pat_13b

Yes

Asic's ARE used for SOME alt coins. Profitable? I don't know. Probably depends a lot on your circumstances.

My SO found some white crystal stuff in our kitchen and is convinced it is salt. It sure tastes salty but I want to reconfirm that it really is NaCl not some other salty tasting chemical. Is there any way to test this using household items/chemicals? Thanks

Why not just pause your mining when you want to play games? It's not that hard...

Have you got your nicehash miner sending your BTC to the nicehash wallet or a TP wallet? It sounds to me like your miner has deposited the funds into your wallet. Once this is done, the balance showing in the miner returns to zero and slowly build up again.

Could sell your BTC via an exchange. Higher cost but more secure.

Is it possible to dedicate GPU to mining and CPU to folding?

It's not a bad deal... but not a bargain... I would say it's a fair price

Rumours are that 144hz 4k is coming next year.

That couch change might one day be worth a lot more... or not... but maybe...

If you want to invest in a whole bitcoin, you might want to consider "dollar cost averaging" strategy to regulate some of your exposure.

All the above it true but don't let it discourage you. It's an interesting feild with lots of potential. Take a look at bitcointalk.org for more info and get involved.

What are you mining? Bitcoin, Ethereum... etc. ? What is your hardware?

Just to counter some of the above points: - Currencies like the euro or USD only have value because people agree that they have value. Same applies to Bitcoin. I don't see how being backed by a central bank that says "this piece of green paper is worth a certain amount of money" makes it better. Particularly when that central bank can manipulate the currency and severely screw up an economy. The supply of Bitcoin is known and and unchanging. People like stability. The fact that Bitcoin's inflation is declining (predictably) is a feature, not a bug. The alternative is that your USD, Euro, JPY gets "inflated into oblivion". - China can try and regulate bitcoin to stop people shifting money out of the country but in reality, how can they? People can just write the code for their own wallet from scratch or memorise the 12 word phrase/mnemonic and just generate their wallet across the boarder. Bitcoin gives people freedom. - Although I don't understand or know the technical details, my understanding is that the he system is already quantum computing attack resistant and the protocol can be upgrades if it needs to increase resistance. - Bitcoin technology evolves over time. Every part of the system will become better, cheaper and faster.

It can be risky to leave your coin stored on an exchange. As Andreas Antonopoulos says (I'll be misquoting but the effect is correct) if you don't hold the private keys, then it's not your bitcoin. I'd recommend you get it onto your own secure device. If the exchange/online wallet gets hacked (it's like a giant honey pot for a hacker) you'd loose it. I'm only a noob but I hope it helps.