Bitcoin Forum

I regret to say in public sunshine that unforeseen pressures in the shadows leave me no option but to leave the forum permanently.

After this post, "Lauda" will cease to exist. By that I mean: The faceless virtual persona named "Lauda", who exists only in cypherspace, will become detached from its "soul", and left as an empty shell. "Lauda" has abruptly reached end-of-life. Of course, this is the inverse of the usual way of thinking. There are hereby multiple layers of abstract indirection, which you can probably follow if you know C/C++ programming and/or witchcraft.

The word "soul" usually refers to an invisible entity from an immaterial plane of existence; if you believe in such a thing, consult your friendly local cult for mystical details. Such a soul animates a "body" on the material plane. But what of a pseudonymous virtual persona? It is a disembodied entity on an immaterial plane of the mind, which is animated by a body as its "soul". If it loses its body, it dies, even if the body lives on. Our body is quite well; but it wishes to depart from the virtual plane that has consumed over 7 years of its life, and much of its energies.

It has been a wild forum life, - or perhaps, nine forum lives involving everything from the dark arts of moderation, to being burnt at the stake several times. (I got better.) Thanks to my forum friends, fans, and cult votaries.

Now to protect the community in case of a hack, I will request that theymos ban the "Lauda" account (u=101872); and this post is to be taken as a notice that any future posts or PMs by this account are certain to be the product of an impersonator - a blackhat using malicious necromancy to animate a zombie. After that point, do not deal with my account even if it produces messages signed by Bitcoin or PGP keys. If the account logs in, you should assume that it is compromised. If it produces a signed message, you should assume that the keys are compromised. Of course, if Faketoshi appears in a catbat mask and claims to be me, then you should assume that it is a fraud.

---

Hereby I want to emphasize that it will never again be possible to contact "Lauda", just as it is impossible to contact the dead. I do not want any chance of an impersonation scam in a name that many people trust.

Over the years people have even trusted "Lauda" with different sums of Bitcoin. I have one of the highest name-recognition accounts on the forum. This places on me a responsibility. It is not to feed my strong ego that I say, it is a valuable account with a high reputation - a trust that people place in my unseen body, through the name of "Lauda". If I cease to be "Lauda" then according to my well-known principles, I must affirmatively prevent anybody else from using this name and forum account ever again.

One must always have a contingency plan, mine was carefully considered but sometimes much smarter players get involved. There is nothing further to discuss. A cat comes and goes as it pleases, - even between different planes of existence. I leave you with a last final message that you must never forget:

My only PGP-key (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1159946.msg53855503#msg53855503) has been compromised and revoked. All previous Bitcoin signed messages are invalid. As of this point there is no way to confirm ownership of Lauda.

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Thank you everyone in advance, quite the 9 lives that some Kitty had here. 8)

The nature of Lauda’s existence is now a problem more baffling to the human mind than Schrödinger’s cat.

Fare ye well, mysterious catbat.

In every ending there is a beginning. Farewell and good luck with the new beginning.

Yes, everyone will realize that nothing lasts forever in the real world, some end well and some end tragically.

I can only pray to:@Lauda, ​​be given 'kindness' wherever he is, after leaving this forum, goodbye friend something good will be waiting for you there.

Forgive me if I have both past and present mistakes against you.

https://zizihub.com/e33381.jpg

I have tagged Lauda’s account (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=101872).  I advise that DT should do likewise.

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Edit 2021-01-09:  I am neutralizing the negative feedback, as I should have done long ago.  Please see here. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5306391.msg56054998#msg56054998)

Personally I don't know you, never meet each other, or contacted you. But, I know you're good person and very brave to fight with scammer or troller in this forum.

If you want comeback to this forum in the future, I'd very happy to hear that. God bless you, Lauda!

As I said in a previous post over night:


I've also archived your PGP thread post & am checking if there are any other posts of yours that should be archived before you go.

That is a quite a suprising post from Lauda. First TMAN now youre leaving the forum life. Goodluck with whatever plans you may have in real life but I assume you will never leave bitcoin life as also based on your quoted post "Bitcoin is Freedom"

Farewell and God Bless Lauda. Like royse777 said, there is a new chapter after a long haul of adventure. Hope you find success.

Will also do. Informing users about his exit should clear signed that he will not use his account and if ever impersonator tried at least warning has been spread already.

Adios Lauda, I'm hoping it's just a snake shedding it's skin and that you not your persona are still around in some variation. We rarely agreed beyond a point of principle, but you were still and always will be a net positive for the space.

*snake not meant as a slight

Edit: Flag created to avoid future scams. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=2398

I've noticed a few other names go quietly into the dark.  I'm reminded of this episode of the original Star Trek series "Who Mourns For Adonis?"

http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121109220134/villains/images/9/91/Apollo-giant.png

I don’t think that it is right, productive, or at all appropriate to place a big warning banner on all of Lauda’s old threads, such as the famous wallet thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0) and stickied rules threads (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1689727.0) (!).

Whoever was behind the Lauda account was and is trustworthy—only, no longer connected to the account, as of today.

That is why I red-tagged the account with negative feedback, and a statement explicitly beginning, “Starting with the date of this feedback...”  (And I was the first to tag the account.)

I considered raising a flag myself, then rejected the idea; and I have opposed your flag.

Kinda sad about that; you did some great work here, tagging scammers, helping newbs, arguing out big block rubbish. Bit abrasive and misunderstood, but seemed to lighten up recently. Good luck with your new account ventures, and keep on stacking sats.

Goodbye Lauda, I never got a chance to know you better, only saw the countless accusations and attacks when ever I visited the reputation board. No doubts you'll be missed, at least the trolls will have less reasons to spam the forum with their threads picking on you hoping to get your attention. You have contributed your part to the growth of the forum and forever will be in our hearts.

If there's anything I can remember you for, it has to be your contributions to the success of the Project Covid-19 initiative started by @Royse777. It meant a lot to people from my region (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5252309.0). I wish you success in other areas of your life and whatever you decide to use the time you normally spend on the forum to do in real life. Goodbye.

I expected this to happen at some point. Goodbye Lauda and goodluck.

I second pretty much everything that V8's said -- can't really expand on it eloquently but I'll attempt anyway.

You are certainly more knowledgeable about bitcoin than most people on the forum (the vast, vast majority) and have provided tons of knowledge and insight over the years. You also worked hard to protect the forum from scammers and those who would use the Good Name of Bitcoin for their own nefarious purposes (forks, shitcoins, ponzi scams, etc), and your legacy won't soon be forgotten.

I wish you the best of luck on your future endeavors, whatever they may be and wherever they may take you.

Some of my favourite LOLs about that last:


I have spoken privately to people who said that Lauda opened their eyes to what was really going on in the fork wars.  For my part, it was not Lauda’s uncompromising Bitcoin advocacy that got me into the Bitcoin camp:  Rather, it got me into the Lauda camp; for it is something that I respect.


If you don’t get attacked by bad people, it means that you are not doing anything right!

Quite sad. We've barely interacted, but you were on my trust list for obvious reasons.
It's a big loss for the forum. Maybe you'll "reincarnate" under another user and continue where you left off (one can hope). It would be still a loss, but at least it'll be temporary, until your voice will be strong enough again.

As with Bruno, it's the trust feedback as you have done, the Default Trust or a Flag.  I'm happy to place a cautionary note on all three.

Either way @theymos should place some sort of "This Account is permanently inactive" cautionary warning across the page (and remove the email used for recovery) and use a 20+ random string to lock the password as well.

That's fine and you are free to do so. The flag criteria is easily met for me moving forward from this day. Dealing with the account is a risk. reading what the account wrote is not. My own neutral feedback also states the value of some of their previous posts. i am not in anyway discussing the individual behind the Lauda account only the account itself.

You seriously think that a newbie warning banner on a sticky thread titled, “Newbies - Read before posting” (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1689727.0) in the Beginners & Help forum (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?board=39.0) is appropriate?  What will newbies think when they, um, read that?  Or the wallets thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0) as I mentioned—which is also stickied in Beginners & Help, and damn well deserves to be?  Or...?

Lauda has a total of three sticky threads in the Beginners & Help forum.  To say nothing of all her other helpful threads.  Whereas a Type-1 flag is specifically a warning for Newbies (and non-logged-in users), and displays a warning banner accordingly.

Please reconsider and withdraw your flag.


Wait—so you think that neutral feedback is appropriate, but raised a flag?  I issued negative feedback (but left standing my prior positive feedback, for the historical record).  I suggest negative trust feedback on the account, with clear wording that it is only effective from today forward.

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Much though I wish that I could share in that dream, no.  Lauda is gone from this forum.  She will not be returning.  I trust her word, as expressed in OP here.

As Lauda’s admitted fan, I respect and appreciate your sentiment; but please do not sow the seeds of what her OP hereby so sought to avoid.  This type of speculation could open the way for the scam of a Lauda pretender, in a more subtle way.

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Oh, the memories.

The first time that I sort of crossed paths with the cat was, of course, in a thread defending Bitcoin from fork attacks.  But she apparently did not notice my posts in the thread.



One of my earliest Newbie posts:

Other than #MeritBrokeMyLife, in which Lauda and I each got revenge-merited +50 in a way that adds new meaning to the term “merit bomb”...

Merited by soniclord (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=502516) (50)

Merited by soniclord (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=502516) (50)

...one of our first significant interactions was here:

Subject: Re: Merit system vs KYC registration?

Laudatory Lore.

Cats are always mysterious. I hope you're doing well. Take care, and goodbye :)

Since this is the Flag reference thread, I'll respond here: I've opposed the Flag.
I don't worry about future scams: the chance of the account getting compromised didn't increase. The risk could even be less than it was for instance a year ago, especially if theymos bans it as Lauda requested.

And there's this:

I'll leave a neutral tag instead.

One last screen shot for the moment:

Source:

https://loyce.club/Is...StillOnDT/Lauda.html


http s://i.imgur.com/JUuVzVh.jpg

Yes I do, or I wouldn't have done it. Seems pretty clear. You and others don't have to like it and can oppose it for whatever reasons. I stand by the flag, and when people read the reference it all makes sense. Again the flag says nothing of the quality of their posts, but is very clear that you should not deal with the account.

I left a neutral, because the account hasn't scammed anyone. Their actions however deserve note, so based on my personal opinion I left feedback stating the risk, and encouraging individuals to still benefit from the threads they have previously created.

So I will leave the flag supported until a time forum Admins make it clear they have locked the account permanently. In the meantime others and yourself can do what aligns with your vision of the use of feedback and flags.

How did your PGP key get compromised?

I never seen any last word/goodbye from TMAN though,they just haven't been active anymore since this March, who knows what happen with them.

I shocked when i read this thread, i mean, idk the reason OP choose to leaving. But Goodluck for your future life, Lauda

https://i.imgur.com/m8o7ypj.jpg


We will miss you !!!

I had presumed that you simply hadn’t thought this through, and would be amenable to reasonable discussion and reconsideration—rather than blowing off valid concerns with a snide remark stating the obvious.

My mistake.

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Spell gone awry, accidentally summoning the wrong daemons?

Sadly, methinks all the answers we will ever get are stated in OP here.  She is gone already.

By the way, just noticed (this wasn’t there before)...

Bitcoin is freedom.. right
have a nice day and have a nice life




even when there are clashes, it is always nice to talk to other people
I'm sorry you're leaving

but a choice is a choice, I wish you the best in life

What kind of news :o
I had not expected this and at first I thought that it was just a joke. But it looks like this step is the truth, well thought out and final.

I wish you all the best for the future!
And thanks for the official info here. This helps the community because conspiracy theories are easy to get together and uncertainty is a very unpleasant thing.
So thanks for that and all the best!

Not intended.
A "subtle pretender" is imho not possible. All Bitcoiners know that this kind of claims can be done only and only with (properly) signed message. And I expect that won't ever happen.

Your assumption was why I made myself clear. It was not meant to be a snide remark, but a succinct response to whether I think before I act. I may have read between the lines with your comment but you did clear up that you felt I hadn't given it enough thought.

My concern remains that an abandoned and unmonitored account of value should be flagged, up until the Forum acts to secure and protect it. I hold no ill will against anyone who thinks I've overstepped, that's the system at play. I encourage everyone including yourself to do as you see appropriate. I am not uncompromising in any way shape or form, but my threshold for removing my support remains the Forum take onus on locking and securing the account. Which I 100% believe they should do for the history and - to this day - useful and relevant information they created.

I respect your decision. I disagree with the risk. Given the elusive and eloquent nature in which we were provided information, it's hard to tell what is meant by compromised PGP keys. There could have been a larger than known data leak or something of that nature.

Why else would it be stated that none of the standard "proof of persona" we normally use are to be considered acceptable.

I really don't know, but until there is some action by theymos, I'll keep my support for the flag.

I know that you mean well.  No offence intended, if I came off as brusque.  My point was that a subtle scammer could give the impression of being a Lauda alt.  No, really—she is gone.  She will not be back.


In this case, it was deliberately made such that a signed message can’t ever happen—even a signed message would not suffice.  Lauda declared her keys compromised, issued a PGP revocation certificate, and burnt her bridges behind her as thoroughly as she could.  She outright request that people treat her as if she is dead.

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Everybody makes mistakes—including myself, on occasion.  Is nobody (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg55212283#msg55212283) perfect?


Other speculation aside, I would presume that someone who spent years fighting scams, frauds, and Faketoshi-style nonsense must have wanted to leave no opening whatsoever for abuse of her reputation.  A hard-won, well-deserved reputation.  I am not the only one who would trust her with virtually unbounded amounts of money!  What a valuable reputational target for a Faketoshi scam.

She’s dead—well, should be treated as if dead.  And that is that.


I hope that theymos will ban the account, and say so publicly.

It seems that Lauda's account is already blocked. I tried to send her a farewell PM but I received this error: "User 'Lauda' has blocked your personal message.". I doubt she blocked specifically my PMs lol, as we never had any fight.

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Therefore, I'd like to say here farewell and that I wish her all the good in life!

Although I wasn't very close with Lauda, it happened to have a good collaboration during time. I helped her with revamping some old topics of her (such as the wallets topic and the newbies-related topic) and I respected all her work inside this forum. I noticed her hard work against cheaters, scammers and abusers and I was impressed. Then I saw that she is sort of close with nullius, which is a person I respect and trust a lot and this fact made me trust and respect her as well.

Her departure is a loss for the forum as a whole and I regret it. But everybody should take best decisions in his/her life. And assuming she took this decision it seems that she considered this will be a necessary step in her life...

Farewell, Lauda! Be well, be safe and thank you for all your contributions! You are one if the biggest Bitcoin advocates and people like you are rare. Keep the Cypherpunk spirit still alive!

Archived for future reference: [1a (https://archive.vn/5Uoso)], [1b (https://web.archive.org/web/20201019094605/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55408395)]


May I quote you on that?

This is a mystery indeed. I could speculate, but it doesn't seem right after Lauda left already.
Apart from signed messages, there's always Lauda's distinct writing style :D

Damn, good catch.  I am pretty sure that she didn’t specifically block my PMs, either.

https://i.imgur.com/RUExLhx.png

R.I.P., Kitty. :-(

/me is a void of nothingness...


I need a drink.  To Lauda, in memoriam.

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Not the first time that I have said so.  Check my post history, whilst you are so busy archiving.

I do make mistakes.  I am not mistaken about you.

Nobody is perfect! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg55212283#msg55212283)

Like Quickseller, even if you're not that active on your main account for some reason I get the feeling Lauda will still be around in one form or another.


The account isn't blocked or banned as of yet at least. You can block messages from everyone as far as I recall.

https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_1903,c_fill,g_auto,h_1070,ar_16:9/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F201018215611-01-feline-figure-nazca-peru-1009.jpg

Is this a coincidence or did the Nazcas knew 2k years ago: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/nazca-lines-peru-cat/index.html
I mean, a cat? Really?!

Goodbye Lauda.

Please, hilarious, let’s not start the rumour-mill.  Do you really want to see Lauda sightings like Elvis Satoshi from now until the next century?

(And by the way, if I seem a bit snippish—so sorry, I try to avoid histrionics, but I feel like a big fucking piece of my life just went away.  And I am questioning the whole anonymity thing.  A person was a significant part of my life, is gone, and—I don’t even have a face to attach to that.  I still don’t even know if she’s a “she”.  And yeah, I’m fucking drunk.  So sue me have lawyers subpoena Tor exit nodes if you object (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5149062.msg55321838#msg55321838).)


Perhaps Gazeta was mistaken.  Eh.  My own point was more that she’s made herself as absolutely gone as she can, unless/until theymos brings down the ban hammer on the final nail in the coffin.  She torched all of her accounts, revoked all of her keys, blocked PMs, apparently changed her password—I frankly don’t know how she could have been more thorough.

---

Egyptians, too.  She has been everywhere!

Avē atque valē

Things are changing fast  :o

https://i.ibb.co/RCw81bV/image.png (https://imgbb.com/)

The question to all DT members, whether it is better to keep Lauda on DT selection or we should remove her from there?
What if someone, negatively tagged by Lauda give us a rational explanation here that feedback is wrongly left. Such cases remain without the possibility of revision.
on the other hand, she left many proper feedbacks and it would unfairly go to "untrusted feedbacks".

Good point.  Her feedback is excellent, but unmaintained.  It is not only a matter of mistakes:  She has sometimes amended her feedback (sometimes spectacularly (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5224240.0)) based on new developments or new information.

But her tags are necessary.  Does anyone in DT want to go through her terrifically huge sent feedback list, evaluate each case, and copy feedbacks where appropriate?  Remember the “Prison Break” (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5045649.0) thread?

(For my part, I will keep Lauda in my personal trust list.  But I gave up on DT awhile ago; the system is broken by design, just basically democracy as I said long ago.)

Now, the time of the Cats has ended, will the Foxhole be opened for recruitment? LoL.

Sayonara.

I do not know you personally but I wish to see you, there are other worlds than these as my favorite book says when someone dear departs. Thank you for your contributions to the community and the forum. Hopefully no one taints your name when you are permanently gone.

Until next time..... ;)

Whatever your reason for leaving the forum, I hope you are alright.

Also, I'm hoping that you'll be successful in whatever your venture in your life, your contributions in the forum will never be forgotten, although you also have haters but that is normal as we don't have the same belief and opinion sometimes, so best of luck, Lauda=cat/

Sure. The speculation will be fun if/when anyone suspects it. There's been a few people in the past that have claimed they're leaving only to try build a new account. Then there will be all those who are clever enough to mask their behaviour. And then of course some people will just leave forever for whatever reason, but there's a few people that I don't think will ever leave here unless it shuts down of becomes unprofitable for them.


Lauda isn't a female. People just used to misgender him because I'm assuming they thought his username was a female one (maybe it people think it's close Laura or something) and he just played into that but I don't believe he's ever claimed to be female.


Well obviously he's pretty serious about burning that account for whatever reason.

Besides being annoyingly stupid, the speculation could open the way for scams.  Which is exactly what Lauda has hereby so striven to prevent, in case OP wasn’t sufficiently clear.


Consider a long con involving false public hints, then private communications, concluding with:  “Yeah, sure, um, psst, a little secret:  I’m Lauda’s alt.  Whisper, wink, nudge.  Escrow 1000 BTC with me!”  It is a prospect that would most displease the cat.

---

I respect Lauda too much to suppose that her life revolves around an Internet forum.


It is hilarious that you are so sure.  Even more hilarious that you are trying to explain this to me.

On this particular point, the only certainty is that you know no more than I do.


“Lauda” is an actual name.  Although it seems to be a girl’s given name (https://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Lauda) (five seconds of searching, people!) with an obvious Latin derivation (duh!), I have also seen it alleged to be masculine^{[citation/explanation needed]}.  It is also a surname (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauda).

But that does not mean much.  “Loyce” is a girl’s name, but I never assumed that LoyceV was female; it contradicts his behaviour.

I categorized Lauda as “probably female” because in real life, I have known highly intelligent, very willful women who closely matched her in personality and behaviour.  I don’t go in for mechanistic application of dumb stereotypes.  She is a type.  And that is all of the (admittedly unreliable, speculative non-)information that I have to go on, because...


No, Lauda has never claimed to be female.  When I have asked her in private, she refused to answer either way—due to privacy, for it is one binary bit of personally identifying information (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5225450.msg53957372#post_nothing_is_impossible) (damn it, this forum needs an undelete button!^* Loyce’s archive (https://loyce.club/archive/posts/5395/53957372.html)) to partition her anonymity set.  That is not my guess:  It is what she told me.  She was always deadly serious about privacy and anonymity.


She—eh, he could be a man.  *shrug*  It’s none of my business, because we didn’t have that type of a relationship (other than jokes, not unlike all the jokes about her and theymos).  I am also serious about privacy, so I respect the privacy of others.

