Thank you, Biffa. I didn't realize we were paid only for finding blocks. I thought finding a block was like an added bonus of some sort, not the only way we get paid.
My understanding is completely incorrect now and I will have to reread how this all works. I was thinking the average of the difficulty was supposed to help even out our payouts but I don't see it actually working out in this manner. Especially, when there is no payout for 5 days and nothing to come of it after all of that time. That's a lot of cost and time for nothing. This is not a complaint, but a realization that there is more risk to mining in this manner than I was thinking originally. I was anticipating a payout on almost a daily basis, but it's far from that after seeing recent payouts over the past couple of weeks. Basically, there are times where we could essentially get paid nothing for offering our service.
What happens when all of the BTC blocks are found? Are these ASICs basically rendered useless? I understand that the ASICs are meant for SHA-256, so maybe Bitcoin Cash or another SHA-256 crypto is what we would be forced to switch to? Is this what would have to happen?
Thank you.
By the time all the blocks have been found we'll likely be dead and there will likely be a new form of currency.