Crypto mining startup wanting to challenge the big guns appears to be a scam

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A new company emerged recently, promising to revolutionize cryptocurrency mining. OnMiners, based in Luxembourg, touted a new generation of mining rigs that use endothermic chips to lower energy consumption and lower mining costs. Chips capable of helping mining operations would be welcome by virtually the entire community if they were cost-effective and efficient, but it now appears that OnMiners may be nothing more than a scam. 

OnMiners reportedly had developed a new Endothermic Multi-Algorithm Chip (EMAC) that uses a chemical reaction to absorb energy and lower temperatures. It presented its new mining rigs—OnTower, On2U and On4U—in a press release two days ago, stating that they can process between 140 terahashes per second (TH/s) up to 1,620 TH/s, depending on the machine. The press release indicates that all the mining rigs are delivered “all over the world except for the countries in the war zone.”

After the company introduced the rigs, the crypto community got started to figure out what was going on. One YouTube video was prepared to collaborate the belief that the company is fake, pointing out the hash rates are not realistic. The video also provides proof that some of the pictures used to represent the company’s executives were stock photos that are readily available on the web or represented individuals that cannot be found anywhere. 

Another social media user put on his investigative cap and dug in deep to determine the true story. The result was, “The spokesperson in the youtube [sic] video promoting the products is an American model named Daniel Prok (instagram: ilovebrotherdan)

The images used for the supposed team are taken from popular image sharing sites:

Hisao Saito (CEO): www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/middle-aged-asian-business-man-studio-699374425

Mark Williams (CIO): www.pexels.com/photo/photography-of-a-man-wearing-black-shirt-903661/

Andrew Smith (CFO): www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-white-dress-shirt-and-black-blazer-standing-outside-building-832998/

Even the images for the supposed miners are that of other products: i.e. The On4U is a PSU on a Russian site: procase.ru/ge401/.”

This certainly isn’t the first time a group of people have tried to scam the crypto community by offering unrealistic rigs. Watts Miners did it in August 2018 before being busted, but crypto fans are showing that they are too smart for the fraudsters and thieves and are now catching them in the act.