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* I just drunkenly reached for the nonexistent quote button on one of my favourite posts on a locked thread, and hit the delete button instead.  Damn it.

---

Indeed.

You're forgetting your history.

The name was LaudaM originally.

I must say that I’m going to miss the Grumpy Kitty. If there ever is a way that we could ever Talk or something, I’m just here. I really respect all that you do and I hope you are doing great.

There was a post of her where she said something like "You can call me Lauda or Laura or Laudie or Laurie", but I cant find it and I won't stay a month for searching between her 26431 posts lol. If anyone find this quote, feel free to post it here. From this quote, it would seem that s/he is a female, although she doesn't say practically that s/he is a female. Just offered some names that people can use for addressing the account Lauda.

I was able only to find the topic Lauda & Loyce please confirm your gender... (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5128579.0) and all s/he said on this matter was

If I got all the shit from this forum that Lauda did after all the thankless work they did for years and years, I'd bow out as well.  My best to you and yours.  Be well and stay safe Grumpy Kitty! 
p.s.
All hail Olav!! ;)

It's sad to see you go. Although there were various small bits of drama and conflict, you've been one of the most active and dedicated members of the community over the course of several years. (And if there's no conflict, then probably nothing is actually being accomplished.) I hope that you're not in any actual danger, and I hope that you will be successful in whatever you choose for your future.


Done. Lauda is banned in the same way as satoshi, such that it isn't possible to even log into the account anymore.

Thank you, theymos.  That settles it.  She’s gone as can be.


So true.

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I think that she found the rampant speculation and arguments to be... beneficial, as a practical matter.  So many people are so damn sure that they know, on one side or the other!  Whereas nobody knows—er, I mean, even “nobody” knows nothing—um, whatever.  —Thus, Lauda remains an enigma.

She cannot be so easily profiled; and her private life is completely impenetrable from Internet forum information.

I respect whatever your decision of leaving Luada, farewell to you, and best wishes as you embark on a new challenge in life.

We never forget you, it might we never see the presence of Lauda as a cat here in the forum but your presence as a cat will remain at the top of my hat avatar. I hope there's someone like you (or replace you) who have fighting scams and fraudulent activities on the forum, my words of appreciation can never be enough to praise your actions and effort that you have did before on this forum and to maintain cleanliness.

Whatever your purpose it is, I wanna say Goodbye and stay (pretty)healthy.

Godspeed

TryNinja to the rescue (https://ninjastic.space/search?author=Lauda&content=Laurie):

Farewell cranky cat. I'm sure you'll find life outside of this cesspool far more pleasing.


The flag seems to be factually correct. If you deal with the "Lauda" account that means the account has been compromised and there is a high risk to be scammed. Guests should definitely avoid dealing with a compromised account.

I think there may be a dozen members who could provoke such a reaction with their announcement of leaving the forum, and it is really a shame to lose one of them. Personally, I was in 2 signatures campaign run by Lauda and then I exchanged a few PMs with her, and I was surprised with the level of kindness and professionalism she showed - and on the perfect running of both campaigns.

What else to say but that the forum will be completely different without Lauda, no matter what anyone thinks of her. Good luck in life wherever it takes you🐱

In that case the same could apply to satoshi's account ;)
But since only Admin can regain access to the accounts, I don't worry about it.

Would you please oppose your own flag (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;flag=2398), and then withdraw it?  Thank you.


That’s a hell of a lock.  Satoshi-sized.  What an honour.

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Good point.  I won’t hold my breath waiting for those who support this flag to flag satoshi (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=3).

Now that theymos has locked the account like satoshi’s account, I do not see any reason for any red tags or flags to remain which have been placed related to this exodus event.. Their is now virtually no risk of the account being compromised so such red warnings are an unnecessary eyesore at first glance (which few look past) IMO..

Me and Lauda had our problems, but not too long ago we exchanged a few PMs recognizing our disagreements but ultimately settling on an understanding of mutual respect..
And for that I am glad..

Oh man, despite we have some confrontation between us, I really sad about your decision. It's like a some epoch of this forum timeline now gone :c
hope you will be fine and happy with whenever you want to do or to go.


As it said, "Press F to pay respect"

https://i.imgur.com/SsAVbjOl.jpg

I have read a lot of your posts Lauda, though we never talked directly, and I always felt like you have been a great value to this forum.

It is sad to see you leave and even the chaps on my hat wish you godspeed and all the best for your future (we rats generally dislike kitties, especially the grumpy ones but you were always an exception).

Stay safe, clean and grumpy!

I agree about no need to worry so I wouldn't create a flag on Lauda  but I couldn't honestly oppose it either. It's incorrect to claim that

"the following [...] is at least partially false:

Due largely to the factors mentioned in this topic, I believe that anyone dealing with Lauda is at a high risk of losing money, and guests would be well-advised to avoid doing so. This determination is based on concrete red flags which any knowledgeable & reasonable forum user should agree with, and it is not based on the user's opinions."

I don't see any factors in this topic showing that it wouldn't be a high risk to deal with Lauda. In fact Lauda clearly states:

Excellent choice of signature that has been left on the account.. Powerful..
I don’t know what risk their is to the URLs going obsolete but I suppose theymos could update them at such time if it was thought to be appropriate.. (thinking the onion one)

Also noticing the personal text “Terminated.”..
I wonder if theymos did that?

No need to explain that how many people will gonna miss your great contributions and fearless actions against scammers. You were a real fear for scammers and will remain same forever. I don't know the exact reason why you are leaving this forum but you were one of the best member of bitcointalk who left their irremovable footprints for upcoming users. From the beginning of my bitcointalk journey i have seen your fighting against scammers which encouraged me a lot to start the fight against scammers.

Anywhere you go,,,My best wishes will always be with you. After TMAN we are going to miss another extraordinary member of this community. Good luck "Lauda"

Sorry to hear that, Lauda.  I hope you find the sanctuary, sanity, and peace you deserve.

---

Yeah, a flag seems a bit much, and I agree with your reasoning.  Theymos has locked other accounts upon request, Mdayonliner comes to mind.  I think there's very little risk the account will be used again, and less likely that it'll be hijacked by a scammer.

---

If I had to guess; I would say the keys were not "compromised" per say, but rather the private keys have been purged and destroyed.  Maybe a bad choice of words, or maybe deliberately chosen revoke the keys' integrity.

Indeed.  ++(future because I don’t want to run out).


I do hope that onion v3 will last for a long time.  The address format (a straight-up 25519 key, plus some little metadata—a 126-bit security level, barring new ECDLP solution or a way to run Shor’s Algorithm) was designed with the kind of forward-looking security margin that v2 never had when it was designed (80-bit truncated SHA-1 hash of a 1024-bit RSA key; WTF were they thinking!?).  Unless a practical quantum computer develops, I see no reason to expect v3 to become insecure—although of course, advances in cryptography may yield some reason also to add a v4.

v3 onion is approximately around the same estimated security level as Bitcoin public keys (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2859033.0), so...


I saw that when the thread began with the new signature and avatar, long before theymos appeared.  I don’t know; but given the cat’s characteristic sense of humour (and see also what I said above about “rampant speculation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55409881#msg55409881)”), I am guessing that it may have something to do with this, which should be savoured full-sized if I do say so myself:

Subject: Skynet to nullius: “GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS THERE”

Farewell Lauda! We never had the chance to have a chat, but I always found your threads and posts very pleasing to read. Thanks what you have done for the community! Good luck to you at whatever you are doing now after your forum life!  :)

I also opposed the flag. Since theymos stated the account is banned and that it's even impossible to login to the account at all, I doubt there are any 'trading risks' and that a 'big warning banner' above each of Lauda's old threads is needed.

Really unexpected leave like a death. Since admin bans your account you have to read posts here as a guest, I am assuming you aren't not missing to read. As others said including admin, you were a good contributor overall. I don't know what happen suddenly that forced you to leave this forum nor I will ask. Just live with your new life and be happy. Forgot about all the arguments of the forum, its life and there will be many things. Stay safe wherever you are.

Since admin considers banning the account so I don't think any negative feedback or flag is appropriate here. At least I am not gonna support it.

Having contributed to this forum and this community for so long is truly a pity to see you go. Your life, your rules. Be good, Lauda.
#strongcats

Lauda is dead.
Long live Lauda.

Don't worry guys, I am sure there are a lot more cats to chase little mouses on bitcointalk forum.

Wish you all the best for your future Lauda , have good and peaceful one and for sure stay safe !

Sad to hear and read that one of the longest Members here are leaving that has done so much for the Forum and Users.
One of the most contributed User i have readed and seen here.

For sure it wasnt all things right at some stage but in the End the positive things was more as the others.

Enjoy your time now Lauda, have good one , goodbye !

Ragards Lafu

I can't believe I'm seeing this now ... and I'm starting to feel a huge loss over this news. Additionally, if this upsetting news is real, Lauda should be given the Custom Title: Departed Hero/Cat 2020

---

Lauda was one of the first people I contacted on the forum and was very kind and patient with me when I ran into some problems. And I want to rephrase one thought from another person that I totally agree with... that Lauda was the core of the community that he (she) defended so fiercely and didn't care if his account would be (mutually) colored red because he knew he was saving someone from the risk of being cheated.

I will miss this cat very much ... but I will still hope that his account was really hacked and the real owner will return soon  :'(

Indeed.  I’ve been mulling the prospects for a custom title all day.  Perhaps “Catbat Witch”, to match the permanent avatar and the worry about in OP about “Faketoshi... in a catbat mask” (and since the witch thing got a laugh from theymos (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3232693.msg33729235#msg33729235))—or maybe “The Cypherkitten (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5217273.msg53606439#msg53606439)”, which Lauda appreciated.


Yes.


It is real.  Don’t get your hopes up.  :-(

farewell. not that I follow everything that you did but I enjoy the drama that came with it. enjoy your life.

this makes me wonder whether what the forum would be like when all the old members are gone and moved on from this forum and the new members are the ones running it.

I was about to ask you to poison a couple of merit for the OP on my behalf ^{since I'm empty}...

But I see that you have already appreciated the OP's post to the maximum  :o

Well, nothing's ever permanent in life so I shan't shed a tear if Lauda voluntarily chooses to leave the forum.  He/she hasn't been very active for some time now, and I'm not exactly shocked by this announcement.

Good luck wherever your soul lands next, Lauda.  You supported me for a while when I was new on DT and I always appreciated that.

But WOW.  Think about how many drama threads that Lauda was the center of.  I think there used to be a compilation somewhere, and that was a long time ago, and I'm sure it's grown since I saw it.  Guess all of that is coming to a screeching and generally unexpected halt, and all the Lauda haters can rejoice.  But we'll see.

Seeing them trolling even in this thread - there is no indication of any forthcoming rejoicement. I'm gonna guess this is going to be yet another attack vector against anyone who ever said or did a positive thing towards Lauda ("you supported a perma-banned cat").

Good luck Kitty  :'(

That's good enough for me.

I made a point to check on this first once I woke. I have removed my support for the flag given the above measures taken by theymos. Flags are permanent but only visible if properly supported.

---

Only kind of correct I was going for. I couldn't be sure theymos would lock the account so I created and supported it until he took steps to secure it. I see no reason for it now, so I removed my support.

The flag was created before theymos locked the account. Until I saw his post this morning there was no certainty theymos would have taken steps to lock it. I believe mdayonliner actually had to randomize their password themselves, I can't remember. Might have happened with the Bruno accounts, can't recall I didn't follow to much of the after story.

soldiers come and Go but Barrack remains

I was quite impressed with the good testimonies of so many senior members of this forum about you the kitty cat,
I've never come across you but your reputation  speaks for you and i'm glad to be among the few ones signing you
out on the forun with good wishes as you embark on another mysterious catty journey of life.

Good name is better than silver and gold as you go so shall you be remembered.

Long live Laura!!!
Long live Kitty cat!!

Goodbye, Lauda! Despite that your account is banned, I believe that you're going to check what's going on there. It's good that protected account from being used in scams later, like happened with one of Bruno accounts.
I'm not sure what to say. You can love or hate Lauda, but it's fact that their contribution to Bitcointalk is huge.
I remember when few years ago almost every topic on Meta and Reputation was about Lauda with so much drama. I miss these times...

Farewell Lauda. You will never be forgotten.

---

this, already, reminds me of someone  :'(

it wasn't voluntary. Clearly, someone or something forced Lauda to leave the forum for good:

So much for trying to “avoid histrionics (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55408720#msg55408720)”.  I just spent 12 hours obsessed with an Internet forum thread, then passed out drunk for awhile.  LOL.

/me slaps himself with a large trout.

(Also, you know, OP did not really sound so “voluntary”.  What the fuck!?  No, I don’t know.)

---

At least 51% of the reason why I returned to the forum on 2020-01-01 was to reconnect with Lauda.  And now she’s gone, as if she waved a magic wand and vanished into another plane of existence.

Although there are others here whom I respect and admire and should wish to consider my friends, I have had limited interaction with most of them.  Lauda was the only person on this forum whom I deeply trusted on a personal level (not considering those whom I’d say I very much trust professionally, such as Bitcoin Core developers).  She is also one of the only true freethinkers whom I have ever met.

She and I had our disagreements.  We had some rousing debates in private.  For one thing, she was what I considered to be softhearted (LOL).  But she was not one of the sheep who proclaim themselves “freethinkers”, then bleat in horror if anyone steps away from the herd.  She had negligible tolerance for stupidity, and none at all for malice; but I think that anyone who is honest and intelligent (in that order) could get along with her just fine.

And I cared about her opinion.  And I actually cared what she thought of me!  In case nobody noticed, I do not give a damn about most people’s opinions (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5226757.msg53978163#post_wolf_conservation)—and I tend to be contemptuous of others’ opinions of me, personally.  Whereas Lauda commanded respect—not by demanding it, but by deserving it.  I think it’s inevitable that anyone with basic honesty and intelligence would come to respect her, sooner or later.

Lauda was always for privacy, freedom of speech, freedom of thought, financial freedom... freedom, freedom (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5219640.0)! —the things without which all of the other things I care about cannot exist!  And she once told me that if I agreed with her about everything, it would be boring.

Whoever she is, she is a rare mind.  Not just some screen name on the Internet.  Outside of my family, of all the people whom I have ever met in real life, I cannot think of even a half-dozen who have been more personally significant to me—who have merited such significance.

Wherever she is, I hope that she’s ok.  She said some very worrisome things; but I can’t worry about it, when I can’t do anything about it.

Well now we know that cryptohunter's still going to rant about Lauda years after the account got banned. Sometimes I think even if the forum was completely deserted there would still be cryptohunter shouting in there to himself about the DT powers-that-be.


No, Lauda set that before theymos saw this thread.

Fair enough.

Support withdrawn.

Sending positive energy your way, Lauda.
Another sad day for the forum (but not for everyone obviously).
This is a horrible year in terms of losing valuable members.
First was TMAN, then Bruno, now Lauda... And there are still 2+ more months...

Now who is going to take over the Lauda's gang? And who is going to be the bad kitty?

I wasn't always agree to her decisions, especially when she started the fight with theymos and all the DTs were involved. This was something I did not agree with and I resigned from the DT for a while... other than that I got a few times help with tagging accounts when I still was a breadless baby.

Every of online forum are filled with people who feels better criticizing others and making others look bad. They come picking up a fight even if you are not addressing them. We should stick to our ideas but it's better to ignore and avoid these negative people and not to hurt own-self for their rude behavior. Most of these people are a victim themselves and we should be sympathetic towards their situation.

No one is perfect and everyone makes a mistake, it's better to accept your mistake and learn from them and rectify them if possible than to cling on them and defend them with unreasonable statements. Forgive and Forget and don't make your online presence more important than real life.

I'm no  expert of the matter with TMAN and Lauda but they were an important part of this forum. Leaving the forum just because some people can't get along with you is not what bitcoin teaches us. But again, you don't necessarily be on the forum to follow and support bitcoin. The forum would certainly miss some quick ideas and opinions.

I do think you will be reading this, so it's worth saying.


You were always the "bad cop" of this forum, while fighting scammers "recklessly" you did commit some mistakes and you did step on so many toes, In all honesty, someone had to do that job, and you did well!. Such a brave "cat" with huge guts.

I wish you good luck.

("Goodbye, Lauda!\n")

I did not know Lauda too much but read Lauda's posts sometimes and his/her advise in my threads. I heard of cat drama years ago but never spent my time to read all about the drama.

Today, it is sad to see Lauda's goodbye thread.

I know how difficult to abandon the forum especially after you have spent years here, as a member and as a moderator. To mark your abandonment, I took the screenshot for you. Newbies, years later, will aks questions like "Who is Lauda?"


I wish you good health and good luck, Lauda.

TBH I don’t think that TMAN has/had anywhere near the legacy here that Luda has.. Completely different league IMO..


Well.....


But we got over it... ;)

You must admit that Lauda had a tendency to be quite authoritarian over forum control at times, and that is where we clashed..
Lauda was very protective of the forum and protective against scams, where I’d like the forum to be more like 4chan and don’t really feel too bad about idiots getting separated from their money like Lauda did..

#Respect for, at times, my greatest adversary, and most worthy debate opponent I have encountered on the forum..

"In the same way as satoshi"

Now thats a befitting sendoff. They had already withdrawn from the forum a lot. It was a great inning marked by dedication and a lot of work. The post count, merit, numerous threads, troll wars, impeccable comebacks, acid humor, campaign management, escrows and fighting for the forum that they did speaks of the effort that was put in. Hope you are moving on to greener pastures to dedicate more time to other real-life ventures. The forum now has a life of its own and it will outlive us all. Best wishes for your endeavors.

PS: The sheer engagement from Lauda account confirms that it wasn't just a "Him" or "Her". "They" were a bunch of intelligent felines..

@Lauda, you've have sent me and one other user message which was self-destructed after we (at least I) red it and only real lauda will know what was in that message, just saying...

Anyway, good by..."me"  :'( I hope you are not in serious problems  :-\

Although you weren't perfect ^{[none of us are]}, you certainly had more positive contributions than the negatives ^{[unlike some that still exist in here (unfortunately)]}.
_{Even though we haven't interacted in a very long time, I still remember every single bit of our conversations and that makes me miss those good old days much more ^{[thank you for being part of it]}.}

Goodbye Lauda.

I never had too many interactions with you, but you have my respect.
This forum will certainly miss you, and scammers are happier now.



This is quite an honor, and Lauda had the burial she/he/it deserves.

About that, I will keep Lauda in my trust network as a trusted account.

Lauda made so many feedbacks to so many users, we cannot simple let all those feedbacks go to "untrusted feedback" list.

Lauda and I may have had our disagreements (as all lovers do), but I'm very sorry to see such a fine feline depart from this otherwise toxic community. I'll definitely miss the incredible amount of drama that cat managed to cause and which is sure to disappear with equal suddenness.

...and not unlike how some people allege that Satoshi must have been an élite group...


What an enigma (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55409881#msg55409881) “they” are!  To be honest, I am no more certain that Lauda was a single individual than I am that she was female. ;-)

I do think that I have the balance of probabilities on my side here.

---

To be clear:  Even though I tagged the Lauda account (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55407725#msg55407725), it is still included in my trust list.  Her tags have saved me so much trouble!  I need to keep seeing them right up top.


I may downgrade my tag.  I am only debating it as an historical artefact, since I left promptly after my initial reply to OP here; and it is not of much practical significance, at this point.  I never touched my green-trust to Lauda, so the account is +1/-1 from me right now.

---

As an authoritarian anarchist (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5219640.0), a self-sovereign absolute autocrat, I never found Lauda to be inclined to interfere in my domain. ;-)

“Autarchy” has a salutary multiple meaning.

Beyond all the heartwarming goodbyes to the feline with nine lives, I sincerely do hope she didn't quit because of illness or something.

The Lauda moments were a handful; some more hilarious than others. Her knowledge of Bitcoin is topnotch. More is the fact that she was a real scare to scumbags/scammers and shit posters on BTT.

Corollary:  If you are so hated by badness that malicious liars remain obsessed with you after you are gone—when you can no longer act against them!—then you have done right.  It is a sort of contrarian measure of how much good you have done.

I can only hope that when I am gone, the trolls will continue to create new threads spewing raw hatred against me in foulest terms.  It bespeaks considerable achievement!  Alas, I doubt that I could ever measure up to Lauda on this particular point.  Meow. 😼

Sad to see Lauda leaving this forum
Thank you for your previous contributions

35 hours:  1377 views, 104 posts, 99 merits on OP, and 58 unique users expressing goodbyes and well-wishes.

(That last is a manual count, because a computer cannot interpret the content of posts; and it includes one user who sent well-wish merit without posting.)

Lauda is well-loved, and much missed.

