I really, really, really wanted to buy an Obelisk. Not, just one but 4-8... Sia Tech is right down the street from me and I wanted to support the local boys but I can't. I believe in the technology but this pre-sale for the asic, Obelisk, has been a disaster.
Siacoin market cap (at time of writing) is $289 million. They are competing against big boys like Amazon (Amazon S3), google (Google cloud storage), Dropbox, and Microsoft (microsoft Azure).
In tradition cloud storage, you upload your files to the “cloud” - all of your files are help by a single company like amazon or google. They have access to all your files, are in control of them and issues, such as database leaks, can happened.
With Sia, you upload your files to a DECENTRALIZED private cloud. Your files are encrypted and distributed across a network. You hold your keys, you own your data. Your data is distributed among a number of hosts, none of which can manipulate the data. All of this is done through smart contracts. Sia holds the payment in escrow until the contract is finished. Sia also is only about 1/10 the cost of tradition storage.
Sia is doing something awesome. I really like the concept being the company. I think they are doing something great but they screwed the pooch with this Obelisk release. . .
Sia recently announced an ASIC called the OBELISK capable of mining Siacoin at 100+GH/S. They actually do not know the hashrate because the obelisk is so early in development.
The Obelisk is slated for a release next summer a YEAR from now... $2500 for an ASIC that is still in the early stage of development? What if another company develops one sooner? What if Sia is no longer a company? What if the ASIC is not ready in time?
Sia is a 300 million dollar company but the team does not have the capital for developing the Obelisk chip so they needed to do a pre-sale a year before the Obelisk will be finished. That does not sit well with me.
Presale began a week ago with an end date of 7/6/17. Sia openly said they fully expected 10,000 sales. That did not happen.
The absolute minimum for the team to ship the unit is 2000 sold. They did not meet that goal. I cannot find any statements from the Sia about what this means. $2.76 million dollars has been raised so far. This is what up live on the site now, 7/7/17...
A day after the pre-sale was suppose to end - well now, magically, its still going on for a "limited time" with a capped sale. Lets see how long this capped extended first batch will go on for. So, your telling me, I can hold my $2500 and wait till 3950 sales happen and then buy an Obelisk and still be part of the pre-sale?? However people who participated in the actual pre-sale (ending on 7/6) do not have their money and now can only sit idle on the sideline as Sia says they will extend the pre-sale till 4000 units are sold. Now 4000 units, all competing, during the 6 weeks guaranteed mining period, That is not right. Simply not right. Sia should issue a refund and/or allow anyone who purchased an Obelisk an option to give up their place and receive a full refund.
Initially, everyone participating in the first batch would have a 6 week guaranteed period of mining before the second back released. This was GUARANTEED. . . until you paid with BTC, unable to get your money back and the 7/6 presale end day came.
When asked before the 7/6 presale end day, what will happen if the 2000 unit sale isn't reached. Sia was not upfront. They should have been upfront and said the presale will be extended.
Since the minimum 2000 units weren't reached , Sia has rescinded whether the first batch will get a 6 week headstart. They've only made hints to what will happen at this point. Suggesting only a 3 week headstart..
Let my tell you why this does not sit well with me.
Leading up to 7/6 , Sia guaranteed, anyone buying a first batch (presale ending 7/6), 6 weeks of mining , without competition from the second batch. On 7/6 only 850 were sold. under this scenario, If you bought 8 obelisk, you'd have about 1% of the total supply of Siacoin mined for that 6 weeks period (amount mined with gpu = negligible). Incredibly good, so good I'd be willing to risk what happens between now and the delivery date of next June
Sia made no stipulations of what would would happen if the minimum 'goal' not being met. Sia has already got money for the first batch , their goal is to sell more so they've opened up the second batch sales already by extending the presale. They've decided internally the extended presale will participate in the second 3 weeks of the guaranteed 6 weeks of mining promised only the the first batch buyers . They are 'extending the presale' to 4000 units! the difference between 800 units (true first batch) and 4000 units ("extended" first batch) is extreme. 4000/800 = 5x less profit!
So during these second three weeks, in our scenario of owning 8 Obelisk, instead of mining 1% of the total supply, our Obelisk will mine 5 times less or .2% of the total supply.
Seriously, I'd be ripsh*t finding out my Obelisk was going to be 5x less profitable AFTER being guaranteed 6 weeks of no competition.
Tell me your thoughts. Have you bought an Obelisk? I hope Sia can address a few of our concerns. They have not said anything publicly, as far as I know, in the last 48 hours.