Swedish ASIC miner company kncminer.com

[MrHempstock]

rePosted from https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=268180.0;all

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323997004578644491403250124.html

Joe Lewis, a billionaire foreign-exchange trader who teamed up with hedge-fund manager George Soros in 1992 to bet against the Bank of England, is the latest high-profile financier to throw his weight behind the virtual currency called bitcoin.

Mr. Lewis leads the Phoenix Fund, a Zurich-based private-equity fund that on Tuesday plans to invest $200 million in Avalon, a company that makes computer servers aimed at creating bitcoins, according to people familiar with the situation.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency that exists online and isn't backed by any government or central bank. Bitcoins were invented in 2008 by a computer programmer who goes by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, who describes it as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system.

The Phoenix Fund's investment in Avalon reflects the growing popularity of virtual currencies, which are also coming under scrutiny from regulators. Other bitcoin enthusiasts include Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who are best known for their role in the creation of Facebook Inc. FB +1.50% They have proposed an exchange-traded fund that is tied to bitcoins.

Bitcoins are created through a process called mining, in which computers solve complex mathematical algorithms to earn the bitcoins. The total number of bitcoins that can be mined is limited to 21 million. There are now about 11.5 million bitcoins in circulation, according to Blockchain, a website that monitors bitcoin transactions.

The Phoenix deal will also involve Taiwanese microchip maker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., 2330.TW +0.50% which is set to supply the state-of-the-art microchips that will power the hardware.

The Phoenix Fund was set up this year to invest in bitcoin mining-hardware companies. It looked at several of Avalon's rivals in the sector, including Butterfly Labs and KnCMiner but decided against investing, according to a person familiar with the private-equity firm's strategy.

Investors in the Phoenix Fund, which includes a small number of individuals who made their fortunes in currency trading, believe that the currency will become more stable and popular if more parties are involved in the mining process, this person said.

Mr. Lewis moved into currency trading in the 1980s and 1990s. In September 1992, Mr. Lewis teamed up with Mr. Soros to bet on sterling crashing out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, an event that was later named "Black Wednesday." Mr. Lewis didn't respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Lewis had big losses investing in U.S. brokerage firm Bear Stearns Cos, in which he began amassing a stake during 2007, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

Mr. Lewis is the main investor in an unlisted company called Tavistock Group, which has investments in more than 200 companies across the globe.

Tavistock Group includes ENIC Group, which has a Bahamas-registered subsidiary called ENIC International Ltd., through which Mr. Lewis owns 85% of the shares in U.K. soccer club Tottenham Hotspur.

The Phoenix Fund is independent of Tavistock.

The bitcoin deal was put together by Andrew Laurus, a former government-bonds salesman at Lehman Brothers who is also an investor in the fund. Avalon was set up by Yifu Guo, a pioneer in the bitcoin-mining industry. He was part of the team that developed the first ASIC bitcoin mining hardware. ASIC stands for application-specific integrated circuit, a type of custom-designed microchip. Mr. Guo couldn't be reached for comment.

Separately, Coinflash, a company that planned to set up kiosks for bitcoin enthusiasts to buy the virtual currency, is shutting down before it even opened its doors. "Due to an unforeseen change in our personal circumstances, we've made the difficult decision to suspend Coinflash's services indefinitely," the San Diego-based company said in an email statement.

Coinflash was established earlier this year and had planned to open the bitcoin kiosks in California and New York this summer.

As part of the deal, Avalon will gain access to TSMC microchips based on 20-nanometer processes, which are much faster than other chips. TSMC recently won a contract to supply chips to Apple. The increased processing power should give Avalon an edge in solving the algorithms that control the supply of bitcoins.

—Robin Sidel contributed to this article.
Write to Harriet Agnew at Harriet.Agnew@dowjones.com

'You mean I can't just buy Bitcoin?' 

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[FUKT]

Didn't read the WSJ, but this article said they passed up BFL and KNC. They didn't say why.

But from that pic that was posted with SAM (KNC), Josh (BFL) and todays hero/villain (YIFU), YIFU Looks so dam smug, but i mean smug....like he knows he a bad mofo....bout to collect some of the 200 million headed his way. WOW.

I wonder if Josh and Sam knew of this deal during that pic (i doubt it)?

