What about your cloud mining offering? When can we expect those to start working?
The website says "starting March 2014". It has said that for a while now, even back when the X1 and X3 were "end of February".
Are these cloud mining offerings part of the same queue as the X1 and X3: as in you go by the payment date and if it's an X1/3 you ship it, if its a cloud miner you mount and start it?
I've also seen a few people mention a "hosting option" for X1 and X3 which seems to be different than the cloud mining offering (because you get to own rather than rent the equipment) - this isn't described on the website, is it still available?
Thank you for your time.
Can anyone answer this?
I believe cloud hosting means you own a certain amount of hashing power and hosting means you own the actual device but someone else is running it for you. Cloud mining should probably be available sooner than you would receive a shipped asic or hosting.
It would be nice to have clarification about the cloud mining service.
I'm more interested in the start time of the cloud mining compared to the shipping time of the X3's
What they do is pretty obvious - you rent 1TH/s for 4 or 6 months then it's over, you don't get to keep any hardware. I believe you even get to choose the pool to mine at.
The price for 6 months hosting per TH is roughly equivalent to the price per TH of the X3. But you don't have to pay customs (which in my case would be 13% of the product's value), no electricity costs, no monitoring the thing, no lost revenue while shipping or if the unit is damaged on arrival. And I assume after 6 months X3's are more than likely obsolete and their resale value at that point might not cover the previously mentioned costs. Depending on how fast difficulty rises the cheaper 4 month cloud rental might be the best bang for the buck Black Arrow has to offer, but at least in my mind the 6 month cloud rental is almost certainly better than buying an X3. Might be different if customs can be avoided and you don't pay for electricity, but even then, the shipping time can still get you. Of course this entire analysis hinges on the cloud offering starting the same time as X3 shipping...