I have the 25th unit and it didn't ship.  So HashFast "shipped" a token number of units (potentially as little as 1 BabyJet & 1 Sierra) to say they are "shipping".  My guess is they didn't even ship 3 units but I know for a fact at the absolute most they only shipped units prior to mine which would be a staggering 24 units or ~10 TH/s.  For all practical intents and purposes they haven't shipped anything.

The longest* fork has the greatest chance of remaining the longest fork.  All other forks will be orphaned and any generated coins on orphaned forks are worthless.  It is in a miners self interest to avoid worthless coins and that means always building off the longest fork.  Thus when miners learn that another block has been found which extends the primary chain they will switch and build off of that.  Doing anything else means a reduction in income.


* Longest technically means the most work not necessarily the most blocks as Bitcoin selects as the primary chain the one with the highest collective difficulty.

The fund itself may not hold any BTC but these are financial professionals.  Not too hard to form a separate entity to acquire the BTC, hold them, and then sell them to the trust for a precontracted rate once the fund is setup and raises capital from initial investors.  Essentially moving funds from one pocket to another.  A lot of big deals are "done" before they are official done.

Anyone thinking Fortress is going to let something like this "slip" (and this "slip" is a strategic slip, it it called a trial balloon) and then go and hit BUY $150,000,000 USD worth of BTC at Market on MtGox is dreaming.  It is a nice dream though.

However Fortress is a big name, and that means a wider audience to big money.  The fund could start with $150M in assets and grow to a billion or more which means future purchases.  Likewise first it was Second Market now (potentially it is just a rumor) Fortress.  Those are the first movers, the risk takers, the innovators.   The next thing is twenty other hedge funds doing the exact same thing because they don't want to lose client funds.

Their initial coins?  No doubt they have already bought them.  I mean that is investing 101.  However if successful the funds would continually attract new investors which means future purchases.  I would point out FIG has not confirmed the rumor.

Fortress = Fortress Investment Group.   

The multi billion dollar hedge fund company (>$50 Billion in assets under management) not the nobody scammer "Trade Fortress".  Maybe that helps people see the headline in a new light.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortress_Investment_Group

Would be interested but it should be the full name.

Order prior to 15 AUG had no mention of Dec 31.  They have been in violation of their original TOS for months now.

The "lock time" is the value inside the transaction which indicates the earliest it can be included in a block.   The tx can't be part of the blockchain until that time because any block which contains a tx that exists prior to the locktime is invalid.

So what he is saying the network won't remember it for you, you will need to store a copy of the "signed and valid yet not yet able to be included in a block" transaction and submit it to the network AFTER the locktime has occured.

For the record I have order 490.  There are only 24 units prior to mine on the order chain.  I did not receive tracking number or shipping notification.
http://hashfast.com/order-chain/

So at best HashFast ("capacity to ship hundreds of units per day") shipped 24 units.  It is likely less but unless someone else further up the chain can confirm not getting tracking information that is all I know for sure.

You should be.  It also helps your government took a hands off approach when it came to Bitcoin specific regulation.  The actions of FinCEN and some states have increased the regulatory burden, and that makes innovation and growth slower and more difficult.

^+1 to the advice there.

The new purchase and sale in no way affect the taxable event which occurred with the prior sale. Buy 1 BTC @ $600, sell @ $1,200 you locked in a $600 taxable gain (short term if the time between buy and sell is less than 365 days).  Future tx can't modify that gain (and taxes due).  In your example you would have the same $49,500 capital gain for 2013 and in 2014 you would have a separate capital gain one the gain (if any) on the 20 BTC you bought and resold.

However at one time the reverse was true (but is no longer so only read on if you want to know another reason the IRS sucks).   At one time you could intentionally sell to lock in a paper loss (and thus reduction in taxes) and then immediately rebuy and thus continue to stay long the asset.  Say you bought 1 BTC @ $1,200 and then the market crashed, you believe BTC will go higher so you don't want to sell permanently down here but you would love a tax break.  So you would sell 1 BTC @ $600 and then immediately buy 1 BTC @ ~$600.  You still have 1 BTC but on paper you took a $600 loss (bought at $1,200 sold at $600) which at one time you could use to reduces your taxes.  The IRS introduced rules called "wash sale" rules which eliminate this "loophole" (smart strategy).   Today if you sell and rebuy an asset within 30 days it is considered a wash and you can't deduct any capital loss (although you still owe any capital gain).  To avoid a wash the time between sell and rebuy would need to be 31 days or more which would be very risk for Bitcoin.

Also one major problem with Chernobyl is that shield built over the gaping reactor roof by workers (90% of which died) is aging and weakening.

