Bitcoin Forum

Great to have you back. Thanks for the music videos in the meantime!

I'm pretty sure that I don't deserve the attribution of the videos. I didn't have time to enjoy them but I will when I'm bored.

Fascinating! It seems like no one can ever really stay away from this place. I guess the next thread will be started by Pirate or Clipse.

Satoshi?  ;)

Satoshi?  ;)

Well, you have a name in the community as you are well aware of. I am looking forward to your contributions.

Pretty much said it, OP'd better stay low key.

For the record, I have no problem with Zhou Tong. I was not involved in the bitcoinity problems and I have no strong opinions on the issue. And I am not sure this is the right place to discuss it.

Fascinating! It seems like no one can ever really stay away from this place. I guess the next thread will be started by Pirate or Clipse.

Great to have you back. Thanks for the music videos in the meantime!

The videos were made by ZhouTonged (http://www.youtube.com/user/zhoutonged). Completely different person.

ZT, how do u feel about the funder of bitcoinica is now a funder of coinlab?

I have nothing but gratefulness for Tihan. Regardless of the result, he literally changed my life. I wouldn't ever call myself an entrepreneur without his support.

For the CoinLab thing, I really have no comment at the moment. I didn't follow this company very closely.

So, how old are you now, and how much coins do you currently hold, if it's no secret?

I had a question that repentance had answered previously, but I wanted to get clarification.

When AurumXChange locked up your funds (was it like $50,000?), you said they never gave it back (even to this day), but repentance said it wasn't your funds but your friends, so there is no way to get it back. Can you clarify?

Honestly, I don't care about those funds or your friend, I just don't like the idea of MtGox, AurumXChange, etc jacking funds from people whenever they personally feel it's legitimate to do so (without any legal request to do so) and then never answering questions about it later.

Where did that money even go?

I had a question that repentance had answered previously, but I wanted to get clarification.

When AurumXChange locked up your funds (was it like $50,000?), you said they never gave it back (even to this day), but repentance said it wasn't your funds but your friends, so there is no way to get it back. Can you clarify?

Honestly, I don't care about those funds or your friend, I just don't like the idea of MtGox, AurumXChange, etc jacking funds from people whenever they personally feel it's legitimate to do so (without any legal request to do so) and then never answering questions about it later.

Where did that money even go?

I was doing a LR->USD exchange for a Singapore friend (total $100K, and $30K in XMLGold, $40K in AurumXChange, and the rest OTC). He paid me $100K in LR and I paid my friend $100K in full (taking a huge loss), so the $40K should be mine. It's a transfer from my LR account to my bank account. It's never a third-party transfer like some other said.

At that time, I told CJH (the Bitcoinica hacker) about AurumXChange's accusation (I had to tell). He decided to withhold $40K from the payment to Patrick Murck. I asked him not to, but he persisted. Later, he gave me a verified Alipay account with $40K equivalent in CNY. I didn't bother to touch the funds because AurumXChange was lying to me about their correspondence. (To date I still haven't received a single email from them, despite their false claims on the forum).

Now CJH is gone (phone: powered off, QQ: offline, email: no response) and the Alipay account got its password changed (most likely by him after withdrawing the funds).

So AurumXChange has succeeded in ripping off $40K by using the coincidence of Bitcoinica hack and my Singapore trip (I can even show anyone my passport stamps of leaving Australia during the hack, PM me). There was no AML investigation and I didn't receive anything.

I allowed them to send to Bitcoinica because I felt it's better in Bitcoinica creditors' hands rather than theirs. No matter how they feel about whether it's an insider job or not (it's not), they have my full consent to send money to Bitcoinica. (Even if it's really an insider job, the money should also be sent to Bitcoinica, with or without my consent). But they clearly didn't do anything and kept the funds for themselves.

I'm no longer mad at them but I still hope AurumXchange can do the right thing. I will take the reputation hit as a punishment for not choosing business partners carefully (the Bitcoinica Consultancy) and it's understandable that AurumXchange wanted to do good for the community by revealing suspects.

Thank you for clarifying what I had suspected. I don't feel so bad for how I originally reacted to them now.

...
I know a lot of people are being hurt by the incident. So is me. I really hope that my previous compensation was valuable and useful to the people being hurt. 5000 BTC at peak Bitcoin price was several multiples of Bitcoinica's sale price but I had no regret for doing something I could to help people in need....[/size]

You say that there is no place to short bitcoins but Bitfinex is up and running using your code from Bitcoinica.

Have you checked that out?

Answer me this please.

The main reason Bitcoinica fund haven't been returned yet is because the database of who is owed what has "vanished".

How have you managed to pay a fair share of 5000btc to creditors if nobody else can ?

I had made a claim to you very early but, Your form was poorly constructed to account for open positions You didn't read the note field. And proceeded to full payment the day later.

You've skipped over my claim in the same way you've paid bogus claims.

I hold you and your imaginary friend "Chen" as the only suspect to that last theft (With a mountain of evidences).

Zhou can you please post a copy of your police report of your charges against Chen? Or did you not file a report because he is not a real person?

You say that there is no place to short bitcoins but Bitfinex is up and running using your code from Bitcoinica.

Have you checked that out?

You can buy Put options through MPEX.
It's not quite the Addictive nature of margin trading ala bitcoinica but definitely has a place in a solid financial plan.
And dare I say that the security model inspires.
 

Oh look who it is.

How is the Chinese relic hunter multi-billionaire triad boss über hacker?

Unfortunately he can't be reached any more. It's always easy to just go offline forever.

He did return majority of the funds, just not in the right combination of USD and BTC. I don't think he enjoys the incident. He is/was living in Heilongjiang Province, which is too cold for me to even travel there (I go to China only during fall or winter). I don't think the address is where he lives though.

I believe he was referring to you, could be wrong though.

Made up people often live in cold places. Just look at Santa.

Matthew the two time scammer tag troll you paid trying to make you look like the victim in all of this is not going to work out too well.

It would be best to assist in cleaning up your first mess (bitcoinica and its "hack") before you make a new project.

Lesson for aspiring Bitcoin scammers: When caught red-handed (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0), just make up bizarre fairytales with shakespearean characters and amazing coincidences. You'll get a free pass and will be praised by the community.

Yeah, zhoutong isn't a bad guy.  Maybe a few holes in the original code, then followed up by new ownership that were more careless and - boom - shit storm.


Still, zhoutong made a valuable contribution to the bitcoin community with good intentions.



welcome back.

