To my knowlage, the USA has had 3 nuclear reactor accidents that could count as "serious".

 Most folks know about Three Mile Island - which released less radiation than a year's worth of background count, but COULD have been worse. The "could have been" is the ONLY reason I count it as serious.

 Detroit Edison had a really close near-miss back in the EARLY days of nuclear power, due to bad work on the construction of the plant involved and some other "newbie" type errors made, but IIRC didn't have any release at all. "We Almost Lost Detroit" is a bit sensationalistic but covers that event. Again, serious due to the COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE.

 There was a Navy training reactor had a major operator error that actually managed to kill someone. IIRC Idaho Falls facility back in the 1960s. I don't remember if that one managed to release any radiation to the outside world, but it wasn't a lot if it did. Someone dying in a nuclear reactor accident definitely counts as serious.


 I suspect there were other nuclear-related non-bomb-caused deaths, but not due to "reactor accidents" but more due to the effects of radiation not being well understood early on and some folks got overdosed without realise what they were doing. Reference the death of Madam Curie for the definitive example.



 Any open air nuclear bomb TEST released a lot more radiation into the environment than the sum total of ALL reactor accidents to date except PERHAPS Chernobyl.

 Chernoybl was a major disaster because of the design of the reactor - a design the US Nuclear Power industry NEVER used. I think Hanford might have used that design on 1 or 2 of their first "production" reactors in the 1940s for making plutonium bomb material, and the test reactor at the University of Chicago was an even more primitive version of the same. I've never understood why the Soviets used that design for a power reactor, and consider them very lucky to have only had ONE accident with them.




 There is ZERO probabilty of being able to "burn" nuclear waste in a reactor. The waste would poison the reactor to the point it would just stop working long before you could "burn" it, and most reaction products of that waste are JUST as radioactive anyway.




 BTW folks - if you want a SERIOUS radiation issue, go visit Mercury or anywhere near the Sun.

Total rate in Chelan and Douglas counties have been a bit higher than that lately with the drought surcharges. Still in the 3 cent/KWH ballpark EVERYTHING figured in.

 They're more "North/Central" than "Eastern" Washington too, though it seems like everything more than 30 miles east of Redmond is counted as "Eastern" by a lot of folks.




 I wouldn't count 98% availability as "good" for electric service. In 7 years I've been at my current location, we've accumulated a total downtime of about 4 days - 3 of those during a MASSIVE ice storm that covered several states a couple years back. More years than not have been ZERO downtime. I've seen similar levels of availability everywhere I've lived in the US - 99.5% or better is the NORM here in recent years.

Diff isn't just about the S7.

 It's also about KnC "Solar", which was announced to be "in production" a while ago, though in unknown quantity.
 It's about whatever BitFury is selling to their big farm customers - again, no hard data but I remember a MBP posting about "next gen" a while back.
 It's about whoever bought most of that first batch of Sfards machines to a small degree.
 It's also going to be about the Innosilicon A3 and products built from that when it is released.
 It might end up being in part about other manufacturers that haven't made any sort of announcements to date.



 I'm betting we'll see the S7 specs announced about the same time that BitMain makes their "final" batch of used S5s available for sale, and the machine itself will go on sale about the same time the last of those used S5s get sold off.


 As to WHEN that will be, dunno. Hoping for early September but not holding my breath....

 I'm not talking *A* rig.

 No, I can't match the likes of MegaBigPower but I can get pretty close with carefull management on a per-TH basis. The only really big advantages the bigger farms have over me right now are (1) they can get their units cheaper, or build their own in mass volume so they can ROI them a lot faster (2) They can transition to a "new generation" sooner, with their direct close relations to one or more manufacturers (3) I'm not in a REAL low power cost location yet.
 (2) we're going through right now and will be effectively done with for THIS generation transition in 2-4 months, (3) should change soon (I've had plans to move for a while that predate my knowlage that Bitcoin even existed and the finances for that are finally comming together).


