DigitalBTC and Cryptsy to launch mining contract exchange

If a new deal between alt-coin exchange Cryptsy and Australian bitcoin mining company digitalBTC is any indication, tradable mining contracts could soon become bitcoin’s next boom market. CoinDesk reports that the partnership will result in a new trading platform, dubbed digitalX Mintsy, will offer tradable mining contracts and allow users to lease time on their own mining hardware. According to the report, Cryptsy will also invest $250,000 in digitalBTC, a publicly traded company.

DigitalX Mintsy is expected to launch later this year, with 100 TH/s “hashfracs” being available as trading units. The CoinDesk report claims that contracts for a variety of SHA-256 and Scrypt-based alt-coins will also be available. Pool-specific mining will be enabled, as will multi-pool options. Users will also have the option to deposit mined coins directly into a Cryptsy trading account.

As Cryptsy CEO Paul Vernon told CoinDesk: “There’ll be quite a few [coins available]. Basically, everything you see on Cryptsy that is mineable should probably be mineable on Mintsy as well.”

Tradable bitcoin mining contracts are rapidly becoming their own market, with major bitcoin exchange Bitfinex announcing a similar trading platform only a few days ago. Although clearly one of the few truly native bitcoin derivatives, tradable mining contracts do share some similar properties with commodities futures trading, prompting serious questions about how such instruments could be eventually viewed by regulators.