Black Arrow is most likely a scam operation

[raskul]

I bet someone starts posting in this thread with big bold text in bright colors.

your time machine landed you on the wrong side, i'm sure that post should have been made earlier.

which means i didn't lose the bet we were about to make.

:p

[1715547563]

1715547563

[1715547563]

1715547563

[Phinnaeus Gage]

http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/index.php?dispatch=news.list&page=2&sl=en

The latest Black Arrow’s ASIC is not a contender for making the being the largest chip on the market. Their engineers are confident that this design ensures highest reliability with a very low risk and lowest power consumption. When these ASICs are combined to work together they are performing better than their competition at a lower cost.

The unedited quote above is not only located on BA's website, but was used as their official press release. Emphasis on what the obvious errors are.

If written correctly, the following:

"The latest Black Arrow’s ASIC is a contender for making the largest chip on the market. Their engineers are confident that their design ensures highest reliability with a very low risk and lowest power consumption. When these ASICs are combined to work together, they'll perform better than their competition at a lower cost."

It'll still read like a shit-for-brains penned it, but at least it would have been grammatically correct.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I bet someone starts posting in this thread with big bold text in bright colors.

your time machine landed you on the wrong side, i'm sure that post should have been made earlier.

which means i didn't lose the bet we were about to make.

:p

The bet will be declared null and void because it will probably be a copy and paste jobie.

[raskul]

I bet someone starts posting in this thread with big bold text in bright colors.

your time machine landed you on the wrong side, i'm sure that post should have been made earlier.

which means i didn't lose the bet we were about to make.

:p

The bet will be declared null and void because it will probably be a copy and paste jobie.

dang. dratted disclaimers.

[bitterdog]

PG : How does DZ and Thomas fit into all of this? Since they seem to be the 3 amigos.

[ikevin8me]

I have seen those messages.

My friends and I have ordered from Black Arrow. Just like you guys, we once were firm believers that Black Arrow were a legitimate company.

After receiving that mail that we're not getting our machines by Feb. 24 *and* the fact that our refunds refunds and enquires are being ignored, caused us to re-examine this company. We found that all those evidence (mentioned in this forum and this particular thread) are really too superficial and insufficient. Compare that to companies like KncMiner, HashFast, ButterFly Labs and Cointerra, they have enough publicity (good and bad) in newspapers and magazines, their directors are known and their staff have appeared in conferences and trade shows. Black Arrow has none of that. Their business operations are too secretive (unknown directors, reporters/journalists not reporting on them (why?), lack of sufficient and thorough evidence (size of factory, photos, etc.).

If Black Arrow is a scam, they can disappear easily after 1 or 2 more "acts". The current "act" is the delaying our machines to May. Come May, and I expect them to put up their final "act" and delay again. By June or July, they will be getting more refund requests then new sales. At that time, they will eventually disappear.

If Black Arrow is a legitimate company, they are probabaly working very hard to manufacture our machines. Something can still go wrong. If they cannot produce our machines, they can still conveniently disappear because of the "secretive" nature of the business (ie. we really don't know what are the names of the directors).

If you've ordered in September/October, promised to be delivered by end of February, but the fact that it is isn't and a re-examination of all the facts of about this company should be a WAKE UP CALL. Your money is probably gone.

[jimmothy]

Delays =scam?

You should probably not be preordering hardware.

Blackarrow has more factory photos than most companies despite being a private company. And tapeout begins in 4 days.

Seriously please do a little more research. Most of the questions/conspiracy theories in your 20 paragraphs can easily be answered by reading blackarrows post history/ecointalk/google.


Why are you so determined to prove its a scam?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

PG : How does DZ and Thomas fit into all of this? Since they seem to be the 3 amigos.

Funny you should ask, for that's why I'm back.

Somebody, don't know who  , once said...

Seriously please do a little more research

...so I did.

DyslexicZombei: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=288150.msg3089365#msg3089365

I provide world class customer service support, education skills, and access to my 30 years of IT and advanced sales experience (I once sold and taught close up magic tricks as a teenager).

