This thread has been an interesting read.

I'm in Batch 4 and a month late and counting. With difficulty spiraling upward out of control, all hope for ROI is lost-- but I knew that was a possibility going in.  I bought several video cards just a couple months before ASICs annihilated GPU mining-- but at least I was able to mine LTC to eventually scrape up enough BTC to break even, less what I spent on this group buy.

Knowing the history of Avalon (mining with customer units before shipping them, etc) I was prepared for this eventuality, and I'm glad I only went in for 16 chips and full assembly. Total setback like $300-- which is a chunk of change, for sure-- but even if I finally do get a working miner, and difficulty is over 100M and it takes me 2 years to ROI-- I don't care.

For me it's about the hobby and the promise of what BTC *could* be.


I know a lot of people are in way deeper than I am, and I really do sympathize. Some undoubtedly saw huge dollar signs and invested heavily in vaporware. Investing in what they wanted to be real instead of what actually was real.

Much like "real" currency, only those with resources and power will have all the resources and power, and we little guys can't even begin to piss at the same trough as the big boys when it comes to hashing power. It's a nuclear arms race, and we all lost the second we didn't have an Avalon cluster back when difficulty was sub-10M.

I'm not going to speculate and toss out numbers I think people should get for refunds-- I just wanted to comment here and state that even though I'm pretty disappointed in how this all went down, I've come this far, and the money is already spent. I'll just wait for my chips and miner to come in. If nothing else, it will be an interesting coffee table piece.