If you are the victim who is the real scammer? Your made up friend in china?

How did your friend get your password?  Did he hack you or use vilonce? Or did you give it to him?

I think your next project should be investing.  Take in funds, which go into a completely opaque investment, and promise astronomical returns, and use new investments to pay out the old investors.

That Charles Ponzi really had a good thing going for awhile.

Me personally, I can't wait for the ZhouMiner 3000.

I can see the taglines already:
 - "It runs fast like zhou when he found noone believed his fairy tale."
 - "Delivers bitcoins to your pockets quicker than a hacked exchange."

I don't really have any clear ideas at the moment, but I'll be more than happy to build a killer app for Bitcoin from stratch.

I'm 18 years old. I personally hold less than 100 BTC and I have given my family a 100 BTC gold-plated bar plus 28 Casascius Series I coins (so technically no longer mine).

I have sold the 1000 BTC during the recent price spike for some investment in a new company (unrelated to Bitcoin or domains). Another (minor) reason was that  I felt that Bitcoin was overpriced.

I know very little about you, but I have read all of your responses in the thread and I can say with the utmost certainty that you are NOT 18 years of age.  With that said, if you're lying about that simple fact, then I have significant doubts about everything else you're saying.

 

Let me say a few things, Zhou Tong. I don't know if Bitcoinica was properly registered and where, but if it was, then CJH should be a member of the company and we should be able to see his name on some documents, or otherwise he shouldn't get access to the password, which is the company's assets, right? If you are not careful with that, then you have to prepare for the consequences, which is what you're experiencing now:you are unable to prove your innocence. For another, providing that you told the truth about the hacking incident, you were still being irresponsible for not properly storing the company's funds in cold wallets.

Whatever maybe the case, try to stay low key, your return will not be something worth celebrating about as many people, especially victims of the hacking incident, will remain suspicious about you.

The "password" to the LastPass account was found in the source code leaked by genjix. I didn't set it or leak the source code.

I have only heard of "innocent until proven guilty", not the other way round. Plus, how can innocence ever be proven? I can get a police clearance tomorrow, if you like.

EDIT: Clearly CJH is an outsider. Even I am not the member of the company. I sold Bitcoinica in 2011.

"Innocent until proven guilty" only works when you are facing a possible prosecution, doesn't apply when you're trying to get people's trust for your business.


Okay you may not give him the password, but how did you figure out it was him who did the hack? Did you have any evidence against him?

I was not asking for trust. I will build something that requires little trust (such as open source app, for example).

There was a credit card of Bitcoinica's accountant in the LastPass account used to pay some bills. CJH used that card to purchase stuff on Amazon shipped to a freight forwarder with his real name. The confirmation email was sent to the sock puppet email account.

I explained it 11 months ago and no one read.

The password was heavily re-used. He could easy find out if he used plain text password in any of his websites.

EDIT: It seems that you have almost zero knowledge for the entire incident. I'm back in this forum to contribute, not arguing things that were already clarified long ago. If you really have that many questions to ask, please email bitcointalk@zhoutong.com. I will try my best to entertain your request. Thanks!

EDIT 2: CJH is not my friend. I don't have a friend like him. He gave me advice on anti-fraud payment systems on QQ and I paid him. He wouldn't help out of friendship.

Lurk more. That is about the only true thing he has said.

This person (Zhou Tong) isn't 18.  Without going into details, ..

..or evidence. Amirite?

he/she (Zhou Tong) should be proving it.

Without know this Zhow Tong personally, I would say that he/she is "back" in an effort to perpetrate some new type of fraud.  His/her intent is to size up the audience and then build confidence, hence the elaborate explanations.  He/she will ultimately gain the trust of enough people to be able to pull one more scam.

Age is a minor issue. But if it's a lie (which I believe it is), then what else is a lie? If you're going to lie about something so simple, then what about the complicated/elaborate things that you're speaking of?

We know that. Everyone in this thread knows that. Well at least the one's talking about imaginary relic hunters.

Doesn't make him "not 18". That's about the most uninteresting part of all this. It's like trying to squeeze through a needlepin-pricky hole in his story while the rest of us are happily slaloming with a Humvee through the giant gaping maws in the story while swilling beer, singing rowdy songs and baring our asses at all the ladies.

Yeah, zhoutong isn't a bad guy.  Maybe a few holes in the original code, then followed up by new ownership that were more careless and - boom - shit storm.


Still, zhoutong made a valuable contribution to the bitcoin community with good intentions.



welcome back.

Once evidence started pointing towards zhou, zhou himself said that an associate of zhou's stole the password and the bitcoins.  He provided this "friend's" name.  And claimed the friend was involved in organized crime and also a hunter of ancient antiquities and relics.  Then after outing the mysterious relic hunter, he can't or won't provide any more details about the 'real' thief's identity that would allow authorities to track him down.

I don't know about you, but I don't think it's wise to rat out a multi-millionaire organized criminal.  Such a person would be likely to do something to shut you up.  Not like bitcoiners who get scammed and complain and do nothing.

If you actually believe this ridiculous story, zhou knows the identity of the bitcoinia thief, inadvertently provided him with enough info to steal the passwords, and isn't doing anything to assist in catching the thief.

And if you don't, then zhou is like OJ Simpson, talking about the 'real' thief to deflect blame away from himself.

Either way, I wouldn't trust him.

Nothing really has changed, except the soaring prices (it doesn't have a lot to do with me other than seeing my out-of-pocket 5,000 BTC personal compensation is valued at >$1 million at peak, that was over 80% of my entire Bitcoin savings and I didn't purchase more after the incident). Bitcoinica LP is still not liquidated with zero progress of the fund return.

I know very little about you, but I have read all of your responses in the thread and I can say with the utmost certainty that you are NOT 18 years of age.  With that said, if you're lying about that simple fact, then I have significant doubts about everything else you're saying.

For those that don't want to read everything - here is a short summary.

Zhou Tong used to run bitcoinica.  Using inside information, he stole bitcoins at least two times from that company.

The last theft was traced directly back to him.  

With no way to defend himself, he made up a fictional character that NO PERSON ever met, or spoke to, other than Zhou Tong himself.  He blamed everything on this other person, therefore making himself look innocent.  Of course, ZERO evidence was ever presented that this person is real.

We're now told this imaginary person cannot be contacted - so Zhou hopes we will all just forget about his theft.  He still owes the community 5,000 btc.  Religious (aka gullible) people may believe his story, but the rest of us know he is a thief.

WHY NO SCAMMER TAG?   He donated a lot of money to the forum.

