BITBOND ASIC call for feedback

Hello BITBONDers

I am sorry for the limited updates recently.  There have been a number of things going on behind the scenes to figure out a path forward.  With a high degree of confidence I can now share with you a plan for BITBOND.

First, let me apologize deeply for the suspension of payouts.  I had very high hopes of earning good returns for everyone involved and setting the stage for future work in GPGPU computing.  I feel strongly enough about what we were doing to quit a very good job to focus on this full time and worked 12 hour days throughout the summer and fall.  We developed several proprietary technologies to do more with less including 5850’s I had manufactured in China, PCB’s and wiring systems made here in the US, and software to manage and control over 200 netbooted rigs in a custom rack system.  While we tried our best, we simply could not do everything we needed to do in the timeframe we had.  Too much had never been done before by me (sometimes by anyone) and required far more resources than we had.  We desperately tried our best to make BITBOND successful.  I apologize for our failure.

Second, I would like to clear up some confusion.  Whether it’s Avalon ASICs, GLBSE, or BITBOND there is a shocking amount of misinformation, misunderstanding, defamation, and truly bizarre ideas on the forums.  Luckily there are quite a few cool heads, though perhaps not enough to keep the tinfoil hat crowd at bay.  Here is a list of facts to help fill in the gaps.

• BITBOND started in April, 2012 and paid all payouts through the closing of GLBSE on October 5th, 2012.
• BITBOND lost about 230 btc in the GLBSE closing.
• October 5th through block reward halving on November 28, 2012, BITBOND paid out all payouts to the majority bondholders (the “85%”).
• The majority bondholders bought their BITBONDs in May, July, and August and received their bonds via GLBSE like all other bondholders.
• The majority bondholders received the same 2mh/s per bond and 105% PPS.  Everyone has the same bonds/bond terms
• To give added protection to their large investment, the majority bondholders requested detailed contracts signed and notarized.
• Due to the detailed contract terms, I was obliged to mine for them as long as possible, even when losing money
• We had been working on a plan to move to Wenatchee, WA from Tacoma, WA.  This would have cut our power bill in half and given us room to expand considerably.  We learned that the cost of installing power from Douglas County PUD would be $40,000 to $60,000.  We simply could not afford the move.  Consequently, we were limited by the power we have at our current facility.
• Meanwhile the GPUs we had custom manufactured in China had power routing issues (http://imgur.com/a/Jf3ME) that were burning out cards under heavy load.  This required rework from a PCB assembly and rework facility north of Seattle, which spanned almost two months, keeping 600 cards offline
• We had significant delays in manufacturing and producing our custom power supply system (comprised of two PCBs and wiring harnesses assembled by hand) that, combined with card power issues limited our mining output to just under 200Gh/s
• When the block reward halving occurred, BITBOND was producing just under 200Gh/s but paying out about 180Gh/s worth of payments each week.  The surplus was not enough to pay for the $4,000 per month power bills, facility rents, Internet access, or any salaries.
• We had about $3500 in reserves (IIRC) at that time.  Therefore, BITBOND could not continue to operate.  I made the decision to stop payouts to the majority bondholders until ASICs arrived
• I placed order #3431 with BFL for one mini-rig SC last year.  The majority bondholders and I determined that given BFL’s history it was too risky to pay for the order until there was evidence that BFL could produce a working ASIC at the performance levels they advertised.
• In recent discussions with BFL Josh, BFL has decided not to honor our order because it was not paid.  He has given me a timeframe of April or May for an ASIC if paid for today.  I would guess it will be at last June.
• Since block reward halving, most of our current mining revenue has gone towards fixed expenses, with a small amount left over saved for ASIC purchases
• We have explored many avenues of liquidating our GPU equipment to buy coins to pay back bondholders and/or to buy ASICs to resume BITBOND payouts.  We have not yet found a firm that is willing to buy used custom hardware.  Most of our GPUs are old enough and used enough that they are not of interest to buyers (note that we have almost 100% 58xx cards)

The plan going forward

Through several sleepless nights, we have managed to pull together enough funds and to purchase 10 x Avalon ASIC units in batch 2.  This will provide about 660 GH/s.  It is far from the 1.5 TH/s we hoped to have with the BFL mini rig, but the Avalon ASICs have been proven to exist and work.  We should also receive them much sooner than putting in a BFL order now.

