for those interested, here's a quick writeup on what I think the hashlets are. I do not think they are scams though I could be wrong. Feel free to ask any questions.
You do not have to believe me and I don't claim to have all the right answers. It's just my speculation.
posted in hashtalk
https://hashtalk.org/t/my-theory-on-what-the-hashlet-is-and-why-it-may-be-beneficial-to-both-gaw-and-customers/9984title:my theory in what the hashlet is and why it may be beneficial to both GAW and customers
I wanted to go into detail, but have been busy, so will be short. feel free to ask about filling the holes/gaps
some facts about mining/miners/gaw/gawusers
-GAW is not a not-for-profit org, so it needs to make money
-we all want ROI or better and thus need to invest in ASICs
-shipping miners is expensive (both to GAW and to customers)
-new ASICs become cheaper and more efficient
-RMAs/warranty/support cost money
-miners sometimes are sent used from the manufacturer
what I think happens, based on my thinking and partially on Josh's comments in the past
1 Mh hashlet is sold for X amount of money.
getting a 1Mh of scrypt miner only costs say, between 8-12 bucks (just an example) - let's name this A
so where does the rest goes?
B would be hosting cost
but A + B is not equal to X
what I think happens is GAW builds up a fund with C, so A + B + C = X
C, the fund, can be used to buy more miners as they become more efficient or cheaper per Mh.
for example: getting 1Mh out of a war machine is not as cheap as getting one out of the vault breaker
if getting 1Mh out of a war machine cost, say , 20Mh, getting 1Mh out of a VB cost maybe $10
so our 1Mh hashlets get "cheaper" and that's how our "hosting" costs go lower
at the same time, GAW can reduce costs by not having to ship miners, do RMAs, provide support if something doesn't work, etc, etc, etc, so A can be cheaper than normal
B itself goes down very slowly. the 1Mh out of the war machine is a big more expensive to host than the one out of the VB , and so on
C also can go down because getting 1Mh from a future miner is also cheaper
also, something very important, is that hardware upgrades are pretty much built into the hashlet, which saves costs for both the miner and GAW
so in my opinion, this was GAW's way of working around many of the issues
(this was quick and interrupted by coworkers while typing, so feel free to correct me/ask for more details
