Avalon ASIC Batch #2 Income Sharing; arrived and hashing

[dogie]

It goes without saying, that I would like to be issued a refund for my bids today.  As I am now out of the top 10 bids, with no intention of bidding higher, my BTC will just be sitting there.

I think the blunder bid, and the non-winning bids are returned and that all is tidy.
If you do not think so now, please let me know.

So Prof are you accepting any/all of my bids? I was lying in bed and think I worked out how to actually do it xD I should have send 1.5 to each of my addresses, and so when I sent on to you it would have allowed me to select 5 addresses.

I welcome your bids, but I sent the entire blunder-bid back so that the record is very clean in the block-chain.

You may want to practice this using only your own addresses, so you don't lose control of your money.  The instructions I wrote are in post #155.

Rec.

[ProfMac]

This is  a statement of the current winners.  If you are not on this list, you should have all of your bids returned at this time.  If this is not true for some reason, please let me know.

Please alert me to any discrepancy between this list and your records.  While I think this list is correct, it is the block-chain that is the final authority, and in any disagreements between this list and the block-chain, the block-chain wins.

I will open the final heat of the auction tomorrow.  Again, if you wish to comment on one aspect of the auction rules where I have not made a final decision, please do so soon.

Code:

5	1CwLwBgR16urEkcL5Su3LkzA7RYYqyjHy4		1.265000000    (permanent)
1	1Fm1mN7o16Te6PrkpgirWzZ2daibW9jdUD	1.26
4	1JzMp55NW22xjEE4QKUhN5iAmKyFnJSUDg	1.25950000
1	18NQjpGcUdjMnqgCCz3F3SZcQfMyCi5Kyv	1.24
2	14Zqn3i1iDJzmkFCRjVqDe4YqgkrrmyEYd	1.23359794 (permanent)
3	1Fu4JaynbQrtkSPN73uoDqEPAxyzVfsqLu		1.21410000 (permanent)
7	1cCXNG5mNFkErBWtCLaVLA9fZrGAzFCB1	1.21100000 (permanent)
5	1LktD4cXPmcJ75Sd2WgRs69rBZqNQd5L4P	1.21000001
5	18qDhkReMuFfciHshdpQhr3QhXZp82aWon	1.21000000
3	1Gor6F9rMXUhbKGT9iYRKpa4U4tW94Ycq8	1.20000000

[ProfMac]

I have announced the final heat of this auction in a new thread.

[ProfMac]

I have announced a buy-back for anyone who paid into address 17Pq8oPtk8rikxZhF1wENFqR9YtDyLyr8E in the fixed-price share-purchase.

[ProfMac]

There is some new opinion that miners may, under some set of circumstances, be considered a Money Service Business (MSB) and require registration.  As a Ph.D. there is absolutely no way I can say oh, I didn't know,  ignore the issue, and expect freedom from trouble.  

One set of opinions is that, when only bitcoin is involved, mining is clearly not a MSB.
Another set of opinions, based on a 2nd FinCEN advisory document, is that any miner may be a MSB.
Informal regulator comments, documented elsewhere in bitcointalk, say that the regulators ultimately intend to classify miners as MSBs regardless of the advisories to date.

I have read the two FinCEN documents that I am aware of, and I find the 2nd document in some contradiction with the 1st.  Especially in view of this contradiction and my lack of specific expertise I think it would be foolish to form and act on my own opinion without receiving expert advice.

In addition, it seems that the bitcoin foundation has recently received a cease and desist order from the State of California.  I don't comprehend any justification whatsoever for this order, but nonetheless the order exists.

I have been careful to keep all transactions, actual and promised, strictly limited to bitcoin and not involve USD or other fiat, and also not to involve other cryptocoins.  In addition, my policy has been to make payments strictly to the bitcoin address that originally paid; I did violate this in a transaction early in the auction, but I think this is self documenting and an isolated incident and not a pattern of behavior.  This further strengthens my defense against a claim of being a money transmitter, a particular category of MSB that is under intense scrutiny in the bitcoin environment.  Our transactions will all be visible on the block-chain so our transparency is high and the transactions cannot be altered.

