What a hosting agreement covers: ten things to read before you sign for your first miner

When you buy a hosted miner you sign two things: an Order Confirmation with your numbers on it, and a Hosting Agreement that says how the relationship works. Most first-time buyers read the first and skim the second. Here is what the second one actually decides, clause by clause, in plain words.

Two documents, and which one wins

A hosted miner comes with two pieces of paper. The Order Confirmation is generated at checkout and records the make, model and quantity, the serial numbers once they are allocated, the site, your Service Rate, the estimated start date and any deposit. It is the document with your numbers on it. The Hosting Agreement is the standing contract that says what the host does, what you pay and when, what happens when a machine breaks, and how either of you ends it.

Where the two disagree, the agreement controls, unless the Order Confirmation says in so many words that it varies the agreement for that one purchase. That matters more than it sounds. If someone tells you something in a chat that is not in either document, it is not part of the deal. Our own Hosting Agreement is public, and this guide walks through it; another host's will differ in the details, and these are the ten places to look.

1. It is month to month, and thirty days ends it

Hosting under our agreement runs month to month with no minimum term. Either side can end the hosting of any or all machines on thirty days' written notice, and there is no termination fee. You can leave for convenience, as long as everything owed is paid.

Read this clause first in any agreement, because it is the one that tells you how trapped you are. A twelve-month minimum with an exit fee is a different product from a thirty-day notice, even if the monthly rate is the same.

No minimum term and no termination fee. Either side gives thirty days' written notice.

2. Fees start the day the machine is switched on and pointed at your pool

We aim to energise machines around two to four weeks from purchase. Hosting, and the fees for it, begin for each unit on the day it is energised and pointed at your pool and wallet. Nothing is charged for the weeks in between.

There is a catch worth knowing. If you have not given us your pool and wallet details by the estimated start date, we may run the machines for our own account until you do. While that is the case you are charged nothing and receive nothing, and your start date moves. The guide to wallet addresses explains what to have ready; the practical answer is to set up the pool account the day you order.

3. One monthly fee, invoiced in arrears, due in five days

The Hosting Service Fee is a single all-inclusive monthly charge for rack or tank space, the electrical infrastructure, cooling, facility operations, network, security, monitoring and standard maintenance. Your Service Rate is set in the Order Confirmation for your site. It is a fee for services, not a resale of electricity: we are the sole customer of our electricity provider and carry every obligation to it.

We invoice monthly in arrears, on the first of the month for the month before, based on the time your machines were actually online. Payment is due within five calendar days of receipt. You can pay by bank transfer, ACH or wire with no fee from us, or in bitcoin and other cryptocurrency we accept, with any processing fee shown before you pay. We do not take credit or debit cards.

One line in this section is a safety rule, not a billing rule. The dashboard is the only authoritative source of our payment details. We will never ask you to change where you send money by email, message or telephone, and any such request should be treated as fraud. Hosting is a business where someone will eventually try that on you; the agreement tells you in advance how to tell.

4. Uptime is a measured number, not a promise

Published uptime is what our sites have actually measured, and the agreement says so: we use commercially reasonable efforts to keep your machines running, and the figure is not a guarantee. It also lists what the figure excludes: planned maintenance of the facility or the network, events outside our reasonable control, failure of your own hardware, and power curtailment or shortage imposed by the energy provider.

Our sites page shows each site's measured uptime and rate side by side, and the guide to uptime explains what a day offline costs. The point of the clause is that uptime is a track record you can check, not a number anyone promises.

5. The warranty is the manufacturer's, and the host files the claim

Machines carry the manufacturer's twelve-month warranty, and the host gives no warranty of its own. If a unit is dead on arrival or fails inside the warranty period, we submit the claim on your behalf; we are not responsible for how long the manufacturer takes or what it decides. Hosting fees do not accrue while a machine is offline awaiting a warranty decision.

Out of warranty, the agreement is blunt: there is no obligation to repair your hardware. If a unit is non-functional and cannot be fixed, you get written notice and thirty days to say whether to dispose of it or have it returned at your cost, then a second notice and fifteen more days. What repairs actually look like in practice, and why a failed board is a budget line rather than a disaster on a hosted machine, is in the guide to repairs.

