ASICMINER: Entering the Future of ASIC Mining by Inventing It

[jimmothy]

Fuzzy financials.. hmm sounds like a Ken Slaughter move.  

Selling almost $4,000,000 worth of hardware is definitely not a Ken Slaughter move.

Keeping profit away from shareholders is.  

But that has never happened. They spent $6,000,000 and earned $4,000,000.

The same people complaining about not receiving divs from selling 700k chips, are the same people who would complain if he had given out divs now(reducing reinvestment) and not been able to sell 3m chips next month. You can have one or the other, not both.

That is the only reason why financials would be fuzzy in the first place.

It's only fuzzy if you can't read them. What part confuses you?

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[bitcoin.newsfeed]

Next round of shareholders questions - gathering


Just got message from our friendlypumpkin :

Please collect those questions if you like and forward them, I'm currently out of town and on mobile only. (Plus I'm pretty disappointed and lost money due to all of this).

SO, if anyone wants to add any more questions for the next round of shareholders questions, just PM me or write it here, questions will be forwarded to competent people 1st of June 2014 12:00 UTC +01:00

Current state of list :

1) On the Balance Sheet, approximately how many chips does the current Inventory (Products + Materials) represent?

2) How many months of inventory do you estimate that represents?

3) On the Cash Flow there was significant expenses for gen3 production (~6mil USD). Does that represent the bulk of gen3 expenses, or are the expenses for gen3 going to continue (additional wafer batches ordered, etc.)?

4) When will dividends start, and how frequently will they occur?

5) What is the status of gen 3.1 (shipping to customers, I think?)? How much does it help with energy usage -- do we have final chip performance numbers yet?

6) What is the progress on gen4?

7) What is the status of self mining? What is the rollout schedule for the data centers?

8 ) What is the status of franchising partners? When can we expect to see income from them?

9) Can you please clarify this sentence from 21st April : "The dividend schedule will be aggressive, as AM will not require large sums of retained capital." < is this still actual, or meanwhile something changed?

10) What is the average selling price of AM gen3 chips (price per Gh/s)?

11) What is that ~4M CNY in financial report/expenses at exchange?

12) What is the cash flow ratio between the amount of Chips Fabricated and the percentage of the batch that is dedicated to cost.

13)  What is the Break Even Point of this batch of Chips?

14) What is the estimated conversion time from chip sales to dividends?

15) Will the funds from future Gen 3 chips be used to fund Gen 4 chips or distributed as a dividend, and what relative percentage of income will be used for Gen 4?

16) Previously our Asicminer farm was mining bitcoins and distributing a weekly dividend, will Asicminer update its present hash rate in the mining farm to account for current difficulty changes and to procure a secondary supply of Bitcoins to adapt for rapid changes in Bitcoin prices?

17) What ever happened to the dedicated PR person and should AM make a website for distributors and for Chip inquiries?

18) Can we please get weekly, bi-weekly or monthly updates about progress, plans, sales etc. for preventing FUD in this thread?

19) Can you please communicate more clearly/frequently with shareholders?

[jimmothy]

18) Can you please care more about your shareholders ?

I'd change that to "Can you please communicate more clearly/frequently with shareholders".

Also something to add: What is the average production cost per chip?

[freedomno1]

I kind of want it to be a round of 20 Questions for Friedcat just for the reference if someone can think up at least 2 more good ones  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Questions

[Swordsoffreedom]

Got one
What ever happened to the dedicated PR person and should AM make a website for distributors and for Chip inquiries?

[bitcoin.newsfeed]

Got one : What ever happened to the dedicated PR person and should AM make a website for distributors and for Chip inquiries?

added on place 17 )

@ jimmothy : also added

[Swordsoffreedom]

Got one : What ever happened to the dedicated PR person and should AM make a website for distributors and for Chip inquiries?

added on place 17 )

@ jimmothy : also added

Thanks that was really fast  
Inserts a cat reference ha-ha
@ newsfeed good point removed

[bitcoin.newsfeed]

Do you really think that its mood here for huge-ass memes and pictures? Some of us are in 6-7digits loss.

