[Announcement] Block Erupter USB

[bigbeninlondon]

Awesome product.
Unfortunately, your price point is, to be blunt, retarded.

Well, considering that a video card that makes 300 MH/s is about $150 right now (My XFX 6870 from eBay used cost me $70), I'd say it's a little hefty in the price range.  What does one of these draw?  I'm assuming about 5 or 6 watts vs a video card's 100 or so?  Big difference.

I'd like two; someone please point me in the right direction for participating in a group buy and I'm there.

[bigbeninlondon]

First congratulations these devices look great and in a word ... cute.  But I agree with others about the price point, I thought people were over bidding for the blades.  I have a bigger problem with the cute USB dongle.  I am looking more for a blade or a big box that really pumps the hashes out.  What are people going to do, try and have 30+ of these hanging off a PC?  It is almost as if the USB dongles are meant for 'casual' miners to just plug in their laptop while they are on the go.

I'm trying to get an avalon blade through one of the group buys for chips; but this seems like something you can have for the novelty of it.  Plug one in your laptop while surfing the net; adding 1/3 GH/s is laudable, plus it takes (I assume) very little power.

[leroy_k]

Can you use a USB 3 connector to allow for the extra power draw, or is the increase in cost (I assume USB3 connectors > USB2) not worth it?

[John (John K.)]

i get what the goal is: wholesale to others who will then sale at "retail." that's a perfectly reasonable thing and the 300 minimum order isn't a big deal. avalon's chips are 10,000 chips minimum order, after all. same thing.

now, the 1.99 btc price? that's an entirely different matter. even with immediate delivery vs. waiting months, 300 mhash vs 5 ghash (and whatever power difference) is an obvious choice, and it's not in AM's favor.

It still makes sense when you factor in how much FOGA's been going currently.

assuming you mean FPGA john, then yea, this is true. but that's not longer the compare point, is it? bfl's shipping, slowly, yes, but shipping. thus those are a competing option, just with a waiting list. also there's the huge number of avalon chips which have been sold. supposedly those will be shipping by june, with DIY or other hardware being made by forum members (burnin comes to mind) ready to go quickly after that. FPGA's aren't a relevant comparison anymore.

Yep, FPGA. Take a look at this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=187549.0 - FPGA's going like hot cakes now. (I remember seeing a group buy for that - it was filled to 100+ units in a couple of days)

[arklan]

i get what the goal is: wholesale to others who will then sale at "retail." that's a perfectly reasonable thing and the 300 minimum order isn't a big deal. avalon's chips are 10,000 chips minimum order, after all. same thing.

now, the 1.99 btc price? that's an entirely different matter. even with immediate delivery vs. waiting months, 300 mhash vs 5 ghash (and whatever power difference) is an obvious choice, and it's not in AM's favor.

It still makes sense when you factor in how much FOGA's been going currently.

assuming you mean FPGA john, then yea, this is true. but that's not longer the compare point, is it? bfl's shipping, slowly, yes, but shipping. thus those are a competing option, just with a waiting list. also there's the huge number of avalon chips which have been sold. supposedly those will be shipping by june, with DIY or other hardware being made by forum members (burnin comes to mind) ready to go quickly after that. FPGA's aren't a relevant comparison anymore.

Yep, FPGA. Take a look at this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=187549.0 - FPGA's going like hot cakes now. (I remember seeing a group buy for that - it was filled to 100+ units in a couple of days)

i hadn't seen that thread. interesting. thanks.

[bitfair]

Awesome product.
Unfortunately, your price point is, to be blunt, retarded.

Well, considering that a video card that makes 300 MH/s is about $150 right now (My XFX 6870 from eBay used cost me $70), I'd say it's a little hefty in the price range.  What does one of these draw?  I'm assuming about 5 or 6 watts vs a video card's 100 or so?  Big difference.

I'd like two; someone please point me in the right direction for participating in a group buy and I'm there.

You people should really stop keep justifying high prices for the new ASICs products by comparing them with old technologies.

Exactly. It should only be compared to existing technologies that are currently shipping. Oh wait - that's FPGAs and graphics cards! 

[Caesar V]

This is amazing, looks so simple!

I agree with the others about the high price and the required units one must purchase, it is not very flexible at all.  

But can a hero member start a "group buy" thread please?

[bitfair]

Exactly. It should only be compared to existing technologies that are currently shipping. Oh wait - that's FPGAs and graphics cards! 

Yes, you can still buy/use GPU, but think about the future.
Compare them with other ASICs.

My point exactly: other ASIC manufacturers have a backlog that means your device will probably not be shipped before August - if you are lucky. Many people are willing to pay a little extra for a device that ships earlier.

[erschiessen]

I can mine LTC or FC with GPUs... there are also the designed non-cryptocurrency applications.

These doodads, can they mine LTC?

Nope.

If you want to pay 2BTC for something that will cost $25 in a couple of months, that's cool.

[runeks]

We can make it quick and simple:
"Why are they selling it when they could mine themselves?"
Because they have a lot of those. They can do whatever they want.

I think they are selling them because mining with it themselves is completely useless. This is obviously not for large-scale mining.

Congrats on getting them released! I have been waiting for this post for some time now. Mainly because I heard a rumour that you would be charging ~$40 per miner.

The pricing is the biggest disappointment for myself personally.

At 1.99 BTC, and a conservative estimate of 20M difficulty over the next year, it will take me 352 days to recoup the 1.99 BTC cost.

It difficulty averages 40M during that time, it will take two years to recoup your investment.

The current 14-day average increase in hash rate is 1% per day. If this rate of growth continues, these devices will only ever mine 1.5 BTC.

[...]
Would it run on a Raspberry Pi?
[...]

