A Big chunk of the profits being mined are re-invested into more equipment to offset the rising hashrate. But the initial investment is not 100% recouped.
Mining bitcoins at home, for people who are capable only of low investments, is almost ended because of the small or null ROI they can have.
I disagree. at-home miners have a few big advantages:
1) free space (garage, basement, shed, etc). larger miners have rental locations and costs as such
2) "free" internet
3) 'free' wintertime heating (a large location will still be fighting to keep cool even in the winter)
4) no oversight or employee costs
IMO, mining at home can be more profitable than it is running a medium-sized farm. Ive personally had to move 8.5kW of my gear into a rental agreement to access enough power and space to run it outside the house. To go any bigger I am looking at a $500-1000/month rental elsewhere plus whatever costs are involved in adding AC/wiring/transformers to make it a useful space.
a lot also comes down to power costs, and anyone who pays less than $0.15/kWh has significant advantages over miners in many countries and US states
Totally agree with this.
1) In most places to rent and operate in a zoned business space you need a business licence.
2) Most times you have to register with the US state tax authority. I would have no idea if BTC yields count as revenue for tax purposes.
3) Doing any kind of electrical mods, of course you need permits. If you leave the space, you will have to pay to put the space back in it's original condition.
4) Most places since you are not a retail operation, this might be something that has to be in the correct industrial zone.
5) Space lease agreements want you to sign up for at least 5 years and some sort of liability insurance maybe required.
6) Finally, industrial settings could have pretty noisy power due to electric arc welders, rf generators and big inductive loads being switched on and off.