Creative, I believe you are one of the most communicative and capable members around here who run a bitcoin mining related company. Unfortunately, I do not believe that simply buying hardware from 3rd parties in an attempt to maintain network percentage can be profitable in the wake of monstrous difficulty increases. Have you ever considered expanding from simply scouring the internet attempting to find cheap 3rd party hardware to actually taking the step in taking part in the manufacture of your own ASICs?

Keeping up with difficulty will be hard, especially since each miner brings diminishing returns.

Say for example basic had 10% of network (again, just an example) at 10TH, and wishes to maintain its percentage
If network difficulty goes up 20%, Basic would need to add 2 TH
Network difficulty increases again by 20%, Basic would need to add 2.4 TH
Network difficulty increases again by 20%, Basic would need to add 2.88 TH
Network difficulty increases again by 20%, Basic would need to add 3.45 TH

As we are already seeing this have a major effect on the business - In order to keep up with difficulty increases, creativex would have to add 5 avalons every 12 days. Clearly, this is a near impossible task given the dearth of supply and the unreliability of buying the machines in the first place.

Tired, it's been a ridiculously long day. I still haven't deciphered the difference between what I posted and what you posted.

I'm going to get some coffee...come back here and umm...read your riddle buddy.

Hi weezerfan. I'd very much like to simply calculate how many avalons we'd need to add on to keep up with difficulty each re-target and go out and source them, but that won't work as we'd eventually go broke. Safeguarding shareholder value is much more than just maintaining a consistent dividend payout. I have to run each and every purchase candidate through my own common sense detector to determine if we're likely to at the very least get our money back out of this gear before I have to unplug it to stop losses from expenses. We're at a crossroad here where those on the cutting edge are transitioning to 2nd gen ASIC equipment and just like the previous major equipment shifts(CPU --> GPU --> FPGA --> ASIC) there's a lot to gain or lose. I believe we have to keep sufficient powder dry so that we can make significant purchases of gen2 gear when it's actually available.

What FMG points out in the post following yours is accurate, but, if we play it smart we don't have to be victimized by the laws of big numbers. Sure while it would take 17 avalons to double our hashrate now, a single cointerra unit would more than double our hashrate in Dec or January. We just have to not shoot ourselves in the foot before we can get there. In between I see potential in bitfury's products for October delivery and possibly knc's products for November delivery to possibly tide us over.

Also I think it's important to keep in mind that while the law of big numbers applies to our hashrate, so too it applies to everyone else's and the global network itself. It's not hard to believe the global network can expand by 3%/day for a few quarters after new technology revolutionizes mining, but the amount of capital required to sustain that growth long term eventually makes it unsustainable unless the exchange rate grows along with it, which in turn would make older less efficient gear profitable longer.

Cheers.

Hey creativex, not sure what your standards are for buying ASICs, like price-wise, but here are a couple I found:
http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-computers-Bitcoin-ASIC-Miner-Avalon-82GH-s-W0QQAdIdZ513386640 <-- He might be able to talk down a bit, ad has been up for over 2 weeks.
http://alberta.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-computers-Powerful-Bitcoin-miner-BFL-Little-Single-30GH-S-IN-HAND-W0QQAdIdZ517428676 <-- 30 GH/s for $2500, again *might* be able to talk down a bit

But Kijiji recommends to always do in-person transactions. I guess escrow is an option? Not sure you want to do that route though.

But just throwing out ideas.

Also: If a scrypt FPGA or ASIC is created, do you have plans to invest early in them creativex?

Thanks for the awesome job today as always BTW!

If you don't really NEED "cash" BTC then wait until January, when our first 2nd gen ASIC will start hashing. (just assumption, but real one)

 I PM'd him with the Alberta one but I just realized now reading your post that it was a 30G.  I thought it was a 50!  Seems kinds pricey now.

Take care

If anything, IMO, time to buy more.

Bring that average down and when it goes back up (it will), you'll be pleased. bASIC has to be one of the best run outfit, large capital reserves, competent management both in terms of technicality and financial reality.

The dividends talk.

The truth is I bought many shares at 0.48 and get some at 0.31. after drop, i think it is the time to rise. so i bought more at 0.22.  now it is 0.18.    i nearly loss 47 btc for this investment.

should i sold some? or keep watching?