* Update 7 July 2014: PLEASE NOTE WE HAVE BEEN FUNDED. *
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.7713945
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Introduction
DataTank Mining is a crowd funded and professional effort to take efficiencies in Bitcoin mining to the next level, and to solve some of the fundamental challenges that miners face today. The aim is to provide capacity and managed mining services to the public, mining for Bitcoin and any of the other crypto currencies of importance. Our business plan is focused on capacity and efficiency, and a radical departure from Bitcoin mining of the past.
Technology
Hardware is deployed in immersion cooled container mining systems using 3M™ Novec™ Engineered Fluids without heatsinks, fans or other mechanical parts or cables. With integrated power, networking and everything else required for mining, systems are universal, reusable, and most importantly, faster online and less expensive to build and operate than other methods of deployment.
Tech Introduction Video
http://www.vimeo.com/datatank/mining
The Offering
We are offering units of capacity of DataTank container mining systems in order to raise funds. Two different types are available, allowing investors to either invest in both "capacity and mining hardware" (A), or in "capacity only" (B).
Please read our full prospectus for details.
http://www.datatank-mining.com/images/datatank-mining-ops-prospectus-350px.jpg
(prospectus has been replaced with a shorter document: Introduction to DataTank Mining. Original prospectus archived for historical reasons here)
Prospectus URL:
http://www.datatank-mining.com/files/DataTank_Mining_Ops_Prospectus.pdf
How to buy Shares/Units:
Angel investors can also purchase units directly from DataTank Mining, please contact us via email. A minimum purchase amount of 100kW (10,000 units) applies for direct shares.
Dividend Payments
Profits will be paid weekly in form of dividends. First payments are expected when the initial hardware is deployed, 3-6 months after successful fund raising.
Reference DataTank Key Facts:
• $18/kW total operating cost per month
(all in, including mining cluster electricity, cooling, full time staff, rent)
• 10 days or less to pay full infrastructure
(heatsink miners will probably need longer than that to wait for FedEx and plugin their fans)
• 0 days to pay infrastructure on second deployment
• PUE <1.01 (less than 1% for cooling electricity)
• No heatsinks, no fans, no noise, no dust
Reference Case 2PH ASICMiner BE200 Hardware
• 2,400 DataTank Immersion Blades (80x AM BE 200/board)
• Integrated power, managed networking, servers
• <$820/T (<$0.82/G) total cluster with deployed DataTank system on-site
• <$532/T (<$0.54/G) total cluster with power, servers, networking (no DataTank System)
• <$438/T (<$0.44/G) cluster only without power, servers, networking (no DataTank System)
• Hardware produced in-house by DataTank Mining
• Estimated chip price based on recent data, future price may be lower
Hardware and Currencies
Due to our past experience with ASICMiner, we are committed to using ASICMiner hardware for our own capacity, until we see a reason not to. DataTank systems are compatible with any hardware, including with chips from Spondoolies Tech, InnoSilicon, Hashra, HashFast, GridSeed, Cointerra, Butterfly Labs, Bitfury, Alcheminer, Avalon, ASICminer and more. Bitcoin, Scrypt, any other hardware, including GPU computers.
We are in direct contact with several of these manufacturers to get their hardware ready for immersion.
DataTank Design Guidelines for ASIC board manufacturers can be found here (PDF):
https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0ByWHHc0u_thNdzB3c2hvVzJkcTQ
Company & Founders
DataTank Mining Limited is a technology company founded by the Bitcoin cluster engineers at Allied Control. While headquartered in Hong Kong, the world's freest economy in the word for 20 years standing, the company focuses at overseas deployments, where electricity rates are low and renewable electricity (hydro, wind, geothermal) is available in abundant quantities. The team runs its own SMD and CNC production line and has produced immersion cooling systems and ASIC boards in large quantities. During years of engineering time, we have built a network of partners, resources and contacts in Asia, Europe and the USA. Our first larger scale immersion cooled cluster consisted of 6048 Xilinx®Spartan-6 FPGAs in 24 tanks and was built in early 2012 with the Bitcoin still below $5.
Some of our previous work:
YouTube: ASICMiner Bitcoin Cluster Hong Kong
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZavKweMrP4
Analysis of Large Scale Industrial Bitcoin Mining Operations
http://www.immersion-cooling.com/publications/Analysis_of_Large-Scale_Bitcoin_Mining_Operations.pdf
Why DataTank Immersion Cooling is cheaper than anything else for Bitcoin mining
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zQwlGoDfHgqlPFlLuUviKzkSUepWMTKcwGaNI_nqNjg/edit
Case Study Uptime Institute Symposium: Immersion-2 System
http://symposium.uptimeinstitute.com/images/stories/symposium2014/case-studies/3m-allied-control-immersion-cooling-case-study.pdf
Bitcoin 2-Phase Immersion Cooling & Implications for High Performance Computing
http://www.allied-control.com/publications/Electronics_Cooling_Bitcoin_2-Phase_Immersion_and_Implications_on_HPC.pdf
2-Phase Immersion Cooling Concept for Intel® Xeon Phi™ Coprocessor Cluster
http://www.allied-control.com/immersion-cooling/xeon-phi-immersion-cooling-concept
Value Proposition
• Cuts investment in half or doubles hashrate with identical investment
• Rapid deployment leads to significantly higher profits, ROI in weeks
• Infrastructure at unparalleled low prices, reusable systems with zero overhead
• Most efficient ASICs are purchased in time for deployment
• DataTank is the result of a multi-year effort of miners and ASIC manufacturers
• Safety, transparency and reliability of operation
• Public ownership of capacity
Main Revenue Sources for unit holders
• Maximize direct and indirect mining income for unit holders.
