I'm highly sceptical about the entire cryptocurrency space, due to the weirdly gold-standard like underpinnings of most of the currencies. I don't like the idea of deflationary currency. I don't like the idea of decentralised currency; I think central banks play a useful role, even if they don't always do it well. I don't think BTC is a good payment mechanism because it requires exchange at each end, long confirmation times and burning a ton of energy. I don't consider putting money into cryptocurrency 'investment' because it's not like putting money into a company or venture - you're just buying a virtual asset to sit on it. I think a lot of the programmable stuff around ethereum is an overhyped solution looking for a problem, most/all ICOs are scams and a whole host of other negative things about the entire sector.
That all said, I got curious and started mining with my gaming machines, and apparently I now have around $1K in various cryptocurrencies (half an ether, half a ZEC, some SIA, some ETN, a tiny piece of a monero, a few other little bits and pieces). The only money I've put in is through the electricity bill. I may find a way to cash out eventually, but at the moment I'm just going to hang on to it all and see where it is a year down the line. I don't believe in any of it - but I know other people do so there might be an opportunity to make some money.
I've had a lot of those same objections since I first heard about Bitcoin.
Ironically, I've been looking to buy some Bitcoin in the last couple months to trade for Sia, because I was thinking about setting up a storage node that can earn enough to pay for my own cloud backup needs.
I mined sia and eth together because there was a dual mining program. The idea behind it is kinda nice, I'm not sure I actually need the service right now... but I'll hang on to the 1k SIA I mined in case that changes.
I'm not expecting a speculative leap in value as amounts of siacoin mined are huge compared to the likes of ether or btc...
Do you need Sia to start hosting? I think you can just go for it.
Oh interesting, thanks for that. It puts up a bit of a barrier to entry... ooh, and suddenly things look a little bit complicated, as you have to manage your collateral levels optimally to get a good score and be an attractive storage option.
That all said, I got curious and started mining with my gaming machines, and apparently I now have around $1K in various cryptocurrencies (half an ether, half a ZEC, some SIA, some ETN, a tiny piece of a monero, a few other little bits and pieces). The only money I've put in is through the electricity bill. I may find a way to cash out eventually, but at the moment I'm just going to hang on to it all and see where it is a year down the line. I don't believe in any of it - but I know other people do so there might be an opportunity to make some money.