71 terms that come up when you buy, build or run a mining site, explained in plain English and grouped by topic. Every term links to the CryptoSites tool where you can put it to work.
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How blocks, rewards and difficulty turn hashrate into income.
The hash function a coin's miners must run: SHA-256 for Bitcoin, Scrypt for Litecoin and Dogecoin, kHeavyHash for Kaspa, Equihash for Zcash and so on. An ASIC is built for one algorithm, so the algorithm decides which coins a machine can mine.
Use itCoins by algorithm on the Coin BoardA batch of confirmed transactions added to the chain. The miner who finds a valid hash for the next block earns the block reward. Bitcoin aims for one block about every 10 minutes.
See alsoBlock rewardBlock time
What a miner earns for finding a block: the block subsidy (newly issued coins) plus the transaction fees inside the block. This is the income that mining revenue is ultimately made of.
See alsoBlock subsidyTransaction fees
The newly issued coins in each block. Bitcoin's subsidy has been 3.125 BTC since the April 2024 halving and drops to 1.5625 BTC at the next one, expected around April 2028.
See alsoHalvingBlock reward
The average time between blocks. Bitcoin targets 10 minutes, Litecoin 2.5 minutes, Kaspa ten blocks every second. Difficulty adjustments keep block time on target as hashrate comes and goes.
See alsoDifficulty
How hard it is to find a valid block. It rises when more hashrate joins a network and falls when miners leave, so each machine's share of the rewards shrinks as the network grows. Projections usually assume difficulty keeps rising.
See alsoDifficulty adjustmentNetwork hashrate
Use itModel difficulty growth in the profitability calculatorThe scheduled recalculation of difficulty. Bitcoin adjusts every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks; many newer coins adjust every block.
See alsoDifficulty
The scheduled cut of the block subsidy by half. Bitcoin halves every 210,000 blocks, about every four years; the next is expected around April 2028. Unless the coin price or fees make up for it, revenue per machine roughly halves overnight.
See alsoBlock subsidy
Use itSee the halving in the ROI calculatorThe fixed-length output of a hash function. Miners compute trillions of hashes a second, looking for one below the network's target; finding one is what wins a block.
What one unit of hashrate earns per day, for example dollars per PH/s per day for Bitcoin. It bundles coin price, difficulty, block subsidy and fees into one number, which makes it the quickest way to compare mining income over time.
See alsoHashrateBlock reward
Use itToday's hashprice on every calculatorHow many hashes a machine or a network computes per second, written in H/s with prefixes: TH/s (trillion), PH/s (thousand trillion), EH/s (million trillion). A miner's share of the network hashrate is its expected share of the rewards.
See alsoNetwork hashrateEfficiency (J/TH)
Use itCompare miners by hashrate on the ASIC BoardMining two coins that share an algorithm at the same time, with no extra power. Most Scrypt miners mine Litecoin and Dogecoin together, which is why our boards show them as LTC + DOGE.
See alsoAlgorithmMining pool
Use itLTC + DOGE on the Coin BoardA service that combines many miners' hashrate and shares the rewards by contribution, so each miner gets a steady income instead of the rare, large payout of solo mining. Pools charge a fee, usually 1-3%.
See alsoPool feePayout methods (FPPS, PPS+, PPLNS)Solo mining
The combined hashrate of every miner on a network. It is estimated from how fast blocks are found at the current difficulty; Bitcoin's is measured in hundreds of EH/s.
See alsoHashrateDifficulty
Use itNetwork hashrate for each coinThe number miners change with every attempt to get a new hash for the same block. Finding the right nonce (with the other fields a miner can vary) is the actual work of mining.
See alsoHash
How a pool pays its miners. FPPS pays a fixed amount per share including expected transaction fees; PPS+ pays the subsidy per share and the fees as they come in; PPLNS pays only when the pool finds blocks, so income varies more. FPPS has the steadiest income.
See alsoMining pool
The share of mining revenue a pool keeps, typically 1-3%. Every CryptoSites calculator lets you set it.
See alsoMining pool
The alternative to proof of work: validators lock up coins instead of spending energy. Proof-of-stake coins (such as Ethereum since 2022) cannot be mined with ASICs or GPUs.
See alsoProof of work
The consensus method behind Bitcoin and every coin on our boards: blocks are secured by computing work that costs real energy, which makes rewriting history expensive. Mining is how that work gets done.
See alsoProof of stake51% attack
Mining without a pool: you keep the whole block reward when you find a block, but you may wait months or years for one. Only practical for very large operations or as a lottery ticket.
See alsoMining pool
A valid block that loses the race because another miner's block reached the network first; its reward is lost. Good network connectivity at a site keeps stale rates low.
See alsoBlock
What users pay to have transactions included in a block; the winning miner collects them on top of the subsidy. As halvings shrink the subsidy, fees become a bigger part of Bitcoin mining income.
