Extolabs is claiming to have started shipping their pre-sold ASICS early, in order to "make up" to their pre-sale clients for offering a discount on remaining units. There is a post on their site from 27 April (yesterday) saying shipping has commenced.

By the way, a quick check on the site http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/ using the Extolabs business registration number 08973540 (found at the bottom of the Extolabs website) shows that the company has only been registered since 02/04/2014! (Clarification: 2nd April 2014 according to UK date notation.) Definitely not reassuring.

Less than a month, and already shipping ASICs?

I guess if they disappear in a couple of weeks, we'll know they're a scam. I don't imagine you can last long after claiming to have shipped orders without really shipping them...

That's awesome, super useful. Thanks TheRealSteve.

Didn't know about reverse image googling. (D'uh.)

Hi guys.

Yep, I'm a meganewbie. However, in my ASIC research I recently came across this site: http://www.extolabs.com/

They have an ASIC product claiming 3.6 TH/s for $9499, 1900W max power load. This manufacturer is claiming to have sold 1000 of their EX1 miners already, and are now offering a huge 40% discount on their last batch of 300 (now $5699 according to the site).

I couldn't find anything else on bitcointalk about this seemingly very new maker of ASIC hardware. I know the scam drill: New (fake) ASIC maker pops up, claims wonderful things, takes money in pre-orders, then disappears. Do you reckon this is a legitimate offering?


Here's my take:

- A quick search on WHOIS.net shows the same registrant "Jimm Trekk" as a name listed on the site (doesn't mean much), and physical address in the UK. I'm not 100% sure how to interpret the WHOIS data, but it looks to me like the domain was created in 2010, updated last month (March 2014), and expires Jan 2015. A look on the Wayback Machine doesn't show much either (it shows a different site in 2012 to what is there now, but that's about all).
- A Google maps street view of the physical address doesn't show anything clearly as it's inside an industrial park, and can't be seen from the road. (Plus if it's a new business, the Google shots might be out of date.)
- They have a short video on their site showing their miner apparently in operation. It shows the mining hash rate on a monitor, but I'm supposing this can be faked with a bit of coding talent. You don't get to see anyone's face or similar (though that's fairly typical of this kind of video, I guess).
- The site looks pretty nice, but that only goes so far in terms of evidence. I kind of think their office images, and even their staff images, look a bit like stock photos.
- I sent them an email a couple of days ago asking for just a bit more info on them, and maybe some more photos of their offices to show that is their real office location. Haven't heard anything back.
- If they have been around only a couple months, would they be likely to have sold 1000 miners, especially without any other posts on this forum about them?

So, conclusion: indeterminate. However, not a comprehensive analysis by any means. Any thoughts?

PS I'm in no way affiliated with the company, and I reckon there's just as much chance it could be a scam as legit.