I know there are BTC traders in my area from LocalBitcoin, I'd like to start the local collective if there is anyone else out there on these forums from here. Anyone? PM me

I have some FaceBook groups going for the local sect as well.
 

Because 1 BTC does not equal $1

I'm tired of seeing "its a Ponzi scheme!", pretty much everywhere. Simply because it seems apparently no one actually knows what a Ponzi scheme actually is.

Here is the deal:

A Ponzi scheme is comprised of two things: A person, entity, or group at the top that convinces people to "invest" in some new opportunity collecting unicorn tears or some such, and idiots that actually give these scammers money without checking into it first, like a smart investor does.

Each "investor" is actually just paying the level of "investors" before them except they have no idea that is where their ROI came from in reality, with the heads at the top receiving a very large sum through an upward chain of money, eventually leaving the people at the bottom of the chain screwed when it goes down.


Bitcoin is fully decentralized

There is no head, no chief, no central server, no central authority, no corporation, no Mr. Bitcoin at the top receiving funds, nothing. Now, you could certainly conduct a Ponzi scheme with Bitcoins, but Bitcoin itself is not one in its own right.
It is a free market economy, granted a very young one, but it gives no one the right to call it a scam when it blatantly is not if one would simply educate themselves about Bitcoin for 5 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um63OQz3bjo


That pretty much makes it being a Ponzi scheme impossible if there is no one at the top to collect.

So please, stop it. Your claims are baseless and ill informed. Bitcoin itself is not, nor will ever be, a Ponzi scheme.

And Charles Ponzi died broke and alone.

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I have decided to hang it up as far as updating this due to time constraints and a need to focus completely on my main mining ventures. CoinCanary.org forums itself will be re-forged into a general mining forum I will keep as a side project. Thank you all for following, I wish I had more time to keep this going, though as a mining entrepreneur myself I will be focused on leading by example over pointing out the falsities and scams of others, which was seeming like more and more of a conflict of interest in terms of bias calling out other businesses while I establish my own.

Stay safe and use your head out there!
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Donations: I will never request funds for this effort, however I have so far committed a decent amount of time to it so far, if you appreciate this and want to support me and the continued evolution of this thread all donations are very much appreciated: BTC - 15gX3iU7kGTHNN7Ka6f9cvKeEzpryvhr2y     LTC - LTNPLkb7gfg2WArDUADGREiC38vQdwSsrr
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Scam sites for Bitcoin hardware products and services are popping up all over, I think it is good to consolidate a list of all up and coming vendors and service providers with an assessment to whether they are fraudulent in nature or not, I will update this top post with new additions to the list.

Realistically with so many new companies appearing that are only in a development and funding stage, it is difficult to tell at this point between scammers and legitimate start-ups. Choose where to send your money wisely if no products have shipped out so far. As so many are awaiting their orders to ship, we will just have to wait and see.


Scam sites do have some telltale signs that can be considered red flags:

Pictures of hardware are obviously Photoshopped versions of another vendors gear

Products for sale that have not been confirmed to exist by the community or official representatives

Little to no information on the site about the company, it's physical location, etc.

Contact forms and phone numbers that go nowhere, or are never answered.

No known contact with company representatives  on these forums or others (seems likely real companies would be aware of these boards and active within them to answer questions)

Spelling errors, broken links, and other oddities across the website

Very low price point compared to similar vendors (if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!)

None of these points can be taken as direct evidence of a scam, but does point out a lack of presence other than a vague promise to deliver their product from their home website with no guarantee whatsoever. Any web developer worth their salt can generate a simple page with buy buttons in a few hours, preying on the current mania to scam early adopters. Once your BTC is gone, it is gone!

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This list is for informational purposes only If you choose to use this information to influence your purchasing decision, it is at your own risk. Neither I nor Bitcointalk.org are responsible if you get ripped off.
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Updated: 7/19/2013

If you stumble across an obvious hardware scam or otherwise fishy looking enterprise, post in here with who it is and why you think it is a scam.


Color Key

ORANGE: Awaiting Shipping/confirmed hardware in the wild

GREEN: Shipping/Shipping Imminent

RED: Scammy/Untruthful, be careful!


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Production ASIC Hardware
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Vendor			Main Discussion			Canary Reports
VMC			https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=206488.60			http://coincanary.org/forums/index.php?board=29.0

AsicMiner - asicminer.com

Auctions ongoing for their BlockErupter Blade units https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=189248.0

BlockErupter USB also shown to exist http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1dogrx/announcement_block_erupter_usb_300mhs_asic_miner/

CEO Freidcat appears to be one of the most transparent of any in this market

USB and Blade units confirmed to be in end users hands

Avalon ASIC - launch.avalon-asics.com/ (Product shipments confirmed in the wild)

Batch 2 is evidently shipping https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=146451.0, awaiting confirmation by end users

****Butterfly Labs**** - butterflylabs.com (several delays with the ASIC line, but they have shipped FPGA products in the past)

Jalepeno units are evidently shipping, ~40 units shipped so far. Still massive amounts of backlash against them from the community. BitForce line is nowhere to be found. An odd impasse, appears to be shipping but their business behavior is very scammy.

