River Financial, the San Francisco-based bitcoin technology and financial services company, will enable its customers to buy bitcoin miners and start mining without having to set up and maintain the computers themselves.
The company has launched a new service called “River Mining” in which customers can buy Bitmain’s top-of-the-line Antminer S19j Pro miners and manage the mining process via a mobile app, according to River’s website. The miners have about 100 terahash per second mining power each.
“With River Mining, clients will own their mining hardware and the Bitcoin generated will be deposited directly into their River accounts,” the company said in a statement. The company is currently opening pre-sales and a waitlist on their website, and customers can pay for just one miner to get started.
Once clients buy the miners, they will be responsible for the electricity fees and a monthly hosting charge for the machines.
The first miner will go online in early 2022, according to an emailed statement from Alex Leishman, River’s CEO. The service will be initially available to clients in the U.S., but the company plans to expand the program globally in 2022, he said.
The product comes at a time when bitcoin mining has become a very lucrative business, due to its high margins and a rally in the price of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. However, the challenges of setting up machines and the lack of access to cheap electricity has made moving into the sector challenging for new entrants. “Chip shortages, supply chain breakdowns, and high residential energy costs have made entering mining more difficult,” Leishman said in the press release.
“River Mining removes these barriers for clients by making it easy to own, manage, and generate Bitcoin with their personal Bitcoin mining fleets,” he added.
