I've been reading this thread on and off for months.

It's interesting to see how things have evolved, and with hindsight we can see who was an Alpha shill: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=215568 (active for 2 days, almost every post about Alpha and praising them - even a thread reminding people the pre-order was closing! haha)

It seems like most people here think it's black and white, either Alpha was scamming the entire time, or that they'll still deliver and it was 3rd parties who've caused the delays.

I think there's a broader range of possibilities, the most optimistic being that Alpha thought that maybe they could pull it off, but even if they didn't they would still get lots of cash because of pre-orders, or the other end being that it was a scam they orchestrated from the beginning (less likely).

Consider this, KnC miners is made up of a bunch of engineers, and their website links to their linkedins: https://www.kncminer.com/pages/aboutus

Alpha was made up of accountants, who would get other people to do the engineering.

This is important, because accountants know how to make sure they will make money even if they don't deliver. By saying that miners are business partners and making the pre-orders difficult to refund. I believe they had this plan from the beginning.

Getting in the cryptocurrency miner game is a bent accountants wet dream - greed from miners mean they'll happily send money for a pre-order, several months waiting for manufacture to be expected, etc.

So I think the most likely scenario is they hoped they could create a miner and make money as a legitimate business; this way they could make more money, using their reputation to sell new products in the future. If it was a scam the entire time they would have never bother investing in any chip production (although I'm not sure there's proof they have). But if things turned out how they have they'd still make a small fortune.

Sorry to hear that bumface. At least Flowertech mans up to their problems. Alpha-T just weasels around …

Wonder what Fibonacci is up to these days … hmm … doesn't look good …

https://litecointalk.org/index.php?topic=21506.msg198342#msg198342
https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/368468.0

TL;DR No ASICS, accusations against project leaders

Crypto hardware is really a game for folks who can make high-tech IC's hit doors quickly. By default, this lead goes to our Asian friends, and it's no wonder the chinese companies have been the ones shipping the fastest and in greatest volume, and it all started back in the Bitcoin ASIC days. Now you have GAW for the Scrypt stuff.

Since then, the Swedes (KNC) have been the only group to also knock it out of the park, and this is likely because they're the only group of focused individuals with the right skillsets and experience to make it happen, and now they're branching into Scrypt and other stuff.

Ever since then you've had places popping up trying to get in on it, because we all know the folks selling the shovels will always make more than the folks digging for gold. It's really simple analysis and math. I've always only invested in the Chinese and KNC gear for this reason.

Absolutely sucks for folks who've lost out on ventures like this, and others, and this is why I try to wave flags and help people pull their money out before it's too late.

As to Flower tech, weren't they originally in bed with the Alpha tech folks? I coulda swore I remember them talking amongst themselves well over a year ago, about a partnership.

I feel really bad for you, but i have one tip DO NOT put all your savings in investment my friend.

Well, we are people and people make misstakes and bad judjments.

This is some speculation that GAW were relying on Ensilica Flowertech for the technology in the Vault Breaker too.
And some conjecture that the new (virtual) Hashlet/Cloud introduction was a response quickly thrown together after it because clear that Ensilica wasn't going to deliver on time, as a way of meeting obligations to provide hosted VB hash before KNC ships the Titan.
Anyone following this story is, of course, now asking themselves how come none of the Zen hash is actually appearing on any of the pools zen supports … ( https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/720322.msg8373385#msg8373385 )

All good rumors … nothing more, nothing less

Captain hindsight, maybe that's a moniker that fits. But trying to figure out Alpha's motivations seems more productive than bitching and moaning about the money you lost.

You used the word bet, granted in an expression, but that's really what you were doing: gambling. If one wants to gamble they're much better off, objectively, playing a game like blackjack or betting red/black on roulette as the odds approach 1/2. However many people still play the lottery, the odds are much worse, so why do they play? Greed, the fantasy of hitting the big jackpot makes them forget about everything objective.

It's the same thing with Alpha and these miners. You got on the pre-order, sending your money months in advance to a company who since day one gave much doubt over their legitimacy. You and the others did this knowing that there existed the possibility of never seeing your money again, but hoping that you'd get a miner that'd make more than you'd invested. Now you have the cheek to say it wasn't greed that forced you to gamble all your savings? If you thought this was a good idea at the time, and continue to defend your decision, then if it wasn't for Alpha, you'd have squandered the money away sooner than later - a fool and his money are soon separated.

All this promise talk is bullshit. The only real promises Alpha gave were that they wouldn't refund your money after a certain point, they never addressed what would happen if they didn't deliver or what you'd get in compensation if they delivered late. And many people asked when Fiaz started posting on this thread and he never answered. So save this poor victim talk, blame your greed which made you gloss over what was actually promised.

The cryptocurrency community at this point is almost entirely driven by greed. It is no longer about innovation, providing an alternative to traditional financial instruments or anything else noble. You say you're going to support the UTC community, why? Because you've got UTC and you want the value to increase? That's why people hype scam coins (the majority of the time anyway), not because of community, or the coin's innovations (new logo in most cases is the only innovation) or wider acceptance of cryptos, but because they want the value to increase so they can profit - that is greed.

Instead of automatically coming back to attack me bitching about how bad your luck is, why not contemplate what I've said, the actions that have led you here, and try to understand how you can prevent something similar from happening in the future.

bla bla TLDR

No one agreed to no refunds after a certain point. We agreed to 50% refunds for cancelling between 3-5 months. Absolutely nothing about cancelling afterwards (now) and not receiving a full refund.

How can we prevent this from happening in the future... Make sure we are successful in suing this company and tearing every dollar away from them so that other mother fuckers learn the lesson and do not steal our money?

I smell fanboy all over your face

Just to make sure that it's clear, I'm not laughing at those who lost their money. I don't revel in the misery of anyone who has been scammed, and I hope they get justice.

My comments were for those who continue to defend their poor choices, instead of choosing to learn from them.

I got into cryptos first because of interest in the protocol and social implications and second to see if I could make a little money. I was displeased that the community was almost entirely comprised of redditors with a get-rich quick mentality. Very few seem interested in innovation or changing the financial industry, which is why Bitcoin was created.

The community along with razor thin profits pushed me away, I've sold all my mining hardware and got back my original investment. I have a few bitcoin in cold storage, but barring that I'm out, and this will be my last post here.

Understand that for the same reason that I've left that scams will continue to happen. Who's a better mark than a group of people who don't care about understand the underlying technologies and are filled with avarice?