HashFast wins! I voted my 2 votes at the end, since the other voters were shy.  

Details of potential proposed buyout of HashFast Batch 1, Order 616, PM sent to Seller, assuming HashFast wins the vote in a few hours:

"Hey XXXXX,

Hope, you don't mind if we do this through BTCrow Escrow so I can allay fears from the co-operative that you don't bail with everyone's money/BTC. It isn't going to cost you a thing except a few hours to a day at the most since we'll pay the 1% fee.

If it was just between you & I, by now after that free tip you gave me that could've led to a lot of work (it didn't, but I still remember that) I would've just trusted you enough to just pay you directly if it was all up to me and if it was just my money/BTC involved.

The way I was hoping we could set it up is that you would be the Seller on the BTC Escrow site, BTCrow:

1. An Escrowed transaction for the whole sale at BTCrow, with me paying you a lump BTC from everyone's BTC once I receive everyone's BTC (they can do a *separate* escrow for this GB share itself but that's an additional 1.5% fee on top of the 1% fee we're building into the $151.50 share price so that we can have escrow protection and dispute resolution for the buy out of HF Order 616.

2. You'll have to set up a transaction on BTCrow yourself. You can contact me with a BTCrow invoice so I know the exact size BTC payment to make to you. I'll send you a personal address I use for vetting shortly in a separate PM.

3. Please contact Cara, John S., or someone else in sales at HashFast with your request to turn over account control to me and do a shipping change to Order 616.

4. HashFast will contact me via this forum or my personal email address (which they already have on record) for the shipping change.

5. I'm just going to go ahead & name bobsag3 the miner host in Missouri. If there's discord because of this flash decision, we can open up voting shortly for alternate hosting sites in North America.

6. Once I confirm w/ HashFast that the shipping address for Order 616 is changed to our address and control of the account has been given to me, I'll release the funds that are being held at BTCrow.

====

Your guarantee against being ripped off by me is:

You can always contact HashFast to tell them that you got ripped off, in which case, once you provided proof they would have to change the order back to you, and I would probably be banned from future sales at BTCrow, HashFast, & on the GB forum; in other words, it's not going to happen, but it's good that as a Seller on BTCrow that you have both sales protection via contacting HashFast, as well as dispute resolution from a trusted 3rd party: BTCrow.

====

[Disclaimer: I'm an Official BTCrow Escrow Affiliate for those that don't know. Sales at BTCrow are only insured up to $500 each transaction. If necessary: we'll set up a number of $500 worth transactions to complete the escrow protected transaction with insurance for the entire sale via $500 chunks.   ]

==

You could also make a public statement of being ripped off on the thread, with proof, which will kill the thread and any future sales as both a GBC and GBEC from this acct.. I'll list the details of this particular order buy publicly so that the gents know what's going on, as I try to be as open and transparent with them about what's going on, at all times.

Hope this sounds fair & safe enough for you. I welcome any replacement payment & handover methods you might suggest, but I kind of remain firm on the desire to do the escrow thru BTCrow as that's the whole reason I'm an affiliate (to facilitate semi-automated escrowed buys there as a means to make GBs easier) and their prices are cheaper than other similar Western BTC Escrow Services from what I can see.

Cheers!
DZ


=====================

So 2 important pieces of news there:

- I intend to have bobsag3 be our miner host as he's got quite the set up as a double vetted miner host with ultra cheap electricity and bandwidth. Please PM me if you have concerns about this or if you would like to open up voting for our R2 GB Miner. I'm going for speed at the moment, so we have a placeholder address ready to go which will be the likely pro colocation facility.

- I intend to have the buyer set up a transaction for the whole buyout of HF Order 616 at BTCrow so that everyone's protected throughout & there's dispute resolution via 3rd party available to both buyer and seller. It's also cheaper than comparable Western-based BTC Escrow services, as I mentioned earlier.

2 Hours and 35 minutes left before the Miner Manufacturer / Share Price is decided! Unless someone else votes earlier...

Aloha!

Excellent! I agree with your assessment as well but I wish KnC all the best as a new friend (Phoenix1969) has quite a few KnCs on order, besides the gentleman that's generously offering us his place in the Q at cost.

19 votes for Hashfast, 1 for Cointerra (I think, please PM me if I have this incorrect).

2 more votes for Hashfast for the automatic win!

Hi, I can confirm that I have seen that John K. has verified bobsag3.

