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Title: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 04:46:13 AM This is amazing. If you look at the Ripple giveaway thread, you can see that lots of people were apparently changing their original request posts from requesting Ripples (XRP) to claiming it's a scam.
Ripple is a scam! Ripple is a get rich quick scheme for it's creators, a private for-profit company. It is NOT open source. It is CENTRALIZED, akin to PayPal rather than Bitcoin. For more info, visit RippleScam.org (click me) (http://ripplescam.org/) Then, someone with some integrity changed their post midstream the apparent astroturfing to let everyone know what was going on. I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." I received an interesting message in my bitcointalk.org inbox today. It said that a user going by the name of 'TradeFortress' was paying forum members 5 BTC to edit their posts in this thread to say that, "Ripple is a scam." This is the exact text he wanted each user to post: "Ripple is a scam! Ripple is a get rich quick scheme for it's creators, a private for-profit company. It is NOT open source. It is CENTRALIZED, akin to PayPal rather than Bitcoin. For more info, visit RippleScam.org." Ironically, in the earlier days of Bitcoin (2010, 2011, and well into 2012), the same accusations were spread about Bitcoin. Bitcoin was a "Ponzi-scheme," "pyramid scheme," "scam," etc. The same Bitcoin supporters that fought these accusations tooth and nail are now saying the same thing about Ripple. Ripple is led by Jed McCaleb (founder of MtGox, eDonkey) and Chris Larsen (e-loan, Prosper.com), both successful businessmen who do not have an interest in sullying their good names. Arthur Britto, Stefan Thomas, and David Schwartz are major contributors to Ripple's development, and all played an active role in Bitcoin's early successes. OpenCoin, the company overseeing Ripple, has already raised venture capital from firms led by the co-founders of PayPal and Netscape. These firms do not invest in scams, but in companies with unique ideas that will turn a significant profit if successful. Ripple will only be successful if it's able to provide its users with the ability to send quick, cheap transactions to anyone, anywhere in the world, using any currency. It's intended goal is to let users do just that, in their currency of choice, as easily as it is to send an email. Some Bitcoin users, like TradeFortress, are afraid of the idea of a central organization driving the development of such a capability. They think that if anyone is in charge, and if that anyone might turn a profit, then it's not in the best interest of anyone to use their service. Some Bitcoin users, like TradeFortress, are adamant about this, to the point that they're willing to pay out thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoin to get their message across. Ironically, a very large percentage of Bitcoin users are hoarding Bitcoins to do just that, turn a profit. Profit is fine for them, as long as it's for them. If Ripple is a scam, and its users are unable to take advantage of Ripple's services as advertised, then Ripple will quickly disappear as another failed business. If the fact that a centrally organized team is driving the development of a product equates to "scam," (this is the main argument) then pretty much every product and service you've ever used is also a scam. You've probably heard that large websites like Reddit and OKCupid are now accepting Bitcoin. The fact of the matter is, they're not accepting Bitcoin at all. They're actually accepting US dollars. Reddit and OKCupid are using the services of a company called Coinbase that instantly converts Bitcoin payments into US dollars for a small fee. Reddit and OKCupid don't want Bitcoins because they can't pay their employees or their bills with Bitcoins, but they can do that with US dollars. In other words, large corporations aren't interested in Bitcoins themselves, but in the savings that can be had by using Bitcoin as a value-transfer mechanism, or protocol. Similarly, Ripple is a protocol for sending money, but with Ripple you don't have to buy a digital currency like Bitcoin to get your money from A to B. You can send USD, EUR, CAD, AUD, whatever you wish, and as more Gateways come online, more currencies will become accessible. As long as you have a very small quantity of Ripples (XRP) in your account (just one or two dollars worth), you'll be able to complete thousands of transactions. This is Ripple's main advantage over Bitcoin, and why a lot of Bitcoin users are afraid of it. Even Roger Ver, a.k.a. "Bitcoin Jesus" has to pay his supply chain to keep the Bitcoin Store running, so he can't use Bitcoins either. Roger Ver doesn't accept Bitcoin, he accepts US dollars from BitPay. If even Bitcoin Jesus isn't interested in Bitcoins themselves, then why not let customers use their local currencies from the get-go and take out the Bitcoin middleman? If the same, or even greater savings can be had with a better protocol, then why not use Ripple? --- As always, do your due diligence, and come to your own conclusions. I can assure you that Ripple is not a scam, but I can't guarantee that it isn't a threat to Bitcoin. http://www.thebitcointrader.com/2013/05/i-was-offered-550-to-say-that-ripple-is.html What does this mean? Well, first and foremost it means that anyone who posts a "Ripple is a scam" comment should now have their integrity called into question (thanks a lot TradeFortress). It proves they are shills and will say anything for a dollar. It also proves people like TradeFortress (he's not an evil genius, this has been happening in Bitcoin from day one) will resort to paying other people to state something as fact, trying to astroturf a topic as being a "community consensus" in attempts to sabotage, influence, deceive, etc. Bitcoin is very young and with the ease of collecting bitcoins for miners, it's equally easy to purchase influence in the community and use deceptive tactics such as astroturfing. While one party seems to think that Ripple is a scam and claims they are "paid agents trying to subvert bitcoin", that same party is paying others to subvert Ripple. Be careful what you read on these forums and don't take anything anyone says for face value (*especially* people with a vested interest in bitcoin such as the major business owners and investors). It's all a game of rich men who want to turn bitcoin into exactly the same thing people left bitcoin from. They're not angry at the banks for deceiving others into paying them money, they're angry they can't do the same thing. Now they can, thanks to bitcoin. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: ktttn on May 22, 2013, 04:48:33 AM I'd accept 4BTC to say ripple is a scam.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: notme on May 22, 2013, 04:50:16 AM I'd accept 4BTC to say ripple is a scam. I won't say it's a scam... just that it is a scammer's paradise. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: 01BTC10 on May 22, 2013, 04:52:12 AM This forum is now a circus.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: merve10495 on May 22, 2013, 04:53:12 AM I'd accept 4BTC to say ripple is a scam. 4BTC to say what I'm already saying? People PM me or place these magic coins in my wallet for me to preach the obvious! Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 22, 2013, 04:53:58 AM I'd accept 4BTC to say ripple is a scam. I'll say its a scam for 3BTC and for 10BTC I'll throw in a hooker direct to your house. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: smoothie on May 22, 2013, 04:57:10 AM All these offers and I wasn't asked? Hmph I'm offended lol...just kidding :P
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: notaek on May 22, 2013, 04:59:25 AM I'd accept 4BTC to say ripple is a scam. Just so you guys know I will say ANYTHING you want me to for 1 BTC. Seriously. PM me. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 04:59:40 AM All these offers and I wasn't asked? Hmph I'm offended lol...just kidding :P Proper astroturfing would require choosing shills who won't ask questions. They made a mistake asking GoWest. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: smoothie on May 22, 2013, 05:01:55 AM I'd accept 4BTC to say ripple is a scam. Just so you guys know I will say ANYTHING you want me to for 1 BTC. Seriously. PM me. So is this the going rate for auto sock puppeting? Lol :D Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: charleshoskinson on May 22, 2013, 05:02:33 AM Who in their right mind would pay Matt to say Ripple is a scam?
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: scalar33 on May 22, 2013, 05:02:52 AM I'll say it's a scam for 12,000 XRP Ripples ;D
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: akabmikua on May 22, 2013, 05:03:58 AM I'd say its a SCAM for 4 BTC for sure!!
