5 ms·

First Bitcoin ASIC, Delivered to Core Bitcoin Developer

39 points by mrb 14y ago

mrb 14y ago
Picture of the inside: http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/avalon-modular-room-to-expand.html?m=1 http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/avalon-modular-room-... I hope this will put a stop to most of the non-believers constantly trolling on bitcointalk.org
- gibybo 14y ago
  I prefer the term skeptic, and I think it's quite reasonable to be skeptical of a $1300 device capable of generating $210/day with still no proof. I think the skeptics will be much calmer once he plugs it in and verifies that it does what it says it does. EDIT: Now confirmed on Jeff's blog: http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/avalon-its-alive.html http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/avalon-its-alive.htm...
  - micampe 14y ago
    > capable of generating $210/day and for a limited amount of time. Bitcoins are a finite resource, once they are all mined, this hardware will be pretty much useless, as far as I understand.
    - bdcs 14y ago
      No, not worthless because of transaction fees. Miner reward = Transaction fees + block reward Currently the the former accounts for only 1%. This will likely change in the future (a decade or so). See here https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_Commons https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_Commons
    - vbuterin 14y ago
      Actually, Moore's law guarantees that the hardware will become useless much sooner than the Bitcoin mining rewards run out.
  - balsam 14y ago
    Jeff Garzik has plugged it in and confirmed ~68GHash/s http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-asics-are-hashing-away.html http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-as...
DanBC 14y ago
I hope someone somewhere is documenting all the Bitcoin farming hardware. The future people would probably like a nice list of things that people are trying. Bitcoin mining (and to a lesser extent Folding@home) are entry level clustering for hobbyists.
- alwaysinshade 14y ago
  >I hope someone somewhere is documenting all the Bitcoin farming hardware. >The future people would probably like a nice list of things that people are trying. I can imagine future "coin" collectors gathering the ancient application-specific hardware that was used to mine bitcoins. "And here we have a 2013-era bitcoin ASIC...quite quaint really. I'd imagine she might be worth around...600 pounds?"
- sprayk 14y ago
  I ended up on this page recently: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison Is this what you are looking for?
c16 14y ago
What are the specs for someone who doesn't really follow the whole BitCoin thing?
- mrb 14y ago
  66 GHash/sec. Or about the same as a cluster of 110 AMD Radeon HD 7970 cards! Right now, 66 GHash/sec generates about $210/day (11 bitcoins/day).
  - c16 14y ago
    Thank you!
  - ericb 14y ago
    If you have a machine that generates $210 a day, why would you sell it for $1,300? Wondering why they wouldn't plug them all in and not start selling any until they've dropped the value of bitcoin below their profit margin...?
    - wmf 14y ago
      Mining is extremely risky right now. If someone else turns on ASICs before you do, the resulting difficulty spike would reduce your profits significantly. It's even possible (although unlikely) that some of these ASICs will lose money. But selling ASICs locks in the profit immediately.
    - mrb 14y ago
      Very simple: they did NOT have the funds to develop these ASICs by themselves. They HAD to pre-sell them via pre-orders to bootstrap their business. Avalon is literally the work of 2 chinese guys (ngzhang and yifu). They are not a big company with lots of money.
      - dbaupp 14y ago
        If they had enough to build one, they could bootstrap themselves up from that. (It takes about 6 days for an ASIC to generate enough money to make a new one.)
ragmondo 14y ago
but ... does it blend ?
Someguyy 14y ago
66 GH/s... damn...
kirian 14y ago
Reports of it going live: http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-asics-are-hashing-away.html http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-as...
LilValleyBigEgo 14y ago
It's been an immense struggle to be the first company to ship a ASIC unit because the first company to ship a product will essentially decimate the Bitcoin mining industry, rendering other ASIC units worthless in a span of less than a year. When the amount of bitcoins being mined oincreases the Bitcoin network increases the mining difficulty. This means that when ASICS are in the hands of many people the difficulty will increase to the point where those mining with desktop rigs, even those with clusters of a dozen GPU's, will not be able to compete and the cost of electricity and hardware will eclipse the reward of mining. This also means that the first fifty to a hundred people who have these units in their hands stand to make somewhere around $150/day after you figure in the cost of the mining units (which run around $1,200 USD) for the first few months, and it's essentially free money. All you have to do is plug the thing in, set it up and let it run. If you can hook it up at the office where you work or at someone's house where they have very cheap electricity, it becomes almost literally free money. This is why everyone is so excited about ASIC units. However, one company (BTCFPGA) has already fallen apart and is issuing refunds to everyone who pre-ordered. Another, Butterfly Labs, is on track to ship around the middle of next month. I have ordered one unit from BTCFPGA, which I was refunded for. I also have an order with Butterfly Labs, which I am holding right now. Though my participation is purely academic: I'm interested in seeing what happens if/when I get this unit and plug it in. I am also interested to see what's going to happen to the Bitcoin network once a serious shipment of ASIC units goes out. I would not be surprised if he plugged that thing in and it did nothing, or did something other than expected. This would give Avalon the right to say "we shipped it but it must have been damaged in shipping," or "there are bugs in the hardware/software" thus buying them time and cementing them as the first to ship an ASIC unit.

