When you start mining today with an efficient brand new miner, you probably won’t mine the amount of 0.44 bitcoin over the lifetime of the machine. There are only a few reasons why you would currently start mining bitcoin.

Firstly:

- understand bitcoin is going to change our monetary system (low time preference)

- don’t think bitcoin will change our monetary system but you think the short term fiat margin is sufficient to have a potential positive business case while many assumptions are being made (high time preference)

Secondly:

Low time preference:

- see a fiat value potential that is so high, you want to have an insurance you are still able to “buy bitcoin with fiat cheaply”

- heat your business/house/pool while reducing natural gas or other traditional fossil fuel burning ways to heat it

- found stranded energy

- strengthen the network / understand bitcoin better / improve bitcoin mining

High time preference which leads to low time preference:

- able to receive cheap fiat money

- state that can print money

- excess fiat money

When you have combinations of these, the chance you’re mining bitcoin for a longer period of time is high.