Pages:
Author

Topic: ASICMINER: Entering the Future of ASIC Mining by Inventing It - page 6. (Read 3916324 times)

legendary
Activity: 3808
Merit: 7912
In other words a textbook ponzi scam.  Grin
I wouldn't necessarily say so, as far as I remember AM paid out more than it received in investors' funds.
It was only a bad investment for latecomers who paid more than the IPO price per share (to former holders, not to AM).

Right... it could have never been a ponzi because the profit was way way higher than the worth of the investments...

 Yes certainly a lot of Bitcoins were made from the sale of mining product and the mining of Bitcoin in the pool(s).  This was definitely not a Ponzi.
legendary
Activity: 2674
Merit: 1082
Legendary Escrow Service - Tip Jar in Profile
In other words a textbook ponzi scam.  Grin
I wouldn't necessarily say so, as far as I remember AM paid out more than it received in investors' funds.
It was only a bad investment for latecomers who paid more than the IPO price per share (to former holders, not to AM).

Right... it could have never been a ponzi because the profit was way way higher than the worth of the investments...
legendary
Activity: 3808
Merit: 7912
So people are looking for investments that make big promises but don't actually deliver? Hmmmm...  Huh

Asicminer delivered hugely... when one was with them from the start... they only got worse later and at the end their boss vanished...

In other words a textbook ponzi scam.  Grin

 Asicminer was nothing like a Ponzi.  It was a typical startup that had early (huge) success but was later plagued with production issues.  They refunded/replaced all defective machines from their last project and simply did not have the funds to produce another generation of ASICs in a tight marketplace.  They supplied mining equipment for a joint venture (cloud mining) and the machines were purportedly stolen.  Beyond that part of the story it gets rather murky even somewhat intriguing and leads to the disappearance and possible death of the would be President - Friedcat.  In my books, he's still an awesome guy and I hope he is alive and well.


Well, than you have to Mark Karpeles to the good guy list, too.  Roll Eyes In my opintion friedcat took the remaining money, shared with a few boardmembers to keep them quite and dissapeared while spreading some rumors about his own death. Not my exact defintion of a good guy.

 Actually I don't have MagicalTux on the good guy list.  I didn't have any dealings with him or MtGox and formed no opinion until I read about the backlog of withdrawals and started to hear rumours of missing Bitcoins. When I saw Kolin Burges confronting him about the missing Bitcoins, that's the point where Karpeles became a permanent fixture on the bad guy list.  He's a douche.
 
legendary
Activity: 2459
Merit: 1057
Don't use bitcoin.de if you care about privacy!
So people are looking for investments that make big promises but don't actually deliver? Hmmmm...  Huh

Asicminer delivered hugely... when one was with them from the start... they only got worse later and at the end their boss vanished...

In other words a textbook ponzi scam.  Grin

 Asicminer was nothing like a Ponzi.  It was a typical startup that had early (huge) success but was later plagued with production issues.  They refunded/replaced all defective machines from their last project and simply did not have the funds to produce another generation of ASICs in a tight marketplace.  They supplied mining equipment for a joint venture (cloud mining) and the machines were purportedly stolen.  Beyond that part of the story it gets rather murky even somewhat intriguing and leads to the disappearance and possible death of the would be President - Friedcat.  In my books, he's still an awesome guy and I hope he is alive and well.


Well, than you have to Mark Karpeles to the good guy list, too.  Roll Eyes In my opintion friedcat took the remaining money, shared with a few boardmembers to keep them quite and dissapeared while spreading some rumors about his own death. Not my exact defintion of a good guy.
legendary
Activity: 3808
Merit: 7912
So people are looking for investments that make big promises but don't actually deliver? Hmmmm...  Huh

Asicminer delivered hugely... when one was with them from the start... they only got worse later and at the end their boss vanished...

