Alpha Technology Litecoin (Scrypt) ASIC Miner Order Batch 1 Now!

[Its About Sharing]

Difficulty will go to 100K...

I just looked at the chart, and 100k might not be seen for a few more months. August, I could imagine 500.

https://bitcoinwisdom.com/litecoin/difficulty

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[Red Star Mining]

Rather than everyone sh*tting their knickers just complete the finale payment with a credit card once they offer that option in the next two weeks.  You then have at least ninety days after payment to file for a full charge back.  Plus the fact that AlphaT only initially asked for a 30% deposit how can you say "Oh no we're being BFL'd again".  Also the post about Dexcels part of the job being finished when the chips went to the foundry is correct.  Dexcel probably removed the AlphaT links after all the panicked emails they were receiving really spooked them.  I guess AlphaT are facing some big challenges and are currently holding off saying anything much further until they have a trump card to pull out like fully working chips.  Which unless the tape-out went wrong then that announcement should come soon.

[VJLoops]

Mention of AT in CoinDesk.

Alpha Technology says it’s still working with Dexcel
Rendering of the Viper scrypt miner. Source: Alpha TechnologyRendering of the Viper scrypt miner. Source: Alpha Technology

Manchester, UK-based Alpha Technology, which plans to bring a powerful scrypt miner to market, says that it still has a key partnership with Dexcel Designs in place. Mohammed Akram, Director of Alpha Techology, told CoinDesk:

    “Our partnership with Dexcel is fine. We have actually completed most of our design work, all work now is from the foundry and our manufacturing partners.”

Rumors of a possible breakdown in relations between Alpha and Dexcel have caused some turmoil. Customers who already preordered mining units began requesting refunds en masse.

The company says that they are still on schedule to begin shipping units in July.  It currently has two different models on its website. They are both called the Viper, and one has 50MH/s of power at 375W for £1,350. A more powerful version of the Viper has 250MH/s of power at 1,875W for £5,450.00.

Source: www.coindesk.com/mining-roundup-bbb-warning-alpha-technology-pool-attack

[retro72]

Mention of AT in CoinDesk.

Alpha Technology says it’s still working with Dexcel
Rendering of the Viper scrypt miner. Source: Alpha TechnologyRendering of the Viper scrypt miner. Source: Alpha Technology

Manchester, UK-based Alpha Technology, which plans to bring a powerful scrypt miner to market, says that it still has a key partnership with Dexcel Designs in place. Mohammed Akram, Director of Alpha Techology, told CoinDesk:

    “Our partnership with Dexcel is fine. We have actually completed most of our design work, all work now is from the foundry and our manufacturing partners.”

Rumors of a possible breakdown in relations between Alpha and Dexcel have caused some turmoil. Customers who already preordered mining units began requesting refunds en masse.

The company says that they are still on schedule to begin shipping units in July.  It currently has two different models on its website. They are both called the Viper, and one has 50MH/s of power at 375W for £1,350. A more powerful version of the Viper has 250MH/s of power at 1,875W for £5,450.00.

Source: www.coindesk.com/mining-roundup-bbb-warning-alpha-technology-pool-attack

It's from Coindesk so it must be true 

So this is Fiaz's answer to a customer, yet again asking for an update (https://forum.alpha-t.net/index.php?topic=661.0)


Re: Viper progress

« Reply #1 on: Today at 02:28:02 PM »
Quote from: Mario on Today at 01:52:22 PM
Is the viper development done in July  Will the shipment also start then ??
are the chips done yet ??
when can we expect an update ??

Fiaz:
Yes development will be done in July, and we will start shipping then. This will be anywhere from the 15th (best case) to the end of July. The chips are nearly ready and we will release a big update with full specs soon after the payment processor is up.

Did anyone else catch that? "we will release a big update with full specs soon AFTER the payment processor is up"

Doesn't this strike you as odd? Why not release an update now? Why wait until after the payment processor is up? Surely if the chips are nearly ready they must have the wafers? Why not post a picture? Why not say when Fab out and Bump out were started and completed or when they went for packaging?

