Any status update from BTCFPGA on their ASICs?

[noncecents]

I haven't heard a single word from BTCFPGA on the status of their ASICs since I placed my order in October.

I also registered for their newsletter.

I'm a bit leery of a company that takes over a thousand bucks and then doesn't provide a word of status update for three months...

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[gyverlb]

You are either a troll or live under a rock.

[MichaelBliss]

The whole thing has collapsed and even the the people working for bASIC have recommended everyone do a refund /chargeback  

https://www.btcfpga.com/forum/index.php?topic=1041.0
read what LukasBradley said.

[noncecents]

You are either a troll or live under a rock.

I'm neither, I just haven't been reading the forums recently.

Thanks to the guy above for providing a link.

[gyverlb]

You are either a troll or live under a rock.

I'm neither, I just haven't been reading the forums recently.

Thanks to the guy above for providing a link.

For a product expected to ship in November/December for which you'll make the most if it ships first, checking the forum more than one month after expected shipping is a little... surprising.

[noncecents]

When I log into btcfpga's website it says I don't have any orders.

Also, I can't access their forum because they are being DDOS'd.

The last post I read before their forum went down said that they are not answering emails and that if you want a refund you should request one through their website, so I am processing a dispute through my bank.

[repentance]

When I log into btcfpga's website it says I don't have any orders.

Also, I can't access their forum because they are being DDOS'd.

The last post I read before their forum went down said that they are not answering emails and that if you want a refund you should request one through their website, so I am processing a dispute through my bank.

It says Dave will be offline and won't be answering emails today. 

Some people have received their CC refunds, but it's unclear yet whether Tom transferred the funds to allow more CC refunds to be made (Dave really needs to clarify that).  If the funds have been transferred then it's quicker to have Dave do a CC refund.  If not, then it's better to do a chargeback, even though it typically takes quite a while to receive the funds from a chargeback.

[MichaelBliss]

They were very clear about there not being enough money to pay everyone back, and to do a chargeback rather than wait.   

[repentance]

They were very clear about there not being enough money to pay everyone back, and to do a chargeback rather than wait.   

Dave suggested people do chargebacks when Tom was out of contact and he wasn't sure whether or not Tom had wired the money to the merchant account.  He's edited his post since then.

EDIT2: I have decided to keep working on this project until we have more of a resolution, pushing new BTC refunds to Tom and sending the new CC refunds.  If you've filed a chargeback and I do the refund anyway, it will just cancel the chargeback, no harm done.

https://www.btcfpga.com/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg3093#msg3093

[MichaelBliss]

They were very clear about there not being enough money to pay everyone back, and to do a chargeback rather than wait.   

Dave suggested people do chargebacks when Tom was out of contact and he wasn't sure whether or not Tom had wired the money to the merchant account.  He's edited his post since then.

EDIT2: I have decided to keep working on this project until we have more of a resolution, pushing new BTC refunds to Tom and sending the new CC refunds.  If you've filed a chargeback and I do the refund anyway, it will just cancel the chargeback, no harm done.

https://www.btcfpga.com/forum/index.php?topic=1041.msg3093#msg3093

It's not that Tom was "out of contact" it's that he didn't show up for the meeting, and was no where to be found.  Big difference.  All trust should be gone at that point. 

[YipYip]

It's not that Tom was "out of contact" it's that he didn't show up for the meeting, and was no where to be found.  Big difference.  All trust should be gone at that point.  

