Bitcoin cloud mining services are still being advertised, even though mining difficulty and competition have increased a lot over the years.
Is there a chance that it exists in a legitimate form for Bitcoin today or it's nothing but marketing and scams? I don’t need any advice or names of specific projects, just your view on the current state of this area.
Cloud mining is either a scam or unprofitable, no other option exists. We didn't have legit cloud mining even in 2015-2016 when mining was really profitable for everyone, so how do you expect to have legit cloud mining in 2026 when mining difficulty has significantly increased and it's not as profitable as it was before? Especially when mining became a commercial business and you can't mine at home for profit.
When cloud mining promises you profit, just ask yourself why they don't mine on their own? The answer is that while you expect profit from cloud mining, cloud mining company expects profit from you, not from cloud mining itself, which means that business is designed in a way where the profit machine for the company are you, not mining rigs.
You're wrong. If you're interested, I can name some legitimate companies from that era. Ten years ago, it was profitable because mining wasn't yet an industrial enterprise. Times are different now, and even if everything is legal, it can take 12 months or more just to break even on the equipment. Profits will only come with healthy price growth.
I know some legitimate companies from that era, for example, hashnest but people weren't making money with cloud mining there, the money was made by trading hashrates because their price was volatile according to Bitcoin's price and mining difficulty. There were some other legit companies on paper like genesis-mining but everyone was losing money on that website.
Btw my question is, if mining is profitable, then why would you mine for others if you do not earn more that way? I mean, why should I offer cloud mining to someone when I can mine for myself?
Let's say you have a location but don't have the money for mining equipment. You could find a few investors and open a cloud mining company to attract a large community. You could then earn additional income through advertising and collaboration with other companies. It was profitable before, but now it’s too late to do this.
