[...]

Sorry but it sounds like "We can't tell what the program does really."

I think the specification would be desirable here, otherwise it's like fixing a running car really.
If later some case is found that the reference client disagrees with the specification:
* Bug in the specification? - Fix the specification.
* Bug in the reference client? - Fix the reference client, or if not possible to fix now and hardfork is needed, then write a note in the specification.
Maybe there are more important matters to look at now but this looks inevitable one day ...

Thanks for the link but I am talking about Cambodia not the USA. I have people who want to farm this land because they will make more than working in the Nike factory down the road... Should I tell them sorry I wont let you farm it after all cuz some guy on the internet said you were like slaves? Free market...

Why wouldn't this apply equally to everyone who deposited money with Pirate? If we can assume that every reasonable person must have known it was a scam, then everyone who deposited money with Pirate was paying Pirate to steal money from others and give it to them.

Ponzi schemes make people irrational. Scammers know how to exploit that. I want people to learn a lesson rather than punishing them for being human.

For what it's worth, I'm now personally convinced that BurtW was himself convinced that Pirate was not running a Ponzi scheme or similar scam. He's actually a good example of why I think most PPT operators deserve a "free pass" for the Pirate fiasco.

Even we newbies, coming with press transported hopes and illusions can see, that this forum is an undemocratic, inbreeding chain - letter, where moderators, heromembers
are colluding to skin us off.
If this is a false impression, I appologize , but then tell me , how the highest authority is allowed to leave this post uncommented:

But there are lots of investment opportunities around me which I have few resources to catch all of them.

Oh I am in trouble? Are you going to spank me or just call me names like the rest? 

Well whatever gets you off buddy...

It in no way can help the community when a new person comes to the forums and every thread that mentions prominant characters on the forum suddenly gets a response explaining how that person is scamming

Haven't read much of the thread. . .  Has the grown man who is a fan of children's TV shows and who rates every scam AAA+++ wound down his own investment program scam yet? 

Looks like the thugs in charge have stomped their little jackboots. Nice job on trashing the only voice that your little magazine had that did any good for promoting itself. Matthew is a character. Always has been, and if played true to the cards he's showing, he always will be. Anyone who took this bet seriously is a prize ass, and deserving of public humiliation. Coming on the heels of Bitscalper, Bitcoinica and pirate, it was only fitting that somebody call attention to the absolute pathetic lemming-like devotion to believing pure bullshit that has become the hallmark of bitcoin.

Hey kids? There is no free lunch. You cannot sustain 7% weekly returns. There is no economic perpetual motion money making machine that pulls bitcoins out of your ass for your amusement. Matthew's big crime was poking fun at you about it. Oh me oh my, what a terrible scoundrel he is. You have pirate raping your entire family to the tune of $5 million dollars, and you want to jump on the shit of the guy who poked a finger in your eye? Lame. You have the bitcoinica incompetents pissing in your drink and still being kowtowed to because they are going to be keynote speakers at this joke of a conference in London.

Get a fucking clue Bitcoin Community!!! Right the fuck now. All of these slick snake oil salesmen who have just invented the newest greatest thing that you should invest in are talking to you for one single reason only- to steal your funds. There is no altruistic tooth fairy that wants to make you rich, they all just want to make themselves rich. And you are the laziest, saddest bunch of fuck-toys I have ever seen. Somebody just fleeced your ass out of 500,000 bitcoins and your anger is directed towards the guy mocking you about it.

Stop thinking that bitcoin is some wunderkind techno anarchy tool that is going to change the definition of money. It is a slightly interesting alternate way to transact a very, very limited subset of transactions pretty much limited to the technically savvy. Unfortunately, it seems as if one of the first things that happens when you download the block chain is that you put your common sense on hold.

Oh, and Bitcoin Magazine? I ordered copies of the first three issues 6 weeks ago. Bought and paid for with PayPal. Where the fuck are they? Maybe a little more attention to fulfillment and a little less ass-kissing to the the gods of public opinion. You are starting to act like a couple of other well known fuck-ups of recent note in that your attention is on your ego, and not on your business model. Quit playing games and do your jobs.

How about you do a big public apology first to all the people that warned you, but that you have been shouting down and insulting for over 6 months and more importantly,  to the people who trusted your judgement, but that you misled by pretending you knew more than you really did?

The same goes for the rest of the pirate promo team who are now all pretending to be only victims fighting for the righteous cause.

I'd strongly advise filing complaints with whatever information you already have and adding any extra information you have as it comes in.  The longer it takes before those who can access all sorts of information about Trendon Shavers which this community cannot start investigating, the more opportunity he has to muddy the trail.

I also believe that it if it was legitimate to ask Bitcoin Magazine to distance itself from Matthew, it is equally legitimate to ask the other members of GPUMax to distance themselves from Trendon and to make a public statement regarding his current role in relation to that entity and whether or not GPUMax itself had any exposure to BS&T (we know that they shared a wallet, but we have no idea to what extent the businesses may have crossed over in other ways).