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/wpymo/as_a_40_yr_old_gamer_this_still_makes_me_happy_to/c5flcvc

DyslexicZombei 3 points 1 year ago

I'm a (near) 40 year old gamer & that photo makes me happy too.
My kids & I game & it's great for bonding with my kids. My 7 yr old son & I have separate Tribes & BF3 accounts & we'll sometimes play co-op.
My favorite kid gaming story: When Halo came out for PC my daughter was 3 years old and precocious about electronics. I would sometimes let her play & she'd mostly spam 'nades around randomly. Every once in a while she'd take someone out so the screen would read something like:
"l33tN1nja was killed by...a 3 year old girl."
Sometimes I'd be around & type in: This is her father. You really did get killed by a 3 year old girl!

Will somebody do the math for me so that I don't make a mistake before I continue on this crusade of proving that something's amiss? Surely, Mr. DZ didn't forget how old he is or err in how many years of IT and advanced sales experience he has under his belt, did he? If he did do the latter, then he continued the practice in a myriad other posts.

Then again, I'm just a broke asshole living in my dead mother's van down by the up-the-creek-sans-a-paddle, now getting a fresh cup of coffee to return to see who did the math for me.

Thank you in advance,

~Bruno Kucinskas (no need to not use my real name)

PS: Apologies for the large colored font, but it makes my dick hard.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

WTF! Still no answer? Ah, I see! It was a word problem, thus making it that much more difficult, eh, Darin? Allow me to express it as an equation: 40 - 30 = ___.

Extra credit awarded if you show your work. And, no cheating! If you cheat now in life, who knows what you'll grow up to become. Probably a vetter, vetting the first person who comes along tootin' a hookah. AND I AIN'T JUST A SAYIN'!

EXTRA, EXTRA credit given if you can name the person who said the following:

I'm in the same boat. One of the main reasons I bought shares in asicminer was the great communication. The lack of communication/PR in the bitcoin world is honestly unacceptable. Any bitcoin business who deals with more than 1 bitcoin satoshi of customers funds is obligated to keep constant communication with at least those who put their money in that company. Seriously one forum post every 2 weeks from these "business operators" is complete bullshit.

[DyslexicZombei]

The stalker and tin hat foil supplies are off the charts!      

FYI: Back in ye olde days, no one cared if your 10 year old kid unofficially helped out around the shop.

At that time I said I had 30 years of IT and advanced sales experience. True and True. My father owned a shop on Kauai that was modestly successful for over 10 years and as a kid growing up around the shop, I was selling to and teaching adults some complex stuff which I won't discuss because you're such a uber shtalker without a life, I suppose.

My first computer used was a TRS-80 and my first home PC was a C-64. Yes, I'm what the kids consider "old", and yes I do have 30 some years of IT and sales experience, but thanks for asking. Any other questions about my IT bonafides or sales background?

As for BA: the DZMC has NO ties to Black Arrow except via bobsag3's US reseller relationship which provided us one of our 24 fundraising rounds for Prosperos and 4 rounds of prototype Prosperos (albeit with Bitfury 55nm chips) in Rounds 9-12 which ended up all being eventually replaced by ASICs from other mfgs. because there were some insurmountable problems that kept leading to failed equipment with this limited run, bleeding edge Bullet Run last fall.

FWIW, customer's had been receiving BA prototype hashrate for months in R9-12, and recently went thru a successful buyout and closeout. Also, we're in the process of refunding everyone that wants a refund that bought Prosperos via our Round 17 GB. Many folks have already received their refunds.

[DyslexicZombei]

10 yr old SAVANT?

I tested as a genius as a kid FWIW on the Stanford-Binet scale. I don't put much stock in high IQ correlating to success in life, but I did qualify for Mensa as a kid.

Not much pride about it, more like an observation of one's height or shoe size.

[bitterdog]

The stalker and tin hat foil supplies are off the charts!      

FYI: Back in ye olde days, no one cared if your 10 year old kid unofficially helped out around the shop.

