Re: Black Arrow 28nm 100Ghash Bitcoin ASIC from $0.49/GH/s

[Pentax]

That and technically they haven't missed the ship date yet, though they have said they're going to, and Hashfast was nearly 4 months late from the original ship date and they still haven't fulfilled batch 1 completely.  So BA has a long way to fall yet, in spite of the disappointments.   

Way to lower the standards, BA and others would LOVE to have more customers like you.

ain't that the truth.

I don't know why people are so quick to accept this type of behavior in this industry.  I can see thinking there aren't many alternatives, although outright defending it seems tantamount to sticking yourself in the eyeball with a hot poker - and paying for the poker as an added bonus.

delays are possible in any tech development effort, however, that is why any company with any experience moves on multiple vectors towards the goal, creating options for potential breakdown of any one of them along the way.

just on a quality controlled basis these sorts of efforts require redundancies, normally, and multiple suppliers for any and all components is the norm.  That this apparently isn't in place further underscores how nascent this industry is, but it also provides an opportunity for learning.  Get your ISO certs, people, for damn sake.

until the customers of these people stop just accepting it as some sort of unavoidable pitfall, which it is not, this will continue.  people need to wake the hell up and hold these people accountable.  the companies themselves need to wake up and demand better of themselves as well, as to this point their performance has been almost uniformly pathetic.

[Pentax]

That and technically they haven't missed the ship date yet, though they have said they're going to, and Hashfast was nearly 4 months late from the original ship date and they still haven't fulfilled batch 1 completely.  So BA has a long way to fall yet, in spite of the disappointments.   

Way to lower the standards, BA and others would LOVE to have more customers like you.

ain't that the truth.

I don't know why people are so quick to accept this type of behavior in this industry.  I can see thinking there aren't many alternatives, although outright defending it seems tantamount to sticking yourself in the eyeball with a hot poker - and paying for the poker as an added bonus.

delays are possible in any tech development effort, however, that is why any company with any experience moves on multiple vectors towards the goal, creating options for potential breakdown of any one of them along the way.

just on a quality controlled basis these sorts of efforts require redundancies, normally, and multiple suppliers for any and all components is the norm.  That this apparently isn't in place further underscores how nascent this industry is, but it also provides an opportunity for learning.  Get your ISO certs, people, for damn sake.

until the customers of these people stop just accepting it as some sort of unavoidable pitfall, which it is not, this will continue.  people need to wake the hell up and hold these people accountable.  the companies themselves need to wake up and demand better of themselves as well, as to this point their performance has been almost uniformly pathetic.

Or, people should temper their expectations regardless of what the vendor says and make a decision based on that.  It's not as though the industry doesn't have a track record with this to begin with.  If you invest in a mining hardware pre-order without expecting them to be late, very late, you haven't been paying attention.  I know that some, few, manufacturers have brought hardware to market without pre-orders but they've been in the minority.  Of course, it would be best to patronize them and let the pre-order based concerns starve but there are a lot of people whose greed outweighs their good sense and they continue to try to get the jump on new technology.  They will pre-pay for machines and pray that this time will be different.

I think you're missing my point.  it will continue unless people demand better.  that's the market.  as long as they're allowed to blow this off they have no reason to change.  why spend the extra money on anything if they can just walk off with people's money either way?

as consumers it is our job to demand better of them, not simply shrug our shoulders and take the reaming, time and time again. 

I know they can do better and I also know they won't bother until forced to do so.  the only way to get some change is to ask for it.  simply chalking it up as par for the course pretty much guarantees nothing will improve and there will continue to be no accountability.  if that's what you'd like to do, that's your business, of course.  everyone is free to make their own choices, naturally.

when they've got my money, and they're screwing me, they're going to hear about it.  that's my choice.

[Pentax]

That and technically they haven't missed the ship date yet, though they have said they're going to, and Hashfast was nearly 4 months late from the original ship date and they still haven't fulfilled batch 1 completely.  So BA has a long way to fall yet, in spite of the disappointments.  

Way to lower the standards, BA and others would LOVE to have more customers like you.

ain't that the truth.

