CoinCanary.org [No Longer Updated] - All Known Vendors and Status
I have decided to hang it up as far as updating this due to time constraints and a need to focus completely on my main mining ventures. CoinCanary.org forums itself will be re-forged into a general mining forum I will keep as a side project. Thank you all for following, I wish I had more time to keep this going, though as a mining entrepreneur myself I will be focused on leading by example over pointing out the falsities and scams of others, which was seeming like more and more of a conflict of interest in terms of bias calling out other businesses while I establish my own.
Stay safe and use your head out there!
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Donations: I will never request funds for this effort, however I have so far committed a decent amount of time to it so far, if you appreciate this and want to support me and the continued evolution of this thread all donations are very much appreciated: BTC - 15gX3iU7kGTHNN7Ka6f9cvKeEzpryvhr2y LTC - LTNPLkb7gfg2WArDUADGREiC38vQdwSsrr
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Scam sites for Bitcoin hardware products and services are popping up all over, I think it is good to consolidate a list of all up and coming vendors and service providers with an assessment to whether they are fraudulent in nature or not, I will update this top post with new additions to the list.
Realistically with so many new companies appearing that are only in a development and funding stage, it is difficult to tell at this point between scammers and legitimate start-ups. Choose where to send your money wisely if no products have shipped out so far. As so many are awaiting their orders to ship, we will just have to wait and see.
Scam sites do have some telltale signs that can be considered red flags:
Pictures of hardware are obviously Photoshopped versions of another vendors gear
Products for sale that have not been confirmed to exist by the community or official representatives
Little to no information on the site about the company, it's physical location, etc.
Contact forms and phone numbers that go nowhere, or are never answered.
No known contact with company representatives on these forums or others (seems likely real companies would be aware of these boards and active within them to answer questions)
Spelling errors, broken links, and other oddities across the website
Very low price point compared to similar vendors (if it seems too good to be true, it probably is!)
None of these points can be taken as direct evidence of a scam, but does point out a lack of presence other than a vague promise to deliver their product from their home website with no guarantee whatsoever. Any web developer worth their salt can generate a simple page with buy buttons in a few hours, preying on the current mania to scam early adopters. Once your BTC is gone, it is gone!
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This list is for informational purposes only If you choose to use this information to influence your purchasing decision, it is at your own risk. Neither I nor Bitcointalk.org are responsible if you get ripped off.
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Updated: 7/19/2013
If you stumble across an obvious hardware scam or otherwise fishy looking enterprise, post in here with who it is and why you think it is a scam.
Color Key
ORANGE: Awaiting Shipping/confirmed hardware in the wild
GREEN: Shipping/Shipping Imminent
RED: Scammy/Untruthful, be careful!
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Production ASIC Hardware
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| Vendor | Main Discussion | Canary Reports | ||||
| VMC | https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=206488.60 | http://coincanary.org/forums/index.php?board=29.0 |
AsicMiner - asicminer.com
Auctions ongoing for their BlockErupter Blade units https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=189248.0
BlockErupter USB also shown to exist http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1dogrx/announcement_block_erupter_usb_300mhs_asic_miner/
CEO Freidcat appears to be one of the most transparent of any in this market
USB and Blade units confirmed to be in end users hands
Avalon ASIC - launch.avalon-asics.com/ (Product shipments confirmed in the wild)
Batch 2 is evidently shipping https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=146451.0, awaiting confirmation by end users
****Butterfly Labs**** - butterflylabs.com (several delays with the ASIC line, but they have shipped FPGA products in the past)
Jalepeno units are evidently shipping, ~40 units shipped so far. Still massive amounts of backlash against them from the community. BitForce line is nowhere to be found. An odd impasse, appears to be shipping but their business behavior is very scammy.
The Jalepeno apparently does exist http://codinginmysleep.com/bfl-jalapeno-unboxing-and-demo/
Members of their own forums are starting to mutiny https://forums.butterflylabs.com/pre-sales-questions/2697-thats-enough-im-done-bfl.html
I *myself* was banned from their forums,
So many anti-BFL threads here it will take me a while to compile them all
* They have apparently started their own charity foundation https://forums.butterflylabs.com/content/134-butterfly-labs-donates-1000-btc-charity-bitcoin-related-projects.html
* Now offering bulk orders of ASIC chips
*new* German Bitcoin Mining - http://www.german-bitcoin-mining.de/
Full Report
Labcoin - http://www.labcoin.com/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=241033.0
RCM Miners -rcm-miners.com
Images are fakes
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=181800.0
RCM-Miners:
Their product picture is a CoolerMaster Xport 351 with RCM 'shopped on it, no?
