Glossary

Activation

In cloud mining, the point at which a plan you have paid for starts running.

At Minevana: The operator checks your payment on the blockchain by hand and then activates the plan. Nothing detects a payment by itself, and no turnaround time is published. The 24-month term counts from activation, not from the day you paid.

ASIC(Application-specific integrated circuit)

A chip built to do one job. A Bitcoin ASIC miner is a machine built only to compute SHA-256 hashes, the work Bitcoin mining needs. ASICs replaced processors and graphics cards for Bitcoin mining long ago.

At Minevana: Minevana says it runs its own mining machines. No independent proof of that is published.

BEP-20

The token standard on BNB Smart Chain. Its addresses start with 0x and look exactly like Ethereum addresses, but it is a separate network, and its network fee is paid in BNB.

Bitcoin(BTC)

The first cryptocurrency, running since 2009. New bitcoin are created only as the block subsidy paid to miners, and the total supply is capped at 21 million BTC.

At Minevana: Mining payouts are sent in Bitcoin. BTC is also one of the coins accepted at checkout.

Block

A batch of transactions added to a blockchain in one go. Bitcoin adds a block about every ten minutes on average, and each block refers to the one before it.

Block explorer

A public website that reads a blockchain and shows any transaction, address or block, for example mempool.space for Bitcoin or tronscan.org for Tron. Looking a transaction up needs no account, no wallet connection and no seed phrase.

At Minevana: You can use one to check any payout recorded in your dashboard. See verify a payout.

Block height

The position of a block in the chain, counted from the first block at height 0. It is used to refer to a block and to schedule events such as the halving.

Block reward

Everything the miner of a block receives for it: the block subsidy plus the transaction fees of every transaction in the block.

Block subsidy

The newly created bitcoin paid to whoever mines a block. It started at 50 BTC and halves every 210,000 blocks. Since the April 2024 halving it has been 3.125 BTC per block.

Blockchain

A shared ledger made of blocks, each linked to the one before it, kept by many independent computers. Changing an old entry would mean redoing the work of every block after it.

Cloud mining

Paying a provider for an amount of mining hashrate on machines it runs, in place of buying, hosting and running a miner yourself. You depend on the provider for the machines, for how your share is worked out and for sending you what was mined.

At Minevana: Minevana is a cloud Bitcoin mining service. Plans are 1 TH/s (Starter), 10 TH/s (Builder) or 50 TH/s (Rack) for 24 months from activation, paid in crypto, with payouts sent on request. Mining income is variable, and you can get back less than you paid.

Confirmation

A block that includes or builds on a transaction. A transaction has one confirmation when it goes into a block, and each later block adds one more. Six confirmations is the long-standing convention for treating a Bitcoin payment as settled.

Custodial wallet

A wallet or account where someone else holds the private keys, such as an exchange account. You can move the funds only as that provider allows. Compare non-custodial.

Difficulty

A number that sets how hard it is to find a valid Bitcoin block. The higher it is, the more hashes it takes on average to mine a block, so the same hashrate mines less bitcoin.

Difficulty adjustment

The rule that resets difficulty every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, so that blocks keep arriving about every ten minutes however much hashrate joins or leaves the network. When more hashrate joins, difficulty goes up.

EH/s(Exahashes per second)

A billion billion (10¹⁸) hashes per second, which is one million TH/s. The hashrate of the whole Bitcoin network is usually quoted in EH/s.

ERC-20

The token standard on Ethereum. USDT and USDC both exist as ERC-20 tokens. Ethereum addresses start with 0x, and the network fee, called gas, is paid in ETH.

FPPS(Full Pay Per Share)

A mining pool payout method that pays each miner for every share at its expected value, covering both the block subsidy and the transaction fees, whether or not the pool finds a block. The pool carries the luck.

Gas

The name for the network fee on Ethereum and networks built like it. It is paid in ETH on Ethereum, Arbitrum and Base, and in BNB on BNB Smart Chain.

Halving

The cut in half of the block subsidy every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years. The most recent one, in April 2024, took it from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC; the next is expected around 2028. After a halving, the same share of the network’s hashrate earns half the subsidy it did before.

Hash

The fixed-length fingerprint a hash function produces from any input. Change the input slightly and the hash changes completely. Bitcoin mining hashes candidate blocks over and over, looking for a result below the target that difficulty sets.

Hashprice

An industry estimate of what one unit of hashrate mines in a day, usually quoted in US dollars per PH/s per day. It moves with the Bitcoin price, difficulty and transaction fees, and it is an estimate, not a promise.

At Minevana: Minevana does not state a figure for what a plan will pay.

Hashrate

How many hashes a miner, or a whole network, computes each second. It measures mining power: a miner with a larger part of the network’s hashrate finds a larger part of the blocks, on average.

At Minevana: A Minevana plan is a set amount of hashrate for 24 months: 1 TH/s (Starter), 10 TH/s (Builder) or 50 TH/s (Rack).

J/TH(Joules per terahash)

The energy a mining machine uses for each trillion hashes. It measures efficiency: a lower number means less electricity for the same work. Each new generation of ASIC miners has brought it down.

Layer 2

A network that runs on top of another blockchain, usually Ethereum, to make transactions cheaper and faster. Arbitrum and Base are Ethereum layer 2 networks. Their addresses start with 0x like Ethereum’s, but each one is a separate network.

Mempool

The waiting area for transactions that have been broadcast but not yet included in a block. When it is crowded, transactions paying a higher fee are usually confirmed first.

