I think the days of home mining and small mining pools are coming to an end. If you cannot add hashing power to match difficulty you are just spinning your wheels. The mining manufacturers need to produce a 20THs miner at 1500w that is affordable for us to buy. This latest round from Ant and Canaan is just a money grab taking advantage of people looking for an answer. If things keep going at the rate they are now my 55THs operation will not be profitable after June 2018. If BTC goes back to $20K it will give me a few more months. If China bans mining the overpriced S9 will be worthless on the resale market. We went from 72 blocks in June to 8 in January you do the math.
I mostly agree. Right now it is more profitable to buy
BTC directly on the market than to try and mine. I am really torn - I really like mining at home but if it does not recover in the next six months, I'll probably sell all my miners and buy some coin directly. I think home/small miners are kind of a rare breed anymore - we believe in Bitcoin's future almost no matter what happens to the price now.
Any small trickle I get from mining is worth it as long I can afford the power. I firmly believe in five years a bitcoin will be worth $30K or way more.