This just doesn't pass the smell test. Waiting until after they have a payment processor, means Alpha can take non refundable payments from the presumably many holdouts, then tell them anything they want and they just have to swallow it.

I wouldn't pay a penny more until Alpha release an update. A revised roadmap that details how they intend to deliver these devices in July wouldn't go amiss either. I don't think that's an unreasonable request considering how much money's at stake.

[nwfella]

This doesn't bode well at all.  Really wishing I would've paid the remainder of my order with a credit card now

Hope this doesn't turn into another HashFast situation

[Its About Sharing]

Mention of AT in CoinDesk.

Alpha Technology says it’s still working with Dexcel
Rendering of the Viper scrypt miner. Source: Alpha TechnologyRendering of the Viper scrypt miner. Source: Alpha Technology

Manchester, UK-based Alpha Technology, which plans to bring a powerful scrypt miner to market, says that it still has a key partnership with Dexcel Designs in place. Mohammed Akram, Director of Alpha Techology, told CoinDesk:

    “Our partnership with Dexcel is fine. We have actually completed most of our design work, all work now is from the foundry and our manufacturing partners.”

Rumors of a possible breakdown in relations between Alpha and Dexcel have caused some turmoil. Customers who already preordered mining units began requesting refunds en masse.

The company says that they are still on schedule to begin shipping units in July.  It currently has two different models on its website. They are both called the Viper, and one has 50MH/s of power at 375W for £1,350. A more powerful version of the Viper has 250MH/s of power at 1,875W for £5,450.00.

Source: www.coindesk.com/mining-roundup-bbb-warning-alpha-technology-pool-attack

It's from Coindesk so it must be true 

So this is Fiaz's answer to a customer, yet again asking for an update (https://forum.alpha-t.net/index.php?topic=661.0)


Re: Viper progress

« Reply #1 on: Today at 02:28:02 PM »
Quote from: Mario on Today at 01:52:22 PM
Is the viper development done in July  Will the shipment also start then ??
are the chips done yet ??
when can we expect an update ??

Fiaz:
Yes development will be done in July, and we will start shipping then. This will be anywhere from the 15th (best case) to the end of July. The chips are nearly ready and we will release a big update with full specs soon after the payment processor is up.

Did anyone else catch that? "we will release a big update with full specs soon AFTER the payment processor is up"

Doesn't this strike you as odd? Why not release an update now? Why wait until after the payment processor is up? Surely if the chips are nearly ready they must have the wafers? Why not post a picture? Why not say when Fab out and Bump out were started and completed or when they went for packaging?

This just doesn't pass the smell test. Waiting until after they have a payment processor, means Alpha can take non refundable payments from the presumably many holdouts, then tell them anything they want and they just have to swallow it.

I wouldn't pay a penny more until Alpha release an update. A revised roadmap that details how they intend to deliver these devices in July wouldn't go amiss either. I don't think that's an unreasonable request considering how much money's at stake.

I can only hope that their announcement will cause people to believe they are on track AND to sell out the rest of their units due to however many cancellations happened.

If you are right with your comments, then thank you, but if you are proven wrong in the end, there will probably be more than a few unhappy campers at the fear mongered. I'm not saying this in a bad way, honestly, if you are correct then thank you as you saved a lot of people some money (and perhaps made them money too boot as they would just buy coins with that money.) But if you are
wrong, then it is on you (and I or anyone who listened as each has to take responsibility for listening.)

But it doesn't strike me as odd at all. We essentially got a free extension to pay due to the payment processor lag. Well, if they can truly show us something is in the works, then perhaps all the questioning was for a better good. The chips apparently are close to ready, so there is no pic to post and when they are ready then you will get the pick.

You seem to have taken an extreme stance with Alpha, perhaps it is warranted due to all the bad fiasco's that came before and it caught AT off guard, so now they have to be careful and more transparent. (But, if you balanced your fear with what is going right, I think more people would listen, so I'm not 100% sure of your intention. Seems like you mean well, but the extreme perspective probably makes people question and I don't think anyone is shocked you got kicked off their forum.) I hope it works out in the end. Hopefully what Alpha tells us once the payment processor is up, is clearly verifiable. Don't look past the fact that they have a family business and such and are public personalities at this point, they are not going to be running away from this (and I'm not saying they would). I really don't see this as a scam, if anything, just a typically executed mining venture but time will tell.

