Bitcoin Forum

Is it even worth looking into?

No.

If you are not going to look into it yourself, then you'll have to take the word of someone with potential financial reasons to lie to you.

No.
But, you can ROI in a few months with cloudmining. :)

Depending on the cloudmining companies that you choose because most of the cloudmining companies are ponzi scams.
Click on my signature to find out more.

#puppet4lyfe
#masterscub

I have been looking into it.  The only sites that seem to have positive reviews are ones loaded with affiliate links.  That's why I came here in hopes of at least having somewhat less biased opinions.  It does seem to be a scam to me.

I think it can, you see why are there so many cloud mining service now if it's not profitable?

Profitable for who ?
Of course its extremely profitable... for the scammers who can earn 100's or 1000's of BTC with just a copy/pasted website

Profitability is relative. If you mean getting more coins that you spent on the miner, then yes it can happen. If you want to profit in fiat it may be a bit harder ;)

lol...  ::)

We are still waiting for any legit companies to step forward and address their would be clients concerns.

Addressing concerns would be trivial: confirmation of equipment purchases from ASIC manufacturers(not partial), indicating mining pools being used, and signing block rewards on the blockchain.

Until than , assume ponzi's or fractional reserve mining where most people will end up losing money if they invest.

http://cointelegraph.com/news/112329/gavin-andresens-fractional-reserve-mining-cloud-miners-respond

I.E... A small group of people did profit from the ponzi of PBmining.com: The scumbag owner, the credulous and misguided affiliates, and a few clients who got in at the right time. Most people ended up losing and the small percentage of people who did profit did so at the loss of the rest of the victims.

no, i dont think its profitable now due to bitcoin's price @@

If you mean cloud mining can be profitable if match all these criteria ?
That's impossible, because :
1. No clod mining's are 100% legit
2. It's very hard to search cloud mining like that, while we need a legit cloud mining too.
3. I don't know about this, but i'm sure you will find cex.io won't give you ROI

I think this is the way to make money Cloudhashing:

Step 1: Create a snappy looking website with lots of images of clouds and neato CAD Bitcoin renderings. Make sure there are lots of exclamation marks! Also, you must use at least one image of a giant mining center.

http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/knc-sweden-470.jpg

Step 2: Rent adspace on BTC exchanges and forums. Don't forget Coinwarz! Make any claims you want about potential profits and lay them on thick and heavy.

Step 3: Collect the $ and BTC from people wanting a golden ticket out of this massive economic depression.

Step 4: Rent some short term hashing power to show customers they are getting "what they paid for". This will make them buy even more.

Step 5: Collect huge amounts of $ and BTC after the Marks are hooked in real good.

Step 6: Shut down the website, cancel the hash rentals,  and make off with the loot before the hashpower rental fees eat up a sizable amount of the take. Make sure you have a secret tunnel leading out of town to slip past the angry mob coming to lynch you.

http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/angry-mob.jpg

 ;D

If they have a miner that will generate x bitcoins, why would they rent/sell it to you for less than x?

Time value of money and exchange rate risk.

This explains why ASIC manufactures sell the equipment. The reality is mining has too thin margins and the overhead of repairs, insurance, electricity, rent, employees, affiliate payouts, marketing, ect... is too much for them to have 100% hash rate. The numbers do not add up and its clear that most, if not all of them are fractional reserve mining or ponzi's.

That is why ASIC makers sell miners, and why cloud miners sell hashes, but it doesn't explain why people buy them.

If the time value of money and exchange rate risk are so high that people are selling them instead of plugging them and letting them sit, why on earth would you think it's a good idea to buy them? And is it worth all the things that can go wrong (delays in shipping, equipment failure, scamming assholes, price drops, government intervention, thieves, etc) for a tiny profit?

The numbers and lack of evidence point to full or partial ponzi's for almost all of them.

As far as what motivates people into mining (cloud or direct) :

1) They are bad at math and are misled by the mining companies/affiliates into not recognizing variable difficulty.
2) They mine a bit themselves , but make most of their money as affiliates misleading newbies into their scams
3) They like the "feel good feeling " of supporting the network even if they will likely make a loss
4) They realize they are supporting a ponzi operation but are ok because they believe they can get out with profits before it pops and they have no concern about the ethical obligations they have to their fellow people.

Yeah it can be !
But investing in Cloud mining sites is like Crap
They just turn Scam sooner or later
Like the most trusted pbmining which turned to a Scam !
Better to gamble your coins than cloud mining it

In a more efficient marketplace, you would expect the buyer of miners/hashes to have a higher earnings potential since they are taking on more risk than the seller. However in reality, many companies are taking advantage of uneducated customers, are not managed properly or are outright scams. Unfortunately there is a significant number of consumers who fall victim to these companies for various reasons. As you mentioned, many probably underestimate the risk and the profit opportunity is not in line with that risk.

Edited for clarity.

outside from the ponzi schemes i think of you choose the "right" site to go with it`ll be worth it.

amhash or any other ones that dont have some crazy maintenance fee, calculate it out, and stick for the longer term of value of bitcoin. it all depends though on how long you are willing to stick around.

Zeushash.com seems to be ok for GH/s. They're also running a promotion right now to give away some rockminer R-box.

maybe it will be profit if provided that not became a scam

Yes, It is profitable. I am using cloud mining for mining. I got 20 TH hashers.

I think you best chance is http://amhash.com (http://amhash.com), you can buy and sell you GH anytime you want and the price is based on supply and demand.
In services like zeushash you are stuck with your GH forever and the price is fixed by them.
CEX.io is the worst choice, maintenance fees are higher than the mined coins, you will get a negative balance.

Now you can buy 1 gh with 0,0004 btc in hashnest
1 Gh give near 200 - 300 satoshi per day ( after fees)
so RIO is 150 - 200 days
is it profitable ?
i don't think so..