ASICMINER: Entering the Future of ASIC Mining by Inventing It

[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.

[ianp]

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.

In other words -- if you treat every threat as a ... threat, you'll be in better shape.

I'm excited to learn more about Gen 2 when the information becomes available.

[neilol]

Friedcat bidding on adspace? Is this new?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229054.20

[Ozymandias]

Friedcat bidding on adspace? Is this new?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229054.20

Sort of; he did it last week as well

[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.

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.

? You say “don’t play with words,” and then put such absurd words in my mouth?   I never suggested that ASICMiner should not plan for the future, difficulty increases or competitors’ actions.  I was just pointing out that it is unclear what mining rigs will actually be deployed and which ASIC companies / products actually turn out to be legitimate.  Obviously I agree the network hash rate will be much higher and there will be more competition, but it is not clear that competitors will fulfill their current promises.

[g83]

the less promises our competitors fulfill, the better for us :-)

[ThickAsThieves]

the less promises our competitors fulfill, the better for us :-)

Eventually there will be a competitor that is more efficient and strategic than the current examples. AM has opportunity to seize, and I believe that they are fully aware of this, and how to seize it.

[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.

? You say “don’t play with words,” and then put such absurd words in my mouth?   I never suggested that ASICMiner should not plan for the future, difficulty increases or competitors’ actions.  I was just pointing out that it is unclear what mining rigs will actually be deployed and which ASIC companies / products actually turn out to be legitimate.  Obviously I agree the network hash rate will be much higher and there will be more competition, but it is not clear that competitors will fulfill their current promises.

No offence, sorry for my wording. I didn't meant you personally said that, I wanted to point out how different the game will be and my hope that AM handles the next "fight" properly by taking competitors seriously. Anyway I do believe the competition from September/October will be much much harder as what it has been until now.

[stripykitteh]

the less promises our competitors fulfill, the better for us :-)

Eventually there will be a competitor that is more efficient and strategic than the current examples. AM has opportunity to seize, and I believe that they are fully aware of this, and how to seize it.

That's the thing that I find very odd and maybe even a little worrying about this mining business. AM seem to be totally unlike their current rivals. Some of the upstarts may still prove themselves, but at the moment they all seem amateurish by comparison. It won't last forever.

AM do not seem too cocky, of course, and I'm sure they remember what Andy Grove at Intel used to say about business - "Success breeds complacency. Complacency breeds failure. Only the paranoid survive." The current threats seem so obvious and appear to be well in hand, which makes me worry that there's something else coming that they have missed.

I like the company so much though I can't bring myself to sell any shares, though I suspect they may be somewhat overvalued. Absent a crystal ball, only time will tell.

[Rampion]

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.

ASICminer is indeed a breath of fresh air in the Bitcoin community. Professional folks, delivering as promised - ASIC BUSINESS DONE RIGHT.

CONGRATS TO FRIEDCAT AND TO ALL THE ASICMINER SHAREHOLDERS

[binaryFate]

Cool picture, infinite wine 

I "stole" your signature Rampion, I agree with and it is important to spread the word if we think it is the proper way to handle the block size problem in the near future.

Sorry for the off-topic 

[SOSLOVE868]

Thank friedcat for what he did for the community and his super business ASICMINER.

[canth]

Head's up:  https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/3214-first-single-sc-60gh-s-has-left-building.html

Invalid Thread specified...

Just me? If so, could someone quote it//message it to me?

Thanks

Maybe they didnt like me sharing the link?!

FYI link is working again. I rather dislike hijacking threads, but since we are talking about competition, BFL seems to be (finally) starting up, albeit rather weakly.

https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/3214-first-single-sc-60gh-s-has-left-building.html

[lophie]

Head's up:  https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/3214-first-single-sc-60gh-s-has-left-building.html

Invalid Thread specified...

Just me? If so, could someone quote it//message it to me?

Thanks

Maybe they didnt like me sharing the link?!

FYI link is working again. I rather dislike hijacking threads, but since we are talking about competition, BFL seems to be (finally) starting up, albeit rather weakly.

https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/3214-first-single-sc-60gh-s-has-left-building.html

hey bear prices wont go down again. we get it BFL went from imaginary to a single board shipped poorly. Still not even on our competition radar.