Hi everyone, just wanted to stop by the thread. Many of you know me as the Fund Manager from BDD; I'll be doing the active managing on DIRECT as well - answering questions, scheduling dividends, reporting the Hashrate, etc. I've been managing BDD for a year and a half now, and have been in control of up to 600+ BTC at different times for BDD, so hopefully that will provide some reassurance for those that aren't familiar.
Cloud mining contracts? Backed by real, physical miners? No harm in trying, I suppose...
Yes, as much as we really wanted to launch the offering jointly with the Mining Organization, quote-unquote "Cloud Hashing" has really beaten down the image of the industry, and rightly so. Due to this, they only want to be associated by name with a completed, paid contract - they don't want to be seen as being linked to 'pre-sales', as those have gotten a bad name as well.
We've reiterated to them that the offering period is a maximum of two weeks, and that all funds are held in escrow during that time, but they're very cautious about their reputation.
That being said, they are one of the Top 5 Mining Operations as listed on
https://blockchain.info/pools if that gives you any indication of the scale that we're referencing here. 1PH doesn't comprise a significant amount of their total hashing power.
EDIT: Also wanted to mention that, again, these contracts are only valid for one year - this isn't a 'perpetual' mining contract; no serious mining organization would pledge to mine for eternity. In addition, as a large player in the industry, the Mining Organization can mine profitably at much lower prices than the current BTC/USD rate. This contract's negotiation began when the BTC/USD rate was around $220 and they're comfortable mining and a much, much lower price than that.
EDIT 2: Regarding 'Maintenance Fees'I had this question come in via email:
Also, are there any maintenance fees taken out of the weekly payouts? Or does buying the share include all maintenance, including power, etc?
There are no maintenance fees, power fees, etc - all 'overhead' for this offering is built into the one time, up front price of $0.55 per GH.
