MATTHEW FIRED FROM BITCOIN MAGAZINE

[Andrew Bitcoiner]

http://bitcoinmagazine.net/announcement/

Excellent, I love that this is a "resignation"!

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[jwzguy]

Cool. Let me know when they announce that he has 0 stake and gains nothing from the sale & promotion of their magazine.

[finkleshnorts]

I retract my former statement "to hell with your magazine."

London is gonna be awkward.

[SaltySpitoon]

Well, whether he was fired or he actually did resign, leaving BTC magazine was the best choice.

[repentance]

I retract my former statement "to hell with your magazine."

London is gonna be awkward.

London was always going to be awkward because Patrick Strateman doesn't have the grace to withdraw as a guest speaker.

[bitcoiners]

Cool. Let me know when they announce that he has 0 stake and gains nothing from the sale & promotion of their magazine.

^This.  If he is still profiting, I'm not buying.

[kibblesnbits]

I retract my former statement "to hell with your magazine."

London is gonna be awkward.

There's no way he's going to London if he's got an ounce of brain in his head.  Theres 117 people that are victims of a welching bettor, 58 of them over $1,000.00.  No doubt someone in that list is crazy enough to take a crack at him.

[556j]

I retract my former statement "to hell with your magazine."

London is gonna be awkward.

There's no way he's going to London if he's got an ounce of brain in his head.  Theres 117 people that are victims of a welching bettor, 58 of them over $1,000.00.  No doubt someone in that list is crazy enough to take a crack at him.

Then get arrested for felony assault, likely in a foreign country. Yah, great idea.

[Littleshop]

Cool. Let me know when they announce that he has 0 stake and gains nothing from the sale & promotion of their magazine.

+1

[MagnaGen]

Matt:


When will the next issue of HorseHeads weekly come out?

[Rassah]

And I'm ordering three more issues.

[oldschool]

Cool. Let me know when they announce that he has 0 stake and gains nothing from the sale & promotion of their magazine.

^This.  If he is still profiting, I'm not buying.

As a newcomer to bitcoins, I found this magazine and had been checking it out over the last week, in anticipation of buying a subscription, I second this statement and will never think about purchasing or even visiting the site again until I hear he has 0% of the profit of the company.

I don't think his action did anything but cause trouble in the bitcoin community and did nothing but tarnish bitcoins reputation.  It just makes other newcomers think that its full of scams and lies.

[Bitcoin Oz]

I retract my former statement "to hell with your magazine."

London is gonna be awkward.

London was always going to be awkward because Patrick Strateman doesn't have the grace to withdraw as a guest speaker.

The whole thing needs to be live streamed in all its awkward glory.

Jerry Springer style.

[LoupGaroux]

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.

[FlipPro]

good riddance

P.S: Matt no harsh feelings but you seriously did it to yourself...

I lost every last shred of respect (and it wasn't much to begin with) I had for you the minute you set that ludicrous bet.

[Rassah]

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?

You ordered Bitcoin magazines 6 weeks ago, from some internet company that really doesn't have any established reputation, and have yet to receive them?
Oh Boohoo! How terrible for you! I am SOOOOO sorry for your absolute pathetic lemming-like devotion to believing pure bullshit that has become the hallmark of bitcoin. Perhaps your ego that you are so eager to slather your posts with will assist in expediting your delivery 

[smoothie]

I wouldn't be surprised if he did not show up at the conference.

The announcement talks about one of their other staff going to speak on behalf of Bitcoin Magazine.

Talk about career suicide.

All for what? "To teach us all a lesson"? Which we never got taught.

Hilarious...

[LoupGaroux]

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?

You ordered Bitcoin magazines 6 weeks ago, from some internet company that really doesn't have any established reputation, and have yet to receive them?
Oh Boohoo! How terrible for you! I am SOOOOO sorry for your absolute pathetic lemming-like devotion to believing pure bullshit that has become the hallmark of bitcoin. Perhaps your ego that you are so eager to slather your posts with will assist in expediting your delivery 

Damn, I just hate it when the obvious sarcasm has to be explained. I was making an allegorical point about priorities. The Matthew issue is a cartoon sideshow, he punk'd the community and held up a mirror so they can see how foolish they look. Pretty smart PR work. My point being that the magazine kiddies should be focusing on the magazine, not playing executioner for the Court of Pissed-Off Bettors.

I only want the physical magazines so that I can have them slabbed and graded because they will surely be an historical oddity 20 years from now when "What was the short-lived magazine associated with bitcoin?" is the Final Jeopardy solution. It's a long term investment play, and probably the only place to actually make an honest satoshi in this den of third rate thieves, and first rate victims.

[Rassah]

Sorry, your "obvious sarcasm" sounded like "egotistical trolling by someone who didn't even read what the initial bet post was about."
Good luck in your Magazine investments. Did you know only 21million copies will ever be produced?

[thezerg]

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.

Wierd to see this coming from you.  You normally take a very hard line.  Sure pirate is the bigger criminal.  I'm sure people are after him too.  But if Matthew had won, it would have been for about 1M dollars I think.  Please remember the context where Vanderoy just made a real bet 50k USD and won.  The original bet at 10k was not so out of line.

I did not bet or think he'd pay.  Regardless that does not excuse him.  We need zero tolerance for these people.  Big or small.

I want to pay suppliers in bitcoin.  How's that going to happen if they come to these forums and see this cr*p from what seems to be pivotal members of the community?

[da2ce7]

Damn, I just hate it when the obvious sarcasm has to be explained. I was making an allegorical point about priorities. The Matthew issue is a cartoon sideshow, he punk'd the community and held up a mirror so they can see how foolish they look. Pretty smart PR work. My point being that the magazine kiddies should be focusing on the magazine, not playing executioner for the Court of Pissed-Off Bettors.

+1

[tvbcof]

... is a prize ass, and deserving of public humiliation. ... absolute pathetic lemming-like devotion to believing pure bullshit that has become the hallmark of bitcoin. ...Get a fucking clue Bitcoin Community!!! Right the fuck now. ... There is no altruistic tooth fairy that wants to make you rich, ... you are the laziest, saddest bunch of fuck-toys I have ever seen. ...

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.

... I ordered copies of the first three issues 6 weeks ago. Bought and paid for with PayPal. Where the fuck are they? ...

For some reason I had developed a negative sense about you early on Loup, but I don't remember quite why.  In any event I've developed a respect for your work of the last few months at least and look forward to it.  This one is solid gold in my book...though it would surprise me very little if I were about the only one.

I left what I thought to be the most interesting part in the quoted text above.  I believe that it would be better for the Bitcoin project generally if more people take a more realistic view of the solution, warts and all.  The solution is, to me, a fascinating start and has the potential to be quite a powerful development as humanity marches forward.  But at this point your description is pretty accurate.  The more starry-eyed the community, the more fertile the ground for 'bad shit' to germinate and grow to maturity.

[Rassah]

he punk'd the community and held up a mirror so they can see how foolish they look. Pretty smart PR work.

Incidentally, what did you mean by looking foolish? Did you consider the community saying that BTCS&T and other similar HYIPs are either ponzis, scams, or dangerously stupid "investments" to be foolish?