All I can say at this time is "I don't know" and I'm waiting, reading and contemplating what to do next.

Thx,
Its about sharing

[retro72]

@IAS

You may doubt my intentions but I'm asking questions you should be asking.

Alpha Technologies shouldn't be afraid of scrutiny. If they are a legitimate company they shouldn't lie to their customers about UK consumer law. They should be happy to provide all the information their customers ask for, they shouldn't ban people from their forums for asking legitimate questions and their development partners should be happy to issue a press release about the state of their relationship.

So far their much lauded transparency has consisted of a few badly written newsletters with 2 photos of PCBs with absolutely no context. They are not shown with the dev team, in a factory or lab, just PCB's, on a white table.

Look at these updates from Cointerra:
Fab out/Bump out announced Dec/11/2013 http://cointerra.com/asic-processor-fabout-bumpout-dates-announced/
Wafers received Dec/28/2013 http://cointerra.com/engineering-update-goldstrike-fabout-bumpout-completed-sorting-packaging-underway/
First chips packaged Dec/31/2013 http://cointerra.com/engineering-update-goldstrike-packaged-chips-system-board-assembly/
Testing and Diagnostics Jan/7/2014 http://cointerra.com/engineering-update-asic-bringup-diagnostic-testing/
Testing completed Jan/20/2014 http://cointerra.com/update-prototype-testing-completed-certification-production-week/
Shipment begins Jan/28/2014 http://cointerra.com/pr-cointerra-begins-shipment-terraminer-iv-worlds-fastest-bitcoin-miner/

Even KNC produced a decent press release once upon a time
http://www.alchip.com/news_01.php?id=128

I had a large order with Cointerra and even with all these wonderful updates they were over a month late and produced an unreliable piece of garbage.

You can see from Cointerra's updates Alpha should have plenty of pictures to show you if they are days away for getting their chips, even just a picture of the wafers. I don't understand why they wouldn't do this.
Cointerra had cases built and mocked up in December. Alpha haven't even bothered to update their CGI render.

For me there are too many red flags:
1)lying
2)no evidence of wafers/chips
3)No enclosures designed or manufactured. 4-6 weeks out from shipping, that's cutting it fine.
4)CE certification. Not sure about this one. Seemed to take Cointerra 2-3 days. Not sure how long it takes in the UK/Europe.
5)Way past their stated timeline. They will have to cut corners to get these units out on time. Notably using risk lot chips and testing time.


I'll happily shut my mouth if Alpha produce strong evidence of being anywhere near a July delivery at their  next update and I'll come back here for a public hazing if they actually deliver a reliable, to spec asic on time. But right now, at this very moment, I'm not convinced and it seems many of Alpha's customers aren't either.

[mamichula]

Do these things have any resale value?

[brian_23452]

Do these things have any resale value?

One sold in auctions for .3BTC so I guess technically they aren't completely worthless.  One thing to note:

"Reselling & third party buying

For now we do not allow orders to be resold and do not acknowledge the reselling of that order if it were to happen. We cannot and do not ‘transfer’ orders from one of our customers to another party. Orders can only be kept with the party that accepted our terms."

[anderl]

Do these things have any resale value?

They have extremely high depreciation that is pegged to the profitability of the coins they mine.  GPUs have a market in gaming and graphic rendering and the cycle between releases is typically 1 year.  So you ca be assured a slower depreciation as there is always someone that wants a used GPU because last years model is now in their price range.

These miners have a single purpose and the cycle between releases is very short and random.  Case in point is when a manufacturer ships and a buyer gets their shipment delayed in customs for about a week.  Because miners are competitive the miner that is delayed is 1 week behind and has lost opportunity.  The product they receive eventually is now worth less and did not capture the return expected.  Plus there is the other units that are being delivered every month or two with better performances.  I would say most ASICs have a 50% depreciation over 60 days.

