Plan C: Cloud Mining for Fun and Profit

I had a plan of using my power-down proceeds from here to purchase precious metals, then another plan to purchase mining stocks (and other stocks that looked like interesting investments).

Now I have a new plan: use the power-down proceeds to purchase cloud mining contracts to obtain Ethereum. At the current exchange rates for STEEM-BTC and ETH-USD, even factoring in some fees for sales and fund transfers, this is a net-positive opportunity.

I am using Bittrex for the first part, and HashFlare (hashflare.io) for the second, as they had contracts at the sizes that I could afford week-to-week, and had the best online reviews for stability and reliability. Four days in, I am averaging 0.000816 ETH per day: should break even in about 4 months, if the prices hold near where they are now. That, of course, is the real risk; if the market bottoms out, my mining contracts may take a long time to break even, or possible never break even. I see this as a better, more reliable method of generating side income than trying to out-smart the U.S. stock market.

I had contemplated setting up my own mining hardware, but the hardware investments (not to mention the power costs) put that plan out of reach, even if Raspberry Pi's were used. The cloud mining approach seems more sound to me.