I don't know why people are so quick to accept this type of behavior in this industry.  I can see thinking there aren't many alternatives, although outright defending it seems tantamount to sticking yourself in the eyeball with a hot poker - and paying for the poker as an added bonus.

delays are possible in any tech development effort, however, that is why any company with any experience moves on multiple vectors towards the goal, creating options for potential breakdown of any one of them along the way.

just on a quality controlled basis these sorts of efforts require redundancies, normally, and multiple suppliers for any and all components is the norm.  That this apparently isn't in place further underscores how nascent this industry is, but it also provides an opportunity for learning.  Get your ISO certs, people, for damn sake.

until the customers of these people stop just accepting it as some sort of unavoidable pitfall, which it is not, this will continue.  people need to wake the hell up and hold these people accountable.  the companies themselves need to wake up and demand better of themselves as well, as to this point their performance has been almost uniformly pathetic.

Or, people should temper their expectations regardless of what the vendor says and make a decision based on that.  It's not as though the industry doesn't have a track record with this to begin with.  If you invest in a mining hardware pre-order without expecting them to be late, very late, you haven't been paying attention.  I know that some, few, manufacturers have brought hardware to market without pre-orders but they've been in the minority.  Of course, it would be best to patronize them and let the pre-order based concerns starve but there are a lot of people whose greed outweighs their good sense and they continue to try to get the jump on new technology.  They will pre-pay for machines and pray that this time will be different.

I think you're missing my point.  it will continue unless people demand better.  that's the market.  as long as they're allowed to blow this off they have no reason to change.  why spend the extra money on anything if they can just walk off with people's money either way?

as consumers it is our job to demand better of them, not simply shrug our shoulders and take the reaming, time and time again.  

I know they can do better and I also know they won't bother until forced to do so.  the only way to get some change is to ask for it.  simply chalking it up as par for the course pretty much guarantees nothing will improve and there will continue to be no accountability.  if that's what you'd like to do, that's your business, of course.  everyone is free to make their own choices, naturally.

when they've got my money, and they're screwing me, they're going to hear about it.  that's my choice.

No, I get it and you're right.  WE should be spending our btc/fiat with companies that have product in hand to sell.  Simply put, don't buy pre-orders, FULL STOP.

Yep.  If they want people's money to play with with these pre-orders they have to offer compensation that equals the loss in the event their dates end up being so much smoke on the wind.

if they hold up their end they get interest free financing and their customers benefit with new hardware that gives them an advantage.  if they don't hold up their end they pony up to an extent that makes it a wash for their customers. 

without that, or something like it, you're absolutely right, these pre-orders are a losing game for the customer.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Hi guys, does anyone know how to request a refund from Minersource.com?

Send them an email.

Then wait for the reply from "Starter Kit" Carson.

[DebitMe]

Ok, we seem to be getting away from BA and the topic of this thread a bit.  We should be receiving an update in the next day or two about what has happened in the last week.  I would also like an update on where we are at with hiring that dedicated PR person?  Almost every question I have asked has been ignored in the last couple of weeks, so I pose the refund question again...

BA has stated that they will not give out refunds to those who ask for them, instead they will pool everyone who wants one and see if they can cover it with available funds.  When is the cutoff deadline to decide if we can be considered for a refund?  How are you going to handle the fact that since your affiliate (aka MinerSource) is incorporated under U.S. law, is required to give refunds if asked?  Minersource has stated (only in PM's) that they will refund out of their overhead, but I doubt that will be enough for everyone seeking a refund.  Will this be addressed at all?

I decided to test market opinion of BA and see how the market currently views the price and image of BA by listing one of my units for sell in the good section.  I have very good rep and believe that anyone would have full confidence that I would hold up my end of a deal, so any offers would be considered solely market view of BA.  After more than 24 hours I have not had a single offer or inquiry on my offer.  I even included the compensation package as part of the deal, and still no one seems to want it.  I did not put a price up, but instead asked for offers for my device.  So what does this tell us?  Well I will let everyone form their own opinion, but I have come up with 2 options...
1) There is no market for the BA device, which is sad because we are still over 2 months away from it being launched or,
2) No one has faith that BA will deliver.
In either case I would say the outcome is not good, so I reiterate my question, how are refunds going to be handled?