[vesperwillow]

Rather than everyone sh*tting their knickers just complete the finale payment with a credit card once they offer that option in the next two weeks.  You then have at least ninety days after payment to file for a full charge back.

You mean the payment processor they were supposed to have working before June 5th? I can go to any bank within a 5 mile radius, and for $250 I can acquire credit/debit card payment processing, even without having a bank account at that bank (it just costs a few more to setup). And yes, this is with business registration. There are at least 20 online processing companies who will have you setup in 15 minutes.

There's something preventing them from getting this otherwise extremely easy system in process. Any sensible person who understands business has to ask themselves, what is that? Something doesn't add up, unless there's been some shady stuff in your business/personal history--typically fraud. This is all speculative thought, but it's worth wondering why they can't get it.

I guess AlphaT are facing some big challenges and are currently holding off saying anything much further until they have a trump card to pull out like fully working chips.  Which unless the tape-out went wrong then that announcement should come soon.

Their announcement should've come 1-2 months back (which, coincidentally, is in line with their original projection of foundry/bump/chips). If you've been following the concerns here, there's legal and engineering deadlines/milestones which aren't physically achievable right now, even if they had functional chips+pcb's, if they're expecting to meet their July deadline without any further changes.

[Red Star Mining]

Rather than everyone sh*tting their knickers just complete the finale payment with a credit card once they offer that option in the next two weeks.  You then have at least ninety days after payment to file for a full charge back.

You mean the payment processor they were supposed to have working before June 5th? I can go to any bank within a 5 mile radius, and for $250 I can acquire credit/debit card payment processing, even without having a bank account at that bank (it just costs a few more to setup). And yes, this is with business registration. There are at least 20 online processing companies who will have you setup in 15 minutes.

There's something preventing them from getting this otherwise extremely easy system in process. Any sensible person who understands business has to ask themselves, what is that? Something doesn't add up, unless there's been some shady stuff in your business/personal history--typically fraud. This is all speculative thought, but it's worth wondering why they can't get it.

I guess AlphaT are facing some big challenges and are currently holding off saying anything much further until they have a trump card to pull out like fully working chips.  Which unless the tape-out went wrong then that announcement should come soon.

Their announcement should've come 1-2 months back (which, coincidentally, is in line with their original projection of foundry/bump/chips). If you've been following the concerns here, there's legal and engineering deadlines/milestones which aren't physically achievable right now, even if they had functional chips+pcb's, if they're expecting to meet their July deadline without any further changes.

KNC went from working delivered chips to shipping miners in about a week.  Maybe if AT dropped the included PSU's they could too.  Saying that though with Bitmine it took them at least a month after receiving the working chips to starting to ship and they had major problems with their PSU supplier which greatly slowed down the volume they could ship.  If AT can announce working chips and PCB's this week or early next week then I'm confident they can still pull off starting to ship devices before the end of July.  AT usually have given official updates at least every two weeks while now is the third week since their last official update.  A reason to be concerned yes but not the loss of any deposits yet.  They've not broken their contract unless they don't ship your miner before September 31st.  Although they'll now look very bad if they don't start shipping in July.  Trying to prove an argument they they won't ship in July for the 'good' of the public is one thing.  Although the FUD'ers saying you've already lost your deposit is just that FUD.   

[vesperwillow]

Slight difference between KNC and AT: KNC is an experienced engineering/design team with delivered results, using a pre-existing platform which has been proven. The chassis, overall design, etc.. all pre-existing. Suppliers? No issue there. Assembly and testing? They have several teams and access to automated systems. Their Titan series didn't require any physical changes or supply differences. The mainboard and ASIC were the difference. They already have everything else.

Alpha Tec? To my knowledge.. none of that. They admitted they hadn't even figured out the physical case redesign. They're a mom and pop who are outsourcing as much as they can, and to date have admitted that it's all fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants in order to make their own deadlines. It's not to say they can't do it just because they're a smaller outfit.

It's just that, with so many odds against them, and their lack of clarity and response, and the fact they can't obtain credit card processing after a month of trying, is cause for concern.

