PIRATE BUSTED: Bullish or Bearish?

[MikeH]

it's not good because people are seeing 'bitcoin' and 'ponzi scheme' in headlines and don't read the story - they just comment with told you so!!  eediots.

[Cluster2k]

Back when PirateAt40's inevitable scam collapsed I mentioned the collapse to a friend.  He had heard about bitcoins before and said 'see, I told you that bitcoin thing was just a scam'.  I had to carefully explain PirateAt40 used bitcoin to commit a scam.  It was just a tool. 

In the short term the SEC action means the general public hears about bitcoin and another scam, which is definately not good.  Longer term the news may be better as the US government is interested in chasing people setting up obvious scams, even when it comes to things the US government doesn't recognise as money.

A Zero Hedge link to the main article claimed Mr Shavers had already spent a large chunk of the bitcoins by carefully investing in his own personal lifestyle.  Don't expect a seizure and large amounts of bitcoins to be handed back to mathematically challenged victims.  1% returns per day, who would honestly believe that?  Seems like quite a few did.

[ElectricMucus]

On the bright side this news should at least deter any potential imitators.

[JimboToronto]

It hasn't seemed to have any effect so far.

I think anyone who would confuse the Ponzi scheme with Bitcon would have sold out long ago.

[byronbb]

On the bright side this news should at least deter any potential imitators.

BFL jokes aside, I am surprised we have not seen a massive ASIC scam.

[crumbs]

On the bright side this news should at least deter any potential imitators.

BFL jokes aside, I am surprised we have not seen a massive ASIC scam.

I could be dead-wrong, but this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=252531.0
TL;DR: ActiveMining, a shell company ("virtual identity" in the words of its "owner") with a Belize registration, a London PO Box mailing address, an empty warehouse in Missouri, US, claims of 28nm chips and plenty of knowledgeable investors with ~month-old accounts rabidly defending its honor.  Oh, almost forgot -- selling "virtual shares."

[giantdragon]

The only ways around this would be for the deposit taker to either receive authorization from the SEC (yeah right), or try to block American clients. Satoshi Dice started doing this with an IP checker (though it is not hard to get around it). I think this is sufficient to remain out of the regulator's crosshairs as it is enough to show that they are not actively seeking US-based clients.

It is very naive to believe that blocking US IPs will prevent from crackdown! Erik Voorhees already understand this and took proactive measures (i.e. sold SatoshiDICE while fools still believe IP blocking will save from govt attack and thus ready to pay $12M).

The only safe way is to move away from the U.S./its friendly countries IMHO. Most "grey" BTC service owners will do this in the future when pressure become too tough.

[MOB]

How did he only walk away with $164,000. 

The hackers at bitfloor got away with more in one fell swoop and no coppers are chasing them.

[vokain]

How did he only walk away with $164,000. 

The hackers at bitfloor got away with more in one fell swoop and no coppers are chasing them.

i imagine it takes more thought and planning in hacking an exchange  and leaving no traces vs running a ponzi.