OK so in summary the consensus is that at the moment buying rigs of the type I suggest most certainly will not generate ROI and will in-fact cost me in electricity consumption. That said, buying bitcoins and sitting on them/trading them like commodities is probably the best way to go?
If that is the case can people please answer these rather nubish questions:
1. If I buy coins I understand they need to be stored in a e-wallet of sorts and that a computer that is offline other than when trading is best for security. Is this the case? Is it as simple as all that?
2. I have heard about coins being stolen etc if this is the case, how do you avoid that from happening?
3. Is 2. more a case of people that are silly making silly mistakes and losing their coins?
Thanks
Graham
1)For small amounts (think less than 1 BTC), use BlockChain.info web wallet with 2 FA. For a desktop based wallet, use Electrum, Armory, or Bitcoin Core. For a tightest security possible, use a hardware wallet like Trezor or Ledger, or worse case a Paper Wallet.
2)In the case of Gox and Stamp, traders left alot of coins in their exchanges hot or web wallets. If you don't plan to be an active trader, you can use the desktop or offline wallets I suggested above to secure your wallets.
3)Partially the people, partially the operator. It's like leaving a ton of your deposit money and winnings in a Full Tilt Poker account, only to find out, the site operator is a bunch of crooks. So sorta half and half. These things (if the entity is trustworthy and competent) should never occur under any circumstance. Think of the fallout if the NYSE or NASDAQ lost billions of funds out of the blue, it wouldn't be pretty. Bitcoin exchanges have a lot of growing up to do in that sense (technology, regulatory, and security wise).
Thanks, very usefull.