USB 300MH/S ASICMiner Value Question

[glendall]

Buying these on ebay is a bad investment. I expect the chance of getting a ROI would be slight, I'd guess at maybe 10%.

Buying them new, for 2.1 - 2.8 is arguably a good investment. I personally don't think they are, but I think the majority believes they are.

The best ROI with these items is in fact purchasing them from the source, and then reselling them, on ebay or your own store.

The product is sexy and has a lot of merits (power,heat, ease of use) but I believe at this juncture, when we sort of between 1st and 2nd gen asics, and difficulty rates with big-papa asics coming online, that there are better investments to be made.

One exception would be perhaps for folks that have live in areas with much higher energy costs than most.

[Kinetic915]

Most recent one on eBay sold for $485 (3.7 btc) but obviously demand will drop as more are offered.

Don't forget that there are EBay fees, Paypal fees, shipping costs, fees to turn that fiat back into BTC.  I've had zero feedback bidders not pay, resulting in more listings, and the fees just keep starting over.   Overall it's a really inefficient way to move these units.

I don't think that could ever finally make some profit. 

[Oldie]

Don't forget that there are EBay fees, Paypal fees, shipping costs, fees to turn that fiat back into BTC.  I've had zero feedback bidders not pay, resulting in more listings, and the fees just keep starting over.   Overall it's a really inefficient way to move these units.

Granted there are Ebay and Paypal fees, but shipping costs should be paid for buy the buyer, and the BTC buying fee should be pretty minimal if you use the right source.  Also, a non-paying bidder just means a waste of time, as there would be no fees involved when ebay refunds the final value.

Overall though you will only see any profit in these units if you buy them in one of the group buys and sell them on ebay in the next few weeks.  Let's do the math.  Using https://bitclockers.com/calc, at current difficulty, 1200 Mh/s will return .0539 BTC per day.  1 unit can do 300 Mh/s, which would equate to 0.013475 BTC/day from a single miner.  The group buys are going for about 2.15BTC.

The breakeven point, assuming no difficulty change and no electricity cost is 159.5 days

Factor in difficulty increases and forget it.  In 3 months the difficulty will be so high these will be generating next to nothing.

[Stevenrm87]

I agree which is why I sold mine for $550 on eBay local pickup only . then mutually canceled the transaction after I met the buyer in person! hah! He paid cash.

[mmitech]

ASICminer is one of the few who delivered something that actually is in stock (not a Pr-order) and works right away out of the box, but I think that these ASICs in general are way over priced, regardless how much money you will make the first month (on This deff.factor, and BTC price), because when I invest my money I look at the long-term aspect.

A blockErupter @ 13 GH/s for 60+ BTC is really over priced this is ~ 7500 $ , my suggestion is a max of 20 BTC .
The USB miner @ 300MH/s for 2.5 BTC as well is really over priced ~ 315 $, my suggestion is a max of 0.8 BTC  .



The reason why I stopped caring about ASICs and mining BTC in general is for this exact reason, as a small miner and a father of 4 kids, there is no way that I can afford to buy these ASICs, I know that these chips are the future for BTC mining and it is really a good thing for the network security, but the fact that there is a VIP club or let me put it in other words, a club of people with a bag of money investing in these ASICs, which means that few people controlling a big part of the network, just because these prices doesn't allow all of us to participate and get the chance to be a part of it.

these company’s are making a huge profit out of you guys. the first batch of blockErupter went for around 19xx BTC this is more than 240,000 $ for 50 block , come on people open your eyes.

If just BFL had a real working chips and did deliver on time, then it would make sense to order some ASICs at the prices they are offering .

[bb999]

I'm seeing Buy It Now prices on eBay that were the starting bid only a week ago, and starting bids in the $320-$350 range, if the price continues to come down the economics certainly change.

[muyuu]

ASICminer is one of the few who delivered something that actually is in stock (not a Pr-order) and works right away out of the box, but I think that these ASICs in general are way over priced, regardless how much money you will make the first month (on This deff.factor, and BTC price), because when I invest my money I look at the long-term aspect.

