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

[nwfella]

Very interesting news from Alpha-T in there Forum:

https://forum.alpha-t.net/index.php?topic=952.0

And very amusing.

Yeah, that is a funny one too …

To paraphrase: 'We have your deposit, no you can not have it back. It is in your interest to stop causing problems and work with us because we are not legally required to provide the performance upgrades we announced."

can you guys copy it here for the banned crowd

From Alpha-T Forums:

Greetings Miners,

This is our final word to those who are not happy with us/demanding a refund as such any posts on this topic will be deleted (depending on their context). We are sorry but this post is in everyone’s interest and is necessary in order to keep the forum from being flooded with unnecessary complaints: Just as a reminder what has happened since the start: you pre-ordered a product, competitors then arrived on the scene. In order to secure your loyalty, we increased the hashrate to 90Mh/s which is fair enough, we then took final payment at 90 (if we were any other company: chances are we would have as we could have stopped at this point, that is a fact), we then decided to increase to 250Mh/s despite the fact we didn't need to. We delayed and despite the fact our terms give us leeway in this: for the sake and in the interests of our customers we still decided to go yet another step further by giving you shares of our company for the rest of its existence without the need for you to spend an extra penny or work for us hence there is no catch this is technically something for nothing in so far as what we are legally obliged to provide you. All this on top of free shipping for batch 2 and 10% off any future batch of your choice; this is an unprecedented level of customer service. We have been crystal clear from the start with our cancellation policy so why you would order from us if you didn’t agree with it or worse you thought it wasn’t legal is beyond us. Customers who do not pay in full will of course not receive shares in our company, their orders will be cancelled subject to our cancellation policy; this is the final word on this. And while technically the due date has passed we of course haven’t cancelled anybody’s orders but at a certain point enough is enough. If we were any other company we wouldn’t be having this discussion, it is what it is, if we may be so bold we have gone above and beyond the call of duty for you; this is a fact. I am sorry it is your perception that you believe you are entitled to more from us however we have nothing left to give and can do nothing more for you. You paid for a 25Mh/s miner and everything on top is goodwill, this is simply a fact. Thank you for your understanding and we are sorry if this response is blunt. We are just proud of our company taking this action as these choices are never easy and it is always tempting to take an easy way out yet here we are doing our best and you can't ask for more than that. How many other companies would have gone to these lengths to keep your custom and loyalty after the rollercoaster ride that has been batch 1? So in short we will not allow customers who only pay 30% to join the company and their orders will be subject to our cancellation policy, their 30% cannot be applied to any future batches, products or services from us. This is the final word on this as such any posts on this will be deleted and the poster will be directed to this post. We are sorry if this sounds harsh to you but the bottom line is aiming your frustrations at us will change nothing and not help you in any way hence there is no point in it. You have paid for a miner which you will get, nothing has changed regarding this transaction except that we are giving something extra. We would like to say to some people that we are only responding in kind to complaints that are unwarranted so please work with us on this forum constructively in order to help you instead of hostility/nitpicking about things that can’t be helped just for the sake of it we will get somewhere together and you will be better off for it as we've proven we directly make changes based on your input in this forum; sometimes within hours of us seeing a post. This is just a fact that has obviously not gotten across to everybody yet; our goal and sole intention here is to work with you and help you so we humbly ask you to help us do that and not hinder us as you will only be helping yourself; surely this makes more sense. If you have any issues with our stance on this you are welcome to PM this account and someone will get back to you; almost all PM’s are read and responded to. If you want to wait until credit cards are up or more ‘proof’ has been released before you pay see this: https://alpha-t.net/news/final-payment/

Best Regards,

Alpha Technology Team

[Wexlike]

so they announced they won't ban anymore in their forum as a sign of good will, but now they admit that they will delete everything that they don't like.

it's getting worse and worse with every week passing by. unbelievable from an outsiders point of view.

[zinner27]

So basically he have been reading this forum and deleted all the mails we have been sending to their support... I'm still banned on their forum.... Getting tired of this bs....

[jrose120]

Wow, that's is a really long winded rant. That could have been said in a few sentences.

