Also remember this doesn't have to be bitcoin mining it could be litecoin or whatever.
https://www.quora.com/Is-anyone-making-money-in-bitcoin-mining-anymore
no..
if someone invested 2.5btc.. after 200 months they would earn 0.25btc total (based on a 2.5% difficulty change)
however fiat valuation needs to be a consideration.. say someone didnt buy bitcoin. but spend $1600 as bitcoin
they would in 200 months get 0.25btc.. but.. the dollar value of 0.25 is hoped to be 80%-95% of their initial $1600
however. it still does not dismiss my point. why spend 2.5btc to earn 0.25 when you can slowly give them 2.5btc which after a 200 month period is a LARGER donation than $1600.
EG if people hope 0.25=$1600 in 200 months, then 2.5btc=$16,000 in 200 months by default.. right.
so why spend 2.5btc to mine.. for the HOPE of giving wikileaks $1600.. where as just handing them 2.5 GUARANTEE's them $1600 and the potential (thanks to deflation) of ALOT more
Overall the loss is about 5% to 20% if the price doesn't go up. And with that you get the ability to have constant donations. You might not want to mine for them but I would. For example in my case I'm not going to send them any bitcoin. But I would buy a cheap miner and point it at their site. If I'm the only one then yeah it wouldn't work but I would bet that if they have a mining address up at the top of their site with a hash rate clock I would bet it would get quite a few miners.