This is a group buy (GB) for bitcoin mining hardware (48 GH/s per board) based on bitfury’s ASIC chips and c-scape’s S-board pcb design. These will be supplied to the group by bitcoinza.com, who have offered us a bulk discount price for these units, and John K. has kindly agreed to provide his escrow service for the GB. The cost of a 48 GH/s miner is 16.12 BTC (excluding postage and packing from the UK-based GB organiser to group members – shipping within the EU only).
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CURRENT GROUP BUY STATUS = CLOSED
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48 GH/s miner = 16.12 BTC (excluding postage and packing from the UK-based GB organiser to group members)
~ 3 GH/s per BTC
0 / 0 miners remainingCollection status
Collection closed
LinksBitfury’s thread (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=228677.0)
Bitcoinza.com (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260543.0; http://www.bitcoinza.com)
A hashing bitfury video (
https://bitcentury.io/blog)
C-scape’s S-board post (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=228677.msg2796663#msg2796663)
SummaryBitcoinza.com have recently announced that they will be the first company to sell bitcoin mining hardware using bitfury’s ASICs and c-scape’s “S-board” pcb design. Bitfury’s chips have been demonstrated in working devices by several groups (see above for links); they have very low power consumption (less than 1W per GH/s) and are competitively priced. As such, they represent one of the most attractive ASIC mining investments available. Bitcoinza’s mining boards will be stand-alone devices with anticipated hashing power of 48 GH/s or greater per board, which makes them perfect for small- and medium-sized miners who wish to own and host their own hardware. Bitcoinza will assemble the miners in South Africa (with ASIC chips direct from BitFury) and anticipate that they will begin shipping in late October or early November.
Bitcoinza have offered us a discounted price for their S-board miners if we buy in bulk (min. 20 boards), so we are opening a GB to give the bitcoin community in the EU access to this mining hardware at bulk-discounted prices. The aim of the group is to collect sufficient funds to place an order for at least 20 mining boards. These will then be shipped from South Africa to the GB organisers in the UK, who will forward boards on to group members (within the EU only).
Note: this is not a hosted group buy – mining hardware will be shipped to group buy members. Please see (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=252534.0) if you are interested in a hosted group buy for bitfury mining hardware.What’s on offer (summary) and cost breakdown per board• 48 GH/s S-boards (standalone miners)
(12.5 BTC)(Board only - no power supply etc. will be provided)
• Postage from South Africa to the GB organisers in the UK
(included in miner price)• Import VAT coming into the UK (at 20%) and estimated import handling charges
(2.55 BTC)• GB organisation fee (5%)
(0.75 BTC)• Escrow fee (2%)
(0.32 BTC)Total cost per board = 16.12 BTCNote: Postage and packing costs from the UK to GB members will need to be paid by group members on top of this. We will only post boards within the EU because of shipping costs and customs difficulties when shipping outside the EU.What’s on offer (the details)A GB for mining hardware based on bitfury’s ASICs. See bitcoinza’s thread and web pages (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260543.0; http://www.bitcoinza.com); bitfury’s thread (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=228677.0) and cscape’s S-board posts (e.g.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=228677.msg2796663#msg2796663) for info on the hardware.
Bitcoinza.com have priced their miners in BTC and only accept payment in BTC. The GB only accepts payments for mining boards in BTC.Chip features (from http://www.bitfurystrikesback.com)• 55nm process
• Full-custom hand-routed design
• Experimental low-threshold voltage transistors
• QFN 48 7mm x 7mm package
• 756 rolled hash cores
• Anticipated >3 GH/sec (~1W/Ghps) – estimate from bitcoinza
48 GH/s S-board miner features (details from bitcoinza and c-scape’s posts)• >48 GHash/s
• 16 bitfury ASIC chips
• PCB design based on c-scape’s “S-board”
• Adjustable (through 0805 SMT resistor) voltage regulator between 0.7 and 0.9V
• Core voltage regulator has 50A capacity, so chips can be overclocked
• On-board ARM Cortex M3 processor with standard RJ-45 100 Mbps Ethernet port.
• Built-in mining software can operate in stand-alone mode. No PC or Raspberry PI needed, just an internet connection.
• TCP/IP stack with DHCP and DNS support. Just fill in pool server name, port number, username and password.
• Support for Stratum and backup mining pools.
• Built-in small webserver for chip status/speed reports.
• PCB temperature sensor, could be used for automatic shutdown when temperature gets too high.
• Requires 12V DC power
• Total power draw ~50W (Efficiency at wall depends on your PSU)
Bitcoinza.com will be assembling and testing new prototypes soon (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260543.msg2944217#msg2944217) and more details regarding power connections, cooling requirements etc. will be posted to this thread when available.
Collection of funds from potential group membersWe will collect funds from potential group members in multiples of 16.12 BTC, which corresponds to the cost of one mining board (excluding postage and packing from the UK to group buy members).
Only payments in 16.12 BTC increments will be accepted. When the group has collected enough funds to order 20 S-board miners (i.e. 322.4 BTC) an order will be placed with bitcoinza.com. If more is collected than is needed then we will order a larger number of boards if possible, but we will not delay an order to wait for more people to join the group. If potential group members make contributions after an order has been placed and it is not possible to add to the order then they will be offered a refund or for their contributions to roll over to a new group buy. The blockchain will be used to judge the order of payment.
