The parts where they never intend to build the device and stringing people along as long as possible.  A once-tried-to-be-honest business venture turning into a "scheme" (scam) in particular, but a lot
of what he mentioned were manufacturing boondoggles for making anything, especially in a fast-moving market.

  This article is about 3D printers, but the parallels are worth noting.  Substitute pre-order for kickstarter and miner for printer and you have a very good analysis of what has happened not only here, but with other would-be miner manufacturers.

http://www.inside3dp.com/low-cost-3d-printers-crowdfunding-suicide/

--Crow
/**/

  From the BA thread, "Failure to contact us by the end of March 2015 will result in the destruction of your equipment!"

  This means what, they're going to plug them in?  I think I finally understand the whole not-refund thing: the money wasn't for miners, it was for tickets to watch a comedy spectacle...except no one is laughing.  Shitbags.

Holy crap, that cap removal vid!  At least clip the leads flush.  I am going to guess those caps have a crappy equivalent series resistance and at sufficient current load they just heat up until they outgas or otherwise ignite.  This sort of thing happens infrequently on system main boards when a marginal cap can't handle the rated load.  Use a solid-core, low ESR part of the correct WVDC and capacitance.  Warning: proper parts cost a bit more.     Gads...

How warm do the power connectors get at the point they attach to the board's headers?

  After reviewing today's data my gut feeling is this company will not last past the end of Q3, possibly sooner.  If any leverage by customers is to be applied via banking or legal institutions for recovery of funds it should be done now as whatever liquidation assets exist will be taken by creditors leaving little or no scraps for customer fund recovery.  As with the Black Arrow debacle (among others), the lesson learned is simple: buy from inventory SKUs and not from unsecured pre-order startups. I wish I could be more kind with my words but I've seen too many companies with lofty ambitions and good intentions flame out as they come to realize they've created a monster and wish it would just go away.  Best of luck.

  For some reason, this company interprets any sort of call for critical review as being "mean to them."  Here is the perfect spokesman for the current state of affairs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCpwd0ARx6Q

  This just gets better and better.  I have never seen such a long-winded post have so little content.  So as surmised it is an unsanctioned (sanctioned in the US it would be SEC oversight through an underwriter) stock sale.  (If it is sanctioned, who are the underwriters?) Where is the full financial disclosure including ledger, day-to-day, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and whatever the UK equivalent is to a form 9K filing is for at minimum the last 4 quarters?  This information is required for any proscpective buyer executing due diligence.  How many shares per unit cost?  How many shares do the 70% closely held and 30% to-be-widely-held represent?  What are the insolvency rules for the shares?  The limitations of shareholder liability? (That is a crucial one there).  I could go on for an hour, but in short this info has to be made public to any prospective buyer without qualification.  The whole point of disclosure is to be open and transparent such that anyone can evaluate the investment prospect, not just a select group.

  Wow.  Just...wow.  I have no dog in this hunt but I have been studying the various pre-order startup tech mining companies and this is the first one to use what ostensibly looks to be the equivalent of a pinksheet stock manipulation scheme.  A typical ps stock racket is to dangle shares, hook buy-ins, then fold while "apologetically" lamenting that they were upbeat and optimistic but the money's "gone".  Sometime later a new company is written up on paper and the process starts again.  Investors beware, be very ware. That is all.

  All I wanted was a miner delivered into the market climate that enticed me to order it in the first place.  Since that didn't happen, I chalk it up to life experience.  Not really that angry as manufacturing this sort of thing is not easy, but I find it remarkable how all these pre-order tech startups attempting these devices are all managing to ship product into a market space that has long since moved past the point of saleability.  The lesson here is simple.  Buy what you can actually get in hand within a few business days.  Time is more valuable than efficiency for the freelance miner, and the freelance role is coming to an end.

  Greed warps the psyche, enabling the willingness to get boned repeatedly in order to maintain the vision of dollar signs dancing in the head.  The easiest solution is to only buy in-stock hardware, but even that window has closed.  BTC casual mining has been over for some time now.  The market conditions that enticed the bulk of pre-orders no longer exist, and that hypothetical 50 BTC return per miner is now at best 1 BTC.  Some folks were shrewd enough to cost average into hardware that was actually shipping last winter, and as a result can write off their pre-order mishaps.  As for the rest, opt for a refund if possible.  The game is over.

Too bad the monarch is not a threat to anything else either.  The 600G to 1T hash ship has sailed and is now so far from the dock not even the wake is visible.  We are seeing the final product attempts from these companies; no one is going to crowd fund btc hardware ever again.  It would take a real semiconductor manufacturer like Intel or Samsung to craft viable sub-20nm process wafers, and even with their billions devoted to die-shrink capabilities they've had trouble with fabrication.

  If any additional cash outlay is required for "compensation," it is not compensation at all.  It is a suggestive sale.
It is the same as the very common suggestive sale "buy 2, get 1 free."  Proper compensation is when additional
hardware/hosting/etc. is provided gratis with no extra costs involved with respect to the customer.

  Am only in for an X-1, which by now has fallen to "conversation piece" status.  It has all the hallmarks of a successfully-funded but failed-deliverable kickstarter campaign.  Live and learn, I guess.

  I did happen across BA's customer service motto, however: