I got about $3.00 worth of payments before the payments got stuck in "pending" and the site disappeared. Quite the ROI right there. -_-

I've got 4 payments still "pending". Wondering if I've been scammed too.

I want to link my Bitcointalk name with BTCJam's. Verification code: a8ae39ca-327e-44ae-8780-46c3a1eee0be

Other than the random iMessage part, I think it's pretty nice.

I'd say the entire Half-Life/Portal series (they're set in the same universe, so I guess I can combine them).

You can always use Blockchain or a desktop wallet. No one is forcing you to use Circle.

Thanks for the kind words, Starscream! You're absolutely right. Most of these companies should be treated with caution until they have anything tangible to show. We only want to work with companies that are fully transparent and trusted, and we think the community should know about what we find out. For example, we just recently met Jasin from Fibonacci and will meet him again on Friday. We'll post an update about Fibonacci on our blog after the meeting.

We did read more than just their home page. We've looked at various sources, including several threads on reddit, Bitcointalk, and Litecointalk as well as Alpha Technology's News page on their website. And the thing is, they really don't have a lot to show. They say they're going to ship within a few months, yet that doesn't seem likely. Furthermore, you might want to see this latest development: http://www.reddit.com/r/litecoinmining/comments/266bf4/alpha_technologies_asic_scrypt_miner_look_what_i/
Of course, you're free to have your own opinion and if you have any constructive criticism, we'd appreciate it. But just dismissing our work as "some of the shottiest un-researched crap" doesn't really help anyone. 

True. I think Circle just reminds Bitcoiners too much of traditional banking.

Circle is highly centralised, which is something Bitcoin in general tries to avoid.
However, Circle seems like it could be great for beginners and would make more newbies interested in Bitcoin.

Facebook is far from being dead. Sorry :p

I like this. While some people might not like the idea of incentives for donating, the fact is that most people are more likely to donate if they can get something out of it. I see it as more of a win-win than being greedy.

Hey guys, it's Neil. After being a longtime lurker on these forums, I've decided to create a proper account. Basically, I'm a writer who contributes to CryptoCoins News and Helix. The way I understand it, Helix's goal is to bring cryptocurrency mining to a wider audience. Right now, mining isn't newbie-friendly and there's a pretty steep learning curve. While my goal is to make these blog posts helpful for everyone, the target audience is really people just getting started with Bitcoin and mining in general, so the analysis isn't going to be super in-depth and technical. You'll notice that many of the blog posts are about beginner topics like securing your bitcoin wallet (http://helixminers.com/5-ways-keep-bitcoin-wallet-secure/).

I know that it's "guilty until proven innocent" in this industry, which is completely understandable, given all the scam mining companies out there. That's why the team at Helix has been traveling the world visiting many of these companies in person. These first few research posts were really just a warm up. We'll be discussing companies that Helix has visited in person soon (though we did talk about Gridseed already).

I hope that clears things up. We want to evaluate the legitimacy of these popular companies before we do business with them so that we don't end up scamming our customers. We're doing our best to be as honest as possible and welcome your feedback.

Thanks.

Doesn't seem like it's worth the time. But it's your choice.

Do people seriously still use faucets?