Confused. Shame he doesn't do any services anymore. He's sold gpumax, shutdown bcst. I do hope he didn't rip people off. Nobody's heard his story yet!

For anyone interested in leasing shares for a profit I would recommend checking out http://hashpower.com.

Yes, unfortunately the site doesn't explain the hoops it is going to make you jump through until AFTER you've registered with them. And there's no way to contact the owners/operators on the main page with any questions prior to registering (and who are the owners/operators anyway?).

Classic bait and switch. Which is unfortunate, because if they were legit they'd have no issues showing transparency. Until these guys get their act together it may be prudent to steer clear.

Just go on #hashpower (Freenode) and ask for a WeExchange code, and they will give you one. The owners areis Graet (owner of OzCoin) and WKNiGHTUkto. Graet, WKNiGHT, and others help out with the project.

https://bt.irlbtc.com/view/118069.0

(Edited after clarification by Ukto on IRC)

I'm sure people who use this got the email last night, but since it wasn't mentioned on here,

A while ago, I've posted that I understood what GPUMax was all about. GPUMax was the main reason why I've put money into BTCST, because without that project, there was no way BTCST would have seen any of my coins.

During the summer, I was trying to fit GPUMax in the market and determine all the actors around it. Shortly after BTCST ceased its operations, I was finally able to fit the whole picture of GPUMax. I've shared privately what GPUMax was about (or my theory of it), and I've decided that since the project is closing, I would share it publicly.

First of all, I have to admit that if BTCST and Trendon Shavers was a scam all along, well, he's a pretty stupid guy. I don't know how much money he left on the floor, especially since he had an enormous advantage over its competitors, but the first victim of his scam was himself.

So, what could have been GPUMax?

If you consider the quantity of GPU dedicated to BTC mining, you have a pretty good calculation power. GPU have an advantage over ASIC in that they can be used for many things. Right now, we're using GPUs to calculate SHA-256(SHA-256). But hey, you can calculate vectors, integers, protein folding, gaming rendering, whatever. You simply need to use the right instructions, and your GPU is ready to go. Right now, we're using CGMiner or Phoenix to calculate some encryption. If you can access all these GPU, I don't know the calculation power you can get, but I think it's pretty high for the cost.

The cost is important because using the power of these GPU doesn't cost a lot (if you compare to making ASIC or super-computers dedicated to a task). Sure, if you're the NASA, I don't think it's that important, but if you're a small organization, small university, small school, small whatever, and you need calculation power instantly for a short while, where do you go?

That's where I think that GPUMax was in a golden position. Here's how GPUMax worked:
Mining pool -> GPUMax server -> You

Pools are in a fierce competition to gain new miners and new hashpower. You can see it with all their "features" to attract people. But GPUMax was over the melee, it didn't even had to fight. Everybody who had the possibility to use GPUMax would do it, because it was the sane thing to do. I don't know how mush hashpower GPUMax had access, but I'm pretty sure that on the flick of a switch (we got leased shares!), GPUMax could get more hashpower than Deepbit. Pools couldn't do anything for the lost hashpower, except block GPUMax, or wait for the leased shares to end.

My belief was that, during the Beta, GPUMax was tested with BTC mining only, simply because of the Beta. It was simple enough to test the servers and continue develop without pressure the GPUMax miner.

GPUMax miner?

Yeah, like CGMiner or Phoenix, but made for different types of calculations. You need to instruct your GPU what to do and if you make different types of calculations, you need a miner to support it. In theory, it's simple. You make a miner that can switch the algorithm on the fly, with a central server telling him which algorithm to use for the incoming data. Mining rigs are always connected to the Internet, so this is not a problem. It's probably a lot harder to develop in practice, but I'm sure it can be done. In the event where GPUMax 1.0 would have been released, convincing currents GPUMax users to download and use the GPUMax miner instead would have been an easy task.

The private pricing on GPUMax also was a genius idea. A good way to keep the price higher, so different miners in different countries would have mine only at profit. The customer looking to buy some calculation power would have to pay the price indicated, and if he wants more, he pay more. Little miners in high-cost country would have been able to stay in the game, instead of getting crushed like it happens whenever the price/difficulty ratio gets too high. Those little miners would mine a lot less often, but they still do it at profit.

GPUMax was already in a great market position to control the usage of all those basement GPU all around the world, especially with the ASICs coming. These GPU are not going to disappear, and it was the perfect timing to get them.

But hey, seems that Trendon Shavers is a pretty shitty businessman after all and a blind scammer too. He couldn't see the fuckin gold mine he built himself, and he tries to make a ponzi to steal what? 100k BTC + SEC + a whole community after - his reputation = not that much IMHO.

So hey, that's why I've put money into BTCST. I couldn't believe somebody was so dumb to ruin GPUMax this way. Now the window of opportunity has passed on BTC with the ASIC coming, and I don't know if it can be done again. A bunch of them are going to be sold and get out of the market. Maybe if LTC can grow enough, it could be done again, but it's a long-shot. Or somebody could buy right now GPUMax before it closes. But who's going to buy from the scammer?

GPUMax was a treasure that pirate himself dump overboard into the bottom of the ocean.

Yeah, it could also be used for that, but it had the potential to be a lot more.




Because I taught that GPUMax was worth a LOT more than BTCST. It's hard to say how things were executed behind the scenes of GPUMax, but on the outside, GPUMax was in an awesome position. There is currently around 50 000 high-end GPU mining for BTC right now, and GPUMax had access to a good chunk of them without any competition. GPUMax had a monopoly on these GPU, and on the flick of a switch, could have make them calculate whatever the customer asked for. For me, GPUMax was the golden goose and BTCST was a sideline. Usually, you don't kill the golden goose by running a scam.

My error was to overestimate GPUMax, who seems that it wasn't more than a coin laundry. But man...I still can't believe how somebody can be so stupid to waste potential like that. I lost money, but I'll recover, I didn't invest more than I was willing to lose. The biggest loser is pirate, who cannot seize that business opportunity again. The scammer scammed himself first.

And I'm not the only one who saw that opportunity, I've talked to a couple of other members, and some of them saw a similar business opportunity. Thinking that the founder of GPUMax couldn't see that gold mine he built himself because his head was deep down into scam dimension is an epic fail.

*EDIT*
I just want to say that I have confirmation that the goal of GPUMax wasn't to make a coin laundry. It seems that my call on GPUMax is pretty spot-on and that Trendon Shavers is one of the dumbest guy on earth. He effectively killed the golden goose.

Well written and well said Brunic. I think there were quite a few of us who thought/felt the same way about GPUMax, IE "He wouldn't be stupid enough to run his superior position by running off with the btc.." What ultimately suckered me into moving beyond just mining there to investing with BTCS&T was GPUMax, and the length of time they both survived.

It will be interesting to hear, at some point, the 'real' story about what happened and why it went south, because, imho, it could still be around and making money if not for greed.