There will be another mystery left by the kitty unsolved.
The gender. I've always thought that the kitty was a lady based on the way of expressing her thoughts and the attitude. This is how I felt it but I guess we'll never know the truth.

I'm really wondering ... is it true that Lauda set the status to "Terminated" after reading the nullius's message?

Lauda, you were my first troll here. You did a lot of scummy shit and I wouldn’t trust you with a dollar, but I always liked you and I think you know that.

It does seem to be an amazing coincidence, does it not.  (To be clear, I don’t know; and my mind was busy with other things in the negligible time between when I saw her final personal text, and when she was gone.  But...)

Hey, besides the graphical storyboard that I already quoted (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55410423#msg55410423), you left out the best part:  The leaked video of Lauda with her husband!


Lauda was always lolz. 😺

The cat comes and go as it pleases.....
Although, I didn't meet you either or have a conversation with you. Your pinned post across board remain a legacy in us to carry along the bitcointalk journey.

Good vibes in your new life...

Can't forget your last word:  Bitcoin is freedom, banking is slavery__Lauda, kitty cat

Lauda is telling truth!
Everything including science is being controlled to which way it'll go, Past spiritual knowledge of Egypt and other places were destroyed when aliens attacked us in past.
They feed on negative energy and the human soul rots by not meditating since meditation is feeding the soul not the body, But many people think Meditation is useless, which is not.

Coming to meditation, It should be done in a proper manner by empowering the human soul.

Goodbye Lauda, Finally you realized what true knowledge is.

~Raising the kundalini serpent from the base of spine was the main goal of Egyptian culture before the earth was attacked by negative energy feeding species way back before mordern science started~

I do not know what "unforeseen pressures in the shadows" have forced you to leave the forum forever. Perhaps your computer was hacked or compromised, so your passwords, private keys and other sensitive information have been stolen.

Anyway, I should note that I like your intricate language. You often wrote meaningful thoughts with metaphors that were interesting to read.

---

This distinguishes Lauda from most banned accounts.

Her forum profile is currently displaying the following stats:

I heard that some users even learned by reading Lauda's posts. Now her messages will remain intact, like in a museum.

---

+1 8)

I will keep your final message in my mind.

It's unlikely according to Lauda's past comments.

Its really sad to see forum veterans leaving from here permanently, lot of members left their accounts with no information but atleast you still having a thought of saving forum at your final words by letting everyone knows about your decision and yeah you are banned now as per your wish by our admin. Missing the cute girl that is the fave I always remember when I read Lauda anywhere.

Good Bye Lauda ! 'May your "soul" rest in peace'

I have been contemplating, and am beginning to prepare something Lauda-related.  It may take awhile.

---

It is the subject of such speculation, I think that the forum has more total pages discussing “Lauda: male or female??” than there are in the Wall Observer (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.0).  (IIRC, when Lauda was a candidate for infofront’s current position, r0ach threw an entomoid (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg55315221#msg55315221) fit over the prospect that a(n alleged) woman may moderate WO.)


LOL.  You think that she’s a he?  :P


Lauda has said so many self-contradictory things over the years about his, her, or their (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55413395#msg55413395) persona.  Too smart to leak intersectable partitioning information (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282146.msg55419550#msg55419550).

Reconstructed from the post (https://loyce.club/archive/posts/5395/53957372.html) that I accidentally deleted (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55409732#msg55409732) on Monday:  :-(

All that I know for sure (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55407305#msg55407305) is that Lauda is a WITCH, she turned me (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2975479.msg33000159#msg33000159) into a newt (https://web.archive.org/web/20190706052113/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=976210) (I got better), and she confessed to being a flying catbat!

Internal “proof” link is now only of historical interest (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5224240.0); no hard feelings.

Quote from: Lauda on March 24, 2018, 07:22:05 PM

Quote from: Meretrix on March 23, 2018, 05:24:09 PM

As I was initiated into a cryptic cult (http://bitcult.faith/) with rites of the goddess Hecate, the renowned paranormal researcher William Blake caught this photograph of Lauda (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=101872) shapeshifted to the form of a flying catbat:

https://i.imgur.com/lvTzLGi.png (https://i.imgur.com/Ru7g1Wt.png)
The witch LAUDA
Identified Flying Object (IFO)
(Better than a UFO.  Much better than an ICO.)

Is any more actual proof (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2945878.0) needed to sustain a charge of witchcraft? :o

I think I just got doxxed. :-[

Even the very name of the proven catbat witch Lauda was condemned by the forum’s administration...

Quote from: theymos on April 02, 2018, 05:06:19 AM

Virtue was the edit distance between your name and "Lauda". ;)

...who has finally BURNED BANNED THE WITCH with most extreme measures to save the forum from her WITCHCRAFT!

Quote from: theymos on October 19, 2020, 01:50:51 PM

Lauda is banned in the same way as satoshi, such that it isn't possible to even log into the account anymore.

I hope you are COVID-19 free, and otherwise safe and healthy. If you are not healthy, I commend you for announcing your revocation of your reputation.

I had noticed that you had been much less active in the past several months than you previously were, and presumed you had moved onto other interests or otherwise were leaving at least on a temporary basis.

Good luck with whatever your situation is.

As cats have 9 lives and "one" is gone, we need to find rest 8 cats here.

Cat put her money where her mouth was.  All principles.  No hypocrisy.

Among numerous other examples from the accusations of liars, defamers, and trolls:


Pause to speculate on what money the account would have been worth!  —On the account sale market that Lauda always fought.  A handsome payoff, no doubt.

Alternatively, she was perfectly set up for an exit scam.

Whereas honesty is what one is, not only what one does.


I had in mind a few people when I wrote those words from my personal political manifesto.  Most, I know only from the history books.  It has been my honour to know Lauda, even across the distance of cypherspace.

---

---

Nine feline forum lives are already spent.

Except when Lauda was buying and selling accounts..  :shrugs:

eddie13, if you really want to attempt beating a dead cat, why don’t you make a “productive” use of your valuable time, and open a new Reputation thread with evidence of past account-selling by Lauda, a.k.a.
If you have a problem with me, please take it up with me elsewhere.  (Whether or not I choose to waste my own time with that.)  Thanks.

Hereby, you really can’t argue with my point that Lauda’s account was terrifically valuable—and she was also most excellently positioned for an exit scam.  She exited the honest way, fully in accord with her stated principles.

---

No actually.. I have been trying not to..
But your bait.. Irresistible! Twice already..

My self control leaves some to be desired..
My bad.. My bad..

Presenting indisputable and undisputed facts in agreement with PN7’s commendation is “bait”.  In a post not specifically addressing you, either—I must have been baiting you.  OK, whatever.  You “win”.

Oh wow, it is always sad to see one of the most prolific posters go, even if we didn't always see eye-to-eye. This thread makes me glad that some things (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2881533.msg53667088#msg53667088) were addressed earlier this year.

I am sure that some people will want to speculate what is happening in the coming days/weeks/months, I am curious myself, and have some speculation, but I don't think any of that is appropriate.

I am not sure if you will read this thread, but I guess I would say 'good luck'.


You can block all PM's by blocking "*"

I am still a merit source and read enough posts to give out my monthly allowance of merit to well deserving posts that contribute to the forum. I don't have as much time to post as I did in the past.

Only just heard and sorry to hear a long termer leaving, the forum loses a bit of its lustre when regulars are no longer here.   Best of luck wherever you travel :)

At the forum, holivars happen all the time, over the past three years I have seen a lot of similar discussions. And every time I find it funny how some members use non-appealable statements: always, never, everything, nobody, you don't understand anything and you are funny. Haters and fans foaming at the mouth defend their positions, between which I actually don't see any difference.

But this protracted and mostly meaningless dispute over the identity and reasons for Lauda's departure must eventually end. I understand that this thread is like a fire that attracts all the "pocket" trolls, and who probably do not understand that this was a competent PR. But by his departure, Lauda made it clear to us that there is no need to add oil and throw up wood (unless you decide to say goodbye).

Remember, if you meet angry people on the Internet, most of the time they have no way to annoy you in real life. Don't take comments personally and build willpower, (I'm talking about Haters and fans).

p.s. If you really want to know why Lauda left, write to minerjones in PM, and he will gladly tell you this secret, leaving the tag "Unsolicited PM spam".

Fun speculation about Lauda’s famously secretive personality is one thing.  Digging for presumably confidential information is quite another.


Oh, so is that what really happened?  And here I just naturally assumed that it was annoyance at a request for interrogation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5262967.msg55417975#msg55417975).  (I observe that Lauda never did that interview, either...)

On the reasonable inference that zasad@ told you something I don’t know, I am using this post as a reference for positive trust feedback for minerjones.  He seems to know his privacy stuff.  I respect people who don’t pry into others’ business, who don’t gossip...


...and who are so highly protective of confidences that they will reply with wrath at even being asked to violate them!  It reminds me of someone grumpy, whom I declared “superlatively trustworthy” (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=101872). 😿

---

...but there are a few things that she never joked about, such as:  Confidences, and money.  Deadly serious grumpy kitty, on those particular points.

---

By the way, a salutary PSA:  I am sure that Lauda did not tell anybody why she left.  If she didn’t tell me, it means that she didn’t tell minerjones or anybody else.  I knew her at least well enough to know that.

So, don’t bug people who were known to be somehow connected to Lauda for information that they do not have!

And yes, if you ask me for “secret” information that I do not have anyway, then I will issue negative trust feedback to you just on principle.  It seems counterproductive and inadvisable, so don’t try it.

Goodbye Lauda.  :(

I know you are still watching from the shadows, but will not come when called. 

Hope to experience you again in my club.

I share your sentiment, Vod.  I’ve been working on letting go, to avoid false hopes.

Her secure deletion of her identity was so total and so thorough, she even requested that on my end, I destroy certain cryptographic thingies that I used exclusively for our communications.  (I heeded her wishes.)  I doubt that she even has access to your club anymore.

A cypherpunk goodbye, and goodbye for real.

I have no idea if she is watching this or not.  I hope so. :-/

Boldface is in the original:

Lauda has left the forum, some might be happy & many are sad but the life moves on both for the Lauda and rest of the members here,

I will also like to request admins to lock this topic now.   Ofcourse Lauda can't lock it herself/himself.  :)

Whyever would you say such a thing?  Lauda is gone for all of four days, and suddenly—you want for the forum admins, who are supporters of free expression, forcibly to shut down discussion in memory of one of the forum’s most famous members?  The suggestion is just wrong on so many levels.

What’s your problem?

Yes, i suggested this after few days of the thread being opened and everyone expressed their feelings already, so therefore you cannot call it "Suddenly".

Secondly, its just my opinion and if you want the thread to remain open to discuss more on it then no worries about it. That's perfectly fine too.  :)

Just sad.
Farewell pussycat, stay feisty and keep cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rWpHqEtKn8

I haven't had a lot of interaction with Lauda and am only familiar with some of the controversies.

We chatted via DM about some topics and I found your knowledge impressive. I've never really known how to interpret you but in your dealings towards me personally I have always found you to be fair.

I have a lot of respect for what you have done for the forum and in the bitcoin community.  While I didn't always agree with your methods, or your conclusions , you have served as an effective bogeymam / woman / cat to prevent a lot of people from getting scammed.

Good luck with your future ventures.

For some reason, it reminds me of something.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Van_der_Meulen_-_Vanitas.jpg/825px-Van_der_Meulen_-_Vanitas.jpg

FrickkKK, not Lauda toooo :(

We will miss you Lauda <3. Its genuinely sad to see you go, fuckin-fuck. Even if you're gone, like others mentioned, hope you look at us from the shadows, and maybe even show up without us knowing. Either way, its your choice, and from the bottom of our hearts, goodbye. We will miss you, cherish you, but never forget you. Your existence made a hell a lot of impact on this forum and I hope you know that, you rattled away so many idiots, and I am going to miss seeing that happen. Cheers.

...why do i sound like i am giving an eulogy...  :-X

Little known fact that is absolutely true... I once played a game of Rocket League with Lauda. It ended with Lauda rage quitting, but was still fun and Lauda remains to this day the only person I’ve played a live action game with from this forum (I’ve played Monopoly online with Anduck and a few others.)

Noooooo, I'm gonna miss your threads Lauda, especially the ones where you fight with scammers  :'( (its just so goddamm entertaining man). You only used 7 lives, you still have 2 man.

But I can feel it. I know that somewhere in the forum, there lurks a lauda that is still helping people. I'm GOING to find you and read your threads.

Just you wait.

At least with Lauda gone, my place as second most recognized is secure for a while longer.   She actually passed me for a couple days.  :(

https://bpip.org/Report?r=mostrecognized

Take care.  Always appreciated your contributions you weird catbat.

I never had much interaction with you but always enjoyed reading the drama that seemed to follow you all over this forum.
Thanx for all your contributions to bitcointalk. You will be missed.
Good luck and stay safe kitty.

Once upon a time, I needed an image of a sad cat for a forum post that I never made.  For convenience, what would I do but to ask—the cat?


There is more of an on-topic story behind this one; but written out, it just seems overly sentimental.  Anyway, the picture will suffice in lieu of a thousand words.

Even though I don't know you in person, I still want to express my greatest condolences at the news of Lauda's sudden death. May  Lauda rest in peace, thank you for all the help you gave for this forum, you will never be forgotten.

You will be missed forever and always. The good knowledge, information, reputation, kindness, and guidance you shared with us will always speak of a great person that you were. Rest in peace!

Not easy to tell if you have a fucked up sense of humour or just shitposting... looking at your post history I think I'd go with the latter.

What's the problem? I am just giving my condolences to one of the reputable members of the forum.

I request that persons posting to this topic avoid flame-warring.  Thank you.

---

Lauda’s personality was quite different than mine.

One of my principal criticisms of her was that I think that she was too kind and gentle.  Yes, seriously.

One of her principal criticisms of me was the approximate inverse of that.  Not that she thought I was wrong; to the contrary.  As to the many fights that I tend to get into, she usually (not always) thought that I was in the right.  Nonetheless, she feared that the stress of conflict, hostility, anger, and negativity would be injurious to me.  She was worried about me.

This is actually one of the reasons why I suspect that she was female.  She engaged in conflict only because she was courageous, and she would stand up for right over wrong—if necessary.  She was strong—willful—but she disliked conflict.  There was a peculiarly feminine quality to her attitude about that.

Perforce, I don’t see it the same way.  I am unmoved by conflict.  It does not distress me emotionally.  The only question to me is if it’s a waste of my time.

This is her thread.  I know that she would not want fighting here.  I request that this thread be kept the way that she would want it.  It is about her.

Lauda is not dead, she just locked up her account.

I'm not saying I predicted it, but my shitposts of catpics on the Wall to end all Walls sometimes also signal to people who may be reading or are discussing forum celebrities in the shadows and men's clubs.
The lives of clever women often turn out like this. They have a great if feisty first career, then they find a decent chap (one hopes), they wander off and they mellow. They come back to the office to try it out and to mend a few bridges when they see which way the wind has blown, but their hearts isn't in it, and people just mannishly say 'oh she's mellowed, she's finally hooked up with theymos'.
There was always much more to Lauda than this eye could see, and I wish I had known her at all. She picked her words meticulously.
Anyway I ramble, just popped by to say good luck to all the cat people. I prefer dogs, but dog people - meh.

Ahhhmm, okay okay my bad, I just misunderstood the message lol, sorry for the words, my bad.

Opened a megaspam drama thread, got herself banned and now nullius can spam the shit out of this forum forever with cat photos.

We got her point, I think it is time to lock this thread.

I just noticed this thread... I usually try to stay away from emotional farewell-like threads, but in this case i'd like to make an exception since Lauda's choice of words leads me to believe he/she is still lurking anonymously, and i truly hope he/she gets some closure from reading the posts in this thread.

I have had some minor communication with Lauda over the years, and during the exchange of PM's I always perceived Lauda as an honest, caring person with high regards to his/her privacy. Upon his/her request, I've always deleted any PM we exchanged, every key used, every txid sent in any form and I truely hope the other members he/she had dealings with did the same (if requested) so he/she at least has the piece of mind no other identifying information might be floating around. I find it odd that somebody apparently got the drop on him/her, but i guess everybody makes mistakes sooner or later.

Eventough i didn't have the honour of being a member of the cult of Lauda, I truely respect this member, and i think him/her leaving this forum is a sad event.

I think I know what you meant, in reference to the persona not the person but yea the kind of opps I might make or hope not to.   Goodbye world I was just thinking is an opposite bookend to Hello world type programs we used to wrote on early computers in flashing ascii repeating text most impressively.   This forum is just one corner of the internet so I just take it they moved on.   I got 17k posts on other forums, a few ones I used to be on every day now I dont, just the way it goes.    Here there are some security issues hence a formal end perhaps.

This is a sad phase for those who can evaluate how hard it is for you to make this decision. However, I am privilege to have work with you once before these day through the Covid19 victim support project organized by Royse777 and I respect and honor the way you positively affected the life of many users this forum .

adiós, amigo


A piece of advice. Always read to understand the ongoing conversation of thread that consists of alot of forum DT/high ranking posts or else you might get yourself into trouble next time.

[This space is to be edited with some brief first-week statistics (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55417107#msg55417107).]


...and nobody’s (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5226757.msg55436037#post_i_am_nobody) photo ID is doxed somewhere here (https://thispersondoesnotexist.com/)...


I think that Lauda must have had a kitty robot to herd cat photos to her realm.  (Or a catbat catbot?)  Queen of Cats. 😺

Now, I will apply the Zen of Nullianity to thiscatdoesnotexist.com (https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/).  Why, it is a conspiracy of a generative adversarial network (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_adversarial_network) of nonexistent cats!

Quote from: Lauda on October 19, 2020, 05:29:24 AM

After this post, "Lauda" will cease to exist.

https://i.imgur.com/xWnfYhp.jpg

Quote from: nullius on October 19, 2020, 05:33:38 AM

The nature of Lauda’s existence is now a problem more baffling to the human mind than Schrödinger’s cat.

The infinite nonexistent cats are unbounded!^*

https://bitcointalk.org/useravatars/avatar_976210.png

* Not really unbounded, much less infinite.  I wax poetical.  A paper on the theoretical upper bound of nonexistent cats would be most intriguing. 🐱

Here are 0x10 other cats who do not exist:

	https://i.imgur.com/2Iw4xCD.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/ShCxfLu.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/xhTepfI.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/0JF8P5Y.jpg
	https://i.imgur.com/tSpKcer.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/F67cCc9.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/h0xuZcp.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/A0DZ32A.jpg
	https://i.imgur.com/ZtcliBw.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/mArwLS2.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/utEdWE1.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/S1aFAqz.jpg
	https://i.imgur.com/4LKFAZX.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/VMGQ0hw.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/xxmBwK4.jpg	https://i.imgur.com/p29bM5u.jpg

Quote from: Last of the V8s on October 26, 2020, 10:02:49 AM

Anyway I ramble, just popped by to say good luck to all the cat people. I prefer dogs, but dog people - meh.

What about lone wolves?

Quote from: nullius on February 20, 2020, 04:29:03 PM

So as for cats and lone wolves.

I will admit that Lauda converted me to be a cat wolf. 😸

---

Quote from: mindrust on October 26, 2020, 12:05:42 PM

Opened a megaspam drama thread, got herself banned

A nocoiner wants to backstab Lauda in this thread, just to stir otherwise nonexistent drama here.  OK.  —LOLWUT, “drama”?  On the Internet, that usually means flamewars.  Whereas this thread has been almost unanimously positive!  Most of the people who have long-term grudges against Lauda have just ignored it, as you are also free to do.  Aside from some blatant trolling that was deleted by the moderators, and a few backhanded compliments, the only naysayer here is you.

This nonexistent cat disdains your opinion:
https://i.imgur.com/Z8gCCHH.jpg

Quote from: mindrust on October 26, 2020, 12:05:42 PM

and now nullius can spam the shit out of this forum forever with cat photos.

Hey, did you not know that the Internet was invented for the purpose of cat photos (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cute_cat_theory_of_digital_activism)? 😹

Quote from: mindrust on October 26, 2020, 12:05:42 PM

We got her point, I think it is time to lock this thread.

First of all, Lauda has been gone for all of one week (!).

For the newcomers here:  Back in the day, I was caught up in the maelstrom of a thread attacking Lauda, which reached 24 pages within its first week—and just kept going...  For only one example.  Some of those threads were not locked until a certain topic starter eventually made peace with Lauda.  Some were never locked at all.  I don’t think that any of them were mod-locked—though I am not sure who locked some of the threads specifically pertaining to forum issues.

This grumpy kitty does not exist:
https://i.imgur.com/YCN7dpx.jpg

A thread with some positive talk about Lauda sort of balances out the hundreds (maybe thousands?) of pages of forum threads attacking her over the years.  😾  It is as if the universe is bringing itself to order.

