Topic: [BitCentury] Metabank 120Gh 65nm Asic Pre-Order Proxy [0.7W/GH - 32BTC Per Unit] (Read 18113 times)

I presume "them" and "their" are metabank/bitfury?

We may have some good news regarding this in a few weeks, just don't expect pictures and videos, at least not until we are active in Russia when boards are announced for delivery by Metabank.  I can only tell you we are working crazy hours in the background to ensure this entire operation is as successful as possible, your boards  depend on it, and so does our future as a business. It is my understanding that next week, will be the moment of truth for the Bitfury ASIC. It will be very impressive if he gets it right on his first try. We're all standing by with bated breath!

As for paying only with bitcoin, well, it's what this is all about in the first place, so that's a good thing. I mean, for a lot of people it really is about migrating away from fiat; but I think perhaps what you are alluding to is that it is not reversable if something goes wrong (i.e. fraud). On that, I can only comment that apparently Metabank has been operating as a bitcoin buy/sell service since supposedly 2011, so we should have *some* faith at minimum.
Luis

Risks:

1) You never see them before either photos or videos

2) Have you check their company background?

3) You are paying by bitcoin only

Bitcentury has disclosed quite a bit of information about themselves that is good, but the Problem is bitfury. You are dealing at the mercy of bitfury and metabank/asic...

Luis,

While nothing here can be guaranteed it seems like you have already given this a lot of thought, and it does help those of us who do not yet know you well to understand your thoughts at this stage. I do like the idea of test shipments; if it was somehow possible to attempt this with an FPGA or something similar that could be obtained ahead of time at low cost that could be an excellent 'rehearsal' for the real thing.

I also note OrphanedGland is a fellow Australian so I can see there will be at least one other participant with a keen interest in making sure the hardware makes it Down Under!

Cheers,
Stripykitteh

Hi Jasinlee,

The seizing of imported products by customs agents varies directly according to the importation regulations of each individual country (see our FAQ links on 2nd post which we updated recently). Generally speaking, there are common items such as guns, explosives, drugs, farm seeds, etc that nearly every country bans as imports and will indeed seize them at customs. However, each country does vary slightly. We still have some time to dig into the details before shipping out, but ultimately that responsibility will rest with our individual customers to familiarize themselves with their country's regulations. We are aware of things like ensuring the product is CE certified before shipping to Europe for example, or that any power supplies in the product are UL certified, that circuit boards are RoHS compliant (lead free),  so we do have some homework ourselves to do, but already know quite a bit.

 Further, we will be looking at lists of countries that are generally banned from global trade (i.e. North Korea, Iran) to name only a couple. I think in some cases this list is many dozens of countries long. So this needs to be looked at from the perspective of the country we are shipping from - at the moment this is primarily Russia. On this topic, we (Bitcentury) also are checking with our lawyers to better understand circumstances such as even though we are exporting out of Russia, our local laws (i.e. Canada for me) may still apply. Personally speaking, I intend to abide by such laws, which to some philosophical extent are counter to some people's idea of what bitcoin should be about (i.e. should be open for everyone - no exceptions); however, I have no intentions of getting arrested, in trouble with the law etc.

Suffice it to say, we have already done quite a bit of research, but by no means exhausted every possible scenario we may encounter. We have already been in contact with experienced people doing business in Russia and familiar with how things operate there, and our confidence level is fairly high at this time, hence why we are continuing to sell pre-order units. It is quite likely that we may end up doing some test shipments initially just to test the waters, rather than risking a very large batch of shipments as our first attempt. Prudence, experienced network of contacts in Russia and due diligence are really key.

Thanks,
Luis

PS. How's that litecoin FPGA coming along? Give me a shout when you have a confirmed working prototype!

Any worries that the asics will be seized when you import them into whatever country your taking them to afterward? Seems a big risk that would be taken by the investors on this one to me, or do you have a reliable method that you can prove will work to get them out of the country safely?

That is good news, as soon as i get my BTC from mgox wiring USD in to buy btc i will place an order

There's no duty on imported computer equipment - only a small merchandise fee of something like .39%.

http://www.dutycalculator.com/

What do you anticipate the duty to be for a $2160 unit imported into the US? Is the HTS circuit boards?

Yes, there will be an invoice and relevant documentation attached to the unit. The units will be valued and insured at their USD price of 2160$.

Will there be an invoice to present to customs? And if yes what would the invoice amount to as you're asking for BTC rather than FIAT?

