[Announcement] Block Erupter USB

[Rampion]

Cute.

The correct price is what people will pay.

I'm not buying at this price because I expect the price will drop a lot.

It also depends on how many they can produce. They claim to be able to churn out thousands quick.

I'd buy 2 at 2BTC, maybe 50 at 1BTC and the 300 batch at 0.5BTC.

So, depending on how much are their production costs, they might be maximising profits at cheaper prices rather than at more expensive prices. Of course, it also depends on the demand from everybody else.

It's not just me. At 2BTC it's hardly profitable if at all, people would get a few just for the novelty and to be able to say they're mining. But at a competitive price they'd sell many thousands in no time.

So, can they really produce tens of thousands per month? if so, then 2BTC is not a good pricing as they will only sell a fraction of that. Just wait and see. Maybe they really cannot produce so many.

This. At $40 these gadgets could be distributed MASSIVELY all over the world. In supermarkets, kiosks, convenience stores, etc - by MILLION units. It could be huge both for ASICMINER and for Bitcoin in general. But for that, you need a) the ability to enter the appropriate distribution channels (I'd be able to do that) and b) the resources to produce the goods massively in a timely manner.

[GodHatesFigs]

A FPGA with a similar Hashrate goes for around $250-$300 and needs more power. And they are still selling like hot cake. And have no awesome
 share found LED.

FPGA can be used in other projects and can be resold and re balling .

I know it's less fun, but it'd be far less risky, and likely a better ROI, to just buy BTC rather than these.

[tigerfree]

A FPGA with a similar Hashrate goes for around $250-$300 and needs more power. And they are still selling like hot cake. And have no awesome
 share found LED.

FPGA can be used in other projects and can be resold and re balling .

I know it's less fun, but it'd be far less risky, and likely a better ROI, to just buy BTC rather than these.

more risk = more $$$$.

[erschiessen]

Rampion is correct.
Asicminer claims altruistic goals of sharing hashrate and expansion of BTC.
I call bullshit.
Very few people will share these with family and friends at 2BTC.
At cost + reasonable profit margin, every one of my family members with a PC would have received one this Christmas.
Imagine if everyone currently into Bitcoin would do something similar.
Imagine millions of folks first hearing about BTC by receiving such a cool little gift.

"You mean this thing makes money?"

The only folks that can say that now are AM shareholders.

[malavita]

Oh, this is maybe the best effort so far to allow new miners to start mining with reasonably cheap and easy hardware.

I might just get few of those to give out to friends and family. Excellent way to spread this cyptocoin "virus" 

+1

Novelty item that's just overpriced - IMHO they need to drop the price so that these can be given to kids to spread the Bitcoin idea and make a little money for themselves.

[GodHatesFigs]

A FPGA with a similar Hashrate goes for around $250-$300 and needs more power. And they are still selling like hot cake. And have no awesome
 share found LED.

FPGA can be used in other projects and can be resold and re balling .

I know it's less fun, but it'd be far less risky, and likely a better ROI, to just buy BTC rather than these.

more risk = more $$$$.

The massive risk is obvious; the ROI not so much (4 months to break even at today's difficulty - good luck with that!)

[arklan]

and if difficulty quadruples, that's ROI in a year or so...

i wonder how sharp the difficulty will actually rise? god knows it's gone up a bit this year.

[jspielberg]

AsicMiner's mission is to provide value to its shareholders. 

One keen observer noted that the Asic Hardware business is a suicidal endeavor.  The more successful your product, the less attractive it becomes for each additional sale. 

Why would they produce/price a product which would threaten their big money maker (i.e. mining ops)?  It would open itself up to a shareholder lawsuit.

The answer is... they would never do it. 

AM has announced a 50Th/s deployment and plans for an additional 200 to 250Th.  The ROI on these things are questionable way before they complete that deployment.  Trust me... AM is the big gorilla in the professional mining space, and they don't plan to cut off their own knees for no reason.

[SebastianJu]

A FPGA with a similar Hashrate goes for around $250-$300 and needs more power. And they are still selling like hot cake. And have no awesome
 share found LED.

FPGA can be used in other projects and can be resold and re balling .

USB Erupter can be used in other projects too. For example you can mine Freicoin at 208% of the profitability of bitcoins at the moment. And why should resell work? Asicminer is only selling wholesale so if you want a single unit you have to buy it somewhere.

Rampion is correct.
Asicminer claims altruistic goals of sharing hashrate and expansion of BTC.
I call bullshit.
Very few people will share these with family and friends at 2BTC.
At cost + reasonable profit margin, every one of my family members with a PC would have received one this Christmas.
Imagine if everyone currently into Bitcoin would do something similar.
Imagine millions of folks first hearing about BTC by receiving such a cool little gift.

"You mean this thing makes money?"

The only folks that can say that now are AM shareholders.

There are enough early adopters that doesnt care about prices. Unfortunately im not someone of them. But be sure that these miners will be sold.

