During recent years, the popularity of Bitcoin mining has skyrocketed, and along with it different new innovative ways of conducting mining operations, especially in places where excess electricity can be utilized. These places are usually large industrial areas, remote locations, or power plants. Therefore a flexible and mobile solution is required - this is where Bitcoin mining containers play a key role.

Containerized Bitcoin mining solutions are mobile, self-contained units designed specifically for hosting Bitcoin miners. They can be installed on various sites with relative ease, and they contain the necessary networking and infrastructure to get mining operations up and running.

What’s inside a Bitcoin mining container?

Inside a Bitcoin mining container, there is all the necessary hardware required for a self-contained mining unit. The container itself is often reinforced to support the weight of the equipment.

Miners - The key component of the mining container - these ASIC Bitcoin miners that can produce hundreds of terahashes per second of mining output. They also generate a lot of heat.

Shelving - Shelves are heavy-duty industrial-grade racks, that can can support the weight and heat from multiple miners.

Cables and cable management - Cables are routed sophistically to maintain organization and airflow to cool the miners.

Networking and electricity - Industrial-grade PDUs to efficiently distribute power to all mining equipment and a high-speed Ethernet network with routers for LAN networking and preferably a fiber optic connection to the internet to ensure a stable connection to mining pools and management software.

Advanced cooling systems - High-capacity, industrial-grade AC systems, often with redundancy and carefully designed intake and exhaust systems to cool the machines properly. Some containers utilize immersion where mining hardware is submerged in a thermally conductive, electrically insulating liquid. Hydro cooling has also gained a lot of traction lately and is growing alongside extremely popular air-cooled systems. Using Immersion or direct hydro cooling allows higher cooling efficiency compared to air cooling and more hashrate per container. More efficient cooling opens up the possibility of the miners to be overclocked for increased hashrate.

Mining management hardware and software - Mining management software, like Hashman, runs on a laptop or a “rugged” Linux-based hardware and controls the miners to optimize and automate the mining operation.

Containerized Bitcoin data centers are split into at least three large groups, similar to miners:

Air-cooled: The most commonly used miners around the globe.

Immersion cooling: A widely used cooling system due to its sound reduction capabilities and overclocking options. The biggest benefit is that you can use the same air-cooled miners with some minor adjustments.

Water or glycol-cooled: The latest and most sophisticated group of miners, cooled by water or glycol circulation. These are commonly used for heat-reuse purposes due to their heat transfer efficiency and TH/J consumption efficiency.

This industry has grown significantly, along with miner models and their efficiency, which means that containerized data centers must be continually improved. Power Mining strives to keep pace by ensuring that all electrical installations meet the highest standards possible.

Key benefits of mining containers

Bitcoin mining containers provide a cost-efficient way to utilize the on-site power generation and due to their mobility and flexibility, they can be installed in locations where the conditions are favorable to conduct bitcoin mining.

Paired with renewable energy sources or utilizing otherwise wasted energy, these containers can contribute to more environmentally friendly mining practices. They can also play a key role in balancing the energy grid - you can read more about Bitcoin mining and grid balancing in our previous article.

Crucial operational aspects to consider

There are a few operational aspects to consider when running an operation with mining containers. First of all, there needs to be a good amount of redundancy and automation in the systems, because these containers are designed to run 24/7. This is something where Hashman can help, due to its ability to automatically fix errors and broken/hung states of miners. Sometimes human intervention is needed in case of broken miners or other hardware, so a mining operator with a low response time for on-site operations is needed.

Also, something to consider is a reliable and fast internet connection with preferably a backup connection in case the primary connection fails. A good connection is needed for the mining management software and pool connections. Sometimes a stable remote connection to a specific miner is also needed for debugging miners that are hung or acting otherwise unintendedly.

Hashman is the mining companion for container-based mining operations

Hashman is a great solution for managing container mining operations. The application runs on specific fault-tolerant hardware and its automation and optimization capabilities ensure that your operation runs smoothly 24/7 while maximizing profit and optimizing electricity consumption. Hashman also reduces the need for human intervention, therefore saving valuable operator time and on-site operations.

We have especially designed Hashman with mining container operations in mind, so if you want the best solution to accompany your Bitcoin mining container - choose Hashman.

Also stay tuned for more in-depth articles, where we dive into various aspects of mining Bitcoin using containers and how Hashman can help in addressing different challenges.