Any UK techies with FPGA know-how & interested in making a mining co?

[woodrake]

Given that ASICminer still seems to be the only show in town in terms of quoted mining co's other than BASIC-MINING (who are struggling to get hardware) I believe there is room for some competition.

I have business expertise (I'm a successful cloud IaaS entrepreneur - see memset.com) and am fairly technical but building a GPU mining rig is about my limit. I am interested in getting into the ASIC/FPGA mining game though, and I have money. I also have spare space in a data centre with very cheap, renewable power.

I'm therefore potentially looking for someone bright and capable who could partner up with me to make a mining co where we build and own the rigs ourselves using either Avalon chips or perhaps just specifying the FPGA chips ourselves. We could perhaps exploit the fact that Avalon have open sourced some of their tech too.

I'd provide business management, some development resource (I've several developers in my employ and can get some support from them) and cash to the party. Ideally I would want someone who could commit their full time and who was willing to spend at least some time in Surrey, where I'm based. I can potentially provide a basic wage while we get going, though there would be the usual salary/equity trade off.

At this stage I am thinking of making the shares exclusively available via BTC Trading Co's exchange and we'd use an IPO there to raise additional funds for hardware purchase. In the near term we could pool our GPU mining resources to get going (assuming you had some), or but more; I should be able to re-purpose the GPU rigs after they become useless for BTC mining in Memset's GPU cloud.

Anyway, bit of a long shot since I doubt anyone is available and in the UK, but worth asking!

Kate.

[Namworld]

Considering the kind of users which regularly pops around this forum, proof of being who you claim to be would probably go a long way in getting answers.

[evilscoop]

pm on its way

[woodrake]

Considering the kind of users which regularly pops around this forum, proof of being who you claim to be would probably go a long way in getting answers.

I have uploaded the certificate of incorporation for Wood Technology LLP to here. This clearly shows that I am in Companies House's system.

Of course, I might have downloaded that. You may also verify my authenticity by emailing the contact address on my personal Web site here. Finally, prior to posting this message I have Tweeted and Google+'s (from my accounts which are linked to my sites, and my Google profile is public) the phrase:
 
 "Just confirming authenticity to some folks - VxyVdDw4"

The tweet is here and Google+ here. The timestamps will show that this was done before I made this post.

Kate.

[Chuck Finley]

"Just confirming authenticity to some folks - VxyVdDw4"

The tweet is here and Google+ here. The timestamps will show that this was done before I made this post.

Not that I am questioning your authenticity but how does that prove anything? I think you meant to do it the other way around - post something here about what you WILL post on twitter. There's nothing stopping me from posting a message claiming that I am you now and saying "look I posted that tweet before I made this post"

 


Good luck with your search - it's too bad I'm not in the UK as I'd love someone with more money and data centre space!

[shawshankinmate37927]

Perhaps joining forces with the cloudhashing.com operation is a possibility:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=173316.msg1815007#msg1815007

[dogie]

tldr: You have nothing to offer but money. Any ASIC designer who had the skills to make an ASIC, and who read this forums will already be doing it.

[Chuck Finley]

tldr: You have nothing to offer but money. Any ASIC designer who had the skills to make an ASIC, and who read this forums will already be doing it.

Of course, because either all ASIC designers have the hundreds of thousands of dollars+ required to develop an ASIC.. or it's possible to design an ASIC from household parts and money isn't an issue.



:lol:

[muyuu]

tldr: You have nothing to offer but money. Any ASIC designer who had the skills to make an ASIC, and who read this forums will already be doing it.

It's a matter of money. But because production in a modern process is very expensive, not because an EE wouldn't work on it on his own. I'm EE and I know I would have done it but I didn't have the resources. It's not looking good now, too late.

Mining is already in an diminishing returns stage (for hardware developers).

[pyramids]

Kate,

I have a semi-finished ASIC miner in VHDL source code which I abandoned last summer because I do not have the kind of money (quite possibly millions) to buy the expertise and services I would still need to turn the code into silicon, nor the contacts or confidence necessary to raise it.

I also have some expertise in FPGA and general programming, plenty enough to see the technical side of your mining operation through, be it GPU or FPGA based or even a long-haul ASIC project. I'm an out-of-work physics PhD just about to move out of Nottingham, currently planing to leave the UK  on the 31st, but willing to stay if your project would provide at least basic income very soon.

[PatMan]

Hi Kate. Sent you an email.

Peace.

[nwbitcoin]

This forum has demonstrated time and time again that the issues around bitcoin are not technical, they are business related.
Its the regulations and the interpretation of those regulations that is the real problem.

Mining is not the way forward, making it easy to trade using crypto coins is where the real money is.

I would love to have a VC behind me as I have developed a number of business plans to grow the bitcoin market into the mainstream, but its going to take some serious money - we are talking a few million in just a marketing budget  - to get things started, and we are too early in the lifespan of bitcoin to make that move yet.

I think the next 6 months of the US Government showing us its muscles needs to happen before the risk of starting a bitcoin business with scaling makes commercial sense.  For now, its far too big a gamble for anyone who can't afford to loose the lot!

[muyuu]

This forum has demonstrated time and time again that the issues around bitcoin are not technical, they are business related.
Its the regulations and the interpretation of those regulations that is the real problem.

Mining is not the way forward, making it easy to trade using crypto coins is where the real money is.

I would love to have a VC behind me as I have developed a number of business plans to grow the bitcoin market into the mainstream, but its going to take some serious money - we are talking a few million in just a marketing budget  - to get things started, and we are too early in the lifespan of bitcoin to make that move yet.

I think the next 6 months of the US Government showing us its muscles needs to happen before the risk of starting a bitcoin business with scaling makes commercial sense.  For now, its far too big a gamble for anyone who can't afford to loose the lot!

