What will happen to people with non-BFL FPGAs (once ASIC arrives)

[ice_chill]

Hi guys, this thread is to discuss the options for people with non BLF FPGAs. While GPUs can be resold, the FPGA probably cannot. What do you do if you just bought your board, and are no-where near it's repayment period ?

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[SysRun]

You just keep mining and hope that your efficiency will keep you profitable... and also hope that the GPUs leaving the hashing market will let you stay profitable for a bit longer...

[ice_chill]

While I agree that hope dies last, someone who paid around $1000 for 800Mhash, will find it hard to make any profit compared to 40Ghash that BFL plans to sell for $1300. Also ASIC's efficiency reportedly surpasses FPGA's.

[SysRun]

Its an equally exciting and worrisome time for miners. At least my house won't need 2 AC units in 1 room anymore. And who doesn't like warm coffee?

[crazyates]

GPUs could potentially be profitable (with free electric), and FPGAs as well (with cheap electric), at least at the beginning of the ASIC rollout. The resale value won't be that high, but with the nearly insignificant electric draw why, would you not mine with them?

[ice_chill]

Well because I suspect BFL Labs have calculated the increase in difficulty after all their current FPGA products are exchanged to ASICs, and priced them accordingly where a 40GH ASIC priced at around $1300 will take 10 months to ROI.
That would mean an 800MH FPGA will bring around $25 per year, so it will make almost no difference if you mine with it or not.

[||bit]

Well because I suspect BFL Labs have calculated the increase in difficulty after all their current FPGA products are exchanged to ASICs, and priced them accordingly where a 40GH ASIC priced at around $1300 will take 10 months to ROI.
That would mean an 800MH FPGA will bring around $25 per year, so it will make almost no difference if you mine with it or not.

I bet it would warm coffee better than the BFL coffee warmer though.

Kidding aside, the FPGA boards should still have some resale value. The value is concentrated in the FPGA chips, not the board. I bet you could sell each spartan for $100 on eBay or whereever. If there are four on the board, that could buy almost three BFL coffee warmers (so you could upgrade from 800MH to 10.5 GH).

[nedbert9]

GPUs could potentially be profitable (with free electric), and FPGAs as well (with cheap electric), at least at the beginning of the ASIC rollout. The resale value won't be that high, but with the nearly insignificant electric draw why, would you not mine with them?

I'm confident and could be wrong, but that at 4 months post BFL ASIC energy efficient FPGA's will be, at most, breaking even compared to electricity cost.

I expect to see network capacity above 100 Terahash.

[Kluge]

FPGAs can be repurposed, depending on the design. Icarus/Lancelot boards definitely can. Will be interesting to see what uses are found for them.

GPUs have a good few alternate options to remain hashing in some form without mining BTC. GPUMax is allegedly ready or near-ready to allow those alternate options to be exercised.

[allinvain]

Password cracking for hire?

[1l1l11ll1l]

[ice_chill]

GPU miners will have to look for someone who will pay for their GPU power for use in other services.

FPGA miners left to hope that a new Bitstream will be released and their FPGA's will support other currencies, i.e. Litecoin, and mine them instead.

[bulanula]

GPU miners will have to look for someone who will pay for their GPU power for use in other services.

FPGA miners left to hope that a new Bitstream will be released and their FPGA's will support other currencies, i.e. Litecoin, and mine them instead.

Why not also use GPU to mine LTC Why only FPGA ?

That's right, because LTC can't be sustained like BTC by Silk Road !

Everybody try and jump to LTC GPU mining and see what happens : LTC price goes to 0.0001 just like all the others

[ice_chill]

GPU miners will have to look for someone who will pay for their GPU power for use in other services.

FPGA miners left to hope that a new Bitstream will be released and their FPGA's will support other currencies, i.e. Litecoin, and mine them instead.

Why not also use GPU to mine LTC Why only FPGA ?

That's right, because LTC can't be sustained like BTC by Silk Road !

Everybody try and jump to LTC GPU mining and see what happens : LTC price goes to 0.0001 just like all the others

Because hopefully there is something more profitable to do with GPUs than mine Litecoin

[bulanula]

GPU miners will have to look for someone who will pay for their GPU power for use in other services.

FPGA miners left to hope that a new Bitstream will be released and their FPGA's will support other currencies, i.e. Litecoin, and mine them instead.

Why not also use GPU to mine LTC Why only FPGA ?

That's right, because LTC can't be sustained like BTC by Silk Road !

Everybody try and jump to LTC GPU mining and see what happens : LTC price goes to 0.0001 just like all the others

Because hopefully there is something more profitable to do with GPUs than mine Litecoin

ATM that is BTC but after reward drop and ASIC anyone mining BTC on GPUs is totally insane.

Where is this GPU "saver" I am waiting for it for long ...

[notme]

This is why I skipped over FPGAs .  I'm also assuming that by the time November rolls around either BFL or a competitor will be able to ship in a reasonable timeframe, so I'm skipping preorders.  In the meantime, my BTC stash is invested in fast growing ventures so I can maximize my purchasing power.  In fact, some of it will probably stay there because while it is higher risk than buying mining hardware, it is more profitable.

[BlackPrapor]

This is why I skipped over FPGAs .  I'm also assuming that by the time November rolls around either BFL or a competitor will be able to ship in a reasonable timeframe, so I'm skipping preorders.  In the meantime, my BTC stash is invested in fast growing ventures so I can maximize my purchasing power.  In fact, some of it will probably stay there because while it is higher risk than buying mining hardware, it is more profitable.

You have a good point revenue wise, but bitcoin needs to increase the speed for security reasons ASAP, so by buying ASICs you're protecting all Bitcoin business.

[notme]

This is why I skipped over FPGAs .  I'm also assuming that by the time November rolls around either BFL or a competitor will be able to ship in a reasonable timeframe, so I'm skipping preorders.  In the meantime, my BTC stash is invested in fast growing ventures so I can maximize my purchasing power.  In fact, some of it will probably stay there because while it is higher risk than buying mining hardware, it is more profitable.

You have a good point revenue wise, but bitcoin needs to increase the speed for security reasons ASAP, so by buying ASICs you're protecting all Bitcoin business.

With 40 GH/s for $1500, this will not be an issue.  I'll get some hardware for sure regardless.

[Qoheleth]

FPGAs will continue to be profitable until ASICs actually get enough market penetration to jack up the network hashrate by an order of magnitude.

When that happens, I might go learn Verilog and turn them into tripcode generators.

[Raize]

When it's released? Well, my miners will be worthless. Till then? Well I'm making more than the preorderers...