Closed

[maco]

This is simply not true.  Anyone who believes in the long-term future of Primecoin can buy them at an exchange.  A bought coin is the same as a mined coin, and will yield the same profit.

x1000000 I knew the ramp up would take a few days but this is like false advertising to me.

If so, you should have told people up front that they would be mining at a loss for the first few weeks.

I would have bought way fewer shares if I knew this was going to be the case. I figured the 8xpm/day was what we would be generating at the start and then it would progress upward.

I need all the support I can get! If you, as the investor, could help in anyway..

If you give me you pool configuration info, what software you use, etc. I will contribute the power of my 3570K @ 4GHz to help, even if it is just a drop in the bucket. Ypool was giving total shit returns anyway especially after their latest share value update.

How was it false advertising? enlighten me. Did you know I was running about 25-50 servers out of my own cost, right off the bat? In fact, I mined 3 blocks without using the new wallet yet since I wasn't fast enough to implement the new wallet. I still need to add about 31.55 XPM to the pool. So, before we get a little jumpy, give credit where credit is due. If I was mining 8-10 blocks, and I disabled it for the expansion of these servers, why aren't we a little more flexible on what you say or how you say it? 

And No, I will not disclose server information at this time. You have to understand, there is security involved in this section. I RUN a server farm...
for security purposes, I will not be disclosing financials or server details anything further than what is available from the start.

Thanks for buying, but who said 8 XPM/day is what you are going to earn?  We need to stop jumping the gun so quickly, it has NOT been a full three days yet.

I need investors to grow this.. it is a team thing! and Thanks to all for buying, but do not take offense to my comments. I am transparent and open, but there needs to be a fine line... This isn't just an investment you will see an outcome later, I am bringing in results today. You do not have to wait months and months for pre-orders or anything out of the ordinary.  All I am asking is, provide me some flexibility to do my job, and I will deliver to you all.

Again, Thank you all for investing, and do not take it the wrong way if I am not clear with exact numbers. I would be lying to you, if I did have exact numbers because every minute, that data is turning old. I will have concrete information within a few days.

[M0nKeY]

I am still lacking funds to deploy 200+ servers, as for some reason, I would need 2-3 more weeks of funds

I think that "for some reason" no one should ever trust you with their money again.

[BitThink]

8-16 XPM per day was on your web page. A couple of days ago, I asked whether it was based on 200 severs and when could all servers be deployed. You answered yes and all servers would be deployed in 48 hours.

You've done something, adding your own servers, to compensate the delay. But it will not be enough to keep the confidence of the investors if the dividend turns out to be far below 8XPM per day. Wish you good luck and that does not happen.

[noodle_dam]

8-16 XPM per day was on your web page. A couple of days ago, I asked whether it was based on 200 severs and when could all servers be deployed. You answered yes and all servers would be deployed in 48 hours.

You've done something, adding your own servers, to compensate the delay. But it will not be enough to keep the confidence of the investors if the dividend turns out to be far below 8XPM per day. Wish you good luck and that does not happen.

This.

[hayek]

Wow has your tone changed after you received our money.

How was it false advertising? enlighten me. Did you know I was running about 25-50 servers out of my own cost, right off the bat? In fact, I mined 3 blocks without using the new wallet yet since I wasn't fast enough to implement the new wallet. I still need to add about 31.55 XPM to the pool. So, before we get a little jumpy, give credit where credit is due. If I was mining 8-10 blocks, and I disabled it for the expansion of these servers, why aren't we a little more flexible on what you say or how you say it?  

It's false because you advertised "400 - 800" a day when in reality it's now closer to half of that. That's blatantly swindling people out of money to fund your operation.

And No, I will not disclose server information at this time. You have to understand, there is security involved in this section. I RUN a server farm...
for security purposes, I will not be disclosing financials or server details anything further than what is available from the start.

Yeah, I run a server farm too. I run one for one of the largest healthcare organizations in an entire state. There is absolutely nothing insecure about telling people "We use IBM Power 7 series hardware and supplement with blades as we need. We have approximately 10 full frames and 30 blades."

OMG SECURITY BREACH HIT THE EMERGENCY STOP BUTTON NOW.

