And this next diff increase (thanks KNC! Tongue) makes the price on these even more important
Agreed. I am doubtful that single asic usb devices will be profitable for much longer, if they are even now, due to board costs.
If the asic power consumption can be kept down perhaps two asics per usb device might be the way to go for a while longer.
If the asic's are cheap enough then (DIY) building blades would seem the way to go to get a high enough hash rate.
G
Profit is a loaded word.
Let's talk in USD to make things easier. And this is said considering Bitmain is probably making mf'ing bank from the S1's. Say the device (usb) costs $30 to manu. Even at 1.6G, it's 5x more powerful than the AM usbs that I bet a lot of folks are still running. For the power usage, easy swap of 5-to-1 between AM sticks and AntSticks (I like that name
).
Back on track - say device costs $30/ea to make, sell at BTC community markup of 100% plus and sell them each for $70, ignoring BTC price since we cannot pay for manufacturing or shipping in BTC. Considering that markup and current AM stick prices you could easily sell these for $150 or so to eBay/Amazon folks. This keeps resellers flowing, is a good price for miners (yeah, it won't even ROI at that price, but will come *close* if BTC price jumps back up), prices them below any of the Bitfury-based miners on the market, etc.
The thing with USB miners is you are playing to a lower-spending crowd (except for the reseller folks), so the shit that has been happening with other BF-based products has a lot of people irritated. Price is make-or-break and charging in USD/PayPal is the best possible idea because .1 BTC was $120 last week and $90 right now, so the majority of folks don't want to blow BTC for something that won't bring it back but will spend USD/fiat so they can hold onto their savings/investment in BTC and still get hardware.
Too much coffee. Back to work. Looking forward to pricing/availability as always.