[PeterisP]

Bitcoin mining is not a "job" (requiring effort) but an investment - requiring capital. So in the long run, it shouldn't be possible to get a return on bitcoin mining much above normal market interest rates, since if the return would be higher (as it was just recently) then an investor can buy/build large amounts of ASICs and drive bitcoin price down.

[nwh]

There's certainly people who have lucked out and made a considerable amount of money that would, for all intents, be a replacement job for them. Some of the early Avalon machines would have been making hundreds of dollars a day when they were received. Even earlier miners on CPUs would be rolling in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[PeterisP]

They may have made a great investment with a large, quick return - but it's not a job because:

(a) the income from the Avalon machine likely is much less now than initially, and is likely to shrink rapidly - so it's not a sustainable future income;

(b) keeping the income at the same level can't be done by spending your time, but by investing lots more money again and again;

(c) you (and anybody else) can increase that income hundredfold by buying hundred times more machines - i.e., it is limited by capital, not by time/effort.

It sure is income, but with very different characteristics. It's even very different from classic 'passive income' investments like dividend stocks or rental real estate - such 'passive income' investments are with rather sure long-term returns; but bitcoin mining gear produces very volatile short-term returns, and is likely useless in the long run as the device you buy now will after a couple years likely earn less than the electricity cost.

[nwh]

That's in a literal sense. I meant mining as a replacement for having a job, not so much that the mining itself was a job. You're right in every way though.