Development Update: Skywire

Everything was working in January; launch has been delayed because of refactoring. We are exhausted because of coding coin. Everyone wants to get coin over with and get meshnet working. We can get a lot of press on reddit by delivering the meshnet. People are rioting because of Comcast/net neutrality right now.

Everyone is ready to deploy nodes in their city, setup local meetings, develop hardware and coordinate deployment across North America. The software is not ready however. We are realizing that this matters 100x more than the consensus stuff right now. If consensus and security takes a year, its fine.

We should get coin minimally working, do the IPO, release the meshnet software and then hype the fuck out of it everywhere. The success of the Maidsafe IPO before they have even demonstrated the technical feasibility of their coin is another factor that has changed our perspective. Even if Skycoin has several long term goals for the coin in terms of security and usability, we should focus on what will have the greatest impact and create the most value right now.

On Reddit, people want Jesus. They want Google to come in and save them with Google Fiber. Google is not going to save them. Google is only rolling out enough fiber that they can threaten Comcast if they start throttling Youtube and demanding money. Reddit want salvation and want to feel that there is something they can do to fight Comcast. Skycoin/Skywire is the salvation they want and something people can do now. We need to get the software working.

We need to bridge the last mile between the home and the fiber backbone.

This means,
- we should put the main blockchain in a personal blockchain
- Launch the mainchain now, so people can send and receive. Get IPO over with
- Move the wallet Javascript developers onto the Mesh network map for coordinating node deployment
- Get mesh working in a few days.  
- Release white paper and put one guy on consensus
- Cut whatever corners are needed until mesh is running
- Deemphasize Skycoin's security and other things. Focus on the Darknet Plan message.

Skycoin is now in Alpha. We are launching immediately. We will be pushing breaking changes frequently until beta. If we have to do resets, balances will not change and the total number of coins will not change. Any reasonable change except those two is fair game until beta. We will be breaking network protocol compatibility every week. We will try to put in alert system so people know to install updates.

The other thing I didn't get from the whitepaper is...can these nodes be setup on a basic VPS?  Or due to the high storage demands, does  this require a specialized server or expensive VPS package?

I think is worth noting to all the folks here that currently you can deposit maidsafe coins on the MasterXchange but you cant withdraw them back to your original omni/masterchest/blockchain wallet.
The best part of all this adventure is that im starting to learn a lot about the fundamentals of the bitcoin technology. Yay!

Before AMT has the chance to take away my choice of whether or not my information was posted I will submit the following.

My name is Curt Shaffer
from Phoenix Arizona
I am a client of AMT
I paid for a 1.2Th/S miner including a case at a cost of $5759 including shipping.
I made my purchase on January 31st 2014 after being told on the phone they were actually looking to get things out ahead of schedule.I believe that communication was in good faith.
However as things progressed it became clear that they were not going to be prepared to ship my miner as Purchased within the advertised shipping date.
I have had various e-mail communications with Advanced Mining Technoligy(ies) where I was told that my order was still on track to ship on time in it's complete form as originally paid for.

When it became even more clear that this was not going to happen there was an offer of a stand alone kit, that was essentially a stipped down version the final build lacking the case, power supplies, and assembly that would have accompanied the "finished product."

Prior to that offer being extended by AMT I made a request for a refund that I was legally entitled to under FTC Regulations. I made this request both via e-mail, that included the link to the FTC regulation, as well as a printed copy of the e-mail that was sent via certified mail with return receipt attached.  That was sent to Jim Brown of AMT who has the title of sales manager. I never received a return receipt leading me to believe that my request was also ignored through the US postal service.

After waiting the seven day period that AMT had to comply with sending me a refund via the US Postal Service as out lined in the FTC regulations, i waited an additional few days to allow for travel cross country via post.  When no refund was received, nor was the request even acknowledged, i filed a complaint with three agencies. The IC3, the Delaware County Consumer Affairs department and the Federal Trade Commision were contacted. I informed Advanced Mining Technology(ies) of the complaints I made.

I pondered the offer of the kit and decided that though it wouldn't come with a case or power supply, which I would now have pay for out of my own pocket as there was no price adjustment for the kit option, I would exercise that option as the time table on receiving hardware directly relates to the profitability of the investment.

