The thing I find a problem with this is it's simply false. It's all about what you decide to do with the coinage that you mine. If you think profit isn't profit no matter the size of profit than you are dead wrong. For example if I said I would give you a free penny would you take it or think it's freaking one cent what good will it do me? Now take that penny of profit and 8 million people all giving you a free penny now those pennies add up. It's all about what you decide to do with the currency you gain from mining. If you want to invest into buying crypto currency because you think the price of it is going to go high at a certain point you have a much better shot at mining and saving the coins from mining it as long as you are mining above the cost of electricity because you are going to be getting more than your investment back and can continue to get a few. If you want to start a few business ventures it would be safe to mine a bit or have continual mining operation of profit to covers potential losses in the early goings of a business venture of crypto. So calling mining dead is really the same thing as saying that crypto currency is dying out. How is it worth anything to begin with? You need mining to keep it active as they have to complete the answer of the code for every transaction of that particular crypto coin. So the more any currency is used the more chances if you are mining that currency to complete that transaction and score a few coins. So if you don't think mining is a sound investment than it would be the same as saying the entire system is a bad idea. You have to know that it isn't dead and I'll prove it. You said you don't care if you are losing money because you care about the technology and you would rather lose money than let certain companies or pool get it. If that's true than you are either A) stupid or B) lying. If you have a family owned pizza parlor in small town but some big conglomerate pizza company comes in and making a pizza at $3.12 when it takes $3.11 to make a pizza at the cost of toppings, oven, and employee so you drop your price to $3.10 and lose money everytime someone orders something because you are going to show them by going broke? You have a dog but there is a new landlord and in order to keep your dog you have to pay an extra $500 a month and let's say only have an additional $300 a month with your current expenses which is $200 less and you checked and there are no additional places. Are you going to go in debt $200 every month until your kicked out or going to find a good home for your dog? You're going to find a good home right? Pizza scenario you're going to hope the community loves you and spends a bit more or close up shop before forced to file bankruptcy right? So which is it do you know there is value there and lying about the there not being value there or are you stupid and going to lose money knowing you are losing it?