Is mining profitable?

There are several ways to get bitcoin and other crypto-currencies.

Mining - extraction of crypto-currency through the capacities of the CPU, GPU cards or special ASIC chips.

Because of the high complexity of the networks, almost all crypto-currencies that work with PoW (proof of work) confirmation algorithms, I will consider mining only on GPU cards and ASICs.

So, you decided to become a miner. Where to begin?

ASIC-Miner is a set of integrated circuits designed to solve highly specialized tasks with high speed.

Consider the example of Antminer S9.
Works on algorithm SHA256 and allows to extract Bitcoin, bitcoincash, peercoin, etc. The most profitable coin for this equipment at the moment is Bitcoin.
The price of the manufacturer is $ 2000, and the actual price in stores is $ 3500. Suppose that you were lucky and you spent $ 3000 and $ 200 for a separate power supply (not included).
At the moment, this unit brings about $ 13 / day without taking into account the cost of electricity. It consumes 1400 watts / hour, which on average in Russia is about 150R / day or about 2.6 $.

Now turn on the head and the calculator.
We have:
spent - $ 3200
earn $ 10 / day ($ 13 - $ 2.6 for electricity).

Total per month is $ 300, if Bitcoin costs $ 11000.
That is, with a stable exchange rate, the equipment will pay off and begin to generate profits in about 10 months.
It is also worth considering the increase in complexity of the network, as new equipment is manufactured, bought and constantly launched into operation. And this means that with a stable bitokoy course because of the increasing complexity in each next month, your profit will fall.

Mining on GPU cards.

For mining on video cards, you will need to build a mining farm, or, as it is also called, rig. Rig - this is an ordinary computer, which includes several (5-8, sometimes up to 12) video cards, designed to produce crypto currency.
We will do the calculation of 6 radeon rx570 video cards.
The average cost of one card in stores is 30000-35000 rubles. We average up to 33000 and translate into dollars - about $ 590 per card.
Since we need 6 of them, we get $ 3540. In addition to video cards, we need to assemble the computer itself. The cost will be about 400 $.
At the moment, such an assembly will bring us $ 12.5 / day without electricity. It consumes 1400 watts / hour.

We calculate.
We spent 3940 $
Earn about 300 $ / month ((12.5-2.6) * 30 = 297)
Payback of equipment - about 13 months

Summarize.

Starting a "miners' affair" is now quite costly and risky, since you need to spend 3000-4000 $ with the possibility of further earnings in 10-13 months. Probably, in the presence of such a budget, it is easier to buy a share of bitcoin or any other crypto currency that attracted you, and wait for the growth rate.