ASICMiner is like the Apple of mining hardware. ....must...get...the...new...shiny...!

This time is different.

imho, Matthew is more like a Jester than a Troll.

A jester entertains and often provides value and insight. Trolling is just malicious and annoying.

I always enjoyed Matthews posts & antics. Maybe I'm a minority.

ASICMiner still has 12% of the network hashrate, even at this difficulty. I assume they have not been sitting still. Sure, they might have hit a delay when it comes to shipping mini blades to customers, but that does not mean they are unable to serve their own needs. http://blockchain.info/pools

If the exponential hashrate is solely due to BFL shipping then congrats, it means you are doing something right. I wonder how many late pre-orders were aware of what was in store for them (in terms of hashrate in the backlog) especially since you jacked the prices and stopped refunds.

Like you said "hashrate is hashrate". It is not about shipping. It is about deploying.

Fair enough. But BFL is not the only one shipping and adding to the overall hash rate. So every day a customer spends in the BFL backlog they will have to compete with all order ahead of them as well as all other ASICs being deployed by the likes of ASICMiner and Avalon. The first mover advantage that made BFL attractive to customers has long gone.

Well sure, if you paid in USD *and* have free energy *and* live a long life. Go for it.

I was just jokingly alluding to a shipping promise made at the beginning of the year

Found it:
https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/692-bfl-asic-status.html#post10249

I read somewhere that they were going to descend on the post office like a horde of angry locusts and ship all orders at once... This will probably happen 2 weeks from now (after difficulty goes up by another 50%)

But honestly, whatever is in the backlog will never make ROI. It is a write-off folks. BFL had their window of opportunity but it has long since closed. Wonder if they are going to come out with Gen2 plans (and perhaps upgrade orders that have been in the queue for over 6 months) or just close up shop.

profitable miners are happy miners are repeat customers.

So +1 to HF for rolling out a protection plan.

Of course some improvements can be made and jspielberg already mentioned two important ones:

1 - units are paid for in BTC, so ROI should be calculated in BTC
2 - miners should have a reasonable way to put additional chips to work in short order.

Of course, there is no way of telling if FH will still be in business 90 days after initial delivery. I certainly would hope so, but 90 days is a long time in Bitcoinland.

Also, the topic of additional chips and open sourcing design makes me wonder if we can not move towards an industry standard socket for bitcoin mining ASICs? Just like you could plug an AMD, Intel, or VIA chip in the same motherboard socket in the past (e.g. Socket 370) but you get the point. That would be a big boon for miners as it would provide a decent upgrade path without having to replace the PCB & chassis every 6 months.

This is a step in the right direction.

If you really want to do it right you should provide customer protection by providing refunds based on missed opportunity cost.

For example:

• HashFast promises to ship on October 30.
• Customer paid ~60 BTC for a pre-order unit.
• Customer registers a refund BTC address at the hashfast.com site.
• For every day HashFast misses their target shipping date, a partial automatic refund will be made based on what a 400 GH/s unit would have mined at the difficulty at that date.
• This would continue until either the refund is complete or the unit is delivered.

This would:

• Prevent a BFL-type pitchfork scenario and alleviate worries that HashFast might be hashing with customer hardware at customers expense.
• Give customers peace of mind; At worst they would have provided a free BTC loan to HashFast. At best they get a unit that has already started making some ROI before delivery.
• Provide a strong incentive for HashFast to deliver on time.

The Oct-Dec timeframe is when these miners will earn back the vast majority of the investment cost. If anything the Oct 20-30 shipping date is what justifies the high cost of this unit. Take that away and you might end up with an expensive heating element. I don't like it either but that is the reality of an exponentially increasing difficulty. One day it is pure gold, the next a lump of coal.

Also, what happens if the specs of the final product are significantly different from what was sold in the pre-order? E.g. 2+ Watt/GH etc.
 
When it comes to refunds - I expect those to be done in BTC not USD. You take orders in BTC, you refund orders in BTC.

Naturally I hope everything goes well and HashFast meets their announced Oct. shipping date.

Can we please stop this off-topic flame fest?

I'm personally more interested in HashFast than cypherdoc and his somewhat shady business dealings.

This is what you advised them? A screwed customer is a committed customer? Thanks pal!

I really hope that planned delays are not part of the HashFast gameplan. A 2 month delay has a huge impact on ROI.

My RPi Model B (v2) has been powering a block eruptor directly without problems for over a month now. (Plugged into a 2A USB outlet)

In related news, Avalon Gen2 chips will go on sale for immediate delivery (no pre-orders) at mid October 2013. http://www.avalon-asics.com/


The ASIC space is really heating up now...

I don't believe the current babyjet image will be representative of the final product.

The image suggests 6 chips. Isn't this supposed to be a 1-chip solution?

Ordered one. (order 585, although the site lists 503 in stock so I should be in the 1st batch).

Was hoping for 10$ per GH/s for this delivery timeframe (things are going to get crazy). But hey.

Better not pull a BFL on us HashFast!