Bryan Micon's Butterfly Labs Scammer Investigation including Josh Zerlan

[gbx]

I'm starting to feel sorry for Josh because if he doesn't deliver a working product he will have pissed off hundreds or thousands of bitcoin miners. One of the problems with bitcoin I've read about is the ease with which bitcoins can be used to set assassination bounties. Even if Josh is one day living in a penthouse in Cuba sipping mojitos beside a Latin American supermodel, if he has ran off with the order money he is likely to end up killed with a 'fuck you' letter jammed up his ass.

Well, they've played their cards fairly well.  I doubt the project to create an asic miner started out as a scam.  I suspect that someone with more business sense than technical expertise decided to make some pretty wild claims and they're having trouble somewhere in the process of meeting those claims.

I've seen this quite a bit in my consulting days...  "You told them we could do what??"  And somehow you have to pull a rabbit out of the hat...  Well, the rabbit is very late.  I'd be surprised if they're ready for THIS year's christmas.

My guess is that they'll wait for the next bubble, cash in their wallets, refund most of the customers (and refund the bitcoin paying customers at the height of the bubble/least favorable conversion rate for their customers), and close up shop.

But my guess is they want to keep the wheels on the bus and keep it moving down the road.  But they either can't meet technical or price per unit commitments or both.

[1714106595]

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[MooC Tals]

[smoothie]

I actually hope Micon wins his bet.

BFL time and time again has lied, led customers on, can't deliver, etc.

BFL needs to go down. Businesses of this type of immaturity should be out of business. Only thing keeping them in business is preorder customer funds. Once that dries up, ponzi is over.

AND IT'S GONE...

[yolo2222]

I actually hope Micon wins his bet.

BFL time and time again has lied, led customers on, can't deliver, etc.

BFL needs to go down. Businesses of this type of immaturity should be out of business. Only thing keeping them in business is preorder customer funds. Once that dries up, ponzi is over.

AND IT'S GONE...

<--- This!!! LOL

[TCollar]

What the BFL labs youtube video reminded me of (the one where everyone waved while annoying music played) was what I saw in NYC during the dotcom boom while I was going to interviews.

I went to one place, and I think it was called StockBack, but I am not totally sure, and they had people assembling computers there, a large and friendly staff and the guy interviewing me said "I hope you like stress because we are really busy".  The thing that struck me as odd was that they were assembling desktop computers.  This was 1999 and in those days you could save about $100 to $200 by building your own computer but to me it seemed like they were wasting time and some money paying people to do it.  I figured they could be up and running but they had a bunch of computers to make instead and it did not make sense.

I did not take the job but it turned out that the owners blew through all their venture capital and fled.  Employees then looted the place when they realized it was going to be put into receivership and they wouldn't get paid.

I know BFL is supposed to assemble hardware, but no one should be fooled by an office full of busy people on a youtube video.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

...but no one should be fooled by an office full of busy people on a youtube video.

Is it possible that the assemblers were fooled into thinking prior to hiring on that they would be cooking something with jalapeños? At least they're only a few feet away from where the books are cooked, with a watchful eye from the CS team on the other side of the window.

CNY meet CdM

[Micon]

so here is the supposed "Luke Unit" hashing on Josh's pool (lol ppl really connect to his pool? ppl should not trust Josh Zerlan with hashing power IMO)

http://eligius.st/~wizkid057/newstats/userstats.php/1CdcYVP4T4hjHwt353pEnGHrigeDLvuvZL


Does anyone believe this is the luke Unit?  that it's really been hashing that fast for that long?   

I would love to hear opinions.

is it just eating power like a boss?

so hot you can fry an egg on it?

special pcb or not even mounted on a board, i.e. no real way to take it from lab --> consumer product?

[Micon]

anyone else sickened when BFL spends customer funds on even more ads on this forum?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=172934.0

[creativex]

anyone else sickened when BFL spends customer funds on even more ads on this forum?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=172934.0

The whole situation is sickening. BFL's misleading ads were still working to draw in newbs in Feb. This thing won't stop until it implodes and it won't implode until people wise up...could be awhile.



 

[smoothie]

What the BFL labs youtube video reminded me of (the one where everyone waved while annoying music played) was what I saw in NYC during the dotcom boom while I was going to interviews.

I went to one place, and I think it was called StockBack, but I am not totally sure, and they had people assembling computers there, a large and friendly staff and the guy interviewing me said "I hope you like stress because we are really busy".  The thing that struck me as odd was that they were assembling desktop computers.  This was 1999 and in those days you could save about $100 to $200 by building your own computer but to me it seemed like they were wasting time and some money paying people to do it.  I figured they could be up and running but they had a bunch of computers to make instead and it did not make sense.

I did not take the job but it turned out that the owners blew through all their venture capital and fled.  Employees then looted the place when they realized it was going to be put into receivership and they wouldn't get paid.

