I am a total mining newbie interested in dipping my toes into the world of mining.

So I've set up chats with a few mining hosting providers to gather more info.

To be able to ask better questions, I wanted to pick SN's collective pool o' brains. What would you suggest I ask / focus on?

A bit of context of what makes me interested:

• I want to deploy some of my sats to earn more sats over the long haul.
  I'm in no rush, as long as I eventually (likely) see my initial investment plus some more sats some day.
• I want to go in with a small amount. Think no more than .2, preferably closer to .1
  I'm not against putting in more later, but this is me testing the waters.
• I don't care about tax benefits like depreciation or whatnotelse.
  These are very specific to whatever jurisdictions people fall under (or not). Plus I'm not a tax resident in the US, either, which most providers seem to tailor their advice around.

Things that make me hesitate:

• I don't like giving up custody of sats.
  Obviously a given, so I need to feel confident enough I won't get rugged.
• Don't know how to tell which mining providers are legit.
  They all have great testimonials - as many as anyone could buy. But how do I tell which ones are legit?
• I have no idea how fast miner hardware becomes uneconomical to operate.

So if anyone has advice on what to ask, also which providers people have good or bad experiences with, I would love to hear from you.

Or, heck, if using a provider is a waste of sats to begin with, I would like to hear that, too.