Well, no, because if I didn't have to take time to do everything else ever I'd have probably finalized the Compac in May. I had a full two weeks where I didn't touch the thing, and then the first day I came back to it I had it up and working within about four hours. There have been a lot of wait times for PCBs and such, but considering other losses (and especially that first failed regulator, which honestly would probably have been good enough if we had the right driver software) we're pretty far behind schedule.
I think we already have pretty good people, and a pretty good plan, but the resources part has always been the limiting factor for us. But we're solving that problem.
Speaking of resources, I just got word from Bitmain that the chips I'll be wanting are in stock and they can sell them to me. I'm wondering if I shouldn't buy more than 1000 (I also asked about 2000), partly so I have more to test with for bigger boards, and partly because I could probably sell more than 1000 chips worth of Compac and Amita sticks. I've been talking a bit with a guy in Europe that wants to license the design (once I know it's good enough) for manufacture and sales over there, which would be pretty good for Eurocustomers that don't want to pay more for international shipping and import taxes than the thing actually costs, but that means he'll also need some chips so I could probably pick up a larger pile and share them out. It's been suggested that I make up my mind in the next couple days, which if that means they want me to pay down on chips in the next couple days we're gonna be in a tight spot because 1000 chips shipped would be about 14.5BTC and I sorta don't have that available. I'm hoping I can reserve stock, because as has been stated since the beginning, I'm not willing to take in money on these until they're tested and verified, and I won't have the final PCBs until next week so the final version product won't be in the hands of testers for a week after that. I could base things off the reports from the four guys getting modified pre-final prototypes (three of which sticks should be delivered today), but that's not really the same thing.
Opinions?
"Opinions are like butts, everybody's got one and they all stink." -- Unknown
So here's my stinky.
USB Stickminers are, by definition, not a commercial product. They're a novelty item. As such their price
needn't be tied to an economic equation.
IMHO, can one sell 1,000 Stickminers, probably, given enough time. And there's the rub, it's called the time/value of money.
Example: When I obligated for 2-3 stickminers (as I consider posting the same here a contract to purchase) I am and remain unconcerned with unit cost.
Obviously, one could do like other manufacturers of H/W do and mine with them till sold to the end consumer ("burn in testing") to defray the cost of ownership/inventory.
Assuming one had a viable 18 chip board designed and all of the 1K of chips were dedicated to that manufacturing endeavor. That's enough chips for 55 boards. If those boards hash @ ~270GH/s @ .3W/GH/s they're more than competitive with the Bitmain S5 offering and could be priced @ $85-$100 each. Given that the chip cost is $60.03 that doesn't leave a lot of room for board and tertiary component cost and a margin to make it worthwhile to sell. Seems like a slim margin to me, given I'm unaware of the rest of the cost structure . . .
Thinking about the 1K chip order. Many manufacturers will obligate for a total quantity of parts in a phased delivery schedule. Say 250 chips per week and pay for them on that periodic basis. This splits up the total cost of the order and makes it manageable and creates some cash flow for the next week's order. Given that these are last generation chips and they're sitting in inventory (doing nothing and targeted to do nothing) Bitmain may be open to this kind of arrangement. You'd actually be doing them a favor by cleaning out their old, soon to be useless, virtually un-saleable stock.
I think if it were me, I'd obligate for 1K chips total, size the "down payment" for the 1st weeks shipment (250 chips), and agree to purchase 250/week for the next 3 weeks. I would also ask them to disclose their inventory size so that I could estimate the "legs" of this endeavor. I'd also see if they're willing to shave the $3.335 cost per chip given the chip's antiquated design and a willingness to maybe purchase more than 1K total. i.e. the first 1K @ $3.335, the next 1K @ a lesser cost, etc. . . . . . Or maybe cost breaks at the 5K, 10K total order size, assuming their inventory is that large.
Hope that stench wasn't too bad.