I am suggesting creating a new security on Cryptostocks called BITBOND ASIC.  All current BITBOND bonds will be exchanged 1:2 for BITBOND ASIC.  The new bonds will be 2.25 Mh/s each, payable at 100% PPS.  Thus, if you have 10 BITBOND, which provides 20 Mh/s at 105% PPS, through the exchange you will receive 50 Mh/s at 100% PPS.

BITBOND will no longer be perpetual.  Instead it will continue through 2014.

Avalon batch 2 is projected to start shipping March 5th.  If that date were to hold, I would expect to receive the ASICs around March 11th.  We will need a few days to get them into our facility, tested and configured for our environment.  Payouts would begin the following week, on Saturdays as before.

I would appreciate any constructive feedback on this approach.  If there are ways that I can improve the payouts I will try, but I would like to stick to what I feel confident I can commit to at this point.

Again, my deepest apologies.

Due to the delays in MtGox withdrawals, I want to exchange $3k-$5k into Dwolla or wire transfer.  I can provide a MtGox USD code or bitcoins.

I could use some advice from anyone who has had some experience with various PXE configurations.

Here's what I want to do.  I have a few machines that mostly mine using BAMT.  But on occasion I want them to load a Windows image for some Windows-only software.

Is there a way for this to be done? If so, how?

Also, can I centrally reboot these machines and have them restart with a different image?  For example, let's say a rig is running a BAMT image now but I want it to switch over to Windows.  Can I tell the rig to reboot and load the Windows image from a central point?

Need to buy a bunch of AMD Sempron socket AM3 CPUs.

Reply or PM me if you're selling 

For a couple of projects that I'm working on, I am looking to buy a mining contract.  The more hashes the better, provided you can deliver.  Only stipulation is that it would need to be pointed at a pool of my choosing.

I would like to get a sense of how much interest there would be in a colo hosting service payable in bitcoins.

If things pan out in the next few weeks I will be able to start moving some of my equipment in to a new data center space that I am building out near Seattle.

One of the features of this new facility is that it has fiber optic 100 Mbps symmetric service, that can be upgraded to 1 Gbps.  From what I can tell it is peered off of one of Level 3's trunk lines.  For my purposes I won't use anywhere near that level of bandwidth.  In fact I am quite content with 10mbps or less.  I addition I have space for one or two full cabinets.  Thus, I am thinking about offering server colocation.

My initial thoughts would be to offer something along the lines of:

• 1U - 4U with 10 Mbps unmetered bandwidth
• 2 Amps of power included
• Free server restarts and related services
• Pricing in the range of 10 btc/month
• Option to upgrade to 100 Mbps unmetered for an additional 30 btc/month

While I would be able to offer uninterrupted power and good network infrastructure, the caveat to such a service will be that I cannot (at least at first) offer multiply redundant Internet connections and response times for issues might be in the order of several hours.  In other words, if you have a site that needs maximum uptime then this probably wouldn't be for you.

Let me know if that sounds like it might be interesting to you.  If enough people are interested, I will put together a formal offering and get the additional equipment that I would need to offer the service.

If you are going to be using a dual or multi-PSU setup for mining, water cooling, FPGA's, etc. then you might want to consider one of these adapters.



They are best if you run a computer 24/7.  This is the "original" version.  It works perfectly when jumping PSUs, but apparently not all motherboard/PSU combinations are compatible with ATX soft-power boot and power off.

More details can be found at the Bitspower website as is the documentation

Frozen PC is selling them for $25 plus $10 shipping

I'm selling them at 3 btc shipped for each (in US)

Current stock on hand.  All are brand new in the box.
7 x Orange
7 x Green
1 x UV

[Relaunched on Cryptostocks!]

Relaunched on Cryptostocks!


Bitbond (Cryptostocks ticker BITBOND) is a perpetual mining bond where you can buy mining power and receive weekly mining payouts, without buying and maintaining expensive hardware.  Payouts will continue indefinitely.

Bond features

• A total of 200Gh/s offered in 2Mh/s increments
• Weekly payouts are 105% of PPS
• PPS means no variance
• Perpetual - no expiration date
• Buyback provision at 110% of 15 day Cryptostocks average

Benefits over other bonds

• 105% PPS means more bitcoins - a bigger payout and more coins before difficulty increases
• Positive ROI several weeks quicker - up to 13 weeks sooner
• Higher buyback provision - get paid more if I buy back the bonds

FAQ

When would payouts begin?
Payouts started on 4/8/2012
See the post after this for payout history

How long will it take to start mining?
Mining started on Saturday 4/7 at 2 PM.  It is a subset of my mining hash power currently on maxbtc.com

What is your hardware setup?
I exclusively run GPUs for mining due to my low power costs.  I may offer further bonds in the future with FPGA hardware if the economics are right and the FPGA vendor can deliver when I need it

Why/how 105% PPS?
First, I will be doing merged mining so those coins will be used to increase the pay per share.  Also, I would like to offer a good value for each bondholder. The extra 5% will add up over the weeks, months, years.  If reinvested it will greatly accelerate ROI compared to 100% PPS options.

