There's certainly people who have lucked out and made a considerable amount of money that would, for all intents, be a replacement job for them. Some of the early Avalon machines would have been making hundreds of dollars a day when they were received. Even earlier miners on CPUs would be rolling in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
They may have made a great investment with a large, quick return - but it's not a job because:
(a) the income from the Avalon machine likely is much less now than initially, and is likely to shrink rapidly - so it's not a sustainable future income;
(b) keeping the income at the same level can't be done by spending your time, but by investing lots more money again and again;
(c) you (and anybody else) can increase that income hundredfold by buying hundred times more machines - i.e., it is limited by capital, not by time/effort.
It sure is income, but with very different characteristics. It's even very different from classic 'passive income' investments like dividend stocks or rental real estate - such 'passive income' investments are with rather sure long-term returns; but bitcoin mining gear produces very volatile short-term returns, and is likely useless in the long run as the device you buy now will after a couple years likely earn less than the electricity cost.
That's in a literal sense. I meant mining as a replacement for having a job, not so much that the mining itself was a job. You're right in every way though.
