Mining Farm
A large-scale, dedicated facility housing many mining machines working together, typically built near inexpensive electricity and equipped with industrial cooling infrastructure.
A mining farm is a large-scale, dedicated physical facility housing hundreds or thousands of mining machines operating together, as opposed to a small home-based setup with just a few machines. Mining farms are typically built in locations chosen specifically for access to inexpensive, reliable electricity, since power costs are the dominant ongoing operating expense in proof-of-work (see Kaavon's "Proof of Work" glossary definition) mining, and they require substantial industrial cooling and electrical infrastructure to handle the heat and power draw of operating so many machines continuously.
Large mining farms, whether operated independently or as part of a broader mining pool (see Kaavon's "Mining Pool" glossary definition), represent a meaningful share of many proof-of-work networks' total hash rate (see Kaavon's "Hash Rate" glossary definition), and their geographic concentration in regions with particularly cheap electricity has at times raised decentralization concerns if mining capacity becomes overly concentrated in a small number of jurisdictions or operators.
Examples
- A large mining farm might house thousands of machines in a single facility, specifically located in a region with access to unusually cheap electricity.
- Geographic concentration of mining farms in regions with especially cheap electricity has at times raised concerns about hash rate becoming overly concentrated in a small number of jurisdictions.