Dubai telecom operator du has introduced a cryptocurrency mining service for UAE residents, which it expects will help increase consumer adoption of digital finance, a senior company executive has said.
Through du Tech’s data centres across the UAE, residents can engage in cryptocurrency mining by renting the required computational power on a subscription basis, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
Customers keen to participate can do so in an online auction from November 3-9. The service will help users to participate in the blockchain ecosystem, without needing to deal with hardware management, electricity costs, or maintenance concerns, the company said. Operations can commence immediately after subscription.
The Cloud Miner mining-as-a-service platform, covering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is the first step for du in providing more digital asset services, chief information and communications technology officer Jasim Al Awadi told The National.
“And once customer adoption becomes higher, it enables other adjacencies in the industry,” he said in an interview before Cloud Miner's launch.
“The crypto industry has a lot of other adjacencies such as exchanges and lending … irrespective of cryptocurrency or other kinds of products, it made a lot of sense for us to offer it,” he said.
Cloud Miner is under the company's du Tech sub-brand that, alongside du Infra, was introduced last year in a shake-up to its business-to-business operations.
The “as-a-service” business model is one in which a service is offered as a subscription, with providers doing the infrastructure, personnel and heavy lifting.
“In the coming years, we expect to see more people adopting it because we are planning even to expand the capabilities of mining-as-a-service moving forward,” Mr Al Awadi said.
For Cloud Miner's first phase, du will host bids for contracts, which have a lock-in period of 24 months. The number of contracts will be expanded in the second phase, Mr Al Awadi said.
Users will eventually also gain access to a calculator that will show how much Bitcoin they will receive at the end of each month and its corresponding value, he added.
Each contract will grant a capacity of 250 terahashes per second on a monthly basis, which at the end of the day will be converted to Bitcoins that will directly be linked to their crypto wallets, he said.
A terahash is a unit of hashrate, which is used to measure computational power and is equivalent to 1 trillion hashes per second; a hash is a 64-digit hexadecimal number that contains data on a block on the wider blockchain.
Du's offered hashrate is one of the more cost-effective options, according to a hashing calculator from Crypto Compare, and the company is open to offer a higher hashrate in the future, Mr Al Awadi said.
“Whatever technology evolution will come moving forward … we always evolve our services to fit our clients,” he said.
Bitcoin, the first and biggest cryptocurrency, remains a growing asset despite its volatility. Despite its up-and-down nature, it has still held well above $100,000. Analysts and crypto proponents have long touted digital assets as the future of finance.
The UAE has implemented several regulations to boost the adoption of digital finance, and has opened its doors to crypto platforms to build the ecosystem.
Du had previously toldThe National that it was open to adding crypto tools to its du Pay FinTech service.
“The adoption of cryptocurrencies expanded in the last two years when big names stepped in,” Mr Al Awadi said.
“And, today, for people to trust mining, they need a trusted partner … that follows all the rules and regulations of the country,” he added.
