If you put a few dollars into many penny cryptos and one will bound to go up 1000%, then you maybe DOUBLE your money in a year or two. Bitcoin increased 20 TIMES in 2017 alone. So it's really DUMB to bet on penny cryptos when you can go with the cryto leader, Bitcoin and get it at huge DISCOUNT which is what mining does.
If you put $1k into a 1-year mining contract, you'll get back 3-4 TIMES that. And that's like buying bitcoin at a 75% DISCOUNT.
And that's when the price doesn't increase. And when the price does increase, you can get 10-20 times your @1k investment.
I explained EXACTLY how that works in this post:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@jaro/12rjqr-bitcoin-mining-update
I actually have a 4 month old contract with hashflare. I will admit that I am profiting due to the price of bitcoin. Trouble though is I am earning a lot less than the first day I signed up. I think this has a lot to do with rising mining difficult. I remember on the first day I signed up I was projected to earn 0.05 bitcoin a year. Now it is barely above 0.03 in a year. I am hoping before my contract ends that hashflare will lower its withdrawl fees. At current pace I will have difficulty withdrawing my earnings unless I invest more. I may do that just for the sake of getting my bitcoin in the end.
Just saying not every mining contract is a bargain deal. I would avoid hashflare unless someone can really put a lot of money into it. Some where around $1,000 or more.
You gotta realize that as the price of bitcoin increases, the mining difficulty also increases. But the daily payoff in dollars remains about the same since those two cancel out each other.
On the other hand, a $4.00 investment made me $500 in a few months. Have to bet on the right coins. This is where research and intelligence have value. ;)