[Announcement] Block Erupter USB

[zapeta]

Poetry:

Stupid Name
Stupid Price
A Gee Whiz Device

A Fool sees it
Says, "I gotta have it.."
He would do better giving the BTC to Pirate.*

*Pirateat40

Brilliant!

[Melbustus]

I don't see this making sense for consumers, only ASICMiner
....
Total realistic ROI of 140% after 2 years.

Put that into perspective. If you were to buy stock of a mature company (zero growth potential) that just paid out say, an 8% dividend, that'd probably be considered a really good deal. And it would take more than 12 years to get 100% ROI.

These devices seem nicely priced. Yes, it's aggressive relative to ROI numbers that have been achieved in the past with some bitcoin investments, but you guys have to acknowledge that the space is maturing, and that means longer payback periods (but hopefully less risk too). Furthermore, AM delivers; the risk with them is one of the lowest in the bictoin space.

So, while I wish they were cheaper for selfish reasons, I do think they'll sell at this price. If not, I'm sure AM will drop the price until they do sell.

[adamthefishman]

Cool.

Let me know whom I can buy some off retail.

[BlackLilac Grant]

2BTC for 300MH is still too much, even for the average geek who are not expected to be too deep into mining... 2BTC is 200 bucks for a tiny 300mh unit.

If it was 30 or 40 bucks for 300MH, then that would make more sense, for the casual user and those who want to really get into mining. I don't expect some random kid with a macbookpro to drop 200-300bucks for something like this.

I guess I am going to lose this mind war

You do know that ROI on mining is a moving target right??  this is not some mp3player

if it was as cheap as you say right now, it would be sold out in minutes.. so what does that tell you?  Raise the price.
ASICminer is making profit for their shareholders.   I think this price is fine IF they ship small orders directly to buyers.

You're exactly right.

I posted this in a group-buy thread, but since I think so highly of my own opinion I'll quote it here:

You can put me down for 10 in your group buy. I am also buying 300 myself for re-sale.

These are the devices that are going to keep Bitcoin decentralized. If we end up with ASICMINER doing all the hashing themselves, maybe competing with a few other massive farms, the entire P2P concept is out the window.

These allow the average user to keep mining Bitcoin with their personal computers. Selling 10,000 of these will put 3,000,000 MH/s back in the hands of the small-time miners and hobbyists, and more importantly keep them out of the hands of centralized farms and large corporations. BTC will be almost useless if all the mining becomes centralized.

People who think that an investment paying off in 10-12 months is terrible are delusional. Take your chances with BFLs $200 5 GH vapourware, see how that works out for you. You won't have it by Christmas if you order today. Meanwhile, myself and everyone I know will be plugging in these bad boys before JUNE.  

Those who were hoping to pay $50 and make a massive profit instantly... I don't feel sorry for you. That's not how business works. ASICMINER doesn't need to sell these for what they earn in two months because they aren't trying to get pre-orders to fund their project... they have already done that and are ready to ship. There is no risk for the end customer, they will get their 300 MH/s right away.

If you wanted to make 10x returns on your BTC, you should have taken the risk and invested in ASICMINER's IPO. You can't expect a successful company to give away products for far less than what people are willing to pay for them.

Also, I fail to understand anyone doing calculations that involve a BTC exchange rate. These are priced in Bitcoins, and they earn Bitcoins. The BTC/USD price fluctuations shouldn't make a difference.

[Bogart]

I would really like to get a hold of one of these - two questions:

Would it run on a Raspberry Pi?

What if I would only like 1-2? Am I screwed?

Thanks.

I understand the Pi has issues delivering a full 500mA on its USB port, so you will probably need to use a powered USB hub, or need to modify the Pi to fix its power delivery issue.

Otherwise I don't see why it wouldn't work.

[Bogart]

People who think that an investment paying off in 10-12 months is terrible are delusional.

This right here.

Sometimes I think some of these ppl have never been off the internet and seen what things are like in the real world.

[seleme]

Cool device to have as collectable item. If I had lot of coins I'd definitely buy one for myself.

Out of that, who in the right mind would pay that money for it..

These are the devices that are going to keep Bitcoin decentralized. If we end up with ASICMINER doing all the hashing themselves, maybe competing with a few other massive farms, the entire P2P concept is out the window.

These allow the average user to keep mining Bitcoin with their personal computers. Selling 10,000 of these will put 3,000,000 MH/s back in the hands of the small-time miners and hobbyists, and more importantly keep them out of the hands of centralized farms and large corporations. BTC will be almost useless if all the mining becomes centralized.