I have put out feelers to learn the cost of a legal analysis of my specific situation for my Avalon and the relationship to each of you.

You may wish to consider your future preference in the event that I call for you to submit identifying documents signed with your payout address.  

In general, I will conform to any applicable paperwork requirements.  In addition, I will be cautious about making or retaining subversive or seditious comments in this thread.  

In very broad terms, that conformance may consist of

• producing documentation
  
• ceasing operations
• partnering with another entity
  

It is good strategy to plan for the most pessimistic decision pathway.  Along those lines, it is foreseeable that I must collect identifying information and that some shareholders do not provide it in a timely manner.  In this pessimistic scenario, I will not pay dividends to them, and will return the original buy-in amounts to their payment addresses.  This will be a last-ditch & least preferred choice.

My established management style is to take care of situations through good communication, voluntary actions, or natural attrition whenever possible.  The hope is that everyone remains satisfied (Hah! This is Spartica bitcoin).  Toward that end, I again mention the buy-back that was announced in the previous post in this thread.

March 18 item and public commentary.

[ProfMac]

Quoted for your information.

We address these issues in the legal subforum, mostly. 

In sum, there are two regulatory regimes that govern most bitcoin businesses: Money Transmission and Securities:

Money transmission is regulated on the state and federal levels.  The federal level is straightforward.  Miners (who convert to fiat) and Exchangers (who buy or sell BTC as a business) are considered "money transmitters" by FinCEN, the government agency that administers the Bank Secrecy Act.  These businesses must register with FinCEN as money services businesses, and design and implement Anti-money laundering (AML) and Know your Customer (KYC) policies.  The state level is more complex.  Any state in which your business solicits customers or transacts business - whether or not your business is physically located there - will require a license in that state.  These licenses are expensive and time-consuming.  Also, they are not granted automatically; money transmission is a privilege under most states' laws, not a right.

Securities are regulated on the state and federal levels as well.  Most of the perpetual mining bonds and "shares" of "companies" being sold in the securities forum here on the boards are unregistered, restricted securities.  They also don't provide the kinds of disclosures that issuing companies are required to provide.  That's lawyer talk for "illegal".  These issuances would likely be legal, if their issuers would file the appropriate paperwork to comply with the rules.  Unfortunately, there is not enough money involved yet to make a lawyer worth it.  Until then, it's casual securities fraud.

The foregoing was a very general explanation of the regulatory regimes that apply to BTC businesses.  If you have more specific questions, I would suggest looking into the legal subforum.  There is a lot of very granular detail in the posts there.  Hope this helps!

[ProfMac]

The shared income will be paid from address 18bLcVkviErQi75zB8X39jZXxHNpSZggdC

After taking 5 days to travel from Minneapolis to a remote small town in Minnesota, the unit arrived about 12:30 CDT midday on Tuesday.  It took some phone calls and patience to get the ma and pa "last mile" courier to bring the unit to me that soon.

It is a black Avalon with controller version 1.52.  I added an antenna from a spare D-Link DI-524 router, a spare power cable from who knows where, grabbed a laptop and a cable, and occupied the kitchen for an afternoon.  

I did some basic administration work, such as adding a password to the account.  I don't have the routing set up correctly, so the laptop cannot see the rest of the network and I am carrying slips of paper between floors of the house as I set up mining pool accounts and the like.

I let it hash overnight using WiFi.  I did see the dreaded amber many times during the night, but it always recovered.  The second day I flashed the new cklovias firmware image into it, 20130703, and configured the unit to select its own clock speed.  You can see the down time while updating the firmware, and the improvement in the hash rate that followed.

Thus far, I have connected the unit to ozcoin, btc guild, and eligius.  For a while today, I had it connected to all three in balanced mode.  At this writing, two of the three modules, or (2/3) of the hashpower is going to eligius.  It seems that 1/3 is about 27 GH/s, 2/3 is about 55 GH/s, and full output is about 73 GH/s.