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: cypherdoc on May 22, 2013, 05:06:31 AM i criticize Ripple b/c i honestly think the economic assumptions behind the Ripple concept are highly dubious and will fail. i've never been approached nor accepted any bribe money to be anti-Ripple.
i never signed up for any XRP b/c i never believed in the concept. yes, i have BTC but that doesn't influence my opinion at all. what also pushed me to become vocal about this in just the last few days is the fact that Ripple has been spamming the Discussion Forum with anti-Bitcoin threads and trying to steal Bitcoiners away to Ripple in what i view as a zero sum game. otoh, OT + BM appears to be a promising combination built on the same principles that Bitcoin was and i will look at their platform with enthusiasm. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Hfleer on May 22, 2013, 05:15:31 AM otoh, OT + BM appears to be a promising combination built on the same principles that Bitcoin was and i will look at their platform with enthusiasm. What's this? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: SGExodus on May 22, 2013, 05:18:33 AM Pay me $550.. I can edit my post to say whatever you want to say too.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 22, 2013, 05:19:58 AM i criticize Ripple b/c i honestly think the economic assumptions behind the Ripple concept are highly dubious and will fail. i've never been approached nor accepted any bribe money to be anti-Ripple. i never signed up for any XRP b/c i never believed in the concept. yes, i have BTC but that doesn't influence my opinion at all. what also pushed me to become vocal about this in just the last few days is the fact that Ripple has been spamming the Discussion Forum with anti-Bitcoin threads and trying to steal Bitcoiners away to Ripple in what i view as a zero sum game. otoh, OT + BM appears to be a promising combination built on the same principles that Bitcoin was and i will look at their platform with enthusiasm. But Cypherdoc would you say its a scam for 5BTC Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 05:20:10 AM Ripple has been spamming the Discussion Forum with anti-Bitcoin threads I'd love to read those. Can you provide a link? ..unless they cannot be proven to be from OpenCoin directly (which means they might be TradeFortress paying someone else to post them to make them look bad, you never know) in which case I don't care to read them. Otherwise I sure as hell do! Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: notme on May 22, 2013, 05:23:31 AM otoh, OT + BM appears to be a promising combination built on the same principles that Bitcoin was and i will look at their platform with enthusiasm. What's this? OpenTransactions + BitMessage https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=212490.0 Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: cypherdoc on May 22, 2013, 05:25:18 AM i criticize Ripple b/c i honestly think the economic assumptions behind the Ripple concept are highly dubious and will fail. i've never been approached nor accepted any bribe money to be anti-Ripple. i never signed up for any XRP b/c i never believed in the concept. yes, i have BTC but that doesn't influence my opinion at all. what also pushed me to become vocal about this in just the last few days is the fact that Ripple has been spamming the Discussion Forum with anti-Bitcoin threads and trying to steal Bitcoiners away to Ripple in what i view as a zero sum game. otoh, OT + BM appears to be a promising combination built on the same principles that Bitcoin was and i will look at their platform with enthusiasm. But Cypherdoc would you say its a scam for 5BTC money wouldn't affect my decision one way or the other. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: cypherdoc on May 22, 2013, 05:26:31 AM Ripple has been spamming the Discussion Forum with anti-Bitcoin threads I'd love to read those. Can you provide a link? ..unless they cannot be proven to be from OpenCoin directly (which means they might be TradeFortress paying someone else to post them to make them look bad, you never know) in which case I don't care to read them. Otherwise I sure as hell do! they all got moved en masse earlier today to Service thank gaud. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: charleshoskinson on May 22, 2013, 05:32:27 AM This honestly doesn't make any sense at all. Why would anyone try to discredit ripple? This community isn't filled with low info retards. They would just be wasting an enormous amount of money.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: oakpacific on May 22, 2013, 05:33:47 AM Hmmm, interesting, why "GoWest" has to make it public by editing an old post in Feb.20 which apparently no one other than some archaeological fans will read?
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 05:34:25 AM Hmmm, interesting, why "GoWest" has to make it public by editing an old post in Feb.20 which apparently no one other than some archaeological fans will read? He actually posted it as an article on his site too, apparently. I don't read his blog though so I found it by scrolling through the thread's first page. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 22, 2013, 05:35:44 AM i criticize Ripple b/c i honestly think the economic assumptions behind the Ripple concept are highly dubious and will fail. i've never been approached nor accepted any bribe money to be anti-Ripple. i never signed up for any XRP b/c i never believed in the concept. yes, i have BTC but that doesn't influence my opinion at all. what also pushed me to become vocal about this in just the last few days is the fact that Ripple has been spamming the Discussion Forum with anti-Bitcoin threads and trying to steal Bitcoiners away to Ripple in what i view as a zero sum game. otoh, OT + BM appears to be a promising combination built on the same principles that Bitcoin was and i will look at their platform with enthusiasm. But Cypherdoc would you say its a scam for 5BTC money wouldn't affect my decision one way or the other. I knew you were gonna say that! Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: cypherdoc on May 22, 2013, 05:38:18 AM This honestly doesn't make any sense at all. Why would anyone try to discredit ripple? This community isn't filled with low info retards. They would just be wasting an enormous amount of money. i read most of the anti-Ripple posts in the many Ripple threads over the last several days and no one appeared to me to be a paid over the top anti-Rippler except for Shadow of Harbinger and obviously Tradefortress. most of our criticisms of Ripple are based on hard facts, imo. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Rassah on May 22, 2013, 05:41:24 AM otoh, OT + BM appears to be a promising combination built on the same principles that Bitcoin was and i will look at their platform with enthusiasm. What's this? OpenTransactions + BitMessage https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=212490.0 +1 I think ripple would have more to worry about this than paid "It's a Scam" accusations. I wonder what Ripple thinks about this new merger? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: oakpacific on May 22, 2013, 05:41:33 AM Hmmm, interesting, why "GoWest" has to make it public by editing an old post in Feb.20 which apparently no one other than some archaeological fans will read? He actually posted it as an article on his site too, apparently. I don't read his blog though so I found it by scrolling through the thread's first page. I saw that post as well, I think it's probably a very transparent astroturfing, as all cooperators posted exactly the same thing in the same thread, one after another, I also remember TF advertising it somehow, otherwise it looks really weird and noticeable to anyone. And yeah, it does look like TF has got a really deep pocket, he can pay for his shills like that, buying forum ad slots just to make them unavailable to BFL and debase Ripple, a lot of these things...., all at hefty prices, wow. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 05:48:54 AM This honestly doesn't make any sense at all. Why would anyone try to discredit ripple? This community isn't filled with low info retards. They would just be wasting an enormous amount of money. i read most of the anti-Ripple posts in the many Ripple threads over the last several days and no one appeared to me to be a paid over the top anti-Rippler except for Shadow of Harbinger and obviously Tradefortress. most of our criticisms of Ripple are based on hard facts, imo. When the criticisms are about XRP's value being "pumped", When the criticisms are that it's a "scam" by people scamming others into agreeing to raise their credit for them (TradeFortress), it kind of makes every legitimate argument against Ripple look like (poorly) attempted sabotage. I'm not huge on Ripple and am skeptical of its future, I talked to Arthur Britto on Skype quite a lot about Ripple and its direction back in the day, and I was building a Ripple network with Vladimir Marchenko and Mihai Alisie even before OpenCoin was formed. That doesn't mean that I'm confident it will work the way they're implenting it though (it's all just an experimental project, as is Bitcoin), a lot has changed in the past year and OpenCoin is showing the rest of us what does and does not work socially. I am interested in Open Transactions and Ripple for the future though and anything that shows hope of allowing exchange should be looked into seriously. Despite not being huge on Ripple though, I am huge on transparency, anti-sockpuppetry and cutting through the endless power/money grabs in the bitcoin community.
