Newbie guide to ASIC vendors

[dave111223]

Bitmain should be 5++ their delivery time is fantastic (received in like 3 days even during holidays)

Technobit has basically scammed me; they should be marked down at a 1 or 1.5 with BFL.  They don't send hardware, refunds, or even customer service emails; if you are lucky you receive your hardware a few months late.

P.S. I suspect the reason that AMT is sucking so bad is because they are heavily reliant on Technobit....bad move to build your business model around scammers.

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[miahallen]

I bought a hosted Juptier, and now that all is said and done, I'm perfectly happy with the way they handled the situation.  Was there issues?  Yes.  But did they do their best to make up for it?  Yes!  They were about 10 days late getting my hosting online, but for the first 10 days of hosting, they had two (2) Jupiters hashing for me (and check their forums, I was not the only one).  I'd say they did very well by their customers, and for whose who didn't get their panties in a knot over every little details, it paid off big-time.  For people like de_ixie, you need to consider ventures like this as a very risky investment, which means you have to be able to stomach delays and fluctuations in the market.  If you can't handle it, then you're playing in the wrong game here.  I'm currently waiting on two CoinTerra miners (early January batch), and again, I'm not sweating the delays we're currently facing...it's all part of the game :-)

It is perfectly fine for both of us - you were satisfied with their service. I was not. I do my decision based on numbers, contracts, behaviour of my business partner and possible future outcome. You maybe have a different view/ threshold of what is acceptable and what not. Hosting situation mid Oct was unacceptable from my POV. KnC broke the ToS of their "Hosting" without offering me a proper compensation and/ or ETA. This brought me as a customer of KnC in a situation where it was economically senseless to stick with their offer.

You sticked with their hosted product in October - which is perfectly fine. You made a good deal. I used the refund money to buy BC instead. Even a better deal...  

I dont want to repeat myself to much here - it was pointed out several times by different people. Despite Hosting, some broken machines etc... KnC is still number #1

Edit: I want to go down even further on my argument above. This thread is majorly useful because we are all part of this unragulated experiment called Bitcoin. A lot of people here have good intentions and clever ideas and want to push Bitcoin to mainstream usability - but we also see so many market participants (not only in the mining business) abuse the unregulated enivronment. The major thing we can rely on is unfiltered & carefully interpreted experience of those who participate. We all want Bitcoin to be successful and as long as we have deficient global/ local legal frame the Bitcoin community itself has to find a way to protect itself.

Lets give credit where credit was earned and lets punish those who deserve punishment.

Well stated di_xie, some great points there 

[Puppet]

You missed the first ASIC company to bring a product to market - ASICMiner.  Sells overpriced outdated technology at prices where the only one seeing ROI is ASICMiner.

Well, I didnt forget them, but they dont seem to selling (directly) to end users anymore in so far they are still selling anything at all, so Im not sure its that relevant for this thread.

I did add VMC, I somehow seemed to have forgotten them, and Im surprised no one thought of pointing that out.

[DyslexicZombei]

Updating my scores and editing my OP based on new info:

KnC Jupiters (over 10 miners): 100% hardware issue rate (as in: we've been seeing problems with every miner received)
Bitmain (we have dozens of these miners) : 2% hardware issue rate

YMMV: but that's what we're seeing in the DZ Miners Cooperative.

So my top 3 ASIC mfgs at this time are:

#3 KnC
#2 Black Arrow
#1 Bitmain

[Puppet]

KnC Jupiters (over 10 miners): 100% hardware issue rate (as in: we've been seeing problems with every miner received)

Ouch. Where those all batch 1 jupiters? Also curious how he is rating KnC's customer support in dealing with the issues.
Anyway, downgraded KnC from 4.5 to 4, as Bobsag isnt exactly the only one reporting fairly severe QC issues.

[miaviator]

You should also quote gnar1ta$ in this guide:

Losing hundreds of Bitcoins with the best scammers in the business - BFL, Avalon, KNC, HashFast.

I'm fairly certain we've lost thousands not hundreds at this point.  I believe we have pre-ordered every Asic Ever.  Oops should stuck with money printing GPU's.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

You missed the first ASIC company to bring a product to market - ASICMiner.  Sells overpriced outdated technology at prices where the only one seeing ROI is ASICMiner.

Well, I didnt forget them, but they dont seem to selling (directly) to end users anymore in so far they are still selling anything at all, so Im not sure its that relevant for this thread.

I did add VMC, I somehow seemed to have forgotten them, and Im surprised no one thought of pointing that out.

