I just read an email from Avalon posted in the BFL forums stating that they effectively delayed batches 2 and 3 so they could build their own mining farm to print money for themselves.
https://forums.butterflylabs.com/bfl-forum-miscellaneous/1454-avalon-drops-bomb-second-batch.htmlThe key text is this:
"On to batch three, we at Avalon did not even wish to sell another batch. If you recall, our original plan was to produce only one batch, sell chips to thwart the centralization of mining, but due to the lackluster performance of our competitors we are here today as the exact centralization we tried to decouple. In addition, this delay is eating into our timeline for this project's future goals and various other projects. To be frank: it was a simple decision of build a mining farm ourselves and mine for a month or so to get the funding for things like the SMT line and next generation development vs. raise the price and sell units trying to get the money earlier to counterbalance the delay we have had. So, we came up with some terms and left the choice to the community."
First of all, I didn't get this email nor did I see it anywhere else. It's possible that this isn't authentic. But if it is, WTF? Yifu Guo's whole mission to democratize Bitcoin is a bunch of garbage. He's taking customer money to build machines that run directly counter to his customer's objectives. This is more than a breach of their 'No Bullshit' contract- it's borderline fraud. And this last sentence about coming up with terms and leaving the choice to the community- Is that meant to imply that Avalon's customers willingly allowed their funds to purchase hardware for Avalon or the hardware they purchased to be used by Avalon to mine? Is he implying that his customers are ok with this? From where I'm sitting it looked like the young idealist who did such an awesome and impressive thing sold out and sold out hard. Using your customers' money to line your own pockets? How can this possibly be justified? It's not like he honored his contracts and then built his own mining machines after delivering- that would seem to be reasonable. But to not deliver, and break his commitment to not mine, and use the chips and hardware his customers paid for? That is seriously messed up! Rationalizing by saying they need money for things doesn't quite cut it!
Again, I can't verify the authenticity of this email but it would be great if someone else could. If this is true, I hope the customers and the community can start asking some serious questions about the integrity of Avalon's leadership. I would love for this to be cleared up. I have to say, this was extremely disappointing and I hope that it's not true.
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