Quote from: Fordee on May 02, 2015, 03:57:54 AM

Quote from: TheRealSteve on May 01, 2015, 07:55:45 AM

Quote from: cryptojumper on May 01, 2015, 07:27:26 AM

So nobody produces and ships anything or what?

Maybe they are very busy with next gen.

The original poster had a specific set of limitations:
- .28J/Gh chip
- .28J/Gh miner
That eliminates most of them to begin with - if not on the first one (though honestly most developers have only recently been posting fudged numbers on efficiency) then almost certainly on the second one.

But yes, Spondoolies-Tech is out of stock and seems to be in the process of changing their business model - see also the bitcoin shop 'letter of intent' to merge with them.

On the up side, there's other companies trying to fill the void - SFARDS has a new chip coming out, LK Group is planning one, Lightning ASIC may or may not be planning one, 21 Inc may be announcing things, etc. Unfortunately though, the climate is very much heading towards further consolidation (seem my ranty rant post on that subject), and except for SFARDS none of them have made any positive statements with regard to small scale mining.

I was thinking about how the market has condensed..

Essentially if I am correct, within six months the amount of vendors offering ASICs for retail mining sales (consumer availability) will be zero, and power-efficient mining (chips of .28nm or smaller) will be solely in the hands of large centralized parties...

Hash rate will stagnate and rhe major entities will hold status quo until the next halving... Then without major asic breakthroughs in efficiency we will probably see some major players drop out or unplug.

Power draws don't drop exponentially, but costs of smaller and smaller masks/designs do escalate.. and the halving will alter running costs dramatically.

I envision 2016-17 as a battleground where the 'Bitcoin Network' essentially is owned by 5-6 Large entities who control the majority of the hash rate...and therefore collect most of the mining fees... The new world conglomerates if you will.

Any new entrants who even try to compete will need a competing design and +$10-20Million just to start playing the Asic game...and a lot of coins to capture at 12/block just to break even.

End Game.

This is why I supported AsicMiner....as Friedcat vision was to keep it decentralized... Now that he's gone, and private people can't own a share in a future mining conglomerate, all we can hope for is to buy/hold/use bitcoin itself.

As long as there's no one entity can control the whole network, it is decentralized.