I am surprised no one has pointed out a particularly obvious issue with the BE200 chips which caused a significant loss of revenue to AM. The power consumption of the chips came in higher than expected. For large mining units, that is not really an issue because the consumption vs the g/hash is still pretty decent. The real problem is that AM cannot produce simple 1-chip usb units similar to the 333 Mhs units. There are no USB hubs on the market that can handle the power requirements of a full compliment of (not designed, not released) USB miners.

The market should have been flooded with BE200 single-chip USB miners by now. Unfortunately, the power requirements locked AM out of that very lucrative market. For shareholders this is a real punch in the gut.

Disclaimer: Still a stockholder and still hodling.

To suggest that FC is in constant "Fail mode" and that everything that he does is some sort of "Last Resort" seems like a myoptic conclusion.

He sells the chips bulk until they are more profitable to sell in assembled miners. He sells assembled miners until they are more profitable to just mine with. He stops mining with them when he has a new generation of chips to sell in bulk. Rinse, repeat. It's not rocket science. You move to the next phase where your maximum profit exists, and only when it exists.

Although AM does not take preorders, in the business world often the inverse is true. In other words, there is a strong possibility that AM sold chips without immediate payment, net due in 30, 60, or 90 days. This is quite common. It is possible that AM has a very large number in their accounts receivable ledger and is awaiting payment from vendors before distribution to shareholders.

Sometimes Occam's razor will give you a better shave.

Halving in August 2016 if things keep going the way they are.

120,000 more blocks or so to go.

It will be here before we know it.

I was kinda hoping for some dust this week. Guess I am disappointed.

Thank you.

Altcoins might be fun, and they may be occasionally profitable, and they are certainly laboratories for experimentation. However, their existence does not come without an explicit cost.

That cost is a dilution of the value of bitcoins. If all of the value currently expressed by all altcoins were liquidated and transferred to bitcoins, bitcoins would currently be valued in excess of $5000 each. The question is not whether altcoins should exist. The question is whether their existence is worth having bitcoins valued at $600 instead of $5000. Which of course begs the question of whether we are better off with bitcoins at $600 as opposed to $5000 in the first place.

I am not qualified to answer these questions, but I think I am qualified to ask them. I think if I were Friedcat those particular questions would present unknowns that I would not want to factor into my business plan. Bitcoins are speculative enough as they are without designing dozens of other chips to optimize mining whatever altcoin might be the flavor of the day, regardless of how popular they may be at the moment.

2 TH/s pointed at the pool. Someone seriously wants some altcoins.

I think we may want to let Namecoin exist, it does serve a distinct and important purpose.

Working like clockwork for me so far. My wallet is getting fatter every day, but more importantly if appears to be a stabilizing force for the network as a whole.

Block halving rate: 262144
Current block: 16450

Next difficulty (estimate)
27,678.25
-55.87% change to current
1694 blocks until difficulty changes

Pool jumped to 368 Gh/s with only 43% of the network. Rapidly approaching 1 Th/s in global hash. That was quick.

I think the word you are looking for is "Integrity". It has fallen from the common lexicon, but I think dictionary.com still has an old cached reference still online.

http://www.internetnews.com/hardware/article.php/3817066/Idle+Hands+in+Chinas+Chip+Business.htm

The Chinese government heavily subsidized the production of integrated circuit manufacturing capability all through the 90's and 00's. Today the amount that is just sitting idle is just staggering.

There exist facility after facility available to be brought online if only someone had something that needed to be produced. Announcing a chip order in Shenzen is like throwing a porkchop into a den of starving wolves. The misallocation of resources we normally associate with centrally-planned economies appears to have worked in AM's favor in this particular instance.

Grrrr. Tried to point a cube at it but it looks like the proxy only will listen on 3333 even though i specifically told it -p 19982.  Did someone say they got a cube to hit it successfully?

Yeah, even I stopped solomining with my USB's and just pointed them to the pool a few hours ago. Only added like 3% to the pool though...LOL!

Edit: Oh, great, I just tipped the pool over. The pool is over 51%. But fortunately ALTCOIN laughs at petty vulnerabilities like 51% attacks.

Requested as requested. Let them feel the power!

Excellent! The first hurdle cleared!

Now we need a pool (maybe p2pool) and then finally get them trading on an exchange. After that, the destruction of the false altcoins can commence.

I spoke too soon. Must have been a dry spell. Solving blocks again. By the way, for those interested, I went back to 60/120 for scan and expiry now that the blocks are being solved at a more reasonable rate.

Apparently the new diff means that I don't get to solve any more blocks with the pathetic little USB farm I have pointed at the network. But I will leave them pointed there for the time being, because it is not as if they can get me more BTC than if I spent my time going to faucet websites. At least with ALT they still have a chance to find something.