It's easy to make the mistake of thinking that a share in an Ethereum Mining Pool is all about the amount of Ether you get daily and that is it.
This is quite understandable, after all, we're all in it for the potential returns.
But while I was studying the progress of the Ether I had been receiving each day from my share (admittedly not as much as I assumed I'd be getting), it did occur to me that there was much more to this than simply the "coin" we get daily.
Part of what I am going to share here is fact, part of it is my own logical speculation about where this COULD go.
All of it is designed to help you to be more informed.
Ether is running at around a value of $14 as I write. It has been as high as $20 and as low as $6 in the time that I have been studying it.
I have a touch under 16 Ether so far from my mining pool share. At it's lowest point that would have been $96 worth (pretty sad given a $1,000 investment).
At it's highest point it would be worth $320, not too bad after 3 months. At current value it is around $224. Not brilliant but not bad enough to worry.
But here's a few points that we might want to consider:
1) No-one knows how long the "proof of work" mining will go on for. It was felt that a year was probably on the cards at the start of the Ethereum pool being introduced. The fact is though that this could go on longer.
A share does not have a lifespan on it so, as long as "proof of work" continues, we will earn Ether daily. It could, of course, be less than a year. The point is no-one knows.
2) You could speculate forever about how much more Ether you could be holding now if you merely spent the $1,000 you spent on a mining pool share directly on Ether itself.
All well and good if you'd purchased at $6 or $7 but not so good if you'd caught it at $18 to $20 thinking it was still going up. The point is; do you consider yourself a skilled crypto currency trader?
3) For it to move away from "proof of work" mining to "proof of stake" mining (the same way that ClubCoin is mined) it will have had to establish itself some.
And, I think, certainly establish a big enough following as to make certain that enough nodes "stakers" are available and willing to mine on a "proof of stake" basis.
That is, to be fair, likely to be a "given" but, it may take some time until those driving Ethereum want it to change. Again, unknown factors.
4) When you purchased a mining pool share in Ethereum, you actually purchased the hardware to do it, albeit operated on your behalf by the BCN pool guys. A lot of people missed this bit when the Ethereum pool began:
"You are actually purchasing real mining hardware. This is not cloud mining or renting hash power, or virtual mining you are purchasing actual GPU mining rigs that will be used to mine Ether and you will own these mining machines outright! In fact, if you would like to request your machines at any point we can ship them to you!"
Now I move into speculation mode. It is my belief that this equipment could be altered to mine other crypto currencies. I don't know this for sure, but I am guessing that BCN will have that in mind. And this theory is somewhat supported by another comment made when Ethereum mining began:
"We also have some ideas on what to do with these machines in the future after Ethereum mining moves to Proof-of-Stake and we will let you know what your options are."
There could also be an opportunity to pool again and mine Ether as a group by putting all of our Ether together to make our "proof of stake" mining very efficient indeed.
So, it seems to me that, as I said, there is, perhaps, more to consider than just the Ether we get daily.
I'm not trying to promote the purchase of Ethereum Mining Pool Shares here. Actually, even if I wanted to, there are no more shares up for sale currently.
I just wanted to help you to be a little more informed. | 