[Jutarul]

...
But that has never happened. They spent $6,000,000 and earned $4,000,000.
...

This.

I agree that the financial statements are a "opaque" to a certain degree. What is clear by now is that friedcat and team decided to move cash into inventory instead of a dividend payout. While a bit of a surprise, it certainly is no reason of concern. There are many reasons to do this, with the most likely one being, that spare, unallocated fab capacity was available, so the company stocked up on inventory. The rationale behind this is likely a supply chain issue of matching short-term demand for chips with supply. I saw the list of questions earlier and will make sure that friedcat sees them.

I understand that the lack of a dividend payout creates liquidity issues for shareholders. Please be advised that dividend payouts are subject to operational parameters which are hard to predict. The earlier mentioning of an "aggressive" payout schedule was in reference to a communication by friedcat that AM does not plan to expand beyond its basic operation.

[drawingthesun]

Do you really think that its mood here for huge-ass memes and pictures? Some of us are in 6-7digits loss.

Well that's idiot trolls for you.

When I had a 6 digit loss on ActiveMining it was just months and months of trolls, meme pictures and people that just wanted to rub it in even more.

Welcome to the internet, where your loss is their gain, even if the gain is just a smile on their shitty little faces.

[arnuschky]

I agree that the financial statements are a "opaque" to a certain degree. What is clear by now is that friedcat and team decided to move cash into inventory instead of a dividend payout. While a bit of a surprise, it certainly is no reason of concern. There are many reasons to do this, with the most likely one being, that spare, unallocated fab capacity was available, so the company stocked up on inventory. The rationale behind this is likely a supply chain issue of matching short-term demand for chips with supply. I saw the list of questions earlier and will make sure that friedcat sees them.

I think that makes a lot of sense in the market AM is operating. Time is everything in miners, and waiting for the factory to spin up before you can sell another batch does not makes sense.

[addi]

It's unclear to me what FC means with "Exchange"?  $2,266,295.54 revenue 4,016.14 BTC expenses from "Exchange". Anyone who knows?

[bitcoin.newsfeed]

It's unclear to me what FC means with "Exchange"?  $2,266,295.54 revenue 4,016.14 BTC expenses from "Exchange". Anyone who knows?

sorta ... that 4k btc in expenses on exchange was converting BTC to Fiat($2,266,295.54) for wafers etc., but other way around, what is that  ~4M CNY in expenses on exchange seems like nobody knows(its included in questions) , FC was buying BTC for 4M CNY, but for what and where are they ?

[necro_nemesis]

...
But that has never happened. They spent $6,000,000 and earned $4,000,000.
...

This.

I agree that the financial statements are a "opaque" to a certain degree. What is clear by now is that friedcat and team decided to move cash into inventory instead of a dividend payout. While a bit of a surprise, it certainly is no reason of concern. There are many reasons to do this, with the most likely one being, that spare, unallocated fab capacity was available, so the company stocked up on inventory. The rationale behind this is likely a supply chain issue of matching short-term demand for chips with supply. I saw the list of questions earlier and will make sure that friedcat sees them.

I understand that the lack of a dividend payout creates liquidity issues for shareholders. Please be advised that dividend payouts are subject to operational parameters which are hard to predict. The earlier mentioning of an "aggressive" payout schedule was in reference to a communication by friedcat that AM does not plan to expand beyond its basic operation.

Investors don't appreciate avoidable surprises. It would appear that regardless of the merits of the decision to move cash into inventory the lack of communicating this intention caught short term shareholders off guard. Unfortunately even us hodlers have to ride through the tides of poor shareholder sentiment this situation creates. AM has an obligation to improve it's transparency if it is to continue to trade it's shares publicly as there are pitfalls in not doing so.

Thanks again Jutarul.

