That is incorrect.

In any event, there are steps to recover funds from BS&T.

blah blah blah - trolls are getting old and rather uninteresting

I was advised recently (last hour or so) that I now have an imposter on IRC.  that's getting really sad - I hope whoever it is has a real life

blah blah blah - trolls are getting old and rather uninteresting

I was advised recently (last hour or so) that I now have an imposter on IRC.  that's getting really sad - I hope whoever it is has a real life

In other news, I've spent several hours today working with someone that borrowed from me some months ago, working on getting back around 800 coins.  What is pissing me off is that while we are trying to work out a solution so I can get more coins back to people quickly, a "respected" member of the forum is trying to get them to default by stealing/devaluing an asset they hold.

I deleted the OP material because I was continuing to get requests for accounts and being asked to take deposits.  As it was quite clear in this thread that I'm shutting things down, having mis-information available seemed counter intuitive.  I understand the "evidence" will be construed anyway the trolls like, but that is not my concern or interest.

I will be doing a pro-rata payment today based on a loan that was repaid.  I have received 20 requests for withdrawals this week, so they will be pooled as advised.  Also, I don't intend to do daily payments, it will align with the weekly interest payments that I have been running on Fridays.

WifeofStarfish was visiting her father the past few days - sorry, she's not a sockpuppet, but I don't think she'll be jousting with the trolls much.

I've had some loan repayments come in, and will be setting up a batch of pro-rata payments today.  yes, there are a bunch of cascade defaults occurring, and there is a healthy balance of people that have asked for their deposits returned. 

Two points (and not wanting to feed the trolls), I only pieced the above arrangement together a few weeks ago, and second, while Pirate might have been busy growing deposits, I had finished doing that some time ago having reached a sensible level back in July to match the lending business that Starfish was working with.

Anyway, back to sorting out loan/investment recovery for repayments.

It's been a couple of busy days and I'm catching up on a few things, but the time has also given some space to do some thinking as well.

First up, those in K1 know the initial asset allocation, and that included some distressed BS&T debt.  Of the accounts purchased, one was paid and provided the first week returns (a little over 0.5%).  For week two, a flat 0.5% was paid and the tentative plan is to look at making a similar payment this week.

Going forward, despite what the forum trolls like to say, there is a newer opportunity with some of the HashKing debt.  I know some about what he's been doing in terms of hardware and I talk to him every day (normally via skype) and he is part of YABMC with me and JWU42.  He tells me payments would be daily (!) but Kraken pays weekly.

There are also a number of other assets that might be worth picking up as some GLBSE prices have been trashed.  The other aspect I am investigating is transferring or offering the profits from a BTC hardware business I have a stake in to the fund (again, a lumpy revenue stream from a real world business), but I need to sort some issues out with the majority shareholder.

And finally, there are some additional spaces opened up in Kraken Fund.  Because it is not a simple deposit system, redeeming funds/units is a bit more tricky.  There are three slots covering 1400 coins, and each account is entitled to a maximum investment of 1000.

Going off topic and picking up on a variety of points, it might simply not work.  I was piecing together bits and pieces but could never get the money flows correct until a few weeks ago.  The 3% is a guess based on observations from the last year (and is still a 400% return), not a prediction for the future because I don't think it would work on the current price/market cap level.  All those other questions probably have good answers, but nimda wanted to know what I thought.

Mr Copper I've heard about before (and it's normally referred to as Hunt brothers in the literature for the silver market), and their actions are normally breaches of the laws and financial markets that they work within.  Some markets allow corners and squeezes, others do not.  My view is that Bitcoin is more prone to it because it is small (copper trade is quite large, so is silver).  Exercise of market power is an interesting topic in its own right.

At various stages I've considered things that would work in a two tier economy.  One of my preferred options was around exchange of goods for bitcoin to avoid sales tax - but avoidance and evasion are different things, and you need the right circumstances and people to do it.  Taxes are usually a motivation for people to do a variety of interesting things.