Virtual Mining Corporation (VMC/AMC) ?/5
VMC is developing and selling preorders for 28nm structured asics, but havent shipped anything yet and havent really shown anything yet. Not much is known of their schedule and even less of the current project status, other than that its being delayed. Despite a public and verifiable partnership with eASIC, a well known semiconductor company with unquestionable expertise, and a business approach that in theory should enable fast time to market at relatively low risk, VMC is cloaked in so much secrecy that serious questions can be asked about their credibility.

http://virtualminingcorp.com/pr130904.pdf

“The fast design and turnaround time of Nexteme-3 28nm single via configuration ASIC devices coupled with the impressive performance and low power makes this an ideal solution for our Fast-Hash-One Bitcoin Mining Machines,” said Kenneth E. Slaughter, CEO of VMC. “The performance we have seen from the 28nm Nextreme-3 family has allowed us to develop a scalable platform that provides the computing power to satisfy the most demanding Bitcoin Mining cryptography problem.” added Slaughter

http://virtualminingcorp.com/about.html

Here at Virtual Mining Corporation we understand what Bitcoin miners want and need, because we are miners too.

Kenneth E. Slaughter, CEO Virtual Mining Corporation

http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/virtual-mining-corp/springfield-missouri-65802/virtual-mining-corp-vmc-ripoff-by-virtual-mining-corp-vmc-bitcoin-mining-company-spring-1107833

I have pre purchased at bitcoin mining system from Kenneth Slaughter of http://virtualminingcorp.com
for $4700 for the last two weeks I have not been able to reach him. I have phoned and left voice messages and sent many emails asking him why he has not delivered in November the mining system. I wanted to know from him when he would be able to ship out the bitcoin miner!

 At this point has anyone else has problems with this company?
Any responsible business would at lest have a message to the customers on there website.


They would have people answering the office phone. So we have a single person for contact and he is not communicating?


The affiliate company to VMC called  Active Mining Corporation (Belize), I did a search online in belize and could not find this company?
VMC is getting there Asic chips from easic  http://www.easic.com
I don't know what Kenneth E Slaughter is doing but one thing I do know he has my money and I am starting to think that VMC company is not on the up and up!!!

Weekly Update: 1/8/13

Question From VinceSamios:

Update Requests:
When and Where will we be able to trade shares?

Crypto-Trade and ChromaWallet (colored Coins).  As soon as we get time to finish the
verification interface; however, our core business comes first and working on Intellihash.

When is the first batch of chips/boards supposed to arrive at VMC Assembly?

Our engineers are still designing our board. We had to change our engineering firm, and
learn a few lessons about hiring an engineer firm.  We don't have a date at this time.

What do you estimate the ActM hashrate be at the end of January, February and March?

Due to our inexperience with design, we have had a few set backs; however, we have hired
the most competent RTL design team to make sure that when we spin up our chip it will work.  They are
very competent at Low-Power and getting the most speed from the chip.

Do you have any more accurate energy efficiency figures yet? w/GH?

Not at this time.

Comment From The CEO

How I see us going forward is we will get our chip and boards into production as soon as possible.  Active Mining is in one of the best positions to take advantage of the Bitcoin network.  Once we have our chips and boards in production this year we will be one of only two companies in the world which manufactures Bitcoin mining hardware and also mines.  With this combination we have unlimited availability to bitcoin mining hardware only limited by our resources.  What I see in the future is bitcoin's exchange rate for USD going to over $10,000 in the next year.  If this happens Active Mining with its own chip, our current resources which will be increasing with the exchange rate, and eASIC as our partner will put us in an excellent position to dominate our market.  Intellihash will just be an added boost should it turn out to be a game changer.

Kenneth E. Slaughter, CEO/CTO


Forward Looking Statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements related to VMC’s future sales and the value of bitcoin and future hashing rates. Words such as "expects" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based upon VMC’s current expectations. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. The company’s actual results and the timing of events could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties, which include, without limitation, economic conditions, customer business environment and inventory levels, government and technological factors outside of our control, adoption and roll-out of products, risks related to ability to capitalize on growth opportunities and markets, risks related to our ability to manage our growth and other risks that may cause our business, industry, strategy or actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. VMC expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein.

Active Mining PR-Staff

[LittleD]

Updating my scores and editing my OP based on new info:

KnC Jupiters (over 10 miners): 100% hardware issue rate (as in: we've been seeing problems with every miner received)
Bitmain (we have dozens of these miners) : 2% hardware issue rate

YMMV: but that's what we're seeing in the DZ Miners Cooperative.

So my top 3 ASIC mfgs at this time are:

#3 KnC
#2 Black Arrow
#1 Bitmain

hmmmm i wonder where you got the new info 

hint hint 
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=409091.msg4435258#msg4435258

hint hint 
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=403921.0

[amer]

Should ASICMINER be up there? There have been blades, sticks and cubes as the only real hardware you could reliably get your hands on for quite some time.