I'm sick of cultism in bitcoin where people are so easily manipulated, constantly following a leader for "political" reasons ("Let's buy things at bitcoinstore, a private for-profit company, because it is good for Bitcoin!") and ignoring the obvious manipulation and corruption right in front of them. That's why even though I have my own academic beef with Ripple and am watching them closely, this anti-Ripple campaign to me seems like a power grab in itself-- a bitcoin power grab, something desperate people do when they're scared their own project currency can't stand on its own two legs against anything else. I'm confident that's not the case, but people like TradeFortress blur that point for others I'm sure and he's becoming disgusting as a result. Bottom line: you don't become better than the poop by touching the poop. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: oakpacific on May 22, 2013, 05:51:17 AM This honestly doesn't make any sense at all. Why would anyone try to discredit ripple? This community isn't filled with low info retards. They would just be wasting an enormous amount of money. i read most of the anti-Ripple posts in the many Ripple threads over the last several days and no one appeared to me to be a paid over the top anti-Rippler except for Shadow of Harbinger and obviously Tradefortress. most of our criticisms of Ripple are based on hard facts, imo. No, it's entirely different. No one entity controls Bitcoin's supply, but Opencoin made it clear that they control the XRP supply, and they wouldn't tell others how they control it, just ask Joel Katz. So it costs nearly nothing for them to manipulate the XRP market, as long as they like. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Elwar on May 22, 2013, 05:55:29 AM This post for sale for 5 BTC.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Zangelbert Bingledack on May 22, 2013, 05:59:37 AM How do we know this isn't just someone OpenCoin paid to say that TradeFortress paid them to say Ripple is a scam? OpenCoin apparently has a history of paying people off, if the leaked email from Ryan Fugger is authentic.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: cypherdoc on May 22, 2013, 06:00:57 AM How do we know this isn't just someone OpenCoin paid to say that TradeFortress paid them to say Ripple is a scam? OpenCoin apparently has a history of paying people off, if the leaked email from Ryan Fugger is authentic. link? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 06:01:24 AM How do we know this isn't just someone OpenCoin paid to say that TradeFortress paid them to say Ripple is a scam? OpenCoin apparently has a history of paying people off, if the leaked email from Ryan Fugger is authentic. Link? I'm interested in getting to the bottom of this (as I'm sure every newbie here is too), but statements like yours that can shed light on parties should not be made without references, lest they are intended to continue making the anti-Ripple campaign look like shilled sabotage. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Zangelbert Bingledack on May 22, 2013, 06:05:20 AM I thought this was well-known, but it is also complete hearsay. Albeit much older heasay. I'll look for the link.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: gweedo on May 22, 2013, 06:07:22 AM The worst part about this whole thing isn't the paying people to edit their post which is really low. But that TradeFortress also committed scams on newbies and new to the ripple environment to prove his point. I think that is the lowest thing on earth. Taking advantage of a person, is just really bad.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Bakemono on May 22, 2013, 06:16:09 AM I don't know about ripple but i learned two new words today!
Astroturf and shill ! ;D Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Zangelbert Bingledack on May 22, 2013, 06:16:40 AM The alleged email: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5254737 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5254737)
Related: https://ripple.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2023 (https://ripple.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2023) Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: BTC Books on May 22, 2013, 06:40:59 AM All these offers and I wasn't asked? Hmph I'm offended lol...just kidding :P Proper astroturfing would require choosing shills who won't ask questions. They made a mistake asking GoWest. Seriously Matthew - it's good you're no longer a 'reporter'. Bitcoin Magazine could not have survived more of this kind of shit than it did... From GoWest's post: Quote I received an interesting message in my bitcointalk.org inbox today. It said that a user going by the name of 'TradeFortress' was paying forum members 5 BTC to edit their posts in this thread to say that, "Ripple is a scam." Did he receive this from TradeFortress? No. He got a PM from an unnamed user who claimed they'd gotten it from TradeFortress. From that, without any further evidence that I can see, he jumps to: Quote Some Bitcoin users, like TradeFortress, are adamant about this, to the point that they're willing to pay out thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoin to get their message across. And you jump immediately to: Quote When the criticisms are that it's a "scam" by people scamming others into agreeing to raise their credit for them (TradeFortress), it kind of makes every legitimate argument against Ripple look like (poorly) attempted sabotage. and.. Quote I'm confident that's not the case, but people like TradeFortress blur that point for others I'm sure and he's becoming disgusting as a result. Bottom line: you don't become better than the poop by touching the poop. and... Quote which means they might be TradeFortress paying someone else to post them to make them look bad, you never know and... Quote When the criticisms are that it's a "scam" by people scamming others into agreeing to raise their credit for them (TradeFortress), I don't think there's a whole lot of accurate reporting going on here. And I think that while you may not be leading the charge (unless you paid GoWest to write that post :-* ), following it uncritically does quite as much unjustified damage. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: bbulker on May 22, 2013, 07:02:31 AM Where are the screenshots of these so-called PMs? No evidence, no dice.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: 🏰 TradeFortress 🏰 on May 22, 2013, 07:05:34 AM Is this still going?
BULLSHIT I have never PM'd GoWest. I didn't even know wtf he did. Again, BULLSHIT Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: scintill on May 22, 2013, 07:19:04 AM The alleged email: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5254737 (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5254737) Related: https://ripple.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2023 (https://ripple.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2023) Thanks for the links, but unless you're seeing something I'm not in those PDFs in the top link, I'm not finding this conclusive at all. The supposed proof is a short, heavily excerpted and edited quotation, posted by someone I've never heard of, allegedly Miles Thompson, if you follow the Google+ link in the HN user profile. It seems there is a Miles Thompson somewhat active in the original Ripple community, but a) the HN user isn't necessarily the real Miles Thompson, and b) I don't have a reason to trust Miles Thompson's secondhand reporting of an email someone else supposedly received. Further weakening the case: a) the quote doesn't even say who is supposedly paying off Ryan Fugger (just "group", although the poster may be implying it was OpenCoin), b) the only instances I can find of this quote on Google are this short HN post and several people in cryptocoin communities re-quoting that. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 07:44:52 AM you're no longer a 'reporter' I've never worked as a reporter. I'm not sure where you heard that. I am a co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine though.As for the claims in this thread, No one said TradeFortress messaged GoWest directly. The claim is that TradeFortress was offering others that much to change their posts(something he hasn't bothered to deny). As for TradeFortress spending money to spread his opinion of Ripple, that's public knowledge. See the "forum advertisement" auction threads from Theymos. No one is attacking TradeFortress (I happen to appreciate his talents and current projects), what is being discussed is the unethical and extensive efforts to discredit a project that should otherwise just be ignored. Ripple is as much of a "scam" as bitcoin is (neither one is a scam), but Ripple (the current implementation) is understandably not what many politically idealed bitcoiners would want to follow until it is open sourced and its basic problems are resolved. The point is that there is something shady going on. If TradeFortress has never paid anyone to post bad things about Ripple, he should be here stating exactly that, and leading the conclusion that someone rich is trying to frame him. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Amph on May 22, 2013, 07:59:35 AM i can do it for only 2 btc
for 1kbtc i can launch a nuke at ripple HQ Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: ktttn on May 22, 2013, 12:04:53 PM i can do it for only 2 btc Ripple's hard limit: g64 XRP.for 1kbtc i can launch a nuke at ripple HQ XRPs are mined by measuring IOUs in BTC and then getting bitcoiners to buy them until a hard limit is approached and the reward for bitcoiners approaches derp. I <3 me a good hijack thread. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: luv2drnkbr on May 22, 2013, 01:11:34 PM i can do it for only 2 btc for 1kbtc i can launch a nuke at ripple HQ I will change my post for only 1.9 btc. Get it while it's fresh! Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Gabi on May 22, 2013, 02:20:29 PM Why no one offer me 550$ to post something???
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: AzureEngineer on May 22, 2013, 02:35:55 PM Aww, I've been saying Ripple is a scam for free this whole time.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 02:39:48 PM Aww, I've been saying Ripple is a scam for free this whole time. You've been saying Ripple is a scam for the whole 3 weeks duration of your completely anonymous account? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: AzureEngineer on May 22, 2013, 02:40:43 PM Aww, I've been saying Ripple is a scam for free this whole time. You've been saying Ripple is a scam for the whole 3 weeks duration of your completely anonymous account? For free. That is the important part. I could have been making money this whole time. What a disappointment. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 03:00:39 PM Aww, I've been saying Ripple is a scam for free this whole time. You've been saying Ripple is a scam for the whole 3 weeks duration of your completely anonymous account? For free. That is the important part. I could have been making money this whole time. What a disappointment. Well, despite only being here 3 weeks and having already formed a serious (and unfoundable) opinion of Ripple, I won't assume you're a sockpuppet and will instead happily assume you are just an average joe with your own opinion. On that note: What the "average joe" thinks is irrelevant. Are you trying to make an intelligent discussion or are you just trying to bullshit the "average joe"? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: ElectricMucus on May 22, 2013, 03:16:27 PM Is this still going? BULLSHIT I have never PM'd GoWest. I didn't even know wtf he did. Again, BULLSHIT You mad bro? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: AzureEngineer on May 22, 2013, 03:28:56 PM Well, despite only being here 3 weeks and having already formed a serious (and unfoundable) opinion of Ripple, I won't assume you're a sockpuppet and will instead happily assume you are just an average joe with your own opinion. On that note: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies Take a long, good read of that. You need it. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Lethn on May 22, 2013, 03:38:35 PM I think most people who know anything about software development or coding in general know that ripple isn't open source, I don't think it's a scam though, I just think their marketers are stupid, you see it happen all the time with computer stuff.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Ekaros on May 22, 2013, 03:46:10 PM So any deals around?