What if you have technical issues/downtime?
I have more than 210 Gh/s operating with a total capacity beyond 300 Gh/s.  Should there be any downtime, I will contribute hashes from my personal farm to ensure the full dividend is paid each week.

[Update]

Update: 90 btc of loans received so far.  Looking for 210 more.

Looking for one or more loans totaling 300btc until 4/15.  I'm swapping out some hardware in my mining farm (see me on maxbtc.com top miners), and want to buy the new equipment now rather than have downtime until I get it.

I recently paid back 400btc in loans to PatrickHartnett and Coretechs:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66476.0

Other loans I've had and repaid:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=56069.0

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=57191.0

You can also see my rep on bitcoin-otc:

http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratingdetail.php?nick=amazingrando

[DRAFT]

Many of you may have contributed to or followed my previous thread asking for input on a new mining operation
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66204.0

I've had a chance to do some reflection on a strategy for a new mining company while incorporating many of your excellent ideas.  Below is a DRAFT of the IPO.  I would like your input before I finalize it.

Fresca Mining (Planned GLBSE symbol: Fresca) will produce comparatively higher returns by leveraging low cost electricity ($0.052/kwh) and dense GPU rigs for high profitability bitcoin and namecoin mining.  The company will issue weekly dividends but retain some earnings to grow the company.  The company will be able to share infrastructure such as switched PDUs, Cisco network equipment, and data center space with my personal mining farm to save costs and maximize profitability.

Initial hashrate: 9.3 GH/s (I have them running now as the user "Fresca" on maxbtc.com - note that they are currently running at stock speeds until I tune then, hence the lower hash rate)

Hardware (4 rigs as follows):
      
       (seen here as I set them up)

• MSI 890FXA-GD70 motherboard
• Antec TPQ-1200 1200W 80plus Silver PSU
• AMD Sempron 145 CPU
• G.Skill 1GB DDR3 RAM
• Kingston 4GB USB drive
• 3 x MSI or XFX 6990 GPUs
• 208v power via Server Tech Sentry switched PDU
• Gigabit Ethernet connection on Cisco managed switch
• Coolermaster 230mm fan

Dividends

• Dividends will be issued weekly
• Dividends will be calculated as net earnings divided by number of shares held
• Net earnings are earnings after retaining 30% for growth and costs of depreciation, power, internet, and facility
• At present BTC price and difficulty this would result in approximately 0.004 0.006 btc/share

Reinvestment and growth

• 30% of earnings will be set aside to ensure stable dividend payouts and to fund growth
• Acquisition of new hardware will be funded through reinvestment of retained earnings as opposed to issuance of further shares, unless otherwise decided by shareholders through a motion
• Future plans include the purchase of more rigs based on the most profitable technology at the time of purchase and a move to a new data center than offers power under $0.03/kwh

Policies and Records

• My goal is to be transparent in all finances.  I will keep track of finances in a Google Docs spreadsheet available to everyone
• Changes in company direction, dividend calculation, acquisition of new hardware, dissolution, or other important changes will be put to shareholder vote.  Because I already have a large mining farm of my own, I am happy to be very flexible with the direction of this mining company.

Ownership

• 4,000 3,333 shares will be created
• 2,000 1,666 shares will be held by me (50% - 1 share)
• 2,001 1667 will be available for purchase (50% + 1 share)
• Anticipated purchase price will be 1 btc

UPDATE 1:
I have reduced the number of shares while maintaining the share price in order to further enhance the competitiveness of this offering.

I have an Intel Pentium D 805 CPU that I'd like to sell. Would be the perfect cheap dual core CPU for a socket 775 board

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116001

CPU only - no heatsink

Asking 2 btc shipped

I have a couple of these Gigabyte 5850 OC cards (which I hate - the cooler is crap):



Today one of the fans literally fell off.  The other one is not in much better shape.

