ASICMiner - Can anyone provide a simple summary of what happened?

[adaseb]

There is basically probably a dozen threads about this and about 2000 pages combined of reading. Can somebody in a few points summary what exactly happened with this company?

All I can tell is simply that.


-FriedCat Created ASICMINER/AMHASH with investors money
-FriedCat Disappeared about a month ago with investors money

[1713854740]

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[1713854740]

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[FUR11]

AMHash is a cloud mining project by ASICMiner. ASICMiner provided the hashrate and AMHASH did the day-to-day business.
A week ago we learned that in December 2014(!!!) all the mining equipment got stolen (allegedly). Apparently friedcat also disappeared 1.5 months ago, while on a trip to Mongolia (potentially making deals about a new mining farm). Some people say he was abducted/catnapped, some say he's still fine, some say he's being forced to transfer his private coins. Friedcat may or may not be in danger. He may or may not be giving a statement soon. He may or may not have run with all the funds.
AM offices are allegedly emptied, as well.

Oh and someone started the hunt for AMHASH's/ROCKMINER's rockxie and his friends & family.

I can't believe I'm actually experiencing this all...

[AirWolf]

Sure, me and a few others are waging this battle against AMHASH scammers to get our money back:

Most info about the scam is this threads:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=833704.msg10646608#msg10646608
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=974058.msg10645504#msg10645504
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=976421.msg10661393#msg10661393
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=974893.msg10643266#msg10643266

this is a resume of what we know:

-BctLtcNmc is a user that lives in China and visited the AM offices, he says that they are closed and emptied, he says could look through the window.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=977777
-Rock Xie, whose real name is Xie Jian, principal of ROCKMINER, the company that runs AMHASH sent and statement saying that we all must wait until the now infamous friedcat appears again and that he has to solve the problem.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=974058.msg10647252#msg10647252
-One Dong Zhao, said in a forum in China that he is OK, but at large.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99497.msg10656672#msg10656672
-AM execs. have turned their phones off
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=99497.msg10657396#msg10657396
-Nor ASICMINER or ROCKMINER are talking or responding to public about this.
-They have admitted that they lied, 3 times now, for fear of spreading panic.

1.- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=833704.msg10392962#msg10392962
2.- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=833704.msg10610885#msg10610885
3.- https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=833704.msg10631414#msg10631414

-Rock Xie (Xie Jian) the AMHASH responsible personal data has been uncovered
 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=976421.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=833704.msg10680703#msg10680703
-Friedcat real name is Xinyu Jiang
-A reward is being offered for more personal information:
 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=974893.0
-AMHASH shares are frozen in Havelock
-A lot of money is on the move on the AMHASH payment account
-AMHASH was a last ditch effort from a cash strapped, dying company, and still it was marketed by Havelock and Hashie
 read posts from 1 to 10: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=60803;sa=showPosts

I plan to run a banner ad campaign with the faces of the scammers in China sites like Weibo, etc, that will call the attention of authorities very fast
I am in contact with CNN threading this story too.
A big BTC news site is digging into this too.

[ujka]

All I can tell is simply that.

-FriedCat Created ASICMINER/AMHASH with investors money
-FriedCat Disappeared about a month ago with investors money

Friedcat created ASICMINER with investors money in 2012, and paid 600% of that money back to investors (edit: in BTC terms!).

AMHash is a cloud mining operation started in Oct 2014: hardware provided by ASICMINER, sales and management by RockMiner. Dividends were paid daily up to Feb 10th, then they paused divs for the duration of Chinese New Year. Now there are rumors that the hardware was stolen, and friedcat is missing - no contact from him for 40 days...

[SpanishSoldier]

All I can tell is simply that.

-FriedCat Created ASICMINER/AMHASH with investors money
-FriedCat Disappeared about a month ago with investors money

Friedcat created ASICMINER with investors money in 2012, and paid 600% of that money back to investors.

AMHash is a cloud mining operation started in Oct 2014: hardware provided by ASICMINER, sales and management by RockMiner. Dividends were paid daily up to Feb 10th, then they paused divs for the duration of Chinese New Year. Now there are rumors that the hardware was stolen, and friedcat is missing - no contact from him for 40 days...

600% in terms of bitcoin value or FIAT value, i.e. took 1 BTC in 2012 and returned 600 BTC in 2014 or took 1 USD equivalent BTC in 2012 and returned 600 USD equivalent BTC in 2014 ?

[Bonam]

ASICMiner - Can anyone provide a simple summary of what happened?

Asicminer had its IPO in 2012 at 0.1 BTC/share, seeking initial cash to develop ASICs for bitcoin mining. They were among the first few companies to market with ASICs and were able to provide investors with a profitable dividend for a while based on this first generation product. Shares reached highs of 4.5 BTC each. However, the Asicminer team was unable to translate this initial success into a lasting business... their 2nd generation of chips was a failure (cancelled), and the 3rd generation of chips were delivered behind schedule and under spec, leading to losses. In the wake of the gen 3 failure, friedcat (the presumed CEO) stopped communicating. It is now presumed that those who had access to Asicminer money have run with whatever remained, although this has yet to be conclusively proven.

[Blazed]

ASICMiner - Can anyone provide a simple summary of what happened?

Asicminer had its IPO in 2012 at 0.1 BTC/share, seeking initial cash to develop ASICs for bitcoin mining. They were among the first few companies to market with ASICs and were able to provide investors with a profitable dividend for a while based on this first generation product. Shares reached highs of 4.5 BTC each. However, the Asicminer team was unable to translate this initial success into a lasting business... their 2nd generation of chips was a failure (cancelled), and the 3rd generation of chips were delivered behind schedule and under spec, leading to losses. In the wake of the gen 3 failure, friedcat (the CEO) stopped communicating. It is now presumed that those who had access to Asicminer money have run with whatever remained, although this has yet to be conclusively proven.

