[Announcement] Block Erupter USB

[BeetcoinScummer]

I repeat again unless BTC rockets in price again, and it's holding steady under $120, you will never make an ROI on these.

The USD / BTC exchange is irrelevant, if you pay in BTC and you get your return in BTC, then it's just a matter of calculating in BTC. No USD or EUR in play here

While technically correct, I don't feel like it makes sense to compute ROI in terms of a base currency that is wildly fluctuating with respect to other widely used currencies. Even as more places accept BTC for payment, the number of gold bars/pizzas/loaves of bread that you can buy with BTC will still depend on the BTC/EUR or BTC/USD or BTC/whatever exchange rates.

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[SolarSilver]

I repeat again unless BTC rockets in price again, and it's holding steady under $120, you will never make an ROI on these.

The USD / BTC exchange is irrelevant, if you pay in BTC and you get your return in BTC, then it's just a matter of calculating in BTC. No USD or EUR in play here

Only partially true, without a FIAT exit BTC is almost worthless. If the USA made trading BTC into USD illegal watch the value of BTC plummet. And good luck trying to pay your electricity supplier in BTC in the near future, if ever!

Again, you should not look at the BTC to USD rate, as you can just as well buy the BTC 2 and hoard it.

If you invest BTC then you should look at how long it will take to get the BTC back

Only when Unit abd all BTC mining costs are issued and payable in BTC will this statement be true. And those using "Free" electricity from parents /work etc, you are actually stealing!

Some of us do run on renewable power, which is costing us nothing, if you discount the government subsidies we get. Technically we don't steal from our parents but from all of you ;-)

[arklan]

I repeat again unless BTC rockets in price again, and it's holding steady under $120, you will never make an ROI on these.

The USD / BTC exchange is irrelevant, if you pay in BTC and you get your return in BTC, then it's just a matter of calculating in BTC. No USD or EUR in play here

Only partially true, without a FIAT exit BTC is almost worthless. If the USA made trading BTC into USD illegal watch the value of BTC plummet. And good luck trying to pay your electricity supplier in BTC in the near future, if ever!

Again, you should not look at the BTC to USD rate, as you can just as well buy the BTC 2 and hoard it.

If you invest BTC then you should look at how long it will take to get the BTC back

Only when Unit abd all BTC mining costs are issued and payable in BTC will this statement be true. And those using "Free" electricity from parents /work etc, you are actually stealing!

Some of us do run on renewable power, which is costing us nothing, if you discount the government subsidies we get. Technically we don't steal from our parents but from all of you ;-)

solar powered bastards!

i kid. i'm just jealous and want to join your ranks.

[SolarSilver]

Some of us do run on renewable power, which is costing us nothing, if you discount the government subsidies we get. Technically we don't steal from our parents but from all of you ;-)

solar powered bastards!

i kid. i'm just jealous and want to join your ranks.

34k Wpeak of solar pannels: EUR 120k
Government sponsored green loan to pay it off in 15 years: EUR 920 / month
Government subsidies per year for the next 20 years in Green Certificates: EUR 11k
Generating BTC 2k in 2 years (until now): priceless

[bitzip]

You don't have to buy 300 of them, just join a buy group.

A US only buy group
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195647.0

There are other groups.

[Naelr]

I repeat again unless BTC rockets in price again, and it's holding steady under $120, you will never make an ROI on these.

The USD / BTC exchange is irrelevant, if you pay in BTC and you get your return in BTC, then it's just a matter of calculating in BTC. No USD or EUR in play here

Only partially true, without a FIAT exit BTC is almost worthless. If the USA made trading BTC into USD illegal watch the value of BTC plummet. And good luck trying to pay your electricity supplier in BTC in the near future, if ever!

Again, you should not look at the BTC to USD rate, as you can just as well buy the BTC 2 and hoard it.

If you invest BTC then you should look at how long it will take to get the BTC back

Only when Unit abd all BTC mining costs are issued and payable in BTC will this statement be true. And those using "Free" electricity from parents /work etc, you are actually stealing!

Some of us do run on renewable power, which is costing us nothing, if you discount the government subsidies we get. Technically we don't steal from our parents but from all of you ;-)

solar powered bastards!

i kid. i'm just jealous and want to join your ranks.

I have a few Solar Panels on my roof so I am effectively mining for nothing too.  (Minus the cost of buying and installing the panels 3 years ago.)

[Franktank]

My ASICMINER USB Erupter showed up about an hour ago.
Been playing with the Icarus timing settings still not quite got it right yet.

Obviously yes I'm getting around 300MH/s out of it.

Currently best settings are for anyone wondering while I sort it out:
 --icarus-options 115200:2:1 --icarus-timing short

A pic or 2 Click for bigger




Edit: the USB chip is: ID 10c4:ea60 Cygnal Integrated Products, Inc. CP210x UART Bridge / myAVR mySmartUSB light

NOW SHIPPING!! GET YOUR ORDERS IN!!

[phantastisch]

My ASICMINER USB Erupter showed up about an hour ago.
Been playing with the Icarus timing settings still not quite got it right yet.

Obviously yes I'm getting around 300MH/s out of it.

Currently best settings are for anyone wondering while I sort it out:
 --icarus-options 115200:2:1 --icarus-timing short

A pic or 2 Click for bigger




Edit: the USB chip is: ID 10c4:ea60 Cygnal Integrated Products, Inc. CP210x UART Bridge / myAVR mySmartUSB light

NOW SHIPPING!! GET YOUR ORDERS IN!!

It is a developers unit, the consumer usb sticks are blue. Look it up in friedcats original post..

[AZIZ1977]

Isnt this a bit expensive?

[furuknap]

Isnt this a bit expensive?

Nope.

Now go make me as a shareholder rich!

