Around the same time that Kodak announced it would be joining with WENN Digital to hold the KodakCoin ICO, a Kodak-branded cryptocurrency miner dubbed the ‘Kodak KashMiner’ made its rounds on the internet. The KashMiner was also reportedly on display on Kodak’s official stand at the annual CES technology convention in Las Vegas this year.
Almost immediately, critics in the crypto community condemned the KashMiner as a scam. Now, Halston Mikail, the CEO of Spotlite USA (the company behind the KashMiner) told the BBC that his company had been forced to put the project on the chopping block by the United States SEC.
Here’s a photo of Kodak’s magic money making machine. pic.twitter.com/wjWeJqMUBF
— Chris Hoffman (@chrisbhoffman) January 9, 2018
In an attempt to distance itself from the debacle, Kodak says it never officially licensed the KashMiner: "While you saw units at CES from our licensee Spotlite, the KashMiner is not a Kodak brand licensed product. Units were not installed at our headquarters,” a spokesperson told the BBC.
However, the company is moving forward, seemingly undaunted. Mikail told the BBC that Spotlite would move its mining operation to Iceland, where it will operate in a private capacity rather than renting out hashpower to customers.
Critics Condemned the KashMiner from the Start
According to Spotlite, the plan was simple: customers would pay $3400 up-front to ‘rent’ a KashMiner; in return, each customer would receive $375 per month for two years. Mikhail had outlined a plan to run hundreds of KashMiners at the Kodak headquarters in Rochester, New York, where the miners could operate on cheap electricity; he said that 80 miners had already been fully operable.
Kodak is selling a Bitcoin miner where you pay for a two year contract and “make a profit”. (*at current prices, Kodak gets half of all bitcoin you produce.) This is the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen at CES. pic.twitter.com/rbzECVEMn7
— Chris Hoffman (@chrisbhoffman) January 9, 2018
However, Spotlite failed to take the increase in Mining Difficulty on the Bitcoin network into account. Economist Saifedean Ammous was quoted, saying that "there is no way your magical Kodak miner will make the same $375 every month."
Likewise, writer David Gerard labeled the KashMiner as a "crypto-currency folly", pointing to the KashMiner website, which (at press time) remained unfinished.