Notice Yifu isn't smiling.....

Need to see corroboration, that 'deal' simply doesn't make sense. Someone on Reddit said it was an idiot reporter doing a search on 'avalon' and got a hit for $200m for a company with the same name not even connected to bitcoin.

It wouldn't make -any- sense to put $200m into bitcoin mining, that's 1/5th the total value of all bitcoin. If you mined all the bitcoin in a year that's $131m.

I could see $20m. But $200? And why 20nm? 14 is the next process step, isn't it? What are they gonna do, strike a deal with IBM's fabs? Doubtful.

And why announce it at all if true? If you don't need pre-order money your best business move is to take the entire network by absolute surprise by putting say 10000 terahash or w/e of power on the network some random day and freak everyone out and ruin their profitability.

Anyway the article is paywalled for me. I'm laying this strictly in the rumor camp for now.

You are right, it was a unrelated 'Avalon' company. If a venture group were to invest that amount would be interesting though, they dont do that unless they could manipulate the price of btc up into the thousands of dollars.

EDIT: maybe I am wrong.

[Ytterbium]

We don't need separate discussions about this in every thread.

[sbfree]

Venture Capitalist don't just say ok here is 200 million....c u later.

nope, you have certain condition/stipulations/progress you must meet before they release another chunk. The deal might be for a total of $200 million, but it might be spread out in phases. Also, if this is true, one article I read said that Avalon would go private with their bitcoin miners.... mine for themselves. Now, if you have the banking connections Mr. Lewis has, could we be looking at some WORLD WIDE BITCOIN BANK.....making and moving BTC....is that worth $200M in 5 or 10 years??

[MrHempstock]

We don't need separate discussions about this in every thread.

Enlighten us as to what we do need.

[sbfree]

In one of the articles in regards to this Avalon deal, they mention that both BFL and KnCMiner were both passed up. It didn't say why, but I can imagine that all the bad PR BFL is having was probably one factor against them, and KnCMiner's new car smell probably was the deal breaker for them....IF THIS DEAL IS AT ALL TRUE!!

[Anenome5]

One wonders if some basic fact checking failed to pore through the text of this:

http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2011/01/avalon-ventures-raises-a-new-200-million-fund-and-gets-a-new-website.html

Same thing: http://www.xconomy.com/san-diego/2011/01/10/san-diegos-avalon-ventures-closes-ninth-fund-raises-200-m/

[MrHempstock]

The only similarities in that article are the $ amount and the name Avalon.

The WSJ article was pretty BTC specific.

[sbfree]

The only similarities in that article are the $ amount and the name Avalon.

The WSJ article was pretty BTC specific.

Specific enough to mention BFL and KNCMINER (to stay on topic), and Yifu of Avalon (not Avalon Ventures of 2011 article). They mention TSMC, bitsyncom, Andrew Laurus and the Phoenix Fund.

The Phoenix Fund does exist, with offices in Amsterdam.

WORLD WIDE BITCOIN BANK minting its own BITCOIN......?

[FUKT]

The only similarities in that article are the $ amount and the name Avalon.

The WSJ article was pretty BTC specific.

Specific enough to mention BFL and KNCMINER (to stay on topic), and Yifu of Avalon (not Avalon Ventures of 2011 article). They mention TSMC, bitsyncom, Andrew Laurus and the Phoenix Fund.

The Phoenix Fund does exist, with offices in Amsterdam.

WORLD WIDE BITCOIN BANK minting its own BITCOIN......?

For those who are into bitcoin for purely the profit then this could be what you are waiting for. However, without mainstream interest this could be  creating a bubble, if investor interest outweighs consumer need then it could be trouble

[Bitcoinorama]

I was following this last night when this story first broke;

http://www.bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/

I then googled: Avalon 200 million

at the time, and surely their appeared associated news about another company called Avalon Ventures that had raised 200 million.

Then the WSJ ran with the original article, which was surprising as you expect their journalists to research thrououghly, but then the initial article was published on aSunday night, so who could they check with?

