2013-12-23 – 001-007 – HDR
Image by vmax137
This discontinued 500GH/s bitcoin miner from Butterfly Labs is a mix of good and not great. It’s also not mine for so many reasons. Anyway the 50lbs. cardboard box this was shipped in includes the miner, two power cables, and foam with an alarmingly strong chemical smell. The contents will be addressed later but right now yes, the miner mines like a demon. Rated at 500GH/s, it’s averaging around 450GH/s or slightly more.
The custom case came in flat black and has two power supplies that both must be turned on to run. It’s a stand-alone unit that requires no monitor, keyboard, or a host computer. It has a built-in WiFi and a tablet ingeniously repurposed into a front panel touchscreen running Andriod. It requires two 10 amp lines, is as noisy as a hair dryer next to your ear from 10 feet away, and runs hot enough to save the Titanic from an oncoming iceberg. This is all expected and if GH/s is all that matters then that’s all there is to this miner. But this unit is no turn-key solution and it shows issues that goes beyond hardware.
The case is incredibly unfriendly to work with utilizing screws that are not standard among PCs save for laptops. Worse than that is the inconsistency – some screws are loose while others have been over-torqued. Either could have been caused from vibrations during shipment but the flush hex screws are not doing it any favors. But wait, why would anyone want to take apart this miner? Other than visual inspection to make sure everything is still attached after shipping, a USB extension cable has to be connected to the USB header cable located inside the case in order for the miner to work at all because Butterfly Labs left it disconnected. This was discovered after spending some time going through the online forums.
I mean if my Wheel Stand Pro imported from Poland came with several pages of instructions and clear technical illustrations, then something that cost as much as a real entry-level rally car should have at the very least a "thx!" hastily written on a sticky. The online instructions in getting started with configuration settings are excellent but the set up and troubleshooting are incredibly difficult to search for. They must be prospected manually by wading through the forums.
The touch screen was another issue. Disconnected from power the touch screen will drain its internal battery unless it’s shut down via the menu. Easy peasy but to turn it back on a long Loki-pokey stick must be inserted in a circular opening on the right hand side of the case. This will hit a small button on the side of the touch screen inside the case. Back in the dark age of personal computing accessing a power supply switch deep inside my old 386-SX was solved by Packard Bell using a button attached to a long S-rod. If the touch screen button was too fragile for that kind of engineering it could have been mentioned on a slip of paper. Instead it felt like I was rooting around for the Autobot Matrix of Leadership.
Even the power requirement is left for the mining operator and the fuse box to discover. Will normal house electrical wiring do or will it need a lightning rod connected to a flux capacitor? A thin, solitary paper and a screenwriter scrawling over it in between waiting tables is not much to ask. Butterfly Labs have limited resources for customer support but basic questions should be taken care of before they hit support.
The miner is having issues just about every time it boots up from a scheduled maintenance shutdown. It could be that running on unfiltered lines and the unit itself may have been refurbished is giving us additional problems. It’s still mining like a beast and at the end of the day that’s all that matters, until something breaks.
-Update: Corrected 400GH/s to 500GH/s.
-Update 2014-08-11: Other than a week or two of scheduled downtime the miner is still mining with no issues.
-Update 2014-09-23: Federal Trade Commission in civil suit against Butterfly Labs for engaging in alleged fraudulent and deceptive practices.
arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/09/feds-label-bitcoin-mi…
For at least the past year, many investors and entrepreneurs have been talking about the power of the blockchain for use in a variety of applications in different industries. Blockchain has turned into a catch-all phrase for anything involving a shared ledger or database but the technology was first created by Satoshi Nakamoto for the purpose of tracking and confirming Bitcoin transactions.
Blockchain technology has been hyped for use everywhere from traditional banking institutions to the healthcare industry and some have gone as far as to say that generalized, private blockchains will have a much greater impact on the world than Bitcoin. However, there have been hints that this trend is on the verge of a reversal. One of the latest signs of the reemergence of Bitcoin is the batch of startups accepted into the fourth round of the Plug and Play Fintech program.
Of the 24 startups accepted into the program, six are working with the Bitcoin blockchain in some capacity.
Focus on Bitcoin Startups
The six Bitcoin-related startups in this round of Plug and Play Fintech are Eximchain, Netki, Shocard, The Sun Exchange, Tierion and Tradle.
Interestingly enough, The Sun Exchange is the only one using bitcoin as a currency. The startup allows international users to invest in solar panel projects around the world and they’re currently focused on the Southern Africa region.
“We are rather special in that we offer bitcoin holders the opportunity to invest in a product that produces a financial return in BTC,” The Sun Exchange CFO Larry Temlock told Bitcoin Magazine. “For those people that want to buy and hold BTC for the long term, this attractively high investment yield can provide a sort of ‘buffer’ against unfavorable decrease in BTC value vs other currencies or assets and perhaps make the spot currency market volatility a little less painful for those that are holding bitcoin for the future.”
Eximchain and Tierion are hashing data into the Bitcoin blockchain for use as an immutable database. Netki is a startup that has been focused on replacing long, confusing Bitcoin addresses with human-readable wallet names and they were also involved in the development of BIP 75. Shocard and Tradle have a focus on allowing users to prove their identities to third parties through the use of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Blockchain Companies Still Present
Of course, there are also a few startups focused on the more general concept of blockchain technology in the fourth batch of Plug and Play Fintech startups. Nuco is a project started by three former members of Deloitte’s blockchain team and the startup is focused on building customized, private blockchain solutions across various industries.
The Stellar Development Foundation, which supports a Ripple spin-off, was also part of this round of Plug and Play Fintech startups.
Some of the above-mentioned Bitcoin companies also have aspects of their business plans that go outside of the Bitcoin blockchain. Netki now offers Digital Identity Certificates, which can work across all private and public blockchains and The Sun Exchange also relies on the use of various “blockchain-based applications” on their crowd investing platform.
Shocard CEO Armin Ebrahimi told Bitcoin Magazine: “While we use the Bitcoin blockchain, our platform is blockchain agnostic and in fact, we do write to multiple blockchains and can relate the data cohesively. The blockchain however is fundamental in providing our identity solution.”
What Will These Startups Gain From Plug and Play?
Whether they’re involved with Bitcoin or some other form of blockchain technology, all of these startups understand the value of Plug and Play Fintech.
“We were thrilled that [Plug and Play] invited Tierion to join their program,” Tierion CEO Wayne Vaughan told Bitcoin Magazine. “Each week, we’re meeting with enterprise customers that we’ve met through [Plug and Play]. It’s a great way to accelerate our business development efforts and build our network in Silicon Valley.”
Netki CEO Justin Newton also shared his excitement about the program with Bitcoin Magazine:
“Our Wallet Name product has been proven in the Bitcoin ecosystem and with the launch of our Identity Certificate product we are seeing strong interest from traditional financial enterprise customers. Being accepted into Plug and Play from their hundreds of applicants gives you amazing access to their corporate partners, who know you have already gone through a rigorous selection process. This will help us accelerate both traction with those companies, but as importantly, an opportunity to get detailed feedback on product market fit and any adjustments that will need to be made to make our products fit better.”
The post PnP Fintech Startup Program May Signal Industry Shift From ‘Blockchain’ Back to Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.
PnP Fintech Startup Program May Signal Industry Shift From ‘Blockchain’ Back to Bitcoin
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