 On my side, I can get by with a LOT lower investment into cooling and space. Probably a little lower even on a per-TH basis, I know how to economise and shop for low-cost space that can also be used as living space (I ran my own business for almost a decade and managed to make a living at it on an total investment of less than $2000 at startup, most of THAT in "books" for inventory that I might have managed to sell off HALF of over the course of that near-decade - I also lived out of my "shops" almost that entire time). I'd also have lower labor costs, perhaps even on a per-TH basis.


 I don't expect to "rival the big farms" anytime soon - I don't have that kind of money available.
 Make a living off of farming though IS doable, if you know how to live frugal and come up with a suprisingly small amount of investment.

Your estimate does not appear to take the block reward halving into account that's due later this month for Litecoin. Like most such estimates I've ever seen it also doesn't take difficulty increase into account, though that factor can be hard to predict accurately.

 Don't forget to add the cost of a good power supply to run the thing. I would NOT run it on a 1000 watt PS, that's WAY too close to the "rated" power draw - though in fairness the Gridseed blades were "rated" at 70+Watts per side at stock clock, but mine all commonly ate a LOT less power than that.


 I just have to wonder if Sfards is going to try to push a lot of them at the current crazy high price, or if they're going to get smart sooner and start dropping them to a much more reasonable price before halvings and difficulty increases kill ANY chance at ROI on the things.

That's statewide averages, I believe.

 Washington varies a LOT - SeaTac area IIRC is over 10 cents/KWH, Douglass and Chelan counties around 3 cents/KWH - and the PUDs of those two counties and Grant county routinely sell a LOT of megawatts from their massive Columbia River hydro projects TO the power companies to the West of them.

 It also looks suspiciously like "base rates" - which often leave out a LOT. Where I live, 30-40% of my bill is caused by stuff like "regional transmission fee" and "fuel surcharge", which make the base rate almost a joke.


 I DO get a suspicion that the original poster misplaced a decimal point - or they're looking at a NON-USA dollar. Not that I think the Canadian dollar is THAT far off from the US dollar, but I believe there is at least one other country somewhere that calls their currency "dollar".

I think everyone seems to be missing one very important tipoff.

 UK Company. Part of the EU.

 Why is their entire website denominated in DOLLARS.





 Seagulls are OK. Pigeons (aka "Grinder Birds") should be shot, cooked, and eaten on sight.

 

The REAL reason there has been little of an "arms race" for Scrypt-based mining hardware is that the market is TINY compared to SHA256 hardware.

 I am sometimes supprised there's been any sort of an arms race at all for Scrypt.


 That is the SAME reason no other algorythm has ever had ASIC hardware sold for it - X11 (think X13/X15 were also covered by that project) had one company say they were working on it, but they "didn't get enough preorders" to finance the actual development of the chip and appear to have dropped the project entirely.

Oddly enough, Wells Fargo (which has been around somewhat longer than 120 years) is one of the 2 banks I trust the LEAST, having been ripped off by them at one point.

 Technically, it was a "bank error" they didn't accept was an error, but that's because they couldn't be bothered to look at the FACTS of their mistake (and it WAS THEIR MISTAKE, zero doubt without question).


 I can handle a bank/credit union making a mistake - if they FIX it. I will NOT put up with a bank/CU that refuses to admit they made a mistake, charges ME overdraft fees because of THEIR mistake, and then refuses to LISTEN when I explain that it was their mistake AND WHY IT HAPPENED.

Chip spec doesn't go quite that low - they did mention "run an S5 on 9v" early on but I think the figure was more like .3w/GH or .4w/GH range.

 Problem with that is FINDING 9v power supplies with enough current to run an S5 - I did some digging early on and never did find anything suitable - REALLY poor efficiency way $$$ pricey industrial stuff was the only option I could dig up and even THAT stuff was going to be WAY iffy on providing enough current. The one supply I DID find that looked like it could handle one side of a S5 at 9volts was going to lose almost as much in the PS as would be gained from the undervolting.

Nothing on the market currently will ROI at 15 cents/KWH electric cost. Even turning the SP20E down to it's lowest undervolt setting isn't profitable enough to ROI before the bitcoin reward halfing next summer kills it's profitability.

