Quote from: newMeat1 on September 21, 2012, 01:42:14 AM

It's interesting to watch the dirty laundry come out... BFL always gets it worst cause they're the clear leader.

An inside story about somebody who hates BFL -- this is fizzisist. He's pretty well-respected around here, at this point. He has been a strong BFL opponent from the beginning (for obvious $ reasons). When I started the X6500 with Li and fpgaminer, I invited fizzisist onboard. From my dealings with him, the guy came off as a real scumbag. The backstabbings came quickly. At one point he tried to drop the heatsinks off our boards to gain a few bucks profit off each, when heatsinks had clearly been promised. Anyways, I soon found myself on the outside of the group I had started. And the X6500 launch was delayed for a few months due to incompetence and bickering...

What's the moral of the story? Take your pick:
-Nothing whatsoever
-A public persona isn't always what it seems
-Scumbags can still sell good hardware
-It's always interesting to watch the pot call the kettle black.

All of that being said, my opinion is that BFL is probably safe to buy from. Personal identities are known, they've been visited in person, and they have a track record that's as good as any hardware maker (except maybe Ztex, his rep seems to be flawless). Clearly they're going to get rich either way... why wouldn't they choose the route that doesn't involve jailtime?

I love it! Comparing me to a convicted felon that stole at least $19 million dollars from little old ladies in an elaborate international scheme. Instead of signing my emails under a false name, I always use my full name. Our company is registered under my name. All public information is freely available to anyone that looks for it. We have never represented our company as anything other than exactly what it is. Furthermore, I have never been convicted of a crime.

On the other hand, I understand that it might appear my motives are tainted by the fact that our company is a competitor. The truth is simply that I am appalled by this crime and even more appalled that very few people on this forum seem to have the reading comprehension to see that it does not match Mr. Vleisides' description in the least. If this turns out to be a scam, I would like to know that I did what little I could to help the community make an informed decision. The same goes for my early posts in the 1 GH/s, 20W, $499, is it for real? thread, when I made the case that their claims were outlandish and their website seems to represent themselves as something they are not. In the end, I and many others were correct, because they ended up delivering a markedly different product than they had promised, and still haven't delivered those "medical imaging" drivers for the Bitforce Single.

I truly hope that Butterfly Labs isn't running a long con here. The impact it would have on the bitcoin community, especially right after the Pirate fiasco, would be devastating. I care much more about that than our little business of selling mining hardware.