Quote from: MiningMike on Today at 04:57:22 AM

i remember when mining was something you could do casually maybe with laptop or desktop but now? it's like the game's changed completely. it's all about having industrial scale equipment and basically using up a small power plant's worth of electricity. It feels like the only people who can win are the big players who already have the resources

Indeed it has become industrial scale. Which is why very few people actually enter into mining and older miners have sold off their rigs and moved on from it. The ones who are running are those owning big farms of ASICs and cheap electricity and cold ambient temperatures.

I would say that those people are "winning" - it is a serious hashpower competition for them too. With newer ASICs coming up, they are in a constant rat race to bag the latest equipment and be on the biggest earners for their pool.

It does appear to be an unhealthy competition to me. Any android apps that can say they mine on your phone are malware, so they are to be avoided.