I don't know how many of you have been following the post from Great North Data,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1512967.0, it's essentially
their blog of setting up a new data centre in Labrador, Canada and it makes for very interesting reading, not just about the centre but about life in
Labrador. It's very well written.
A lot of the questions from forum users are about power costs, not surprising since this has a major effect on mining profitability. There is an awful
lot of misinformation on the forum about real world power costs but the bottom line is that there are a lot of countries and locations in the world that have
expensive electricity, and so profitable mining there is impossible. Hosting services can be used of course, but they are very much geared towards
users with multiple miners, for instance the GND guys look for a minimum of 10kW (7 S9's) and they are not alone, there are no good solutions for
someone with a single mining system.
This is a problem I've been thinking about for a long time, there is no easy fix but I feel there is a good commercial opportunity to set up a hosting
centre where there is abundant low cost power to serve single (and multiple) unit users by exploiting economies of scale. From my research the best
location by far is Iceland, basically because they have the ideal combination of low temperatures, very cheap power and a truly first world business
attitude and legal system. To access the best rates you need to be taking a load of about 50 - 70MW, ie 2.5x Bitfury's centre in Ukraine and I'm guessing
from the weight of their power transformer that GND have about 8-9MW. The cheapest way to construct a data centre with this level of power would be to
use containerised systems - they are much cheaper than permanent buildings ($15 per square foot versus around $170) and to expand you can simply
add new units. They are also usually exempt from the health & safety regulations that apply to permanent indoor sites and will be easier to get
planning permission as they are not permanent structures.
The setup costs for such a secured data centre site with a 63MW main power transformer, 16 distribution transformers (2 per container), cabling,
switching, protection and 8 containers (with inbuilt 12v supplies) each capable of hosting 2100 s9 sized miners (or equivalent volume) would run to around
$3.9 - $4.2 million, the main transformer runs at 80% of full load and is capable of powering 16 containers. At this scale it's entirely possible to offer
power to single unit (1.5kw) users at around 4.5 - 6 cents per kWH, if there are enough of them ie around 16,000. The rates include 2 x 10Gb/sec leased line
internet connections and 2 technicians available 24/7, the data centre would take 9 months to reach operational status. Assuming difficulty increases at 2%
per month and that the bitcoin price remains at $600, an S9 installed in the centre in July 2017 at a network rate of 2250PH would pay for it's purchase price
($1600 - no power supply would be needed) in about 15 months at 6 cents per kWH and 13 months at 4.5 cents. I know there's shipping, import duty etc but
I'll cover ways to minimise that later.
Financing such a venture is another matter altogether although there is a good opportunity here for a forward looking company thats willing to swap margin
for volume. This centre could host older equipment that been paid for and extend it's working life, there's also the possibility that miners could buy into
a contractual agreement that gives them a long term guarantee that power will be available for them at a fixed amount above the actual cost price.
Comments?