I have also vetted him personally myself & I've been trusted by the US Govt. to help develop and test cutting edge tech for nearly 10 years. John K. has vetted my ID and has seen my 50-60 Professional Endorsements on LinkedIn which include world class experts in their various fields of Aerospace/R&D/IT/Civ. Engineering. I've also done Pro Information Security for many years; I'm NOT an ID expert but it appears to be a valid Govt. ID sent by Bob. I've also vetted deeper than John K.'s usual method & have also vetted bobsag3 via Social Media (which can also be faked but the real world network of people (esp. LinkedIn) is much harder to fake once you go down that rabbithole).

Please feel free to contact John via PM at: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=31288

to confirm that both bobsag3 and I have been vetted satisfactorily by John (checking this info is a good practice for anyone dealing with a GBC they're unsure of; contact the vetting agency if you're doubtful).


==================


AFAIK, bobsag3 is the first person on this board to have been vetted by 2 vetting agencies and he is currently the top Miner Host in my Bitcoin Miner Host Matchmaking services currently available in 3 US states, with likely expansion to Europe, the Middle East, and possibly Asia depending on current discussions.

FWIW, here's pics of the expanded mining site bobsag3 is setting up this week: http://s286.photobucket.com/user/SurfSkateKauai/media/b5066ad3-1524-4996-a20d-abf1cedc871a.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

Bob's offering the world's best miner hosting prices at the moment, bar none.
My background: I run a small International Democratic at-cost Miner's Cooperative, Group Buy Escrow Coordinator services, and Miner Host matchmaking of vetted miner hosts and buyers with the Group Buys/Custom Hardware forums being my particular focus and niche.

Cheers!
DZ

Hi Delmonger,

I'm definitely not trying to steal your thunder or sales here; I currently don't have any open shares available for sale in a GB, at the moment & I help out new GBCs and Miner Hosts mostly for free. I'm closing out a 2nd GB in a month but I don't have any shares available, right now.

I'm sorry if this is elementary, but you're going to have a really, really hard time trying to make sales here as a non-vetted newcomer. If you're serious about Group Buys, you really need to get vetted by a trusted GBC or Escrow Agent here such as John K, SebastianJu, Dabs, or even myself. I vet new GBCs and Miner Hosts for free, with the hope of doing future business with these gents as well as to offload some of John K.'s workload across the whole spectrum of BTC economic transactions.

The last gent I vetted, it only took 90 min. from my initial post in the new GBCs thread to completion of his free vetting process. The process goes like this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=297037.msg3187149#msg3187149

Feel free to ignore my free advice but I'm just trying to help. [BTW, if you'd like: I can help you by providing access to 3rd party Escrow Protection via BTCrow, as a Trusted Escrow Affiliate, for anyone that wants escrow protection in a GB; even if the GB wasn't originally set up for Escrow. Fees are 2%, comparable to John's fees (but likely much, much quicker as the GB forum is my niche). This helps with trust issues for new GBCs because a 3rd party - BTCrow - holds funds and does Dispute Resolution (up to 120 days post-sale, negotiable term).

Cheers!
DZ

Ok, we'll see.  

Who knows: this at-cost share concept is very fair to the Buyer while still having protection for the GBC, so if there's enough demand there could be a R3 DZ GB sooner rather than later.

Please shoot me a PM if you're interested in a R3 GB; there could be enough demand for another miner for those that missed out on at-cost shares for Round 2 or for those that wanted to buy more shares in Round 2.

As usual, I don't make any or much profit from GB shares: it's more of a service to our community to bring buyers together so we can get the best values and tech for our dollar/BTC without a markup, as if we were buying it ourselves.

==

BTW, this particular HashFast Order 616 we're voting on, is only the 64th HashFast miner paid for, meaning that it should be a Day 1 shipment.

Last month's DZ GB R1 HashFast GB purchase for Order 991 was the 419th paid for miner, meaning a likely Day 2-3 shipment depending on how ready they are.

https://hashfast.com/order-chain/

Noted. Thank you!

12 votes for HashFast, 1 for Cointerra.

9 votes needed for HashFast for automatic win (less votes may be needed if all other options are mathematically eliminated).

Thanks Dave! Vote noted and recorded. I believe that now makes it 11 votes for HashFast, 1 for Cointerra. (Feel free to check my math as working on a phone is hard)

10 votes needed to trigger a Hashfast Aug. 9 order win, at $150 per at-cost share + 1% BTCrow escrow fee ($1.50) at-cost for escrow protection because I haven't traded with the seller of Paid Order 616 on August 9, so far. (FWIW: R1 gents paid $155 per at-cost share w/ John K. Escrow for our Aug. 18, Order 991 pre-order, for an order paid 9 days later; in other words: a pretty darn good deal)

13 public votes outstanding, 15 votes under my stewardship held for late voting by tonight if it's not resolved.