[LoupGaroux]

Sorry, your "obvious sarcasm" sounded like "egotistical trolling by someone who didn't even read what the initial bet post was about."
Good luck in your Magazine investments. Did you know only 21million copies will ever be produced?

While 21 million seems to be a pretty steep hill to climb, my guess is that not many people will think to have them slabbed in nitrogen charged, hermetically sealed archival grade slabs, and stored in a secret underground vault that is impervious to anything other than a direct thermonuclear strike. So mine will be the only pristine copies left in 20 years, and I will so own that market. Just like I own the market for 1995 Hot Wheels First Editions on Euro Cards. Those babies are in similar storage right now. Yeah, my retirement is set.

Wierd to see this coming from you.  You normally take a very hard line.  Sure pirate is the bigger criminal.  I'm sure people are after him too.  But if Matthew had won, it would have been for about 1M dollars I think.  Please remember the context where Vanderoy just made a real bet 50k USD and won.  The original bet at 10k was not so out of line.

I did not bet or think he'd pay.  Regardless that does not excuse him.  We need zero tolerance for these people.  Big or small.

I want to pay suppliers in bitcoin.  How's that going to happen if they come to these forums and see this cr*p from what seems to be pivotal members of the community?

Sorry to digress from my normal perky character, but we have serious ethical issues here, and my read (and I could be wrong, it's happened once or twice...) is that Matty was thumbing his nose at the greed, stupidity and failure to pay attention to the most basic details that is the hallmark of this community. I did not bet. I don't bet on bitcoins. I bet on craps, Premier League Soccer, and College Football. Not on the integrity of a pirate with a track record that is less than sterling. And certainly not in an obvious attention-whore public mockery like Matt's OP.

I would love to see bitcoins mainstreamed. I have been working on a Fortune 300 supplier and how to integrate bitcoin into their e-commerce strategy. And every single bitcoinica, priate, bitscalper, BTC-Guy, Mr. Bitcoin and so on sets the discussion back further and further, and makes me look like I am promoting the private currency of fools and small time international drug dealing. Now with added political extortion thrown in for good measure.

My basic point is that trashing Matty for this ill-conceived value lesson is classic baby being tossed out with the bath water. We have serious issues in our little funhouse, and serious bad people stealing serious amounts of money. Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like should be strung up by their thumbs and ritually abused by angry koalas until they repay the good people they have fleeced. Matt just pointed out how stupid we all look chasing after these phantoms and then getting indignant when the inevitable embarrassment of having been ripped-off comes to light.

he punk'd the community and held up a mirror so they can see how foolish they look. Pretty smart PR work.

Incidentally, what did you mean by looking foolish? Did you consider the community saying that BTCS&T and other similar HYIPs are either ponzis, scams, or dangerously stupid "investments" to be foolish?

Okay, so this is an edit within and edit, and may cause the universe to collapse, if so I apologize in advance, but I absolutely loathe chain posting. It's just so declasse.

No. I think the community should be required to get up every morning and give the Pledge of I Shall Not Ever Again Be A Willing Imbecile And Believe In HYIPS, Ponzis or Obviously Stupid And Impossible To Sustain Bad Investments Allegiance to the flag of bitcoin.

What is foolish is the amount of outrage over Matt's stunt. All of y'all be honest with yourselves, and in the privacy of your own heart ask yourself... if pigs had flown and pirate had paid... were you going to willingly send your coins to Matt? Hell no, you weren't. Not a single one of the Glorious Google Spreadsheet 72 would have sent him a coin. Maybe some gratitude for guilt-tripping pirate into doing the right thing, but anyone with half a clue saw that this was a stunt. And Matt is still throwing it in our faces (that's the looking foolish part) by pointing out how blinded by greed we act, and how willing we are to be led around by any Pied Piper who will promise us crazy fuck-you money.

[Rassah]

LoupGaroux, you said, quote, "We have serious issues in our little funhouse, and serious bad people stealing serious amounts of money. Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like should be strung up by their thumbs and ritually abused by angry koalas until they repay the good people they have fleeced."

THEN you said, "Matt just pointed out how stupid we all look chasing after these phantoms"

So, which is it? Should we keep pursuing people like "Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like," and string them up by their thumbs, or at leask kick them out of the forums and maybe the Bitcoin community?
Or should we, as the intent of Matt's bet stated, shut up, stop screaming Ponzi whenever such obvious scams come up, and stop "chasing after these phantoms?"

[finkleshnorts]

LoupGaroux, you said, quote, "We have serious issues in our little funhouse, and serious bad people stealing serious amounts of money. Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like should be strung up by their thumbs and ritually abused by angry koalas until they repay the good people they have fleeced."

THEN you said, "Matt just pointed out how stupid we all look chasing after these phantoms"

So, which is it? Should we keep pursuing people like "Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like," and string them up by their thumbs, or at leask kick them out of the forums and maybe the Bitcoin community?
Or should we, as the intent of Matt's bet stated, shut up, stop screaming Ponzi whenever such obvious scams come up, and stop "chasing after these phantoms?"

He just spends most of his time here doing a poor job of trying to be a general asshole; he doesn't worry about making sense. He does like absurd metaphors, though.

[LoupGaroux]

LoupGaroux, you said, quote, "We have serious issues in our little funhouse, and serious bad people stealing serious amounts of money. Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like should be strung up by their thumbs and ritually abused by angry koalas until they repay the good people they have fleeced."

THEN you said, "Matt just pointed out how stupid we all look chasing after these phantoms"

So, which is it? Should we keep pursuing people like "Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like," and string them up by their thumbs, or at leask kick them out of the forums and maybe the Bitcoin community?
Or should we, as the intent of Matt's bet stated, shut up, stop screaming Ponzi whenever such obvious scams come up, and stop "chasing after these phantoms?"

Perhaps we see different intent. I think we all have a moral obligation to continue to cry "Ponzi" when the absurd is placed before us, and thinking people can see that no amount of super secret sauce is going to make the utterly impossible anything other than what it is. I strongly encourage everyone to continue to question, decry, and lambast the shady fucks who come here to prey on the believing.

I also think we should go after those same criminals with every resource we can bring to bear. Maybe the stringing up part is a little dramatic, but I was on a roll. I do think they should be hunted down and held accountable, be removed from the Company of good people, and make good on all amounts they have stolen. If that means Amir has to eat lousy cold oatmeal for the next 25 years, too bad. If that means Patrick loses his position of honor at the head table in London- tough beans. And if pirate get's what is coming to a $5,000,000 thief? I will not shed a tear.

I don't see Matt as being in league with that level of evil. I think (here's my take on intent...) that he meant to point out how desperate it is to go chasing after more bad money when you have already lost good. The phantom is the thought of making good on our first stupid decision, by making more of the same stupid choices.

LoupGaroux, you said, quote, "We have serious issues in our little funhouse, and serious bad people stealing serious amounts of money. Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like should be strung up by their thumbs and ritually abused by angry koalas until they repay the good people they have fleeced."

