Phil21; 250; 21.5; 1CMhMujtf9bpfwpX5wF2caxEVmjqAmnkFg

I'm in for 250 chips, may as well test the waters  Great job getting this off the ground, I truly hope you pull it off for both my, and the entire network's sake!

One quick question:

Does that include mounted heatsinks, or no?  I'd personally prefer the raw boards+heatsinks, but no mounting hardware or fans.

Can't wait for this to be ready!

Edit: Also, how are you handling DOA chips?  Even tested chips will have at least a small percentage of bad ones, especially after going through the thermal stresses of soldering to the PCB.  Will these simply be taken out of your margin?

Yep, I got that before my issue.

I'm not freaking out yet, just something to keep an eye out for.  If it's just a support backlog, I'm a perfectly happy customer and will use them in the future.

To be clear:  I had withdrawn two similar sized wires in the week or two before the failed wire, and both came in as fast as expected with zero problems.  I was surprised when I noticed the third hadn't hit my account when I checked, then they e-mailed me re: the SWIFT code.

So, definitely a self-caused delay.  As long as it's a delay I'm in no rush to get my funds - I just want to make sure they *do* eventually get here

I also preferred them to the alternative exchanges, but it's also prudent to spread risk around multiple third parties if possible!

Regarding the missing wire I previously posted about.

I have had zero communication from Bitstamp since April 9th on the issue.  I sent them a "hey can I get a status update" request last week, with no response.

Definitely starting to get worried.  Hopefully it's just growing pains and they are swamped, but 12 days is getting excessive for something that should take a few minutes to resolve on their end.

This is a wire in the mid-4-figures range, so it's not a trivial amount to simply write off.

I'll post updates one way or the other

9 days now on a past-due wire for me of a substantial sum.  I'm not sure how it happened, but supposedly my SWIFT code changed - what I had saved was wrong, but I had previously withdrawn using that information a few times successfully for around the same amounts.  A friend did mention they may have switched banks, and the old bank was simply fixing the code before sending it.

So, due to them needing to manually fix what appears to be my error, I'm giving them a bit more time.  But, 8 days after they supposedly re-sent it is pretty long to wait for something that should be next day.  I don't particularly mind as long as it's simply being backed up, but delays in sending money is always of course a strong red flag for me.

48 hours sounds like a pretty fair resolution time to me.  Kudos to mt.gox.

I've not been Mtgox's biggest fan, but I also had an issue (100% caused by myself) and they handled it well with a proper resolution when they really didn't have to.  I gained a lot of respect for them after that.

Now if only other exchanges were so forthcoming.. I'm missing a wire that is now 8 days past due from another exchange which will remain nameless for now.  Perhaps just a mixup, but I'm slowly losing faith based on them stating they re-sent the wire and it still hasn't shown.  Mtgox wires?  No problem.

I would say in quantity, that sounds high to me.  A one-off for testing, sure.  But 20btc is a bit steep if I were bidding on all 10 to actually make money with.

Hopefully w/ the Avalon chip buy, some projects get off the ground and we get some real competition in a business sense vs. hobbyist sense.

yeah, I'm out at those prices.  But I'd imagine at least some of the folks buying would have similar responses to myself.  Some I'm sure are doing the 'ole "pray to god I make money on this!" method, but I'd hope not for their sake.

Have to keep in mind some of these guys will have been mining for years now, and probably have a nice hefty stash of BTC that is only just now worth anything meaningful.  I know I remember the days where pool mining was optional if you had a couple GPU rigs.  50btc/day wasn't hard to achieve, and I considered myself a relative latecomer to the game.

As a bidder paying way too much (and I don't think I'm going to win @ 32btc) here is my reasoning.

1) It's not to make money.  If it breaks even I'm pretty happy, if it makes more coin (which I believe it will) within 12 months I'm happy.

2) Testing to see if ASICMiner is legit and will ship immediately, how their communication is, if they can do basic things like say - fill out a customs form properly and provide tracking numbers in a timely manner.  I think we all know why this is important.  I prefer to do business with those who act professionally, and a test buy is always the first step of building such a relationship.

