Isn't part of the issue with "a wallet address you control" in case sidehack wants/needs to refund?  If he refunds, would coinbase be able to return it to actual "owner" of the Bitcoin (i.e. the correct account)?

It's shortly after 3PM here in the Midwest USA (i.e. the CST time zone for sidehack).

While I guess it's still possible, a difficulty DECREASE is growing ever more remote. Two increases in a row like this suggest to me that we have a real growth in the network hashrate, and not just variance. I don't think we'll see difficulty below 49 Billion again.

Or perhaps this one at ZoomHash?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1116424.0

I wonder if the following is the one that Phillip got an E-mail from:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1128985.0

I am curious as to what makes this a scam rather than somebody thinking they can take an over-priced miner and sell it for an even higher price? In this case the scam would be that they don't actually own the miner for sale, rather than selling a non-existent miner? It wasn't uncommon for somebody to buy/pre-order a BFL miner and then try and sell it on Ebay for an even higher price in 2013. I don't think they were scam, rather than just an attempt to cash in on "Bitcoin fever" (i.e. like Gold Rush fever).

SFARDS might need to be a bit careful. There is another thread regarding Innosilicon and their debacle with Bitmine. Innosilicon is the producer of the A1 and A2 chips which I surmise to be the best Scrypt ASIC's to date, prior to SFARDS. They claim in this thread to be well underway on an A3 and A4 designs for 14nm process technology. No dates yet, so maybe SFARDS has a a clear field for several months, in terms of LTC.

Their current price won't last more than 60 days is my bet. The halving, and rumors of something else, will put pressure on them in a big way.

Whover has bought them now, had better extract the value they can, because their asset will be at no more than 50% in less than 6 months (IMHO).

If they already sold out the 1st batch, what's the urgency for them to try and sell here? Maybe when they can't sell whatever they make at $1200+ per unit.

I still there  there's a $999 Christmas special (almost 30% off), in the future.....

In other words, pretty optimistic for most folks. I assume you didn't include halving, since there's no mention?

So what electricity cost did you use for your calculations? Surely not your NJ rates of roughly $.18?

Isn't the LTC halving in less than 45 days now?

I know so little about LTC, it's pathetic.

So maybe the "mass production" in the title isn't quite accurate, or only for small values of "mass"?

While it's interesting to watch, it seems unlikely that SFARDS is going to change things much given the prices they charge, and the small scope of "mass production", at least at the moment.

One thing you may want to consider. While I don't own an S1, my understanding is that it's a pretty quiet miner. I think that is also true for the S3. It is most decidedly NOT true for the S5. I do own an SP20, and when pushed for speed, the fan is plenty loud. I am way down clocked for the summer, and it would fit your efficiency desires, it might still be a bit loud for your situation.

You might also want to consider an Avalon 4.1, which is only available on the used market.

I only mention the loudness, due to the reference on clothes drying.

I would guess that you are right in the "sweet spot" for the PSU efficiency range, and should run "forever" that way (assuming you pay the electric bill). 

Your choices sound quite reasonable to me.

Please put me in for -0.51% to -0.75%.  I don't really expect it to go negative, but I also see nothing greater than 2% either. I hope I am right, or perhaps Phil.

I agree with Burks, a 4x improvement in efficiency from an unknown company just reeks of scam.

It'll be interesting to see if the dynamics that existed back in the "Gridseed Days" in terms of hash rate, LTC/BTC pricing and such will allow them the premium they want to get. The $30/chip pricing will be difficult to make a a miner that is competitively priced I'll bet, certainly give the existing BTC gear out today. 

I'd swear I saw a post somewhere that pushed the rate down to 400GH and ran even cooler, and with better efficiency. The Monarch really appears to have been more like a 450-500GH miner, which came pre-overclocked to try and save face for BFL. The whole PCI form factor, which then forced liquid cooling, were major failures along the way (IMHO).

While not strictly on topic, the fraction of a thread  exposes something about Bitcoin that I had never thought of before. We all get so wrapped up in "securing the network", and a "51% attack", and "too much centralization", we may have lost sight of the bigger picture.

Maybe the biggest threat is actually making peoples Bitcoin unavailable by impairing the ability to process transactions and use their "money". Even if my wallet is "safe", if I can't freely send and receive Bitcoin, that would really make Bitcoin a much less useful currency wouldn't it?

Sounds kinda like when the villain in the James Bond movie 'Goldfinger' was going render the gold at Fort Knox unusable by exploding a nuclear device. The USA was almost certainly still on the "Gold Standard" at the time, so it might have made sense.

My understanding is that is truly the catastrophic point of failure for the Neptune. If you are going get out your soldering iron, you might want to consider doing something different, and more robust, than just replacing the PCIe power connector. The PCIe connector is not rated for the power draw of the Neptune.

It's a real problem as I understand it, though I don't own one.

Look back to page 654. I didn't find anything compelling.