So I decided to test cloud mining with Blockware Solutions.

Preface

After listening to a couple of podcasts featuring the Blockware Solutions team and the Sazmining founder, my perspective on mining as a private individual has completely changed. You don’t mine to make a profit — you mine to acquire KYC-free sats, potentially at a discounted rate.

Sazmining shared some statistics (which you can actually view online), showing that in certain setups, you might acquire 1 Bitcoin through mining at up to a 50% discount — if you're lucky. Of course, results depend heavily on your setup and timing.

I liked the concept. After some consideration, I decided to give it a shot. My average DCA is about $200 per month, so if I can get a miner with a $200/month hosting fee and even slight profitability, it would essentially mean I’m buying $200 worth of KYC-free sats each month. If the fiat price of Bitcoin drops, I pay a premium. If it rises, I get discounted, KYC-free sats. Sounds great on paper. Naturally, you have to consider difficulty increases, but historically, price seems to rise faster than difficulty — although if you look at the 4-year difficulty graph, growth is pretty similar.

Anyway, I figured $200/month won’t kill me, so I decided to experiment. On July 13, I bought one Bitmain S19 Pro 110T and paid a 2-month hosting deposit (the minimum Blockware requires), at a total cost of $650 — around 550,000 sats at that time. (I didn’t realize that the 2-month deposit is not used for the first 2 months of payment, which means you’re paying $400 that will only be applied to the last 2 months of your contract. I suppose it’s not a big deal — if it really works like that. We’ll see what happens when I cancel the contract.)

The monthly hosting fee is $195. At the time of purchase, the Blockware calculator estimated I’d earn around 170,000 sats/month, which implied a price of ~$114,706 per BTC.

Reality:

In the first month, I paid $112.81 and received a payout of 91,000 sats — which gives an effective BTC price of ~$123,967.

So, the results are a bit disappointing. It seems you can’t fully trust the Blockware calculator — maybe it shows the best-case scenario, or perhaps historical averages. I’m not sure.

But for comparison: if I go to HodlHodl today and try to buy $112 worth of sats, I’d get them at an effective rate of around $121k per BTC — not a huge difference from the $124K I got from mining.

Conclusion:

I understand this isn’t “real” mining. I have no control over the hardware, can’t choose the pool, can’t configure anything, and can’t even verify if the miner physically exists — they could just be sending me sats in exchange for dollars each month.

From an educational perspective, I know it’s better to get something like a Bitaxe and try solo (lottery-style) mining. That’s a hobby project I plan to do with my kids later this year.

I also understand that by purchasing the miner, I essentially paid around 150,000 sats just for the right to buy KYC-free sats monthly. Maybe I’ll recover 10,000 sats by reselling the unit — or maybe not. I consider it my “KYC-free entry fee,” and I’m fine with that. 😄

Still, I find this an interesting way to get KYC-free sats. It’s more convenient than going through HodlHodl or Bisq each time. DCA-style mining is the only truly automated way to accumulate KYC-free Bitcoin. Sure, you can automate DCA through platforms like Strike, but they all face increasing AML scrutiny. Compared to just a year ago, things have gotten worse — now you even have to prove that your withdrawal address belongs to you.

Let’s see how the next few months go.