[Pentax]

Ok, we seem to be getting away from BA and the topic of this thread a bit.  We should be receiving an update in the next day or two about what has happened in the last week.  I would also like an update on where we are at with hiring that dedicated PR person?  Almost every question I have asked has been ignored in the last couple of weeks, so I pose the refund question again...

BA has stated that they will not give out refunds to those who ask for them, instead they will pool everyone who wants one and see if they can cover it with available funds.  When is the cutoff deadline to decide if we can be considered for a refund?  How are you going to handle the fact that since your affiliate (aka MinerSource) is incorporated under U.S. law, is required to give refunds if asked?  Minersource has stated (only in PM's) that they will refund out of their overhead, but I doubt that will be enough for everyone seeking a refund.  Will this be addressed at all?

I decided to test market opinion of BA and see how the market currently views the price and image of BA by listing one of my units for sell in the good section.  I have very good rep and believe that anyone would have full confidence that I would hold up my end of a deal, so any offers would be considered solely market view of BA.  After more than 24 hours I have not had a single offer or inquiry on my offer.  I even included the compensation package as part of the deal, and still no one seems to want it.  I did not put a price up, but instead asked for offers for my device.  So what does this tell us?  Well I will let everyone form their own opinion, but I have come up with 2 options...
1) There is no market for the BA device, which is sad because we are still over 2 months away from it being launched or,
2) No one has faith that BA will deliver.
In either case I would say the outcome is not good, so I reiterate my question, how are refunds going to be handled?

+1 

I've been waiting for a clear statement on refunds also.

 

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Ok, we seem to be getting away from BA and the topic of this thread a bit.  We should be receiving an update in the next day or two about what has happened in the last week.  I would also like an update on where we are at with hiring that dedicated PR person?  Almost every question I have asked has been ignored in the last couple of weeks, so I pose the refund question again...

BA has stated that they will not give out refunds to those who ask for them, instead they will pool everyone who wants one and see if they can cover it with available funds.  When is the cutoff deadline to decide if we can be considered for a refund?  How are you going to handle the fact that since your affiliate (aka MinerSource) is incorporated under U.S. law, is required to give refunds if asked?  Minersource has stated (only in PM's) that they will refund out of their overhead, but I doubt that will be enough for everyone seeking a refund.  Will this be addressed at all?

I decided to test market opinion of BA and see how the market currently views the price and image of BA by listing one of my units for sell in the good section.  I have very good rep and believe that anyone would have full confidence that I would hold up my end of a deal, so any offers would be considered solely market view of BA.  After more than 24 hours I have not had a single offer or inquiry on my offer.  I even included the compensation package as part of the deal, and still no one seems to want it.  I did not put a price up, but instead asked for offers for my device.  So what does this tell us?  Well I will let everyone form their own opinion, but I have come up with 2 options...
1) There is no market for the BA device, which is sad because we are still over 2 months away from it being launched or,
2) No one has faith that BA will deliver.
In either case I would say the outcome is not good, so I reiterate my question, how are refunds going to be handled?

I see you're having trouble test selling your Bad Ass BA. Perhaps, I could be of assistance.

You see, one does not merely test the market conditions of a BA product on their own accord. One MUST use the services of a reseller. Luckily, I, being the first ever quadruple-vetted Bitcoiner in the world, would more than happily act as the official reseller of any BA products purchased through a reseller. And do it for free, to boot, albeit I may complain about working for free periodically, but that's what a guy who's financially stable should do.

Meanwhile, down at the farm, my side venture, the seedlings are all looking beautiful. For those who've GB into my other side venture, I'm happy to state that that 24/7/365/60/-pie operation is well maintain by the six seasoned pros I've hire last year in The Show Me State and moved them to The Grow Me State.

[DebitMe]

Ok, we seem to be getting away from BA and the topic of this thread a bit.  We should be receiving an update in the next day or two about what has happened in the last week.  I would also like an update on where we are at with hiring that dedicated PR person?  Almost every question I have asked has been ignored in the last couple of weeks, so I pose the refund question again...

BA has stated that they will not give out refunds to those who ask for them, instead they will pool everyone who wants one and see if they can cover it with available funds.  When is the cutoff deadline to decide if we can be considered for a refund?  How are you going to handle the fact that since your affiliate (aka MinerSource) is incorporated under U.S. law, is required to give refunds if asked?  Minersource has stated (only in PM's) that they will refund out of their overhead, but I doubt that will be enough for everyone seeking a refund.  Will this be addressed at all?

