This asic is good to learn about mining but I don't think you'll ever make your money back
Yep.
I was not aware about the zPool operator allegedly skimming 20% - do you have proof/sources? As a frequent user of the pool, I will be looking into that myself for sure, but please elaborate if possible.
I use sidehack's 2PAC's to mine new and/or lower difficulty coins (primarily on zPool), and have done quite well. It can be easy to stack coins up like that, although it can be risky. I mined a good number of coins like HUSH, ZCL, KMD, QRK, HAL, BSD, XVG, BCC, AUR, etc. in their early phases (even going back to when I was using COMPACS), and most were not worth much at the time. Now, many of them have seen astronomical price increases, which I call MAKING MONEY. In that sense (and with some diligent research), you should be able to easily make your money back and then some!
Pools like zPool make it easy to "convert" your algorithm so you can essentially (and easily) mine any algo coin with sidehack's miners. Of course it works best when mining newer, lower difficulty, (and therefore riskier) coins like mentioned above so it doesn't take weeks to mine 0.1 DASH (depending on how many sticks you are running).
I recently jumped on a new, interesting project called
BitcoinZ (which uses equihash algo) right after zPool added it, and I have already accumulated tens of thousands. Now I will hodl, hope for the best, and hopefully profit.
Other options include using sidehack's sticks to mine on MultiPools with automatic profit switching. Generally, you can not do this with larger miners (like the Antminer) because the pools often switch coins too fast, resulting in the miner shutting down.
iSpace Mining Pool currently has a zero fee MultiPool with about ~40 TH/s of power.
Anyway, my point is simple - if used correctly, there should be no problems seeing a ROI within a reasonable amount of time using either of sidehack's USB miners (especially for the VERY LOW purchase price)!
