This is contradictory.  What is a "global score" if not the trust a person has from "DefaultTrust"?  The fact that there is some opt-out way to hide this global score doesn't change its nature.

Also, remember that pirateat40 had an absolutely spectacular otc rating.  It's a subject of debate whether or not that rating was instrumental to his scam.  In my opinion any trust system that's easy for newbies to use as guidance effectively suppresses low-level scamming at the cost of assisting epic pirate-scale scamming.  It's like credit default swaps for the economy of trust.

How about you, Eric?  Will you be dissociating yourself now that you've fled to Costa Rica, or is it just your corporation that moved there?  I hear it worked out really well for that Liberty Reserve guy.

No, just a local outrage.  They've been illegal in Berkeley since 1982.

You seriously think this has nothing to do with Paul Krugman's nostrils?

Impossible.

Exact quote is "I am electing to take a brief break from commenting on issues such as this." but that won't fit in the thread's title.  Please forgive the minor editing.

Bring forth the speculation, o bitcointalk, ye 'fount of wisdom.

So is this just gonna be radio silence until we find out we've all been Corzined and our account balances were seized to satisfy the judgment?

I guess if that did happen we certainly shouldn't expect to hear any forewarning.

But it would be nice to hear from MtGox what in heaven's name Mark was thinking when he signed such an outrageously one-sided contact.  Most important question: did he read it before signing?  Not that this has any legal relevance, of course.  Just curious.  His signature certainly looks like something I could pull off blindfolded.

In fact I am at this very moment logged into a wonderful website called bitcointalk.org, in private browsing mode, and everything works perfectly.

Maybe these GYFT jokers could learn something from whoever runs the show here?

You forgot to try to log in and you know, actually, do something.  Click the "create an account" button or pretty much anything that isn't static content.


Yes, you do.

Besides, the whole internet is on my side.  Look, the "YES" option is winning the poll!

Another website nobody has heard of.  Are you sure he wasn't also CEO of hamster-dance.com?


Gee, I can't tell you how much that comforts me.

Thank you for pulling together all of this important information in an easy-to-access place.

I would like to make a donation to ripplescam.org in recognition of this valuable public service.

Your website mentions donations, but I was unable to locate a bitcoin address anywhere on ripplescam.org.  Please consider posting one.

For all you out there preparing for your college entrance exams, the analogy goes like this:

   GYFT.COM is to BTCBUY.INFO as RIPPLE is to BITCOIN

Lemme get this straight, you're posting on a bitcoin forum, claiming QR codes have no practical use?

Troll harder, buddy.

Or join the herd.  Ducks are easily herded.

apparently you have never heard of these things called "QR codes".

Let's count the ways:

1. They sell "gift cards" that can't be transferred to somebody who hasn't installed their app.

2. Their app asks for an unbelievable number of unnecessary permissions from your phone.

3. They only let you use it on a mobile phone registered to a US cellular network (aka stingray compatible).

4. Visit the website with private browsing enabled and the site blocks you out with a message saying "This app does not support private browsing. Please turn it off and try again." (this is their website, not their app).  And that's just private browsing -- forget about anything like Tor.

5. They insist on friending you on the facebooks or googling you or tweetering at you before you can use their service.

6. FINCEN just made a big stink about gift cards (which are convertible virtual currencies and therefore unambiguously subject to FIN-2013-G001) being exchanged without a "paper trail", putting a bunch of giftcard-for-bitcoin businesses, (many of which were bitpay customers), out of business.

And BOOM this company nobody's heard of before, with a product that is a solution-looking-for-a-problem (who wants gift cards that are worthless without a smartphone? what's wrong with QR codes?) flies out of Jen Calvery's ass.

It's not a conspiracy, since that requires actual deception or secrecy.  Instead, you're simply being herded.

Maybe, just maybe:

Of course not.  Gyft is a spyware tool used by the IRS to stop financial privacy.

Why else do you think they insist on tying your purchase to a facebook account and a USA-registered mobile phone number?  Or block web browsers with private browsing enabled?

Um, of course.... gyft is a tracking and de-anonymization scheme.  Letting you use non-USA mobile phones would defeat the whole purpose.

You didn't actually expect that to work, did you?

It's a scheme for spying on bitcoin users.

Notice how these "gyft cards" must be linked to a facebook or google account and must be spent on a US-based (aka trackable/traceable) cellular phone.

And their website blocks tor.

And their website also blocks any users with private browsing enabled.

Yeah, this is pretty much worthless.

Your boss doesn't seem to think so.  He keeps telling people that if they don't like it they can just change their name, which is basically saying that anonymity (or pseudonymity) is the only route to privacy.

So maybe this is why you have a vested interest in convincing people they don't need anonymity or pseudonymity?  I mean, obviously if you said people don't need privacy nobody would take you seriously.  But it's a lot easier to tell people that privacy is okay as long as they don't have the means to establish it.

As soon as you stop accepting money from them, sure.

Nothing wrong with that, by the way.

But there is something wrong with trying to claim that you aren't influenced by your source of income.  Gavin and most of The Bitcoin Foundation explicitly disagree with that, citing it as one of the major reasons why TBF needs to exist -- to provide Gavin with a income source that isn't controlled by the profit motives of a single organization.

Look, I don't think you're going to get very far with "employers don't influence peoples' views" around here.  Try something else.

I suppose you think Linus got appointed to the Linux Foundation for defacing a Windows XP CD, eh?