[Smidge.Com] - A virtual, actively managed, multi-asset digital currency fund

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com – A virtual, actively managed, multi-asset digital currency fund

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This fund has been operating privately from July 31st, 2013 to Nov 10th, 2013. No IPO has been conducted on an exchange, wind down including reimbursement of funds has been completed during Nov 10th, 2013 until Dec 9th, 2013.

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[1715406443]

1715406443

[Smidge]

reserved

[Smidge]

reserved

[xaviarlol]

Hi Smidge,

A few questions...

Do you have any experience investing in virtual currency stocks?

If so, have you been successful at it? Do you have any statistics on your past performance, preferably verifiable?

[hl5460]

Folks are interested in tradeable shares. 

[Smidge]

Hi Smidge,

A few questions...

Do you have any experience investing in virtual currency stocks?

If so, have you been successful at it? Do you have any statistics on your past performance, preferably verifiable?

Hi xaviarlol,

Thx for the questions! I am actively engaged in investing in virtual currency stocks since April 2013. Please note that this fund is only to a small extent focused on daytrading activities, it is about mid-to long term capital growth. This is where my previous experience of stock-picking comes in, which I have been doing successfully since 2006.

The first security was bought on 2013-05-24 (verifyable on btct.co). There were a total of 18 BTC invested from my own capital. Please note also that I did not start with the whole 18 BTC that I invested, but gradually fed in further BTC (the last 5 just on 2013-07-10).

We are now at 24.7212 BTC, as you can see in the sheet. Dividends for today would be 0.23979725 (will be reinvested or added to next Sunday's first dividend payment, not decided yet).

[Smidge]

Folks are interested in tradeable shares. 

Hi hl5460,

At the moment, you can trade your shares to others at any time. There is a simple process to transfer shares from owner to owner by simply e-mailing us. I think this will become interesting and heavily used when the direct shares are sold out.

The next step is an IPO on one or multiple exchanges. Please check out the business plan I posted for detailed information.

[Smidge]

Another thing I would like to add (will be added to next version of business plan) is: We are also interested in share swaps for our pre-IPO offering. If you are the owner of an operation that you listed on an exchange and want to trade some of your shares for ours, please let us know. We will then evaluate your security and decide upon an investment.

If you are interested, please PM me. Thank you.

[matthewh3]

I'd just like to add my concern in that from the very start of bitcoin stock exchange trading that I've seen many investment funds come and go.  The main reason being that investment funds traditionally invest in Blue Chip companies.  While in bitcoin land they aren't any.  What is your magic to be able to succeed where many others with the best intentions has failed AFAIK.

[Smidge]

I'd just like to add my concern in that from the very start of bitcoin stock exchange trading that I've seen many investment funds come and go.  The main reason being that investment funds traditionally invest in Blue Chip companies.  While in bitcoin land they aren't any.  What is your magic to be able to succeed where many others with the best intentions has failed AFAIK.

Hi matthewh3,

Most (meaning 80%+) of traditional investment funds do not beat their compared index (US funds compared to the DOW, etc.). There is a quite a few studies about this. The reason is poor stock picking and horrendous fees (a normal managed fund takes 5% Issue surcharge, 2% admin fee + earnings based fees). That means, you are paying for the fund manager's Ferrari most of the time.

Smidge.Com takes a mgmt fee of 4.5% on dividends only, that's it. The substance of the fund will not be touched. The "magic", meaning our competitive advantage, has been detailed in the Strategy section of the business plan. It describes our capabilities and some of the detailed actions.

Two things that I would add are size and determination. The fund will over time grow and be able to invest large sums that give us an advantage on the market and in invested securities. I will also personally add more of my own capital into the fund, as I did before. Determination means that we are in this for the very long run, as you can see in the work that was already put into it. Even with small amounts of capital, we are able to operate just fine. Maybe that was not stated clearly enough, so thank you for asking.

tl;dr: We will make this work in the long run, no matter what

[BitHub]

Okeeeeey, i don't want to waste time. "The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares." - I'm reading you plan on issuing a few of these com a, com b, com c, etc. But i want more skin in the game, so its better to have shares in smidge.com overall yes? So are you selling shares in smidge.com now or just com.a fund etc.

[Smidge]

Okeeeeey, i don't want to waste time. "The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares." - I'm reading you plan on issuing a few of these com a, com b, com c, etc. But i want more skin in the game, so its better to have shares in smidge.com overall yes? So are you selling shares in smidge.com now or just com.a fund etc.

Hi BitHub,

Good question, thanks. You can think of Smidge.Com as a holding company that operates the funds and owns a minority share in each of them. When a second or third fund is launched, there will be another discounted pre-IPO offering of shares for existing shareholders only (like we are doing now for the first one, publicly) as a reward for early trust. After that, they will be publicly available.

I cannot tell you at this point if we are going to IPO the holding company. It could be a long term option tough, when we reach very broad diversification.

[BitHub]

Hmmmm interesting, Please send me a PM when you will start issuing shares in the holding company that is smidge. Would like to get in on those shares.

[Smidge]

I'd just like to add my concern in that from the very start of bitcoin stock exchange trading that I've seen many investment funds come and go.  The main reason being that investment funds traditionally invest in Blue Chip companies.  While in bitcoin land they aren't any.  What is your magic to be able to succeed where many others with the best intentions has failed AFAIK.

Hi matthewh3,

Most (meaning 80%+) of traditional investment funds do not beat their compared index (US funds compared to the DOW, etc.). There is a quite a few studies about this. The reason is poor stock picking and horrendous fees (a normal managed fund takes 5% Issue surcharge, 2% admin fee + earnings based fees). That means, you are paying for the fund manager's Ferrari most of the time.

Smidge.Com takes a mgmt fee of 4.5% on dividends only, that's it. The substance of the fund will not be touched. The "magic", meaning our competitive advantage, has been detailed in the Strategy section of the business plan. It describes our capabilities and some of the detailed actions.

Two things that I would add are size and determination. The fund will over time grow and be able to invest large sums that give us an advantage on the market and in invested securities. I will also personally add more of my own capital into the fund, as I did before. Determination means that we are in this for the very long run, as you can see in the work that was already put into it. Even with small amounts of capital, we are able to operate just fine. Maybe that was not stated clearly enough, so thank you for asking.

tl;dr: We will make this work in the long run, no matter what

I would like to add here that purchasing shares of the fund is completely free of charge, meaning 100% of your investment "gets to work" immediately. You won't have to sit out eventually breaking even first for a few weeks before getting ROI on your investment.

[chinchs]

I, Do you accept another coin (like LTC)? There are smaller packages to buy? How much hashpower we got per share (aprox)? Thanks!

[Smidge]

I, Do you accept another coin (like LTC)? There are smaller packages to buy? How much hashpower we got per share (aprox)? Thanks!

Hi chinchs,

We currently acquire assets only by BTC and LTC, so the answer would be yes. The other coins in the balance sheet are only used for speculation on BTC/LTC. Please mention when ordering that you wish to use LTC, I will reply with the amount based on the current exchange rate from LTC-Global, www.litecoinglobal.com

Regarding smaller packages, there have been numerous requests and discussions. Bottom line is, there are now packages available for 125 shares instead of 250, for BTC 2.5 instead of BTC 5. Of course, there is still no fee involved (see my previous post, #2780871). Please mention this when ordering.

I cannot tell you how much hashpower there is per share at the moment, but you can see all our investments in the balance sheet I posted before and go from there. I will be able to tell you the growth rate, the dividends and the annual rate of return next Sunday when we get the next snapshot of the fund's status.

[CoinBomb]

why not launch this on btct / bitfunder etc?

[Smidge]

why not launch this on btct / bitfunder etc?

Hi CoinBomb,

We are not yet at the stage you described, although it is the next step. Please check out "Raising Expansion Capital & IPO" in our business plan posted above or on the website.

[burnside]

Hey there.  Thank you for applying to btct.co for listing.  I have a few questions I need answered prior to admin unlock:  (feel free to PM me anything you deem sensitive, but the more you can post here the better people will feel about it.)

- Have you owned, operated, or managed a business before?  Please tell me about it.
- Have you run a fund of any kind before?  Is it somewhere documented that we can check out?
- Do you have linkedin?  Can you connect with me?  http://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanburnside
- What is your current day job?  How long have you worked there?

Thanks!

[Smidge]

Hey there.  Thank you for applying to btct.co for listing.  I have a few questions I need answered prior to admin unlock:  (feel free to PM me anything you deem sensitive, but the more you can post here the better people will feel about it.)

- Have you owned, operated, or managed a business before?  Please tell me about it.
- Have you run a fund of any kind before?  Is it somewhere documented that we can check out?
- Do you have linkedin?  Can you connect with me?  http://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanburnside
- What is your current day job?  How long have you worked there?

Thanks!

Hi burnside,

As mentioned to you before, I am targeting a public listing not right now, but in the near future. An admin unlock of "SMIDGE.COM-A" would be greatly appreciated though.

- Have you owned, operated, or managed a business before?  Please tell me about it.

I have, great question. Gaming veterans will know that Smidge.Com was actually launched by myself in 1998 as a games website for the game Interstate'76. It grew into a whole network of gaming sites pretty quick (3d-shooters.com, deltaforce2.com, interstate82.com and several others), with Smidge.com being the central site. It had 1,000,000 pageviews per month in the year 2000, which was a pretty big deal back then. You can check out www.archive.org to see snapshots of the good old times
The gaming network went great for years, but finally (after I also turned down an awesome buyout offer) imploded with the Dotcom Bubble. I finally shut it down in 2004 I think.
I went on to study business administration and computer science and founded an online ERP system for small businesses with a partner in 2006 (coded, launched and operated). It was acquired by a wholesaler in 2009.

- Have you run a fund of any kind before?  Is it somewhere documented that we can check out?

Not a public fund, but as I mentioned before, I have been successfully investing in stocks since 2006 for myself and a family fund. It was pretty turbulent at times from 2008 on, as you can imagine. If you have the time, you can check my tweets for hints on what I've invested. I am considered by friends, family and coworkers as an expert in macroeconomics. This passion is also how I got drawn into the current environment

- Do you have linkedin?  Can you connect with me?  http://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanburnside

As a business man, of course. I just added you.

- What is your current day job?  How long have you worked there?

I work full-time as Key Account Manager in the B2B space since 2010.

EDIT: Edited for grammar and spelling and accuracy.

[CoinBomb]

I have, great question. Gaming veterans will know that www.smidge.com was actually launched by myself in 1999 as a games website for the game Interstate'76. It grew into a whole network of gaming sites pretty quick (3d-shooters.com, deltaforce2.com, interstate82.com and several others), with smidge.com being the central site. It had 1,000,000 pageviews per month in the year 2000, which was a pretty big deal back then. You can check out www.archive.org to see snapshots of the good old times Smiley

woah! That's a blast from the past - i'm sure our paths have crossed on a project before. I just wish I could remember what it was!

[Smidge]

I have, great question. Gaming veterans will know that www.smidge.com was actually launched by myself in 1999 as a games website for the game Interstate'76. It grew into a whole network of gaming sites pretty quick (3d-shooters.com, deltaforce2.com, interstate82.com and several others), with smidge.com being the central site. It had 1,000,000 pageviews per month in the year 2000, which was a pretty big deal back then. You can check out www.archive.org to see snapshots of the good old times Smiley

woah! That's a blast from the past - i'm sure our paths have crossed on a project before. I just wish I could remember what it was!

Hi coinbomb,

It's likely. The "world" was much smaller back then. I use this nickname since the mid-90s, got it from the game Worms (released in 1995). Interstate'76 came out at the end of 1997, Delta Force in 1998. So from the projects I've done in the past, you can expect me to invest quite a lot and stick around for some time...

[Franktank]

We'll need to flash the Deprived signal here...

[Smidge]

We'll need to flash the Deprived signal here...

Hi Franktank,

could you elaborate this one further?

[ninjaboon]

Okeeeeey, i don't want to waste time. "The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares." - I'm reading you plan on issuing a few of these com a, com b, com c, etc. But i want more skin in the game, so its better to have shares in smidge.com overall yes? So are you selling shares in smidge.com now or just com.a fund etc.

Hi BitHub,

Good question, thanks. You can think of Smidge.Com as a holding company that operates the funds and owns a minority share in each of them. When a second or third fund is launched, there will be another discounted pre-IPO offering of shares for existing shareholders only (like we are doing now for the first one, publicly) as a reward for early trust. After that, they will be publicly available.

I cannot tell you at this point if we are going to IPO the holding company. It could be a long term option tough, when we reach very broad diversification.

Why not IPO now?
It's easier to manage from sites like havelock or bitfunder than to use email as a transfer process.

[Smidge]

Announcement - For immediate release

Smidge.Com invests in Ciphermine

Smidge.Com today announced that it has invested 2,500 shares of its own stock of "Smidge.Com A" in CipherMine, a virtual company currently listed on LTC Global, specializing in cryptocoin mining and high-performance computing. The deal was agreed upon in the first week after launch of "Smidge.Com A", a new fund that aims to become the largest digital currency fund by market capitalization.

Kate Craig-Wood, CEO of CipherMine, said, "I am excited to have some of our shares being included in this fund. Virtual crypto-securities are the next frontier of cipherspace financial innovation. As a busy individual with my various enterprises I am looking forward to being able to take advantage of the growth potential in this marketplace without the effort by investing in the fund."

Alex "Smidge" Metz, CEO of Smidge.Com, describes the move as "a long term investment into a promising company led by professionals in the space".

The two companies decided not to disclose financial details of the deal. The share swap will be completed during the week of July 22nd, 2013.

CipherMine (www.ciphermine.com) is a joint venture between leading British IT entrepreneur Kate Craig-wood (aka. woodtech), founder and CEO of Memset, Giles Russel (aka. evilscoop) the man behind EvilMiners, and Ross Martyn and Simon Weald; two systems administrators at Memset. It is listed on LTC Global (www.litecoinglobal.com), specializing in cryptocoin mining (BTC/LTC) and high-performance computing.

Smidge.Com A (www.smidge.com) is a virtual, actively managed, multi-asset digital currency fund announced on July 21st, 2013 by Smidge.Com. The fund is currently pre-IPO, offering direct shares to individuals and companies before going public. It aims to become the largest BTC investment fund by market capitalization.

[Smidge]

Okeeeeey, i don't want to waste time. "The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares." - I'm reading you plan on issuing a few of these com a, com b, com c, etc. But i want more skin in the game, so its better to have shares in smidge.com overall yes? So are you selling shares in smidge.com now or just com.a fund etc.

Hi BitHub,

Good question, thanks. You can think of Smidge.Com as a holding company that operates the funds and owns a minority share in each of them. When a second or third fund is launched, there will be another discounted pre-IPO offering of shares for existing shareholders only (like we are doing now for the first one, publicly) as a reward for early trust. After that, they will be publicly available.

I cannot tell you at this point if we are going to IPO the holding company. It could be a long term option tough, when we reach very broad diversification.

Why not IPO now?
It's easier to manage from sites like havelock or bitfunder than to use email as a transfer process.

Hi ninjaboon,

We are planning an IPO, please consult the business plan/previous posts for more info on our current state. What BitHub was referring to earlier (that you quoted) was IPO'ing the holding company, not the fund(s).

[killerstorm]

We'll need to flash the Deprived signal here...

Hi Franktank,

could you elaborate this one further?

Deprived is a user on this forum, he runs LTC-ATF fund, and appears to be highly competent person, so people trust his opinion. They want his comment on smidge.com.

[Smidge]

We'll need to flash the Deprived signal here...

Hi Franktank,

could you elaborate this one further?

Deprived is a user on this forum, he runs LTC-ATF fund, and appears to be highly competent person, so people trust his opinion. They want his comment on smidge.com.

Hi killerstorm,

I know Deprived and the products that he is offering. Actually, a thorough evaluation makes more sense when we have a series of final balance sheets up, which will be posted Sunday. I would welcome an evaluation of the busines plan though. As mentioned in the announcement, feel free to shoot holes in it as you desire so that we can work on improving it with community input as we go along.

[MPOE-PR]

You can buy shares here: http://www.smidge.com/?page_id=42

Month old noobs do not make announcements, start funds or any of the rest of the jazz. See here and stfu.

[Smidge]

You can buy shares here: http://www.smidge.com/?page_id=42

Month old noobs do not make announcements, start funds or any of the rest of the jazz. See here and stfu.

Hi Mircea,

Been waiting for that one! Even if this was the bible of starting a Bitcoin business, would you care to elaborate in detail what is wrong with our approach?

[jmutch]

This sounds like a bit of a copy of my managed fund Sandstorm. (link in sig.)

I'm not sure about putting serious money in the hands of someone with only 3 months experience.... I've been doing this for a fair bit longer than this guy who seems to have just popped up. Hell, if you don't trust me go invest in BTCinvest instead.

hot tip: I don't think cipher mine is the best thing to invest in right now....it seems a little overpriced and exposed to LTC which could have serious market implication for ciphermine. But that's just my opinion.

Good luck!!!

[Exocyst]

This sounds like a bit of a copy of my managed fund Sandstorm. (link in sig.)

I'm not sure about putting serious money in the hands of someone with only 3 months experience.... I've been doing this for a fair bit longer than this guy who seems to have just popped up. Hell, if you don't trust me go invest in BTCinvest instead.

hot tip: I don't think cipher mine is the best thing to invest in right now....it seems a little overpriced and exposed to LTC which could have serious market implication for ciphermine. But that's just my opinion.

Good luck!!!

This post should come with a conflict of interest declaration. Stop advertising in other people's threads.

[Smidge]

This sounds like a bit of a copy of my managed fund Sandstorm. (link in sig.)

I'm not sure about putting serious money in the hands of someone with only 3 months experience.... I've been doing this for a fair bit longer than this guy who seems to have just popped up. Hell, if you don't trust me go invest in BTCinvest instead.

hot tip: I don't think cipher mine is the best thing to invest in right now....it seems a little overpriced and exposed to LTC which could have serious market implication for ciphermine. But that's just my opinion.

Good luck!!!

Hi josh,

I would not really call it a "copy" other than that it is an actively managed fund. Also, despite me not being around for several years, I think we are off to a very professional start, looking at our business plan and how we have been operating so far.

I think there is many differences in our offers, one is our opinion regarding Ciphermine. We are investing in the company's future, not focusing on today's valuation (which is fine btw). If the share price ever comes back down, we will be happy to enlarge positions making an even better deal. That is what investors in long term funds are looking for in a fund manager, amongst other things.

[freedomno1]

Observing

[xaviarlol]

This sounds like a bit of a copy of my managed fund Sandstorm. (link in sig.)

I'm not sure about putting serious money in the hands of someone with only 3 months experience.... I've been doing this for a fair bit longer than this guy who seems to have just popped up. Hell, if you don't trust me go invest in BTCinvest instead.

hot tip: I don't think cipher mine is the best thing to invest in right now....it seems a little overpriced and exposed to LTC which could have serious market implication for ciphermine. But that's just my opinion.

Good luck!!!

Josh,

While I don't necessarily disagree with what you are saying, I find this very hypocritical of you to post. You also came out of nowhere, had no demonstrable ability to manage a fund portfolio, and provided no proof of past performance. Also, calling a managed fund "copying" your fund is silly, all managed funds are of the same principle. It's like friedcat calling a new miner a copy cat.

Because you are being a jerk, I'll do the same to you - your fund's performance is... let's just say it's definitely nothing to be proud of. so I would probably stop criticizing other people's "lack of experience". I seem to recall your fund making a fraction of the profit as BTCinvest and my fund in the same time period.

PS. Stop calling yourselves CEO's. You run a fund worth a few hundred dollars, mostly made up of your own money. This isn't linkedin.

[ArcticWolf]

This sounds like a bit of a copy of my managed fund Sandstorm. (link in sig.)

I'm not sure about putting serious money in the hands of someone with only 3 months experience.... I've been doing this for a fair bit longer than this guy who seems to have just popped up. Hell, if you don't trust me go invest in BTCinvest instead.

hot tip: I don't think cipher mine is the best thing to invest in right now....it seems a little overpriced and exposed to LTC which could have serious market implication for ciphermine. But that's just my opinion.

Good luck!!!

Josh,

While I don't necessarily disagree with what you are saying, I find this very hypocritical of you to post. You also came out of nowhere, had no demonstrable ability to manage a fund portfolio, and provided no proof of past performance. Also, calling a managed fund "copying" your fund is silly, all managed funds are of the same principle. It's like friedcat calling a new miner a copy cat.

Because you are being a jerk, I'll do the same to you - your fund's performance is... let's just say it's definitely nothing to be proud of. so I would probably stop criticizing other people's "lack of experience". I seem to recall your fund making a fraction of the profit as BTCinvest and my fund in the same time period.

[ranlo]

Tagging the thread to follow along with it... I like the idea... questionable about the execution and knowledge. Even having knowledge in other markets is very different from one based on BTC, especially with its high volatility and all the unknowns floating around with regards to government intervention.

[deadgiveaway]

I once owned a website with 1,000,000+ pageviews a month, and have traded stocks since 2004. Can I raise thousands of dollars in Bitcoins, too? Please let me know, thanks.

[ajk]

I am curious

Are you buying shares of Ciphermine directly from Kate or from the market? Would be nice if you had to use the market since this would be more beneficial to shareholders / Ciphermine

also, Do you have any trade history that is verifiable? I noticed that you said you are an accountant and that is a bit of a different line of work than being a full time investor managing close to a 750,000 USD equivalent in cryptocurrencies

[MPOE-PR]

You can buy shares here: http://www.smidge.com/?page_id=42

Month old noobs do not make announcements, start funds or any of the rest of the jazz. See here and stfu.

Hi Mircea,

Been waiting for that one! Even if this was the bible of starting a Bitcoin business, would you care to elaborate in detail what is wrong with our approach?

I'm not Mircea numbnuts, and you're not on a first name basis with MP fo sho.

Other than that the following is wrong with your approach: you're stupid and unqualified. So stupid and unqualified in fact as to be utterly unable to even notice that you are stupid. And unqualified.

PS. I wish idiot noobs dropped this "we" convention they keep pulling out of their ass every time they feel insecure of their footing. There's no "we" in "stupid" and there's no "our" in idiot. There's just tissues and torrents, in both.

[ranlo]

You can buy shares here: http://www.smidge.com/?page_id=42

Month old noobs do not make announcements, start funds or any of the rest of the jazz. See here and stfu.

Hi Mircea,

Been waiting for that one! Even if this was the bible of starting a Bitcoin business, would you care to elaborate in detail what is wrong with our approach?

I'm not Mircea numbnuts, and you're not on a first name basis with MP fo sho.

Other than that the following is wrong with your approach: you're stupid and unqualified. So stupid and unqualified in fact as to be utterly unable to even notice that you are stupid. And unqualified.

PS. I wish idiot noobs dropped this "we" convention they keep pulling out of their ass every time they feel insecure of their footing. There's no "we" in "stupid" and there's no "our" in idiot. There's just tissues and torrents, in both.

Holy crap... I have to say you get +1 intarneckz from me. You made me laugh, feel a little bad for Smidge, and then laugh again. Doesn't happen often so you're definitely awesome.

(No offense to Smidge... I loved his/her reply regardless of who it was directed at. On that note, I copied it into a text file for further enjoyment in the future)

[MPOE-PR]

Holy crap... I have to say you get +1 intarneckz from me. You made me laugh, feel a little bad for Smidge, and then laugh again. Doesn't happen often so you're definitely awesome.

(No offense to Smidge... I loved his/her reply regardless of who it was directed at. On that note, I copied it into a text file for further enjoyment in the future)

I guess I'm gonna end up charging per post.

[ranlo]

Holy crap... I have to say you get +1 intarneckz from me. You made me laugh, feel a little bad for Smidge, and then laugh again. Doesn't happen often so you're definitely awesome.

(No offense to Smidge... I loved his/her reply regardless of who it was directed at. On that note, I copied it into a text file for further enjoyment in the future)

I guess I'm gonna end up charging per post.

You just might have to!

[thehun]

You can buy shares here: http://www.smidge.com/?page_id=42

Month old noobs do not make announcements, start funds or any of the rest of the jazz. See here and stfu.

Hi Mircea,

Been waiting for that one! Even if this was the bible of starting a Bitcoin business, would you care to elaborate in detail what is wrong with our approach?

I'm not Mircea numbnuts, and you're not on a first name basis with MP fo sho.

Other than that the following is wrong with your approach: you're stupid and unqualified. So stupid and unqualified in fact as to be utterly unable to even notice that you are stupid. And unqualified.


[PS. I wish idiot noobs dropped this "we" convention they keep pulling out of their ass every time they feel insecure of their footing. There's no "we" in "stupid" and there's no "our" in idiot. There's just tissues and torrents, in both.

Holy crap... I have to say you get +1 intarneckz from me. You made me laugh, feel a little bad for Smidge, and then laugh again. Doesn't happen often so you're definitely awesome.

(No offense to Smidge... I loved his/her reply regardless of who it was directed at. On that note, I copied it into a text file for further enjoyment in the future)

I don't think it's funny at all... There are ways and ways of saying things and IMO seniority doesn't give anyone the right to insult and talk down to someone like that. MPOE-PR might know a lot but still I think he is just full of himself.

[ranlo]

You can buy shares here: http://www.smidge.com/?page_id=42

Month old noobs do not make announcements, start funds or any of the rest of the jazz. See here and stfu.