Seriously, evaluating whether a mining investment is profitable is incredibly difficult. Far too many factors come into play, such as expected price evolution, difficulty changes, risks, the cost of your time, and so on.

I wrote a guide on how these factors come into play. The article is written for Litecoin but the same principles apply to Bitcoin or other coins.

http://coin.furuknap.net/litecoin-mining-profitability-guide/

I also have a book in the works that speaks volumes (at least one) about this topic. Link to a free preview chapter on mining profitability in the top menu of the article above.

.b

[luffy]

Isnt this a bit expensive?

a little bit 
i don't care about ROI, it is just an amazing miner!

[tvbcof]

Isnt this a bit expensive?

Fuck ya! (said as a guy who has paid for one for $200+ and hopes to recieving it eventually...)

The question is how cheap can they be assuming that there are both 110nm and 130nm chips capable of being applied at this time, and hopefully more coming down the pike.

---

It would be pretty cool (to my way of thinking) if a decent fraction of the distributed crypto-currency userbase could realistically mine by doing not much more than plugging one of these into a USB port when they happen to remember to do it.  That would be a big incentive for the system to remain a 'peer2peer' solution which is highly important to me.

I'll detail this a bit more in the future, but I project that eventually:

 - anyone who has to think about electricity costs will be out of the game (read, most miners today.)

 - the struggle will be betwen

   - large corporate organizations who can subsidize power by obtaining intelligence information from the network and

   - non-professional masses who will not need to think to much about power or network costs since they underutilized their existing network service and individually don't need to think much about the power costs of a USB-sized device.

[RubenLeFuck]

Any EU buy group?
PM please.

[MineForeman.com]

Any EU buy group?
PM please.

I am running an international one at the moment that a lot of Europeans are using, recently got flooded with orders from slashdot, you can find the info here;-

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=201577.0

[Luke-Jr]

wait - so, if they'll run without the heatsinks, why did you make/order heatsinks that we now have to pay for?

You definitely want the heatsink.
The Emeralds (without a heatsink) are pretty much too hot to unplug once they've been running for even a few minutes.
I would be surprised if the USB connector got hot enough to damage some cheap USB hubs.

[arklan]

wait - so, if they'll run without the heatsinks, why did you make/order heatsinks that we now have to pay for?

You definitely want the heatsink.
The Emeralds (without a heatsink) are pretty much too hot to unplug once they've been running for even a few minutes.
I would be surprised if the USB connector got hot enough to damage some cheap USB hubs.

that could make plugging in multiple difficult, depending on hub layout. oh well.

[furuknap]

The Emeralds (without a heatsink) are pretty much too hot to unplug once they've been running for even a few minutes.
I would be surprised if the USB connector got hot enough to damage some cheap USB hubs.

that could make plugging in multiple difficult, depending on hub layout. oh well.

You could just buy a couple of 429 cheap USB 4-inch cables. This will also allow you to arrange your sticks so they dissipate heat better.

Who wants to build the first rack-mounted USB miner? :-)

.b

Edit: Updated to reflect the number of cables :-)

[arklan]

The Emeralds (without a heatsink) are pretty much too hot to unplug once they've been running for even a few minutes.
I would be surprised if the USB connector got hot enough to damage some cheap USB hubs.

that could make plugging in multiple difficult, depending on hub layout. oh well.

You could just buy a couple of cheap USB 4-inch cables. This will also allow you to arrange your sticks so they dissipate heat better.

Who wants to build the first rack-mounted USB miner? :-)

.b

true enough.

heh...well, i DO i have 429 of them coming my way... (a group buy) the real issue becomes powering them all. even with 12 port hubs, it's 35 of them. good luck finding a circuit in a home to handle that.

[tvbcof]

...
Who wants to build the first rack-mounted USB miner? :-)

...
heh...well, i DO i have 429 of them coming my way... (a group buy) the real issue becomes powering them all. even with 12 port hubs, it's 35 of them. good luck finding a circuit in a home to handle that.

Ya-but Arklan...you are not supposed to be powering them without the owner's permission, remember?

Based on what Luke says I'm pretty iffy about whether I want mine powered up without a heatsink.  And I am pretty particular about the appropriate use of a screwdriver having been a mechanic in the distant past.

I am not in a giant hurry for my particular unit (unlike most others) so i might be able to work out a side-deal with me to fiddle with mine if you can convince me that you have some ability to not immediately destroy it and some ability to replace it if you do, I'm as curious as anyone about how a 'mini-rack' of these things behave...but no-where near curious enough to blow $1500 on the experiment.  Certainly not until I see if _anyone_ manages to get an order in to to the-cat and get a working miner for their troubles.  e-mail me if you have interest in such an experiment and need for my single measly mining stick.

[arklan]

...
Who wants to build the first rack-mounted USB miner? :-)

...
heh...well, i DO i have 429 of them coming my way... (a group buy) the real issue becomes powering them all. even with 12 port hubs, it's 35 of them. good luck finding a circuit in a home to handle that.

Ya-but Arklan...you are not supposed to be powering them without the owner's permission, remember?

Based on what Luke says I'm pretty iffy about whether I want mine powered up without a heatsink.  And I am pretty particular about the appropriate use of a screwdriver having been a mechanic in the distant past.

I am not in a giant hurry for my particular unit (unlike most others) so i might be able to work out a side-deal with me to fiddle with mine if you can convince me that you have some ability to not immediately destroy it and some ability to replace it if you do, I'm as curious as anyone about how a 'mini-rack' of these things behave...but no-where near curious enough to blow $1500 on the experiment.  Certainly not until I see if _anyone_ manages to get an order in to to the-cat and get a working miner for their troubles.  e-mail me if you have interest in such an experiment and need for my single measly mining stick.

that was a joke, man.