As the crypto world recovers from the shocking news of Hetzner banning all crypto mining apps from its infrastructure, many in the industry are still wondering what happened and what this ban means for the future in general.
Hetzner has been a popular option for crypto-related hosting, and the ban is seen as a serious roadblock to decentralization and development of smart contracts and blockchain-based ecosystem. In particular, Hetzner is an important hosting partner for Ethereum nodes, and the ban on crypto apps means a serious blow to the broader public access to blockchain and DeFi apps.
What Happened?
Last month, Hetzner emailed customers about banning all mining-related activities and apps from their system. In fact, their email stated that all Proof-of-Time and Proof-of-Space activities would be henceforth prohibited.
This email came as a serious shock to the crypto world because Hetzner has been one of the biggest providers of data centers and hosting options for crypto-mining and harvesting operations. In fact, Hetzner has been the second-largest hosting provider for the Ethereum network.
Because of Hetzner’s support and involvement in blockchain and crypto-mining operations, the news highlights a serious risk for blockchain and decentralized crypto operations. Furthermore, given Hetzner’s significant share in the Ethereum node hosting network, this ban means that miners, developers, and businesses involved in blockchain development and validation for cryptocurrencies and other applications would now have to search for another friendlier hosting solution.
What Triggered Hetzner’s Ban on Crypto Hosting
Hetzner’s move to ban all crypto-related activities from their network probably resulted from the users opting for Hetzner’s cost-effective high-capacity storage solutions for mining Chia. This relatively new cryptocurrency uses Proof-of-Space and Proof-of-Time algorithms. Harvesting Chia requires both fast SSD disks for initial “plotting” of “farms.” Later, these farms are moved to slower disks for further mining and processing of rewards.
Since this arrangement often means a massive workload for the storage disks, Hetzner’s decision to ban all crypto-related activities could be a move to protect their infrastructure and ensure consistent performance for their users.
Time to Switch Hosts
As Hetzner enforces its new T&C, crypto miners and blockchain-based apps have started looking for hosting alternatives. While the exact specifications differ, these businesses need fast, scalable hosting solutions that offer all resources they need for efficient mining, harvesting, and blockchain-related operations.
So if you are looking for a reliable hosting partner for your crypto hosting, RedSwitches is an excellent place to start. We offer a fast and reliable managed distributed hosting server network that’s built for compute-intensive workloads. In addition, you get the choice of 20+ data center locations worldwide.
We understand the requirements of crypto-mining and harvesting and that you can’t afford downtime. That’s why we offer Intel and AMD multi-core CPU setups that contain all the RAM, disk space, and bandwidth required for smooth operations. In addition, our bare-metal servers are highly customizable, and our engineers can help you install and set up any OS and supporting software you need for your blockchain and crypto operations.
In case you need to upgrade or replace a software component, our support is available 24/7 throughout the week. We understand the complexities of crypto-mining and blockchain operations, and our proactive support team continuously monitors the servers and jumps in as soon as they detect a problem.
And finally, we have unbeatable pricing, the lowest in the industry. Our lowest server plan starts at just $54 ( EUR 55) and offers a quad-core Intel processor, 16GB RAM, and 2TB disk space. That’s a great place to relocate your crypto and blockchain operations.
Hetzner moving out of the crypto and blockchain industry is a severe blow to the ambitions of making DeFi and blockchain accessible to everybody. For many, crypto-mining and harvesting is a serious business model. However, in our opinion, this move opens space for smaller, more agile players such as RedSwitches that offer a better deal, proactive support, and customized solutions that benefit the industry and ensure blockchain validation and decentralization currencies become a globally accepted phenomenon in the near future.