Another article appeared here;

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2013-08-05/bitcoin-gold-rush-heats-up-with-private-equity-deal

and mentioned a web domain; http://phoenixasic.com Whois records that domain as being created two days earlier, on Friday, the site itself is nothing but an incomplete landing page with the Zurich address.

http://whois.domaintools.com/phoenixasic.com

It also stated:

"The Phoenix private equity fund looked at other bitcoin mining companies, including Butterfly Labs and KnCMiner but decided against investing, one of the people said. Avalon’s mining equipment will not be made available to the public."

A fake twitter account also exists for the supposed ex-Lehman's guy behind the deal, Andrew Laurus. If you look at the posting history beyond the last three tweets the account looks less and less legitimate.

https://mobile.twitter.com/frankieterrier

His supposed third most recent tweet is as 'professional' as follows;

"Andrew Laurus (@frankieterrier) tweeted at 5:16pm - 12 Jul 13:

#bitcoin caution everyone regarding #kncminer they have taken millions USD and dont even have a single working unit, tweet me for more info (https://twitter.com/frankieterrier/status/355722412278562816) "

Since the WSJ, and the other 'press releases' the story has gained some momentum and appeared on other sites, meaning any hoaxster has gone to and is continuing to go to considerable effort to spam.

The WSJ running is what perplexes me, but I can only assume Sunday night limiting means to make phone calls and confirm, but that still would at least mean some googling like have just done. Still it wouldn't be the first time a journalist performs little research and takes Internet gossip as fact. What's even weirder is 'financial news' has clearly been slipped a web domain, so they must have had first hand contact with the hoaxster.

Fake site, and definitely a fake twitter, someone had a lot of time on their hands, the swipes at KnC meant it was specifically targeted at spreading FUD between them and Avalon. Yifu is probably enjoying the confusion it's causing right now, as last time he was 'woken up in the middle of the night' with FUD being spread he jumped on this forum immediately to put the record straight. Any truth in this would be the worst news possible for centralising Bitcoin. I appreciate the ASIC route has been fraught with scams and greed, but we're finally just on the cusp of having competing choice of real products available and hopefully fair pricing/returns with various options of DIY and/or purpose made units. One entity controlling all the supply would kill mining...

[sbfree]

I was following this last night when this story broke first;

http://www.bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/

I then googled: Avalon 200 million

at the time, and surely their appeared associated news about another company called Avalon Ventures that had raised 200 million.

Then the WSJ ran with the original article, which was surprising as you expect their journalists to research thrououghly, but then the initial article was published on aSunday night, so who could they check with?

Another article appeared here;

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2013-08-05/bitcoin-gold-rush-heats-up-with-private-equity-deal

and mentioned a web domain; http://phoenixasic.com Whois records that domain as being created two days earlier, on Friday, the site itself is nothing but an incomplete landing page with the Zurich address.

http://whois.domaintools.com/phoenixasic.com

A fake twitter account also exists for the supposed ex-Lehman's guy behind the deal, Andrew Larson. If you look at the posting history beyond the last three tweets the account looks less and less legitimate.

https://mobile.twitter.com/frankieterrier

Since the WSJ, and the other 'press releases' the story has gained some momentum and appeared on other sites, meaning any hoaxster has gone to and is continuing to go to considerable effort to spam.

Bitcoinorama,

The twitter account does have me perplexed. I don't twit, so I can dig deeper. And the name they mention is actually Andrew Laurus, not Larson.

Could that be Andrew Laurus (aka The Devil) with Sam (knc), Josh(bfl) and Yifu in that picture floating around?

[Bitcoinorama]

I was following this last night when this story broke first;

http://www.bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/

I then googled: Avalon 200 million

at the time, and surely their appeared associated news about another company called Avalon Ventures that had raised 200 million.

Then the WSJ ran with the original article, which was surprising as you expect their journalists to research thrououghly, but then the initial article was published on aSunday night, so who could they check with?

Another article appeared here;

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2013-08-05/bitcoin-gold-rush-heats-up-with-private-equity-deal

and mentioned a web domain; http://phoenixasic.com Whois records that domain as being created two days earlier, on Friday, the site itself is nothing but an incomplete landing page with the Zurich address.

http://whois.domaintools.com/phoenixasic.com

A fake twitter account also exists for the supposed ex-Lehman's guy behind the deal, Andrew Larson. If you look at the posting history beyond the last three tweets the account looks less and less legitimate.

https://mobile.twitter.com/frankieterrier

Since the WSJ, and the other 'press releases' the story has gained some momentum and appeared on other sites, meaning any hoaxster has gone to and is continuing to go to considerable effort to spam.

