them and set it up directly at one of their facilities. The same issues that at-home miners were faced with are no longer a problem as each hosting facility has been foundationally equipped to handle an efficient mining operation.
Hosting companies like Pickaxe take full control over the day-to-day operation of these machines. Pickaxe prides itself in what it calls its “white glove service” where each partner knows exactly what is happening with its machine and has a direct line of communication with the Pickaxe technicians around the clock.
When asked about their hosting services, Pickaxe Co-Founder Vlad Kolomyza said, “There are so
many people who hear the news about these large mining farms and want to get in on the opportunity, but just can’t. Starting out from scratch can be incredibly tedious and a lot of the people who are interested in getting started just can’t justify dedicating the time to learn how to properly set up and maintain these machines. The operation that we are running here gives us the opportunity to help these people. Instead of spending countless hours optimizing a cooling setup or timing the electricity company’s peak hour rates, people can just set up their machines and forget about them.”
As electricity companies are raising rates and the annoying maintenance at home miners have to deal with begins to pile up, there seems to be less and less of a reason to mine at home instead of hosting with a company like Pickaxe.