Hi Mircea,

Been waiting for that one! Even if this was the bible of starting a Bitcoin business, would you care to elaborate in detail what is wrong with our approach?

I'm not Mircea numbnuts, and you're not on a first name basis with MP fo sho.

Other than that the following is wrong with your approach: you're stupid and unqualified. So stupid and unqualified in fact as to be utterly unable to even notice that you are stupid. And unqualified.


[PS. I wish idiot noobs dropped this "we" convention they keep pulling out of their ass every time they feel insecure of their footing. There's no "we" in "stupid" and there's no "our" in idiot. There's just tissues and torrents, in both.

Holy crap... I have to say you get +1 intarneckz from me. You made me laugh, feel a little bad for Smidge, and then laugh again. Doesn't happen often so you're definitely awesome.

(No offense to Smidge... I loved his/her reply regardless of who it was directed at. On that note, I copied it into a text file for further enjoyment in the future)

I don't think it's funny at all... There are ways and ways of saying things and IMO seniority doesn't give anyone the right to insult and talk down to someone like that. MPOE-PR might know a lot but still I think he is just full of himself.

Meh, to each his own I guess. For what it's worth, I'd feel the same way even if MP's post was directed at me.

[Deprived]

I think the burning question of the moment is : are you based in the US?

[Smidge]

I am curious

Are you buying shares of Ciphermine directly from Kate or from the market? Would be nice if you had to use the market since this would be more beneficial to shareholders / Ciphermine

Hi ajk,

It was a share swap between the two companies for a fixed price so obviously the market was not used.

[Smidge]

I think the burning question of the moment is : are you based in the US?

Hi Deprived,

Smidge.Com is based in Germany.

[ajk]

thanks for the reply.. I guess Kate believes in you due to it being a share swap but it would have been so much more beneficial to make you buy at market thus making the net-worth of the company so much more, with the order book the way it is 2500 shares would have brought us to close to 10LTC/share

currently she has a stake in your company to which we have no idea is legit or not, you are doing 3 rounds of funding, so how many total shares will there be in the end? surely with the way it is set any group A buyer will be getting diluted later on so what is the point of buying now

You mention that you were an accountant but edited the post to say you are an account manager now, so which is it? you also managed to skip over the bigger question which is verifiable trade history, if you have an account on the market you could show us some details about the successful trades you have made,

[ajk]

In addition: I do not care what Kate does with her personal shares that is completely up to her, but it would have been more beneficial to share holders since this was an opportunity that doesnt arise to often, more or less the trade swap is for personal gain if you are actually legit and would have been nice to see the money go towards the company instead (all my opinion)

second addition: Accountants and account managers are 2 different jobs which is why im asking, One crunches numbers while the other makes decisions and if im going to put money into a investment program I need to know the guy running the show has made sound decisions through an extended career, so showing what your invested in or have been invested in and for how long you have been with them would be nice to know (that can be verified not just said)

[Smidge]

thanks for the reply.. I guess Kate believes in you due to it being a share swap but it would have been so much more beneficial to make you buy at market thus making the net-worth of the company so much more, with the order book the way it is 2500 shares would have brought us to close to 10LTC/share

currently she has a stake in your company to which we have no idea is legit or not, you are doing 3 rounds of funding, so how many total shares will there be in the end? surely with the way it is set any group A buyer will be getting diluted later on so what is the point of buying now

You mention that you were an accountant but edited the post to say you are an account manager now, so which is it? you also managed to skip over the bigger question which is verifiable trade history, if you have an account on the market you could show us some details about the successful trades you have made,

Hi ajk,

We did not acquire 2,500 shares of Ciphermine. Please read up on the details of the deal that we published. Pumping the Ciphermine share price up to 10 LTC artificially would also be complete bs.

We are not doing 3 rounds of funding either. The details on this (plus the number of shares etc.) is all clearly stated in our business plan.

I am neither an accountant, nor did I edit the post in order to change my profession. That is an accusation and completely wrong, as you can verify on almost all my other profiles online. I also answered the question before, plus I am not actively engaged in day-trading activities. This is about long term value investing in persons/assets that we believe will create significant value in the future (like Kate and her team). If you want to buy Smidge.Com shares thinking you can double up every week, then this is not for you.

[ajk]

My apologies, that was off the assumption of buying 2500 Ciphermine shares I misread and throught you swapped for 2500 of Ciphermine not the other way around

It says in the business plan about a B and C group so it makes it a bit confusing,

When burnside first asked you what your profession was you said accountant and it has been recently changed to account manager so.. Ok that still does not answer any trades you have had in the past that would warrant you being a sound investor,

Great you dont day trade but what trades have you made in the past that would be worth mentioning

[superduh]

so ciphermine owns 2500 shares of smidge?

[ajk]

Also for Pre IPO or IPO's its not really to doubtful to think that the run up of the opening would be 100% ive seen it happen countless times for businesses placed in strong industries

no.. I dont expect any of my investments to double up every week...

Why do you not sign up on bitfunder or BTCT? instead of having a free wordpress site? also how come your asking for so much.. Tradefortress seems to run a transparent operation but is capped at around 250K, your asking for 750K based on the fact that you dont day trade and only invest long term

Hey me to but it doesnt mean that I dont have many long positions with some shorts to make money when the opportunity arises.. I have nothing against day traders it is a strategy that works for some just not for me hence why I only portion about <10% of my equity for such activities

if you want this operation to actually go Id suggest lowering the amount your trying to fund and proving your work before going all out and trying to manage 750K, id also sign up on bitfunder or something so that its not just sending BTC directly to you for basically a ledger saying I own shares

edited less than symbol 

[MPOE-PR]

I don't think it's funny at all... There are ways and ways of saying things and IMO seniority doesn't give anyone the right to insult and talk down to someone like that. MPOE-PR might know a lot but still I think he is just full of himself.

Get an avatar better suited to your purpose.

[Smidge]

Why do you not sign up on bitfunder or BTCT? instead of having a free wordpress site? also how come your asking for so much.. Tradefortress seems to run a transparent operation but is capped at around 250K, your asking for 750K based on the fact that you dont day trade and only invest long term

Hi ajk,

Based on your questions, I am not sure if you read any of the information already posted, especially in the business plan ("Raising Expansion Capital & IPO", etc.).

Also, please stop sending me PMs about questions already answered.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

We finished our first week very strong. After the announcement of the fund on July 21st, it's size increased more than six-fold (+508.03%), we made a first key investment and reached a 26.30% increase in value of original assets held.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Please note that column "E" is hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• Active Mining Corporation (AMC): Our evaluation & initial investment in May has proven to be beneficial. Outstanding shares sold out this week, at the same time enabling enough funds for AMC to pay for R&D and new physical assets. These two factors contributed to an awaited surge of the share price
• Ciphermine's share price has been stuggling due to shares sold by the owners and minor supplier issues. If the trend continues, we see the prices becoming attractive for averaging. Long term, we believe in it's substance, management and potential
• We have been able to generate 0.223532 speculating on BTC/LTC. Positions have been liquidated and will be reinvested
• Please note that dividends per share are quite low and will be reinvested, this is due to the reason that we did not reinvest most of the fresh cash. Please keep in mind that we will not invest in anything just because excess cash is available

On another note, I invested 5.00 BTC from my own pocket for listing fees. I gave those to Smidge.Com at no cost, as promised in the BP for all fees of this type.

I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received. As an investor, I know very well that new assets are not easy to be trusted. I hope to be able to welcome more investors on board soon!

[creativex]

Hi Smidge. I too would appreciate it if you'd address some of the questions asked above...particularly given our email exchange.

Cheers.

[Smidge]

Hi Smidge. I too would appreciate it if you'd address some of the questions asked above...particularly given our email exchange.

Cheers.

Hi creativex,

Can I ask you to please be more specific? I'd be happy to answer anything that is unclear.

[creativex]

Hi Smidge. I too would appreciate it if you'd address some of the questions asked above...particularly given our email exchange.

Cheers.

Hi creativex,

Can I ask you to please be more specific? I'd be happy to answer anything that is unclear.

Ty. Let's start with this:

When burnside first asked you what your profession was you said accountant and it has been recently changed to account manager so.. Ok that still does not answer any trades you have had in the past that would warrant you being a sound investor,

Great you dont day trade but what trades have you made in the past that would be worth mentioning

...and forgive me if this has been asked and answered elsewhere. I admit I've not yet read enough regarding your interesting startup.

[Smidge]

Hi Smidge. I too would appreciate it if you'd address some of the questions asked above...particularly given our email exchange.

Cheers.

Hi creativex,

Can I ask you to please be more specific? I'd be happy to answer anything that is unclear.

Ty. Let's start with this:

When burnside first asked you what your profession was you said accountant and it has been recently changed to account manager so.. Ok that still does not answer any trades you have had in the past that would warrant you being a sound investor,

Great you dont day trade but what trades have you made in the past that would be worth mentioning

...and forgive me if this has been asked and answered elsewhere. I admit I've not yet read enough regarding your interesting startup.

Hi creativex,

What I've invested in before:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2771971#msg2771971
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2788731#msg2788731

What I'm investing in now:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing

If I'm an Accountant... pardon, Account Manager:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2803102#msg2803102

And yes, I will forgive you. But only to make it clear once and for all and only because it's you

[Korbman]

I've stumbled across this thread before, but I hadn't made a concerted effort to dig into the content.
It seems my recent postings breaking down and analyzing other up-and-coming funds has garnered a bit of attention, both on and off the forums. Why? I don’t know. I've always assumed I was just asking basic questions, and I don’t consider myself an expert by any means. Regardless of this, it seems quite a few people have found my postings to be helpful.

Smidge contacted me directly to ask if I’d take a look at his business plan and to provide honest feedback. What you’ll read below is the result.

And before anyone asks (as I’m sure someone would), no, I did not receive compensation (of any kind) for my efforts, nor do I plan on receiving anything in the future. The questions and comments written below were done on my own accord and represent my opinions.

I've noticed that Smidge mostly points everyone to look at his business plan and website for answers to various questions. As such, this post will be a breakdown of the plan (aside from basic definitions of phrases on his website, everything just points back to the plan anyway).

Another note on this, I’m focusing my questions just on the business plan for the moment. Questions I've asked may have already been answered or hinted to with the thread, and for that I apologize.

By now I’m sure most of you have seen this disclaimer, so I might as well keep with the trend. Yes, this will be an extensive post and I apologize. As a forewarning, my responses may sound rude and/or condescending, but I assure you I don’t mean them that way. I imagine it as if you and I are sitting at a table and I’m asking these questions with more of an upbeat attitude.
Generally speaking, the willingness of the OP to thoroughly answer any and all questions can be indicative of the effort they’re willing to put into their business.

Business Plan
v0.7b, updated Jul 21st, 2013 by Smidge (www.smidge.com/data/files/smidge.com.business.plan.pdf)

I suppose we’ll start off here. Typical mix-up since they’re similar, but this isn't a business plan, this is a prospectus.

A business plan lays out the goals of the company and how you want to (reasonably) attain them, as well as disclosing the company management structure and the company financials (income/balance/cash flow statements).

A prospectus, on the other hand, is typically used in securities offerings. It provides detailed information about the security that will be offered, tying in details about the company’s current business, financial statements, etc.

Purpose

[unneeded marketing jargon]

The purpose of Smidge.Com (“the fund”) is to allow investors to participate, in an overly proportional manner, in a diverse number of assets that exist in the crypto currency space, managed by experienced investors.

Can you describe how your operation is able to invest in an “overly proportional” manner? The phrasing in this situation is a bit unusual…but that may just be discrepancies in language, leading to confusion.

‘Experienced’. I’ve seen that word (and/or its synonyms) pop up a number of times during my reading, yet I haven’t seen any indication of past performance (either here or on your website). In your post history, you've made mention of investing in ASICMiner and some domain names, but not much else than that.

The fund holds assets in Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and, to some extent, alternative crypto currencies (Altcoins). The fund may be supplemented by other assets, like hardware (not planned at launch). The Fund's portfolio will be public to show proof of ownership of underlying assets.

Are you considering building out a plan for adding mining hardware in the near future? If so, what hardware would you have in mind?

Smidge.Com aims to become the largest BTC investment fund by market capitalization, building trust for investors, start-ups looking for capital and the digital currency community as a whole.

That’s an extremely lofty goal for someone relatively new to the forums and without any provable Bitcoin trading experience prior to starting the fund. I’m not saying it isn't possible; what I am saying is to focus on building a solid foundation for your company first, growth comes later.

Strategy

The fund will primarily invest in BTC, LTC and, to a certain extent, Altcoin, assets. This is done in order to maximize returns and issue those as dividends to investors on a regular basis.

So, your business strategy is to “invest in securities and make a return”. That is not a strategy, that is a purpose; that’s what your company is supposed to do.

The strategy is being executed by applying the expertise of the management team in the fund’s day-to-day operations. Additional activities that are difficult or not at all possible for the small scale investor will include:

-   Participating in bulk offers (auctions) of discounted shares
-   Approaching and participating in start-up operations pre-IPO (as venture capitalist and advisor)
-   Approaching individual shareholders for large, uncomplicated buyouts of private shares at a discount (avoiding auctions)
-   Expand influence in the assets by becoming major shareholders, occupying board seats and other positions with greater influence
-   Investing in direct shares, avoiding fees completely
-   Becoming a trusted entity and a contact point for advice- and capital-seeking start-ups in the crypto currency world

Phew, you are dreaming quite large right now. This list doesn't seem to correlate to any particular strategy since these are just [super] long term goals. I get the feeling you’re planning as if you’re going to get BTC1,000 tomorrow and you’re trying to figure out how to invest it.

Unfortunately for you, I've been in this exact position before. I know that rush when entering the Bitcoin markets; where constraints are loosened and you feel as if you can create anything from the ground and up; to be a part of something still in its infancy and the urge to help it grow.

But I’m here to help provide a reality check. You’re not going to get the funding you’re looking for, and to get even a tenth of that amount would require a substantial amount of time and effort. As you read this (and continue through the other points), my hope is you’ll understand why.

The combination of the fund’s efforts is expected to lead to an asset valuation that, in mid and long term, significantly outperforms the market.

How do you outperform a securities market that has no statistical/averaging data and has only been around for about a year and half? A line must be drawn in order for you to “outperform” it, so where/what is that line?

If you’re referring to the Bitcoin currency market, how do you plan on beating a performance of 1000% (over the past 12 months, and only taking into account last year’s price and today’s price, not the $265 high)?

The fund will initially be launched as “Smidge.Com A”, A hereby classifying the first tranche. Other tranches of the fund might be launched by the management team in the future, classified as “Smidge.Com B”, “Smidge.Com C” etc. with different areas of operation, strategies, assets and/or splitting of shares. Shareholders of the previous tranches will be offered discounted shares in advance. The management team will disclose the processes after successful IPO of “Smidge.Com A” and after new tranches are deemed necessary.

“Might” be launched, or will be launched? I can see the purpose of various tranches over time, but that’s not something to focus on.

And speaking of these tranches…

Structure

The fund is a virtual identity held by investors of Smidge.Com, a company in the course of incorporation [1]. at the time of release of this document.

The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares. Each of the funds’ shares always equals to 1/900,000 [2] of the total profits and voting power of the summed value from both the fund and Smidge.Com.

[1] – How far through the incorporation process are you, and what is your official company name?

[2] – Based on what I've read so far (and what I’ll get into more thoroughly below), each tranche (A, B, C, etc) will have 900,000 shares with it?
Speaking to just the 900,000 in “A”, you've determined that you’ll hold 15% (135,000) of it because…why?

Tying into this part is:

Raising Expansion Capital & IPO

After accepting pre-IPO investments from individual investors (private offering) for a limited time [1], the fund will be offering shares of stock to the general public through an IPO on one or several virtual security exchanges, as soon as negotiations are concluded [2]. Any listing fees will be paid by the company Smidge.Com, not the fund’s cash reserve or assets.

Details of the “Smidge.Com A” private offering:

-   Number of shares available: 315,000.00
-   Pre-IPO share price: 0.02 BTC [3]
-   Shares can be acquired in packages consisting of 250 shares (5.00 BTC per package)

[1] – Ah, the deadly sin of any up and coming business: making sure the purchases are “limited time” offerings. It’s a fantastic way to look like a Ponzi, or other ill-intentioned scheme, regardless of your intentions. I know the purpose of a private offering in normal fiat markets, but here in Bitcoin they typically don’t bode well. The “Get in Now” attitude has a negative stigma around here.

[2] – What Exchanges are you looking to host on? I've seen mention of BTCT, but are there others? The problem with not being listed on an Exchange is liquidity. Transferable shares are great if people actually want to buy into your asset, but that takes a substantial established company to make happen (like ASICMiner).

[3] – Good god man, you’re valuating your Smidge “A” shares at BTC18,000 for the 900,000 total shares? Not only that, you've granted yourself BTC2,700 of the total (equaling 135,000 shares) for no other reason than “management”?

To that end, why 315,000 shares? What happened to the remaining 450,000?

You’re sights are set WAY too high (hence why I said “you’re not going to get the funding you’re looking for” above). On top of that, you don’t have anything to back up the valuation.

In order to participate, please visit the page “SMIDGE.COM A DIRECT SHARES” on www.smidge.com . You can then use the contact form or contact username “Smidge” on bitcointalk.org.

Shares can be transferred owner-to-owner at any time by involving the fund’s management team. For more information, please visit the page “SMIDGE.COM A DIRECT SHARES” on www.smidge.com or PM username “Smidge” on bitcointalk.org.

You seem to be repeating yourself here…

Other than that, for what reason should investors purchase private shares? As a third party, this is incredibly sketchy. You’re asking for us to send money to a privately generated address with the promise of getting some virtual transferable shares (and all completely off an exchange). So if tomorrow you decide to up and leave, that’s it; the coins are gone.

Am I one of the few that sees a problem with this?

Management team and personal commitment

Management team currently consists of Smidge as CEO, through whom most of the communication will be done. There are two shareholders of Smidge.Com [1] consulting him in operations and finance, who have access to documents assuring the continuity of the fund in case Smidge catches a cold, gets hit by a bus etc.

Smidge’s ID, E-Mail and phone number have been verified with Mt.Gox [2].

The management team/consultants personally know each other since several years and have worked and invested together on multiple occasions. They are obliged to each other and Smidge.Com through a legal binding contract. [3]

[1] – Any chance of divulging this information, or will they just be silent partners that we’ll never know? If the latter, then what’s the point of revealing this information at all?

[2] – So what? Mt. Gox has absolutely nothing to do with your business. The object here should be to verify your identity with any Exchange operators you’re looking to be hosted on. And if you’re looking for more transparency, then verify with your Investors as well. It makes it easier than doing a WhoIs on your website and tracking names through any social media accounts.

[3] – Similar to my statement on Sandstorm, both this and #1 are just “words on paper” with nothing to back up your claims. If you’re looking for transparency (which we’ll touch on momentarily), then information on partners and contracts involved is almost necessary.

The management team transferred an initial investment of 24.6349 BTC [1] into the fund on July 21st, 2013. These assets, as well as any profits generated through them, will be part of the fund at its announcement date (July 21st, 2013). More physical and virtual assets (BTC, LTC, Altcoins, mining equipment…) are planned to be brought into the fund or it’s tranches at a later time as donation [2], for additional value without dilution of existing shares.

[1] – Just so I have this straight, you and your team have committed nearly BTC25 to your company, yet you've granted yourself a BTC2,700 holding out of your proposed market cap of BTC18,000 with no existing revenue streams? As some internet users would say, “lolwut?”.

[2] – I’m not sure how this makes any sense. You’re going to conjure assets from somewhere, and then just give them to your fund as a “donation”?
In short, don’t do this. Keep your company holdings and financials separate from your own, because if the time comes to cash out, there will be nothing but trouble as you go “oh, I let my company use my shares and my mining equipment, so I’ll take them back now”.

Transparency

The fund seeks maximum transparency by

-   fully disclosing all assets held in the fund regularly
-   disclosing all dividends accrued and paid
-   disclosing all management fees
-   operating a website at www.smidge.com for public information

This is a start, but certainly not enough.
We know nothing about you and your history, and before April 2013 you didn't exist. There’s more to transparency than disclosing what you invest in. There’s the matter of management biographies, company financial statements, risk management strategies, and the like.

Underlying assets of the fund

The management team will buy and sell previously mentioned asset classes in the best interest of the fund in its day-to-day operations in order to maximize returns. Shareholders can bring forward motions to add or remove assets to or from the fund at any time.

As if you wouldn’t act in the best interest of the fund? I’m not sure why this sort of phrasing is needed. If I’m putting money with an investment management company, I automatically presume I’m investing in people who have the fund in their best interests.

Dividends

Dividends will be paid from earnings accrued from the underlying assets of the fund. Additional dividends might be paid from earnings out of trading activities. A portion of earnings might be reinvested into assets.

Dividends will be paid weekly, usually every Sunday. Additional dividends might be paid at any time if deemed necessary.

Why pay weekly if you’re intention is to be a long term investment vehicle? I'm really just curious if there's any reasoning behind it, as compared to bi-weekly, monthly, etc.

Risk to shareholders

The fund's market cap and NAV rely on the value of the underlying assets and the share price decided upon by the market. If the underlying asset value decreases, the entire fund's market cap and NAV will also decrease. Additional risks to assets include the price of BTC, losses related to trading activities as well as other risks. The fund does not hedge against all of these risks. Each shareholder must understand these risks before investing.

So much for a long term investment…
Are there any strategies you've currently implemented to hedge against at least some risks? If so, what sort of risk management is at work? It's a hard question to answer, but let’s see if you can describe anything other than Sandstorm’s “Simple risk management” phrasing.

Legal aspects

The fund is a virtual identity. As with all digital currency funds and securities, everything is virtual, which to the best of our knowledge is perfectly legal. Please do your homework and read this document thoroughly before investing.

This notion is rapidly changing. Here in the States, I have a feeling the SEC will begin to move against existing virtual securities and adjust the federal regulations accordingly. Germany (and other EU countries) will undoubtedly feel pressure from the US on these matters. As Bitcoin grows, there’s no reason to think regulatory committees won’t start pushing. 

When the time comes, what will you do in the face of regulation? What laws and regulations do you think could apply to your company, and do you feel you can aptly adapt them?

Fund Closure

Management reserves the right to close this fund for any reason giving 30 days’ notice. All assets in the fund, will be liquidated on the respective markets. Distribution to shareholders will be done according to a public, defined timeline and action plan.

Why would the fund ever be closed down? And isn't the object of having multiple partners to limit the chance of this happening?

In any case, I presume by all assets this includes currency holdings (including any company fiat), stocks, bonds, and physical hardware (mining equipment if any)?

--------------------------

Alright! I suppose that’s all I can manage for now, though I do look forward to the responses. To the other posters in this thread, some of you may recognize your questions reworded as to cite examples from the business plan. This wasn't an accident as I noticed Smidge wasn't answering a few questions all that thoroughly. Maybe I’ll somehow be an exception given I was asked to respond?


To: Smidge – Here’s the honest reality check.
You are not experienced in Bitcoin securities trading (based on the information you've provided us).
You are looking for a massive company valuation based on essentially nothing.
You are not trusted (it’s earned over time, not just given out).
You are a new forum member and you are new to Bitcoin overall (so far as I've been able to determine).

Combined together, you’re nearly in the same situation as the Sandstorm security, which seems to be your primary competition (though I’m sure there’s more, and anyone please feel free to enlighten me on this).

That said, why should investors put any money with you over Sandstorm? After all, Sandstorm is at least being actively traded on an exchange (which makes purchases and sales vastly easier overall, even if the IPO was terrible), and its owner currently holds 40% of the total asset. By reading the business plans for each company, the distinction should be obvious, but unfortunately this isn’t something I can say is true.

In the end, no one is perfect and I don't expect them to be. For many people, this is quite a learning experience when starting out (I know it was for me). Let's see if we can work through this!

[joesmoe2012]

I've stumbled across this thread before, but I hadn't made a concerted effort to dig into the content.
It seems my recent postings breaking down and analyzing other up-and-coming funds has garnered a bit of attention, both on and off the forums. Why? I don’t know. I've always assumed I was just asking basic questions, and I don’t consider myself an expert by any means. Regardless of this, it seems quite a few people have found my postings to be helpful.

Smidge contacted me directly to ask if I’d take a look at his business plan and to provide honest feedback. What you’ll read below is the result.

And before anyone asks (as I’m sure someone would), no, I did not receive compensation (of any kind) for my efforts, nor do I plan on receiving anything in the future. The questions and comments written below were done on my own accord and represent my opinions.

I've noticed that Smidge mostly points everyone to look at his business plan and website for answers to various questions. As such, this post will be a breakdown of the plan (aside from basic definitions of phrases on his website, everything just points back to the plan anyway).

Another note on this, I’m focusing my questions just on the business plan for the moment. Questions I've asked may have already been answered or hinted to with the thread, and for that I apologize.

By now I’m sure most of you have seen this disclaimer, so I might as well keep with the trend. Yes, this will be an extensive post and I apologize. As a forewarning, my responses may sound rude and/or condescending, but I assure you I don’t mean them that way. I imagine it as if you and I are sitting at a table and I’m asking these questions with more of an upbeat attitude.
Generally speaking, the willingness of the OP to thoroughly answer any and all questions can be indicative of the effort they’re willing to put into their business.

