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Court Order: Butterfly Labs Bitcoins To Be Sold

Posted by timothy on from the now-there's-a-flap dept.

MrBingoBoingo writes In a new development in the case against Butterfly Labs, the court overseeing the case has ordered bitcoins held by Butterfly Labs to be turned over to the court-appointed temporary receiver. The order also gives the receiver authorization to convert the bitcoins "to cash on a systematic and reasoned basis." The justification for this measure is at least to ostensibly create reserves with which refunds for Butterfly Labs' customers may be paid.

5 of 66 comments (clear)

  1. Hardware Ponzi Scheme by WhoBeDaPlaya · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I got in early on a bunch of their FPGA miners. Made obscene money mining and a tidy profit after I sold them and decided to quit mining.

    1. Re:Hardware Ponzi Scheme by ultranova · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A Ponzi scheme is when you use money from later investors to pay earlier ones to create an illusion of a profitable business where none exists. For a hardware vendor to pull a Ponzi scheme on their customers would require them to conduct some weird "send us a computer, we'll send you two later" stunt. Not delivering paid-for hardware is a simply fraud, not a Ponzi scheme.

      Seriously, stop calling every shady business practice a Ponzi scheme.

      --

      Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  2. Re:So ... WTF is it? by jythie · · Score: 4, Informative

    They were one of the early companies making ASIC Bitcoin rigs and had a bit of a reputation for long delayed delivery, often to the point the rigs could not make the money back.

  3. Re:Nice by stevez67 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Recognizing the value of an asset (e.g. stocks, bonds, paintings, sculptures and etc.) doesn't confer legitimacy as a currency.

  4. Re:That was a near miss by dex22 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I bought one of these. It took a VERY long time to arrive, and only worked for a few weeks. I contacted them for warranty repair and they simply never responded after that. I am out around $3000.

    I'm not a fool or idiot. When I ordered, the marketplace was quite simple and they were the most promising option. It was only after most of us placed our orders with BFL that the trend in the market for pre-orders (and incredibly late deliveries) began, took shape and gained meaning as a deal-breaker.

    The current bad actor in this is Black Arrow - and their reseller, MinerSource. They are 9 months behind on delivering Prospero X1s, and if you call or write, they tell you, "you can cancel your order, but there are no refunds. Here's a link to our non-existant terms you agreed to, which did not exist at the time."