I decided to test market opinion of BA and see how the market currently views the price and image of BA by listing one of my units for sell in the good section.  I have very good rep and believe that anyone would have full confidence that I would hold up my end of a deal, so any offers would be considered solely market view of BA.  After more than 24 hours I have not had a single offer or inquiry on my offer.  I even included the compensation package as part of the deal, and still no one seems to want it.  I did not put a price up, but instead asked for offers for my device.  So what does this tell us?  Well I will let everyone form their own opinion, but I have come up with 2 options...
1) There is no market for the BA device, which is sad because we are still over 2 months away from it being launched or,
2) No one has faith that BA will deliver.
In either case I would say the outcome is not good, so I reiterate my question, how are refunds going to be handled?

I see you're having trouble test selling your Bad Ass BA. Perhaps, I could be of assistance.

You see, one does not merely test the market conditions of a BA product on their own accord. One MUST use the services of a reseller. Luckily, I, being the first ever quadruple-vetted Bitcoiner in the world, would more than happily act as the official reseller of any BA products purchased through a reseller. And do it for free, to boot, albeit I may complain about working for free periodically, but that's what a guy who's financially stable should do.

Meanwhile, down at the farm, my side venture, the seedlings are all looking beautiful. For those who've GB into my other side venture, I'm happy to state that that 24/7/365/60/-pie operation is well maintain by the six seasoned pros I've hire last year in The Show Me State and moved them to The Grow Me State.

You will get a commission if you sell it, I still cant get anyone to even make an offer.  Feel free to try if you want.

[DebitMe]

I decided to test market opinion of BA and see how the market currently views the price and image of BA by listing one of my units for sell in the good section.  I have very good rep and believe that anyone would have full confidence that I would hold up my end of a deal, so any offers would be considered solely market view of BA.  After more than 24 hours I have not had a single offer or inquiry on my offer.  I even included the compensation package as part of the deal, and still no one seems to want it.  I did not put a price up, but instead asked for offers for my device.  So what does this tell us?  Well I will let everyone form their own opinion, but I have come up with 2 options...
1) There is no market for the BA device, which is sad because we are still over 2 months away from it being launched or,
2) No one has faith that BA will deliver.
In either case I would say the outcome is not good, so I reiterate my question, how are refunds going to be handled?

I don't read the Goods section, but what are you selling?  If it's an X-1, and you can get Black Arrow to transfer it to me, then I would be interested.  I can't afford an X-3 right now though.

Its actually an X-3, but I have an X-1, time to find out what its worth.  Make me an offer on it...

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I decided to test market opinion of BA and see how the market currently views the price and image of BA by listing one of my units for sell in the good section.  I have very good rep and believe that anyone would have full confidence that I would hold up my end of a deal, so any offers would be considered solely market view of BA.  After more than 24 hours I have not had a single offer or inquiry on my offer.  I even included the compensation package as part of the deal, and still no one seems to want it.  I did not put a price up, but instead asked for offers for my device.  So what does this tell us?  Well I will let everyone form their own opinion, but I have come up with 2 options...
1) There is no market for the BA device, which is sad because we are still over 2 months away from it being launched or,
2) No one has faith that BA will deliver.
In either case I would say the outcome is not good, so I reiterate my question, how are refunds going to be handled?

I don't read the Goods section, but what are you selling?  If it's an X-1, and you can get Black Arrow to transfer it to me, then I would be interested.  I can't afford an X-3 right now though.

Its actually an X-3, but I have an X-1, time to find out what its worth.  Make me an offer on it...

I imagine I could offer you the amount that you paid in BTC for it originally.  If you bought it in November, I imagine it would have been about 3.5 bitcoins.  Of course I don't know when you bought it.  Do you think that's a fair price?

Don't forget, there's a 0% quadruple-vetted reseller fee that I'm entitled to due to bringing you two together.