Business Plan
v0.7b, updated Jul 21st, 2013 by Smidge (www.smidge.com/data/files/smidge.com.business.plan.pdf)

I suppose we’ll start off here. Typical mix-up since they’re similar, but this isn't a business plan, this is a prospectus.

A business plan lays out the goals of the company and how you want to (reasonably) attain them, as well as disclosing the company management structure and the company financials (income/balance/cash flow statements).

A prospectus, on the other hand, is typically used in securities offerings. It provides detailed information about the security that will be offered, tying in details about the company’s current business, financial statements, etc.

Purpose

[unneeded marketing jargon]

The purpose of Smidge.Com (“the fund”) is to allow investors to participate, in an overly proportional manner, in a diverse number of assets that exist in the crypto currency space, managed by experienced investors.

Can you describe how your operation is able to invest in an “overly proportional” manner? The phrasing in this situation is a bit unusual…but that may just be discrepancies in language, leading to confusion.

‘Experienced’. I’ve seen that word (and/or its synonyms) pop up a number of times during my reading, yet I haven’t seen any indication of past performance (either here or on your website). In your post history, you've made mention of investing in ASICMiner and some domain names, but not much else than that.

The fund holds assets in Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and, to some extent, alternative crypto currencies (Altcoins). The fund may be supplemented by other assets, like hardware (not planned at launch). The Fund's portfolio will be public to show proof of ownership of underlying assets.

Are you considering building out a plan for adding mining hardware in the near future? If so, what hardware would you have in mind?

Smidge.Com aims to become the largest BTC investment fund by market capitalization, building trust for investors, start-ups looking for capital and the digital currency community as a whole.

That’s an extremely lofty goal for someone relatively new to the forums and without any provable Bitcoin trading experience prior to starting the fund. I’m not saying it isn't possible; what I am saying is to focus on building a solid foundation for your company first, growth comes later.

Strategy

The fund will primarily invest in BTC, LTC and, to a certain extent, Altcoin, assets. This is done in order to maximize returns and issue those as dividends to investors on a regular basis.

So, your business strategy is to “invest in securities and make a return”. That is not a strategy, that is a purpose; that’s what your company is supposed to do.

The strategy is being executed by applying the expertise of the management team in the fund’s day-to-day operations. Additional activities that are difficult or not at all possible for the small scale investor will include:

-   Participating in bulk offers (auctions) of discounted shares
-   Approaching and participating in start-up operations pre-IPO (as venture capitalist and advisor)
-   Approaching individual shareholders for large, uncomplicated buyouts of private shares at a discount (avoiding auctions)
-   Expand influence in the assets by becoming major shareholders, occupying board seats and other positions with greater influence
-   Investing in direct shares, avoiding fees completely
-   Becoming a trusted entity and a contact point for advice- and capital-seeking start-ups in the crypto currency world

Phew, you are dreaming quite large right now. This list doesn't seem to correlate to any particular strategy since these are just [super] long term goals. I get the feeling you’re planning as if you’re going to get BTC1,000 tomorrow and you’re trying to figure out how to invest it.

Unfortunately for you, I've been in this exact position before. I know that rush when entering the Bitcoin markets; where constraints are loosened and you feel as if you can create anything from the ground and up; to be a part of something still in its infancy and the urge to help it grow.

But I’m here to help provide a reality check. You’re not going to get the funding you’re looking for, and to get even a tenth of that amount would require a substantial amount of time and effort. As you read this (and continue through the other points), my hope is you’ll understand why.

The combination of the fund’s efforts is expected to lead to an asset valuation that, in mid and long term, significantly outperforms the market.

How do you outperform a securities market that has no statistical/averaging data and has only been around for about a year and half? A line must be drawn in order for you to “outperform” it, so where/what is that line?

If you’re referring to the Bitcoin currency market, how do you plan on beating a performance of 1000% (over the past 12 months, and only taking into account last year’s price and today’s price, not the $265 high)?

The fund will initially be launched as “Smidge.Com A”, A hereby classifying the first tranche. Other tranches of the fund might be launched by the management team in the future, classified as “Smidge.Com B”, “Smidge.Com C” etc. with different areas of operation, strategies, assets and/or splitting of shares. Shareholders of the previous tranches will be offered discounted shares in advance. The management team will disclose the processes after successful IPO of “Smidge.Com A” and after new tranches are deemed necessary.

“Might” be launched, or will be launched? I can see the purpose of various tranches over time, but that’s not something to focus on.

And speaking of these tranches…

Structure

The fund is a virtual identity held by investors of Smidge.Com, a company in the course of incorporation [1]. at the time of release of this document.

The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares. Each of the funds’ shares always equals to 1/900,000 [2] of the total profits and voting power of the summed value from both the fund and Smidge.Com.

[1] – How far through the incorporation process are you, and what is your official company name?

[2] – Based on what I've read so far (and what I’ll get into more thoroughly below), each tranche (A, B, C, etc) will have 900,000 shares with it?
Speaking to just the 900,000 in “A”, you've determined that you’ll hold 15% (135,000) of it because…why?

Tying into this part is:

Raising Expansion Capital & IPO

After accepting pre-IPO investments from individual investors (private offering) for a limited time [1], the fund will be offering shares of stock to the general public through an IPO on one or several virtual security exchanges, as soon as negotiations are concluded [2]. Any listing fees will be paid by the company Smidge.Com, not the fund’s cash reserve or assets.

Details of the “Smidge.Com A” private offering:

-   Number of shares available: 315,000.00
-   Pre-IPO share price: 0.02 BTC [3]
-   Shares can be acquired in packages consisting of 250 shares (5.00 BTC per package)

[1] – Ah, the deadly sin of any up and coming business: making sure the purchases are “limited time” offerings. It’s a fantastic way to look like a Ponzi, or other ill-intentioned scheme, regardless of your intentions. I know the purpose of a private offering in normal fiat markets, but here in Bitcoin they typically don’t bode well. The “Get in Now” attitude has a negative stigma around here.

[2] – What Exchanges are you looking to host on? I've seen mention of BTCT, but are there others? The problem with not being listed on an Exchange is liquidity. Transferable shares are great if people actually want to buy into your asset, but that takes a substantial established company to make happen (like ASICMiner).

[3] – Good god man, you’re valuating your Smidge “A” shares at BTC18,000 for the 900,000 total shares? Not only that, you've granted yourself BTC2,700 of the total (equaling 135,000 shares) for no other reason than “management”?

To that end, why 315,000 shares? What happened to the remaining 450,000?

You’re sights are set WAY too high (hence why I said “you’re not going to get the funding you’re looking for” above). On top of that, you don’t have anything to back up the valuation.

In order to participate, please visit the page “SMIDGE.COM A DIRECT SHARES” on www.smidge.com . You can then use the contact form or contact username “Smidge” on bitcointalk.org.

Shares can be transferred owner-to-owner at any time by involving the fund’s management team. For more information, please visit the page “SMIDGE.COM A DIRECT SHARES” on www.smidge.com or PM username “Smidge” on bitcointalk.org.

You seem to be repeating yourself here…

Other than that, for what reason should investors purchase private shares? As a third party, this is incredibly sketchy. You’re asking for us to send money to a privately generated address with the promise of getting some virtual transferable shares (and all completely off an exchange). So if tomorrow you decide to up and leave, that’s it; the coins are gone.

Am I one of the few that sees a problem with this?

Management team and personal commitment

Management team currently consists of Smidge as CEO, through whom most of the communication will be done. There are two shareholders of Smidge.Com [1] consulting him in operations and finance, who have access to documents assuring the continuity of the fund in case Smidge catches a cold, gets hit by a bus etc.

Smidge’s ID, E-Mail and phone number have been verified with Mt.Gox [2].

The management team/consultants personally know each other since several years and have worked and invested together on multiple occasions. They are obliged to each other and Smidge.Com through a legal binding contract. [3]

[1] – Any chance of divulging this information, or will they just be silent partners that we’ll never know? If the latter, then what’s the point of revealing this information at all?

[2] – So what? Mt. Gox has absolutely nothing to do with your business. The object here should be to verify your identity with any Exchange operators you’re looking to be hosted on. And if you’re looking for more transparency, then verify with your Investors as well. It makes it easier than doing a WhoIs on your website and tracking names through any social media accounts.

[3] – Similar to my statement on Sandstorm, both this and #1 are just “words on paper” with nothing to back up your claims. If you’re looking for transparency (which we’ll touch on momentarily), then information on partners and contracts involved is almost necessary.

The management team transferred an initial investment of 24.6349 BTC [1] into the fund on July 21st, 2013. These assets, as well as any profits generated through them, will be part of the fund at its announcement date (July 21st, 2013). More physical and virtual assets (BTC, LTC, Altcoins, mining equipment…) are planned to be brought into the fund or it’s tranches at a later time as donation [2], for additional value without dilution of existing shares.

[1] – Just so I have this straight, you and your team have committed nearly BTC25 to your company, yet you've granted yourself a BTC2,700 holding out of your proposed market cap of BTC18,000 with no existing revenue streams? As some internet users would say, “lolwut?”.

[2] – I’m not sure how this makes any sense. You’re going to conjure assets from somewhere, and then just give them to your fund as a “donation”?
In short, don’t do this. Keep your company holdings and financials separate from your own, because if the time comes to cash out, there will be nothing but trouble as you go “oh, I let my company use my shares and my mining equipment, so I’ll take them back now”.

Transparency

The fund seeks maximum transparency by

-   fully disclosing all assets held in the fund regularly
-   disclosing all dividends accrued and paid
-   disclosing all management fees
-   operating a website at www.smidge.com for public information

This is a start, but certainly not enough.
We know nothing about you and your history, and before April 2013 you didn't exist. There’s more to transparency than disclosing what you invest in. There’s the matter of management biographies, company financial statements, risk management strategies, and the like.

Underlying assets of the fund

The management team will buy and sell previously mentioned asset classes in the best interest of the fund in its day-to-day operations in order to maximize returns. Shareholders can bring forward motions to add or remove assets to or from the fund at any time.

As if you wouldn’t act in the best interest of the fund? I’m not sure why this sort of phrasing is needed. If I’m putting money with an investment management company, I automatically presume I’m investing in people who have the fund in their best interests.

Dividends

Dividends will be paid from earnings accrued from the underlying assets of the fund. Additional dividends might be paid from earnings out of trading activities. A portion of earnings might be reinvested into assets.

Dividends will be paid weekly, usually every Sunday. Additional dividends might be paid at any time if deemed necessary.

Why pay weekly if you’re intention is to be a long term investment vehicle? I'm really just curious if there's any reasoning behind it, as compared to bi-weekly, monthly, etc.

Risk to shareholders

The fund's market cap and NAV rely on the value of the underlying assets and the share price decided upon by the market. If the underlying asset value decreases, the entire fund's market cap and NAV will also decrease. Additional risks to assets include the price of BTC, losses related to trading activities as well as other risks. The fund does not hedge against all of these risks. Each shareholder must understand these risks before investing.

So much for a long term investment…
Are there any strategies you've currently implemented to hedge against at least some risks? If so, what sort of risk management is at work? It's a hard question to answer, but let’s see if you can describe anything other than Sandstorm’s “Simple risk management” phrasing.

Legal aspects

The fund is a virtual identity. As with all digital currency funds and securities, everything is virtual, which to the best of our knowledge is perfectly legal. Please do your homework and read this document thoroughly before investing.

This notion is rapidly changing. Here in the States, I have a feeling the SEC will begin to move against existing virtual securities and adjust the federal regulations accordingly. Germany (and other EU countries) will undoubtedly feel pressure from the US on these matters. As Bitcoin grows, there’s no reason to think regulatory committees won’t start pushing. 

When the time comes, what will you do in the face of regulation? What laws and regulations do you think could apply to your company, and do you feel you can aptly adapt them?

Fund Closure

Management reserves the right to close this fund for any reason giving 30 days’ notice. All assets in the fund, will be liquidated on the respective markets. Distribution to shareholders will be done according to a public, defined timeline and action plan.

Why would the fund ever be closed down? And isn't the object of having multiple partners to limit the chance of this happening?

In any case, I presume by all assets this includes currency holdings (including any company fiat), stocks, bonds, and physical hardware (mining equipment if any)?

--------------------------

Alright! I suppose that’s all I can manage for now, though I do look forward to the responses. To the other posters in this thread, some of you may recognize your questions reworded as to cite examples from the business plan. This wasn't an accident as I noticed Smidge wasn't answering a few questions all that thoroughly. Maybe I’ll somehow be an exception given I was asked to respond?


To: Smidge – Here’s the honest reality check.
You are not experienced in Bitcoin securities trading (based on the information you've provided us).
You are looking for a massive company valuation based on essentially nothing.
You are not trusted (it’s earned over time, not just given out).
You are a new forum member and you are new to Bitcoin overall (so far as I've been able to determine).

Combined together, you’re nearly in the same situation as the Sandstorm security, which seems to be your primary competition (though I’m sure there’s more, and anyone please feel free to enlighten me on this).

That said, why should investors put any money with you over Sandstorm? After all, Sandstorm is at least being actively traded on an exchange (which makes purchases and sales vastly easier overall, even if the IPO was terrible), and its owner currently holds 40% of the total asset. By reading the business plans for each company, the distinction should be obvious, but unfortunately this isn’t something I can say is true.

In the end, no one is perfect and I don't expect them to be. For many people, this is quite a learning experience when starting out (I know it was for me). Let's see if we can work through this!

Thanks for the honest review.

[freedomno1]

It seems my recent postings breaking down and analyzing other up-and-coming funds has garnered a bit of attention, both on and off the forums. Why? I don’t know. I've always assumed I was just asking basic questions, and I don’t consider myself an expert by any means. Regardless of this, it seems quite a few people have found my postings to be helpful.

Your efficient at asking the right questions and making a good effort while pointing out the key-points Korbman.
18RATTT was a redirect to you since I attempted it but was not satisfied with my effort if you got asked by them for a second opinion
I appreciate the good analysis and i'm sure others beside me have noticed the depth of your analyzing to get to the root of the questions.
Freedom

[Smidge]

Hi Korbman,

I hereby want to make an announcement for a new fund by posting the business plan.

Feel free to shoot holes in it as you desire by just replying, but please make sure you read the business plan thoroughly and check out the FAQ on the website www.smidge.com first! ...

To be quite honest with you, your following analysis is what I was looking for when I wrote this.

I've stumbled across this thread before, but I hadn't made a concerted effort to dig into the content.
It seems my recent postings breaking down and analyzing other up-and-coming funds has garnered a bit of attention, both on and off the forums. Why? I don’t know. I've always assumed I was just asking basic questions, and I don’t consider myself an expert by any means. Regardless of this, it seems quite a few people have found my postings to be helpful.

This is why I contacted you. I need reviewers who have been in the game long enough to see a bunch of these ventures come and go, read through this thing word by word and ask basic questions, so that I can improve the venture and myself.

Smidge contacted me directly to ask if I’d take a look at his business plan and to provide honest feedback. What you’ll read below is the result.

And before anyone asks (as I’m sure someone would), no, I did not receive compensation (of any kind) for my efforts, nor do I plan on receiving anything in the future. The questions and comments written below were done on my own accord and represent my opinions.

He speaketh the truth.

I've noticed that Smidge mostly points everyone to look at his business plan and website for answers to various questions. As such, this post will be a breakdown of the plan (aside from basic definitions of phrases on his website, everything just points back to the plan anyway).

Another note on this, I’m focusing my questions just on the business plan for the moment. Questions I've asked may have already been answered or hinted to with the thread, and for that I apologize.

The BP is meant to be the central documentation of what we do. This is why I posted an exact copy of it in my announcement.

By now I’m sure most of you have seen this disclaimer, so I might as well keep with the trend. Yes, this will be an extensive post and I apologize. As a forewarning, my responses may sound rude and/or condescending, but I assure you I don’t mean them that way. I imagine it as if you and I are sitting at a table and I’m asking these questions with more of an upbeat attitude.
Generally speaking, the willingness of the OP to thoroughly answer any and all questions can be indicative of the effort they’re willing to put into their business.

That is what I was asking for, so thank you again.

Business Plan
v0.7b, updated Jul 21st, 2013 by Smidge (www.smidge.com/data/files/smidge.com.business.plan.pdf)

I suppose we’ll start off here. Typical mix-up since they’re similar, but this isn't a business plan, this is a prospectus.

A business plan lays out the goals of the company and how you want to (reasonably) attain them, as well as disclosing the company management structure and the company financials (income/balance/cash flow statements).

A prospectus, on the other hand, is typically used in securities offerings. It provides detailed information about the security that will be offered, tying in details about the company’s current business, financial statements, etc.

They are similar. I still call it BP because ours is currently somewhere inbetween and aims to be a full BP when finished (v1.0). A lot of the detailed data has to be gathered along the first steps that we are currently making.

Purpose

[unneeded marketing jargon]

The purpose of Smidge.Com (“the fund”) is to allow investors to participate, in an overly proportional manner, in a diverse number of assets that exist in the crypto currency space, managed by experienced investors.

Can you describe how your operation is able to invest in an “overly proportional” manner? The phrasing in this situation is a bit unusual…but that may just be discrepancies in language, leading to confusion.

The operation is not investing in an overly proportional manner, please look at the wording carefully. It means our shareholders are participating in an overly proportional manner in the market.

Here is an example: If you'd combine the 20 biggest BTC/LTC securities by market cap and form an index (let's call it BTC-X, which is essentially "the market"), then the performance of BTC-X represents the total performance (or price, depending on setup) of the individual securities that it contains. What we try to do as fund managers is beat "the market" through our expertise in managing the fund's day to day operations and let our shareholders participate. This is what I call "overly proportional" manner, it essentially means beating the market. That is how the benchmarking is done with funds on the financial markets. US fund managers are benchmarked against the DOW, Germans against the DAX etc. Unfortunately, most of them fail (see my previous post about this), which is verifyable. I believe we really need an index like that, it's not more than the combined performance of the x biggest stocks by market cap.

Now if someone starts that index mentioned above, please give me some credit I think it would be the single most important number besides BTC/USD, you can create sub-indices i.e. for mining, plus you can issue put/call options on them etc. But this is not on topic anymore, sorry.

‘Experienced’. I’ve seen that word (and/or its synonyms) pop up a number of times during my reading, yet I haven’t seen any indication of past performance (either here or on your website). In your post history, you've made mention of investing in ASICMiner and some domain names, but not much else than that.

I posted this before, but let me sum it up.

I am actively engaged in investing in virtual currency stocks since April 2013. The first security was bought on 2013-05-24 (verifyable on btct.co). There were a total of 18 BTC invested from my own capital. Please note also that I did not start with the whole 18 BTC that I invested, but gradually fed in further BTC (the last 5 on July 10th). On July 21st (launch of Smidge.Com), I was at 24.7212 BTC that I transferred entirely to the fund (see balance sheet "Week 30"). During last week until Sunday, July 28th, I grew this sum 26.30% (see balance sheet "Week 31").

- Have you run a fund of any kind before?  Is it somewhere documented that we can check out?
Not a public fund, but as I mentioned before, I have been successfully investing in stocks since 2006 for myself and a family fund. It was pretty turbulent at times from 2008 on, as you can imagine. If you have the time, you can check my tweets for hints on what I've invested. I am considered by friends, family and coworkers as an expert in macroeconomics. This passion is also how I got drawn into the current environment

Sources:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2771971#msg2771971
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2788731#msg2788731
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing

The fund holds assets in Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and, to some extent, alternative crypto currencies (Altcoins). The fund may be supplemented by other assets, like hardware (not planned at launch). The Fund's portfolio will be public to show proof of ownership of underlying assets.

Are you considering building out a plan for adding mining hardware in the near future? If so, what hardware would you have in mind?

Not at the moment and yes, the topic is very vaguely described. If a plan for this is ever made, we would launch a new security to distinguish this operation very clearly from the current fund, to not mix things up.

Smidge.Com aims to become the largest BTC investment fund by market capitalization, building trust for investors, start-ups looking for capital and the digital currency community as a whole.

That’s an extremely lofty goal for someone relatively new to the forums and without any provable Bitcoin trading experience prior to starting the fund. I’m not saying it isn't possible; what I am saying is to focus on building a solid foundation for your company first, growth comes later.

That is the goal for the fund's size. It's ambitious, but as you mentioned, not impossible. And I am aware that it might take a long time.

Strategy

The fund will primarily invest in BTC, LTC and, to a certain extent, Altcoin, assets. This is done in order to maximize returns and issue those as dividends to investors on a regular basis.

So, your business strategy is to “invest in securities and make a return”. That is not a strategy, that is a purpose; that’s what your company is supposed to do.

You are correct. The fund's purpose is to generate returns, by applying strategies (listed below). I need to change the wording on that.

The strategy is being executed by applying the expertise of the management team in the fund’s day-to-day operations. Additional activities that are difficult or not at all possible for the small scale investor will include:

-   Participating in bulk offers (auctions) of discounted shares
-   Approaching and participating in start-up operations pre-IPO (as venture capitalist and advisor)
-   Approaching individual shareholders for large, uncomplicated buyouts of private shares at a discount (avoiding auctions)
-   Expand influence in the assets by becoming major shareholders, occupying board seats and other positions with greater influence
-   Investing in direct shares, avoiding fees completely
-   Becoming a trusted entity and a contact point for advice- and capital-seeking start-ups in the crypto currency world

Phew, you are dreaming quite large right now. This list doesn't seem to correlate to any particular strategy since these are just [super] long term goals. I get the feeling you’re planning as if you’re going to get BTC1,000 tomorrow and you’re trying to figure out how to invest it.

Unfortunately for you, I've been in this exact position before. I know that rush when entering the Bitcoin markets; where constraints are loosened and you feel as if you can create anything from the ground and up; to be a part of something still in its infancy and the urge to help it grow.

But I’m here to help provide a reality check. You’re not going to get the funding you’re looking for, and to get even a tenth of that amount would require a substantial amount of time and effort. As you read this (and continue through the other points), my hope is you’ll understand why.

"The strategy is being executed by applying the expertise of the management team in the fund’s day-to-day operations.", which means buying and selling securities. This is the basic strategy of every fund and I won't go into details on that. You can see what we buy and sell in the balance sheet every week. What I listed above are certain additional activities, of which we can perform more the bigger the fund gets. Regarding our current progress that we are making in several areas, I am very confident that we can reach all of our goals. Plus, there are no hard time limits set, yet.

The combination of the fund’s efforts is expected to lead to an asset valuation that, in mid and long term, significantly outperforms the market.

How do you outperform a securities market that has no statistical/averaging data and has only been around for about a year and half? A line must be drawn in order for you to “outperform” it, so where/what is that line?

If you’re referring to the Bitcoin currency market, how do you plan on beating a performance of 1000% (over the past 12 months, and only taking into account last year’s price and today’s price, not the $265 high)?

The fund will initially be launched as “Smidge.Com A”, A hereby classifying the first tranche. Other tranches of the fund might be launched by the management team in the future, classified as “Smidge.Com B”, “Smidge.Com C” etc. with different areas of operation, strategies, assets and/or splitting of shares. Shareholders of the previous tranches will be offered discounted shares in advance. The management team will disclose the processes after successful IPO of “Smidge.Com A” and after new tranches are deemed necessary.

“Might” be launched, or will be launched? I can see the purpose of various tranches over time, but that’s not something to focus on.

"Might be" is exactly what this should mean. We don't know if other securities will be issued under this umbrella, let alone what their focus will be (Mining, etc.). We have laid the groundwork now though, so that we can create new ones without trouble.

And speaking of these tranches…

Structure

The fund is a virtual identity held by investors of Smidge.Com, a company in the course of incorporation [1]. at the time of release of this document.

The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares. Each of the funds’ shares always equals to 1/900,000 [2] of the total profits and voting power of the summed value from both the fund and Smidge.Com.

[1] – How far through the incorporation process are you, and what is your official company name?

There is going to be news on this soon, we are currently still working on the details. The status is still the same as stated in the BP.

[2] – Based on what I've read so far (and what I’ll get into more thoroughly below), each tranche (A, B, C, etc) will have 900,000 shares with it?
Speaking to just the 900,000 in “A”, you've determined that you’ll hold 15% (135,000) of it because…why?

900,000 in "A". As mentioned before, no other details on further tranches are available because none are planned. The details on the 135,000 Smidge.Com shares and issuing of them are currently being worked out, more on that will follow soon.

Tying into this part is:

Raising Expansion Capital & IPO

After accepting pre-IPO investments from individual investors (private offering) for a limited time [1], the fund will be offering shares of stock to the general public through an IPO on one or several virtual security exchanges, as soon as negotiations are concluded [2]. Any listing fees will be paid by the company Smidge.Com, not the fund’s cash reserve or assets.

Details of the “Smidge.Com A” private offering:

-   Number of shares available: 315,000.00
-   Pre-IPO share price: 0.02 BTC [3]
-   Shares can be acquired in packages consisting of 250 shares (5.00 BTC per package)

[1] – Ah, the deadly sin of any up and coming business: making sure the purchases are “limited time” offerings. It’s a fantastic way to look like a Ponzi, or other ill-intentioned scheme, regardless of your intentions. I know the purpose of a private offering in normal fiat markets, but here in Bitcoin they typically don’t bode well. The “Get in Now” attitude has a negative stigma around here.