THEN you said, "Matt just pointed out how stupid we all look chasing after these phantoms"

So, which is it? Should we keep pursuing people like "Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like," and string them up by their thumbs, or at leask kick them out of the forums and maybe the Bitcoin community?
Or should we, as the intent of Matt's bet stated, shut up, stop screaming Ponzi whenever such obvious scams come up, and stop "chasing after these phantoms?"

He just spends most of his time here doing a poor job of trying to be a general asshole; he doesn't worry about making sense. He does like absurd metaphors, though.

No, a very specific and carefully targeted kind of an asshole, if you please. If it doesn't make sense to you, then you probably weren't the target audience. I craft my writing to the audience I am addressing. The "absurdity" is a product of speaking 6 languages. I often corrupt metaphors, and blend bits that didn't originally go together. That, dear reader, is what makes the cookie more interesting to crumble. I have the history that proves it works for me, so let's let that sleeping dog laissez his faire shall we?

[finkleshnorts]

how neat

[Bitcoin Oz]

When one mentions "going after" the crooks people shout you down about making threats of violence. No doubt sock puppets of the same scammers. There has to be a way to seek justice or someone will create an assassination market I have no doubt.

[Rassah]

I don't see Matt as being in league with that level of evil. I think (here's my take on intent...) that he meant to point out how desperate it is to go chasing after more bad money when you have already lost good. The phantom is the thought of making good on our first stupid decision, by making more of the same stupid choices.

If that's the case, then I think you may have thoroughly misunderstood what happened here. While yes, Matthew is not, and likely can never, sink to the level of that kind of evil, Matt's intent in this bet was to teach those people who were crying "Ponzi" a lesson; to shut them up, because he believed they were hurting these ridiculously-high-interest HYIPs with their FUD, when Matt thought they were legitimate businesses. He actually believed that people crying "Ponzi" were in the wrong, and dared them that, if they believe these businesses are so wrong and such scams, to "put their money where their mouths are." The people who bet (initially) were not those who "already lost good." The bettors were those who wouldn't even think of investing with BTCS&T, and were vocally horrified to see how many others were falling for those scams. Matthew seems to have been defending pirate and HYIPs, so they bet to, I guess, prove their convictions about believing that Pirateat40 was a scammer. They also bet because they thought that Matthew was totally wrong about believing that Pirateat40 was running anything but a scam.
Things only got way worse when those who did lose money on BCTS&T decided to use Matthew's bet as a hedge. Luckily, they were the minorty of the bets apparently. Most of those who bet have not lost any money in any of these scams, and so were not "chasing after more bad money."
I never lost any money to any scams, or crashes, or hacks (luckily). I personally bet because I thought Matthew was wrong to defend Pirate, since I also believed he was running a ponzi. Matthew not paying me anything did not hurt me in any way, but I still think it was a shitty thing for him to do (the whole bet and weaseling out of it the way he did, not the not paying me, since even if he did, I'd have returned the money). ESPECIALLY since he took attention away from both Pirateat40 AND all the other HYIPs out there for three whole weeks, when people should've been putting the pressure on those bastards.

[LoupGaroux]

how neat

Thanks for noticing.

[bbit]

Dude this guy will last 5 minutes if he shows up to London. Someone is going to permanently drill that horse head into his shoulders.

Can you say dead man walking lol

[LoupGaroux]

Dude this guy will last 5 minutes if he shows up to London. Someone is going to permanently drill that horse head into his shoulders.

Can you say dead man walking lol

And yet those same outraged someones will pay a truckload of money to be entertained by the clowns behind intersango and the bitcoinica fraud? The conference itself will happily be the billboard for their sponsorship? What about pirate? He had a whole dining room full of co-conspirators and adoring fans meet with him in Vegas at DefCon and it was all just put aside as a delightful photo op.

[bitcoinBull]

I don't see Matt as being in league with that level of evil. I think (here's my take on intent...) that he meant to point out how desperate it is to go chasing after more bad money when you have already lost good. The phantom is the thought of making good on our first stupid decision, by making more of the same stupid choices.

If that's the case, then I think you may have thoroughly misunderstood what happened here. While yes, Matthew is not, and likely can never, sink to the level of that kind of evil, Matt's intent in this bet was to teach those people who were crying "Ponzi" a lesson; to shut them up, because he believed they were hurting these ridiculously-high-interest HYIPs with their FUD, when Matt thought they were legitimate businesses. He actually believed that people crying "Ponzi" were in the wrong, and dared them that, if they believe these businesses are so wrong and such scams, to "put their money where their mouths are." The people who bet (initially) were not those who "already lost good." The bettors were those who wouldn't even think of investing with BTCS&T, and were vocally horrified to see how many others were falling for those scams. Matthew seems to have been defending pirate and HYIPs, so they bet to, I guess, prove their convictions about believing that Pirateat40 was a scammer. They also bet because they thought that Matthew was totally wrong about believing that Pirateat40 was running anything but a scam.
Things only got way worse when those who did lose money on BCTS&T decided to use Matthew's bet as a hedge. Luckily, they were the minorty of the bets apparently. Most of those who bet have not lost any money in any of these scams, and so were not "chasing after more bad money."
I never lost any money to any scams, or crashes, or hacks (luckily). I personally bet because I thought Matthew was wrong to defend Pirate, since I also believed he was running a ponzi. Matthew not paying me anything did not hurt me in any way, but I still think it was a shitty thing for him to do (the whole bet and weaseling out of it the way he did, not the not paying me, since even if he did, I'd have returned the money). ESPECIALLY since he took attention away from both Pirateat40 AND all the other HYIPs out there for three whole weeks, when people should've been putting the pressure on those bastards.

Well said. MNW (and some others) tried to spin it like he was trying to "point out how desperate it is to go chasing after more bad money when you have already lost good". That point was at best tertiary to MNW's main point: to "teach a lesson" to people crying scam "without evidence" or using the "duck fallacy". Indeed, the scam-criers lost nothing in betting against MNW and learned nothing. It was the gullible pirate investors hedging their "investments" who lost the most and learned the most.

[Mosrite]

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?

You ordered Bitcoin magazines 6 weeks ago, from some internet company that really doesn't have any established reputation, and have yet to receive them?
Oh Boohoo! How terrible for you! I am SOOOOO sorry for your absolute pathetic lemming-like devotion to believing pure bullshit that has become the hallmark of bitcoin. Perhaps your ego that you are so eager to slather your posts with will assist in expediting your delivery 

Damn, I just hate it when the obvious sarcasm has to be explained. I was making an allegorical point about priorities. The Matthew issue is a cartoon sideshow, he punk'd the community and held up a mirror so they can see how foolish they look. Pretty smart PR work. My point being that the magazine kiddies should be focusing on the magazine, not playing executioner for the Court of Pissed-Off Bettors.

I only want the physical magazines so that I can have them slabbed and graded because they will surely be an historical oddity 20 years from now when "What was the short-lived magazine associated with bitcoin?" is the Final Jeopardy solution. It's a long term investment play, and probably the only place to actually make an honest satoshi in this den of third rate thieves, and first rate victims.