I refrain right to notice that tells post was paid for. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: wormbog on May 22, 2013, 04:17:28 PM Ripple may not intend to be a scam, but they way they act sure makes it look that way. Promising to deal with key elements of their system at some unspecified later time (open sourcing the codebase, explaining their fair distribution system for XRP) is suspicious. And the trust system at the heart of Ripple is ridiculous. Ripple says the current system of banks and credit requires the same kind of trust, but I don't trust banks at all. I trust that I will have legal recourse through the court system if a bank decides to not pay back my deposits. I don't want to have to trust everyone I transact with, and with bitcoin I don't have to.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 04:19:14 PM Ripple may not intend to be a scam, but they way they act sure makes it look that way. Promising to deal with key elements of their system at some unspecified later time (open sourcing the codebase, explaining their fair distribution system for XRP) is suspicious. And the trust system at the heart of Ripple is ridiculous. Ripple says the current system of banks and credit requires the same kind of trust, but I don't trust banks at all. I trust that I will have legal recourse through the court system if a bank decides to not pay back my deposits. I don't want to have to trust everyone I transact with, and with bitcoin I don't have to. Couldn't agree with your points more. It seems these points would be obvious enough to anyone who thinks this way to simply not use Ripple until they resolve these issues. What the manipulation attempts then? Is it just a product of a group of angst-ridden teenagers who got rich from bitcoin? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: sleger on May 22, 2013, 04:25:59 PM I don't think this can be true, even if TradeFortress had a lot of bitcoins, why on earth would he offer 5 BTC when 0.5 would be enough for most of the people here to do it... Why throw away $500 times who knows how many...
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 04:29:13 PM I don't think this can be true, even if TradeFortress had a lot of bitcoins, why on earth would he offer 5 BTC when 0.5 would be enough for most of the people here to do it... Why throw away $500 times who knows how many... There are much richer people who are more anonymous who have wasted more money on seemingly dumber things. That is a logical fallacy (fallacious appeal to possibility (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_probability)). Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: justusranvier on May 22, 2013, 04:36:47 PM I feel left out in that I'm not able to muster any enthusiasm for an extreme opinion on Ripple one way or the other. I don't think it's a scam, and I also don't think it's going to be useful outside a narrow problem space. I don't have anything personal against the OpenCoin developers and I think their business model is unlikely to succeed.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: wormbog on May 22, 2013, 04:38:59 PM Ripple may not intend to be a scam, but they way they act sure makes it look that way. Promising to deal with key elements of their system at some unspecified later time (open sourcing the codebase, explaining their fair distribution system for XRP) is suspicious. And the trust system at the heart of Ripple is ridiculous. Ripple says the current system of banks and credit requires the same kind of trust, but I don't trust banks at all. I trust that I will have legal recourse through the court system if a bank decides to not pay back my deposits. I don't want to have to trust everyone I transact with, and with bitcoin I don't have to. Couldn't agree with your points more. It seems these points would be obvious enough to anyone who thinks this way to simply not use Ripple until they resolve these issues. What the manipulation attempts then? Is it just a product of a group of angst-ridden teenagers who got rich from bitcoin? Either TradeFortress stands to make some financial gain from the failure of Ripple, or he has some personal vendetta, or he believes he's contributing to the greater good by preventing less-informed people from being scammed out of their money. My guess: he has a fat wallet full of btc and he fears the success of Ripple will lead to the devaluation of bitcoin. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 04:41:20 PM I feel left out in that I'm not able to muster any enthusiasm for an extreme opinion on Ripple one way or the other. I don't think it's a scam, and I also don't think it's going to be useful outside a narrow problem space. I don't have anything personal against the OpenCoin developers and I think their business model is unlikely to succeed. Be careful! You're being rational and that's dangerous around here with all the cultists. My guess: he has a fat wallet full of btc and he fears the success of Ripple will lead to the devaluation of bitcoin. It's funny you say that, because when I see a cultist leader in bitcoin preaching about how it will crush Japan like Godzilla, fly faster than a speeding bullet and be able to destroy governments, I wonder if they're just saying what hopeful idiots want to hear while they laugh at how much money they're making as cult leaders. (I mean, come on, isn't it odd how we have a meme called "Bitcoiners not affected" and yet we still use centralized exchanges that can bring bitcoin to a halt for a day, disturbing business and livelihood of people from a simple DDoS?) Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: romerun on May 22, 2013, 04:44:41 PM I can say Bitcoin is scam too for 10000 ripples.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: CanadianGuy on May 22, 2013, 04:52:07 PM Normally I would feel some resentment towards someone who works so hard to bash a competitor, but come on, this is bitcointalk.org
I think it's more of a disgrace that Ripple is using a BITCOIN forum to advertise themselves. If we were on a microsoft forum full of people who have a vested interest in microsoft products, do you think spam about the benefits of Apple would go over good? I think it's a matter of maintaining positive image for bitcoin and anyone has the freedom to do so IMO, whether there is money involved or not 8) This is a bitcoin forum full of people with a large interest in the bitcoin Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 04:56:42 PM Normally I would feel some resentment towards someone who works so hard to bash a competitor, but come on, this is bitcointalk.org I think it's more of a disgrace that Ripple is using a BITCOIN forum to advertise themselves. If we were on a microsoft forum full of people who have a vested interest in microsoft products, do you think spam about the benefits of Apple would go over good? I think it's a matter of maintaining positive image for bitcoin and anyone has the freedom to do so IMO, whether there is money involved or not 8) This is a bitcoin forum full of people with a large interest in the bitcoin Another month old account with a passionate opinion. Okay, so you think this forum should only be able to communicate about bitcoin? Then why do we let alt currencies, namecoin, bitcoin exchanges, open transactions, colored coins, etc be discussed? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: pekv2 on May 22, 2013, 04:58:42 PM Aww, I've been saying Ripple is a scam for free this whole time. You've been saying Ripple is a scam for the whole 3 weeks duration of your completely anonymous account? For free. That is the important part. I could have been making money this whole time. What a disappointment. I advertise it for free, as it makes sense that it is a regulated closed source scam owned by an/a inc./co.. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 05:00:39 PM Aww, I've been saying Ripple is a scam for free this whole time. You've been saying Ripple is a scam for the whole 3 weeks duration of your completely anonymous account? For free. That is the important part. I could have been making money this whole time. What a disappointment. I advertise it for free, as it makes sense that it is a regulated closed source scam owned by an/a inc./co.. I know we went through this back in 2010 in depth and no one learned anything from the experience (apparently), but do people here even know what the word "scam" means? