How's this for new information? http://codinginmysleep.com/first-look-at-bfls-asic-hardware/

Well, apparently BF customers seem happy about it.

I would like to know what one or two individuals (in the US preferably, unless the non-US person wants to pony up a ticket) that Bitcoin Talk community would nominate and accept as credible, verifiable individuals to be flown here to KC sometime around the end of October/Beginning of November time frame to see our facility, inspect the manufacturing equipment and test out the devices.  We don't have an exact date yet as to when we would do this, but I would like to get the ball rolling as far as names in the hat and see if there's even a vague consensus on who the individual(s) might be.

Reeses!

Put me down for gigavps, if he's a willing participant.

Excellent choices.

BF is pretty much bailing itself out by taking a forced 0% interest loan on people who have coins "on hold" there.

Thank you for the proof. It definitely cost me (should've only bet 10!), but at least I'm glad to have satisfied, to my own personal standards, who controls 1DKy.

With reference to the medical technology:

BF labs of Wyoming was a biomedical company making freezer units and sterilisation units for the medical industry. They went bankrupt in early 2011.

A 2011 investigation searched USA trademarks office records and incorporation records in most states and only found the Wyoming listing which at first was only known to be called BF Labs inc.

Butterfly had no dealings with BF Labs inc of Wyoming at this time. In early 2012 they bought up the dead company 'incorporation' title for a small £50 fee.

Then they tried back tracked everything. They claimed that they have always been this company, and that Butterfly Labs has been around for a few years.

BF Labs Inc. of Wyoming 2011 was BIOTECH Frontiers Labs Inc until Sonny bought its title in 2012.

Guys, I think we should stop asking questions. It could be.... unhealthy. To our health.
...
It follows logically that his origins are in Calabria, Italy.

Combining this information and the fact that he was running a 1930s mobster style numbers racket it follows that this is a 'Ndrangheta operation.

21. Glenda Emmet, when interviewed, stated the following:
a.   Emmett was the owner of Astro Computer, which operated a mail list business. This included maintaining lists and preparing the letters to be mailed out by a mail house.
b.   For five or six years, her only customer was Global Search Network, which was run by her ex-husband, Dennis Emmett. Dennis Emmett is now in prison in Costa Rica for murder, but was still issuing instructions to her from prison. Before she worked for Global Search Network, she worked for World Expert Fund. That company was owned by VLEISIDES. Her ex-husband, Dennis Emmett, worked with World Expert Fund for some time in Costa Rica.

U.S. Citizen Linked to Murder

A U.S. citizen identified only by his family name, Emmett, 67, is held suspect of the murder of his fellow countryman , 33, whose body was found with a bullet in an eye near Turrucares, Alajuela.

It was Wood's Costa Rican girlfriend who alerted the police about the possibility of Emmett's involvement in the murder.

Wood used to work for Emmett in a house and a business property of the elder man.

http://insidecostarica.com/dailynews/2005/may/01/nac04.htm

U.S. citizen's body was dumped
Guards heard dispute and then a shot at quinta
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A loud argument about 10 p.m. Thursday was cut short by a gunshot, and investigators think that is when Benjamin Daniel Wood, a 33-year-old U.S. citizen died.

The scene was at the quinta of the two people now being held in the death, according to investigators. The argument and the shot were heard by guards outside.

The full extent of the crime did not become apparent until about 9 a.m. Friday when passers-by discovered the body of a man near a lookout point in the community of San Miguel de Turrúcares.

http://www.amcostarica.com/041905.htm

This last week was not a 'good news' week for Americans in Costa Rica.

An American identified only by his family name, Emmett, 67, was held suspect of the murder of his 33 year old fellow countryman Benjamin Daniel Wood, 33, whose body was found with a bullet in his eye near Turrucares, Alajuela. It was Wood's Costa Rican girlfriend who alerted the police about the possibility of Emmett's involvement in the murder.

According to investigators Wood used to work for Emmett in a house and a business property of the older man.
The murder of Wood, supposedly occurred after Emmet aged 67 had an explosive argument with his 24 year old South American girlfriend.

http://www.welovecostarica.com/public/210.cfm

Lottery scam indictment dismissed against California man
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

Prosecutors have dismissed an indictment against Scott Henry Walther, who was indicted in 2007 stemming from his association with a Costa Rican-based lottery scam, according to documents and an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California.

