So, Novak and I did some discussing yesterday on priorities.
We have 1200 chips from Bitmain, and between their out-of-stock statement and that they've not addressed the question I've asked three times regarding more chips, I have to assume 1200 chips is all we'll see.
Demand for Compacs seems to be pretty high. We were planning on making about 600 Compacs and 200 Amitas with 200 chips left over for dev on larger boards, but I think what we'll end up doing is make 1000 Compacs and zero Amitas, with 200 chips left over for dev on larger boards.
I've got one thing left to test and Amita hardware would be done; a few steps past that and a 4-chip pod board would be done. A few steps past that and 18- and 30-chip TypeZero boards would be done. I'll probably make prototypes of these things with some of the dev chips, but will not manufacture any batches for sale.
If Bitmain (or Avalon, or BitFury or whoever else with a decent chip) will work with us in the near future, it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt the completed designs to a new chip. So it looks like, for this round at least, we're stopping production with the Compac.
Unless someone wants to put up a quarter million dollars for a full batch of chips, but we probably wouldn't get 'em in hand until October anyway and by then Bitmain, Avalon, Spondoolies and SFARDS will be rolling on better tech.
PC, if you do something like that I'll build boards for you. The BE300 was what got us started on this project in the first place.
We have 1200 chips from Bitmain, and between their out-of-stock statement and that they've not addressed the question I've asked three times regarding more chips, I have to assume 1200 chips is all we'll see.
Demand for Compacs seems to be pretty high. We were planning on making about 600 Compacs and 200 Amitas with 200 chips left over for dev on larger boards, but I think what we'll end up doing is make 1000 Compacs and zero Amitas, with 200 chips left over for dev on larger boards.
I've got one thing left to test and Amita hardware would be done; a few steps past that and a 4-chip pod board would be done. A few steps past that and 18- and 30-chip TypeZero boards would be done. I'll probably make prototypes of these things with some of the dev chips, but will not manufacture any batches for sale.
If Bitmain (or Avalon, or BitFury or whoever else with a decent chip) will work with us in the near future, it shouldn't be too difficult to adapt the completed designs to a new chip. So it looks like, for this round at least, we're stopping production with the Compac.
Unless someone wants to put up a quarter million dollars for a full batch of chips, but we probably wouldn't get 'em in hand until October anyway and by then Bitmain, Avalon, Spondoolies and SFARDS will be rolling on better tech.
PC, if you do something like that I'll build boards for you. The BE300 was what got us started on this project in the first place.
Prudent.
1) I believe you'll easily move 800-1000 stickminers globally.
2) I also believe that there is a substantial market for S1 replacements.
3) If it were me, I'd reserve a larger quantity (300-400) for multi-chip dev. As it's a skill set (multi-chip dev) that few others have.
4) Bitmain "promised" to release their new product line in July (I'll share the email if desired, think I already shared that with Novak in a PM), anyway, we're sneaking up on August . . . .
5) Since late May antpool's hash rate has gone from high 50's PH/a to 80+ Ph/s and last time I checked they're the second largest pool.
6) Our contacts in the 3M immersion cooling world have indicated to us that the Spondoolies work well immersed . . . How would they know that, unless it's been tried.
7) Getting a VC to put up 1/4 mill for outdated chips would be a very hard sell even with a brilliant board design.
Getting a VC to fund a competitive startup with an aggressive plan not so much. i.e. a company that designs hash chips, builds boards, and either hashes with those boards and/or sells some.9) If the big 4 release new chips in Sept and whomever acquiesces to selling you chips, I'm betting you'll have a product in time for Christmas. Not pinging on you, just stuff takes time.
GekkoScience et. al., I can think of no other I would rather have designing/implementing boards, you are always at the fore front of our minds in that regard.
But designing/implementing a board without chip availability is a moot point, regardless of the targeted consumer community.
It boils down to a simple supply chain management problem. A problem that I can imagine has multiple solutions.
I think it's safe to say that the BE300 is a dead horse, and I for one am gonna' quit kicking it.
Having said that, I think it's time to pickup the BE300 style torch and design a new chip.
How that would happen, exactly, I'm clueless, but would jump on the supportt/participation bandwagon in a heartbeat.
Just to be clear, I/We are not a Richie Rich and could not fund a 1/4 mill effort.
But we do have contacts that would consider that sum to be "pocket change".
Used to think the small hobbyist miner was a dying breed. I don't hold that opinion anymore.
I believe, at the latest, when the next block reward reduction happens most if not all the small to medium sized miners will go the way of the dodo. That includes us.
I think this time next year the panorama will be very polarized, the extremely large and the extremely small.
So positioning to manufacture and sell to the small has merit.
The good news is they do have some chips already bought. So hopefully they are very successful on selling those. I personally would like to see GekkoScience prosper, and be able to do another product or line of products.
I do not know their profit margins but hopefully it allows for even more chips to be ordered next time. If they can order more each product and grow, it would be great to see this.
Only thing weird is bitmain not even responding to them about chips. That scares me a little about that partnership.