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Dropbox ditches unlimited storage offering, blaming crypto cloud miners

August 25, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Cloud Mining

The storage platform turned to metered storage after discovering its Advanced plan was being used by some for crypto mining and other resource-intensive tasks.

The online storage platform Dropbox has binned its unlimited storage plan after discovering some of its users were using the service for resource-intensive purposes like mining crypto.

In an Aug. 24 blog post, Dropbox said its unlimited Advanced plan has instead moved to a metered storage plan with new users getting 15 terabytes of storage — apparently enough to house 100 million documents.

It added it knew its “all the space you need” plan would result in uneven usage levels but in recent months it had seen a surge in some users consuming “thousands of times more storage than our genuine business customers.”

“A growing number of customers were buying Advanced subscriptions not to run a business or organization, but instead for purposes like crypto and Chia mining.”

Dropbox said other high-resource uses included some reselling its storage or multiple individuals pooling storage for personal use.

*Screenshot of previous plan showing storage as "As much space as needed." Source: CBackup*

Dropbox cited the increased unintended usage growth following “other services making similar policy changes.” Microsoft and Google have also scrapped their unlimited storage plans in recent months.

The company said it understands the move is “disappointing” but added it would be unsustainable and difficult to enforce a list of unacceptable use cases.

In the past, hackers have used cryptojacking malware that’s inserted into a victim's internet-connected device or cloud-storage account.

The malicious program uses the resources of the device or cloud service to create a virtual machine that mines cryptocurrencies.

In 2021, Google said some attackers targeting its storage platform users could compromise an account and install mining software within 22 seconds.

Magazine: Hall of Flame: Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner says Ripple is ‘despicable,’ tips hat to ZachXBT

Binance launches Bitcoin mining cloud services amid SEC crackdown in the US

June 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Binance

Crypto exchange Binance is currently selling 1 Terahash per second (Th/s) at $10.7280, which is split between the hashrate and electricity costs at $1.17 and $9.558 respectively.

Crypto exchange Binance announced the launch of new subscription-based could mining products dedicated to Bitcoin (BTC) mining.

Starting June 15, users that are interested in Bitcoin mining but lack the equipment can subscribe to Binance’s cloud mining services and purchase hashrates for the same. Hashrate is the computing power required for confirming and legitimizing Bitcoin transactions over the blockchain.

Binance is currently selling 1 Terahash per second (Th/s) at $10.7280, which is split between the hashrate and electricity costs at $1.17 and $9.558 respectively. A higher number of hashrate increases the probability of a higher income in terms of the Bitcoin earned through mining.

*Binance offers Bitcoin mining service via cloud. Source: Binance*

Binance’s BTC mining subscription service will be active for 180 days, or roughly six months. For each TH/s purchased, users will be able to earn 0.0004338 BTC during the timeline.

As the product is launched on Binance’s global website, the service is not available for crypto investors residing in the United States. In a previous statement to Cointelegraph about the recent Securities and Exchange Commission crackdown in the U.S., Binance clarified that “Binance.com is a separate entity and our users will not be impacted by issues at Binance.US."

To fight against the allegations of SEC, Binance.US hired former SEC enforcement co-director George Canellos as part of its legal team.

Reacting the alleged development, “Binance is clearly preparing for a criminal prosecution and continuing to hire the best defense attorneys in the world,” said former SEC internet enforcement chief John Reed Stark on Twitter.

The legal scrutiny began when SEC alleged that Binance's US arm was operating as an unregistered exchange, broker and clearing agency. Following the SEC’s actions, on June 9, Binance.US announced the suspension of the U.S dollar deposits and potentially pausing fiat withdrawals starting as early as June 13.

Crypto mining in 2023 — Is it still worth it? Watch Market Talks

March 16, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Cloud Mining

Join us as we discuss whether cryptocurrency mining is still worth it in 2023 and all the latest updates regarding the mining industry.

In this week’s episode of Market Talks, Cointelegraph welcomes Justin Kramer, CEO of Badgerland Home Crypto Mining and a long-time cryptocurrency investor. When he is not attending to his own mining rigs, Kramer provides consultation services to home-based operations and larger startups on how to set up mining farms.

