Would you buy some mining equipment, buy a share in a mining coop, or buy coins?
Definitively not share in a mining coop, you wont mine as much Bitcoins as you pay for the share in a mining coop (you can buy the shares only with Bitcoins)
If you buy the mining equipment with USD, you might be in profit depending of the price. Use mining calculators to find out
The coop I was looking at would be paid for in USD. It seems like it would be profitable but the calculation depends on future difficulty and future price and results vary wildly based on my different inputs. I am more concerned w difficulty since I am confident in long term performance of bitcoin. Difficulty is rising so fast..
Also I am wondering about the mining is dead statement.. Is it really dead? Isn't mining critical to the bitcoin universe since it is how transactions are processed and new coins are made? There must still be profit there to keep people interested?