Review/Journal/ROI Calc of Litecoin GEAR (LTCGear) | LTC/DRK/VTC mining farm

[organizer]

I heard that Chris is going to release a new product on 26. sep, is this true?

I hadn't heard a specific date, but he's mentioned a new product (and possible DOGE merge mining)... but i'll point out my point in my "Cons" list... Dates are VERY subject to change.... lol.. he keeps changing the damn payout date on me... wanted to make the calculator default to an LTC "mining week"...

[1714188319]

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[1714188319]

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[1714188319]

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[organizer]

Some more updates to www.ltcgear.com:

• Cleaned up the interface more, more compact now
• Added user-defined date ranges. Should be way more helpful once the payout data increases over time

Question for anyone who uses it, regarding the Date Ranges... i'm uncertain what the "default" state should be... should it just default to a typical LTC Gear mining week, to the previous week based on current date, save user's date ranges (which I dont really like thinking of having to change the date each visit)...

any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated....

[organizer]

Oh, since we're on the verge of a payout date... please note that the Est. BTC payouts could be off... I have no idea if Bee converts coins on a daily basis or all at once based on whatever the values are on payout date... so I made the choice to base BTC earnings off of an average daily exchange rate vs. using the current moment in time price.

After payout I hope to have a better idea if Chris is just using whatever the coin's price is the day of payout or not...

[POM]

ASIC 1k6 seems to be back up for those who missed out earlier today 

[tom99]

yes, 1k6 soldout and back repeat it again.

[POM]

I just wish Dual mods would come back in stock soon...I wanna mine some Scrypt-N

[buuhh99]

Just bought my ASIC shares this week. What is the proper way to get paid out in BTC? Or is it only LTC payouts?

[Pistachio]

Just bought my ASIC shares this week. What is the proper way to get paid out in BTC? Or is it only LTC payouts?

I think you can get paid in BTC if you fill in the address under SHA256 and change the Coin Choice to BTC.

[gbenta]

9/23/2014: -- UPDATE. The first multiplication i've been a part of is happening tonight, will post results ASAP.

9/22/2014: -- UPDATE. Get estimated earnings in LTCGear terms @ www.ltcgearcalc.com

9/24/2014: -- UPDATE. Share multiplication finally came through. 1.35 was the factor. So you now have 1.35 shares per qASIC share you had before (active mining products aren't multiplied). Still nice!

9/24/2014: -- UPDATE #2. If you're not a customer and want to see what ROI is for various LTC packages, I added sample data options to www.ltcgearcalc.com based on current LTCGear products so you can see what a 1K6X package gets you for mining LTC vs. FTC, or what you can earn by adding a DualMod M10 product into the mix (VTC/DARK).

If you're considering buying a cloud mining product, you might want to consider a smaller, lesser known company called LTCGear (link in my sig). Unlike many of the larger services like GAW, you are not purchasing "virtual ASICs" but rather you are purchasing a 1-year contract in a mining farm developed by Beekeeper (a 15 year ASIC design vet, according to the web site).

This post is my review of my experience using LTCGear (link in my sig), as well as a journal of sorts to try to be as fair and objective about the type of ROI I'm getting w/ LTCGear (link in my sig).

(moved my back story about previous ASIC experiences below)

I'll post some financial information below (expected return on investment, etc.) below, but for now here's my take on LTCGear:

Pros:

• The anniversary package is about the cheapest you can find per MHs
• With your one-year purchase, your "shares" are multiplied every month & a half to help maintain your ROI (last multiplication was x1.5 shares. Next multiplication is coming up this Saturday).
• Regardless of when you buy during the week, you get a payout for the full week (in either LTC/FTC, BTC, DRK or VTC)
  
• The only place I found that you can purchase ASIC shares to mine DRK or VTC
• You get an additional 8% off purchase price if you pay in BTC!
• You can still purchase Anniversary Shares for around $5-$6 per MHs by selecting an anniversary package and entering the code "anniversary1yr" (without quotes) during checkout. This gets you 160MHs (of LTC/FTC mining) for about $900 or so with BTC payout.
• To mine DRK/VTC, you need to purchase "modifiers" that allow you to mine the coins. To find these products, select "Shop" then "Active Miners" and look for DualMod products (if you already own qASIC shares) or sometimes there are Tricoin packs available that include bother qASIC shares and modifiers).
• The ability for the LTC shares to merge-mine DOGE is coming "Soon" according to Bee. Likely to be implemented after his new ASIC shares come on board. But still a nice bump to the basic qASIC shares

Cons:

• Pretty basic web site, doesn't initially instill confidence. It's no frills, no fancy icons, no real marketing.
• Site isn't that intuitive, mainly when you are mining VTC or DRK and how you choose payouts isn't that clear either, but once you figure it out it makes sense.
• The owner isn't a marketing guy, he is very attentive if you have account issues or questions related to a purchase, but generally doesn't respond to basic questions. You're better off talking to an existing customer for general info (post here or PM me, i'll try to help).
• There is a TBD "maintenance fee" that will come at the end of your 1-year contract.

