[Announcement] Block Erupter USB

[tigerfree]

After crunching some numbers, these Erupter sticks are still vastly overpriced.

Let's suppose we order an Avalon B3 @ the listed price of 73BTC's. Let's assume that it gets an average of 60GH/S (60,000MH/S). For one Avalon it would cost about $8,000 USD.

To get 60GH/s out of these mining sticks (300MH/s each), you'd need 200 of these sticks.

If each stick costs $240 USD (assume that 1BTC = $120 USD), you're looking at a price tag of $48,000 USD to have the same hashing power as Avalon.

That's way too expensive. You have to spend 6x the price of an Avalon to get the same hashing power.

If each stick was 1/6 of its current price of 2BTC ($40 USD instead of $240 USD), then the price would be much more competitive.

Should to price come down to near $40 USD/stick, and should these sticks be produced in massive quantity within a reasonable timeframe, I could forsee these sticks being competitive against Avalon.

In fact, if the price per stick was lowered, investing in a bunch of stick miners would be advantageous for someone who is not looking to invest anywhere near Avalon's asking price. Instead of spending 8k, why not test the waters and spend $1,000 to get 6GH?

Avalon doesn't offer this option to scale things down according to one's budget. I believe these sticks would fill the gap for many people out there who don't want to sit for months on an ASIC preorder and don't want to deal with GPU mining at this point. They just need to bring the price down.

+1

[shapemaker]

After crunching some numbers, these Erupter sticks are still vastly overpriced.
[...]
Avalon doesn't offer this option to scale things down according to one's budget. I believe these sticks would fill the gap for many people out there who don't want to sit for months on an ASIC preorder and don't want to deal with GPU mining at this point. They just need to bring the price down.

Very well said.

I would only like to add that Avalon chips being generally available through the several group buys do fill the gap between (soon obsolete) GPUs and full Avalon units. However, since the smallest currently planned design fits 10 Avalon chips per unit, you're still looking at a 150+ USD / 120+ euro "investment" even then. Had Asicminer priced these USB sticks competitively, they'd been able to fill the low-end niche before DIY Avalon boards become available en masse. They still could, but I doubt that.

I foresee a DIY one-chip Avalon USB module being the thing people want, as it will have a realistic price point instead of this novelty item.

[vdragon]

Vastly overpriced, compared to anything else

[stenkross]

Random miner/investor says: This is over priced!
That is your opinion, and you are entitled to one.

And still group buy threads are created and reach > 300 units each, so obviously the market does not agree with you.

The price WILL come down, don't worry, this is just the first batch.
Go ahead and buy Avalon/BFL/FPGA/GPU/something else that gives you more Ghz/BTC until that happens.

[memvola]

Random miner/investor says: This is over priced!
That is your opinion, and you are entitled to one.

And still group buy threads are created and reach > 300 units each, so obviously the market does not agree with you.

The price WILL come down, don't worry, this is just the first batch.
Go ahead and buy Avalon/BFL/FPGA/GPU/something else that gives you more Ghz/BTC until that happens.

I think people are stressed about it because they really really want one, but the ROI doesn't perfectly justify the purchase.

This happens a lot with electronics. I make a habit of buying second hand, or at least wait until the craze is over. However, if it's something I really want right now, I do pay the "insane" amount, even if it's not justified with return.

This is such a case, I think. It really doesn't have to pay for itself; it's an awesome development and I want to have the damn thing as a trophy. If it pays for itself in a couple of years, I'd be even happier.

This device isn't for professional miners, period. If you are planning to plug hundreds of these to a hub, you are probably mislead, though I'm sure retail vendors would likely be "testing" these miners until they are sold. Come to think of it, you can buy 300 of these and sell them with an ever reducing mark-up this way.

[noedaRDH]

Random miner/investor says: This is over priced!
That is your opinion, and you are entitled to one.

And still group buy threads are created and reach > 300 units each, so obviously the market does not agree with you.

The price WILL come down, don't worry, this is just the first batch.
Go ahead and buy Avalon/BFL/FPGA/GPU/something else that gives you more Ghz/BTC until that happens.

I think people are stressed about it because they really really want one, but the ROI doesn't perfectly justify the purchase.

This happens a lot with electronics. I make a habit of buying second hand, or at least wait until the craze is over. However, if it's something I really want right now, I do pay the "insane" amount, even if it's not justified with return.

This is such a case, I think. It really doesn't have to pay for itself; it's an awesome development and I want to have the damn thing as a trophy. If it pays for itself in a couple of years, I'd be even happier.

This device isn't for professional miners, period. If you are planning to plug hundreds of these to a hub, you are probably mislead, though I'm sure retail vendors would likely be "testing" these miners until they are sold. Come to think of it, you can buy 300 of these and sell them with an ever reducing mark-up this way.

Yes I agree that these gadgets are not meant to replace the big boys (i.e. ASICs).

