Hello steemians, I'm New! and I just attended the week - 5 lecture by professor @besticofinder today. Here is my submission on the assignment given on Cloud Mining. I must have to commend the professor for on his structured style of presentation which is easy to understand.

CLOUD MINING

INTRODUCTION

Cloud service refers to a wide range of services delivered on demand to companies and customers over the internet.
These services are designed to provide easy, affordable access to applications and resources, without the need for internal infrastructure or hardware. From checking email to collaborating on documents, most employees use cloud services throughout the workday, whether they’re aware of it or not. examples may include: mail boxes(Gmail, Outlook etc. ), Storage services (google drive, drop box etc.), Data center(google) Mining services(cryptocurrency mining).

MINING SERVICES

Cloud mining is simply the process of mining cryptocurrency using a remote datacenter with eligible hardware and processing services. Cloud mining enables users to mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and wide range of Altoins without managing the hardware. The mining hardware(rigs) are located and maintained in a facility owned by mining companies around the globe. The user simply needs to register and purchase mining contracts in form of paid subscriptions which include the processing power of the hardware rented over a specified period of time, Let’s say, for example, you want to buy 10 TH/s of bitcoin mining power from one of the cloud mining platforms. you get charged $4.50 /month.
Since cloud mining is provided as a service, there is generally some cost and this can result in lower returns for the miner.

Source

BEST CLOUD MINING PLATFORMS

To start cloud mining, there are various top legit cloud mining sites that ensure the best security for your assets and good pricing plan. The following are the top-rated Bitcoin cloud mining websites in the market in 2021:

• IQ Mining
• Genesis Mining
• Hashing24
• Hashflare

Although there are many mining sites/companies, the above listed try to create unique services to their customers.

PROS AND CONS OF CLOUD MINING

PROS:-

1. No Hardware required: There is no need to purchase any mining equipment. This means that you don’t have to study equipment that has the best ASICs or video cards for mining. For the non cloud user, buying, installing and tuning hardware is perhaps the most fun part of mining.
2. Reduced Operations Cost: Cloud services offers the leverage of reduced operation cost which may include: Farm space cost, Electricity cost, Hardware maintenance cost, Staffing cost, Heat problem and noise issues.
3. No expertise Required: No sort of expertise is required. You just have to be aware that the greater the hashrate, the greater the revenue generated, which thus increase the amount of fees paid over a specified period(Hashrate plans).

CONS:-

1. No Control: This poses a threat as the user has no operational control, No guaranteed security of the paid plans as the company can easily go out of business, Or randomly decide on the hashrate to use in a given moment as there is room for customer base expansion.
2. Scams: This poses a major threat as there many fake companies involved in active false advertisements online. The cloud mining industry has often been the focus of attention for several fraudulent platforms that sold fake mining contracts or did not pay their users. For this reason, those who are really interested in cloud mining must carry out a series of checks, as well as relying only on the best cloud mining platforms.
3. Reduced Revenue: With no access and hands-on approach with the hardware involved, there are limitations to the profit realized as cost of processing is charged per subscription even when no maintenance was done.

CONCLUSION:

Cloud mining provides opportunity for investment Yes! but the real question is If the risk involved is worth it ?

cc: @besticofinder
@steemcurator01
@steemcurator02