And from a personal standpoint, why on earth doesn't a company like this already HAVE credit card processing?

[Red Star Mining]

Slight difference between KNC and AT: KNC is an experienced engineering/design team with delivered results, using a pre-existing platform which has been proven. The chassis, overall design, etc.. all pre-existing. Suppliers? No issue there. Assembly and testing? They have several teams and access to automated systems. Their Titan series didn't require any physical changes or supply differences. The mainboard and ASIC were the difference. They already have everything else.

Alpha Tec? To my knowledge.. none of that. They admitted they hadn't even figured out the physical case redesign. They're a mom and pop who are outsourcing as much as they can, and to date have admitted that it's all fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants in order to make their own deadlines. It's not to say they can't do it just because they're a smaller outfit.

It's just that, with so many odds against them, and their lack of clarity and response, and the fact they can't obtain credit card processing after a month of trying, is cause for concern.

And from a personal standpoint, why on earth doesn't a company like this already HAVE credit card processing?

You can't even get a UK bank account if you mention cryptocoins.  I'd imagine a lot of established payment processors would be just as nervous at the mention of cryptocoins.  They did originally offer Paypal for deposits although even KNC has dropped credit cards now and you can only pay with Bitcoin or bank wire.  I don't know many manufactures who do or did offer credit cards or PayPal in the last six months at least.

[retro72]

You can't even get a UK bank account if you mention cryptocoins.  I'd imagine a lot of established payment processors would be just as nervous at the mention of cryptocoins.  They did originally offer Paypal for deposits although even KNC has dropped credit cards now and you can only pay with Bitcoin or bank wire.  I don't know many manufactures who do or did offer credit cards or PayPal in the last six months at least.

You're right. Getting a Merchant account with a UK bank isn't easy. I'd be very surprised if Alpha  even come close. They're a start up, with no accounts, in a high risk business. Normally you need at least two years of accounts to even be considered.

Merchant accounts are seen as an extension of credit and UK banks are heavily scrutinizing all forms of credit at the moment. I'd be amazed if Alpha started offering worldwide CC payments any time soon. I guess we'll know soon enough.

[vesperwillow]

You can't even get a UK bank account if you mention cryptocoins.  I'd imagine a lot of established payment processors would be just as nervous at the mention of cryptocoins.  They did originally offer Paypal for deposits although even KNC has dropped credit cards now and you can only pay with Bitcoin or bank wire.  I don't know many manufactures who do or did offer credit cards or PayPal in the last six months at least.

You're right. Getting a Merchant account with a UK bank isn't easy. I'd be very surprised if Alpha  even come close. They're a start up, with no accounts, in a high risk business. Normally you need at least two years of accounts to even be considered.

Merchant accounts are seen as an extension of credit and UK banks are heavily scrutinizing all forms of credit at the moment. I'd be amazed if Alpha started offering worldwide CC payments any time soon. I guess we'll know soon enough.

They're not a start-up, they've been around for many years. Which is the point I'm underlining, why are they having issues? They weren't a cryptocurrency company to begin with, and it's still not their primary business according to their filing. So something else is going on. (edit: they recently got into crypto last year, according to them, but defended the length of the business for over a decade)

KNC dropped credit card processing as a strategic move, because they needed to keep as much cash as possible after their 2nd batch of original gear. This later became clear when people found out what they did with their 90%+ profit margin and startup money. Paypal was a fluke, I'm surprised they offered it because Paypal doesn't like doing business with cryptocurrency companies.

AT can't expect everyone to remit full payment if they can't offer credit processing, as it was something they offered during initial buy-in. So many people expected to remit remaining payment with credit. Without that, they're going to lose a lot of funds.

More and more reasons to question their capabilities to follow through. So far during the last 90 days it's been fly by the seat of their pants, design changes (feature removal) after money has been taken, failed to meet their spring deadline of final chip design (or whatever they called it, they just recently completed that), no answer to the CE issue (which requires another feature removal or worse), no 'transparency' of value at all through any part beyond the initial payment acceptance.

And, speculation here, if they don't have the funds to back credit processing, how are they going to have funds to complete system buildout, testing and shipping, if most of their userbase has failed to provide payment?