...

According to Ms. Lindsay, Walther's case was delayed when his lawyer fell ill and died. With no representative to meet with, prosecutors were unsure of Walther's role, if any, in the scheme.

When the lawyer died, U.S. officials were prevented from getting Walther's story until after the indictment Ms.
Lindsay said, “As a prosecutor you'd like to hear both sides based on all the evidence you can possibly get, and with Scott Walther we felt ambivalent because the evidence against him looked really, really bad” at first.

Walther, who brought the dismissal to the attention of reporters, was one of six men indicted in the fraud case. Henry Walther, Scott Walther's father, pleaded guilty to mail fraud and international money laundering March 6, 2007. Henry Walther currently is serving time.

Charges against Dennis Emmett, William Cloud, James Ray Houston and Sonny Vleisides remain. Emmett is being extradited to the United States from Costa Rica, said Ms. Lindsay, and Vleisides is being extradicted from Italy. Cloud is also being extradited from Amsterdam, and Houston has not been apprehended, according to Ms. Lindsay.

http://amcostarica.com/061008.htm

Henry Walther explained that the main people involved in the lottery were Houston, VLEISIDES, and Dennis Emmett.
The business started with Houston and Emmett. Houston was the principal behind it. Cloud is Houston's brother or halfbrother, and lives in Amsterdam.

About five years ago, Houston and Dennis Emmett got into an argument and split their businesses. Then, Houston and VLEISIDES got into an argument, and VLEISIDES took over the business.

I think Rassah has pretty much nailed it.  Those who believe leopards don't can't their spots (or at least no in such a short time) are going to believe that Sonny would surround himself with shady people in any new venture and so not take the word of anyone associated with him, so assurances from others involved in BFL are going to be pretty meaningless to them.  Those who have absolute faith in BFL aren't going to be convinced otherwise by arguments about Sonny's past transgressions.

18. When interviewed, PJ and Michael Swink stated the following:

a.   PJ Swink stated that her company, Western Internet, worked for Sonny VLEISIDES. The work PJ Swink did for VLEISIDES included printing as well as stuffing and mailing envelopes. VLEISIDES gave her instructions regarding the preparing, printing, and mailing of lottery solicitations.

b.   PJ Swink was unaware of the exact name of VLEISIDES' company, because it has had multiple names over the years. Based on conversations and other communications with VLEISIDES over the years, she believed "The Shamrock Agency" and "World Expert" were companies related to VLEISIDES. She believed VLEISIDES also used the name "Atlas Informaticos." Michael Swink stated that VLEISIDES told him that VLEISIDES was a licensed broker for these companies in Europe. PJ Swink and Michael Swink have met VLEISIDES in person.

20. Henry Walther, who has pled guilty to one count of mail fraud and one count of money laundering and is cooperating with the United States government, stated the following when interviewed:

a. Henry Walther explained that the main people involved in the lottery were Houston, VLEISIDES, and Dennis Emmett. The business started with Houston and Emmett. Houston was the principal behind it. Cloud is Houston's brother or halfbrother, and lives in Amsterdam.

If anyone cares, I had an interview with Sonny last night in which we discussed this whole mess.

http://codinginmysleep.com/interview-with-sonny-vleisides/

RESTITUTION:Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3663A(c)(3), restitution is not ordered because (1) the number of identifiable victims is so large as to make restitution impracticable [3663A(c)(3)(A)]; and (2) determining complex issues of fact related to the cause or amount of the victim's losses would complicate or prolong the sentencing process to a degree that the need to provide restitution to any victim is outweighed by the burden on the sentencing process [3663A(c)(3)(B)].

Through companies located in Costa Rica, The Netherlands and other places, the defendants allegedly mailed more than 1 million solicitations that fraudulently offered people an increased chance of winning foreign and domestic lotteries such as “The Australian Lottery,” “The International Irish Sweepstakes,” and “The NY Super 7.” The solicitations claimed that people could purchase “positions” in lotteries that would be grouped together, or pooled, to buy larger blocks of tickets in a given lottery or horse race. The solicitations falsely indicated that participants in the pool had a nearly guaranteed chance to win millions of dollars and that previous participants in the pool had already won millions of dollars. According to the indictment, the solicitations misrepresented that the companies were backed by governmental or legitimate lottery entities. As part of the scheme, the solicitations claimed that winnings were invested into trust or pension accounts that would pay monthly pension checks until the end of the victim’s life, and then would pay a survivor’s benefit as if the money were a life insurance policy.

