BTCFPGA/bitcoinASIC/CAN-ELECTRIC - no BTC refunds expected, what now?

[rocks]

No doubt, pretty much everything about this situation makes no sense. It doesn't make any more sense as a scam than it does as a legitimate project. Tom could have made off with way more money by just accepting BTC instead of taking most orders through wire and CC. He could have brought in more by providing proper updates even if fake than by posting drunken rants. He didn't do any of that. Why open yourself to all the possible legal trouble by doing CC orders at all if you're just planning on stealing BTC? He'd having to be both brilliant running a long con on the success of his FPGA business, and completely incompetent as a scammer.

It actually does make sense if you think in terms of Tom being an inherently unstable person who melts down and becomes irrational under stress.  You're not going to get rational behaviour from someone who has gone into meltdown - they're not being driven by logic any more.  There seems to be at least some evidence of Tom acting irrationally in the past, and it's not all that unusual for people with mental health issues (substance related or not) to be perfectly competent until something causes them to start disconnecting from reality.  That's not an excuse - the appropriate thing to do when you realise you're starting to melt down is to hand stuff off to someone else before you totally fuck everything up. 

Given the bitterness in some of Tom's posts, I'm not sure it was as much about the money as it was about the kudos.

The big question is how much of this project was real and how much of it was delusional on Tom's part - how far did it actually progress, if at all, before collapsing.

Being mentally unstable is a perfectly rational explanation for the complete bizarro world of bASIC.

But I still get stuck on the fact that no matter how delusional you are, ASIC fab processes are rock solid. You provide them a GDS layout and then it is very clear what stage your wafers are in and when they will be finished, assembled and packaged. No matter how mentally unstable you are, there has to be some physical result from this bASIC project if it was not a scam. Even if the ASICs didn't work, you would at least have a layout to show and junk die.

Unless Tom was so delusional that he was having imaginary discussions with imaginary production plants that were really just his dog, then this was a scam.

As for why the refunds, another explanation is he lost his nerve and/or saw that maybe people could legally find him through the CC charge backs.

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[puck2]

I really don't give a sh#t scam or no scam... I just want my BTC back. 

[Clearfly]

Toms site is now offline

https://www.bitcoinasic.net/

[puck2]

Toms site is now offline

https://www.bitcoinasic.net/

www.btcfpga.com is still alive and kicking.

[cablepair]

(as posted in another thread I wanted to make sure everyone saw this)


Ahhh finally got back into my hacked account. This does not mean I will be a regular on this board anymore it just means I can make some statements that will hopefully be helpful to you.

1) I do not deserve a scammer label. We sold FPGA Mining products since may, when BFL announced their product MONTHS early just to try and squash the competition they lied which was a total lie and dis-service to the community but we wanted to keep our business alive, this led us to begin developing out own ASIC basic based prodcut. Our latest attempt at making the huge leap to ASIC failed. It was never our intention to scam anyone. Anyone who ordered a FPGA mining product has received their unit or their unit is on the way (2 orders slipped through the cracks when shit went bananas but we found these orders and we shipped them out this week.

2) I have paid back over 1 million USD to credit card buyers and BTC buyers alike. I am liquidating assets like a madman and still mining at about 60 gh/s with my FPGA rigs, which brings about 10 btc per day. Every week I gather what assets I have obtained and I distribute them to the customers starting with the earliest customers first and than working my way up to the later buyers. There are many people who can attest to this. One of our largest orders who spent over 100k was refunded by wire transfer just last week and I am sure if you look you can find that thread.

IF you are interesting in reading the actual definition of a scam you may do so here:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scam


Instead I am doing everything I can to make sure every single customer gets a complete and total refund. Unfortunately some people do not like the fact that they are returned less coins than they have sent. Although the fact of the matter is - these units were priced in USD NOT BTC and it is appropriate to use the current exchange rate when converting USD to Bitcoin to make these refunds. Any one who knows what they are doing in e-commerce would agree totally.

3) See a scammer would of taken all the money (over a million dollars) and disappeared, instead I still live in my same house and still go to my regular job every day. I am a family man and the last thing I want is any kind of trouble. You guys have no idea the sleepless nights worrying about this thing, but I am going to keep on this and make sure every customer gets his refund.