Im very sure that soon the first batches will sell. Its not that Asicminer has to sell something in order to earn money. They sell to earn extra money. But not of the cost of the own mining income.

[radiumsoup]

AsicMiner's mission is to provide value to its shareholders. 

One keen observer noted that the Asic Hardware business is a suicidal endeavor.  The more successful your product, the less attractive it becomes for each additional sale. 

Why would they produce/price a product which would threaten their big money maker (i.e. mining ops)?  It would open itself up to a shareholder lawsuit.

The answer is... they would never do it. 

AM has announced a 50Th/s deployment and plans for an additional 200 to 250Th.  The ROI on these things are questionable way before they complete that deployment.  Trust me... AM is the big gorilla in the professional mining space, and they don't plan to cut off their own knees for no reason.

(assuming you're talking about the "ASIC Hardware business" from the AM point of view, not from the miner's point of view)

It's not a suicidal endeavor, really - as long as you can continually build better versions of the same shovel later on, people will have to come buy the newer shovels just to keep up with the Joneses. AM has indicated that they're in it for the long haul, and have already announced the design of the AM 2.0 chip.

[Bogart]

Novelty item that's just overpriced

They should totally work the novelty angle.

These should come in cool custom-designed cases, and have holographic logos and serial numbers and production dates laser-engraved on the cases, and on the PCBs/heatsinks.  Maybe the first 88 units could be autographed.

They're already calling this lot "Sapphire Batch".  That's a good start.

[Noitev]

Novelty item that's just overpriced

They should totally work the novelty angle.

These should come in cool custom-designed cases, and have holographic logos and serial numbers and production dates laser-engraved on the cases, and on the PCBs/heatsinks.  Maybe the first 88 units could be autographed.

They're already calling this lot "Sapphire Batch".  That's a good start.

Dude, next time they should use red boards and call them rubys, then white boards and call em pearls, then finally black ones they can call jets. Then make one thats 3 times as powerful and call it a lotus.

[Rampion]

Rampion is correct.
Asicminer claims altruistic goals of sharing hashrate and expansion of BTC.
I call bullshit.
Very few people will share these with family and friends at 2BTC.
At cost + reasonable profit margin, every one of my family members with a PC would have received one this Christmas.
Imagine if everyone currently into Bitcoin would do something similar.
Imagine millions of folks first hearing about BTC by receiving such a cool little gift.

"You mean this thing makes money?"

The only folks that can say that now are AM shareholders.

I understand your reasoning and I can feel what you are saying. But I don't think ASICMINER is taking the wrong decision, in fact I'm sure they are getting a very good return with their strategy, without having to commit to huge production volumes and avoiding entering complicate tasks as looking for worldwide distribution in traditional channels. But I still think about the big picture, on how huge could be to see grandmas all over the world asking "you are really saying this thing generates enough money to buy bread every day?", and I'm sure that a mini USB miner could be the BEST way to spread the BTC word all over the world, it could be really HUGE.

Unfortunately, 2 BTC per piece (for wholesalers ) is too high to envision such a widespread adoption - but still it's a first step and I can only congratulate Friedcat for achieving that. I always dreamt about such a tool because it's incredible potential, and now it's a reality

[seleme]

I don't mind them selling their products for any price they want, it's their right to do it and if there's enough fools to buy, it's great position to be.

I'm just sick of AM shareholders thinking I'm idiot and trying to tell me it's amazing deal and wonderful opportunity to spread hashrate and make bitcoin community bigger. Yeah, lol, I wonder if they ever heard about certain GPUs that could do exactly that + few other things and yet most of those same AM shareholders turned them off for bitcoin mining as they are pretty much worthless for it now, just like these fancy things.

It's great little thing, when I first saw it I almost pissed myself but it's not just expensive, it's so expensive that anyone who buy it has lost his mind if he is not loaded with money and just want to have one in collection.

[Xian01]

anyone who buy it has lost his mind if he is not loaded with money and just want to have one in collection

 ... or choosing to reinvest mined Bitcoins in hardware to generate more Bitcoins while supporting the network.

[shapemaker]

... or choosing to reinvest mined Bitcoins in hardware to generate more LESS Bitcoins while supporting the network.

There, fixed for you. Most likely buyers won't achieve ROI with these. I could buy one just for the novelty value, but that's with understanding that I won't ever get all my BTC back.

Supporting the network is fine and dandy, but that's a completely separate issue from ROI.

[madmax_ger]

anyone who buy it has lost his mind if he is not loaded with money and just want to have one in collection

 ... or choosing to reinvest mined Bitcoins in hardware to generate more Bitcoins while supporting the network.

supporting the network for what? making money?

it's a waste of money and natural resources to buy this one for this price.
ASICMINER could support the network more, namely in setting a lower price.

I ordered one anyway.

[PeZ]

The first group buy on this forum is only half-way there. If the pricing was respectable it would be finished by now. The warranty system is an added problem.

The price will drop when their inventory becomes a problem.

[pornluver]

How do I buy?

[madmax_ger]

ie https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195004.220