It's a separate issue.

Mining can be the way forward for people with expertise and resources in the field. Electrical engineers are not going to pursue legal counselling. To each his own.

[PatMan]

This forum has demonstrated time and time again that the issues around bitcoin are not technical, they are business related.
Its the regulations and the interpretation of those regulations that is the real problem.

Mining is not the way forward, making it easy to trade using crypto coins is where the real money is.

I would love to have a VC behind me as I have developed a number of business plans to grow the bitcoin market into the mainstream, but its going to take some serious money - we are talking a few million in just a marketing budget  - to get things started, and we are too early in the lifespan of bitcoin to make that move yet.

I think the next 6 months of the US Government showing us its muscles needs to happen before the risk of starting a bitcoin business with scaling makes commercial sense.  For now, its far too big a gamble for anyone who can't afford to loose the lot!

It's a separate issue.

Mining can be the way forward for people with expertise and resources in the field. Electrical engineers are not going to pursue legal counselling. To each his own.

+1

[woodrake]

Not that I am questioning your authenticity but how does that prove anything? I think you meant to do it the other way around - post something here about what you WILL post on twitter. There's nothing stopping me from posting a message claiming that I am you now and saying "look I posted that tweet before I made this post"

You can look at it either way, however it seems much more unlikely to me that the real Kate might post that and the impostor would be poised ready to take advantage of that. If you look back through my twitter history you will see no similar example of me making authenticity verification posts and the timeline fits in with the discussion on this thread.

Anyway, sorry about slow response!

Edit: you do have a point though I must concede. Herewith another verification code, this time posted here first: DivestKansasNearby1. You'll have to check my @Memset_Kate timeline though since if I edit this again to link in the specific tweet I might have as well have edited it to retrospectively change the code!

[woodrake]

This forum has demonstrated time and time again that the issues around bitcoin are not technical, they are business related.
Its the regulations and the interpretation of those regulations that is the real problem.

Mining is not the way forward, making it easy to trade using crypto coins is where the real money is.

I would love to have a VC behind me as I have developed a number of business plans to grow the bitcoin market into the mainstream, but its going to take some serious money - we are talking a few million in just a marketing budget  - to get things started, and we are too early in the lifespan of bitcoin to make that move yet.

I think the next 6 months of the US Government showing us its muscles needs to happen before the risk of starting a bitcoin business with scaling makes commercial sense.  For now, its far too big a gamble for anyone who can't afford to loose the lot!

I see mining as a short term opportunity to amass the necessary investment to do the things I am really interested in, which includes ommercialised FPGA high performance computing, commercial exploitation of darknets, a darknet cryptocurrency exchange (I'd like to see The Man crack down on that and many other ideas in a similar vein.

I believe that there is a bright future in cipherspace and cryptocoins are just a part of that puzzle. It needs someone with a vision to pull the elements together into something that is widely accessible by people without technical skills, and I can do that - I just need some extra geek power. :p

As to your point about the US government, who cares? Sure, the US will try to crack down, but over here on the other side of the pond we're a bit more liberal. Even if the UK makes legislation, even if Poland legislates against it (and I can't see that happening!!) there will always be some country and some bank which will exchange fiat for cryptocoins.

The weak point at present are the exchanges, but as mentioned above, that's easy to solve.

Kate.

[2112]

Even if the UK makes legislation, even if Poland legislates against it (and I can't see that happening!!) there will always be some country and some bank which will exchange fiat for cryptocoins.

Poland? This gotta be some sort of an inside joke. Please explain it for the left-pond-ians and other readers from around other ponds.

[woodrake]

Even if the UK makes legislation, even if Poland legislates against it (and I can't see that happening!!) there will always be some country and some bank which will exchange fiat for cryptocoins.

Poland? This gotta be some sort of an inside joke. Please explain it for the left-pond-ians and other readers from around other ponds.

Among the EU member states Poland is one of the more liberal (less regulated) in terms of letting banks do whatever they want. This is why most Euro exchange houses have their bank accounts in Poland as opposed to the country from which they operate (the British ones being good examples of this). I'd say they Poland is probably the most alternative-finance-friendly EU country outside those that are currently undergoing fiscal implosion (eg. Cyprus, Greece & co).

Of course the non-EU, ex-Russian Federation countries are likely to be even more relaxed but there are some benefits to a little legislation. Personally I'd not want to bank in Ukraine, for example. At present Poland appears to be a happy medium in terms of aggressiveness of banking regulation.

Kate.

[woodrake]

tldr: You have nothing to offer but money. Any ASIC designer who had the skills to make an ASIC, and who read this forums will already be doing it.

Your loss. I'm not just money, I'm about to collect my doctorate from from my local university's computing department.

I build Memset's initial systems (for deploying virtual machines in a fully automated manner) myself, back in 2002 - long before cloud/virtualisation was a thing.

In short, I'm an expert in business and technology. A business venture with me is much more likely to succeed that a few kids plugging stuff together in bedrooms.

Kate.

[2112]

Among the EU member states Poland is one of the more liberal (less regulated) in terms of letting banks do whatever they want. This is why most Euro exchange houses have their bank accounts in Poland as opposed to the country from which they operate (the British ones being good examples of this). I'd say they Poland is probably the most alternative-finance-friendly EU country outside those that are currently undergoing fiscal implosion (eg. Cyprus, Greece & co).

Of course the non-EU, ex-Russian Federation countries are likely to be even more relaxed but there are some benefits to a little legislation. Personally I'd not want to bank in Ukraine, for example. At present Poland appears to be a happy medium in terms of aggressiveness of banking regulation.

Kate.

Thank you very much for the explanation. It agrees with what I've heard about Mt.Gox acquiring bitomat.pl: for their banking relationship in Poland/SEPA zone.