Describing BFL's pyramid scam as a "kerfuffle" is itself a "kerfuffle". The notion that they're just incompetent, but well meaning or trustworthy is SO last year. What was that 2012 drop dead date for chip delivery again?
The article linked above also dismisses BFL reps lack of social graces as a by-product of their nerdiness and tech savvy nature, yet it's been proven again and again that their Chief Operating Officer knows next to nothing about chip production, product design, chip cooling, power consumption, or a multitude of other elements essential to the production of a product as technically challenging as an ASIC mining device. This is why BFL has outsourced nearly everything, supposedly to people that DO know this stuff. So what is it that BFL people do all day again? ...and why can't they treat investors with the respect they deserve?
They are young and inexperienced. ASIC design is both hard and prone to so many unexpected delays. Generally, one designs chips in silent mode until you have a functional product that needs polish. Then you announce it to the world and accept preorders. If the customers are going to share the risk in the R&D phase, then you inform them. The real tragedy here is if BFL simply had a kickstarter campaign last year and didn't announce a release date nor claimed the feasibility of the minirig, then the community would be really happy about them shipping 5 GH units and evangelizing the brand as another bitcoin success.
Instead they continue to arrogantly pretend like nothing went wrong, insult anyone who questions them, imply they have products in the catalog that simply do not exist and refuse to talk to the media. Here's some free business advice from the "kid living in his mother's basement" Josh. Have BFL do the following.
- The CEO writes an open letter to everyone apologizing for the delays and thanking your customers for their patience and support
- The CEO contacts bitcoin magazine and coindesk to commit to a full interview regarding the events of the last year
- Remove the Minirig from your product catalog on the website and replace it with a coming soon product picture
- Shut down Josh's account on bitcointalk and replace him with someone who understands the words social media strategy
- Hold an online townhall for every customer to attend and directly ask questions to the executive management
- Launch a pretty website that shows the shipping queue real time and allows for verified customer feedback
- Have BFL's chief engineer post a youtube video giving a tour the assembly facility and discuss why BFL's technology is both unique and cool
This list really isn't actually hard to do and would correct most of the mistakes you guys have made. Or you can continue calling me an idiot, attacking my integrity, insulting your customers, over-promising, existing with no media strategy outside shipping review units that reveal a mountain of lies (like ars technica's unit consuming 10 watts per GH- that's a fucking fact Josh) and advertising products that you are no longer selling.
If Bitcoin is here to stay, then ASICs will be big business and good fucking luck competing with AMD and Intel in this space.