The profitability of Bitcoin mining plays a crucial role in preventing attacks. If mining Bitcoin is no longer profitable, it becomes easier for attacks to occur.
There’s little incentive to mine Bitcoin if it’s not profitable. Even if your goal is simply to learn how Bitcoin mining works, it’s reasonable to expect that it will take you at least a week to get a grasp of it, after which you should discontinue your efforts.
In the past, I was concerned about potential attacks, but those days are over. The hash rates are now distributed across various countries and locations, including China, the U.S., Nigeria, and others. It's too late to worry about that now.
Plugging in an outdated ASIC miner won't help Bitcoin if mining isn't profitable. If it’s not generating profit, it doesn’t contribute positively to the network.
I think bitcoin mining has to make money to keep things safe since us miners are the ones checking transactions and stopping bad stuff. If it's not worth it anymore, I worry fewer people like me will stick around and that could make the network shaky. But I love how bitcoin's spread out all over the world, it makes it tougher for anyone to mess with it. Even my old mining gear might not rake in cash but I figure it still helps keep things decentralized if I use it smart. Over time, I've seen bitcoin figure itself out as we all adjust to how the market swings.