Well, although there are probably some extra difficulties in doing the main part of the transaction in Bitcoin, I highly doubt this is the first piece of US real estate that has transacted with a crypto currency.  To be sure, the Title company (and some others) will want to be paid for their services in cash, but converting a small amount of BTC to do so ought to be fairly straightforward.

Regardless, let me ping my Realtor this week and get a complete and thorough description (and prices / or at least good estimates) of any and all things that may need some US cash to do the transaction correctly, and I'll post all of that up.

The weather is pretty nice, in my opinion.  Lots of sunny days, which is great for solar, but it helps to set up some kind of shade if a group is hanging out for an extended period of time.  Also, being "high desert" and generally low humidity, there is a relatively large temperature change between 2pm and 2am.  Check out the yearly weather for Terlingua, Zip code 79852, for the full story.

By the way, I'm pretty sure many kinds of Ultralights would be able to take off and land on the main road without too much difficulty… especially the "parachute w/a fan on the back" kinds, gyrocopters, etc..  And no pilot license required for some kinds - although common sense says one had better be trained and/or experienced before just "going for it".  There is no lack of amazing scenery around the Big Bend area to fly over.  There is also both a (currently rough) dirt strip airport, and a quite nice paved one, within 20-45 minutes drive.

Thanks for the great suggestions, smoothie.

Although I highly value my privacy, you're right, I should have a bit more info here… but posting my drivers license to a forum isn't likely to happen (of course any interested buyer is welcome to see it, and everything else required for a legal property transfer).

Here's a quick picture, from about 3 years ago.  Not great, as we were experiencing a drought then (much greener now with more wildlife), but it at least gives an idea.  It's looking West (or slightly NW), from an 80'ish foot hill on the property, and it shows the vehicle I was driving back then (for scale) on the main road, Cedar Springs Rd.  The mountain peak on the far left, is the one that works best for putting a zipline.   It's about a 400 foot elevation change from the top to where my jeep was.  The best views from the property, btw, are from on top (or part way up) that mountain, looking East over the entire National park.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2wnp9up.jpg

I've already engaged a realtor to list this in the "normal USD world", she is a licensed Real Estate broker (Pam Clouse) that I've purchased property from before, and their website is:
http://www.westtxrealty.com
It's not on their site yet, as she wanted to get some new/fresh pics taken first.  As soon as it's up, I'll post the link here.

This weekend I'll go dig through my paperwork to find some documentation I might feel comfortable to scan & post.
FYI, anyone can look up the online tax info for properties in Brewster county:
  http://www.brewstercotad.org
Just do the property search, "Advanced", and property ID # 31009

Any potential buyer should realize, this is a real estate transaction, that we need to do correctly.  It'll take at least a week or two to get all the paperwork and small fees done through the title company/escrow company/county assessors office/etc.  Plenty of time for the buyer and Title company to strongly verify legal ownership and right of transfer.

Any questions, please ask.  I also turned on "notify" on my BTCtalk account, so PM'ing me at CryptoZen is fine, too.

I'm listing my 640 acres (1 square mile) in West Texas, USA, near Terlingua, for 590 Bitcoins (at current market value).  $195,000 USD is what it is listed for, and I'll give a 2% discount if paid with Bitcoin (I desire BTC more than USD).

I own it outright (no bank lien, etc.).  I suppose it's possible that I might entertain some kind of owner financing, but I'd rather not -- if I did, the owner financing would be based on Bitcoin, rather than USD.

Although I'd rather not part with it, I can't figure out a better way to get some significant additional ownership of bitcoin right now... so I figured I'd put it on the market for a few months and see if someone who is heavy in bitcoin might want to diversify into a good real estate deal.

This place is really cool... it includes a 400+ foot mountain peak, that borders the Big Bend National Park.  Views forever (over 20 miles on a clear day), with not another human being in sight.  When I purchased it a few years ago (or if I keep it), one of my ideas was to make the longest zipline in Texas, just for myself and friends (over 5000 feet long, what a ride!)... or just throw some incredible parties (tech/bitcoin related) once a year.  Essentially, there are no restrictions to this property.  You can make as much noise as you like, and build whatever you like, whenever you like.   Setup a gun range, ATV trails, hike & bike, blade your own 4000 foot long airstrip, or even build a high desert dream home on it with views that will be guaranteed for a lifetime (assuming the US govt doesn't sell Big Bend national park

There are no improvements to the property, with the exception of there's a 5000 gallon water tank hooked up to a water catchment (water guzzler) system, for your own water or for the local animals.  Or you could always drill your own well if desired.  I'm not a hunter, but there are plenty of mule deer, javelina, etc., that you can hunt if that's your thing.  The 3'ish mile dirt road to it, off the paved road, is very well maintained by POATRI, and easily accessible.  Electricity is just under a mile away (I always planned on using solar myself), but one awesome thing -- fiber optic cable (with TWC) goes right through the property, so you can basically have the highest speed internet globally available, anytime you want (but no cell phone towers/signal yet!).