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: CanadianGuy on May 22, 2013, 05:03:49 PM Normally I would feel some resentment towards someone who works so hard to bash a competitor, but come on, this is bitcointalk.org I think it's more of a disgrace that Ripple is using a BITCOIN forum to advertise themselves. If we were on a microsoft forum full of people who have a vested interest in microsoft products, do you think spam about the benefits of Apple would go over good? I think it's a matter of maintaining positive image for bitcoin and anyone has the freedom to do so IMO, whether there is money involved or not 8) This is a bitcoin forum full of people with a large interest in the bitcoin Another month old account with a passionate opinion. Okay, so you think this forum should only be able to communicate about bitcoin? Then why do we let alt currencies, namecoin, bitcoin exchanges, open transactions, colored coins, etc be discussed? I never said that, but I have noticed a significant amount of bashing of bitcoin from users such as misterbigg, so the war is justified. It is totally fair that bitcoins can be used as ammunition. Bring it on. 8) Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: cypherdoc on May 22, 2013, 05:04:55 PM Ripple may not intend to be a scam, but they way they act sure makes it look that way. Promising to deal with key elements of their system at some unspecified later time (open sourcing the codebase, explaining their fair distribution system for XRP) is suspicious. And the trust system at the heart of Ripple is ridiculous. Ripple says the current system of banks and credit requires the same kind of trust, but I don't trust banks at all. I trust that I will have legal recourse through the court system if a bank decides to not pay back my deposits. I don't want to have to trust everyone I transact with, and with bitcoin I don't have to. Couldn't agree with your points more. It seems these points would be obvious enough to anyone who thinks this way to simply not use Ripple until they resolve these issues. What the manipulation attempts then? Is it just a product of a group of angst-ridden teenagers who got rich from bitcoin? actually we know that it's a product of Jed who sold mtgox right at the wrong time just before it took off to make millions. i "speculate" that he probably also didn't get rich on the Bitcoin ramp as well. i don't know about Joel or Stefan. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: cypherdoc on May 22, 2013, 05:05:49 PM Normally I would feel some resentment towards someone who works so hard to bash a competitor, but come on, this is bitcointalk.org I think it's more of a disgrace that Ripple is using a BITCOIN forum to advertise themselves. If we were on a microsoft forum full of people who have a vested interest in microsoft products, do you think spam about the benefits of Apple would go over good? I think it's a matter of maintaining positive image for bitcoin and anyone has the freedom to do so IMO, whether there is money involved or not 8) This is a bitcoin forum full of people with a large interest in the bitcoin Another month old account with a passionate opinion. Okay, so you think this forum should only be able to communicate about bitcoin? Then why do we let alt currencies, namecoin, bitcoin exchanges, open transactions, colored coins, etc be discussed? I never said that, but I have noticed a significant amount of bashing of bitcoin from users such as misterbigg, so the war is justified. It is totally fair that bitcoins can be used as ammunition. Bring it on. 8) don't forget mmeijeri. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 05:06:37 PM I never said that, but I have noticed a significant amount of bashing of bitcoin from users such as misterbigg, so the war is justified. It is totally fair that bitcoins can be used as ammunition. Bring it on. 8) All is fair in love and war (and apparently business), but that doesn't mean we can't call them like we see them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shill Quote The person or group who hires the shill is using crowd psychology, to encourage other onlookers or audience members to purchase the goods or services (or accept the ideas being marketed). Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_manipulation I've seen this specifically in this very thread: Quote Lying by omission: This is a very subtle form of lying by withholding a significant amount of the truth. This technique is also used in propaganda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: pekv2 on May 22, 2013, 05:07:56 PM Aww, I've been saying Ripple is a scam for free this whole time. You've been saying Ripple is a scam for the whole 3 weeks duration of your completely anonymous account? For free. That is the important part. I could have been making money this whole time. What a disappointment. I advertise it for free, as it makes sense that it is a regulated closed source scam owned by an/a inc./co.. I know we went through this back in 2010 in depth and no one learned anything from the experience (apparently), but do people here even know what the word "scam" means? Did I hit it on the head of the nail correctly? Quote A fraudulent business scheme BFL fits in here too. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 22, 2013, 05:14:06 PM I feel left out in that I'm not able to muster any enthusiasm for an extreme opinion on Ripple one way or the other. I don't think it's a scam, and I also don't think it's going to be useful outside a narrow problem space. I don't have anything personal against the OpenCoin developers and I think their business model is unlikely to succeed. Be careful! You're being rational and that's dangerous around here with all the cultists. My guess: he has a fat wallet full of btc and he fears the success of Ripple will lead to the devaluation of bitcoin. It's funny you say that, because when I see a cultist leader in bitcoin preaching about how it will crush Japan like Godzilla, fly faster than a speeding bullet and be able to destroy governments, I wonder if they're just saying what hopeful idiots want to hear while they laugh at how much money they're making as cult leaders. (I mean, come on, isn't it odd how we have a meme called "Bitcoiners not affected" and yet we still use centralized exchanges that can bring bitcoin to a halt for a day, disturbing business and livelihood of people from a simple DDoS?) Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 05:19:51 PM A fraudulent business scheme BFL fits in here too. That is correct. BFL could be considered a fraudulent business scheme (it would be harder to argue that once they actually ship, but since they haven't, they're defecto scammers). Bitcoin Magazine were defacto scammers for 6 months too, and we redeemed ourselves by actually shipping a product most people love and is now in Barnes & Nobles' across the USA. Ripple would most definitely be a "fraud" if they were taking money and not doing something that they claimed they were going to do for a reasonable period of time. As I can tell, they haven't taken any money (but have instead created it and handed it out). They did take funding from Google, and I guess you could argue they "scammed google", but we don't know the terms of that funding or what they promised so those accusations would be flimsy. You could argue that they scammed users by creating something claiming it's open sourced and not releasing it, but that's not "scamming", that's "lying". But what happens when the source code is released? Will people still call it a scam? I believe yes, and that's the heart of this nonsense. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: wormbog on May 22, 2013, 05:29:01 PM Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. You have become too cynical to see that bitcoin is the solution to the authoritarianism that made you cynical in the first place. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 05:30:22 PM Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. You have become too cynical to see that bitcoin is the solution to the authoritarianism that made you cynical in the first place. Maybe someone's paying him to say that. :D Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 22, 2013, 05:30:35 PM Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. You have become too cynical to see that bitcoin is the solution to the authoritarianism that made you cynical in the first place. The word is practical or you could use realistic. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 22, 2013, 05:32:11 PM Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. You have become too cynical to see that bitcoin is the solution to the authoritarianism that made you cynical in the first place. Maybe someone's paying him to say that. :D That's right, I'm a speculation forum shill. LOL Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 05:34:10 PM Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. You have become too cynical to see that bitcoin is the solution to the authoritarianism that made you cynical in the first place. The word is practical or you could use realistic. In all fairness, bitcoin is *a* solution (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=160292.0) but not every solution works for everyone, everywhere. Anyone saying otherwise is a blind cultist. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: wachtwoord on May 22, 2013, 05:35:59 PM Saying stuff for money sounds like a simple enough job to me. Anyone hiring?
http://jumpingpolarbear.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/comical-ali.jpg Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: papaminer on May 22, 2013, 05:37:17 PM i'd hit it
:D Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 22, 2013, 05:41:13 PM Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. You have become too cynical to see that bitcoin is the solution to the authoritarianism that made you cynical in the first place. The word is practical or you could use realistic. In all fairness, bitcoin is *a* solution (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=160292.0) but not every solution works for everyone, everywhere. Anyone saying otherwise is a blind cultist. Sure, it could be some day but not today. But it will take many protest marches before that happens. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: peonminer on May 22, 2013, 05:44:58 PM Money hungry bastards.
8) Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: wormbog on May 22, 2013, 05:53:11 PM Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. You have become too cynical to see that bitcoin is the solution to the authoritarianism that made you cynical in the first place. The word is practical or you could use realistic. Questioning authority is rarely practical. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 22, 2013, 05:58:06 PM Matthew, you know that's the case. Bitcoin is driven by speculators and day traders. It is a money making game. That's the joke on the government. Real drug/terrorist money is huge and Bitcoin could never support even the most minor terrorist group. Yeah, I can really see two terrorists talking about a job in the Middle East and agreeing to settle up in Bitcoins. "What the fuck are Bitcoins! No bitch, you pay me in money or find someone else!" It wouldn't surprise me at all to find out this whole micro-economy is made up of college students worldwide practicing their day trading skills before they graduate and have to do it for real. Please don't tell me you believe in the PorcFest "change the world" mentality. If any other monetary system is going to do that it won't happen in your lifetime. The reason Bitcoin is here is for trading and those businesses that sprung up because traders are "learning" with real money. You have become too cynical to see that bitcoin is the solution to the authoritarianism that made you cynical in the first place. The word is practical or you could use realistic. Questioning authority is rarely practical. LOL - Questioning authority requires a firm grasp on reality or you question the wrong side. There is entirely too much Groupthink going on here. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: BitcoinAshley on May 22, 2013, 06:42:36 PM You could argue that they scammed users by creating something claiming it's open sourced and not releasing it, but that's not "scamming", that's "lying". But what happens when the source code is released? Will people still call it a scam? I believe yes, and that's the heart of this nonsense. So Matthew you have stooped to semantics games? "That's not scamming, it's lying." BFL claimed they were going to create & ship ASICs. As they hadn't done that, they were scammers. Bitcoin Magazine were 'defacto scammers' for 6 months when they did not release a product they said they were going to release. Ripple claimed they were releasing a product that was open source. They never released this open source product. But wait, they are "liars" not scammers? LOL, dude. Playing with words is a fun game. Also, I am concerned about your assumption that people will continue to call it a scam. Will people continue to call BFL a scam for years if it does end up shipping and ends up being a massively successful manufacturer/seller of ASICs for many years? If folks' problem is that ripple is closed source and the foundation controls half of the currency, and that is centralized and therefore subject to the same kind of shut-down as e-Gold, well - if all that stuff is fixed and Ripple becomes successful and gains a good reputation, I have no reason to believe that "people" will continue to call it a scam. One more thing. You gave us those nice educational posts on logical fallacies; how kind of you? NOW STOP BEING A COMPLETE AND UTTER RETARD by posting, in the same thread, at least two blatant ad-homs specifically implying that someone could not form a "gude opinion" if their user account is only X months old. Let's see here, someone could be using a series of throw-away accounts (I've been here for far longer than my join date implies) someone would have been lurking for 6 months before they joined (I lurked for 3 months before I registered) someone could have been active and using bitcoin for 2 years before they felt the need to make a forum account. BUT NO, "look at me I'm Matthew N. Wright, educating all the poor silly dumb masses on logical fallacies while using them myself, hope no one notices" Good luck with that ;D ;D ;D Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 06:45:35 PM BFL claimed they were going to create & ship ASICs. As they hadn't done that, they were scammers. Yes, 2 products that took pre-orders. Where is Ripple's product order and income list? Are they scamming intended value?Bitcoin Magazine were 'defacto scammers' for 6 months when they did not release a product they said they were going to release. Without accepting funds for a purchase and not delivering on that promise, they are not scamming. They could be guilty of deceiving and are definitely guilty of manipulating (holding the XRP themselves and releasing them slowly), but it seems a bit too early to tell to me. I for one await the open sourcing and copy cats who will try to do it better. The reason I believe people will continue to claim they are a "scam" even after they open source is for the same reason people use the word "scam" now to describe them-- poor understanding of vocabulary. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: wachtwoord on May 22, 2013, 07:12:27 PM The reason I believe people will continue to claim they are a "scam" even after they open source is for the same reason people use the word "scam" now to describe them-- poor understanding of vocabulary. They should not have created XRP and just use the system. I think there is a great opportunity for a competing framework which is just a IOU framework and not a 'premined' currency. Hopefully this will develop. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 07:15:33 PM The reason I believe people will continue to claim they are a "scam" even after they open source is for the same reason people use the word "scam" now to describe them-- poor understanding of vocabulary. They should not have created XRP and just use the system. I think there is a great opportunity for a competing framework which is just a IOU framework and not a 'premined' currency. Hopefully this will develop. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Phinnaeus Gage on May 22, 2013, 07:16:27 PM To anyone interested in my posts, here's my price list: If you want me to say: Ripple is a scam: 2BTC BFL is a scam: 1BTC Gox Sux: 1BTC LTC will fail: 0.5BTC Josh is a fucking retard: FREE Bruno fucking a goat: I'll pay 1BTC <I, Bruno, inserted this> Wait, what! I've been fucking goats for free? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Ekaros on May 22, 2013, 07:33:46 PM Money hungry bastards. 8) I admit I'm opportunist ;D I do almost anything for right amount of compensation... Greed is good, or something! Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 08:28:27 PM TradeFortress has an own site ripplescam.org/ where he explains his point of view. I don't recall him ever publicly stating that was his site. TradeFortress, is that your site?Imho Ripple sux and lot of people will lose their their coins in a future. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Phinnaeus Gage on May 22, 2013, 08:36:55 PM TradeFortress has an own site ripplescam.org/ where he explains his point of view. I don't recall him ever publicly stating that was his site. TradeFortress, is that your site?Imho Ripple sux and lot of people will lose their their coins in a future. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=180287.0 Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 22, 2013, 08:40:31 PM TradeFortress has an own site ripplescam.org/ where he explains his point of view. I don't recall him ever publicly stating that was his site. TradeFortress, is that your site?Imho Ripple sux and lot of people will lose their their coins in a future. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=180287.0 Thank you Bruno. That should wrap up that one pretty well. So TradeFortress has been accused of paying people money to change their post content to his own anti-Ripple website by GoWest basically. I guess we just have to wait to hear TradeFortress's rebuttals. He said something about not messaging GoWest directly, but he didn't deny paying others. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: freedomno1 on May 22, 2013, 08:51:33 PM Hmmm, interesting, why "GoWest" has to make it public by editing an old post in Feb.20 which apparently no one other than some archaeological fans will read? He actually posted it as an article on his site too, apparently. I don't read his blog though so I found it by scrolling through the thread's first page. I saw that post as well, I think it's probably a very transparent astroturfing, as all cooperators posted exactly the same thing in the same thread, one after another, I also remember TF advertising it somehow, otherwise it looks really weird and noticeable to anyone. And yeah, it does look like TF has got a really deep pocket, he can pay for his shills like that, buying forum ad slots just to make them unavailable to BFL and debase Ripple, a lot of these things...., all at hefty prices, wow. Sounds like public good no more noobs falling for BFL ads and forcing people to acknowledge the weakness of ripple Heck even paying people with legit bitcoins to advertise against ripple not tradefortress ripples and preparing the noobs with scam lesson 101 lol before the mass public when it finally releases guess the economy works that way too :) Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: RichG on May 22, 2013, 09:20:28 PM I'll take 1BTC to say XRP is a scam!