In other words a textbook ponzi scam.  Grin

 Asicminer was nothing like a Ponzi.  It was a typical startup that had early (huge) success but was later plagued with production issues.  They refunded/replaced all defective machines from their last project and simply did not have the funds to produce another generation of ASICs in a tight marketplace.  They supplied mining equipment for a joint venture (cloud mining) and the machines were purportedly stolen.  Beyond that part of the story it gets rather murky even somewhat intriguing and leads to the disappearance and possible death of the would be President - Friedcat.  In my books, he's still an awesome guy and I hope he is alive and well.
qwk
donator
Activity: 3542
Merit: 3411
Shitcoin Minimalist
In other words a textbook ponzi scam.  Grin
I wouldn't necessarily say so, as far as I remember AM paid out more than it received in investors' funds.
It was only a bad investment for latecomers who paid more than the IPO price per share (to former holders, not to AM).
full member
Activity: 136
Merit: 100
So people are looking for investments that make big promises but don't actually deliver? Hmmmm...  Huh

Asicminer delivered hugely... when one was with them from the start... they only got worse later and at the end their boss vanished...

In other words a textbook ponzi scam.  Grin
legendary
Activity: 2674
Merit: 1082
Legendary Escrow Service - Tip Jar in Profile
So people are looking for investments that make big promises but don't actually deliver? Hmmmm...  Huh

Asicminer delivered hugely... when one was with them from the start... they only got worse later and at the end their boss vanished...
full member
Activity: 136
Merit: 100
So people are looking for investments that make big promises but don't actually deliver? Hmmmm...  Huh
hero member
Activity: 736
Merit: 508
So i realised i was still holding shares, tried to dump them on havelock, theres a bid for
170/210   ฿0.00326999   ฿0.5559
I tried to sell into it, and my deal is stuck as pending.   I am guessing it is a false havelock buy (pump) and they wont allow the sale to go through.
Anyone have any ideas as to what else it could be?  Makes me think havelock are shadier than I gave them credit for.

so, did you manage to sell your last shares? I'm a bagholder on havelock too Wink
legendary
Activity: 2674
Merit: 1082
Legendary Escrow Service - Tip Jar in Profile
So i realised i was still holding shares, tried to dump them on havelock, theres a bid for
170/210   ฿0.00326999   ฿0.5559
I tried to sell into it, and my deal is stuck as pending.   I am guessing it is a false havelock buy (pump) and they wont allow the sale to go through.
Anyone have any ideas as to what else it could be?  Makes me think havelock are shadier than I gave them credit for.

I think trading of the shares was halted when it became clear that friedcat vanished. Or was killed. Or whatever happened to him. Anyway, the company is dead. Trading such shares was useless.
sr. member
Activity: 248
Merit: 250
So i realised i was still holding shares, tried to dump them on havelock, theres a bid for
170/210   ฿0.00326999   ฿0.5559
I tried to sell into it, and my deal is stuck as pending.   I am guessing it is a false havelock buy (pump) and they wont allow the sale to go through.
Anyone have any ideas as to what else it could be?  Makes me think havelock are shadier than I gave them credit for.
legendary
Activity: 2955
Merit: 1049
is there perhaps any liaison from ASICMINER to this?
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/--1072474
the chips came from another manufacture in china which called bitmain.
and here possible a connection?

https://www.jua.com/

member
Activity: 66
Merit: 10
...
I believe his question is directed to Jutarul.

...whose last post was on: April 14, 2015; Last Active: Today at 07:44:28 PM Smiley
hero member
Activity: 667
Merit: 500

What was your role in AM anyways, you seemed to be one of the first investors, the only one on the board that i remember posting some updates for us other than friedcat, and you sold at least 11000BTC worth of AM stock just on this forum before the downfall(sweet timing).

i wish that were the case..  wtcr.ca was one of the first re-sellers,  i was not on the board since before the launch of be100,  i was cut on the first list trim because i dumped a chunk of my shares early.  i had contact with FC due to our reseller relationship.

i also re-invested before be300 like a moron because i was pumped about it and selling it through wtcr.ca and building a new farm,  also wtcr.ca was burned by AM for remaining stock and never getting bad prismas swapped out,  am still owes us money.

i unfortunately believed in FC,  i don't know why you think i sold am shares on this forum because i did not. 
member
Activity: 105
Merit: 12
Jutarul,  yes i am very frustrated.  However thank you for helping answer some of these questions.  

