The long-awaited ASIC machine for the Ethash algorithm used by etherum, finally saw the light of day (apart from the fact that it has been working in bitmain mines for a long time). This time Bitmain has again reversed the logical order and prices for individual batches. The first of these is :
Batch 1 Price 800 USD Shipping: 16-31 July
Batch 1 Official Bitmain Website
What can be considered a very low price compared to a similar GPU based miner. However, this batch as it turned out later was just a test for ETH developers about the decision to block ASIC through a fork and a similar move made by Monero Team and blocking these machines in its blockchain. The answer did not have to wait long :
Vitalik Buterin: Ethash ASICs Not a Threat to Ethereum
Batch 2 Price 1800 USD Shipping: 16-31 July
Batch 2 Official Bitmain Website
Price increase by 1000 USD or 120%, delivery time unchanged. As you can see, these are completely different decisions that were made during the release of the next Batches Antminer X3 about which I wrote here:
Bitmain Antminer X3 ASIC BatchJacking
Another noteworthy fact is the increase in Etherum network hashrate on December 25, 2017. What seems likely to be the probable date of equipping bitmain mines with E3 machines that are now sold because they are too high for a very low chance of return of investment at the start.
Ethereum Network Hashrate Chart and Graph
The conclusion that can be drawn. Customers do not support Bitmain, do not buy their machines. Development teams block this type of machines if you can.