I was under the impression that cloud mining was always a rip-off. Has anyone reading this ever made a profit (or at least broke even) with cloud mining?
It is a rip-off. You'll be lucky if you break even, and with all the new hashpower coming on line it's likely you won't ever break even. Even "smells like a ponzi" PBMining with their low rate will barely break even after a year, and at that point you'll be earning tiny fractions.
These cloud providers make money off the fact that people either can't or won't do the math. It's the same with rig leasers. If people really want to invest, they're far better off just buying bitcoin and holding it than trying to mine it.
People who lease rigs speculate on new coin releases, pump and dumps, are testing ideas, are dumb (as you stated), or don't give a shit. I have never done it, nor have I leased mine, but just renting a rig requires research, so I doubt everyone is a moron.
PB mining has a decent chance of producing return, especially if you think btc is going to go up slowly long term, as opposed to sky rocket. If you think it will go down more than well your fucked and welcome to the club
It will probably take 3-4 months at this rate for 26 gh/s to break even, it will probably take 3-4 months for btc to hit a point I want to sell anyways so, win, win for me.