3) First of many - I'm obviously not going to build a mining farm at that $$$/hashrate, but getting one in-hand to "beta test" is valuable and worth a few btc in itself.  It takes time to properly build the automation necessary to run a mining farm.  While many of my scripts and tools can be translated from the current GPU cluster, I will obviously have to modify things to work with new hardware.  This includes stuff like automating adding additional machines to the pool, automatic power cycling should one lock up, etc.   These run remote in a datacenter and I have a day job, so it's important they "just work" without any hands-on from myself.

4) The novelty/coolness factor!  Why not be one of the first to have a unique piece of hardware only a few folks in the world have access to currently?  That right there is worth at least a few btc

5) Support the community.  If ASICMiner is as legit as people say, then I have no problem sending them some coin for their hard work.  I don't "invest" with shady folks who promise to ship 8 months later, these folks are unique in that they have product in-hand ready to ship and I really want to support that type of business model vs. what I've seen go down in this forum the past 6 months or so.

6) Bragging rights - so I can be the big swinging dick on the forums and rub everyone's faces in my eliteness

Edit: spelling

Man, getting expensive already.

1 @ 32

guys that were on the old server (via hostname) might wanna hop on http://199.48.69.243

Lets see.. By all accounts they bought their holdings over the summer of 2012.  Lets call that $10/coin to be generous and make the math easy.

Reports had them valued at $11M total right around $250 if I recall correctly.  That's roughly 44,000 coins total.  So lets round things up and say they put $500,000 into bitcoin.

I'd be absolutely shocked if they haven't taken in massive profits from this.  Who knows what their holdings were when - anyone with that kind of money buying in probably has a professional money manager at least offering advice, so I'd bet they at bare minimum have their investment long since taken out, and if I were a betting man - a nice tidy profit already set aside.

Even my small little "operation" I was taking out expenses via DCA far before the peak hit.  Sure, I left some profits on the floor by doing so (in retrospect), but I was fully vested by $33 and any holdings sold after that was profit.  I'd imagine they did something similar.

And as someone said, they very well could have been some of the large holders dumping on the market just after peak.  I would have been.

No link.  Other than massive speculative bubbles in both.

Less so in gold and silver though.  All time highs are all time highs for a reason - they generally are rare events.

I'm sure the gold bugs will attack me hardcore for calling it a bubble, but the appreciation of it over the last few years has been unsustainable imo

Still too high for me to buy in, but I've been watching it.

I agree with this quite a bit, for the simple fact that people can't comprehend large numbers intuitively, and fractions even worse.

Not sure what events should trigger such a change though - USD trade value of X for Y time period?  Blend of currencies and exchanges?  Just too volatile to be able to coordinate such a thing any time soon, imo.

Maybe if it sticks over $100 for 6-12 months, this could get traction.  Powers of ten make more sense I think here, than an arbitrary $200.

Edit: And I just mean as a useful unit of trade.  I'm sure this topic has been discussed to death elsewhere

I guess I haven't checked the other warranties, but Diamond is 1 year - had a 6990 die completely on me, and they bounced RMA coverage for it.  We're not talking dead fan here due to abuse - just died one day.

I guess I hadn't really looked into detail on these - figured all reference boards had the same warranty, like everything used to!

That's Theta - I'll give them a call and see what they have to say.  I still have some time (I hope) to get this done, as all my conversion to USD was done in 2013.  My real concern is since I didn't write off the expenses in 2010/2011 what I'm allowed to do "after the fact".

And regarding transferring them to assets - I think it's pretty well understood (maybe not based on posts here?) that barter/trade is still taxed at whatever the real value in USD is.  Yes, this can be gamed/scammed/ignored and is regularly, but it's still violating the law by doing it.  If you trade your computer repair services to the roofer for a new roof - you're still liable for taxes on the value of that trade of services.


It really comes down to what they can prove - if you're cashing out bitcoins for gold, I wouldn't exactly advertise that anywhere if you don't plan on reporting it to the IRS

I started mining from a machine at home in probably December 2010 or January 2011, for a couple months it was a fun hobby - learning about stuff, hacking on getting automated mining to work under Linux, spending coins all over the place just to see what I could do with them - probably spent/lost/got scammed out of 500ish coins during that period.