EDIT: The customer this post was related to has come forward and authenticated himself adequately. His order remains in queue.
Cheers,
Luis

---
Attention: Bitcentury customers who have placed an order with us for only 1 device for 30BTC on June 3rd,2013 at aprox 6:50AM (as per blockchain.info time in link below), but not received an email confirmation of your order from Bitcentury. This should only be 1 person.

Transaction in question:
https://blockchain.info/tx/aa2ca3507956110c842ea4d009bfcc7a5c279ff541e6c4346378dccfa9640464

From wallet: 1PD4L22Agc453aaMzwTmwcqWK4kg5Fq4Qi

We don't believe we have received any email with the requested contact information required to make an order official (see post#1 at the bottom, "How do I order?"). We have searched all our emails extensively and can find no email for this transaction.

As such, we will hold the 30 BTC for a period of 3 days until the person who sent us these funds can prove without a doubt that they are the owner of the wallet these funds came from. If no one comes forward, we will fully refund the 30BTC back to the same wallet and cancel your order. To prove you are the owner of this wallet, please send us a signed message from your wallet to ours, and then please follow up with an email to us | orders{at}bitcentury.com | regarding this so we can verify ASAP.

NOTE: Any emails we receive regarding this subject that offer no  concrete proof you are the owner of the source wallet, will be deleted/ignored, as we don't want to waste our time with anyone trying to falsely claim this is their order.

Thank you kindly,
Luis

Great, you begin to understand one small part of the heart of the matter...)

hello. We started to make a open census of those who made  pre-orders. If you do not want to publish your nicknames and number orders, you can add as AnonimousXXX (possibly breaking your order into several AnonimousXXX,for greater privacy)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmyZBD2EHCEEdG9SdENBV0l4YnNuNklrdDItMTJwdlE#gid=0

At present we are unable to confirm that a license is required for export. Importation is obviously problematic and requires a license (as mentioned); but we do not see export being an issue. We have our legal team going over the books to check, and double check all of the legislation, treaties and regulations to make sure that there is nothing that will pose a problem for shipment. At present we have found nothing legally speaking that would present a problem in the export of these devices from russia.

I don't know if this would be relevant or not:

http://www.rsa.com/rsalabs/node.asp?id=2333

It claims a license is required to export cryptography products from the Russian Federation. It also claims a license is needed to export crypto goods from China, so either AM and Avalon have such a license or SHA256 is not considered to be within the definition.

This thread:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.1242541

claims it is possible to import SHA hardware into Russia from the USA.

Unlike China, Russia is a member of the Wassenaar Arrangement:

http://www.wassenaar.org/controllists/index.html

Other member countries routinely allow export of Bitcoin-related mining hardware.

BitCentury, can you say whether you'd need a license from the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to export this hardware?

EDIT: One other link to look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptography#Export_controls

Usually the purpose of export controls for crypto is to prevent classified technology from falling into enemy hands. SHA256 is a public, well-known hashing algorithm. At a cursory glance, I don't see what security risk export of it presents.

Based upon previous Bitfury posts it seems that the design will have 8 full hasher cores. We are still going through and getting together as much information as possible. Some of the translations cannot be done via google and require manual translation.

There are currently no plans to offer any services along this line. Our main focus is to get our hands on these devices; and then to get them out of russia.

1) Once you produce the mask for the chip, the chips themselves cost you nothing. I would not be surprised if 24 chips to make up the 120Gh/s cost them more than 24$ to make.

2) We do not know for sure what the exact specifics of the PCB board itself yet. We're still going through various posts, translating and reading so that we can make a determination. At this time it does appear it will be a stand alone unit thought it is unknown if there will be ethernet AND wireless or just one of the two.

3) Unknown at this time. I believe the focus has been on the chips; I'm not sure if they're running PCB design concurrently or planning to do the design once the chips are finished (or if the design is already done).

4) Yes, We're offering a full refund within 29 days of your order.

5) The chip is expected to be tested and proven in the next 30 days (waiting on the production).

6) The initial prototypes will be produced after the first batch of test chips have been tested and proven.

7) It was announced in April 2013 but there is evidence that bitfury was working on the design prior to that (Aprox 1 year ago).  The current stage as i mentioned above, they are presently waiting on the initial batch of chips to be printed and tested thus proving the design. After that they will go into mass production.

 

amongst the other issues, since this is hashing SHA256 also need notification from FSB & Minpromtorg export license

IIRC, the chip has a "sea-of-hashers" design with 756 hashing cores.