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: lophie on May 22, 2013, 10:10:45 PM My opinion on this:
1- It is not fair comparing the claims against ripple to the claims against Bitcoin because whoever called Bitcoin a ponzi or a scam had weak or no argument at all and for ripple there are many strong arguments. 2- You sir deserve a "Slanderer" tag on your account. When you come up with such accusation you should provide a reference to a txID including an input with a known address of TradeFortress and a signed message from an output address (5BTC) in the same tx, At least to give your slander some creditability. Let me test this: Satoshi gave me 100000 Bitcoin to make me promote Bitcoin my entire life and he disclosed the fact that he is Jesus Christ and proved it to me in a dream I had last night. I don't have the time to write a fictional lengthy text just to prove a point but sheesh I hope you are not taking the quoted text seriously just because it is lengthy, Then I suggest you would like to read MPOE-PR posts! I really from the bottom of my heart hope Ripple is not BS since on the platform great things can be built. But as it is now it shows all symptoms of a scam. Plus XRP is a total scam, Any way you look at it. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: crumbcake on May 23, 2013, 12:11:58 AM TradeFortress has an own site ripplescam.org/ where he explains his point of view. I don't recall him ever publicly stating that was his site. TradeFortress, is that your site?Imho Ripple sux and lot of people will lose their their coins in a future. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=180287.0 Thank you Bruno. That should wrap up that one pretty well. So TradeFortress has been accused of paying people money to change their post content to his own anti-Ripple website by GoWest basically. I guess we just have to wait to hear TradeFortress's rebuttals. He said something about not messaging GoWest directly, but he didn't deny paying others. Matthew, i don't know why TF would pay someone half a grand to say Ripple's a scam, when there's already a frickin' Greek chorus chanting the same thing. Rewards of adding another voice are slim to none, and the potential shitstorm if the shill turned on him -- spectacular. The odds of anyone being that rich & that stupid simultaneously are pretty slim, but irrelevant. A better question is why tf would YOU start this thread? I mean, sure, clickbate, the subject line just screams tabloid, drama, attention is fun. But your faux neutral tone really turned this post into sleaze. "It has come to my attention that a member of this forum, TF, is a child molester, so you might wana to protect your loli. More ugly accusations against the pedo could be found http://here and http://here. Please withhold forming your opinion until I ask the filthy baby-fucker to just have a seat over there, as he babbles some lame-ass excuses. In the meantime, please form an organized mob, boil tar & pluck chickens." I remember you giving TF some sagacious advice, comparing his Ripple troll to your welched bet. Something about fucking with other people's money. Here's a curious factoid for you: In a shrewdness (pack) of apes, when a weak ape is attacked, he tries to redirect the attack to target a weaker/less dominant ape. That behavior is considered appropriate for socially well-adjusted apes. Or are you just trolling? (in which case :-[ :D :D) Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: BTC Books on May 23, 2013, 03:24:41 AM 2- You sir deserve a "Slanderer" tag on your account. When you come up with such accusation you should provide a reference to a txID including an input with a known address of TradeFortress and a signed message from an output address (5BTC) in the same tx, At least to give your slander some creditability. Yup. Although the current tag is adequate. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 23, 2013, 04:26:34 AM When FTFY. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=145506.msg1544079#msg1544079I really from the bottom of my heart hope Ripple is not BS Even if it is, it will be replaced by the free market (Open Transactions + BitMessage for example). The point here isn't Ripple, it's paid subversion. I see several responses screaming "this is impossible!" but no one has bothered to ask why GoWest would lie about such a thing. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: rebuilder on May 23, 2013, 08:59:34 AM When FTFY. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=145506.msg1544079#msg1544079Remember your first post in this thread? What does this mean? Well, first and foremost it means that anyone who posts a "Ripple is a scam" comment should now have their integrity called into question (thanks a lot TradeFortress). It proves they are shills and will say anything for a dollar. It also proves people like TradeFortress (he's not an evil genius, this has been happening in Bitcoin from day one) will resort to paying other people to state something as fact, trying to astroturf a topic as being a "community consensus" in attempts to sabotage, influence, deceive, etc. That sounds like a direct accusation, made by you, against TradeFortress. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 23, 2013, 12:06:57 PM GoWest made the accusation. My post tells you what that accusation would mean. I'm open to suggestions on better ways to word it, but it is what it is.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: crumbcake on May 23, 2013, 01:28:47 PM GoWest made the accusation. My post tells you what that accusation would mean. I'm open to suggestions on better ways to word it, but it is what it is. ???Then, someone with some integrity changed their post midstream the apparent astroturfing to let everyone know what was going on. ... I guess we just have to wait to hear TradeFortress's rebuttals. He said something about not messaging GoWest directly, but he didn't deny paying others. You're kidding? You just wanted to explain to us what GoWest's bullshit claim would mean if it turns out to be true? :D You assumed that most people reading your post already know of the accusation, just anxiously waiting for someone like you to explain the implications? :D :D From the intentionally misleading title ("I was offered $550 to say that 'Ripple is a Scam'" -- No, Matthew, nobody offered you shit, unless you're now a mouthpiece for GoWest) on, this whole thread is one bag of dicks. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Korbman on May 23, 2013, 02:26:47 PM I'm confused..why does this thread exist and why should we care?
1) I'm not seeing any evidence that backs up the claims presented thus far..and 2) Matthew, are you seriously (I mean, seriously) surprised people do and say things for money? This just seems like some sort of "TradeFortress witch-hunt" ..to which I say "build a bridge and get over it" That said, I'm more than happy to denounce Ripple for less than $550 :D Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Este Nuno on May 23, 2013, 07:55:35 PM I saw TradeFortress posting before trying to contact people who had posts on the first page of the ripple thread.
Is he actually denying this? Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: ab8989 on May 23, 2013, 08:41:08 PM No one is attacking TradeFortress (I happen to appreciate his talents and current projects), what is being discussed is the unethical and extensive efforts to discredit a project that should otherwise just be ignored. What a bunch of crap. You are using this unproven incident as a tool to try to discredit all criticism to ripple and that is a total bullshit attitude to take. What you should be doing first is questioning GoWest to provide some sort of evidence that the allegations have anything to do with reality. And second thing to do if the first thing is first proven is really to blame TradeFortress for doing that that shit. But there is no absolutely no legitimate reason to try to discredit all criticism towards ripple as you are trying to spin this into especially if you are at the same time talking fondly about TradeFortress. On the other hand if you are so willing to attack people based on them getting payed maybe you should say what you think about people saying they like ripple after they have received free XRP donated by OpenCoin. One person I think this thread definately paints with a cloud of discredit is someone called Matthew N. Wright. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 23, 2013, 08:42:18 PM I saw TradeFortress posting before trying to contact people who had posts on the first page of the ripple thread. Is he actually denying this? I don't think he has made any significant comments, just "BULLSHIT" and that he didn't contact GoWest directly (something that was never claimed by anyone ever). Either: A) someone is spreading propaganda against Ripple for their own benefit; (who and why?) B) there is a conspiracy to frame TradeFortresss (who and why?) It's fascinating to see all the whiteknighting posts completely missing this point. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Vod on May 23, 2013, 10:12:03 PM TradeFortress - I am willing to denounce Ripple for my 5btc. :)
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Phinnaeus Gage on May 23, 2013, 11:07:50 PM TradeFortress has an own site ripplescam.org/ where he explains his point of view. I don't recall him ever publicly stating that was his site. TradeFortress, is that your site?Imho Ripple sux and lot of people will lose their their coins in a future. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=180287.0 Thank you Bruno. That should wrap up that one pretty well. So TradeFortress has been accused of paying people money to change their post content to his own anti-Ripple website by GoWest basically. I guess we just have to wait to hear TradeFortress's rebuttals. He said something about not messaging GoWest directly, but he didn't deny paying others. I'm acting as a bystander in this thread, with no real horse in the race, albeit happy to help out, if I did, or made the situation worse. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: scalar33 on May 24, 2013, 02:20:05 AM I saw TradeFortress posting before trying to contact people who had posts on the first page of the ripple thread. Is he actually denying this? I'm not sure, I think we would see him post in this thread if he wanted to deny it. It would be poinless if someone has a PM from him offering the money though... I think the people complaining about the accusation are trolls. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: scalar33 on May 24, 2013, 02:24:52 AM I saw TradeFortress posting before trying to contact people who had posts on the first page of the ripple thread. Is he actually denying this? I don't think he has made any significant comments, just "BULLSHIT" and that he didn't contact GoWest directly (something that was never claimed by anyone ever). Either: A) someone is spreading propaganda against Ripple for their own benefit; (who and why?) B) there is a conspiracy to frame TradeFortresss (who and why?) It's fascinating to see all the whiteknighting posts completely missing this point. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198931.msg2070493#msg2070493 This might clear it up. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 24, 2013, 05:05:43 AM Okay so that confirms what every troll in this thread had attempted to mislead away from. The next question is, why would anyone (including TradeFortress) waste multiples of 5 BTC just to put up anti Ripple propaganda?
Someone should find out just how much they have spent to date (forum advertisements, ripplescam domain and hosting, paying accounts, etc) to try and make Ripple look bad. Usually people don't go to such lengths without some kind of personal motives. I'm sure we all appreciate when people come together to warn each other of potential scams, but we can probably all also agree that this is a bit suspiciously over the top (considering Ripple's developers are respected members of the community). Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: scintill on May 24, 2013, 05:06:36 AM https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198931.msg2070493#msg2070493 This might clear it up. Thanks for that. Suddenly this thread is not so controversial. TradeFortress is very open about it there. I'm not sure what he was trying to say with his "BULLSHIT" statements here. What's the BS, that he PM'd a certain guy? Well, AFAICT the OP never even said TradeFortress himself PM'd anyone, but the claim that TF was, at one point, paying 5 BTC to edit-in an anti-Ripple message is absolutely true, looking at the thread just linked. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: crumbcake on May 24, 2013, 12:59:47 PM https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=198931.msg2070493#msg2070493 This might clear it up. That's hilarious! I assumed it was another one of TF's "I'll pay you 5 BTC in open-ended Ripple IOUs" trolls, but he seems to have actually paid in real BTC to at least one real BTC address after publicly soliciting users? Everything looks 100% above board -- what TF did is no different from any other paid advertising. It isn't even astroturfing -- soliciting in a public forum makes it explicit that he, and not the paid users, is the source of the message :D edit: Come back from having a cig & the price has gone up by $2... Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Korbman on May 24, 2013, 01:55:01 PM Everything looks 100% above board -- what TF did is no different from any other paid advertising. It isn't even astroturfing -- soliciting in a public forum makes it explicit that he, and not the paid users, is the source of the message :D This ^^^ ;) Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Zaih on May 24, 2013, 03:28:28 PM RIPPLE IS A SCAM!!
