You're misunderstanding what happened. Matthew didn't take anyone's money. He made a bet which he didn't honour - he didn't "become rich" because of that bet.
You don't know that. There are any number of ways he could have taken people's money and made himself money because of the bet.
For example, Matthew's bet propped up the price of Pirate debt because people who expected Matthew to honor the debt believed Matthew had reason to think Pirate would pay his debts -- otherwise, why make the bet at even odds? Matthew could have taken advantage of this personally to unload Pirate debt.
There are a number of other possible scenarios.
Hi everyone. I noticed some conversation this month about this, that some people were still fueling speculation, and although I realize some people may wish to consider my word "worthless" because of a single incident, I still feel it is my duty to at least make a statement about it here as a matter of public record.
This bet was a product of my immaturity in handling personal, work, social and performance stress. Long story short, I kind of snapped, let my ego and mouth write a check my ass couldn't cash, and then didn't know what to do and freaked out. I'll be honest, the entire time I was gone thinking about what to do with my life I couldn't stop thinking about what I had thrown away, how stupid the entire bet was, how many people were absolutely right about how pointless and avoidable this situation was, and about how screwed I was as a result.
This poor judgement lost my year's earnings of over $70,000 in cash, salaries, equity, active work contracts and not to mention reputation (to which I embarrassingly admit I didn't really grasp that I even had one to lose at the time). Looking back I can't believe I did it and I want to crawl into a hole and die, but that won't make things right and it would only serve to make numerous incorrect shortsighted opinions of me a reality.
I returned because I felt responsible. I hadn't intended on returning, not because I didn't feel guilty, but because I didn't think I had a place. It wasn't until I witnessed Roger Ver's recent PR goof of arguing on a public forum over a tiny bitcoin balance, embarrassing himself, his partners, blockchain.info and causing a miniature uprising against him that it finally snapped in my head that absolutely anyone can make a lapse of judgement, life is not over, and you can make it up to people.
I'll be honest, financially speaking there is never going to be a way to make it 100% right because I literally promised the world on a silver platter. Luckily for me, the kind, honest and wiser betters involved in all of this have (mostly) all agreed to much more realistic settlements that can be paid off within 3 years (note to others: never bet in BTC because the price increase will probably make a slave to debt for the rest of your life
).
Since I see there is still some unclarity about my actions, I feel the need to repeat it. Despite my admitting that I flip flopped on my original intentions in the face of greed and ego, I did not initially intend to "scam" anyone. I was absolutely going to pay up to 1000BTC, but I stayed up late one night after a fight with Bitcoin Magazine staff and for some reason...that night I just couldn't shut up. I lost control and learned a horrible lesson about self discipline and personal image management-- I did something I could never undo, and knowing I had no way of undoing it, I kept going, like a madman. It is true that there was a good majority of entertainment involved (for many!) and that was the most of the fuel, but I will not deny that deep down there was a fear of what I was doing would ruin my life. I had hoped, like always, that I could just walk away from a bad decision and start over. This is when I learned a lesson I had never had first hand experience with until now:
*never fuck with other people's money*.
I felt like the world was out to get me. I became paranoid, I became defensive, and in the end I had lost more friends than I even realized I had. Organizations dissolved, passions and previous work vanished, companies went bankrupt and all sorts of legal action started to fly (not related to the bet, related to companies closing as a result of sudden managerial changes, investor issues, etc). Basically, I proved on a larger stage than I really realized I was on, that I was too immature for the amount of trust that was given to me.
This is where it gets interesting people. I have heard some trolls sniffing around saying hateful things like "Look, he thinks we'll trust him again" or "You'll never earn that trust back, get lost". Well, I don't mean to be rude (I am not in a position to be rude I think), but I am not interested in that trust. I want to function trustless, to do what I do *best*-- making major mistakes, learn from them, grow from them, and as I grow from said mistakes, profit from the experience and share that profit. This bet caused all sorts of growing pains, and not just for me. For that, I'm terribly sorry. I don't want to be the CEO of a service company that handles billions of dollars. But when I left, the break from the forums and chatter calmed my senses and I realized just how much of bitcoin's economic theories and political principles I was completely missing. I came back because there is no life for me without bitcoin. Sure, there's life for me without bitcoiners or these forums, but bitcoin is the future. It may not be the future forever, but it's the next logical step, and I get that. I returned because I wanted to tell everyone that they deserve better than what I showed last year (a net negative) and that I deserve to be a part of a movement despite having made a grave mistake.
I realize that in these social and moral situations the only way to make things right is to pay the price, and I am paying it dearly, and have been paying it dearly since those days. For that, I ask that the conspiracy theories try their best to at least hear me out when I make the following statement in all honesty:
I have never had the intent to rip off or damage the community, just foolishly and selfishly attack, pester and troll certain minorities that I felt at the time were "up against me". I have never been knowingly or willingly apart of anything I believed was a "scam", but I admit that my over eagerness to join in projects, prove my worth, be important, be useful, whatever you want to call it, has been stronger than my sensibilities in dealing with other humans, risks, and commonalities that may seem so obvious to most of you.
And finally, I have never known Pirate, made any deals with him, intended to profit from him, owned any of his debt, stocks, bonds, shares, passthrus, etc. (I simply didn't think that far into what I was doing last year to pull that off anyway). I was in it for the "trololol" entertainment but didn't have the sense to know how many I'd actually be hurting (including my friends) and didn't know when to fucking stop. It's as simple as that.
I'm sorry for letting my friends, colleagues and the general community down (at least the part that may have been entertained and then disappointed later when they found out it was a failure on my part). I hope to make it up to you guys in the coming years as my attitude and personality continues to go through a serious change. Thanks everyone for understanding, and those who don't understand, refuse to forgive/forget and want to follow me around the rest of my life posting responses to everything I say as "didn't you once _____", I just wanted to let you know that I appreciate the help you guys have always given me (even if your original intention was to mock) and I've been soaking up criticisms like a sponge for quite some time, I just needed this very long break from this place to let it get to work on me. I feel the need to put down my manchild toys and join the -actually- productive society I pretended to live in before.
Keep it real bitcoiners.
Matthew