Victims of the scheme were directed to send their money to mail drops in Ireland, The Netherlands and other locations, where participants in the scheme returned the money to the United States. From domestic bank accounts controlled by Henry Walther and others, some of the money was sent back to victims who were told that they were receiving “winnings,” even though the “winnings” were far less than the amount of money sent in by victims. The rest of the money was either spent to further the scheme or to enrich the defendants. Investigators estimate that victims lost approximately $20 million during the scheme, which ran for more than 15 years until it was shut down by federal agents in July 2006.

“This investigation brought an end to an elaborate scheme in which the perpetrators relied on the public's trust in the U.S. Mail to victimize some of our most vulnerable citizens, our seniors,” said Acting Inspector in Charge Robert Malaby. “Whether it's a pension fraud scheme or an illegal foreign lottery, when the U.S. Mail is used to commit fraud, Postal Inspectors are called upon to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service is committed to keeping our nation's mail system free from criminal misuse."

Debra D. King, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division in Los Angeles, stated: “The fraud committed by these individuals against innocent investors in the operation of their foreign lottery and pension schemes is a crime that IRS-Criminal Investigation takes seriously. This indictment, and the arrests of the perpetrators of this fraud, is indicative of our resolve to bring those who prey upon innocent investors, for their own financial gain, to justice.”

The 23 counts in the indictment carry a maximum statutory penalty of 460 years in federal prison and fines of up to $8.75 million.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court.

First, let me start off by saying I apologize for the length of this post.  I wanted to get all the information out there at once.  Normally, I would not make a post of this nature, but given the current circumstances, I think it is warranted.

Many of you on bitcointalk.org forums know me as “Inaba,” the operator of the Eclipse Mining Consortium bitcoin pool.  In approximately two weeks I will also be wearing a different hat.  As you may be able to guess from my new forum name, I will be working with and for BFL.  Effective August 13, 2012 I have accepted the position of Chief Operating Officer of BF Labs INC. (Butterfly Labs)

BFL is the clear technical leader in the FPGA and upcoming ASIC mining space.  As a direct result, the company has grown very quickly over the past year.  Unfortunately, its customer service, which was initially very good, did not scale fast enough, which caused customer relations and transparency to suffer. BFL is eager to improve and one of my top responsibilities in this new position is to focus on that specific issue.  I am, have always been and will always be committed to good customer service and transparency when it comes to bitcoin in general and the daily operations of related activities.  This is where I will be focusing much of my initial attention, specifically to take the pressure off of everyone involved so that they can focus on the other important factors, such as getting the hardware delivered on time!

While I may not be universally liked by everyone in this community, I believe I at least have the respect of many people. I have always stood behind my integrity and commitment to what I promise and I take ownership of my mistakes.  This will not change going forward and I will give my best level of effort to deliver on the promises I make to this community as a representative of BFL, as I always have.  If for some reason I am unable to deliver on those promises, I will provide an explanation as to why.

While there may come a day when bitcoin does not need the Bitcointalk community, that day is still far in the future.  As I have cultivated a relationship with this community through EMC, I also plan on cultivating a rewarding relationship with the community through BFL.  There is some history and baggage to overcome, but I do not believe it is insurmountable.  I also will not be part of or lend my credibility to an organization I do not believe in or one that I believe is working to undermine bitcoin at the expense of the community just to make a quick buck.

To forestall some of the most likely questions, I’m going to answer them here:

Q. Have you been working for BFL all along?
A. No. I have had no business relations with BFL beyond being a customer and also providing some technical assistance getting their equipment to properly talk to pools.

Q. Seriously.  You’ve been working with BFL from the start, you can admit it, haven’t you?
A. Seriously, no!  I first discovered BFL at the same time as everyone else, back around November of 2011.  It was purely coincidental that I happened to work, literally, across the street from their registered address of operations.  I was just as skeptical as everyone else, especially when I discovered the registered address appeared to be a Lebanese restaurant that I frequent (but never really paid attention to the address).  I learned more about BFL along with everyone else and since I was local and close by, I reached out on behalf of the Bitcointalk community to BFL, specifically Sonny, to see if I could gather more information.  I had been running the EMC pool since May/June of 2011 and had no knowledge of, or association with BFL or any of the parties involved in BFL up until it was first noticed on these forums.

