I have been in software technology for a long long time and when I get home, I want some peace from technology.

I don't want to mine. I want to know and understand the complete bitcoin/crypto landscape but I don't want to manage the hardware side, contend with difficulty, and babysit mining rigs bit for bit or hash for hash and electric unit for unit.

I don't want to start a bitcoin business - later down the track, when I can include it for more local trade, yes, but not now. Besides work, I'm into clean food production and you in the US or Germany will not buy my beetroot for bitcoin if I have to send it along many many miles to get to you.

The exchanges drive me batty. The hoops that one has to jump through, the uncertainty and the sheer pain of buying bitcoins through exchanges, the risks, as well as the integration of the current financial system and bank accounts with bitcoin, I don't like. I like my bank account and my bitcoin account nicely separate.
I live in a small town and I'm probably one of three people into bitcoin in my town. No! I don't want to evangelize the world and meeting someone to buy or trade bitcoins, is not possible.

Mining Pools - did I mention hardware? No way. Collecting fluff .. haha ...

So, I'm a believer and would venture to guess there are many more like me, that believe in crypto and in bitcoin, and want to continue gathering some bitcoin peacefully and without jumping through hoops, willing to venture small investment. Of course the economic play is that bitcoin price will rise against fiat or fiat drop against bitcoin over the next number of months.

So, what is left for me to gather some bitcoin, are mining contracts. Yes, I can just go and buy some bitcoin but there is no spice to that and those damn exchanges! I have a low gambling tolerance and I'd rather lose money to someone that is genuinely involved in the business, than what I would lose it to the exchanges where the legal landscape is still full of unknowns. There are many people in my position I would say. People that by choice do not want to enter into the daily ups and downs, but believe in the future of crypto and want a safe off-line savings wallet full of a hedge called bitcoin.

So, I went and searched for a basic mining deal, like - I pay you, you use my investment to gather hardware and mining environment, you mine for me and look after hardware and contend with difficulty, upgrades and the daily grind. I don't want to sell hashes, I don't want to trade, I don't want to gamble, I don't want to play games, I just want a simple contract where we both understand this environment. We would both know that we are taking risk - you on the mining side and me on the investment side and both of us inherently bet on an increased value over time.

I looked at everything in this forum and eventually got what I wanted from a smaller group, fairly new, a group out of Argentina. You can get rig information from them if you are in a similar position wanting to gather coin, but not mine it. Can I sue them? No! But if this goes wrong, I don't think I've invested so much that I would want to go after them. There is the issue of trust as well, and besides hard data, trust also is a sense and a feeling.

So far, they have delivered well ahead of their forward looking statements, I am happy with the price I paid and happy with the first mining results. An optional extra was that I've been chatting with the miners and they know their business, are really sweet and take customer service seriously. Disclaimer .. I have no interest, investment or anything else to gain from plugging them here and so far can genuinely say good things about them: e-pickaxe.com

As far as I can determine, they are not overselling contracts and I believe there is a huge opening in the market for smaller non-complicated investment. If I ever wanted to start a pure bitcoin business, I would do consulting to people like me, but as yet, I'm still in a learning curve.

CalicoChris

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