RFC about upcoming mining service.
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Hi Everyone,
After some initial meetings with family members (who understand zero about cc) I have had a rethink on my pricing strategy for upcoming services and would love some feedback from the superb FTC community. I have finalised a couple of factors which are important to me:
1. Im not going to offer SHA services, there is another member here about to launch a superb site for this and I think he is far better suited to offer this service.
2. To keep costs (and subsequently prices) low we are not going to use the *best* hardware, but rather the most cost-effective. Whilst it would be desirable to use the latest and greatest GPU’s after looking at all the options there just doesnt seem enough benefit to the additional cost - although I have contacted a few manufacturers about bulk purchasing which may sway me in the other direction.
### Services ###
The services I am planning are as follows:
1. Rig Building / Supply with Stackable Aluminium Frames
2. RigSpace / Rig Hosting & Management - for both our own built rigs and rigs others wish to host.
3. RigLeasing / See prices section below.The biggest issue people seem to have with Rig Leasing is that people offering the service would not offer it for less than what they could mine themselves for - but I see a couple of issues with this. If I charge more leasing a rig than a leasee can make - it doesnt make any sense for them to do it and if I just build rigs and mine myself it would be somewhat detrimental to the actual growth of a currency.
For these reasons I am looking at renting rigs at around $29 a day for a 4.5MH/s rig. I think this leaves plenty of room for a user to earn some money depending on their choice of coin / how they trade etc, whilst still covering all of our costs. The current average price on betarigs is 0.018BTC P/MHday, so around $59 a day for the same rig.
My questions are:
Does $29 a day seem like a -=fair=- price?
What services / features would people be looking for?
After considering the security implications we are looking at restricting hosted rigs to being controlled by our own custom made control panel only (even for rigs which users own) - I personally feel that the security this provides is beneficial to all, but understand that not having full control of a system could be a sticking point for some, I would love to hear your thoughts on this…
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[quote name=“iawgoM” post=“57790” timestamp=“1391795833”]
Although I appreciate the efforts and believe that it would be great to have reliable and fair service like this, I’m afraid that timing isn’t very good because of recent fiasco with similar project. People will probably be highy suspicious about sending their money/coins…[/quote]Its understandable of course, and something I am very aware of - I want to point out that I am doing everything I can to not ‘crowdfund’ this venture, I want everything in place before I officially launch.
[quote author=iawgoM link=topic=7481.msg57790#msg57790 date=1391795833] How would you handle the payments?[/quote]
Im in the process of integrating PayPal, BACS & Bitpay into my dev site, also hoping to build a custom processor for FTC payments too. I am registered as a UK business, and services purchased with PayPal for example will be protected by their resolution process - although I hope it would never come to that.
[quote author=iawgoM link=topic=7481.msg57790#msg57790 date=1391795833]
How can you guarantee that people will really get what they pay for?
[/quote]
This wont be a ‘pre-order’ service, so if you buy a mining slot then you should be able to see the work being done through whichever pool you specify - of course you will be able to buy longer time frames but the minimum of 1 day on 1 rig should help bolster some confidence.[quote author=iawgoM link=topic=7481.msg57790#msg57790 date=1391795833]
What if some of your rigs die and you can’t deliver all the mining power that someone paid for?[/quote]The software I am writing will track each orders progress, and provide a leasee with a full log (which they can compare against their own pool stats) on the offchance there is down time then it will of course be extended or reimbursed.
I am also planning to A) have spares in stock and B) not sell 100% of mining ability so there is a certain level of redundancy.
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[quote]
he software I am writing will track each orders progress, and provide a leasee with a full log (which they can compare against their own pool stats) on the offchance there is down time then it will of course be extended or reimbursed.I am also planning to A) have spares in stock and B) not sell 100% of mining ability so there is a certain level of redundancy. [/quote]
Can we see some example code?
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[quote name=“wrapper” post=“57795” timestamp=“1391797138”]
[quote]
he software I am writing will track each orders progress, and provide a leasee with a full log (which they can compare against their own pool stats) on the offchance there is down time then it will of course be extended or reimbursed.I am also planning to A) have spares in stock and B) not sell 100% of mining ability so there is a certain level of redundancy. [/quote]
Can we see some example code?
[/quote]Yes, but not yet lol ;D
At the moment im interacting with my test rigs, there is a script which will monitor the database and fetch new jobs as required, in turn telling the cgminer to switch pools. However I have a couple of concerns, the first is ensuring that this interaction is secure and the second is ensuring that everything is reliably logged. Users will be able to monitor their rented rigs through the control panel which will pull data straight from the cgminer API
As its still a work in progress I need to address these two issues fully but will let a few people examine the code when its ready - by releasing it early I potentially open up any security flaws I haven’t spotted myself yet - but can understand why you are asking and will address the transparency of this before launch.
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[quote name=“CloudScrypt” post=“57798” timestamp=“1391797544”]
there is a script which will monitor the database and fetch new jobs as required, in turn telling the cgminer to switch pools.
[/quote]
Ohhh this sounds very interesting, I’m just starting to look at using the API to control a new rig I’m thinking of building in the near future. Do you know of any information out there document wise that tells you what and how the API works? I’ve had a look (admittedly a very quick one) but anything you have links etc, would be much appropriated.UM
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Best thing to do is take a look at the bitcoind api call list, on their wiki there is also links to a couple of packages for various languages which will help with writing any custom software.
Im using the laravel/php platform to write a sort of restful API around these core functions.
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5000 sq ft! Have a spark coming to give me a quote for electrical install, and a cabin guy coming to quote for putting some secure temporary buildings inside.
The good thing is air travels freely through it ;D
Edit: photo removed, too big
Have been working on the ‘Rig Builder’ section of the site and have a couple of previews: comments would be great
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nb: it will provide a warning if you choose the wrong processor ;D
