Bitcoin mining facilities – or farms – are large data centers constructed to power thousands of mining machines. These facilities emerged as mining hardware became more specialized and power requirements increased with the shift from CPU bitcoin mining to ASIC mining.
- Large warehouses typically house mining farms, and it’s not uncommon to repurpose old factories for bitcoin mining farms. But size and scale are irrelevant for an operation’s designation as a mining farm.
- Mining farms are equipped with large cooling and ventilation systems, rack or rig structures to hold machines, and adequate power supplies. ASIC miners generate an abundance of noise and heat and large-scale operations require extensive and reliable amounts of electricity.
- The advent of portable mining operations allows miniature mining farms to relocate based on the availability of cheap energy. As an alternative to building large mining farms in a single location, mobile mining units can travel to power stations with excess power or natural gas sites to harness would-be flared gas.