Mining pool

A group of miners who combine their hashrate and split what the pool mines according to the work each one contributes, measured in shares. Pooling makes income steadier: mining alone, a small miner could go years without finding a block.

At Minevana: Minevana has not published independent proof of its machines, such as a pool watcher link.

Network fee

The fee a sender pays to have a transaction included in a block. It is paid in the network’s own coin, such as BTC on Bitcoin, ETH on Ethereum, BNB on BNB Smart Chain or SOL on Solana, and it rises when the network is busy.

At Minevana: A refund before activation is the full amount minus the network fee for sending it back.

Non-custodial wallet

A wallet where you alone hold the private keys, usually backed up as a seed phrase. Nobody else can move the funds, and nobody can recover them for you if you lose the keys.

At Minevana: Payouts go to the payout wallet saved on your account, so use a Bitcoin address in a wallet whose keys you hold.

Payout wallet

The Bitcoin address saved on a Minevana account. Mining payouts you ask for are sent there, and a payout sent to an address entered wrongly cannot be recalled.

At Minevana: You can save it when you sign up or later in your account settings.

PH/s(Petahashes per second)

A thousand million million (10¹⁵) hashes per second, which is 1,000 TH/s. Hashprice is often quoted per PH/s.

PPLNS(Pay Per Last N Shares)

A mining pool payout method that pays only when the pool actually finds a block, splitting it among the most recent shares. Income goes up and down with the pool’s luck. Compare FPPS.

Private key

The secret number that controls the coins at an address. Anyone who has it can move those coins. Sending coins to someone only needs their address, never their private key.

At Minevana: Minevana will never ask for your private keys.

Proof-of-stake

A way of securing a blockchain in which validators lock up the network’s own coins as a stake, in place of running mining machines. There is nothing to mine. Ethereum moved from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake in September 2022, so ETH can no longer be mined.

Proof-of-work

A way of securing a blockchain in which miners spend computing work, and the electricity behind it, to find each block. Bitcoin uses proof-of-work with the SHA-256 hash function; it is what Bitcoin mining is.

Referral commission

A payment to someone who introduces a new customer, worked out as a share of what that customer buys.

At Minevana: 5% of the plan price for a customer you referred directly (tier 1) and 3% for a customer they referred (tier 2). It is earned when that plan is activated, clears after 14 days, and is then withdrawn on request and paid by hand.

Satoshi(sat)

The smallest unit of bitcoin: 0.00000001 BTC. One bitcoin is 100 million satoshis, often shortened to sats.

Seed phrase(Recovery phrase)

A list of words, usually 12 or 24, that backs up a wallet and can rebuild all of its private keys. Anyone who has it controls the wallet. Keep it offline and never share it.

At Minevana: Minevana will never ask for your seed phrase. Neither support nor a payout needs it.

SHA-256

The hash function Bitcoin mining uses. Bitcoin ASIC miners are built to compute it and nothing else.

Share

In a mining pool, a piece of work that meets an easier target the pool sets. Shares show how much work each miner contributed, and the pool divides what it mines according to them. In cloud mining, “your share” also means your part of what was mined.

At Minevana: How a customer’s share of the mined Bitcoin is calculated, and whether any fee is deducted, have not been published.

SPL

The token standard on Solana. USDT and USDC both exist as SPL tokens. Solana addresses are long strings of letters and digits, and the network fee is paid in SOL.

Stablecoin

A token designed to keep a fixed value, usually one US dollar, typically backed by reserves its issuer holds. It can lose that value if the issuer runs into trouble, which is called a depeg.

At Minevana: USDT and USDC are accepted at checkout, each on several networks.

TH/s(Terahashes per second)

One trillion (10¹²) hashes per second. It is the usual unit for the hashrate of a single mining machine or a cloud mining plan.

At Minevana: Minevana plans are sized in TH/s: 1 TH/s (Starter), 10 TH/s (Builder) or 50 TH/s (Rack).

Token contract

The program on a blockchain that keeps track of a token such as USDT or USDC. On an explorer, the main “To” field of a token transfer is often the contract, and the real receiver appears in the token transfer details. Tokens with copied names exist, so check that the contract is the one the issuer publishes.

Transaction fee

On Bitcoin, the fee each transaction pays to be included in a block. The miner of that block collects the fees of every transaction in it as part of the block reward. From the sender’s side it is the network fee.

Transaction hash(TXID)

The unique ID of a transaction. On Bitcoin it is 64 characters made of the digits 0 to 9 and the letters a to f. Paste it into a block explorer to see the transaction.

At Minevana: Paste the hash of your payment on the payment page so the operator can find it. Every payout the operator records shows its hash in your dashboard.

TRC-20

The token standard on the Tron network. USDT is widely sent as a TRC-20 token. Tron addresses start with T, and network fees are paid in TRX or with Tron’s energy and bandwidth resources.

Uptime

The share of time a mining machine is running and hashing. Downtime for repairs, power cuts or cooling problems lowers what a given hashrate mines.

USDC(USD Coin)

A US dollar stablecoin issued by Circle and available on several networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum and Base.

USDT(Tether)

A US dollar stablecoin issued by Tether and available on many networks, including Tron, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Solana. USDT on one network is not the same transfer as USDT on another: send it only on the network the address was given for.

Wallet address

The public string you give someone so they can send you coins, like an account number for one network. Bitcoin addresses usually start with bc1, 1 or 3. Send only on the network an address was given for: coins sent on the wrong network may be lost.

At Minevana: Your payout wallet must be a Bitcoin address. At checkout, each coin and network has its own payment address.