BFL only works for mining bitcoins?

[tronsom]

I ordered some BFLs last week and im wondering if they will be obselete once I get them....
Will they work for mining LTC or other currencies? If not out of the box, any chance they can be modified to do so?

[evilscoop]

nope and nope...
sha-256 based coins only

[BitcoinBoss]

LTC are scrypt based so ASIC won't work for mining them.

ASIC's that are being produced now won't become obselete overnight, it is the hash rate capabilities that will probably be superseded, but the BTC mining difficulty will have risen significantly by the time your order gets to you (if BFL ever ship it that is).

[Svennisen]

As previously posted. No.
ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), is created with only one purpose and cannot be made to do other task via firmware.

[Inglewood]

If you ordered last week doubt you're getting it anytime soon 

[pluMmet]

What else beside BC will BFL mine?

[zeocrash]

Would you not be able to use BFL asics to mine any SHA256 based altcoin?

[DeathAndTaxes]

Would you not be able to use BFL asics to mine any SHA256 based altcoin?

Yes you can.  The "application specific" part of BFL's (and other) ASICS is a double SHA-256 hash used by Bitcoin.  Any current or future coin which uses the same hashing algorithm would work fine.  The chip has no idea what Bitcoin is.  It simply is programmed to increment through nonces, and perform a double SHA-256 hash of a blockheader and current nonce.  It does so very fast having a specific purpose.

If (and it is highly unlikely) the hashing algorithm of Bitcoin were ever to change then the ASICs would be unusable for Bitcoin mining because the specific purpose isn't Bitcoin mining it is a double SHA-256 hash.

[BitcoinBoss]

Would you not be able to use BFL asics to mine any SHA256 based altcoin?

Yes you can.  The "application specific" part of BFL's (and other) ASICS is a double SHA-256 hash used by Bitcoin.  Any current or future coin which uses the same hashing algorithm would work fine.  The chip has no idea what Bitcoin is.  It simply is programmed to increment through nonces, and perform a double SHA-256 hash of a blockheader and current nonce.  It does so very fast having a specific purpose.

If (and it is highly unlikely) the hashing algorithm of Bitcoin were ever to change then the ASICs would be unusable for Bitcoin mining because the specific purpose isn't Bitcoin mining it is a double SHA-256 hash.

Thanks for this very informative explanation.

[evilscoop]

Would you not be able to use BFL asics to mine any SHA256 based altcoin?

I already answered this...do you not read ....

[medinscot]

by the time BFL delvers, your ROI will probably be so miniscule that it would take a lifetime to recover your "investment", let alone making any meaningful profit.

[awesome31312]

BFL will use your money to make their own chips that will be utilized in mining for themselves, then when the difficulty becomes too high, they'll send you the trash you ordered.

[theehat]

If BFL do ever deliver, i think that people with order numbers 5000+ will not ever see their ROI :\

i got out of the BFL game after a month of hearing trash talk from Josh @ BFL

[J35st3r]

by the time BFL delvers, your ROI will probably be so miniscule that it would take a lifetime to recover your "investment", let alone making any meaningful profit.

Do the math. If difficulty is increasing at 20% per two weeks, after just 8 weeks it will have doubled (1.2*1.2*1.2*1.2 ~ 2.1) So your return halves every eight weeks. In the rest of eternity you will only mine the same amount as you mine in the first eight weeks. It never pays for itself. But plug in your own prediction for the difficulty spiral and see if you like the ROI.

[tronsom]

thx everyone for the replies!