Zeroth of all, I do not think that this thread should be locked at all; and it probably won’t be.  Why would the forum admins and staff do that?  They liked Lauda well enough, despite some occasional problems with her. ;-)  And it is a (generally) shining example of a drama-free positive discussion, without personal attacks.  Amazing for the Reputation forum!

---

Lauda has been gone for seven days, after having been a forum fixture for seven years.  Some people are just now noticing this—

Quote from: mocacinno on October 26, 2020, 01:43:50 PM

I just noticed this thread...

—some still haven’t.  I myself do not intend to bump it every single day for the rest of eternity.  These things tend to run a certain course; it will probably wind down eventually, then get bumped again, then wind down again, and so forth...  There is no reason other than sheer spite for Lauda to pop up suddenly demanding that people stop talking about her, on her own final thread.

But if you really want, please feel free to create a meta reeeee thread bringing to the administration’s attention the dire threat to the forum of nullius coping with his grief by spamming cat photos in Lauda’s goodbye thread. 😼

Just PM me a link, so that I can fairly reply.  I’m not following much on the forum now.  Kitty gone—Nully mourning. 😿

---

---

Quote from: mocacinno on October 26, 2020, 01:43:50 PM

I just noticed this thread... I usually try to stay away from emotional farewell-like threads, but in this case i'd like to make an exception since Lauda's choice of words leads me to believe he/she is still lurking anonymously, and i truly hope he/she gets some closure from reading the posts in this thread.

Thank you.  I would not assume that she is reading.  I dearly hope that she is!  Her last communication to me was even more forceful than OP here in expressing a desire for a clean break.  🙀  But I hope that she is seeing this.

I know that she would appreciate the kind words of a tech/SE legendary with serious Bitcoin/LN skills.

Quote from: mocacinno on October 26, 2020, 01:43:50 PM

I have had some minor communication with Lauda over the years, and during the exchange of PM's I always perceived Lauda as an honest, caring person with high regards to his/her privacy. Upon his/her request, I've always deleted any PM we exchanged, every key used, every txid sent in any form and I truely hope the other members he/she had dealings with did the same (if requested) so he/she at least has the piece of mind no other identifying information might be floating around.

Thank you for your respect for privacy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284102.0).  It is meritorious. 😻

I myself always kept things purged, as you noted; and a week ago, I securely (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55434536#msg55434536) deleted... such other Lauda-related stuff (except for cat photos ;-)... as may have remained.

Quote from: nullius on October 23, 2020, 02:00:41 AM

A cypherpunk goodbye, and goodbye for real.

I have no idea if she is watching this or not.  I hope so. :-/

Quote from: mocacinno on October 26, 2020, 01:43:50 PM

I find it odd that somebody apparently got the drop on him/her, but i guess everybody makes mistakes sooner or later.

She was indeed quite careful.  I don’t know what all that was about; but even in the cloak-and-dagger worst-case hypothetical scenario, in the small probability that somebody were to find me and to give me the proverbial “drug him and beat him with a $5 wrench” treatment, I could not say even if she was really male or female—let alone any useful information about her.  Now, that’s opsec!  A policy of information on a “need to know” basis protects everybody.

---

Quote from: mocacinno on October 26, 2020, 01:43:50 PM

Eventough i didn't have the honour of being a member of the cult of Lauda, I truely respect this member, and i think him/her leaving this forum is a sad event.

A generative adversarial network of nonexistent cats thanks you and salutes you:

https://i.imgur.com/7kKHMp7.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/PbRE6o1.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mIiyA3z.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LC9dZjh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/9Cxp0wX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZD87LtZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/i25XjYG.jpg

---

Edit 0: More more nonexistent cat photos!

You reverted to a full Vispilio here.

First of all, my investment decisions has nothing to do with this.

Second of all, I don't have to make this public but I am not a no-coiner since a while. I may or may not become one again in the future and that's none of your business because I am not making my investment decisions public anymore.

I didn't expect a retarded response like this from someone smart like you. Maybe the rumors were not completely true.


I have no grudges against Lauda. If you are implying me, you are making things up. I like her (not as much as I used to though) even after it was found that she was a plagiarist or a bought account. I like what she did to the scammers but in the end she un-did most of it with that latest shit. You just don't play police when you are not the cleanest bloke out there. Remember Bill Gator (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=370611)? He was a hero too... once. Maybe he still is but the fact is clear that he was a bought account.


I am not nay-saying. I made an observation. And you just spammed more cats to prove me right. Good job. I don't know why you are so mad at everybody lately.


Now you are becoming boring.


So?


I know It is not going to get locked. That's exactly my point. Now the creator of the topic got herself banned, it will go forever 10000 pages of cat photos. Maybe it will be a good source for those who like cats. I could ignore the topic maybe I was going to but your stupid ass response made me post this now. :(


I would have had different opinions on lauda if she wasn't found to be a plagiarist... I asked her in a PM what's all this shit about. Of course she gave the same answer which she gave everybody... "It is too complicated for the forum members to understand bla bla bla." Well... If it is that complicated and she refuses and make it un-complicated, then we address the situation with whatever information we got in hand.


Whatever. The next stupid answer I get from you will make me ignore you forever. So think well before quoting me next time.

God, I remember those days. I never ended up playing with/against you, but I definitely had quite a few games with Lauda myself. Crazy how that was around 4 years ago now.

---

Was a pleasure to have known you. Best of luck in the future!

I do hope this isn't related to anything serious or life threatening.

Several years ago, I might have been more sad than I am now seeing Lauda go.. unfortunately, I can't say I share all of those same feelings today.
I guess I've got mixed feelings.. and they all aren't really worth getting into here because, well, he's gone.

Nonetheless, good luck with life. I'll catch you on the flip side. ;)

Ya, those were fun times. I always thought Lauda was a friendly, even when he got caught trying to blackmail someone as retaliation for supporting NastyFans which cost him his job here or when he pulled an escrow scam with MJ and Blazed (obvious scam, but they will tell you they just mismanaged it by lying about holding funds on an exchange and releasing escrow without client consent). I think Lauda was probably a good person deep down somewhere, but became obsessed with the idea that he could profit by justifying scams with technicalities while tormenting others online and getting away with it. Considering his hasty exit, it appears that could only last so long.

You have been working here over the years for the development of this forum. Basically i will remember you for your honesty and sincerity for this forum. Your contribution to keep this Forum from cheater free will never be ignored, everyone will remember you. I pray GOD will keep you safe and sound where you stay. Thank you.  :( :( :(

Basically as Quickseller once said "They've "moved on (http://archive.fo/W9BlF#selection-1279.0-1279.12)"


 ::)

Don't let the door slam you on the ass on your way out.

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/16/blobb7a4de6e5b9f21dd.jpeg

 8)  :-*  ;D

I probably should have mentioned this earlier.  For the sacred scrolls:


In the manner of confirmed science!!, Lauda confessed that she used witchcraft to create Covid (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5237225.0):




/me loves the “generative model” that “produces cat-shaped objects more often”. 😼

Protip:  If nullius drops a Youtube link, it is probably not stupid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCKbRCUyop8

---

---

Quote from: Timelord2067 on October 29, 2020, 02:15:39 AM

Quote

nullius u=976210 and Meretrix u=1935564 are alts

Thanks, Sherlock Holmes (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284093.msg55446099#msg55446099), for proving affirmatively that I did not plagiarize the “IFO... better than an ICO” thing I blatantly copied and pasted into post #3 on this thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55423552#msg55423552).  (The original is also quoted by me in Post #116 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55423552#msg55423552).)

I abandoned that alt out of concern that some people may misinterpret my openly acknowledged literary sockpuppet show, and try to twist it into some sort of wrongdoing one way or another.  People such as yourself.  Next time I want to write fiction in a first-person voice, I will do it in a more customary way.  (And if ever again I make an alt, you will never find it.)

Quote from: Timelord2067 on October 29, 2020, 02:15:39 AM

[—unaccountably obsessing over my DT status, as if it were my purpose here—not for the first time (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=4522351.msg54783474#msg54783474)—]

OK (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5283836.msg55439176#msg55439176)

---

Back on topic:

---

A nonexistent cat seeks Lauda:
https://i.imgur.com/tWA1DkS.jpg

It’s amazing that these things have such personality.  Kitty AI waves magic wand, Nully gets more nullcats (https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/)!

https://i.imgur.com/s8CIfSI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yxkDr7p.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/a1WN0q3.jpg

Many of them have quite visible flaws when viewed full-sized.  This one zero is almost perfect; it is my current un-nominee for the title of “Lauda unreborn”:

https://i.imgur.com/6Lw3e9m.jpg

/me sleeps.

Undoubtedly, Lauda was one of the highly prominent spam destructive creature on this forum and maybe, on Mother Earth too. She used her powers for the better of both, the forum and the members who were once spammers and helped them change their mentality and become a good member of the community. No one is a born spammer and so, no one has the quality to lead people since their birth and Lauda dedicated almost every minute of her life to forum (I don't remember when did I see her last seen to be any different than the then current forum time). But with good, comes bad. She was accused enough of misusing her powers and was even cursed. Anyway, great job done till date by you Lauda, we will always love you and remember you in all our moments here, GrumpyKitty. :)

---

Oh and I thought nullius was retired. Btw retired from what? The forum? Or the dramas that are annoying you?

Indeed.  And in addition to her uncompromising stand for Bitcoin, that was what caught my attention.

I remarked somewhere a few times, her persona was a dead ringer for a major character in the 90s spam wars (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3180215.0), with which I had a very minor brush.  (Not linking, in case I said too much.  It is improbable, but it would be an awful coincidence.)  That was a hell of a rough-and-tumble.  A few spamfighters who tried to stay anonymous got doxed (hereby using that word anachronistically; the word “dox” had not yet been coined).  One of the spamfighters who posted to n.a.n.a.e. under his real name received elaborate death threats; he responded with some casually piquant public musings on his homestead acreage in rural Colorado, his access to a backhoe, and his idle curiosity about whether or not his chainsaw would do in reality what chainsaws sometimes do in the movies.  Oh, what a world...


It is true, she was what I tend to call softhearted (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55454334#msg55454334).  No doubt, she helped some people who were just clueless, but not really malicious, to find a better path.  That’s a win-win.

Quite apart from spam, it was Lauda’s propensity to forgive when reasonable that led, from her side, to the forum’s most epic peace (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5224240.0) with a legendary who has good technical skills and, from his side, a sense of decency.

---

Quote from: 2double0 on October 30, 2020, 10:02:24 AM

Oh and I thought nullius was retired. Btw retired from what? The forum? Or the dramas that are annoying you?

Both.  But I thought that I made it clear, I am not exactly gone. :-)

Quote from: nullius on October 29, 2020, 12:53:29 AM

I am “retired”, not “as if dead”.  ...and I may otherwise pop up here and there.  Of course, I will still attend my duties to Laudatory Lore (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5226757.msg55436037#post_prophet) as needed.  I am just winding down my forum involvement. ...I still exist...

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mzuOTOaEM0A/Xe-3cjvz4CI/AAAAAAAAA0w/ZncjYHnAr9UQttrpqQ6cHyWLY04NhUSPACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/VB1001_big.jpg

Sad news, today I saw in a post that you had left the forum, whatever the reason, I wish you good luck and I hope to see you again on WO, my cat will be happy for your return.

I don't know what happened to you. But IMO to leave isn't the solution, instead just leaving a big question to all members. Being a big person like you isn't an easy thing, however you should understand the consequences from the very beginning. Each person has a good side and a bad side together, it is normal and undebatable. I know you have already done many right things for this forum although sometimes you did controversial things. But you know what? A person like me never thinks it is a disaster, instead a normal thing that may happen to anyone. What's the point? There are always people who support you and people to hate you anytime. We cannot avoid it as not all people can be satisfied with everything we did. You should know that sometimes we need a feeling of no cares for others, because only that way can be proper to fix it.

I beg your pardon of these unnecessary sentences, but I think I should tell you although you'd read it or not.

Thanks..

So I can present at least 2 of them immediately -> qwk  (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=24140)and 1miau (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2143453)  8)
Maybe there are some other users in this thread who fit your description: [ANN] Catcoin - 0.9.3.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1118569)

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1365/2497/products/tin-foil-hat-for-cats_800x.jpg

Just reading the OP, i feel a highly spirited persona to have had hands touched tho words contained in those carefully considered phrases. Of course, I'm familiar with the user Lauda as a forum user from the up to standard posts/guides left behind but then, never got a chance for an interaction but, this would do as it gives a light into a courageous soul which have theind to live the forum after having a satisfaction that all work has been done to completion and have handed over to other users who share the same values his way of getting by.

I never thought any one with a ranked up account would be courageous enough to live but here you go without any prior issue to say farewell to the good users of this forum in a rather majestic way with no intent of coming back or enjoy any benefit that comes from a ranked up account. Even in your shadow existence now, you still choose to preserve the forum by eliminating all possibility of a supposed impersonation. I salute you and I say, farewell great Lauda.

After I returned to the forum in 2020, I found that Lauda had made a few witchcraft allusions when I was gone; but until a few days ago, I had not seen this Laudatory remembrance of my satirical encomium to her (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5095592.msg49162977#msg49162977):


I will never forget her, either.

On Friday the 13th, I saw some magic (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg55580648#msg55580648):

---

Thirty days.  Time to refresh my signature.  Goodbye, Kitty. 😼

Since Lauda left the forum, we see some bullish trend in the bitcoin price.

We miss Lauda in this bull run  :(

Why are we still talking about Lauda?.. why not sing..?  
Ya know, for full effect... The Irish Rovers.. Lauda I hardly knew ye (https://youtu.be/OkpiwHo0Po0).

While goin' the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to sweet Athy, hurroo, hurroo
While goin' the road to sweet Athy
A stick in me hand and a drop in me eye
A doleful damsel I heard cry,
Lauda I hardly knew ye.

[chorus]
With your drums and guns and guns and drums, hurroo, hurroo
With your drums and guns and guns and drums, hurroo, hurroo
With your drums and guns and guns and drums
The enemy nearly slew ye
Oh darling dear, Ye look so queer
Lauda I hardly knew ye.
[/chorus]

Where are the eyes that looked so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the eyes that looked so mild, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the eyes that looked so mild
When my poor heart you first beguiled
Why did ye run from me and the child
Lauda, I hardly knew ye.


[chorus]

Where are the legs with which you run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the legs with which you run, hurroo, hurroo
Where are the legs with which you run
When first you went to carry a gun
Indeed your dancing days are done
Lauda, I hardly knew ye.


[chorus]

Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg, hurroo, hurroo
Ye haven't an arm, ye haven't a leg
Ye're an armless, boneless, chickenless egg
Ye'll have to be left with a bowl to beg
Lauda I hardly knew ye.

----

OK.. I must stop here.  ;D

Lauda, congrats on taking the 4th most recognized (https://bpip.org) place postforumulously - well deserved in my opinion!

Shouldn't that read regaining the 4th place?  Given that's where they were the day of their announcement.  Quite an achievement indeed.


Screen shot taken just now:

https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/16/blob3c5b6aee2659fac5.jpeg

I estimate I'll overtake Lauda's most active rank in about August 2021 with a rank of about 98.  (At that time Lauda's rank I estimate will be about 8 with their most active score dragging them down, but recent meriting of Lauda might keep their score up a rank or two)

You are right!  This is a missing dataset; LoyceV is probably compiling the records right now!   In the meantime, I followed Theymos' template and present
The official top 4 recognized people in bitcointalk statistic thread! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5299217.0)

If BPIP kept a note of the top score a user has had in each ranking, then we could see the best scores users have had (I topped most reconised at rank 30 (https://archive.vn/mdxSv#selection-376.0-387.2) on the 3^rd of February 2020  ;D )

Lauda's merit circle score is now 111^th (it *was* 99 on the 6th of May 2020 (https://archive.vn/jr13F#selection-835.0-835.2)) and will probably slip more as other users merit old posts of theirs.

I don't post much but have appreciated years of reading you. You will be missed.

All kitties deserve a good afterlife may yours be long and prosperous   =^.^=

Highly active posters are only the tip of the iceberg.  Most of the forum’s real readership is probably from lurkers and rarely-active members.

What you say resonates:  I knew Lauda’s reputation before I even registered.  From experience, and from the odds, I have wondered how many people are saddened by this thread, but don’t even have a forum account—and don’t want one.

Bitcoin Forum > Other > Serious discussion > What are we wasting our Lives on?

Thanks for your post.

---

Sixty days, no Kitty (https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/), words null.

To become a real Legend, one has to die.

Yeah but there is plenty of time for dying...later





Thank you nullius

Happy New Year Lauda.
Once again on the new year, it feels hard to believe that we will begin 2021 without Lauda  :(

Lauda has died.

Lauda committed suicide.  But Lauda prepared us first by warning any resurrection would be fake.  

Lauda will never return; there is no need to worship.  But we can keep the cat alive by continuing to fight scammers.  

LONG LIVE (the spirit of) LAUDA!

 “Remember who you are, what you are and who you represent”

You most certainly did represent the true value of the community! Farewell!

https://i.imgur.com/5jb3IyN.jpg

You seem so sure about that; I am not.  Lauda seemed to have so much personally invested in this forum that I find it hard to believe he won't return, even if it's with an alt account. 

And yeah, I could be completely wrong.  Perhaps Lauda knew when to give up and that the community (including quite a few DT members) had turned against him, and that it was a pointless battle to fight.  But man, when Lauda used to take long breaks from the forum, it would get very boring--kind of like TMAN and his absences.  Wonder where he went off to?

https://i.imgur.com/oURq0Fe.png

Lauda will never return here.

Lauda is dead - Lauda cannot come back.

It's irrelevant and pointless to wonder if they are back under other accounts.  With the bitcoin experience that person has, they will probably use it.  No doubt the person that operated the Lauda account is reading this - but Lauda will never return. 

are you sick or sniffing hard drugs ?
what lauda invested?

Tman is dead ( дa бyдeт зeмля eмy cтeклoвaтoй )

Long live our feline friend, shame she felt that she had to leave. So many hours & so much effort put into this forum now consigned to the history books.

Meow old friend, Meow.

Hmmmm...

Brand new user lauding Lauda... I don't think so...

Instead of reaching for the smelling salts people should be reminded that plagerism is a banable offence, so if any alt of Lauda were to be exposed, then that would be ban evasion.

QED.

A person like lauda probably already has alts. Maybe they mentioned it elsewhere. I too doubt he will be gone forever, or maybe will return at some point perhaps under a new account that he may or may not announce and may just be discovered by someone. I think for most who make money from this forum it is too lucrative just to abandon without good reasons, unless you already maybe made megabucks and just decide to sail off into the sunset, but either way why still walk away from that when you can earn a decent amount from here without too much effort and it's something you can do anywhere in the world either in your mom's basement or on a beach in Bali as long as you've got an internet connection.


If Phinneaus Gage's account can come back from the dead (though obviously not literally himself) then I'd never say never to Lauda reappearing if he hasn't already. I think it would be harder to spot him that certain other people though and if you're overly cautious you could probably remain anon here.

https://i.imgur.com/cDUiWVG.png Mike Pompeo

Mr Secretary of State of the United States, I think this will amuse you.  It is approximately reconstructed from memory, since Lauda made me wipe all of our e-mails before she left:

Nobody:  [Extended rant about Trump’s abysmal lack of character, and how he breaks his most important promises.]

Catbat Witch:  I like Trump.  He’s funny.

Nobody:  I like Trump’s tweets, too.  The problem is that he doesn’t mean what he says.

Catbat Witch:  No, I like Trump.

Nobody:  Hiss.

Catbat Witch:  Meow.

This is especially significant because the two of us always bonded over our mutual anti-Americanism (mine admittedly much more extreme than hers).  It is impressive that any American president could win her approval!  As such, Trump did deliver on his promise to Make America Great.  (I will omit the “Again”, which begs the question of past greatness.)

Meow to you, too, Mr Secretary Pompeo.

---

Correct.

---

It is a good aphorism.

---

Thank you all.

---

Vod is correct.  Lauda is gone, and will not return.  And no, she does not have alts here.

I am morally certain of this, based on the substance and substantial vehemence of our discussion when she left.  And Lauda keeps her word; if she says she’s gone, she’s gone.  Furthermore, what is this conceit that an Internet forum is so important that people must be irresistibly drawn back to it?  Some people have real lives.  If you cannot imagine anybody ever leaving the forum permanently, it says more about you than about others.

But if you want to go down some deeper rabbit holes, here is a bombshell insider leak for you:  Lauda was an alt of Quickseller.  The epic little quarrel-and-make-up routine was simply disinformation, so that you would never guess.  The Lauda identity was deactivated because Qs is Trump’s secret anon forum account; and as the election approached, he had to wind up identities that were taking too much time to maintain.