• Franchising or leasing spare capacity for profit share.
• ASIC co-location and hosting directly or with strategic partners.
• Introduction of spare capacity via bidding model.
• Digital marketplace, contracts, cloud mining.
Insurance (excerpt):
In case production cost of final mining hardware is lower than raised funds or there is a significant movement in Bitcoin price, the difference will be paid back in form of additional units or via dividend payments or both.
The company will publish financial statements and certified audits frequently to make calculation of operating expenses transparent.
DataTank Capacity Explained
The permanent measures of capacity at DataTank Mining are MW and kW. This is in contrast to MH/s, GH/s or PH/s or other measures of hashing power. These measures are important to calculate mining income at a certain period of time, but they change depending on network difficulty and currency being mined. What does not change over time is the available power, infrastructure and cooling capacity.
As an example, today 1kW of Bitcoin ASICs may produce 1.66TH. When new hardware (ie. 28nm) is released, the same 1kW of power may produce over 3TH by simply pulling out the old board and replacing it with the new one. Alternatively, it could be used to mine a different currency altogether (Scrypt).
Once in place, capacity will be used again and again, including its power supply, infrastructure, and anything else. Nothing, except the boards with chips, has to change.
Detailed information:
http://www.datatank-mining.com/capacity-explained/
Questions and Updates
Questions are welcome and will be addressed in this forum before the date of public offering.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 19 Jun 2014:
Q: why would it take so long (3-6m) to deploy containers?
A: The goal is to deploy in the fastest time possible, but hardware and infrastructure deployments on a megawatt scale take time. It also has to be done internationally and safe without risks. Furthermore, it is not uncommon that manufacturers of electronic or infrastructure components take up to 12-16 weeks to deliver, or even longer on such a scale.
Furthmore, we have to be frank to investors. We have good people involved and hands-on experience building some of the large mines ourselves. We also have our own production facility in-house, within our very own rooms. We believe we are capable of making such an assessment.
Q: Is DataTank Mining the same as Allied Control
A: DataTank Mining is a spin-off of Allied Control and we are indeed the same people. The purpose is to focus 100% on mining infrastructure.
Q: When a better chip becomes available after DTMA starts operations, what is the procedure for swapping to the new chip and how would it be funded?
A: When hardware in DTMA capacity (hardware + capacity) stops being efficient, boards can be removed and DTMA effectively becomes the same as DMTB (capacity only).
DTMA or DTMB holders can chose to purchase (at internal cost) new hardware either by reinvesting paid dividends or raising new funds. Alternatively unit holders can send in their own hardware and get it deployed instead. We are working with hardware and ASIC manufactures (SHA and Scyrpt) to make hardware available.
Q: How would DataTank Mining's interests be aligned with shareholders'?
A: DataTank Mining's profit comes from deploying 20% of _identical_ hardware alongside the public capacity. Hence, we only earn money if we are successful. The 20% fee on operating cost is used to fund the day-to-day operation, including on-site staff providing various services such as ongoing hardware re-deployments, maintenance and security etc.
DataTank Mining and Allied Control builds and runs systems at-cost, there is no profit involved. In fact, running systems internally by ourselves also means that we can build them cheaper - we don't require bells and whistles on our own systems.
Q: What happens if the Bitcoin value goes down between IPO and deployment.
A: To minimize risks, the most sensible approach is to immediately exchange BTC for USD as infrastructure is paid in fiat money. For managing BTC/USD for actual hardware, a sensible approach will be followed to bridge the time between IPO and hardware acquisition.
Q: How will we individually as unit holders decide to reinvest (percentage) vs. no reinvestment?
A: As 100% of the income is paid out, it will be an individual decision to reinvest or not. DataTank Mining will not keep income as reserve for re-investment. 100% is paid out.
Q: With scrypt mining, will you establish a different type of shares or will it becomes a separate unit? Or will scrypt mining capacity be included in the DTMA/DTMB?
A: DTMA and DTMB holders can deploy new boards by either directly purchasing hardware from DataTank Mining (at cost) or third parties and mailing hardware in. New funds can be considered, this will be a community approach.