Given he's not surfacing or communicating, I don't see why not.  This may not be the actual model used but is is one way to do it - it exploits an inefficiency between two markets and indulges in market manipulation along the way.  I would think a year at 3%/week would be easier, but it would become unweildy to do it for much longer than that (again, it's an opinion).

   Mr X wants a 10% return on a USD investment, but banks pay near zero.
   Mr Z can provide him that return and gets a $500k deposit.
   Mr Z buys bitcoins at $5 each.  Because bitcoins is small, Mr Z can corner and squeeze the market - preventing big price swings, selling high and buying low.
   Mr Z does this with bitcoins that he has obtained from bitcoin users - he pays them interest.  Over six months, Mr Z has moved the price to $11, sells 50k to return $550k to Mr X
   Mr Z has happy customers, and made some money along the way.

The plus of this is that the price of bitcoins generally increases.  The down side is that the market is controlled and there is much less free-will or competitive force at work.  The phrase "you've been played" springs to mind.  Interestingly, this process also allows (within reason) a forecast future trading range (increasing).  The bubble over $13 probably hurt BS&T along with the reduced liquidity from the August withdrawal spree.  Having watched this over the past year, it was clear a lot of trading was not occurring through Gox and there are lots of good reasons for that.

Why can't he unwind it all quickly/smoothly?  Not sure, but then I would have run it differently.


And on a competitive note, since BS&T closed shop, I have processed around 8000 BTC of withdrawals for Starfish customers. 

Note the past tense.  Until some of the other aspects of this gets sorted that is a low priority.

And a lot happens in a week.  Yes, it sucks, and it was due to be repaid on 10 October, but that is not the current time frame.

blah blah blah two pages of stuff

Update for today:
I sent out some payments last night.  Several of 100 and a couple smaller and a couple larger - not a strict pro-rating based on withdrawal requests, but I considered it important to get them out to people.

I have several additional withdrawal requests received overnight, so they will get added to the queue.  They will be paid as funds are returned.  For clarity, the interest rate change is Friday and will be 0.25%/week because it makes the payments a little easier.  If you would like to move onto weekly interest payments, please pm.

I do suspect some people were using loans from me to invest in Pirate.  Others were investing in mining equipment and that is possibly as illiquid, but it is similar to the beginning of the year when people were borrowing for gambling.

and, I am sorry that I am not able to execute the withdrawals in a timely fashion and that so many people are caught up in this.  Irrespective of the other events, I have responsibility to those that have placed trust with me, and despite my best efforts I have failed to meet the standards required.

yes, that sounds more likely (although the other option could be interesting)

That's ok - everyone does what they need to do. 

I was just reading about the potential collapse of the euro with an impending decision from Germany, and a related article about a "perfect storm" for the world economy being discussed at the Ambrosetti Forum.  Maybe there will be some further bank runs, or at least a significant correction. 

srs??!!
[/quote]

I wouldn't call it a master plan - the trolls might have some other descriptions for it, and I expect a bunch of angry people too.

I initially proposed a queue for withdrawal requests.  However, the past few days has revealed and confirmed a number of issues and a queue would be unfair under the circumstances.  Therefore, I will be making repayments on a pro-rata basis.

The wider situation is that we are seeing a simple "bank run".  Everyone wants their coins back from everyone else at the same time.  I made inquiries regarding the larger loans and investments that Starfish has made over the past few months, and also taken on board the most recent developments.  These include the ceasing of interest payments from three of the larger blocks and unknown return times for these and two others covering 5000BTC.  The result that will make people unhappy is that it is going to slow things down, and continuing to pay interest when half of the portfolio has ceased making payments makes no sense.  

Starfish does still have income, and following this week's accumulation rates will be dropping to a nominal 1%/month as I consider reducing it to zero to be counter productive.

Thanks for the reminder to update the OP, but deposits have been restricted/disallowed for several weeks now.  Otherwise bitcoinbull's post is rather irrelevant.

yes, I'm going to be changing that

Thank you for the expressions of interest in the available Kraken spot - it has been taken.