BitHashMiner

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Revision as of 22:11, 23 July 2015 by Taras (talk | contribs) (Maybe this is too much)
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BitHashMiner
IndustryASIC manufacturing
FoundedFebruary 2, 2015
DefunctFebruary 9, 2015
HeadquartersIndia
Employees1
 BitcoinTalk  Bitcoin Wiki 

BitHashMiner was a vaporware scam notorious for being very poorly executed, and persisting carelessly. A single product was offered, also called a BitHashMiner, which was a preorder mining rig with supernatural specs at an unrealistically low price. The scam has been labelled by onlookers as "thread gold",[1] "hysterical",[2] "the most blatant scam attempt",[3] "the yoda sales force",[4] "obvious scam",[5] "mind blowing",[6] and "half ass attempt to scam people".[7] It is remembered as the most futile scam attempt in Bitcoin history and is used as a textbook example of vaporware, helping people identify scams on their own.

The scam was an unintentional exhibition of many warning signs and red flags that deterred potential victims.

Hardware

The hardware render used on BitcoinTalk

The 9 lb. rig itself featured 10 Thash/s for $1000, with 25 20nm ASIC chips.[8] There is a screen on the miner depicting a CGMiner instance with two graphics cards Scrypt mining in late 2013.[8][9] There are also two 750W power supplies,[8] which weigh about 5 lbs. each,[10] meaning that the casing, fans, and chips must have negative weight, and would be at risk of floating away without the power supplies weighing them down.[11]

There was an enforced limit of two items per buyer,[8] which is a telltale sign of a dishonest sale.[12]

The rigs were offered with free shipping and a five year warranty, and were expected to ship in April.[8][13] By February 12, the BitcoinTalk account of BitHashMiner was inactive and the website was down; no units ever shipped.[1]

Impact

On February 7, 2015, BitHashMiner issued a statement declaring that Taras and TheRealSteve, prominent editors of the Bitcoin Wiki, were "Big Gang Mafia" and that they had accepted bribes from HashCoins to keep their listing on the "Mining hardware comparison" page of the wiki, while removing other potential scams including BitHashMiner and PowerModule.[14]

References