If interested, please email me:  cliff at cluemail dot com .  I check email regularly, but might not check this thread often, fyi.

Specifically, the property description is "Section 540", in Cedar Springs, Terlingua, Texas, USA.  You can find it through the maps and info at "www.poatri.org", and that website will give you a lot of the local info and surrounding properties -- in fact, this 640 acres used to be one of their hunting properties back in the 1980's.  Look for the slightly-rotated square (mile), that borders the multi-million acre Big Bend National Park towards the East, and you can't miss it.  Although it is surrounded by Terlingua Ranch Properties (and the National Park), there are no yearly assessments due.  County taxes are about $600 per year, and that's all that is needed to pay for ongoing ownership.  Realize this is $300 an acre for good USA land, which is incredibly inexpensive... although around Terlingua there are some great deals to be had, I challenge anyone to find property for less than this price per acre (be it 20, 200, or 2000 acres), that borders the National park (or even the State park a few miles to the West, for that matter).

FYI, I've been involved with and buying bitcoin since it was below $30 USD, and I haven't been keeping track much in 2014 of the largest BTC public transactions -- so I can't be sure, but I suppose it's possible that if this deal ever concludes, it might be the one of the biggest pure BTC real estate transactions to ever occur.  If it sells, I'll make sure to post the details on bitcointalk.org.

Thanks for reading, and any ideas are welcome.  I can email a few pictures for anyone seriously interested, and have a local realtor in the area that could provide an in-person showing.  I'll be happy to reach out via a phone call if you provide a number (I live in Austin, TX, fyi).  Please feel free to cross-post this to Reddit or anywhere else in bitcoin-land, if you think it worthy, as it's unlikely I'll get to it within the next few weeks.

Long live the Bitcoin marketplace!

Hey Burnin,

Thanks a bunch for working on this -- obviously, people are into it, and it can seriously help the BTC mining community large-scale

Two concepts:


I'm one of the perhaps 50 "group buy" purchasers, that would like to see a board capable of more than 10 chips.  I think you're wise working on the first version -- a 10 chip board, solely and initially.  But might I suggest, that you try/think of one that does 100 chips (or a major increase, like 10x or more).  Perhaps alternatively you could provide the same 10 chip board, but sell it with economy of scale (like, just put 10 boards together with 10 chips each, but sell it for 30%?? less).  I'm pretty sure 50+ members of BTCtalk would like to see something/anything like this or similar (or have some options from you), especially as/before you announce your shipping time estimates and solid prices.

Secondly, thanks for your post #102 (about "signing")... I think that'll help both you, and all the "newby's" (like myself probably!) in making the orders with you more seamless.

Best of luck, to you and us all, in this endeavor   And BTC long-term in general.

; <30> ; <2.58> ;  < 1CzpnPWmCiwPdXsPZq8ZkpA4R1276Wx4BG >

This is me adding 30 more chips in Batch #3.

My only other order of 90 chips (in post #133) will bring this to a total of 120 chips.

Thanks again!!

; <90> ; <7.74> ;  < private - sent PM >

Thanks!  This is awesome

Thanks for the offers, howdoin & ssateneth.  FYI, I'll receive offers faster if I'm PM'ed (because it forwards to my email).

I don't have a problem using escrow, but probably not for the whole amount (at these prices) until the unit is in your hand.  There is a reason why no ASIC, in hand, has ever sold for less than $20,000 to my knowledge.  Everyone who orders a BFL or Avalon ASIC for less than these extreme amounts, is in the same boat -- pay up front, and wait.  I agree that it sucks, but it's currently how it works in ASIC land.

However, let me give it some thought, and I'll try to PM you both in a bit.  Perhaps there is a happy medium and a deal that can be reached.

Any other offers, feel free to let me know.  Thanks!

Thanks all, for the feedback. 

Although I don't think BFL is a "scam" (strictly speaking), they certainly have a lot of unhappy customers by missing every delivery date so far.

And yes, Dalkore, I have done some thinking and decided to adjust the price: 

$2300 + shipping.

Since this is $200 less than what BFL is charging now, and the buyer should get the machine sooner than any order made on BFL's site today, I'm anticipating it selling without resorting to eBay.