PROOF:  The U.S. Secretary of State just posted to Lauda’s goodbye thread under his real name, as verified by a blue checkmark!  https://i.imgur.com/cDUiWVG.png  And “Quickseller” begins with the letter Q.  Q.E.D.  What more proof do you need?  Lauda, a.k.a. Quickseller, a.k.a. Donald J. Trump is still here, and he always will be.

---

Quote from: hilariousetc on January 11, 2021, 03:02:09 PM

If Phinneaus Gage's account can come back from the dead (though obviously not literally himself) then I'd never say never to Lauda reappearing if he hasn't already.

What an awkward comparison.  Well, I will follow it one step further.

When you called out that individual for having tried to sell account(s), I thought that it was an ugly but necessary public warning that should be done without regard to emotions.  Now, instead of repeatedly (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55408652#msg55408652) posting authoritative-sounding misinformation (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55409366#msg55409366) and conspiracy theories about someone whom you obviously didn’t know at all, why don’t you commend Lauda for burning her extremely valuable account instead of selling it?  After all, to condemn wrong without recognizing right is just pure negativity.

In monetary terms, Lauda’s account was orders of magnitude more valuable than the GG account.  There are people here who would have trusted Lauda’s word of honour with more BTC than I have ever seen in one place.  It is exactly why she was so adamant that her identity must be killed with finality—and why, as a lasting service to her, I am on guard against any faulty thinking that may lead to rumours that Lauda is back as so-and-so.  It would be the perfect setup for a scam!  —No, Lauda is gone, and she will not be back here.

Emphasis is in the original:

Quote from: Lauda on October 19, 2020, 05:29:24 AM

I do not want any chance of an impersonation scam in a name that many people trust.

Over the years people have even trusted "Lauda" with different sums of Bitcoin. I have one of the highest name-recognition accounts on the forum. This places on me a responsibility. It is not to feed my strong ego that I say, it is a valuable account with a high reputation - a trust that people place in my unseen body, through the name of "Lauda". If I cease to be "Lauda" then according to my well-known principles, I must affirmatively prevent anybody else from using this name and forum account ever again.

Quote from: nullius on October 19, 2020, 01:29:46 PM

Quote from: hilariousetc on October 19, 2020, 12:36:21 PM

Quote from: nullius on October 19, 2020, 10:35:35 AM

Please, hilarious, let’s not start the rumour-mill.  Do you really want to see Lauda sightings like Elvis Satoshi from now until the next century?

Sure. The speculation will be fun if/when anyone suspects it.

Besides being annoyingly stupid, the speculation could open the way for scams.  Which is exactly what Lauda has hereby so striven to prevent, in case OP wasn’t sufficiently clear.

Life after Retirement.

https://i.imgur.com/JDqs6vJ.png

Let's a picture of your right hand....  you can't say she doesn't swipe at you as you shift...  lol

I found Lauda. He's there, live.. not a cat.
https://youtu.be/KxlPGPupdd8
No clue how these guys kept a straight face.  :D

I wondered where this little bitch went.  I guess when I mentioned on the feedback that he's a gullible retard and probably vulnerable (since he fell for the O_I_L_I_O fake doctor's scam here) someone tried hacked him.  And, unsurprisingly, succeeded.  Didn't thermos give him a commit bit on this forum once?  Lol.

I think it would be a good policy to kill off trust system feedback from an account which has been terminated.  Probably all of them since it would take human effort to weed through ones which an asshole like the dearly departed left simply because of a disagreement rather than as a result of a business transaction.  That would be for the meta board though, and I don't care enough to bother to suggest it.

I think it would be a terrible policy for free speech, so Theymos may grant your proposal.  I don't expect my trust ratings to last once I go.

Firstly, if a guy got his account hacked then the attacker could do a lot of damage with it.

Secondly, a prick like Lauda might eventually have seen the error of his ways and decided that using the trust system to air a grievance about a disagreement with someone about a political, scientific, or social issue was a mistake and he might take it back had he still access to the terminated account.

Of course someone who just walks away from the forum (as most people do eventually) is a different story than someone who's identity and credentials were stolen.

 I think you and hilariousetc both make good points, but we don't know exactly how much he made... Maybe Staking his cryptos offers him better payday than working here did... Also it is was quite cumbersome and tiring to deal with all the issues, also BTC and nearly all of decent crypto has moved out and beyond of this forum (as they shud hv), maybe he is pursuing better opportunities outside of this forum related to crypto itself and being here would be simply time consuming and engaging...

Anyways I wasn't very active lately and saw this just now... Irrespective of the multiple tiffs we had, I do wish that Lauda is happy pursuing whatever he wishes to... But I rarely understand why ppl choose to leave some forum, unless it is a source of inconvenience... An anon account on this forum doesn't really come across as one... But to each his own...

P.S. Is TMAN actually dead or just inactive ?

Best reply so far:

As a cult sacrifice (http://bitcult.faith/) in memory of Lauda, I have irrevocably destroyed one satoshi.  To keep the UTXO set tidy, I used OP_RETURN with a 1 sat value and a message to be seen by all auditors of Bitcoin’s monetary supply.  The transaction is also a puzzle, with a prize of 0.001 BTC at the address bc1qt2mdkehmphggajer3ur3g8l754scj4fdrmw3rn (bitcoin:bc1qt2mdkehmphggajer3ur3g8l754scj4fdrmw3rn).


One zero nibble for each of Kitty’s nine lives!



About the puzzle:  Remember when Bitcoin was fun?  It still is!

Although the creation of this tx took my Satoshi-era CPU way too long (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=175996.msg1834151#msg1834151) grinding, the puzzle does not require any heavy-duty compute power to solve.  Because I am poor, and I have no GPUs (or even adequate CPUs), I would not want to create a puzzle that gives an edge to those who have better hardware.  Bitcoin is for everybody. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5215927.0)  Core keeps it so that you can run a full node on an inexpensive SOC board.  I have made it so that the puzzle can be solved with any computer that could run Bitcoin Core.  Yes, you could solve this on a Raspberry Pi.  GPUs will not help you.


Rather, it is blockchain art—and it is a puzzle of psychology.  To solve it, you need to think like nullius.  It is essentially a Nullian brainwallet!  Since nobody thinks like nullius, I doubt that the puzzle will ever be solved.  Of course, such statements are oftentimes the last words of lusers with brainwallets—right before they lose their money (https://rya.nc/brainflayer).  DO NOT USE BRAINWALLETS!  Always use a secure wallet (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0).


All of the information required to reconstruct the private key is published on the blockchain.  In one short paragraph, I could write natural-language instructions for using this information to reconstruct the private key with standard Bitcoin tools and libraries.  By the standards of cryptographers, the process of creating the private key is quite insecure.  However, there is neither any restriction on the keyspace, nor any computationally exploitable bias in its use; thus, the key itself is not susceptible to bruteforce.

It is a trick wrapped in a riddle wrapped in a meow.  For Kitty.  Because I miss Kitty.  😿


If you solve the puzzle, I would appreciate if you would post here with appropriate proofs that you’re the one who got it, and contact me to let me know how you figured it out; but please keep the solution private.  Be cruel.  Leave everyone in suspense.  It is a special way of hiding information in plain sight, for those who love (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2869862.msg29578547#msg29578547) their privacy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284102.0).  😼

I will give no further hints.  I may give further disinformation to befuddle searchers with false leads.  Lolz.

If the puzzle is unsolved for a very long time, or if this causes idiot-spam on this thread (as I have seen on some other puzzle threads where drooling ignoramuses obsessively search for patterns in random numbers), I reserve the right to end this by sweeping away the prize.  However, I do not want to do that.  The search for the private key controlling this 0.001 BTC is good to keep Lauda’s memory alive.  Naturally, this topic—Lauda’s final thread—is the primary and appropriate venue for discussion of this puzzle.  As much is indicated in the accompanying OP_RETURN.

I wish that I could give more than 0.001 BTC for this, but I cannot afford to.  I expect for that to be worth (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg56530332#msg56530332) at least a thousand dollars someday, or perhaps much more!  I hodl my BTC—every sat is precious—dump, dump, DuPM your dollars (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5323282.0).

Here’s to you, Kitty!  😺

Anyone could feel free to donate if they wanted to at that address?
so that the balance of that account increases somewhat
or this would be a problem

Aww.  There's no way I'm attempting to solve your riddle (I'm not good with standard ones anyway, so a blockchain-based one would require more brainpower than I possess at the moment), but I'm sort of missing Lauda as well.  She/he certainly made the forum spicy, and that spiciness has been noticeably lacking since Lauda disappeared.  Perhaps Lauda will break her/his vow and come back one day, though I'm not gonna hold my breath for that.

Nullius, I'm with you on treasuring every satoshi I own, which doesn't amount to much.  I keep thinking about how much you could get from faucets about 3-4 years ago when people were saying faucets were a complete waste of time....now, it doesn't seem like such a waste, does it?

I see that nullius (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=976210/) is keeping Cult of Lauda alive and well after he became new supreme leader.

In memory of Lauda and all his faithful I created two vanity Lauda addresses and all donations and funds collected there will be used solely for saving cats lives and helping all Lauda Cult veterans dealing with their PTSD.

3LAUDAv3id4CDLC87x6uaR3NjWNRs3NHuP (https://btc.com/3LAUDAv3id4CDLC87x6uaR3NjWNRs3NHuP)
bc1qlaudahydf4axnjalaf9paz94l2lhh3h4qew0wc (https://btc.com/bc1qlaudahydf4axnjalaf9paz94l2lhh3h4qew0wc)

CLM
https://i.imgur.com/tPwQp5J.png
No animals were harmed during the making of this post

You are no doubt correct that after Lauda left, nullius is responsible for all the lost sheep of the cult, but I would not say that he can be called the Supreme Leader. As far as I know, he is only the Great Prophet of the Cult (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5226757.msg53864968#msg53864968). BTW, It's good that you clarified ... while I really appreciate the art, I'm also glad that no cat was harmed during the creation of this unique mural, (the fresco is truly laudivine).

My doxxie*:

https://i.imgur.com/Q3Hc5IK.gif

*. Doxxed by a selfie.

It would be a pleasure to see that happen.

I did not address this before:  If any donations are sent to the puzzle address to increase the prize, I commit that I will move the donated money only if I use it to fund the prize for a new puzzle.

I already have some ideas for new Kitty puzzles.  More customary puzzles, with more hints than “it’s hiding in plain sight” and “think like nullius”.  I am an artistic perfectionist, and I cannot commit to if or when I will get something new made; if there is enough interest in this that someone funds more prize money, that would motivate me to do it.  I also have some other ideas for increased funding for a prize, but nothing definite as of yet.

I am doing this in memory of Lauda, to give people a fun way to play games in her honour.  My incentive, and my only incentive to put and keep my own money up for grabs in the prize is to promote that end.  I want that, so I made the 2021-03-14 puzzle.

If I do something spectacularly special for the puzzles, and someone wants to pay me for it, then I may take an upfront-stated percentage cut and put the rest in the prize pool.  But I will never pilfer for myself any money that others have provided for prizes for puzzles that I made—where I obviously know the secret key.  I must make that absolutely clear.

---

As of 3–4 years ago, I think that many of the “faucet” sites were setting impractically high withdrawal limits so that they could make newbies view ads and solve captchas, but rarely or never pay out.  Some time before that, yes, hitting faucets and then HoDLing may have been worthwhile for somebody.

I know this because in that timeframe, I once tried to use a faucet for privacy purposes.  I had a carefully anonymized UTXO in an amount that needed to be rounded up just a little bit—by not much above the dust limit.  Faucets did not help.

---

This being the Reputation forum, I will hold you to that.  :)

If money is sent to those addresses, please post evidence that the money was sent on to a verifiable cat-related charity, or sent to the prize pool for Official Cult of Lauda puzzles for therapeutic puzzle-solving.  (As stated above, this does not benefit me personally.)

---

A different kind of Catphish

That got me thinking...

As a pre-emptive strike against Lauda vanity address phishing, I generated the following addresses in a relatively short time on the same ancient CPU that took days to make the 2021-03-14 puzzle tx.

The money sent to these addresses will be used for the purpose of personally enriching me, nullius.  Because that’s how phishes usually work; and Lauda is not here to authorize such use of her name.  As a practical matter, I have no way to stop others from doing this.  Therefore, I will dilute the value of it by doing it more.  Such inflation is almost as easy as for banks to make more dollars:  For native Segwit alone, there are 2¹³⁰ Lauda vanity addresses!

If you appreciate the time and effort that I have spent on this forum for free, then consider these to be nullian tip addresses.  Otherwise, do not send money!

LOL, Meow:

bc1qlaudamekjgcrdzp6q353xj0flvc454z3sjvg3d (bitcoin:bc1qlaudamekjgcrdzp6q353xj0flvc454z3sjvg3d)
3LaudaMejyvrMV6Lnm1GGUhx74eSAdyoXb (bitcoin:3LaudaMejyvrMV6Lnm1GGUhx74eSAdyoXb)

Awesome native Segwit:

bc1qlauda0wsvv6wwdd9e8zz3vwtmyzfawprp55kqq (bitcoin:bc1qlauda0wsvv6wwdd9e8zz3vwtmyzfawprp55kqq)
bc1qlauda2g0e06v6h9qed7v5agead4vyl6jengdu5 (bitcoin:bc1qlauda2g0e06v6h9qed7v5agead4vyl6jengdu5)
bc1qlauda2yqfyrva8gxyatmq5eqq42y7r28u8z0j7 (bitcoin:bc1qlauda2yqfyrva8gxyatmq5eqq42y7r28u8z0j7)
bc1qlauda3kma7uy3ge0vmhvurmaat2fvczfds4q0l (bitcoin:bc1qlauda3kma7uy3ge0vmhvurmaat2fvczfds4q0l)
bc1qlauda55kyzvum6tfh8wm48qlhufczzcyerpqt4 (bitcoin:bc1qlauda55kyzvum6tfh8wm48qlhufczzcyerpqt4)
bc1qlauda5xewf5lzkk9n3t6pl08mgzl659uuujcke (bitcoin:bc1qlauda5xewf5lzkk9n3t6pl08mgzl659uuujcke)
bc1qlauda65pztk06ukv4f9zy30m680v34hq57juj8 (bitcoin:bc1qlauda65pztk06ukv4f9zy30m680v34hq57juj8)
bc1qlauda7hwxqvneefuak333t4e4sf7z4nnxl40ah (bitcoin:bc1qlauda7hwxqvneefuak333t4e4sf7z4nnxl40ah)
bc1qlauda9e8eslh5p7lwjuktvtr7dq4rs5x0thn49 (bitcoin:bc1qlauda9e8eslh5p7lwjuktvtr7dq4rs5x0thn49)
bc1qlauda9gyrlc7xt0d2lqm4x8wpaz7dwmku2an25 (bitcoin:bc1qlauda9gyrlc7xt0d2lqm4x8wpaz7dwmku2an25)
bc1qlauda9syuk5wpxkzva27qneulju6turpks35px (bitcoin:bc1qlauda9syuk5wpxkzva27qneulju6turpks35px)
bc1qlaudadyfptjgtlznzemscrl9yadd5edt5568m4 (bitcoin:bc1qlaudadyfptjgtlznzemscrl9yadd5edt5568m4)
bc1qlaudaevv2p7vp0l0xpn0sq6zu4xy9tnsjn08kj (bitcoin:bc1qlaudaevv2p7vp0l0xpn0sq6zu4xy9tnsjn08kj)
bc1qlaudaeyax47myvn2d2r3t9aptt7tks4wulmf0s (bitcoin:bc1qlaudaeyax47myvn2d2r3t9aptt7tks4wulmf0s)
bc1qlaudaf0kg2tnh93j8ey093y87h3p7t4pz3hyz7 (bitcoin:bc1qlaudaf0kg2tnh93j8ey093y87h3p7t4pz3hyz7)
bc1qlaudafgqzvp5zlaqhgfdrrdnvadjrjcfpwvt5e (bitcoin:bc1qlaudafgqzvp5zlaqhgfdrrdnvadjrjcfpwvt5e)
bc1qlaudakv9c9w45nlsuf3qw8nx4jz7d43805vnrd (bitcoin:bc1qlaudakv9c9w45nlsuf3qw8nx4jz7d43805vnrd)
bc1qlaudalrxzptvqga8sa9hxnj9k3jjw6f2w826cc (bitcoin:bc1qlaudalrxzptvqga8sa9hxnj9k3jjw6f2w826cc)
bc1qlaudamqqj8xaewvrh5kz3ymhr7cwqzrrex3tr7 (bitcoin:bc1qlaudamqqj8xaewvrh5kz3ymhr7cwqzrrex3tr7)
bc1qlaudanhp4x5jcsthtay8etqdlptc8s9nexjwjd (bitcoin:bc1qlaudanhp4x5jcsthtay8etqdlptc8s9nexjwjd)
bc1qlaudanyt2x4zc4egyzw5vd58ssp59jf53t2vn8 (bitcoin:bc1qlaudanyt2x4zc4egyzw5vd58ssp59jf53t2vn8)
bc1qlaudarfggg59jeg4l3clhteynh7cpa205kcmhe (bitcoin:bc1qlaudarfggg59jeg4l3clhteynh7cpa205kcmhe)
bc1qlaudascsgmvu0lu4yhyeudruyl53rw9kph7yul (bitcoin:bc1qlaudascsgmvu0lu4yhyeudruyl53rw9kph7yul)
bc1qlaudaswtncklhw6vemkzhrkys6znsq6wrhk6xp (bitcoin:bc1qlaudaswtncklhw6vemkzhrkys6znsq6wrhk6xp)
bc1qlaudavk0yjr24l9vunrlynh4fad5lhjc3dqu0j (bitcoin:bc1qlaudavk0yjr24l9vunrlynh4fad5lhjc3dqu0j)
bc1qlaudavnqz3rzlg70srcekwgq4cp4yyc94wde24 (bitcoin:bc1qlaudavnqz3rzlg70srcekwgq4cp4yyc94wde24)
bc1qlaudavxuzz255uvv97q5te3qhk5seygz99s28e (bitcoin:bc1qlaudavxuzz255uvv97q5te3qhk5seygz99s28e)
bc1qlaudaw9qh9p70tjng9680tx6mjl3upznhj6jzk (bitcoin:bc1qlaudaw9qh9p70tjng9680tx6mjl3upznhj6jzk)
bc1qlaudawsaeg2wmwef8q8zgsg2ej3k5l0lxg9zyy (bitcoin:bc1qlaudawsaeg2wmwef8q8zgsg2ej3k5l0lxg9zyy)
bc1qlaudaztnwwrhhqnzu83j6sp0wg2q96qlnp0udm (bitcoin:bc1qlaudaztnwwrhhqnzu83j6sp0wg2q96qlnp0udm)

Obsolete nested addresses, for receiving money from n00bs who don’t know how to choose a good wallet (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1631151.0):

3LAUDAenR4LYZ9MR5Q4wt9AC5WFNmMenJ2 (bitcoin:3LAUDAenR4LYZ9MR5Q4wt9AC5WFNmMenJ2)
3LAUDA2RukXRiAHskR7kLUENjqjaNzPf7H (bitcoin:3LAUDA2RukXRiAHskR7kLUENjqjaNzPf7H)
3LaudaAGhnVcUcDKHJQsH8iNvZ9szE8fUE (bitcoin:3LaudaAGhnVcUcDKHJQsH8iNvZ9szE8fUE)
3LaudaNGf1QZCMK5GQzDvDfYVbbTiKXG13 (bitcoin:3LaudaNGf1QZCMK5GQzDvDfYVbbTiKXG13)
3Laudanu3r17xupp2qPUWfFAoEaqumxzwR (bitcoin:3Laudanu3r17xupp2qPUWfFAoEaqumxzwR)
3Lauda8HoacSKZEsmFkXxNwQ6eeunTJhtc (bitcoin:3Lauda8HoacSKZEsmFkXxNwQ6eeunTJhtc)
3LaudaH2Y3tpJyzTpbQjLquxMfHtx7pEme (bitcoin:3LaudaH2Y3tpJyzTpbQjLquxMfHtx7pEme)
3LaudaBU5RYbHxDbrX7xdvnvRDUSbofFGU (bitcoin:3LaudaBU5RYbHxDbrX7xdvnvRDUSbofFGU)
3LaudaH34dsYzSSKXCvuNQKBykAhmTg5Pr (bitcoin:3LaudaH34dsYzSSKXCvuNQKBykAhmTg5Pr)
...

---

Quote from: icopress on March 24, 2021, 10:12:07 AM

You are no doubt correct that after Lauda left, nullius is responsible for all the lost sheep of the cult, but I would not say that he can be called the Supreme Leader. As far as I know, he is only the Great Prophet of the Cult (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5226757.msg53864968#msg53864968).