A print magazine really is a quaint little oddity at this point, isn't it?

[repentance]

And yet those same outraged someones will pay a truckload of money to be entertained by the clowns behind intersango and the bitcoinica fraud? The conference itself will happily be the billboard for their sponsorship? What about pirate? He had a whole dining room full of co-conspirators and adoring fans meet with him in Vegas at DefCon and it was all just put aside as a delightful photo op.

Quoted for truth.

Where are the calls for pirate to be removed from GPUMax because his actions regarding BS&T reflect on that company?  Where are the people saying that they won't give any of their mining capacity or BTC to GPUMax until pirate is removed?

People are perfectly happy to continue to support other businesses and projects whose principals and shareholders have behaved badly towards this community and who still owe members of this community money.  That's certainly their right but it's utterly hypocritical of anyone who still does business with GPUMax or Intersango to claim any kind of moral high ground when it comes to Matthew.

It was the gullible pirate investors hedging their "investments" who lost the most and learned the most least.

FTFY

[Rassah]

I was under the impression that GPUMax was owned and operated solely by pirate, and thus GPUMax = BTCS&T in a way. Is that wrong?

[mc_lovin]

I was under the impression that GPUMax was owned and operated solely by pirate, and thus GPUMax = BTCS&T in a way. Is that wrong?

That's what I thought, too.

[repentance]

I was under the impression that GPUMax was owned and operated solely by pirate, and thus GPUMax = BTCS&T in a way. Is that wrong?

Corporation Wiki lists two other active members of GPUMax Technologies LLC apart from pirate.

http://www.corporationwiki.com/Unknown/Unknown/gpumax-technologies-llc/101278778.aspx

[muyuu]

Not enough determination. He could keep stake even secretly when they "announce" the opposite.  Suspect.

[greyhawk]

Bitcoin Magazine, take note. Give LoupGaroux a regular column to vent in, call it "Speaking my Bit" and sales will go up through the roof.

[K.A.T]

Hi all,

sorry guys for asking, I'm not a frequent reader here lately. What is wrong with the magazine or with Mat that I didn't see or know ?

Thanks,,,

[muyuu]

Hi all,

sorry guys for asking, I'm not a frequent reader here lately. What is wrong with the magazine or with Mat that I didn't see or know ?

Thanks,,,

He's a scammer.

You can pick it up from here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=101751.900

[Technomage]

I'm personally happy with the announcement and will continue to support Bitcoin Magazine. I think they reacted fast and in a decisive manner. Also the speaker for the conference has been changed of course.

As far as the conference is concerned I don't get some people at all (namely repentance & LoupGaroux), they go out of their way to tarnish it at every opportunity. They probably lost speculative gambling money at Bitcoinica and now they are eternally hateful, boohoo...

The truth is that the Intersango team is helping to organize the biggest and most likely greatest Bitcoin conference thus far. It's an important gathering of like minded people. I also see it as an opportunity for the Intersango team to correct their reputation for the better, by organizing a great conference. I hope they succeed.

And Patrick, well as far as I know Patrick and Donald have been running Intersango without major issues from day 1 and still continue to run it. The whole Bitcoinica case is still unresolved, it's very much unclear who was truly responsible and who fucked up.

I've had my own doubts about the team, our site discontinued using Intersango a while ago just to be safe and we're still not using it. We do want to use Intersango and based on our experience at the conference we might re-evaluate this decision.

[Technomage]

By the way, based on Matthew's own letter (which feels sincere) he is exiting the company entirely, equity wise as well.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=108333.msg1176882#msg1176882

[every1pewps]

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.

I agree with this. It would seem that most of the moping, groaning and whining are a result of "oh, I can't actually hedge my bet against being cheated(pirateat40'ed)? Now I feel even dumber than I did when I actually got cheated. I R ANGRY FOR BEING MADE TO LOOK LIKE A FOOL, TWICE!!@$&%"

[labestiol]

I'm personally happy with the announcement and will continue to support Bitcoin Magazine. I think they reacted fast and in a decisive manner. Also the speaker for the conference has been changed of course.

As far as the conference is concerned I don't get some people at all (namely repentance & LoupGaroux), they go out of their way to tarnish it at every opportunity. They probably lost speculative gambling money at Bitcoinica and now they are eternally hateful, boohoo...

The truth is that the Intersango team is helping to organize the biggest and most likely greatest Bitcoin conference thus far. It's an important gathering of like minded people. I also see it as an opportunity for the Intersango team to correct their reputation for the better, by organizing a great conference. I hope they succeed.

And Patrick, well as far as I know Patrick and Donald have been running Intersango without major issues from day 1 and still continue to run it. The whole Bitcoinica case is still unresolved, it's very much unclear who was truly responsible and who fucked up.

I've had my own doubts about the team, our site discontinued using Intersango a while ago just to be safe and we're still not using it. We do want to use Intersango and based on our experience at the conference we might re-evaluate this decision.

First bolded part is really uncalled for. Bitcoinica's problem is not about degenerate gamblers who did stupid bets.
As much as I want this conference to succeed (and it will, I'm not too worried about that), I can't agree with you on that.
At the very least Intersango team stopped all communication, release the source code (with some credentials in it), which prevented a buyout (which would have probably enabled creditors to be payed in full).
Their lack of communication also delayed the liquidation of the company. So they clearly have some responsibility in this mess.

[Technomage]

First bolded part is really uncalled for. Bitcoinica's problem is not about degenerate gamblers who did stupid bets.
As much as I want this conference to succeed (and it will, I'm not too worried about that), I can't agree with you on that.
At the very least Intersango team stopped all communication, release the source code (with some credentials in it), which prevented a buyout (which would have probably enabled creditors to be payed in full).
Their lack of communication also delayed the liquidation of the company. So they clearly have some responsibility in this mess.

I agree that they probably have some responsibility over that mess and are partially to blame for it. I especially don't like their lack of communication skills regarding everything (Intersango related stuff as well). I still stand behind what I said though, I think some people are going out of their way tarnish what is likely to be a great Bitcoin conference. That is uncalled for and I'm personally very tired of it.

The conference has nothing to do with the Bitcoinica case, that case is being settled elsewhere and in other ways. I would understand the hate better if there was actually a court verdict that said Patrick is responsible. As far as I know, there IS NOT. Until there is, most of us really shouldn't put too much weight on that particular issue. The conference is about much more than Patrick.

[labestiol]

I agree that they probably have some responsibility over that mess and are partially to blame for it. I especially don't like their lack of communication skills regarding everything (Intersango related stuff as well). I still stand behind what I said though, I think some people are going out of their way tarnish what is likely to be a great Bitcoin conference. That is uncalled for and I'm personally very tired of it.

I agree with that. Still not a reason to use silly arguments. And anyway, I don't think it significantly harms the conference.

The conference has nothing to do with the Bitcoinica case, that case is being settled elsewhere and in other ways. I would understand the hate better if there was actually a court verdict that said Patrick is responsible. As far as I know, there IS NOT. Until there is, most of us really shouldn't put too much weight on that particular issue. The conference is about much more than Patrick.

