Let's use gigavps as an example....
To all gigaminers:
There has been a lot of news / discussion in recent days regarding new equipment coming out from Butterfly Labs. I have confirmed with BFL that this information is indeed correct and have submitted an order for 4 more mini rigs. This will bring gigamining up to a total of 8 mini rigs (204Gh/s), 14 BFL Singles (12Gh/s) and around 90 GPUs (36Gh/s).
He will be holding a total of 8 Mini-Rigs and 14 Bitforce Singles.
Do you have any idea what HIS 'Trade-Up' costs will be @ 1:1 'Trade-up' Ratio ?8 Mini-Rigs ($15,000) to 8 SC Mini-Rigs ($30,000) = $15,000 each (upgrade cost) =
$120,000 USD14 Singles ($600) to 14 SC Singles ($1300) = $700 each (upgrade cost) =
$9,800 USDSo, unless gigavps just gives up and quits when ASICS come out, as his current hardware will be next to useless....
HE WILL NEED TO COME UP WITH NEARLY $130,000 USD (One Hundred Thirty Thousand Dollars) just to become competitive again.
FUCK ME !
Even with a 1:1 limit on units, Giga wouldn't necessarily need to spend that much to upgrade. If he is not interested in fully upgrading all his hardware, he could always sell an FPGA minirig to someone who is interested in buying a SC Minirig at a discount, which the new buyer could use to reduce the cost of their SC purchase.
Still, the whole way this has gone about is just stinky. The fact that there's been no other word from BFL since the announcement other than further FUD on a competitor's thread is hardly reassuring, as is BFL listing their company's employees by last initial in their press release.
Warning, baseless FUD to follow-> It's widely known now that the Singles and the Minirig Singles are previous generation top of the line FPGAs, which it is assumed BFL acquired used or discontinued at a massive discount. If you were running a company with such a business model for all your products, and you take cash up front before a product is ever shipped, what would you do if your supply of incredibly cheap hardware dries up and you have to start sourcing it at a much increased cost?