To read the entire story:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.0

My thoughts exactly. He can't be 18, that's ridiculous. And if I remember correctly he was "18" about 1.5 years ago when I first heard about Bitcoinica, and already I had my doubts about his age. So he should update his legend and suddenly grow up to at least 19.

Seems like it, right? But no, he's still 18 for a few more months.

Seems like it, right? But no, he's still 18 for a few more months.

Well, that's maybe what it says on his profile, but he sure sounds like an adult. If he worked for Microsoft, they probably wouldn't hire a 17-years old, would they? And for pictures he could use his son.

Did anybody actually met him in person? Melbourne is a big city, there should be plenty of bitcoiners there.

Welcome back Zhou.

Look forward to seeing your contributions.

I will raise hell though if you are ever in a position of receiving funds.
But then again, I'm sure you know better and are or would be using another
name and invented identity to run a "bitcon" business

Good Luck! I really do hope the best for you. I'll give you a second chance on
everything except trust.

That's a lie told by AurumXchange. I've never worked for Microsoft. (I didn't even use any Microsoft product at that time.)
Very few people have met me so far, but I'm going to be more open as part of the "comeback". I'll try to attend as many Bitcoiner events as possible.

Saw that you posted a plane ticket from when you were 16? or 17?   Are minors allowed to fly internationally by themselves and go through singapore and aussie customs?

Very few people have met me so far, but I'm going to be more open as part of the "comeback". I'll try to attend as many Bitcoiner events as possible.

Well, that's maybe what it says on his profile, but he sure sounds like an adult. If he worked for Microsoft, they probably wouldn't hire a 17-years old, would they? And for pictures he could use his son.

Very few people have met me so far, but I'm going to be more open as part of the "comeback". I'll try to attend as many Bitcoiner events as possible.

Very few people have met me so far

I know very little about you, but I have read all of your responses in the thread and I can say with the utmost certainty that you are NOT 18 years of age.  With that said, if you're lying about that simple fact, then I have significant doubts about everything else you're saying.

Saw that you posted a plane ticket from when you were 16? or 17?   Are minors allowed to fly internationally by themselves and go through singapore and aussie customs?

Let me say a few things, Zhou Tong. I don't know if Bitcoinica was properly registered and where, but if it was, then CJH should be a member of the company and we should be able to see his name on some documents, or otherwise he shouldn't get access to the password, which is the company's assets, right? If you are not careful with that, then you have to prepare for the consequences, which is what you're experiencing now:you are unable to prove your innocence. For another, providing that you told the truth about the hacking incident, you were still being irresponsible for not properly storing the company's funds in cold wallets.

Whatever maybe the case, try to stay low key, your return will not be something worth celebrating about as many people, especially victims of the hacking incident, will remain suspicious about you.

I explained it 11 months ago and no one read.

Read the old thread in which Zhou trots out the Chinese relic collector story and how that person just happened to have access to Zhou's password.  It's pretty amusing.


Plenty of people read it.  It sounded like a crock of shit then and it still sounds like a crock of shit now.

Unless he has excellent counterfeit ID, he's 18.  He was able to incorporate NameTerrific as a company on his 18th birthday and that requires producing valid ID here.

Name one.  Just one on this forum who has any level of trust, and is known face-to-face by other users.

One.

Unless he has excellent counterfeit ID, he's 18.  He was able to incorporate NameTerrific as a company on his 18th birthday and that requires producing valid ID here.


Yes.

More interesting is that fact that the stamps are on PAGE 20 of his alleged passport. That's a heck of a lot of traveling for someone under 18. 

It's amazing that some of you folks actually believe this perps story.

More interesting is that fact that the stamps are on PAGE 20 of his alleged passport. That's a heck of a lot of traveling for someone under 18. 

The code may be bad (a lot better now), but that's not the direct cause of the hacks. The infrastructure is a bigger problem. As I was the only guy building infrastructure, I will take the responsibility.

Objectives for my next project:
- Test code ratio: 1.5 : 1
- LOC/M: 5-6
- Leave infrastructure to a more experienced sysadmin/security professional that I personally know

I don't think you've figured it out yet zhoutong.  The problem you have is figuring out who to trust and who to work with.

1.) You chose to work with Bitcoin Consultancy (genjix).  FAIL.
2.) One of your partners stole stole your password.  You trusted his computer.  FAIL.
3.) You prefer the one-man-team where you code and do everything, trusting little to no one.  FAIL.
4.) You hosted Bitcoinica in the cloud and trusted them, and put the wallet in the cloud losing tens of thousands of BTCs. FAIL.

So in your objectives you need, "Learn who to trust".

Chinese ports stamp near the visa page. Other ports stamp near other stamps. There are a few empty pages before Page 20.

Wondering...

This person (Zhou Tong) isn't 18.  Without going into details, in my profession (for the past 20 years) I have interviewed hundreds of individuals. One of the things that we look for is a slight inconsistency in their story which we then go after it.  Sometimes the inconsistency is due to something innocent (hiding an affair, minor theft) relative to what we're looking into.  But more often than not, it's a slip-up on their part because they're trying to hide something else (what we're actually interested in).  Once we get to that "something else", then we widen the hole in their story.  Further inconsistencies are developed by them to explain away the initial lie which leads to the hole in their story becoming wider and wider, with the final outcome either being them admitting to what occurred or requesting an attorney since their back is now against the wall with a mountain of lies on top of them.

WOW! Classic con-man.

More interesting is that fact that the stamps are on PAGE 20 of his alleged passport. That's a heck of a lot of traveling for someone under 18.  

And at 17, he's also a bronz level frequent flyer. find 1 tiny lie and everything else can be unraveled.

It's amazing that some of you folks actually believe this perps story.

So you've verified all that information before making your conclusion or have you just accepted as fact, information posted on a public forum by a stranger?

You use these same analytical skills for your 20yr career?

Not sure if you travel much but where a passport is stamped is not a guarantee of how much a person has travelled. In some instances (a very low rate), passports are stamped chronologically but more often than not, it's random.

I had friends at school (16yrs old) who travelled over 50,000 miles a year so being in a frequent flyer band is barely a basis for anything.

Looks like your conclusions are all based on your own beliefs rather than hard fact.


Edited: Clarifying flying miles statement.

Hi Inedible,

What can easily remedy some of the questions being posed here about the credibility of Zhou Tong, is a nice long youtube video where he explains everything in detail (including the organized crime figure/relic hunter).