RCM-Miners:
CoolerMaster:
from: http://www.coolermaster.com.my/product.php?product_id=6604
Their product picture is a CoolerMaster Xport 351 with RCM 'shopped on it, no?
RCM-Miners:
CoolerMaster:
from: http://www.coolermaster.com.my/product.php?product_id=6604
BitFury - https://metabank.ru/asic
Chips in the wild
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=221177
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=183368.0 (Russian thread)
Cryoniks - cryoniks.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=214378.new#new Cryoniks
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=214526.0 Cryoniks
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179747.20 Ed Trice scam
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=185565 more Ed Trice scam
*new article* http://btcbible.com/crypteks-kickstarter-scam-continues-to-be-ignored/
Many telltale signs of scammery in action. CEO was involved in a previous Kickstarter fraud
Seems like Ed Trice must be involved with the "nitrogen cooling units" but so no direct evidence has been found linking the two
No units shown to exist in real life
ASXProject - asxproject.com
Has anybody looked into this? Their website is up and taking orders: http://asxproject.com/
ASXProject:
Their 'censored' ASIC chip:
The real chip (A 1994 Apple chip):
Their 'censored' ASIC chip:
The real chip (A 1994 Apple chip):
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=189846.0
LOL! So you're saying I can use this DSP for Bitcoin mining?
http://elcodis.com/parts/527130/TMS320C50PQA57.html
BTCGarden - btcgarden.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=213172.0
From Yeemartin
Quote
I'm just moving the information from Chinese forum to here.
LINK:
http://bbs.btcman.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2943
Official website (nothing on there yet really, a few screenshots showing what looks like mining)
http://www.btcgarden.com/
In short,
Phase 1, 200Th/s in September. Similar to ASICMINER, they will sell shares on Bitcointalk.org in June.
Phase 2, Sell ICs and miners to public, time frame unknown.
They claimed they started the project in January 2013, and estimating design and prototype production to be finished in August.
All design work is done in house.
LINK:
http://bbs.btcman.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=2943
Official website (nothing on there yet really, a few screenshots showing what looks like mining)
http://www.btcgarden.com/
In short,
Phase 1, 200Th/s in September. Similar to ASICMINER, they will sell shares on Bitcointalk.org in June.
Phase 2, Sell ICs and miners to public, time frame unknown.
They claimed they started the project in January 2013, and estimating design and prototype production to be finished in August.
All design work is done in house.
Terrahash - terrahash.com
Community developers using Avalon chips https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198489.0;topicseen
CAD render of the DX has been shown
KNCMiner - kncminer.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=214285.0
Futher review of the thread makes it seem scammy and/or very disorganized. FPGA Bitcoin miner is dead. Promising ASICs but have shown nothing.
Not quite to giving it red status yet but close.
ASIC-Technologies] - asic-technologies.com
So far untruthful out of the gate. Product image is blatantly a DSL modem motherboard of some kind
(image has since been taken down)
On their front page briefly:
Quote
Firstly allow me to say a big thanks to bitcointalk forum . . branding our company a scam after the site was only online 12 hours with no sales . I just spend 9 months busting my balls , pushing every penny I had into this project , for some wee N00b to come along and start talking complete and utter rubbish based on no evidence at all . We done no advertising really because Chris my partner is on holiday at the moment , The site is not even complete . . . just a template I put up before taking a well needed sleep . If you think this site is a scam , I dont even care . Leave now .WE DONT EVEN HAVE PICTURES UP YET . . . This is a 4 man project . Relax , give us some time .We currently have 21 smalls and 5 large units . Working on more . Thank you to the users who had faith and paid via paypal.Shipping will be tomorrow,I will also remove this rant when I am less angry . You wanna know how to build ASIC . . . Dont sit around chatting crap on bitcointalk , Learn Something New !!
Would advise heavily against sending them any of your money, unless you would like to buy the world's most expensive modem...
