Bitcoin Miners from ButterflyLabs

[fzu]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had experience with the BTC miners by ButterFlyLabs. Has anyone purchased one of their rigs and/or recieved one?

I am considering the 5GH/s or the 25GH/s model. The "products are shipped according to placement in the order queue, and delivery may take 2 months or more after order. All sales are final." concerns me though.

Regards, 

[Lowe D]

Can it do anything other than mine bitcoins?

[Lowe D]

If it can't, that's a total loss in any situation where you can't turn a profit.  There are unlimited such situations, but most likely is that, in the months or years you are waiting for this company to deliver your ASIC, bitcoins go down in price enough that the energy needed for mining is more expensive.

That point could be right now, yesterday, or any time, since they don't release any power specs for their machines.  That is reason enough not to buy one.

BTW I can't tell from the FAQ if anyone has one of these things.  There may not even be a device around, at this point.

 

EDIT:  What I do see confirmed is that they had a FPGA version, which they have sold, and has been used by someone.

[ribuck]

It would be a high risk purchase, fzu.

Butterfly Labs have been consistently late with shipping. When they say "delivery may take 2 months or more", the key words are "or more".

 

[Matthew Santonastaso]

I ordered the cheap one in Feb. It is not here yet but I can keep you updated

[Wesley]

I pre-ordered a single in november when it was around $1300 ($1400 after fees and shipping) and I still have not recieved it almost to June now when I expected it in December. My understanding is that I will get it soon, however they failed specs and now it is worth $2500. My plan is to immediately sell it for around $2200 and make the $800 profit once I get it.

While they may work fine, BFL really, really sucks. I don't know if there are any other options for ASICs, but after my experiences I would never do business with them again. They seem to finally be rolling them out (the like 10th time they've been close) but this time I may actually get it in enough time to immediately sell it. They have no info, aren't allowing refunds, and may not give you your product for nearly a year. If this sounds like a good deal, then buy lots from the scumbags at BFL.

By the way, BFL execs sold themselves miners first so they have been mining and making money for months at the expense of their customers. Such scumbags.

[Wesley]

 

Can it do anything other than mine bitcoins?

 

No, the point of ASIC miners is that mining is all they can do.

[Matthew Santonastaso]

I agree that BFL haven't been honest and I wont buy anything from them again. how do you know they have been mining and has any ASICs been shipped?

[Wesley]

A few of the smaller ones have shipped. The jalepenos and such. Josh took some from the first batch (because he pre-ordered before he started working for BFL) and was using them for his private company that offers shares and dividends to investors denominated in bitcoin. I can no longer find the posts about this, so I am sorry that I do not have proof. Thus, you may take this as a cautionary tale rather than damning evidence.

The problem is that this is obviously a conflict of interest. The guy who is working on getting them out has some ASICs himself and is starting to mine. Whether these are ASICs or FGPAs or w/e it doesn't really matter. He has a specific interest in not letting the difficulty go up as it will make his current venture much less profitable. What do you know? He has taken months beyond what he said to roll out ASICs. It is obvious conflict of interest even if I got some of the details wrong.

[Matthew Santonastaso]

I wasn't disagreeing with you I just wanted to know more. I dont know much about I ordered one jalepeno that was a mistake because if I invested the 160 in bitcoin When I ordered I would of made way more. The obvious conflict of interest is what kept me from ordering a big order when the ASIC were anounced. But once you get your product why sell it? It should still be more then efficient.

[Wesley]

I was only trying to share what I know and can prove vs. my understanding.

I am selling because for the past 8 months or so I have been in a "free energy" situation where I have no costs to mine as far as energy consumption. I willbe moving and I will have to pay the electric bill, so this will change. For the moving process I also would prefer to have the cash and a quick 60% ish profit works for me.

Once all of the ASICs come out, the difficulty should go up until it hits the equilibrium where it takes around 2 years of mining to maybe make up initial costs when you factor in the energy consumed. If it is lower, more will buy ASIC miners. If it is higher, some will stop mining as they are losing money. In a free energy situation, I did not have these risks. When I move I risk a rapidly increasing difficulty, paying costs of energy, and the possibility of better ASICs coming out and making my rig almost useless to sell. I would rather take the easy profits. Obviously, others may be willing to take these risks or have a free energy situation at a job or a college or a parent's house they can take advantage of.

What is frustrating is that I could have made my 60% profit because I have free energy over the past several months and then sold the miner and made some of the inital costs back. I lost a lot as far as my calculated profits because BFL sucked and delayed so long. Now, I am looking to get what I can and get out of it- for the near term.