So we are skidding along dangerously close or BELOW mining expenses in some places depending on equipment and size and effeciency of your mining operation. If you are like me and operate a medium scaled small data center sized operation then the cost is still a good bit lower but the fact remains as the great Satoshi said, "the price of bitcoin will always gravitate to the cost of mining bitcoin. when the price of bitcoin gets much greater than production costs it will correct back down and when it is pushed below the cost of production it will be forced back up" this is basic economics but with Bitcoin which I have been mining for a full decade now it is all the truer as the large miners control the majority of new coins entering the market and are coordinated in our efforts to stabalize pricing for the most part (rogue entities excluded!) if you look back to price fluctuations before the first 2 halvings, particularly the 6 months right before there were Far more drastic swings both up and down as compared to the swings were facing today. as more and more hashes are added to the network (14 quadrillion currently!) the market price will become more stable as it is showing to be but when the supply of blocks is cut in half, effectively quadruppling production cost overnight, TADA!!!! the law of economics would dictate as it has that if the cost of my mined bitcoin goes from X to -- X(x4) then the price is rapidly pushed to X(x4) and beyond as mining ops and whales rush to capitalize on this great squeezing of price... i am excited to see what is to come! as more and more ops like mine (now almost 70% powered by the sun!) become more profitable and the difficulty changes with the halvening commence plus the addition of greater futures gambling and pressure we are in for one hell of a ride! I am fortunate that I am in the position I am in with a steady supply of 12.5 new coins to pay my staff and support my ever growing expensive lifestyle but I will forever and always be grateful to those who helpted me understand that bitcoin is far more than wealth or money! We are taking the formentioned things BACK FROM THE BANKS!!!! AND GIVING IT TO THE PEOPLE! OR WE ARE TRYING! RIPPLE IS FIGHTING HARD TO KEEP THE POWER IN THE HANDS OF THE BANKS WHICH IS WHY THEY DISGUST ME SO MUCH AND WHY I GO SO DAMN HARD DUMPING ON THEIR BOOKS AT EVERY CHANCE I GET WITH SHORT SALES THAT WOULD MAKE ALOT OF HOLDERS PUKE! LMAO, SHORT XRP, LONG BITCOIN!!!!!