The Jalepeno apparently does exist     http://codinginmysleep.com/bfl-jalapeno-unboxing-and-demo/

Members of their own forums are starting to mutiny   https://forums.butterflylabs.com/pre-sales-questions/2697-thats-enough-im-done-bfl.html

I *myself* was banned from their forums, no response to refund request - after being as publicly disruptive as possible I was offered a refund within 5 days

So many anti-BFL threads here it will take me a while to compile them all

* They have apparently started their own charity foundation  https://forums.butterflylabs.com/content/134-butterfly-labs-donates-1000-btc-charity-bitcoin-related-projects.html

* Now offering bulk orders of ASIC chips despite not having a single BitForce machine shipped Appears machines are finally shipping


*new* German Bitcoin Mining  - http://www.german-bitcoin-mining.de/

Full Report

Labcoin - http://www.labcoin.com/

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=241033.0

RCM Miners -rcm-miners.com

Images are fakes

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=181800.0



BitFury - https://metabank.ru/asic

Chips in the wild  

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=221177

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=183368.0 (Russian thread)


Cryoniks - cryoniks.com

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=214378.new#new Cryoniks

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=214526.0    Cryoniks

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179747.20  Ed Trice scam

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=185565 more Ed Trice scam

*new article*   http://btcbible.com/crypteks-kickstarter-scam-continues-to-be-ignored/  

Many telltale signs of scammery in action. CEO was involved in a previous Kickstarter fraud

Seems like Ed Trice must be involved with the "nitrogen cooling units" but so no direct evidence has been found linking the two

No units shown to exist in real life


ASXProject - asxproject.com


BTCGarden - btcgarden.com

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=213172.0

From Yeemartin


Terrahash - terrahash.com

Community developers using Avalon chips https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198489.0;topicseen

CAD render of the DX has been shown

KNCMiner - kncminer.com

 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=214285.0

Futher review of the thread makes it seem scammy and/or very disorganized. FPGA Bitcoin miner is dead. Promising ASICs but have shown nothing.

Not quite to giving it red status yet but close.

ASIC-Technologies] - asic-technologies.com

So far untruthful out of the gate. Product image is blatantly a DSL modem motherboard of some kind



(image has since been taken down)

On their front page briefly:


Would advise heavily against sending them any of your money, unless you would like to buy the world's most expensive modem...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=204135.msg2172334#msg2172334

CedarTec - http://www.cedartec.net/

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170739.0

Most photos posted were found to be fakes/manipulated through image forensics and naked eye sluething, PCB appears to actually be a mutilated ITX motherboard of some kind and then heavily 'shopped. Unit image on page is also heavily 'shopped, it looks like the basis of it was likely a Lian-Li desktop computer case

The whole thread however is hilarious

GXMining- gxmining.com
BitcoinRumors thinks its bogus http://www.bitcoinrumors.com/2013/04/08/this-is-a-game-changer-gx-mining-ltd-launch-a-100-ghs-asic-bitcoin-miner-gx-100/)

Nothing proven on them at all, no product shown to exist but "selling" them.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bwx9a/possible_new_asic_scam/

ASICRigs - asicrigs.com  

On the Facebook-


 

*new* btcminingrig -   btcminingrig.com

Same images as gpurigs/asicrigs/gxmining, pretty sure these are all related to each other based on this and common looking site layouts. Need to research further.

Forum user GPURigs has gone silent it seems after "announcing" they were selling their business to another company.

GPURigs - gpurigs.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=81.0. Photoshopped BFL pictures, similar to the ones on GXMining

Posted fake chip on Facebook


Both companies confirmed to be one in the same.

Shipping estimated to be early August 2013 by member GPURigs (stated in this thread)

Still taking money on their main site outside of escrow process, for reasons that they have not started "pushing" the site yet, but it is active and accepting BTC.