Q: Will ROI be measured in fiat or BTC?
A: It will be measured in the currency that is being mined. Initially BTC in the case of DTMA. DTMB will be up to the individual miners using the capacity. This may be subject to change over time in order to provide a practial solution (dividend distribution may be BTC while mining for other currencies etc).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Progress Update 23 Jun 2014:
Here is a first progress update since the original announcement of DataTank Mining last week.
• The public sale of capacity units on HavelockInvestments.com has been pushed back (preliminary date Monday July 7, after the U.S. Marshall's Service Bitcoin auction and the July 4 weekend). In the meantime, early investors may contact us by email.
• We are in discussion with a manufacturer to provide ASIC hardware in return for DataTank capacity. This is an unexpected turn of events, but it may prove to be a very important development with the potential to (a) reduce the need to finance chips and outlay required at the time of deployment, and (b) to speed up the production pipeline earlier than expected. We have agreed not to post details before a consensus is reached. How this affects existing and future DTMA holders will remain to be seen when we have results.
• We have also received inquires for exclusive partnerships from two different known parties in the mining space, and at least one of them is seriously considered at the moment.
Several questions have been raised in regards to the choice of locations. We would like to comment as follows:
• DataTank Mining is not fixed on a specific location (such as the USA) and can deploy in parallel if required, even internationally (minimum requirement for DataTank Mining systems is power feed and internet, deployment of containers can be indoors or outdoors).
• Next to pure electricity prices, consideration is given to other factors such as long term (and political) stability, unrestricted trade and access for staff and also local resources and talented personnel available.
• Average electricity price at DTM's first choice locations is below $0.03, while there are several more locations (including China) available with $0.03 to $0.05/kWh. We would like to hear opinions via email, especially in regards to US or China as locations of choice.
We also would like to remind everyone that DataTank Mining is NOT offering shares in the company, but units of capacity ("units") of DataTank container mining systems (ie. one unit represents 0.01 Kilowatt (kW). 100 units are one 1 kW block).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 07 Jul 2014:
We are pleased to report several positive developments.
Offering on Havelock:
• DataTank Mining has received enough funding via direct investments in the pre-offering phase to proceed with the business plan.
• Offering of single DataTank Mining units on HavelockInvesetments.com has been cancelled for the time being. The internal platform (control panel) will be developed in parallel to the initial DataTank systems.
• The prospectus will be updated in the near future to reflect latest information and further changes. Most significant changes are that DTMA units (capacity and mining hardware) won't be necessary in its current form. This is a step towards reducing investment risks and making DataTank Mining a more predictable venture. DTMA and investment in future hardware for future deployment has caused confusion that can be avoided (we are working with DTMA direct investors to convert units).
• Direct investments into capacity units are always welcome by emailing to [email protected]. Please note that until the internal platform is available, a minimum purchase of 10,000 units (edit: 100kW).
• We apologize for the dust to the community and to HavelockInvesetments.com, please bear with us to make this not only the most efficient mining venture, but also to raise the bar for safe mining investments. We plan to make this as predictable as possible for participants and partners.
Other Information:
• Production for DataTank No. 1 has already commenced and AM BE200 hardware is the hardware of choice for initial deployment. We are currently evaluating if Scrypt hardware will be available in time for at least a partial deployment to use some spare capacity.
• We keep working with ASIC manufactures for their current and future chips to make them available as immersion blades. We are also offering capacity in DataTank systems and prototyping runs to existing and new ASIC manufacturers to get their hardware immersion ready.
• We will keep working on hardware support, deployment locations, and other partnerships while the initial DataTank container systems are built for deployment.
• We would like to re-emphasize that DataTank systems and the operation expenses include everything required for mining, including electrical switchgear, transformers, power supplies, cooling, rents, 24/7 on-site support staff, iPhone control panel, and anything else that is needed for operation. There are _no_ other costs.
• Reselling of ASIC hardware for air cooling users will be possible. Please note that immersion blades are based on a dual design for immersion and air cooling (1U form factor or tube-like) and we encourage manufacturers to follow our design guidelines.
https://www.googledrive.com/host/0ByWHHc0u_thNT293cTl6OXBVZms/AirCooling_01.pdf
https://github.com/blockerupter/AM_Tube/blob/master/complete_set.png
https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=0ByWHHc0u_thNdzB3c2hvVzJkcTQ
• If reselling for air-cooling is indeed in demand by Q4 2014 or Q1 2015, DTM will make available at-cost DIY reselling packages that consist of inexpensive cardboard boxes, thermal paste, heatsinks and fans, with a compartment for immersion blades. DTM will also offer shipping services at a transparent small fee to unit holders to liquidate their hardware (with or without air cooling kit).
Please also follow DataTank Mining on Twitter to receive updates:
http://www.twitter.com/DataTankMining
We also posted a couple of videos recently showing several chips in action and will keep posting progress reports and pictures frequently:
http://www.vimeo.com/datatank/