New Player: SFARDS?

[windpath]

Claiming to be China’s largest holder of bitcoin, angel investor Li Xiao Lai has funded a new Beijing-based currency mining operation, Sfards Technology. The company is the result of a merger between Gridseed and WiiBox. Additional funding was provided by venture capital firm Matrix Partners China. The seed capital for the new endeavor was not disclosed in a press release.

Lai will lead the management team for the new operation which plans to launch “next-stage” ASIC technology, promising more power and efficiency.

“We are also expanding the capabilities of the WiiBox: an open-source mining hardware control system,” the company said in the release. “The platform will now also include an innovative hash rate rental feature, granting users the ability to seamlessly rent their equipment and use bought hashing power to mine a multitude of coins with complete autonomy.”

Sfards also states that it intends to offer cloud mining services in the future.

http://www.sfards.com/

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[yan7181]

interesting, now wait till they release their product, hope it's not pre order?

[Rabinovitch]

 

We are currently researching structural design, heat generation solutions...

Yeah, we basically need more heat from mining equipment... 

p.s. funny font they use on their website.

[rammy2k2]

well, they have a 5$ website so next step is to ask money for pre-orders, thats how things works for years, right ?

PS : i hope im wrong
PS 2 : i doubt

[dogie]

well, they have a 5$ website so next step is to ask money for pre-orders, thats how things works for years, right ?

PS : i hope im wrong
PS 2 : i doubt

I'll give them a message and feel them out.

[cereal7802]

I'll give them a message and feel them out.

pervert...

[Gleb Gamow]

I'll give them a message and feel them out.

pervert...

Umm, actually SFARDS felt us out first with their press release, thus dogie's comment is akin to a reach-around during the first dance.

Yes my life is better left to chance
I could have missed the pain but I'd have had to miss the dance

[Gleb Gamow]

According to his Facebook page (not linked), Jack exited the closet in 2010.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackniederer

Jack Niederer 孟巍

International Project Development Manager at Sfards Technology

Haidian District, Beijing, ChinaOutsourcing/Offshoring
Current   
Sfards Technology Ltd
Previous   
Teleperformance, Mercedes-Benz UK Ltd
Education   
Peking University

[notlist3d]

Looks like a place to get someone to set up industrial farm.  I didn't see any new products.  On http://www.sfards.com/product#part2 the close up of some miners looked like back of S3's to me(I could be wrong).

[Gleb Gamow]

Looks like a place to get someone to set up industrial farm.  I didn't see any new products.  On http://www.sfards.com/product#part2 the close up of some miners looked like back of S3's to me(I could be wrong).

The above image depicted on their site representing their own can be viewed here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=738232.0 (OP)



So, one can easily conclude that both entities are one and the same, or SFARDS is using an image sans permission.

[TheRealSteve]

Looks like a place to get someone to set up industrial farm.  I didn't see any new products.  On http://www.sfards.com/product#part2 the close up of some miners looked like back of S3's to me(I could be wrong).

GridSeed G-Blade
http://gridseed.com/en/product/blade_en.html
( Antminer S3 is non-square, taller )

As for the picture:

国内另一家矿业巨头格锐思捷GridSeed拥有三代矿场机房建设和运维迭代经验，近期与WiiBox合作推出了

From [...] the merging of two industry leaders Gridseed and WiiBox, comes SFARDS

Not so much a 'new player'.

[daddyfatsax]

From [...] the merging of two industry leaders Gridseed and WiiBox, comes SFARDS

Not so much a 'new player'.

So we know their stuff is going to be expensive. I was not a fan of the first Wiibox controller either.

[Bogart]

What a horrible name.  Makes me think of smelly farts.

[Gleb Gamow]

What a horrible name.  Makes me think of smelly farts.

They put as much thought in their name as they did in opting to not tick the appropriate permalink box in their Wordpress theme. At least they're consistent, having the ugly name go hand-and-hand with their sites ugly URLs.

[opieum2]

Marked difference in scammer pages and legit ones. The legit ones show their hardware and photos of their stuff....the scammers use stock photography, ironically one vendor used stock photos with someone I know in it. Got some serious lulz out of that. But that should be a red flag as they are unethically (not necessarily illegally) misrepresenting themselves as something more than what they are.

[opieum2]

be VERY VERY careful downloading from httx://wiibox.ne t/ (deliberately screwed up URL to prevent the stupid thing from happening) This is linked on the sfards site as a tool for monitoring miners.....by itself a potential security hazard. It is obvious they are targeting bigger miners operations....IF it is malware, then it will pretty much be a red flag to avoid them at all costs.

They have an app on there. I am running some forensic tests on there to see how it works. They have done nothing to show they are legit here. But that does not mean they are not. But it would be stupid for them not to at least try to reach out.

Also Wii is a registered trademark of Nintendo.....

[sbogovac]

Is this Josh's new alias?

According to his Facebook page (not linked), Jack exited the closet in 2010.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackniederer

Jack Niederer 孟巍

International Project Development Manager at Sfards Technology

Haidian District, Beijing, ChinaOutsourcing/Offshoring
Current   
Sfards Technology Ltd
Previous   
Teleperformance, Mercedes-Benz UK Ltd
Education   
Peking University

PS sorry, that was just tooooo easy...  

[opieum2]

So the verdict? Legit? or scam? Seems off. But if they merged with another company with a legit rep, then it could be the real deal.

[windpath]

I'm still on the fence, and as they are not selling anything at this point I guess they have some time to legitimize themselves.

Would be interested to hear from SFARDS, Gridseed and WiiBox....

The Gridseed site indicates nothing about them being acquired.

[opieum2]

I'm still on the fence, and as they are not selling anything at this point I guess they have some time to legitimize themselves.

Would be interested to hear from SFARDS, Gridseed and WiiBox....

The Gridseed site indicates nothing about them being acquired.

Well here is the red flag. Downloads. They have downloads to monitor gridseed devices. They also claim "open source" but there is no source code to be found. So they need to post up the source and get their ducks in a row. Makes sense if they are looking to establish legitimacy. But this is a poor start.