Yet another Kickstarted scam

[AntiProtonBoy]

You probably read or heard about this:

Router that anonymises internet activity raises $300,000 on Kickstarter

Turns out it is a load of shit:

Anonabox - Tor router box is false representation, possibly even scam!

tl;dr: Some dude raised $300K  funding on kickstarter to build a Tor anonymiser hardware. The hardware in question is already available from ebay for something like $20 a pop... made by some el-cheapo chinese hardware manufacturer.

[abaxas]

And the problem is?

Every project you've ever worked on will contain el cheapo chinese stuff.

[daqq]

And the problem is?

Well, he advertised the systems as boards he designed and manufactured, which they are simply NOT.

I wouldn't mind a kickstarter for an off the shelf/ebay router with custom firmware (although ethically it's somewhat grey, seeing as the "custom" part is just one additional open source application installed), but false claims are a definite NO-NO and a gigantic red flag.

[AntiProtonBoy]

And the problem is?

Every project you've ever worked on will contain el cheapo chinese stuff.

Have you actually read the articles/posts in the links provided? Of course not.

The problem is:

The kickstarter campaigners claim that the four "prototypes" were built by them, which is bullshit. All of the pictured prototypes were pre-existing products, made by some other manufacturer. They also refused to admit that Chinese suppliers already sell the featured hardware, right now. They also lied about the hardware and software being open source. They didn't design, develop nor did they contribute anything to the hardware in question. In other words, the campaigners claim ownership of a product that is not theirs, and attempt to make money through fund-raising by misleading the public.

This is no different than a random claiming that the Dave's uCurrent kit is their prototype and start a fund-raiser around that.