Let me break the silence, since many have wondered about the events on the board and among major shareholders. I apologize to all who sent me messages and didn't get a reply. But the situation at ASICMINER is simply hard to diagnose without first hand information. I guess I speak for every major shareholder when I say that no one saw the current situation coming. Sure - the company has been struggling lately, in part because the window of opportunity closed quickly and ASICMINER didn't move as fast as some of the competition. However, seeing how ASICMINER got hit by a double whammy of first loosing its farm and then its CEO is quite disturbing, to say the least.

The situation surrounding Rockminer is complex. I am saddened to see such an aggressive stand of Rockminer towards ASICMINER. I can only suspect that they are getting a lot of pressure themselves. However, there are more professional ways to deal with the issue than to clutter the internet with confidential material - that alone speaks volumes. The only excuse I can see for this is that ASICMINER so far has dealt with the situation poorly - and this is inexcusable.

The contractual obligations are currently being analyzed. So far it is clear that there seems to be no real clause which defines who is liable for events like theft or fire. Obviously, there has been no insurance plan either. The general rule for situations like these is that any clear liability assignment is commercially not viable and the affected parties have to sort it out somehow. The problem is that the product AMHash theoretically involves 5 Parties (Operator, Manufacturer, HashLord, Contract Platform, Contract Holder), of which neither has the ability to absorb the damage alone.  So far the overall understanding is that ASICMINER should carry some responsibility - however, the ability of the company to deal with the current fallout is hampered. Pressuring the company to do anything which it can't deliver is not productive.

I hear that some parties are considering legal steps. Let me tell you that from experience this won't end well for anybody and only results in wasting money on the parasitic elements of our economy. What we need in the current situation is a leadership figure who seeks compromise. This crisis won't be solved overnight. If a solution is reached it's likely gonna be a 2 year plan or some form of agreeable settlement. I hope I didn't shock anybody with this assessment.

Regarding the shareholding. It has been of a lower priority. For everyone who is holding shares and has traded recently, please preserve the full trail up to the last checkpoint, which means the cryptographic signatures which are used to authorize reassignment of shares. If traded unsafely, there is no guarantee that the ownership can be confirmed. Beware of double spending vectors in OTC transactions and use escrow if possible.

I saw some claim for the board not doing its work. Unfortunately there is no job description for board members, nor do they have an official duty with the company (unless a board member decides to get actively involved with the business). The conclusion which was already drawn a long time ago is that proper assessment requires boots on the ground. But those who actually were, never developed the habit of fiduciary reporting. AM Management always enjoyed a lax handling. I am not certain whether a stronger hand would have helped though. The business is tough. One little detail though - FC was always conflicted which information to release to the board and which not - especially since some of the board members have a conflict of interest because they are working for the competition. As such we covered mostly the baseline of sticking to financial statements as required by law.

According to the latest status the BE300 is confirmed and working. However, to bring the chip to market requires FIXED COST + COST PER CHIP + BUILD OUT COST. The funding situation for this is dire and it would require a new investor or a big buyer who has to be certain that he gets what he is promised. There are two scenarios where this could be quickly achieved:
a) A bitcoin price explosion would release dormant capital instantly shifting the reward/risk ratio.
b) A new type of investor who enjoys preferred treatment over AM Shareholders for the financing of the BE300 tech. Likely implemented as a joint venture.

I will collect further questions via PM and answer them publicly. I am certain I missed a few important points in this post.

Regards

Can someone ELI5 this paycoin business? Why is this altcoin suddenly so interesting, and why is more that 50PH directed to the paycoin network?

What would happen if some VC money comes in AM? Do we get diluted? How would that exactly affect the share price? 

I wonder if FC is going to bid at the auction?

The TL;DR answer is you don't own 50% of company A, or any company.

What you do own is a few ASICMINER sharez, worth ~50% less than they used to be just a couple of days ago.  That's also bragworthy, in its own way.

Why start with outlandish hypotheticals when equally lulzy personal examples are at hand?

*Now that we're on the same page, what exactly did you wish to know?

OK, jimmothy:

You own stock in company A, which makes widgets.
I own company A, and want to make your shares worthless.
I form company B, and form a contract to sell it my widgets at laughably low prices.
This bleeds out company A, while I get to keep all muh munyz through company B profits.

So now you know

Transfers are done every wednesday. Did you issue the request prior to last wednesday? Otherwise wait for tomorrows dividends, your request should be fulfilled by then.