Easy to look back on it and say it was stupid, but it was a lot of fun and a learning experience.  Without that trade going I was a small part of, Bitcoin would never have a chance.  My only real regret was keeping a bit too much coin in mybitcoin, iirc it was 50 coins at the time of them ditching.    Keep in mind, at the time you could have a single high-end GPU mine 10 or so a day, and they were worth less than a few bucks each  This was play money, basically.

Given I enjoyed the hobby quite a bit, and felt there was a decent chance of ROI on GPU's at the time (free video cards! sign me up!) - I "invested" in a few mining rigs which finally got on-line months later due to business trips in May/June of 2011 just in time for the huge difficulty ramps and corresponding exchange rate bubble.   By the time they were operational, the price had crashed and it wasn't looking like I'd ever make ROI back on the hardware itself, much less electricity.

2011 bubble happened and burst, and I didn't sell much during that time.  Just kept things mining since then at a steady pace.

This bubble, when it hit $33 I sold enough to cover my original expenses, which was just under half of my entire btc holdings.  Obviously I'm annoyed now I did that, but it was and still is a solid financial decision.  I also cashed out a ~30% profit over my expenses at $174-238, which I've left on the Exchanges so far.  I would have sold more (everything) had price held stable long enough to get money out of the exchanges at $200+.  I simply don't trust them enough to dump everything at once - I'd rather have my coins safe, and do things in small increments without someone holding vast amounts (for me!) of cash on my behalf who might disappear tomorrow.

Not sure what I plan on doing now.  I have just over half my total peak btc holdings safe in cold storage wallet, and have no plans on selling them any time soon.  If the price drops considerably, I would like to re-buy the coins sold to pay expenses and get back to my original holdings in btc.  At that point, I'd simply hold as savings - possibly cashing portions out to USD during any subsequent bubbles.  The buy-in price for me would be low though, sub-$33  Other than that, I plan to simply spend them on things I need.

Overall I'm a "believer" in Bitcoin.  This last bubble was absolutely retarded, and I believe damages the ecosystem more than helps it.  I'm not convinced Bitcoin will exist 10 years from now, but I am convinced something very much like it will, if not it itself.  Either way it's been a fun ride so far, that's probably provided more entertainment per dollar than anything else I could have started messing with

-Phil

I've gotten a myriad of differing (and thus, confusing) answers from accountants on the following scenario:

1) I invested dollars into mining hardware in 2010/2011
2) I invested ongoing expenses such as electricity and spare parts
3) I exchanged some of the bitcoins generated from the mining hardware to dollars in 2013
4) This amount was greater than the amount spent on hardware (call it cashing out at $10,000 and expenses of $5,000 to keep the math simple)

So.. I've just received my $10,000 wire into my account, and in 2010/2011 I had $5,000 worth of expenses.

How is this taxed?

I've gotten answers ranging from it being regular wage income (really? shit!), to it being capital gains, to it being long term capital gains.

Can I write off my expenses in some manner to offset the gains later made? 

And what happens if I want to exchange more bitcoin to US dollars at a later date?

Professional accountants need to get a "Bitcoin Certified" logo program going - I'd love to talk to someone who's eyes don't glaze over while I try to explain things.  Yep, I bought computers.  Yep, they did math and made numbers that other people find valuable, yep, I later exchanged those numbers for money and put it in my bank account.

I'd like to pay the legal amount of taxes necessary, but no one really seems to agree on how exactly this works yet.

-Phil

Man, good link.  Ha.

It's actually 90v (AC current, voltage varies but is generally 90v in the US iirc) when it rings.  I found that out stripping wire with my teeth to connect a new jack for my uber-fast 19.2k modem.  Who had the time to run down to grab wirestrippers when there was so much connecting at high speeds to do?!

A long time ago I did the math to figure out how many phone lines I'd have to order (assuming I'd get max draw on each which is a large assumption) to power a small Cisco router at a remote location.  I think it was around 70, iirc

This is a fun thing to think about and do napkin math on, but it's not practical and surely illegal.  It's stealing power, just like if you'd plug into the unmetered side of your house demarc.  This is actually probably a lot worse, since you're drawing power from a system where the power exists for a very specific reason.  Most likely you won't be fused on your individual line, so if you do draw more than a few watts you'll be taking out a neighborhood.   Heck, given you're in a developing country it might not be fused anywhere

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

-Phil