When you say heatsink, I assume that is the finned one that covers the backside as
is shown in the video?

That looks way more effective than the flat slab on the Block Erupters.

So does this mean that you folks have to "bin sort" the assembled units, and then
"flash" in the parameters to make the unit run reliably at that speed?  I am curious,
because it seems like the RasPi on the full Bitfury blades had a serious hand in "tuning"
each chip to it's best speed. I would guess that some major part of that infrastructure
had to be replicated, presumably in the Atmel processor?

Interesting engineering issues when you scale down from a blade to a USB stick.

Thanks for clarity and description.

Do you need to be contacted in some way to confirm a PayPal purchase for one of these units? I am completely new to this kind of transaction, so please forgive my ignorance.

If this actually works out, it will double the size of my miniscule mining rig!

One other question. The range on hash rate seems larger than I would expect. What determines
the rate for any individual unit? Luck of the draw? Temperature? How nicely you talk to it? 

As I understand it, there's roughly 11 million BTC in "circulation". Assuming $100 per BTC, that's
just a bit over $1 billion. The total sum doesn't seem all that daunting for the US, or several
other governments. Even Warren Buffet could do that, though he'd almost certainly laugh if you
suggested it to him.

I can see it now: The Strategic Currency Reserve, kinda like the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,
or maybe they could set aside a small room at Fort Knox. 

If nobody reads these posts, and you are Full Member, what are you
doing looking at these? Better be careful, or you might get bounced
back to the Minor Leagues! 

In case it wasn't totally obvious, this was a very flippant reply and all
meant in jest.

Can you elaborate a bit on the "long con" game reference?

It seems that BFL must have made a substantial investment
in producing a functiong ASiC and usable product. I am not trying
to promote them, but I don't quite see the "con" aspect yet.

As I heard a long time ago:

"Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."

The bot would need to be a bit smarter than that.

There is some vague reference to "substantial" posts, and there also appears to be
an initial "minimum 6 minute delay" between posts as well. I am not sure if there
are other restrictions, but it seems you just have to stumble into them to find them.

Yes, I guess I am trying to inflate my post count a bit.

The example of using as a replacement for international payment seems to have one "buy" and one "sell"
of a Bitcoin in the middle. My simplistic understanding is that neither of these will be done in seconds
with the need for confirmations. I thought I'd read that it was minutes, and could approach an hour.
Maybe that's still faster than other methods. Isn't there also the usual bid/ask cost at each end of
the whole transaction? In other words, I start with $100, and by the time it goes through the buy/sell
process, it's not even $90 at the other end. Is that completely out of line? I have zero experience with
international transactions beyond the usual currency exchange at both end of an international trip, and there
were plenty of losses along the way. In those days you always wanted to minimize the total number
of exchanges, and well as try and come back to the States with as little non-USD as possible.

The idea of Bitcoin as protocol is an interesting one though it can only carry Bitcoins, and it's not
entirely loss-less as I understand. Isn't there a small "fee" levied somewhere along the line for the
transmit?

Just to be picky, it seems like the actual mining rate these days is closer to
4500/day. I get this using 7.5 blocks/hour from bitcoinwatch.com. Using 24
hours/day, and 25 bitcoins/block. This rate may well drop in the next 24 hours
when the difficulty rate jumps up by 25% which is also projected by bitcoinwatch.

Does anyone out there have the courage to tell their wife that they just
got 1000 Porcoins?

Anyone?

Ane you thought the Bitcoin conversation was difficult.

I am happy to respond to help you escape "Newbie Jail". I just have to make
this post long enough, and not less than 6 minutes from my last post.
I hope I got this right.

Do you have any idea when you are released?

I'd like to understand why somebody thinks a Bitcoin will be worth $1000.
I don't buy into the "Bitcoin as currency" at all. To me it is strictly an electronic
commodity, and a highly speculative one at that. Lack of a stable value
makes a currency completely unworkable, in my opinion.

Also just inflating my "Post count".

Did anybody know that you can't post two within 360 seconds. That and the 5 attempt
Captcha make this forum a bit frustrating. Just love it when you have to find out what
the password requirements are by trying different ones.

Ive heard that during the Gold Rush days, the guys that made out the best were those that sold shovels,
rather than those that actually "mined" the gold. Don't know how true that is, but it sure seems applicable
here.