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I've got several dedicated servers which I'm renting for about 250 Euros from a big hoster (OVH). These server are used for things like ssh/scp, SVN and Git servers (for private repositories), HTTP proxy, etc.

Nothing shaddy here: just fully legal servers that see little use.

I realize these servers are really not powerful at all and would make terrible miners (at least for all the cryptocurrencies where GPU and ASIC mining is disproportionally powerful compared to CPU mining): that is not the point of my question.

My question is: can you legally use a dedicated server which you fully pay for to mine cryptocurrencies all year long? Basically I realized that the CPUs would be running at full speed and would consume more electricity than the way I use them now.

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  • If they are your servers you can use them in any way you want.
    – Ramhound
    Dec 12, 2013 at 1:04

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It's definitely not against the law. It might be breaking the terms of service (ToS) but there's really no reason why any dedicated server hosting provider wouldn't allow you to max out the CPU. I wouldn't do business with them if they limited that. However, you need to read your hosting provider's ToS. They might forbid certain applications like IRC servers, BitTorrent, Tor, etc. If they don't list Bitcoin then you are good to go.

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  • +1, the law / ToS difference is very interesting. They're (OVH) supposedly the 3rd biggest hosting company worldwide (they're french but now physically expanding even in North America) so I take it I'm not the first to wonder about this : )
    – Cedric Martin
    Dec 11, 2013 at 18:04
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Many hosts do have a vague TOS clause about running processes that occupy too much of the server's overhead. Often they will automatically throttle or even kill your processes. For example, godaddy.com has limits on how much CPU time and power a process can use on their shared hosts. They will automatically kill it if it runs past their limits.

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    For shared hosting that's common but I've never heard of that for dedicated hosting.
    – Bitlab.co
    Dec 11, 2013 at 18:35
  • Some of the bottom end low-cost guys have caused me problems. One of them is no longer in business.
    – user6972
    Dec 11, 2013 at 19:05

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