AMT miners and Joshua Zipkin

[clenell]

Well, i havent been on this thread in a long time. The company i made a $6,000 purchase from is in the process of finally declaring bankruptcy - according to his letter to the federal court I am suing him in. The company i dealt with was called AMT miners and the owner is a real scumbag called Joshua Zipkin. This man, I believe, is or has been trying to start other companies. This is just a friendly note to those of you out there with large amounts of cash and a willingness to purchase a bitcoin miner... "stay away from any business with Joshua Zipkin" i wont bore everyone with the details but suffice to say the man is a pathological liar and a terrible businessman. Last told he fled to Bulgaria to essentially escape prosecution here in the United States. Be warned. I paid him $6,000 cash and he never sent me a thing. he even bragged about not sending me anything. please folks do not make the same mistake I did. he will not change. he intentionally defrauded a LOT of people. I was just one of his victims. there are many more. happy mining folks - i dont think i will ever try to get back into biotcoin mining. too much deceit.

[1715255768]

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[1715255768]

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[CanaryInTheMine]

Well, i havent been on this thread in a long time. The company i made a $6,000 purchase from is in the process of finally declaring bankruptcy - according to his letter to the federal court I am suing him in. The company i dealt with was called AMT miners and the owner is a real scumbag called Joshua Zipkin. This man, I believe, is or has been trying to start other companies. This is just a friendly note to those of you out there with large amounts of cash and a willingness to purchase a bitcoin miner... "stay away from any business with Joshua Zipkin" i wont bore everyone with the details but suffice to say the man is a pathological liar and a terrible businessman. Last told he fled to Bulgaria to essentially escape prosecution here in the United States. Be warned. I paid him $6,000 cash and he never sent me a thing. he even bragged about not sending me anything. please folks do not make the same mistake I did. he will not change. he intentionally defrauded a LOT of people. I was just one of his victims. there are many more. happy mining folks - i dont think i will ever try to get back into biotcoin mining. too much deceit.

If my memory serves me right, I saw him at A London conference last year and I think he was/is from Philly

[clenell]

true statement canary. joshua zipkin is from philly. i hope to god you didnt give him any money.

[opieum2]

Alot of people here did. He is actually from the Haverford area. He has no intentions of operating in the US again by his own words. But he certainly is trying to start other businesses. For all of us who were victimized by this asshole (11.5k here) it sucks. For those in the future miners you can learn from this a cautionary tale. Do your research on the vendors. If you cant find a name behind the company, stay away. Alternately if you cant get consistently good feedback about a vendor, stay away. Right now there are few vendors. BITMAINTech  and Spondoolies-tech are really the only two beginner friendly mining companies out there. There are other solidly reputable companies but IMO these top the list.

Only advice I can give to anyone here reading this. DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

[djroadking]

Not just beginner friendly man... Bitmain and Spondoolies-tech are pretty much the most trustworthy companies for hardware.

[opieum2]

Not just beginner friendly man... Bitmain and Spondoolies-tech are pretty much the most trustworthy companies for hardware.

+1 and yea that is the truth there.

[Bicknellski]

Alot of people here did. He is actually from the Haverford area. He has no intentions of operating in the US again by his own words. But he certainly is trying to start other businesses. For all of us who were victimized by this asshole (11.5k here) it sucks. For those in the future miners you can learn from this a cautionary tale. Do your research on the vendors. If you cant find a name behind the company, stay away. Alternately if you cant get consistently good feedback about a vendor, stay away. Right now there are few vendors. BITMAINTech  and Spondoolies-tech are really the only two beginner friendly mining companies out there. There are other solidly reputable companies but IMO these top the list.

Only advice I can give to anyone here reading this. DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

That is the key. RESEARCH.

It really doesn't take a lot of poking around here in bitcointalk hardware to narrow down your choices of hardware.

Then again at this point no one should be spending a few thousand on mining hardware. There is no upside to mining under the Petahash range.

At this point home or small mining is dead and people should avoid it at all costs. Potentially owning BTC by purchasing it and holding it seems to be a good gamble but again only if you are willing to lose it all. NEVER invest in Bitcoin be it coins or mining if you are not able to lose your entire investment. Many people have lost as a result of AMT and other equally shady outfits in hardware, cloud-mining, exchanges and pools.

[opieum2]

Alot of people here did. He is actually from the Haverford area. He has no intentions of operating in the US again by his own words. But he certainly is trying to start other businesses. For all of us who were victimized by this asshole (11.5k here) it sucks. For those in the future miners you can learn from this a cautionary tale. Do your research on the vendors. If you cant find a name behind the company, stay away. Alternately if you cant get consistently good feedback about a vendor, stay away. Right now there are few vendors. BITMAINTech  and Spondoolies-tech are really the only two beginner friendly mining companies out there. There are other solidly reputable companies but IMO these top the list.

Only advice I can give to anyone here reading this. DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

That is the key. RESEARCH.

It really doesn't take a lot of poking around here in bitcointalk hardware to narrow down your choices of hardware.

Then again at this point no one should be spending a few thousand on mining hardware. There is no upside to mining under the Petahash range.