If he posts a nice long youtube video and holds up his alleged passport to proved that he's the same person that traveled on the dates of those stamps then I'll shut up and stop "jumping to conclusions" about a guy that was 17 that ran off with other people's money. 

Waiting for that youtube video Zhou Tong!!!!!

I'm going to create a new thread just to ask for that video.

My 20 year career has taught me that there are con-men and there are victims.  Victims are often reluctant to accept the fact that they are victims or will be victims.  

On this forum, I'm not the one who has to establish credibility. Instead I'm the one that can question the stories put forward by an individual who has not proven anything that he has espoused thus far.  

I'm not here to attempt to convince anyone to once again "believe" in me because I'm here with a new project and need the buy-in of forum members.  

This person re-surfaced after 11 months? WHY?

New Project? That must be con-man talk for "New Scam".

You're making an argument from authority with your claim of 20yrs of experience in detecting lies. You kinda need to back it up with some evidence seeing as you're impugning someone else's reputation.

I don't know why he's resurfaced and you're right to be sceptical as I'm sure anyone should would be.

With your 20yrs of experience you might well be correct (that he's definitely over 18 and that he's the criminal mastermind of the stolen Bitcoinica funds) but I'm just saying that you've come to a definite conclusion based on opinions (not facts) that don't support your position which, to me, casts your other opinions/conclusions in doubt.

Hi Inedible,

What can easily remedy some of the questions being posed here about the credibility of Zhou Tong, is a nice long youtube video where he explains everything in detail (including the organized crime figure/relic hunter).

If he posts a nice long youtube video and holds up his alleged passport to proved that he's the same person that traveled on the dates of those stamps then I'll shut up and stop "jumping to conclusions" about a guy that was 17 that ran off with other people's money. 

Waiting for that youtube video Zhou Tong!!!!!

I'm going to create a new thread just to ask for that video.

Waiting patiently...

Somehow, I doubt that he would ever post a nice long video of him explaining everything whilst holding up his passport for all to see.

Oh zhoutong... hello?  Over here...

No one has met Satoshi face-2-face, still millions of people trust his creation.

You are most welcomed to casts doubts on my hunch because I'm not here trying to sell a "new project".

In regards to impugning Zhou Tong's reputation, did I really impugn it? I think that he's done a wonderful job all on his own with that. 

What I have put forward is an ideal opportunity to shut everyone up.

Put up a long youtube video to explain everything and hold up his alleged passport to prove that it's actually his.

If you or I were in his position (attempting to establish our credibility), how difficult would that be?

No one has met Satoshi face-2-face, still millions of people trust his creation.

Very true! But is Satoshi alleged to have fleeced people out of thousands of Bitcoins???

I believe a credible member of Bitcointalk once vouched for his age and his word was good enough for the masses the last time this came up but I don't remember the username. Maybe someone else does?

Zhou Tong is exactly who he says he is.

Oh zhoutong... hello?  Over here...

Perhaps you're thinking of this post by Tihan.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97272.msg1073435#msg1073435

Tihan met Zhou in person.  

Whether or not Zhou's lying about his age to this community and to Australian authorities is far less interesting to me than whether he's lying about things directly related to the downfall of Bitcoinica.

Telling the truth about his age doesn't prove he had no involvement in the destruction of Bitcoinica and lying about his age wouldn't prove that he had active involvement in the events which destroyed Bitcoinica.

A pretty irrefutable connection was made between the stolen Bitcoinica funds and Zhou.  The big question is whether or not you believe Zhou's explanation for that connection.  A secondary question is whether law enforcement was ever asked to investigate that connection.

I'm pragmatic - I want to maximize my value for the community. Unfortunately there's really nothing much I can do to accelerate Bitcoinica's liquidation. I wasn't even a shareholder or creditor (so I can't sue them for compensation or anything).

So instead of hoping for the best with something I really don't have the capacity to do, I'm thinking of doing something that's 1) good for Bitcoin and 2) not requiring much trust.

Perhaps you're thinking of this post by Tihan.


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=97272.msg1073435#msg1073435

Tihan met Zhou in person.  

Whether or not Zhou's lying about his age to this community and to Australian authorities is far less interesting to me than whether he's lying about things directly related to the downfall of Bitcoinica.

Telling the truth about his age doesn't prove he had no involvement in the destruction of Bitcoinica and lying about his age wouldn't prove that he had active involvement in the events which destroyed Bitcoinica.

A pretty irrefutable connection was made between the stolen Bitcoinica funds and Zhou.  The big question is whether or not you believe Zhou's explanation for that connection.  A secondary question is whether law enforcement was ever asked to investigate that connection.

Age isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, BUT it establishes credibility with everything else.

He's posted enough excuses/explanation on the forum, how would a video be problematic.  

WHAT IS THIS ? "He could easy find out if he used plain text password in any of his websites."
What website does he have ?

This was the email you were using regularly to exchange with peoples, How would some bogus "using plain text password in any of *? websites." give him access to it ?

Quote from: bitdragon on Today at 08:13:32 AM
Quote from: Elwar on Today at 06:23:37 AM
You say that there is no place to short bitcoins but Bitfinex is up and running using your code from Bitcoinica.

Have you checked that out?


You can buy Put options through MPEX.
It's not quite the Addictive nature of margin trading ala bitcoinica but definitely has a place in a solid financial plan.
And dare I say that the security model inspires.
 


Yeah, I like MPEX's model. I think it'll inspire me a lot if I'm going to start another Bitcoin venture (IF).

Quote from: Elwar on April 23, 2013, 06:23:37 AM
You say that there is no place to short bitcoins but Bitfinex is up and running using your code from Bitcoinica.

Have you checked that out?


Yes. I'm not so sure whether the code is based on Bitcoinica. Anyway, I think there's still no trading venue that has the amount of trades that Bitcoinica had. At its peak Bitcoinica had 150000 BTC open interest. That's what I mean by "viable way of shorting".

If you insist on filing a police report on this matter, any lack of co-operation from my side can of course be used against me in the uncertain future.

I'm not protecting his identity. I just deem it to be unnecessary at this point. He is not running away (AFAIK he doesn't even have a passport), and the fund return is pending Bitcoinica's liquidation.

I want to go back to my own business and focus on something productive. Any information I provide now will necessarily be a burden in the near future.

I strongly advise you not to involve the police before the liquidation process has any significant development. You are not obliged to report this. (But when you do, I'm obliged to provide information to either you, or the police, and obviously I would prefer the former.)

