[2015-05-11] Investopedia: Is Bitcoin Mining Still Profitable?

[pawel7777]

Is Bitcoin Mining Still Profitable?

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/forex/051115/bitcoin-mining-still-profitable.asp

Bitcoin mining is the process of earning bitcoin in exchange for running the verification to validate bitcoin transactions. These transactions provide security for the Bitcoin network which in turn compensates miners by giving them bitcoins. Miners can profit if the price of bitcoins exceeds the cost to mine. With recent changes in technology and the creation of professional mining centers with enormous computing power, many individual miners are asking themselves, is bitcoin mining still profitable?

There are several factors that determine whether bitcoin mining is still a profitable venture. These include the cost of the electricity to power the computer system (cost of electricity), the availability and price of the computer system, and the difficulty in providing the services. Difficulty is measured in the hashes per second of the Bitcoin validation transaction. The hash rate measures the rate of solving the problem—the difficulty changes as more miners enter because the network is designed to produce a certain level of bitcoins every ten minutes. When more miners enter the market, the difficulty increases to ensure that the level is static. The last factor for determining profitability is the price of bitcoins against standard, hard currency.
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[Kprawn]

"To compete against the mining mega centers, individuals can join a mining pool, which is a group of miners who work together and share the rewards. This can increase the speed and reduce the difficulty in mining, putting profitability in reach."

I personally think, with th price of Bitcoin being so low and the dificulty being so high, even if you join a mining pool, your chance to make a ROI are still very low.

These mining mega centers are simply to big for individuals to compete.  ... I would rather buy the Bitcoins with the money I wasted on mining... or play the lottery. 

A song comes to mind.... "Those were the days my friend, We thought it never end............"

[unamis76]

Of course it's profitable! If you have free electricity and lots of cheap miners

It's also profitable because it helps keeping the blockchain moving!

Seriously... It's getting real hard to mine these days

[bryant.coleman]

Even with free electricity, Bitcoin mining is not profitable for medium-scale to small-scale miners. The mining equipment is extremely expensive right now, and most of the miners will never get a positive ROI, at current exchange rates. If the exchange rates rise to $600 or $700, a majority might be in profit, but that also will be for a short time period.

[d3former]

Longer we stay unprofitable the bigger the spike to come will be imo.  Let the water rise, all the rats will get flooded out eventually.