Bitcoinorama,

The twitter account does have me perplexed. I don't twit, so I can dig deeper. And the name they mention is actually Andrew Laurus, not Larson.

Could that be Andrew Laurus (aka The Devil) with Sam (knc), Josh(bfl) and Yifu in that picture floating around?

Haha, I haven't finished editing that post yet! I'm still digging around. Gut says it's BS with a troll that has put in some considerable effort to then see it snowball so is still spamming pr releases over the web. Sunday eve release meant journalists could not call and dig, so they ran to be the first to break...?



Andrew Laurus is Keiser Soyze!

[sbfree]

I was following this last night when this story broke first;

http://www.bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/

I then googled: Avalon 200 million

at the time, and surely their appeared associated news about another company called Avalon Ventures that had raised 200 million.

Then the WSJ ran with the original article, which was surprising as you expect their journalists to research thrououghly, but then the initial article was published on aSunday night, so who could they check with?

Another article appeared here;

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2013-08-05/bitcoin-gold-rush-heats-up-with-private-equity-deal

and mentioned a web domain; http://phoenixasic.com Whois records that domain as being created two days earlier, on Friday, the site itself is nothing but an incomplete landing page with the Zurich address.

http://whois.domaintools.com/phoenixasic.com

A fake twitter account also exists for the supposed ex-Lehman's guy behind the deal, Andrew Larson. If you look at the posting history beyond the last three tweets the account looks less and less legitimate.

https://mobile.twitter.com/frankieterrier

Since the WSJ, and the other 'press releases' the story has gained some momentum and appeared on other sites, meaning any hoaxster has gone to and is continuing to go to considerable effort to spam.

Bitcoinorama,

The twitter account does have me perplexed. I don't twit, so I can dig deeper. And the name they mention is actually Andrew Laurus, not Larson.

Could that be Andrew Laurus (aka The Devil) with Sam (knc), Josh(bfl) and Yifu in that picture floating around?
[/quote]

Haha, I haven't finished editing that post yet! I'm still digging around. Gut says it's BS with a troll that has put in some considerable effort to then see it snowball so is still spamming pr releases over the web. Sunday eve release meant journalists could not call and dig, so they ran to be the first to break...?
[/quote]

Bitcoinorama, I am digging too, and I am not so sure this is fake. I hope KnC has their stuff together because if this is real....

Check this link out to those who doubt 20nm.

http://www.techpowerup.com/173726/tsmc-seen-as-only-20-nm-asic-supplier-to-apple-in-the-next-2-years.html

and by TSMC.

Now as for the author at bitcoinexaminer.....not much info...but I notice that she if it is a she which I doubt usually credits the source of the story with a link in the article....but not in this case. Not sure what to think of that.

[Bitcoinorama]

I was following this last night when this story first broke;

http://www.bitcoinexaminer.org/avalon-might-be-getting-a-200-million-investment-and-20nm-technology-to-become-the-leader-of-the-mining-market/

I then googled: Avalon 200 million

at the time, and surely their appeared associated news about another company called Avalon Ventures that had raised 200 million.

Then the WSJ ran with the original article, which was surprising as you expect their journalists to research thrououghly, but then the initial article was published on aSunday night, so who could they check with?

Another article appeared here;

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2013-08-05/bitcoin-gold-rush-heats-up-with-private-equity-deal

and mentioned a web domain; http://phoenixasic.com Whois records that domain as being created two days earlier, on Friday, the site itself is nothing but an incomplete landing page with the Zurich address.

http://whois.domaintools.com/phoenixasic.com

A fake twitter account also exists for the supposed ex-Lehman's guy behind the deal, Andrew Larson. If you look at the posting history beyond the last three tweets the account looks less and less legitimate.

https://mobile.twitter.com/frankieterrier

Since the WSJ, and the other 'press releases' the story has gained some momentum and appeared on other sites, meaning any hoaxster has gone to and is continuing to go to considerable effort to spam.

Bitcoinorama,

The twitter account does have me perplexed. I don't twit, so I can dig deeper. And the name they mention is actually Andrew Laurus, not Larson.