See alsoBlock reward
When one miner or group controls more than half of a proof-of-work network's hashrate, it can reorder recent blocks and spend the same coins twice. The bigger a network's hashrate, the more expensive this becomes, which is why small coins are the usual targets.
See alsoHashrateProof of work
The machines, how they are cooled and how hard they run.
Fans push outside air through the machines. Cheapest to build, but noisier, dustier and limited in hot climates; most container sites are air-cooled.
See alsoHydro coolingImmersion cooling
Application-specific integrated circuit: a chip, and the machine built around it, that does one hashing algorithm far more efficiently than any computer. Every serious Bitcoin miner runs ASICs, from makers such as Bitmain, MicroBT and Canaan.
See alsoAlgorithmEfficiency (J/TH)
Use it450+ ASICs live on the ASIC BoardHow much energy a miner uses per unit of hashrate: joules per terahash for Bitcoin machines. Lower is better. Since electricity is the biggest running cost, efficiency decides which machines still earn money when power is expensive.
See alsoHashrateAll-in power rate
Use itSort miners by profit at your power priceThe software running on a miner. Custom firmware can underclock a machine to save power, overclock it for more hashrate, or tune each chip for efficiency; it can also void the warranty.
See alsoOverclocking and underclocking
Mining with graphics cards. GPUs can switch between algorithms, but on coins that have ASICs they are no match for them; today they mine smaller coins whose algorithms resist ASICs.
See alsoASIC
One of the boards inside an ASIC that carries the hashing chips; most machines have three. A failed hashboard cuts a machine's hashrate by about a third until it is repaired.
See alsoASIC
Water-cooled miners: liquid runs through cold plates on the chips and the heat is dumped through dry coolers or towers. Denser and quieter than air, and the warm water is easy to reuse.
See alsoImmersion coolingHeat reuse
Miners sit in tanks of non-conductive (dielectric) fluid that carries the heat away. Lets machines run cooler and overclocked and protects them from dust and humidity, at a higher build cost.
A shipping container fitted out with racks, power distribution and cooling for a few hundred miners. Containers are the fastest way to put a powered site to work and can move if needed.
See alsoEnergized site
Use itAdd containers to the site calculatorRunning a miner faster (more hashrate, more power, more heat) or slower (less hashrate, better efficiency) than its stock setting. Underclocking pays off when power is expensive or the hashprice is low.
See alsoEfficiency (J/TH)Firmware
Power distribution unit: splits a feed into the many outlets the miners plug into, often with monitoring per outlet.
See alsoTransformer
The share of time the miners actually run, after outages, maintenance and curtailment. 95-98% is typical for a well-run site; every calculator on CryptoSites lets you set it.
See alsoCurtailment
Megawatts, contracts and the grid: what makes a site worth buying.
The full price per kWh including energy, network and demand charges, taxes and, at a host, cooling and staff. It's the number to compare sites with, not the headline energy price.
See alsoHosting ratePPA
Use itCompare power prices by countryTaking power directly from a generator (a wind farm, hydro plant or gas well) before it enters the public grid, which avoids grid charges and is often much cheaper.
See alsoStranded energyPPA
Switching miners off when the grid is stressed or power prices spike. Some grids pay miners for it (demand response), which can turn curtailment into a second income.
See alsoDemand responseUptime
Programmes where a grid operator pays large users to cut their load at short notice. Miners can stop within seconds, which makes them ideal participants, notably in Texas (ERCOT).
See alsoCurtailment
A site where power is already connected and live, so miners can be switched on as soon as they arrive. The opposite is a site still waiting for its grid connection or its electrical build-out.
See alsoInterconnectionPowered land
Use itEnergized sites for sale and leaseRunning generators on natural gas from oil wells that would otherwise be burned off (flared) and using the power to mine. It turns waste into income and cuts methane emissions.
See alsoStranded energy
Using the heat that miners give off (practically all of their electricity ends up as heat) to warm buildings, greenhouses, water or drying rooms, so the heat earns money instead of being blown away.
See alsoHydro coolingImmersion cooling
Use itValue the heat: heat reuse calculatorThe approved connection of a site to the grid, with a set capacity in MW. Grid connection queues can run for years in many countries, which is why already-connected sites sell at a premium.
See alsoEnergized siteSubstation
A kilowatt (kW) is a rate of power use; a kilowatt-hour (kWh) is energy used over time. A 3.5 kW miner running for 24 hours uses 84 kWh. Electricity is priced per kWh.
See alsoMW and MWhAll-in power rate
Use itWhat your power price means: power cost calculatorHow much of the time a load runs at full power. Mining runs close to 100%, which power companies like, since it lets them sell energy around the clock.
See alsoUptime
A megawatt is 1,000 kW and is how mining sites are sized; 1 MW runs roughly 250-300 modern ASICs. A megawatt-hour (MWh) is 1,000 kWh of energy.