That I disagree with. Wherever you like it or not, it has something you do with is, since some are involved in both. But I agree we should focus on personal responsibilities, and not blame the conference as a whole.
And I don't think Patrick should be blamed only if there is a court verdict saying so. Everything doesn't have to be settled in court. And I'm not sure if this matter will be.

[repentance]

I still stand behind what I said though, I think some people are going out of their way tarnish what is likely to be a great Bitcoin conference. That is uncalled for and I'm personally very tired of it.

Except I haven't done that.  What I have repeatedly criticised is Patrick's failure to withdraw as a guest speaker and I stand by that criticism. 

[Vod]

Cool. Let me know when they announce that he has 0 stake and gains nothing from the sale & promotion of their magazine.

^This.  If he is still profiting, I'm not buying.

+1.  I did take a look at their advertising page though
http://bitcoinmagazine.net/advertise-with-us/

Why no advertising rates online?  Many papers show their rates online - there is no reason the rates should change from day to day.

[greyhawk]

Cool. Let me know when they announce that he has 0 stake and gains nothing from the sale & promotion of their magazine.

^This.  If he is still profiting, I'm not buying.

+1.  I did take a look at their advertising page though
http://bitcoinmagazine.net/advertise-with-us/

Why no advertising rates online?  Many papers show their rates online - there is no reason the rates should change from day to day.

Newspapers and magazines with a broad general appeal do, yes. Specialist journals like Bitcoin Magazine are a completely different beast of publication though. Most of them do not publically show their ad rates.

[Vladimir]

Bitcoin Magazine, take note. Give LoupGaroux a regular column to vent in, call it "Speaking my Bit" and sales will go up through the roof.

Noted! I always enjoyed his posts, even salvos shot in my direction.

[Rassah]

Stopped by my local Barns & Noble today, noticed this in the magazine rack






Decided I was going to own it






Was too bright to see the camera, so i was all squinty and OMG, there's a pimple on my nose!  

[Rassah]

Also, for a brief moment, thought the magazine just above and to the left was titled Atlas Rising    

[smoothie]

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.

Wierd to see this coming from you.  You normally take a very hard line.  Sure pirate is the bigger criminal.  I'm sure people are after him too.  But if Matthew had won, it would have been for about 1M dollars I think.  Please remember the context where Vanderoy just made a real bet 50k USD and won.  The original bet at 10k was not so out of line.

I did not bet or think he'd pay.  Regardless that does not excuse him.  We need zero tolerance for these people.  Big or small.

I want to pay suppliers in bitcoin.  How's that going to happen if they come to these forums and see this cr*p from what seems to be pivotal members of the community?

@Loup

You're something else. As if you really give a shit about if anyone lost money. Some people were using Matthew's bet to hedge and were buying pirate debt at certain prices or selling.

I may have not lost anything but to have a jackass like yourself come out and be like "look at you dumbasses wake up!" does nothing but make you look like a dumbass yourself.

Matthew lost the most by his dumb actions. You might be next if you condone that type of behavior.

Of course we all know you're just the type to sit on the sidelines and make snide comments. You've got no balls and haven't done anything but post shit on this forum using big words to make yourself sound important.

Where is your buddy BCX? Oh right because he got his ass canned by doing stupid shit too. Perhaps you want to take a step up to the plate eh?

If not, put a SOCKPUPPET in it.

Your friend,

Smoothie 

[vapourminer]

[bitcoin mag in rack at B&N picture]

lol at the Psychology Today mag with "LIFE LESSONS" on the cover in the pic. how appropriate.

[gene]

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.

Please post often.

[LoupGaroux]

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.

Wierd to see this coming from you.  You normally take a very hard line.  Sure pirate is the bigger criminal.  I'm sure people are after him too.  But if Matthew had won, it would have been for about 1M dollars I think.  Please remember the context where Vanderoy just made a real bet 50k USD and won.  The original bet at 10k was not so out of line.

I did not bet or think he'd pay.  Regardless that does not excuse him.  We need zero tolerance for these people.  Big or small.

I want to pay suppliers in bitcoin.  How's that going to happen if they come to these forums and see this cr*p from what seems to be pivotal members of the community?

@Loup

You're something else. As if you really give a shit about if anyone lost money. Some people were using Matthew's bet to hedge and were buying pirate debt at certain prices or selling.

I may have not lost anything but to have a jackass like yourself come out and be like "look at you dumbasses wake up!" does nothing but make you look like a dumbass yourself.

Matthew lost the most by his dumb actions. You might be next if you condone that type of behavior.

Of course we all know you're just the type to sit on the sidelines and make snide comments. You've got no balls and haven't done anything but post shit on this forum using big words to make yourself sound important.

Where is your buddy BCX? Oh right because he got his ass canned by doing stupid shit too. Perhaps you want to take a step up to the plate eh?

If not, put a SOCKPUPPET in it.

Your friend,

Smoothie  

Now, now smoothster... take your meds and relax friend. I do care if people lost money. I care a great deal, as I am one of those people who is currently at a net loss with the pirate disaster. And, no, for the record, I am not going to whine about it, I'm a big boy and decided to throw a couple coins into that cesspool, and no, I never told anybody how filthy or shady it was before we all collectively got screwed. And for full disclosure, my name does not appear on Matty's list of bettors. It never would have. I only bet three things, craps, Premier League soccer and US football. Never on shady, stupid plays having book made on how ignorant people can be. Which I assure you is what rational people saw Matty's bet to be.

But, let's take a moment and pull the curtain back for a peek at the reasoning behind my thoughts...

First off, I have nothing to lose here. Net, net, net since day one with bitcoins, I am comfortably ahead. I got to ride the roller coaster in the $30 era, and I have kick-out points in anything I do financially. I kicked, and own all my mining rigs free and clear, have put a few shekels aside as profit, and could give a rat's ass about reputation. What a group of anonymous folks on an online forum think of me means nothing to me. I an universally reviled in other online communities, including one where I am considered to be the most massive douche-bag of all time because I rode a flashy investment vehicle to a rapid killing, and bailed before the market inevitably tanked, with a shiny 5 series BMW to show for 30 days work, because I didn't share the secret of my success with the rest of the nasty insiders who were manipulating the game. I out-gamed the gamers, and that pisses people off.

Second off- Matthew is a well meaning goofball character. He is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in terms of self-promotion, and is an incurable attention whore. Unfortunately like most whores that I know, he is rather indiscriminate about who he bumps nasties with. Here he thought to make a point via the vehicle of pranksterism, and to shame the folks that called ponzi/scam/douche-bag early on what he (Matthew) felt was a valid investment. Well, that turned out to be a pretty bad decision. Sort of what championing Zhou Tong was like earlier this summer for him. So, let's stipulate that he is rash, impulsive and doesn't use up a lot of pre-planning on what checks his furious typing skills are writing.

