I didn't compute it...because I'm lazy by default.

I went to coinotron and looked instead, but yes difficulty was 44.xxx a few days ago, fell to 26.xxx, and then climbed back up to the current 42.2770. As a result of these fluctuations I switched my 1.7ish Mh of BTC mining hardware to LTC mining for about a day and a half then switched back to BTC mining. Judging by network hashrates during that time it seems many did precisely the same thing.

I mine with a hodgepodge of cards 1x6950@6970, 2x6770, 1x5830, 1x6870, & 1x6850. 

LTC mining was 86% more profitable than BTC mining as recently as yesterday. Just as some people may be BTC mining at a loss this very second some LTC miners may be mining at a loss expecting LTC prices to rise again.

It's funny you say that because I've been training myself to break my programming(brainwashing) as it relates to valuing everything in consistently devalued FRNs for some while now. I'm nearly there, though sometimes I still regress. Instead of fiat toilet paper I try to think of the value of everything in terms of Ozt of silver. Try it some time, it can be very enlightening. When you think of purchases in terms of exchanging something of intrinsic value like AU, AG, or BTC, you're generally less likely to give them up for something of marginal value, unlike valuing things in USDs or other fiat trash.

SWEET! Glad you guys are adding new toys.

Yeah, a combination of a small silver market and lots of manipulation is a recipe for wild swings. This need not be a bad thing if you have the anti-acids handy and can keep emotion in check. On the contrary silver investing can be tremendously profitable.

It could still be okay for BFL pre-orders even if Avalon's first batch beats them to the punch, which BFL_Josh seemed to be preparing his customers for with recent posts. However if both Avalon and BTCFPGA beat BFL out the door I think their customers could be in for a lengthy ROI period.

At any rate the clock is ticking and the premium paid by BFL customers that paid for products months in advance is rapidly losing value.

Don't kid yourself. Silver is stable ATM, but it's a firecracker. I last played the GSR, swapping AG for AU at nearly $48/Ozt. It then fell to $29/Ozt and has worked it's way back up to $33. If you want stable and reliable then buy gold, both silver and bitcoins are volatile.

No thanks. The goings on in the BTCFPGA forums of late have been creepy enough for my liking and they don't seem to have multiple sockpuppets posting pro vendor blather all over and attacking anyone that's rightfully skeptical.

I used to visit BFL forums, but it's just a cheerleading circus now, with little reason for existing aside from propaganda dispersal.

Umm...I want some of each actually.

I do know this. When difficulty goes up 200x ASICs will look far less attractive. The transition period doesn't need to be very long for early adopters to be profitable. Where I think we disagree is in how quickly ASICs can be delivered. Unlike GPUs we're not talking about ATI and nVidia mass production. At this point it appears as though Avalon's small 300 unit batch could well be first to reach end users. How long after that happens before bASIC and BFL ship in quantity will determine how much those Avalon recipients make off their investments, but it could well be huge...and yes if BFL is unable to ship in January then I'd categorize those early Avalon customers' profits as "off the charts".

As stated, they have indeed delivered FPGA products. Then like now they were months late, but they did eventually deliver.

It doesn't seem to make any difference to some that pre-ordered ASICs months ago how much their supplier devalues the product they receive. It matters to me. I pre-ordered one unit in mid October and added a second in late November and if those products are delayed for three months I'll be p1issed. YMMV.

Like Avalon it's specified as a range for bASIC. Only BFL has use of a crystal ball and can perfectly predict power consumption to the watt across an entire product line. Naturally no on questions this crystal ball prediction as BFL's track record for predicting power consumption in the past is exemplary.

It's amusing that anyone raising concerns about BFL is automatically labeled a troll. Almost like no one has ever been scammed in the BTC community.

Only applicable if you bought a house in August and you're sleeping on a park bench in December. Otherwise the BTC invested in the house were well spent protecting you from exposure.

This ignores the most important aspect of the move to ASICs. Efficiency. They use very little power for the hashes they produce. While you could crank up a whole bunch of GPUs to get more hashes you'd give back much of those gains when the electric bill arrived. That won't be the case for early ASIC adopters. The only thing that's set to reduce the profitability of ASICs is competition from other ASICs which will eventually make power consumption an issue again.

I can respect that, though I believe the jump to ASIC is a little different than the jump from CPU to GPU mining.

Because ASICs have such a high efficiency the potential reward for early adopters is off the charts. While there are certainly risks, as long as you aren't gambling the grocery money it may make sense for some. However as all of the three company's first batches are filled, it probably makes more sense to wait and observe the results at this point.

That is precisely why I worded it the way I did.

That's not the whole story though. Gold value measured in FRNs does not experience such wild % swings, primarily because the gold market is several times larger than the silver market. The bottom line is silver and BTC value measured in FRNs fluctuates a lot. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can cause one to experience sleepless nights until you have been through a few corrections. 

It's value in fiat changes a lot.



Gold is rather tranquil by comparison.