Driving home today I had a great idea - someone else maybe already had it but I haven't read/heard about it anywhere I've looked.  Then, I realized I worked a full time job and ran a small mining operation and didn't have time to start it up.

The initial idea was like a bitcoin miner's ad council.  Miners contribute to a group that provides general marketing/campaigning for bitcoins.  I don't have the time or expertise but would be willing to contribute to such an endeavor.

Then I got to thinking this would be a great way for a pool to attract new miners.  There are lots of new pools looking for miners, I'd be interested in seeing a pool offer to collect for coordinated marketing and advertising.

While I'm wishing I'd also like to see pool tools made available to the solo miner.  Reporting on solo mining is for shit.  Would you offer tracking/management of my solo block endeavor for a slice if I ever get a solve?

Anyway, I'm sure there are lots of services and features pools and exchanges could offer beyond ordinary currency conversion and bitcoin holding to attract customers away from the mtgox and deepbit rosters.

Your ideas?

There are 8 cards available.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004R1Q4VW

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!
Al

One of the problems I'm facing and that I've read other miners facing is a lack of good locations to rent to house mining servers.

1) Power - running at home is great until you start tripping breakers.  Household AC just isn't designed for the loads a mining rig may want to pull.  DIY AC work can be dangerous and electricians cost a fortune. 

2) Security - Who wants to put a $2000 mining rig in someone else's basement?  How far do you want to push a friendship when you need to get to the hardware at 3:00am?

3) Heat - even all the fancy water cooling towers and stuff for best performance don't take heat out of the room.

There are lots of options for data center and co-location but typically these are really, really expensive.  Mining doesn't require a lot of bandwidth.  UPS/power backup just isn't cost effective for the amount of power mining uses.  So, a lot of the features standard in a data center just aren't worth the money to a miner.

So, here's the idea.  BitRack - someone in north dakota or somewhere else that has cheap commercial space rents a building or part of one and then sublets it to other miners.

Multiple 20amp circuits and outlets aren't typically a problem for commercial spaces.  It should be easy to accommodate mining in an old restaurant or light-industrial space.  These kinds of spaces also usually have good ventilation/cooling.

Most commercial spaces provide security features, card access, video and what not.

Providing basic data center service without having to pull multiple fiber connections should be pretty low maintenance. 

Basically what I'd like to see is a X BTC/Month for 4U and a dedicated 20 amp circuit, metered electric usage paid monthly with enough bandwidth to accommodate mining/remote admin access.  Maybe charge $1/reboot for services as a three-fingered-admin.  Costs include maintaining the space at a constant 72F or whatever.

There may be some problems.  For instance, what's to stop someone from hosting kiddy porn or illegal gambling site on the server sitting in your office space?

I'm sure the local UPS guy would get a little sick of lugging 80lb mining rigs in and out all day, but heck, that's his problem.

I've been reading through a lot of the marketplace postings and such and boy do scams abound!

Here's the deal.  I just got trounced by my landlord for sucking up the juice with my little mining operation and rather than go looking for a new place to live I think I'm going to part out the systems I have starting with 8 Sapphire HD 6990's.

What's the best way for me to sell them?  One of the things I love about bitcoins is that they aren't paypal.  But, at the same time I don't know how comfortable I am with making a large btc transaction with an anonymous stranger.  Looks like a lot of people have gotten scammed and I don't want to get involved in some whack-jobs life.  Still, I really don't want to give a cut to paypal/ebay.

It looks like there a couple of escrow sites and btc auction sites coming on line but this is going to be a pretty big sale and a btc auction site with two whole items listed in Russian is probably no safer than accepting a wire transfer from an African prince.

So, as of now these cards are NOT for sale.  I am not going to answer any questions about them or dicker over price until I've determined the best way for me to sell them and the best way for someone else to buy them.  Once' they're up for sale I'll happily provide details, photos and what not and will let you know here where/how to go about bidding/buying/whatever I end up deciding what to do.

Rather, I would appreciate your input and insight on the best way to conduct a large transaction like this in bitcoins.

Worst case, I post them on ebay, I have an excellent rating there but haven't used it in a few years.