So, who actually MAKES MONEY with Bitcoin?

[OROBTC]

...

I had often wondered about a couple of things, but it was only just now that my question has gelled into a concrete thought:

Who actually makes money here in Bitcoinistan?

-- It does not look like HODLers do (at least since BTC price went from the $700s when I started then to $200, now $650)...
-- The "Cloud Miners" sure as hell don't (except for the scams that take money from investors)...
-- I would *guess* that mining pools, and probably most miners w/ equipment do not...
-- *Maybe* electricity vendors (ex. China), warehouse landlords, etc. might?
-- Exchanges?
-- Hard wallet (Trezor, Ledger) manufacturers?
-- Gambling sites would seem to probably NOT make money (most anyway), too easy for talented programmers to set up one...
-- Mining equipment makers (Bitmain, Bitfury)?

The only outfit that I have read about that DOES seem to make lots of money would be these guys (their service works great!)
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[cryptor0th]

Very contextual advertising you managed to pull off there.

[pooya87]

most big services are making money with bitcoin this services can be exchanges, gambling sites or similar things but obviously in each area not all of them are successful. it is the same way in the real world. each of these areas you named can be profitable if the person who starts that service has enough experience to make it profitable.

for example anybody can make a dice site but only a few of them has been around and has been making money because the owners knew how to make it profitable and had a little luck too.

[NorrisK]

I made some money from the price dropping to 200 range.. I bought more coins at 200 than I did at 500+ and are therefore at a healthy profit. It is just a matter of perspective. You assume someone bought in high, held till low and then held till high. Smart buyers recognized the market was stabalizing around the 200 range and started buying again and are now in profit.

Also, altcoiners have made (and lost in the same speed probably) a lot of money. 10-500% profits are not unheard of, it is just a matter of having the guts to get out instead of chasing the big 1000+% profits and picking coins with enough volume to actually be able to sell your bag.

[Senor.Bla]

Well it is much like with fiat money. Why would it be different.
People who sell stuff for Bitcoin.
People who work for bitcoin.
But if you want to make money with bitcoin as in "take bitcoi do something with it and profit", then trading would be probably the fist answer.
Or services that take a cut for something they provide like exchanges and such.
Maybe not much but isn't that what we want? who makes money with fiat? Banks and CC companies and so on.
We DO want them to eliminate, so it is a good thing if not to many people are making money for services where their just handling your bitcoin.   
 

[rphk]

I believe people are making money with trading. And mainly gambling site owners making big money , next is who bought more bitcoins at lower price like $200  might have made the money. Exchanges make money with the commission . Always big investors  will have more profit 

[CoinBreader]

well i believe the real money makers are first of all the hardware companies , gpu manufacturers (AMD card was on shortage back in the glory days , espacialy in 2013) asic manufacturers because they holding their golden hardware to mine for their behalf till the hit the market, then whale traders since they can manipulate the market, been there seen that (but im not one of them sadly ) and last but not least they people who offering their service for btc, so the last two categories are making money out of thin air.

[Ardenyham]

I don't actually understand what OP really want to say or clarify. most of the sites and projects OP mentioned are probably earning money with bitcoin;

Like Gambling sites(onwers)
Miners (of course)
Exchanges/Exchangers (Individual and Sites/companies) (Obviously exchangers also earning money if they aren't then they already quit this work and more people would not come into this field. (this term apply to all)

and why you forget rest of ways to make money?

Trading,
buying selling things.
and all small and micro earnings? like signature campaigns. freelancers etc?

I believe lots of people earning bitcoin that's why bitcoin is at this place today.

[abugseuf]

to me the one who is investing in bitcoin and who have hold their bitcoin are making money from bitoin. those people who have patient and can hold their bitcoin for a long time can easy make money from bicoin. because it is expected that the price of bicoin will increase in the near future.

[Betwrong]

...

I had often wondered about a couple of things, but it was only just now that my question has gelled into a concrete thought:

Who actually makes money here in Bitcoinistan?

-- It does not look like HODLers do (at least since BTC price went from the $700s when I started then to $200, now $650)...
-- The "Cloud Miners" sure as hell don't (except for the scams that take money from investors)...
-- I would *guess* that mining pools, and probably most miners w/ equipment do not...
-- *Maybe* electricity vendors (ex. China), warehouse landlords, etc. might?
-- Exchanges?
-- Hard wallet (Trezor, Ledger) manufacturers?
-- Gambling sites would seem to probably NOT make money (most anyway), too easy for talented programmers to set up one...
-- Mining equipment makers (Bitmain, Bitfury)?

The only outfit that I have read about that DOES seem to make lots of money would be these guys (their service works great!)
 |                   |                    |                    |                    |                    |                    
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Is it true that gamling sites are so unprotected? I know some of them were robbed but most of them are functioning and making profit, no?

I absolutely agree with you on "Cloud Miners" though.