CostsThe miner costs described above include a GB fee (5% of the order value) which will be paid to jlsminingcorp for organising the GB and an escrow fee (2% of the order value) which will be paid to John K for the escrow service. The miner costs also include import VAT (at 20%), which will be due when the miners enter the UK, and an estimate of handling fees (0.05 BTC per board) that may be charged by the courier for handling customs arrangements etc. If we have overestimated the handling fee then any excess will be refunded to GB members. If we have underestimated the handling fee or if any other reasonable costs are incurred that are necessary to realise the venture then GB members will be liable for these additional charges, which will need to be paid before S-board miners are forwarded to GB members. If any costs are revised by suppliers etc. then the savings, or additional costs, will be passed on to group members, who will be advised of the details as quickly as possible.
The miner costs above do not include postage and packing from the GB organisers in the UK to GB members. The GB organisers will contact GB members individually once an order has been placed to discuss the different postage options available based on their addresses (EU only). All parcels
must be signed for, but other options that affect postage costs will depend on the delivery address and will be discussed with group members.
Confirmation of contributionsNo personal confirmation will be given. If you want to check if your contribution has been received then please wait for the next update to the “collection status” posted to this thread and search for your address. If something is not correct, please inform jlsminingcorp. The list posted to this thread is the confirmation.
Hardware lifetime, failure and technical supportTo the best of our knowledge bitcoinza.com has not provided any details regarding the expected lifetime of this hardware (we will post here if this information is released). The GB organisers can’t guarantee the hardware lifetime – there just isn’t enough information available to do so. We will not be responsible for technical support for S-board miners once these are delivered to GB members, technical queries should be directed to bitcoinza.com.
Non-delivery, damage, hashrate etc.The GB organisers take no responsibility for the possibility that bitcoinza.com does not deliver the miner (on time or at all). We all know that you can never 100% guarantee anything when it comes to pre-orders, particularly when it comes to bitcoin mining ASICs. We also take no responsibility for the accuracy of bitcoinza.com’s description of the miner’s capabilities (hashrate, power consumption etc.), damage in transit or other factors outside of our control. If we believe that bitcoinza.com has a case to answer should any of these problems arise, we will do everything that we reasonably can to get bitcoinza.com to rectify the situation on behalf of the group.
RefundsRefunds can be requested at any point until an order is placed based on those funds. Group buy contributions are binding once funds have been used to place an order with bitcoinza.com (they will be with bitcoinza.com then and not us!) If you request a refund we reserve the right not to accept any further payments from you for this or future GBs (to prevent risk offsetting at our expense).
Acceptance of terms and conditionsBy entering into this group buy you accept the terms and conditions set out here.
To purchase minersJohn K. has kindly agreed to provide his escrow service for this GB. John normally requires that 25% of an order is pledged by potential group members before generating the escrow contract and opening the escrow account. As such, we will initially be taking pledges in the following way. These instructions will be updated with payment instructions when the escrow account is open.
1) Pledge 16.12 BTC per S-board miner that you want (please only pledge multiples of 16.12 BTC)
2) Post a message on this forum (or PM jlsminingcorp if you would like to stay anonymous) stating: your forum nickname, the number of S-board miners you want, the number of BTC you pledge. Please use the following comma-separated format:
“nickname”,”number of miners”,”btc”
e.g. jlsminingcorp,2,32.24Important: payment of pledges will be required within 24 hours of when the escrow account opens in order to preserve your place in the queue. We will post in this thread and PM pledgers when the account is ready to accept payments.
Who are we?• jlsminingcorp are two enthusiastic bitcoiners who are relatively new to the community, but are very interested in getting more involved. We’re based in the UK and have been mining since Feb 2013. We have verified our ID with John K (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=252534.msg2691936#msg2691936).
• Bitcoinza are a group of people that came together in South Africa from all across the country to provide everyone with an ASIC miner, or allow them to be part of the ASIC miner community. They are a BitFury approved supplier (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260543.msg2779992#msg2779992), and both c-scape (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260543.msg2912856#msg2912856) and intron (
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=260543.msg2912962#msg2912962) have confirmed that they are working with them on pcb designs.
Trust and communicationIn order to gain trust we have verified our identity with John K. and we will use John K.’s escrow service to collect funds for the GB to provide trust and security. We will post updates to this thread regularly to inform GB members of significant group buy progress. We will endeavour to respond to all communications from GB members as quickly as possible, but there may be some times when we won’t be available, so would appreciate your patience. Wherever possible, we will inform group members of any expected prolonged “quiet” periods (the occasional holiday etc.) in advance.
RiskBitcoin price, difficulty, network hashrate, the reputability of suppliers and many other factors associated with this GB are unpredictable. There are potential rewards, but also significant risks to this GB and we don’t offer any guarantees about the success of the venture. Please ensure that you have done a careful risk/reward analysis before joining the GB. We expect all potential group members to have done sufficient research to understand the hardware and bitcoin ecosphere sufficiently to understand what this GB will be doing. We are not in a position to offer any financial advice relating to this GB or other bitcoin-related matters.
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Updated 24/8/13: OP now confirms John K as providing the escrow service, includes a breakdown of the miner costs for clarity and now indicates the GH/s per BTC for these miners.