A blockErupter @ 13 GH/s for 60+ BTC is really over priced this is ~ 7500 $ , my suggestion is a max of 20 BTC .
The USB miner @ 300MH/s for 2.5 BTC as well is really over priced ~ 315 $, my suggestion is a max of 0.8 BTC  .



The reason why I stopped caring about ASICs and mining BTC in general is for this exact reason, as a small miner and a father of 4 kids, there is no way that I can afford to buy these ASICs, I know that these chips are the future for BTC mining and it is really a good thing for the network security, but the fact that there is a VIP club or let me put it in other words, a club of people with a bag of money investing in these ASICs, which means that few people controlling a big part of the network, just because these prices doesn't allow all of us to participate and get the chance to be a part of it.

these company’s are making a huge profit out of you guys. the first batch of blockErupter went for around 19xx BTC this is more than 240,000 $ for 50 block , come on people open your eyes.

If just BFL had a real working chips and did deliver on time, then it would make sense to order some ASICs at the prices they are offering .

Haha... yeah, my "suggestion" is that they give them to me for virtually nothing... lol

[erk]

I am curious what are people's opinions on the value of one of these USB miners, I know they currently sell on eBay with starting bids of $400.  My opinion is that is due to the scarcity effect.  Once there are more supplies available what does the community think they are worth?

There are several group-buys at this forum selling for less than 2.6 BTC...

See for instance https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195037.new#new or https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=218300.0... Also, you could use search "USB ASIC"...

With the current diff increase, these things mine about 0.01BTC per day, so it would pay for itself in only 260days assuming the difficulty doesn't go up in that time! In reality it will probably take years to generate 2.6BTC

[Binford 6100]

In reality it will probably take years to generate 2.6BTC

I think mining with this hw at this purchase price is more a statement then a business plan.
the price is ~2yrs hackerspace membership and that's ok for a pet project that might bring in some reward (not 100% loss of initial costs)
but it will not be profitable (not mine the btc back)

it will be useful though for all other kinds of crypto works in the future. and thus "priceless"
like the raspberry pi helped to spread cheap computers this will bring mining to 'every household'

[Welsh]

I am curious what are people's opinions on the value of one of these USB miners, I know they currently sell on eBay with starting bids of $400.  My opinion is that is due to the scarcity effect.  Once there are more supplies available what does the community think they are worth?

There are several group-buys at this forum selling for less than 2.6 BTC...

See for instance https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195037.new#new or https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=218300.0... Also, you could use search "USB ASIC"...

With the current diff increase, these things mine about 0.01BTC per day, so it would pay for itself in only 260days assuming the difficulty doesn't go up in that time! In reality it will probably take years to generate 2.6BTC

It's true it would take awhile to break even, that's why they will come down in price (well they should) otherwise no one will buy them after the difficulty rises, this needs to be known a lot more before people start buying loads.
They can be profitable, of course. I'm thinking of buying one right now just to test it and just to say I had it.

[Eastwind]

it will be useful though for all other kinds of crypto works in the future. and thus "priceless"
like the raspberry pi helped to spread cheap computers this will bring mining to 'every household'

Can it be used for other coins such as PPCoin at the moment?

[Binford 6100]

it will be useful though for all other kinds of crypto works in the future. and thus "priceless"
like the raspberry pi helped to spread cheap computers this will bring mining to 'every household'

Can it be used for other coins such as X at the moment?

if it can be mined merged with bitcoin, then most probably yes.
I was more talking about "future" applications of proof of work, based on sha256, that if the miners will be well distributed, no problem using p-o-w more frequently

[erk]

I am curious what are people's opinions on the value of one of these USB miners, I know they currently sell on eBay with starting bids of $400.  My opinion is that is due to the scarcity effect.  Once there are more supplies available what does the community think they are worth?

There are several group-buys at this forum selling for less than 2.6 BTC...

See for instance https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195037.new#new or https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=218300.0... Also, you could use search "USB ASIC"...