Soon, surely within 24 hours, the BTC mined at ozcoin and btc guild will pay out to the payout address.  At that time, say 23:59 GMT Friday, we should have a preliminary lower estimate of the actual income production of the unit.  Eligius pays out directly in the miner's fee block, which means that those funds are pristine when I receive them.  I don't care about that, but some people want coins with no history at all, to increase their anonymous nature.

I am still configuring the unit, and I may let it mine from the basement for a while, in the near future.  The basement is 10-15°F cooler than it's current location, and the unit may hash faster there.  It is dank, and the unit may have a shorter life there.  

I have started the unit with clock speeds of 300 & 360 with the --avalon-auto parameter set.  From the lower clock speed, it seemed to stabilize to a clock speed of 347. From the higher clock speed, it has dropped to 343 but I don't think it has had time to stabilize.  In case any of my students read this and say "- 2 points for not giving units" I assume the clock speed is in MHz, but I don't know right now.

Code:

Temp 28 45 50
Fan speed 2640 3720 3840

The preliminary hash rate indications, 81,000 GH/s, suggests that I will mine 8.683 BTC a little more frequently than once per week.  It would be simple to interpret a payment of 0.08683 BTC per share that you hold.  I am inclined to do it that way, but as always feel free to leave civilized but disagreeing comments.

[sealkid]

Exciting times! I am happy to leave the share payment schedule and mining details up to you, since it is your time and effort researching and setting up and running the avalon. I will have to go back and read everything again regarding conversations about pools, overclocking, other coins, etc.

[ProfMac]

10:15 CDT 
moved to slush's pool.  this is a temporary move to see how it behaves.

[ProfMac]

I am preparing to make the first payout.  Some payments used more than one input address in the payment transaction.  For the first payout, I am going to pick one of those addresses to pay to.

Here is the schedule that I propose to pay against.  Please let me know if there is any problem with this.

Code:

Address	Shares	BTC
		
(ProfMac)	31	2.03189361
18qDhkReMuFfciHshdpQhr3QhXZp82aWon	26	1.70416883
17LBCmWzVjJFVuLTWBM7GPSUkgu1e3MruU	25	1.63862388
1BJa5r7bq3xEuAfmKmiLFUmqMK8NwhszLB	5	0.32772478
12fLsHddqAhjZEc6HEAxMTWPe4vgR3f1uT	4	0.26217982
1CwLwBgR16urEkcL5Su3LkzA7RYYqyjHy4	1	0.06554496
1Fm1mN7o16Te6PrkpgirWzZ2daibW9jdUD	1	0.06554496
1JzMp55NW22xjEE4QKUhN5iAmKyFnJSUDg	1	0.06554496
18NQjpGcUdjMnqgCCz3F3SZcQfMyCi5Kyv	1	0.06554496
14Zqn3i1iDJzmkFCRjVqDe4YqgkrrmyEYd	1	0.06554496
1Fu4JaynbQrtkSPN73uoDqEPAxyzVfsqLu	1	0.06554496
1cCXNG5mNFkErBWtCLaVLA9fZrGAzFCB1	1	0.06554496
1LktD4cXPmcJ75Sd2WgRs69rBZqNQd5L4P	1	0.06554496
1Gor6F9rMXUhbKGT9iYRKpa4U4tW94Ycq8	1	0.06554496
		
		
	100.00000000	6.55449551

[ProfMac]

I have sent two transactions.  The first transaction sent change to a newly created address.  The second transaction used the coins from that address.

Anyway, the Avalon is delivered, live, mining, and the first payment to y'all has been disbursed.