4) I am sure its hard to believe but this has hurt and will continue to hurt myself and my family far more than it will hurt any of you, But that's the gamble I took when I decided to make an ASIC device, and take pre-orders, we just could not make the damn thing work (for long) and the chips were clocked wrong or something because they had a very little life especially when you pushed them to any degree.

At any rate that is all behind us. Like I said I have paid over 1 mil in refunds and continue to do so every friday night (20k just last friday) this list is shortening and shortening and before you know it every single person will be paid back in full.

I just hope and pray you give me the time to make this all happen, I sold most of these coins at around $15 and now am buying back at $30 - its very difficult but as the last 2 weeks showed you , you will continue to see 10 refunds every friday until every single person is paid back.

I have been a very strong member of this community for 2 years, and I have always fulfilled my promises - please have a little faith in me is all I am asking - I WANT to do the right thing. Think about what a true scammer would of done with over a million at his disposal???


I have four kids and I am just trying to get by - I am sorry I was not up to meet the challenge of bASIC but I assure you all of you will be paid back.

thank you for listening

Thomas Van Riper
BTCFPGA
P.O. BOX 246
Hannibal NY 13069

(any correspondence sent to any other address other than the business addresss of BTCFPGA will be returned. My house is not my place of business nor is it the address for my business)

i have changed my numbers due to the hundreds of calls I was receiving a day - if you need to get ahold of me email btcfpga@gmail.com
and I will get back to you within a couple of days at the latest

again thank you for reading this and for those who have it - thank you for your compassion and empathy.

Tom
BTCFPGA

p.s. BTCFPGA will continue to sell FPGA based devices to hobbyists and all others who are interested in this device.
http://www.btcfpga.com

[Aseras]

Good to see a honest legit BTC businessman. So many cut and run when it gets tough and things don't work out.

[Flying Hellfish]

IF you are interesting in reading the actual definition of a scam you may do so here:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scam

By your definition (as indicated by the link):  a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation

Care to explain the whole Can-Electric situation...

[miter_myles]

IF you are interesting in reading the actual definition of a scam you may do so here:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scam

By your definition (as indicated by the link):  a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation

Care to explain the whole Can-Electric situation...

Knowing ol Tommy's tactics.. he will try and tell something along the lines of he sold off the domain to a business or someone that stated they had ASIC background/knowledge and had no say or involvement in that matter..   or.. maybe someone also "hacked" that domain account and "hijacked" his site to have people send them money instead of him?  Then.. what are the chances Jack Daniels told him to do it? 

[drakness]

miter myles, do you get the impression that you are helping anything?

[repentance]

miter myles, do you get the impression that you are helping anything?

Whether Tom's posts are met with Care Bear {{{{hugz}}}} or outright scorn should have absolutely no bearing on whether he continues to make refunds in the manner he's outlined.  He's honouring an obligation, not doing people a favour. 

The "if I was really a scammer" and "everything I've done for Bitcoin" crap is getting old and is unnecessary.  People want updated, specific information about how the refund process is being handled - the "let me tell you once again that I'm a great guy" stuff is pretty much irrelevant and comes across as fishing for kudos in a situation where none is warranted.

[Nemesis]

miter myles, do you get the impression that you are helping anything?

Whether Tom's posts are met with Care Bear {{{{hugz}}}} or outright scorn should have absolutely no bearing on whether he continues to make refunds in the manner he's outlined.  He's honouring an obligation, not doing people a favour. 

The "if I was really a scammer" and "everything I've done for Bitcoin" crap is getting old and is unnecessary.  People want updated, specific information about how the refund process is being handled - the "let me tell you once again that I'm a great guy" stuff is pretty much irrelevant and comes across as fishing for kudos in a situation where none is warranted.

+1

Finally this OZ lawyer wannabe said something that i agree with.

Tom's post show his true personality. He doesnt know what hes doing is obligation not providing help to the community.

Any man with dignity would have said " i fcked up because of my greed. I will refund everyone money and i hope to leave the community forever in peace"

But no, dogs have eaten his dignity.