It is not my fault that in Bitcoin, they don't bode well. It is also not an indication that our offering is one of the schemes listed, although it makes it more likely regarding the environment we are in. It's an honest, professionally operated pre-IPO offering for discounted shares that we planned carefully, not rushing an IPO or any further steps.

[2] – What Exchanges are you looking to host on? I've seen mention of BTCT, but are there others? The problem with not being listed on an Exchange is liquidity. Transferable shares are great if people actually want to buy into your asset, but that takes a substantial established company to make happen (like ASICMiner).

We are still in pre-IPO stage and plan to remain there for a few weeks. We are currently discussing with several exchanges, planning to IPO on several exchanges.

[3] – Good god man, you’re valuating your Smidge “A” shares at BTC18,000 for the 900,000 total shares? Not only that, you've granted yourself BTC2,700 of the total (equaling 135,000 shares) for no other reason than “management”?

To that end, why 315,000 shares? What happened to the remaining 450,000?

You’re sights are set WAY too high (hence why I said “you’re not going to get the funding you’re looking for” above). On top of that, you don’t have anything to back up the valuation.

315,000 (35%) are offered pre-IPO (can be transferred to any exchange we IPO on), the details for the rest are currently being worked out.

In order to participate, please visit the page “SMIDGE.COM A DIRECT SHARES” on www.smidge.com . You can then use the contact form or contact username “Smidge” on bitcointalk.org.

Shares can be transferred owner-to-owner at any time by involving the fund’s management team. For more information, please visit the page “SMIDGE.COM A DIRECT SHARES” on www.smidge.com or PM username “Smidge” on bitcointalk.org.

You seem to be repeating yourself here…

Other than that, for what reason should investors purchase private shares? As a third party, this is incredibly sketchy. You’re asking for us to send money to a privately generated address with the promise of getting some virtual transferable shares (and all completely off an exchange). So if tomorrow you decide to up and leave, that’s it; the coins are gone.

Am I one of the few that sees a problem with this?

You are referring to a general problem in the environment that we are all operating in. I agree that having an exchange inbetween is much less risky for the shareholder, and that is exactly what our next step is. But rushing an IPO is the worst thing you can do to your shareholder's trust, as you have seen in numerous examples before. This is what we are trying to avoid and during this process of preparing a rock solid IPO, we are putting a lot of manual work into providing investors with discounted shares, at the same time increasing the capital we can work with. The amount of shares we will be able to sell with this is extremely small, and we know that. Also, this is not meant to replace an exchange's services or some "cut out the middleman" strategy. We know very well that an exchange provides an invaluable service and we are going to embrace this quite soon.

Management team and personal commitment

Management team currently consists of Smidge as CEO, through whom most of the communication will be done. There are two shareholders of Smidge.Com [1] consulting him in operations and finance, who have access to documents assuring the continuity of the fund in case Smidge catches a cold, gets hit by a bus etc.

Smidge’s ID, E-Mail and phone number have been verified with Mt.Gox [2].

The management team/consultants personally know each other since several years and have worked and invested together on multiple occasions. They are obliged to each other and Smidge.Com through a legal binding contract. [3]

[1] – Any chance of divulging this information, or will they just be silent partners that we’ll never know? If the latter, then what’s the point of revealing this information at all?

As stated, the consultants are two people close to me in real life who chose to be silent partners, as you put it. It's a finance and an operations expert who have access to information on running the fund in case anything happens to me, that I took a long time to collect and write down. The point of revealing this is to show that there is more behind this venture than one single guy, namely several real life partners bound by a contract that have access to redundant information.

[2] – So what? Mt. Gox has absolutely nothing to do with your business. The object here should be to verify your identity with any Exchange operators you’re looking to be hosted on. And if you’re looking for more transparency, then verify with your Investors as well. It makes it easier than doing a WhoIs on your website and tracking names through any social media accounts.

I will provide more verification soon. I am, in several aspects, also verified with WeExchange (pending), burnside and with John K, who I got involved with to resolve the Accountant/Account Manager issue posted before. There will be more information on verfication soon, when the founding of the company is official.

I did not want to hold back all answers for days, so that was the first batch. To be continued...

[Deprived]

I was also PMed and asked to review this.  I haven't as:

1.  I haven't had time,
2.  I regularly get asked to review securities, nearly all of which are either:
 a. Mining operations.
 b. Someone who bought ASICMINER shares, made a profit on it and want to run an investment fund.

Thankfully korbman has stepped in and pointed out the most obvious problems.

I'd like to expand on one of them - the taking of a large chunk of units by the issuer.  The largest problem with this is that if the fund doesn't sell out (and it won't) the management end up holding a disproportionately large portion of the fund.

If the issuer takes 135,000 units (shares) and only sells another 62,500 then he ends up owning two thirds of the funds - meaning all investors have immediately taken a 67% loss in their capital value.  And if he then closes teh fund he gets 2/3 of all investment for doing absolutely nothing.

Using shares as a means to take a management fee is horrible practice for the above as well as other reasons.  I run a fund myself - here's how I do it:

1.  The fund begain with assets I transferred in - as it happens it was just BTC, LTC and some ASICMINER shares (this was back when they were .1 each nearly a year ago).
2.  Initial shares were sold at a fixed price - I started with a number equal to the value of the assets i transferred in - so I basically bought them at the same price as anyone else (but was able to pay with securities I held - this was necessary to remove any conflict of interest if I continued managing my own investments in parallel).
3.  My management fee is a percentage of profits.  Not received dividends or any crap like that - but actual profits.  Meaning growth above the previous High-water mark.
4.  I take my fee in units at the current NAV/U.

That allows me to expand my holdings - and at a preferential price - but without EVER diminishing the NAV/U of the holdings of existing investors.  Immediately after people bought in, each unit of theirs was backed by assets roughly equal to the price they paid (slightly less due to transaction fees on the exchange).

If you have confidence in your ability to make a profit then a structure like that is both fair to investors AND offers you a chance to make a very decent management fee.  Not only do you get the headline rate - but by taking it in units at NAV/U you additionally gain from any premium the market places on them.

Of course if you don't make a profit you get absolutely zero.  And that's how it should be when you haven't demonstrated significant experience, aren't regulated or insured etc.

[Smidge]

I was also PMed and asked to review this.  I haven't as:

1.  I haven't had time,
2.  I regularly get asked to review securities, nearly all of which are either:
 a. Mining operations.
 b. Someone who bought ASICMINER shares, made a profit on it and want to run an investment fund.

Thankfully korbman has stepped in and pointed out the most obvious problems.

I'd like to expand on one of them - the taking of a large chunk of units by the issuer.  The largest problem with this is that if the fund doesn't sell out (and it won't) the management end up holding a disproportionately large portion of the fund.

If the issuer takes 135,000 units (shares) and only sells another 62,500 then he ends up owning two thirds of the funds - meaning all investors have immediately taken a 67% loss in their capital value.  And if he then closes teh fund he gets 2/3 of all investment for doing absolutely nothing.

Using shares as a means to take a management fee is horrible practice for the above as well as other reasons.  I run a fund myself - here's how I do it:

1.  The fund begain with assets I transferred in - as it happens it was just BTC, LTC and some ASICMINER shares (this was back when they were .1 each nearly a year ago).
2.  Initial shares were sold at a fixed price - I started with a number equal to the value of the assets i transferred in - so I basically bought them at the same price as anyone else (but was able to pay with securities I held - this was necessary to remove any conflict of interest if I continued managing my own investments in parallel).
3.  My management fee is a percentage of profits.  Not received dividends or any crap like that - but actual profits.  Meaning growth above the previous High-water mark.
4.  I take my fee in units at the current NAV/U.

That allows me to expand my holdings - and at a preferential price - but without EVER diminishing the NAV/U of the holdings of existing investors.  Immediately after people bought in, each unit of theirs was backed by assets roughly equal to the price they paid (slightly less due to transaction fees on the exchange).

If you have confidence in your ability to make a profit then a structure like that is both fair to investors AND offers you a chance to make a very decent management fee.  Not only do you get the headline rate - but by taking it in units at NAV/U you additionally gain from any premium the market places on them.

Of course if you don't make a profit you get absolutely zero.  And that's how it should be when you haven't demonstrated significant experience, aren't regulated or insured etc.

Hi Deprived,

Thanks a lot for taking the time to look at this, although very briefly. I understand the issue that you and Korbman raised, but please both consider that none of the 135.000 shares have been issued. The only thing that is being put out there is the pre-IPO shares. This is done intentionally, as we are working on the share structure and other details, also involving exchanges. There is no dilution of profits whatsoever, plus it is not possible to close the fund and take a majority share.

[John (John K.)]

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Thank you,
John
30 July 2013
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PS: Quoted by request.

- What is your current day job?  How long have you worked there?

I work full-time as Key Account Manager in the B2B space since 2010.

[coco23]

Hi,
I haven't read your business plan nor I'm interested in investing, just wanted to comment on this:

I posted this before, but let me sum it up.

I am actively engaged in investing in virtual currency stocks since April 2013. The first security was bought on 2013-05-24 (verifyable on btct.co). There were a total of 18 BTC invested from my own capital. Please note also that I did not start with the whole 18 BTC that I invested, but gradually fed in further BTC (the last 5 on July 10th). On July 21st (launch of Smidge.Com), I was at 24.7212 BTC that I transferred entirely to the fund (see balance sheet "Week 30"). During last week until Sunday, July 28th, I grew this sum 26.30% (see balance sheet "Week 31").

So you were trading from end of May to end of July and you made 26.3%

Unfortunately coinflow.co seems to be down, so I can't access the long term charts, BUT:
In this period of time almost everything went up on Btct.co. The most traded securities like Asicminer (from ~2.5 to now over 4), Basic (should be >+500%) or Cognitive (more than doubled) all increased significantly.

I don't want to question that you might have experience from somewhere else, but I don't see the 26.3% in this time as a good achievement or as a proof of experience.

[Smidge]

Hi,
I haven't read your business plan nor I'm interested in investing, just wanted to comment on this:

I posted this before, but let me sum it up.

I am actively engaged in investing in virtual currency stocks since April 2013. The first security was bought on 2013-05-24 (verifyable on btct.co). There were a total of 18 BTC invested from my own capital. Please note also that I did not start with the whole 18 BTC that I invested, but gradually fed in further BTC (the last 5 on July 10th). On July 21st (launch of Smidge.Com), I was at 24.7212 BTC that I transferred entirely to the fund (see balance sheet "Week 30"). During last week until Sunday, July 28th, I grew this sum 26.30% (see balance sheet "Week 31").

So you were trading from end of May to end of July and you made 26.3%

Unfortunately coinflow.co seems to be down, so I can't access the long term charts, BUT:
In this period of time almost everything went up on Btct.co. The most traded securities like Asicminer (from ~2.5 to now over 4), Basic (should be >+500%) or Cognitive (more than doubled) all increased significantly.

I don't want to question that you might have experience from somewhere else, but I don't see the 26.3% in this time as a good achievement or as a proof of experience.

Hi coco23,

Can you please go through your numbers again? Because your conclusion and statement make no sense, which is because you didn't read what I posted (but quoted it).

[coco23]

Hi coco23,

Can you please go through your numbers again? Because your conclusion and statement make no sense, which is because you didn't read what I posted (but quoted it).

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.
You posted the performance of your funds that far (the 26.3% in 2 months) as an indicator for your experience in the reply to Korbman above.

And I say that such a performance wasn't difficult to achieve given the bull market on Btct in the last months.

Hence your performance is no indicator for how good or experienced you are. Not to mention that a timeframe of 2 months is too short for such conclusions anyway.

Just wanted to point that out. There is no central index (like Dow Jones or similar) we could compare your performance with and many newbies might invest money just because of your past performance.

[Smidge]

You posted the performance of your funds that far (the 26.3% in 2 months) as an indicator for your experience in the reply to Korbman above.

... During last week until Sunday, July 28th, I grew this sum 26.30% ...

I grew the fund by 26.30% in one week (last week to be precise). Is this particular fact unclear to anyone else?

Edit: The performance since 2013-05-24 until last week is explained in the post above.

[coco23]

You posted the performance of your funds that far (the 26.3% in 2 months) as an indicator for your experience in the reply to Korbman above.

... During last week until Sunday, July 28th, I grew this sum 26.30% ...

I grew the fund by 26.30% in one week (last week to be precise). Is this particular fact unclear to anyone else?

Edit: The performance since 2013-05-24 until last week is explained in the post above.

Thanks for the clarification, I got confused with your numbers. Nvm, my bad.

So your experience (apart from real stocks markets) is basically 2 months investing on Btct. Then your funds was founded last week and I'd say you had an excellent week since then.

Still this is no proof of experience. All the best for you and your funds, but I'd definitely suggest for interested investors to follow this for a few weeks before investing.

[Smidge]

You posted the performance of your funds that far (the 26.3% in 2 months) as an indicator for your experience in the reply to Korbman above.

... During last week until Sunday, July 28th, I grew this sum 26.30% ...

I grew the fund by 26.30% in one week (last week to be precise). Is this particular fact unclear to anyone else?

Edit: The performance since 2013-05-24 until last week is explained in the post above.

Thanks for the clarification, I got confused with your numbers. Nvm, my bad.

So your experience (apart from real stocks markets) is basically 2 months investing on Btct. Then your funds was founded last week and I'd say you had an excellent week since then.

Still this is no proof of experience. All the best for you and your funds, but I'd definitely suggest for interested investors to follow this for a few weeks before investing.

Hi coco23,

No problem. Anyone investing in these kind of securities should do their own due diligence, if anyone wants a documented 12 months of performance, then I cannot deliver this and they definitely shouldn't invest. What I can deliver though is describing how my investment history looks like (digital currencies and previous investments) and delivering sophisticated weekly balance sheets that prove my expertise.

There are other ventures out there who promise hopes and dreams, then rush an IPO within a few days and fail. This is not my approach with Smidge.Com. My job is to deliver a green number for investors regularly and plan any next steps carefully as we go along.

[Smidge]

Part II:

The management team transferred an initial investment of 24.6349 BTC [1] into the fund on July 21st, 2013. These assets, as well as any profits generated through them, will be part of the fund at its announcement date (July 21st, 2013). More physical and virtual assets (BTC, LTC, Altcoins, mining equipment…) are planned to be brought into the fund or it’s tranches at a later time as donation [2], for additional value without dilution of existing shares.

[1] – Just so I have this straight, you and your team have committed nearly BTC25 to your company, yet you've granted yourself a BTC2,700 holding out of your proposed market cap of BTC18,000 with no existing revenue streams? As some internet users would say, “lolwut?”.

As stated, none of these shares have been issued. The only thing that is being put out there is the pre-IPO shares. This is done intentionally, as we are working on the share structure and other details, also involving exchanges. There is no dilution of profits whatsoever, plus it is not possible to close the fund and take a majority share.

[2] – I’m not sure how this makes any sense. You’re going to conjure assets from somewhere, and then just give them to your fund as a “donation”?
In short, don’t do this. Keep your company holdings and financials separate from your own, because if the time comes to cash out, there will be nothing but trouble as you go “oh, I let my company use my shares and my mining equipment, so I’ll take them back now”.

I transferred ALL my coins into the fund. I acquired about 5 BTC after that as my private coins that I use to buy stuff. This is to demonstrate that I am "All In" on this venture and have a personal commitment.

Transparency

The fund seeks maximum transparency by

-   fully disclosing all assets held in the fund regularly
-   disclosing all dividends accrued and paid
-   disclosing all management fees
-   operating a website at www.smidge.com for public information

This is a start, but certainly not enough.
We know nothing about you and your history, and before April 2013 you didn't exist. There’s more to transparency than disclosing what you invest in. There’s the matter of management biographies, company financial statements, risk management strategies, and the like.

I cannot change that. But I can tell everyone that my Key Performance Indicator is this balance sheet, which has developed very well:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing

Underlying assets of the fund

The management team will buy and sell previously mentioned asset classes in the best interest of the fund in its day-to-day operations in order to maximize returns. Shareholders can bring forward motions to add or remove assets to or from the fund at any time.

As if you wouldn’t act in the best interest of the fund? I’m not sure why this sort of phrasing is needed. If I’m putting money with an investment management company, I automatically presume I’m investing in people who have the fund in their best interests.

Just to make it crystal clear. Please remember that not everyone is an expert in this field and you need some basic explanations in between.

Dividends

Dividends will be paid from earnings accrued from the underlying assets of the fund. Additional dividends might be paid from earnings out of trading activities. A portion of earnings might be reinvested into assets.

Dividends will be paid weekly, usually every Sunday. Additional dividends might be paid at any time if deemed necessary.

Why pay weekly if you’re intention is to be a long term investment vehicle? I'm really just curious if there's any reasoning behind it, as compared to bi-weekly, monthly, etc.

It is important for many investors that regular returns come in, bi-weekly or monthly is just too slow for the environment we are operating in. I think every shareholder agrees that they want their returns asap.

Risk to shareholders

The fund's market cap and NAV rely on the value of the underlying assets and the share price decided upon by the market. If the underlying asset value decreases, the entire fund's market cap and NAV will also decrease. Additional risks to assets include the price of BTC, losses related to trading activities as well as other risks. The fund does not hedge against all of these risks. Each shareholder must understand these risks before investing.

So much for a long term investment…
Are there any strategies you've currently implemented to hedge against at least some risks? If so, what sort of risk management is at work? It's a hard question to answer, but let’s see if you can describe anything other than Sandstorm’s “Simple risk management” phrasing.

First of all, you cannot hedge against any risk and circumstance. If the market goes down, your NAV goes down, except you hedge 1:1 on every trade you make, which in turn minimizes your profits. A lot of the risk management lies in the trading strategies that are being applied, which are highly proprietary to every fund manager. Diversification and close observation of the market and it's securities is a key element aswell. By combining all this, you can manage a large size fund with not a risk-less, but with a healthy risk/reward ratio.

Legal aspects

The fund is a virtual identity. As with all digital currency funds and securities, everything is virtual, which to the best of our knowledge is perfectly legal. Please do your homework and read this document thoroughly before investing.

This notion is rapidly changing. Here in the States, I have a feeling the SEC will begin to move against existing virtual securities and adjust the federal regulations accordingly. Germany (and other EU countries) will undoubtedly feel pressure from the US on these matters. As Bitcoin grows, there’s no reason to think regulatory committees won’t start pushing.  

When the time comes, what will you do in the face of regulation? What laws and regulations do you think could apply to your company, and do you feel you can aptly adapt them?

We are currently in the process of incorporation. I know its an issue, more on that will be posted very soon.

Fund Closure

Management reserves the right to close this fund for any reason giving 30 days’ notice. All assets in the fund, will be liquidated on the respective markets. Distribution to shareholders will be done according to a public, defined timeline and action plan.

Why would the fund ever be closed down? And isn't the object of having multiple partners to limit the chance of this happening?

In any case, I presume by all assets this includes currency holdings (including any company fiat), stocks, bonds, and physical hardware (mining equipment if any)?

The closure statement is in there because it is expected, just like in any other BP/prospectus. People want to know what exactly happens with their investment in case of failure. "Assets" includes any asset that the fund holds, both physical and virtual.

--------------------------

Alright! I suppose that’s all I can manage for now, though I do look forward to the responses. To the other posters in this thread, some of you may recognize your questions reworded as to cite examples from the business plan. This wasn't an accident as I noticed Smidge wasn't answering a few questions all that thoroughly. Maybe I’ll somehow be an exception given I was asked to respond?


To: Smidge – Here’s the honest reality check.
You are not experienced in Bitcoin securities trading (based on the information you've provided us).

As stated before, everyone needs to do their own due diligence. My job is maximizing earnings for the shareholders with financial instruments, with which I have over 7 years of experience. Everyone can see the performance weekly in the balance sheets.

You are looking for a massive company valuation based on essentially nothing.

That is not entirely correct. We are looking for high investments in order to maximize effectiveness and do things that smaller funds cannot (listed above). The size is planned to gradually increase, nothing is being rushed.

You are not trusted (it’s earned over time, not just given out).

It's earned over time, as you stated. I am working on it and everyone must decide for themselves.

You are a new forum member and you are new to Bitcoin overall (so far as I've been able to determine).

I've been involved and lurking since quite some time (which I cannot prove), but registered since April (which I can prove) and trading since May with great results.

Combined together, you’re nearly in the same situation as the Sandstorm security, which seems to be your primary competition (though I’m sure there’s more, and anyone please feel free to enlighten me on this).

I don't see SDSTM as competition, just as any other fund. They are just serving the same market and I am open to any discussion and best practice sharing with them.

That said, why should investors put any money with you over Sandstorm? After all, Sandstorm is at least being actively traded on an exchange (which makes purchases and sales vastly easier overall, even if the IPO was terrible), and its owner currently holds 40% of the total asset. By reading the business plans for each company, the distinction should be obvious, but unfortunately this isn’t something I can say is true.

Of course they are listed, but I don't want to repeat what happened to them, that is why Smidge.Com will be very carefully preparing this.
... and you are complaining about Smidge.Com holding 15%?

In the end, no one is perfect and I don't expect them to be. For many people, this is quite a learning experience when starting out (I know it was for me). Let's see if we can work through this!

+1!
I hope we can soon agree that we were off to a good start (which we are!) and have developed in a professional way, preparing every next move carefully to maximize our own and our shareholder's success.

With that said, my Key Performance Indicator is and will always be this:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing

Edited for spelling and grammar.

[Smidge]

Over the last weeks, I have been engaged in countless conversations, getting a lot of input from the community. I wrote a few things down that should not be included in a weekly update or business plan. It should provide some insight into the thinking and with which mindset/philosophy we are currently operating:

Sorry for it being unstructured, it is just a brainstorm type of list:

• Purchasing shares of the fund is completely free of charge, meaning 100% of your investment "gets to work" immediately. You won't have to sit and wait to (eventually) break even for a few weeks before getting net ROI on your investment. As investors, we understand this dilemma and chose to eliminate it
• We will not increase the number of shares (diluting existing shares and affecting voting control), ever. we would rather launch a new security, as stated in the BP
• Owners of shares will always be free to bring forward motions to decide upon structure of the fund and it's holdings (Smidge.Com will not even own the majority of this type of shares, but rather a small portion, as stated in the BP)
• Owners of private shares can choose to have their shares transferred to them on any exchange that lists us in the future
• We are not rushing an IPO or any other measures, but are slowly building up the necessary structures in order for things to go smoothly
• We are not speculators, we are investors. we do not trade the assets frequently, sitting in front of the screen waiting for them to move a point or two
• The mission is to identify people, concepts and/or securities with potential in the long run. This may incur lower performance in the short term that we try to average out
• We don’t pour money into hot markets nor completely cash out of falling markets
• We do not invest in overheated assets at a late stage. Good news and rising stock prices should be the result of a security's owner applying a good long term strategy. We invest in those as early as possible
• We invest certain sums regularly, in rising and in falling securities. We know that trying to hit market tops and bottoms is speculation, not investing. We do not gamble with shareholder's assets
• We do not day trade shares of long term investments, which the majority of the fund consists of
• We are not promising guarateed amounts of dividends
• We display the key figures in the balance sheet after deducting the management fee, to give you a realistic impression of the numbers
• We stick with our game plan by keeping close contact to our investment's management and keep our cool when others are losing theirs
• We realize that our shareholders do not want a speculator, acting upon a fixed set of rules/algorithms or even worse, his or her daily mood. We realize that success is always a moving target, the mission is to adapt to new situations and navigate the fund based on a healthy risk/reward ratio
• The fund should not be regarded as an object of speculation, although the road may be bumpy during launch/IPO etc. The fund should be part of every portfolio as stability component, enabling more freedom for your other investments

[davos]

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Thank you,
John
30 July 2013
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PS: Quoted by request.

- What is your current day job?  How long have you worked there?

I work full-time as Key Account Manager in the B2B space since 2010.

Seeing as you're not a CFA or at least have made no claim to being an otherwise qualified investment manager or securities analyst... I'm not entirely sure what this information is meant to elucidate. I'm not saying that fiat qualifications can or should be required to manage investments in cryptomarkets. If your profession is at all pertinent to this asset, I'd be curious to know how.

[xaviarlol]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I confirm that I have received a single page (page 1) of an employment contract (with the job title listed as 'Key Account Manager B2B' addressed to Alex Metz. Please note that I am not a professional nor trained in verifying documents given, so I cannot guarantee that they're 100% authentic or came from the original owner.

Thank you,
John
30 July 2013
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PS: Quoted by request.

- What is your current day job?  How long have you worked there?

I work full-time as Key Account Manager in the B2B space since 2010.

Seeing as you're not a CFA or at least have made no claim to being an otherwise qualified investment manager or securities analyst... I'm not entirely sure what this information is meant to elucidate. I'm not saying that fiat qualifications can or should be required to manage investments in cryptomarkets. If your profession is at all pertinent to this asset, I'd be curious to know how.

+1

I don't see the relation between a "key account manager" and running an investment fund. From what I understand, an account manager simply manages relations with a customer/vendor. It has nothing to do with financials and investment, unless its a fund account manager, which smidge said it was not.

[Smidge]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

I confirm that I have received a single page (page 1) of an employment contract (with the job title listed as 'Key Account Manager B2B' addressed to Alex Metz. Please note that I am not a professional nor trained in verifying documents given, so I cannot guarantee that they're 100% authentic or came from the original owner.

Thank you,
John
30 July 2013
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PS: Quoted by request.

- What is your current day job?  How long have you worked there?

