I just googled hashfast, and that's not what I was looking for. 

I know nothing about programming but I think the only way another altcoin could become successful is to use a different hashing algorithm other than scrypt or SHA.  Perhaps an implementation of bcrypt or SHA-3 could be used?  This would bring a whole new level of security to the cryptocurrency system.  Litecoin is strong because any weakness in the bitcoin network isn't shared by the litecoin network.  All others alts are clones of one of these two, so they don't actually add any sustainable value.

Btc pricing is so random.  The exchange of fiat currencies has fundamental economic drivers and it's publicly known how central banks manipulate the rates.

Oooh, btc down today.  Did a major holder just cash out?

Hi Derek,
I might be interested in a group buy of klondike boards from bkkcoins or Bicknellski.  I like what they are doing, they're local, and they estimate 4 GH/s < $300.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.0

I agree, the profit driven developer would take investment money to develop the technology, mine until the difficulty starts to rise, and then distribute devices to the buyers at a targeted ROI window.  For example, an average public consumer buys a device today and receives it at a difficulty level that allows her to reach breakeven after 3-4 months of mining.  The advantage over FPGA just needs to be above the threshold that ensures adoption of the technology and the strategy works.  Giving away fast chips at low cost right now is literally throwing away potential profit, for everyone.  It's much more sensible maintain any advantage that one may have.

I agree that KnC appears to be much more professional than others in terms of engineering and marketing, but imagine the amount of power they intend to introduce into the bitcoin network.  The guy that is first in line bought one saturn and one jupiter.  That's over $11,000 USD with shipping.  At the targeted chip power, this guy would be able to do 600 GH/s, generating $49,305 USD per month at today's difficulty.  There are a couple of problems with this scenario that don't jive with common business instinct.  To protect mining profitability, builders must control how much computing power they release on the network rather than distribute as much as possible as quickly as possible.  This is the problem that affected BFL.  They sold as much as possible without ever intending to ship everything immediately.  If ASICs were distributed widely and cheaply, mining profitability would return to previous levels for everybody, neither the miners nor the engineers would have extraordinary ROI.  So, right now we have sort of a lottery situation, where the developers and early investors profit the most.  Late adopters of ASIC mining will experience the same profitability they had with GPU's last year.  The other issue concerns the future of bitcoin itself.  If KnC or any other company can deliver in quantity, they are also in a position to hijack the blockchain.  I believe that ASICMiner has the ability do a 51% attack today, they just won't because it would topple the house of cards.  It's better to milk the cow for many years rather than kill it for steaks.  In the current situation, the future of bitcoin is controlled by a few powerful entities such as BFL, MtGox, Avalon, and ASICMiner.  Others may join the ranks soon.  As long as they don't screw up royally, the currency remains useful, but if a large disturbance in the force were to occur (borrowing from star wars), the value of the coin could easily go back to nothing.

Lol This company seriously has gone off the deep end.  One thing is for certain, their goal is to remain profitable as long as possible, do you think that can be achieved by flooding the market with ASICs?  Nope.

Oh jeez not again, can somebody think of something new?

Whether it happens sooner or later, I agree completely with your projections.  Owners of cutting edge mining technology have a huge advantage right now and profitability is great, but it's an advantage that a very small minority enjoys.  Eventually, everybody who wants to participate in mining will have to obtain specialized hardware or they will turn to scrypt coins.  Bitcoin mining will be performed by specialized equipment; it simply won't be profitable otherwise.  A few powerful groups will dominate the end-state of the currency.  It’s a lot less utopian than people think it will be.

Thanks!  Today I've seen why GPU mining for btc is over.  Just one person with 57.5 GH showed up on our pool and my estimated payout actually started to decrease.

Hey guys, I'm new on this thread so I wanted to introduce myself.  I first heard of bitcoin back in 2010 and tried some mining but lost interest quickly.  The value of a btc was minuscule and my graphics card was not even good for gaming so I could only make a micro a day or something silly like that.  Anyways, the value popped and I'm still kicking myself for not paying any attention to it last year.  Yesterday I had the opportunity to get in on the terrahash preorder.  I was actually hitting the refresh button on my browser at 11:58 and at exactly midnight the shopping cart opened up.  My order was like #21 but just before forking my hard earned cash over I came to my senses and cancelled it.  I'm mostly interested in the technical aspects of mining and if I can make a profit out of it that's even better.  The way I see it, terrahash isn't much further ahead than any of the other DIYers.  If BKK, the designer of the board isn't even ready to test, I don't see how TH would be.  I've looked at the power, cooling, and control requirements of the Avalon chips and my impression is that the klondike design is going to need a fair amount of work before it's ready for stable hashing.  Instead I've decided to accumulate some BTC and get in on a Avalon chip group buy.  Avalon chips clearly have value, they have already proven themselves capable of driving rigs, while a klondike miner preorder has unknown value.  The feasibility and timeframe are both uncertain.  I would like to buy about 125 avalon asic chips and wait for the board designers to get a working model done.  Then I'll buy the working boards and finish the miners myself or outsource the final production.  Worse comes to worse, I can always sell the ASIC chips at a slight markup to others who don't want to wait for a batch order.

Me too, I'm running 3 Sapphire 7970's with triplemining.com.  It averages 1.97 G, but it's damn hot and I'm scared to check the electrical consumption!  Does anybody know of a good kill-a-watt style watt meter that works on 220v or 110/220v?

Ti

According to WSJ, "hackers are abusing the Internet virtual currency for profit".  Does this imply that there's stuff on the Internet that hacker's aren't abusing?  The fact that the currency still exists and has even increased in value is evidence of it's resistance to external influence.  It's an amazing piece of work and something the world really needs at a time like this, where centrally controlled currencies have been manipulated beyond belief to the benefit of a select few.

I will add a few more to the list.  Be prepared for a long wait (at least a few months) and the possibility of losing your money due to non-delivery, late delivery, or unprofitable mining operations.

www.kncminer.com
www.terrahash.com
www.alphahpc.com

ASIC and FPGA mining hardware has also been showing up on eBay.

If the number of coins in circulation goes down, a number of things can be done to offset the effects of deflation and maintain the velocity of transactions.  For example, smaller fractions of currency can be introduced into transactions, however it would be annoying to have to constantly count a bunch of leading zeros.

By the time lost coins have any affect on the bitcoin economy, there will probably be better digital currencies available.  People who believe that BTC will exist forever aren't being realistic.  This is something for us to play with today.

Why do I have to be restricted to the newb section before I can make a real post?