But, I suggest we look at him in a different light than a fraud. Who here didn't know Matt was the class clown? Who here didn't expect him to find some silly-ass way to welsh the bet? Who here, and be honest now, actually thought that some happy go lucky entrepreneurial techno-impresario in Korea with a fetish for horse costumes actually had a million dollars in bitcoin stashed to play at silly buggers with? Who suffered actual damages? Nobody bought that critical surgery to keep Mom alive with their anticipated winnings from this absurd wager. Nobody is losing their homes, lives, honor or one single penny of their wealth. And quite frankly, I don't think a single person on the list would have actually paid a penny to Matt if pirate had decided to spank his little ass and make good. Especially not the piling on at the last moment clowns who got ouchy when he wouldn't take their bets.

But, he didn't win. He found his silly little technicality (and Matty- if you are reading this, there are a whole lot better ways to play this particular prank! Write me, you could have done this a lot less suicidally.) and thought everyone would have a big belly laugh at themselves for such a silly joke, and move on. Oops. Apparently a whole lot of very angry, very easily impressed folks thought they could recoup their losses through the simple expedient of a sure thing bet. Forgetting only the most basic rule that every gambler should know... the House is the only winner in any wager.

So, all snide comments and alleged side sitting aside, nobody lost a thing. Except Matt. He lost a job, he lost his honor, his lost his reputation, he lost the respect that he had worked very hard to build, and he lost his nickname which is now besmirched with a Scammer Tag. A richly deserved, and agreed in advance Scammer Tag.

Do we execute him a nineteenth time for this dumb move? Your call, Caesar. My point in this, and indeed in defending Matthew from some of the vitriol, is that we have really big, slimy ass-holish fish to fry in these affairs. Matt is a very, very minor sideshow that means nothing when compared to the great fraud that has happened. Let's not spend all our time beating the poor kid to death for making a dumb choice- let's all gang up instead on the assholes who are actually stealing really big amounts of money. Let's grab the pitchforks and torches, the tar and the feathers and go Biblical on their asses. We have real villains to worry about here, who are still mouth-breathing their schemes all over this community every day, and we are all too busy with the minutia to see the meteor crashing into our world.

So, if that still makes me a despised jackass in your eyes, eh, whatever. Sorry you feel that way. Chances are you will never have the exquisite pleasure of knowing firsthand anything about my balls, pro or con, as I play strictly het, and whatever you are alluding to with having the "most to lose" is so vague and churlish that I won't dignify it with a specific response.

And finally (yeah, I know TL;DR...) why limit yourself with necro ad hominem attacks... get Mr. Bitcoin in your post for some besmirching, what about Pattaya Brucie? Bitscalper? C'mon, you can do a whole lot better than BCX.

With enormous respect, I remain, cordially, your friend,

Loup Garoux. (and I fucking hate emoticons, and consider them to be a tool of the devil and otaku girls so I will not give you any, but insert some in your mind as appropriate.)

[CrazyGuy]

Now, now smoothster... take your meds and relax friend. I do care if people lost money. I care a great deal, as I am one of those people who is currently at a net loss with the pirate disaster. And, no, for the record, I am not going to whine about it, I'm a big boy and decided to throw a couple coins into that cesspool, and no, I never told anybody how filthy or shady it was before we all collectively got screwed. And for full disclosure, my name does not appear on Matty's list of bettors. It never would have. I only bet three things, craps, Premier League soccer and US football. Never on shady, stupid plays having book made on how ignorant people can be. Which I assure you is what rational people saw Matty's bet to be.

But, let's take a moment and pull the curtain back for a peek at the reasoning behind my thoughts...

First off, I have nothing to lose here. Net, net, net since day one with bitcoins, I am comfortably ahead. I got to ride the roller coaster in the $30 era, and I have kick-out points in anything I do financially. I kicked, and own all my mining rigs free and clear, have put a few shekels aside as profit, and could give a rat's ass about reputation. What a group of anonymous folks on an online forum think of me means nothing to me. I an universally reviled in other online communities, including one where I am considered to be the most massive douche-bag of all time because I rode a flashy investment vehicle to a rapid killing, and bailed before the market inevitably tanked, with a shiny 5 series BMW to show for 30 days work, because I didn't share the secret of my success with the rest of the nasty insiders who were manipulating the game. I out-gamed the gamers, and that pisses people off.

Second off- Matthew is a well meaning goofball character. He is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in terms of self-promotion, and is an incurable attention whore. Unfortunately like most whores that I know, he is rather indiscriminate about who he bumps nasties with. Here he thought to make a point via the vehicle of pranksterism, and to shame the folks that called ponzi/scam/douche-bag early on what he (Matthew) felt was a valid investment. Well, that turned out to be a pretty bad decision. Sort of what championing Zhou Tong was like earlier this summer for him. So, let's stipulate that he is rash, impulsive and doesn't use up a lot of pre-planning on what checks his furious typing skills are writing.

But, I suggest we look at him in a different light than a fraud. Who here didn't know Matt was the class clown? Who here didn't expect him to find some silly-ass way to welsh the bet? Who here, and be honest now, actually thought that some happy go lucky entrepreneurial techno-impresario in Korea with a fetish for horse costumes actually had a million dollars in bitcoin stashed to play at silly buggers with? Who suffered actual damages? Nobody bought that critical surgery to keep Mom alive with their anticipate winnings from this absurd wager. Nobody is losing their homes, lives, honor or one single penny of their wealth. And quite frankly, I don't think a single person on the list would have actually paid a penny to Matt if pirate had decided to spank his little ass and make good. Especially not the piling on at the last moment clowns who got ouchy when he wouldn't take their bets.

But, he didn't win. He found his silly little technicality (and Matty- if you are reading this, there are a whole lot better ways to play this particular prank! Write me, you could have done this a lot less suicidally.) and thought everyone who have a big belly laugh at themselves for such a silly joke, and move on. Oops. Apparently a whole lot of very angry, very easily impressed folks thought they could recoup their losses through the simple expedient of a sure thing bet. Forgetting only the most basic rule that every gambler should know... the House is the only winner in any wager.

So, all snide comments and alleged side sitting aside, nobody lost a thing. Except Matt. He lost a job, he lost his honor, his lost his reputation, he lost the respect that he had worked very hard to build, and he lost his nickname which is now besmirched with a Scammer Tag. A richly deserved, and agreed in advance Scammer Tag.

Do we execute him a nineteenth time for this dumb move? Your call, Caesar. My point in this, and indeed in defending Matthew from some of the vitriol, is that we have really big, slimy ashholish fish to fry in these affairs. Matt is a very, very minor sideshow that means nothing when compared to the great fraud that has happened. Let's not spend all our time beating the poor kid to death for making a dumb choice- let's all gang up instead on the assholes who are actually stealing really big amounts of money. Let's grab the pitchforks and torches, the tar and the feathers and go Biblical on their asses. We have real villains to worry about here, so who are still mouth-breathing their schemes all over this community every day, and we are all too busy with the minutia to see the meteor crashing into our world.

So, if that still makes me a despised jackass in your eyes, eh, whatever. Sorry you feel that way. Chances are you will never have the exquisite pleasure of knowing firsthand anything about my balls, pro or con, as I play strictly het, and whatever you are alluding to with having the "most to lose" is so vague and churlish that I won't dignify it with a specific response.

