Your mining hosting bill, line by line

Cet article est en anglais.

The worked example: one miner, one month

Take one air-cooled miner that draws 3.5 kW at the wall, hosted at 6.8¢ per kWh, in a 30-day month. Hosting is billed on metered kWh, so the bill starts with the energy the machine used.

1. Full month at 100%: 3.5 kW × 24 hours × 30 days = 2,520 kWh, which at 6.8¢ would be $171.36.
2. At the 95% uptime target: 2,520 × 95% = 2,394 kWh. Our monthly estimates use this figure, because uptime is a target in the hosting agreement, not a guarantee.
3. Power charge: 2,394 kWh × $0.068 = $162.79.
4. VAT at 5%: $162.79 × 5% = $8.14.
5. Total: $162.79 + $8.14 = $170.93, also shown in AED at 3.6725 AED per USD.

Your real bill uses the kWh your miner actually drew that month. A 31-day month, a firmware setting that changes power draw, or time switched off all move the figure. A miner that ran the whole month without a stop uses close to 2,520 kWh, not 2,394; one that spent days in repair uses less. Each line is converted to AED and rounded on its own, so the AED total can differ from a direct conversion of the USD total by a fils.

The same miner with each way of paying installation

The rate is 6.8¢ per kWh with a standard installation fee. You can instead pay installation up front, which brings the rate to 5.8¢, or put it in the rate, with nothing up front, at 7.8¢. Here is the same month with each.

Each cent per kWh is worth $23.94 a month on this machine before VAT (2,394 kWh × $0.01). Over a 12-month contract, the rate matters more than any other line on the bill.

Which choices are open to a machine depends on its efficiency: for the newest, most efficient models installation is standard or in the rate, and the most efficient of all are hosted with installation in the rate only. Each model’s page and the cart show the choices that apply.

One-off costs at the start, and when paying up front pays off

Two charges come once, before the first monthly bill: installation, priced per kW of the machine’s power by installation choice and cooling type, and transport to the site, $150 per machine by default.

Installation in the rate means nothing up front and the highest rate; paid up front, it is the largest one-off fee and the lowest rate. For our 3.5 kW miner, paying up front costs $157.50 more at the start (transport is the same either way) and saves 2¢ per kWh, or $47.88 a month before VAT at the 95% target. $157.50 ÷ $47.88 = 3.3 months, so paying up front catches up during the fourth month and costs less from then on.

Standard against in the rate breaks even in the fifth month ($105.00 ÷ $23.94 = 4.4 months), and up front against standard in the third ($52.50 ÷ $23.94 = 2.2 months). Because both the fee and the saving grow with the machine’s kW, these months hold for any air-cooled miner at the 95% target. For hydro machines, where up-front installation is $90 per kW, up front against in the rate breaks even in the seventh month (6.6 months).

So installation in the rate suits a buyer who wants the least cash out at the start, or a machine that is offered that way only. Over a full 12-month term, the lower rate costs less in this example.

What the rate covers, and what it doesn’t

The rate per kWh is all-in. It covers:

• Power for the miner.
• Cooling, air or hydro, in a hall that suits the machine.
• Monitoring of every miner.
• Cleaning of the miner.
• Maintenance of the miner.

Not in the rate: repairs that need parts, which we diagnose and quote in writing before any work, and you pay no hosting fee for a unit while it is in repair. The pool fee is the pool’s, taken from your mining rewards by the pool rather than billed by us: 1% on SegPool, or whatever another pool charges. Installation and transport are the one-off charges above, and leaving has its own charge, below.

How to read your tax invoice

Every Segments invoice is a UAE tax invoice, for clients in the UAE and abroad alike. Check five things:

1. The title Tax Invoice, and an invoice number from one continuous series; numbers are assigned to paid orders.
2. The supplier: Segments Cloud Hash FZ-LLC, a licensed UAE company, with its TRN, the UAE tax registration number.
3. The lines: on a monthly bill, the kWh used and the rate; on the first invoice, installation and transport as well.
4. A separate VAT (5%) line. VAT is charged to every client, in the UAE or abroad.
5. The VAT and the total also in AED, converted at the Central Bank of the UAE rate of 3.6725 AED per USD.

Whether your company can recover the VAT depends on where and how it is registered; ask your accountant.

Contract terms that affect the bill

• 12-month term. Every hosting contract runs 12 months.
• Leaving early: USD 300 per machine if you end hosting during the first 12 months.
• After the term: disconnection is USD 150 per machine; logistics outside the site, such as shipping the machine to you, is charged separately.
• Rate changes: after the first term, the rate can rise by at most 10%, no more than once in any 12 months, on 30 days’ notice. At 6.8¢, 10% would take the rate to at most 7.48¢.
• Uptime: a 95% target (clause 10 of the hosting agreement), not a guarantee. A miner that is switched off draws no kWh, so that time does not appear on the bill.

To run your own numbers, use the profitability calculator, compare miners and hosting plans, or read how to choose a hosting provider.