"Condo" for your Avalon chips: Price Drastically Reduced!

[flyonwall]

A couple of announcements:

1. The chip condominium will be located in the state of Washington. Washington has one of the lowest electricity rates in the U.S. Summer season is not too hot and short, ideal for Bitcoin mining.

2. We have begun looking into EloiPool mining software. The Condo Management System will allow each owner to connect his unit(s) to any mining pool that is compatible with the protocols implemented in EloiPool, including an in-house one.

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[wrenchmonkey]

This is looking much more reasonable with the recent price drop, but I have to say that without a statement of management fees being set, I'd still have a difficult time investing. "Minimal" is not a number. [/$0.02]

[flyonwall]

Thanks, wrenchmonkey. Nothing definite yet on the management fee. Electricity will be lower than 7 cents per kWh, but as of now, nothing definite on management fee.

[flyonwall]

The Avalon SHA256 chip communications specs are out: https://github.com/BitSyncom/avalon-ref/blob/master/SPEC/A3256Q48-130507-V03-EN.pdf

I don't see any discrepancy between my description of the communication protocol, and the official description from Avalon. Except for the fact that the Avalon is much more detailed (at the bit-level), I think my description of it is a very good summary.

So now, on to Spartan-6 programming! We are using a Spartan-6 card that we ordered from alibaba.com to do our prototyping.

[flyonwall]

Recurring Expenses (including management fee)

1. Electricity - approx 3 cents per kWh (Douglas county, WA)
2. Internet access - shared with other owners
3. Space fee - 0.012 BTC per unit (10 chips) per month
4. Management fee - 5% of your earning (no bigger than what you would pay a mining pool)

Among all the countries of the world, I don't think there's any country that can beat 3 cents per kWh. (Maybe there's a place in Australia that is cheaper, let me know.) If you find this price hard to believe, here is the link to the Douglas county PUD.

If we simply put the power consumption of each condo unit at 6.6W * 2.82 GH/s, then in one hour it consumes 18.612 Watt hours, which is 446.69 Watt hours in a day, which is 13.4 kWh in a month. Therefore, at 3 cents per kWh, your electricity cost per month comes to less than one U.S. dollar a month (40 cents)! If you own a whole box (32 units), your electricity cost per month is only about $12.86 per month. The Condo Management System will convert this into BTC and charge it prorated from every distribution, along with the Internet access and space fees. The management fee of 5% will then be calculated and charged also. The management fee is not a fixed amount, which is good for you because then it would be in Centerus' interest to optimize your earnings on a daily basis. If you don't earn, we don't earn also.

EDIT:
The average electricity cost in the U.S. is about 15 cents per kWh, so compared to Anytown, USA, your cost in Douglas county is only one-fifth of the average. In other words, in most other places, you are looking at electricity expenses of at least $64.30 per box per month. So even for those who are already running their own Avalon boxes, it may make sense to entrust your box to us. Initially our operation will not be anywhere like a data center operation, but we will improve.

Now remember, if we become big enough, we can be our own mining pool, and you don't have to pay another fee for a separate mining pool. I realize there are mining pools that don't charge any fees, and its up to you to join those. The Condo Management System will allow you to join any compatible mining pool. You are in control of your units.

[evershawn]

Philippines = Among most expensive electricity in the entire world.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/10/10/11/ph-power-rates-5th-highest-world

[flyonwall]

Philippines = Among most expensive electricity in the entire world.

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/10/10/11/ph-power-rates-5th-highest-world

Yes, that's why we decided against locating in the Philippines. Also, your link is 2 years old. The rate in Cebu City is now about 30 cents per kWh.

[flyonwall]

Most likely we will run out of time trying to craft an enhanced Control Unit. The USB connection to the Spartan-6 can be enhanced by replacing both the uPD720114 and the FT232 UART with a single CY7C68013A which serializes/deserializes to 16-bits. However, if there is no serious problem with the way it is now, and Avalon releases the Spartan-6 bitstream before we can complete ours, we will just use the original Avalon design.

This means we also don't have to do any Spartan-6 programming. We will just use the Avalon FPGA bitstream, as is.

It all depends on when Avalon will release the Spartan-6 bitstream ...

[flyonwall]

Looks like the Spartan-6 bitstream is out: https://github.com/BitSyncom/avalon-ref/tree/master/FPGA

Thank you, Avalon.

[SebastianJu]

The condo-price is the opposite of quantity discount?

Anyway... how should i understand this price. Is it 1.34BTC for 1-5 condos per customer or the earlies customers get this price only? So the normal cost is 2.54BTC? I guess the cheap condos are gone already then.