For me, it's still a profit, and mitigates my other mining ownership risks (including other BFL equipment).  The buyer should realize, that what you're purchasing is a non-refundable one sentence contract with me:  To simply ship/get it to you immediately once BFL has it delivered to me.   If the buyer wants to pay me back for the shipping costs after it's been delivered to them, that's fine with me as well - otherwise we'll estimate it.  Preference given to buyers who can pick this up in person (in Austin, Texas).

If interested, PM me, and feel free to additionally post ITT.  Potential buyers should probably give me their email address, so I can email a full copy of my BFL purchase receipt.  Plus consider having a brief voice conversation as well.

Well, apparently there isn't much interest, so I'll likely put it up on eBay in a few days when I get the chance.  I'm planning on starting the eBay price at $2499 USD, so if anyone has interest at that level or above, feel free to PM me.  I'd just rather not deal with eBay, PayPal, and the lot -- when selling anything in general, much less such a specialized ASIC machine under unique (BFL) circumstances.  BTCtalk members seem to be the most informed about these rigs, best I can tell.

I'll edit this post with the eBay link once created, and close the thread once sold or taken off the market.

I'm a bit surprised that the BTC "price crash" has lowered interest so much (if that's indeed what it happening).  It's still the only ASIC miner system in the world that I know of which can be pre-ordered currently, ever since Avalon Batch #3 sold out.  Unless one believes that BFL will never ship -- or won't until 2014 ! -- the most likely scenario (IMO) is this mining rig should be rather profitable at this price.  Perhaps I'll think about listing this again, after BFL has shipped to its first 20 customers...??

Thanks again all, for reading this far and any helpful comments.

I'm selling one of my Butterfly Labs pre-order 60Gh/s bitforce ASIC miner boxes.

Basically, this is probably a good deal for anyone who is thinking about ordering one from BFL's site, now or soon.

The price I will take for certain, is $3500 USD.  I will also entertain any offers over $2800.  I'm very happy to accept either BTC or wire transfer to my US bank account, or possibly other options.

My order # is (minus the last two digits):  #1000265XX
It was ordered March 26th, 2013.  So you almost certainly would see it sooner than one ordered on BFL's site right now -- whether that's two days or two weeks earlier, who knows? (others might have a better guess about this).  Also, my machine is 60Gh/s, not 50Gh/s as BFL is offering now for $2499.

The price includes overnight shipping anywhere in the US, or standard shipping anywhere in the world - unless you want to pay for faster shipping.  I can send it out the next business day after it arrives at my home -- or possibly the same day, depending on when it gets dropped off.

I personally believe that this hardware will eventually be delivered, but I'm not going to even guess at when.  Seemed like a good idea to sell one of my BFL boxes at a profit, to make me feel better about having to wait on the rest of my BFL mining hardware.  I wanted to give BTCtalk members first shot at this, else otherwise I'll probably eBay it, as all similar BFL miners there (that I could see, and ordered after Jan.1) have sold for over $4000.

Also, this is my first item selling on BTCtalk, so anyone with helpful suggestions, please feel free to chime in.  And, I'm pretty sure that anyone wanting to "trust a newer member", will be able to have a conversation with me, and feel quite confident of my long standing business reputation.  I've been buying/selling hardware online well before the WWW ever existed -- shouldn't be too hard to figure out a solution.

Thanks for looking!
-CryptoZen

Hi CH,

Great new forum website, but I can't post there yet... (you have my email addy, it's the same one, if you need to grant privileges).

What I'm trying to do, is get my BTC address to you for dividends, for the spreadsheet.  It is:
1JEpQ2hcJKvnzQEYkJsXicPE8G6CVm7arE

It's the exact same BTC address I PM'ed you last Friday at noon (just so you know someone hasn't hacked my account today or anything

Thanks, & see you (& everyone) on the new cool forum!!
-CryptoZen

CH - latest spreadsheet is great, nice job.  And, the groups ROI projections seem sound, & rather positive.   

I'd like to make a proposal - that CH creates a new thread (in this sub-forum, "Custom Hardware"), that deals with the concept specifically of how we want to "structure our group".  We currently have about 85 stakeholders, and that can be a lot of opinions, and could make this current thread (which we can keep for discussing hardware, delivery dates, etc.) quite long & rather hard to find info as the months progress.

If CH makes a new thread, in it we can figure out some guidelines.  I'm hoping that another group member "steps up", and can help CH with all the accounting & BTC moving involved within concept of members transferring (selling) their interest over time -- basically creating a single point of contact for CH for "stakeholder transfers".  Someone with a good & long-standing reputation on BTCtalk, so definitely not me because I'm very new.  Assuming somebody "steps up", that person might eventually create a "buy/sell Group 7 interest" thread in the Economics forum.

