For example even with 1 billion difficulty it still makes sense to mine with KNC Miner and it is very simple to calculate returns - 1 billion difficulty equals 7158.278TH/s, so if you have 400GH/s miner = 400/7158000=0.0000558815 shares of the 3600 daily coins=0.2011734 coins per day=6.13BTC per month.
It does. And it also, IMO, indicates the coming "New Normal" in BTC mining. No Aston Martin bought in six weeks. A nice little sideline income, a great hobby, and participation in a community. Hardware someone can buy on line, have it shipped FedEx, comes with a manual and power supply, you plug it in, and start mining.
The prices are going to need to reflect the New Normal, of course. Now they don't. But they will.
Somehow, none of that sounds like a tragedy to me.
It isn't and of course it was always going to be the case that more people would by a slice of the pie until they are no longer content with the portion. If Avalon or BFL delivered as promised on time such earlier predicted returns would have been feasible, but now of course they are to be diluted especially after the recent exposure Bitcoin has had. Anyone thinking this would be a full time replaceable income that wouldn't attract significant attention is barmy.
We are supporting a bold new economy as hobbyists protecting the network and sharing confirmations of transactions taking place. Our investments will be realised at greater magnitude when we as a community start innovating means for this exciting new payment method to be utilised by a greater volume of people than it currently is, increasing BTC's liquidity and fuelling it's growth in value...