Paraphrased: We are warning you to stop complaining. If you don't stop your complaints we will use this as an excuse to hurt our customers when we go bankrupt. We have given our souls, really, we made a deal with the devil to make you happy. To prove how happy you are we have deleted everything negative from our forums. See it's a happy place god dammit! Now be thankful for our generosity you ungrateful little bitch.

That seems to be a more concise version of their statement. Either the author of that statement is high on drugs, if he's not, he needs to be.

Now for those who are worried about the argument that these machines can mine crypto-currencies for profit, they can also be used with BOINC to help SETI look for alien life. You can choose to use it for this purpose in your arguments.

Also, those pictures do show a lot of power plugs. You're going to need to daisy chain several PSUs together. Three 850W PSUs should work, you'll need to use multiple "dual power supply adapter" cables. Do a search on Google, or eBay. Assuming Alpha-T doesn't provide said PSUS.

The holes are a bit small to allow for unrestricted airflow through the case, given what I've seen so far I would expect these units to be very noisy. Make sure you have a separate room for it, that's all I'm going to say.

[kalus]

this is an unprecedented level of customer service.

Best Regards,

Alpha Technology Team

lol most companies actually ship the damn product.  that's the customer service people expect.

[kebabman]

You can't argue with crazy, "that is a fact!". 

[Test User]

May 27, 2014
  Greetings Miners! After long consideration, lengthy negotiations with our vendors/partners and downright demands being placed from our side in light of competitiveness within the market we have decided to further cut our profit margins and are extraordinary pleased to announce that we will be packing more hash power into your batch 1 devices (whilst scaling power accordingly so not Continue Reading

What is the date today ? August 10 … and counting … 7 weeks to go.

Having spoken to some people experienced in ASIC design, is that it's at least 8-12 weeks from tapeout to delivery of first silicon, and at least another 2-3 weeks will be needed for PCB assembly, testing, shipping between factories, etc.

This means that when they made the announcement of 27 May, they must have already known that their tapeout had failed, and there would be a delay of months for the design to be modified and to go through the full sign-off verification process.

It's quite brazen really. They even had the cheek to ask for final payment in July stating that shipping was on track for July.

The overall project seems catastrophically badly managed. At this point, they should have mechanical samples of the PCBs for testing in the enclosure (same mechanical shape and size, with the same heatsinks, etc.) It's also been nearly 2 weeks since they had the ballout for the ASICs, which means that they should have a completed miner PCB design, in order to ensure that production delays don't compromise manufacture after arrival of the ASICs. They've been making a big song and dance about completing the power distribution PCB design - so I'd have expected the completion of the miner PCB to be being broadcast from the rooftops.

Heck, even the case design shown looks like a joke - there's no way that you'll get 2 kW of silicon cooled in that. Again, they should really have had some test PCBs with dummy loads on, for testing the thermal situation by now.

[vesperwillow]

You can't just stick 2 or 3 PSUs onto the same device, it'll screw things up big-time.  That's what disturbs me, there are TEN power connectors.  You'd need at least 3 external powersupplies... that simply will not work.  It will fry something, or worse, catch fire.

There's no reason it wouldn't work, I've done it numerous times for odd applications. It's easiest if you get multiple of the same model PSU, but regardless the execution is the same. You tie pin 16 (green/power-on) of all of them together, and when it's grounded they'll all fire up simultaneously. Quality PSUs will do just fine.

Having spoken to some people experienced in ASIC design, is that it's at least 8-12 weeks from tapeout to delivery of first silicon, and at least another 2-3 weeks will be needed for PCB assembly, testing, shipping between factories, etc.

This means that when they made the announcement of 27 May, they must have already known that their tapeout had failed, and there would be a delay of months for the design to be modified and to go through the full sign-off verification process.

I speculated this back in May, as I was familiar with the process as well and their story wasn't adding up. Especially since the design company cut ties with them publicly.

Heck, even the case design shown looks like a joke - there's no way that you'll get 2 kW of silicon cooled in that. Again, they should really have had some test PCBs with dummy loads on, for testing the thermal situation by now.