6. What happens if you pay late

This is the clause most people never read and the one that decides the worst case. On day ten after the invoice the account goes overdue. From that point we may disable dashboard access and redirect the machines' mining rewards to us, valued daily in dollars at that day's closing price and credited against what you owe; anything above the debt is credited back to you and released within thirty days of the default being cured.

From day ten we may also serve a seizure notice, which gives you thirty days to put things right. Only if the default is not cured by the end of that period may the machines be seized and sold, in a commercially reasonable manner. Behind all of this sits a security interest: you grant the host a lien over the machines and the rewards they produce, and you agree not to grant anyone else one while they are hosted. Any host will have some version of this; what to check is the number of days at each step and whether there is a cure period at all.

Day ten is overdue. Then a thirty-day notice. Only then can the machines be sold.

7. Paying with hashrate is optional

If you opt in, we can settle your hosting from your mining output instead of invoicing you. Each day we work out what share of that day's mining your hosting came to, and take that same share of your hashrate the following day. The share is capped, anything above the cap is invoiced normally, and you can switch it off at any time from the next day.

It is voluntary, and it is not the same thing as the redirection of rewards on a default described above. For an owner who wants the coins to stay coins, it is the simplest way to run a machine without a monthly bank transfer; the guide to keeping the coins explains why most owners prefer to pay the power bill out of pocket instead.

8. The risk of the box is yours, and so is the insurance decision

Risk of physical loss or damage to your machines, at the site, in transit or in storage, is yours, except where it is caused by the host's gross negligence or wilful misconduct. The host is not an insurer. You may insure the machines yourself; if you do, the host must be named as loss payee to the extent of its security interest, and your insurer must waive subrogation against it.

The agreement also lists the risks you accept by mining at all: protocol changes, network and security failures, operational risk, market risk, regulation, depreciation, counterparty risk and the cost of power. None of these are things a host can remove. They are listed so that nobody can later say they were not told.

9. Getting your machines back

On termination, once everything owed is paid, the machines are yours to collect and the cost of collecting them is yours. Our staff do all the de-racking, handling and packing; for safety and security you and your agents cannot do that work yourselves. You tell us within thirty days where to send them, we coordinate packing, carrier and shipment at your expense and quote before we ship, and a de-racking fee of $25 per unit covers the labour of removing them from the rack.

If no instructions arrive within thirty days, the machines can be removed and stored at $25 per unit per month, and risk passes to you when the units are handed to the carrier. Insuring the shipment is your decision. The guide to crossing describes what moving a machine involves; the same freight, customs and handling apply when it comes home.

10. Who you are, and what the host may ask

You confirm that you own the machines outright, that you are not on a sanctions list and are not acting for anyone who is, and that your use of the service complies with anti-money-laundering and sanctions law. The host may ask you to verify your identity, your beneficial ownership or your source of funds at any time, and may suspend the service if you do not respond within ten business days.

Two more clauses sit at the end. The agreement is governed by Wyoming law, disputes go to Wyoming courts, and both sides waive a jury trial and class actions. And both sides keep each other's non-public information confidential for three years after the end, which includes pricing and the terms of the agreement itself.

What it means for a miner

A hosting agreement is not where the money is made; the machine, the power price and the coins kept are. It is where the worst day is decided in advance: the day a board fails, the day a payment is late, the day you want the machines back. Read the ten clauses above in any host's document and you will know how that day goes before you have paid a cent.

The numbers that decide whether mining pays are elsewhere: how hosting works step by step for the process, and what to check before you buy your first miner for the questions to ask before you reach the agreement at all. Earnings are not guaranteed; the agreement says so too, and it is right.

Disclosure

Firsthand Bitcoin sells and hosts mining hardware, including this machine. No manufacturer, distributor or affiliate programme paid for or reviewed this page and we take no commission on the links above. Historical figures are computed from daily bitcoin price and network hashprice, each day valued at its own prices. Nothing here is investment advice.