At this point home or small mining is dead and people should avoid it at all costs. Potentially owning BTC by purchasing it and holding it seems to be a good gamble but again only if you are willing to lose it all. NEVER invest in Bitcoin be it coins or mining if you are not able to lose your entire investment. Many people have lost as a result of AMT and other equally shady outfits in hardware, cloud-mining, exchanges and pools.

I only partially agree with the statement about mining under petahash. IF you are going to mine under a PH have a growth plan. This involves making it a real business to build out. As it would be under a corporation under US tax law the write offs would be significant. Alot of advantages. But I do agree that home mining is dead. It makes a pittance at this point and not a profit.

For US miners low power in warehouses with lower electrical rates (usually significantly lower wholesale rates) is the ONLY way to go. Building cooperatives or renting/buying a warehouse outright is the only way to go now to make a truly profitable mine.

[el_rlee]

Wasn't that a Netherlands company?

[TheRealSteve]

Wasn't that a Netherlands company?

This is AMT (Advanced Mining Technologies).
You may be thinking of MAT (Mining Asics Technologies B.V.)

[el_rlee]

Wasn't that a Netherlands company?

This is AMT (Advanced Mining Technologies).
You may be thinking of MAT (Mining Asics Technologies B.V.)

Yeah, right. It's just that they're also bankrupt...

[opieum2]

Wasn't that a Netherlands company?

This is AMT (Advanced Mining Technologies).
You may be thinking of MAT (Mining Asics Technologies B.V.)

Yeah, right. It's just that they're also bankrupt...

They are different companies, that said it would not be surprising if they are the same people running the show. Joshua Zipkin has shown he has a fetish for creating sock puppets for both companies and people (Jim Brown is actually not even a real person its an alias for Tyler Lummis). He also admitted he would create other companies to try to sell his miners. I doubt he has been too successful.

[mdiggy]

Craig,
Good to hear from you. Josh eventually sent me the 12k of miners he owed, but one was pretty much DOA, and they offered no help. I'm very interested in keeping up with what happens in court. Mind sending me an email at max@maxwellgoldstein.com to discuss?

Thanks!

[Syke]

Josh fled the country. His lawyers quit because he won't pay them. I hope the judge comes down hard on him.

http://ia600704.us.archive.org/31/items/gov.uscourts.paed.489513/gov.uscourts.paed.489513.38.0.pdf

[alh]

Josh fled the country. His lawyers quit because he won't pay them. I hope the judge comes down hard on him.

http://ia600704.us.archive.org/31/items/gov.uscourts.paed.489513/gov.uscourts.paed.489513.38.0.pdf

While it might be nice if a "judge comes down hard", it may not really matter to the victims. If Zipkin has left the US, and there aren't any assets in the US, he's pretty much "judgment proof" in that there isn't anything for folks to collect.

[opieum2]

Josh fled the country. His lawyers quit because he won't pay them. I hope the judge comes down hard on him.

http://ia600704.us.archive.org/31/items/gov.uscourts.paed.489513/gov.uscourts.paed.489513.38.0.pdf

While it might be nice if a "judge comes down hard", it may not really matter to the victims. If Zipkin has left the US, and there aren't any assets in the US, he's pretty much "judgment proof" in that there isn't anything for folks to collect.

Well if criminal charges are levied on him for fraud (which is really is) and the FBI gets involved (won't comment on that), there are extradition treaties. I have already mentioned it to various people to contact them. If you want your money back contact the FBI in the manner I stated in the PM I sent. I detailed every step needed (as I was instructed to do by an FBI agent who assisted me with this process). If you want Joshua Zipkin to face justice then this is the best recourse at this point. He has run from judgments like this in the past. A simple background check will turn that up on him. I believe said checks have been posted to this forum.

 

[Swimmer63]

Alot of people here did. He is actually from the Haverford area. He has no intentions of operating in the US again by his own words. But he certainly is trying to start other businesses. For all of us who were victimized by this asshole (11.5k here) it sucks. For those in the future miners you can learn from this a cautionary tale. Do your research on the vendors. If you cant find a name behind the company, stay away. Alternately if you cant get consistently good feedback about a vendor, stay away. Right now there are few vendors. BITMAINTech  and Spondoolies-tech are really the only two beginner friendly mining companies out there. There are other solidly reputable companies but IMO these top the list.

Only advice I can give to anyone here reading this. DO YOUR RESEARCH!!!

That is the key. RESEARCH.

It really doesn't take a lot of poking around here in bitcointalk hardware to narrow down your choices of hardware.

Then again at this point no one should be spending a few thousand on mining hardware. There is no upside to mining under the Petahash range.

At this point home or small mining is dead and people should avoid it at all costs. Potentially owning BTC by purchasing it and holding it seems to be a good gamble but again only if you are willing to lose it all. NEVER invest in Bitcoin be it coins or mining if you are not able to lose your entire investment. Many people have lost as a result of AMT and other equally shady outfits in hardware, cloud-mining, exchanges and pools.

While I would not start mining now from scratch, there are plenty of people still making a profit from mining well under a petahash.
You have to be smart about it and recognize that profits will be small.  So do it for the love of hardware, as a hobby and to support the network.