Your mining hosting bill, line by line

Dieser Artikel ist auf Englisch.

The worked example: one miner, one month

Take one air-cooled miner that draws 3.5 kW at the wall, hosted at 6.0¢ 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 6.0¢ would be $151.20.
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 × $0.060 = $143.64.
4. VAT at 5%: $143.64 × 5% = $7.18.
5. Total: $143.64 + $7.18 = $150.82, 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.

Hosting and Full-care hosting

Hosting is 6.0¢ per kWh for every machine you own, whatever the model, on a 12-month term, then month to month. A miner bought from Segments can instead go on Full-care hosting, 6.8¢ per kWh on a 24-month term, with no repair charges for those 24 months; the same month would be 2,394 kWh × $0.068 = $162.79 before VAT. Neither tier includes insurance. Both take a refundable deposit of 30 days of hosting at the machine’s nameplate power, applied to your final bill: $151.20 for this miner on Hosting, $171.36 on Full-care hosting. Setup is a one-off fee, below, and does not change the rate.

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.

Cloud mining is a different product: Segments owns and runs the machines and you buy hashrate, at 6.8¢ per kWh all-in, with insurance and every repair included, on a 48-month agreement. This article is about hosting a miner you own.

One-off costs at the start, and the first 12 months

Two charges come once, before the first monthly bill: setup, $300 per 3.5 kW of the machine’s power on Hosting (about $85.71 per kW) or $60 per kW on Full-care hosting, air and hydro alike, and shipping to the centre, $30 per kW. The refundable deposit is paid at the start too. A machine you ship in yourself is on Hosting, and its shipping is yours to arrange.

Power is about 81% of the first year’s cost on Hosting in this example (86% on Full-care hosting), and its share grows in the second year, when there is no setup or shipping to pay. That is why the rate per kWh is the figure to compare between hosts.

What the rate covers, and what it doesn’t

The rate per kWh covers:

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

Not in the rate: insurance, which Segments does not provide for hosted machines on either tier; you may arrange your own. Repairs on Hosting: a new miner carries the maker’s warranty, and we handle the claim for you; repairs are free for the first 6 months, and after that we diagnose the fault and quote the repair at cost before any work. On a machine you ship in, repairs are quoted in writing before any work. On Full-care hosting there are no repair charges for 24 months, under a Segments warranty, and from month 24 you may ask for a miner of the same model and spec back. You pay no hosting fee for a unit while it is in repair, and a spare unit is available on request. 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. Setup and shipping 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, setup, shipping and the refundable deposit 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

• Minimum term. Hosting runs 12 months and Full-care hosting 24 months, then month to month.
• 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 6.0¢, 10% would take the rate to at most 6.6¢.
• 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.