People do we really need to do the 5 stages of Acceptance


DENIAL--IS all good just had a flat tyre on the way to the meeting and dropped his phone changing the tyre and it broke

ANGER - IS all these negative people...BASTARDs that caused him to have issues and accidently push the wrong button by making tx to his account..he was in not trying to steal our money

FEAR - What am i going to do without all my BTC mining $$ ..i told my boss to stick his job as I have bASIC mining rigs ...YEAH!!!...oh no..for the humanity  

GRIEF - oh why did i listen to tom my life has no meaning without those glorious bASIC ASIC mining rigs...all the free sex i was going to get with having 180g/Hashing BTC power output

ACCEPTANCE - Is/Was a scam of some description and he got a free ride using peoples money--time to invest in the next person who want to use our money by leveraging our greed ..BFL AVALON...i always knew u where the right one for me ...lol

So it goes

[Phinnaeus Gage]

It's not that Tom was "out of contact" it's that he didn't show up for the meeting, and was no where to be found.  Big difference.  All trust should be gone at that point.  

People do we really need to do the 5 stages of Acceptance


DENIAL--IS all good just had a flat tyre on the way to the meeting and dropped his phone changing the tyre and it broke

ANGER - IS all these negative people...BASTARDs that caused him to have issues and accidently push the wrong button by making tx to his account..he was in not trying to steal our money

FEAR - What am i going to do without all my BTC mining $$ ..i told my boss to stick his job as I have bASIC mining rigs ...YEAH!!!...oh no..for the humanity  

GRIEF - oh why did i listen to tom my life has no meaning without those glorious bASIC ASIC mining rigs...all the free sex i was going to get with having 180g/Hashing BTC power output

ACCEPTANCE - Is/Was a scam of some description and he got a free ride using peoples money--time to invest in the next person who want to use our money by leveraging our greed ..BFL AVALON...i always knew u where the right one for me ...lol

So it goes

JUMP SHIP - Why haven't I done this before? I see a lot of potential there. And I can still be considered an early adapter. Litecoin mining, here I come!

[YipYip]

It's not that Tom was "out of contact" it's that he didn't show up for the meeting, and was no where to be found.  Big difference.  All trust should be gone at that point.  

People do we really need to do the 5 stages of Acceptance


DENIAL--IS all good just had a flat tyre on the way to the meeting and dropped his phone changing the tyre and it broke

ANGER - IS all these negative people...BASTARDs that caused him to have issues and accidently push the wrong button by making tx to his account..he was in not trying to steal our money

FEAR - What am i going to do without all my BTC mining $$ ..i told my boss to stick his job as I have bASIC mining rigs ...YEAH!!!...oh no..for the humanity  

GRIEF - oh why did i listen to tom my life has no meaning without those glorious bASIC ASIC mining rigs...all the free sex i was going to get with having 180g/Hashing BTC power output

ACCEPTANCE - Is/Was a scam of some description and he got a free ride using peoples money--time to invest in the next person who want to use our money by leveraging our greed ..BFL AVALON...i always knew u where the right one for me ...lol

So it goes

JUMP SHIP - Why haven't I done this before? I see a lot of potential there. And I can still be considered an early adapter. Litecoin mining, here I come!

BTC seems a bit scary for me @ the moment...a bit like lord of the flies but full of Nerds & a few sharks lurking around...

As least with LTC @ $0.06 cents you have to be in for the tech & a little bit $ if you can build a platform or progress the economy...   

[puck2]

Dear Friends, Lovers, and Enemies,

First off. Sorry for the scare. and believe me it was a SCARE - we had to refund over 200k and we were happy to do it because we claimed from day one that we will honor any refund request until we go into production and we meant it. And  As crazy as fuck as it is to say so , we will sill honor it. We took multiple 20k+ refunds left and right without batting and eye lash because we believe in this project and we know we will be releasing our bASIC Bitcoin mining units sooner than everyone else, especially our good friends BFL.

Love us or hate us, I have some good friends who are original Bitcoin "old money" and they gave us the additional funding we need to finish the chip fab / packaging and take this thing into production. (THANK GOD!)

we WILL be shipping bASIC bitcoin mining devices in March 2013 and I am willing to put my own money against anyone who says otherwise.

The Design is done baby. The chips will be state-side as soon as Chinese New Year is over and for those who could not stomach the wait I don't blame you but I'm sorry to say you lost you place in line my friends.

