So I can pick one up (TerraMiner™ IV – 2TH/s, Networked ASIC Miner) for $6,391.97 U.S. to be delivered in May.
For the price, this seems to be the best bang for your buck that I have come across so far.
The only big variable i see is mining difficulty. Am I missing something?
I notice they only take Bitcoin and bank transfer, that's a big red flag to me, or is this normal with companies like this?
Do any take credit cards?
That's at least 3 months away, difficulty will go up 10x in that time. So 200 GH/s now is equal to 2 TH/s in May. You can get 200 GH/s now for just over $1000. Why would you throw away $5000???
difficulty probably won't go up 10x in 3 months. thats quite a pessimistic view.
we're at end of jan and the network is 17.5 PH today. So you think think it could be seriously be 175 PH by end of April ?
And, as we know.. the lowest cost bitcoin mining equipment available today costs $3/GH and some of it is trading at $20-40 per GH, so that $3/gh price is at the extreme low end of the market ... so for the sake of argument, lets assume that it stays at that price for the next 3 months...
So you're saying that with 175 - 17.5 PH.. thus 157 PH will be sold (or has been sold) to be deployed on the network in the next 3 months.
157 PH, at $3/GH (or, $3M per PH), is $472.5m's worth of bitcoin mining equipment.
you really think bitcoin miners will spend and deploy nearly $500m on bitcoin mining hardware in the next 3 months?
then lets compare electricity usage...
The best bitcoin miners today, and also anything available in the next 3 months, is approximately 1 watt per GH.. which equates to 1 Megawatt per Petahash.
Thus you are saying that 157 Megawatts of additional continuous power will be required for bitcoin mining in the next 3 months?
i really think thats unlikely. i don't think you can simply take what bitcoin mining has done over the last few months and extrapolate even the next few months worth of use as we've undergone a transition from slow asics to fast asics, and that just can't continue at the same rate. sure, it will keep growing, but at a slower growth rate.
-- Jez