Q. Are you going to stop being such a jerk on the forums to some people?
A. Maybe.  It depends. Actually, yes.  As a pool operator and an independent individual I have far more latitude and freedom to express my displeasure with some of the more intense stupidity that can be encountered on the internet.  As a representative of a company, I am, unfortunately, a bit more constrained from explaining to various people exactly why they are idiots.  As such, I will likely be ignoring a lot of the more of the ludicrous posts than I have before. To those of you who enjoyed reading my rants, I am sorry that they will be far fewer and betweener.

Q. What are your qualifications in the endeavor?  What do you bring to the table?
A. I’m glad you asked.  From a customer service perspective, and more specifically, from an online community perspective, I have extensive experience on both sides of the fence.  I have run online forums since the Fidonet days, and have extensive experience in the often caustic, emotionally driven environment that an online forum can produce.  This allows me to effectively communicate with the population, since I am one of the populous myself.  Unlike many customer facing people in many industries, I also have a strong technical background; I am able to communicate effectively with you about your problems, wishes and desires from a technical perspective.  I will not make empty promises from a marketing standpoint if I know it’s technically unreasonable or impossible.  I am also able to effectively manage a project from end to end, which will be critical in getting our manufacturing and production lines going in the most efficient manner possible.  I have also run a number of startups, and I understand the unique challenges required of a startup to function properly and successfully.

Q. Come on, for real, you’ve been with BFL all along, right?
A.  No!  Really!  I have been working for an unrelated company that has nothing to do with bitcoin long before BFL was founded or I knew of any of the people involved, and I am still working for that company, until the day I start working for BFL.

Q. What will happen to EMC?
A. Right now, there are no plans to change anything with regards to EMC, other than more improvements as usual.  I will continue to operate EMC as I have since the start.

Q. You are going to have an unfair advantage when it comes to mining equipment, you’ll be able to get as much as you want before anyone else!
 A. I will not be expanding my mining footprint as it would be a conflict of interest.  I will continue with my current obligations and already acquired/paid for equipment but will not be purchasing or utilizing additional equipment as part of my mining operations.  This is one of the hardest changes I will be making, as I firmly believe there are plenty of opportunities in this space that I am going to be missing out on, but I believe I can do more good for the bitcoin community as a whole working to provide that equipment to people as opposed to using it myself.

Q. Why now?  Why not before?
A. The topic never really came up.  BFL as a corporate entity is a startup and has been running very lean and mean.  With wild success and absolutely spectacular outlook for products, it’s time to move to the next stage of business.  With my diverse skill set, I can replace both a technical lead and a PR/community lead, thereby eliminating the need for an additional person, which means we can move that much quicker in the market as well as have that much less overhead that can go towards development instead of human resources.

Q. Are you going to become just another mouthpiece for the BFL party line?
A. First of all, there is no “party line” coming out of BFL.  They have been up front and honest with their dealings in the community from day one.  There are a number of people on the forums that feel that BFL has been dishonest and some of those feelings are justified if viewed through the lens of “Every business should be perfect, always.”  However, both Sonny and the engineers, contrary to some statements you may have seen from others on the forum, have been honest in their assessments of capabilities and timelines.  They have been mistaken, yes, but they have not been willfully or intentionally dishonest.  Some can say they should have known better, and whether or not that is true is, at this point, academic.  I am looking at the future, not the past, and I will be doing my level best to provide accurate information from day one.  If there is some information that I believe to be inaccurate, a lie, or just plain wrong, I will not pass it off as fact.  I will not tow any “party line.”  I will give you the honest facts as I know them.  There may be times that there are trade secrets that I cannot reveal, but I do not believe this constitutes falsehood or anything nefarious, as there are times where revealing certain bits of information would put BFL at a competitive disadvantage.  That will harm not only BFL, but also its current and future customers.  If there are still people that, going forward, feel that this is somehow dishonest, then I apologize in advance and I also give advance notice that there will, in fact, be times where 100% of information cannot be disclosed, either immediately or possibly ever.