My point is, there is very little benefit to this, yet the risk and potential expense are too high. I don't want to hire a lawyer or waste my time on gathering evidence or whatever. I contributed 5,000 BTC and talked to the creditors regularly exactly because I wanted to avoid any lawsuits against me. I'm all for justice, but I have already given up on Bitcoin and justice in this matter seems worthless to me.

Considering the suspicion raised by community members, the questions from trusted business partners and threats of violence, I don't have any energy to fight back any more.   I just want the fiasco to be over. Yet people are giving me more and more troubles. It's okay if you can't feel the pain, please just try to sympathize.

I have plans to immigrate to Australia and I need an absolutely clean record. Even a criminal accusation (without conviction) is intolerable in the character check. I really deeply regret the creation of Bitcoinica. If you can forget about me, please do.

I'm returning to Melbourne on October 6, 2012. Hopefully something will happen at Bitcoinica side, and you have plenty time to re-consider your decision before then.

I have plans to immigrate to Australia and I need an absolutely clean record.

Name one.  Just one on this forum who has any level of trust, and is known face-to-face by other users.

One.

I suggest that at the very least Zhou receives an "Untrustworthy" tag.

This Chen Jianhai story is the biggest load of poppycock I've ever heard.

All one needs to do is to read this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95795.msg1055627#msg1055627

And this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.msg1054890#msg1054890

Lets review the facts:

• Chen Jianhai is a multi-millionaire relic collector with a family living in the cold and remote Heilongjiang Province in China who owns an online 'Taobao' store.
• Chen Jianhai is not technical and his English is poor
• Chen Jianhai is Zhou's former business associate, but not his friend
• Chen Jianhai is likely a long-time criminal quite active in financial black markets with an active presence in stolen credit cards and possibly other hacks. (according to Zhou's observations)
  
• Chen Jianhai has a technical co-worker that is "in-to-bitcoin" and discovers that the source-code has been leaked.
• Chen Jianhai inspects the code and discovers that the MtGox API key is also the master password for Tihan's lastpass account containing the passwords to both Bitcoinica's and Christopher Heaslip's MtGox account. The lastpass account (originally set up by Zhou) was not protected by 2factor. And both MtGox accounts were also not protected with a yubikey.
• Chen Jianhai logs in to the MtGox account and withdraws the maximum number of Coins (40.000 BTC & 40.000 USD). For the USD he creates a MtGox code that he claims on Heaslip's account and uses the USD to buy more BTC.
• Chen Jianhai then withdraws all the coins to Zhou's blockchain.info account. From where he sends them to his servers in America.
• Chen Jianhai decides to frame Zhou stating "it would be impossible to discover the hacker" and "it would be much easier to deny if the suspect account is an insider because you (Zhou Tong) can always distract people from investigating"
• Chen Jianhai knows Zhou's secret sockpuppet identity (stevejobs807@gmail.com) and also his password since Zhou has used Chen's webshop once and re-used that password.
• Chen Jianhai exchanges MtGox coupons worth 40.000 USD to Liberty Reserve through the instant exchange facility at AurumXchange using Zhou's secret identity.
• Coincidentally Zhou also has an order with AurumXchange to sell Liberty Reserve to us for the amount of USD 40,000, requesting a wire to his bank account in Singapore. (for a friend)
• Chen Jianhai then feels the need to create an email account <bitcoinicasucks@hotmail.com> and email verify@bitcoinica.com with the text "THANK YOU FOR YOU SOURCE CODE. BITCONICA IS NOW OFFICALY DONE! LASTPAS PASWORD: c02e1a27-5524-449f-ba65-aff9581ddedc" Despite being able to write perfect english in the subject line, somehow in the body text his CAPS key got stuck and he lost the ability to spell.
• Chen Jianhai is confronted by Zhou who figured it all out after being accused himself only a few hours earlier.
• Chen Jianhai admits everything to Zhou
• Chen Jianhai (despite being a multi-millionaire) was only able to return 20.000 BTC and 140,000 USD  due to the cost of his laundering activities and also the significantly lower Bitcoin price when he cashed out.
• Chen Jianhai (before he was outed) discovers that Zhou is giving 5000 BTC out of his own pocket to Bitcoinica customers and decides to donate 100 BTC of the hacked funds to Zhou's community donation pool
• Chen Jianhai's identity is only known by Zhou, but unfortunately Chen Jianhai is now gone (phone: powered off, QQ: offline, email: no response) and the Alipay account got its password changed

Of course before Chen mysteriously disappeared Zhou stated that "Currently I'm very willing to co-operate with any investigation because this is the only way I can completely prove my innocence." and "I have repeatedly said that I have zero tolerance in this matter and I will report all his information, including his real bank account number and address to the police once the official investigation has started."

However when I wanted to file a police report with my local authorities and asked Zhou to provide me the address details for Chen, I received the following reply:


I agreed and waited for Zhou to return to Melbourne. However upon his return Zhou ignored all my follow up emails. I have never been able to obtains any details about Chen from Zhou nor have I been able to file an actionable report. In the mean time Bitcoinica creditors are still smack in the middle of what must be the largest clusterf*ck in bitcoin history with the MtGox account orphaned and frozen. The AurumXchange funds still missing and an ongoing lawsuit against the Bitcoin Consultancy by the largest creditors. Considering that Bitcoinica had around 1M USD in deposits when it got hacked, and conservatively estimating 50% of that to be in BTC, at current valuations we are talking in excess of 15,000,000 USD still pending liquidation. Or what is left of it.

Now, Zhou returns 1 year later, hoping the dust has settled with his "Hero member" tag still in tact. Well played sir!

I suggest that at the very least Zhou receives an "Untrustworthy" tag. Although I do realize that might be an insult to MNW whom I regard much more highly.

I agreed and waited for Zhou to return to Melbourne. However upon his return Zhou ignored all my follow up emails. I have never been able to obtains any details about Chen from Zhou nor have I been able to file an actionable report. In the mean time Bitcoinica creditors are still smack in the middle of what must be the largest clusterf*ck in bitcoin history with the MtGox account orphaned and frozen. The AurumXchange funds still missing and an ongoing lawsuit against the Bitcoin Consultancy by the largest creditors. Considering that Bitcoinica had around 1M USD in deposits when it got hacked, and conservatively estimating 50% of that to be in BTC, at current valuations we are talking in excess of 15,000,000 USD still pending liquidation. Or what is left of it.

Now, Zhou returns 1 year later, hoping the dust has settled with his "Hero member" tag still in tact. Well played sir!