I informed Advanced Mining Technology(ies) that upon receipt of properly working hardware I would happily withdraw my complaints with the various agencies I contacted.

The kit shipped later than the advertised date and upon receiving the kit there were no directions to be found within the box it was shipped in.  I contacted Mr. Zipkin one of AMT's principal owners. He was apologetic in language and in tone, and seemed surprised that my miner had arrived without any paper work. It was later I found no paper work was shipped with other miner's orders. This has caused me to reevaluate the sincerity of Mr. Zipkin's concern and his apparent confusion over why I was not shipped any paperwork with my miner.

In speaking with Mr. Zipkin I was able to gather the information needed to check the boards for proper function. I hooked up my miner to check for proper functioning of the boards but was met with a message that no boards were found. After speaking with Mr. Zipkin again were were able to determine that the cable they supplied with the miner was faulty. I was about to leave town for a week so I was not able to get my miner hashing before my trip.

I was told by AMT they would send a new general purpose input output cable. As of today 4/26/14 I have not received a replacement from them. I did however take it upon myself to order a GPIO so that when I returned from my trip I would be able to evaluate the boards. Upon evaluation 3 of the 5 boards do not work. Two boards are hashing, the combined GH/s peak was 362.08 but varies anywhere down to 277 GH/s.
This is with me putting the chips into their turbo mode via AMT web interface. This is with both boards hashing with 8 working chips. It states 256 cores are active per board.

With the belief that both boards are performing nearly identically based on information obtained by the miner interface the average hash rate of each board  is 181.04 GH/s. This would give a hash rate of 905.2 GH/s if all boards were hashing at the established average based on the peak performance of the miner. The miner was advertised as 1.2th miner with a potential (+/-10%) range in performance. Based on the advertised specifications the low end of that 10% would be 1080Gh/s. So even if my miner were working at peak performance with all boards hashing there would be  an average underperformance of the hardware of 174.8 Gh/s or approximately 16% deficiency beyond their conservative estimate.

But sadly for me only the two boards mine currently. This gives me slightly over 1/3 (33.5%) of the conservative estimate and (30%) of the advertised speed that is presented on the finished product itself.

I talked to Mr. Zipkin and he has provided me a fedex account number to send the boards for RMA as he believes this is likely a voltage issue. . Based on the fact that deliveries have been missed when shipped via Fed Ex I've not made a decision on how to proceed yet.

I have not withdrawn any complaints filed with various agencies as Advanced Mining Technology(ies) has not fulfilled it's end of the agreement by denying me my requested refund and providing me with hardware that does not in any way reflect for what I paid for in terms of quality or performance as advertised. 

I will call Mr. Zipkin and make a proposal. Because I am running at 33.5% of the advertised performance of the machine, using the stated conservative estimate, I will gladly send back the hardware that is not currently working at all. That would be the two boards that no chip chain is recognized on and the one board where the board is recognized but displays there are broken chips only 155 active cores but does not initialize to hash. In exchange for the return of the hardware specified, which they are then free to do with as they see fit, I will request a refund for 66.5% of my purchase since that is the performance that I have lost. 66.5% of $5599 ,I've removed shipping because it was indeed shipped to me, is $3,723.33. So we don't have to deal in change We will call it an even $3723 refund.

This is the most fair offer to both parties involved in this matter. I receive compensation for performance that is lacking with the hardware provided. You get the hardware that is not working so it can be fixed and used to fulfill another order. This makes both parties whole, i can then attest that I have a AMT miner that is indeed working for the worth that I paid for it. I do not seek any additional compensation for delays, personal frustrations, added or hidden expenses I needed to provide to get the miner working to it current performance. I do not seek any additional compensation for lost time mining.

Upon completion of this offer. I will as previously stated withdraw any and all complaints made with various agencies and we can part perhaps annoyed but otherwise amicably.

