I think that most people who have sunk their money into buying mining shares have been swindled - straight out buying and holding crypto tokens, from the very beginning, would probably have gotten you similar, or better, ROI than you are now finding yourselves with.
At the very least, keeping your money invested into an actual blockchain token would provide you with more answers as to what is going on than you'd ever want to try and research.
I got into mining as an experiment to see how it'd work out. I know now that (even if Genesis catches up with my payments) I will not get my investment back. So I will not put any more money in mining.
See my results.
The second reason why I got in (or rather partly re-invested) was that I wanted some ETH but I thought the price was way too high. Mining provided an alternative way to get ETH.
Actually, getting involved in something - in a very small, low-risk way - is a perfect thing to do. You get a ROI simply from your own learning-curve and experiences. That usually costs thou$and$ in college or a real life experience - but mining can be great for learning the tech, the software, and the ins-and-outs of trading/buying crptos. That's worth a couple thousand, IMHO. If you're able to do it for less than that - so much the better.
Take my own experience with SteemIt. I was given 10 Steem to start out. Along the way, I invested $50 and a couple of hours a day, for about the last 3 months. I gave away 12.5 SBDs, to pass on my initial gift - and today my account is valued around $190. I'd have wasted that same $50 on games or social media someplace else, anyhow - so I really didn't invest anything I can't afford to lose. The last step here for me will be to power down, cash out some of it, and go buy & hold physical silver bullion. It's a small step, a small process - with some constructive income - if it ends up all working out like it should. That still remains to be seen. If it works - I'll repeat the process again, with a larger investment, and see how well that one turns out. I figure, if I take some small profits along the way - what have I got to lose? If either silver or cryptos go to the moon - or both of them - either way I'll be sitting pretty at some point in the future. Unless, of course, I get hit by a meteor.
I agree. I also hodl BTC and ETH. Cloud mining is just another form of diversification. Not all my eggs in one basket.