Cloud mining
Cloud Mining is the process of mining utilizing a remote datacenter with shared processing power often contracted through a Cloud Mining company. This type of mining allows users to mine Bitcoins without having to manage their own hardware. Since Cloud Mining is provided as a service there is generally some cost, and this can result in lower returns for the miner.
Types of Hosting
Users of hosted Mining equipment can either lease a physical mining server or a Virtual private server and install mining software on the machine. Instead of leasing a dedicated server, some services offer hashing power hosted in data centers for sale denominated in Gigahash/seconds (GH/s). Users either select a desired amount of hashing power and a period for the contract or in some cases can trade their hashing power.
Cloud Mining Providers
Started by CEX.IO as the first cloud mining company in October 2013, cloud mining service is now provided by such companies as CloudHashing, PBmining, Genesis Mining, Cointerra and others.