My Fellow Bitcoin Advocates,

I am pleased to announce that I have been selected as a paid sponsor for HashFast Technologies LLC.  I have also been asked to join their Board of Advisors.

As most of you know, I have been involved in the Bitcoin community for a long while now.  I have made my contributions here on the Forum mostly in the form of economics, investing, and Bitcoin theory since early 2011.  I have given my perspective in countless debates, mainly in my two epic gold threads beginning back in August of 2011, Gold: I Smell A Trap: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/35956.msg443129#msg443129 and Gold Collapsing, Bitcoin UP: https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/68655.msg799814#msg799814.
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The following academic paper and it's authors believe that I have had a significant impact on how the community thinks:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2263707

Selected quotes:

Breaking Out of the Bank in Europe - Exploring Collective Emergent Institutional Entrepreneurship Through Bitcoin

" Among the most influential individuals in the Bitcoin community are the mysterious founder, Nakamoto, and the five influential individuals in the community, for whom we could not find any identifying information on the Internet. It seems that an individual’s “real world” identity is not required to take an active role in the informal organization of Bitcoin. "

" As highlighted by scholars studying institutional entrepreneurship (Battilana et al., 2009; Dorado, 2005; Lounsbury & Crumley, 2007; Rao et al., 2000), some actors drive institutional change through their conscious action"

Some of you know that I have a very successful Bitcoin-only newsletter, "Financial Risk Analytics", that has been active on this forum since April 2012.  Within that letter, I give my views on Bitcoin, gold and silver, and the stock market.  I believe that Bitcoin is playing a significant role in shaping the world's financial economy, it's just that most people don't realize it yet.   But from an active Bitcoin business perspective, I have always stayed in the background to preserve my anonymity and because I never saw an opportunity that truly sparked my interest.  I am an active professional in a totally different industry and don’t need Bitcoin for my future security. That desire to stay uninvolved changed this past week.

When HashFast announced that they were open for visits something compelled me to jump on a plane and investigate personally their physical headquarters last week at Uniquify.  My intent was to evaluate their legitimacy with the goal of buying their mining hardware as I have been an active miner since mid 2011.  What I came away with was the impression of a hardworking, legitimate team of dedicated people trying to realize a vision.  A vision to become the top ASIC mining development firm in the world.  Having spent 9 yrs of my own higher educational life in the Bay Area, a new Silicon Valley/Palo Alto based mining development team peaked my interest. These people are doing what I believe to be extraordinary work.  I was there only a day but have been in communication with them almost on a daily basis since.  I had the opportunity to walk around the office and interact personally at great length with the principals involved, not only in HashFast, but with Uniquify.  I am convinced that being embedded within Uniquify affords significant research/business advantages.  

The fact that HashFast itself is composed of Simon Barber and his team of 4 scientists makes them a force unto themselves from the development perspective.  The fact that HashFast has direct access to the team of 28nm world renowned scientists from Uniquify to design the physical layout of the chip makes them a combined force to be feared.  Simon is an academic from Cambridge University and has been involved in the Bitcoin community from the beginning. How many ASIC mining companies have an engineer employed at PARC? He has written a seminal paper on Bitcoin theory and economics which has contributed greatly to our understanding of just what is Bitcoin.  He has been working on his proprietary version of an ASIC chip for almost 2 years.  I believe this form of long term involvement with Bitcoin, such as I have demonstrated, is critical to understanding how to design a properly functioning chip that will be fast and efficient and deliver to small and industrial miners the return on investment that they deserve.  

Eduardo de Castro is their CEO and visionary.  He has an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.  As I have worked with him closely over the last 2 weeks, I have come to believe that Eduardo is a man with integrity, driven by the goals and beliefs of a true Bitcoiner, i.e., a belief in transparency, openness, honesty, and hard work. He believes in free markets.  I believe that Eduardo's goals are noble and that you will believe this also once he announces publicly his plan for buyer refunds and the Miner Protection Plan.  

These two principals are guiding the company's vision to be the best in industry.  I happen to think they have a great chance at achieving that.

The HashFast "BabyJet” ASIC mining machine will be a first-of-its-kind technology (400GH/s per ASIC chip, significantly less than 1 Watt per GH/s) slated for delivery by late October. Speeds greater than 400GH/s are being achieved on extensive industry-standard testing with 28nm ASIC physical design leader Uniquify.  Under 350W power draw.  Their goal is to under promise and pleasantly surprise.  The extensive testing being done has been consistent, repeatable, and surprisingly improving to extraordinary levels just in the last two weeks alone.  And let me not forget one other significant thing; this unit has water cooling.  NO MORE NOISE.  There is a God!

I have had the opportunity to look into the eyes of the principals involved as well as shake their hands.  I have worked with them closely for the past two weeks.  I believe that these people will make a full faith effort to deliver on their promises. Whether or not they are actually able to deliver working units by November, I can’t absolutely guarantee.  But, I believe that they have the talent and work ethic to make that a distinct reality.  


Long Live Bitcoin,

cypherdoc

hashfast.com/shop

perhaps b/c i actually believe they have a chance to accomplish what they want?  and perhaps b/c i actually went there and did some due diligence?  and perhaps since i've never lied or cheated anyone around here esp. my subscribers?

ppl get paid to endorse products and companies all the time.  is it all just a waste of money?

i'm trying to be balanced as best i can and not overhype anything or denigrate the competition.  hopefully i'm just pointing out the facts but if anyone wants to point out otherwise they're free to do so.

i get the sincere feeling you're jealous.

fact is, they are not a multimillion dollar company.  they are a startup and stand to lose everything.  i stand to lose my orders just like everyone else too.  and if they fail or cheat everyone i stand to lose my reputation.

it's definitely a risk that you've made clear you'd very much like to happen just b/c of who you are.

why should i even bother to respond to a known troll?

why should i even bother to respond to a known troll?

Yes, and CEO-level: understandable.  But where's Sedockis, or whatever his name is: the marketing guy?

It seems to me, particularly on the day that Team Avalon has announced their ("temporary") implosion, it is even more necessary to put forward a balanced, credible, front.

they're pretty much all technical guys.  which is why i liked them from the start.  Simon and his technical team are at the frontend with Uniquify on the back end.  there is a great synergy there.

i didn't see that with other companies.

unfortunately we're seeing the consequences of that too.  but they are working to rectify the situation.

And let me not forget one other significant thing; this unit has water cooling.  NO MORE NOISE.  There is a God!