Cloud mining experience
I followed the zcash project quite early, before the launch. And I wanted to be ready with mining from the start. since I had no time to allocate into my own hardware, I decided to give the Genesis mining solution a go.
Before subscribing, I could read positive but also negative feedback on cloud mining in general. One of the main negative points is that it could be a scam: The cloud mining company takes your money, then they disappear a few months later.
Genesis mining argued that they were a trusted company and were the oldest cloud mining operator which was a proof of their honesty, which I still believe.
So I decided to give it a try and bought with a mix of cash and BTC an equivalent of 775H/s (after Genesis Mining upgraded the hash rate a few times).
Total cost: 3734 USD.
13 months later (the yearly contract was extended by Genesis Mining by one month to counter balance the zcash slow start), I accumulated 13,6 ZEC.
This means that these 13,6 ZEC are 275 USD/ZEC.
You could say I didn't loose my money looking at today's ZEC price, but it was probably not the best way to get ZEC neither.
Of course, nobody could predict the ZEC price. It is easy to say now that it would have been a much better idea to hold, and buy for that same sum when the ZEC was lower.
ZEC price was below 275USD/ZEC the majority of the time in 2017.
It would also have been a much better deal for me to keep the invest BTC, but again, nobody could predict such a raise.
Here is the graph of the daily payments over time and the difficulty increase over time. The difficulty will have an impact on the daily amount being mined.
Daily payments over time:
Why cloud mining?
I wish now I had thought a bit more about this before to go for a yearly contract.
Today, I see miners as being enthusiasts enjoying putting together the right hardware and get rewarded out of it, beside participating to the network.
In cloud mining, all the hardware maintenance part is gone. No fun coming from that anymore.
Cloud mining consists of paying for a service that will do the mining job for you. That is quite difficult to make this cheaper than doing it your own. Think of all the overhead you have to cover when doing this in big scale..
When looking at Genesis mining web page, they are also fair. They don't promise you anything they can't achieve. The only thing I think is a bit dishonest is their feedback system:
You are invited to give your opinion after you have your contract activated. You get a reward for this feedback, in hash power (If I remember correctly). It pushes the new user to leave a positive comment on a year-long service. That cannot be reflecting the reality, since the user is only there for a few days. A feedback at the end of the contract would be much more representative and fair. However, these are the ones you can read on their first page and could convince some to go for a contract too. It is a good advertising for Genesis mining even though it might not reflect the real picture.
Conclusion:I won't go for a cloud mining contract anymore, and won't recommend it. I did it once, learned from it and that's enough.
Today, if I want some cryptocurrencies, I go on an exchange and I purchase from there. I get them almost instantly at the advertised price.
I hope this will make some people consider cloud mining option a bit longer rather than quickly go for a contract..