ASICMINER: Entering the Future of ASIC Mining by Inventing It

[JimiQ84]

here is some pics of the first Single being boxed up and shipped out to one very lucky customer.
[...]
EDIT: Before any "Why only one?" posts start, these devices weren't fully burned in and some things are still being tested with BFGMiner for which they are using these devices.

considering "lucky" someone who had to wait 1 year for his order to be dispatched, and now getting a not fully-tested product, makes me lol.

Wait, I thought it's called "single" because there only be one

[g83]

here is some pics of the first Single being boxed up and shipped out to one very lucky customer.
[...]
EDIT: Before any "Why only one?" posts start, these devices weren't fully burned in and some things are still being tested with BFGMiner for which they are using these devices.

considering "lucky" someone who had to wait 1 year for his order to be dispatched, and now getting a not fully-tested product, makes me lol.

Wait, I thought it's called "single" because there only be one

 

[ThickAsThieves]

Friedcat,

A team of us shareholders has taken the time to collect and simplify the most popular questions people have for you and ASICMINER. I am sending these questions to you at Jutarul's suggestion, and on behalf of all ASICMINER shareholders that took our poll.

I am only going to send 3 questions to you, in order to keep things simple, and to hopefully maintain this line of communication in the future. We understand that you might not be able to fully answer some things due to competition, but any amount of info will be plenty for us!

If you can take the time to answer, feel free to post your answers in your main ASICMINER thread, or respond to me directly and I will copy your answers verbatim.

Thank you so much for your consideration, here are the questions:

1. Can you tell us more about the next generation of ASIC chips? When should we expect them, and what specs might they achieve?

2. Does ASICMINER/Bitfountain have any legal risks by doing business in China? Are cryptocurrencies or mining of virtual currencies allowed there?

3. What contingency plan do you have in place if Friedcat or other important employees become seriously ill or otherwise unavailable as a resource to ASICMINER?

OFFICIAL RESPONSE FROM FRIEDCAT

Hi ThickAsThieves,

1. They will arrive at October as their earliest. The specs are unknown (only simulation results at this moment), but surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

2. Cryptocurrencies or mining of virtual currencies are OK. Exchanging them for fiat is less OK but the legal risk is mostly on the exchange operators' side. However as everyone knows, the policy in China is never predictable so there is indeed risks in the future. We have been considering and coping with this uncertainty from the day our chips passed the test and are on the start of building offshore company structures.

3. The access to company wallet is backed up and we back up shareholder information frequently. Also the division of work in Bitfountain is not yet so refined that there are no replaceable positions. We have already left our startup stage so it's become more organized, therefore backup employees are becoming more important and in our range of plan.

Best regards,

friedcat

[lophie]

surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

 

and I think that includes the invisible ones as well, this is for all BFL shills.

[Betatester]

I think building offshore company structures outside China/US/EU spheres is vital.

[freedomno1]

Glad to hear that they are building a great team, and they always impress.

[ning]

Things that don't grow die eventually. I'm glad to see ASICMINER is growing well.

[ex-trader]

I think building offshore company structures outside China/US/EU spheres is vital.

Offshore company structures are one thing, where the physical plant is located is another.

[Betatester]

I think building offshore company structures outside China/US/EU spheres is vital.

Offshore company structures are one thing, where the physical plant is located is another.

I assumed this was implied.

[tinus42]

I think building offshore company structures outside China/US/EU spheres is vital.

Offshore company structures are one thing, where the physical plant is located is another.

If China were to crack down on the fabrication of mining equipment that would affect everyone.

Avalon also has their chips built in Shenzen and BFL's chips surely aren't Made in the USA^TM.  

It might even make mining with GPU's lucrative again if ASICMINER weren't around anymore and Avalon and BFL and all the other ASIC companies couldn't source their chips from China.

But I don't see that happening. So I'm not worried about it.  

[ex-trader]

China will be unlikely to crackdown on ASIC fabrication, as they are quite happy to allow manufacture of goods for export, but they could possibly crackdown on Bitcoin usage and the operation of Bitcoin mining in China if they become threatened by Bitcoin usage.

Thats why my comment is that if there is a desire to create protection against this then ASICMiner needs to move both it's corporate structure outside China and the mining plants.

If you need assistance on this let me know, my main company is structured offshore and is based in Jersey, which is an offshore island centre near the United Kingdom and which operates a very robust legal, regulatory and control framework and is tax-free.

[VeeMiner]

surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

 

and I think that includes the invisible ones as well, this is for all BFL shills.

great news, I'm sure this will bump up the share prices even futher up...

[freedomno1]

surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

 

and I think that includes the invisible ones as well, this is for all BFL shills.

great news, I'm sure this will bump up the share prices even futher up...

