Bitcoin, the revolutionary and contentious cryptocurrency has seen its ups and downs over the years. What was initially dismissed as a “crazy idea” and a “fad” has now established its place in the market as a credible financial instrument. What’s more, even long time skeptics, financial instruments, have started to embrace the cryptocurrency.

And while this wide-scale adoption is great for the currency as a whole, it has brought with it a new range of challenges for miners. Bitcoin mining, by design, has gotten tougher over time, individuals running background apps on PCs have given way to savvy entrepreneurs with VC funding, setting up Hyperscale, multi-megawatt, facilities dedicated to mining bitcoin.

Having helped build some of the largest, most efficient bitcoin mining facilities (over 10MW), wanted to outline some key learnings in the form of this step by step guide on how to start a bitcoin mining business/ operation.

STEP 1: EVALUATION
As obvious as it may sound, it is critical that you do the math and evaluate the financial feasibility of mining bitcoin. You’d be surprised about how many enquiries we get for projects that make little financial sense. And while, it’d be easy for us to just quote them a cooling system price and sell more units, we’re committed to seeing our customers succeed, and often help people see why a project may not be feasible or why we may not be the best solution for them.

The Miners
The first step within the evaluation phase is to research what kind of miners you’ll be using. You ideally want to pick the most energy efficient miners, but if you have access to cheap, clean power, the upfront cost may be more important, the idea is to look at the total cost of operation of the miners. The Antminers from Bitmain are our personal favorites.

The Infrastructure
Once you have the miners identified, you need to figure out what kind of infrastructure and facility you’ll need to support the miners. You want to start with a location that you have access to cheap power, land, and network.

Next think about how you’re going to keep these miners powered, cooled, and protected from the elements. You want to ensure the miners are performing at their peak, reliably and constantly. Think about everything from the racks the miners will go into to the power distribution, the cooling, power requirements, and what all that means in terms of designing and building out the facility.

If facility design is not your area of expertise, or just want someone else to handle it so that you can focus on your core business, GRC’s HashTank may be the choice for you. The HashTank is a turnkey solution for bitcoin mining that includes Antminer Hardware integrated into a pre-engineered containerized data center. It’s the low-cost, low-stress, solution for high efficiency minining.

Profitability Calculation
Now that you have a better idea of what your upfront and ongoing costs will be, it’s time to sharpen your penci… No it’s not! It’s 2017 there’s an app for that! While, there are a number of web and mobile apps, we like these web apps the best:

STEP 2: FINANCING
If you’re still reading this, congratulations! Your profitability calculation probably came back in the green! Now that you understand how much money you’ll need to get started and the expected returns from your investment, it’s time to ensure you have the investors/ funds ready to make sure you can procure everything you need.

STEP 3: PROCUREMENT & COMMISSIONING
So you’ve done the heavy lifting! You’re past all the research, evaluation, pitching, and planning, it’s time to put this plan into action. It’s time to order your HashTank!

After we receive your request, we’ll help you figure out how to prepare your facility, i.e. get power, and mark out a nice little spot of land for your new mining facility. Once we have a PO, we’ll start putting your HashTank together. Typical lead time for a HashTank is 8 weeks or higher, depending on miner availability at the time. Once built and delivered, GRC engineers will install and commission the HashTank on-site. Installation and commissioning is typically a one-week process, after which you should be ready to hook up your network and start mining!

STEP 4: PICK A POOL AND FLIP THE SWITCH
Last piece of the puzzle is picking a market to sell your bounty into.

Alright! It’s finally time to flip the switch and start mining some coin to…

STEP 5: MAKE MONEY, AND WIN!
Pop the Champagne, sit back and marvel as the HashTank does its thing.