Could that be Andrew Laurus (aka The Devil) with Sam (knc), Josh(bfl) and Yifu in that picture floating around?

Haha, I haven't finished editing that post yet! I'm still digging around. Gut says it's BS with a troll that has put in some considerable effort to then see it snowball so is still spamming pr releases over the web. Sunday eve release meant journalists could not call and dig, so they ran to be the first to break...?

Bitcoinorama, I am digging too, and I am not so sure this is fake. I hope KnC has their stuff together because if this is real....

Check this link out to those who doubt 20nm.

http://www.techpowerup.com/173726/tsmc-seen-as-only-20-nm-asic-supplier-to-apple-in-the-next-2-years.html

and by TSMC.

Now as for the author at bitcoinexaminer.....not much info...but I notice that she if it is a she which I doubt usually credits the source of the story with a link in the article....but not in this case. Not sure what to think of that.

There's no denying TSMC are playing with 20nm, the fact they are doing this with Apple is old news.

What's odd is the time the news broke, a Sunday eve, so some journals have run without confirming sources,  the fake shill twitter account that speads fud about KnC for a guy called Andrew Laurus who checks out no where else, and is potentially the worst possible person to have connected with Bitcoin (ex senior gov advisor and Lehman's bond broker - the type of person Bitcoin was specifically created to remove from influence) a half arsed landing page for a site that bears aesthetically too much similarity to the lines drawn in banknotes and a domain created on Friday.

The only thing that made me double take was the WSJ, but they aren't immune to flakey journalism, if this is what it is.

Personally I think someone is trying to flush out Yifu and elicit a response, by causing enough FUD any real contact anyone has for him goes bezerk and he has to respond to question after question until he come's out of hiding from the public and put's the record straight on this, and then clearly the bulk chips issue which he has avoided addressing. I'd hazard a guess Yifu is putting his head down and is trying to deliver on his promises...

[timmmers]

This private equity type deal was bound to come sooner or later. I have money invested in several funds as part of a pension fund, some low risk, others high...trees for example. A 15% return over a year is a result for them. If they see bitcoins as something that they can get into now which will increase in value over 5 years (As I bet most of us think), they'll see it as a high risk high reward investment. 200 mill isn't a lot of money for these people, they aren't sitting in a bedroom hoping for ROI and worrying about power bills, they must see a massive return over a long time compared to other places they invest. For example, if they plant a tree to harvest the wood...that money is tied up until the tree is worth harvesting years down the road for lumber, unlike bitcoins which given the right hardware break even in a few months. Once they have their BTC they sit on them and happily wait for a price rise. There are other options with the mining gear once BTC become uneconomical to mine. If you think BTC may one day hit 1000 dollars..uneconomical now may be acceptable investment for the future returns.

Personally I think that there's a short window now where we can mine using our own gear, then it will become unaffordable and we'll be buying  shares in companies that can do it to scale...some of whom may be companies like these.

I saw a rig linked from an ad on here last week, could be upgraded to cost half a million and some loony hashrate...just for a minute assuming it's a real rig that will exist and be able to pay for itself like a KnC rig hopefully will...why would a company who can afford 10 or those not buy them? What other traditional investment can do that? It must have some speculators in high risk markets licking their lips compared to the long term stuff they usually deal in...and IF they see the value of a bitcoin hitting 4 figures in years to come like many people do...well we're going to see them arriving in droves.

IF that's the case, we're not going to see a dribble of rins with higher and higher hashpower..we're going to see hundreds of farms of these rigs arriving as soon as they are available pushing the network hashrate sky high. The manufacturers, they'll love it, no whiny forums to keep an eye on, no delivery, no currency issues, just one large customer you need to deal with. A customer who may not care about ROI short term because they are looking for a very long term return based on a huge rise in coin prices.

[operador]

Guys, Avalon venture != Avalon
Sometimes our reality distortion fields makes us forget that Bitcoin is a niche, If a VC invested 200 millions in a bitcoin company, it would expect at least 10x, where's the 2 billions exit strategy for any bitcoin miner right now?

[rsbriggs]

Quoting SebastianJu:

It's FUD. It was released on a Sunday night with a shill twitter account and a two day old site with a dodgy landing page.

Some journalists have been contacted direct and some have run with what they saw. None did any background as it was late in a Sunday night and they couldn't confirm, but the snowball produced by the hoaxer had gathered enough momentum by that point.