 Technically, you CAN mine profitably right now at 15 cents/KWH with the S5, the SP20E, or the SF3301 - but unless they're almost paid off already, forget getting back the money you'd pay to buy one right now (and don't forget cost of power supply adds to that). I'm not sure but I think the Avalon 4.1 MIGHT be able to mine profitably at 15 cent electric, but that would be VERY marginal.


 New hardware is still a major question mark.

 The SF3301 COULD be profitable and hit ROI if they dropped the price down to something reasonable, but at the current $1199 PLUS SHIPPING it's not likely to ROI unless you have VERY CHEAP electric - and looking very iffy even THEN, IF you can actually get one direct sometime this month as opposed to paying the crazy pricing from folks like Zoomhash.

 No clue about performance or cost on the announced S7 yet - but that should be soon, I'm certain Bitmain is MAKING them but replacing S5s in their own farm before they start selling S7s. I would guess late this month or sometime in September we'll finally get some hard information.

 No firm knowlage about anything based on Innosilicon's announced A3 (ditto the A4 for Litecoin fans) yet though it appears LTek (sp?) is planning a next gen miner around that chip and I'm sure Innosilicon will produce a "reference" design and sell it like they did on the A2 Terminators.

 It appears that BitFury is ONLY selling it's current gen gear to BIG farms - or might only be selling the chips and letting the farm do the board design and/or board build work.

 KnC isn't selling to anyone else any more, not that I've ever been impressed with the reliability of their equipment. They also have bad enough legal problems I won't be shocked if they end up bankrupt sometime in 2017 (legal processes tend to take a while when the defendent can afford good lawyers).

 No clue yet what Avalon is doing on next generation if anything.

 No idea if the Alchemist folks are even thinking about Bitcoin or a next-gen Litecoin miner design.

 The folks that announced an X11 miner design haven't said anything since they canceled out "due to lack of preorders, going to look for venture capitol investment". Not sure if that one was vaporware or not, but it seems they actually refunded preorders which tends to make me think they were legitimate - just badly underfunded.

 I try to ignore vaporware announcements, can't think of any legitimate folks still in the mineing hardware business I haven't mentioned above.

Asian girls, like girls from any part of the world, very. Some are VERY VERY hot, some are UGLY, most fall somewhere in between.

 I will state that the prettiest and sexiest gal I ever got to go to bed with happened to be Thai - but #2 on that list is a US gal of Black Irish descent, and if I'd met #2 20 years sooner she MIGHT be #1 on the list.

 8-)

Didn't Dogie or someone direct from BitMain already announce they were skipping the S6?

 No point in releasing anything new with the BM1384 any more unless (1) they have a BUNCH onhand, AND (2) they come out with a "S5 Lite" type design with 18-20 chips in the chain for better efficiency OR they come out with a design with the ability to set the voltage like the SP20E.

 Given they are no longer selling "new" S5s, I'd bet that Bitmain doesn't have a significant number IF ANY of the BM1384 chips left in stock.

Big issue with that - the "IOS" part.

 The large majority of folks have ZERO INTEREST in wasting money on overpriced Apple stuff, which massively limits the applicability of this "innovation".

 Plus the other points folks have already raised about "what about international" etc

Amount varies, due to my mining and my residual mining of Litecoin to turn into Bitcoin.

 Right now I'm not spending it at all.
 I'm waiting to see what the "next generation" gear looks like on performance and price, as the current generation gear has gotten too pricy (Bitmain kicking prices way UP sucked) and the bitcoin price/difficulty ratio is getting too high for current-gen stuff to have a reasonable probability of managing to ROI before next summer's bitcoin halving pretty much kills the profitability of ANY currently-released mining rig (except the SF3301, but that one won't last a LOT longer, the bitcoin efficiency is too low and the litecoin side isn't enough to make up for that with the litecoin halfing THIS summer will make the crazy-high price on THAT unit impossible to ROI unless you have FREE or almost free electric).

Homemade chargrilled, with lots of dill pickle and lots of mustard.

 Next best option used to be Boll Weevil, but I don't live in SoCal any more so no idea if they're still around and it's a WEE bit far to drive for a burger.

 Usually I settle for Hardies half-pound (they inherited some good burger-making from Carl's Jr.) or Burger King double Whopper(but they've gone a bit cheap on cost-cutting lately and their quality has slipped).


