Minion ASICs - worth it, or too little too late?

[Sigmoid]

BlackArrow's Minion chips seem to be the cheapest in terms of hash/sec/USD on the market by a factor of almost ten... Then again, as they will only become available in February, I wonder if that hashing speed will amount to anything by then.

The way I'm thinking is, we're seeing an enermous deployment of hashing power all over the world. In February, all the new minions, and several other newly minted chips will come online, doubtless creating an avalanche of hash/secs in the bitcoin network... If bitcoin prices rise further, it will only encourage more people to start hashing, so I doubt price can offset difficulty over the medium to long term.

So... do you guys think they will be obsolete by the time they are shipped, or is there a potential for profit in them?

[broodsyncro]

I have just bought the Prospero X-3 myself, I think BlackArrow is now the cheapest out there and people seem to have high hopes on them so I guess its a good bet. If they do ship on time (Im assuming start mining by early March) based on my calculation the profit potential is still quite big

[shnish]

I'm doubtful there will be much profit in ASICs. The bitcoin mining difficulty is steadily getting harder, and this years ASICs are already starting to be outdated. An ASIC might not be a bad idea for mining alt currencies, however. Many go up as much as 50% in one day, so you could get your investment back if you buy in early.

[Sigmoid]

I'm doubtful there will be much profit in ASICs. The bitcoin mining difficulty is steadily getting harder, and this years ASICs are already starting to be outdated. An ASIC might not be a bad idea for mining alt currencies, however. Many go up as much as 50% in one day, so you could get your investment back if you buy in early.

Well this brings up another topic... There isn't much beyond ASICs.
If bitcoin mining itself becomes unprofitable, wouldn't that mean the inevitable death of bitcoin? No hashing power, no blocks, no trust, no bitcoin no more.

[tondaS]

I'm doubtful there will be much profit in ASICs. The bitcoin mining difficulty is steadily getting harder, and this years ASICs are already starting to be outdated. An ASIC might not be a bad idea for mining alt currencies, however. Many go up as much as 50% in one day, so you could get your investment back if you buy in early.

Well this brings up another topic... There isn't much beyond ASICs.
If bitcoin mining itself becomes unprofitable, wouldn't that mean the inevitable death of bitcoin? No hashing power, no blocks, no trust, no bitcoin no more.

Nope, not all ASICs have the same power effeciency, so there will be always profitable miners 
The other question is if they mine enought to get back initial investment... But it is people fault to buy overpriced miners

[Sigmoid]

Well this brings up another topic... There isn't much beyond ASICs.
If bitcoin mining itself becomes unprofitable, wouldn't that mean the inevitable death of bitcoin? No hashing power, no blocks, no trust, no bitcoin no more.

Nope, not all ASICs have the same power effeciency, so there will be always profitable miners 
The other question is if they mine enought to get back initial investment... But it is people fault to buy overpriced miners

Well, it's interesting though. The new ASICs are pretty power efficient, but unless the income margin is highly above energy costs, the very act of designing and manufacturing the ASIC becomes unprofitable.
Yes, people who give $3000 for 50 GH/s are acting irrationally, but someone spent a crapload of money to create that ASIC.

And we're still nowhere near the final tapering of bitcoin supply. If mining new bitcoins can't pay for keeping the infrastructure in operation, how on earth will transaction fees pay for it once mining is gone? I'm afraid bitcoin has a built-in self-destruct mechanism.