You know what to do 8) Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 24, 2013, 03:40:40 PM So essentially this thread is just a bunch of drama crap because TradeFortress in a thread openly asked people to change their posts almost a month before this thread started? Nice.
Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 24, 2013, 03:42:21 PM So essentially this thread is just a bunch of drama crap because TradeFortress in a thread openly asked people to change their posts almost a month before this thread started? Nice. There is a reason it's in "Off-topic". The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 24, 2013, 03:46:06 PM So essentially this thread is just a bunch of drama crap because TradeFortress in a thread openly asked people to change their posts almost a month before this thread started? Nice. There is a reason it's in "Off-topic". The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense. Yeah but doesn't everyone invested in btc have a reason to see ripple fail? Maybe TradeFortress just has more btc than the rest of us. Considering the amount he paid to bash it I'd say that's a safe bet. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 24, 2013, 03:48:06 PM So essentially this thread is just a bunch of drama crap because TradeFortress in a thread openly asked people to change their posts almost a month before this thread started? Nice. There is a reason it's in "Off-topic". The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense. Yeah but doesn't everyone invested in btc have a reason to see ripple fail? Maybe TradeFortress just has more btc than the rest of us. Considering the amount he paid to bash it I'd say that's a safe bet. Ripple was originally designed to act as a decentralized and open source (yes, yes, I know, it's neither at the moment) exchange. In that, bitcoin *needs* Ripple in order to ween itself off of MtGox and other centralized exchanges. Bitcoiners should be embracing Ripple's concepts, but questioning and wary of OpenCoin's decisions. There is nothing wrong with Ripple, blindly calling it a 'scam' is ignorant imo. You can always call OpenCoin "dishonest" though. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: QuestionAuthority on May 24, 2013, 04:04:32 PM So essentially this thread is just a bunch of drama crap because TradeFortress in a thread openly asked people to change their posts almost a month before this thread started? Nice. There is a reason it's in "Off-topic". The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense. Yeah but doesn't everyone invested in btc have a reason to see ripple fail? Maybe TradeFortress just has more btc than the rest of us. Considering the amount he paid to bash it I'd say that's a safe bet. Ripple was originally designed to act as a decentralized and open source (yes, yes, I know, it's neither at the moment) exchange. In that, bitcoin *needs* Ripple in order to ween itself off of MtGox and other centralized exchanges. Bitcoiners should be embracing Ripple's concepts, but questioning and wary of OpenCoin's decisions. There is nothing wrong with Ripple, blindly calling it a 'scam' is ignorant imo. You can always call OpenCoin "dishonest" though. People with money support the status quo against all. This little baby economy is no different than its big brothers. Businesses and individuals fat with cash don't want tax laws to change to favor the poor because they are not poor. It doesn't matter if its a good change or even if it has the potential to make them more money. All they see is that change is change and I'm doin good right now so don't fuck with the recipe. This is the reason larger economies don't work. The only odd thing is that people around here expect the Bitcoin economy will be different. No, it won't be different because humans are still involved. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: crumbcake on May 24, 2013, 05:29:37 PM So essentially this thread is just a bunch of drama crap because TradeFortress in a thread openly asked people to change their posts almost a month before this thread started? Nice. There is a reason it's in "Off-topic". The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense. Yeah but doesn't everyone invested in btc have a reason to see ripple fail? Maybe TradeFortress just has more btc than the rest of us. Considering the amount he paid to bash it I'd say that's a safe bet. Ripple was originally designed to act as a decentralized and open source (yes, yes, I know, it's neither at the moment) exchange. In that, bitcoin *needs* Ripple in order to ween itself off of MtGox and other centralized exchanges. Bitcoiners should be embracing Ripple's concepts, but questioning and wary of OpenCoin's decisions. There is nothing wrong with Ripple, blindly calling it a 'scam' is ignorant imo. You can always call OpenCoin "dishonest" though. Regardless of what Ripple was originally designed to be, the Ripple we're dealing with now is a product of OpenCoin inc. -- a private, for-profit corporation. Like all private, for-profit companies, OpenCoin inc. has to make a profit. By definition. You with me thus far? If it fails to make a profit, no more OpenCoin inc., and no more "open source sometime in the future" codebase. "Bitcoin needs Ripple" is just a less-defeatist rephrasing of "Bitcoin design is flawed, and needs another layer of non-p2p protocol/token system to succeed. The best choice happens to be a demonstrably flawed product of a for-profit startup called OpenCoin inc." But all of that's irrelevant. This thread is not about the worth & validity of Ripple -- it's about you dredging up old threads, spinning them into sinister plots, and passing yourself off as the intrepid truth-seeker in the process. Bonus: Drag TF through the mud, call people not buying your watered-down koolaid "white knights" and "trolls." :o Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 24, 2013, 05:35:09 PM it won't be different because humans are still involved. I've always worried about this in regards to bitcoin, because no manner of coding can change human nature. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: ab8989 on May 24, 2013, 07:23:15 PM The interesting thing is how much money is willing to be wasted to slander Ripple. That screams to me "agenda" and I've always been fascinated with uncovering the hidden agendas. I can just imagine finding out that Ripple's new secret competitor is TradeFortress or something. At least then it'd make sense. Everybody could always be guessed to have hidden agendas for everything and starting discussing them based on just a hunch almost never leads to anywhere sensible if the people behind them are not willing to be open about them. I am also not sure it is you who should start throwing rocks. I vaguely remember you attacked some hw-wallet smartcard business very ruthlessly and unfairly telling people unaccurate information that you have information that an competing product which is massively superior is coming to market in a matter of weeks and later it was found out that it was you that was developing the competing wrist wearable hw wallet not even at a prototype stage yet which you were talking about without disclosing your agenda. You also took strong positions related to zhoutong in the bitcoinica fiascos and it was later found out that you had many ongoing business dealings together with him. You have been involved in more than a dozen bitcoin businesses and I am pretty sure there were many other instances where you were not disclosing your agenda when publicly taking strong positions on subjects around them. Based on your extensive involvement in what felt at the moment like half of all bitcoin businesses there were many people that honestly believed you were probably best pals with pirate when you started the 'bet'. That was probably not true in the end but honestly, who can be sure about it because many people thought and still think: "The interesting thing is how much money was willing to be wasted to defend pirate and to convince people that pirate is going to pay his debts. That screams to me agenda". We just haven't found out exactly what was he truth about that particular agenda. I am also not sure you have not recently developed a strong business interest with OpenCoin. However starting to discuss that is unlikely to be fruitful, so I am not starting that discussion. Title: Re: I was offered $550 to say that "Ripple is a Scam." Post by: Matthew N. Wright on May 24, 2013, 07:40:12 PM Everybody could always be guessed to have hidden agendas for everything and starting discussing them based on just a hunch almost never leads to anywhere sensible if the people behind them are not willing to be open about them. If TradeFortress or anyone else with a hardon for slandering Ripple were honest, this entire thread may never have existed in the first place, GoWest may have never felt it necessary to call out someone bribing people to slander on their behalf, and TradeFortress may not have been guilty of lying by omission (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie#Lying_by_omission). Unfortunately, all of these things happened so here we are. Since nothing besides attempts to derail have been posted by anyone, I'll lock the thread for now. |