[CoinBomb]

When a company releases their financial statements, there is always a management statement to explain them (especially if results can be seen as poor)

I dont understand how 5 minutes to write "this looks bad but we've invested into stock instead of dividends" is too difficult.

[ace345]

When a company releases their financial statements, there is always a management statement to explain them (especially if results can be seen as poor)

I don't understand how 5 minutes to write "this looks bad but we've invested into stock instead of dividends" is too difficult.

Exactly, there is always some notes to go along with the statements which is vital for analysts and external parties to understand the strategy behind a company's decisions. What was submitted is a shockingly bad effort.. even the date on both FSs are incorrect.

[bbxx]

i wonder why friedcat stopped designing miners, mine with them and unload with high prices.
that strategy was very profitable, and was easy distributable into shareholders

opposite to selling cheap chips and giving those margins to competition, maybe that is a way to pump out bitfountain from money and market, done on purpose?

[KarmaShark]

It has been some time now since putting in a public relations individual has been listed as an action item for AM. This was brought up last summer so we are approaching a calendar year since this was tabled to the board of directors and likely has been requested from shareholders for some time before that. If the concern behind not addressing this on-going issue is too much transparency to the greater market then we can set some guidelines for what can be and cannot be communicated via PR.

From experience I can confidently say this need for further clarity is not going to dissipate, it will simply increase in scope as more investors enter the market and the exposure expands out. The only question I have that I feel needs to be addressed is why the company has little interest with public relations given the damage caused. Taking into consideration how emotionally charged the AM faithful are, I can sympathize with the lack of motivation behind sending some poor soul out to deal with investors concerns. Regardless, the fact remains that the share price and the investment sentiment surrounding the company will improve exponentially once a person is put in place. Asking for this change ad nauseam does not appear to be feasible from within the company currently, so I feel I should try something different to help both parties out in the interest of fairness.

While I feel there are several people that are qualified for this role, I would gladly take on the task of acting PR person, even if only for investors relations. I am not a board member however I hold a sizeable position in the company and come from a major smartphone and wireless communications leader in Research In Motion / BlackBerry, where I ran successful software and hardware groups focused around research and development. Part of my day to day role was to be customer facing, which meant fully grasping both sides of the equation while having the patience and understanding to communicate effectively. Public relations is often a thankless job however it is crucial to building up confidence and long lasting relationships. Much of what I use to do with software and hardware releases falls in-line with what we are experiencing with AM: Understanding development cycles, delays, politics, internal and external barriers, testing, bringing in suppliers and most importantly establishing a culture that everyone truly wants to be a part of within the company. I also now run CryptoConsultant.com, where I actively work with individuals to understand and adopt cryptocurrency in North America. I actively maintain a very public image and you can find me anywhere on the internet via the traditional social networking hangouts. You can imagine the resistance I encounter from the greater public as they slowly come to accept what cryptocurrency means to the current paradigm we live in. Thick skin is required to be effective in this area so early on.

We have an unofficial spokesperson on the board in the form of Jutarul and several other shareholders who are eager to assist in some fashion (Frantank, Smiguel, etc). I am eternally grateful for what these Men have already done and would simply like the opportunity to add to it in a positive manner that reduces work for FriedCat. Please consider this my formal willingness to assist in this critical area of the company with no expectation of compensation. I would be happy to replicate the role I currently hold within my own business and previous positions, so my time is free to the company and I am motivated to assist in any way possible going forward.

[server]

Edit: Looking to pick up 100 Direct Shares for 245BTC. PM me if interested.

Did you really pay that much ?

[bitcoin.newsfeed]

Edit: Looking to pick up 100 Direct Shares for 245BTC. PM me if interested.

Did you really pay that much ?

... it was not that much back then, it was normal share market price for company which had constant 10%+ network share + hardware sales + new products on horizon + good PR and track record + loyal shareholders base, customers and great plans and vision for future. Whats left? ******censored*******

KarmaShark, if Jutarul doesn't want to do this, you have my vote for PR person, but Friedcat is despotic leader here, nobody else has right to change something. I appreciate your effort though.