I've confirmed with the Order 616 Seller that he intends to sell "at-cost". There was some currency fluctuations with his local currency but I'm not too concerned about the price difference & will make it up out of pocket if necessary.

What's your take on this new news? You and the other R1 gents & I would be doubling up on a HashFast bet but, wow, we'd get it in very early Nov. instead of laaate Dec. or most likely January (KnC: late Nov.) with other options. Costs a little bit more than the intended $5K max size of this R2 GB, but the profit projections (and industry best MPP) make this very attractive.

My take: this might be our very best shot at meeting ROI in the short to mid term compared to any other avail. option.

Sorry, typo. Hey, I just woke up!    

Fixed it. BTW, Order 616 was paid for 9 days before our R1 GB HF BabyJet that's heading to your island. Can someone run the TGB numbers for a Nov. Hashfast 4 cent electricity? Mining pool fee would basically be around 2.7% as an est. of the 2.75% + 4 cent electricity. I gotta head to work in a bit.

Cheers!

Top o' the Morning, gentlemen!

Thank you for the re-votes. I may have another option that may cause you guys to re-vote those re-votes!    

Thanks to my GBEC services, I make contacts on both the buyer & seller side for both Group Buys *and* Matchmaking services for hosting. One potential client I befriended a few weeks ago that's looking for low cost miner hosting, sent me the following offer.

I'll need some sort of proof of ordering before we set this up (& if we do, I'm setting it up in escrow *at cost* via BTCrow: 1% since I've never traded with this potential client before) but this is an intriguing offer: you'd essentially get a Miner Protection Plan (2-4X our original hashrate) *AND* an even earlier placement in HashFast's order Q (which I might add is in California; much closer than Europe to our most likely host site in Missouri:

"Hi DZ

I have 1 babyjet order #616 == Babyjet 64

I paid $5400 + 400 shipping to XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, although I intend to change the shipping for USA hosting in Washington with bitcoinasichosting

I have invested heavily in KNC, early queue delivery and nolonger "need" my babyjet

It's not big deal to keep it, it's paid for, non refundable etc, but in case your group buy in interested in a early order # babyjet, I would be willing to sell it.

thanks

XXXX"

====

Wow! What a curveball! Anyone want us to buy this MPP purchased Order #616 from HashFast instead? I'm confirming he's selling it to us at cost to free up funds, but I believe we can get an earlier Batch 1 pre-order with HashFast at-cost!

FYI: My Round1 Group Buy is Order #991, so you'd have even earlier placement then the gentlemen who banded together with me to form our R1 GB Cooperative. We'd pay a little more per share but we're talking about a very early November delivery here (est. Nov. 1-2) instead of a projected January delivery with other mfgs.

That's a nice thing about us being a representative democracy: your vote is directly proportional to your intended ownership. However, your influence may be outsized, or larger than your stake, based on how well you argue your position and possibly sway votes with news and/or insights.

Please feel free to change your vote again, if you'd like. KnC is now winning (approx. halfway there for votes) but I def. won't see you as wishy washy with this new complete curveball of a mfg. option out of left field. There won't be any teasing about that from this end.

AFAIK: We are the only co-operative that this option has been offered to.

Received another vote via PM. This vote is for 2 shares for KnC.

This person has voted for KnC. Reasoning: "My vote is KNC (are you kidding me 50-60 days before any of the competitors?!)"

That's a good point. We'd be paying about $12.50 more a share each but be getting the miner anywhere from a month & a half to 2 months ahead of Bitmine (just mentioning, if anyone had a change of heart w/ their share votes).

Current voting: 9 Bitcoin Rig, 1 CoinTerra, 2 KnC

13 public votes outstanding by my count, 15 late votes currently held by myself (unless the owners of those 13 shares would like to vote).
Please feel free to change your vote all the up until the voting ends and a winning option is announced among our options.

===

Also, I received another unsolicited payment for shares worth 1.97BTC from a R1/R2 co-op member! These shares are valued at $126.22 (current Coindesk price) and will be applied to shares. If we go with ~$137.50 shares via KnC and BTC hasn't appreciated up to ~$137.50 by the time we transfer BTC to the mfg., I may have to ask this member (and the other pre-paid gent) to chip in a little extra.

7 Shares paid up by 3 R2 Co-op members: valued at up to ~$126 ea. or current value of BTC (whichever is higher) at time of mfg. payment. I'll update the spreadsheet tomorrow.

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.21 (MingW32)

I have been contacted by user thomas_s. for vetting services by my GBEC Cooperative of GBCs and miner hosts.
thomas_s. has sent me an ID and a social media link that all seem to confirm that this user appears to be a
well intentioned Group Buy Coordinator and I can confirm that I appear to have a copy of his Govt. ID, and a picture
of thomas_s holding this ID. This user has also gone above and beyond my minimum vetting requirements in a method
that I will not mention, which further confirmed his ID.

