[Open thread] Bitcoin Conference 2012- London 15-16 Sept

[Transisto]

For some reason the original thread was locked without any notice.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67199.0

This new thread was made to discuss and ask question about the Conference openly.

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[Transisto]

Following last posts,

Did anyone notice that intersango, the second most successful criminally incompetent boobs in the history of bitcoin is still printed on the face of the tickets as a sponsoring supporter?

Caveat emptor... if you participate in this conference you are buying in to the belief that bitcoin users are your personal pool of fools and dupes to take advantage of, and supporting those who would take advantage of them.

"Incompetent boobs " ok, but from what I understand, They don't think they're criminal yet and believe in their innocence the the point of attending public events like the London Bitcoin Conference.
As of the late, Amir claimed they shouldn't have started processing payout at all but unfortunately refuse to explain who is then responsible for doing so.  They took no responsibility in the last 40k+ BTC hack saying creditors would have to take a 30% hit to cover this. (Very sad and irresponsible)

I wish the other people responsible (Zhou, Tihan/wendon group) could provide us with proofs, such as signed document showing how did they transfer the responsibility to them and check if the customers have been informed sufficiently and allowed a reasonable delay to disagree and withdraw their funds.

AFAIK not a single email was sent to users related to ownership change.

.............
Bitcoinica is all in the hands of business people and lawyers now. The reason I took a long hiatus is because it was seriously effecting my mental health. Several people started to tell me to take time out, but I wouldn't listen to them. Eventually it got too much, and I took their advice. I would've been a broken person unable to do anything otherwise. ...

...  I think it would be a necessity for you to make well though of post summarizing your involvement in Bitcoinica BEFORE the conference, ...

Although Intersango has "indirectly" taken a limited responsibility by retuning funds they could not bother informing their customers of anything past 2012-06-17.  They also refuse to communicate coherently on the forum (their only mean of public communication).

The reason they now to hide behind for stopping all communication is supposedly because four (4) creditors have filled a lawsuit against them.

Ps: I'm using Intersango loosely to mean Bitcoin Consultancy team.  (Patrick Strateman, Donald Norman , Amir Taaki)

[LoupGaroux]

Okay, I was being cheeky and inflammatory in calling them criminal. Nothing has been resolved in a court yet, so I should stick with "universally reviled, allegedly criminal incompetent boobs, the ones behind the second largest one time loss of bitcoin wealth in history, who are busy defending themselves in lawsuits, and constantly denying responsibility for anything, and who maintain that intersango is a completely separate venture that just coincidentally shares 100% ownership and staffing with the boobish failure".

I stand corrected. Although, personally, the idea of having these guys name plastered on the front of my ticket and vocally calling attention to themselves as a sponsor of the conference is enough to turn me off on the idea of attending. Add to that the other "diversion of funds" specialists who are listed? Thanks, I stick to hanging out with gangsters at home, why fly to London just to meet the wrong elements in bitcoin?

[ninjarobot]

If anything the Intersango group has helped me discover some primal emotions I did not realize I had in me before. I give them that much.

So far, this is how they seem to operate based on my observation:

1) Claim to be the most reputable and skilled group associated with Bitcoin.
2) Solicit for customer money.
3) Squander customer money. (It is just numbers!)
4) Pretend customers do not exist.
5) Actually get away with it.
6) Rinse and repeat (Bitcoin conference 2012 anyone?)

Just take a look at the speakers list and guess the topic Patrick will cover. That's right:

Patrick Strateman (phantomcircuit) is CTO of Intersango, the largest UK exchange. With a speciality in security, he has led the way building up this platforms during the last year in his capacity as a director for the Bitcoin Consultancy. Patrick will elaborate on the issues and challenges with running a large scale platform that must scale under high load while being secure and unexploitable.

dafuq? This guy squandered my deposits (I have not seen a single bitcent of my ~40K USD for over 100 days). Called depositors names. Didn't even follow rudimentary security practices like 2factor. Doesn't seem to care. And people are really going to sit there listen to this talk as if it is mana from heaven? srsly? I'm all for the Bitcoin conference but don't rub it in my face. This is just offensive.

[LoupGaroux]

I understand that they are trying to get Brucie W. to come back on offer a speech on Thai nightlife too. And bitscalper will be offering a talk on business ethics.

Should be a swell time, all the lemmings in one place ready to be identified for the next round of abuse.

[hashman]

lol!  As much as I do like boobs, I'll be missing it this year too.  Unless of course I see the werewolf on the play bill.   

[LoupGaroux]

lol!  As much as I do like boobs, I'll be missing it this year too.  Unless of course I see the werewolf on the play bill.   

Thanks for the props hash. I guess the idea of voluntarily associating with known fuck-ups and letting them identify with me, in the furtherance of an anonymous transactional tool seems somewhat cross purposed to me. It's sort of like having really public meet ups for your kiddie rape club... do you really want to let the ones who have made such a disaster of informational security surrounding it, your buddies? Not this lycantrhopic wanna be.

[labestiol]

And bitscalper will be offering a talk on business ethics.

Funny thing is that bitscalper/bitdaytrade/Alberto is a sponsor of this conference... EDIT : [/sarc]

[LoupGaroux]

Actually not funny at all, a pretty glaring neon indicator that this is a gathering of the bad elements. Every unrepentant rip-off artist in the history of bitcoin seems to be a welcomed VIP guest and presenting speaker. Yeah, I think I will skip it. If I want to get mugged I know lots of places to go for it, and calling on support for this train wreck by having all the outre mouthpieces for disenfranchised economic debate as special guest stars, just exposes those vital voices to the wrong part of what bitcoin is all about.

[labestiol]

As much as I'm disappointed and pissed of by bitdaytrade and Intersango team, I think you're wrong about this conference being a gathering of bad elements. Most of people participating/attending this conference are people who do good to bitcoin.
These conferences plays an important role in the bitcoin growth, which shouldn't be underestimated.
 
Problem is that organizers don't want to get rid of the few bad apples, or that these bad apples are part of the organization.