At that time I said I had 30 years of IT and advanced sales experience. True and True. My father owned a shop on Kauai that was modestly successful for over 10 years and as a kid growing up around the shop, I was selling to and teaching adults some complex stuff which I won't discuss because you're such a uber shtalker without a life, I suppose.

My first computer used was a TRS-80 and my first home PC was a C-64. Yes, I'm what the kids consider "old", and yes I do have 30 some years of IT and sales experience, but thanks for asking. Any other questions about my IT bonafides or sales background?

As for BA: the DZMC has NO ties to Black Arrow except via bobsag3's US reseller relationship which provided us one of our 24 fundraising rounds for Prosperos and 4 rounds of prototype Prosperos (albeit with Bitfury 55nm chips) in Rounds 9-12 which ended up all being eventually replaced by ASICs from other mfgs. because there were some insurmountable problems that kept leading to failed equipment with this limited run, bleeding edge Bullet Run last fall.

FWIW, customer's had been receiving BA prototype hashrate for months in R9-12, and recently went thru a successful buyout and closeout.

Was the Bullet run truly "BA Prototype" devices or just Bitfury board clones?. Has anyone seen a close up photo of these things other then Bob?

[DyslexicZombei]

Got a bunch of pics from those 4 round on my Pics site in my link. It was about 3.3 GH/s worth of hardware but it was a struggle to keep up that minimum HR.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

PG : How does DZ and Thomas fit into all of this? Since they seem to be the 3 amigos.

Name:   DyslexicZombei
Posts:   1302
Activity:   210
Position:   Full Member
Date Registered:   July 25, 2013, 02:04:18 PM
Last Active:   Today at 08:40:26 PM

DyslexicZombei's first ever public comment pertaining to Bitcoin was on Thu Jul 18 22:53:45 2013 UTC: http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1ilah4/where_should_my_asic_investment_go_to/cb5kcjb

DyslexicZombei 1 point 7 months ago

Honestly - except for tiny USB ASIC miners with only 333MH - there's no one that has anything in stock & ready to ship. That's why the in-hand ASIC miners you do see on Ebay are selling at such a high premium (so high, ROI may never be met).
-I have a couple of BFL Jalapenos on order but I don't expect to see that until November-December, if at all this year. If you do order from BFL, Jalapenos seem to be shipping the fastest (they're up to pre-orders from the end of October 2012). They now appear to be pumping out a month's worth of Jalapeno orders in a week.
-For American suppliers the closest I found was a 25GH Bitfury pre-order shipping in October for $1300.
You can check the Bitcoin Talk Custom Hardware forum for group buys & assembly of pre-purchased chips. Liquid Synergy looks interesting.
If you really want to take a flier & risk some $ on a Chinese ASIC miner supplier like I did, ASX Project is supposed to start shipping 200 units next Friday. I figured at the prices they were offering I couldn't afford not to take the risk. I just put an order in for a 50GH unit at $1K. Supposedly, batch 2 will cost much more.
I wouldn't bet your rent money on ASX Project shipping next week but if you have some funds you can risk that appears to be your only non-Ebay option to potentially get your hands on decent ASIC hardware sooner rather than later. I know Bitcoin Talk sees them as a scam but I think there's a bit of racism involved with that because nearly all ASIC chips come from China.
Of course: caveat emptor & all that...

[DyslexicZombei]

Yes.

So? I'm relatively new to crypto but an oldtimer at IT, which crypto falls under.

Ask lots of folks here: I've been working my ass off for the benefit of others without anything or much in return.

I've vetted for free and helped get started many of my own competitors but I guess that's still scammy behavior if you're a creepy shtalker troll without a life. You like reading thru all my old Reddit posts trying to dig up dirt? What no mention of my WW2 veteran grandpa who fought Nazis or how I tried to give away a great paying tech job to other surfers at a national lab in the middle of a recession?

Why not dig thru my surfermag posts as KauaiDKer while you're at it? Lots of surfers (including a few legends) know me there when I was trying to give away said job. Maybe you could pretend to be a cool surfer dood and infiltrate the tribe to get them to give up personal info.