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=204135.msg2172334#msg2172334
CedarTec - http://www.cedartec.net/
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170739.0
Most photos posted were found to be fakes/manipulated through image forensics and naked eye sluething, PCB appears to actually be a mutilated ITX motherboard of some kind and then heavily 'shopped. Unit image on page is also heavily 'shopped, it looks like the basis of it was likely a Lian-Li desktop computer case
The whole thread however is hilarious
GXMining- gxmining.com
BitcoinRumors thinks its bogus http://www.bitcoinrumors.com/2013/04/08/this-is-a-game-changer-gx-mining-ltd-launch-a-100-ghs-asic-bitcoin-miner-gx-100/)
Nothing proven on them at all, no product shown to exist but "selling" them.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1bwx9a/possible_new_asic_scam/
ASICRigs - asicrigs.com
On the Facebook-
Quote
So we can now let the cat out of the bag as it were, the reason we have not provided images or video of any of our products yet is because we've been in talks with an American company based in New York who are interested in buying our firm in its entirety.
Obviously at this early stage we cant say much more than that but part of the initial talks we have been having included an NDA (non disclosure agreement) specifically pertaining to our mining devices and company financials.
As we progress with these talks we will obviously keep everyone updated.
Thank you for your continued support as we move forward and grow as a company
Obviously at this early stage we cant say much more than that but part of the initial talks we have been having included an NDA (non disclosure agreement) specifically pertaining to our mining devices and company financials.
As we progress with these talks we will obviously keep everyone updated.
Thank you for your continued support as we move forward and grow as a company
*new* btcminingrig - btcminingrig.com
Same images as gpurigs/asicrigs/gxmining, pretty sure these are all related to each other based on this and common looking site layouts. Need to research further.
Forum user GPURigs has gone silent it seems after "announcing" they were selling their business to another company.
GPURigs - gpurigs.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=81.0. Photoshopped BFL pictures, similar to the ones on GXMining
Posted fake chip on Facebook
Here's my question. This is the image you used on your facebook page:
http://www.fujitsu.com/us/news/pr/fsa_20121031.html
Start explaining.
Great find mokahless.http://www.fujitsu.com/us/news/pr/fsa_20121031.html
Start explaining.
So here is the image from their Facebook page:
Here is the image Fujitsu ARM chip, which has nothing to do with ASIC:
I'll let the reader draw their own conclusion as to if they are being misleading...
Both companies confirmed to be one in the same.
Shipping estimated to be early August 2013 by member GPURigs (stated in this thread)
Still taking money on their main site outside of escrow process, for reasons that they have not started "pushing" the site yet, but it is active and accepting BTC.
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DIY ASIC and Assembly Services
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SebastianJu's Avalon List
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=192860.0
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FPGA Hardware
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SHA
Scrypt
BlockBurner - blockburner.net (admittedly there is no way I can be completely un-biased with this one as it is my own. We are not currently accepting funds, as we are not vaporware vendors. Our product is only on paper for the moment, that much is true. I started this list a while before BlockBurner was even a thing. In a way listing my own company here can be taken as a sign of our commitment against fraudulent acts and unethical practices, at this point should BlockBurner misbehave, our combined credibility will be destroyed. Obviously, my incentive is extremely high to deliver not only on our products but also maintaining an ethical and transparent business)
LTC FPGA - ltcfpga.com
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Shared Mining Services
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CloudHashing - http://www.cloudhashing.com
http://www.progressivebtcmining.com/
http://cognitivemining.com/
http://www.bitcoinbeastie.info/root/index.php/2-uncategorised/59-bitcoin-mining-contracts
HashRack hashrack.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=188617.0
Awaiting shipments from BFL
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Graveyard
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These sites are no longer active as far as I can tell and are currently offline
DragonASIC - http://dragon-asic.com/
Site is now offline
Flashman (BFL forums)
Quote
Senior Member
Dragon ASIC posted pics of ASIC are phtoshopped images of a Godson-1 CPU
Dragon ASIC posted pics of ASIC are phtoshopped images of a Godson-1 CPU
PrimeASIC - primeasic.com
Site offline
GalaxyASIC - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=158044.msg1672838#msg1672838 (no formal site noted)
Thread is dead, no further updates to be found
Hong Kong ASICs - hongkongasics.com
Site is offline/url for sale
(Mod note: It's useful to gather the really obvious cases in one place. But the forum can't hope to identify and list all scams as soon as they are announced. There are also many reasons to not list maybe-scams on a list like this including a desire to treat business people serving our community with respect. So, just because something is not listed here does not mean that it's not a scam. Caveat Emptor.)
Thanks mods!