This is pretty much it..except he left out AMHash.

[Megabyte]

600% in terms of bitcoin value or FIAT value, i.e. took 1 BTC in 2012 and returned 600 BTC in 2014 or took 1 USD equivalent BTC in 2012 and returned 600 USD equivalent BTC in 2014 ?

Dude, 600% is 6x, so 1 bitcoin would return 6 bitcoins...

[xingming]

All I can tell is simply that.

-FriedCat Created ASICMINER/AMHASH with investors money
-FriedCat Disappeared about a month ago with investors money

Friedcat created ASICMINER with investors money in 2012, and paid 600% of that money back to investors.

AMHash is a cloud mining operation started in Oct 2014: hardware provided by ASICMINER, sales and management by RockMiner. Dividends were paid daily up to Feb 10th, then they paused divs for the duration of Chinese New Year. Now there are rumors that the hardware was stolen, and friedcat is missing - no contact from him for 40 days...

600% in terms of bitcoin value or FIAT value, i.e. took 1 BTC in 2012 and returned 600 BTC in 2014 or took 1 USD equivalent BTC in 2012 and returned 600 USD equivalent BTC in 2014 ?

600% in term of fiat as i think that mean he took 1$ and return it 6$ , this can be much for investors they basicaly
didn'tt loose , 6x Roi is increadible ! and anyone will like to invest ; stealing investors money is a bad thing  he could
know get more and more investors and be very rich.

[SpanishSoldier]

All I can tell is simply that.

-FriedCat Created ASICMINER/AMHASH with investors money
-FriedCat Disappeared about a month ago with investors money

Friedcat created ASICMINER with investors money in 2012, and paid 600% of that money back to investors.

AMHash is a cloud mining operation started in Oct 2014: hardware provided by ASICMINER, sales and management by RockMiner. Dividends were paid daily up to Feb 10th, then they paused divs for the duration of Chinese New Year. Now there are rumors that the hardware was stolen, and friedcat is missing - no contact from him for 40 days...

600% in terms of bitcoin value or FIAT value, i.e. took 1 BTC in 2012 and returned 600 BTC in 2014 or took 1 USD equivalent BTC in 2012 and returned 600 USD equivalent BTC in 2014 ?

600% in term of fiat as i think that mean he took 1$ and return it 6$ , this can be much for investors they basicaly
didn'tt loose , 6x Roi is increadible ! and anyone will like to invest ; stealing investors money is a bad thing  he could
know get more and more investors and be very rich.

OK... if he took 1 USD and returned 6 USD, I just want to know when he returned the 6 USD assuming 1 USD was taken at some time in 2012 ?

[galdur]

1-2 = 100%

1-3 = 200%

1-4 = 300%

1-5 = 400%

1-6 = 500%

1-7 = 600%

Just helping the kids with some basic math.

Invested 100, returned 700 = yield 600%.

[jimmothy]

IPO was 0.1 btc/share or $1.2 USD/share.

Total dividends to date are ~0.6 btc/share.

ROI in btc = 500%.

ROI in USD = ~10,000%.

[MrTeal]

The return was in BTC terms. Asicminer was the major beneficiary of BFL and Avalon shitting the bed in the first half of 2013. They essentially mined unopposed for a half a year. They also took the opportunity to start selling hardware which was a massive success for them, even though everyone who owned a calculator told the buyers they were making a huge mistake.

That was just in divs, IIRC the AM stock (BTC0.1 IPO) jumped to ~BTC4/share at one point, it was ridiculous. You'd never find enough people to buy at that price, but just based on price alone in the middle of 2013 the company was worth a million and a half bitcoins or over US$100M.

Once all their competitors started shipping, divs dried up and info from ASICMiner was released like gold dust. I haven't followed it much lately until the latest calamity, but people have been begging even for some basic financials for a year without luck.

[ujka]

All I can tell is simply that.

-FriedCat Created ASICMINER/AMHASH with investors money
-FriedCat Disappeared about a month ago with investors money

Friedcat created ASICMINER with investors money in 2012, and paid 600% of that money back to investors.

AMHash is a cloud mining operation started in Oct 2014: hardware provided by ASICMINER, sales and management by RockMiner. Dividends were paid daily up to Feb 10th, then they paused divs for the duration of Chinese New Year. Now there are rumors that the hardware was stolen, and friedcat is missing - no contact from him for 40 days...

600% in terms of bitcoin value or FIAT value, i.e. took 1 BTC in 2012 and returned 600 BTC in 2014 or took 1 USD equivalent BTC in 2012 and returned 600 USD equivalent BTC in 2014 ?

600% in term of fiat as i think that mean he took 1$ and return it 6$ , this can be much for investors they basicaly
didn'tt loose , 6x Roi is increadible ! and anyone will like to invest ; stealing investors money is a bad thing  he could
know get more and more investors and be very rich.

OK... if he took 1 USD and returned 6 USD, I just want to know when he returned the 6 USD assuming 1 USD was taken at some time in 2012 ?

I think you all got it by now, but anyway, to be sure: return in BTC terms, for every btc he took, he returned 6. btc. At the time of IPO (august 2012), btc was around $10.

[NotLambchop]

There is basically probably a dozen threads about this and about 2000 pages combined of reading. Can somebody in a few points summary what exactly happened with this company?...

The most succinct & cogent summation I've found was penned by a shit background pony, Silverspoon:

TL;DR:

  ~Happy Investing!