Since ASICs are now "out there", the overall difficulty might not jump as quickly as when they were newer. But in general you'll be losing money (especially if

Since ASICs are now "out there", the overall difficulty might not jump as quickly as when they were newer. But in general you'll be losing money (especially if you pay when you pre-order[1]), or possibly running pretty thin margins, unless you're way ahead of the curve (then you can make a lot. but that's unlikely to happen.). It's a gamble, and it's a gamble Bitcoin is designed to prevent being too profitable. To be frank, I wouldn't suggest it. To answer the title, I made about a quarter of a coin back when GPU miners were relatively new, on Slush's pool. And about 0.1 coin with my CPU prior to that. Otherwise nope :) [1]: assuming the relatively-stable constant increase in bitcoin price keeps going, you'll very likely make way more just by buying the bitcoins then. that growth has survived every boom and bust thus far, completely unscathed, so it seems pretty likely to continue.