No, my title is the Grand Prophet!  Cult leaders are fussy about titles—even the NULL non-leaders of nonexistent cults.  :-)

---

Quote from: Cryptotourist on March 25, 2021, 07:53:54 AM

Quote from: icopress on March 24, 2021, 10:12:07 AM

You are no doubt correct that after Lauda left, nullius is responsible for all the lost sheep of the cult, ~

My doxxie*:

https://i.imgur.com/Q3Hc5IK.gif

*. Doxxed by a selfie.

The magical result:

https://i.imgur.com/AWOAsO7.png

This image took me way too long
to get pixel-perfect.
I should make of it an NFT.

Please note that private keys for that two addresses can be found in public (like it should with all Lauda related matters)
and that anyone who has the speed and the vision of the cat can use that funds for their own personal pleasure or even for building giant Cat ashram in Croatia.

In case it was another puzzle, I did give a quick look at your graphic (beneath the surface) before I posted.  I didn’t see anything, and the addresses have no funds and no past transactions; so I did not look further.

Electrum signatures:


😼


:o

 ???
Has anyone think that the owner of the account was ill and just left this message that the cat quitted? but actually died? (random thoughts - not so bad I think  :P)
Oh I just missed having a cat here as well as the crazy old guy named TMAN.
(Even JetCash now is too quiet... Only the Vixens are doing some vibrant noises)

man, I think I'm growing old here...

Added Curse: +29
Catmify 2222

Shocked to see Lauda vanish like this I wish you all the best in your future ventures you will be missed by many!

Now lets crack this puzzle!

 :)

Can anyone say what happened to her? Is she alive? I can see Goodbye, World message in her Btt profile. Does anyone really know her in this forum?

I also had this thought, and many others.  Some of the things that she said seemed to hint in that direction; but it was all so vague, and I could be seeing nonexistent hints through the lens of my own worries.  I can only hope that she is alive and well—somewhere out there.

This cypherpunk anonymity thing has its downsides.  I also hope that Satoshi is alive and well...  Such is the nature of life in the nym zone.


Oh, noes!  I had thought myself safe from catmification curses after the Catbat Witch made herself disappear.  But the lingering echoes of her magic still enthrall me.

---

Any luck thus far?  :)

---

No.  And anyone who claims to is lying.


Unknown and unknowable.


No.  And anyone who claims to is lying.  I myself knew her just well enough to be sure of that.  I still don’t even know if she was a “she”.

She did reveal to me that her first name is “Laura”, she literally is a cat, she knows real witchcraft, and she is married to the Terminator (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55410423#msg55410423).  As proof, I have Lauda KYC dox signed with a pawprint.  Beyond that, she is as mysterious as Satoshi.

Let me explain it.

Lauda was a forum account.  Lauda committed "suicide" by making it impossible for him to access this forum.  Lauda no longer exists.

That being said, the real person could be posting under a different account name. 

Lauda also revoked and/or declared compromised all keys associated with her identity.  That is more significant; and I believe that she fully understood why.

---

Although such a negative cannot be proved, I am morally certain that Lauda is really gone.  I don’t know why there is a common urge to speculate about alts, as if people cannot leave this forum.  What is this, Hell?  “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

This is unlikely. Satoshi mined an estimated million bitcoin, and has not touched them despite his stash being worth an estimated $60 billion. I think he is either dead, or has lost his keys, in which case he is living with the fact that he lost something that would make him the ~22nd richest person in the world.

I know that at least one person knew lauda on a personal basis. This was before lauda became infamous, and was a low profile forum member.

Or it's possible the coins are actually hidden in a cryptographic puzzle waiting to be unlocked.

Only he who has a loving heart, a true faith in God and a focused mind will make the discovery. The ownership is guarded by Trinity - a passphrase combined of the other 3. The last is not easy but doable with God's willing..

Still not been able to crack it but getting there!

Most hopes are false; and the persistent self-delusion of Hope is what drives mortals to endure suffering.  That is why the ancient Greeks placed Hope at the bottom of Pandora’s Box, as the enabler of all of the other ills of the world—“the most malign of evils” (in Nietzsche’s description).  Hope is truly a wicked device of psychological torture.

Of course, you are correct:  Satoshi is probably dead, or otherwise incapacitated.  Nonetheless, I hope that Satoshi is alive and well.  And that is the nature of Hope!

<edit> Yes, I realize the irony of making this observation right after the Dante quote in my prior post (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg56726710#msg56726710).  The juxtaposition neatly illustrates how much Western culture has changed—in my opinion, how badly it has been corrupted.  In ancient Greece, Hope was an evilly self-destructive foolishness; in Dante’s worldview, Hope was what one must most fear losing at the entrance to Hell. </edit>


That is only credible if he has seen the secret grimoire.  :P

I do know that there have been multiple instances of liars claiming falsely to know Lauda’s identity; and in at least one instance, some idiot passed off a completely unrelated person’s real dox as Lauda’s.  The harm caused to random bystanders by such chicanery is my principal reason for being so emphatic here.

Look at this liar's trust.   ::)

Awww, c’mon.  Can’t we have peash and luff and cute kittens in this thread?  😿

I know that Lauda wished Quickseller well.  The subject came up sometime when she wanted to send merit to one of my posts, and she explained to me that she had dumped all of her sMerits on Quickseller in Politics & Society (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5208356.msg55027444#msg55027444).

Plenty of people make claims about Lauda.  Quickseller has been here for long enough that he has probably heard it all, and he probably knows from experience to take it for what it’s worth.  I really don’t think (and I didn’t intend to insinuate) that he meant anything bad here, where people are just shooting the bull and nobody not even nobody really knows anything.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

—So, does anyone have any progress on the Kitty puzzle (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg56567378#msg56567378)?  Or desire for more puzzles?  I made that because Lauda loved Bitcoin, she was highly skilled in the practical use of cypherpunk crypto-stuff, and it is the kind of cat-toy that I think she would enjoy seeing here.  😺

I think some people are unable to let go of a petty grudge.
i was told the information in question before lauda became a well known forum member, and the person who told it to me is someone who has solid ethical values, so I have multiple reasons to believe it is true. Over the recent years, lauda has taken many steps to safeguard her privacy, so I would assume she would have cutoff communication with this person when she abandoned her lauda persona.

That's easy:
Or for mortals:

Best case scenario I can come up with: jail. And that's the best case, I don't have much hope for other scenarios.

Oooh, hoity toity!  Look at you running around as root.


Maybe we'll see some of those genesis coins shuffling around once/if Ross Ulbricht gets released.   :D

Residential smartass here, not being able to resist some smartassery  ;D:

1. Don't overwrite hosts, consider appending (>>)
2. The below would actually work with sudo, otherwise you will get 'permission denied'

Everybody having lost his hosts file deserves what he gets for just copy-pasting some random command lines from the intertubes..


/me is away trying to restore his elaborate hosts file from backup  :)

Goodbye legend of all times
I'm sure you made impact during your time
I might have missed the tide
But I'm sure you made a clean ride

Weldone oh worker who gave his might
I have seen your work and found some light
Thanks for making the forum bright
We will leave to show your slide

Will be that an opportunity for us to revive the cult even without the supreme one? May we guide the heir/s, as we bow down and serve the cat for eternity. All is well. To Cat be the glory! All haill the queen cat and its heir/s!!!

(By the way, who would that be?) 🤔🤔🤔

This is random but it occurred to me I should post it here before I forget it.

There was one time when Lauda really helped me out, unexpectedly, and defended me when nobody else was there... I mean literally nobody else was commenting in that thread, but it meant a lot to me that they could recognize what was going on and bother to intervene.

So, that's my Lauda story, and no its not some kind of kiss-ass maneuver, its a real thing that happened one time, that I needed to be part of the record, for as long as there's a record.

I just had a random though - I'll never forget it...

Lauda in a fit of rage closed the Known Alts of any-one - A User Generated List ^{Mk III} (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2544574.0) thread wanting instead to turn the thread into a self moderated thread - essentially to delete any opposition to their reckless negative trust feedback's.

Quick thinking person that I am, I started a new (un-moderated I hasten to add) Known Alts of any-one - A User Generated List ^{Mk III} (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2544574.0) thread which has flourished with some 3,000+ posts exposing countless alts and scammers alike and, I have earned 115 merits just for the OP.  ;D

The Known Alts of any-one - A User Generated List ^{Mk III} (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2544574.0) community is a flourishing community, and is respectful of each-other.  It does not argue with anyone who comes along to challenge the findings placed against them.

I make sure of that.

I shudder to think how different the Known Alts of any-one - A User Generated List ^{Mk III} (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2544574.0) thread would have been had Lauda been successful in turning the thread into yet another one of their self moderated threads.

I kind of had a similar interaction/relationship with Lauda.  Before I got put on DT2 the first time (right around Dec. 2017 if I'm not mistaken), Lauda supported me and sent me quite a few positive PMs.  He (I'm pretty sure Lauda is a "he") saw that I was trying to fight shitposters and account sellers, and I had no reputation to speak of on the forum then, so I appreciated it.  Same thing with Vod, by the way.

That's kind of why I remained loyal to Lauda even past the point when I should have probably stopped doing so--but it was only toward the end that he started going over the deep end.  But man, there's definitely a void since Lauda's been gone.  There's been very little drama over the past few months (though part of that is because Vod, TECSHARE, TMAN, and Bruno are gone as well).

Thank you for remembering Lauda.  Her legend will live forever.

I had hoped to make some sort of a meaningful speech here.  Right now, rather, I will just remind everyone of the Lauda memorial crypto-puzzle to claim 0.002 BTC (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg56567378#msg56567378).

I am thrilled that whilst I slept, on 2022-04-30, someone doubled the prize money (https://blockstream.info/tx/ff4f49b2dda7ec9acb094da9e802b67e1fbc2f9933b1b41f4ceac6342ffd5e0c) from the 0.001 BTC that I had put into that address on 2021-03-14.  It means more to me than I can say.  I think that Lauda would have been touched.

How can the puzzle be too difficult?  Or perhaps, is it infeasible to break?  I myself could reproduce the private key from scratch, using only the information that is publicly available on the blockchain.  It is, in essence, a Nullian Brainwallet.  To claim the money, simply think like me!  :-)

Lauda was unique.  Noble, harsh but caring, and totally incorruptible.  She had a fun side.  I created the puzzle because I wanted to do something here that I think she would have appreciated, for the enjoyment of everyone who misses her.  I know that she touched many people here.

She was to me only a faceless, voiceless ghost—a disembodied soul in cypherspace—the bare essence of a person, devoid of all else.  Nonetheless, she was one of the most significant people to me in the course of my life; could a unique soul not be so?  Indeed, could a unique soul be not so?  She left an indelible mark on me.  It is my privilege to have known her.  I would not trade that experience for any money in the world.

---

Edit:  Classy—not.  Although I have some reasonable doubt about busy moderators who sometimes miss the context of a post, I am morally appalled at whatever hateful wretch reported the bump.  Are we forbidden from having good and constructive things in the perpetual dumpster-fire known as “Reputation”?  Is it only permitted to attack people ad hominem, and never to celebrate the memories of famous forum members who gave so much to the community?  It is lucky that I sent icopress a merit, before I spent some time solemnly contemplating and writing a reply; sometimes, I do the merit-sending after I am done replying.

What about all the bitcoins in the world?

I think Lauda would be more than happy if someone took the lead in the even distribution of bitcoin on a global scale. :o

Known her.. Like??
🐈👈🏻

I am pretty sure that the two have not met in person, assuming they are different people. Nullis has said things in the past to me alluding that he doesn’t know Laudas irl, and I would be surprised if she had met anyone from the forum as her lauda identity, given her obvious desire for privacy.

There are a good number of people who I am confident that they will never dispose of the last of their bitcoin.

A Laudatory Philosophy of Life in Cypherspace


LOL, “In my dreams.”  So:  Like one knows a disembodied spirit.  Although I not infrequently flirted with her, or tried to, I still do not even know if she was a “she”.  (Yes, that question still drives me crazy.)

For a rough analogy—to be applied mutatis mutandis, and not overextended:

Gold (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2552381.0) is a tangible thing of value.  Gold is the canonical embodiment of tangible money.  It has been so for millennia.  So always shall it be.

Bitcoin is intangible, disembodied value communicated in cypherspace.  You can’t see it.  You can’t touch it.  You can’t hold it in your hands.

People will always have bodies and real-world relationships, like gold will always be valuable.

A cypherpunk Bitcoiner should understand the pure meeting of minds—encrypted communication between spirits known only by their nyms and public keys.  Those who would assume that such a thing cannot be valuable will also be unable fully to understand why Bitcoin is valuable.  And to be sure, most forum relationships are like shitcoins:  Easy come, easy go—shallow; ultimately meaningless—try to enjoy them while they last, if you bother with them at all.

I think it is no accident that I met Lauda on the Bitcoin Forum.  She was a Bitcoiner.  Her mindset was Bitcoin.  Her quintessential Bitcoinism reflected in her personal interactions.  Observe that Bitcoin is reliable and incorruptible; but it demands responsibility, it has strict rules, and it is extremely harsh if you mess up!

A very few people had the vision to mine Bitcoin in 2009, and hold it to this day.  I didn’t, but I saw Lauda for what she was.  Accordingly, I valued her without regard for the fact that I could never meet her; and losing her hit me as hard as losing someone IRL ever could.

I know that she touched many people’s lives here.  She was one of the most active community contributors, briefly on staff—no doubt, she must have had numerous other forum contacts that I never knew about because they are none of my business (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284102.0).  Some will forget that, like they would sell BTC to “cash out” and “take profit” in central bank fiat shitcoins.  Some never will.

---

Not even for 21 million BTC.  I know you jest kindly here; but it is a serious principle to me.  I have known, and sometimes been betrayed by the types of people who would sell out all their family and friends—oftentimes, for shockingly small amounts of money.


Well, perhaps I should take up mining? :)

Although nothing is perfect, mining is the fairest way yet invented to distribute newly-issued coins.  Miners face stiff competition, and they need to sell on thin profit margins to cover their high costs.  It is not a “rich get richer” system.

---

To this day, I have never admitted or denied the allegations that I am Lauda’s sockpuppet.  That was a popular refrain in some quarters, in 2018 and in early 2020.  No comment.  My refusal to answer such questions is a personal policy, which I have rarely ever broken for any reason whatsoever.

Lauda left a negative feedback(deserved) to me,but she was kind enough to update it before he/she/it went bye bye.

To where ever Lauda is, Thank you and stay grumpy!

Maybe this is her?

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fimg.ifunny.co%2Fimages%2F19be94242dc0c1906b06c950fc438390e9a7c3753f893b1a4d7e62dc215a169c_1.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

thats riCHICKulous!!

have there been any confirmation if Lauda was a she or he or it?
Maybe she confirmed it here:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5098579.msg49276971#msg49276971

This is my first time of coming across this topic and sincerely, I was so touched that i went sober, indeed , this is one of the goodbye message ive read that really touched my heart, and i am also glad to see that this user have indeed, touched lives on this forum before saying goodbye.

But then, I cant help but wonder what really made Lauda leave the community, at least, he or she would have maybe taken some time off, and come back whenever things are fine, But leaving everything he or she have struggled to build and achieve through out this years to say goodbye is kind of abnormal to me, I don't know what you guys think, maybe I need a mental reorientation but honestly, I don't get it.

Lauda ran out of lives.


Seriously though, all we can do is speculate to why Lauda left forever.
From the OP, unseen pressure was the reason. With his/her popularity in the forum, no wonder pressure got to her/him.

or perhaps he/she's done enough for the forum and have to focus on rl stuff.

This is funny btw:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5096181.msg49185800#msg49185800

---

Indeed, we can only speculate.  I decline to say my own theories, for I have no wish to sow rumours.  In private, she refused to tell me why.


It is a mundane theory, boring, unlikely to excite the imagination—and maybe wise and insightful.  I hope it is the case.  In the past, she said some things to me which would seem consistent with that (and she repeatedly urged me to leave the forum myself), but her final post seemed to imply otherwise.  Who knows.


That is fair of you.  Many people who got the red cat-scratch only bear a grudge about it, regardless of how much it was deserved.  I see that she neutralized yours in May 2020, about five months before she left.


Now, that is an interesting subject of speculation!  There has been endless talk about it; sometimes, there have even been whole threads devoted to that question.  It is probably the most productive use that the Reputation board has ever had.

She (he? whatever) caused this confusion for privacy, not for jollies.  She once pointed out to me that male/female is a significant bit of personally identifying information.  He was a privacy fanatic.  Concealing that one bit of information theoretically doubled her anonymity set—although the effect in practice would be disproportionate, given the disproportionate distribution between men and women in these types of venues.  Partitioning and intersection attacks to attempt deanonymizing the cat cannot exclude known males, and cannot exclude known females.

It is not unprecedented to incite such confusion for unusual reasons.  For instance, I know of a psychiatrist-blogger (https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/) who subtly switched back and forth between apparently-male and apparently-female, without ever explicitly claiming either.  He did this to make his readers’ assumptions a part of whatever message he was presenting—and sometimes, to show them how wrong their assumptions can be.  As a professional psychiatrist, he pulled this off most excellently.  But he was not a privacy expert; in his case, he was eventually doxed as a man.

Earlier in this thread, I quoted a post in which (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55418273#msg55418273) Lauda presented a female image and spoke of her “husband”, in a context where I think that she was probably joking; see also my take on it. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55410423#msg55410423)  Other forum members have dug up posts where Lauda seemed to indicate or imply being a man.  I think it’s likely that the apparent contradictions were not unintentional.

Some longtime forum regulars are almost sure that he was a man.  I think that she was probably a woman.  I pestered her endlessly about this question; all that she would tell me was, “I’m a cat.”  Flip a coin, pick a pronoun, and stick to it.  Whatever the correct guess may have been, she/he was never offended by wrong guesses.

Also, there is some traffic related to this address on testnet3.

I could be wrong, but if the whole challenge can be completed with Bitcoin Core, then I guess it is all about signing some message, because Bitcoin Core can sign any message with any key, there are commands for that. And then, it may require just grabbing R-value from the signature (that is deterministic), and using that as a public key, so the private key could be then reached by reproducing k-value for some trivial key with trivial message. But even then, there are a lot of options, definitely more than I could brute-force. So it is not yet taken, because it is based on "security through obscurity".

Another question is if that challenge will be upgraded to Taproot? Because if it is really based on HMAC-SHA256 or things like that, then it could be as well based on Taproot, where there are endless possibilities for a brainwallet TapScript, exactly in the same way, as there are endless possibilities, when it comes to signing some transaction. As I said, it is based on obscurity, and that's the only reason why nobody moved it yet.

Lauda is "he" and anyone thinking otherwise is just fooling themselves. I guess people like to think that Lauda was "she" as we lack females in crypto and he was amused by people guessing his gender. After all, there is an old rule that says that on the Internet everyone is male until proven otherwise.

Gonna quote one of my previous posts why I have no doubts about Lauda's gender and I think that pretty much goes for everyone else that understands Croatian.

😺


Clarification:  I didn’t say that it could be solved with Bitcoin Core.  In the context of discussing hardware requirements, I said that it can be solved with any computer that could run Bitcoin Core.  It my way of saying that you don’t need fancy, expensive hardware for this.  I love how Core has kept it possible to Be Your Own Bank on inexpensive devices. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5364742.0)  Poor people are welcome to try this.  You can solve it just as well on a Raspberry Pi as on a many-core Xeon.  Bitcoin is for everyone! (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5215927.0)

People with GPU-farms can grind on it however they want, as much as they want.  It will not help.  Finesse, not force will solve this.  The key is cryptographically as “strong” as any Bitcoin key—but I leaked information about how to reconstruct it.  Security through obscurity:  Can you find the clues hidden in plain sight?  Even if you can find them, can you guess my thought process for putting it all together?

Reconstructing the key will require at least intermediate-level Bitcoin knowledge—not real wizardry, but definitely not newbie-level.  If I created a txid that starts with 36 zero-bits, (https://blockstream.info/tx/000000000fdf0c619cd8e0d512c7e2c0da5a5808e60f12f1e0d01522d2986a51?expand) I obviously wrote some custom code for this.  (Call that “Proof of Something-More-Than-Meets-The-Eye”.)  Retrieving the money would be easier, but at least a modicum of skill and effort will be needed.


I will not give an further hints. 😼


That part, in itself, is entirely correct.


I have no intention to “upgrade” this puzzle, but I am excited by some of the possibilities offered by Taproot for other purposes.

---

With apologies to Quickseller, who is a gentleman.  Sorry, it is just too funny here.

LOL, at least I admit that I don’t know.  You are so sure.  I am sure that you know less than I do—and I don’t know.