Thanks for buying, but who said 8 XPM/day is what you are going to earn?  We need to stop jumping the gun so quickly, it has NOT been a full three days yet.

You did. 400 - 800 XPM/day. 1 share = 2%. Let's see, let me break out my calculator OH LOOK AT THAT THE WORST CASE IS 8 XPM A DAY.

I need investors to grow this.. it is a team thing! and Thanks to all for buying, but do not take offense to my comments. I am transparent and open, but there needs to be a fine line... This isn't just an investment you will see an outcome later, I am bringing in results today. You do not have to wait months and months for pre-orders or anything out of the ordinary.  All I am asking is, provide me some flexibility to do my job, and I will deliver to you all.

No. You need to honor the people who gave you money. Everything you're doing right now is supported by us. If you needed flexibility you should have covered your butt before you started looking for hand outs.

Again, Thank you all for investing, and do not take it the wrong way if I am not clear with exact numbers. I would be lying to you, if I did have exact numbers because every minute, that data is turning old. I will have concrete information within a few days.

You did lie.

I want you to return/refund my bitcoin and you can find a new buyer for your shares.

[Oleander]

The subscribers are coming up on a decision... to cancel or not to cancel.  We will base that decision on whatever information we have.  If you don't want people to cancel, you have to give them a reason not to cancel.

This isn't just an investment you will see an outcome later, I am bringing in results today.

But you're not telling us what they are.

I would be lying to you, if I did have exact numbers because every minute, that data is turning old.

Here's how you do it.  You say "As of today, we have X1 servers mining an average of Y1 XPM per day per server."  Yes, we know the information is out of date by the time we read it.  We don't care.

Then the next day, you say "Now we have X2 servers mining an average of Y2 XPM per day per server." 

And so forth.  And the subscribers think "Ah, yes, there is a trend here, we are not profitable yet, but we will be in 3 more days."  Or whatever the numbers suggest.

I will have concrete information within a few days.

If you give us actual information day by day, you will build trust.  If you are evasive and promise to give us information at an indefinite time in the future, you create suspicion.  If the subscribers don't have confidence in you, they will cancel.

[hayek]

For what it's worth I've been talking to Maco in PMs. I would have prefered it be here but that's how it went down.

He said he would post an update. Hopefully that will be soon...

[patapato]

Maco, I trust you for now (I have 2 shares). Please make it work before a GPU miner for Primecoin is ready  .

[maco]

Currently running servers:
Expensive ~ pay as you go of 83 Instance Servers from Amazon EC2
(deploying more of these as we go - except to reach 100)
25 Dedicated Server Boxes (of my own)
37 from a few other VPS providers
Problem host: 20 VPS

The Problem:
Yesterday, I launched 100 servers on a VPS provider and after about 12 hours or so.. we were  asked  to shut down our servers or take action to comply with CPU Usage. I currently am complying  with the company, and they have provided partial refund, and I made an agreement with them, and they are working with me in the refund processing. However, they have allowed me to keep 20 servers for the time being... we kept these up with that host.

Meanwhile, I have launched tremendous amounts of pay as you go servers (that will be a backup source) Amazon EC2 - I am riding Amazon EC2 the entire way until I can get another solution to replace it. We all know Amazon EC2 is not cheap on a long scale, but this was my only Safety net to save the investors on time.

I found another alternative server provider; however, to go with which is going to help me keep my cost down to launch more servers, setup takes about 1 hour for each server, and I am currently at 10+ deployment. Amazon EC2 might be our only shot at the moment, and we won't be able to launch all of those, since the cost will be way over budget in a shorter period of time.

I have used Amazon EC2 ever since day 1, as a backup until we have full deployment of the other VPS, but knowing this did not work out, I am going to launch more EC2 instances, even tho it will be expensive, but it will still generate results, until I can figure out an alternative, and cost-effective way to run more servers.

Here is what the Host said:
"It has come to our attention that all of your servers are using around 800% CPU usage. This is negatively impacting the host. We must ask that you please take appropriate steps to reduce your CPU usage, and update this ticket with the steps you have taken."

