Quote from: Gary13579 on September 18, 2012, 10:11:05 PM

My original post was not meant to claim gigavps is ripping us off or that he is charging too much. I merely wanted to give my input as an investor, and why I am still iffy about the upgrade, especially with the .29 and 90% PPS. With ASICs being cheaper than the BFL Single, and using less power and outputting less heat, it's a lot more attractive to buy the ASICs themselves rather than pay 300%+ markup. Besides, BFL isn't the only company working on ASICs, and there will be cheaper options available (hopefully by the end of the year).

But sure, let's look at it from giga's perspective. He has 4 mini rigs, which BFL says they'll honor at market price, credited towards the purchase of ASICs. That's $60k, rounded down. 4 mini rig SCs cost ~$120k. So he essentially can cover half the cost of the upgrade merely from the IPO, even assuming he has 0 BTC left from the IPO (which as we all know, isn't true). Given the price he wants for the upgrade, I can't imagine many (if ANYONE) would not take the upgrade path. Assuming everyone paid upgrades, that's 11.6k bitcoins -- $139,200 at current market values. The cost of the upgrade is worth more than the ASICs themselves, giga can pocket all of the original IPO. $79k (plus whatever money is left over from IPO, which I imagine is quite a bit) is a ton of money. It's almost half a year of full time work at $100/hr.

Has giga really put in 40+ hours of week, every week, for the past 6 months, solely into GIGAMINING? No one can really say but him. I don't believe he has.

The bottom line is that Giga is offering gigamining/teramining to make money and is trying to maximize his profit while appeasing/attracting as many investors as possible. Just like any other GLBSE offering. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Of course it will always be less expensive to buy hardware yourself and manage it yourself. It is up to the individual whether they feel it is more advantageous to purchase a lower-hassle, lower return-on-investment, mining bond such as gigamining ... or whether to purchase hardware directly, enjoy a higher return-on-investment, but deal with maintaining it themselves.

There is also the issue of risk: Nefario/GLBSE may disappear or get hacked; Gigavps may default on his obligations/promises as other 'trustworthy' individuals here have recently done. There is no way to know. But if you buy/own your own hardware it isn't going to disappear. Again, it is up to the individual to assess this risk and what it is worth to them.

From your analysis and comments I suspect your money will go towards purchasing hardware directly. Wink