We start things off with miner prices and how they have changed in the last few months. Have the prices gone up or down, and what kind of impact does Bitcoin (BTC) have on prices? Which miners are the most in-demand right now, and who is buying them — small-scale miners or larger operations?

Mining operations that paid extremely high prices for mining rigs, which are now not worth even close to the same amount, how are they managing in this market? What is their plan for getting their investments back? Is it a lost cause at this point since the prices of the coins they currently mine are not as high as they used to be? Is it still worth it to pay those high electricity costs and keep mining?

United States President Joe Biden announced a new budget recently that also includes a whooping 30% tax on the electricity used for cryptocurrency mining operations. We ask Kramer for his thoughts on this and what exactly the details are of this new tax. Could this be an attack on crypto?

Are miners gravitating more toward altcoin miners at this point because they might be able to make more of a profit as compared to Bitcoin mining? We ask Kramer if this is true, and if so, what is the reason behind it?

How profitable is it to mine Kadena (KDA)? How much do the miners cost, and also, is it worth anything to mine and hold Kadena? Is the network moving forward and innovating?

We ask Kramer how he advises people who want to set up a mining farm, is it all Bitcoin miners or a certain percentage of Bitcoin miners and the rest are altcoin miners, and which miners does he recommend specifically?

How are things developing in the cloud-based mining and NFT-based mining sectors? Are they a good option for someone who might not have the space or resources needed to run a miner in their house or on their property? We also ask Kramer for the details about profit sharing and other expenses involved in this form of mining.

We cover all this and more, so make sure to stay tuned until the end because Cointelegraph Markets & Research will also be taking your questions and comments throughout the show, so be sure to have them ready to go.

Market Talks streams live every Thursday at 12:00 pm ET (5:00 pm UTC). Each week, it features interviews with some of the most influential and inspiring people from the crypto and blockchain industry. So, head on over to Cointelegraph Markets & Research’s YouTube page and smash those Like and Subscribe buttons for all our future videos and updates.

Cloud mining firm BitFuFu postpones merger with SPAC until May

February 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitmain

Bitfufu's plans to go public have been delayed for the second time. The company is the cloud mining arm of Chinese mining giant Bitmain.

Cloud mining firm Bitfufu, one of Bitmain's crypto firms, is delaying for the second time its plans to go public via a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), according to a statement on Feb. 7.

The company announced its plans to go public in January 2022 through a merger with the SPAC company Arisz Acquisition Corp, anticipating to be publicly listed in the third quarter of that year and a pro forma enterprise value of nearly $1.5 billion. The new decision will postpone the public listing to May, helping the companies to consummate the business combination.

"The Extension provides Arisz with additional time to complete its proposed business combination with Finfront Holding Company (“BitFuFu”)," said the statement.

The extension is the second of two three-month extensions permitted under Arisz's governing documents. In other words, unless its shareholders approve a revision in its governing documents, the crypto cloud company is unable to delay the merger again. Alongside the new deadline, the move will provide an additional $690,000 to Arisz operations.

BitFuFu was founded with early investment from crypto hardware firm Bitmain and its core founding team members. In Feb 2022, Bitmain and BitFuFu announced a strategic partnership to offer standardized crypto mining services.

Market conditions and the crypto winter have impacted many crypto firm's public listing plans. On Dec. 5, the company issuer of USD Coin (USDC) Circle disclosed the mutual termination of its merger with the SPAC company Concord Acquisition. Circle was valued at $4.5 billion when the deal was announced in July 2021.

Crypto firm Bullish also announced in December 2022 that a deal to go public had been terminated after reaching an agreement with Far Peak Acquisition. The company cited market conditions and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's work to introduce new frameworks for digital assets as reasons for not moving forward.

The IPOX SPAC index benchmark performance, which tracks aftermarket performance of SPAC companies, fell by 9.04% over the past 12 months.

Binance’s Cloud Mining affected by extreme weather conditions in North America

December 28, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Binance

Users' subscriptions to cloud mining products have been extended for three days due to the power outage.

