sidehack (OP)
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Curmudgeonly hardware guy
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November 18, 2016, 03:56:16 PM |
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Well it looks like there are a couple other outfits already building Bitfury-based S5 miners, but from what I've seen none of them are as good as what I want to build. Now that's just my opinion, but there are features I really like to see on a miner which most everyone has ignored for the last couple years. I do kinda like that Novak and I started talking about S-series refits and bucked strings just almost two years ago and now both are becoming standard things, too bad we didn't have any money to build 'em then.
I wonder what would get Bitfury's attention? Community petition or something?
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VentMine
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November 18, 2016, 04:43:53 PM |
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You know I'm a fan of flashing lights! Has that retro feel. 2 and 15 sounds good. I still have almost a complete s2 for you (blades at least) I can send you if you can use those parts. Possibly sell my compacs and send you the proceeds. Lmk.
I got the Gekko compac as my first miner a few weeks ago, and I too love the blinking light! Really cool. When I go to bed and I see the faint blinking in my room it gives me happy dreams I snap-chatted a couple friends and they thought it was neat. So definitely continue with that feature
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1ESSdoVYKm8sNtYMfdkFBajhAe2e6G8keH
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sidehack (OP)
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November 18, 2016, 04:58:10 PM |
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I just sent this message to punin at Bitfury. Hopefully it gets his attention; the last 4 emails got no response. He's my only point of contact, so if anyone knows someone else I maybe should be talking to as well I wouldn't mind hearing about it.
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Punin,
In order to help raise money for initial funding of a Bitfury-based miner project, and as an indicator of the community's readiness to have more miner options, I'm working on a 2-chip USB stick miner and a 15-chip "pod" miner using outdated BM1384 ASICs. These two miners will meet the same market sector as two of the miners I'm designing around Bitfury chips.
I've just started talking about it in the last few days, and already have a customer list totalling over 200 units of the USB stick; it looks like a lot of people would rather buy the pod, as nothing on that order of magnitude (for power consumption or noise level) has been offered in about three ASIC generations. People are lining up for these products, in part because they are the only things available in a niche market and in part because they know the profits will be put toward the design and manufacture of better miners using your ASICs.
Think about how good sales would be for the same product with three times the performance? That's what I want to bring to market, and that's what I'm working on.
If I build a 2-chip USB miner with Bitfury chips and it sells the same quantity as my BM1384 Compac (which, 14 months after the initial batch, are still in demand and being produced) would take 7000 ASICs. If I make half as many pod miners (and I've already had requests to license the design once it's ready) is 20,000 ASICs. And I've already had interest in my S5 refit boards (which I know others are making, but I will integrate desirable features others overlook) to the tune of another 12,000 ASICs - and that's without advertising.
In the last two weeks I've had 0.66BTC donated from half a dozen sources just to help with development expenses.
I very much appreciate that you sent me sample chips and datasheets. I very much appreciate the shows of good faith that you've put forward so far, especially claims to support community endeavors and decentralization.
However, I'm stuck in limbo right now. I am unwilling to take in customer money on an unproven product, especially one I don't know I can manufacture in bulk. I can either continue to devote my limited resources to a project with zero indication of a future, or I can put them into something which, while not as good, has a known chance of bearing fruit.
I really want, and the community really wants, to see a variety of good miners built with your chips. I really want to bring that to them. If I can do what I'm trying to do, the result would be tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of ASICs in additional sales and a buttload of positive PR for you.
I would really appreciate, and the community would really appreciate, some word back about whether you're willing to make good on the offer to sell me some chips. Just that confirmation right there is enough to re-ignite quite a bit of support for my project and, ultimately, your sales and public image.
So, please let me know what's up.
Thanks.
Matt Hercules 'sidehack' GekkoScience
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gt_addict
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November 18, 2016, 05:53:03 PM |
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If he doesn't listen to that letter which tells him exactly what we (the community) want and how many of use are willing to pay for it rather than bitmain with there dysfunctional asics and warranty, then he and bitfury are fools.
Fingers crossed!!!
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**SUPPORT SIDEHACK** Miner Development Donations to: 1BURGERAXHH6Yi6LRybRJK7ybEm5m5HwTr
Donations/Tips to:- 1GTADDicTXD1uachKKgW24DZDxDGhSMdRa
Join Bitconnect: https://bitconnect.co/?ref=gtaddict
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NotFuzzyWarm
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Evil beware: We have waffles!
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November 18, 2016, 06:08:59 PM Last edit: November 19, 2016, 12:26:35 AM by NotFuzzyWarm |
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^^ Could not have put it better myself. I am hoping that BitFury dragging their feet is due to the X5/X6 or LightningASIC project others are doing. Possibly an agreement to not step on their toes until a miner is released? As a businessman I can understand that but if so then I'd think that obstacle should be removed once an X5/6 or other one gets into the wild (soon?). If not BF should at least have the courtesy to tell you what the problem is...
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sidehack (OP)
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November 18, 2016, 06:14:57 PM |
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Not like I can dev fast enough to cramp their sales anyway. If I had the go-ahead for chips right now, I might be prototyping a refit by Christmas. The primary focus is the 2- and 11-chip things, since the control set will be pretty much the same for all 3 and the refit will basically be three 11-chips on a single board I really need to make that work first.
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sacskate
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November 18, 2016, 06:33:25 PM |
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I sent in an email as well and this is part of response I received..
Our program has a minimum order quantity of $1m of ASICS.
Is that 1million? If so I think a group buy for chips would be needed as well to meet min requirements.