[Sorrowfox]

most big services are making money with bitcoin this services can be exchanges, gambling sites or similar things but obviously in each area not all of them are successful. it is the same way in the real world. each of these areas you named can be profitable if the person who starts that service has enough experience to make it profitable.

for example anybody can make a dice site but only a few of them has been around and has been making money because the owners knew how to make it profitable and had a little luck too.

Yes, you are definitely right. Those company or websites that provide bitcoin exchange services are the one who really makes money with bitcoin. Like for example, I am from the Philippines and we have a website here that  provide services of exchange in bitcoin. For exemple if I am going to buy 1 bitcoin right now it will cost 31500 but if I have 1 bitcoin and I want to exchange it in Philippine peso, it will only be converted to 30,000 so they have 1500 difference for every bitcoin.

[1Referee]

I do. I make most of my profits while day trading, and the other part of my profit comes from having bought my coins below $250, which I sold some of very recently above the $700 level.

[ASHLIUSZ]

Trading and gambling are mostly used by bitcoiners to make money. I make money through signature campaign. Those users who wait patiently for price rise will be rewarded more.

[Goms]

I think the electricity vendors make the highest amount of profit, all the other facets pay them for their services.

[Sorrowfox]

to me the one who is investing in bitcoin and who have hold their bitcoin are making money from bitoin. those people who have patient and can hold their bitcoin for a long time can easy make money from bicoin. because it is expected that the price of bicoin will increase in the near future.

YEah you are right, those who hold their bitcoin and sell it at a higher price are the those people who actually make money with bitcoin but I am also sure that they will also be the one who will lose a lot of money when the price of bitcoin goes down since its value flactuates very rapidly and if all their money is in bitcoin and they are not liquid enough to pay their daily expenses for sure they have no choice but to sell their bitcoins even if its value is much lower than the value that they bought.

[coinzat]

miners are the first people to make money from bitcoin. they are in the game just for the profit.
exchange sites also are making a lot of money from their fees which is usually %0.2 on every trade.

[jacktheking]

lol at your last sentence*.

Well. I have never make any purchase online with real money or paypal or credit. So how do I get my first Bitcoin (or maybe mBitcoin)? Well, I take part in signature campaign. So far I believe I have made over 300 USD from just simply posting online. (Sorry to those who saw my post before but ... let me say it again.) I've bought good products online using Bitcoin I earned from Bitcointalk's signature campaigns. Steam games, in-game money and even a tablet.

So .. who actually make money with Bitcoin? Those wearing well-designed signature code at Bitcointalk. .

* I know you are referring to Bitmixer.

[co5hike]

miners are the first people to make money from bitcoin. they are in the game just for the profit.
exchange sites also are making a lot of money from their fees which is usually %0.2 on every trade.

The people who are making real money from bitcoins are the gambling and casino sites, as people are crazy for gambling and invest their money into it and loose everything at the end of the day.

[iv4n]

Same question I asked my self, but there is to many exchangers, to many casinos, to many mixers and services. Maybe scammers make a lot of money with their cloud mining services, or other ponzis that we see how some of them are closing, and tomorrow we see new ones.
Probably some gamblers make good money, poker players. I make some little money every week. Just I gamble a lot, so many times I lose my money, sometimes I make good profit. Its important that I have a lot of fun while I'm here on internet.
And miners make money for sure, at least people who have cheap electricity and they can buy some good mining equipment. But that is available just to some people.

[Pursuer]

Who actually makes money here in Bitcoinistan?
-- It does not look like HODLers do (at least since BTC price went from the $700s when I started then to $200, now $650)...

well, if you buy and hodl bitcoin with your eyes closed you either have to have a good reason for that (like waiting for 5-6 years for bitcoin to catch on) or you have to be a newbie who jumped in with his eyes closed and now is scared.
many hodlers made huge profit because they hodl from below $100 up to $1200 and people like me hodled from $200 last year to $780 and that is called hodling.

-- The "Cloud Miners" sure as hell don't (except for the scams that take money from investors)...

you said it!
the scammers make money from stealing gullible users who trust a cloudmining can make them profit.

-- I would *guess* that mining pools, and probably most miners w/ equipment do not...

the opposite.
the mining pools and the miners are one of the most profitable professions in cryptocurrency world. they are not only mining bitcoin and receiving HUGE amount of profit but also do a lot of mining on the side to make even more profit from some of the altcoins.

-- *Maybe* electricity vendors (ex. China), warehouse landlords, etc. might?

meh

-- Exchanges?

since I use bittrex I give you their stat: each day I see them having more than 1000BTC traded which shows at the bottom of the page. that is 2.5BTC profit each day on trading fees minimum. and that is not their only revenue.

-- Hard wallet (Trezor, Ledger) manufacturers?
-- Mining equipment makers (Bitmain, Bitfury)?

I can't say for sure but these two have been supply a lot of equipment over the years so I guess they are making good amount of money.

-- Gambling sites would seem to probably NOT make money (most anyway), too easy for talented programmers to set up one...

hell yeah. gambling sites especially the ones that are super famous like primedice for example are making a lot of money and even there is an exploit or hack they cover their losses the next day