Here’s the second interview for Bruno, the founder of YuTü.Co.in, conducted by Cyrus McNally, the original viewable here:
https://coinclarity.com/the-bitcoin-forum-part-3-of-3/Interview With a Scam Busting Legend
Phinnaeus Gage, aka Gleb Gamow, aka YuTü.Co.in, aka Bruno Kucinskas, is an early adopter of Bitcointalk, having created his account in early/mid 2011, and with over 35,000 posts under his belt, easily its most prolific poster. His activity on the forum has rendered him one of its foremost “scam busters,” famous for interfering with less-than-ethical Bitcoin-related operations and potentially saving would-be investors millions of dollars in the process. He also founded the first bitcoin-based charity,
Bitcoin100, which attracted the attention of several prominent names in the space. In addition, Bruno’s antics have been a source of entertainment for long-time forum members over the years, making the
list of famous forum scandals on more than on occasion.
Coin Clarity had the privilege of
interviewing Bruno a few months back, and he was gracious enough to make a second appearance, sharing some of his wisdom and insight into the inner-workings of the Bitcoin Forum. He was true to his signature style of humor, and we thank him for that – no conversation with Bruno would be complete without swear words and accompanying illustrations.
Coin Clarity: How did you first hear about Bitcoin, and then how did you hear about the Bitcoin forum (BitcoinTalk)?Phinnaeus Gage: It was June 13, 2011, a Monday morning, when I first learnt of Bitcoin and BitcoinTalk (BCT) at the same time. I was on my laptop while taking a long shit, exploring the feasibility of amassing copper US cents (pre 1983) as an investment opportunity. Due to certain keywords I was using on Google, the search results kept suggesting Bitcoin, of which I dismissed at first. Finally, curiosity got the best of me and found myself reading some post of some thread on BCT. Eight hours later I was still reading treads on Bitcoin’s only forum at the time. The next day I immediately went back to BCT and read threads for at least another eight hours. Same true for the following day. On the morning of June 16, 2011, I signed up on the forum under the moniker Phinnaeus Gage so to interact with what I believed at the time to be a well-educated group of posters.
Don’t mind at all. It was during a late spring morning a few years ago when I was taking a long shit… Seriously, one word –
Inaba (aka Josh Zerlan of the now defunct Butterfly Labs) [editor’s note: this is the same Inaba mentioned in the FH interview; Bruno's note: same link depicted at beginning of this post]. For some reason I gave Josh my vitals via PM on BCT, whereupon weeks later when I inevitably pissed him off one too many times, he opted to publicly release my vitals on BCT as payback.
CC: How did you become an acquaintance of Charles Hoskinson / Charlie Shrem / Roger Ver? (you can mention just one, two or all three if you want)?PG: It was during a July morning when I was taking a long…
I first met all three on BCT, each of them all contributing to Bitcoin 100, crypto’s first crypto-accepting charity which I founded. Charles Hoskinson was the very first Bitcoiner I met in person at a conference hosted by BitPay in Atlanta, in front of BitPay’s office upon exiting the elevator. Quick aside, I’ll be speaking at Charles’
IOHK Summit in April and presenting YuTü.Co.in, also founded by me. I first met Charlie Shrem at the same conference in Atlanta. I’ve never met Roger in person cuz of all the conferences I’ve attended where he was scheduled to speak, he pulled a George Jones and didn’t show. #Sad!
CC: What/when was your greatest feeling of victory, like a moment you knew when you really nailed somebody or took down a scam project?PG: There are so many, I truly can’t name one, looking at all of them as victories, though Black Arrow, BFL and EthTrade definitely come to mind. I do get a kick on how Leroy Fodor, Marshall Long and Nick Spanos ALL claim to have been mining and trading bitcoins in 2009 when BCT was the ONLY source of info in the space back them, it having ONLY 17 registered users (none them) and the first exchange had yet to be created, let alone envisioned (mostly via the Bitcoin White Paper). I’ll add that Nick is on record in not knowing who Satoshi is directly after claiming he knew everybody in the space, Leroy can’t rite good english in spite of earning a college deegre, and Marshall stinks like a pig perhaps cuz he has ablutophobia.
CC: I noticed you’re on the Default Trust list but don’t issue feedback. Why don’t you use the Trust system? Do you have any personal thoughts on it?PG: Oddly, just opted from the get-go to not participate on the let’s-shit-on-people thingy (guess that answers the second question as well, eh?).
CC: You’ve been one to speak your mind, coming across often as quite anti-authoritarian. Do you have anything to stay about the current state of forum “politics”?PG: Actually, I haven’t gotten caught up in the politics of BCT, albeit I may have been a victim of such given the comments left on my Trust thingy. As for BCT proper, I’d say that within five more years, theymos will have the new improved $1.5M forum up and running.
CC: Do you have any tips for people who want to become a scam buster? Like, any certain “do’s” or “do not’s” that you’re willing to share?PG:[editor’s note: “Google Fu,” is a term applied to the process of researching somebody on Google for the sake of scam busting purposes, frequently used by PG]
CC: What’s it like being the most prolific poster on the forum? I mean, between Phinnaeus Gage and Gleb Gamow you’re about 12,000 posts ahead of the next closest member, philipma1957.PG:CC: I currently live in Mindanao. Want me to go check out a certain ex-solar powered mining operation?PG: Yeah, go and unplug Leroy Fodor’s solar array powering the Philippines’ largest bitcoin mining farm located in his sorry-ass 20′ X 20′ Sari Sari-cum-disco-cum-grocery-cum-internet cafe-cum-living quarters in the basement-cum-piggery… [editor’s note: here is a
link to Bruno’s epic investigation of the matter]
CC: Will do. Thanks again for your time, Bruno, as always it’s been a pleasure.(full disclosure / statement of interests: the author of this article (
Cyrus McNally) is the co-author of the YuTü.Co.in whitepaper.)
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