And finally (yeah, I know TL;DR...) why limit yourself with necro ad hominem attacks... get Mr. Bitcoin in your post for some besmirching, what about Pattaya Brucie? Bitscalper? C'mon, you can do a whole lot better than BCX.

With enormous respect, I remain, cordially, your friend,

Loup Garoux. (and I fucking hate emoticons, and consider them to be a tool of the devil and otaku girls so I will not give you any, but insert some in your mind as appropriate.)

I don't think anyone thought he had 80k in bitcoins. Most people believed it was possible he had 10k though... The general consensus is that he truly believed he would win the 10k bet, hence his early caution on accepting bets from junior members.  Don't forget, Matthew did escrow a few bets in the beginning. Why would he do that if it was all a big joke? Sorry, but the bet became a joke when he realized he wasn't going to win. His mental condition may have even allowed him to convince himself that it was a joke all along, but he didn't convince me.

I also have to disagree about the majority of legitimate betters hedging their losses with pirate. I had no money invested with pirate and did not believe he was going to pay out. I made a modest bet of 10 coins, with every intention of paying up if I lost. I think the early betters were in the same court as me. When the initial 10k bet was closed, there were still loads of "investors" who thought they were still getting paid. Hedging with Matthew would negate their payment. There were even some idiots actually buying up pirate debt at that time. I'm guessing the majority of the hedgers came in at the 10k+ mark, when most realized they weren't getting paid, including Matthew.

Matthew may have done some good things for the community at some point but there is no place for a mentally unstable weasel in a company trying to sell their product to the same community he scammed.

[thezerg]

@Loup, this is an odd post for you, as you are normally pretty hard-line.  I've actually lost a lot of respect for your words given your defense of MNW.  It is unacceptable to apply a different criteria to someone just because you happen to know he is a flake.  No one is welcome to make financial contracts they do not intend to keep and we as a community need to enforce that unilaterally.  Personally, I don't think this was a joke at first to MNW but that is irrelevant. 

There should be zero tolerance for "jokes" that masquerade as financial contracts.

[LoupGaroux]

Ah well, such is the lot of the galvanizing rod.

For the record- I felt the bet was a bad idea from the get go, bad for Matty, and bad for anyone who took interest in it. It was an unneeded distraction at the point where the pirate situation was going critical, and gave a lot of normally very rational people a new shiny thing to pay attention to with hopes of getting even off somebody else's dime, and not waiting for pirate to be caught, keel-hauled, broken on the rack and forced to make restitution.

I am not "defending" Matthew. I am suggesting that we could look at context and scale and unleash our vengeance accordingly. Matthew was very, very naive, and showed incredibly poor judgement to conduct this matter the way he did. It was immature, it was foolish, it has destroyed his reputation. But families can handle one child who has behavioral control issues. He embarrassed himself, but he didn't actually rob anybody. We don't know what would have happened the other way, would everybody have paid him? I suspect not, but we will never know. Pirate on the other hand, did actually rob. A lot. Where do we want to put our energy? Beating up the child who made a bad set of decisions but harmed none, or the pathological liar who recruited a cadre of the best and the brightest here to be his henchmen and did steal, lie and cheat?

Personally, I only have so many evil villain mastermind slots that I can equip, and once I get done with the current US Administration, Bernacke, the intersango gango, kittens, my ex-wife, Modaff, the Occupy Movement and a couple of other true evils, I have to pick between pirate and Matty. Which leaves plenty to be hardline about.

[SysRun]

I am not "defending" Matthew   ...    He embarrassed himself, but he didn't actually rob anybody. We don't know what would have happened the other way, would everybody have paid him? I suspect not, but we will never know.

Perhaps you were not around for the original circumstances leading up to the bet.

I had 4800btc on the line. If pirate pays I break even. That's the whole point. The bigger bets that hedged early on would have paid. I have absolute confidence that BrightAnarchist would have paid as well.

That Matthews intent publicly morphed over the 3 weeks is clear. This allowed an attempted backslide out of the wager.

I suggest you read the earlier posts regarding the wager. Also, track down Micon's interactions with Matthew on his little donkdown podcast.

No one is arguing about pirate being the bigger criminal here. If we were debating this we may well have a debate about Ponzi being a bigger criminal than pirate because he was the pioneer and wrote the book. This logical fallacy can be put to rest.

While I appreciate your literary embellishments, and they are enjoyable to read, I wish that you would write plainly and to the point.

[LoupGaroux]

You must be right... I missed the part where Matthew proclaimed a break even service for victims of prate's fraud. You are transferring your hurt over the pirate debacle onto Matty and his ill-advised and ignorant "bet". You actually lost your 4,800 btc through pirate, you just lost out on the opportunity to break even with a doubling down bet. Did you escrow the funds to pay Matt in the event that you lost? Are those funds still available to you? You lost nothing, other than a chance to break even, which was never promised to you.

Be upset with pirate, that's the bad guy in this. Matt is foolish, and mouthy, and doesn't think before he speaks. And he was dead wrong in believing pirate to be anything other than a ponzi, but he didn't take your money. Weigh both sides of the equation Matt vs. pirate. React accordingly.

[Mosrite]

You must be right... I missed the part where Matthew proclaimed a break even service for victims of prate's fraud. You are transferring your hurt over the pirate debacle onto Matty and his ill-advised and ignorant "bet". You actually lost your 4,800 btc through pirate, you just lost out on the opportunity to break even with a doubling down bet. Did you escrow the funds to pay Matt in the event that you lost? Are those funds still available to you? You lost nothing, other than a chance to break even, which was never promised to you.

Be upset with pirate, that's the bad guy in this. Matt is foolish, and mouthy, and doesn't think before he speaks. And he was dead wrong in believing pirate to be anything other than a ponzi, but he didn't take your money. Weigh both sides of the equation Matt vs. pirate. React accordingly.

Loup, you're one of maybe three or four posters on here that is thinking rationally. Thank you.

[dancingnancy]

You must be right... I missed the part where Matthew proclaimed a break even service for victims of prate's fraud. You are transferring your hurt over the pirate debacle onto Matty and his ill-advised and ignorant "bet". You actually lost your 4,800 btc through pirate, you just lost out on the opportunity to break even with a doubling down bet. Did you escrow the funds to pay Matt in the event that you lost? Are those funds still available to you? You lost nothing, other than a chance to break even, which was never promised to you.

Be upset with pirate, that's the bad guy in this. Matt is foolish, and mouthy, and doesn't think before he speaks. And he was dead wrong in believing pirate to be anything other than a ponzi, but he didn't take your money. Weigh both sides of the equation Matt vs. pirate. React accordingly.

How do you know MNW and Pirate aren't in cahoots?  Perhaps the actions MNW took gave time to pirate to take care of his own personal obligations first during the initial chaos.  Why couldn't this be the case?

Luckily, I have no dog in this race.  At the very least, MNW is not someone that can be trusted in the future.  I am just hoping that these fucking assholes don't already have new moniker's in play for the next heist. 

After personally getting Zhoutonged and then witnessing this nightmare, I will never let my coins leave my own personal wallet ever again.

