Are all FPGA mining rigs basically dead once BFL starts shipping?

[bt2084]

Is the prospect of any and all new FPGA's essentially a non-starter once BFL's ASIC's start shipping?

Are there ANY other non-scam companies that have announced an ASIC that will come out in 2013?

Are the existing FPGA miners likely to turn off their rigs once ASIC's hit the street?  What will happen to all the old FPGA's?

[1715497672]

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[phk]

Is the prospect of any and all new FPGA's essentially a non-starter once BFL's ASIC's start shipping?

Are there ANY other non-scam companies that have announced an ASIC that will come out in 2013?

Are the existing FPGA miners likely to turn off their rigs once ASIC's hit the street?  What will happen to all the old FPGA's?

I guess you could ask the same question about ASIC miners when "the next big thing" comes around.

[Lemon]

Is the prospect of any and all new FPGA's essentially a non-starter once BFL's ASIC's start shipping?

Are there ANY other non-scam companies that have announced an ASIC that will come out in 2013?

Are the existing FPGA miners likely to turn off their rigs once ASIC's hit the street?  What will happen to all the old FPGA's?

I doubt the BFL ASIC will ever actually start shipping, I've decided that my pre-order might as well be written off to sheer stupidity. Viva la' Avalon.

FPGA mining will be a bit pointless once ASIC mining has decent take-up though, that's for damn sure.

[shibaji]

Not really - it depends on the btc pricing. Also, if someone comes up with LTC bitstream and miner, then those will switch to ltc mining as well.

[jnoss]

And difficulty of mining goes up too

[shibaji]

And difficulty of mining goes up too

True, but it will be countered by rising value of btc (vs. fiat).

[andreasjva]

It seems to me that mining is about dead for the average person.  The return just isn't there considering all the equipment mining currently.  By the time you buy all the equipment, and pay for all the electricity, it makes more sense just to buy the coins and play the market.  Seriously.  I don't think anyone will see an ROI, and the longer it takes to see an ROI the less likely you are to receive an ROI.  Once the new technology does hit the market, returns are going to deteriorate even further.  The people that got in early and have already paid for rigs through the system are the only ones going to be left standing.  They won't shut down the rigs when the new tech breaks, because it just makes more sense to keep adding to them with better technology.  Naive newbies will jump in on GPU's dreaming of free money, but it'll takes months for a single BTC. 

I personally see no benefit in purchasing any equipment at this point, and I don't care if you're pushing 60ghash.  I think it's best to ride it out until the returns are nill, then play the actual market directly buying and selling the coins.

All anyone is doing right now is converting their current electric bill to BTC.  You may as well buy them directly and bypass the electric company (middleman).   

[Signus]

I had been wanting to buy an FPGA rig for the last 6-7 months, but never had the money. Even if I made the investment, the rise in difficulty would destroy my profit margin in a matter of months.

See my post here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178051.msg1910302#msg1910302

That example is using a rig of 55 ZTEX 1.15y boards, cost $45000 for 47.3GH/s. The ROI today would be by the end of the year. However when the variables change, the profit per rise in difficulty lowers. FPGA's will be almost impossible to profit from unless you already have them.