Quote from: aerobatic on November 09, 2013, 08:10:53 PM

Quote from: monkee on November 09, 2013, 07:48:46 PM

They have been saying it all along, as far as I know. I've seen it several times. One is below in the interview with CoinTerras CEO, Ravi Iyengar:

Q: What level of pre-orders are estimated before CoinTerra is able to ramp up production? It has been listed in the media that a number of pre-orders are needed before final manufacturing can take place.

A: When we started looking for investment, it took two months to raise $1.5m from both Bitcoin users and the tech industry at this point in time there is no need to ask for more investment. In terms of pre-orders, within 24hrs of our website going live we had 150 pre-orders. Our production is not hampered by sales in any way.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7246/the-rush-to-bitcoin-asics-ravi-iyengar-launches-cointerra

thanks... i see where the confusion is.. you're right.. its misleading...!

although the question itself is more of an issue than cointerra's answer. if it was asked exactly like this in his interview, cointerra probably should've corrected the misconception. what may have happened is that the question itself may have been edited after it was asked and became slightly different than the question they asked him... but anyway, ravi's answer pretty much matches my understanding of what happened... namely that they raised $1.5m from investors, which funded 'development' (designing the chip). And then the product was announced, and preorders started, which allowed them to go into production without requiring additional investment - which is the key takeaway from ravi's answer. and this practice of designing the chip, then taking pre-orders, which raises the cash to go into production jus no different than every single bitcoin mining asic company has done... from avalon, to bfl, to kncminer, to hashfast, to bit mine etc... and makes cointerra no different than any of the others.

originally cointerra was trying to raise $6m and go into production (which would've been a different business model without pre-orders and probably without selling mining hardware at retail).. and instead, they raised $1.5, and did pre-orders to sell direct to customers.. so yes, the company pivoted from its original funding model.

its the question thats misleading and if it was asked it exactly like this i think he probably should've gone into more detail to correct the misconception... so yea, as they've quoted it, its confused messaging.

although its no secret how much it costs to go into production of a 28nm asic, so everyone knows it can't be done for $1.5m or anyone and everyone would've been doing it.

-- jez

yes, once i found the quote, i wasn't sure who was right... you really have to parse words carefully in ASIC world!