Solution to the problem:
The only way I can do this is to make it up by giving all subscribers an additional 2 days of
Free Mining on the house. If you cancel, you still are rewarded by 2 additional days from (your payment date).
Dividends will be paid out on Sunday, and I can add another dividends for an additional 2 days.  
How am I making up the time frame? I have deployed very costly EC2.  I will let you know progress by/or/before Saturday.

I will launch more EC2 Instances so we do not face any down time...
however, I can only do this so much until I reach a budget cap. I can do max another additional 20 or 30 Instance servers for the next few days,
meanwhile, I will deploy additional VPS servers that will not bury me in over-spending, and lower our chances of increased Consumption power,
which lowers our chances of mining more primecoin XPM. Everyone has challenges ahead, any business or idea. I am coming up ways to overcome them quickly and more effectively than what history shows. I do not sleep the extra 4 hours because I need to make this work for us! well, before Primecoin, hits the top of the charts.

I am open to hearing out if any of you have ideas or solutions.

Wish me luck with the new host, as I still have some doubt that once I deploy X amount of VPS that consume a lot of their CPU power, they may ask us to leave. I will see in the next 12 hours if I receive any problems. Otherwise, we will just go all the way with EC2 and earn what we can. I will report on Saturday if this will be a continued venture.

Like I said, I didn't expect this challenge as this primary host has never given me a single problem until now, but we are launched with a backup source at a much higher rate, so lets see how it goes for now until I can patch up the new solution.

[pascal257]

How about getting a dedicated server instead of VPS

[maco]

How about getting a dedicated server instead of VPS

Good advice but it isn't going to work for this plan.  It is too large of a risk for probably worse or lower rewards than we are seeing now. I wouldn't be able to pull this off in a short period of time (as I can quick enough with it now)...  See, the idea-and-plan here was to use my dedicated's now as a booster to the cloud/vps/ssd servers. The reason is because we power level the consumption of mining all together by using it as one wallet.

From my own testing and what I've seen proven to work - There are major benefits to using one wallet.  The CPU consumption seems to work all together, acting as a Single, Multi-Powered, with all your servers connected.  << my analogy. I have bridged my network with 10,000 keypools, and have triggered it... but in short, I do not think more dedicated would do the trick.  The nice thing about EC2, is that they allow the CPU consumption and are 100% with you and supportive - however, our cost is going to be larger - but then again, we get results with Amazon... Most of my servers range from 0.70 to 1.6 chainsperday with Amazon's service which in my opinion is good. I am trying to make it a happy medium with a lower cost to launch more instances/servers so we can mine all together at a larger rate. It seems like for now, I am going to handle the costs of budget with EC2 and try this new host (well see how it goes, I have about 10 up now) and I will ride this out.

I will keep you all updated as I move forward.

[pascal257]

You could virtualize yourself and thus cutting the middle man reducing cost and setup time. (Once a vm is created you can just duplicate it)

[maco]

You could virtualize yourself and thus cutting the middle man reducing cost and setup time. (Once a vm is created you can just duplicate it)

Which provider?  have any examples I can look at?

I have done snapshots/clones of instances... is this what you are referring to?

[thefunkybits]

.5 BTC per week seems a little steep... Am I missing something?

[Oleander]

Maco, on EC2, are you running Spot instances or On-demand instances?

[Vorksholk]

I bought 8 shares a few days ago, so what would be the current status of them? When are they paying out?

[ranmn7]

The subscribers are coming up on a decision... to cancel or not to cancel.  We will base that decision on whatever information we have.  If you don't want people to cancel, you have to give them a reason not to cancel.

This isn't just an investment you will see an outcome later, I am bringing in results today.

But you're not telling us what they are.

I would be lying to you, if I did have exact numbers because every minute, that data is turning old.

Here's how you do it.  You say "As of today, we have X1 servers mining an average of Y1 XPM per day per server."  Yes, we know the information is out of date by the time we read it.  We don't care.

Then the next day, you say "Now we have X2 servers mining an average of Y2 XPM per day per server." 

And so forth.  And the subscribers think "Ah, yes, there is a trend here, we are not profitable yet, but we will be in 3 more days."  Or whatever the numbers suggest.

I will have concrete information within a few days.

If you give us actual information day by day, you will build trust.  If you are evasive and promise to give us information at an indefinite time in the future, you create suspicion.  If the subscribers don't have confidence in you, they will cancel.