With the current diff increase, these things mine about 0.01BTC per day, so it would pay for itself in only 260days assuming the difficulty doesn't go up in that time! In reality it will probably take years to generate 2.6BTC

It's true it would take awhile to break even, that's why they will come down in price (well they should) otherwise no one will buy them after the difficulty rises, this needs to be known a lot more before people start buying loads.
They can be profitable, of course. I'm thinking of buying one right now just to test it and just to say I had it.

I don't think a single unit will ever break even, multiple should. The single unit will barely make $1/day, it won't talk many doublings of difficulty to drop that revenue down so it won't cover the electricity cost of the computer it's plugged into, which all of a sudden has to stay on 24 x 7 for the miner.

[nwoolls]

I don't think a single unit will ever break even, multiple should. The single unit will barely make $1/day, it won't talk many doublings of difficulty to drop that revenue down so it won't cover the electricity cost of the computer it's plugged into, which all of a sudden has to stay on 24 x 7 for the miner.

My math-fu may be failing me, but why would 1 Block Erupter not break even, but multiple would? The cost, hashrate, and power consumption all rise linearly as you add more USB sticks, no?

[erk]

I don't think a single unit will ever break even, multiple should. The single unit will barely make $1/day, it won't talk many doublings of difficulty to drop that revenue down so it won't cover the electricity cost of the computer it's plugged into, which all of a sudden has to stay on 24 x 7 for the miner.

My math-fu may be failing me, but why would 1 Block Erupter not break even, but multiple would? The cost, hashrate, and power consumption all rise linearly as you add more USB sticks, no?

You need only one computer to run one or several Block Erupters, think about it.

[nwoolls]

You need only one computer to run one or several Block Erupters, think about it.

So you are including the cost of having a computer running? Everyone mining has to leave the computer running. Why factor that into the cost if the point is to compare the value of mining options?

The reason I ask is that, from what I've seen using calculators that factor in rising difficulty, these things don't break even whether you factor in the cost of a PC to power them or not.

[J35st3r]

I don't think a single unit will ever break even, multiple should. The single unit will barely make $1/day, it won't talk many doublings of difficulty to drop that revenue down so it won't cover the electricity cost of the computer it's plugged into, which all of a sudden has to stay on 24 x 7 for the miner.

My math-fu may be failing me, but why would 1 Block Erupter not break even, but multiple would? The cost, hashrate, and power consumption all rise linearly as you add more USB sticks, no?

You need only one computer to run one or several Block Erupters, think about it.

Block Erupter doesn't even come close to breakeven with free electricity, free hosting computer, free internet and all the rest. Just don't even consider one at 2..0 BTC. But ASCIMINER will continue to sell them for as long as there are gullible punters that can't do the math on the ROI. Only when the sales dry up will they drop the price (it can't be costing them much more than $25 to produce).

[Khertan]

so when is someone going to post the howto make these miners..

http://www.em.avnet.com/en-us/design/drc/Pages/Xilinx-Spartan-6-FPGA-LX9-MicroBoard.aspx

looks to be the same..

Probably 2 weeks from the moment someone gets the bright idea to spend next couple of weeks writing code for a device to mine (probably) less than 5 MH/s @ $89

IMHO the 5 MH/s and 2 weeks is me being optimistic.

Edit: Corrected typo. the usb thing is $89 not $8

The code is already written : https://github.com/kramble/DE0-Nano-BitCoin-Miner/tree/master/Xilinx_LX9_hashers_6

[ashaw596]

Yep, they'll never be profitable, but once the price comes down, they'll be perfect for educational and advertising purposes to promote bitcoin.

[J35st3r]

The code is already written : https://github.com/kramble/DE0-Nano-BitCoin-Miner/tree/master/Xilinx_LX9_hashers_6

Has anyone actually tried that code on the http://www.em.avnet.com/en-us/design/drc/Pages/Xilinx-Spartan-6-FPGA-LX9-MicroBoard.aspx ? It would be interesting to know if it works. But DON'T go buying one for mining. Pathetic 5 MHash/second is mining dust. Just worthless.

[Edit] (Answering myself) No it won't work as it uses RS232 port comms. Someone would have to add the xilinx usb code from fpgaminer's github.