Cryptocurrency mining runs a graphics card flat out for days on end, wears it out faster and puts someone else's coins on its owner's electricity bill. That is why it is against the rules on RentGPUPower — for every renter, on every machine, whatever they paid. Hosts do not have to watch for it: the app on their computer does, and the marketplace deals with what it finds.

Refused at the door

Before anything reaches a host's computer, RentGPUPower reads what a renter asks it to run: a job, the start command of a rental, the image a rental runs, the inputs of a batch. One that runs a known mining program, or points at a mining pool, is refused with a message that says why, and nothing starts.

Caught while it runs

A renter could still start a miner later, from a terminal or a script. So every 20 seconds, the app on the host's computer looks at what each rental is running — from outside its sandbox, where nothing inside can hide from it. The moment it finds a mining program running, it stops everything in that rental and tells the marketplace.

What counts is running a miner, not having one. A file named like one, a search for it, or a command that deletes it is not mining — ps aux | grep xmrig will never stop anyone's rental.

What happens then

  • The rental ends at once. Nothing more runs on the host's machine.
  • The host is paid for the time the rental ran, as usual, and the stop does not count against the machine's reliability.
  • The renter's unused time is held, not refunded, until a person at RentGPUPower has looked at what was found.
  • The renter's account is paused until then: no new rentals, and no work through the API.
  • The host is told, and has nothing to do.

No second try

Once a person confirms it was mining, the payment cards that account paid with are blocked. A new account that pays with one of them gets its money back and is paused as well. And if it turns out not to have been mining after all, everything is given back: the held time, and the account.

For hosts: the rest is your choice

Mining is the one thing renters can never do on your machine; the rest you decide. In the app you choose how much of your processor and memory renters get, and how much power your card may draw — see Keep using your PC while you host. How renters' code is kept away from your files and your home network is in Is it safe to rent out my GPU?

FAQ

I rent GPUs. Could my work be mistaken for mining?

Only a known mining program actually running, or a mining pool's address, counts. Training, inference, rendering and every other kind of work run as usual. If you think a stop was a mistake, write to support: a person reviews every stop, and a mistake is given back in full.

Why is the renter's money held instead of refunded?

Because it paid for time used to break the rules on someone else's machine. Holding it until a person has looked means trying cannot cost nothing; giving it back when it was a mistake means nobody honest loses anything.

Do I lose anything as a host?

No. You are paid for the time the rental ran, your reliability score is untouched, and the next renter can book your machine right away.