[flyonwall]

I will review what I wrote and make it clearer:

There are five Condo Systems on sale now at 1.34BTC per Condo Unit.
Each Condo System has 32 Units, so there's a total of 160 on sale.
Out of those 160 units, 64 have already been sold.
Therefore, there are still 96 left to buy at the discounted price.

[SebastianJu]

I will review what I wrote and make it clearer:

There are five Condo Systems on sale now at 1.34BTC.
Each Condo System has 32 Units, so there's a total of 160 on sale.
Out of those 160 units, 64 have already been sold.
Therefore, there are still 96 left to buy at the discounted price.

Ok, i changed it: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=192860.msg1998569#msg1998569

[flyonwall]

Thank you SebastianJu.

Also, the Condos will not be located in Cebu City anymore. Electricity is too expensive there. The Condos will be located in Douglas County, Washington, USA. Electricity rates in this place are among the lowest cost in the world.

[SebastianJu]

Thank you SebastianJu.

Also, the Condos will not be located in Cebu City anymore. Electricity is too expensive there. The Condos will be located in Douglas County, Washington, USA. Electricity rates in this place are among the lowest cost in the world.

I noted it...

[wrenchmonkey]

Recurring Expenses (including management fee)

1. Electricity - approx 3 cents per kWh (Douglas county, WA)
2. Internet access - shared with other owners
3. Space fee - 0.012 BTC per unit (10 chips) per month
4. Management fee - 5% of your earning (no bigger than what you would pay a mining pool)

Among all the countries of the world, I don't think there's any country that can beat 3 cents per kWh. (Maybe there's a place in Australia that is cheaper, let me know.) If you find this price hard to believe, here is the link to the Douglas county PUD.

If we simply put the power consumption of each condo unit at 6.6W * 2.82 GH/s, then in one hour it consumes 18.612 Watt hours, which is 446.69 Watt hours in a day, which is 13.4 kWh in a month. Therefore, at 3 cents per kWh, your electricity cost per month comes to less than one U.S. dollar a month (40 cents)! If you own a whole box (32 units), your electricity cost per month is only about $12.86 per month. The Condo Management System will convert this into BTC and charge it prorated from every distribution, along with the Internet access and space fees. The management fee of 5% will then be calculated and charged also. The management fee is not a fixed amount, which is good for you because then it would be in Centerus' interest to optimize your earnings on a daily basis. If you don't earn, we don't earn also.

EDIT:
The average electricity cost in the U.S. is about 15 cents per kWh, so compared to Anytown, USA, your cost in Douglas county is only one-fifth of the average. In other words, in most other places, you are looking at electricity expenses of at least $64.30 per box per month. So even for those who are already running their own Avalon boxes, it may make sense to entrust your box to us. Initially our operation will not be anywhere like a data center operation, but we will improve.

Now remember, if we become big enough, we can be our own mining pool, and you don't have to pay another fee for a separate mining pool. I realize there are mining pools that don't charge any fees, and its up to you to join those. The Condo Management System will allow you to join any compatible mining pool. You are in control of your units.

I don't follow your math on power consumption. Each chip consumes an estimated 2.5w, and this is not relative to hashing power, so I'm not sure what you're dividing, exactly.

a 10-chip unit of 2.5watts per chips is 25 watts per unit, meaning .6kwh per day, or 18 KwH per MONTH (not per day), or about $0.54/month. Multiplied by 32 would be $17.28/month.

Your management fees seem quite reasonable, assuming you're certain they will stay.

What happens if the venture fails, for whatever reason? Do we get our chips back? Do we get the boards as well (since we paid for them), etc, etc.

Would you be interested in housing/managing other hardware in your datacenter, for similar fees?

[flyonwall]

Recurring Expenses (including management fee)

1. Electricity - approx 3 cents per kWh (Douglas county, WA)
2. Internet access - shared with other owners
3. Space fee - 0.012 BTC per unit (10 chips) per month
4. Management fee - 5% of your earning (no bigger than what you would pay a mining pool)

Among all the countries of the world, I don't think there's any country that can beat 3 cents per kWh. (Maybe there's a place in Australia that is cheaper, let me know.) If you find this price hard to believe, here is the link to the Douglas county PUD.

If we simply put the power consumption of each condo unit at 6.6W * 2.82 GH/s, then in one hour it consumes 18.612 Watt hours, which is 446.69 Watt hours in a day, which is 13.4 kWh in a month. Therefore, at 3 cents per kWh, your electricity cost per month comes to less than one U.S. dollar a month (40 cents)! If you own a whole box (32 units), your electricity cost per month is only about $12.86 per month. The Condo Management System will convert this into BTC and charge it prorated from every distribution, along with the Internet access and space fees. The management fee of 5% will then be calculated and charged also. The management fee is not a fixed amount, which is good for you because then it would be in Centerus' interest to optimize your earnings on a daily basis. If you don't earn, we don't earn also.