There is a pretty interesting solution to build the shield on wheels nearby and it will be rolled into place over the aging crippled reactor to reduce the exposure to workers.
Interesting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OFEI8S5rG0

This 75% penalty tax is above and beyond all existings taxes.   So france isn't raising the income tax to 75% (which would be insane as it is) the employee and employer still pays all his normal taxes (income tax is >45%, social taxes >9%, VAT >19%) PLUS on top of that the employer now pays an additional 75% penalty tax in wages over 1M EUR.  It is >100% total taxation (on the portion above 1M EUR) as insane as that sounds, and no employer is going to pay more in taxes then they pay their employee so they will just cut wages to the 1M "cap" and offer other non salary compensation (stock options, increased benefits, etc).  The irony is that not only will the govt not get the 75% in super taxes they will lose all the taxes on employee incomes that have been cut.

That isn't to say CA isn't insane.  Don't forget CA has a 8.5% sales tax on top of the income tax.  Also don't forget ObamaCare added a 3.8% additional tax on those making >$250K annually starting in 2014. Similar to France (although well ambitious) this isn't raising the tax bracket by 3.8% it is a new separate tax class on top of all the existing taxes.  So yeah CA is pushing 60% to 70% in total taxation easy these days.  It is one reason why other tech hubs like Austin have seen so many CA immigrants.

@ gannicus,

Thanks for the cite. 

I think we might just be talking past each other.

1) I 100% agree no company will pay it thus it simply acts as a defacto cap on wages.

2) I agreed that it might be on the portion over 1M I never refuted your claim just said the articles was unclear and wondered if someone had a clearer example.  With your cite I agree 100% it is a flat 75% tax on the portion over 1M.   Simple solution.  Nobody (or no significant numbers) will get paid over 1M in salary (they will just take more deffered compensation) and the tax revenue will be roughly nothing.  75% of nothing is nothing.

3) It still isn't an income tax.  My point was that this isn't like raising the income tax bracket to 75% this is IN ADDITION to the employees income tax.  So hypothetically if the tax rate in the >1M EUR bracket was >25% (and I have to guess with France it is more like 50%+) that means the tax between both the employee and employer on the portion above 1M EUR is more than 100%.  That is how insane this is.   Merely raising the income tax bracket to 75% would be bad enough this is a scheme which results in more than 100% taxation.  Utterly asinine.  I think I was unclear but that was my point on saying it isn't an income tax.

I don't think they switched I believe the SlowJets were always going to use a double radiator.  In their much earlier airflow test they had 1 radiator at the top and 1 radiator (upgrade module) at the front. Yes that means intake before someone freaks out but honestly at this point it is the least of anyone's problems.   Early buyers are looking at a 50% to 90% loss in BTC terms depends on when the MPP ships and how much hashrate goes up in the next three months.

Yeah that is nonsense.  2^256 is bigger than you think.  Not kinda bigger than you think asinenly bigger than you think.

If you converted the entire planet into a super computer and powered it by the sun you couldn't COUNT to 2^256 before the sun burned out, there isn't simply enough energy.  Of course that is doing something fantastical like building a perfect computer (one at which higher efficiency violates the laws of thermodynamics) and capturing the entire energy output of a star.   That isn't finding a collision that is just counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 .... 2^256.   

Defacto it pretty much is a maximum wage law as no company is going to pay employees over the "cap" only to be slammed with an obviously punitive tax (on top of existing payroll, sales, and corporate income tax).  Companies will cut salaries (or offer alternative compensation) to avoid the tax and the "tax" will produce no significant revenue but the government will have to already know that will be the outcome and thus the "tax" isn't intended as a tax at all but a method of control.

It is NOT an income tax.  French citizens will continue to pay whatever (likely insane) income tax exist.  This is a tax or more aptly a penalty paid by the COMPANY which dares to issue such a high salary.  You state it is on the amount over 75% can you point to a cite because nothing in the article indicates that.  Still even if it is only on the amount of the salary over 75% it is not an income tax and not paid by the employee.

In essence France has said "employers are not allowed to pay anyone over 1M EUR and if you do we will slam you with a 75% fine".  It is a defacto ban on salaries the government considers too high, the only thing more strict would be outright prohibition by making it a criminal offense for a company to pay an employee more than $1M EUR annually.

Weird the tax isn't an income tax, it is a penalty tax on the companies which pay its employees "too much".  The company pays a 75% tax on the salaries which exceed 1M EUR per year.  So company pays you 1M EUR, company coughs up 750K EUR to the government.  Correction:  The tax is on the employer for 75% of the wages ABOVE 1M EUR so it is in effect a wage cap.  Instead of the govt saying "wages over 1M annually are illegal" they just made it asininely expensive to pay wages that high so ... companies won't.

Company cuts your salary to 1,000,000 EUR or less, and the company pays no tax (well no extra millionaire taxes).  I have a feeling many companies will simply cut salaries which are over the 1M "cap" and offer some form of deferred compensation.

I bought (well my wife bought it as a gift) #3 in the series.  Dealing with Start The Art was pleasant and professional.   The only hard part is the waiting.  It is a long way from Croatia to the US.  I will be sure to post some photos once it arrived and it mounted.

I wanted to get #1 but honestly it was too large for the space and now it looks like Goat might have snapped it up.