39 points by mrb 14y ago

mrb 14y ago

Picture of the inside: http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/avalon-modular-room-to-expand.html?m=1 http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/avalon-modular-room-... I hope this will put a stop to most of the non-believers constantly trolling on bitcointalk.org

gibybo 14y ago
I prefer the term skeptic, and I think it's quite reasonable to be skeptical of a $1300 device capable of generating $210/day with still no proof. I think the skeptics will be much calmer once he plugs it in and verifies that it does what it says it does. EDIT: Now confirmed on Jeff's blog: http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/avalon-its-alive.html http://garzikrants.blogspot.com/2013/01/avalon-its-alive.htm...
- micampe 14y ago
  > capable of generating $210/day and for a limited amount of time. Bitcoins are a finite resource, once they are all mined, this hardware will be pretty much useless, as far as I understand.
  - bdcs 14y ago
    No, not worthless because of transaction fees. Miner reward = Transaction fees + block reward Currently the the former accounts for only 1%. This will likely change in the future (a decade or so). See here https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_Commons https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_Commons
  - vbuterin 14y ago
    Actually, Moore's law guarantees that the hardware will become useless much sooner than the Bitcoin mining rewards run out.
- balsam 14y ago
  Jeff Garzik has plugged it in and confirmed ~68GHash/s http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-asics-are-hashing-away.html http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-as...

DanBC 14y ago

I hope someone somewhere is documenting all the Bitcoin farming hardware. The future people would probably like a nice list of things that people are trying. Bitcoin mining (and to a lesser extent Folding@home) are entry level clustering for hobbyists.

alwaysinshade 14y ago
>I hope someone somewhere is documenting all the Bitcoin farming hardware. >The future people would probably like a nice list of things that people are trying. I can imagine future "coin" collectors gathering the ancient application-specific hardware that was used to mine bitcoins. "And here we have a 2013-era bitcoin ASIC...quite quaint really. I'd imagine she might be worth around...600 pounds?"
sprayk 14y ago
I ended up on this page recently: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison Is this what you are looking for?

c16 14y ago

What are the specs for someone who doesn't really follow the whole BitCoin thing?

mrb 14y ago
66 GHash/sec. Or about the same as a cluster of 110 AMD Radeon HD 7970 cards! Right now, 66 GHash/sec generates about $210/day (11 bitcoins/day).
- c16 14y ago
  Thank you!
- ericb 14y ago
  If you have a machine that generates $210 a day, why would you sell it for $1,300? Wondering why they wouldn't plug them all in and not start selling any until they've dropped the value of bitcoin below their profit margin...?
  - wmf 14y ago
    Mining is extremely risky right now. If someone else turns on ASICs before you do, the resulting difficulty spike would reduce your profits significantly. It's even possible (although unlikely) that some of these ASICs will lose money. But selling ASICs locks in the profit immediately.
  - mrb 14y ago
    Very simple: they did NOT have the funds to develop these ASICs by themselves. They HAD to pre-sell them via pre-orders to bootstrap their business. Avalon is literally the work of 2 chinese guys (ngzhang and yifu). They are not a big company with lots of money.
    - dbaupp 14y ago
      If they had enough to build one, they could bootstrap themselves up from that. (It takes about 6 days for an ASIC to generate enough money to make a new one.)

ragmondo 14y ago

but ... does it blend ?

Someguyy 14y ago

66 GH/s... damn...

kirian 14y ago

Reports of it going live: http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-asics-are-hashing-away.html http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/01/the-first-bitcoin-as...

LilValleyBigEgo 14y ago

It's been an immense struggle to be the first company to ship a ASIC unit because the first company to ship a product will essentially decimate the Bitcoin mining industry, rendering other ASIC units worthless in a span of less than a year. When the amount of bitcoins being mined oincreases the Bitcoin network increases the mining difficulty. This means that when ASICS are in the hands of many people the difficulty will increase to the point where those mining with desktop rigs, even those with clusters of a dozen GPU's, will not be able to compete and the cost of electricity and hardware will eclipse the reward of mining. This also means that the first fifty to a hundred people who have these units in their hands stand to make somewhere around $150/day after you figure in the cost of the mining units (which run around $1,200 USD) for the first few months, and it's essentially free money. All you have to do is plug the thing in, set it up and let it run. If you can hook it up at the office where you work or at someone's house where they have very cheap electricity, it becomes almost literally free money. This is why everyone is so excited about ASIC units. However, one company (BTCFPGA) has already fallen apart and is issuing refunds to everyone who pre-ordered. Another, Butterfly Labs, is on track to ship around the middle of next month. I have ordered one unit from BTCFPGA, which I was refunded for. I also have an order with Butterfly Labs, which I am holding right now. Though my participation is purely academic: I'm interested in seeing what happens if/when I get this unit and plug it in. I am also interested to see what's going to happen to the Bitcoin network once a serious shipment of ASIC units goes out. I would not be surprised if he plugged that thing in and it did nothing, or did something other than expected. This would give Avalon the right to say "we shipped it but it must have been damaged in shipping," or "there are bugs in the hardware/software" thus buying them time and cementing them as the first to ship an ASIC unit.