[Easy2Mine]

I think KnC deserve a 5+ for overpromising and overdelivering. 

[gurki]

I want to thank everyone for taking their time to respond to this thread (and the thread op of course)  , it has been very informative.

[faetos]

Good start. From private experience - despite everything positive KnC achieved - they majorly screwed up hosting and forced me into refunding my Oct Jupiters mid of October - and I know that I am not the only one who paid for their "premium" hosting upfront and received second hand treatment. They skipped order chain and delivered "postal" and "pick up" orders weeks before hosted. I suspect this is also the reason why they do not offer hosting for Neptune atm - Never ever, ever I would recommend KnC hosting... never... period. I would not deduct any points in your rating - they did an amazing job overall. Maybe just mention to treat KnC hosting with big caution.

Thats an excellent point I had overseen/forgotten. Indeed, their hosting service was quite a disaster (and way overpriced). Whats the situation on that now? Are they at all hosting for customers ? Did they refund the hosting and allow you to self host your miner?

The situation when I stopped following KnC hosting debacle:

- First: They advertised premium price "hosting" with "hashing a few hours after production of your rig" - this is why ppl bought it -> big fail 
- They hosted day1 / day 2 customers almost in timely manner (late, but with somewhat fair compensation)
- After that: They delivered *postal* and *pick-up* orders following the order chain
- They skipped order chain for "hosted orders", around mid of Oct I saw people after me in the order chain presenting their rigs here in the forum
- I called KnC and asked for clarification. Answer: We dont know when our hosting will go online and no it was not possible to transfer "hosted" orders to "pick up" or "delivery" due to different design of "home-product" and "hosted-product"
- They offered me USD refund. I ended up with giving them a 4 month free loan and around 10% financial loss due to USD -> EUR currency change
- After that dunno, I heard they compensated "hosting" after day1/ day2 as well
- Overall a big mess for me - 10% financial loss and had to cancel my order. I funded KnC in early June and got screwed. Just my sad meaningless story - but still I know there were others in the same situation. Treat KnC hosting with caution and expect delays and skipping of order chain

Same exact story for me. No miners, lost revenue, super disappointed especially on the very poor communication from KnC. Do not do hosting with them.

[Ytterbium]

I'm reselling some BTCGarden based hardware in the US, if anyone's interested. Hopefully sending my first shipments on Monday, if anyone orders.

[miaviator]

I'm reselling some BTCGarden based hardware in the US, if anyone's interested. Hopefully sending my first shipments on Monday, if anyone orders.

I think Unicorn Hasher should be added to the list as well. Pre-orders are coming soon and we are shipping the Baby Unicorn Miner right now.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=412586.0

[DyslexicZombei]

KnC Jupiters (over 10 miners): 100% hardware issue rate (as in: we've been seeing problems with every miner received)

Ouch. Where those all batch 1 jupiters? Also curious how he is rating KnC's customer support in dealing with the issues.
Anyway, downgraded KnC from 4.5 to 4, as Bobsag isnt exactly the only one reporting fairly severe QC issues.

This is a 50/50 mix of Batch 1 and 2 Jupiters.

KnC can be a little slow about shipping replacement hardware. I'm guessing we're not the only ones needing replacement parts. That's normal in the biz...the hardware issue rate of 100% our guys are seeing with our KnC miners is not normal for the biz. The Bitmains have proven to be much less problematic for us.

[NecroBones]

You missed the first ASIC company to bring a product to market - ASICMiner.  Sells overpriced outdated technology at prices where the only one seeing ROI is ASICMiner.

Well, I didnt forget them, but they dont seem to selling (directly) to end users anymore in so far they are still selling anything at all, so Im not sure its that relevant for this thread.

I think it is relevant, mainly because a lot of newbies start out by scanning ebay to see what they can find, and it's knee-deep in Block Erupters. So I'd add an entry for it, and just note that it's mainly in the secondary market now.

[Puppet]

added some words about asicminer, and fixed some typo's.

[miaviator]

added some words about asicminer, and fixed some typo's.

And Ignored the biggest ASIC ever to hit bitcoin. 

[Inaba]

Why do you insist on posting so many falsehoods about BFL?  BFL's 28nm is not "already 2 - 3 months late," it's less than a month "late" if you can even say that as we never guaranteed a timeframe.  On top of that, "no sign of silicon" is just completely false.

GG for posting FUD!

[miaviator]

Why do you insist on posting so many falsehoods about BFL?  BFL's 28nm is not "already 2 - 3 months late," it's less than a month "late" if you can even say that as we never guaranteed a timeframe.  On top of that, "no sign of silicon" is just completely false.

GG for posting FUD!

Sadly Inaba is correct.  On all counts.