I don't think Lauda is gone.  I believe he's still around and has done a great job keeping his new identity from being discovered.  Even at the end it seemed to me that he loved this forum, and loved it too much to just give up.  The "goodbye" post was surprising only in the way that I should have expected it.

I think the "Lauda" account just got too burdensome with all the baggage.  Most people would find all that drama distracting, I know I would.  Maybe he just wanted to start fresh, without all the distractions.

Since Lauda wrote in masculine gender, its logical to assume that he is male and refer to him as such. Why would I refer to him as "she" when he obviously wanted to be perceived as a male while being active in Croatian board? Things are often simple but people tend to overthink.

Well, here go the conspiracy theories:


I am sure not—this, I am sure about.  (Unless I am Lauda’s alt, as QS, TS, and others have claimed at various times.  I have never denied it.  Wouldn’t it be lulzy if they were right!)

People who believe that this forum is some be-all, end-all that people can never leave need to gain some perspective on life.  It is an Internet forum.  Why can nobody choose to leave this forum and never, ever return?  Those who believe it is impossible to leave must surely be projecting, in ways that I do not care to speculate about.  (Jay? ::))  And to interpret her emphatic declaration she left as confirming that she secretly stayed is conspiracy-theory tier pretzel-logic.

For anyone who has a unique personality in both style and substance, restarting with a new account is not a realistic possibility.  Mediocrities who never attain a high profile could easily hide in the crowd; those who are otherwise never can.  The risk of being outed is too high.  In case you have not noticed, this forum is infested with dweebs with no lives, who are obsessed with speculating on the “real” identities of innocent new accounts that obviously aren’t really newbies.  I have been intending to make a general thread on this exact topic, from my concerns as a privacy activist (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284102.0)—and from my musing that sadly, I believe it would be infeasible for Satoshi himself to return to his own forum in a different guise.

Furthermore, based on my private conversations with Lauda at the time she left, I am morally certain that she will never return to this forum.  Sufficiently certain that I will immediately issue negative trust feedback and raise a Type-1 flag on any account that claims to be Lauda.

And furthermore, her departure was unsurprising to anyone who knew her as you did not.  I was shocked when it happened, and deeply disturbed by how it happened.  I fear that something may have gone very wrong.  But I had long been expecting her departure—well, I had been expecting some sort of a retirement party, a happy event.  The cat devoted a big chunk of her life to this forum; she did not want to spend the rest of her life on it.  At some point, she would inevitably move on.

---

The notion that Lauda may return with a new account is not new.  It was raised almost immediately.  As a final duty to her here, I must firmly squelch it.  Lauda did her best to burn all her bridges here, for the express purpose of preventing any scams that potentially may attempt to exploit her reputation.

Rumours of Lauda sightings would open the way to Faketoshi-style impersonations, which could be highly profitable:  I would trust Lauda with any amount of money, and I am far from the only one!  An impersonator could play off the type of thinking that you are setting up, by “reluctantly” letting himself be “discovered” as Lauda.  It is a usual way for such a scam; recall that from the start, before he switched to demanding that everyone believe him, Craig Wright pretended to be reluctant about “admitting” that he was Satoshi.

Lauda will NOT be returning under a new account.

---

That’s a claim far away from your prior post, whereby you said that anyone who disagreed was fooling themselves.

By analogy, I usually write with British spelling.  I am perfectly capable of consciously switching to American spelling—and of mixing the two, not from confusion, but from a desire to cause confusion.  (Satoshi did the same thing, with Brit/Murican spelling; there exist some statistical analyses this.)  I also sometimes purposely switch or mix regional vocabulary (“petrol”/“gas”), idioms, etc.

Since I write with British spelling, it is logical to assume that I am British or Commonwealth, and to refer to me as such—yes?

Although English lacks the grammatical nuances of the Croatian language, I am sure that I could consistently make myself seem either masculine or feminine in any language that I know.  I am sure, at least, that Lauda was smart enough to pull off such a thing if he/she so desired.

You call him a “he”.  I call her a “she”.  No problem.  Neither of us knows.  I have also seen theories that the correct answer is “they”, i.e., a group operating the Lauda account.  I think that is very unlikely; but I don’t know for certain about that, either.

Of course. The same did the guy in testnet3 that mined those transactions with nine leading zero bits. So now we know that people can mine transactions, but still, the whole solution is unknown.

Of course. Keep your secrets, that's the whole fun to guess all of that. Also I know that you wrote exactly that sentence before. So it is like OP_CODESEPARATOR: the secret part of the script is already hidden, only the remaining part is visible.

But I still wonder, if it is possible to make it easier in the future, by revealing some hints in decentralized way (also, some sighashes can be used to make it an incentive, like "I will reveal you my public key, only if you put N coins to this challenge", it is possible to make it so that coins will move only when both parties will meet those conditions). For example, spending "OP_HASH160 5ab6db66fb0dd08ecb238f07141ffea56189552d OP_EQUALVERIFY OP_CODESEPARATOR <newPublicKey> OP_CHECKSIG" could reveal the public key for the puzzle in a trustless way. And later, any 2-of-2 multisig could reveal that the private key for the puzzle is reachable. Because now, you know, only some random hash is visible. It could be a trap address. A public key could be unreachable or invalid, or a private key could be provably unknown. Or maybe everything was created as a result of SIGHASH_SINGLE bug, or a tricky signature: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5373858.0. Nobody knows, and nobody can trust any future hints, that is clear. But even if there will be some disinformation, it can be still used to make more challenges.

For example, I can tell you it is not based on sethdseed, as far as I checked. But it seems like another nice challenge, to start from sethdseed true "KwDiBf89QgGbjEhKnhXJuH7LrciVrZi3qYjgd9M7rFU73sVHnoWn", then do some tricks, and reach some interesting brainwallet. For example, here it will be always bc1qvl6xr6th5v7qafuclkkvv67w803hw5zk5g60xu, and then, it is possible to deterministically do many tricks.

[/quote]Ha ha!!  I thought you were gone, nullius.  Admittedly I haven't checked your post history to verify if you'd been gone, but it seems like forever since I've seen you post.  Happy to see that at least a few strong & crazy personalities are still around these days.

Theymos referred to Lauda as a "he" a while back, though damned if I could find a reference for that as it might have been via PM.  If anyone would know Lauda's gender, it'd probably be The Boss himself....but seeing as how Lauda was so careful in concealing his/her/whatever's identity, even Theymos might not have known.

Could be.  I always thought nullius was Lauda's alt, but the sheer amount of writing that one person would have to do to pull that off would be astounding to say the least, so I gave up on that little theory.  Not a small part of me wishes Lauda, Vod, TMAN, and probably a few other members that aren't coming to mind would return simultaneously.  That would be a trip. 

Hell, even if they staggered their reappearances, it'd be amazing.

garlonicon, thanks for engaging in the type of discussion that I’d hoped to incite when I made the puzzle:


I am curious.  Would you please point me to the txids?  I have not been running a testnet node (or for personal reasons, much of anything lately).  I’d love to see this.

The thirty-six leading zero bits (nine zero nibbles) denote when I decided to stop grinding.  On my ancient junk-heap hardware, it took me days of almost overheating my computer to get up to 36 zeroes.  However I did it, I could have kept going to grind out more zeroes in the manner of any other POW.  I will not comment on how (or even whether) that relates to the puzzle’s solution; it may lead the way to the solution, or it be a red herring. 😼

Someday, this “mining” of txids may make for an interesting thread in the development forum.  Or here!  I have many related ideas, which may be useful in various ways.

I’m not sure:  Was that the first time anyone had ever done this?  Need to scan the chain for analysis...


When I published the puzzle, I thought that either it would be solved very quickly, or it would never be solved.  It did not seem to get much attention, at first—perhaps due to the low funding amount.  Now that it seems to be getting more attention, I am deeply curious about whether anyone may crack it.  If nobody does, then perhaps I may use a similar method to create and back up my personal wallet—lulz!

Could this be like the Beale ciphers? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beale_ciphers) :o

I want to give it some time.  Get more people curious.  Difficult puzzles are more fun, but insoluble puzzles not so much—we’ll see.

Thanks for your interest here, and good luck with whatever attempts you may be making.

In memory of Kitty! 😺

---

---

I was, for over a year.  I reluctantly “woke” my account on 29 June for the primary purpose of addressing some badness which came to my attention, which I could not in conscience ignore; that is not yet done, alas.  By coincidence, some Lauda-related things arose.  Well, when did I ever miss a chance to talk about Lauda?  LOL.


There was also a rumour that theymos had an intimate relationship with Lauda.  Lauda herself referenced this, in a joking kind of semi-sarcastic way. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5197446.msg52962272#msg52962272)  (Best link I found on a brief search; I recall some better ones.)  So, take all these things with a grain of salt.


Lauda did seem to be everywhere at once, all the time.  And I have never denied it.  WHY DON’T I DENY IT?  ;-)

That is a good policy. However I believe you have said some things to me that would only be possible if you were in fact two different people. 

The "Lauda" account attracted a lot of attention. Lauda was someone who clearly wanted his privacy, and privacy is difficult when you receive that level of attention.

Guys, keep in mind that Lauda's telegram account has a new owner now.  :-\

A year and a half after I blocked him, the account was deleted, after which someone took over this username.

That is worrisome, if there is any fraudulent intent.  “Grumpy Cat” is a meme, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumpy_Cat) so I hope that someone grabbing “GrumpyKitty” is only a coincidence? 🙀

When Lauda stopped using that name on Telegram, she asked theymos to remove her “GrumpyKitty” custom title. (https://web.archive.org/web/20190615084650/https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=101872)  I cannot now find an appropriate reference; IIRC, the relevant thread got trashed for reasons unknown to me.

Suffice it to say that Lauda is not on Telegram.  Or anywhere.  Don’t get scammed!

Sorry, bytes nibbles (4-bits) of course. There are more transactions, but you can start with them:
https://mempool.space/testnet/tx/0000000009e6f27e34e9d5e17df63758375195eb76b46daf0327b4aba151bfb4
https://mempool.space/testnet/tx/0000000005771270ab7be0d9dc5358048aad0e003c6482819438fd9a61b80841

In my opinion it is just a nice trick, but I could be wrong. Also note that it is possible to use sequence number or locktime to make it easier. For example, it is possible to set sequence number to 0xffffffff, then locktime is ignored, and can be used as a nonce, just like in a real mining, only the total size is different. But even if someone has an ASIC miner, then it is possible to choose the right transaction size, to optimize it for a specific hardware.

When it comes to transaction mining, it is just a nice trick, but nothing else is behind that. The better way would be to mine on top of the latest block, then by using Merged Mining, it could be possible to reuse Bitcoin Proof of Work, and make the whole network stronger. And then, it could be a part of decentralized mining, where people could receive N times less coins for mining N times easier block headers. In this way, CPU mining could be used to get a single satoshis or millisatoshis discount, when using Lightning Network.

Of course not. See this testnet3 transaction: https://mempool.space/testnet/tx/16fb1c624b3658c78630c39f1c33e8f3dbdb71373f33eb22c6abe4405c0815bc
You can try to grab some zero satoshi test coins by re-mining satoshi's blocks. And there are more such transactions.

Cool.  Thanks.  I’d much appreciate more.


When I indicate that I have some practical usage in mind, I probably do.  Beyond a neat trick.  But I may want to keep it a trade secret.  Note that what I was doing was probably more complicated than you guessed.

112f4a306f8bbe39270b0f1070751038fcf01f4a5eca42277a83e7ab3791afd5


That txid obviously is not so; and at a glance, I don’t see any related txids with too many leading zeroes to be coincidental.

I meant:  Was 000000000fdf0c619cd8e0d512c7e2c0da5a5808e60f12f1e0d01522d2986a51 (https://blockstream.info/tx/000000000fdf0c619cd8e0d512c7e2c0da5a5808e60f12f1e0d01522d2986a51?expand) the first time that anyone had ever mined a POW txid with many leading zeroes, or any other easily recognizable pattern?  Especially on Bitcoin mainnet!

If my Kitty tx for Lauda was the first, I would purr.  (Also, if it was the first to embed a cat emoji in OP_RETURN.)  I was not even much thinking that way last year—just trying to make something fun and challenging in Lauda’s memory, like the sporting games that the Greeks played at the funerals for heroes in classical antiquity. 😺

I never really clicked with Lauda, but I do miss his influence.  At least one member who's been absent and missed has recently returned; nutildah is back.

I miss Vod and TMAN.  I'm convinced that TMAN was IRL John Wayne's alt, but age finally caught up with him.

I also miss sparring with Tecshare.

Look at transaction outputs instead. And notice that we still miss OP_CAT to make it complete. We miss it, because it can be used to do quines, and other naughty stuff, for the same reason OP_SUBSTR is disabled, also for example OP_AND, which can be used to emulate OP_CAT. Because it is possible to push some prefix, some postfix, ask OP_CAT to play with this wool, and then demand equality by using OP_HASH256 and OP_EQUAL. In general, "OP_HASH256 <someHash> OP_EQUAL" can be used for block header (always 80 bytes), merkle proof (always 64 bytes), or for a transaction (any size). Using OP_SIZE is the only practical way to distinguish it, because checking more things require more complicated script, and that costs more precious satoshis.

There are not that many things you can do with that. I can imagine the whole merkle tree, filled with low transaction hashes. And what's next? Then you can for example split the coinbase between them, based on the number of zeroes they contain. Or you can provide someone a transaction hash, and allow some tricks by exploiting length extension attack, if you need that for OP_CODESEPARATOR scripts. Then, someone can agree to sign something, without knowing the whole script, because it is about using OP_CODESEPARATOR to prepend some unknown script into that: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5375893.0

I see what you did there.  That describes me perfectly. 😿

Thank you for the interesting technical discussion.  Any new ideas for how to solve the puzzle?  I won’t give any more hints; and I don’t want to pry about anything you are secretly thinking may let you win.  Nonetheless, I myself am a curious cat.

That's the problem: there are too many options. So, I have many ideas, I thought about sethdseed "privkeyForBrainwallet", because it is simple, and because it meets all conditions. But still, there are endless options that can be used as a privkey. Every time when there are some 32 bytes, then you can put there any hash, so the whole process can be unsafe, but the whole security comes from the algorithm. And if it is needed to mine something, just to get some 32-bit offset (or rather 36-bit offset), then it is even harder, because then every new way costs a lot of hashing, even if it is solvable by any CPU.

Also, when it comes to mining transactions, it can be just some kind of timelock: https://www.gwern.net/Self-decrypting-files

Those three (Lauda Vod TMAN), were/are pillars of the community.




I was disappointed at first when I got those scratches, but that feeling of disappointment became feeling of respect towards that dedicated kitty. She did not respond when I first ask her to consider making her feedback neutral,(sometime 2018), fast forward May 2020, I asked her again, and she did turn it to neutral.


With a 50/50 chance, I'll stick with Lauda being a she.

What a thread?

When I joined this forum newly, I was impressed by Lauda's pinned posts in Beginners and Help board. I couldn't think of it much because I believed Lauda should be among the moderators or even a global moderator. Since these moderators don't post often, I might not see Lauda post. This was my believe.

But when Cyrus launched Bitcointalk YouTube channel, I was following the channel until he did Bitcointalk quiz. One of the questions was. Who among the following users cannot return to the forum?

There was couple of names which include Lauda, Vod and others. Cyrus said the correct answer was Lauda, that after leaving the forum he/she was banned. Today I stumbled of the last post of Lauda.

With the tune of OP, I am sure Lauda was under an attack (siege), or something of that nature. That decision wasn't taken naturally.

jamyr and uchegod-21, thanks for your kind words.  A clarification for those now joining us:


Super-hyper-ultra-banned, not with an ordinary account ban.  Lauda got the same ban as Satoshi, whose account is totally disabled to help protect against potential security compromises.  From earlier in this thread:

---

Continuing discussion of the Lauda Memorial Crypto-Puzzle: (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg56567378#msg56567378)


In honour of Lauda’s thread, it is my pleasure to introduce even in a very informal way some thoughts that I have had on what I call Kolmogorov v. Kerckhoff.

My ideas about this are handwavy, not rigorous—and I know the difference.  Nonetheless, I have observed that in practice, the set of all programs with relatively low Kolmogorov complexity is, itself, a keyspace.  It is an ill-defined keyspace, which would make many cryptographers and security wonks shudder with horror; but it is a type of keyspace, or rather, I conjecture (*waves hands*) that it could be made one.

Sets of programs have been more rigorously turned into keyspaces of sorts.  For instance, Monero’s RandomX POW mining algorithm meets this description in a different way.

From another perspective, I think of it as a crypto-key version of naming the biggest number (https://www.scottaaronson.com/writings/bignumbers.html).  Since I specified that I used only standard things, and the solution can be quite easily programmed with readily available tools, the upper bound on the set of possible solutions (= “keys”) is expanded by adding new primitives, new standards, new tools.  By an analogy that is to me more philosophical than mathematical, I see that like inventing new notations for expressing bigger numbers.

Anyway, I am using a blackbox program as the secret quasi-key.  The program has publicly known inputs.  The entire security of the system relies on keeping the program secret.  But this, in turn, seems like the nullification of Kerckhoffs’s principle.  That is, of course, a security doctrine, not a mathematical rule.

Lest I discourage anyone from attempting the puzzle, I emphasize that I laid out sufficient clues.  At least, I think I did.  So...


...I would not be so cruel!  Hashing some data in weird ways with no hint of the inputs would give others an exercise in frustration, not a fun puzzle.

I probably used hashes, and some other things.  Hints were dropped about what and how—subtle hints, but sufficient to get me on the right track if I myself ever forget how to reconstruct the private key.  Of course, that would simply be jogging my memory.  Will others find the hints?


Good luck. 😼


Thanks.  That’s a good page; I have seen it before, so I guess we read some similar things.

It does not mention that Solana uses a hash-based timelock (https://solana.com/news/proof-of-history) in its consensus algorithm; they call it a VDF (Verifiable Delay Function), even though it is not a real VDF.  It should probably not be discussed here, for risk of ghostly hisses and scratches.

Gwern also has information (https://www.gwern.net/docs/ai/nn/gan/index) and experimental writeups (https://www.gwern.net/BigGAN) on GANs, including StyleGAN (https://www.gwern.net/Faces).  The thiscatdoesnotexist.com (https://thiscatdoesnotexist.com/) site that I have been using as an official source of Lauda images is run by the authors of StyleGAN2.  I have been thinking to use Gwern’s info as a general guide to setting up my own Lauda image generator, but I lack the hardware for this type of project (GPUs, etc.).  Someday...

GANs for creating nonexistent cats are discussed earlier in this thread, with references.  It is my way of inducing people to read the thread, so that they fall under the witch’s spell.  ;-)

Guess what, a combination of those two things is possible. So, zero bits are needed, just to be on the right track. Because it is possible to mine something, then mine something else, and so on, and so on. It can be like a "Matryoshka": a hash in a hash in a hash... So, you can start with one field, hash it to reach 36 zero bits, then choose another field, and grind it again, to reach another hash with 36 zero bits, and so on, and so on. So, in this way if going backwards will lead to reaching some hash with many zero bits in a fast way, then it means we are on the right track. And that's why mining is needed: to be on-track all the time, just to leave some traces for the future. But so far, I didn't find any, so it means my method is probably wrong. I expect for example things like grinding one byte to go directly from one 36-bit hash to another 36-bit hash. And if that pattern would repeat, then it could mean those parts were really mined. And that would explain, why making this challenge took so long, but why also getting things back is fast enough to be practical, just grinding one byte and going from one low hash to another low hash is easy enough to verify, but hard enough to guess and to prepare upfront, because many things can be grinded in many ways.

That makes things even more complicated, because you could use numbers that behave like cbrt(1), but in practice they could be random enough to not be guessed instantly. For example, cbrt(1) is unsafe, it is simple, but in practice it is 5363ad4cc05c30e0a5261c028812645a122e22ea20816678df02967c1b23bd72, so it is not so obvious that it allows getting identical y-values for public keys. And there could be another simple relation, like sqrt(17), e, pi, or something similar, and even if it is mathematically quite simple and unsafe, the whole thing could be just something like a volume of a ball, because why not. There were some brainwallets with some special numbers, so maybe it is some combination of them. But still, there is no guarantee, that the address is even spendable at all, and is not something like RIPEMD-160("I am sorry, your coins are burned.").

It is only those who understands Politics understand what Lauda said in this thread. In politics, there are two category of people in the parliament. Conformist and non conformist characters.