[DebitMe]

I decided to test market opinion of BA and see how the market currently views the price and image of BA by listing one of my units for sell in the good section.  I have very good rep and believe that anyone would have full confidence that I would hold up my end of a deal, so any offers would be considered solely market view of BA.  After more than 24 hours I have not had a single offer or inquiry on my offer.  I even included the compensation package as part of the deal, and still no one seems to want it.  I did not put a price up, but instead asked for offers for my device.  So what does this tell us?  Well I will let everyone form their own opinion, but I have come up with 2 options...
1) There is no market for the BA device, which is sad because we are still over 2 months away from it being launched or,
2) No one has faith that BA will deliver.
In either case I would say the outcome is not good, so I reiterate my question, how are refunds going to be handled?

I don't read the Goods section, but what are you selling?  If it's an X-1, and you can get Black Arrow to transfer it to me, then I would be interested.  I can't afford an X-3 right now though.

Its actually an X-3, but I have an X-1, time to find out what its worth.  Make me an offer on it...

I imagine I could offer you the amount that you paid in BTC for it originally.  If you bought it in November, I imagine it would have been about 3.5 bitcoins.  Of course I don't know when you bought it.  Do you think that's a fair price?

Don't forget, there's a 0% quadruple-vetted reseller fee that I'm entitled to due to bringing you two together.

... when it ships 

in two weeks...

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I would also like an update on where we are at with hiring that dedicated PR person?  Almost every question I have asked has been ignored in the last couple of weeks, so I pose the refund question again...

Nostradamus (ya really!) has predicted that the reply (if there ever is one) is one of the following:

a) The PR guy has taken sick and/or declined the job offer
b) The PR guy is away celebrating the Schamayan New Year
c) The PR guy has been hired and is in training, which will take a few daeeks (great stalling option)
d) The PR guy is actually a PR girl

Please note that the option that a PR person has or will not be hired is not available.

"P and R, I have an important balancing-act assignment for you both."

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I don't know whether to post this, sorry if it seems rude, but I feel I must say it as a potential customer...

Why can't you use your talents to develop something using the ASIC platform? I for one am waiting for the dust to settle and will be looking to buy into ASIC technology once there are units on warehouse shelves. I am not particularly interested in massive profits, just a little profit plus the satisfaction of mining for the resilience of the network. I am under the impression that the Avalon's custom ASIC chips are/will be available in bulk to people such as yourselves, and the developers specifically want this technology to be distributed.

The issue of electricity cost vs. mining revenue will be making new investment into FPGAs too risky for me, sorry

We are looking into developing an ASIC but we won't sell them until we have a working product.

Power consumption is not such a big issue for FPGA. They use only a little bit more than ASIC.

As many times as I've read similar, Roger Ver should erect a billboard depicting such verbiage.

You guys want to see an amazing graph?: https://blockchain.info/charts/received-per-day?address=1JTNXgcVCMXhQrLEE9XW71fQjJN1uQpWf7

It stems from one of Black Arrow's wallet address: https://blockchain.info/address/1JTNXgcVCMXhQrLEE9XW71fQjJN1uQpWf7 They better hope that that's not their only wallet, otherwise they're in a heap of trouble.

This is how I found it: http://web.archive.org/web/20130428000608/http://www.cardreaderfactory.com/shop/lancelot.html

First deposit was on Oct. 19, 2012, and currently has $78,472.50 USD in it for anybody seeking a refund from Black Arrow. And, if that's not enough, you'll soon learn once you visit the address above that Black Arrow is garnering 5 BTC every two days via mining income while its investomers are in a holding pattern till May. Doing some quick math, that'll be 5 X 30 X 600 = ~$90,000 USD he'll receive during the next 60 days, while his investomers will only be earning (more quick math, so please check my work) 0 X 0 X 600 X (# of rigs ordered) = 0 during the same timeframe.

Now, I'm no MENSA dude, but to me the investomer's ROI is not looking too good at this penning, while Black Arrow is swimming in bitcoins, all the while checking his margins to see if he could honor any refunds. Perhaps, it's just some Romanian thing, and I'm simply a fuckin' idiot wasting my life away on this here laptop living in my dead mother's van down by the up-the-creek-sans-a-paddle.

~TMIBTCITW

[goozman96]

So they are mining at around 15TH/s as we speak. What are they using to mine? Bitfurries? And why isn't that mining power being allocated to their customers?

