I really dislike the way media will so loosely throw around the word hack, like as if bitcoin has been directly hacked. The hack involved a third party not taking proper security measures to secure user wallets on their network. When it comes to bitcoin, time and time again users of Cloud Mining services get burned (including myself, in the past, where my life-time cloud mining membership was canceled, twice, on two different platforms). While I received my ROI, it was a clear indication of one thing: Cloud mining services are just not for me (if at all for anyone).
The best way to secure your cryptocurrency is to secure it yourself or do your due diligence and trust the right company. In the case of cloudmining, I trust none. It's not your cloud, it's not your hardware. The best way to mine for cryptocurrency in my opinion is to invest in your own rig. The best way to truly profit from a cloudmining service is to probably invest at least 3 grand if not more but agian, it's not your cloud and anything can go wrong. For about 3 grand you can buy your own mining rig and make the money back within a year. (Obviously you wouldn't be mining for bitcoins in this case).
I learned my lesson about cloudmining services, and as I returned to the bitcoin scene after a short break I was bombarded with NiceHash ads everywhere I went on the net for a short period of time. I asked myself, just how "Nice" is it? Well with past experience, I decided I would not get involved again. After all, I am still waiting to accumulate enough btc for a withdrawal on Hashflare.io but it seems my contract will expire before I reach the withdrawal requirement.
When I first heard about MtGox they were pretty big. Something about the name felt wrong. There were certainly red flags, but I feel it was mostly due to the geographical location. I stayed away, and literally just a few months after I heard about them they lost all those bitcoins. What a commotion it caused! Me: I felt right about my decision to stay away from MtGox. It was around the same time that this was happening that I was informed of MtGox's history and how they were original a card trading site for the card game Magic: The Gathering. When hit with this bit of information, it really didn't come as a surprise to me that this happened. It told me Bitcoin still had some growing to do and that we needed more experienced individuals "securing our wallets". It wasn't a kids game anymore, and it's what I felt some of the sites / exchanges were doing back then. Playing games. Probably and mostly due to the uncertainty of what bitcoin will do.
So here I am 3-4 years later, pretty content with my decision to continue to stay away from cloudmining services. I figured, if I can't afford my own rig then I won't mine at all. This in turn saves me money. Enough money to buy a mining rig in the near future. As with any investment, you can never invest more than you're willing to lose. My condolenses go out to anyone who lost money from this. I can't imagine being in their shoes right now. $68 million is a lot to lose, and I hope that somehow the theives are caught. What are your thoughts? Do you think cloudmining is a sound investment? In the end, I think it's too risky. Better to have my own.
Will this dramatically affect bitcoins price like these thefts have in the past? After watching the market through out the day, there seems to be little effect and seems to be a normal day. What does this mean for altcoins? It is a shame that these things seem to happen around Christmas. Bank roberries didn't affect money, just the people who were robbed. Can bitcoin sustain its price during massive heists like this? Let's hope so, and I hope we can all learn from this and maybe not be so quick to invest in cloudmining. I wonder if other cloudmining services will be targetted, and if they have the security to withstand such attacks. This is not to say that NiceHash is a bad service, or incompetent, but still a risky investment.
Thank you for reading, God Bless!