March may seem a long time away as we all have ASIC blue balls right now, but its really not that far away, and I salute and congratulate all of you who have had the testicular fortitude to stick it out with us because you my friends will receive the ultimate reward. Sure Avalon may get some units out before the Chinese new year but that is sure to be a very limited number. On the other hand our assembly house has an unlimited assembly capacity and as soon as the Chinese new year ends we will have 16,000 freshly fabbed and packaged ASIC chips and we will be assembling those PCB's at FULL CAPACITY !We will be shipping ALL CURRENT ORDERS IN THE MONTH OF MARCH AND WE STILL HAVE ROOM FOR MORE ORDERS SO Get IN WHILE YOU STILL CAN! I stake my personal name and word on that. So hold on tight my friends because its going to be a wild ride in the month of March.

Now Let's Get ready to mine some serious coins
your friend always "cablepair"
Tom

https://www.btcfpga.com/forum/index.php?topic=1045.0

[hardcore-fs]

Dear Friends, Lovers, and Enemies,

First off. Sorry for the scare. and believe me it was a SCARE - we had to refund over 200k and we were happy to do it because we claimed from day one that we will honor any refund request until we go into production and we meant it. And  As crazy as fuck as it is to say so , we will sill honor it. We took multiple 20k+ refunds left and right without batting and eye lash because we believe in this project and we know we will be releasing our bASIC Bitcoin mining units sooner than everyone else, especially our good friends BFL.

Love us or hate us, I have some good friends who are original Bitcoin "old money" and they gave us the additional funding we need to finish the chip fab / packaging and take this thing into production. (THANK GOD!)

we WILL be shipping bASIC bitcoin mining devices in March 2013 and I am willing to put my own money against anyone who says otherwise.

The Design is done baby. The chips will be state-side as soon as Chinese New Year is over and for those who could not stomach the wait I don't blame you but I'm sorry to say you lost you place in line my friends.

March may seem a long time away as we all have ASIC blue balls right now, but its really not that far away, and I salute and congratulate all of you who have had the testicular fortitude to stick it out with us because you my friends will receive the ultimate reward. Sure Avalon may get some units out before the Chinese new year but that is sure to be a very limited number. On the other hand our assembly house has an unlimited assembly capacity and as soon as the Chinese new year ends we will have 16,000 freshly fabbed and packaged ASIC chips and we will be assembling those PCB's at FULL CAPACITY !We will be shipping ALL CURRENT ORDERS IN THE MONTH OF MARCH AND WE STILL HAVE ROOM FOR MORE ORDERS SO Get IN WHILE YOU STILL CAN! I stake my personal name and word on that. So hold on tight my friends because its going to be a wild ride in the month of March.

Now Let's Get ready to mine some serious coins
your friend always "cablepair"
Tom

https://www.btcfpga.com/forum/index.php?topic=1045.0

This hints it is a scam.......
16,000 at 16 chips per device = 1,000 devices
"We will be shipping ALL CURRENT ORDERS IN THE MONTH OF MARCH AND WE STILL HAVE ROOM FOR MORE ORDERS SO Get IN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!"
So current orders are less than 1,000 devices?
and they issued 200k in refunds, <200 people? which indicates their total orders before refund was less than 1,000

OR 16k is an random number that has been plucked from the ether, or maybe its a 'rollover' where the new money is used to pay the more vocal & established  bit coin members.. Since only a complete noob is going to place a new order.

And to top it off... the guy who himself clearly stated the project was "beyond his capability" is now FIRMLY BACK IN CHARGE riding a new euphoria high......