I suggest that at the very least Zhou receives an "Untrustworthy" tag. Although I do realize that might be an insult to MNW whom I regard much more highly.

Sorry ninjarobot. I was really annoyed and depressed at that time so I didn't give a response to you. However, I have replied your email with his bank account and address information that I currently have. Hope it'll be helpful to whatever you plan to do.

I'm a little disturbed by the fact that you posted my email reply publicly without my permission.

Thanks Zhou. I have received it and will pass it on to the Bitcoinica Liquidator.


My apologies. I realize it was a bit of a d*ck move. However I do feel it is important that the whole truth is revealed and there were no disclaimers on the email. I should have asked for your permission though.

(It's easy to blame people.)

You have a lot more potential than you imagine.

Zhou,

Don't be discouraged by all of the negative posts you see here. There are plenty of people watching this from the sidelines just to see how this plays out that are really on your side here. You have a lot more potential than you imagine.

That's exactly what their worried about.

You're one to talk...

What Zhou needs are some good partners who know what their doing. Admittedly, the problem there is figuring out who that could be, as we've seen.

I contributed 5,000 BTC and talked to the creditors regularly exactly because I wanted to avoid any lawsuits against me.

I'd like to remind you ; That 5000BTC !,,, You've thrown it out of the window, You haven't verified claims other than maybe glancing over them for a minute.

That is an irresponsible move only someone with too many illegitimately acquired BTCs would pull while seeking both repentance and praises from the public.

You're a wise ass, but time will get it back to you.

At least I sent the largest portion of the compensation to Roger Ver, whom I know and trust very much. I believe I have also verified all claims above 1000 BTC.

There may be some rough claims of 10 BTC or 50 BTC, but they represent a tiny proportion. Again, it's my money and you have no right over the allocation of the sum.

EDIT: Trace the coins all you can. Aside from the 100 BTC donated by hacker I'm pretty sure the rest are legitimate coins once stored in either Mt. Gox or Bitcoinica.

EDIT: Trace the coins all you can. Aside from the 100 BTC donated by hacker I'm pretty sure the rest are legitimate coins once stored in either Mt. Gox or Bitcoinica.

I have gathered some data to estimate the amount that can be recovered from Chen Jianhai:

USD: about $140,000 + $5000 frozen at AurumXchange (under SJ account)
BTC: about 20,000 BTC

There's an unknown amount of funds left in Chris Heaslip's account and I have no way of knowing the exact balance.

Chen Jianhai was only able to offer the above-mentioned amount due to the cost of his laundering activities and also the significantly lower Bitcoin price when he cashed out. If Bitcoinica or the community wants him to cover the full amount at today's prices, I'm willing to co-operate with any police investigation. But either case, my previous donation should have pretty much covered the difference.

It's perhaps better for me to silently focus on my work and deliver something good for Bitcoin that doesn't require much trust. My reputation is pretty much ruined in this community regardless of how much evidence I bring to the table. (It's easy to blame people.)

Silly drama. 

Q: Why would Zhoutong lie about being 17 when he started bitcoinica?  It isn't the kind of lie you tell that will encourage people to entrust hundreds of thousands of dollars with you. 
A: it wasn't a lie.

Pangia - registration date March 31.  Nice trolling.

This Chen Jianhai story is the biggest load of poppycock I've ever heard.

All one needs to do is to read this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95795.msg1055627#msg1055627

And this:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=95738.msg1054890#msg1054890

Lets review the facts:

• Chen Jianhai is a multi-millionaire relic collector with a family living in the cold and remote Heilongjiang Province in China who owns an online 'Taobao' store.
• Chen Jianhai is not technical and his English is poor
• Chen Jianhai is Zhou's former business associate, but not his friend
• Chen Jianhai is likely a long-time criminal quite active in financial black markets with an active presence in stolen credit cards and possibly other hacks. (according to Zhou's observations)
  
• Chen Jianhai has a technical co-worker that is "in-to-bitcoin" and discovers that the source-code has been leaked.
• Chen Jianhai inspects the code and discovers that the MtGox API key is also the master password for Tihan's lastpass account containing the passwords to both Bitcoinica's and Christopher Heaslip's MtGox account. The lastpass account (originally set up by Zhou) was not protected by 2factor. And both MtGox accounts were also not protected with a yubikey.
• Chen Jianhai logs in to the MtGox account and withdraws the maximum number of Coins (40.000 BTC & 40.000 USD). For the USD he creates a MtGox code that he claims on Heaslip's account and uses the USD to buy more BTC.
• Chen Jianhai then withdraws all the coins to Zhou's blockchain.info account. From where he sends them to his servers in America.
• Chen Jianhai decides to frame Zhou stating "it would be impossible to discover the hacker" and "it would be much easier to deny if the suspect account is an insider because you (Zhou Tong) can always distract people from investigating"
• Chen Jianhai knows Zhou's secret sockpuppet identity (stevejobs807@gmail.com) and also his password since Zhou has used Chen's webshop once and re-used that password.
• Chen Jianhai exchanges MtGox coupons worth 40.000 USD to Liberty Reserve through the instant exchange facility at AurumXchange using Zhou's secret identity.
• Coincidentally Zhou also has an order with AurumXchange to sell Liberty Reserve to us for the amount of USD 40,000, requesting a wire to his bank account in Singapore. (for a friend)
• Chen Jianhai then feels the need to create an email account <bitcoinicasucks@hotmail.com> and email verify@bitcoinica.com with the text "THANK YOU FOR YOU SOURCE CODE. BITCONICA IS NOW OFFICALY DONE! LASTPAS PASWORD: c02e1a27-5524-449f-ba65-aff9581ddedc" Despite being able to write perfect english in the subject line, somehow in the body text his CAPS key got stuck and he lost the ability to spell.
• Chen Jianhai is confronted by Zhou who figured it all out after being accused himself only a few hours earlier.
• Chen Jianhai admits everything to Zhou
• Chen Jianhai (despite being a multi-millionaire) was only able to return 20.000 BTC and 140,000 USD  due to the cost of his laundering activities and also the significantly lower Bitcoin price when he cashed out.
• Chen Jianhai (before he was outed) discovers that Zhou is giving 5000 BTC out of his own pocket to Bitcoinica customers and decides to donate 100 BTC of the hacked funds to Zhou's community donation pool
• Chen Jianhai's identity is only known by Zhou, but unfortunately Chen Jianhai is now gone (phone: powered off, QQ: offline, email: no response) and the Alipay account got its password changed

Of course before Chen mysteriously disappeared Zhou stated that "Currently I'm very willing to co-operate with any investigation because this is the only way I can completely prove my innocence." and "I have repeatedly said that I have zero tolerance in this matter and I will report all his information, including his real bank account number and address to the police once the official investigation has started."