We can discuss the alternatives if that is what it comes down to. In addition to posting this in the multiple threads you visit, I will also send it to you as a private message, through all known e-mail channels, to the business numbers of AMT as well as Mr. Zipkin's personal cell phone number from which he contacted me first and told me to call if I needed anything. To protect both parties I would prefer to use an escrow service. I will provide a draft of this attempted resolution to the Delaware county consumer affairs office on monday as well.

I would like have a response by noon Monday 28th Eastern Time so that I can report to the delaware county consumer affairs office that we reached an agreement. This also gives you time to speak with your lawyer in case you need to draft up a set of papers for me to sign so that you are indemnified and I can't come back try to pursue any other actions to recuperate any other funds.

I look forward to your prompt response.

Yes, "I" did not wait a week as they suggest, "I" spend a week emailing them multiple times a day, to multiple addressing to have them pick up the miner, which then never did. "I" had to lug this thing in my car to the FedEx office and ship this back to them. "I" have the FedEx receipt, the emails and the whole nine yards to back up my story.

Yes sometimes we miss the fedex guy in the morning, we will pick up Brian Zeitz's miner directly from the fedex office. Please note, Brian lives 30 minutes from our office by car in East Hanover New Jersey.

Brian waited 1 week to send back his miner via fedex when he could have taken the 30 minutes to drive over and have us check it out.

Brian also requested a refund 11 times before we shipped his miner, and he also filed a complaint with Delaware country which is currently in a resolved status. The Delaware agent in charge of Brians case was very helpful and has noted that we took every step we could to satisfy this disgruntled customer.

Furthermore, dealing with complaints from clients like Brian, a war vet, and credible member of society takes time and effort, and forces us to ship him a miner before someone else who deserves it more.

Amt_miners, why are you posting all my customer information on this board? I did not authorize you to do so. I am not 30 minutes away, but 2 hours away from you guys.  I also tried for a week to get you guys to pick this miner up, when you said you would pick it up on Monday. The part that my case was closed with Delaware county, is because your business is not registered in Delaware county. A new case is being open with Montgomery District Attorney. I was asking for a refund, because what was build was no where near what was advertised. I also sent and email saying I would come to the office and exchange the bad miner for a working one, that message was never returned.  The miner came me so smashed, I consider it totaled. It is not a case of me being a disgruntled customer as you suggest, since there are many, many other who receive smashed computers at the same time.  I am still asking for a refund because sending me a smashed miner that was the cause of poor packaging is not the solution.

Can't really be official if AMT didn't create it now can it?  Just making a point.

I approve this thread.

I'm a client and here are pictures of my damaged miner.


Bent Chassis

This message is in regard to your complaint submitted on 3/19/2014 2:28:47 PM against Advanced Mining Technology.  Your complaint was assigned ID 9975423.

We have written to the firm referenced above on two previous occasions. Since we have not received a reply to our requests for a response, a final notice will be sent to the company today.

Perhaps the firm has already contacted you. If so, please advise us of the situation immediately. If you do not hear back from us, it means that our attempts at conciliation have been exhausted and you may wish to contact an attorney or your local or state office of consumer affairs to pursue the matter further.

Please know that we are, unfortunately, not able to compel a firm to answer and resolve complaints. Since this firm is not a BBB Accredited Business, it is not obligated to respond and resolve consumer complaints with us.

In those few instances where our requests have been ignored, the information is made a part of the firm's file at the BBB. In many cases this will result in an adverse BBB Reliability Report being issued on the firm.

Please feel free to contact us with any further questions.

Regards,

Vernette Butts
The Better Business Bureau

Frictionlesscoin is a client of AMT:

Carlos Perez, of Germantown, Maryland to be exact.

Carlos also filed a claim with deleware and requested a refund. After resolving the issue with Carlos and Deleware by shipping his miner. He now claims that he is missing a backplane.

We've created a fedex tracking number for now the 2nd backplane that we'll be sending to Carlos.

Carlos is valued customer of AMT and we are very happy tom have him. We'll update this shortly with the fedex tracking number to Carlos's house.

Glad we have your attention.

I AM A CLIENT OF AMT. AN OWNER OF A BROKEN MINER THAT DOES NOT HASH.

and make sure that little (floppy drive?) power connector is plugged in to the backplane. There's a pic of that further back.