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sidehack (OP)
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November 18, 2016, 06:46:04 PM |
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I know these are old, but I like it when people say a thing and stick to it. Especially the one from... holy carp, 11 months ago? about his willingness to sell small quantities like they used to, and we've seen pretty much no movement toward that goal. Guys I'm super excited about this personally and want to help as much as I can!
I'll discuss internally if and how BitFury could contribute to this project. Our reference design PCB for 16nm is almost done and could be used as a starting point should BitFury's chip be selected.
It will not be "small guys" most likely. If your a company making miners most likely is who they would sell to, the question is what MOQ dogie mentioned is required.
It's really early to tell what will happen. I'm not sure hat will happen if they keep pumping these out, difficulty is going crazy is all we know 100 percent.
Actually quite the opposite. We are focused on maximum distribution on all levels. Minimum order quantity (at least in my shop) will be 1 chip.
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buckrogers
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November 18, 2016, 07:10:47 PM |
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Looking forward to the new products, hopefully you wil get what you need to make this happen.
thanks!
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Well I'm dr. spock I'm here to rock y'all
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Morguk
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November 18, 2016, 09:07:35 PM |
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Nice letter. If he has any soul left he will reply.
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Calculate the chance of hitting a bitcoin block when solo mining at
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scyth3
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November 19, 2016, 01:51:22 AM |
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You made yourself sound so desperate for the chips. Bad move in my opinion. Now he knows he has you at his mercy. $50/chip
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adaseb
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November 19, 2016, 03:08:10 AM |
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So getting Bitmain to sell S7 and S9 chips is out of the question?
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sidehack (OP)
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November 19, 2016, 05:08:37 AM Last edit: November 19, 2016, 06:07:25 AM by sidehack |
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I couldn't even get Bitmain to sell me more BM1384 last fall. They straight-up told me no with BM1385, and the 87 they didn't even publish a datasheet. I don't think they care at all. You made yourself sound so desperate for the chips. Bad move in my opinion. Now he knows he has you at his mercy. $50/chip Offering $50 per chip is the same as just saying no, and anyone with half a mind would figure that out. Oh hey also, vh is onboard with the BM1384 project so that's good. It's probably gonna take some packet sniffing and analysis to figure out exactly what we need to do to talk to multiple chips since S5/BM1384 protocol documentation is basically nonexistent, but I'm already working on a testing setup for that. It's fortunate I forgot to include my first BM1384 testing PCBs in the prototyping stuff auction a few weeks ago because now I'm using them again. So, with vh in the game working on the code, I'm okay putting more resources into the hardware end of the project. Already got a layout for the 2pac, and I spent a couple hours today working on 15pac layout. I pretty much know where everything is going to go, but for that many chips there's a lot of connections and a lot of inter-node level shifters and bypass caps and stuff to worry about so it might be a while. And hopefully before long we hear good news from Bitfury, and then I'll be super busy forever doubleteaming manufacture of 2pac and 15pac while doing dev for Bitfury boards. But that's the good kind of busy.
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Unacceptable
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November 19, 2016, 06:45:48 AM |
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You made yourself sound so desperate for the chips. Bad move in my opinion. Now he knows he has you at his mercy. $50/chip Punin already knows this,hope he comes thru. Everyone knows Bitmain & Avalon aren't selling any chips sooooo,he is the only option & has been since....11 months ago
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"If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day long, you are the asshole." -Raylan Givens Got GOXXED ?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KiqRpPiJAU&feature=youtu.be"An ASIC being late is perfectly normal, predictable, and legal..."Hashfast & BFL slogan
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JaredKaragen
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My AR-15 ID's itself as a toaster. Want breakfast?
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November 19, 2016, 10:38:00 AM |
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Matt, if you need the funding for a pre-sale of sorts towards a potential future pod; just ask me. I will consider it a donation with hopes of a future product.
I am sure a few others will be on this boat as well... But you have my support for what I can afford
I want to see your business thrive. It would mean the world to the community.
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gt_addict
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November 19, 2016, 12:18:25 PM |
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I'm definitely happy to have a preorder system whwre we put a deposit down so you can use that to buy chips/materials. Not fussed how long the lead time is (obviously once the chips are confirmed).
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**SUPPORT SIDEHACK** Miner Development Donations to: 1BURGERAXHH6Yi6LRybRJK7ybEm5m5HwTr
Donations/Tips to:- 1GTADDicTXD1uachKKgW24DZDxDGhSMdRa
Join Bitconnect: https://bitconnect.co/?ref=gtaddict
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sidehack (OP)
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November 19, 2016, 03:27:37 PM |
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I still like the loan address system, where anything paid in will be used for an initial batch and paid back once it's been earned from sales. Once that's set up, anyone who wants to help can do so freely.
Lead times probably won't be too bad. PCBs and heatsinks will be the worst of course; depending where I buy the PCBs and in what quantity, it'd be 2-4 weeks.
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SLEI
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November 19, 2016, 03:48:18 PM |
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Sent some burger or espresso BTC, I hope it leads to upgrade of my S1 pile someday. I would like to see connectors like in miners and ditch the melting PCI-E connectors. So much ATX powers floating around that it propably won't happen but this type of connectors would make wires much easier to make.
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sidehack (OP)
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November 19, 2016, 04:01:20 PM |
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(unless you own a Molex pin-crimping press and make PCIe cables as part of your job, then it's not easier at all)
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sidehack (OP)
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November 22, 2016, 02:15:11 PM |
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Got an email this morning from Punin. Hi Matt,
OFC you will get chips!
Do you need me to say something on the forums?
So, looks like it's Game ON.
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