See alsokW and kWhSite capacity
Use itHow many miners fit your MW: site calculatorLand with a grid connection or power supply already in place or approved. For miners and AI data centres the power, not the land, is what makes it valuable.
See alsoEnergized siteSite capacity
Use itBrowse powered land and mining sitesPower purchase agreement: a long-term contract to buy electricity at an agreed price, often straight from a generator. A good PPA is usually the most valuable part of a mining site.
Power usage effectiveness: a site's total power divided by the power its machines use. 1.0 would be perfect; air-cooled mining sites run about 1.05-1.15, typical data centres 1.4-1.6.
See alsoSite capacity
The power a site can draw, in MW. Usually about 85-95% reaches the miners; the rest goes to cooling, transformers and losses.
See alsoMW and MWhPUE
Use itTurn MW into miners and profitPowering miners with solar panels, usually with the grid or batteries covering nights and cloudy days. It lowers the power price over the panels' lifetime at the cost of a big up-front investment.
See alsoAll-in power rate
Use itSize a solar array: solar mining calculatorPower that can't reach buyers: too far from the grid, curtailed by grid limits, or produced where there is no demand. Mining can use it on site, which is how many remote hydro, wind and gas sites earn money.
See alsoBehind-the-meterFlare gas mining
Where high-voltage power from the grid is stepped down for local use. A site with its own substation, or capacity at a nearby one, can be energized far faster than one waiting for new grid connections.
See alsoTransformerInterconnection
Equipment that changes voltage, for example from a medium-voltage line to the 400 V or 480 V the miners use. Large transformers can take a year or more to deliver, so sites that already have them are worth more.
See alsoSubstationPDU
Hosting, leases and the paperwork of buying or selling a site.
The coin price at which a miner's revenue only just covers its electricity. Below it, the machine loses money at your power price.
See alsoAll-in power rate
Use itBreak-even in the profitability calculatorCapital expenditure is the up-front spend (miners, site build-out, land); operating expenditure is the running cost (power, hosting, staff, repairs). Payback is when cumulative profit covers the capex.
See alsoPayback period
Use itUp-front and running costs in the site calculatorChecking a site before you commit: title, power contracts, grid capacity, permits, the condition of the electrical equipment, legal status of mining in the area and taxes.
Renting land (often with its power connection) for a long term while you build and run your own site on it. Cheaper up front than buying; check the term, renewal rights and who owns what you build.
See alsoPowered land
Use itSites for leasePaying a host to run your miners at their site, for a rate per kWh that usually covers power, cooling, space and basic service. Also called colocation. Quick to start, no site to build.
See alsoHosting rateTurnkey site
Use itHosting vs your own site calculatorA host's all-in price per kWh. Some add a monthly fee per machine or a setup deposit. Compare hosting offers on the all-in rate, not on the energy price alone.
See alsoHostingAll-in power rate
Use itHosting offers on CryptoSitesLetter of intent: a short, usually non-binding document that sets out the main terms of a deal (price, structure, timeline, exclusivity) before the full contract is drafted.
See alsoDue diligenceNDA
Non-disclosure agreement: a promise to keep a site's details (location, owner, power terms) confidential. Serious sellers share full packages only under an NDA.
See alsoNon-circumvention agreement
An agreement not to go around the party that introduced a deal, for example by contacting the site owner directly. Common in brokered deals alongside an NDA.
See alsoNDA
How long it takes for profit to cover the up-front cost. For miners it depends heavily on the power price, difficulty growth and the coin price; a halving within the period stretches it.
See alsoROICapex and opex
Use itFastest-payback miners: ROI calculatorA bank letter or statement showing a buyer can pay for a deal. Sellers of large sites often ask for it before sharing exact details or meeting.
See alsoLOI
Return on investment: net profit over a period divided by what you put in, as a percentage. A miner with 50% ROI over 24 months returned its cost plus half again.
See alsoPayback period
Use itROI calculatorA site sold or leased ready to run: power, transformers, containers or buildings and cooling all in place. The buyer brings the miners.
See alsoEnergized site
Use itTurnkey sites on CryptoSitesThe coins themselves and how the market values them.
Any coin other than Bitcoin. Mineable altcoins such as Litecoin, Dogecoin, Kaspa and Zcash each have their own algorithm and hardware.
See alsoAlgorithm
Use it50 mineable coins on the Coin BoardA split in a blockchain's rules. A hard fork can create a new coin that shares history with the old one (Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin in 2017), and sometimes gives miners a second coin to mine on the same hardware.
See alsoAlgorithm
A coin's price times the number of coins in circulation. A rough measure of size; coins with a small market cap and thin trading can move sharply.
See alsoAltcoin
Use itMarket caps on the Coin BoardThe price a coin trades at right now on exchanges. Mining revenue moves almost one-for-one with it.
See alsoHashprice
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