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Welcome back Phin   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP3MFBzMH2o 

[Phinnaeus Gage]

I wish I could move 1 BTC at a time for the past 5 days: https://blockchain.info/address/1HC3dc4DubRat1P39YBBkwVRbph3ijbtPQ

[Pentax]

So they are mining at around 15TH/s as we speak. What are they using to mine? Bitfurries? And why isn't that mining power being allocated to their customers?

wouldn't surprise me at all.   I asked early on in this debacle if they were mining for themselves and got the BA cricket choir response.   they manufacture mining equipment, so it seems pretty logical that there's something hashing away.

if it is true and this this is going straight into their pockets while their customers are sinking fast I wouldn't be shocked one bit.  based on their actions to date I have little little doubt that they do not give a damn about their customers.


they're still showing bitfuries as in stock:  https://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/40ghash-16x-bitfury-hashing-board.html


see this topic on their forum, started Jan 17, where a customer is asking why his delivery date has been changed to May:

http://ecointalk.net/topic/422-my-order-delivery-date-has-changed-to-may-why/


BA didn't actually announce this delay until when, the 29th I think, when they sent out that official e-mail.  when did they really know there was going to be a delay, I have to wonder.  They were still booking orders right through that Jan 29 date, as far as I know, without letting prospective customers know of any potential issues whatsoever, which, unless that thread above was just some odd coincidence, they absolutely knew about while still feeding their customers and prospective customers the BS song and dance.

we're on track, or a little ahead, last I heard.  blah, blah, blah.  we're still taking orders for batch 2.  blah, blah, blah.  look, here's a new rendering.  blah, blah, blah.  we're in this for the long term.  blah, blah, blah.    we care about our customers.  blah, blah, blah.   


and to this day still no clear statement on refunds.  blah, blah, blech.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

So they are mining at around 15TH/s as we speak. What are they using to mine? Bitfurries? And why isn't that mining power being allocated to their customers?

wouldn't surprise me at all.   I asked early on in this debacle if they were mining for themselves and got the BA cricket choir response.   they manufacture mining equipment, so it seems pretty logical that there's something hashing away.

if it is true and this this is going straight into their pockets while their customers are sinking fast I wouldn't be shocked one bit.  based on their actions to date I have little little doubt that they do not give a damn about their customers.


they're still showing bitfuries as in stock:  https://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/40ghash-16x-bitfury-hashing-board.html


see this topic on their forum, started Jan 17, where a customer is asking why his delivery date has been changed to May:

http://ecointalk.net/topic/422-my-order-delivery-date-has-changed-to-may-why/


BA didn't actually announce this delay until when, the 29th I think, when they sent out that official e-mail.  when did they really know there was going to be a delay, I have to wonder.  They were still booking orders right through that Jan 29 date, as far as I know, without letting prospective customers know of any potential issues whatsoever, which, unless that thread above was just some odd coincidence, they absolutely knew about while still feeding their customers and prospective customers the BS song and dance.

we're on track, or a little ahead, last I heard.  blah, blah, blah.  we're still taking orders for batch 2.  blah, blah, blah.  look, here's a new rendering.  blah, blah, blah.  we're in this for the long term.  blah, blah, blah.    we care about our customers.  blah, blah, blah.   


and to this day still no clear statement on refunds.  blah, blah, blech.

But, give credit where credit is due, for they have recognizing a troll when they see one down to a science, deleting every one of my posts in this thread, albeit they're a tad behind, probably waiting till their last Bucharestica is the Bestica hookah session wears off. (full disclosure: while seeking humor for the latter part of that sentence, I just learnt that Romania also legalized the smoking of a certain plant, whereupon Matt, when he reads this, will go, "Wait, what! Hehehe!")

[Phinnaeus Gage]

"Romania also legalized the smoking of a certain plant" That is great, if that is true, maybe the best news in this thread!

Last week Romania became the 10th European Union nation to legalize medical marijuana. The country’s drug law was amended to allow certain cannabis derivatives to be used for specific afflictions, such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, along with augmenting a bitcoin mining operation.

[tokona]

"Romania also legalized the smoking of a certain plant" That is great, if that is true, maybe the best news in this thread!

Last week Romania became the 10th European Union nation to legalize medical marijuana. The country’s drug law was amended to allow certain cannabis derivatives to be used for specific afflictions, such as epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, along with augmenting a bitcoin mining operation.