At the Ubuntu command line, I typed

bitcoind unlockwallet "secret pass phrase" 60

bitcoind sendmany "Asic #2 Income Sharing Payments" '{"18RKachrcvzBHFdwzjgGK19amp77pkNBKz":2.01033157,
"18qDhkReMuFfciHshdpQhr3QhXZp82aWon":1.68608454,
"17LBCmWzVjJFVuLTWBM7GPSUkgu1e3MruU":1.62123514,
"1BJa5r7bq3xEuAfmKmiLFUmqMK8NwhszLB":0.32424703,
"12fLsHddqAhjZEc6HEAxMTWPe4vgR3f1uT":0.25939762,
"1CwLwBgR16urEkcL5Su3LkzA7RYYqyjHy4":0.06484941,
"1Fm1mN7o16Te6PrkpgirWzZ2daibW9jdUD":0.06484941,
"1JzMp55NW22xjEE4QKUhN5iAmKyFnJSUDg":0.06484941,
"18NQjpGcUdjMnqgCCz3F3SZcQfMyCi5Kyv":0.06484941,
"14Zqn3i1iDJzmkFCRjVqDe4YqgkrrmyEYd":0.06484941,
"1Fu4JaynbQrtkSPN73uoDqEPAxyzVfsqLu":0.06484941,
"1cCXNG5mNFkErBWtCLaVLA9fZrGAzFCB1":0.06484941,
"1LktD4cXPmcJ75Sd2WgRs69rBZqNQd5L4P":0.06484941,
"1Gor6F9rMXUhbKGT9iYRKpa4U4tW94Ycq8":0.06484941}'

[bitrocket]

Confirmed receipt of the first payment.
Thank you ProfMac for organizing all of this!

[sealkid]

Sorry I've only just got around to checking this, it's the first chance I've had. It appears that three of the 1% shares were not paid out correctly?

Comparing the list from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=215993.msg2295276#msg2295276

The ones in red did not get paid out.

Final auction results.  These 10 accounts each own 1 share (1%) of the Avalon's output.

    1   1MLFkF3dPwNzwBsw6DFUpXjn78RKwwhVuJ   1.4021 (permanent)
    x   18NQjpGcUdjMnqgCCz3F3SZcQfMyCi5Kyv   1.402 (permanent)
    1   1LktD4cXPmcJ75Sd2WgRs69rBZqNQd5L4P   1.4015
    1   1CBkQc83dMGVAaseYM1TZRLjeBGAcsd4Z1   1.401 (permanent)
    2   1Fm1mN7o16Te6PrkpgirWzZ2daibW9jdUD   1.400001 (permanent)
    1   15B1jLCFXFiWwkreAo3bEMeMMjH435Q9cA   1.40000001
    5   1CwLwBgR16urEkcL5Su3LkzA7RYYqyjHy4      1.265000000    (permanent)
    2   14Zqn3i1iDJzmkFCRjVqDe4YqgkrrmyEYd   1.23359794 (permanent)
    3   1Fu4JaynbQrtkSPN73uoDqEPAxyzVfsqLu      1.21410000 (permanent)
    7   1cCXNG5mNFkErBWtCLaVLA9fZrGAzFCB1   1.21100000 (permanent)

Meaning that the two below shares in blue were paid out in error? (because they don't appear on the above quoted list for single shares?) Leaving one share paid out in error unaccounted for?

Address   Shares   BTC
      
(ProfMac)   31   2.03189361
18qDhkReMuFfciHshdpQhr3QhXZp82aWon   26   1.70416883
17LBCmWzVjJFVuLTWBM7GPSUkgu1e3MruU   25   1.63862388
1BJa5r7bq3xEuAfmKmiLFUmqMK8NwhszLB   5   0.32772478
12fLsHddqAhjZEc6HEAxMTWPe4vgR3f1uT   4   0.26217982
1CwLwBgR16urEkcL5Su3LkzA7RYYqyjHy4   1   0.06554496
1Fm1mN7o16Te6PrkpgirWzZ2daibW9jdUD   1   0.06554496
1JzMp55NW22xjEE4QKUhN5iAmKyFnJSUDg   1   0.06554496
18NQjpGcUdjMnqgCCz3F3SZcQfMyCi5Kyv   1   0.06554496
14Zqn3i1iDJzmkFCRjVqDe4YqgkrrmyEYd   1   0.06554496
1Fu4JaynbQrtkSPN73uoDqEPAxyzVfsqLu   1   0.06554496
1cCXNG5mNFkErBWtCLaVLA9fZrGAzFCB1   1   0.06554496
1LktD4cXPmcJ75Sd2WgRs69rBZqNQd5L4P   1   0.06554496
1Gor6F9rMXUhbKGT9iYRKpa4U4tW94Ycq8   1   0.06554496

Am I right? Or going mad? It's been a looooong day... 

