[Poll]Will you be switching to ASIC?

[hakock]

I'll be switching my gpu's over to LTC when my 8 jalapenos arrive

Dare I ask why 8 jal?
The price of 8 jal is equiv. to a Single, yet your producing 28 Gh/s as opposed to 40Gh/s. you're paying the same price for less hashing.
Im just curious because Im considering the investment myself.

I did it, too, because of two reasons:
1. My actualy BFL Single FPGA (first generation) is pretty loud, the coffe warmer I expect to be more quiet.
2. I plan to invest in a ASIC Mini Rig asap, after that I can spread my jal around to "spread the word" and get my family and friends into bitcoin, too.

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[Aseras]

How about "I'll switch to ASIC when it's not speculative vaporware".

[Tomatocage]

I'm going to start GPU mining up again when the 7990 comes out, but I'll be mining Litecoins.

[ModusPwnd]

Ill probably not be mining in a year.  I have 21 video cards and 1 BFLsingle running right now.  Once my cards no longer turn a profit I will sell all that hardware off.  I will probably do a trade up if it seems like its worth the extra cost, but I'm not too keen on dumping a bunch of money on ASIC.

[cdb000]

 I currently mine with 14 5870, 3 5970s and a 5850.
 Of these, 10 5870s are watercooled and generate hot water as well as Bitcoins.
 I am in the UK, Power costs £0.11 by day and half that overnight.

 Assuming that BFL's hardware really comes into existence in October, it is likely that there will be a period of a few months while they ship the pre-ordered units, during which time the difficulty can be expected to rise fairly rapidly. We are expecting the block reward to drop to 25 in December. Assuming that the value of the Bitcoin fails to double at this time, that may well be the point in time when I reluctantly turn off my miners. I intend to mine right up to the bitter end, undervolting my GPUs to increase efficiency and ultimately mining only overnight when the power is cheaper.
 
 And after that?

 Maybe start another alternative blockchain with a hashing scheme designed to run on GPUs, but different enough that BFL's ASICs can't handle it...

 Of course, the value of Bitcoins might continue to rise, such that GPUs might still make profit.
 Or BFL might go tits up - maybe the top dog there will do a runner with all the cash from pre-orders.
 Or something else.

 Summary: Wait and see.

[Gabi]

How about "I'll switch to ASIC when it's not speculative vaporware".

This is probably what i'm going to do

If ASICs are real then it won't be a choice, either you get one or you are better don't mine (so this survey is a bit useless, if you will really be able to get 40GH/s for 1300$ then mining with gpu or fpga will be useless) but paying now for something wich doesn't exist doesn't convince me..

[Aseras]

Yep I feel bad for the ones who paid bfl with bitcoins.

Bfl is probably using the capital to drive up bitcoin value only.. Then they can easily say oops we screwed up here's a refund of your 1300 or the equivalent value of bitcoins at that time.

[AzN1337c0d3r]

so this survey is a bit useless

An interesting question that I hope this poll will answer is what existing non-BFL FPGA miners will do.

Will they sell their device on the secondary market to recoup costs or continue mining because the incremental cost to do so is next-to-nothing?

[BlackPrapor]

so this survey is a bit useless

An interesting question that I hope this poll will answer is what existing non-BFL FPGA miners will do.

Will they sell their device on the secondary market to recoup costs or continue mining because the incremental cost to do so is next-to-nothing?

Cost is indeed next to nothing, but the revenue will also be next to nothing...

[dropt]

Some people just don't get it. The fear of loosing profit blinds I guess...or maybe just trolling others.

Were you referencing my statement, or someone elses? 

[Syke]

If BFL does ship an ASIC, and the difficulty shoots up too high, I would rather quit mining than give a company like BFL any money.

[BlackPrapor]

Some people just don't get it. The fear of loosing profit blinds I guess...or maybe just trolling others.

Were you referencing my statement, or someone elses? 

Well, if you're agreeing that ASICs will kill the 'casual' miner, then yes I refer to your statement. What BFL does, is giving miners ability to purchase high efficiency products with high range in price. They effectively cover prices from $150 to $30k. They sell to anyone. Now tell me, why is the casual miner will be killed? I say, the casual miner's thickheadness conservatism could kill him, nothing more, nothing less...

[dropt]

Some people just don't get it. The fear of loosing profit blinds I guess...or maybe just trolling others.

Were you referencing my statement, or someone elses? 

Well, if you're agreeing that ASICs will kill the 'casual' miner, then yes I refer to your statement. What BFL does, is giving miners ability to purchase high efficiency products with high range in price. They effectively cover prices from $150 to $30k. They sell to anyone. Now tell me, why is the casual miner will be killed? I say, the casual miner's thickheadness conservatism could kill him, nothing more, nothing less...

I suppose I view it like this.  The casual miner could have mined coins back in the day just by owning a computer.  Then, you could mine if you had a decent enough video card.  As soon as that was figured out, it essentially killed the ability for anyone who owns a basic computer to participate unless they had a decent video card.  If you had a computer with a decent video card, just turn it on and away you go.  When you're done, go back to your gaming or what have you.  FPGA's came out but didn't really mess with the ability for those with just a decent video card to participate.  But, now with the ASIC  what's been done is essentially made it so that anyone who wants to participate has to spend money they normally wouldn't have on an application specific device that has absolutely 0 purpose outside of mining... just to participate.