I doubt very much that no-one closely associated with Trendon knew what he was doing.  It's likely some were complicit in his fraud.

Will this auspicious collection of righteous souls also be going after the Pass Through operators who made a tidy little profit shilling for pirate, handling the recruitment of his victims, performing the actual transfer of his victim's funds into his scheme and now all want to so handily hide behind his skirt and claim no culpability?

Seems somehow disingenuous for anyone involved as a co-conspirator to get involved in an effort to track down the bad guy. Of course, OJ claimed he was hunting for his ex-wife's killer while still wiping the warm blood off his gloves, so I guess nothing should surprise us any more.

And if this particular clown car actually starts rolling... you may want to check your own records PPT folks... you had a secret clubhouse with the guy, you had ongoing secret dialog with him, it would only be reasonable to think that a gaggle of top flight biznessmen like yourselves would at least have a real name and phone number for the guy you gave $5,000,000 to, wouldn't it?

And in the sense of fair warning... if anybody asks for a penny of "contribution" for this effort, you will be the straw that broke the dam, and will become target number 1 for all abuse, serious questioning, threats of uncertain but very scary harm and concentrated legal action against you. Even stepping onto the path of "creating a structure" for that kind of heaping salt into the wound smacks of wanting to dig in and grab a few coins for yourself after the major crime has been committed.

And drop the potentially. If this effort isn't already exploring every possible legal avenue with full disclosure and cooperation from every PPT operator to help out the investigation on behalf of the victims that you helped create, then this is clearly a scheme for a little extra taste for the poor junior boys who didn't make out like true bandits at the big people's table.

Goat is doing his damnest to whitewash his history as a complicit I-know-Pirate's-business-model shill by appointing himself public prosecutor. Good luck with that, Goat, but it's a collosal mistake for anyone else to subsidize one of the leading co-conspirators to this scam.

Goat- it sucks to have to sell stuff to honor your obligations, but those are the realities of owning a business and offering investment opportunities. Some days you win, and some days you have to make your word be worth something, suck it up and pay out. That's the other side of the coin from when you are raking in the profits. The Scammer tag is not for participating, the Scammer tag will be for those who willfully promoted the scheme (which was the scam) were intimately involved in the scam, and do nothing to make good with the victims of the scam.

Good. The more transparency you can offer the better. How about a full data dump on all of the secret IRC discussions, a breakdown on what was discussed and when, and access to the private contact info you have for pirate? The datamining experts here will find things like that valuable in their search for the guilty parties.

Why? What possible use does anybody investigating this have for donations? If there is an action plan developed and a fund to hire professional to investigate- that would be one thing, but just to say- "we need donations" is offensive. And the root cause of why I and others are doubting your sincerity is solving this problem.

Then may I suggest you think again. You were a vocal cheerleader, and enthusiastic early adopter, an insider in every respect, and you made a very public case for what a wonderful place it was to invest. You then proceeded to make significant profits for yourself on channeling the funds to pirate. An explanation in fine print does not make this okay, you have a fiduciary responsibility to those who entrusted you with their money. I realize that this is a pretend world, with a pretend currency, but the real world rules of responsibility for financial transactions apply. To put a none too subtle note on it, you are a very public accessory to a crime. You have channeled a significant amount of wealth through your mechanism of investment to an crime that is well into the felony range in pretty much any jurisdiction world-wide. You don't make that go away with a lame caveat emptor. You bust your ass trying to do the right thing, you dig deep until you bleed to make good to those who trusted you, long before the Court orders you to, and you don't ever ask for a donation to assist in this matter in any way. And you might consider staying out of the limelight. The investigation and subsequent prosecution (on whatever level) of this matter is not something that you should be the face of.

And I have been a very interested observer as you have learned how to put together your ventures. Your learning process has been very public. You just need to think about tightening up on the details now that investment mogul has turned to as-yet uncharged con-conspirator. You are standing at that crossroads where you have to decide who you are- a scummy little sycophant who is trying to bluff his way out of responsibility with empty words, or a man of honor who will do the right thing, and own his mistake, be honest about it, and work to make it better. And perhaps, a small note of humility and contrition?

You do realize the first thing Goat will consult a lawyer about, is his OWN liability for promoting and facilitating a fraudulent ponzi operation, right? Why do you think he is still pretending its unsure if pirate really ran a ponzi? Goats first concern is not getting your coins back, its keeping his own ass out of trouble, and if that would mean letting Pirate off the hook, you can bet those 2BTC that he will.

You see, this is where those people were wrong.
If people yell ponzi people should GTFO of the deal, not seek some insured ponzi stuff.
But in those situations usually greed takes over and the FIRST thing greed does is throw reason out the window.
Or would you claim that you honestly thought there was not a huge huge risk that pirate would not pay (and that is not a rhetorical question)?