ASICMINER: Entering the Future of ASIC Mining by Inventing It

[CanaryInTheMine]

Well with CITM throwing in the towel it seems this is most likely dead. It is a shame they could not have just shutdown in a more graceful manner. Goodnight, sweet price

I shared what I know, didn't throw in the towel at all.  My hope is to nudge fc out of his situation, hire a CEO and get rid of Dave and all other people who are not there to serve shareholders.
There was serious infighting between fc and Dave.  Fc is a young guy and people took advantage of him.  He is now the fall guy, a scapegoat.  
The company didn't adjust as it grew with getting good business managers.  Management didn't listen to good external business advise.

The board of directors FAILED the shareholders miserably.  The board should have acted properly in shareholders interests, but what do you expect from a board made up of investors who purchased the seat instead of really doing it's fiduciary duty to the shareholders?  Although a couple board members really tried.
This david guy would be the last person I would invest a penny with (this is my personal view only).  AM is bankrupt.  The question now is, will certain people steal the IP from you the shareholders, find an investor and produce the chip with hopes of making personal gains out of this situation.

[CanaryInTheMine]

Well that was a pretty useless statement. It told us nothing we didn't already know. Also, what's the status of AM's funds and BE300?

Per Canary:

update :

1. We have lost contact with Friedcat more than 40 days, we are now still focusing on finding him.
2. A lot of evidences we have found shows that he is safe, which is the only good news recently. In addition, all rumour around the community are baseless and untrustworthy. We know so far nothing about where has he been and where is he at the moment.
3. We have to focus on finding him currently so there are indeed some delay on replying email of sale@bitquan.com. However, since we have all records of your emails so it is only a problem of time, please understand and be patient.
4. AMHASH project is not from sale team of ASICMINER, we know nothing about the deal between Friedcat and ROCKMINER, no one else has seen the contract between them either ,therefore, we sale department of ASICMINER is not be in charge of AMHASH project, please be patient to wait till we find FC.

Is the new chip in production Phasebird?  Or what is the status of that project?

hello, BE300 project is still on going with the rest of AM team as I know. however ,since AM lost FC, a lot of decisions are probabaly hard to make.

In terms of our hardware sale department,we have saved all emails and will try to re-build our bussiness team as quick as we can.

please wait the upcoming statement from the board of AM.

It is not ongoing.  The sample chips were ordered on a shared wafer last year.  However, production chips were NEVER ordered, so nothing is ongoing Phasebird.
Even if some board members finally decide to do their job, the first order of business is to get rid of Dave.  Then if they put together funds and order the chips, how many months before a working product can begin to ship? By that time it's irrelevant.  Whatever monies would be spent, would again be a complete waste.
It's over for AM.  Maybe something can be rebuilt with new real management and a proper sales team but it won't be AM anymore and would be a gamble bigger than AM.

Canary telling phasebird(!!!) who is working for AM that the chips haven't been ordered. Canary used to be a pretty decent reseller, but is acting kind of strange lately.

AM employees like Pb were pretty much kept in the dark, so phasebird did not know.  their teams were not communicating between each other.  I'm not acting, this situation is very real.

[MrTeal]

The question now is will certain people steal the IP from you the shareholders, find an investor and produce the chip with hopes of making personal gains out of this situation.

Was that a rhetorical question?

[Mabsark]

Canary, are these statements based on inside knowledge or just the rumours and facts everyone else knows? Also, are you a board member?

[CanaryInTheMine]

Canary, are these statements based on inside knowledge or just the rumours and facts everyone else knows? Also, are you a board member?

Yes. No.

[Cablez]

The question now is will certain people steal the IP from you the shareholders, find an investor and produce the chip with hopes of making personal gains out of this situation.

Was that a rhetorical question?

Yeah, I think this is a given.  Hence all the panic.

[Mabsark]

Canary, are these statements based on inside knowledge or just the rumours and facts everyone else knows? Also, are you a board member?

Yes. No.

Canary, are these statements based on inside knowledge?

[MidwestMiner]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't AM still sit on a very respectable amount of BTC?

[CanaryInTheMine]

Canary, are these statements based on inside knowledge or just the rumours and facts everyone else knows? Also, are you a board member?

Yes. No.

Canary, are these statements based on inside knowledge?

Yep, but I don't know what you mean by "inside knowledge"  it could mean different things to different people.  I got info from multiple reliable sources, but ultimately, friedcat will have to clear everything up and correct any wrong info.  you won't get any truthfulness from dave, others (employees) simply do not know what really happened and are stunned.  While dave got rid of mostly everyone, there are some who don't believe him and are awaiting friedcat's return.  Also understand that info I got, while presumably good, can be wrong as well.  So you have to draw your own conclusions from info from people you trust.

The board at this point is responsible to the shareholders.  So, the board, get to work yesterday!!!

[xhomerx10]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't AM still sit on a very respectable amount of BTC?

 We haven't seen a financial statement for quite some time so nobody here who is talking knows for sure.

[armedmilitia]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't AM still sit on a very respectable amount of BTC?

They might. The BTC may have also been taken. David's statement might be leaving out that FC also swept all the company addresses. Of course, that's totally speculation, but sounds plausible considering the circumstances. It's also plausible FC has been arrested or is dead, and company funds are intact.

Nobody knows for sure, that's why everyone's spooked.  

