Is cloud mining still a good idea?

Remember those days when you could just buy a cloud mining contract and get a cut of the block reward without dealing with any hardware or software? Sure, most of those services were scams, but the idea itself was awesome. Right now, only a handful of legit options are out there, like NiceHash, Genesis Mining, and Mining Rig Rentals. So, is cloud mining still a smart move in 2025? The market feels kinda bearish, so it might actually be a decent time to mine BTC and some PoW altcoins. What do you guys think?

Nicehash and Mining Rig Rentals are "hashrate marketplace" or "hashpower marketplace", not "cloud mining". I don't know about Mining Rig Rentals, but NiceHash have partially lose it's reputation due to questionable policy such as higher minimum withdraw amount, inactive fee and more strict identity verification requirement. I wouldn't bother with any of those, when earning profit reliably if your goal.

Newbies say they make good profits with Oneminers You can check it yourself, just don't throw stones at me later

I forget to mention it earlier, but the concept of cloud mining (not hashrate marketplace) isn't that great. All the risk burdened into customer, while the company have stable income where they could force customer to upgrade or stop it's contract on bad condition (such as after halving or Bitcoin price crashed) with little/no refund. I'm aware you told a joke. But not all reader aware of it, so i'm here to remind that oneminers dot com is a probable scam mining company.

Given that the market is currently Bearish, I think maybe it is a good time to do Bitcoin Mining or some altcoins as you said. But unfortunately if we do cloud mining for now, I think it's a little less worth it, because we know that it's the same as speculating and hoping for a high increase in the tokens or coins that we have mined, and this is different from the old days, where there used to be no term "Spread money" and in the past some tokens or coins seemed to increase more easily during bullish times. So I think it's better to compound on crypto, especially Bitcoin, than to do cloud mining, cmiiw.

The concept was indeed good and "profitable" in some cases but back then was easier and cheaper to do this. The price of BTC or LTC/ Doge wasn't in the prices that we are facing now and this has a huge impact on the so-called "cloud mining" providers and to people who wanted to get some coins and "feel" how to be a miner. Not to mention electricity cost, miners cost, etc. Now, it sounds more like a dream. Even if it's not a scam (which we all seriously doubt), their prices for everything it's outrageous. You can't make a profit out of it, that's for sure.

It was a scam a decade ago and it is still a scam. People have always been looking for passive income opportunities, that’s nothing new. However cloudmining and crypto, both were new in 2013. People didn’t know what they were getting into. There were many cloudmining companies and none of them survived as far as I am aware. That alone should give you a hint. Cloudmining is not sustainable.

What's the difference? You're still mining remotely. Marketplace or mining contract, everything's the same to me. I think it's best to have someone you trust run the miners for you. That person could be in a distant country and pass on the earnings to you. We can't trust mining companies or marketplaces these days. Especially when they're often a target of scams. Some even go as far as asking ID verification documents (KYC) from you. A huge "no-go" for me. Who knows? With governments planning to run their own mining farms, maybe they'll be able to provide cloud mining services for a "fee". At least we know, PoW cryptocurrencies (particularly BTC) won't be going anywhere soon.

The main difference is the source of the hashrate. On cloud mining, the source is the cloud mining company. But on hashrate marketplace, the source comes from many people/group. In addition, hashrate marketplace usually offer advance option such as choose which mining pool to use and can choose how long to buy specific amount of hashrate. I get your point. BTW, such service already exist under name of "Mining hosting" or "Mining colocation" where you send your ASIC to them.

I'm already tired of explaining to miners that this company has more profit than I have in mining, although I work independently and have no taxes. Moreover, my electricity price is lower. I don't need to read complex investigations, because I see fabulous income that cannot exist. But some people independently invest in dubious projects, because you can also make money in them, as long as the influx of clients is high.

I thought Genesis Mining has closed down for business? I can still remember the time when they announced via their mail and RSS feed that they couldn't keep up with the PNL any longer? Even Nicehash hash power renting service is no more profitable. The only reason I can still rent for hash power on Nicehash is if a new interest altcoin comes out and I don't have the right equipment to mine the coin, but trying to make profit through Bitcoin and others now are not profitable. Even those Asic miners like S21 takes the majority of the profits to settle electricity bill, what is left is your profit which is not encouraging for cloud like or hash rental services.

do not do cloud mining, go for asic hosting providers

Old days, but the way I see it, its a bustling area for scammers to run their MLM. Today if you want to cloud mine correctly, invest in the building of a mining rig that you can foresee. Owning their business will actually mean something rather than buying hashpower for a company that is overseas and nobody knows anyone actually running it. Even better is to buy bitcoin directly. But I guess most of the users have already been doing that.

I think that no one will give you investments to buy bitcoin, but mining is already production and there will always be investors in this business. But the profit in mining will soon tend to the average profit in production.

AFAIK, Genesis Mining isn't accepting any new signups. Only old customers will be able to access their platform. I can't find out about this, because I've never made an account. But maybe someone here who bought mining contracts before can verify this? Anyways, it seems to me that cloud mining is a losing game. Especially with the rising cost of electricity worldwide. Maintenance fees will be a huge burden when purchasing a mining contract. Maybe cloud staking is a better choice?

Cloud mining was never a part of the good old days, it has always been a terrible business. 99% of cloud mining companies were scams and the remaining 1% were not profitable. The only good cloud mining company in my mind was Hashnest because you could trade with hashrates on their website and if you wanted to get out of business, you could sell hashrates on the marketplace within seconds. I've made some profit by buying and selling hashrates on hashnest. Cloud mining is always a bad idea. You'll either get scammed or never profit. I have an account on Genesis-Mining and I can confirm that I successfully logged in to my account. Btw Genesis-Mining was never a profitable cloud mining company but it was legit.

Base on their notice they are only available to their existing clients as of March 1st 2020  and not accepting any new plan since February 21  see the full details here https://genesis-mining.com/ Cloud mining is out on the picture if you mean profitable option to invest that's why many of those good mining platform before close down their service its because they didn't get much profit on their operation. Also lots of scam are spreading that's why its never advisable for anyone to invest on this platforms because since provably they will just lost their money there. I don't explore that cloud staking and maybe will look on further details about it then see if its really profitable or just see it as another scam.

I'd say cloud mining in 2025 is complicated depend on your needs. The legitimate providers you mentioned do offer convenience, but their profitability margins are typically razor-thin when you account for their fees. The math rarely works in your favor compared to direct investment in crypto. With the market in a bearish phase, mining difficulty hasn't dropped proportionally to prices. Most cloud mining contracts end up being more expensive than simply buying and holding the asset. If you're strictly interested in exposure without the technical hassle, consider spot investing instead. Cloud mining's main appeal is simplicity, not profitability.

If you have to mine anything make sure it is Bitcoin, LTC or Doge. Do not make the same mistake I did in 2018, if all my effort was to have BTC only I would have end up making some good amount, instead I choose useless coins over BTC. I don't believe in cloud mining anymore, this is the most difficult business anyone can go for, profit wise isn't going to worth it, I already made up my mind some years ago that all cloud mining can't keep up anymore. If any still exists right now they are going to get the best of you, because they are likely scam or pyramid schemes.

There are people making it with services like nicehash. I've never tested it and not sure how they they are monetizing when the price of BTC is so volatile now.