[gyverlb]

This hints it is a scam.......
16,000 at 16 chips per device = 1,000 devices
"We will be shipping ALL CURRENT ORDERS IN THE MONTH OF MARCH AND WE STILL HAVE ROOM FOR MORE ORDERS SO Get IN WHILE YOU STILL CAN!"
So current orders are less than 1,000 devices?
and they issued 200k in refunds, <200 people? which indicates their total orders before refund was less than 1,000

Batch 1 was 900 devices. So provision for 1000 devices is a good margin for error. Batch2 was expected to be delivered later, now that 200 devices have been refunded I suppose there is room for merging batch1 and 2 without purchasing additional chips. Don't see how this hints at a scam.

And to top it off... the guy who himself clearly stated the project was "beyond his capability" is now FIRMLY BACK IN CHARGE riding a new euphoria high......

I wouldn't be as colorful to describe the current situation but Tom's behavior is not unlike the one of a depressive person: alternating between highs and lows. So I don't believe for a minute this is a scam and think BTCFPGA will deliver in the end. I have every reasons to believe that Tom's personal problems got in the way and slowed things down. I've yet to be convinced that the future ride will be smooth and need more transparency for that.

BTCFPGA didn't publish enough information to my taste so I've finally asked for a BTC refund. I'm not convinced Avalon's second batch won't be delivered around the same time or before the first bASICs. So I'm waiting for more transparency from BTCFPGA and actual results from Avalon to decide how many ASICs from each of them I'll purchase.

I never even considered BFL because of their track record and Josh/Inaba outrageous attitude on the forums. Unless there's a massive PR and behavior change from them I'd prefer stopping mining than going with them even if they were the last ASIC vendor standing.

[Bitinvestor]

Tom's behavior is not unlike the one of a depressive person: alternating between highs and lows.

That would be manic depressive. A depressive person only has lows.

So I don't believe for a minute this is a scam and think BTCFPGA will deliver in the end.

It might not have started out as a scam but people are still waiting for their BTC refunds and are being ignored. It isn't known who his new backers are and he might have made it up just like he claimed that he was selling out to the ASIANS. Until people get their BTC refunds I call BS.

I never even considered BFL because of their track record and Josh/Inaba outrageous attitude on the forums. Unless there's a massive PR and behavior change from them I'd prefer stopping mining than going with them even if they were the last ASIC vendor standing.

That makes two of us (I already stopped mining).

[gyverlb]

Tom's behavior is not unlike the one of a depressive person: alternating between highs and lows.

That would be manic depressive. A depressive person only has lows.

So I don't believe for a minute this is a scam and think BTCFPGA will deliver in the end.

It might not have started out as a scam but people are still waiting for their BTC refunds and are being ignored.

Dave answered my mail less than 3 days ago telling me that he was sending my request to Tom the same day in a batch. It took a little more than 4 days for Dave to answer my request which doesn't seem much for someone swamped in requests. I expect Tom to take some time to process the requests too so I don't feel I'm being ignored right now.

[Bitinvestor]

I expect Tom to take some time to process the requests too so I don't feel I'm being ignored right now.

I hope you're right. Good luck.

[MichaelBliss]

Guys, how long do you think it takes to process 100 or 200 refunds?  It's been weeks.  They're just stalling and delaying as usual obviously.    I'm certain I was one of the first few to get a refund in this wave because I asked for it before all the shit hit the fan (before I was aware of the march delay news on his website).  It still took a week. I've worked accounting jobs in the past, you'd have to be brain damaged to take so long processing anything really.

We're talking 100 or 200 not tens of thousands of orders right?   I guess the "scam" bar is set pretty high in the world of bitcoin, but anywhere else, this sort of thing and others like the drunken posts = scam.  Not saying you won't get your btc back (er...actually, you won't, if anything you'll get $ exchange equivalent and Tom will keep the rest of your coins, but most people seem to be cool with that).  I wonder how much more the $ has to collapse until people wake up.

Edit: also this line from LukasBradely's post on their forum:
3-  Dave and I were able to convince Tom to execute several BTC refunds yesterday.

suggested to me that I was damn lucky to get any BTC back, Tom had to be convinced...   But trust him, he's not a scammer :p