Bitcoin Forum

*Not too sure which forum/subforum this belongs in, so friendly mods are more than welcome to move it to the appropriate section*

I'm wondering whether or not there is interest around here for a Semiconductor Fab company to accept bitcoin for their services - that is, creating and packaging silicon ICs based on digital designs that are sent with the order.

Orders will probably be limited to a minimum of 500K USD (the approximate cost for a Mask to be made), and can range up to the millions (depending on the number of silicons wafers used). This may be a problem, since bitcoin doesn't (yet) have that much liquidity. All bitcoin funds would most likely need to be immediately converted to fiat, especially due to the risk of the bitcoin/fiat exchange rate destabilizing and since there is not much use (for the company) to keep funds in bitcoin.

Benefits would probably be limited to just anonymity, since it is _impossible_ to achieve the amounts of bitcoin needed simply through generation (unless one is a hoarding early adopter) and the use of exchanges would be needed. Not too sure why one would need anonymity in the semiconductor industry, however.

Unless liquidity is an issue, fees can be kept relatively low.

Fiat -> Bitcoin -> Fab -> Fiat.  (Most likely circumstance)

Anyway, just wondering  :)

This sort of stuff will be unlikely until there is more value/money in Bitcoin, there simply isn't enough around for 500 thousand dollars to be dropped in an instant

Do you have a link to more info on what fab processes you have available, etc?

Note that I am in no way personally affiliated with the company, besides from attending their schools. Current available processes range from 350nm to 40nm. More detailed information can be found at http://www.smics.com/ (http://www.smics.com/), and if you want I can ask one of their employees directly later today.

awesome thanks. The site looks to cover any questions I would have. I'm not a 500k whale. Just data mining for reference to other/future projects.