One other item is that payouts are once a week (not daily), wasn't sure to put that in either pro/con!  

I'll post some financial stuff below. But 1 month in, i'm very happy I took the chance and am mining with LTCGear (link in my sig) after having to shut down my own rigs early this year.

If you have any questions, please post, i'll try to be as honest and frank as I can about the service.

thx for sharing :-)

[buuhh99]

Do you have to have dual mods to get BTC or can you get paid out BTC without dual mods?

[organizer]

Do you have to have dual mods to get BTC or can you get paid out BTC without dual mods?

No, for the time being he's offering to do conversions on LTC too... If you have an account, you enter a BTC (SHA256) address and select BTC from the dropdown....

Oh, payments came through today no problemo again.

[buuhh99]

Ya I got my BTC. Pretty impressed. I have a theory that he is building his own hardware from scratch. Anyone else suspect this?

[mechtronic2001]

Ya I got my BTC. Pretty impressed. I have a theory that he is building his own hardware from scratch. Anyone else suspect this?

Based on my research he goes under beekeeper on Litecointalk and seems to have built his own fpga and likely then built his own asic. Maybe a custom board, but not the chips.

Link for what I'm going off of:  https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=6401.0

[wlefever]

I'm concerned with my payment...I purchased the ASIC share1K6X – Anniversary on Sunday 9/21 and also another Anniv. pack Wed. 9/24 for a total of 3760 qASIC shares and only got a BTC payment of 0.25614213 in one address and for whatever reason 0.26914185 in another address.

I did change the address this week but well before the payment date.  Was that only a partial payment or did me changing addresses create a problem?

[organizer]

Ya I got my BTC. Pretty impressed. I have a theory that he is building his own hardware from scratch. Anyone else suspect this?

Somewhere on the site, it says he's a 15-year veteran of FPGA design...

Well he sold USB products already last year...although they didn't really work out well, i tracked the thread and after months decided it seemed as legit as anything like this could be. But it did help my own decision because even though what he first sold didn't seem good, he still supported those people and ultimately converted them into shares.

I would think he's putting his own products together. Everyone compares prices to what they see on site's like GAW... but, those guys are in the business of milking the most money out of people while giving a glimmer of ROI.. look at what happened to the physical ASICs... the prices dropped like rocks.. There has to be HUGE margins in ASICs...

But I think by now we also know, what is available to the average consumer isn't likely to be anywhere near as good as what the "pros" are using behind the curtains...

[organizer]

I'm concerned with my payment...I purchased the ASIC share1K6X – Anniversary on Sunday 9/21 and also another Anniv. pack Wed. 9/24 for a total of 3760 qASIC shares and only got a BTC payment of 0.25614213 in one address and for whatever reason 0.26914185 in another address.

I did change the address this week but well before the payment date.  Was that only a partial payment or did me changing addresses create a problem?

From what I heard, the multiplication only takes effect for the days after the multiplication (so 2 days of extra shares at least on your first purchase)... I think this one is wacky because he's using multiple databases... id wait a day and then email (through the contact form under Account menu) him... he'll get back to you...

[wlefever]

I'm concerned with my payment...I purchased the ASIC share1K6X – Anniversary on Sunday 9/21 and also another Anniv. pack Wed. 9/24 for a total of 3760 qASIC shares and only got a BTC payment of 0.25614213 in one address and for whatever reason 0.26914185 in another address.

I did change the address this week but well before the payment date.  Was that only a partial payment or did me changing addresses create a problem?

From what I heard, the multiplication only takes effect for the days after the multiplication (so 2 days of extra shares at least on your first purchase)... I think this one is wacky because he's using multiple databases... id wait a day and then email (through the contact form under Account menu) him... he'll get back to you...

Yeah after I thought about it I am probably over thinking it.  I'm sure since I didn't really have all the shares for a full week it may have affected as well.  Thanks for the input!

[POM]

I can't stop buying shares 

payout was only 0.21798691BTC for 3200 qASIC shares, a little lower than my expectations but oh well.

[BrokenRam]

The 0.21798691 BTC payments look really off.  For 3200 ASIC shares with

Total: 0.02148952 LTC / 7 days / 1 ASIC Share

we should be getting 0.02148952*3200 = 68.766464 LTC

At today's cryptsy LTC/BTC rate 0.01107 we should be getting around 0.76 BTC.

People getting correct LTC payouts?

Do BTC payouts typically trickle in?

I know of a few people with BTC payout problems.  I suggest you send Chris an email.  I am.

[yan7181]

when did you bought the shares? if it is very new, try calculate like this 0.02148952 LTC is for 7 days per 1 ASIC Share, so daily should be around 0.0030699314285714 LTC.
So 3200 * 0.0030699314285714 * how many days you actually mined