How bitcoin mining hosting works: one machine, quote to exit

Bitcoin mining hosting is an arrangement where you own an ASIC miner and a host runs it for you at a site built for the job. It also goes by hosted mining, hosted bitcoin mining or ASIC hosting. The host provides what a house usually cannot: industrial power, cooling that carries the heat away, a network path to the pool, and people on site to swap parts.

Cloud mining is different. A cloud-mining contract sells you hashrate from machines you do not own. With ASIC miner hosting there is a specific machine with its own serial number and asset tag, and its hashrate lands in a pool account you control. Proton does not sell cloud-mining contracts or hashrate plans.

At home, you are the host: the power bill, the noise, the heat and the repairs are yours. Home mining vs hosted mining sets out when each one makes sense.

At Proton, hosting is for machines bought through Proton, and for hydro-capable models only. You choose machines from the hardware catalogue and enquire about the hardware and hosting together.

Here is the path one machine takes under a Proton hosting agreement, from the first conversation to the day it ships out.

1. Quote. You choose the model, the quantity and a preferred start date. Proton reviews future availability and site readiness, then confirms in writing whether it can offer capacity and terms. An enquiry about a proposed location does not reserve a slot or set a start date.
2. Agreement and deposit. You sign the agreement and pay the deposit stated in your quote. Capacity is reserved in your name and an account contact is assigned. You hand over your pool setup (pool, worker naming, payout address) and a read-only pool API key.
3. Freight. The machines ship from the supplier straight to the site named in the agreement. Proton arranges the inbound freight.
4. Receiving. Every pallet is opened, counted, serial-scanned and photographed, and each unit is asset-tagged. Damage and discrepancies are reported within the window the agreement sets, before anything is racked.
5. Racking. The machine is installed and mapped to your account. In the planned hydro container, that is a rack position on the coolant supply and return manifolds, on a circuit metered at the PDU.
6. Commissioning. The machine is pointed at your pool and burned in. Proton does not call a machine live until it holds rated hashrate at rated power.
7. Running. Dashboard access and alerts start once the machine is live. Each billing period ends with a statement of per-machine kWh, uptime and hashrate, with curtailment events logged.
8. Failures. An alert fires when a unit drops below its expected hashrate or overheats, and the on-site response follows a fixed repair path.
9. Exit. At the end of the term, or earlier on the terms in your agreement, the machine is de-racked, palletized and staged for your carrier.

You own the miner, and the bitcoin it mines is yours. The host holds the machine; it should never hold what the machine earns. At Proton the custody path is short: your machine mines into your pool account, and the pool pays out to your wallet. Proton is never in the custody path.

• The machine: yours, asset-tagged on arrival, its serial number on the receiving record.
• The pool account: yours. You pick the pool and worker names; Proton does not name or recommend a pool.
• Keys, pool credentials and payout address: they stay with you.
• The host's access: a read-only pool API key, for reporting.

Test that last point with any host. Reporting needs read access and nothing more. A host that asks for your pool login, your withdrawal keys or a payout address of its own wants more than running the machine requires.

Your own pool account is also a check that does not depend on the host. Put the pool's figures next to the host's statement: power drawn on one side, hashrate on the other. They should agree.

The weak point is physical possession, since the machine sits on someone else's site. The receiving record and the exit terms are what protect it, so read them as closely as the rate.

Mostly power, plus fees for work done on your machines. A Proton quote sets out each of these per site, in writing:

• Power, per kWh. Metered at the PDU and billed on actual draw, not nameplate. What the rate covers, and any fee billed separately, is in your quote.
• Setup, per machine, once. Receiving, inspection, asset tagging, racking, and commissioning to first accepted share.
• Deposit. The amount is in your quote; refund terms are in your agreement.
• Minimum. Set per site, in machines or kW of connected load.
• Repairs. How labour and parts are charged is set out in your hosting agreement.
• Exit work. De-racking, palletizing and staging for your carrier, quoted in writing.