However when I wanted to file a police report with my local authorities and asked Zhou to provide me the address details for Chen, I received the following reply:


I agreed and waited for Zhou to return to Melbourne. However upon his return Zhou ignored all my follow up emails. I have never been able to obtains any details about Chen from Zhou nor have I been able to file an actionable report. In the mean time Bitcoinica creditors are still smack in the middle of what must be the largest clusterf*ck in bitcoin history with the MtGox account orphaned and frozen. The AurumXchange funds still missing and an ongoing lawsuit against the Bitcoin Consultancy by the largest creditors. Considering that Bitcoinica had around 1M USD in deposits when it got hacked, and conservatively estimating 50% of that to be in BTC, at current valuations we are talking in excess of 15,000,000 USD still pending liquidation. Or what is left of it.

Now, Zhou returns 1 year later, hoping the dust has settled with his "Hero member" tag still in tact. Well played sir!

I suggest that at the very least Zhou receives an "Untrustworthy" tag. Although I do realize that might be an insult to MNW whom I regard much more highly.

You're one to talk...

What Zhou needs are some good partners who know what they're doing.

This is the dumbest thing ever, what is a ustream Q&A going to do, that a thread like this will not do?

This is the dumbest thing ever, what is a ustream Q&A going to do, that a thread like this will not do?

He isn't a con man, just a teenager with too much coin power, and be quite frank he is smarter than a lot of teenagers, two businesses by the time he is 18. Come on some credit and respect is due to him, but to call him a con-man is a bit overboard.

People in 18 don't talk like that, no matter how smart they are, because even if you are a genius, you can't compress time.

His behaviour is that of someone who wants to earn your trust and will do things that put him in the firing line by doing so.

So, recording a YouTube video would be no problem, right?

Let's see how it goes.

Will people believe the rest of his claims if his age is verified? I doubt it.

So the least interesting thing about this whole saga is verified and nothing else changes. I'd say that's almost not worth the effort.

Additionally, if I were ZT I'd go for the Skype verification via a moderator. There are crazy, angry people out there who could use that video for any purpose :/

You just said he "will do things that put him in the firing line", now a youtube video is "not worth the effort"?

He has to start somewhere. We don't know much tangible about him. His explanations sound like a made-up fairy tales. So posting a video seems to me like a cheap and effective way to start dealing with trust issues. And dodging it on any excuse, is an effective way to reduce thrust.

Skype would be a start, too. But with somebody really trusted by the community. Moderators are in a conflict of interest, because the forum gets some financial support from him as I understand.

Good luck with THAT.  Zhou has paid off the forum.  Your coins are being used to update this forum's software.   ;)

So let's see. My bet is that he will continue to either ignore any such requests or come up with more and more ridiculous excuses not to do it.

Either way, it will be entertaining to observe :)

Neither. You just lost your bet.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186261.0

Wait... What was your wager?

That's pretty much all the available information I have. He returned almost all funds but in the wrong asset combination, and Bitcoinica failed to adjust the recovered funds to the right combination, as a result BTC liability has rocketed before the liquidation has shown any progress.

Neither. You just lost your bet.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=186261.0

Wait... What was your wager?

You can help your reputation by doing a Q&A session on Ustream or even simply posting a long YouTube video.

What will be your excuse for that? Don't know how to use YouTube? Don't have webcamera? Don't have mobile phone? Or that it "won't prove anything"? Maybe it won't, but it's a good start if you really want to improve your reputation.

Instead, what I see is that you cherry pick posts to answer and ignore posts that are not so easy to answer.

That's a nice start. You've just got some partial credibility in my book now.

Of course, there is still a chance that your dad does all the writing and you only do "public appearances", but that sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory... :)

Maybe you are who you claim to be, and there indeed exists that relic millionaire collector. Crazy things happen in life. Once in a while you see a movie about some incredible story that actually did happen.

I didn't (carefully :) ) make any specific wagers, but Ok, $5 worth of bitcoins are coming your way, just for posting this video. It was worth it :)

Did I not say it wouldn't change a thing?  ;D

Good job on the age distraction, everyone. The documented multi-million dollar thefts are back under the rug again.

I was doing a LR->USD exchange for a Singapore friend (total $100K, and $30K in XMLGold, $40K in AurumXChange, and the rest OTC). He paid me $100K in LR and I paid my friend $100K in full (taking a huge loss), so the $40K should be mine. It's a transfer from my LR account to my bank account. It's never a third-party transfer like some other said.

At that time, I told CJH (the Bitcoinica hacker) about AurumXChange's accusation (I had to tell). He decided to withhold $40K from the payment to Patrick Murck. I asked him not to, but he persisted. Later, he gave me a verified Alipay account with $40K equivalent in CNY. I didn't bother to touch the funds because AurumXChange was lying to me about their correspondence. (To date I still haven't received a single email from them, despite their false claims on the forum).

Now CJH is gone (phone: powered off, QQ: offline, email: no response) and the Alipay account got its password changed (most likely by him after withdrawing the funds).

So AurumXChange has succeeded in ripping off $40K by using the coincidence of Bitcoinica hack and my Singapore trip (I can even show anyone my passport stamps of leaving Australia during the hack, PM me). There was no AML investigation and I didn't receive anything.

I allowed them to send to Bitcoinica because I felt it's better in Bitcoinica creditors' hands rather than theirs. No matter how they feel about whether it's an insider job or not (it's not), they have my full consent to send money to Bitcoinica. (Even if it's really an insider job, the money should also be sent to Bitcoinica, with or without my consent). But they clearly didn't do anything and kept the funds for themselves.

I'm no longer mad at them but I still hope AurumXchange can do the right thing. I will take the reputation hit as a punishment for not choosing business partners carefully (the Bitcoinica Consultancy) and it's understandable that AurumXchange wanted to do good for the community by revealing suspects.

EDIT WITH PROOF:

Bitcoinica was hacked on July 13 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93074.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=93074.0)

Depart Australia:
(Passport Number blocked off)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6936226/exit.jpg

Enter Australia:
(Passport Number blocked off)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6936226/entry.jpg

Flight Ticket:
(Frequent Flyer number and Ticket number blocked off)
(Note that the original flight were oversold, so I travelled on the 14th of July instead of 13th.)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/6936226/ticket.jpg

I'm unbiased in this whole matter.

