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Topic: FPGA Miner Design for Sale to Someone willing to Market It - page 3. (Read 8481 times)

legendary
Activity: 2940
Merit: 1090
You claim to have working prototypes, can you ship one to Gavin or some other core development team members so they can verify that the thing actually exists and works as claimed?

-MarkM-
full member
Activity: 221
Merit: 100
Thanks to some of you who took the time to think about the potential market. You all have cited the same risks that I've mulled over. There is the risk that someone else may come up with a better product, the price of bitcoins may drop through the floor, miners might be afraid to purchase something that doesn't have a value beyond mining, etc. In line with one of the earlier posts, the current mining capacity is about 15,000 GH/s. If 5% of that capacity switched to our high-end product, that would be the sale of 250 boards. I wonder how likely that is?

We have enough money to design and build 50 prototype of the high-end board so we really don't need any investment from other partners. However, that doesn't mean that we want to invest all that time and money into something that will leave us holding the bag when the music stops. I don't like to go into something unless I see a reasonable chance of success so I was looking for someone fully plugged into the BitCoin community to assess the potential and ultimately help sell it. If I knew that I would sell 500 high-end boards, I'd start building right now on my own. I understand that all new ventures have risk, so I guess I'd like to get a handle on the level of interest.

In all honesty, how many would YOU buy if it were available today. Also, do you know the names of large scale miners that might be interested in pre-ordering some boards (with cash held in escrow until product delivered) to gain early exclusivity, etc?

P.S. All work on this product has been done on our own time from our own homes. The only things that came from employers are technical and industry knowledge. It's hard to leave that at the door.

bottom line
Right now you are offering a pig in a poke

nothing to ship or show
Can you really expect others to layout hard cash on a promise
Especially when you yourself are reluctant to input any CASH

been there done that
you gotta front the money & grow form there

I wish I got rich on Just selling my idea's but thats not how starting your own business works


legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1057
Marketing manager - GO MP
I doubt anybody will take you seriously till you provide some proof of your claims.

I suspect that everything you posted was made up on the spot, me thinks you don't have a running prototype or even self-written code.
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 502
So, if you were selling these:

Quote
Entry-Level board achieves 750 MH/s @ 15W for $740.
High-End board achieves 3,000 MH/s @ 60W for $2100.

I would buy one entry-level board (or maybe one high-end if it doesn't have a fan and if I get a pre-order discount Tongue).

Note that this applies to today. If you come up with this in two months I might have a different opinion. This is a risky investment for miners too.

PS: I know that I am not a big investor, but I thought I'd show my support anyway.
newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
Thanks to some of you who took the time to think about the potential market. You all have cited the same risks that I've mulled over. There is the risk that someone else may come up with a better product, the price of bitcoins may drop through the floor, miners might be afraid to purchase something that doesn't have a value beyond mining, etc. In line with one of the earlier posts, the current mining capacity is about 15,000 GH/s. If 5% of that capacity switched to our high-end product, that would be the sale of 250 boards. I wonder how likely that is?

We have enough money to design and build 50 prototype of the high-end board so we really don't need any investment from other partners. However, that doesn't mean that we want to invest all that time and money into something that will leave us holding the bag when the music stops. I don't like to go into something unless I see a reasonable chance of success so I was looking for someone fully plugged into the BitCoin community to assess the potential and ultimately help sell it. If I knew that I would sell 500 high-end boards, I'd start building right now on my own. I understand that all new ventures have risk, so I guess I'd like to get a handle on the level of interest.

In all honesty, how many would YOU buy if it were available today. Also, do you know the names of large scale miners that might be interested in pre-ordering some boards (with cash held in escrow until product delivered) to gain early exclusivity, etc?

P.S. All work on this product has been done on our own time from our own homes. The only things that came from employers are technical and industry knowledge. It's hard to leave that at the door.
full member
Activity: 140
Merit: 100
I did manage to get "large company" pricing on these parts because I do so much business with Xilinx.

And here's the problem. If you sell the design to someone else, they aren't going to get favorable pricing from Xilinx. Also, it is doubtful YOU can get favorable pricing from Xilinx as Teraminer, LLC.

Also, it sounds like you developed your product using resources from your primary employer.
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
I call BS on these figures. If it looks too good to be true then it probably is  Roll Eyes
legendary
Activity: 1692
Merit: 1018
Cost price: "High-End board achieves 3,000 MH/s @ 60W for $1,050"

That's about 1.5 bitcoins per day, or $7.20 minus the cost of electricity.  How much could such a board be sold for while ensuring a decent return for investors?  Maybe $2000.  That requires 9 months of hashing to pay back the purchase price, not including power and the PC the board would be connected to.  9 months before a single cent of profit is made.  Not too bad, but I can see why investors may be reluctant to put serious money into the project even if they believe the optimistic numbers.

