Bitcoin Forum

http://www.ticotimes.net/More-news/News-Briefs/Costa-Rican-arrested-in-Spain-for-alleged-financial-crimes_Friday-May-24-2013

Website doesn't load at all.

It was a garbage service anyways.

I agree. We don't need it and make online currencies like bitcoin look bad anyway.

REALLY!!? :o

Thanks for the update, really appreciate it!

Branzig

Another one bites the dust. Just goes to show that centralized digital currencies are a bad idea. Even when run from Costa Rica of all places.

But I just had transfered $26 in it before it went down now what can I do I am new to crypto I have invested in a pc so that I can start mining but now I lost my money. I wish they return all the money back before permenant shutdown

You could always try to sue the feds... You will probably never see the money again. Govts loves to seize money and hold it up indefinately. In a perfect world, the operation would be dissolved and all account holders that are not investigated for something would've gotten their money back, but that's not how it works when the biggest bully in the schoolyard gets his way.

I really need my money back I don't know what to do now. If I had the power I would have killed that government that are not thinking of people loosing there money

Where is that thing to help me? And seriously those people don't deserve to live which harm others without reason.

OMG you sent me bitcoin without asking. You also lost money my friend That address is old and not in use right now. We both are on the same path now.
Well thanks for your help anyways. there are really low number of people like you present on earth which like to help other. I wish that God gives you a happy life.

you should edit your signature, then.

It's pretty common to send tips to public addresses, and it would be a shame to have people waste their tip (and you not getting them) because you kept an outdated address in the signature... -.-

OK I am going to do that right now I am also feeling sad about his tip. It's my mistake that he lost his money for no reason. I will try to get that address back so that I can use that tip. But seems impossible. I am having a pity on myself right now. Shame on me.

yohooo I got that tip you sent me thanks for that. I just set my old PC back and I got the wallet in that so no worries now. Thanks again.

Yeah! Bitcoin can never be used by scammers, drug dealers or child pronographers!

I was wondering how long it takes US authorities to shut down LR.
What the hell were they doing the last 10 years? After the E-Gold shutdown, almost every fraudster used LR. They never cared about AML and gave a home to the global cyber crime (also child pornography/weapons) scene.
Instead of wasting resources on busting kids with weed and trying to jail Kim Dotcom, the US authorities should rather allocate more resources on real crime crime.

Those guys were heros.

I lost 2000$, I was just going to get them exchange but didn't found any legit exchanger.

Now all my money gone.

Same thing happened to me but with $26 which I really needed but what can I do now. Costa rica government
should get the site back online for atleast two days so that every one can get his money back.

a guy on talkgold was even going to do suicide due to loss.

http://www.talkgold.com/forum/r391540-.html

???

the whole point of closing such a site, *IS* preventing people from getting the money back.

video report, (Spanish)

http://www.teletica.com/Noticias/11646-Detienen-a-tico-en-Espana-vinculado-con-millonario-fraude-electronico.note.aspx

I'm surprised the talkgold forum hasn't embraced Bitcoin more.

Actually it's a forex/HYIP investment based forum,so libertyreserve and other stable currencies are much popular between them.

It's a great shame that the United States government shut down Liberty Reserve, but it should come as no surprise given what they did to e-gold and the fact that Costa Rica has very close ties to the US government.  After I lost a lot of gold held by US-based e-gold when they were seized by US authorities six years ago, I spent some time looking for alternatives which were based in jurisdictions without close ties to the United States, with no history of caving in to demands by the US or other G7 countries, and with a decent rule of law.  C-gold based in Malaysia quickly rose to the top of my list.  I traveled to Malaysia and met the operator of C-gold before starting a relationship with them and he seemed competent and experienced at running businesses, so my decision was easy.  I have enjoyed a problem-free relationship with them since 2007.  Pecunix is another popular digital gold currency I evaluated, but they are based in Panama which like Costa Rica is subject to undue influence by the United States so I would be uncomfortable keeping significant holdings with them.

Disclaimer:  I am a satisfied customer of c-gold, and a former (also satisfied) customer of Pecunix.  I'm also currently selling a portion of my c-gold holdings to buy bitcoins in another thread, so make of that what you will.

Okay, this is news to me that c-gold is based in Malaysia.   :-\ I'm afraid that Malaysia isn't that free as you would think - the government has seized a couple of such companies in the past.

Escrow.ms I am not a member of 'Talk Gold'. Please tell that guy not to do it if you can? Man, this sucks. I don't care about money that much. Thanks you for sharing.

Keep up the great work everyone.

Branzig  >:(

I found this poll very telling.

http://www.talkgold.com/forum/r391492-.html

Liberty Reserve is just the latest in a string of centralized operations which has gone down due to the fragile nature of a central authority.  When asking which system will replace LR.  Of the six options only Bitcoin is decentralized and it only has 22% of the vote.

I guess when the next central authority, and the next one after that and the next one after that fails then "maybe" the masses will realize that any central authority no matter how well run is fundamentally flawed.

From the comments there:
Sounds like he is looking for Ripple?