[Jutarul]

Let me break the silence, since many have wondered about the events on the board and among major shareholders. I apologize to all who sent me messages and didn't get a reply. But the situation at ASICMINER is simply hard to diagnose without first hand information. I guess I speak for every major shareholder when I say that no one saw the current situation coming. Sure - the company has been struggling lately, in part because the window of opportunity closed quickly and ASICMINER didn't move as fast as some of the competition. However, seeing how ASICMINER got hit by a double whammy of first loosing its farm and then its CEO is quite disturbing, to say the least.

The situation surrounding Rockminer is complex. I am saddened to see such an aggressive stand of Rockminer towards ASICMINER. I can only suspect that they are getting a lot of pressure themselves. However, there are more professional ways to deal with the issue than to clutter the internet with confidential material - that alone speaks volumes. The only excuse I can see for this is that ASICMINER so far has dealt with the situation poorly - and this is inexcusable.

The contractual obligations are currently being analyzed. So far it is clear that there seems to be no real clause which defines who is liable for events like theft or fire. Obviously, there has been no insurance plan either. The general rule for situations like these is that any clear liability assignment is commercially not viable and the affected parties have to sort it out somehow. The problem is that the product AMHash theoretically involves 5 Parties (Operator, Manufacturer, HashLord, Contract Platform, Contract Holder), of which neither has the ability to absorb the damage alone.  So far the overall understanding is that ASICMINER should carry some responsibility - however, the ability of the company to deal with the current fallout is hampered. Pressuring the company to do anything which it can't deliver is not productive.

I hear that some parties are considering legal steps. Let me tell you that from experience this won't end well for anybody and only results in wasting money on the parasitic elements of our economy. What we need in the current situation is a leadership figure who seeks compromise. This crisis won't be solved overnight. If a solution is reached it's likely gonna be a 2 year plan or some form of agreeable settlement. I hope I didn't shock anybody with this assessment.

Regarding the shareholding. It has been of a lower priority. For everyone who is holding shares and has traded recently, please preserve the full trail up to the last checkpoint, which means the cryptographic signatures which are used to authorize reassignment of shares. If traded unsafely, there is no guarantee that the ownership can be confirmed. Beware of double spending vectors in OTC transactions and use escrow if possible.

I saw some claim for the board not doing its work. Unfortunately there is no job description for board members, nor do they have an official duty with the company (unless a board member decides to get actively involved with the business). The conclusion which was already drawn a long time ago is that proper assessment requires boots on the ground. But those who actually were, never developed the habit of fiduciary reporting. AM Management always enjoyed a lax handling. I am not certain whether a stronger hand would have helped though. The business is tough. One little detail though - FC was always conflicted which information to release to the board and which not - especially since some of the board members have a conflict of interest because they are working for the competition. As such we covered mostly the baseline of sticking to financial statements as required by law.

According to the latest status the BE300 is confirmed and working. However, to bring the chip to market requires FIXED COST + COST PER CHIP + BUILD OUT COST. The funding situation for this is dire and it would require a new investor or a big buyer who has to be certain that he gets what he is promised. There are two scenarios where this could be quickly achieved:
a) A bitcoin price explosion would release dormant capital instantly shifting the reward/risk ratio.
b) A new type of investor who enjoys preferred treatment over AM Shareholders for the financing of the BE300 tech. Likely implemented as a joint venture.

I will collect further questions via PM and answer them publicly. I am certain I missed a few important points in this post.

Regards

[Jayjay04]

Thx Jutarul !
Any inside on the Amhashs contracts ?

[Chris_Sabian]

So any chance that AM would be 'saved' by the BE300 chip is now gone?

That is what the last few pages seem to mean.  And if that is true, AM is good as dead.

[KarmaShark]

PM'd

[MidwestMiner]

So any chance that AM would be 'saved' by the BE300 chip is now gone?

That is what the last few pages seem to mean.  And if that is true, AM is good as dead.

I have to say that it seems odd to say that BE300 is dead. Its not 20/16 nm. Wafers shouldn't be that expensive at all and running at low volt 0.15-0.18 w/GH is still extremely competitive. A few $100k isn't "big money" in mining.

[primeminer]

So any chance that AM would be 'saved' by the BE300 chip is now gone?

That is what the last few pages seem to mean.  And if that is true, AM is good as dead.

I have to say that it seems odd to say that BE300 is dead. Its not 20/16 nm. Wafers shouldn't be that expensive at all and running at low volt 0.15-0.18 w/GH is still extremely competitive. A few $100k isn't "big money" in mining.

it is "big money" for someone who doesnt have any funds

[Silverspoon]

...
I hear that some parties are considering legal steps. Let me tell you that from experience this won't end well for anybody and only results in wasting money on the parasitic elements of our economy. ...

[RoadStress]

According to the latest status the BE300 is confirmed and working. However, to bring the chip to market requires FIXED COST + COST PER CHIP + BUILD OUT COST. The funding situation for this is dire and it would require a new investor or a big buyer who has to be certain that he gets what he is promised. There are two scenarios where this could be quickly achieved:
a) A bitcoin price explosion would release dormant capital instantly shifting the reward/risk ratio.
b) A new type of investor who enjoys preferred treatment over AM Shareholders for the financing of the BE300 tech. Likely implemented as a joint venture.

So AM is broke just as expected since there was no financial report last year. Thanks for confirming this.

[Mabsark]

In other words, AM is dead.