Lol, people can buy graphic card at same dollar/mhash point and keep the bitcoin mining decentralized yet they all or most of them got away from mining bitcoins with cards weeks ago. And card at least have some other use too and can be sold.

It's pathetic price and only who could defend it are those who usually defend AM prices - their shareholders. And even more pathetic than price is when they try to convince people it's cool and bargain with pathetic arguments like one I've quoted above.

[arklan]

This seems about right for retail cost, it seems a bit expensive at wholesale. Ideally, I'd like to see about a 1.5 btc wholesale cost.

Can we get ASICminer to comment on either lowering the bulk 300 price or shipping small orders directly to users?

they're probably barely waking, if at all. timezones and such.


to anyone in the US or canada looking for a group buy, see my thread. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195052

for europe, see this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195037.0

[HjerterEss]

2BTC for 300MH is still too much, even for the average geek who are not expected to be too deep into mining... 2BTC is 200 bucks for a tiny 300mh unit.

Its about the same price/performance as 7970.
1 * 7970 $400 = 700MH
2 * Block Erupter $ 440 = 700MH

Now think about a miner with 4 * 7970. It consumes over 1000W. You need 8 * Block Erupter to reach the same speed, but the power consumption is way under 1/10. Same goes for power consumption and heat...

[ecliptic]

For ROI calculations, I ignore the exchange rate and use this simplified formula - It's not exact, but it's a quick way to do it:

Cost = 1.99 btc

Network Hash Rate = 78,000 Gh/s

My hash rate = .3 Gh/s

My Share of the Network = .3 / 78,000

Blocks found / day = 144

Block Reward = 25

Therefore, i will earn:

.3 / 78,000 * 144 * 25 = 0.013846154 BTC / day.

My ROI in days:

ROI (in days) = 1.99 / 0.013846154 = 144 days. about 4 3/4 months.

This doesn't consider an increase in network hash rate, which I estimate will cut profits in half every month until October. Considering difficulty increases the ROI is a little longer than 1 year.

This seems about right for retail cost, it seems a bit expensive at wholesale. Ideally, I'd like to see about a 1.5 btc wholesale cost.

Difficulty was estimated to be 70 million by the end of july even without these.

[Rampion]

2BTC for 300MH is still too much, even for the average geek who are not expected to be too deep into mining... 2BTC is 200 bucks for a tiny 300mh unit.

If it was 30 or 40 bucks for 300MH, then that would make more sense, for the casual user and those who want to really get into mining. I don't expect some random kid with a macbookpro to drop 200-300bucks for something like this.

I think there will be buyers even at that price in the very short term, just because of the novelty and the bleeding edge factor.

Anyhow, I still think this things with MASSIVE distribution at $40ish could be HUGE for Bitcoin. It would be spreading pills of monetary freedom, it could be a revolution.

[BlackLilac Grant]

2BTC for 300MH is still too much, even for the average geek who are not expected to be too deep into mining... 2BTC is 200 bucks for a tiny 300mh unit.

If it was 30 or 40 bucks for 300MH, then that would make more sense, for the casual user and those who want to really get into mining. I don't expect some random kid with a macbookpro to drop 200-300bucks for something like this.

I think there will be buyers even at that price in the very short term, just because of the novelty and the bleeding edge factor.

Anyhow, I still think this things with MASSIVE distribution at $40ish could be HUGE for Bitcoin. It would be spreading pills of monetary freedom, it could be a revolution.

That would be a revolution of sorts... it would be a company giving away money for free.

[BlackLilac Grant]

For ROI calculations, I ignore the exchange rate and use this simplified formula - It's not exact, but it's a quick way to do it:

Cost = 1.99 btc

Network Hash Rate = 78,000 Gh/s

My hash rate = .3 Gh/s

My Share of the Network = .3 / 78,000

Blocks found / day = 144

Block Reward = 25

Therefore, i will earn:

.3 / 78,000 * 144 * 25 = 0.013846154 BTC / day.

My ROI in days:

ROI (in days) = 1.99 / 0.013846154 = 144 days. about 4 3/4 months.

This doesn't consider an increase in network hash rate, which I estimate will cut profits in half every month until October. Considering difficulty increases the ROI is a little longer than 1 year.

This seems about right for retail cost, it seems a bit expensive at wholesale. Ideally, I'd like to see about a 1.5 btc wholesale cost.