Hmm, how apropro that I recently came across this article: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2014/02/internet_troll_personality_study_machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.html

How many boxes do you check off on this "personality quiz" PG?    

[bitterdog]

DZ in all reality PG is pointing out stuff that many people think. Maybe they don't want to ruffle feathers or cause a rift etc. He/She has no problem getting in your face and throwing out a bunch of stuff and sees what stick. I don't know you, I don't know them, some / much / All / none of this could be true/false. But as an investor in products piece of mind knowing everything is legit helps. There comes a point in time where it just hit that spot where it could be just a interesting coincidence ya know?

Look at the Group buy forums today.. its freaking SAD.. SCAM after SCAMMER after SCUMBAG Scammer for a lack of a better term .. FUCKING people out of thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on these Avalon 2 clones. Then.. they just create OR BUY another forum account and start a new con.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Yes.

So? I'm relatively new to crypto but an oldtimer at IT, which crypto falls under.

Ask lots of folks here: I've been working my ass off for the benefit of others without anything or much in return.

I've vetted for free and helped get started many of my own competitors but I guess that's still scammy behavior if you're a creepy shtalker troll without a life.

Hmm, how apropro that I recently came across this article: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/climate_desk/2014/02/internet_troll_personality_study_machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.html

How many boxes do you check off on this "personality quiz" PG?    

For somebody who claims to have a well-paying job there in Hawaii, you sure the hell keep repeating about how you do shit for free around here. Would you like to compare the hours you've put in for free vs. my hours I've put in for free weeding (no pun intended) out those that shouldn't have been vetted?

I notice that you keep backing that Matt Carson, the first person you've vetted. Would you be so kind as to explain to us how somebody claiming to be of MENSA stature, somehow passes Matt Carson with flying colors? Likewise, I couldn't help but notice the myriad of grammatical errors is your prose, something not really expected from a near genius. Perhaps, the quality of certain plants grown in Hawaii may have something to do with that, so I'll give you a pass in that regard.

I love how you use me stalking you, now as an excuse to not give your name. It still fuckin' amazes me how you joined this forum and two short weeks later you're the vetting guru. But, what's really amazing is the people you've vetted. Yet, with all your intelligence, you continue to claim that I'm a broke fuck wasting my life away on this here laptop, living in my dead mother's van down by the up-the-creek-sans-a-paddle.

Wanta make me happy? Follow through with the same threat you made to eve and sue my ass for libel and defamation, for I'm stating right here, right now that you can't be trusted. I'm pretty sure I'll never see such a suit, for that'll mean your real name will be on the document.

Game on, magic surfer boy!

~Bruno Kucinskas

[ikevin8me]

Delays =scam?

You should probably not be preordering hardware.

Blackarrow has more factory photos than most companies despite being a private company. And tapeout begins in 4 days.

Seriously please do a little more research. Most of the questions/conspiracy theories in your 20 paragraphs can easily be answered by reading blackarrows post history/ecointalk/google.

Nope, delays DOES NOT mean scam. A legitimate delay caused by lack of parts or manufacturing problems is NOT a scam. However, the delay by Black Arrow could be just a decoy to extend the scam period before they eventually disappear.

Those factory photos could be fake. Assuming you live in China or have connections to someone who does, you can easily take those pictures or film the videos. It cannot prove that those factories belong to them. Tapeout begins in 4 days. What proof? Or it is just a decoy to extend their scam.

Why are you so determined to prove its a scam?

I'm not determined to prove it is a scam. In my original post to this thread, I said "most likely" and even said "if I am wrong...". I'm doing this because, like all you guys, I was fully convinced it was a legitimate company. The email sent from Black Arrow dated January 31 serves to be a wake-up call. ALL THE EVIDENCE we once believed (which is why I ordered, and even advised my friends to do so) needs to be re-examined. We need NEW EVIDENCE. We need to have solid prove of their manufacturing process. We need to know who are the directors, etc.

