Topic: Black Arrow 28nm 100Ghash Bitcoin ASIC from $0.49/GH/s - page 253. (Read 787257 times)

If I ever do a Kickstarter I'm stealing this line.

That or they should do a kickstarter type deal where they flat out tell you, "Give us money, you're buying into our dream, you're funding our startup, when/if we make money you'll get a bigger kickback than regular Joe retail, also we'll give you a BA shirt that you can either wear with pride or wear with a sense of irony depending on how things shake out. We may soar, or we may crash and burn, but now you know." I kind of assumed that anyway (based on the industry and the pre-order setup) but it would be a nice up front warning for all the people (and based on these forums there's a ton of them) that don't know that going in.

Buying a Bitcoin miner is a risky endeavor.  I was going to call it an investment, but it is not necessarily.  There is no guarantee you will make back the money you spent on the miner, much less turn a profit.

There are too many IF's...
IF the company is Legit
IF the miner is produced on time
IF the miner ends up being the speed advertised
IF the miner ends up using the power advertised
IF difficultly doesn't rise too much
IF the miner works consistently and doesn't have to be sent back.
.
.
.

It's obviously a huge gamble.  People who are not comfortable gambling should NOT BUY A BITCOIN MINER.

Just buy bitcoins instead.  Yes, it's still risky, but less so.  If you buy bitcoins, you don't have to worry about all the IF's above.  You really only need to worry about whether they will increase or decrease in price over the long run.

That said, I do mine bitcoins.  I am comfortable losing the amount of money I put into mining.  For me, mining is enjoyable.  It's like entertainment, and it feels good to know that I am contributing to this amazing system.

I also buy and hold bitcoins.  I believe they will increase in value over the coming years.  I'm not relying on that though.  Bitcoin could tank and I would lose what I put in.  I am okay with that.  I don't put in more than I can afford to lose.

This is not an endorsement for the way the current system works.  It's simply some friendly advice for those who think they might be interested in buying or pre-ordering mining equipment.  Be prepared to lose what you put in.

I am sorry but this might take an eternity as nobody knows if and when these machines will arrive... However, we talk about China which is full of 180 and 200 ghs machines now!! But the prices are very high and the risk is never to recover the investment. This is what happened to me... so the dilema is still higher: TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY MINING RIGS!?

Does anyone have received any of these machines or we just talk about something that does not exist?? ... And probably will never be, or will come too late...
Thanks!

Not everyone. It's why I haven't really chimed in on that. I think pre-orders have run their course as far as utility to the miner goes, but for the companies?

Even if they are totally honest and transparent, it's still a risk free environment for them. They get start up funds without paying interest or dividends, and they can screw up royally (without intent) and suffer little to no penalty.

Then there are the straight up scams.

I will not pre-order unless the company is already producing and it's simply an "assemble on demand" sort of pre-order where the wait time is known and enforceable. And I'm a gambler!

Everyone is forgetting the key ingredient here, this is gambling. There are a lot of people out there that will try and play the odds on the chance they'll get that big payout. You'll never get everyone to stop buying pre-orders because of this and thus the cycle will continue.

Personally, I think if they had hit their mark during pre-fab stress tests...we would be mining with new rigs by 2nd week March. Where's the Kool-Aid...

perhaps this is a lesson learnt too late. 

Really though, we just shouldn't be doing business with them unless they have product in hand.  Exhibit #1: Hashfast and their MPP.  They are late on shipping the product and if they ship the MPP it'll be too little, too late.  Taken as a hypothetical, the idea that any level of compensation, that wouldn't bankrupt the company and screw customers in the process, would be sufficient given the growth rate of difficulty is a pipe dream.  The only real way to prevent problems with pre-orders is not to place them.

No, I get it and you're right.  WE should be spending our btc/fiat with companies that have product in hand to sell.  Simply put, don't buy pre-orders, FULL STOP.

Or, people should temper their expectations regardless of what the vendor says and make a decision based on that.  It's not as though the industry doesn't have a track record with this to begin with.  If you invest in a mining hardware pre-order without expecting them to be late, very late, you haven't been paying attention.  I know that some, few, manufacturers have brought hardware to market without pre-orders but they've been in the minority.  Of course, it would be best to patronize them and let the pre-order based concerns starve but there are a lot of people whose greed outweighs their good sense and they continue to try to get the jump on new technology.  They will pre-pay for machines and pray that this time will be different.

If you'll notice I'm not cosigning their "bullshit" I'm merely pointing out that they have, as yet, not crossed into Hashfast Territory.  Thanks again for reading for comprehension.

Way to lower the standards, BA and others would LOVE to have more customers like you.

Which they totally put on ignore 

Send them an email.

Hi guys, does anyone know how to request a refund from Minersource.com?

Don't forget about hashfast promising miner protection and never actually shipping it and BA offering compensation for delays even though it was never part of the deal.

And assuming everything goes according to plan the chips will be more powerful and efficient than original specs.

That and technically they haven't missed the ship date yet, though they have said they're going to, and Hashfast was nearly 4 months late from the original ship date and they still haven't fulfilled batch 1 completely.  So BA has a long way to fall yet, in spite of the disappointments.   

I'm not trying to defend anyone against anything but I think we have a few months to go before we enter Hashfast Territory, in any sense, if at all.