Topic: Organizing a group buy for 50+ BFL 600 GH/s Monarch ASIC cards (Read 18730 times)

04 March 2014 - Monarch Update

Power & Performance better than expected
The initial power consumption numbers for Monarch are in and they're about 20% better than anticipated, meaning we expect the Monarch to consume 0.45W/GH at the chip level. This translates to about 300W per 600GH at the wall. Chip performance of all systems is as good as or better than predicted. To put this in perspective, this makes the Monarch chip nearly twice as power efficient as compared to our 28nm competition whose products operate between 0.9 and 1.0w per GH at the wall.

Chip Delay
The initial batch that we currently have in hand is not suitable to ship to customers. This is due to a problem in a top metal layer of the chip that prevents some engines from initializing when the chip is first powered on. (With ASIC design, there are a number of layers to a chip; most of those layers are in silicon, but the last few layers are in a special type of metal. Subsequent batches were held in wait just prior to the metal layers so that we could affect any necessary changes and proceed with chip production from that point, drastically reducing the time it takes to bring a new batch of chips to life.) The problem was positively identified and the fix is already in progress; however it will take approximately 5 weeks before we get packaged chips in hand, meaning the deployment of the Monarch will be delayed about 5 weeks from now. The specific date is still being determined, but I wanted to get an update out as soon as possible.

Refunds & Delay Compensation

Because of the delay, we're offering several different forms of compensation that vary based on order pricing and order date:

$4680 600GH Monarchs

Free performance upgrades
All customers who ordered 600GH Monarchs prior to the price decrease on November 28, 2013 will be upgraded to the Imperial Monarch product, which is a new, high performance version of the card. The Imperial Monarch will operate at 1 TH/s (+ / - 20%).

Six Month Refund or Double Shipment Guarantee
If you’ve been waiting in queue for six months or more, you qualify for either a full refund in USD, OR double the hardware you ordered. This latter option will come in the form of (a) first shipping you the new Imperial Monarch, giving you an expected 160-175% of your ordered hashrate, and then (b) an additional Standard 600 GH Monarch at the end of the queue, giving you another 100% hashrate boost, totaling an expected 250+% of your ordered hashrate once all products have shipped. (Note: Electing the refund cancels the Imperial Monarch upgrade offer in the first section above.)

50% off Voucher
If your paid order is less than 6 months old but you paid $4680 for your Monarch, you will instead receive an Imperial Monarch as described above, as well as a 50% off discount on an additional Standard Monarch at the end of the queue.

Full Price 300GH Monarchs
For 300GH Monarch orders, similar but slightly different offers will be extended. Customers will be contacted with specifics via email soon.

Mining By the GigaHash
If your Mining By the GH paid order is more than 6 months old, you will receive 2x the hashrate purchased.

Reduced Price Orders
Individual orders that are less than 6 months old and that paid for the reduced price 600GH or 300GH Monarch will likely not be delayed past the expected delivery date.

. Details specific to each of the above order categories will be communicated to eligible customers via email in the next few days. We hope everyone will remain in the order queue and take delivery of these extremely power-efficient, super-fast miners. But, cognizant of the feedback of our earlier 65nm customers, for those qualified buyers who desire a refund we will gladly issue you one.

Refunds will be issued in 30 to 45 days from the date of request of refund. Refunds will be in USD.




Least these guys are stepping up, and not being an embarrassment, like Black arrow

That's just in accurate information, go check KNC forums before you post.  They are saying Late Q2, and that's if there lucky, that's why there giving batch 1 orders, the "Option" of hosting, because they are delayed
Saying there going to deliver in March/April is hilarious

The problem with BFL pre-orders is that we know the cost, we know the hash rate, and we know the current difficulty.  Can anyone tell me when they will Really ship? (no), or what the difficulty will be at that time ?(no)

This is a very speculative investment, and the sad reality is that while it looks like the "deal of the century" at this time, when it ships it may not even be adequate.  When I finally got my jalapeno, it was not the "money printing" machine I thought it would be, and if would have waited and bought hardware at the time I physically received the jalapeno, it was equivalent to other solutions, not a"hell of a deal".

I happen to like BFL hardware, it's robust, looks clean and hi-tech (I know very subjective) and it seems to be bulletproof, but at the end of the day, we all buy the hardware to use it, so at the time I expect these to ship they will not be a stellar deal at all, and will probably have more cost effective competition available and in stock.

Nobody is arguing that things aren't delayed. The point I am making is that that thread is the only solid place for information related to monarch ship dates. Secondarily, posts by BFL members on their forums.

Common sense suggests that they probably ship mid march to mid april.

that official BFL thread is crazy.  I can't believe they still keep posting updates....BFL has no shame.  Why do people still keep placing orders with this company ?  to compound things all of the 1st folks that jumped in to preorder got backdoored by the huge price cut.  yes !   

There was an official timeline which has since changed/disappeared actually.

Slavix, is it too late to order a Monarch in this fabulous Group Buy ?  this thread has been comical.  BFL sucks fat donk d.

There doesn't need to be confusion or misinformation about Monarchs. The one and only place to look for the latest information is here:

https://forums.butterflylabs.com/announcements/4414-monarch-information.html

There isn't even an expected ship date, just some hopeful dates if things don't go wrong.

Haha.. I remember reading on a forum (from Josh I think, but perhaps someone else) that shipments were guaranteed to be out the door in mid-late January.

Already slipping. More. Although original ship date was March I believe, but they had been saying earlier until now.

The card is not released yet. First shippments are expected in early February. New orders are likely to ship in April, according to BFL.

Yeah my KNC vaporware is killing BTC right now, and Cointerra's is about to rape the network hashrate as well.

Cointerra actually has more production capability than KNC, so they could be bigger. Time will tell.

I have my KnC vaporware hashing away happily at 140 gh/s right now, so yeah I'd buy more "vaporware" from KnC considering no one comprehends English anymore.

Uh. No. I meant the Monarch. Which is why I asked the question in this thread.

I wish you all the best with your group buy, but I cannot support Butterfly Lab, given their track history with shipping.

My stuff was 5 months late, and I was one of the lucky ones. Others were not so fortunate.

Please realize that they will ship late, and you will be very frustrated, and your customers in this group buy will be very frustrated, and some will take out their frustration on you.

Caveat emptor (latin for buyer beware).

"These"? You mean KNC and Cointerra? The 3 TH/s Neptune from KNC is scheduled to ship in March / April 2014.
They say they will produce "only" 1500 of them.
Imagine 1500 of those 3 TH/s miners hitting the mining world BEFORE the first BFL monarchs ship.
The Monarch is going to be - yet again - OOA.

When are these "supposed" to "ship"?

The Jalapeno I ordered in April 2013 was delivered to me late November 2013. It was simply OOA (Obsolete on Arrival). When I ordered it in April, the math showed a decent profit running it. By the time I received it, it was pulling electricity (not to mention the fan noise) more than it is generating in revenue.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...

And since we are on the topic of vaporware... I see a lot of miners dumping their hardware on eBay. Are they recouping their money to re-invest in pre-ordering (more vaporware) from KNC and Cointerra?

Does not mean that at all.

You know if they drop their prices close to the deadline, things are not good at their end!

Monarch Group Buy - another 8 Monarchs ordered today. Total ordered so far: 67