Most of Black Arrow activities are in this forum and their own ecointalk.net forum. They have some press release here and there. Why are their marketing activities so limited? Why are reporters/journalist reporting or featuring them in news articles.  You cannot find any reports about them within CoinDesk.com, WSJ, BusinessWeek, BloomBerg, Financial Times. (You can find Butterfly Labs, Cointerra, HashFash, KncMiner being reported.)

We probabaly need to look at Black Arrow from a fresh perspective. We wanted the machines to be Black Arrow. We wanted Black Arrow to be legit. We now have to ask ourselves: are all those evidence credible? Have you actually compared the credibility of other companies vs. Black Arrow. If Black Arrow were legit, then why are all those evidence "on the edge", flaky and can be challenged. For example, you said about all those factory photos/videos, re-look again at them and don't you think they can ask any friend who works in a factory as a manager to take them? Yes, they wrote a lot of technical documents. However, if you think about it, if they are pulling off such a massive scam operation, they can have real enginners as part of their team.

All those evidence about Black Arrow were believable last year, or until January 31 :-) At this moment you have to ask yourself and re-examine each and all of the evidence. There's nothing really credible.

Repeat:
Unknown company directors.
No journalist/reporters have ever featured them.
Confined marketing activities only to this forum and their own forum (ecointalk.net).
Since China banned depositing of Bitcoin, the local people have since searching ways to mine Bitcoin. It is a hot market within China. Why aren't they targeting their Chinese domestic market? (If you switch to Chinese on their website, you'll find many parts remain untranslated. Just click through links.) I don't think Black Arrow is doing any marketing activities to sell within mainland China. Why?

One more thing... this company is so secretive and even if they are not a scam but honestly and legitimately trying to manufacture mining machines, they can disappear easily if they fail (due to technical problems) to deliver the machines. I'm scared.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I'm a (near) 40 year old gamer

At that time I said I had 30 years of IT and advanced sales experience. True and True. My father owned a shop on Kauai that was modestly successful for over 10 years and as a kid growing up around the shop, I was selling to and teaching adults some complex stuff which I won't discuss because you're such a uber shtalker without a life, I suppose.

http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1i3s2j/my_grandfather_lived_in_the_arctic_for_several/cb11k0g

I agree. Growing up in the '70s I used to actually have B&W and some of the first color copies of WW2 era Nat Geos that I took for granted - sigh, wonder if those are worth $ - when I was a little. I would read through them in fascination.
This was eerily reminiscent of those 1940s NGs & you really should submit it to them.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/wx5ix/what_things_do_people_have_in_other_countries/c5hc0fd

[From someone who's surfed around Hawaii since 1986 in up to 25' face waves (as a dumb, invincible teen)]

I is not a MENSA, but if I didith my maths wright, me say you born about 1975. Myself, March 4, 1960. I've had the pleasure of being in the homes of Barbara Mandell (both homes, north of Nashville in burbs), Frank Beard (ZZ Top), President George Herbert Walker Bush (Houston), among many other notables. Not too bad for a useless broke dude whomith ain't a MENSA. Feel free to vett my source if I entrusted you with Greta Van Susteren's personal phone number. Then again, she probably gives it to every Tom, Dick and Harry she meets, somewhat the way you vett fellow bitcoiners to make this a safer community.

[ikevin8me]

jimmothy, honestly, how much worth of mining hardware have you order from Black Arrow?

If you've spent a lot of money on them, you want to believe what you want to believe. It's human psychology. It's understandable. Perhaps it's time to re-think and re-examine all the facts we know about Black Arrow. If you don't want to do it now. Fine. Then do it at the end of April. At that time we'll see what excuse (ie. manufacturing delays,e tc.) Black Arrow has to extend their scam.

Also, I've been following this thread: [https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=294197] on Black Arrow. Sadly, this is the main publicity Black Arrow has, in addition to their own forum [ecointalk.net]. They don't have any other major marketing activities elsewhere (no trade show attendance, not featured in magazines/newspapers, etc)