Quote from: DaveF on September 11, 2021, 11:50:11 PM

Some links below from the olden days of the forum.
There are more but these are the bigger ones. There were a few in 2012, most really came into it in 2013. Even if they were planning in 2012 by the time the chips were made and miners built it was 2013 some into 2014.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=91173.0
Or more to the point:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=91173.msg1211518#msg1211518

Avalon:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=120184

Thanks for the links! I'm mostly interested in 2012 and whether the claim of someone mining Bitcoin with ASICs in 2012 is actually plausible, because from my anecdotal experience it was incredibly hard to get your hard on ASIC mining hardware until at least the latter half of 2013. And that is assuming you even bet on the right horse and not on one of the many ventures that failed to deliver.

Friedcat and Avalon having specifications as of September / October 2012 means they still had to get the chips produced, as from my little understanding of the chip design workflow you're still working with simulations at that point (either software simulation or hardware-based using FPGAs).

So at least according to the public record there were no (SHA256) ASIC chips until December 28, 2012:

Quote from: friedcat on December 28, 2012, 02:13:43 AM

Update

After a long and anxious waiting, we have finally got our packaged chip samples at hand. Everyone would be busy in the following 2-3 weeks.

And even then the chips were still to be tested.

So in conclusion -- Am I missing something or does it seem unlikely that someone was mining Bitcoin with ASICs as early as 2012? Because given the technical challenges and capital requirements it also seems weird for someone to produce ASIC chips for themselves without scaling production for either themselves or for sale to the public.