 

[Nachtwind]

I might switch once ASICs exist. But since they dont exist i dont bother thinking about it.

[Lethos]

I'm very much I'll believe it when I see it kinda person. BFL have not proven their latest product, so I have no interest in being pulled in by their marketing out of fear of losing out, on some kind of theoretical edge if and when they do exist. I didn't miss out on any edge when the FPGA's came out, it won't be any different with the ASIC's.
I will however comment on it and watch by the side lines however.

So I will bide my time and wait until someone can actually prove an ASIC is working effectively, efficiently and wants to sell them at a half decent price. Since I just don't think they can pull off all they stated and because of that will wait until their is an ASIC that I do believe will perform like they say.

Creating ASIC is hardly a simple or easy thing, my dad (Semi-retired) did work in the semi-conductor industry and has done his fair share of projects with ASIC and FPGA's, so he let me know about the process of the different ASIC and FPGA many years ago and refreshed my memory just recently when I got into bitcoin. FPGA's are so much easier to work with for a reason, they can be reprogrammed, which is a huge advantage in newer markets. Bitcoin is a new thing, not like their is a bunch of ASIC sitting around that happen to do exactly what we need it to do.

Bitcoins as a new market, could change, security algorithm could be change, entire method could be altered, you just don't know what is around the corner. Also just look at how often with the FPGA's the hardware developers have updated the firmware for them and still are. That won't be an option with an ASIC, if there is a mistake, a bug or low performance your stuck with it.

The design process for creating an ASIC is very intense and long, something I'm not sure BFL is ready for and most definitely underestimating, I also don't think the bitcoin itself is mature enough to know nothing will be changing that won't effect an ASIC hardware 1-2 years from now making them have a short lifespan.

They are actually expensive to create, because of how they are built to specifically for your design, they are generally only viable cheaply individually when you create 100,000's + so I still think they are exaggeration of course on all their numbers, since it's just not viable at a price point let alone comparing the performance numbers. They've had a lot of orders, maybe 500-1000, I know the bigger ones would have multiple chips, but it still doesn't reach the bulk order to warrant such a low price for them.

However their is no doubt ASIC will eventually outperform FPGA's, just like the are starting to with GPU's.
I think it's too early to say ASIC's will be the next big thing and also don't think it be any time soon.
FPGA's and ASIC are common place in many other industries, they aren't always dominant over each other.

[opentoe]

wheres are the options "i dont have gpu's or fpga's but i plan on buying BFL-asic or non-BFL-asic"?

This is me also. 

[opentoe]

Isn't that how all the old boards are configured and tuned, using different firmware? You are saying if someone buys a single they could have a $1300 brick on their hands?

[rjk]

Isn't that how all the old boards are configured and tuned, using different firmware? You are saying if someone buys a single they could have a $1300 brick on their hands?

What it means is that all the tuning happens at the factory, with the exception of overclocking, if that is an option.

[Thralen]

Running with GPUs currently. When an ASIC for bitcoin mining physically exists I will most likely purchase one. I was discouraged from pre-ordering since BFL does not currently offer any sort of payment option that can be refunded if they breach their promises via release date or performance. Bank wire or BTC are the only payment options, neither of which can be recovered without co-operation of the recipient.

Thralen

[BlackPrapor]

Some people just don't get it. The fear of loosing profit blinds I guess...or maybe just trolling others.

Were you referencing my statement, or someone elses? 

Well, if you're agreeing that ASICs will kill the 'casual' miner, then yes I refer to your statement. What BFL does, is giving miners ability to purchase high efficiency products with high range in price. They effectively cover prices from $150 to $30k. They sell to anyone. Now tell me, why is the casual miner will be killed? I say, the casual miner's thickheadness conservatism could kill him, nothing more, nothing less...

I suppose I view it like this.  The casual miner could have mined coins back in the day just by owning a computer.  Then, you could mine if you had a decent enough video card.  As soon as that was figured out, it essentially killed the ability for anyone who owns a basic computer to participate unless they had a decent video card.  If you had a computer with a decent video card, just turn it on and away you go.  When you're done, go back to your gaming or what have you.  FPGA's came out but didn't really mess with the ability for those with just a decent video card to participate.  But, now with the ASIC  what's been done is essentially made it so that anyone who wants to participate has to spend money they normally wouldn't have on an application specific device that has absolutely 0 purpose outside of mining... just to participate.

 

Well, I could say you have to have a banking license, 'just to participate' in banking business. You need a license for frequency 'just to participate' in communication business. And there are no small licenses for starters, i.e. not affordable for an average person. Bitcoin personal banking system lets you 'mine' at very low cost. Right now you're complaining that in order to dig for gold you have to buy a shovel, since all gold on the surface is gone and you can't just take it with your hands, so to speak. However, unlike shovels for gold digging, ASICs can be eventually integrated into other, more casual items, like cars, public bitcoincard processing hubs, even laptops and cellphones. That's if Bitcoin becomes widely accepted....