The calculation of course is only based on current prices.  Some might say mine today and sell for a lot more than $4.80/btc next month or next year, but really no one knows how much a BTC may be worth.
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
TeraMiner, why dont you just post a video of the board in action?
Sure you could fake the output, but an ordinary troll wouldnt bother.

As for how many youd sell; God knows. I dont think it would replace GPU mining overnight, GPU's are common as they serve other purposes, it that sense its also less risky as an investment.  You can buy and if needed, sell AMD gpu's with minimal loss of investement, Im not sure how much a market there is for second hand FPGA's if bitcoin comes crashing down.

Still, currenty the bitcoin network provides almost 15,000 GH/s. If youd manage to capture just 1% of that, you are looking at 100s of boards.
legendary
Activity: 2940
Merit: 1090
Based on everyone's reaction, it looks like this would sell itself.
No that means you need to troll harder.


Maybe ask these guys: http://unlimiteddetailtechnology.com/  Cheesy

That so called unlimited detail sounds like fractal compression. I would've thought though if the fractal approach was going that well we'd hear about it from other sources too though.

-MarkM-
hero member
Activity: 530
Merit: 500
Let's assume that we "magically" build a product as described in the first post and offer it for sale at a price that was maybe 2x the cost to build. What kind of market do you think there would be for such a product? Are we talking the sale of 10's, 100's or 1000's or boards?  Does anyone have an opinion on that? Please include some of your reasonings, too.

I'd suggest contacting ztex who's already making and reselling a similar product:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/btcminer-open-source-bitcoin-miner-for-ztex-fpga-boards-215-mhs-on-lx150-40047
full member
Activity: 224
Merit: 100
THIS ^^^^

Atleast until this alleged history is demonstrated conclusively.
legendary
Activity: 3878
Merit: 1193
Just a little bit of background on us. We are seasoned designers with long job histories with companies like IBM, Altera and others.
No, you're some anonymous person posting on an Internet forum. You have zero credibility.
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 502
Let's assume that we "magically" build a product as described in the first post and offer it for sale at a price that was maybe 2x the cost to build. What kind of market do you think there would be for such a product? Are we talking the sale of 10's, 100's or 1000's or boards?  Does anyone have an opinion on that? Please include some of your reasonings, too.

Thanks in advance.

All the "serious miners" would get a few of those. I can't tell you any exact numbers, but since the current hash rate is 12.25THash I would say that we are talking of a few 100's, at the very least.

But there is another problem: prices have been dropping for 3 months. It went from $20 to $4. We really need new investors in the market to keep the price from falling. If the price doesn't rise, people will not make hardware investments in mining because it won't be profitable.
On the other hand, if Bitcoin survives another year, the production will be halved to 25 BTC per block. Theoretically, that would a remove a huge selling force from the market.

Long term investments with Bitcoin are tricky. If you are considering putting effort and time into making this, you must understand that you are risking a lot. There are no guarantees of what will happen a year from now.


PS: Take this guy for example. That investment was what? $50000? He alone would get 25 high end boards if you were selling them in June.
member
Activity: 62
Merit: 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik

comes near that target


I sent you a mail introducing myself. However its now sleep time.
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1057
Marketing manager - GO MP
newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
Yes, we've seen LargeCoin and they are one of the reasons why we have hesitated. That and the thought that the BitCoin market may dry up has us wondering if we should continue. Since we've already established that many people doubt the characteristics of our target product, let's change the discussion to one of business prospects.

Let's assume that we "magically" build a product as described in the first post and offer it for sale at a price that was maybe 2x the cost to build. What kind of market do you think there would be for such a product? Are we talking the sale of 10's, 100's or 1000's or boards?  Does anyone have an opinion on that? Please include some of your reasonings, too.

Thanks in advance.
hero member
Activity: 602
Merit: 502
People at LargeCoin might be interested.
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1057
Marketing manager - GO MP
Based on everyone's reaction, it looks like this would sell itself.
No that means you need to troll harder.


Maybe ask these guys: http://unlimiteddetailtechnology.com/  Cheesy
newbie
Activity: 14
Merit: 0
I'm not sure what you are trying to say. We have a very promising proof-of-concept, not an actual product to sell. We're looking for a business partner who appreciates the potential the BitCoin market and will help us make a run at this. Do you think there is a better place to look for such a partner than the BitCoin forums? If so, please let me know and I'll check it out. Based on everyone's reaction, it looks like this would sell itself. Maybe we don't need to think so much about how to make a business out if and just go ahead and build it ourselves.
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