What a deployment looks like.
Seven stages from first call to a monthly production statement, with who is responsible for each one and what is in your name at every point.
3 min readThe structure, before the stages.
One thing decides how the rest of this reads. You contract directly with the hardware vendor and directly with the hosting facility. I am not in the middle of either agreement, I do not resell you equipment, and I never hold your funds or your Bitcoin.
That means there is no margin for me to take on hardware, because you are paying the vendor rather than paying me. My fee is 3% of pool output taken as a split at the pool, so it is never invoiced and it only exists when the machines produce.
It also means that if I disappeared, nothing of yours is trapped. The machines, the hosting agreements, the pool account and the wallet are already yours.
The seven stages.
Discovery call
Thirty minutes, no cost, to establish whether this fits at all. Entity, capital range, timeline, and whether you have an accountant. A fair number of these end in no, which is the point of having one.
Strategy session
A paid working hour on your actual numbers, ending in a written model with the assumptions on the face of it. It covers hardware, facility options, the tax questions for your accountant and the price the plan needs. The fee credits against an engagement.
Sourcing
I identify units and negotiate with vendors. You review, approve and buy. The invoice is in your business’s name and the equipment is yours from the moment it is paid for.
Facility and contract
I find capacity and negotiate terms. You sign with the facility. I will walk you through the term, the rate change mechanism, the notice periods and the security interest before you do, because those are the clauses that matter and they are not the ones people read.
Deployment
Shipping, receiving, serial logging, racking, power and network. The facility does the physical work and I coordinate it. Every machine’s energisation date gets recorded, which is what your placed in service position rests on.
Commissioning
Machines run under load before anything counts as live, so that a unit performing below specification is found now rather than in three months. Underperformers are reconfigured or returned.
Reporting
Monthly, with per machine production, per reward dates and values, uptime, hosting cost by site and the fee split shown. Written to be handed straight to your accountant.
What I do between reports.
Monitoring, so a machine that drops off is noticed rather than discovered at month end. Coordination with the facility when something needs replacing. Firmware kept current where an update is worth applying and left alone where it is not. Pool routing. Flagging things you need to decide on, including the rate change notices with short election windows.
What I do not do is decide anything for you. Every decision that costs money or changes your position is yours, and I would rather send you a flag you did not need than make a call that was not mine to make.
The optional hashpower coverage, where it is taken, is a remedy for downtime rather than a promised level of production. It is worth understanding on those terms before you buy it.
Who this does not suit.
If you want to understand the operation properly and enjoy the hands on part, you will find the fee hard to justify and you would be right. If you already have vendor relationships and a facility you trust, most of what I do is redundant.
And if your reason for doing this is that you expect a year one deduction to reduce tax on income from elsewhere, get that answer from your accountant before any capital moves. My involvement makes the material participation position harder rather than easier, which is set out in the passive activity trap.
Start with the call that ends in a yes or a no.
Thirty minutes on your capital, your timeline and your entity. If it does not fit I will say so on the call rather than move you to the next stage. You can also read how it works, pricing and how long it takes.
Book a discovery call No cost. No obligation. No follow-up sequence.