A few edge cases to consider here: 1) ASIC hardware running on free, stolen or "creatively accounted" electricity. Maybe it's as mundane as a janitor with a bu

A few edge cases to consider here: 1) ASIC hardware running on free, stolen or "creatively accounted" electricity. Maybe it's as mundane as a janitor with a bunch of hardware stashed in a closet, or an office complex that charges a flat rate for utilities. Maybe it's as exotic as a mining farm getting a cut rate on nearby power generation in a cold climate. 1) ASIC hardware, by it's very nature, requires some type of network connectivity-- either with other miners, a special dispatching machine or directly to the bitcoin network over TCP, one way or another it needs to know what the blockchain looks like at any given point in time. This means attack surface area. All it takes is one widely deployed bug and those machines you run are mining into someone else's account. Both of these scenarios, along with countless others, make mining in any capacity a negative sum game.