Hey guys.
Apologies for not having posted for a while. Same old story, busy busy busy. So, some updates for you all. One batch of our chips has landed with our assembly people, the other is in transit and due to arrive this week. Hooray.
Next, we have the thumb hashing! Still not to full spec, but it is going. The guys are still fiddling and tweaking on the firmware, and to be perfectly honest with all of you, it has proven to be a much larger undertaking than we had first thought. The documentation out there on the exact details of the Bitfury chips is rather sparse and incomplete, and there has had to be a lot of troubleshooting to get us to this point. It is still a work in progress, but getting the chips actually hashing is a major break through. It means we are close. Now i know i have said that we are close for quite a long time now, and i'm honestly not trying to mislead you guys with false ideas of progress. It has been the legitimate belief of our guys doing the firmware that it has been close for quite some time. But i guess putting it another way, it is getting closer and closer every day. As i have stated before, as soon as we have solid results, i will come running to my computer to share them with you all. Nothing will make me happier. There are just a couple remaining checks that need to be made before we can go ahead with manufacture. All things being equal, we will be pulling the trigger on the main run this week.
As for the power supply situation, it seems i have certainly thrown the cat amongst the pigeons there. I'm sorry to throw up so much confusion on the issue. Here is whats happening. The original design takes a 5V input. Upon announcing this, various members of our community began pointing out certain advantages to 12V input rather than 5V. Looking into it, it turns out to not be too big a change to the design to switch it over to 12V. These changes have been made and we are pumping out a prototype on the new 12V version as we speak. If it is ready in time and will not create any delays, then we can go ahead and put that version into production. If it is not, then we will be moving forwards with the 5V version. I'm sorry that i can't give you a more definitive answer on which version we will be using, but basically it is quite late in the piece to be changing things and we only want to do so on the condition that it will not cause any delays. I'll keep you updated on this as soon as i know.
I will be adjusting the prices downwards shortly to reflect the recent rise in BTC value. This will apply to new orders, not orders already placed.
On other things, Zeek, you mentioned my whopping 6GH/s mining on Bitminter! This is 20 block erupters.
It used to be 10 GH/s before i recently turned off my GPUs! (about 5 months too late!) I look forwards to raising my hashrate very soon!
IAS, well said as always. I entirely agree on the awesomeness of having a hobby that can also earn you money, and yes i too am excited by being a part of this crazy experiment. I look forwards to telling my kids that i was there somewhere close to the beginning of bitcoin! (especially of course in the imaginary future where bitcoin is the primary global currency
) ... or will it be sex coin? or hobo nickels?
And finally, yes, people on ebay are fucking crazy. I stumbled upon this the other day:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Butterfly-Labs-Jalapeno-Bitcoin-Miner-5GH-s-BRAND-NEW-IN-HAND-/221299229844?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3386764494&_uhb=1. I have no idea why people are bidding on this (other than to own a little piece of bitcoin history), but they are. Now obviously i would hope that people involved in this project of ours are more interested in mining with the gear we are making than selling it, but i'd say you will probably be able to sell it for a decent price on ebay should you wish, or as someone mentioned, do both.
Ok, so i will endeavor to be a more present in this crazy time. Please feel free to ask me anything. Hope you're all doing well.
Barntech