EDIT:
The average electricity cost in the U.S. is about 15 cents per kWh, so compared to Anytown, USA, your cost in Douglas county is only one-fifth of the average. In other words, in most other places, you are looking at electricity expenses of at least $64.30 per box per month. So even for those who are already running their own Avalon boxes, it may make sense to entrust your box to us. Initially our operation will not be anywhere like a data center operation, but we will improve.

Now remember, if we become big enough, we can be our own mining pool, and you don't have to pay another fee for a separate mining pool. I realize there are mining pools that don't charge any fees, and its up to you to join those. The Condo Management System will allow you to join any compatible mining pool. You are in control of your units.

I don't follow your math on power consumption. Each chip consumes an estimated 2.5w, and this is not relative to hashing power, so I'm not sure what you're dividing, exactly.

a 10-chip unit of 2.5watts per chips is 25 watts per unit, meaning .6kwh per day, or 18 KwH per MONTH (not per day), or about $0.54/month. Multiplied by 32 would be $17.28/month.

Your management fees seem quite reasonable, assuming you're certain they will stay.

What happens if the venture fails, for whatever reason? Do we get our chips back? Do we get the boards as well (since we paid for them), etc, etc.

Would you be interested in housing/managing other hardware in your datacenter, for similar fees?

Thanks for correcting my arithmetic. Yes, Avalon has released new specs for the chip, and it does come out to 2.5W consumption (2.4W to be more precise).

As for your questions, thanks for asking. Here are the answers:

I have high confidence that the management fees will stay. This is slowly gaining interest, and if we reach a critical mass, the management fees can only benefit from economies of scale.

If the venture fails, then you will get your units back. However, you will have to pay for shipping and handling costs. If you own less than 8 units (a module with its own heat sink), it is understood that what you will get back are just the hashing units (condo units). If you own less than 4 modules, it is understood that what you will get back are just the modules. This is a worst-case scenario and I'm not aiming for it.

Yes, for similar fees, I am willing to host other hardware. However, I won't call it a "data center" operation at this point. A data center implies a host of other things that this setup will lack. All I can promise at this point is that the machines will be in a facility that is manned 24/7 (the person is watching other things, not just our mining rigs). There will be a local computer company servicing the machines. A service technician will be cleaning and maintaining the machines once every four months, and this local company will be on call so that if a condo unit breaks, a technician will come and shut down the one system involved, and replace the broken hashing unit. A number of web-cams will be installed, allowing the whole setup to be viewable from anywhere in the world.

[wrenchmonkey]

I'm really interested. When you say it's "missing a host of things", are we talking power backups, (battery and generator)? Power outages in my area of the U.S. are rather uncommon, but still common enough to suggest a UPS battery backup at minimum. I don't know about Washington power, but I do know that on the West Coast, California has very common rolling blackouts/brownouts in summer.

I'm REALLY leaning toward the Klondike project at this point, as far as getting the chips hashing, but I'm prepared to put it all in a rackmount unit, and send it out, if the numbers make sense in terms of cost savings (which, so far, they appear to), provided there's quality power backup and surge protection available. Keep us posted. 

[flyonwall]

There will be UPS, but the facility does not have its own backup generator. If the blackout is more than thirty minutes, then we're all out of luck.

EDIt:
This is straight from the Douglas PUD website:

INTERRUPTION OF SERVICE:

Your District will use reasonable diligence to provide an adequate and uninterrupted supply of electrical energy at normal voltage and communication services at maximum speeds.  However, if the supply shall be interrupted without notice for any cause, such failure shall not constitute a breach of the District’s agreement for service.

Your District shall have the right to temporarily suspend electric and communication services for the purpose of making repairs or improvements to the system, but in such cases, when practicable, public notice shall be given and every effort will be made to make such interruptions as short as possible.

The District shall not be liable for any consequential damages resulting from the interruption, restorations, or reduction of electric and communication services from any cause, including but not limited to failure of generation and distribution system, inadequacy of energy supply, implementation of emergency plans or temporary disconnections for repairs and maintenance or failure to pay for service rendered.  During an emergency declared by appropriate civil authority, it is possible that the District may be required to curtail or disconnect electric and communication services.

[Evan]

Evan, 2, 2.68, 1PtHcavXoakgNkQfEQdvnvEksEY2NvwaLM

[flyonwall]

Welcome to the Beach Side condo, Evan!