nlsupernova you seem to know plenty. Is it worth going in on mining if the electricity is .08 /Kwh with an Bitmain AntMiner S1 180 GHs / 200 GHs? How long does it take to break even? Does the increasing diffuculty hurt that much? I am trying to decide if it is worth it to get started on mining.
visit btcinvest.net and try out the calculator.
its the only one that i know of that actually handles difficulty the right way.
at the moment i use initial 20% diff increase per jump, and a -3% growth of the size of the jumps ( "lower difficulty increase / jump").
i believe difficulty is going to settle down and by the end of the year we will have diff increases well under 10% consistantly. that why i use those setting. but thats based on my reasoning. i dont have a crystal globe, so i dont know for sure either.
if you believe diff increasses stay at the level they are now, adjust those values accordingly in the calculator. you can also play a around a little to see what circumstances you would need to at least break even and see how likely it is to come true in your opinion.
also if your not mining altcoins atm, start doing it now. especially with small miners. the bitcoin network doesnt need that little bit of hashing power but it will extend the lifetime of your gear.
if you do it right you can pump revenue by 25 and sometimes even 50%.
also always compare the btc that the miner wil yield with the amount of btc you could buy today for the price of the miner. if the miner doesnt produce more, DONT BUY!! just buy btc.. that will rise in price as well and you will end up with more btc. never compare in dollars.
and dont forget to take into consideration any resale value of your gear at the time when power costs exeed revenue. that could just be the little extra profit you need to make the numbers work.
i hope this helps you a little. i cant answer your question for you really. there are to many things that can change, and expect things to do so. you have to decide if you can live with the risk of loosing money if btc would drop under 100 usd again, or when it would disapear completely. its unlikely, but not impossible. and you have to decide if the potential gains are big enough for you to take the risk. its stupid to risk a 1000 dollars for 10 dollars in potential profit. but everybody has different ideas to what is acceptable and everybody has their own reasons for doing this in the first place. is it just for hobby or do you want a real pasive income stream. these are important things to consider and will influence the decision you make eventually.
live long and prosper