[jwzguy]

You must be right... I missed the part where Matthew proclaimed a break even service for victims of prate's fraud. You are transferring your hurt over the pirate debacle onto Matty and his ill-advised and ignorant "bet". You actually lost your 4,800 btc through pirate, you just lost out on the opportunity to break even with a doubling down bet. Did you escrow the funds to pay Matt in the event that you lost? Are those funds still available to you? You lost nothing, other than a chance to break even, which was never promised to you.

Be upset with pirate, that's the bad guy in this. Matt is foolish, and mouthy, and doesn't think before he speaks. And he was dead wrong in believing pirate to be anything other than a ponzi, but he didn't take your money. Weigh both sides of the equation Matt vs. pirate. React accordingly.

How do you know MNW and Pirate aren't in cahoots?  Perhaps the actions MNW took gave time to pirate to take care of his own personal obligations first during the initial chaos.  Why couldn't this be the case?

Luckily, I have no dog in this race.  At the very least, MNW is not someone that can be trusted in the future.  I am just hoping that these fucking assholes don't already have new moniker's in play for the next heist.  

After personally getting Zhoutonged and then witnessing this nightmare, I will never let my coins leave my own personal wallet ever again.

Exactly! Who cares if they have new monikers (they almost definitely do) if you protect yourself? Just don't get sucked into these schemes and it won't matter who is running them or what alias they are using.

[Rassah]

How do you know MNW and Pirate aren't in cahoots?  Perhaps the actions MNW took gave time to pirate to take care of his own personal obligations first during the initial chaos.  Why couldn't this be the case?

That... would be too scammy of a thing to do even for Matthew

[dancingnancy]

How do you know MNW and Pirate aren't in cahoots?  Perhaps the actions MNW took gave time to pirate to take care of his own personal obligations first during the initial chaos.  Why couldn't this be the case?

That... would be too scammy of a thing to do even for Matthew

Do you know him?  Does anyone know him - for fucking real?  Didn't some of these PPT guys actually meet Trendon in LV?  Or was that total bullshit, too? 

[Rassah]

How do you know MNW and Pirate aren't in cahoots?  Perhaps the actions MNW took gave time to pirate to take care of his own personal obligations first during the initial chaos.  Why couldn't this be the case?

That... would be too scammy of a thing to do even for Matthew

Do you know him?  Does anyone know him - for fucking real?  Didn't some of these PPT guys actually meet Trendon in LV?  Or was that total bullshit, too? 

From my interactions with him over the course of the year, Matthew never struck me as a rude, inconsiderate asshole (pirate definitely did). At most Matthew was always a somewhat insane weirdo with a severe lack of maturity, and excessive trolling tendencies. I may be wrong, but his character definitely did not fit the profile of someone who would team up with Pirate to purposefully rob people like that (I'm still of the opinion that he chickened out on the bet or something, which is different from basically premeditated theft.)

[dancingnancy]

How do you know MNW and Pirate aren't in cahoots?  Perhaps the actions MNW took gave time to pirate to take care of his own personal obligations first during the initial chaos.  Why couldn't this be the case?

That... would be too scammy of a thing to do even for Matthew

Do you know him?  Does anyone know him - for fucking real?  Didn't some of these PPT guys actually meet Trendon in LV?  Or was that total bullshit, too?  

From my interactions with him over the course of the year, Matthew never struck me as a rude, inconsiderate asshole (pirate definitely did). At most Matthew was always a somewhat insane weirdo with a severe lack of maturity, and excessive trolling tendencies. I may be wrong, but his character definitely did not fit the profile of someone who would team up with Pirate to purposefully rob people like that (I'm still of the opinion that he chickened out on the bet or something, which is different from basically premeditated theft.)

You are probably right, Rassah.  In the back of my mind though this whole thing seems orchestrated.  I'm not really familiar with this history like some of you are - has MNW been involved with any other BTC companies that have ripped off/ran away with btc?

I mean seriously, it would have been real easy for pirate to contact MNW (young and easily manipulated) and offer him 1000 BTC for him to make an ass of himself and keep the charade going.  MNW gains 1000 coins and loses his rep - he knows (or thinks) that this will never come back to haunt him because people already think he is an idiot.  

Pirate, in the meantime, is able to liquidate his holdings and get out while MNW is trying to subdue the rest of the large redemption's.  Like I said, I have no dog in this race, but if I did, I would definitely be checking out MNW just as much as Trendon.  

*** this is all, IMO ***

[Rassah]

You are probably right, Rassah.  In the back of my mind though this whole thing seems orchestrated.  I'm not really familiar with this history like some of you are - has MNW been involved with any other BTC companies that have ripped off/ran away with btc?

Not to my knowledge. All his companies have either got off the ground (Bitcoin Magazine) or flopped around and went nowhere (the Ellet), but I don't recall him ever actually taking people's money and not delivering the product (there WERE delays though).

I mean seriously, it would have been real easy for pirate to contact MNW (young and easily manipulated) and offer him 1000 BTC for him to make an ass of himself and keep the charade going.  MNW gains 1000 coins and loses his rep - he knows (or thinks) that this will never come back to haunt him because people already think he is an idiot.  

Pirate, in the meantime, is able to liquidate his holdings and get out while MNW is trying to subdue the rest of the large redemption's.  Like I said, I have no dog in this race, but if I did, I would definitely be checking out MNW just as much as Trendon.  

*** this is all, IMO ***

I have nothing in this race, either (the 20BTC bet wasn't something I was planning on keeping). If this is something that Matt would consider doing, it would surprise me. Matt struck me as someone who wanted to become big in the Bitcoin community, and was focusing on growing some sort of a reputation around it, with all his attempts at and involvement in businesses (though it WAS a really weird reputation). I think he would have considered the gain of $10,000 to be WAY less than what he thought he could earn from all his other business involvements.
But then, Matt has surprised me already with this stunt...

[dancingnancy]

Replace 1000 BTC with 5000 BTC and the scenario becomes much easier to imagine.  Not only that, but Pirate needed someone with at least a sliver of reputation left to keep it going while he made his own personal arrangements.  MNW fits that profile, IMO.  Just as you said, Rassah, people trusted him somewhat before this incident (just enough credibility to where some people would trust him, even though his behavior is odd) and not quite ghetto enough for no one to take him seriously. 



/Ok done with my tirade.

[Rassah]

Replace 1000 BTC with 5000 BTC and the scenario becomes much easier to imagine.

Still not quite. Remember the terms I used earlier, which someone else complained sounded too religious: good and evil? Matthew just does NOT strike me as being evil like that. $50,000 IS tempting, but, don't forget, we're all hoping to be multi-billionaire Captains of Industry™ here  

[DOH!]

Fuck you Andrew Bitcoiner, you scammy sack of shit!

[legolouman]

good riddance

P.S: Matt no harsh feelings but you seriously did it to yourself...

I lost every last shred of respect (and it wasn't much to begin with) I had for you the minute you set that ludicrous bet.

Though his bet was fool proof. If everyone paid up on his lower bets "offering 100% ROI if you don't think I have X to pay out" then he wouldn't be a scammer.