Difficulty was estimated to be 70 million by the end of july even without these.

By whom?? How many pre-ordered BFL singles and mini-rigs does that take in to account... and how many do you think will actually be hashing by then?

[Rampion]

2BTC for 300MH is still too much, even for the average geek who are not expected to be too deep into mining... 2BTC is 200 bucks for a tiny 300mh unit.

If it was 30 or 40 bucks for 300MH, then that would make more sense, for the casual user and those who want to really get into mining. I don't expect some random kid with a macbookpro to drop 200-300bucks for something like this.

I think there will be buyers even at that price in the very short term, just because of the novelty and the bleeding edge factor.

Anyhow, I still think this things with MASSIVE distribution at $40ish could be HUGE for Bitcoin. It would be spreading pills of monetary freedom, it could be a revolution.

That would be a revolution of sorts... it would be a company giving away money for free.

That would work magic to drive people into bitcoin... Imagine the marketing you could do in the distribution of that tool at that price...

[dogie]

I don't see this making sense for consumers, only ASICMiner
....
Total realistic ROI of 140% after 2 years.

Put that into perspective. If you were to buy stock of a mature company (zero growth potential) that just paid out say, an 8% dividend, that'd probably be considered a really good deal. And it would take more than 12 years to get 100% ROI.

These devices seem nicely priced. Yes, it's aggressive relative to ROI numbers that have been achieved in the past with some bitcoin investments, but you guys have to acknowledge that the space is maturing, and that means longer payback periods (but hopefully less risk too). Furthermore, AM delivers; the risk with them is one of the lowest in the bictoin space.

So, while I wish they were cheaper for selfish reasons, I do think they'll sell at this price. If not, I'm sure AM will drop the price until they do sell.

But compare the level of risk involved, the accountability and security. All cryptocurrencies - regardless of what we all want to believe - still can become relatively worthless overnight.

[nanobit]

...
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.

I love the bitcoin investment community, where a 2yr payback is considered terrible... Most investments are no-brainer good deals if the payback is under 10yrs, without lots of risk.

There's obviously plenty of exchange-rate risk with bitcoin, but who cares since these are fully denominated in btc.

The real risk is that difficulty rises faster than you assume, which I think is a distinct possibility.

Please list companies that are willing to invest money into cryptocoin projects with payback in, say 6 years.

[nanobit]

2BTC for 300MH is still too much, even for the average geek who are not expected to be too deep into mining... 2BTC is 200 bucks for a tiny 300mh unit.

Its about the same price/performance as 7970.
1 * 7970 $400 = 700MH
2 * Block Erupter $ 440 = 700MH

Now think about a miner with 4 * 7970. It consumes over 1000W. You need 8 * Block Erupter to reach the same speed, but the power consumption is way under 1/10. Same goes for power consumption and heat...

But the same doesn't go for resell value.

[Bogart]

What are the dimensions of the PCB?

It looks like about 20 x 40mm in the image.

[optimator]

Difficulty was estimated to be 70 million by the end of july even without these.

By whom?? How many pre-ordered BFL singles and mini-rigs does that take in to account... and how many do you think will actually be hashing by then?

Exactly! You don't know what the future difficulty will bring, you just know that it'll be more (how many new companies that we haven't even heard of will release new products?)

So start with some estimate, say 1 year ROI and then add whatever you want on top of it. A 2 year or longer ROI seems within the realm of possibility.

[brucemangy]

For ROI calculations, I ignore the exchange rate and use this simplified formula - It's not exact, but it's a quick way to do it:

Cost = 1.99 btc

Network Hash Rate = 78,000 Gh/s

My hash rate = .3 Gh/s

My Share of the Network = .3 / 78,000

Blocks found / day = 144

Block Reward = 25

Therefore, i will earn:

.3 / 78,000 * 144 * 25 = 0.013846154 BTC / day.

My ROI in days:

ROI (in days) = 1.99 / 0.013846154 = 144 days. about 4 3/4 months.

This doesn't consider an increase in network hash rate, which I estimate will cut profits in half every month until October. Considering difficulty increases the ROI is a little longer than 1 year.

This seems about right for retail cost, it seems a bit expensive at wholesale. Ideally, I'd like to see about a 1.5 btc wholesale cost.

If this key is not efficient enough ... what about all the GPUs that are a good proportion of the network ? ASIC is coming... but at what speed ? transition is not going to be quick. ASICMiner being the fastest, followed by DIY project for avalon chips. bfl ... is going to be soooo slow ...