I know right?  It's totally like building houses, and who in their right mind would put money into a house that doesn't exist yet?  Obviously it doesn't matter that the contractor they are using has built hundreds of houses before.

New machines for xCrowd added.  Did I miss anything else while I've had my head buried in research?

I wish I could have made it, I was planning on driving down, but am just figuring out when that is possible, so I haven't used the email they gave yet.
I think there may be some misunderstanding of what this was intended to accomplish.  The NDA is in place because there are multiple companies doing similar things.  There is a lot of information that could benefit a competitor. 

It seems like the open house was their way of letting the community know that they exist in the capacity that they claim, on a more personal level than internet searches.  Not to answer every question that an investor would reasonably have.  I'm just thinking from a companies perspective here, would you want to release all your info?  It's kind of like a game of chicken at the moment.  Who will get closer to the cliff before hitting the breaks?  I bet Cointerra and HashFast would want to wait until the other company releases their information so that they can price accordingly.

At this point I haven't heard them say anything about preorders, except to claim they won't use that process.  Many companies have reversed on that before, though.

Yes the chips may be more expensive than others, but I think some of the idea that they will cost so much comes from basing their costs on KnCMiner.  I have heard the process could be cheaper, as 28nm infrastructure has been overbuilt recently.  Supposedly KnC started a bit before and didn't have as many fabrication options.

Yes, I am going to contact BTCTC and maybe a couple other exchanges soon.  I have no idea how to write a prospectus, but I think people understand the situation here.

I contacted them a few months ago to see what preparations needed to be done, and I think we will have to be a little more organized before they will accept an application.  Thanks for letting me know you're interested.  I'll send an email to them today to see what I need to do to fulfill their requirements.

I will answer all the questions asked below as FAQ here:

Q. Are you going to design your own PCBs?
A. No, we will be using BkkCoins' Klondike design. We are already in talks with him for a bulk order. But of course, we are still waiting for specs from Avalon, before he can finish the design.

I just wanted to be consistent in my name flipping, but if you insist on having the right name that is fine too. 

After researching the market more, it looks like there are some great options coming.  Apparently HashFast making their announcement spurred others to let us know what they are planning.  This is great news for bitcoin, in that we will see multiple companies releasing cutting edge products.  This should allow a greater decentralization to permeate the network than one company might be able to achieve.  

It is also great news for the mining community to hear that there are multiple companies vying for our attention.  This will keep prices reasonable, and allow for diversification in case a chip design is flawed, or there are delays.  (I know, NOBODY expects delays these days)  

As the new designs should push each other to price their equipment competitively, and the credentials line up, I would like to add more options.  For now this just means Cointerra, which is a manufacturer newly unveiled.  If the rumor about Avalon's 20nm chip is true, that would seem an excellent option to investigate.

For hosted mining I will buy from the relevant top producers based on their ROI.  (cost-gain)/cost  Spreading the investment as much as possible based on the relative profit margins will minimize any loss due to unexpected problems.

I can't for the relevant information to start rolling in so we can begin to prepare for the next couple months!

I agree erk, that the scenario you lay out would be ideal.  I think, though, that it is likely the winning companies will be the ones to deliver the most current in chip technology.
Until now ASICs have not used the most cutting edge designs.  Catching up to the most current tech should slow this growth rate a little bit.  Rather than being locked to what is achievable by the bitcoin community, it will be limited by the main technology curve.

I think everyone doing 28nm and lower are in the design phase.  Though they have announced only recently, their webpage states that they are getting close to finishing the initial design.

I guess he stopped the argument from ignorance tack and is going back to straw man/red herring.

Indeed!  It is amazingly early to jump into this, as prices have not been announced.  If anyone wants to just post an "Interested."  Or something similar to lajz99 that will be helpful too.

Hard to believe a company and mining machine come out with such close names one after the other.  Thanks for catching that.

Figured I should add that yet another person checked the connection between HashFast and Uniquify.
I'll try to keep this updated with the relevant facts, anyone (other than crumbs) see anything that should be changed?
http://decentralizedhashing.com/2013/08/another-leap-in-the-asic-race-hashfast-400gh-gn-chip/


I apologize if you are new here and the first response to you was negative.  That is uncalled for, and I welcome you to join us.

It seems that way. 

Just to be clear, these are estimates.  I got a reply from a personal message that said they will release pricing soon.

There are a lot of nuances here too, I talk a lot about 400GH for instance.  The chip is being designed for 400GH at max potential.  All of that will depend on cooling, though.

That being said, quite exciting stuff!  I think most people were expecting the time frame on the next big drop in price/GH to be a little farther out.  I was still getting used to KnCMiner and BitFury's numbers.

Ok, I had seen a couple people state that they had confirmed Uniquify's relationship with HashFast.  Now that I've received my own, though, I feel much better.

Yes, I can confirm that we are implementing the Hashfast chip.

Regards,

Bob Smith
Senior VP Marketing & Bus. Dev.
Uniquify, Inc.
2030 Fortune Drive - Suite 200
San Jose, CA 95131


Here is what I know about them so far:
http://decentralizedhashing.com/2013/08/another-leap-in-the-asic-race-hashfast-400gh-gn-chip/

edit- Yeah thanks Bit, and in my title of all places!

Funny how you're the second person to come straight here from the newbie section cheering on HashFast.  The other turned out to be ... interesting.

crumbs, nobody here trusts them completely, we're all just watching.  


I am not asking you to trust them.

I am asking you to stop trolling.  Saying that because they haven't made a chip yet proves they can't make a chip does nothing for the thread.  It is circular reasoning, a complete fallacy.
Look at the criticism Bitcoinorama made, that is well balanced and fair.

No evidence?  Except that the people involved have created things in the past successfully, and you have given no reason to think that they won't be able to continue this.  No I don't mean Simon and his paper.  I mention that to show that this isn't some new person coming out of the woodwork because they smell money.

edit- Thanks John, and gateway for the responses.  I'll try that email.

trigeek, I must have ignored your assumption about network hashrate, I was assuming 20% rise until then.

Did you get that 3000 chip per reel from somewhere, or as a thought experiment?

Also, if you add 50% of hashing power to the network you'll also increase network size, ending up with only about 33% of total network.  To make a proper 51% attack starting from 0%, you would need to more than double the network speed.  Moot point in this scenario I know