Why I don't care if mining yields a shortterm profit

[freequant]

Because I am in with Bitcoin for the long run, just in case it turns out to become a major player in the world economy. If it does, the small position I am building up day by day will generate huge profits. If it doesn't, my position is hedged by the value of the hardware I purchased: I can sell it back, or better, use it to perform protein folding and repurpose at no cost my investment as a running donation to subsidize cancer research.
Either way it feels good and stress-free (don't misestimate the cost of stress).

Another advantage of investing in the hardware is that it decides for you the size of the bitcoin position you are going to hold. I know exactly how much money I decided to invest. How much it will yield for me (or as a fallback investment for cancer research) is the unknown in the equation. Time will tell.

I am content knowing I am positively exposed to these two rare events (bitcoin success or computational break through in cancer research)) at the small premium of extra electricity cost.
Probability is low but outcome is very large so the expectation is still good.
If nothing works out, I will have lost a few thousand bucks but will still be satisfied to have participated to the first serious attempt from the geeks to take over the financial power from the hands of the establishment. A few thousand bucks to participate to history, that's really cheap.

[Yeti]

+1

I already made my investment of 500 € back already (my rig went online a week ago). Not in Bitcoins or hard fiat-FTW!!1!-money but in phun.

For the first time in 8 years I've had the time and incentive to once again build a computer from scratch and have it work right away. Other people pay more in a house of pleasure for this...

Heck, I wasted electricity in 2004 solving the Zeta function for ZetaGrid! This is much more fun!

I don't care if I don't recover the initial investment, I will keep going as long as I make more than to cover electricity (at .22 €/kWh) and possibly even beyond that. Just for the lulz.

If you want to make a quick buck, invest. If you decide to mine, be aware that your costs may be sunk in a couple of months. But for me they will be sunk for good because I'm a geek. That's why I don't listen to AngelusWebDesign's panicking.

[PulsedMedia]

Long term here too, already gained hundreds times more than the cost

Infact, my mining HW is 100% paid by holding BTC for longterm capital gain

For the short term i intend to sell 80-90% of generated profits to get more HW online, and later on start stockpiling more again

[Lightspeed]

+1

I already made my investment of 500 € back already (my rig went online a week ago). Not in Bitcoins or hard fiat-FTW!!1!-money but in phun.

For the first time in 8 years I've had the time and incentive to once again build a computer from scratch and have it work right away. Other people pay more in a house of pleasure for this...

Heck, I wasted electricity in 2004 solving the Zeta function for ZetaGrid! This is much more fun!

I don't care if I don't recover the initial investment, I will keep going as long as I make more than to cover electricity (at .22 €/kWh) and possibly even beyond that. Just for the lulz.

If you want to make a quick buck, invest. If you decide to mine, be aware that your costs may be sunk in a couple of months. But for me they will be sunk for good because I'm a geek. That's why I don't listen to AngelusWebDesign's panicking.

Yep, the fun and community covers all my expenses ^_^

I don't care for AngelusWebDesign's systematic propaganda one bit.