Are Butterfly Labs One Big Scam (Bitcoin Miners)?

Are Butterfly Labs A Scam?

  • Yes

    Votes: 20 74.1%
  • No

    Votes: 7 25.9%

  • Total voters
    27
Has anyone pointed out the irony of people getting scammed by a bitcoin mining machine company because they paid for said machines with bitcoins and can't dispute the transaction now?
 


Is that something that's viable?

Viable in terms that javascript can hash as a proof of concept, yes. Viable in terms of making any meaningful amount of revenue(more than like $5/month), not imo.

A post I made about it 2 years ago-
http://www.wickedfire.com/1311002-post49.html

Granted the value of btc has gone up tremendously since then but so has the difficulty so even if you have 100k visitors a day you're still looking at making less than a dollar per month. I guess that's up to you whether it's worth it or not.
 
One more question, I remember reading about being able to mine with traffic. You just put code in a site. How does that work - like I'm assuming you couldn't arbitrage traffic to a site to generate BTC? Is that something that's viable?
Huh? Sounds like you're talking about exploits used to steal processing power from other people's PCs.

I don't deal in theft. Against the NAP.
 
Huh? Sounds like you're talking about exploits used to steal processing power from other people's PCs.

I don't deal in theft. Against the NAP.

I had no idea how it worked. I think I remember it from reading Evandal's post above a long time ago. But yeah, not viable. Also didn't know it relied on stealing processing power.
 
Some people have got their systems, not too many though and they are also reporting that their systems are much slower than BFL stated they would be (Along with higher power consumption).

Oh yeah? Got a link? The only people that are reported to have BFL testing hardware are trusted mining software authors who I'm sure are under an NDA. So I'd really like to know where you heard this.
 
Huh? Sounds like you're talking about exploits used to steal processing power from other people's PCs.

I don't deal in theft. Against the NAP.

I had no idea how it worked. I think I remember it from reading Evandal's post above a long time ago. But yeah, not viable. Also didn't know it relied on stealing processing power.

it's not theft, you could argue it's no different than running ads or dropping aff links:

Bitcoin Miner for Websites - Bitcoin Plus
 
I have had it on a site since our original BTC thread. The key is to have a metric fuckton of traffic to really reap the rewards. It works and you do get paid. Haven't used the one you mentioned

I have no experience with that link, just googled "javascript bitcoin mining"
 
I had no idea how it worked. I think I remember it from reading Evandal's post above a long time ago. But yeah, not viable. Also didn't know it relied on stealing processing power.
The ones I was thinking about are very common on the hacker forums, usually Chrome & Flash exploits that stay mining on their victim's machine for weeks or months.

That stuff is dirty, I have a lot of problem with it but sadly it's all too easy and common for the blackhat group to get involved with.


it's not theft, you could argue it's no different than running ads or dropping aff links:

Bitcoin Miner for Websites - Bitcoin Plus
I'd forgotten about this however... It appears to be a smaller version of the exploit that allows a webmaster to mine on his traffic's computer ONLY WHILE THEY ARE ON HIS SITE.

That could go either way, ethically. It depends on the site owner...

If I were to place this on all of my properties right now with no warning to my viewers, I'd certainly earn more than I am now; but likely not 200%... Because afterall, it is only mining their CPUs... Which can only mine 1/10,000 as fast as a decent GPU.

Meanwhile, I've taken something from my traffic without asking... That's wrong, and it could actually bite me in the ass if "miner.js" is flagged by antivirus suites.

Of course if you have the kind of reputation with your readers that they read what you say about your monetization policies, and are happy to help support you financially, then sure, you could monetize a popular site with this. You'd just need to put up a sign on every page of the site that explains it so they know why you're using their processor.

Actually, that alone would still look scammy to a lot of people, and turn your traffic off. It would work best if you had a pop-up for every visitor allowing them to opt in or out when they arrive...

Something like: "Don't want to see Ads? Check here to let us bitcoin mine on your SPARE processing power while you're on our site, and we'll disable all ads, just for you!"
 
I have no experience with that link, just googled "javascript bitcoin mining"

They slow your users browser down, very noticeable.

I used to have bitp.it (RIP) miner on a website of mine that got 30k+ hits a day. CPU/OpenCL/WebCL or whatever it uses, really sucks. isn't worth pissing of random users who will never come back from browser crashing or slowing down their computer.
 
MSI Radeon HD 7970 (R7970-2PMD3GD5) 3072MB PCIe Gen 3.0 Details

r7970's are the best card in the $400 range... A step up is almost double in price.

Unfortunately you cant even snatch these cards up used. People are camping out on kijiji craigslist etc.

Also I don't pre order anything since way back in my runescape gaming days. This russian company took pre orders for this gaming bot for nearly 2 years. When it was all tallied up they made off with close to 2 million dollars. It was the same type of deal: really nice website, they engaged the community, they ran ads aggressively before they even delivered anything, a couple people even claimed to have tested it, they had videos demoing the product.

I see the same signs with BFL. The second i saw those aggressive adwords ads I shut my wallet. In my mind if you have a waiting list 50k deep and you haven't shipped a single unit you turn those fucking ads off until you've sent the people who paid something.
 
It all makes sense now.

Lukep creates bitcoin. Gets in on the ground floor. Starts Silk Road for the fast/easy money and to create early adoption. Starts gambling sites. Starts bitcoin forum.

Creates MTGox.

Begins widespread promotion of bitcoin. Manipulates public into artificial buying frenzy. Creates demand for mining hardware. Takes pre-orders. Flees to Thailand.

Hosts bitcoin blog on Wordpress.com to throw us off his trail.

He's created his own artificially inflated money supply, a drug cartel, a casino empire, a currency exchange and an entire market for overpriced computer hardware.

Mother of God.

Lukep owns the internet.

Waiting for enlightened members thread/WSO.

FUCKING DAMN IT BRO

rofl. best post on WF EVER

I still remember lukep "plotting world domination". So this is beginning of world domination by lukep
 
Build your own parallel computing processing rigs.

If you can mine @ 2ghps+, you can mine profitably.

BitMinter - Bitcoin made easy! - Install this miner and run it on your computer. A decent gaming desktop should mine with GPU at around 1-500 mhps. Now get 4-5 of your local friends mining on the same account, you can reach 2 ghps easily and mine .10-.30 BTC per day. Daily payout.

I have never mined so far, will try this

Ideas on how to manage heating issues?
 


I could see these coins easily going past $100 per btc or even more as this thing gets traction.

358wdn9.jpg


audience-clapping2.gif
 
Look at the main page about estimated delivery date... then check their own FAQ about delivery...they push it forward once each month...the FAQ lists October as delivery date (they didn't even update it).