Quote from: Operatr on April 10, 2013, 08:55:18 AM

Hello, my developing crypto-currency business, BlockBurner (mostly a blog atm, but more to come), is researching feasibility in the generation of a real FPGA Scrypt Litecoin mining appliance, specialized for the task much like the SHA256 FPGA's and ASIC's Bitcoin is about to begin running on.

To do this, there are a few things I need to know from the crypto-currency community, please answer each question if you respond to this post-

1. Do you think the market and community is ready for FPGA Litecoin?

2. Is there definite interest in FPGA Litecoin machines? Would you buy one if the price was reasonable? What is reasonable?

3. Would you pre-order one to support first round funding for prototyping and first wave production? (I'm no one but a lowly computer specialist and budding entrepreneur burned by Big Banking already, so this would have to be crowd funded to get started without a loan shark involved. You would be relying on me to deliver the goods and not squander the investment with idiotic decisions, even still you would stand to lose your pre-order through economic issues and unseen factors, so there is a risk to early adopters as with all things, though Im thinking of other incentives for early participants once it gets off the ground, what kind of incentives come to mind to make the investment more attractive to you?)

I am quite serious here and have had correspondence with a few FPGA/ASIC specialists to case exactly how much funding would be required for prototyping and limited production run. Though it would be reckless to proceed with it without getting community input, and I want to build a device that is based on your feedback so we get exactly what you want at the price you want.

What do you think? Time to elevate Litecoin to the next level as we did with Bitcoin? Would you help BlockBurner achieve this goal though community support? Should I jump off a cliff covered in green jello?

Updated 4/25

FAQ

BlockBurner news:

BlockBurner Forums

BlockBurner subReddit

The Team (still developing):

Operatr - Administration/Operatations
Cheshyr - FPGA/Project Management
Zalfrin - FPGA Development

Project Overview

Design Goals:

Modular Scrypt FPGA system
USB Connectivity
Stand alone/Rack convertible casing for scalability
Associated open source software package

I have had a few PMs and have seen questions regarding pre-orders for this project:

On Pre-Orders

Any pre-order campaign will be associated with the current stage of development. Unlike other producers there will be no pre-orders until a certain capital requirement is met meeting the estimated costs associated with that stage. At this stage it would be in generating a working prototype device. I am taking a community approach for complete transparency, every transaction would be made public knowledge as I think if you are willing to take a chance on us, you should know exactly what your money is funding and see it develop before your eyes.

This approach minimizes risk and gives a linear progression of development that is seen by the whole community.

I don't believe it is fair to hold pre-orders in a way that in a way fakes it as if it is a real product sold online, knowing full well it does not exist. I think this practice itself is fraudulent in nature itself.

Prototype Stage

Proto-adopters would be taking the bulk of the risk, as such we would work out some other kind of benefit to funding assistance at this stage. I am open to ideas on what you would like to see if you opted to be a proto-adopter.

A known price point will be known before any pre-order campaing begins with a known cap to hit, all pre-order capital going into third-party escrow until the needed amount is reached. Otherwise it would be returned to you. This could be receiving a prototype device to help with testing or some kind of future revenue sharing.

Production Stage Once a working prototype is created, we will then move on to casing actual production costs, and much like the Proto stage, will have a certain goal needed before any capital is invested.

To do this will require a crowd-sourced effort, which would be conducted through various forums as well as things like Kickstarter campaigns and the like.

Thank you in advance for your time and support,

Operatr
BlockBurner.net

While it seems like an awesome idea...

No on all accounts.

Leave gpu scripting alone. Exploit another cryptoBTC currency. Script mining was damn near created to avoid fpga and asic.