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DIY ASIC and Assembly Services
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SebastianJu's Avalon List

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=192860.0



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FPGA Hardware
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SHA


Scrypt

BlockBurner - blockburner.net (admittedly there is no way I can be completely un-biased with this one as it is my own. We are not currently accepting funds, as we are not vaporware vendors. Our product is only on paper for the moment, that much is true. I started this list a while before BlockBurner was even a thing. In a way listing my own company here can be taken as a sign of our commitment against fraudulent acts and unethical practices, at this point should BlockBurner misbehave, our combined credibility will be destroyed. Obviously, my incentive is extremely high to deliver not only on our products but also maintaining an ethical and transparent business)

LTC FPGA - ltcfpga.com

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Shared Mining Services
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CloudHashing - http://www.cloudhashing.com

http://www.progressivebtcmining.com/

http://cognitivemining.com/

http://www.bitcoinbeastie.info/root/index.php/2-uncategorised/59-bitcoin-mining-contracts

HashRack hashrack.com

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=188617.0

Awaiting shipments from BFL  



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Graveyard
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These sites are no longer active as far as I can tell and are currently offline

DragonASIC - http://dragon-asic.com/
Site is now offline

Flashman  (BFL forums)

PrimeASIC - primeasic.com
Site offline

GalaxyASIC - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=158044.msg1672838#msg1672838 (no formal site noted)
Thread is dead, no further updates to be found

Hong Kong ASICs - hongkongasics.com

Seems pretty scammy

Site is offline/url for sale

(Mod note: It's useful to gather the really obvious cases in one place. But the forum can't hope to identify and list all scams as soon as they are announced. There are also many reasons to not list maybe-scams on a list like this— including a desire to treat business people serving our community with respect. So, just because something is not listed here does not mean that it's not a scam. Caveat Emptor.)

Thanks mods!

That dead horse is sure taking a beating

So sick of this

The difficulty is prepare to shell out serious cash to be a Bitcoin miner soon to make anything doing it, and new fierce competition.

Litecoin is where Bitcoin was a couple years ago, what if LTC rides BTC's success eventually exchanging where BTC is now, and BTC exchanging around $1000 instead. Not saying that will happen, but it can if we support it.

That aside, GPUs will need something to do when ASIC takes over the world soon for Bitcoin mining.

There is another almost just like it called gxmining.com, it has the same 'Shopped BFL units. Same scammers perhaps?

We don't have a choice but to tolerate it. Except move on to something else, maybe some kind of crytographically driven digital system, with instant payments and free to use for everyone on Earth. Oh well, we can keep dreaming 

Bitcoin is out of the basement now, the public can now join in too. This only gives credibility to BTC. So what if they hold $11 Million in BTC, they are not the only ones with a horde of Bitcoins out there by a longshot, these two just happen to be publicly famous with the whole Facebook thing.

Well, that is true enough. The graph of total US debt started going straight up in the 70's when that occured.

Maybe the better way to say it is they gave us the tools to fix it ourselves since obviously they cannot.

Exactly. You can tell pretty immediately who's just here for a quick buck and missing the point, like Bitcoin is some kind of scam or elaborate casino (further pushed by those idiotic "its a ponzi scam!" people who have no clue in hell). Those at the technical level understand exactly what this is, and why it is so important, the ones who don't care about the price and never will, its about the technology and making it work.

I think another point, especially when it comes to the current BTC rich, is remember that in the earliest days they mined coins that were fascinating, but ultimately useless in the real world for years. Obviously they probably have a stockpile or two. But as the world begins to accept it, more large merchants get on board, there will be somewhere for their wealth to go, which will only help the economy over time. Until now it was basically like having a million prussian francs in your account. Why call em out though? They were the first to start driving and testing this tech, had they not this wouldn't be possible, I hope they become very rich people in the future economy.

Though it is young, short term it seems like the bets are in, but I also see long term, and this is only the beginning and is anyone's game.

The miners are arming for battle with new ASIC devices and spawning an entirely new growth industry around it, and that is real world impact by creating jobs and new industry, in a world where much of that is crumbling by the day in other markets. So, this is really just Year 0 for Bitcoin going mainstream. I'm very excited to see where it goes from here.

This is the new wild west, and we're all digital cowboys staking our claim in new territory.

What are you smoking Come-from-Beyond? It must be good, whatever it is.

For someone with over 1000 posts this is one of the most nonsensical thread's I have read so far here. Spreading this kind of unfounded BS hurts the community

Destroy altcoins? That goes against the core ethos of the Bitcoin protocol. You should be ashamed of yourself for even saying something so ridiculous.

Satoshi him/themselves mined the first block themselves which is the Genesis Block, it was never "pre-mined" or started off with Bitcoin in the system already. Obviously at the very start of Bitcoin only a couple people were mining to begin with, and nothing to really do with the coins they generated until now.

By making fiat no longer exist with cryptocurrency in its place

Bytecoin is a carbon copy of Bitcoin, which like most I have no idea why it exists. I get it if the new crypto is different somehow or is designed with a certain role to fill, but why a clone? Help Bitcoin instead.

Couldn't be happening to a nicer banking system.

Thanks for the new users Cyprus!

No, just the fact Bitcoin uses technology that the US Government originally funded and developed for their own ends. Bet they never thought this is what it would be used for in the future.

I shall listen to this and meditate while I mine

Very cool though, try doing that with fiat!