You will most likely need a powered USB hub for your Pi. The Pi itself is powered by a micro USB cable, so it depends on how much power your USB adapter powering the Pi puts out.

Awesome product.
Unfortunately, your price point is, to be blunt, retarded.

[...]
10pcs minumum and price about 1BTC and you will have huge demand. your terms only leads to group buy and resending units between forum members.
[...]

I believe this is exactly what they want. They're a company that produces mining hardware. How many hardware companies do you know that sell directly to consumers?

Well, considering that a video card that makes 300 MH/s is about $150 right now (My XFX 6870 from eBay used cost me $70), I'd say it's a little hefty in the price range.  What does one of these draw?  I'm assuming about 5 or 6 watts vs a video card's 100 or so?  Big difference.

They will draw no more than 2.5W (maximum for USB 2.0 devices as per the specification)

[arklan]

group buy thread for those interested: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195052.0

[SebastianJu]

This batch will be for group-buy and retailers. The quantity of each order should be more than 300 devices. The price is fixed at 1.99 BTC. We will start the group-buy threads as fixed-price auctions in the auction subforum.

Hm... i thought these would be good for people with small wallets. Is it the work included to ship many single units or why it the minimum quantity to order 300 units? I thought the shipping is excluded anyway? If its the auction that would become a problem because of to many bids then maybe some website script could be used to automate this. A min of 300 means probably a couple thousand units to be sold. A person couldnt handle it but an automated script could do.

Of course groupbuyers will start new auctions with their batch and start selling to smaller buyers. Is the missed earning worth the work or isnt their missed earning at all?

Im not sure what to think about.

The internet shipping and the replacement service of retailed sales will take too much portion in the total value of one device. The shipping/support could only be done in batch to be efficient and practical. The retailers/groupbuyers could save a lot of money when the distribution targets are within the same country.

Ok, i guess you thought this trough good enough. Of course wholesale has to work another way. I only thought that, in case you make the buying fully automated and outsource the shipping (while the buyer pays the shippingcost + envelope + the fee for the packer) it shouldnt mean much work. The support will most probably go mostly to asicminer anyway.
But i think it will work out.

great work!

I would prefer a batch without led.
The first few days certainly nice to see. But who needs a disco on usb port  

I think it should be easy to kill the led by yourself. Maybe even make it a service as a retailer. When the buyer wants no led you kill it.

Awesome product.
Unfortunately, your price point is, to be blunt, retarded.

What a convincing argument you've made, thanks for your wonderful contribution to this thread

he is right..stop trolling and tell us, why you think that it is good pricing/selling model (300pcs/order) - for end-user device.

Its a business you know? So its very easy? If no one buys the price has to go down. Simply as that. But these claims, that it will be too expensive came up all the time. In reality there always were people that bought for these prices.

I can mine LTC or FC with GPUs... there are also the designed non-cryptocurrency applications.

These doodads, can they mine LTC?

Nope.

If you want to pay 2BTC for something that will cost $25 in a couple of months, that's cool.

Why do you have to mine litecoins? Currently they have an advantage of 33% against bitcoin mining. But freicoin has an advantage of 147% against bitcoin mining. And that is SHA-256. So there are even better alternatives to mine with asics than litecoin.

[philips]

My point exactly: other ASIC manufacturers have a backlog that means your device will probably not be shipped before August - if you are lucky. Many people are willing to pay a little extra for a device that ships earlier.

Yep, obviously, like demonstrated by those Blades auctions.
Still, a GPU performance/price compared with an ASIC is not sufficient to justify the price.
ASIC is a new world, screw GPUs.

[furuknap]

Keep in mind that the difficulty could easily pass 100M by August and that makes those 5 GH/s the equivalent of 500 MH/s by then. 300 MH/s in hand today (or next week) is more valuable than 5 GH/s in a few months.

Yeah, this is an argument against BFL more than it is an argument for Bees, but it's wrong to compare a 5 GH promise to a 0.3 GH delivery.

.b

[yxt]

I think it should be easy to kill the led by yourself. Maybe even make it a service as a retailer. When the buyer wants no led you kill it.

I've killed all led in my reach. From sat receiver over PC to smartphone dock...

[brucemangy]

Keep in mind that the difficulty could easily pass 100M by August.

I bet NOT.

BFL : delivery in high number ? before AUGUST. NOK
AVALON : batch 2 is late. batch 3 ? there will be no batch 4. NOK
Avalon chip : might deliver. but get those chip running. NOK
ASICMiner : they will keep increasing the size of their farm. I believe they are responsible for that continuous increase. I do not have all the history. they are a 15 TH/s ? out of the 70 of the network ?
more GPU ? possible ... but summer is coming :>

it's not gonna happen

[CryptoCurrencyMiners]

Looks great! I might be interested in buying 300 of these, and selling them over at CCM.

[arklan]

when i get one, i'm totally gonna use it for a silly, silly purpose, besides mining:

get a little arduino or something and a light sensor, then design and have 3d printed (i do that...) a litle "statue" of a robot mining a pixelated rock face or something. when x number of shares have been found (and detected by the light sensor) the statue would run a little animation.

i'm such a dork.

also: as to the current total mhash of AM - i think it just passed 17th.

[rograz]

I can buy a 5870 used (100ish usd), get 300 MH/s out of it at low enough voltage to power it for a year at less than 200 usd total cost. That's with paying 0.15 usd/KWh, a 5870@0.9V pulls around 65-70W at the wall while giving 280-300MH. Also I could probably get 50-75 bucks for the card a year from now.

This product is great for the network and decentralization, it's quite a bad investment however. It definitely has it's place in the market and I want a few to give away to friends, just don't expect to profit from them any time soon, if ever

[sunblaster]

Suddenly the 10ghs blade at 50btc looks like a good deal