 Don't even wave that icky cheese stuff at my burger - I want a HAMBURGER, not a bloody icky cheese ruining my burger!

You definitely need to modify your poll.

 The AVERAGE price of electric in the USA is around 12 cents/kwh, and there are 2 counties in Washington State that are around 3 cents/KWH

 Anything over about 15 is pretty close to being unprofitable to mine with even the current most efficient units (SP20E, SF3001, S7).

 $0.2/KWH is quite HIGH by US standards, fairly high by the standards of a lot or most of the rest of the world, and forget trying to mine at a profit at that kind of electric pricing.



 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing is a good place to start your research. It's not definitive, but it points you in the right directions.


 Also, most "renewable energy" ends up costing MORE than commonly used sources, at this time, though with government subsidies it might come in as competative, and if you're WAY out in the boondocks you might not have any other viable choices. Some of those options were getting to be competative when oil was over $100/barrel and coal/natural gas were following suit somewhat, but at current fossil fuel pricing the competativeness has dropped. I'm certain that non-fossil options WILL have to get more common eventually though, as even Coal is a finite resource much less oil/natural gas, and stuff like Ethanol isn't much better than break-even at BEST vs the energy used to MAKE that stuff.


 Long term, Ethanol and the like might be a good option - if wind or solar power is used to make it. Biggest issue is that current EFFICIENT Ethanol making requires fairly constant power input, which neither wind nor solar can manage (though Hydro and tide power genration can).

If I had about 3x the hash power, I would. As it is, can't afford to.

 8-(

There have been comments (by Dogie I think, or someone from Bitmain itself) that they are going to skip the S6 and go straight to an S7. In any case, if they came out with another water-cooled rig it would be probably be called the "C3" in keeping with their current naming progression.


 Buying an S5 and needed power supply right now is VERY VERY IIFY on ROI unless you have 5 cent/KWH or cheaper power. The size of difficulty increase is going up since all of the "next gen" announcements to date, and looks likely to go up faster for a few months or a bit longer than it did the first half of this year, with the widespread adoption of "next gen" mining gear in the big mining farms as the gear becomes available.


 I'm hoping for an S7 that does over 2TH for under 600 watts and $600 or less, otherwise ROI is going to be very iffy even WITH cheap electric due to the bitcoin halfing next summer (unless bitcoin climbs a LOT somewhere between now and then, or the current rate of difficulty increase drops by at least half of the last couple of incriments for the next year). I'm also hoping that Bitmain goes back to making the voltage adjustable, rather than the S5's "chained power" setup - that would be worth an extra $100 easy, as you could undervolt later on and keep the mining profitable for a lot longer or at higher power costs (an SP20E can be profitable at 18 cents/kwh if you undervolt it enough, an S5 right now loses money at that power cost with current difficulty and bitcoin pricing).

 2TH at 400 watts or 3Th at 600, might be able to sell as high as $800 and still manage to ROI at some point, but I suspect Bitmain is going to release the S7 with a chained-power design at or very close to the highest rated voltage the chip can handle (just like the S5) at the cost of efficiency and somewhat of a loss of long-term ROI ability.

 What I'd LIKE to see is an "S5 Lite" model, still using the BM1384 but chaining 18 chips - should run about 800Mh/s at less than 350 watts - in the $400 range. THAT would ROI no problem, and still be profitable after the halving for quite a while even if Bitcoin price stays flat and difficulty increases stay in the RECENT 2-3% on average range.

 Take one of the A2 60Mhz miniTerminators, add a SP20E - and you have roughly equal hashrate. Somewhat more LTC, slightly less BTC.

 The price is nowhere near comparable, though I do grant the electric usage would be lower.


 Having crunched the numbers WITH ACCOUNTING FOR THE LITECOIN HALFING REAL SOON (or just happened) and the Bitcoin halfing next summer, I would BET these things will never ROI at $1199 for anyone that has to pay more than a couple cents/KWH for their electric, and FORGET IT NOT EVEN CLOSE at $1999.

 I've also been very UNimpressed with the longevity out of Gridseed built products, the chips seem to be OK but their board-level designs to date have been very poorly designed and built.