Some points to add though:

1) Making a public statement saying that AM has enough capital to move forward regardless of BTC price,  on basically the eve of a make or break product,  while not having funding in place to produce said product, was EXTREMELY misleading.   People bought on that statement and made decisions on that statement.   No one was  thinking, that BE300 is going to get held up because of MONEY of all things.
The problem with words is that half the time they get misinterpreted. Just because a company stays in business, doesn't mean that they execute certain projects. Did google fail because they didn't bring google glasses to the mass market?

Right now there seems to be some money stuck in accounts, only FC has access to.

2) It does make sense to produce BE300 regardless of BTC price as a matter of fact,  if we want to talk about timing,  everyone is hurting right now, and the block reward halving draws near.  The name of the game is to capture as many BTC as possible.  This environment could actually be the best time possible to secure a future for AM as while the price it isn't so attractive for new players to enter or competition to forge ahead aggressively with new hardware.  The closer we get to the cutting edge technology the harder it becomes.  Now is the  ONLY time.  
You said it yourself. The name of the game is to get a net return on every BTC invested. That's what investors ultimately look for. FC was extremely aware of that point. BTC prices where still in the 370 USD range when sample chips got received. That's when the financing should have been secured (by funding the accounts). It didn't happen.

3)  I  disagree that there was no roadmap,  i have no more information than what is posted here and it is plain as day that samples were ordered,  they came back good,  we knew there needed to be mass production by march / april  (basically now).  It is obvious the order needed to go in as soon as the samples were confirmed good.  Looks like a roadmap to me.
which leads me to #4

4) It is NOT to late to change anything now, btc price is still depressed and though some of the competitive advantage is gone it still seems like BE300 is a good chip and stands to be able to capture some serious BTC,  however from where i sit it doesn't seem like anything is being done about that.  Doddling around like this just makes it look setup to fail.
Do you want to buyout the company? Be my guest. Current management would love the idea. This is no joke.

Another thought:   Though you say the duties of the board members weren't defined.  Each member had their own duty to themselves (as to protect their own wealth!!!!!) and to shareholders to ensure / steer the company to the right path,  ie: to DIRECT.  From the sounds of it,  you guys let FC handle everything.  Not having any idea where finances sit at or letting the FREAKING CEO handle menial tasks such as share transfers for example and accept that as a good use of his time is ABSURD.  What the hell is everyone thinking?   I know from experience that being the head of even small companies is stressful as all hell,  i could not imagine what it must be like to be FC,  and everyone,  board members and management included failed him.   The fact no one knows what is going on is because you guys did not do your jobs to DEMAND to know what is going on.
I don't know how to respond to that. FC is an adult and he was repeatedly asked to delegate and improve certain conditions. He didn't comply with the requests. The desolate state surrounding providing information to shareholders was no secret. What is more surprising in hindsight is that key people who worked with FC on a daily basis failed to see the signs, and if they were they failed in the same way. The Rockminer story is testament to that.

I also would like to know the answers to some of the other questions asked in the thread that have gone un answered.  Namely:

What BE200 remains unsold and in stock ?  
Based on AM management, about 1000-2000 devices worth. The exact number depends on some quality factors.

Is there a rough break down of the 10M required?   Is it possible to break it up in to milestones as to limit the initial risk for people that may want to get involved?
$2M for fixed costs. The rest is the initial order + potential profit. You can target a lower amount, which either precludes any profit for AM or makes the fixed costs a significant amount. FC mentioned that the minimum order should be around $6M for it to make economical sense, but he said that doesn't include any profit margin.