Well the wall at 2.5 burst so its anyone's guess where it goes from here
Considering the yield the estimates chart a few pages back makes a good range estimate

[JordanL]

Friedcat,

A team of us shareholders has taken the time to collect and simplify the most popular questions people have for you and ASICMINER. I am sending these questions to you at Jutarul's suggestion, and on behalf of all ASICMINER shareholders that took our poll.

I am only going to send 3 questions to you, in order to keep things simple, and to hopefully maintain this line of communication in the future. We understand that you might not be able to fully answer some things due to competition, but any amount of info will be plenty for us!

If you can take the time to answer, feel free to post your answers in your main ASICMINER thread, or respond to me directly and I will copy your answers verbatim.

Thank you so much for your consideration, here are the questions:

1. Can you tell us more about the next generation of ASIC chips? When should we expect them, and what specs might they achieve?

2. Does ASICMINER/Bitfountain have any legal risks by doing business in China? Are cryptocurrencies or mining of virtual currencies allowed there?

3. What contingency plan do you have in place if Friedcat or other important employees become seriously ill or otherwise unavailable as a resource to ASICMINER?

OFFICIAL RESPONSE FROM FRIEDCAT

Hi ThickAsThieves,

1. They will arrive at October as their earliest. The specs are unknown (only simulation results at this moment), but surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

2. Cryptocurrencies or mining of virtual currencies are OK. Exchanging them for fiat is less OK but the legal risk is mostly on the exchange operators' side. However as everyone knows, the policy in China is never predictable so there is indeed risks in the future. We have been considering and coping with this uncertainty from the day our chips passed the test and are on the start of building offshore company structures.

3. The access to company wallet is backed up and we back up shareholder information frequently. Also the division of work in Bitfountain is not yet so refined that there are no replaceable positions. We have already left our startup stage so it's become more organized, therefore backup employees are becoming more important and in our range of plan.

Best regards,

friedcat

Wow, awesome news. Thanks a lot friedcat, ThickAsThieves, and everyone else who helped with this.

[eltopo]

I tried myself to create a list with AM shareholders based on yesterday's dividends:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtqphFCP56ordGVCakJxSU90MlB4MlBkZENya25pS2c

I got > 398k of the 400k shares. If you find any errors please let me know!

Updated by dividend day 2013-06-12

[joele]

OFFICIAL RESPONSE FROM FRIEDCAT

Hi ThickAsThieves,

1. They will arrive at October as their earliest. The specs are unknown (only simulation results at this moment), but surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

2. Cryptocurrencies or mining of virtual currencies are OK. Exchanging them for fiat is less OK but the legal risk is mostly on the exchange operators' side. However as everyone knows, the policy in China is never predictable so there is indeed risks in the future. We have been considering and coping with this uncertainty from the day our chips passed the test and are on the start of building offshore company structures.

3. The access to company wallet is backed up and we back up shareholder information frequently. Also the division of work in Bitfountain is not yet so refined that there are no replaceable positions. We have already left our startup stage so it's become more organized, therefore backup employees are becoming more important and in our range of plan.

Best regards,

friedcat

Awesome news! Now I have peace of mind even difficulty strike high mining still profitable with AM.

[stslimited]

glad that 2.50btc wall is gone. It took a while to sell those shares and psychologically I had forgotten about that auction and was wondering why the price was stuck there, I started thinking about dubious things like "efficient market theory" and other unsubstantiated things, as if 2.50 btc was a consensus driven midpoint price between people thinking AM would be 1.70 btc and people thinking AM would be 5 btc/share

the estimates my company has come up with are still sound

[binaryFate]

but surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

Things are moving fast, and "available in the market now" may have little to do with what will be available in october.
KnC is supposed to deliver ships at 28nm for instance:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170332.0

The next gen is going to entirely re-shuffle the deck, I hope AM takes proper design decisions now to then remain a big actor, or better the leader as it is today.

[PeterB]

but surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

Things are moving fast, and "available in the market now" may have little to do with what will be available in october.
KnC is supposed to deliver ships at 28nm for instance:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170332.0

The next gen is going to entirely re-shuffle the deck, I hope AM takes proper design decisions now to then remain a big actor, or better the leader as it is today.

"Supposed to deliver" are the key words here.

[binaryFate]

but surely they will be much better than all available similar products in the market now.

Things are moving fast, and "available in the market now" may have little to do with what will be available in october.
KnC is supposed to deliver ships at 28nm for instance:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170332.0

The next gen is going to entirely re-shuffle the deck, I hope AM takes proper design decisions now to then remain a big actor, or better the leader as it is today.

"Supposed to deliver" are the key words here.

Let's not play with words. You cannot take decisions based on your assumptions that all competitors will fail to meet their promises. This is obvious that the landscape of technology available in october will be different than that of today.