[ProfMac]

Sorry I've only just got around to checking this, it's the first chance I've had. It appears that three of the 1% shares were not paid out correctly?

Am I right? Or going mad? It's been a looooong day...  

I'll check it out again.

Edited:

Ok.  I grabbed the obsolete list from Pistachio's post, instead of my own post.  So some people got a surprise extra payment.  I hope they pay me back.

In addition, I overpayed 18qDhkReMuFfciHshdpQhr3QhXZp82aWon by 1 share (0.06554496 BTC)

I will pay the 3 accounts their shortage in the next payment.  Then they will be correct.
Then I will pay the regular payments, with a deduction from my account and 18qDhkReMuFfciHshdpQhr3QhXZp82aWon.
Following that, the balance should be 0 (or immature mined coins) and everyone should be settled correctly.

[ProfMac]

I think everyone who should receive a payout now has one, and the totals (to you) should be correct.

I used bitcoind to send the payouts.  It creates a new address in the same account to receive the change.  It pays out of an account, not out of an address, with the sendmany command.  I think that is good, so far the total received by 18bLcVkviErQi75zB8X39jZXxHNpSZggdC is the total generated by the Avalon.

The transactions involved are

63ba75f2b96879a56e8361d5a8325cc64978bb67f84937f33f2a2bd92137cfa6
acde5675d8d0f657a9fa7b9a2dea962187d890421158282ff81a899aaedbf1ab

[perseus]

Awesome, ProfMac! When you get a chance, it might be cool to post a pic of your setup. I know it's all the same as everybody else's Avalon, but it still would be cool for to be able to say I own X shares of this Avalon!

[ProfMac]

Awesome, ProfMac! When you get a chance, it might be cool to post a pic of your setup. I know it's all the same as everybody else's Avalon, but it still would be cool for to be able to say I own X shares of this Avalon!

I'm trying to figure out if people can learn my physical address if I post the pictures on Google+

[ProfMac]

I'm convinced I get a better hash rate in a cool room.  I almost sat out on the patio with that Avalon last night, it was supposed to be about 59 °F overnight.  I have to admit, having it is making me a lot more security aware.  It's raining now, so I'm glad I didn't.  Perhaps tonight.  The basement did cool off a degree or two, however.  It dropped back to 70 °F, where it started 4 days ago.

[perseus]

Awesome, ProfMac! When you get a chance, it might be cool to post a pic of your setup. I know it's all the same as everybody else's Avalon, but it still would be cool for to be able to say I own X shares of this Avalon!

I'm trying to figure out if people can learn my physical address if I post the pictures on Google+

Interesting topic. Seems like there are two sources of address information -- metadata by your camera, and noise pattern by your camera. The latter is somewhat of a theoretical concern at this scale.

If you PM me a link to your pics, I could take a photo of your pictures with my non-GPS enabled camera, and post. That would mitigate the first issue, and partly the second (by mixing the noise of our two cameras).

[bitrocket]

Awesome, ProfMac! When you get a chance, it might be cool to post a pic of your setup. I know it's all the same as everybody else's Avalon, but it still would be cool for to be able to say I own X shares of this Avalon!

I'm trying to figure out if people can learn my physical address if I post the pictures on Google+

The meta data stored in a digital photo is called EXIF data. It can contain information about the camera and the photo including the date and time, resolution, shutter speed, etc. It can also contain the GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken if enabled in the camera.

You can check the data hidden in your photos with an EXIF viewer, which is available as a plugin for firefox and chrome. If you find your images contain too much information you can edit or remove the EXIF data with a program like EXIFcleaner.