Surprised by the WSJ though. Andrew Laurus does not exist and for the record w.r.t the first article, Kim Dotcom doesn't follow him on the pseudo Twitter account, he follows Kim Dotcom on a shill twitter account that resembles a 15-year olds outbursts...

https://www.twitter.com/frankieterrier

Last time someone woke 'Yifu in the middle of the night' because of FUD he came on this forum to put the record straight. Someone with wayy too much time on their hands is clearly trying to elicit some/any response from Yifu so he steps out into the open at a time he's ignoring a lot of requests to do so...

[Bitcoinorama]

This private equity type deal was bound to come sooner or later. I have money invested in several funds as part of a pension fund, some low risk, others high...trees for example. A 15% return over a year is a result for them. If they see bitcoins as something that they can get into now which will increase in value over 5 years (As I bet most of us think), they'll see it as a high risk high reward investment. 200 mill isn't a lot of money for these people, they aren't sitting in a bedroom hoping for ROI and worrying about power bills, they must see a massive return over a long time compared to other places they invest. For example, if they plant a tree to harvest the wood...that money is tied up until the tree is worth harvesting years down the road for lumber, unlike bitcoins which given the right hardware break even in a few months. Once they have their BTC they sit on them and happily wait for a price rise. There are other options with the mining gear once BTC become uneconomical to mine. If you think BTC may one day hit 1000 dollars..uneconomical now may be acceptable investment for the future returns.

Personally I think that there's a short window now where we can mine using our own gear, then it will become unaffordable and we'll be buying  shares in companies that can do it to scale...some of whom may be companies like these.

I saw a rig linked from an ad on here last week, could be upgraded to cost half a million and some loony hashrate...just for a minute assuming it's a real rig that will exist and be able to pay for itself like a KnC rig hopefully will...why would a company who can afford 10 or those not buy them? What other traditional investment can do that? It must have some speculators in high risk markets licking their lips compared to the long term stuff they usually deal in...and IF they see the value of a bitcoin hitting 4 figures in years to come like many people do...well we're going to see them arriving in droves.

IF that's the case, we're not going to see a dribble of rins with higher and higher hashpower..we're going to see hundreds of farms of these rigs arriving as soon as they are available pushing the network hashrate sky high. The manufacturers, they'll love it, no whiny forums to keep an eye on, no delivery, no currency issues, just one large customer you need to deal with. A customer who may not care about ROI short term because they are looking for a very long term return based on a huge rise in coin prices.

Timmers the article is BS, or certainly surrounding evidence appears that way. Journalists are not immune to lazy journalism, especially in the age of the internet where upon the first to report get's the first share, which get's snowballed by sharing more increasing their reputation and 'delivering the news (FUD)'.

The other 'rig' you saw linked was Gridfinity, a supposed distributor for Hashfast, who came out on record stating his efforts of fundraising in $500k+ denominations had nothing to do with them (after confirming they were known to eachother previously). Shady marketing, sure, but not a huge success as people saw through it.

Not to say interest isn't gathering momentum, but the best thing for us miners is the ability to distribute the network far and wide, with competing companies offering worthwhile and genuine product offerings based on fair pricing, which is the way it appears to now be heading, finally...

[Bitcoinorama]

Quoting SebastianJu:

It's FUD. It was released on a Sunday night with a shill twitter account and a two day old site with a dodgy landing page.

Some journalists have been contacted direct and some have run with what they saw. None did any background as it was late in a Sunday night and they couldn't confirm, but the snowball produced by the hoaxer had gathered enough momentum by that point.

Surprised by the WSJ though. Andrew Laurus does not exist and for the record w.r.t the first article, Kim Dotcom doesn't follow him on the pseudo Twitter account, he follows Kim Dotcom on a shill twitter account that resembles a 15-year olds outbursts...

https://www.twitter.com/frankieterrier

Last time someone woke 'Yifu in the middle of the night' because of FUD he came on this forum to put the record straight. Someone with wayy too much time on their hands is clearly trying to elicit some/any response from Yifu so he steps out into the open at a time he's ignoring a lot of requests to do so...

You're not quoting Sebastian Ju, you're quoting me from Sebastian Ju's thread...