Quote from: Spondoolies-Tech on September 22, 2015, 06:46:27 PM

Isn't Raspberry PI 2 + Sidehack's 1384 dongle is essentially the same for quarter of the price ?

If one were to add the software and backend ecosystem (however that pans out, exactly), yes.

Not sure if this is the thread I've mentioned it in, but I can see what they're trying to do - and while $400 is steep, I think we all know there's plenty of people who want to try to be at the forefront of [whatever] where $400 for a business is a pretty low expense compared to rent, insurance, payroll, etc. I know I could easily convince my boss to get one.

The mining aspect, though? Even with all the reasons given by people who seem like they're trying to position themselves as 21, Inc. mouthpieces (I'll await the Reddit AMA / verified social media outlets for some official statements) I don't think it makes any sense, certainly not in the form it's in. Not now, not next year (hello halving), and not a few years down the road. If the issue really were about trying to get a few satoshi into people's hands to start things off with, begging for some on reddit, posting a silly picture with a QR code, hitting a faucet or partaking in a sig campaign (ew) would do the job without adding an expensive component that requires active cooling and bulks the device up (I guess VC money aplenty for warehousing and shipping) unnecessarily.