Cloud mining in 2018 is not for the faint-hearted. Bitcoin cloud mining is littered with scams, or generally deemed unprofitable. Is Litecoin cloud mining a worthwhile alternative in 2018? We have done all the research to try and give you our best and most honest answer to this question.

Overall, cloud mining now has a pretty bad reputation, perhaps justifiably so. The world of crypto is still rife with scams, and cloud mining is no different. There is an unfortunately large number of scam operators who are all too willing to take your money as monthly recurring revenue for doing absolutely jack.

How to Spot a Cloud Mining Scam

Fortunately, there are some signals that will give away a scam. Before getting into cloud mining, make sure you have thoroughly vetted the provider to check that they are genuine. The following tips should help:

• Make sure the website domain name is registered. Yes, we crypto folk value our privacy, but you should not submit your card details to an unregistered domain
• Check if there is proof of the equipment they are using. Some mining companies will show video footage of their rigs at work; others will be able to provide proof of purchase of the kit used to mine the coins.
• Check also that the equipment is the right kind of ASIC for mining your chosen crypto token. Bitcoin ASICs mine based on SHA-256 whereas Litecoin cloud mining operations will need to use Scrypt ASICs
• See how long they have been operating. The longer a company has been in operation, the less likely it is that they are going to run off with your hard-earned

• Don’t always believe comparison sites. Their opinions and recommendations are often based on how much the mining company paid them for a good review
• Check the company registration and the details of the registered directors. If the company owners are in the same country as the company, this means they are more likely to have undergone rigorous vetting procedures
• You can safely ignore loud promotions with promises of profitability. Don’t believe the hype, believe your own homework
• Look for reviews of the company posted by users outside of the comparison sites. Reddit, BitcoinTalk, and YouTube can all be useful sources of information when looking for genuine user experiences.

Profitability of Litecoin Cloud Mining

Let’s not dress it up – we have been in bear country for quite some months now. However, maybe you are convinced you can hear the sound of bull hooves stampeding toward us from the horizon. Then maybe, despite the proliferation of scammers, Litecoin cloud mining is something you are still considering.

Of the legit Litecoin cloud mining contracts available on the market today, we have vetted a few to find out if any are currently offering a whisper of profitability. All statements are made based on the value of Litecoin at the time of writing.

Litecoin Cloud Mining Contracts

Genesis and Hashflare are two of the most popular and recommended cloud mining contract providers. Genesis has a visible team, who are active within the community. Hashflare has been around a few years and came under fire earlier this year for shutting down their SHA-256 mining operations because of the lack of profitability in Bitcoin.

We are not saying we recommend either of these companies, but we do believe that neither of them is a scam outfit.

Their contract model is that they allow you to buy hash rate from their own mining rigs, based on a fixed payment for a defined period. Neither are currently offering access to their Litecoin cloud mining contracts. This is most likely because of the current profitability levels, although the websites refer to them as being out of stock.

It is worth pointing out that cloud mining contracts usually have clauses that allow them to stop mining operations if the maintenance costs exceed the value of the mining contract you are paying.

If this happens, you cannot claim back any of your lost payments, even if mining ceases for a prolonged period. This is the case even for those Litecoin cloud mining contracts that we have listed here. Hashflare has done this in the past, to howls of outrage from their users.

Hosted Litecoin Mining

Hashnest (owned by Bitmain) offers you the opportunity of buying your own Scrypt ASIC, which it will then take custody of, and run at one of its own datacentres.

Currently, it is also not offering that service. Again, this is most likely to be driven by the current value of Litecoin. The maintenance/power costs of running your Scrypt ASIC will currently cost them more than they charge for running it.

Final Word

Based on the proliferation of scams and levels of profitability, we cannot in good conscience recommend Litecoin cloud mining at this time. If the market swings and the value of Litecoin shoots up like at the end of 2017, that may change.

As things stand, you would get better returns by shoving your funds into an everyday banking savings account. It’s more likely that inflationary interest will help it grow than it is that you’ll make money from Litecoin cloud mining in 2018.

Featured image courtesy of Pixabay

Related