The severe winter storm in North America shut down Binance's cloud mining products between Dec. 24-26, according to an official announcement on Dec. 28. As a result of the power outage, the company announced that users' subscriptions to cloud mining products were extended for three days.

Binance has noted that further outages as a result of the weather conditions will extend the duration of cloud mining subscriptions.

The exchange's cloud mining service, launched nearly a month ago, allows users without mining equipment to earn mining rewards from Binance Pool. Subscriptions are required to buy hashrates and Bitcoin mining on Binance's cloud.

During the days leading up to Christmas, a "bomb cyclone" unleashed extreme temperatures across the United States, leaving millions without electricity and claiming dozens of lives in the country.

Weather conditions in Texas drove Bitcoin miners to voluntarily curtail operations to give power back to the grid, allowing residents to keep their homes warm. Disruptions have impacted Bitcoin's hash rate, which typically hovers around 225-300 Exahashes per second (EH/s) in a typical day, hitting 170.60 EH/s on Dec. 25, Cointelegraph reported.

Bitcoin transactions worldwide have been slowed by 30% as a result of the Texan miners' decision. Texas is among the top states for Bitcoin mining in the U.S., along with New York, Kentucky and Georgia. All states were affected by the bomb cyclone in the past days.

Since FTX's collapse in November 2022, Binance has been surrounded by fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD), resulting in billions of dollars in withdrawals. While fighting rumours, the crypto exchange has continued to work on diversifying its business model. Last month, the company also announced that its venture capital arm, Binance Labs, has invested in Belgian hardware wallet company Ngrave and will lead its Series A funding round.

Microsoft bans cryptocurrency mining on cloud services

December 15, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Azure

Microsoft now requires users to obtain a written pre-approval from the firm in order to use Microsoft Azure for mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Cloud computing giant Microsoft is taking measures to increase stability of its cloud services by forcing new restrictions for activities like cryptocurrency mining.

Microsoft has quietly banned crypto mining from its online services in order to better protect its customers and clouds, British technology news agency The Register reported on Dec. 15.

The company introduced the new restrictions as part of its universal license terms of Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft updated its acceptable use policy on Dec. 1 to clarify that “mining cryptocurrency is prohibited without prior Microsoft approval.”

In the “Acceptable Use Policy” section, Microsoft said that it now requires users to obtain a written pre-approval from the company in order to use any of Microsoft Online Services for crypto mining.

Microsoft reportedly said that its latest crypto mining restrictions aim to protect the online services from risks like cyber fraud, attacks and unauthorized access to customer resources, stating:

“We made this change to further protect our customers and mitigate the risk of disrupting or impairing services in the Microsoft Cloud.”

The firm also reportedly noted that it may consider permission to mine crypto for testing and research purposes for security detections.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Microsoft Online Services is Microsoft’s hosted-software offering and is a component of the firm’s software as a service strategy. These services include Microsoft's Azure cloud computing network, which is known to offer cryptocurrency mining on certain subscription types. As previously reported, Microsoft also experimented with blockchain services on Azure, but quietly terminated its Azure Blockchain Service project in September last year.

According to some reports, Microsoft cloud computing systems have suffered notable capacity shortages in recent years due to continuing supply-chain limitations. More than half a dozen Azure data centers are reportedly expected to remain limited until early 2023.

By adopting the new restrictions, Microsoft joins many other cloud computing providers, including Google, which also prohibits customers from engaging in cryptocurrency mining without Google's prior written approval. Other platforms like Oracle have banned cloud mining completely, while Digital Ocean also requires written permission.

Cloud mining is an alternative method of investing in crypto allowing users to mine digital coins without using mining equipment or hardware, relying on a remote datacenter with shared processing power. According to the blockchain research group Blockchain Council, cloud mining is one of the most profitable ways to mine crypto because it doesn’t require customers to pay for the equipment and related costs.

The news comes amid the cryptocurrency mining industry going through a major crisis linked to the current cryptocurrency winter, with some miners being on the edge of bankruptcy due to insufficient funds.

Cloud Mining

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