But I'm just suggest how better pricing could satisfy both the curious person who wants a couple of these to play around with (for fun), AND the more business-oriented person who wants to a dozen because he/she can't afford the risk in paying/waiting for an Avalon or another comparable $$$$ unit that can't be scaled back (I don't consider the BFL 4.5GH-5GH'er an actual product at this moment).

[shapemaker]

These are a steal.

Indeed! I would consider myself robbed if I were to buy these with any kind of a ROI in mind

[Hawkix]

Chance is increasing with every day for Bitcoin and SHA-256 to become obsolete technologies. Sorry to reveal it to you, but Bitcoin is not the future of cryptocoins.

Well, what's the future of cryptocoins, then?

[shapemaker]

I'm going to assume you will either GPU mine, not mine at all, or consider yourself scammed if you send BTC to BFL.

GPUs are still going strong. Free electricity makes them profitable even now, for a while. I make more BTC by playing the Gox/BTC-e markets however, so it's just a matter of "when do I bother turning my GPU rigs off". And BFL... don't make me laugh...

Anyway, the point is that these Asicminer USB thingamajingas aren't something to buy if you intend to invest for profit. Even GPUs are better because their resale value doesn't just evaporate. Sure, buy them for the novelty value, but an investment they're not, and you shouldn't try to pass them off as such. Of course, it's your bitcoins so...

[stslimited]

Chance is increasing with every day for Bitcoin and SHA-256 to become obsolete technologies. Sorry to reveal it to you, but Bitcoin is not the future of cryptocoins.

Well, what's the future of cryptocoins, then?

the bitcoin algorithm can be switched

the only pushback will be from people that invested too much in Application Specific Integrated Circuits for Sha-256, but it is possible to continue the hashes in another algorithm, difficulty will plummet for a time

[JimiQ84]

Avalon Asic Chips are about $7 to $8 a piece with 282mh/s

Yes, and that makes me wonder what exactly costs over $200 extra - once all manufacturing costs are removed - with Block Erupter USB. Design? Prada or Gucci maybe?

Supply and demand. Free market.

[JimiQ84]

Chance is increasing with every day for Bitcoin and SHA-256 to become obsolete technologies. Sorry to reveal it to you, but Bitcoin is not the future of cryptocoins.

Well, what's the future of cryptocoins, then?

the bitcoin algorithm can be switched

the only pushback will be from people that invested too much in Application Specific Integrated Circuits for Sha-256, but it is possible to continue the hashes in another algorithm, difficulty will plummet for a time

I suppose 51% majority must agree on this and it never will, unless there is something wrong with sha-256, which there is not.

[JimiQ84]

Avalon Asic Chips are about $7 to $8 a piece with 282mh/s

Yes, and that makes me wonder what exactly costs over $200 extra - once all manufacturing costs are removed - with Block Erupter USB. Design? Prada or Gucci maybe?

Supply and demand. Free market.

There is not much demand for this devices at 1.99 BTC. Check around a little before you post more.

Demand is low and supply is extremely low. Do your math.

[Marrs]

People are going to make ROI hand over fist with these!

By people, I mean specifically and only Bitfountain and ASICMINER shareholders... ;-)

[muyuu]

Demand is low and supply is extremely low. Do your math.

Not according to Bitfountain.

What's small too is the window of opportunity for these devices at any price above 0.5BTC.

[Xian01]

Vastly overpriced, compared to anything else

The only other real mining product ready to ship are gpus. These are a steal.
Bfl lol one year and yet to ship my 60 ghash unit. They are only in second stage deveopment.

 What the heck are you talking about ?! BFL shipped on April 1st. No joke ! Don't you know anything ?!??

[HowGudAmI]

I know there is already a lot of complaint about the price in this thread, and this post is just going to be a +1.

Do it for <1BTC and I will buy it.

[Tyger]

w8 and see what competition does to the price when avalon releases there asic chip info.

[Shevek]

Chance is increasing with every day for Bitcoin and SHA-256 to become obsolete technologies. Sorry to reveal it to you, but Bitcoin is not the future of cryptocoins.

Well, what's the future of cryptocoins, then?

the bitcoin algorithm can be switched

the only pushback will be from people that invested too much in Application Specific Integrated Circuits for Sha-256, but it is possible to continue the hashes in another algorithm, difficulty will plummet for a time

These "people that invested too much in Application Specific Integrated Circuits for Sha-256" will have the biggest part of hashrate. They simply don't let change the algorithm.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=192380.0

[memvola]

These "people that invested too much in Application Specific Integrated Circuits for Sha-256" will have the biggest part of hashrate. They simply don't let change the algorithm.

That isn't really something miners can dictate.

You ask for miner vote in hard forks because you want them to back the fork up with their hash-rate. It is essential for the security of the fork, though it's not essential for switch to happen, it's completely up to the users (merchants, exchanges, etc. included). If miners don't switch, the new fork will be less secure, so there is some influence there.

However, even that doesn't apply for the ASIC situation because you can't make use of that hashrate anyway.

Besides, an algorithm switch would very likely be planned a few years in advance. There will be plenty of time for old hardware to become obsoleted, which is inevitable anyway with advances in ASIC development, even without a protocol change.