I don't think he understands the difference between price (the price on one unit does not matter) and fees, which are quite low for Bitcoin.

Well that topic got deleted and you don't need to be member to see threads.

People told him not to do that and he was really depressed. He asked some help but no one given,  you can read rest here.
http://www.talkgold.com/forum/showpost.php?p=5237803&postcount=261

I wish i can help that guy but i also lost alot money in LR.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but have you been to Malaysia?  I have spent quite a bit of time in Malaysia and while it may not be a first world country, the only country in that region with a stronger rule of law is Singapore.  I'm not aware of any businesses that were operated in accordance with Malaysian law being seized.  Note that a number of American firms have operated factories over there for decades (e.g. Western Digital and Seagate) which wouldn't make sense if it offered a hostile business climate.

Certainly there is more petty corruption in Malaysia than in most Western countries, but again with the exception of Singapore, it is better than all of its neighbors. And while there are some laws on the books (like the Internal Security Act) which make the government seem like it may be a bit draconian, they are really no worse that the Patriot Act in the United States.  I can't think of too many things you can do in the United States which are prohibited in Malaysia (possibly private gun ownership), and there are definitely some things you can do there which are prohibited in the United States (e.g. you can buy steroids over the counter).  Their labor laws are a bit screwy as well, but I think the same is true over here as well, depending on which state you're in and whether or not the labor is unionized.

The risk factors for c-gold are significantly different from those of bitcoin, which makes them complementary in my mind.  If you want to run a DGC in a country that will offer you some protection from the US/G7, I can't think of many countries that offer a better haven.  Certainly not Costa Rica, and Panama is also in the pocket of the United States.  It might even be a decent place to open up a bitcoin exchange.

I'm honestly surprised LR lasted as long as it did.

People need to remain mindful of the potential for their favourite alternative currencies getting shut down and limit their exposure accordingly.

Well US govt can do anything, if they want they can bring bitcoin on it knees by doing same with Blockchain.

Hey, the C-gold HQ in Penang, Malaysia is actually only a few miles from my residence in Malaysia.  ;) I've lived most of my life here so I guess I know the laws here well. Yeah, I agree with most of what you state above (steroids OTC, gun prohibition where the penalty is dead by hanging, petty corruption etc), and I'm proud to state that life here is indeed better then most of its neighbours. Singapore's pretty advanced technically and economically, but the life and food there sucks.  ;)

However, there's been a lot of e-gold-esque companies being shut down regularly. Most of them had connections to HYIP schemes/Nigerian scams by facilitating transactions for them, and whilst their money remittance service might be legit by Malaysian laws, they're still affected. There's been a ton of raids on those purported 'investment schemes' and illegal gambling (yes, gambling is illegal here - only a few heavily licensed casinos operate in the entire country) all over the country, where remittance methods like LR were extensively used too.

All and all, I still prefer Malaysia although it's not that free as compared to the States despite the limitations.  *shivers with thoughts of cold Boston weather*

PS: The ISA is currently abolished some time ago.

For what it's worth, there's more.


https://krebsonsecurity.com/tag/goldage/

OK, then you certainly know a lot more about Malaysia than I do.  It is common for people to judge places before visiting based on heresay (internet research) and as I'm sure you know, that often provides a distorted picture.  I have spent time both in Penang and in Kuala Lumpur, and found them both to be very hospitable.

Since you are already in Penang, you might contact Robert at C-gold and arrange to meet with him.  He's been in Malaysia for many years himself and I'm sure there's a synergy between DGC and Bitcoin you could discuss.  PM me if you want contact details.

Regarding c-gold, I would think that if the Malaysian government intended to shut them down, they would have done so already as c-gold has been operating there for many years already.

Oh, and I'm glad to hear the ISA was abolished.  Now if only the US authorities were to overturn the Patriot Act, I might actually feel more free here than I did when I visited Malaysia!

Yeah, I might be popping around their office after coming back from Singapore. Their office is in a local shopping mall from what I see on their site so it shouldn't be so hard to locate them...I'll PM you for the contact if I don't manage to find them.  ;)

This is why Satoshi can never reveal who he really is. As for LR I've never really trusted them, no auditing, run by shady potential russian mafia and of course centralized so all it takes is one arrest and the whole thing comes crashing down.

Bitcoin +1

True, but peoples and even companies were trusting LR because they were running site from a very long time,peoples moved thousand of dollars from here and there and no one got a single problem in past.
There was no chargeback, registration was easy, payments was anonymous and price was also stable that's why everyone adopted it fast.


One day same thing will happen with bitcoin too (US based companies, Online wallets will get seized) as most LR users (shady peoples)will move to bitcoin.

that's a lot of moola. sorry to hear about i. there's plenty of LR users in Malaysia too. not sure if they were affected.

Currently everyone got affected including big exchanges, hosting/domain sites and many other business.
Sadly no one can do anything.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22680297

Here is the legal BS if someone wants to see:

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/May13/LibertyReserveetalDocuments.php

Free offer: Injunction order !

Give Jim Bell a call.

Yep! Even Trendon used it, closing down a scheme the same exact time pirateat40 went dark.