The biggest issue is that they don't let you pick the pool, so you have no idea what you would mine and no ability to forecast a return at all. At the end of the day, you can't really trust any of the cloud mining companies.
How do you mean you cannot trust any cloud mining companies? Whilst I do agree there is alot of stuff out there that is nothing short of a scam or ponzi, I do personally think IMHO that there is a place for cloud mining. As CTO of FinalHash (although i just created a bitcointalk account today, <-- straight newb i know) i get the gamut of customers. While we do have plenty of folks who want to be more in control of their units, there are also others who simply don't care. Generally I classify customers into 5 groups.
1. The "I love crypto but my wife hates the heat and the noise" customers. Me personally, I fall into this category so all of my stuff is offsite. Better than sleeping on the couch if you ask me.
2. The "I am new and just wanted to play around with the idea of mining for a quick set up" customer.
3. Enthusiast customers who know alot about the crypto space but simply do not have the space or power or low enough electrical costs to warrant getting physical hardware at their locale.
Those points are all reasons why a buyer might want to buy; but they make no sense for the seller to sell.
If you can mine profitably its ridiculous to rent that power out to anyone else - Altcoins can quickly be converted to BTC via markets, BTC can quickly & easily be turned into Fiat in a number of ways.
The only time it makes sense to rent out your mining power is if its part of a ponzi or there is an exit scam on the horizon or you already know your mining is not actually profitable. There is no 4th option.
whoa that reminds me. with spoondolies going down FINALHASH AKA MARSHALL LONG is now 5/5 in destroying each company listed on his site in 2014.
2 years , not bad
http://finalhash.com/#portfolio