I'm probably one of the few people who would say you could cool 2kw in a case of that design, you just need to have the proper cooling plan, which I doubt they have. Keep in mind, their design has changed yet again, and they're claiming magical fairy-land efficiency, saying they'll outdo even the KNC giant. Greater efficiency = less heat. Who knows.. maybe they'll pull off the cooling, but that's if this is even legit.

[pw4x3r]

Now for those who are worried about the argument that these machines can mine crypto-currencies for profit, they can also be used with BOINC to help SETI look for alien life. You can choose to use it for this purpose in your arguments.

Enticing theory but... that argument just doesn't hold water, sadly. It's like saying my dishwasher can bake a pizza.


What is the defense then? Simple.
The purpose of this device was to use first batch Vipers on an offline Litecoin network in to gauge performance of the device and credibility of the company while doing individual research on high-speed Scrypt algorithm hashing being employed on various crypto-currencies available in the real world.

[jrose120]

Now for those who are worried about the argument that these machines can mine crypto-currencies for profit, they can also be used with BOINC to help SETI look for alien life. You can choose to use it for this purpose in your arguments.

Enticing theory but... that argument just doesn't hold water, sadly. It's like saying my dishwasher can bake a pizza.


What is the defense then? Simple.
The purpose of this device was to use first batch Vipers on an offline Litecoin network in to gauge performance of the device and credibility of the company while doing individual research on high-speed Scrypt algorithm hashing being employed on various crypto-currencies available in the real world.

Sure it makes perfect sense. I once had every computer (over 50 CPUS) at my company crunch SETI numbers while employees were at home. You get points for submitting work. Either way, If I had a Viper I would probably play around just to see if I could make it do SETI work. My point is that there are other legitimate uses for it besides crytpos. That is a fact, not a theory.

[jrose120]

BOINC which is compatible with Scrypt hardware doesn't only do SETI work. They also crunch number related to cancer research. Plus many other projects that I've forgotten the names of. Other crypto miner manufacturer's are pointing out this fact as well.

[atp1916]

You can't argue with crazy, "that is a fact!". 

Sorry, had to. 

[s1gs3gv]

From Alpha-T Forums:

Greetings Miners,

<snip>

You paid for a 25Mh/s miner and everything on top is goodwill, this is simply a fact.

These guys sound like they are getting ready to re-label somebody else's 25mhs miner (GAW Falcon @ $599 ?) and ship it to you and then claim they met the letter of their contract.

[vesperwillow]

this is an unprecedented level of customer service.

Best Regards,

Alpha Technology Team

lol most companies actually ship the damn product.  that's the customer service people expect.

Most companies don't ban you from their customer support forums. They might delete a post they don't like, but not a ban. That's the equivalent of blocking you from calling their phone support because they didn't like your voice.

[dekodoge]

AT is not most companies.

[hallo_frosch]

They are blocking everyone who want´s to call them by phone.
They removed the phone number from there Website.

[vesperwillow]

They are blocking everyone who want´s to call them by phone.
They removed the phone number from there Website.

It was disconnected last I heard.

[pw4x3r]

BOINC which is compatible with Scrypt hardware doesn't only do SETI work. They also crunch number related to cancer research. Plus many other projects that I've forgotten the names of. Other crypto miner manufacturer's are pointing out this fact as well.

Link please...

Because Gridcoin is not doing SETI proof of work. It is doing gridcoin crypto proof of work.

What you are saying is a dishwasher is baking a pizza. Need proof. Need links.

[Raeli]

Yes i'm aware of how my post seems but under no circumstances i said to just let the money go. I was interested more in some opinions regarding what can i do if i accept their offer (they refund 132 pounds ) but also want the rest of my money. Are there any other means to recover the difference  because it seems that if i agree to this i would waive my right to get a full refund on my deposit

Is this true? If you accept the 50% refund, you have no legal right to claim the rest? So basically you need to not accept anything and go to a small claims court, and hope they side with you?

[Forceflow]

can you guys copy it here for the banned crowd

I am banned too but I finally found a way around their ban system (PM me for details if you care).  Its not hard.