I work full-time as Key Account Manager in the B2B space since 2010.

Seeing as you're not a CFA or at least have made no claim to being an otherwise qualified investment manager or securities analyst... I'm not entirely sure what this information is meant to elucidate. I'm not saying that fiat qualifications can or should be required to manage investments in cryptomarkets. If your profession is at all pertinent to this asset, I'd be curious to know how.

+1

I don't see the relation between a "key account manager" and running an investment fund. From what I understand, an account manager simply manages relations with a customer/vendor. It has nothing to do with financials and investment, unless its a fund account manager, which smidge said it was not.

The official confirmation from John K was not to prove that I have any official or certified competence to run an investment fund. It was simply to prove that I did not change my job description from Accountant into Account Manager, as previously claimed.

[bbxx]

24 btc invested, going to get 18.000 btc
Account registered after 04.2013

Can you provide any details about your team?
How old are you and do you have any knowledge about TA and markets in general?
Are you ready to public irc session where people can test you?
Ask about for example candle or triangle.


Day trading with few btc is easy, you can scalp some coins on spread...

Trading and investing 18000 btc is completly different story.

You are proud of 26% but it is done on funny volume.

When you are going to fund your efforts with investor money? 300 000 usd...

Can you provide community any evidence that you are worth this salary,
F.e. Posts on trusted forums, high quality blog posts, emails or anything....?

Why you are all in with ltc security, one only?
Rest of assets is not worth to mention, few btc here and there...
How much you got on labcoin yesterday? Did you sold in right time?
Have you put any option on btct ever?
Did you cashed out in right time of any ipo? Can you provide evidence of this ?

Most important questions:
Who will trade when you will have day off or go to the bar?
Do you have any experience with bot trading ? Both sides.
Are you using api and software with stop loss functionality?

[Smidge]

Hi bbxx,

24 btc invested, going to get 18.000 btc
Account registered after 04.2013

Can you provide any details about your team?
How old are you and do you have any knowledge about TA and markets in general?
Are you ready to public irc session where people can test you?
Ask about for example candle or triangle.

Day trading with few btc is easy, you can scalp some coins on spread...

I don't gamble with shareholder's funds. I am not sure if you read the previous posts, but I advise you to do so again. Knowledge, team and everything is in there.

Trading and investing 18000 btc is completly different story.

You are proud of 26% but it is done on funny volume.

That is correct, but that were the prerequisites and I made the very best out of it in one week.

When you are going to fund your efforts with investor money? 300 000 usd...

Can you provide community any evidence that you are worth this salary,
F.e. Posts on trusted forums, high quality blog posts, emails or anything....?

I put all I have into this fund as starting captial to show my personal commitment. Also, the complete management fee was reinvested last week and I plan on doing so this week aswell. As for my history, it has been answered multiple times aswell.

Why you are all in with ltc security, one only?
Rest of assets is not worth to mention, few btc here and there...
How much you got on labcoin yesterday? Did you sold in right time?
Have you put any option on btct ever?
Did you cashed out in right time of any ipo? Can you provide evidence of this ?

The deal with Ciphermine gives us high exposure to one security, as it seems. This will be evened out in the next weeks as more capital comes into the fund and we diversify further.
I was watching Labcoin pretty closely in advance, as you can also see in the documented IRC chat. The initial order was calculated based on the number of overbooked shares in order to get exactly the number of shares I aimed for. After IPO, I cashed out at .003 and .0025 to get the original investment+x back. I still got 3.500 shares as long term investment. More on that in Sunday's report.

Most important questions:
Who will trade when you will have day off or go to the bar?
Do you have any experience with bot trading ? Both sides.
Are you using api and software with stop loss functionality?

I answered this multiple times. Please read up on it, especially the questions posted by Korbman. And again, I don't day trade and I don't do automated trading aswell.

[bbxx]

Ok i read all your posts in this topic. I will post questions with numbers.

1.
Can you provide any details about your team?
I know only about 2 anonymous shareholders with no backround info.

2. How old are you ?
Missing

3. do you have any knowledge about TA and markets in general?
Couldnt find exact answer, maybe yes yes.

4. Are you ready to public irc session where people can test you?
Missing

5. When you are going to fund your efforts with investor money? 300 000 usd...
Your anwer is... Commitment of 34 btc? Come on...

5.Can you provide community any evidence that you are worth this salary,
F.e. Posts on trusted forums, high quality blog posts, emails or anything....?
Missing, no links no references, no quality content provided

6. Why you are all in with ltc security, one only?
Ok so you will not change that in close future...
Rest of assets is not worth to mention, few btc here and there...

7. How much you got on labcoin yesterday? Did you sold in right time?
Well done but very small commitment

8. Have you put any option on btct ever?
Missing, probably none.

9. Who will trade when you will have day off or go to the bar?
Missing exact answer

10. Do you have any experience with bot trading ? Both sides.
Ok so none.
 
11. Are you using api and software with stop loss functionality?
You dont.

Please dont say that you have answered already all questions it is not true. Look how much answers are missing. Dont mix day trading with gamble, to hold such huge wallet you have to know how to trade dynamically to not be caught with pants down. You have to be commited 24h/day. You have to know market, wchich bids/asks are made by bot, when they appear and why, and most important how to get advantage of that. You have to know then take options, when wrote it and why.

I would pay for  transparent team commited to follow market 24h/day, analyse reddit bctalk and do all above.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

What a week! The market was in constant, mainly downward motion, with several IPOs and significant numbers of coins moving between assets, causing quite a few ripples. We managed to finish strong however, increasing NAV by 5.37% and fund size by 17.06%. NAV per share is also up to 0.02541 (we are currently selling at 0.02). While having to build up a few assets from our six-fold increase last week, we managed to get some interesting purchase prices during this week. This should unfold and help increase our NAV as we move forward.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• The initial order for Labcoin was calculated based on the number of overbooked shares to get the exact number of shares we aimed for. After IPO, we cashed out at .003 and .0025 to get the original investment back. We still have 3.500 shares in our books as long term investment
• Ciphermine's share price has slightly recovered due to good news, but LTC/BTC was not helping
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like last week
• Please note that dividends per share are still quite low and will be reinvested, this is due to the reason that we did not invest all of the additional coins. We will not invest in just anything because excess coins are available
• Received 0.01678207 BTC in tips

On another note, I invested 0.5 BTC from my own pocket for a verification from John K (more info further up in this thread). I gave those to Smidge.Com at no cost, as promised in the BP for all fees of this type.

Starting next week, I will be making performance comparisions with the first data sets generated by DCX at http://dcx.smidge.com
DCX is an attempt at creating a reference index, more at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=267351

Again, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received. As an investor, I know very well that new assets are not easily trusted. I hope to be able to welcome more investors on board soon!

Edit: Spelling and grammar.

[Smidge]

Ok i read all your posts in this topic. I will post questions with numbers.

Hi bbxx,

Thanks for your questions. I have been busy yesterday doing the weekly numbers and working on some issues at the DCX index.

1.
Can you provide any details about your team?
I know only about 2 anonymous shareholders with no backround info.

Exactly, there are two consultants and there is of course a dead man switch. This is all the info that is being disclosed, as stated in the BP: "There are two shareholders of Smidge.Com consulting him in operations and finance, who have access to documents assuring the continuity of the fund in case Smidge catches a cold, gets hit by a bus etc."

2. How old are you ?
Missing

I am 35 and I've been online building websites and being on IRC since the mid-90s. More background info here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2788731#msg2788731

3. do you have any knowledge about TA and markets in general?
Couldnt find exact answer, maybe yes yes.

Both, yes. I've been investing in stocks since 2006 and have quite some knowledge about TA and markets. I am considered by friends, family and coworkers as an expert in macroeconomics.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2771971#msg2771971
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2788731#msg2788731

4. Are you ready to public irc session where people can test you?
Missing

Sure, why not? I am online in #bitcoin-assets and #bitfunder all the time, just msg me.

5. When you are going to fund your efforts with investor money? 300 000 usd...
Your anwer is... Commitment of 34 btc? Come on...

I am not sure I understand the question, but I think you are referring to the total NAV of the fund being much greater than my initial investment. The 900k shares are the max size of the fund, when IPOs have been done on multiple exchanges. This is pretty far down the road, we started with 315k shares as a private offering. None of those shares are owned privately, this will be post-IPO only. The funds I put in are all of the funds I had, plus I have reinvested the management fee the 3rd week in a row. There is a lot of people asking for millions and putting up hopes and dreams. I am personally invested with all my capital, plus I have pretty good results to show:

Last week's Report:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2818051#msg2818051
This week's report:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=259772.msg2863491#msg2863491

Another fund that is already post IPO is down more than 23% this week...

5.Can you provide community any evidence that you are worth this salary,
F.e. Posts on trusted forums, high quality blog posts, emails or anything....?
Missing, no links no references, no quality content provided

This is actually question 6. Yes I can, by managing the fund in the way I currently do and showing the best results I can, as you can see in the fund's performance. I also launched a community project called DCX (Digital Currency Index) at http://dcx.smidge.com that is non-profit and attempts to create a reference index. Plus, I am currently taking no salary because the management fee has been invested for the 3rd week in a row.

6. Why you are all in with ltc security, one only?
Ok so you will not change that in close future...
Rest of assets is not worth to mention, few btc here and there...

CIPHERMINE was a big deal for a small fund, I agree. But with new investors coming on board daily and an IPO, its total share will dilute to a point where it is much less significant. Also, CIPHERMINE has a great management team that I know personally and they will have some great news coming up as we move forward.

7. How much you got on labcoin yesterday? Did you sold in right time?
Well done but very small commitment

Of course it is a small commitment. I don't gamble with shareholder money.

8. Have you put any option on btct ever?
Missing, probably none.

None.

9. Who will trade when you will have day off or go to the bar?
Missing exact answer

Answered in your question 1 above.

10. Do you have any experience with bot trading ? Both sides.
Ok so none.

No, I am not interested in day trading/bot trading as stated before.

11. Are you using api and software with stop loss functionality?
You dont.

I don't. I spend as much time as I can monitoring the markets and making decisions myself, not trying to automate them. A (large) fund needs an experienced navigator, not an automated system acting upon a fixed set of rules.

Please dont say that you have answered already all questions it is not true. Look how much answers are missing. Dont mix day trading with gamble, to hold such huge wallet you have to know how to trade dynamically to not be caught with pants down. You have to be commited 24h/day. You have to know market, wchich bids/asks are made by bot, when they appear and why, and most important how to get advantage of that. You have to know then take options, when wrote it and why.

I would pay for  transparent team commited to follow market 24h/day, analyse reddit bctalk and do all above.

Thanks a lot for your questions. If my commitment or my results are not good enough, then please don't invest. My job is to post a green number every week, period. I try to live up to that every day and do some interesting projects for the community on the side. Please check out http://dcx.smidge.com and give me your input if you have some time.

Cheers,
Smidge

[Smidge]

DCX and Smidge.Com A

I would like to clarify that Smidge.Com A is not an ETF on the DCX index and does not map or try to map its performance in any way.

• DCX is a reference index that displays the performance of the securities with the highest market cap, to provide an indication of "The Market"
• Smidge.Com A is a fund that I actively manage myself, that invests into a broad range of securities and aims to beat "The Market"

[Smidge]

Because of IPO processes starting very soon in the background, the offering of discounted private shares will be halted during Saturday, Aug 10th.

http://www.smidge.com/?page_id=42

Private shares can be transferred to shareholder's accounts at any time. This will work on all exchanges we are listed on, by just e-mailing us with the request + account name + your personal PIN. Please use the contact form on smidge.com after IPO to start the process. We will then transfer the shares to your account.

[davos]

Dcx is interesting. I've been tracking similar information privately for a while. For an index to be useful some information on the criteria need to be known. Failing to include MPOE, for example, strikes me as seriously suspect. It has multiples of the market cap of most of the others in your index.

[Smidge]

Quick update on IPO processes for "Smidge.Com A":

• "SMIDGE.COM-A" is now admin unlocked on btct.co! I will move it to "awaiting approval" (voting) today or latest tomorrow
• "SMIDGE" is now setup on Havelock, IPO will be announced soon
• Bitfunder setup is still in the works

The size of the fund has meanwhile grown to 302.8375 BTC since last Sunday, through sale of private shares. More on that in Sunday's report.

[alexius89]

I guess Voting takes about a week on btct so maybe you should unlock it as soon as possible.

Best
Alex

[Smidge]

Update 13:23 CET:

• Asset has been unlocked for voting on btct.co!
• Bitfunder setup is now ongoing

[Smidge]

Update 21:37 CET:

Here is the current IPO status.

Exchange	Ticker Symbol	Shares (free float)	IPO date
btct.co	SMIDGE.COM-A	340,000.00	tbd
bitfunder.com	Smidge.xxx (tbd)	212,500.00	Sun, Aug 11th 1am CET (7pm EST)
havelockinvestments.com	SMIDGE	212,500.00	Wed, Aug 14th 8pm CET (2pm EST)

Some exchanges will start offering the shares later than others, but we are working on syncing the IPO end dates so that free trading begins at the same time (more or less).

[Smidge]

Havelock Investments

Announcing the upcoming public offering for Smidge.Com A (SMIDGE)

On Wednesday, August 14th, 2013 at 2:00PM (EST), a public offering will open for Smidge.Com A
Total Units: 212500
Maximum Units Per User: 150000
Price: 0.03BTC/unit
Fund Overview: https://www.havelockinvestments.com/fund.php?symbol=SMIDGE

The purpose of "Smidge.Com A" (the fund) is to allow investors to participate, in an overly proportional manner, in a diverse number of assets that exist in the crypto currency space, managed by experienced investors.

The fund holds assets in Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC) and, to some extent, alternative crypto currencies (Altcoins). The fund is intended for mid- and long term investors looking to create value for their investments and maximize returns in the long term by leveraging the experience of the management team, its strategies and the size of the fund. It should also be a stability component of your portfolio, enabling more freedom in handling your other investments.

Smidge.Com aims to become the largest BTC investment fund by market capitalization, building trust for investors, start-ups looking for capital and the digital currency community as a whole.

The funds structure is very transparent, there are no other fees besides a management fee on actual earnings, which means 100% of your coins generate ROI from the moment they are invested. There are weekly status updates and a balance sheet that is always available at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing

Please refer to http://www.smidge.com for the full business plan and make sure to read all documents thoroughly before investing.

Thank you for investing with Havelock Investments!
https://www.havelockinvestments.com

[dexX7]

Do you plan to release 340k shares on BTC-TC, 212.5k shares on BF and 212.5k shares on HL for a price of 0.03 BTC/share immediately and all at once or do plan to release them in smaller batches?

[Smidge]

Do you plan to release 340k shares on BTC-TC, 212.5k shares on BF and 212.5k shares on HL for a price of 0.03 BTC/share immediately and all at once or do plan to release them in smaller batches?

Hi dexX7,

All will be released at once when the IPO phase starts. Should there be shares left at the end of the IPO phase, they will be withdrawn.

[alexius89]

looking forward to a good IPO

Good Luck everybody.

[felente]

Do you plan to release 340k shares on BTC-TC, 212.5k shares on BF and 212.5k shares on HL for a price of 0.03 BTC/share immediately and all at once or do plan to release them in smaller batches?

Hi dexX7,

All will be released at once when the IPO phase starts. Should there be shares left at the end of the IPO phase, those will be withdrawn.

withdrawn? then?
not just withdrawn, right?

[mrtchipr]

Update 21:37 CET:

Here is the current IPO status.

Exchange	Ticker Symbol	Shares (free float)	IPO date
btct.co	SMIDGE.COM-A	340,000.00	tbd
bitfunder.com	Smidge.xxx (tbd)	212,500.00	Sun, Aug 11th 1am CET (7pm EST)
havelockinvestments.com	SMIDGE	212,500.00	Wed, Aug 14th 8pm CET (2pm EST)

Some exchanges will start offering the shares later than others, but we are working on syncing the IPO end dates so that free trading begins at the same time (more or less).

What does this mean for current shareholders?
Do we email you to request a transfer of the shares to one of the exchanges above?

[bbxx]

Simdge invested 24 btc few weeks ago

Now he is asking 2.500.000 usd from community in next week.

Remember that buying 1 share u will have 0.7 finally, becouse smidge plan is to cut 30% of your money in not defined future.

[Smidge]

Do you plan to release 340k shares on BTC-TC, 212.5k shares on BF and 212.5k shares on HL for a price of 0.03 BTC/share immediately and all at once or do plan to release them in smaller batches?

Hi dexX7,

All will be released at once when the IPO phase starts. Should there be shares left at the end of the IPO phase, those will be withdrawn.

withdrawn? then?
not just withdrawn, right?

Hi felente,

If there's 212.5k shares issued and during IPO only 200k are sold, then the remaining 12.5k shares will be withdrawn (because no owner).

[Smidge]

Update 21:37 CET:

Here is the current IPO status.

Exchange	Ticker Symbol	Shares (free float)	IPO date
btct.co	SMIDGE.COM-A	340,000.00	tbd
bitfunder.com	Smidge.xxx (tbd)	212,500.00	Sun, Aug 11th 1am CET (7pm EST)
havelockinvestments.com	SMIDGE	212,500.00	Wed, Aug 14th 8pm CET (2pm EST)

Some exchanges will start offering the shares later than others, but we are working on syncing the IPO end dates so that free trading begins at the same time (more or less).

What does this mean for current shareholders?
Do we email you to request a transfer of the shares to one of the exchanges above?

Hi mrtchipr,

Yes, you can e-mail or use the contact form on www.smidge.com, identifying yourself with your personal PIN. Then just give us the number of shares and your username on an exchange where we are listed.

This way, you can also transfer shares to other users privately.

[boyohi]

Seems interesting.

[dexX7]

If there's 212.5k shares issued and during IPO only 200k are sold, then the remaining 12.5k shares will be withdrawn (because no owner).

How long does the IPO go?

[Smidge]

If there's 212.5k shares issued and during IPO only 200k are sold, then the remaining 12.5k shares will be withdrawn (because no owner).

How long does the IPO go?

Hi dexX7,

I am currently trying to orchestrate it to end on Saturday, Aug 17th at 2pm EST on all exchanges. It's already set up at Havelock, but I cannot guarantee anything else at this point. Great question btw, I forgot to mention this. Thx.

[Ninshatamoto]

Quick question - have private-share sales already halted, or are they going to halt later on today?

[Smidge]

Quick question - have private-share sales already halted, or are they going to halt later on today?

Hi Ninshatamoto,

Sales of private shares will be halted shortly before IPO, which is this Saturday, 7pm EST (Sunday, 1am CET). Its about 15 hours from now. It means that all orders we receive via the contact form on www.smidge.com until then will still be executed manually.

Edit: corrected the times (it's Saturday EST and Sunday CET).

[freedomno1]

Quick question - have private-share sales already halted, or are they going to halt later on today?

Hi Ninshatamoto,

Sales of private shares will be halted shortly before IPO, which is this Saturday, 7pm EST (Sunday, 1am CET). Its about 15 hours from now. It means that all orders we receive via the contact form on www.smidge.com until then will still be executed manually.

Edit: corrected the times (it's Saturday EST and Sunday CET).

Sorry about that not sure if I made that in time sent to the blockchain awaiting double confirm

[Smidge]

Update 23:28 CET:

The Bitfunder IPO will be postponed to Sunday, Aug 11th during the day because of the setup taking longer than expected. Sorry for that. Private shares are not being offered anymore since today.

Status:

Exchange	Ticker Symbol	Shares (free float)	IPO date
btct.co	SMIDGE.COM-A	340,000.00	tbd (currently 3 of 5 needed votes)
bitfunder.com	Smidge.xxx (tbd)	212,500.00	Sun, Aug 11th
havelockinvestments.com	SMIDGE	212,500.00	Wed, Aug 14th 8pm CET (2pm EST)

[stripykitteh]

The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com
shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares. Each of the funds’ shares always equals to 1/900,000 of the
total profits and voting power of the summed value from both the fund and Smidge.Com.

This seems broken, and even though it has already been pointed out twice in this thread, I don't feel that you have addressed it.

If less than 900,000 shares are owned, then what happens to the unowned portion of the fund, given that each share is 1/900,000 of the fund. You responded saying that not all of the 135,000 shares owned by you have been issued, but that demonstrates the problem, it doesn't solve it.

For example, let's say that 100,000 shares are sold to the public and you have issued 100,000 shares to yourself. That means that 1/9 of the profits go to the public shareholders and 1/9 of the profits go to you. Where do the other 7/9 of the profits go to?

A bigger question for me is how you can justify issuing yourself 135,000 shares? You already get 4.5% of the dividends, why do you also get 15% of the assets?

Yes, the audacity is breathtaking.

If this somehow gets off the ground and the principals do not run, I predict there will be some whales fighting each other to do deals with smidge.com.

[Pale Phoenix]

Yes, the audacity is breathtaking.

If this somehow gets off the ground and the principals do not run, I predict there will be some whales fighting each other to do deals with smidge.com.

I haven't paid much attention to this IPO because, while Smidge might be a perfectly nice fellow, there is nothing to suggest he has the skills to manage the amount of funds he seeks to raise.

Now that this is actually going to be floated I've read up a bit. Smidge, two questions for you:

1) Am I to understand that you are issuing yourself 135,000 shares (IPO value: 4050 BTC) for a grand total investment of less than 25 BTC? How can you possibly justify diluting investors to that extent when you also intend to take a management fee?

2) If you have had many years of investing success across different markets, why don't you have personal capital to contribute in excess of $2500?

[narayan]

Hello,

I have gambled half of the fund on Satoshi Dice 50%. We won.

Dividends will be going out later today. We are the best performing fund on the market.

[Smidge]

The shareholders of the fund “Smidge.Com A” will hold 765,000.00 shares, while Smidge.Com
shareholders will hold 135,000.00 shares. Each of the funds’ shares always equals to 1/900,000 of the
total profits and voting power of the summed value from both the fund and Smidge.Com.

This seems broken, and even though it has already been pointed out twice in this thread, I don't feel that you have addressed it.

If less than 900,000 shares are owned, then what happens to the unowned portion of the fund, given that each share is 1/900,000 of the fund. You responded saying that not all of the 135,000 shares owned by you have been issued, but that demonstrates the problem, it doesn't solve it.

For example, let's say that 100,000 shares are sold to the public and you have issued 100,000 shares to yourself. That means that 1/9 of the profits go to the public shareholders and 1/9 of the profits go to you. Where do the other 7/9 of the profits go to?

A bigger question for me is how you can justify issuing yourself 135,000 shares? You already get 4.5% of the dividends, why do you also get 15% of the assets?

Hi odolvlobo,

I think you are misunderstanding the function of the 135,000 shares, at least in part. Maybe I also did not describe it in enough detail, sorry if that is the case.

These shares will be used at first to transfer the Smidge.Com pre-IPO shares on the exchanges. Which means, if you participated in the pre-IPO offering and want your private shares to be transferred to any exchange, the pool of 135,000 shares will be used for that. Smidge.Com will own whatever is left of that.

I have already stated that the rest of the 135,000 Smidge.Com shares would be issued in relation to the free float shares. As a reference, we have sold about 30,000 pre-IPO shares, which means 105,000 Smidge.Com shares are left. Using your example, when 100,000 free float shares are issued, 11,600 Smidge.Com (minus pre-IPO, as explained above) would be issued alongside.

Please take a look at other operations, which sometimes own much larger parts or a majority portion of the shares issued.

Zero share holding means zero responsibility to shareholder's profits.

[Vexual]

So if I invest 2.5BTC, then approximately 15% goes directly into shares held by you Smidge?
But this amount can change depending on how many "PRE-IPO" shares you sell?
It is still unclear to me.
Furthermore, is a "PRE-IPO" not really an IPO?

[Vexual]

From smidge.com business plan:
"
Details of the “Smidge.Com A” private offering:
-
Number of shares available: 315,000.00
-
Pre-IPO share price: 0.02 BTC
"
Is 315,000 written here in error?

[Deprived]

Please take a look at other operations, which sometimes own much larger parts or a majority portion of the shares issued.

Zero share holding means zero responsibility to shareholder's profits.

Would like to point to another investment fund where the managers take shares for free?  All other investment/trading funds the managers only get shares either:

a) From putting in cash/assets equal to the price of the shares.
b) As payment of their management fee (the fee being paid in shares given at current NAV/U)

You don't need to use 135k shares to represent 30k shares sold pre-IPO - just hold back 30k from sale.

And you haven't at all addressed the disproportionate impact they have if the IPO doesn't sell out.  If you only sell, say, 10k shares at IPO you end up owning majority of equity whilst having put in a tiny part of the actual value.

Shares represent equity - they aren't something that should be used to fudge things like management fees.

[ronaldlee0917]

Most (meaning 80%+) of traditional investment funds do not beat their compared index (US funds compared to the DOW, etc.). There is a quite a few studies about this. The reason is poor stock picking and horrendous fees (a normal managed fund takes 5% Issue surcharge, 2% admin fee + earnings based fees). That means, you are paying for the fund manager's Ferrari most of the time.

Smidge.Com takes a mgmt fee of 4.5% on dividends only, that's it. The substance of the fund will not be touched. The "magic", meaning our competitive advantage, has been detailed in the Strategy section of the business plan. It describes our capabilities and some of the detailed actions.

What about this?
You were talking about horrendous fees, but now you are given 105,000 shares for free, your cut from those shares + 4.5% managment fees add up to nearly 20%...