But I would never trust any of my money with a person or company with this type of track record. A lot of people lost a lot of money because of your service, and as far as I know you didn't fully repay most of them.  You disappear for a year and now suddenly are back and expect everyone to trust you.  On top of that, you're only 18 years old. 

I hate to sound harsh or mean, but I would never trust my money with someone like that, let a alone a child.

Best of luck to you though,  I don't know you personally so I can't say anything about you personally. All I can comment on is the service that you ran and what happened with that service and how it impacted a lot of people in the bitcoin community.

Very few people have met me so far, but I'm going to be more open as part of the "comeback". I'll try to attend as many Bitcoiner events as possible.

Welcome back, Zhou.
What about attending this conference?
http://www.bitcoin2013.com/bitcoin-2013-panelists.html

I'll travel to the United States in July. But this event is in May. So I can't attend.

Bitcoin is so full of lol. I love this thread.

pirate's return will be even lulzier.

14+ is allowed to fly unaccompanied internationally. Some airlines might require a signed waiver from a parent.

Over 6's are allowed to fly unaccompanied internationally.  Speaking from experience.

tl;dr: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

I'm quite sure you launched Bitcoinica with the intention for it to provide value to the community. As initially suggested by Patrick/Intersango and others, your claims about trade volume were very suspicious. It's likely you simply exaggerated them, not unusual when being proud of what you've created.

Whether the Linode theft (where other accounts as well were swiped) just provided an excuse for some profit on the side or not I don't know, but I'm quite sure the only real money to have come out of running Bitcoinica were from user deposits. I have no personal opinion of whether it operated as a pure bucket shop or not, but others have documented the lack of visible MtGox movement even when Bitcoinica should've been hedging.

When, based on how you presented the success of Bitcoinica in public, you were approached with investment offers I believe you were simply unable to admit that it wasn't as successful as you claimed. I believe you went along way too far with whatever happened, and that the Rackspace "hack" was the simplest way out when Tihan started questioning the books. Additionally, it provided yet more profit which you might've needed to be able to keep up appearances with your friends and family.

After the very visible and complete failure by the Intersango people to handle the resulting mess I believe you made yet another profitable "hack" on the service. It wasn't as well planned nor executed as the previous, maybe it was simply opportunistic after having realized the release of the source code provided the excuse needed.

I've posted links to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudologia_fantastica and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance since I do believe they apply. I think you're currently unable to admit to yourself and people close to you where things went wrong, and you're still hoping to be able to exit this unscathed.

(I consider the above to be the simplest explanation possible that still fits all the known facts. I'm wary about the exact involvement by Amir, Patrick and Donald though - and since Tihan and Zhou supposedly have met in person it would be interesting to know exactly whom else have actually met either of them.*)

But then, the only reason I really care is that if people's only takeaway from having joined the Bitcoin community is that they get constantly scammed this will never fly. I thus believe Bitcoin fraud needs to be handled by the proper legal authorities. We're way past Mybitcoin's "as long as I give 49% back you guys won't hurt me, right?" - which btw looks suspiciously close to what you're currently trying to do as well.

*) Edit: Tihan's identity is verified by an upstanding member of the community, and thus Zhou's should be as well.

It has been exactly 345 days since I left Bitcoin (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81581.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=81581.0)).

Nothing really has changed, except the soaring prices (it doesn't have a lot to do with me other than seeing my out-of-pocket 5,000 BTC personal compensation is valued at >$1 million at peak, that was over 80% of my entire Bitcoin savings and I didn't purchase more after the incident). Bitcoinica LP is still not liquidated with zero progress of the fund return.

In fact, I have been following the forum for some time (I changed my forum account password to resist my temptation to login again). I have been searching my name every 9 days ever since I logged out last time.

When I left Bitcoin, I felt that I was not adding value to the economy by developing Bitcoinica because speculation is a zero-sum game. But now after seeing speculative activity sky-rocketing without a viable solution to short Bitcoin: I'm feeling a bit regretful that I sold Bitcoinica.

Without selling Bitcoinica, the Linode hack would still happen, but the platform can still survive with the profits it generated. There wouldn't be the Rackspace hack or the Mt. Gox hack because the email server wouldn't be compromised and the source code wouldn't be leaked by an insider. The platform might still be around to serve Bitcoiners by maintaining the price stability more effectively than a single long-only exchange.

But that's daydream. I'm not going to start another Bitcoin exchange. Bitcoin is not just a speculative vehicle. It's the first currency/commodity/whatever with both 1) strictly limited quantities and 2) native mechanism to be transmitted over data networks. We desperately need killer apps that make Bitcoin a truly global alternative currency that replaces some of the functions of the traditional banking system. (Note that I'm not so ambitious that Bitcoin will replace fiat currencies. I think it's more beneficial to the world economy by being a parallel/alternative currency, like gold. This is just an opinion, though.)

The Bitcoin community has given me nightmares (mainly the reputation hit) but I'm never giving up on Bitcoin. True believers are going to be believers forever.

I don't really have any clear ideas at the moment, but I'll be more than happy to build a killer app for Bitcoin from stratch. If you have any thoughts, feel free to PM me or email me at bitcointalk@zhoutong.com.

I'm also answering any questions you have in this thread. I really hope that I can provide valuable service to the community and regain the lost trust/reputation by building something really useful.

PS> Despite my repeated clarifications, I want to say the same thing again:

As I had no financial interest in Bitcoinica LP after early 2012, I had no savings that were owed or distributable to Bitcoinica creditors other than the 5000 BTC compensation out of my personal funds. As I was neither the director nor an owner of any Bitcoinica-related entity since then, I had no power to do anything to help the creditors. 

I know a lot of people are being hurt by the incident. So is me. I really hope that my previous compensation was valuable and useful to the people being hurt. 5000 BTC at peak Bitcoin price was several multiples of Bitcoinica's sale price but I had no regret for doing something I could to help people in need.

Tihan has met Zhou. Gavin has met Tihan. That much has been known since the Bitcoinica fiasco.

That does not change the fact that the explanation that fits all known facts and requires no leaps of faith (or unicorns) when it comes to who made off with Bitcoinica's money, times two - maybe three, is Zhou and Zhou alone.

Quoting a post from way back:


For those who don't remember, chat logs were posted where Tihan was questioning why the business they bought didn't make the money Zhou had claimed it did. That provides much of the rationale for what then happened.