I'm considering your service as an option, if/and when you open it up to more people to buy shares.
But, I think you need to provide more specific information as indicated by Olenader here.

In other words instead of saying you've deployed 10+ servers or vps or whatever, why not just say 'I've deployed 14 vps instances' why are you being vague about that? If its a continual process, say so, nothing wrong with giving an update when you're in the process.

Sounds like you didn't accurately calculate the costs of obtaining the additional hardware when you started this. Do you have a business plan? I would love to see it, and I think others would as well. What you have posted is definitely not a business plan, its more of a wish list if anything.

Have you calculated the cost/benefit value for deploying vps instances vs running dedicated hardware? What are these calculations? I would love to see them. If you haven't done this very minimal step, then I'm going to be very reluctant to invest my coins in this venture.

So like I said, I'm interested, but need very specific information before I buy any shares.

[patapato]

What about Google Compute Engine?, could it be cheaper and/or better?

[Oleander]

What about Google Compute Engine?, could it be cheaper and/or better?

GCE and AWS seem to be more or less competitive for on-demand servers:

   http://sandhill.com/article/aws-vs-google-compute-engine-who-trumps-whom/

However, AWS offers ways to reduce the cost per hour significantly with a yearly contract.  The spot instances can be a great bargain... for example, a 2-core high CPU instance has an on-demand price of .145 / hr, but a spot price of .018 / hr.

[maco]

Thanks for all your feedback so far and being an investor.

I have some results to report for those of you who want to decide to stay with or cancel and move without. As you know, we did face some challenges in this launch to expansion, and I underestimated the results as I have seen growth in and out very inconsistently. Even with the expansion of Amazon EC2, my own load of Dedicated + VPS, and some other new VPS providers we expanded on, we were running at a capacity of 185 servers ~  give or take. However, we did drop to about 80 at one point and kept it with a backup source of EC2 to stabilize some trends.

There were only 49 shares accounted for as 1 reserve did not make the payment - including me that is 50 shares of dividends that will be made Sunday night, only 50 shares in total. I am going to continue to keep the mining running past Sunday for another 2 days to make up the delays and earn you some extra coins for the issues at stake in the beginning of this venture.

Q) Which is better? Spot Instance vs Regular EC2 Instance
A) The problem I have noticed with Spot Instance, is that it is never consistent. Normally, I get out-bid by someone with deeper pockets, shuts down our servers, and puts it in 'back of the line' as we are mining up the chain. I kept it steady with EC2 Guaranteed Instances so that we do not experience any downtime. I have split them among medium and large (HIGH performance CPU) c1.medium/c1.large instances as well as Spot Instances as backup.


Here is some screenshots of current wallet progress:





Stats:
Currently we have 940.28 + 31.65 before new wallet = 971.93 earned XPM Coins and payouts will happen
Late night on Sunday to earn as much as possible. Second payouts will happen 2 days after Sunday, on Tuesday.

We have not tested HP10 as of yet, as this is suppose to be the next thing to cause the mining up spike in earning droppings.
If you would like to continue, surely have some coins available in your subscription account. We may keep the shares down lower this time to the amounts lower. Please remember to have your BTC available on coinbase if you would like to continue. If not, simply go to coinbase and click subscription and cancel. If this was not a investment you want to move forward with, thanks for giving us a try anyways.. Otherwise, thank you again for investing and sticking around for week 2.  We will continue to use EC2 until full deployment of the lower/more affordable solution is presented. At the time, it seems like our current systems/setup have been doing a decent job but still under what I was estimating as my personal results not too long ago. I have been split testing for the last 2 months. We will not be increasing the subscription for anyone, and maybe might contain at a lower share level to help investors who stick around maximize the most out of their investment for week two.

Beware before investing... Difficulty is greatly increasing and has increased from the time we started. Especially with full
deployment of HP10, we expect it to be at a greater earning drop for anyone mining, with or without this service.

Feel free to ask questions via pm or here. I will send out payouts.

Link to the New HP10: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=255782.0
is being deployed and worked on as we speak. As others are reporting... difficulty is surely on the rise at a fast pace.

Thanks!