[stripykitteh]

Please take a look at other operations, which sometimes own much larger parts or a majority portion of the shares issued.

Zero share holding means zero responsibility to shareholder's profits.

Which is why you should be tipping in your own cash to buy your own shares, rather than hoovering it out of the pockets of your investors. If you get an easy payday from the IPO what incentive do you have to deliver a return to your shareholders?

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

Like last week, the market was in constant downward motion. Although we managed to finish slightly stronger than the DCX index, NAV is down by 8.61%. Fund size is up by another 162.48%. We are still building up assets from our large growth of the last weeks and again managed to get some interesting purchase prices during the week. This should unfold and help increase our NAV as we move forward and the market recovers.

The IPO planned for Saturday, Aug 10th 7pm EST has been postponed to today. I will postpone it further until all open questions, especially regarding share structure and other details, are answered. I think this is the most sane way to approach this to create as much transparency as possible for our current and future shareholders. As stated earlier, nothing will be rushed and I am willing to take each and every precautionary measure in order to build trust and confidence.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final still, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• ASICMINER is down 8,68% over the week, despite an announcement of new ASIC hardware that will be up for sale
• LabCoin has fallen under IPO price, having received numerous inquiries from investors and general interest deminishing
• Ciphermine's share price is also down 8.7% in BTC because LTC/BTC is currently not helping at all. LTC/BTC itself is approaching more attactive buying levels
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like last week
• Please note that dividends per share are still quite low and will be reinvested before IPO, this is due to the reason that we did not invest all of the additional coins. As discussed previously, we will not invest in just anything because excess coins are available
• Received 0.2 BTC in tips

I announced last week that I will be making performance comparisions with the first data sets generated by DCX at http://dcx.smidge.com

Although we beat the index slightly (it's down 9.83% over the week), it is still not a reliable indication of "The Market". I have been getting a lot of input on this, but haven't been able to work on it much this week. There is quite a few people coming on board in this project, which I highly encouraged from the start because I don't want to keep trying to beat an index that I created myself. It was meant to to be a community project and everyone should agree with its function (composition, weight, formula...).

DCX is an attempt at creating a reference index, more at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=267351

Again, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received. As an investor, I know very well that new assets are not easily trusted. I hope to be able to meet everyone's expectations in the long run!

Edit: Grammar and spelling.

[Vexual]

Exactly how many free shares are you issuing to yourself Smidge?

[Vexual]

-   Number of shares available: 315,000.00

I think you are misunderstanding the function of the 135,000 shares, at least in part. Maybe I also did not describe it in enough detail, sorry if that is the case.

These shares will be used at first to transfer the Smidge.Com pre-IPO shares on the exchanges. Which means, if you participated in the pre-IPO offering and want your private shares to be transferred to any exchange, the pool of 135,000 shares will be used for that. Smidge.Com will own whatever is left of that.

So what is it 315,000 or 135,000?

[Vexual]

"Zero share holding ..." doesn't apply if the shares are obtained for zero cost. If you want to own 15% of the fund, you need to contribute 15% of the assets.

The thought that Smidge thinks this is reasonable raises questions about his abilities as a fund manager.

[stripykitteh]

Warren Buffett ran a very successful fund in the 1950's and 1960's called Buffett Partnership, Ltd., before he bought Berkshire Hathaway. He got a quarter of the return over 6%, i.e., if he got a 10% return for the fund, he got 1%. If he got a 18% return, he got 3%, et cetera. He only owned the shares he paid for. If he got 6% or less for the fund he starved.

I wonder why the manager of the smidge.com thinks he needs a staggeringly better deal for himself than Warren did?

[Smidge]

Hi everyone,

Please hold back your questions about the share structure for now. It is currently being discussed and as I announced earlier today, it is approached in the most careful way.

Here are some facts:

- Until now, no Smidge.Com shares (the 135.000 in question) have been issued
- Until now, all management fees have been instantly reinvested into the fund

There are no disadvantages whatsoever to the shareholders until now. Moving forward from here, there will be a solution announced that is acceptable for everyone before IPO, in order to create as much transparency as possible.

[Vexual]

The only solution I can imagine is increasing your capital input to 2700BTC. (135,000 x 0.02)

[dexX7]

I announced last week that I will be making performance comparisions with the first data sets generated by DCX at http://dcx.smidge.com

Hi Smidge,

maybe I miss a very important point, but I can't see how you are able to use the DCX for this comparison. In the current form the DCX will only oscillate around 100 and shows the relative change to the last "tick", while you are looking for an absolute change in value (I guess) or at least a relative change to your last point of comparison.

Let's look at an example:



Those numbers are made up, but I hope you get my point. While the market capitalization has grown by 40k Bitcoin, the DCX would have lost 0,79 points.

[bbxx]

25      MYMINER   333.0000         0.02649000   8.82117000      1.92%

Wtf?

Real price is...
Highest bid price   0.0186   BTC/Share

Can you provide more detailed sheet, how much btc you have burned in this week?
You said you have got good trades, where i can find it?
I have counted about 20 btc 3 days ago, you said that it is not true.

[Smidge]

Letter to Shareholders / IPO postponed

Dear Shareholders,

As there are currently ongoing discussions with operators of exchanges and the community about the upcoming IPOs, we decided ourselves (Smidge.Com) to postpone the IPOs until further notice.

We want to answer all open questions, especially regarding share structure and other details. I think this is the most sane way to approach this to create as much transparency as possible for our current and future shareholders. As stated many times earlier, nothing will be rushed and I am willing to take each and every precautionary measure in order to build trust and confidence, BEFORE we step onto the open market. This can only be beneficial for all of us.

In case you require any of your funds right now, I can of course offer you a share buyback at the initial price (0.02) to help you out incase you are in an urgent situation. Once the NAV/share goes up significantly, I will of course also offer you a buyback at the higher NAV/share.

Thanks a lot for your confidence! If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

[Pale Phoenix]

I know you've said that you are rethinking the terms of your IPO and I think that's wise, but I'd like to point out how misleading the current plan is.

I noticed this statement on the Havelock IPO summary, which is obviously false given that a portion of each share purchased goes directly into the issuer's pocket.

"The funds structure is very transparent, there are no other fees besides a management fee on actual earnings, which means 100% of your coins generate ROI from the moment they are invested."

[Smidge]

I know you've said that you are rethinking the terms of your IPO and I think that's wise, but I'd like to point out how misleading the current plan is.

I noticed this statement on the Havelock IPO summary, which is obviously false given that a portion of each share purchased goes directly into the issuer's pocket.

"The funds structure is very transparent, there are no other fees besides a management fee on actual earnings, which means 100% of your coins generate ROI from the moment they are invested."

Hi Pale Phoenix,

This statement is absolutely true. It means that there are no purchase fees, like "for 1 BTC you get 0.90 BTC worth of shares" or any other instant fees whatsoever.

Only because the share structure is being discussed and the community raises questions (which is actually a very healthy process that I have requested since day 1), it does not mean that everything is "obviously false".

[freedomno1]

Just reading up on the extortion issue in China curious on your approach and what your dead man switch is, also forgot to ask what country you operations is based in.

[xaviarlol]

Smidge, I highly suggest you stop and review your plan for this fund before it turns in to another Sandstorm.

A word of valuable advice: People aren't stupid. If you have a sh*tty deal masked as a great deal by using deceitful caveats, people will find out. Don't fall in to the trap of trying to outsmart investors.

[dexX7]

Just reading up on the extortion issue in China curious on your approach and what your dead man switch is, also forgot to ask what country you operations is based in.

He's from Germany afaik.

[Smidge]

Hi everyone,

After a lot of discussion, it has been agreed to run the fund as a private fund for now. The growth in pre-IPO stage (since July 21st) has been extreme to say the least and the capital raised has to be reinvested in a very careful way to maximize shareholder value. This obviously takes time. As I've expressed many times before, we won't go on a buying spree just because new capital arrived.

The general decision was to run the operation on a smaller scale, which means:

- The share structure will be reworked to a lower number of total shares
- The initial investment (24.6349 BTC) that has been made will be given to the management team, in shares of the fund
- Management fee will stay the same, but most likely be paid out in shares aswell (awaiting final decision)
- Any effort to avoid redundant information will be taken, which means only this thread (and letters to shareholders) will be used for communication

Once these measures have been implemented and the operation is running smoothly, we will be thinking about an IPO. We have all the necessary approvals already for the current setup and will certainly be allowed to go ahead with the new one.

Trust from investors is very high and we cannot thank our shareholders enough for this. We only had two share buybacks of minor proportions (7.5 BTC total).

As stated before, in case you require any of your funds right now, I can of course offer you a share buyback at the initial price (0.02) to help you out incase you are in an urgent situation. Once the NAV/share goes up significantly, I will of course also offer you a buyback at the higher NAV/share.

[alexius89]

Thanks for the Update.

I Guess that many investements are made because The Security will be listed soon.

Well, that is my opinion but an IPO within 1 week was a major reason for my Investment in SMIDGE....

So are there any plans for a coming IPO in the next weeks?

[bbxx]

25      MYMINER   333.0000         0.02649000   8.82117000      1.92%

Wtf?

Real price is...
Highest bid price   0.0186   BTC/Share

Can you provide more detailed sheet, how much btc you have burned in this week?
You said you have got good trades, where i can find it?
I have counted about 20 btc 3 days ago, you said that it is not true.

any comment smidge, to this?

is this a mistake or lie ?

you are valuating fund holdings by price you have bought ?

what is real loss ?

[Vexual]

Hi everyone,

After a lot of discussion, it has been agreed to run the fund as a private fund for now. The growth in pre-IPO stage (since July 21st) has been extreme to say the least and the capital raised has to be reinvested in a very careful way to maximize shareholder value. This obviously takes time. As I've expressed many times before, we won't go on a buying spree just because new capital arrived.

The general decision was to run the operation on a smaller scale, which means:

- The share structure will be reworked to a lower number of total shares
- The initial investment (24.6349 BTC) that has been made will be given to the management team, in shares of the fund
- Management fee will stay the same, but most likely be paid out in shares aswell (awaiting final decision)
- Any effort to avoid redundant information will be taken, which means only this thread (and letters to shareholders) will be used for communication

Once these measures have been implemented and the operation is running smoothly, we will be thinking about an IPO. We have all the necessary approvals already for the current setup and will certainly be allowed to go ahead with the new one.

Trust from investors is very high and we cannot thank our shareholders enough for this. We only had two share buybacks of minor proportions (7.5 BTC total).

As stated before, in case you require any of your funds right now, I can of course offer you a share buyback at the initial price (0.02) to help you out incase you are in an urgent situation. Once the NAV/share goes up significantly, I will of course also offer you a buyback at the higher NAV/share.

This sounds like a promising framework to demonstrate fund performance at a larger scale. Looking forward to more details.

[Smidge]

25      MYMINER   333.0000         0.02649000   8.82117000      1.92%

Wtf?

Real price is...
Highest bid price   0.0186   BTC/Share

Can you provide more detailed sheet, how much btc you have burned in this week?
You said you have got good trades, where i can find it?
I have counted about 20 btc 3 days ago, you said that it is not true.

any comment smidge, to this?

is this a mistake or lie ?

you are valuating fund holdings by price you have bought ?

what is real loss ?

Hi bbxx,

The incorrect MYMINER valuation was an honest mistake, which will be corrected asap in the next release of the balance sheet.

[Smidge]

Thanks for the Update.

I Guess that many investements are made because The Security will be listed soon.

Well, that is my opinion but an IPO within 1 week was a major reason for my Investment in SMIDGE....

So are there any plans for a coming IPO in the next weeks?

Hi alexius89,

As stated before and in the few E-Mails we traded yesterday, the fund/share structure will be reworked first before next steps are planned. I will inform you on this thread as soon as there is any news.

Edit: I don't want to be too unspecific to you, we might have a final decision on it beginning of September.

[Smidge]

This sounds like a promising framework to demonstrate fund performance at a larger scale. Looking forward to more details.

Hi Vexual,

Thanks a lot for that, and above all, the input and suggestions you have given us over the last days. It is invaluable.

[alexius89]

any news?   Sorry,  I'm pretty curious.

[boyohi]

any news?   Sorry,  I'm pretty curious.

Same here.

[Smidge]

any news?   Sorry,  I'm pretty curious.

Same here.

Hi,

I'm in many discussions these days, trying to get the share structure and legal setup done. As stated a few days ago, I expect the final decision (a setup ready for IPO) to be communicated beginning of September. Until then, we will be operating as normal. The fund is healthy and doing well.

On another note, we've made an interesting buy that will be included in Sunday's report.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

An interesting week lies behind us, with the market in downward motion. This time again, we managed to finish stronger than the DCX index which is down 5.3%, our NAV is down by 3.41% only. Fund size is down by 5.04% because of a single 7.5 BTC share buyback. Investor confidence is still very strong. We are still in the middle of building up assets from our large growth of the last weeks and made another key investment.

The IPO plans and fund restructuring (shares/legal setup) for September are slowly approaching the final stages of discussion. Even if there won't be many news in the next two weeks about this, please bear with us and prepare for an interesting September. We are operating as normal during this phase, as you can see. We still have approvals from all three exchanges to IPO as soon as we are ready for it.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• We made another key investment, this time in LTC-GLOBAL. We acquired 10 shares for two reasons, 1) voting rights and 2) the trade volume growth is very attractive on the exchanges. We had a nice increase on the stock price since our buy date
• ASICMINER especially had some ups and downs this week, finishing stronger. This was mainly due to funds from the (forced) selling of BTCGARDEN that were freed and had to be reinvested
• Ciphermine's share price took a hit this week because of hardware shipping issues (Avalon). LTC/BTC is still not helping, with BTC/USD on the rise. We consider both to be small bumps in the road, with benefits unfolding soon
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like last week
• Please note that dividends per share are still quite low and will be reinvested before IPO, this is due to the reason that we did not invest all of the additional coins. As discussed previously, we will not invest in just anything because excess coins are available
• Received 0.15 BTC in tips We sure like the constant stream of tips! If you want to keep it up, pls send BTC to 1LdrfoivfyMw8SdnfVefYAvVfSGxSPSVpS

Again, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received. As an investor, I know very well that new assets are not easily trusted. I hope to be able to meet everyone's expectations in the long run!

(Please note that this Snapshot was posted one day earlier, as I will be on a one week business trip starting today. Daily operations will continue as normal, with a slight delay in response time to e-mails from myself.)

[boyohi]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

An interesting week lies behind us, with the market in downward motion. This time again, we managed to finish stronger than the DCX index which is down 5.3%, our NAV is down by 3.41% only. Fund size is down by 5.04% because of a single 7.5 BTC share buyback. Investor confidence is still very strong. We are still in the middle of building up assets from our large growth of the last weeks and made another key investment.

The IPO plans and fund restructuring (shares/legal setup) for September are slowly approaching the final stages of discussion. Even if there won't be many news in the next two weeks about this, please bear with us and prepare for an interesting September. We are operating as normal during this phase, as you can see. We still have approvals from all three exchanges to IPO as soon as we are ready for it.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• We made another key investment, this time in LTC-GLOBAL. We acquired 10 shares for two reasons, 1) voting rights and 2) the trade volume growth is very attractive on the exchanges. We had a nice increase on the stock price since our buy date
• ASICMINER especially had some ups and downs this week, finishing stronger. This was mainly due to funds from the (forced) selling of BTCGARDEN that were freed and had to be reinvested
• Ciphermine's share price took a hit this week because of hardware shipping issues (Avalon). LTC/BTC is still not helping, with BTC/USD on the rise. We consider both to be small bumps in the road, with benefits unfolding soon
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like last week
• Please note that dividends per share are still quite low and will be reinvested before IPO, this is due to the reason that we did not invest all of the additional coins. As discussed previously, we will not invest in just anything because excess coins are available
• Received 0.15 BTC in tips We sure like the constant stream of tips! If you want to keep it up, pls send BTC to 1LdrfoivfyMw8SdnfVefYAvVfSGxSPSVpS

Again, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received. As an investor, I know very well that new assets are not easily trusted. I hope to be able to meet everyone's expectations in the long run!

(Please note that this Snapshot was posted one day earlier, as I will be on a one week business trip starting today. Daily operations will continue as normal, with a slight delay in response time to e-mails from myself.)

Great update. I especially like the LTC-GLOBAL shares.

[superduh]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

[dexX7]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Why?

[arousedrhino]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Compared to icedrill?

[Smidge]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Compared to icedrill?

Hi arousedrhino,

Column "I" (hidden by default) shows the asset's percentage of the total portfolio. IceDrill is 1.19% at the moment.

[Smidge]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Hi superduh,

Care to elaborate?

[superduh]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Hi superduh,

Care to elaborate?

well, most of the mining stocks (not all) are just silly and may never reach ROI - they are for "gamblers"

i like burnside and his sites and he seems like a good chap - so far he seems to have done things more or less correctly
the biggest threat for ltc-global is of course---- legal aspects (security as well) - and what they may have to do in the future regarding compliance  - since this currently is a big unknown hence the risk - (risk = unknown factor) - that's all

[superduh]

i guess i should just rephrase and say EVERYTHING in bitcoinland is risky. heh

[arousedrhino]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Compared to icedrill?

Hi arousedrhino,

Column "I" (hidden by default) shows the asset's percentage of the total portfolio. IceDrill is 1.19% at the moment.

Smidge,

I know its a small percentage,  I was looking for superduh's reasoning that ltc-global were the most risky. I believe that icedrill is a risky asset but we only have a very small percentage on the balance sheet so I am ok with that. I do think that LTC-Global is far less risky that icedrill though.

[arousedrhino]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Hi superduh,

Care to elaborate?

well, most of the mining stocks (not all) are just silly and may never reach ROI - they are for "gamblers"

i like burnside and his sites and he seems like a good chap - so far he seems to have done things more or less correctly
the biggest threat for ltc-global is of course---- legal aspects (security as well) - and what they may have to do in the future regarding compliance  - since this currently is a big unknown hence the risk - (risk = unknown factor) - that's all

Thanks superduh, thats an interesting take I guess from that perspective since the risk can't be filly quantified you might be right. I still think that its still a good asset to hold. We gain voting power and will receive dividends from high trade volume.

[boyohi]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Hi superduh,

Care to elaborate?

well, most of the mining stocks (not all) are just silly and may never reach ROI - they are for "gamblers"

i like burnside and his sites and he seems like a good chap - so far he seems to have done things more or less correctly
the biggest threat for ltc-global is of course---- legal aspects (security as well) - and what they may have to do in the future regarding compliance  - since this currently is a big unknown hence the risk - (risk = unknown factor) - that's all

Thanks superduh, thats an interesting take I guess from that perspective since the risk can't be filly quantified you might be right. I still think that its still a good asset to hold. We gain voting power and will receive dividends from high trade volume.

Worst case for ltc-global. Bitcoin is illegal and America sends the CIA to shut burnside down and declare war on bitcoin.

[freedomno1]

Honestly LitecoinGlobal might be closer to a bet on bitcoin exchanges themselves as an asset though it's fairly stable less that uncertainty.

[Smidge]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

Hi superduh,

Care to elaborate?

well, most of the mining stocks (not all) are just silly and may never reach ROI - they are for "gamblers"

i like burnside and his sites and he seems like a good chap - so far he seems to have done things more or less correctly
the biggest threat for ltc-global is of course---- legal aspects (security as well) - and what they may have to do in the future regarding compliance  - since this currently is a big unknown hence the risk - (risk = unknown factor) - that's all

Thanks superduh, thats an interesting take I guess from that perspective since the risk can't be filly quantified you might be right. I still think that its still a good asset to hold. We gain voting power and will receive dividends from high trade volume.

Hi arousedrhino,

Thats part of my reasoning too. Plus a lot of the risks affect the market as a whole, not only this fund in particular.

[freedomno1]

Almost end of the week any updates

[stripykitteh]

Almost end of the week any updates

Yes, given this fund holds a bit of AM it will be interesting to see what the manager's view of the price tumbling is. i.e.,
a) did he see it coming?
b) is it a buying opportunity?

[Vexual]

I'd like to ask about the fund manager's perceptions of the implications regarding German Finance Ministry news as pertaining to the fund.

http://www.dw.de/germany-lends-real-value-to-bitcoin-virtual-money/a-17038675

This news came out after Smidge management decided to hold off on the IPO to clarify legals and share structure.

The only negative implication I can imagine is the possibility of profits being taxed, however, now the Smidge team has an opportunity to consider this as they finalise the working arrangements of the fund, so perhaps it is positive.
As I take it, the decision by the GFM to declare bitcoin as money also legitimises investments, and so a fund such as this operated from Germany (I think?) could mitigate some of the percieved risk as mentioned by others in this thread regarding the legality of virtual securities exchanges.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

This week really showed investors how crucial it is not to put all your eggs in one basket. DCX lost 20.24%. We managed to finish with -1.85% in total and an identical NAV change due to no share buybacks or other changes. Investor confidence is very strong and current investors can call themselves lucky for being on board once again. The current volatility with some stocks is also evened out a bit because of the use of the the 7d Avg for valuation. A current day indication would place ASICMINER lower, but also LABCOIN and LTC-GLOBAL significantly higher.

September is around the corner and IPO plans/fund restructuring will be finished in mid September. I announced last week already that there won't be many news about this in the next two weeks, so please bear with us and prepare for an interesting September. I can only repeat that we are operating as normal during this phase, as you can see. We still have approvals from all three exchanges to IPO as soon as we are ready for it.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• Our latest key investment in LTC-GLOBAL has helped a great deal with strengthening the portfolio. Meanwhile, voting rights have kicked in (happens automatically 7 days after purchasing the 10th share)
• ASICMINER crashed, giving us an opportunity to more than double up our amount of shares at attractive prices. Last time we saw this was beginning of June and we decided to buy on "bad" news, being confident that things (meaning dividends) will improve soon. Remember that the winner in economic downturns is the one that still has funds to invest when market bottoms are reached
• Ciphermine is not unfolding any of its potential yet as expected, mainly because of the hardware shipping issues (Avalon), LTC/BTC price and one of their large, early-stage investors choosing to liquidate some of his holdings in CipherMine for personal reasons. As Kate stated, this is not a reflection on the quality nor merits of the security. It is unfortunate that a relatively small volume can cause very large price movements in such an illiquid marketplace though. This is still an early stage and will unfold as we move forward and continue to support them
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, while we operate in private mode
• Please note that dividends per share are still quite low and will be reinvested before IPO, this is due to the reason that we did not invest all of the additional coins. As discussed previously, we will not invest in just anything because excess coins are available
• No tips this week

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their trust, the great support, criticism and questions that we received. I hope to be able to meet everyone's expectations in the long run!

[Smidge]

Almost end of the week any updates

Hi freedomno1,

Sorry for not being so responsive this week. On the other side, we did not have any announcements and activity in the thread was rather low.

[Smidge]

I'd like to ask about the fund manager's perceptions of the implications regarding German Finance Ministry news as pertaining to the fund.

http://www.dw.de/germany-lends-real-value-to-bitcoin-virtual-money/a-17038675

This news came out after Smidge management decided to hold off on the IPO to clarify legals and share structure.

The only negative implication I can imagine is the possibility of profits being taxed, however, now the Smidge team has an opportunity to consider this as they finalise the working arrangements of the fund, so perhaps it is positive.
As I take it, the decision by the GFM to declare bitcoin as money also legitimises investments, and so a fund such as this operated from Germany (I think?) could mitigate some of the percieved risk as mentioned by others in this thread regarding the legality of virtual securities exchanges.

Hi Vexual,

As you already pointed out, the main change is the way of taxation (BTC are not taxed like your regular salary any more, but through a withholding tax that applies to any income through investments since 2009). I think this is a better solution, but it does not change the working arrangements of the fund. We will announce some changes regarding that soon, as mentioned before.

[freedomno1]

Almost end of the week any updates

Hi freedomno1,

Sorry for not being so responsive this week. On the other side, we did not have any announcements and activity in the thread was rather low.

No worries, once in a while the market gets interesting and it nice to view a second opinion.
I agree with you on the AM position it takes patience till the units are ready and hashing, and the cause of the crash was eb if you read the AM thread and not any real news its still seems like a good investment, volatile but that's normal of all bitcoin securities. But in full agreement with the need for BTC liquidity.
Glad to hear your fund now has LTC-Global Voting rights as well, helps to keep aware of the newest IPO's and even I must admit the speculators help boost that assets price whistle

Thanks for the snapshot looking forward to Mid-September

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

Another week with an even sharper rise of BTC/USD leading to a further decline of LTC/BTC. DCX lost 12.45% in total this week, making our 9.54% look a bit better compared to a normal portfolio. Total NAV is down 17.57% because we had one large share buyback of 75 BTC, but managed to get new investors on board worth 40 BTC. We will continue to fill up the rest quickly. Current investors are lucky for being on board once again because our balanced exposure to both BTC and LTC securities is really evening things out. Expect a sharp rise in fund NAV once LTC catches up (which it usually does with a certain delay).

