There are lessons to be learned here. 

Don't put all your eggs in one basket when making a very large BTC transaction like this.  Don't use Paypal (like ebay does) or any reversible kind of transaction like that.  Remember, one of the most important features of BTC is that transactions are irreversible once they hit the blockchain and get confirmed.  ONLY do transactions like this (irreversible Bitcoin for reversible Paypal/credit card) if you PERSONALLY know the other person and know they are good for it if something goes wrong.

If you must do large transactions like this, use trusted Bitcoin-experienced sites like Gox and CoinBase, and even then, don't do the transaction all in one go, but split it up into smaller transactions so even if you get scammed on one of them, you haven't just lost your entire roll.

If possible, use a trusted escrow.

Ripple may not be a scam, but it is very open to scamming, and is almost a scam-enabling technology by design.  It appears highly vulnerable to social engineering.  Also, it may actually be a scam, but I haven't seen convincing evidence of that.  Yet.  It's open to the people who run it going rogue and turning it into a scam, even if it isn't yet.  Or getting raided and shut down, whereupon all its resources become worthless.  Or any number of vulnerabilities inherent in systems with a single point of failure (Opencoin itself).

VCs are already gambling.  Even run by completely legit personnel, a large number of startups (of the type that need VC in the first place) are going to go belly-up before recouping the investment.  Even with advantages like insisting on preferred stock, they may lose their entire investment.  VCs hope to make a profit because when they hit, they hit big.  However, they're expecting to lose sometimes, even the majority of times.  With a limited tolerance for a long streak of failures, they really can't afford to do shit like invest in a company headed by a convicted criminal.  Sure, maybe he's reformed himself, but it's just a bad risk at that point.  Why borrow trouble?

It's kind of moot, though, because even if you found VCs willing to overlook the fact that the guy is a convicted felon, I can't imagine any VCs sitting by idly while the company is represented by a complete raving asshole like Josh Zerlan.  This is the kind of freakish behavior they simply would not tolerate.

That is why I think BFL is lying about VC just like they lie about everything else.  However, if they did have VC, where's the tranches of preferred stock and other things that you'd see in such a situation?  There is no VC in the world who would be dumb enough to get into a partnership and end up legally on the hook for BFL's debts if they end up liable for scamming.  Is BFL even a corporation?

This was over two weeks ago.

Since there is no way just to "buy all the Bitcoin" all at once, this would occur during the attempt to buy it all up, probably discouraging the billionaire from continuing on a course of action that would increasingly obviously be extremely foolish.

Evidence this thread:  Bitcoin stealing software! Finally released


Pretty much a scam whether it's really Bitcoin stealing software or, more likely, some kind of malware to be downloaded by suckers.

Why on earth would anyone sell over ebay??  You're basically bending over and lubing up and begging to get ripped off.

Bad list of options for the poll.  There is no option for "a really bad idea."  I'm not convinced it's actually a scam, but I could easily see people losing a lot of money using it.

I suggest putting the Siamese Retard Twin Tag Team of nottm28 and wrenchmonkey on ignore.  Clears the thread up nicely.

Indeed.  This kind of retarded claim is made in the very, very vain hopes that nobody is on this forum who remembers Apple's early delays on the Macintosh. 

Only a fucking retard would believe that BFL's lies, scams, and swindles are even remotely related to Apple's failure to deliver the original Macintosh on time.  Note:  they did not collect millions in pre-order money in a desperate attempt to use it for R&D to develop something that didn't exist when they said they were about to deliver.

I guess one way of testing this hypothesis is getting Sonny put back behind bars, there certainly are enough reasons.

Then see if "wrenchmonkey" shuts TF up.

Because putting the shit you have to say in gigantic red letters automatically makes it valid.

I could put a picture of my dick here, and swell it up so that it takes up 18 inches of screen space. . .but I'm not that retarded.

Unlike you.

Seriously, get a life.

(Also I wouldn't even have to swell up a picture of my dick for it to take up that much space. . .but that's another post.)

You could have stopped there.   

*Plonk* mental midget.

Seems rational enough at this point.  Even if people think they've been screwed up until now, at this point, the preorder money is a sunk cost.  Anyone at the top of the queue who ever actually gets a unit will probably profit overall on the deal.  Depending on how you figure the odds of actually getting a unit and when you think it's likely, it's kind of a judgment call as to whether it's worth sticking around or getting a refund.

If I had a high order number, I'd be getting out of Dodge.  (Luckily, I have no money tied up in this clusterfuck personally.)

Their own conduct has rendered any future products they release worthless because nobody will trust them with money again.  I doubt they will be able to do R&D on preorder money again.  Of course, I've underestimated the stupidity of people more than once before and might be disappointed.

I'm not exactly a fan and wouldn't be surprised if they did something like this, but if they did, there would be obvious activity on the blockchain proving it.  You can't just sneakily mine BTC because it isn't real until it's on the chain, and if someone else gets the next block before you do, you just lost your version.  So if it isn't showing up on the blockchain, they're not doing it.

Funny, it links to the pre-order tracking site, which is still a nearly-solid sea of red undelivered orders.

I guess it needs to be in bold-faced with flashing letters for an idiot to understand a plain English sentence.

Huh?  Learn to read.