Q. Help me!  Order Status?  Why is the sky blue?
A. I will not be able to answer your questions with regards to order status, etc… via PMs.  The PM system does not allow me to track or correlate information to provide accurate answers.  I will, however, be able to do that via email and our new support system that I will be facilitating in the near future.  PMs requesting information that should be directed to the support system will be ignored.  I apologize for this, but it’s just not feasible to handle the volume of requests that it would generate.

Q. Are there cookies?
A. Yes, there will be cookies.  The cake, however, is still a lie.

What's the ROI for this?

Update, 22 Sept:  Still looking for a fix for OSX 10.5 users. If you are running 10.5, you should not upgrade yet.

Basically, the people bitching and moaning for the most part don't appear to be customers or they don't want it known that they are being hypocritical by publicly decrying BFL yet continuing to patronize BFL.

Bottom line is, we aren't losing customers, we are gaining them, so we must be doing something right.  Like... providing superior equipment at reasonable prices.  Just a start.

You know what I wonder?  Are all you whiners crying about a scam going to pony up an apology when the ASICs ship?  

It has been demonstrated that BFL Single is a pair of Altera EP3SL150F780 chips.

This chip is no longer manufactured, and the official price from digikey, Altera's authorized distributor, is $2,184.99 per chip.

That's almost $4,400 per board just for the chips.

Obviously since the single sells for $600 they are not paying anything close to full price for these chips. But since they are no longer manufactured there is a finite supply, and with the huge demand they surely can see that the End Is Near for the Altera-based product line.

So now it fits together: they aren't ruining a good thing -- the good thing is over whether they like it or not.

They have run out of cheap chips. Without the insane more-than-5x cost advantage over the competition they can't compete anymore, so they pretty much have to close up shop.

But wait.

If you have to close up shop anyways, why not go out with a bang? Especially when you have an experienced fraudster running the company? The company is toast without the cheap chips anyways, so why not run off with a pile of preorder cash? Better yet, tell the people you sold product to that they can send the boards back as part of a "trade in". Remember, there are no more cheap chips, so the supply of these boards is about to get cut off. And mining boards turn electricity into anonymous, untraceable cash, so running off with them is about as safe as running off with BTC.

You may or may not believe their ASIC announcement is a scam, but either way the claim that "oh they have so much to lose by scamming people why would they do that" doesn't hold water. Their existing product line has a fixed lifespan -- ASIC or not.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1084b1/why_would_bfl_turn_a_good_thing_into_a_scam/

The master mind behind this scam is James Ray Houston apx. 60 years old. He gained fame in 1974 when he ran for Governor in Nevada.
His accomplice is Sonny Vleisides apx. 30 years old. Both from Kansas City originally .... However, these guys are very slick and try very hard not put their names on anything.

It has been demonstrated that BFL Single is a pair of Altera EP3SL150F780 chips.

This chip is no longer manufactured, and the official price from digikey, Altera's authorized distributor, is $2,184.99 per chip.

That's almost $4,400 per board just for the chips.

Obviously since the single sells for $600 they are not paying anything close to full price for these chips. But since they are no longer manufactured there is a finite supply, and with the huge demand they surely can see that the End Is Near for the Altera-based product line.

So now it fits together: they aren't ruining a good thing -- the good thing is over whether they like it or not.

They have run out of cheap chips. Without the insane more-than-5x cost advantage over the competition they can't compete anymore, so they pretty much have to close up shop.

But wait.

If you have to close up shop anyways, why not go out with a bang? Especially when you have an experienced fraudster running the company? The company is toast without the cheap chips anyways, so why not run off with a pile of preorder cash? Better yet, tell the people you sold product to that they can send the boards back as part of a "trade in". Remember, there are no more cheap chips, so the supply of these boards is about to get cut off. And mining boards turn electricity into anonymous, untraceable cash, so running off with them is about as safe as running off with BTC.

You may or may not believe their ASIC announcement is a scam, but either way the claim that "oh they have so much to lose by scamming people why would they do that" doesn't hold water. Their existing product line has a fixed lifespan -- ASIC or not.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1084b1/why_would_bfl_turn_a_good_thing_into_a_scam/