We will have more mid September IPO details for you in the coming weeks, still in a lot of discussion.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• The LTC/BTC decline has us steadily buying LTC, providing a nice cost average effect. As soon as the trend turns, we expect to see a sharp rise in fund NAV because of this exposure. MtGox adoption is still up in the air, but will most likely also boost prices
• ASICMINER has provided even more attractive buying prices, getting our average buy price down to under 3 BTC, which is not bad for a fund operating since end of July
• MYMINER decided to buy back all shares, which we obviously accepted
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, while we operate in private mode
• Please note that dividends per share are still quite low and will be reinvested before IPO, this is due to the reason that we did not invest all of the additional coins. As discussed previously, we will not invest in just anything because excess coins are available

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their trust, the great support, criticism and questions that we received. I hope to be able to meet everyone's expectations in the long run!

[bbxx]

Ok so 1/4 fund in refrigator - ltc global no divs
1/4 fund in btc frozen no divs
1/4 fund in amc/am good divs

Rest wasted in mining bonds, some dead like icedrill, satoshi divs

2200 shatoshi for 2 000 000 satoshi stock

False report again about share value,
am should be 2.23 (18 bitcoins lie) instead 2.75
Amc should be 0.032 instead of 0.54 (7 btc lie)
Litecoins are 0.0188 not 0.2 so another few btc

If you post raport ensure you have correct values.
Every week you are loosing money and hiding losses here and there.

Please create true raport when how much you have sold/bought at what price.
In raport as above you can steal btc by making good trades and hiding it.

[Smidge]

Ok so 1/4 fund in refrigator - ltc global no divs
1/4 fund in btc frozen no divs
1/4 fund in amc/am good divs

Rest wasted in mining bonds, some dead like icedrill, satoshi divs

2200 shatoshi for 2 000 000 satoshi stock

False report again about share value,
am should be 2.23 (18 bitcoins lie) instead 2.75
Amc should be 0.032 instead of 0.54 (7 btc lie)
Litecoins are 0.0188 not 0.2 so another few btc

If you post raport ensure you have correct values.
Every week you are loosing money and hiding losses here and there.

Please create true raport when how much you have sold/bought at what price.
In raport as above you can steal btc by making good trades and hiding it.

Hi bbxx,

I have to tell you yet again that you could take at least 5 minutes to read through this thread before trolling and hinting about lying, stealing etc. You would have noticed that we use the 7d avg for valuation since the start. The valuations would have been much higher last week because of this, so we are (of course) applying this both ways.

By the way, did you notice that there is a column "I" that shows the percentage of the portfolio? ICEDRILL is 1.32% of it (I posted that before aswell) and is a purely speculative position. LTC-GLOBAL is paying divs too (monthly), so you didn't even get that right...

[bbxx]

It is not a scam accusation. Please try to be transparent.
If you say NAV it should be calculated with actual value not unicorn hope based on your average.
Please add column with real recent prices.

In sheet there is lie, total vaule, it is not.

More detalied sheet is must...

Monthly 0.3% is nothing in the world od bitcoins so ltc global funds are frozen.
If you will try to sell it you will loose year or more of divs so... Lol.

[Progressive]

The hidden column can be seen only if I copy the spreadsheet (it is not showable in read-only mode). I think that % could be always visible.

[Smidge]

It is not a scam accusation. Please try to be transparent.
If you say NAV it should be calculated with actual value not unicorn hope based on your average.
Please add column with real recent prices.

In sheet there is lie, total vaule, it is not.

More detalied sheet is must...

Monthly 0.3% is nothing in the world od bitcoins so ltc global funds are frozen.
If you will try to sell it you will loose year or more of divs so... Lol.

Hi bbxx,

The decision to use 7d avg has been made long ago. How would you value i.e. LABCOIN on Aug 28th? Get the 7am value of 0.0018, or the 10am value of 0.0037? Nope. This is a long-term asset fund, not a daytrading operation.

If you want my explanation on the LTC-GLOBAL position, it is not about the dividends. It's an investment for a higher valuation of the share price in the future, as trade volume is steadily rising (did you read the report 2 weeks ago?). Plus, it's about voting rights and getting more influence.

[Smidge]

The hidden column can be seen only if I copy the spreadsheet (it is not showable in read-only mode). I think that % could be always visible.

Hi Progressive,

Sorry I didn't know that. I just made it visible, thought you could show/unshow it in read-only.

[alexius89]

is there already a fixed date for the coming IPO?

[jeffshed]

hi guys,

i just don't understand some of the strategies. he's bought and held ciphermine for personal reasons which is now like 1/3 of the value.
didn't someone say thats a bad investment?

He's hedging a lot on the rise of LTC. what if that assuption doesn't come true? why is exposure to LTC a good thing. seems risky.

buying to get average buy price of AM down?

holding basic when it's unfortunatly going to act practically like a PMB?

I just don't get some of these things.

sorry if i'm a bit off the mark...just my take on things

[ThickAsThieves]

hi guys,

i just don't understand some of the strategies. he's bought and held ciphermine for personal reasons which is now like 1/3 of the value.
didn't someone say thats a bad investment?

He's hedging a lot on the rise of LTC. what if that assuption doesn't come true? why is exposure to LTC a good thing. seems risky.

buying to get average buy price of AM down?

holding basic when it's unfortunatly going to act practically like a PMB?

I just don't get some of these things.

sorry if i'm a bit off the mark...just my take on things

Decent questions.

[creativex]

holding basic when it's unfortunatly going to act practically like a PMB?

I got this one smidge.

That's not even close to accurate jeffshed. bASIC-Mining has increased it's hashrate by 52.6% in the past month and has a paid order for hardware that represents another 55.7% hashrate increase for delivery next month. Perhaps you've confused bASIC-Mining with ActM? I see nothing in ActM's fairy dust press releases to indicate they'll come off their unimpressive 430Gh/s hashrate before Thanksgiving.

[Smidge]

hi guys,

i just don't understand some of the strategies. he's bought and held ciphermine for personal reasons which is now like 1/3 of the value.
didn't someone say thats a bad investment?

He's hedging a lot on the rise of LTC. what if that assuption doesn't come true? why is exposure to LTC a good thing. seems risky.

buying to get average buy price of AM down?

holding basic when it's unfortunatly going to act practically like a PMB?

I just don't get some of these things.

sorry if i'm a bit off the mark...just my take on things

Hi jeffshed,

CM is a strategic investment in a company (there's an actual company behind it) with a great team of very bright people, having great ideas for the present and future. I have commented on this topic numerous times. It has nothing to do with personal reasons, it is about business only.

The LTC positions have been increased to maximize the cost average effect and the profits once the LTC price follows up, which it usually does. It has already shown a tendency for that btw.

AM shows some selling panic at the moment. The operation is one of the most stable ones out there, so we are looking at more attractive buying prices. Losses are losses if you realise them, which we are not doing at the moment. Quite the contrary.

And you're not off the mark, I'm happy to answer good (and new) questions. Thank you.

[Smidge]

holding basic when it's unfortunatly going to act practically like a PMB?

I got this one smidge.

That's not even close to accurate jeffshed. bASIC-Mining has increased it's hashrate by 52.6% in the past month and has a paid order for hardware that represents another 55.7% hashrate increase for delivery next month. Perhaps you've confused bASIC-Mining with ActM? I see nothing in ActM's fairy dust press releases to indicate they'll come off their unimpressive 430Gh/s hashrate before Thanksgiving.

What he said.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

BTC/USD is consolidating this week and found a bottom at about 122. LTC/BTC has therefore gone up a bit, which might be the start of a (long anticipated) reversal. DCX lost another 11.63% in total this week, making our 6.90% look pretty decent compared to a standard portfolio. We had two small share buybacks of 9 BTC, but are getting new investors onboard. Again, our balanced exposure to both BTC and LTC securities is really evening things out. The next weeks are looking to be profitable if the described trends continue.

We will have more mid September IPO details for you in the coming weeks, still trying to get the structure, legal part etc. done.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• As stated yesterday, ASICMINER shows some selling panic at the moment. The operation is one of the most stable ones out there, so we are looking at more attractive buying prices. Losses are losses if you realise them, which we are not doing at the moment. Quite the contrary
• MYMINER position has been liquidated, as they bought back all shares
• Management fee and dividends from this week have been fully reinvested, while we operate in private mode

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their trust, the great support, criticism and questions that we received!

[kandelawa]

So, I can suppose, that the IPO will be this month?
Can I choose on which plattform i'll get the shares?
At the moment I would prefer btct.co
breetz stefan

[mrtchipr]

So, I can suppose, that the IPO will be this month?
Can I choose on which plattform i'll get the shares?
At the moment I would prefer btct.co
breetz stefan

I'm against btct.co

I would prefer havelock

[freedomno1]

Irrelevant as they have approved listings on both exchanges 
You  can push shares to either exchange on the IPO I believe

[alexius89]

as far as i know the SMIDGE IPO  will be on  btct,  bitfunder & Havelock

The IPO will start at almost the same time.

[zefyr0s]

If I recall correctly, the reason that the IPO was originally canceled was because Smidge wanted the offering on multiple exchanges as close to simultaneously as possible.

[Smidge]

as far as i know the SMIDGE IPO  will be on  btct,  bitfunder & Havelock

The IPO will start at almost the same time.

That is correct. We are still in conversation about structure, legal setup, possible partnerships and will release detailed information as soon as it is ready for release. We will be operating in "private mode" (and of course offering share buybacks) in the meantime.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

Another turbulent week lies behind us, with a lot of turbulence in the market. A lot of coins are being transferred out of the system, as it seems. This time again, we managed to finish stronger than the DCX index which is down 12.53%, while our NAV is down 7.18%. Investor confidence is still very strong (no share buybacks).

The IPO plans and fund restructuring (shares/legal setup) will be finished soon. Mid September was promised, but we will need some more time to finalize the plans. We are operating as normal during this phase, as you can see and we still have approvals from all three exchanges to IPO as soon as we are ready. There will be an update about this soon and we are still offering share buybacks.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• LABCOIN has been releasing very questionable information this week. While the stock was tanking, we managed to make a small trading profit. At the time of writing, it is up into 0.0028 range again. We are watching it closely and making sure we get out of this drama with a profit
• We managed to snag some ASICMINER for about 2.1 per share. As we believe this is the most reliable operation out there, always delivering on their promises, we expect coins to flow back in there quite soon
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like last week

Again, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

[Pale Phoenix]

Are you really comparing your results to http://dcx.smidge.com/ to determine your success? A handful of mining stocks is not an index of anything, not to mention one of the main components has been delisted.

[Smidge]

Are you really comparing your results to http://dcx.smidge.com/ to determine your success? A handful of mining stocks is not an index of anything, not to mention one of the main components has been delisted.

Hi Pale Phoenix,

DCX is just a rough indication of how a few securities in this market behave over a certain timeframe. It is not meant to be THE performance indicator, just a hint of where the market is headed.

[freedomno1]

Just curious when the website comes back online
It's done when it's done.
But how close to that are we now

Thanks for the update.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

Another week with lots of capital going out of the system, certainly out of the once highly praised  stocks. The DCX index is down 11.63%, while our NAV is down 18.70%. For reference, the DCX was calculated with a total value of 567,766, which was 30 weeks ago. Today, it is at 331,522 (a loss of over 41%). The cryptocoin stock markets are having to deal with a lot of trust issues in these days, as it seems. The phase is most likely a transition phase, we expect the coins to return mid term as investors regain trust and new concepts are being launched.

No IPO news as of this week, as there is nothing new to announce. We will require more time to build partnerships that make it possible to launch a stable security that is IPO'ed for the long run. We are buying back shares at current NAV any time for anyone who wants out. We encourage you to bear with us as we might have some positive surprises upcoming.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• ASICMINER was tankin again this week, with lots of investors cashing out again. We still believe that ASICMINER is maybe the most trustful asset out there, paying out regular dividends and not only profiting from mining only
• CIPHERMINE AND LTC-GLOBAL are suffering from the same symptoms as all other stocks across the board. The LTC securities are one of our elements to make the fund more stable and we are convinced that they will pay out significantly in the long run
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like before

Again, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

[freedomno1]

Ah crud a btct nuke went off
Erases Litecoinglobal as a near complete writeoff (90%)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=125629.msg3214807#msg3214807

Guess buy AM shares and transfer them out would be my opinion

[superduh]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

this

[saveawedge]

Smidge has been avoiding contact with me for over a week. If you're reading this, please respond to my mails.
Thanks

[bbxx]

Monthly 0.3% is nothing in the world od bitcoins so ltc global funds are frozen.
If you will try to sell it you will loose year or more of divs so... Lol.

920 thousand years of divs?

100 btc to get a vote...

Expensive that was.

[Smidge]

Smidge has been avoiding contact with me for over a week. If you're reading this, please respond to my mails.
Thanks

Hi saveawedge,

I have received a lot of mail in the past week, but none from you. Please re-send your E-Mail or PM me on the forums. I will respond asap, as always.

[alexius89]

Hello Smidge,

Could you make the E-mails and you answers public to all investors/potential investors? surely anonymous.
or at least a kind of summary of all?

That would be interesting.

[Smidge]

Hello Smidge,

Could you make the E-mails and you answers public to all investors/potential investors? surely anonymous.
or at least a kind of summary of all?

That would be interesting.

Hi alexius89,

Yes, I am collecting questions/answers and bits of information to post them in a collective thread, like I did before.

There is currently a lot going on with the two exchanges closing, so a lot of time is being spent on getting our shares to other exchanges, etc.

[arousedrhino]

ltc-global is probably one of the riskiest assets to buy atm -

this

Looks like you were dead on. +1

What is now the most risky asset?

[dexX7]

What is now the most risky asset?

Labcoin.

[freedomno1]

What is now the most risky asset?

Labcoin.

Na Kenilworth
But Labcoin is the most traded on a day to day

[jeffshed]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

Another week with lots of capital going out of the system, certainly out of the once highly praised  stocks. The DCX index is down 11.63%, while our NAV is down 18.70%. For reference, the DCX was calculated with a total value of 567,766, which was 30 weeks ago. Today, it is at 331,522 (a loss of over 41%). The cryptocoin stock markets are having to deal with a lot of trust issues in these days, as it seems. The phase is most likely a transition phase, we expect the coins to return mid term as investors regain trust and new concepts are being launched.

No IPO news as of this week, as there is nothing new to announce. We will require more time to build partnerships that make it possible to launch a stable security that is IPO'ed for the long run. We are buying back shares at current NAV any time for anyone who wants out. We encourage you to bear with us as we might have some positive surprises upcoming.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• ASICMINER was tankin again this week, with lots of investors cashing out again. We still believe that ASICMINER is maybe the most trustful asset out there, paying out regular dividends and not only profiting from mining only

CIPHERMINE AND LTC-GLOBAL are suffering from the same symptoms as all other stocks across the board. The LTC securities are one of our elements to make the fund more stable and we are convinced that they will pay out significantly in the long run

• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like before

Again, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

couldn't help but lol when reading this

i don't how to feel when looking at the spreadsheet

a mixture of jest, sorrow, disbelief,compassion......

poor smidge

[stripykitteh]

couldn't help but lol when reading this

i don't how to feel when looking at the spreadsheet

a mixture of jest, sorrow, disbelief,compassion......

poor smidge

I admit in the past I've felt smug reading this thread and sniggering at the investment decisions being made. But my own holdings have taken a big hit this week as well (not in LTC-GLOBAL though, I sold that off weeks ago). Smidge at least has the cojones to make his decisions public and hold himself up to criticism, and yes, ridicule.

We've all learned a thing or two this week.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

After quite a few weeks of observing a massive coin flow out of the system, we had to witness the closure of btct.co/LTC-GLOBAL. This was a very unfortunate event for us because of our high exposure on and in these exchanges, just like for most likely every other investor out there. We had to liquidate our LTC-GLOBAL position and have begun working on transferring the fund's shares to other exchanges, which is going smoothly. Nevertheless, the NAV took the biggest downturn ever with people losing confidence in all of the BTC/LTC securities. We will have to see if the whole community can recover from this disaster, building up stable exchanges providing trust and liquidity to the market and through this, making our business model even possible.

There is currently a lot of recovery discussion going on in the different forums. I hope burnside can and will make the sourcecode available for someone to continue the exchange in a more stable environment.

Share buybacks are currently possible for the current NAV. We will continue to try to make the best out of this situation, migrating our shares and looking for ways to profit coming out of it.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• ASICMINER is still the operation with the most stable business model, which will most likely be one of the first securities to profit from coins flowing back into the market
• CIPHERMINE stock has been plunging along with the market, but we not sell on those prices, as the company behind it is also seeing this situation as a challenge and will come up with new ideas
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested, just like before

As always, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

[alexius89]

Thanks for the update..

could you comment on the upcoming IPO on Bitfunder and Havelock?

Furthermore we havent seen the website online for already more than a month or sht.

[bbxx]

24 btc invested, going to get 18.000 btc
Account registered after 04.2013

ok so ~10 weeks later you offer buyback at 25% value

that is good that only 300 BTC you lost,

not 13337 BTC

good trader can take advantage of market going down

you just invested in bad things wrong way

did you put any option ?

what about valuation of labcoin scam ? why you are holding this still ? 5000 shares is little ?

7. How much you got on labcoin yesterday? Did you sold in right time?
Well done but very small commitment

Of course it is a small commitment. I don't gamble with shareholder money.

you are not posting at forum, except posts about created DCX (to excuse, compare your loses to the market)
WHY ?

if news are much worse than DCX you just hide it on the raport.

[ft73]

8th negative week in a row.

[stripykitteh]

Smidge, like bbxx said, you might want to learn something about hedging if you're going to keep this up for any length of time. Otherwise you'll just end up being a bagholder in a down market. I haven't seen you produce anything to explain how you even value the shares you do own, so it seems that your investment strategy is a complete crapshoot of hunches.

[bbxx]

Smidge, like bbxx said, you might want to learn something about hedging if you're going to keep this up for any length of time. Otherwise you'll just end up being a bagholder in a down market. I haven't seen you produce anything to explain how you even value the shares you do own, so it seems that your investment strategy is a complete crapshoot of hunches.

now he deleted his page (It's done when it's done.)
and have not posted sunday loss.

about 300 bitcoins were burned and 8 days no post from him.

what about ipo plans ? 18 000 bitcoins fund ? and 3 millions of dollars for you ?

[stripykitteh]

Smidge, like bbxx said, you might want to learn something about hedging if you're going to keep this up for any length of time. Otherwise you'll just end up being a bagholder in a down market. I haven't seen you produce anything to explain how you even value the shares you do own, so it seems that your investment strategy is a complete crapshoot of hunches.

now he deleted his page (It's done when it's done.)
and have not posted sunday loss.

about 300 bitcoins were burned and 8 days no post from him.

what about ipo plans ? 18 000 bitcoins fund ? and 3 millions of dollars for you ?

Sheesh, I hope the guy is alright.

[xaviarlol]

And another one bites the dust.

Heed my warnings next time, general public!

[Swordsoffreedom]

E-mail was sent

[Smidge]

Hi all,

As Swordsoffreedom pointed out, an E-Mail was sent out to shareholders on Sunday, which is the regular day for the Weekly Snapshot. The reason for this of course being that the forum was down.

Every shareholder is up to date on what the status is at all times. There are currently no plans for closure.

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

As the center of communication of the the Bitcoin universe is currently not reachable, we are reaching out to you via E-Mail. Behind us lies another week of heavy consolidation, as the btct/LTC-Global shutdowns continue to cause a lot of uncertainity in the community. We have been working on transferring our shares to the different exchanges that will continue to operate.

We hope the forums will be up again next week, so that we can post this update at the usual place.

We are seeing stocks like ASICMINER and CIPHERMINE recovering very slowly, giving us a hint that we might have reached the low point of the current shakeup. The strongest and most trustworthy stocks like these are most likely to lead said recovery.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

I have also added a column called "Exchange" to the sheet that lets you see where the shares are currently hosted.

Comments:

- ASICMINER is slowly coming back up, most likely leading the recovery that we are seeing on the horizon
- CIPHERMINE announced that the first three 400 GH/s BitFury miners have shipped. We expect more positive news from them soon
- We are still and at any time buying back shares for the current NAV
- Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested to help our NAV, just like the last 12 weeks

Again, I would like to thank all investors for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

[Smidge]

now he deleted his page (It's done when it's done.)
and have not posted sunday loss.

about 300 bitcoins were burned and 8 days no post from him.

what about ipo plans ? 18 000 bitcoins fund ? and 3 millions of dollars for you ?

Hi bbxx,

Again, you did not read up on anything going on in this thread. The web page has been taken down in August already, with this thread and the E-Mails to shareholders being the only form of communication. The web page was holding mostly duplicate information which can all be found in this thread.

We have been postponing the IPO until further notice. Did you take a look at the current environment? Do you honestly think it would make sense to IPO a fund now? If you want to push for an IPO, you most certainly want to see us close down, like SDSTM. It is in the best interest of our shareholders to not rush an IPO now.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

Altough the overall decline seems to be slowing, the market is still in turmoil. The situation with the exchanges is not getting better as Bitfunder is also implementing regulations. Long term, we see the market in a transition phase with traditional exchanges more or less vanishing to another model, which might be P2P exchanges, colored coins, etc.

With liquidity for the securities also being at an all time low, we are currently discussing on how to proceed with our operation. Although there are interesting approaches like the plan to buy the btct/LTC-Global code and continue the site(s) (https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,6156.msg47384.html), we are discussing every possibility. An update on this will be given shortly.

Shares can be bought back anytime, as always.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• ASICMINER is still the operation with the most stable business model, which will most likely be one of the first securities to profit from coins flowing back into the market
• CIPHERMINE stock will hopefully surface on some exchange soon or move to a direct share model
• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested to help our NAV, just like the last 13 weeks

As always, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

[bbxx]

Terrible 10 weeks

From 0.0254 to 0.005 per share.

I think now is good time to buy, shares are cheap!

But wait...

Every week i say so...

[Vagnavs]

What is now the most risky asset?

Labcoin.

Na Kenilworth
But Labcoin is the most traded on a day to day

Korb and Co. Investments Mining Fund [KCIM]!

[freedomno1]

What is now the most risky asset?

Labcoin.

Na Kenilworth
But Labcoin is the most traded on a day to day

Korb and Co. Investments Mining Fund [KCIM]!

Well for the hash offered but as an operator there is and are far more risky ones out there

Edit: What Korbman said  

[Korbman]

What is now the most risky asset?

Labcoin.

Na Kenilworth
But Labcoin is the most traded on a day to day

Korb and Co. Investments Mining Fund [KCIM]!

Every asset has a certain degree of risk, but I can assure you there are far riskier assets out there than the one I operate.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

At least a few buyers have been found for the likes of ASICMINER this week, but for other assets (like CIPHERMINE) it is getting hard or almost impossible to find a free market price to report on, as the market is still in turmoil. We placed these in the balance sheet with a price of 0 for now, until we see real trading activity on them. Therefore, NAV might seem lower in the balance sheet than it actually is.

With liquidity for the securities also being at an all time low, we are currently discussing on how to proceed with our operation. Although there are interesting approaches like the plan to buy the btct/LTC-Global code and continue the site(s) (https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,6156.msg47384.html), we are discussing every possibility. An update on this will be given shortly.

Shares can be bought back anytime, as always.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested to help our NAV, just like since the start of the fund

As always, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

[ft73]

Nice, 88% loss for me.
I was not able to do worse by myself and i'm a pretty bad speculator.

[Smidge]

Balance Sheet (Public Version): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing

[Smidge]

Balance Sheet (Public Version): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing

OK, I was just joking...

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

ASICMINER is currently an object of wild speculation, as investors are left in the dark about numerous questions that have been raised and things promised. Also, for some assets it is impossible to find a free market price to report. They (CIPHERMINE, BFMINES) are still displayed at a price of 0 for now, until we see trading activity on them. Therefore, NAV might seem lower in the balance sheet than it actually is.

With liquidity for the securities also being at an all time low, we are currently discussing on how to proceed with our operation. Although there are interesting approaches like the plan to buy the btct/LTC-Global code and continue the site(s) (https://forum.litecoin.net/index.php/topic,6156.msg47384.html), we are discussing every possibility. An update on this will be given shortly.

Shares can be bought back anytime, as always.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested to help our NAV, just like since the start of the fund

As always, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

[Bitsandbits]

Well this looks promising....

[xaviarlol]

Smidge did you go from 500 BTC NAV to 70 BTC?

[Progressive]

Smidge did you go from 500 BTC NAV to 70 BTC?

The NAV/U started above 0.02, now it's 0.0039. It was less than 500 BTC, some people (me included) divested before the market crash.

[BitHub]

smidge [smidge@p4FDCECAF.dip0.t-ipconnect.de] has quit [Quit: sorry,but you've mistaken me for someone who gives a fuck...]




I'm pretty sure he doesn't give a fuck about losing your money.

[stripykitteh]

smidge [smidge@p4FDCECAF.dip0.t-ipconnect.de] has quit [Quit: sorry,but you've mistaken me for someone who gives a fuck...]




I'm pretty sure he doesn't give a fuck about losing your money.

Maybe Amethyst could start a fund. They've succeeded at everything else they've turned their hand to!

[prophetx]

shares in this fund are manually traded?

[Progressive]

shares in this fund are manually traded?

They are not traded. You can invest or divest at current NAV/U by emailing Smidge.

[Smidge]

Smidge did you go from 500 BTC NAV to 70 BTC?

The NAV/U started above 0.02, now it's 0.0039. It was less than 500 BTC, some people (me included) divested before the market crash.