What I'm hoping, is that there is enough buying interest within our own group to purchase anybody who wants out, for exactly the price they came in (I'll probably be a buyer).  If we give ourselves two weeks to set up the guidelines and such, and have CH's approval ahead of that time, then the first "bulk transfer" of those who want to sell could happen on April 14th.

Sound cool?  (or not?)  I'm happy to try and help us organize things initially, if most everyone wants me to.  Regardless -- onwards to Avalon hashing!   

Hi all,

Out of Newby land finally.  Glad to make the group's acquaintance!   I'm in for 5 BTC.

First, a big public "THANK YOU!" to CoinHoarder!!

Second, I completely agree with shibaji.  CoinHoarder, it's entirely your decision, but you will save yourself a lot of extra hassle and work if you completely deny any share transferring or selling for the short term (one week, or *however* long you think you'll need to get things sorted out).

I've run a few companies before, and believe we should handle any "share" transfers, in a very open and transparent manner, and also with some straightforward rules.  We probably shouldn't even be discussing those rules in this thread (time to make a new sub-thread?), or for a while.  I can think of half a dozen concepts (right of first refusal by the group, blah blah blah), and they should all be taken up/examined by group members (with CH as final approver, period).

So, everyone who "wants to buy in" to this -- at least for the time being, please don't post "I want to bid/buy into this" here, at least not until CoinHoarder himself says "hey, we might be selling a piece".  Sound reasonable?  Perhaps make your own group, and buy a whole Avalon from any seller (ebay, etc.).  And if you want to sell your group share -- I'd suggest waiting until CH is ready (and says so), and has at least processed/accounted for your payments.

For everyone "in the group" -- please realize, you might see/hear all kinds of offers.  People are paying 1500% markups on eBay, to buy BFL equipment that they have no guarantees on, esp. since no single consumer has ever had a BFL ASIC delivered to date.  And someone in BTCtalk sold a working Avalon, for cash in Seattle, for $20k -- in a matter of hours -- because *that was a good deal*.  An Avalon right now will make over $500 a day at current hashrate difficulty and BTC price, and people can't get them fast enough.  This group alone is proof

I plan to sit back, be happy I bought in, and feel that it's all going to work out.  I hope everyone else feels the same way 

Thanks everyone.  Let's get our Avalons, keep perspective, and make this work.

Well...

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the value of BTC (and therefore, how people generate it's market capitilization), is based solely on what someone will pay for it, or sell it.  The bid/ask spread and depth, if you will.

So, what I'm saying -- if someone very rich tried to buy "one Billion Dollars" (with their pinky finger!) of BTC in one day (or 1 hour), the price of BTC wouldn't "double" to $200, and then have a $2B market cap.  It would be worth, well, maybe 1 million USD, perhaps?  Total guess, but it depends on the "depth" and prices then available on the ask side.

If so, that would mean ($1,000,000 USD * 10,966,000 BTC) a market cap of... Eleven Trillion USD.  Or at least it would be for a few minutes.  

I'm mostly posting this because I need more posts to get out of Newby land.  But thought it might spark more discussion...

Maybe we should consider putting some six figure ask's up at MtGox, hmm?  Couldn't hurt, I suppose.

Excellent!  I'll be there, April 16th @6:30pm -- it'll be nice to meet new Bitcoin folks in person

Jack, thanks for organizing this... and Norman, for posting into the meetup section where it'll get more traction.

FYI, I have a lot of experience in tech startups, and am absolutely thrilled with the idea of Bitcoin recently... See y'all there!

-CryptoZen

Best as I could tell, the Avalon ASIC Batch #3 was "out of stock" and stayed that way, in the early morning of March 27, 2013.  It went back n' forth between having stock or not, for a couple days before then, as orders were left unpaid (perhaps because they only accepted BTC -- seems a few people had time delays/transaction difficulties).  But paying in BTC for a BTC printing press is probably a good idea

-CryptoZen

Congrats!  Yup, same here, got one (batch #3). Looking forward to posting/sharing about it... I certainly need to make some posts and get out of the newby sandbox

-CryptoZen

Hello BTC world!

I live in Texas, USA, and have been consumed lately by the Bitcoin system 

Silly that I didn't get involved earlier, considering how much background I have with Public Key cryptography... oh well, better late than never.

Looking forward to communicating with you all!

FYI, I'm currently interested in meeting up with people who run mining rigs in the Central TX area (Austin, San Antonio, DFW & Houston).  And possibly investing/partnering -- I've purchased my share of Bitcoins (& spend them where I can), yet I envision a  bright future with mining as well, and would like to get started now rather than just sitting on an ASIC waiting list.

Bitcoin rocks, and this is a great forum - glad to be a part of it finally.
-CryptoZen