A slightly OT example: For those following along at home who don't get why HF batch 1 customers are so unhappy about their "october" batch 1 units, compare: Instead of paying 55 BTC months ago for a 400GH HF batch 1 unit with uncertain delivery they could have sat comfortably on their coin and today ordered 3.1 TH/s of
antminer for
immediate delivery for the
same price (or just got 360GH/s for 6.3 BTC). Even figuring it in terms of USD, the little antminer devices are lower cost per GH/s than hashfast batch 1 devices which are still not shipping.
*sigh....
Yes I wish I had an early KnC order and a Batch1 Avalon. But I didn't. I had a batch 2/3 and same thing happened to that Batch 3. Still pissed. At least I didn't have BFL.
In bitcoin mining one in the hand beats two in the bush any day... Pre-orders are simply fail, even KnC would have been fail if BTC hadn't appreciated....
Don't make the mistake of making equivalence between Avalon and any other supplier. What Yifu and Ngzhang did was far worse than what any one else has done in this space by a very long distance.
Yifu and Ngzhang
stole the batch 2 machines to mine for themselves. Eventually they delivered the batch 3 machines (months late) to batch 2 and 3 customers.
Hashfast simply followed the BFL model of promising something that couldn't be delivered. After the BFL example, it was trivial for anyone to know that they were overpromising based on semiconductor fabrication timelines. Those who bought the first batch without proof of a tapeout knew they were buying into hot air, but greed overwhelmed any rational consideration of doing business on reasonable terms.
Like BFL before them, increases in the exchange rate will bail out Hashfast's early investors. And BFL and Hashfast will continue to have customers because greed overwhelms all common sense in Bitcoin.