Bitcoin Forum

So it's basically November, are people still thinking that they are going to get paid eventually by Pirate?

What happened to the people who bought the Pirate debt for satoshis on the btc?

Did GLBSE get wound down properly?

The silence is deafening.

What?

Also, Bitcoinica, Bitcoin Consultancy, Bitcoinica Consultancy, Amir, Patrick, etc, etc,...

It's good to have a reminder every now and then.

Don't you worry there is gonna be the next one.
ICBIT I'm waving at ya.

Now, I agree that pirate is a scammer. Up until GPUMax closing announcement, I still had faith in pirate, since I couldn't believe somebody could be so dumb to ruin GPUMax.

Well, it seems I'm wrong, somebody was dumb enough to ruin what was the project with the most potential around here. My GPU were so ready for it... :-[

The only potential GPUMax had was being a powerful weapon to destroy the bitcoin network. Good riddance.

Why are you a moderator?  You clearly don't understand Bitcoin.

Touché!

Seriously Maged, you also think Coinlab is a powerful weapon to destroy the bitcoin network too? Come on...

Magad

Could you explain?  I have heard form more the a few users that GPUMax was a great resource.
Thanks.

I thought this was pretty clear as early as May 2012 (and earlier for those with a brain who happened to learn about this 7-10% a week proposition earlier).

That's part of why it was so dangerous. More importantly, though, because it was just a mining proxy, it was literally impossible for anyone to know how much mining power GPUMax controlled through those proxy connections. In light of what we now know about Pirate it's fair to say that his entire goal with GPUMax was to leverage his ponzi-gained trust along with shiny features to silently build up over 50% of the network's hashing power through his proxy. Then, once his ponzi reached its peak, he'd unleash this power against the network, blame it on a hack or something, then run away with his ponzi gains while we were too busy cleaning up the mess to notice. In fact, he probably thought that the attack would permanently destroy bitcoin, so people wouldn't even care that he ran.

Luckily for us, he was still building up the technical capacity to do this attack when his ponzi collapsed. If you still don't think that was the goal Pirate had for GPUMax, then you are still in denial. Thus, the OP's point has been made.

Thanks Maged for that informed explanation.

So now we are crediting Trendon Shavers with being an evil Master Mind  (He did make off with aprox. $2M USD worth of bitcoin)?

I'd be curious to hear other opinions about GPUMax.

Yeah I wouldn't really call it "mastermind".  When your plan requires the abject stupidity of others in order to work it is hardly a mastermind.

Pirate borrowed BTC and sold them for USD.  TL/DR version he was massively short (probably the shortest short in the history of Bitcoin).  He had no way to pay the interest obligation at the current exchange rate.  However 500K BTC is pretty easy to pay off if BTC fell to say $0.10 USD:BTC.

So:
a) Pirate had no end game, he was just as delusional as his investors
or
b) Pirate was the worlds worst ponzi operator but lucked out that he found a group of people more idiotic than him who ALSO didn't really mind losing millions of dollars (actions speak louder than words here).
or
c) Pirate's "plan" was to tank BTC exchange rate and thus massively devalue his debt.  Doesn't matter if the plan was dubious or not.

Oh, and remember that huge wave of GPUMax invites that went out after BS&T collapsed? That was one last-ditch effort to kill bitcoin and drop the price further.

Clearly he (and his PPT's??)  had the confidence thing down.  

Did he/do you really think he could have captured more then 51% of the network hashing power?

Actually, his plan nigh-on succeeded, if not for a few pesky inconveniences. Look at August charts.

Absolutely, no question. Remember that whole invite-only thing GPUMax had? Well, the way that works is the same way it worked for the ponzi, and you saw how that went down.

I don't remember the whole invite thing.  I was not following pirate or GPUMax before the default.  That is why I am asking.  Thanks.

I was pretty sure this was the plan from nearly day 1. I figured he was going to do it via massive holdings and spooky walls, but a 51% attack would work just as well, I suppose, and fits well with the rest of the evidence.

I've been using GPUMAX since it's first week,

* It was easy to estimate how much hashing gpumax had just by purchasing a lease at a hefty price.
* GPUMAX was a proxy than improved mining even when not leasing, it claimed to achieve lower stale / reject.
* GPUMAX wasn't really a cash cow for miners, it would sometime pay 15% on top of PPS but would do so less than an hours per day.
* GPUMAX had nowhere near 51% of hashing power.
* GPUMAX Had been invite only for almost the whole time.

I did not keep mining at GPUMAX because the extra reward was not worth the occasional downtime and problems.

I know very little about the people who were leasing there, It was either for A. Pool Hopping, or B. BTC laundering. or ???

@OP, Yes, he's a scammer and I'd really like to know what plan he had.

What about people that didn't lease at any price? Besides, Pirate could have easily artificially limited the amount of public work that got done at any price.
Of course. I never said that they did, just that it was bound to happen.
Just like BS&T.