The demand from crypto mining companies is real, but their requirements can be quite high, says Kelly LeValley Hunt global vice president of BlockApps, a company developing enterprise applications using blockchain. 

While BlockApps works on blockchain applications for multiple sectors, she had some advice for colocation providers dealing with what is still the primary application of blockchain, in an interview at with DCD at the DCD>Enterprise event in New York in May. 

”Data center operators must work with the crypto currency miners to evaluate how much infrastructure they are actually going to need when they put some GPUs or some Antminers in their data center,” she said. “If we are going to stack maybe 15 miners into a typical rack, then we are looking at 25kW of power, give or take. These demands are very important in the industry right now.

Colocation providers should ask the right questions, she suggests: ”You have to ask ’Do you have GPUs, do you have Ant miners do you have ASICs?’ What are your objectives?”

Given the risks that miners face if their rigs burn out, she warns: “As a colocation provider, I would ask for a heavy deposit up front.”