I am not an ID expert but I've done Information Security as part of my job for many years, and thomas_s.appears to
have his ID and address, at a minimum, on record with a vetting agency on these forums.

Regards,
DZ

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=6bXR
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----

I can confirm that thomas_s. has agreed to undergo the vetting process through my GBEC services.

I am awaiting the arrival of an ID, a picture of the GBC holding the ID, as well as a social media link for deeper vetting, before making any vetting decisions as a trusted BTC Forum Vetting Agent for the Group Buys Forum. My vetting services may be free, but they ain't cheap. 

As always, this sort of personal info is held in the strictest confidence, and is only released upon approval or by request by a local legal authority with legal authority to this information.

4 more Bitmine Rig votes received via PM.

That makes it 9 votes for Bitmine Rig, 1 vote for Cointerra.

10 votes cast out of 40 possible. 21 votes to win majority vote.

The Bitmine Rig option needs 12 more votes before this option wins by majority decision. Please cast your vote(s) so we can secure our order. Also, please send me a PM if you think your vote somehow got overlooked (like: hey, WTH? Where's my KnC vote?) because I def. don't walk on water.

There appear to be 13 votes outstanding, if one doesn't count the shares I'm voting for. I'm all about giving freedom a chance but if we don't receive enough votes by Thursday, September 19, 5PM HST to resolve this, I'm going to vote with the 17 votes under my advisement or direct control so we can close out this R2 GB & secure our place in a Q somewhere.

=====

2 more votes were ceded to me by an anonymous gentlemen for 17 votes out of 40.

=============================================================================================


BTW, KnC news relating to our vote, who would be shipping an estimated full month (or longer) before any other entrants in this democratic vote for a GB miner:  

We would also like to take this opportunity to say that while we have remained as silent as possible on our simulations and only promised figures that we know we can meet. we will not down clock our chips to 400 we will release all our machines with the greatest hashing power we can. So yes the rumors are true Jupiter will be greater than 400 by a significant margin as a free gift from us to all our loyal customers. The first chips off of the production line we will run at full speed in our launch video so you can all see exactly how fast we can make Jupiter run.

https://www.kncminer.com/news/news-36

If you think about it, there could be as many as 50-60 days shipping difference between KnC & Bitmine. (Hehe, taking all these opposing viewpoints is fun)

Please let me know if this news sways any votes already cast as it's likely this will be a 450-500GH/s KnC unit when all is said & done (with potentially even more headroom).

OTOH, there's no ability to upgrade in increments like the Bitmine unit and I suspect that those Bitmine expansion modules will come down in price as competition heats up.

That's def. a different site from about a month ago. Not sure if its the same peeps.

Red flag from their site:

Shipping now

3.1-3.3 GHash/sec   – 1 BTC / $300 – 110 nm chip

9.3-9.9 GHash/sec   – 3 BTC / $800 – 65 nm chip

27.9 -29.7 GHash/sec – 9 BTC /$1400 – 65 nm chip

83.7 -89.1 GHash/sec – 14 BTC /$1800 – 65 nm chip

251.1 -267.3 GHash/sec – 30 BTC /$3800 – 28 nm chip



Huh? One BTC is going for $300 now? How come I didn't get the memo?  

I've got some extra BTC if anyone wants me to sell it to them for $300/ea. Heck! I'll even buy extra just for you!

Sorry, I haven't seen these answers. Anyone care to give a link or a snippet of answers?

I perform Group Buys and help others perform Group Buys, so I need to know what's available, what are straight up scams, potential news that may affect delivery for ASIC mfgs., etc., etc..

I'm hardware/software neutral; I don't get involved in being a platform fanboi (ala XBOX vs. PS or MS vs. Linux). All I care about is whether hardware is either useful, if it'll be delivered on time, or if it can make me some moolah.

Great & valid points! I'm not sure why your questions are being deleted in the other thread.

Seems to me that you have valid questions even if you may be a competitor. I'd like some answers to these questions as well, & I have no horse in this particular race.

LOL indeed! They're reading this exact thread & the other one that was on the Custom Hardware forum.

Hey, that's weird: *all* of the alleged staff pictures are gone. I'm sure that's just a temp. thing while they re-arrange things.

Uh huh.

Since I know you ankle grabbers behind this scam are reading this: YOU ARE SCUM. YOU ARE LOWER THAN A COCKROACH. Get a job looser!

And he would have got away with it too!

...if it wasn't for those meddling kids.

Zoinks!