I know BFL is supposed to assemble hardware, but no one should be fooled by an office full of busy people on a youtube video.

This. All I keep seeing and hearing about is Dog And Pony shows going on. That video is exactly that.


"Look at how busy we are. See we have an office, we have assemblers, shiny equipment, nice flashy signs etc. see this means we are legit and make ASIC devices"

Lol rofl haha!

[Micon]

ne1 ever see this vid before?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLWJf345G0s

or

"Josh Zerlan on why you should get a refund from BFL"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLWJf345G0s&feature=youtu.be&t=2m16s

[Micon]

no but seriously, do u think this is really a BFL chip hashing at 5 gh/s ? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uez9AVfDQIg

just needs to be powered by nuclear?  can't possibly jam it onto a pcd and make it look like a consumer electronics product?  must be in this "mad scientist prototype" setup in order to work? 

would love to hear what BitSyncom thinks about it, as he usually isn't one for jokes and claimed they reached that stage "1.2 months before shipping"

my questions is does anyone closely following this story believe they have chips?  these videos aren't another rouse?

[jml]

no but seriously, do u think this is really a BFL chip hashing at 5 gh/s ? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uez9AVfDQIg

just needs to be powered by nuclear?  can't possibly jam it onto a pcd and make it look like a consumer electronics product?  must be in this "mad scientist prototype" setup in order to work? 

would love to hear what BitSyncom thinks about it, as he usually isn't one for jokes and claimed they reached that stage "1.2 months before shipping"

my questions is does anyone closely following this story believe they have chips?  these videos aren't another rouse?

As a rouse to make newbs part with their cash for pre-orders, yes. As I view these demos, these are teaser videos; ideally, development should be within its walls without advertising progress AND without taking people's money. These videos will get people who are new into bitcoin to quickly pre-order from their website, therefore funding BFL's operations.

Do they have ASIC chips? Ask Josh/Inaba, they might give you an answer. For all I know, they could be using FPGA chips for mining.

My potato chips that are fresh out from my oven can hash faster than those Japs; I only need to wedge a chip in a USB connector and call it the POTASIC chip BTCMiner. Your guess is as good as mine!

[MooC Tals]

no but seriously, do u think this is really a BFL chip hashing at 5 gh/s ? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uez9AVfDQIg

just needs to be powered by nuclear?  can't possibly jam it onto a pcd and make it look like a consumer electronics product?  must be in this "mad scientist prototype" setup in order to work? 

would love to hear what BitSyncom thinks about it, as he usually isn't one for jokes and claimed they reached that stage "1.2 months before shipping"

my questions is does anyone closely following this story believe they have chips?  these videos aren't another rouse?

POTASIC chip BTCMiner.

hahahaha

I'll take a bag

[pizza]

Josh where are you? Come and post some dumb shit so we can all make fun of you so you hopefully finally decide to do god a favor and abort your failure of a life.

[Zooey]

Josh where are you? Come and post some dumb shit so we can all make fun of you so you hopefully finally decide to do god a favor and abort your failure of a life.

Not cool, no matter what.

[jml]

no but seriously, do u think this is really a BFL chip hashing at 5 gh/s ? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uez9AVfDQIg

just needs to be powered by nuclear?  can't possibly jam it onto a pcd and make it look like a consumer electronics product?  must be in this "mad scientist prototype" setup in order to work? 

would love to hear what BitSyncom thinks about it, as he usually isn't one for jokes and claimed they reached that stage "1.2 months before shipping"

my questions is does anyone closely following this story believe they have chips?  these videos aren't another rouse?

POTASIC chip BTCMiner.

hahahaha

I'll take a bag

Here is proof they have chips; PotASICs out from the oven:

[darkmule]

Josh where are you? Come and post some dumb shit so we can all make fun of you so you hopefully finally decide to do god a favor and abort your failure of a life.

Not cool, no matter what.

It's not any worse than the psycho troll shit Josh has posted here.

[Zooey]

Josh where are you? Come and post some dumb shit so we can all make fun of you so you hopefully finally decide to do god a favor and abort your failure of a life.

Not cool, no matter what.

It's not any worse than the psycho troll shit Josh has posted here.

Believe me, I have no love for the any of the BFL bullshitters.  That just isn't cool.

[Micon]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_6mmTRheUzg

I trust David, seems as if BFL has shipped him something that hashes.

david is close to BFL.  It seems he communicates with the top brass there frequently, but i still trust him so this is certainly eyebrow-raising. 

He mentions in the video he was going to take it apart, i hope that is posted soon. 

Seems like if BFL could make 1, they could make lots, and quickly.

Could this be the "Luke Unit" repackaged?  that theory seems a little out there right now, but you never know with BFL. 

:popcorn indeed...