[Announcement] Butterfly Labs

[uuidman]

Can you explain the secrecy behind the names of people at the company?

There are several factors involved, but the short version is that having experienced some of the "stalking" we internet denizens tend to do when our ire is up, they are somewhat reluctant to put their privacy and sanity at risk.  Additionally, they are fairly private people and have obligations outside of bitcoin that they do not necessarily wish to mix with the bitcoin world a this time.

Keep in mind, if you are not familiar with online forums and the kind of "communication" that goes on in them, especially the wild west forums like Bitcointalk.org, it can be a horrifying place to otherwise uninitiated individuals.  As open and welcoming as we are, we are still an insular world that is hard to really break into, especially when you come bearing the seemingly impossible claims.

Thanks for the explanation. It is highly unusual behaviour for a company handling this amount of money and creates the type of customers (paranoid and investigative) they are trying to avoid. Probably not the best tactic from day 1, but maybe something you can't come back from.

When does my SC arrive? :>

Yes, that explains a lot, but this is good news. Congrats to your new job, this can only make things better.

[Scared]

Congratulations on your new opportunity. I think your a perfect addition to the company.

Cheers
-Scared

[nedbert9]

Looking at the topic I was seriously scared this would be BFL announcing difficulties with their ASIC plans and that they were going to refund/run away/make us wait "4-6 weeks" for equivalent number of FPGA units.

[stoppots]

Congrats to BFL.

They couldn't have possibly hire a better person to resolve the current issues and suspicions that people are having. Anyone who mines at eclipse knows Inaba and the service and dedication he provides for the miners of his pool. The transparency he offers attest to his honesty and you will find none other like it anywhere else. Integrity and willingness to go above and beyond wat is ask or expected every time. Time and time again he never fails to impress.

For those that don't aren't familiar with him, you will soon see. Keep up the good work man in all that you do.

Good luck on the step your taking

[jamesg]

Congrats to BFL.

They couldn't have possibly hire a better person to resolve the current issues and suspicions that people are having. Anyone who mines at eclipse knows Inaba and the service and dedication he provides for the miners of his pool. The transparency he offers attest to his honesty and you will find none other like it anywhere else. Integrity and willingness to go above and beyond wat is ask or expected every time. Time and time again he never fails to impress.

For those that don't aren't familiar with him, you will soon see. Keep up the good work man in all that you do.

Good luck on the step your taking

Agreed 100%.

[kano]

Hmm - so hopefully this will mean when people like BFL-Engineer say BFL will have something this weekend they wont actually mean 'more than a month away' or 'never'?

BFL-Engineer on July 05, 2012, 10:51:53 PM

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=60586.msg1032988#msg1032988

[RoloTonyBrownTown]

Good on you Inaba (and BFL), well deserved.

[fred0]

Congrats on the gig!

[kano]

... and my reasonable request number 1 for you to follow up on when you start work there ... in 4-6 weeks?

Since BFL have publicly stated that the FPGA devices will be useless in about 2 months when the ASIC devices will be released,
can you get them to release certain useful details about the BFL:
1) How to upload a bitstream (and the obfuscation done to do that)
2) Any so far undocumented commands that can be sent to the BFL

[Epoch]

Wow. I'm actually shocked ... in a good way. My sincere congratulations, Inaba! Looking forward to the future.

[SysRun]

Congratulations. Don't screw this up chief! 

[coretechs]

Very cool, best of luck!   

[Sitarow]

Okay time to order me some mini sc's

[dave3]

Q. You are going to have an unfair advantage when it comes to mining equipment, you’ll be able to get as much as you want before anyone else!
 A. I will not be expanding my mining footprint as it would be a conflict of interest.  I will continue with my current obligations and already acquired/paid for equipment but will not be purchasing or utilizing additional equipment as part of my mining operations.  This is one of the hardest changes I will be making, as I firmly believe there are plenty of opportunities in this space that I am going to be missing out on, but I believe I can do more good for the bitcoin community as a whole working to provide that equipment to people as opposed to using it myself.

You'll be upgrading all of your existing BFL hardware to ASICs, right?  You just won't be buying more later on?

[MXRider]

This is awesome!

[Syke]

Q. Are you going to become just another mouthpiece for the BFL party line?
A. First of all, there is no “party line” coming out of BFL.

There very much is a party line. It is: "Everything is on schedule". "4-6 weeks" is the biggest joke on bitcointalk because month after month, even after shipping hundreds (thousands?) of Singles, they never were honest on the shipping schedule.

I will give you the honest facts as I know them.

Then answer this honestly. How bad is the current backlog? What is the estimated ship date for an SC order placed today?

[BFL_Josh]

I honestly can't answer any functional questions about internal company business since I haven't actually started working there yet... so I don't know those answers as of yet.  I have current obligations that I have to wind down prior to the 13th and then it's going to take me a bit to assess the current situation and get up to speed on where things stand internally at BFL at that point.

As far as release schedules go, I will be addressing and handling those as well.  Be careful what you wish for though, you might end up with a Valve style release date on stuff.

Hiring a COO to fix their customer relations (and one who can't keep from calling people idiots when discussing his new demeanor) is like hiring a CTO to fix their website.

This is the public part of my job, but it is not my only job.  I did not think, nor do I now think that anyone cares what other activities I will be conducting that will not affected the things Bitcointalk cares about.  Also, I said you wouldn't see as many rants, etc... from me.  That doesn't mean I won't call a spade a spade.  If someone is being an idiot, I will likely ignore them; however there may be occasions where it's warranted to point out that fact if it serves a higher purpose than just poking fun at someone.

[BlackPrapor]

Great news, I was hoping it would come to this  Now we only need Joe to get commited to bitcoin, hopefuly in time the ASICs hit the market

[stoppots]

I honestly can't answer any functional questions about internal company business since I haven't actually started working there yet... so I don't know those answers as of yet.  I have current obligations that I have to wind down prior to the 13th and then it's going to take me a bit to assess the current situation and get up to speed on where things stand internally at BFL at that point.

As far as release schedules go, I will be addressing and handling those as well.  Be careful what you wish for though, you might end up with a Valve style release date on stuff.

Hiring a COO to fix their customer relations (and one who can't keep from calling people idiots when discussing his new demeanor) is like hiring a CTO to fix their website.

This is the public part of my job, but it is not my only job.  I did not think, nor do I now think that anyone cares what other activities I will be conducting that will not affected the things Bitcointalk cares about.  Also, I said you wouldn't see as many rants, etc... from me.  That doesn't mean I won't call a spade a spade.  If someone is being an idiot, I will likely ignore them; however there may be occasions where it's warranted to point out that fact if it serves a higher purpose than just poking fun at someone.

Thought I would quote your post from previous page since it was the last post of the page I felt it was buried and it addresses any questions that can't be answered since you have not yet started.

[KIDC]

Congratulations Inaba. This is a smart choice by you and BFL. BFL's number one problem in my opinion, even more important than turnaround time, is ineffective communications. If I were operating BFL I would want a qualified, knowledgeable person answering customer (or prospective customer) questions on these forums every day during business hours. I couldn't think of anybody better qualified than you for the job and I think you'll do a fantastic job and improve BFL's standing in the community by miles.

So. Would you rather go as BFL Josh now, Josh, or Inaba still? Or do you have no preference?