Conformist characters are those characters (people) that always support bad things in the law making house. They are there to under-develop the system. They are there to make money but not for Development, and those were the people in the forum that against Lauda for good work because she was stepping on their toes. They had to fight her and killed her career in the forum. This is normal even in real life. That is why most countries (mostly African countries) can never be Developed. The old forum users should compare the forum activities by then and now. Igehhh is complaining that the forum is full with spams. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5403475.0

Non conformist characters, these are people in the parliament that doesn't support bad things. They are not there to make money but the Development of the system, so they are even against the conformist characters for the activities. I know many users that are in this category in this forum and Lauda was in this category. Remember anyone that belongs to this group, the conformist group would call you a mad mad man, scape goat, stupid, fool, all sort of names all because you did not allow them to do their bad activities. So what they (conformist) will do to you is to impeached ( banned, removed, blocked) or killed you from their present for them to have access to do whatever they want.

Really. The mood and tone used by the OP (Lauda) was not a favorable one. She used a lot of figures of speech in the thread. In the process of reading I have empathy, she was not really happy in the thread. She used words like die, kill, and soul, immaterial etc. These words show that she was not happy. This thread touch my heart even though I didn't meet the OP in the forum. Let me stop here, I have a lot in my brain to write. I wish you all the best wherever you are. Your metonymys, euphemisms, apostrophes in the thread touch my heart.

I wanted to write something here for a long time now but, sadly, my free time does not allow me to do everything I want to do... Anyway, here I am :)


I read Rikafip's quoted comment since he published it first time. And, at first sight, I tended to agree that Lauda could have been male. Then I thought again. Could have Lauda done such a mistake? Could Lauda try to avoid exposing their gender by all means and forget what they were doing inside Croatian board?

By knowing Lauda and the way they acted here all the time regarding privacy, I came to the conclusion that it's possible that what Lauda did in Croatian board was yet another step to mislead people about their gender, in order to better protect their privacy (and, if it is so, then it's a brilliant idea!). Somehow (although Lauda never admitted that), in international boards, some perceived Lauda as female. Then "she" wrote, on purpose, as male in Croatian board. Why? One reason could be exactly this: to have people even more confused about Lauda's gender and trigger even more question marks.

I don't think that Lauda would do such mistake and not realize that someone from Croatian board would come, at some point and say - "Hey, look! Lauda is writing like he is a male!".

After all, it's possible (and, pay attention, I said possible, not probable) that she could kindly ask some users here to even maintain the confusion. For example, she could have talked to Rikafip and nullius, asking one to state that Lauda is male and the other to say that Lauda is female :) I am not saying that she did it, only that it's possible.

Think about me: I wrote with several occasions that I am the father of a young boy. But does that make me a man? Does that ensure any reader that I actually have a son? In fact, I do but it's also possible that I don't have any son and it's also possible that I am not a man at all. It's not probable, but it is possible.

Having all these in mind, I ceased thinking, after a while, about Lauda's gender. It does not even matter for me. All that matter is that the user Lauda brought great contributions to this forum. And, if Lauda said they're a cat, then cat it is :) Voilà!

If I remember correctly, you are oppressed by the wife's father to glorify his wine from a plastic bottle. it could cast a serious shadow on your image as a man  :D

now serious, does Lauda's gender really matter?
Also, he/she officially leaves this forum, why are we discussing this topic two years later?

There are two reasons, why this topic was bumped:
1) the prize in 000000000fdf0c619cd8e0d512c7e2c0da5a5808e60f12f1e0d01522d2986a51 was doubled: https://mempool.space/address/bc1qt2mdkehmphggajer3ur3g8l754scj4fdrmw3rn
2) silent payments are discussed again: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/silent-payments-make-bitcoin-more-private

My dear examplens, you remember something, but you are a bit confused here... :) I am not oppressed at all by my father in-law to glorify his wine -- but the opposite: he is happy to see his wine being glorified! I was (and still am) oppressed by fillippone (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5121375.msg53779745#msg53779745) from glorifying my father in-law's wine!!! fillippone is the one not believing in the extraordinary taste of my wine :) And, although I invited me many times to taste it, he always dodges, as he is afraid that he will just love that wine and he'll ask for more. Ask him :)


Not for me. This is why I wrote this part in my previous post:

No way.
I have few(very few) rules in my life. The first one is never indulge in shitcoinery, the second is never drink from plastic bottles.
Sorry Gazeta, we will meet one day maybe, but this is not going to happen.

I think you're talking about this quiz.  ;)

Awww, this is so cute! fillippone, you look very nice & funny, like a child when he is caught lying :)


Now I hoped it was not needed to get to this but, for the sake of truth ( :) ) I will have to expose you: when were you going to admit that you started saving money for a long while now, in order to buy a house just next to my father in-law's wine cellar?  ::)

From what I can tell, Lauda cared more about her privacy as she became more well-known. I think part of this was due to her being disliked by so many people because she called them out as scammers, and she did not want to be harassed IRL.

I have the impression that Lauda did not care as much about her privacy in her early days on the forum. That is not to say that there may not be other reasons for her to mislead others about her gender (if that is what she is doing).

Gazeta, what if I am actually your father-in-law and I despise your habit of putting my wine in those cheap plastic bottles?

Looooooool!

fillippone, if you were my father in-law I think that we would have been drunk everyday (or, at least most part of the day, everyday) :) And, most likely, the wine cellar would be emptied by us, instead of customers =)))

But, who knows? Maybe at some point in time we'll have together a wine cellar and we'll be able to empty it as we please  ::)

If I'm not confusing anything, then the balance on Lauda's account has changed.  :o

(Topic: “Re: SegWit dying off in spite of all your efforts”.  Lolz, Segwit is dead like “Bitcoin is dead”.)

😻


Re: [ANN] Bitcoin Cash - Fork 1:1 of Bitcoin - Pro on-chain scaling


🎆 😼

Happy Bitcoin Independence Day (https://nitter.pussthecat.org/Excellion/status/869106641290973184).



Thanks to some anonymous donor for remembering Kitty:
2f6aa55b7ca3cc15df84491efe184a8ba15ce71221ff6253572ee4231de4809a
Block height 744423, block timestamp 2022-07-10 12:12:59 UTC.

Observing the prize at 0.00333333 BTC.

Prediction:  Lauda’s goodbye thread will segue into speculation on the memorial puzzle’s BTC value.  Why speculate on the so-called “Bitcoin price”?  Bitcoin’s price is constant:  1 BTC = 1 BTC.  But the BTC balance of the puzzle has been changing!  Ironically (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2004227.0), perhaps these observations may even grow to be longer than the Wall Observer! 😸

---

Last month, the interest in the puzzle both in this thread and on the blockchain inspired me to attempt setting up something else puzzle-related.  It turned out not to be feasible to me at this time.  Unfortunately, pending that, I delayed replying here, then got absorbed in other matters.  New month—Bitcoin holiday—time to stop falling behind.  A few brief notes for now:

garlonicon, I am not sure what to say to that, without giving further hints.  ;-)

Agbe, thanks for the kind words.  You described the situation overall quite astutely.  And yes, Lauda was unhappy at the time she left.  But I doubt that was why.  Too abrupt; and the comprehensiveness which she cut all contacts indicates to me some dire necessity.

Gazeta, I think that’s not unlikely that for disinformation, Lauda may have intentionally given a “male” impression in some discussions, and “female” in others.  Indeed, I indicated above that I suspect so.  But I will say affirmatively, Lauda never asked me to take one side or the other on that question.  Of my own accord, I am >95% sure that Lauda must have been a woman—but then every once in awhile, I wake up and say, oh, my:  I could have accidentally spent years pining away in unrequited love for a man.  Did I just say that aloud?  Damn it, you can’t delete anything on the Internet.  :-[  What I meant was:  I could be totally wrong about this.

PrimeNumber7, I think that Lauda probably cared about her privacy from the beginning.  But assuming the contrary arguendo, there are various other reasons besides cypherpunk-anonymity why someone may obfuscate his or her identity online.  For instance, I know that some women with high technical skills masquerade as men, to avoid unwanted sexual attention that is oft crude and gratuitous in anonymous Internet environments.  I think that’s unfortunate, but it is has been a reality for decades—perhaps somewhat less so now.  Who knows?  I myself explicitly claim to be a man; but you have no proof that I am not just putting on a sometimes aggressive display of overt masculinity so I can fit in with the fellows in WO.  Anyway, it is nobody’s business.

I can easily think of a dozen such arguments on both sides of the question.


It’s a fun discussion, Lauda never minded that speculation when she (he?) was here; to the contrary, she seemed tacitly to encourage it.  Thus, of course, it really matters.  Why, it is the third most-important subject that has ever been discussed on this forum since Satoshi left! :)


Need I ask once per page if the Reputation forum is only for attacking and denouncing people?  “Reputation” has a bad reputation.  There is no “we”—for my part, I appreciate a positive, happy thread celebrating the years of contributions by someone who was deeply devoted to the Bitcoin Forum community.  If you don’t, please feel free not to participate.

I have sometimes thought about making a Lauda website—aye, a stereotypical Internet shrine.  I almost did, back in 2020.  I didn’t (yet?), for I have some doubts about whether or not Lauda would want such a thing.  But she spent much time on this forum.  Why begrudge her thread?  Lauda’s friends and admirers will never forget her.

Kitty forever!  😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺

On first look at your post I was under the impression that Lauda had returned and there was movement on her account. Then I realised it was something else. If you mean merits, I see 15 merits added to Lauda since the previous month. Which balance are you referring to?

He may be referring to the balance of bc1qt2mdkehmphggajer3ur3g8l754scj4fdrmw3rn (the address for Lauda related puzzle). From the original 0.001 BTC now it has 0.00333333 BTC. Some more coins were sent there less than one month ago.
.. Just that's not Lauda's wallet, from what I know.

Thank you for the clarification.

Yes it seems strange that a small deposit was made there but the reason behind it remains unknown. Even if the address was under control of Lauda there is nothing stopping her from moving her funds after she departed this forum.

Out of curiosity, if not Lauda then who could be controlling the wallet? Maybe the person controlling it made the deposit.

The address is not under Lauda's control (any savvy user can get these funds).

I miss Kitty. 😿

Fearless and fearsome.  Straight shooter.  Never bent, evaded, or dissimulated to play forum politics.  Ferocious defender of Bitcoin.

Continuing on my prior post in this thread, (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg60671099#msg60671099) I celebrated Bitcoin Independence Day appropriately:

• Quotes of some classic Lauda posts from the Fork Wars. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=178336.msg60671116#msg60671116)  Post in the Wall Observer, where once upon a time, Lauda came in second in an election (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2004227.0) for the new “topic starter”.

---

---

Indeed.  Let’s keep a puzzle about the puzzle.  I have been advertising the Lauda memorial puzzle in my signature for almost the past 17 months; and it has been discussed extensively in the past few pages of this thread.  Nonetheless, it seems to be the best-kept secret of this forum! :D

Like the puzzle itself, all of the information needed to claim the money is hiding in plain sight.  Unlike finding information about the puzzle, recovering the private key requires thinking like nullius.

That settles it then, the mystery was not so much a mystery after all. I did not pay much attention to what was going on with the wallet or the memorial puzzle but after reading the last post it becomes clear why funds were added and who added them  ;D

I have seen evidence that Lauda was not initially careful with their identity when they initially joined the forum. I prefer to not publicly state what evidence I have seen as it may weaken Lauda's privacy as it stands today.

I think Lauda initially struggled with some of the technical aspects of Bitcoin, and later learned the necessary skills to understand bitcoin. I find the reasons that I previously stated to be most reasonable.

If Lauda may have been somewhat careless initially to fully conceal her identity then I hope you will continue to not publicly state the evidence you claim to have seen. The same for others too.

If she wanted her privacy maintained then that is something which should be respected even after she left the forum.

To be clear:  I did not send the funds on 2022-04-30 and 2022-07-10.  I have no idea who did.  Lauda had many friends and admirers.  Despite my wish to keep the puzzle puzzling, I do not wish inadvertently to be credited for money that anonymous others contributed to the prize!

I created the puzzle, and I initially funded it with 0.001 BTC on 2021-03-14.

I think it’s remarkable that the first new addition of money came when I was “asleep”—just over a year after I had last posted on this forum.  Of course, others remember Kitty—but I was pleasantly surprised that someone remembered my Kitty-puzzle. 😺

---

Thank you for respecting Lauda’s privacy.


However she learned, she learned well.  A few days ago, I took a walk down memory lane with some of her posts from 2017.  I had seen many of her posts at the time, while lurking; at the time, I was impressed.  Now, with the benefit of hindsight, I am amazed at how accurately she predicted events in a complex system that involved both human decisions, and technology.

Bitcoin is apolitical money, as to external politics—but internally, it is also highly politicized money (and I must credit Cøbra for having pointed out this latter part, somewhere that I didn’t see at the time).  Unlike many other realms of politics, Bitcoin politics often hinge directly on technical factors.  Being technically correct means winning.

I think that one of the reasons why Lauda had such certitude about being on the winning side was that she understood Bitcoin’s consensus mechanism better than Jihan did.  Better than I did, too.  Until I saw the theories put to the test, I myself had some doubts about how the Bitcoin network would behave in various adversarial scenarios.  Lauda was highly confident about this—and she was right.

Besides that, she seemed rarely to engage in deeply technical discussions; but sometimes, she popped up with something like this:

Re: Bitcoin Block confirmations, Why do they lag at times?

Meow.

---

Yes, indeed.

Any for of contribution that keeps alive the memory of Lauda would generally be considered a good thing by most since she was popular but what would she have thought of it herself? She removed herself from the drama in the forum for reasons unknown. Do you think Lauda would be supportive of her name/memory being attached to the puzzle?

PrimeNumber7’s earlier reply to me had some prior context; it would be known to those who have read the thread, and related discussions in 2020.  I have been actively protective of Lauda’s privacy (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5284093.msg55446099#msg55446099) since she disappeared in 2020, and I repeatedly spoke about that (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55474545#msg55474545) within the first 14 pages of this thread.  I infer from PN7 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg55424911#msg55424911)’s prior post that he remembers all of these discussions.

---

Why the sudden display of concern (https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2014/01/13/enter-the-concern-troll/)?  Despite your prior DT (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5098579.0) interactions with Lauda, you first showed up in this thread on 3 August 2022, on page 14; (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg60678465#msg60678465) and you very evidently had not read any of the thread.  It is inappropriate for you to be second-guessing Lauda’s friend and throwing negativity onto something joyful, from a professed concern for Lauda’s name and memory.

Lauda generally liked what I did for her.  I think that’s patently obvious—as was her general desire to be remembered by things I did for her.  I usually didn’t ask her beforehand when I easily could have, and she was always delighted.  Your above-quoted question is also directly answered by a prior post on this thread, which has been linked from my unpaid signature for the past month; it is quoted above, with some other relevant prior posts.

Now, please feel free to take a shot at solving this jolly good puzzle.  I know that you had positive interactions with Lauda; and the puzzle is a fine way to scam you into reading her final thread.  Furthermore, although I know that it may take awhile to solve this one, or it may even remain unsolved indefinitely, I am waxing a bit impatient.  I have been contemplating another puzzle, with some enigmatic ideas that I didn’t use for this one; but I am reluctant to detract from the existing puzzle by adding new puzzles, while this one remains unsolved.  So, please solve it if you can! 😼


P.S., please stop top-posting (http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html).  Thanks.

Heh heh....I'm not certain we're on the same page as far as what it means to be a pillar of a community, because those three members were very different in terms of their personalities, contributions to the forum, and respect earned over the course of their time here.  They were pretty well-known members to be sure, but I don't envision a community pillar to be someone who generates as much controversy as Lauda did.  Some of that was because of his/her sheer abrasiveness, but there was that sting operation that didn't have great optics and probably some other accusations with supporting evidence that I'm forgetting.

Overall, though, I always thought Lauda did more good than harm--but there was a balancing between the two.  With Vod, I don't think there were any accusations against him that held any weight.  He generally tread a righteous path and did a hell of a lot to warn people about loan scammers.

TMAN.  What I remember most about him was his amusing choice of words, some of which could probably make a router blush.  There's no one like him around these days that I know of.

Lauda Vod TMAN I didn't meet but it's like Vod left later than the other two because when I joined the forum newly I read one thread so about some fracas between him and Ognasty and ors. They have contributed much to the forum, especially Lauda in beginners and Help pinned posts.
Then, describing them as pillars shouldn't be totally right because since they left this forum haven't collapsed. Ok, it could be that there are other pillars apart from three of them. Yet, the foundation is not shaking.
Well, it could be correct that when one pillar falls another will emerge. Then your claims may be right.

It’s a lot different these days without these mentioned users around, but said sting operation made waves between powerful cliques so strongly the ripples can still be seen to this day..

Not having several members around now is making this forum a different place altogether but after making a statement such as that you have to name names please... which operation were you referring to?

I think that is overly melodramatic.  “Powerful”?  “Waves”, as opposed to ripples in a frog-pond?  All this DT, rank, and merit stuff has the grandiose false importance of a schoolyard popularity contest between children.  Poor children:  Anyone who has significant BTC would be unlikely to care about these cliques.  Nothing against the poor, per se—I myself am poor; I guess that some poor people can somehow keep a proper perspective on how much supercilious forum-politicking is driven by remarkably petty levels of greed.  But imagine, Eddie:  Would anyone with 1000 BTC be deeply entangled in forum-DT factionalism?  More importantly:  In even so short a time as twenty years, will anyone care?

As I have mentioned before, Lauda repeatedly urged me to quit the forum altogether.  She regarded me as an underachiever, and she was deeply critical of me for this:  “Stop wasting time.”  After the time she spent striving with single-minded devotion to try to help foster a healthy community here, she herself was increasingly frustrated and pessimistic for the reasons inferred by Agbe’s analysis (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5282911.msg60528696#msg60528696).  Any positive change was blocked by what she privately called “the enablers”:  Not the obvious scammers and trolls—not the unpopular people—but the game-players, the manipulative influence peddlers, their backroom politics, their public currying of favour.

Wherever she is now, I hope that she moved onto more productive endeavours.  And I hope that no ill fate befell her, as seems to be implied by OP here.  And I also hope that—well, let’s put it this way:  I have spent the past few years being haunted by the thought that she may have done a real “Goodbye, world!” over that plagiarism thing, which I myself considered worse than that admittedly ill-advised sting operation.  I have graphically hinted at this before. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5297144.msg55785541#post_seppuku)  I don’t think that’s likely—but I don’t think it’s terribly unlikely, either.  I forgave her over that because, among many other reasons, she immediately owned up to it; and instead of lashing out at the anonymous account that correctly accused her, she thanked it. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1926895.msg54473176#msg54473176)  I hope that she forgave herself.  All I know is that she was very upset—not merely embarrassed at being caught, but sincerely angry at herself; her activity soon dropped off to its lowest-ever levels, and then she abruptly burnt her identity, cut her contacts, and disappeared.  There was always a lot going on with her; it was probably something else.  Probably a coincidence.

With due apologies for being so morose, Eddie—Black Sabbath, and all.  In a few days, I will return to only my normal level of pessimism.


I do dream of what could have been...


Anyway, I am surprised that The Pharmacist brought up that sting operation in response to jamyr.  At the time, jamyr commented on the thread where the sting operation blew up:


So...


(Corrected because Quickseller made peace with Lauda. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5224240.0)  So now, only trolls/scammers care about it.)


TMAN was together with Lauda in the same controversy.  I don’t think he would mind my pointing that out, since he was always one of her strongest defenders about that (and otherwise).

---

Posted while I was looking for an appropriate nonexistent-kitty pic I will edit into the above [edit: together with some self-correction of sloppy statements/AI memory bitflips “foibles of human memory” in the draft I wasn’t done with]; with quoting changed to avoid top-posting: (http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html)


Why should he name names?  It is well-known. (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1759607.msg17570759#msg17570759)  The matter was sufficiently well-settled that the target of the sting blanked his own post about it, to avoid being a drama-magnet.

Lauda was fired from her forum staff position over this (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1397579.msg17608448#msg17608448)—a big blow to her, only two months after she came in second (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1685557.msg16992779#msg16992779) in an unofficial election (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1685557.0) for the community to suggest a new Global Moderator.  She suffered years of trolling over it.  Over five years later, almost two years after she disappeared, there is no need to rehash the matter.  I am surprised that The Pharmacist brought it up.

Although the circumstances and particulars were very different, in the abstract, that “sting operation” reminds me of something that I once read in a political memoir.  The author was offered a $5,000 bribe in a political type of context—a large sum of money, at the time; this was before the dollar’s implosion in the late twentieth century (https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/).  There was a hint that the offer was negotiable; and he had heard that others had received bribes of $50,000 to $75,000 for the same corrupt action.  As he related in his memoir, he was tempted simply to see how high the person offering the bribe would go—not from any temptation to take the money, but from a desire to quantify the corruption.  He thought to play along a bit, in the manner of a sting operation.  Then, he realized that this could backfire very badly; so, he gave it a flat no.