if what you're wondering is this a scam as a result of the above? i can guarantee it isn't as i've been working with these guys day in and day out as well as having paid them a visit.
if what you're saying is this is so amateurish in it's presentation that this raises the question whether or not they can complete a complex asic assemby project? then that's fair.
The problem is that the line between "scam" and "bad deal" is blurry. BFL clearly had an ASIC design and clearly intended to ship them when they started. Yet, at this point most people are calling them a scam.
It's all about ROI. If enough people pre-order from them then they guarantee
themselves a profit on their chip design and production, as long as they can ship before December 31.
But the problem is that with the rate that difficulty is increasing the difference between shipping in late October and shipping in late December is basically the difference between
maybe making ROI and never coming close - unless all the other chipmakers also fail.
HashFast is saying they'll ship units just a handful of days after they get their chips in October. On the other hand, KnC is now saying that their units for November delivery will be
less then $5k. And at that point it will have been
over 60 days since their first chip deliveries, they'll have had plenty of time to make any changes and adjustments if they need to at that point - even if their first orders are delayed.
Anyway, the problem I see is that you can look at BFL and Avalon and think how easy it is to make millions of dollars off people who don't know WTF is going on with difficulty and all the other potential competitors out there, and you can take pre-order money from people who aren't good investors.
I mean, you yourself said you thought difficulty would look like a stock chart, and go back down, which is
bonkers - and could only happen if the price of bitcoin crashes to the point where most miners just turn off and junk their machines.
I especially think it's disingenuous to claim that people will get paid back if their "late" and then only bury the fact that "late" means by dec 31 in the comments after someone notices inconsistencies in the small type on their website.
if what you're saying is this is so amateurish in it's presentation that this raises the question whether or not they can complete a complex asic assemby project? then that's fair.
Well, one problem with amateurishness so far is that it implies they may also be 'amateurish' when i comes to getting their outsourced manufacturer to churn out units as fast as they say they will. We know the company that's designing their chip. We don't know who their outsource MFG/logistics company is but that's
just as important.