Hi,

The fund's highest NAV was 460.23 (0.0210/share), the lowest point was 72.10 (0.0038/share). It has recently gone up slightly from there. This is actually a better chart performance (NOT dividends) not only than ASICMINER, but than most of the other securities out there aswell if you look into the details. Not to mention the securities that went to zero for all the various reasons.

[jeffshed]

what securities went to zero? i recall a few getting bought out. oh i guess there is the whole bASIC thing with creativex disappearing. but hang on can you please explain how you have performed better than asicminer??? i believe that is false information.

Still i don't think this is an excuse for bad performance. You should embrace the bad performance...
 
What ever happened to the mid September IPO? this fund officially sucks. i feel sorry for whoever trusted you. can you even do math?

[Smidge]

what securities went to zero? i recall a few getting bought out. oh i guess there is the whole bASIC thing with creativex disappearing. but hang on can you please explain how you have performed better than asicminer??? i believe that is false information.

Still i don't think this is an excuse for bad performance. You should embrace the bad performance...
 
What ever happened to the mid September IPO? this fund officially sucks. i feel sorry for whoever trusted you. can you even do math?

Hi jeffshed,

I said at no point that the fund was/is performing well, quite the opposite. Everything about the IPO is explained in detail this thread, the short version is that it was the best decision for existing and potentially new shareholders not to IPO it in this climate. Regarding AM, it was performing between 4.85 and 0.45 in the last 10 weeks alone.

[ft73]

Regarding AM, it was performing between 4.85 and 0.45 in the last 10 weeks alone.

This is not true.
10 weeks ago Asicminer was well under 4BTC and never got higher since then.

[stripykitteh]

To be honest I invested in Smidge fund hoping for flipping the shares, just like I did with SANDSTORM and others.
I divested when I realized that the NAV/U will fall before the future IPO, partly because I saw that the fund is not very "actively managed".
The manager is not exploiting opportunities, daytrayding etc. (see DISCOVERY fund at BitFunder comparison). The fact, that he bought BFMINES proves that he didn't understand difficulty growth and didn't check the amount of pre-ordered ASICs.

Smidge, did you read Vycid's posts about ASICMINER? What was your analysis about AM then? What is your average buy price for AM? Do you expect AM to reach this price in the future?

Do you think that LTC will rise again? (compared to BTC) Why? Where is the Litecoin economy?


(I think that Smidge is not a scammer, I think he is just not a very good manager in the wild BTC securities environment. Funds like BTC-GROWTH, BTC-EQTY, DISCOVERY, BTC-INVEST, DMS and LTC-ATF coped far better with the crisis)

Touché.

Smidge has proven that, for now, he is a novice investor.

[razerrr]

Im not viewing this threat every day, so im not really up to date.
But what I see now is, that my BTC I invested some weeks ago are nearly lost, arent they?
Tell me if Im mistaken.

[ft73]

Im not viewing this threat every day, so im not really up to date.
But what I see now is, that my BTC I invested some weeks ago are nearly lost, arent they?
Tell me if Im mistaken.

No, you're not mistaken.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Weekly Snapshot

Quick Summary:

For some assets, it is still impossible to find a free market price to report. They (CIPHERMINE, BFMINES) are still displayed at a price of 0 for now, until we see trading activity on them. Therefore, the NAV might seem lower in the balance sheet than it actually is.

For the foreseeable future, i.e. as long as the market is in this crisis mode, the fund will be operating completely in private mode. This means no IPO will be conducted and it will not be open to new investors, mgmt fee and dividends will be reinvested.

Shares can be bought back at any time, as always.

Balance Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgLGW6ARhmFLdDVyLUFPYjBHX0FIWWxXTy1Bc09uaVE&usp=sharing (Please note that the format is not final, still tweaking a few things here and there. Columns "E" and "I" are hidden for a clearer view.)

Comments:

• Management fee from this week has been fully reinvested to help our NAV, just like since the start of the fund

As always, I would like to thank everyone for the great support, criticism and questions that we received.

[joesmoe2012]

To be honest I invested in Smidge fund hoping for flipping the shares, just like I did with SANDSTORM and others.
I divested when I realized that the NAV/U will fall before the future IPO, partly because I saw that the fund is not very "actively managed".
The manager is not exploiting opportunities, daytrayding etc. (see DISCOVERY fund at BitFunder comparison). The fact, that he bought BFMINES proves that he didn't understand difficulty growth and didn't check the amount of pre-ordered ASICs.

Smidge, did you read Vycid's posts about ASICMINER? What was your analysis about AM then? What is your average buy price for AM? Do you expect AM to reach this price in the future?

Do you think that LTC will rise again? (compared to BTC) Why? Where is the Litecoin economy?


(I think that Smidge is not a scammer, I think he is just not a very good manager in the wild BTC securities environment. Funds like BTC-GROWTH, BTC-EQTY, DISCOVERY, BTC-INVEST, DMS and LTC-ATF coped far better with the crisis)

Touché.

Smidge has proven that, for now, he is a novice investor.

hmmm some threads didn't need go past page 1.

[Vexual]

Smidge, how long you you intend to maintain the forced dividend reinvestment?
The practice seems quite in discordance with the original prospectus.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Letter to shareholders / Fund closure

The BTC/LTC securities market is currently in a lot of turmoil, with a possible recovery seeming more distant every day. BTC security exchanges are closing down due to regulations, making most securities much harder or even impossible to trade. Trust in the markets is at an all-time low, as coins are being transferred out of the market and coins stored as cash in a wallet seem to be the safest investment.

At the same time, a lot of operators of securities have proven to be untrustworthy, in many cases rendering their stocks worthless. Other securities are not listed on any exchange any more, making it impossible to get a fair market price for them. With such a limited amount of securities to choose from and the current liquidity, the service of stock picking for buy and hold by a 3rd party (like this fund) does not make much sense any longer.

Because of these environmental changes in the last months, we have decided to close down the fund as of Dec 31st, 2013. As we never had an IPO and always operated in private mode, we currently have 17 private investors left, who have been informed via e-mail about the details of the wind down.

Here is the extract from the business plan about a possible closure:

Fund Closure

Management reserves the right to close this fund for any reason giving 30 days’ notice. All assets in the fund will be liquidated on the respective markets. Distribution to shareholders will be done according to a public, defined timeline and action plan.

The wind down will be done in a professional and structured manner, of course with the same rules applying to the shares from the management team, who invested BTC 24.6349 as starting capital on July 21st, 2013.

Investors will be able to choose the week in which they want their payout to happen from this week until the week of Dec 31st. This gives you more flexibility, i.e. if you believe that the NAV might increase with the current portfolio that the fund holds, it might be better to delay the payout. If you believe otherwise, it might make sense for you to cash out now. These share buybacks will be processed like they have been since the start of the fund, to give everyone a fair chance to buy and sell their investment at all times.

Even though the performance of our venture did not in any way meet the expectations, I would like to thank you for this interesting and instructive journey through these rough times, wishing you all the best for your future endeavors.

[kandelawa]

So now what about the invested money of the shareholders?
Are there any BTC left, or are them all gone?

Please tell me more exactly how much of my 10 invested BTC am I becoming back.
greetings stefan

[Vexual]

Smidge, were the buybacks bought by you personally, or the fund?
The weekly balance sheet shows the outstanding shares relatively unchanged week to week.

[mrtchipr]

So now what about the invested money of the shareholders?
Are there any BTC left, or are them all gone?

Please tell me more exactly how much of my 10 invested BTC am I becoming back.
greetings stefan

Someone else please correct me if I'm wrong.
Assuming you bought 500 shares (125 shares @ 2.5btc), you multiply 500 by NAV value.

500 * 0.00261275 (NAV per share wk46) = 1.306375btc

That is how much your share is worth this week.

[Smidge]

So now what about the invested money of the shareholders?
Are there any BTC left, or are them all gone?

Please tell me more exactly how much of my 10 invested BTC am I becoming back.
greetings stefan

Someone else please correct me if I'm wrong.
Assuming you bought 500 shares (125 shares @ 2.5btc), you multiply 500 by NAV value.

500 * 0.00261275 (NAV per share wk46) = 1.306375btc

That is how much your share is worth this week.

Hi kandelawa and mrtchipr,

The buybacks follow the same process since Day 1, you have always been able to do this. Let's assume you own 500 shares. You multiply them with the current NAV (which is 0.00261275) and you get a current NAV from yesterday (= buyback price) of your holdings of BTC 1.306375, like mrtchipr described. You can choose to make the buyback between now and Dec 31st.

Edit: The current NAV will be calculated on a case by case basis to make realtime offers for share buybacks. What you see in the report is the weekly snapshot. This is to protect other shareholders if a buyback is done for a price too high/low and the fund NAV increases/decreases due to a position that changes its value and has to be sold too high/low on the market.

[Smidge]

Smidge, were the buybacks bought by you personally, or the fund?
The weekly balance sheet shows the outstanding shares relatively unchanged week to week.

Hi Vex,

There were no buybacks requested in the last weeks, hence the # of shares in the report did not change. You will see the changed number in next week's report, as always.

[Vexual]

Can you show me where buybacks are referenced in the contract?
Can you show accounting for these instances?
Did you, or the fund, buy back the shares?

[Smidge]

Hi Vex,

Can you show me where buybacks are referenced in the contract?

Share buybacks have been referenced under "Cash Reserve" in the contract, plus they have been offered since the start of the fund and discussed in this thread. Quite a few investors have been using this instrument.

Can you show accounting for these instances?

Of course. As soon as buybacks are conducted, they show up in the next weekly report.

Did you, or the fund, buy back the shares?

Of course the fund buys back the shares through liquidation of it's assets. I do not own the fund, the shareholders do. I just own shares in it, like everyone else.

[Vexual]

Hi Vex,

Can you show me where buybacks are referenced in the contract?

Share buybacks have been referenced under "Cash Reserve" in the contract, plus they have been offered since the start of the fund and discussed in this thread. Quite a few investors have been using this instrument.

Can you show accounting for these instances?

Of course. As soon as buybacks are conducted, they show up in the next weekly report.

Did you, or the fund, buy back the shares?

Of course the fund buys back the shares through liquidation of it's assets. I do not own the fund, the shareholders do. I just own shares in it, like everyone else.

You have highlighted one of the many obvious departures from the contract here.
Cash reserve and liquidating assets are not the same thing.
Or are you referring to the fund closure when you speak of liquidating assets here?


A structured and professional wind down?
This is hardly a well defined action plan and time line.
What assets are you writing off as worthless?
Will they be sold after the date of the fund closure if this is possible?


The contract bares little resemblance to anything you have provided, and I consider it to be voidable.

[bbxx]

Smidge.Com Letter to shareholders / Fund closure

Even though the performance of our venture did not in any way meet the expectations, I would like to thank you for this interesting and instructive journey

Smidge, i was bashing you from the start,  that you have no experience and you dont know how to use puts, options etc. You were stating that you have proffesional team and so much more bullshit.

Now you lost 400btc, 90% btc, and you say thank for interesting and instructive journey?
Wtf?

You should learn to play with stocks with your father money first.

This is pathetic. I am glad that my crusade holded some funds away from your bagholder fund.

[Smidge]

Hi Vex,

Cash reserve and liquidating assets are not the same thing.
Or are you referring to the fund closure when you speak of liquidating assets here?

The fund NAV is made up by all the assets held. Assets are being sold on the market to generate coins to buy back shares from investors for the current NAV per share. NAV per share times amount of shares equals the funds total NAV.

What assets are you writing off as worthless?
Will they be sold after the date of the fund closure if this is possible?

This is a good question. Currently there are some securities that are not being traded on any exchange, making it impossible to get a fair market price. We will be announcing the plan for these securities once the share buybacks have been conducted, as they belong to the shareholders.

[Vexual]

Thanks for the info smidge, it seems you are doing your best.

[ft73]

Because of these environmental changes in the last months, we have decided to close down the fund as of Dec 31st, 2013. As we never had an IPO and always operated in private mode, we currently have 17 private investors left, who have been informed via e-mail about the details of the wind down.

e-mail? I think i missed this.

[Smidge]

e-mail? I think i missed this.

Hi ft73,

You received an e-mail to the address you specified when signing up. I just sent you a PM with the details.

[Smidge]

Smidge.Com Letter to Shareholders / Buyback and close dates

Dear Shareholders,

Within two days after last week's announcement, we bought back more than two thirds of the outstanding shares. Thank you everyone for your quick responses.

Due to the buyout going along more quickly than we expected, we decided to move the closure date from Dec 31st to Dec 9th, to comply exactly with the 30 day timeframe posted in the "Fund closure" section of the business plan.

[Vexual]

Distribution to shareholders will be done according to a public, defined timeline and action plan.

[Vexual]

Your spreadsheet subtracts the current week management fee from NAV, are you using this calculation for your buybacks?

[alexius89]

What happens with the 4500 ActiveMining Shares?   they are not tradable at the moment.

[ft73]

Smidge.Com Letter to Shareholders / Buyback and close dates

Dear Shareholders,

Within two days after last week's announcement, we bought back more than two thirds of the outstanding shares. Thank you everyone for your quick responses.

Due to the buyout going along more quickly than we expected, we decided to move the closure date from Dec 31st to Dec 9th, to comply exactly with the 30 day timeframe posted in the "Fund closure" section of the business plan.

After about 90% loss it's already late to close and no reason to hurry.
Especially these times.

Being  malicious i think you are liquidating shareholders with almost nothing (10% of investment), while keeping for you the assets.
You already put many assets value to zero due to debatable reasons, which now sounds like an easy way to drive NAV lower than due.
Now you hurry to close the fund.

Maybe you are simply a terrible manager or maybe you are also scamming people.
I'm keeping an eye on this as well as keeping my shares till closing, as suggested by my lawyer.

EDIT:
Being a Ciphermine shareholder myself and given the actual dividend i get, i really wonder how they may be worth zero.
Funds actually owns 389 Ciphermine shares, i'd rate them at very least 5BTC alone. Very conservatively.
They may be easily worth 2x - 3x within a couple months.

So, after a massive loss (about 90%), shareholders are now spoiled of any recovery possibility by some arbitrary decision of closing the fund.
Wrong timing and wrong decision in my opinion.
This is bad, i wonder how some people is accepting this so passively.

If you are really willing to close, then distribute assets to the remaining shareholders, so we can possibly choose what to make of them.
I think it's an option we deserve, given the situation you put us into.

[stripykitteh]

Maybe you are simply a terrible manager or maybe you are also scamming people.
I'm keeping an eye on this as well as keeping my shares till closing, as suggested by my lawyer.

That's wise. I can understand the urge to be free of Smidge and selling up, but taking his crappy prices to do so seems like a bad idea.

[alexius89]

So still waiting? Whats happens With the shares rated Art 0

[Smidge]

After about 90% loss it's already late to close and no reason to hurry.
Especially these times.

Being  malicious i think you are liquidating shareholders with almost nothing (10% of investment), while keeping for you the assets.
You already put many assets value to zero due to debatable reasons, which now sounds like an easy way to drive NAV lower than due.
Now you hurry to close the fund.

Maybe you are simply a terrible manager or maybe you are also scamming people.
I'm keeping an eye on this as well as keeping my shares till closing, as suggested by my lawyer.

EDIT:
Being a Ciphermine shareholder myself and given the actual dividend i get, i really wonder how they may be worth zero.
Funds actually owns 389 Ciphermine shares, i'd rate them at very least 5BTC alone. Very conservatively.
They may be easily worth 2x - 3x within a couple months.

So, after a massive loss (about 90%), shareholders are now spoiled of any recovery possibility by some arbitrary decision of closing the fund.
Wrong timing and wrong decision in my opinion.
This is bad, i wonder how some people is accepting this so passively.

If you are really willing to close, then distribute assets to the remaining shareholders, so we can possibly choose what to make of them.
I think it's an option we deserve, given the situation you put us into.

So still waiting? Whats happens With the shares rated Art 0

Hi,

As already pointed out several times before, all shares will be liquidated as soon as there is a fair market price for them. This is a separate process from the wind down that we are currently doing.

As soon as ActiveMining and Ciphermine are tradeable again, we will also liquidate those positions and return the proceeds to the respective owners, which are our shareholders. Also, it does not make sense to hold shares until the last day, as the handling of the currently untradeable securities will be processed separately, as explained.

Being  malicious (...)

Hi ft73,

I think it is very important to play Devil's Advocate from time to time to ensure everything goes as planned. We also need this feedback to optimize the processes. But please be a little more cautious with scam accusations, as we are handling both processes with great care.

There will be an announcement about any buybacks, liquidations etc. as soon as they happen. This will be done via E-Mail, as always.

(Untradeable shares...) are still displayed at a price of 0 for now, until we see trading activity on them. Therefore, NAV might seem lower in the balance sheet than it actually is.

[ft73]

As already pointed out several times before, all shares will be liquidated as soon as there is a fair market price for them. This is a separate process from the wind down that we are currently doing.

What about any "fair" market price possibily reached into 2-3 months?
The fund will be closed already.

Hi ft73,

I think it is very important to play Devil's Advocate from time to time to ensure everything goes as planned. We also need this feedback to optimize the processes. But please be a little more cautious with scam accusations, as we are handling both processes with great care.

There will be an announcement about any buybacks, liquidations etc. as soon as they happen. This will be done via E-Mail, as always.

I'm glad you appreciate my feedback.
I was very cautios till now, too much actually, leaving things go from bad to worse.

To be sincere, i completely miss the "care" applied to both fund performance and current wind down.
What i see is shareholders spoiled and then put into a corner, with the fund closure notice.

I hope no scamming is involved, but the way you are operating is indeed suspect to me (especially the hurry), so i definetely won't exclude scamming until some proof.

Keeping an eye on this.

[Smidge]

What about any "fair" market price possibily reached into 2-3 months?
The fund will be closed already.

Hi ft73,

We will still be handling the distribution of funds to the then ex-shareholders. We made the decision to close the fund and cannot wait for a (more or less up in the air) listing of some security with this. I hope you understand this. But once it happens, we will take care of things as promised.

I'm glad you appreciate my feedback.
I was very cautios till now, too much actually, leaving things go from bad to worse.

To be sincere, i completely miss the "care" applied to both fund performance and current wind down.
What i see is shareholders spoiled and then put into a corner, with the fund closure notice.

I hope no scamming is involved, but the way you are operating is indeed suspect to me (especially the hurry), so i definetely won't exclude scamming until some proof.

Keeping an eye on this.

There are a lot of (possible) scams out there, and everyone is very sensitized on anything that does not go "according to plan". I understand that and I am in the same situation quite often. But it is not our fault that the BTC/LTC stock markets and the exchanges more or less imploded. Investors were able to cash out at any time during the funds operation. Nevertheless, we have already paid out more than 70% of all investors and are taking care of things.

Edit: Regarding the "hurry", we estimated the buybacks of all shares to progress rather slowly. This is why we even increased the timeframe to Dec 31st. Because more than two thirds of shares have been processed in two days, we decided to shorten it to Dec 9th, but still comply with the 30 day timeframe stated in the contract. No hurry at all.

[Vexual]

Your spreadsheet subtracts the current week management fee from NAV, are you using this calculation for your buybacks?

Can you answer this?

Edit: Regarding the "hurry", we estimated the buybacks of all shares to progress rather slowly. This is why we even increased the timeframe to Dec 31st. Because more than two thirds of shares have been processed in two days, we decided to shorten it to Dec 9th, but still comply with the 30 day timeframe stated in the contract. No hurry at all.

You changed the date to dec 9 on nov 17, so thats not 30 days.
The plan is so vague and inconsistent, yet you call on the very part of the contract that states it is to be handled in a clear and defined manner.

You have deleted the contract from the public record and depart from it at every opportunity.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to accept that nothing underhanded is going on.

[Smidge]

Hi Vex,

Can you answer this?

The mgmt fee has never, ever been paid out to mgmt. It has been reinvested to increase the fund NAV for all shareholders since day 1. This will of course be continued until the wind down is complete.

You changed the date to dec 9 on nov 17, so thats not 30 days.
The plan is so vague and inconsistent, yet you call on the very part of the contract that states it is to be handled in a clear and defined manner.

You have deleted the contract from the public record and depart from it at every opportunity.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to accept that nothing underhanded is going on.

wat?

The announcement for closure was made on Nov 10th, that is why Dec 9th is precisely 30 days.

Also, your accusations posted here are annoying to say the least. The contract is being followed precisely and we are doing everything to pay out all shareholders, wind down is almost 90% complete as of today.

[Vexual]

The mgmt fee has never, ever been paid out to mgmt. It has been reinvested to increase the fund NAV for all shareholders since day 1. This will of course be continued until the wind down is complete.

I'm not saying it's been paid to management, but NAV calculated on your spreadsheet, subtracts the management fee.
If you are using this calculation from the spreadsheet for the buy back price, then the management fee is effectively being charged for the last week.
Yes, it is returned to the fund, to the disadvantage of those investors who have politely cashed out at your request.

The announcement for closure was made on Nov 10th, that is why Dec 9th is precisely 30 days.

Also, your accusations posted here are annoying to say the least. The contract is being followed precisely and we are doing everything to pay out all shareholders, wind down is almost 90% complete as of today.

Then you changed the date. The contract calls for a defined timeline.

[Smidge]

The mgmt fee has never, ever been paid out to mgmt. It has been reinvested to increase the fund NAV for all shareholders since day 1. This will of course be continued until the wind down is complete.

I'm not saying it's been paid to management, but NAV calculated on your spreadsheet, subtracts the management fee.
If you are using this calculation from the spreadsheet for the buy back price, then the management fee is effectively being charged for the last week.
Yes, it is returned to the fund, to the disadvantage of those investors who have politely cashed out at your request.

No disadvantage whatsoever, as the mgmt fee is not deducted (never has been).

The announcement for closure was made on Nov 10th, that is why Dec 9th is precisely 30 days.

Also, your accusations posted here are annoying to say the least. The contract is being followed precisely and we are doing everything to pay out all shareholders, wind down is almost 90% complete as of today.

Then you changed the date. The contract calls for a defined timeline.

Because more than two thirds of shares were bought back in the first two days. It's still precisely the defined 30 day timeline.

[Vexual]

No disadvantage whatsoever, as the mgmt fee is not deducted (never has been).

NAV=SUM(G14:G30) , where G30 is a negative value, the management fee.
Is this public spreadsheet the one you use for your fund accounting?

[kandelawa]

Hi,

As already pointed out several times before, all shares will be liquidated as soon as there is a fair market price for them. This is a separate process from the wind down that we are currently doing.

As soon as ActiveMining and Ciphermine are tradeable again, we will also liquidate those positions and return the proceeds to the respective owners, which are our shareholders. Also, it does not make sense to hold shares until the last day, as the handling of the currently untradeable securities will be processed separately, as explained.

So that means, that the shareholders, who give back there smidgeshares, will get some additional BTC back, when selling the activminingshares, which can't be executet at the moment?

[alexius89]

Correct

[ft73]

So still waiting? Whats happens With the shares rated Art 0

Still waiting.

[Smidge]

So still waiting? Whats happens With the shares rated Art 0

Still waiting.

Nope:

So still waiting? Whats happens With the shares rated Art 0

Hi,

As already pointed out several times before, all shares will be liquidated as soon as there is a fair market price for them. This is a separate process from the wind down that we are currently doing.

As soon as ActiveMining and Ciphermine are tradeable again, we will also liquidate those positions and return the proceeds to the respective owners, which are our shareholders. Also, it does not make sense to hold shares until the last day, as the handling of the currently untradeable securities will be processed separately, as explained.

Which is also the answer to:

So that means, that the shareholders, who give back there smidgeshares, will get some additional BTC back, when selling the activminingshares, which can't be executet at the moment?

[Vexual]

What's happening with CIPHERMINE dividends?

[ft73]

What's happening with CIPHERMINE dividends?

Yes, i'm interested too.

[Smidge]

What's happening with CIPHERMINE dividends?

Yes, i'm interested too.

Hi,

Of course, the before posted process also includes dividends. Which means: Any dividends paid by the securities CM and ActM will be included proportionately when the proceeds from their sale are paid out.

[razerrr]

New informations?

[razerrr]

New informations?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand again.
New informations?

[Smidge]

New informations?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand again.
New informations?

Hi razerrr,

What kind of information do you expect?

[razerrr]

New informations?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand again.
New informations?

Hi razerrr,

What kind of information do you expect?

Are there any shares you hold at this time, which will be liquidated in the future or is the prozess completed and no shareholder will get anything anymore?

[Smidge]

New informations?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand again.
New informations?

Hi razerrr,

What kind of information do you expect?

Are there any shares you hold at this time, which will be liquidated in the future or is the prozess completed and no shareholder will get anything anymore?

Pls PM me once there are tradeable shares out there (ActM, CM) to work out a process for that.

[ft73]

Smidge is active on official Ciphertrade thread (reference: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=15822) and actually trying to withdraw LTC assets.
i'm expecting him to update this thread soon, in order to give clarifications about liquitadion of LTC assets pertaining to this fund.
So far he didn't reply to my PM.

[freedomno1]

Smidge is active on official Ciphertrade thread (reference: https://litecointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;area=showposts;u=15822) and actually trying to withdraw LTC assets.
i'm expecting him to update this thread soon, in order to give clarifications about liquitadion of LTC assets pertaining to this fund.
So far he didn't reply to my PM.

I sent him a PM on that back in June also asked about the activemining lawsuit at that time and did not get a reply
It's good to know that he is trying to do something with those coins now though, since Ciphermine and Activemining were the wildcards worth noting.