I have two brand new fans of the exact same model (used in Asus DirectCU 5850's)

I'm trying to figure out the wiring.  It seems that the 4-wire PWM wiring is as follows:
Pin    Name    Color
1    GND          black
2    +12VDC     yellow
3    Sense       green
4    Control      blue

On the Asus fan, it has these four wires and a 4 pin connector.


On the Gigabyte card there are two fans in a master/slave configuration.


The slave appears to just have 12V DC (red not yellow) and a black ground wire.  The master appears to have ground (black), 12V DC (red), and a third wire.  Would that third wire be sense or control?  I'm guessing it's sense, which would be green on the Asus' 4-wire configuration




The other question is whether the Asus fan, which has all four wires, will work fine if that missing wire is not connected to the fan?  The Gigabyte connector is only a three pin.  I'm assuming it would work fine - similar to a 3 pin system fan on a 4 pin header.

[Asking $89]

I have quite a few of these (>20) HAF 932 cases. They have virtually no wear and come in their original box with all the accessories.  They're awesome cases, but I don't need this many.

Asking $89 each.

Features:
* Water cooling ready
* Multiple fans (red LED's)
* Tool-less design (e.g. drives go in sliding trays)
* USB 3.0 front ports
* Rated 5 eggs on NewEgg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119160

Looking to buy a few Semprons, preferably with a heatsink.

PM me or reply to the thread if you have one (several) available.

I've had a bunch of lindens sitting in my Second Life account (which I've used like three times ever).

Planned to use VirWoX to exchange but SL API always rejects my transactions - probably because I never use my account.

Reply here or PM me if you are looking to buy Lindens.

Hi everyone-

I recently bought a big mining farm and have some parts that I don't plan to use in my upgraded farm configuration.  Here's what I am selling.  All items will ship from the Seattle area and I can usually ship within a day after payment.  Prefer payment in BTC or MtGox code.

4 x MSI Radeon 6990 4GB GPU - New in box - $525 in btc
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127574



8 x OCZ ZX Series 850W single rail fully modular 850W 80plus Gold PSU - Like new - $100 in btc
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341044



10 x G.Skill 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3 1333MHz CL8 RAM Kits - Like new - $19 in btc (free shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231134



25 x Bitspower Dual/multi-PSU adapter - Like new - $15
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7137/bus-128/Bitspower_X-Station_Multi_PSU_Module_-_Blue_LED_BP-XSU-BL.html

This isn't exactly mining-specific, but I'm going to be putting together a server that will do lots of transactions and need a recommendation on an SSD.

I want to start small with a single 120GB 6Gb/s SSD that's not too expensive, and then later go to a RAID 5 with 3 oif those SSD's and a hardware controller.  Further down the road I could think about SLC enterprise SSD's, but I need something to get me going that will be fast with transactions and not too expensive

Drives I'm considering:
* Patriot Pyro
* OCZ Vertex 3
* Crucial M4
* Intel 510

Suggestions?

Hi everyone-

I recently bought a big mining farm and have some parts that I don't plan to use in my upgraded farm configuration.  Here's what I am selling.  All items will ship from the Seattle area and I can usually ship within a day after payment.  Prefer payment in BTC or MtGox code.

4 x MSI Radeon 6990 4GB GPU - New in box - $559 in btc
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127574



8 x OCZ ZX Series 850W single rail fully modular 850W 80plus Gold PSU - Like new - $119 in btc
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341044



10 x G.Skill 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3 1333MHz CL8 RAM Kits - Like new - $19 in btc (free shipping)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231134



25 x Bitspower Dual/multi-PSU adapter - Like new - $15
http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7137/bus-128/Bitspower_X-Station_Multi_PSU_Module_-_Blue_LED_BP-XSU-BL.html

I have a fairly large server farm running in an warehouse.  I'm looking for someone to help me design a good air flow solution.

If you're an HVAC specialist, drop me a PM.  I could use your help!

I need to buy several motherboards for 6990's.  I've been looking at an ECS A885GM-A2.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135272

I has two PCIe x16 slots with two x1 slots in between, which makes for a good amount of space between cards if I put two 6990's on this motherboard.

Until just recently Newegg was selling them for $54.99 with free shipping.  Now they're $65 and shipping is $3.  $13 more per board multiplied by the number of boards I need to get is going to add up.

Given that I'm a cheap bastard, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a good alternative - something with two PCIe x16 slots with extra space between them and it takes an AMD CPU.  Could be a prior generation.