I'm simply examining facts. This isn't FUD. If I had an order, I sure wouldn't remit payment.

[Its About Sharing]

You can't even get a UK bank account if you mention cryptocoins.  I'd imagine a lot of established payment processors would be just as nervous at the mention of cryptocoins.  They did originally offer Paypal for deposits although even KNC has dropped credit cards now and you can only pay with Bitcoin or bank wire.  I don't know many manufactures who do or did offer credit cards or PayPal in the last six months at least.

You're right. Getting a Merchant account with a UK bank isn't easy. I'd be very surprised if Alpha  even come close. They're a start up, with no accounts, in a high risk business. Normally you need at least two years of accounts to even be considered.

Merchant accounts are seen as an extension of credit and UK banks are heavily scrutinizing all forms of credit at the moment. I'd be amazed if Alpha started offering worldwide CC payments any time soon. I guess we'll know soon enough.

They're not a start-up, they've been around for many years. Which is the point I'm underlining, why are they having issues? They weren't a cryptocurrency company to begin with, and it's still not their primary business according to their filing. So something else is going on. (edit: they recently got into crypto last year, according to them, but defended the length of the business for over a decade)

KNC dropped credit card processing as a strategic move, because they needed to keep as much cash as possible after their 2nd batch of original gear. This later became clear when people found out what they did with their 90%+ profit margin and startup money. Paypal was a fluke, I'm surprised they offered it because Paypal doesn't like doing business with cryptocurrency companies.

AT can't expect everyone to remit full payment if they can't offer credit processing, as it was something they offered during initial buy-in. So many people expected to remit remaining payment with credit. Without that, they're going to lose a lot of funds.

More and more reasons to question their capabilities to follow through. So far during the last 90 days it's been fly by the seat of their pants, design changes (feature removal) after money has been taken, failed to meet their spring deadline of final chip design (or whatever they called it, they just recently completed that), no answer to the CE issue (which requires another feature removal or worse), no 'transparency' of value at all through any part beyond the initial payment acceptance.

And, speculation here, if they don't have the funds to back credit processing, how are they going to have funds to complete system buildout, testing and shipping, if most of their userbase has failed to provide payment?

I'm simply examining facts. This isn't FUD. If I had an order, I sure wouldn't remit payment.

I am certain that they are keeping the accounting business separate from the mining one. They are looking or working on getting the payment processor set up for the mining business. I am sure they don't want to obfuscate the two, at least for financial reasons.

A bit make or break with the credit card set up right now, unless thex have a working unit and then people would be less heistant to pay ba bank transfer (no protection outside os getting a lawyer).

IAS

[peacefulmind]

Indian Gunda Mafia Miner

People should research and ask people in India about companies before buying or you might realize you just gave your money to the Indian Gunda gang running this.... 

[Searing]

Well sorry to say I pulled the plug on my Vyper 50mh ...I contacted Amex to get my 30% refunded (ie around 667 usd more or less) went straight to amex
under the alpha rules I would get 217 back...so did not think that was fair ..also showed the amex lady the alpha-t site their terms....their lack of info on their page
since may 27th...the fact they no longer take paypal..the fact their phone (at least recently) does not work and the fact that they keep claiming they will have
a cc order next week...main point is (lady agreed) even if alpha is legit with their timeline of middle of july shipping a miner with the level of confusion and according
to the amex lady ..their TOS was not thrilling to amex lady..well she put my dispute in and they will do all contact/etc with alpha for my 30% refund from jan 6th
back....immediately credited the full amount back

if alpha was only gonna charge the 70 british pounds for my cancellation from jan I'd let them keep that 120usd more or less as fair..but 450 bucks on a product
with no info .naw

so amex can see what happens ..if i lose the 217 i could have gotten by pushing this so be it....rather lose it all then buckle under and get reamed and only get
217 usd back

i'll let you go how it goes

Searing

[miri94]

hey Searing so you paid the initial 30% by Amex but it was via Paypal, so you didn't bother with Paypal because it was already pat 60 days so you went straight to Amex

is that correct?