When a site curtails, the meter does the work: you are not billed for power you do not draw. Expected curtailment hours per year are stated in the quote, and each event appears on your statement. A setup fee or other quoted fee is not power, so it is billed as the quote says.

Proton's indicative rates for each proposed region are on the hosting page. Bitcoin mining hosting cost shows how to turn any host's quote, whatever its billing basis, into one number you can compare.

What a hosted machine earns is a separate question. Mining income moves with the bitcoin price, network difficulty and your cost of power, and Proton does not promise returns. Try your own assumptions in the mining calculator.

Monitoring catches it, and the fix happens on site in a set order. At a Proton site, each machine's hashrate, board temperature, coolant inlet and outlet temperature and power draw are sampled continuously, with automated alerts. An alert fires the moment a unit drops below its expected hashrate or overheats. Then:

1. Reboot the unit.
2. Reseat it.
3. Swap the PSU.
4. Swap the hashboard from on-site spares.

If the unit needs a manufacturer RMA, Proton pulls it, documents it and coordinates the return with you. Labour and parts charges, and response targets, are set out in your hosting agreement. Read that clause before comparing hosts on rate alone: a low rate can be undone by slow or costly repairs.

Tuning stays your call. Efficiency profiles and underclocking happen only with your written approval, and stock firmware stays stock unless you ask.

Hydro machines add parts an air-cooled fleet never has: couplings, a coolant loop and a dry cooler. How hydro cooling works in bitcoin mining covers the loop and its upkeep.

Yes, on the terms in the agreement. The machines are yours, so the exit clause is about timing, notice and cost, not ownership. At Proton the initial term, renewal, exit notice, early exit, fees and deposit treatment are all set out in the hosting agreement. When machines leave, Proton de-racks, palletizes and stages them for your carrier at a cost quoted in writing.

Before you sign with any host, get these answered in the agreement itself:

• How much notice you must give, and what leaving early costs.
• What happens to your deposit when you leave.
• Who packs the machines, books the carrier and pays the outbound freight.
• What happens to your machines if the host loses the site, sells it or turns it to another use.

That last question is not theoretical: a site with power in place can be sold, re-leased or put to another use. How to choose a bitcoin mining host turns these questions into a checklist for vetting the operator behind a quote.

Alberta, 160 kW: acquisition in progress. Join the waitlist.

Every other location is proposed and marked Coming soon on the hosting page: the Permian Basin in Texas, the Bakken in North Dakota, two proposed sites in Alberta, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Proposed locations have no confirmed hosting start date. Capacity, hosting rates and availability are indicative estimates and are confirmed on your hosting agreement.

This page is the overview. Each guide below takes one part further:

• Home mining vs hosted mining: whether you need a host at all, judged on your circuit, your power price, the noise and the machine you want.
• Hydro miner hosting: what a fanless, liquid-cooled machine needs from a site, and the questions that pin each need down.
• Hydro cooling in bitcoin mining: how the coolant loops, plate exchanger and dry cooler move heat out of a machine and off the site.
• What bitcoin mining hosting costs: the line items in a hosting quote, and how to compare quotes billed on different bases.
• Choosing a bitcoin mining host: the questions that test the operator behind a quote, from the power contract to the exit clause.

Hosting at Proton is for machines bought through Proton. Capacity, timing, rate and terms are confirmed per site and set out in writing before anything ships.

A good fit if

• You are buying hydro-capable machines from the Proton catalogue and want them hosted.
• You want your hashrate on your own pool and payouts straight to your wallet, with the host on read-only access.
• You want power metered at the PDU, billed on actual draw, with a per-machine statement each period.

Not a fit if

• Your machines were bought elsewhere: hosting is only for machines bought through Proton.
• Your machines are air-cooled: hosting is for hydro-capable models only.
• You want cloud mining, a hashrate plan or promised returns: none of these is offered.
• You need a confirmed start date at a proposed location: proposed locations have none.