What is the turn around time on a BE300 order,  to packaged chips in hand?
2-3 months.
What was your role in AM anyways, you seemed to be one of the first investors, the only one on the board that i remember posting some updates for us other than friedcat, and you sold at least 11000BTC worth of AM stock just on this forum before the downfall(sweet timing).
sr. member
Activity: 289
Merit: 250


It's crossed paths with sales addresses over multiple addresses with amounts that are too large for individual sales transfers and too consistent/regular to be for paying electric expenses.  The multisig address (3Mkw) has inputs from 1KYXrw4Ftkmomfs4iyVXUSqQeRX75Unoi8, and repeatedly puts outputs through to 19iVyH1qUxgywY8LJSbpV4VavjZmyuEyxV, which I identified as a nexus in my OP.

http://archive.is/QKCDA Sorry to jump into this conversation two years later but FriendlyChemist has it as his wallet address on his profile page...

8th February 2016.

https://bitcointalksearch.org/user/friendlychemist-651947

Huhh.. 1KYXrw4Ftkmomfs4iyVXUSqQeRX75Unoi8 this wallet on my profile is just for troll , dont you feel the name also which remind us of silkroal Cheesy
hero member
Activity: 840
Merit: 500
This case is really puzzling. If the biggest shareholders really were paid out than the bitcoin communities biggest heads would look pretty disgusting. Though I can't imagine that not a single soul of those would have the character and at least post something anonymously. I'm very sure if someone was paid out then we would hear about something like that.

Or am I thinking too good of the community? Hope not.

There is no police case? I thought some pages ago something like that was mentioned, probably hearsay then.

Anyway, another possibility would be that the biggest victim are simply working behind the lines, joined forces and try to hunt him down. They would not state anything to not get the investigation at risk.

But like I said... really puzzling.

I'm not really 100% sure that they would talk. Take a scenario that a few large shareholders did find Friedcat and forced him to pay them. No way in HELL they would ever slip that information.
legendary
Activity: 2674
Merit: 1082
Legendary Escrow Service - Tip Jar in Profile
This case is really puzzling. If the biggest shareholders really were paid out than the bitcoin communities biggest heads would look pretty disgusting. Though I can't imagine that not a single soul of those would have the character and at least post something anonymously. I'm very sure if someone was paid out then we would hear about something like that.

Or am I thinking too good of the community? Hope not.

There is no police case? I thought some pages ago something like that was mentioned, probably hearsay then.

Anyway, another possibility would be that the biggest victim are simply working behind the lines, joined forces and try to hunt him down. They would not state anything to not get the investigation at risk.

But like I said... really puzzling.
legendary
Activity: 1456
Merit: 1009
Ad maiora!
Thank you! Do you know when they stopped operations?
Around the end of 2014, his staff cared on for a while without him, he's more likely dead than missing.

I don't believe he is dead OR "missing"

If he were dead, there would be some notice. If he were missing, there would be police reports, family complaints etc.

There is no word. He is an adult and can go away as he pleases. The police will not be bothered unless there is considerable complaint from family and business partners etc. The cops need some sort of reason to suspect something is not right. One of the first things they do is put out a public notice... "have you seen this man?" there's none of that. Just silence.

He got sick of the whole scene and embezzled all the company funds then split. I imagine he paid off the few Chinese nationals that could expose him, and the few business partners that would bring investigation. kissed his mom goodbye with stern warnings not to tell anyone where he is going, then went there.

Something tells me he will be working for some other larger ASIC firm, or some other hardware developer. The later option is more likely, because... what do their customers care about BTC? It wont damage their credibility if they hire a BTC scammer. Their customers probably barely know what BTC is.

This is why the trolls always say... "Sucks for you to have invested in unregulated markets with anons youve never met"

HE got ya!

You wanna find him? You need a bi-lingual Chinese/English speaker with a shit ton of free time, lots of disposable income, and good reason to do all sorts of running around asking questions and digging up names and numbers all over China. Its a frickin giant country too.

Consider this one finished. By the looks of it BTC will be done in a year or two as well. most likely right after the halving fails to raise the price like every dreamer hopes it will.

Ask yourself.."|When has BTC EVER done what anyone expected it to do?" and you will answer the question "Why isnt BTC mainstream?"
Pages:
Jump to: