the scammer just nuked my post there.
he wanted to originally spread his shit using bitmessage so the individuals wouldnt contact each other. here is the log:
[Sent to multiple recipients]
I am contacting you because you have recently demonstrated interest in a certain altcoin project.
I am not one of the technical experts working on the project, I am just a middle man relaying messages between the team and potential angel investors. With that in mind, I will try to answer any questions you have to the best of my ability, and if I don't know the answer, I will consult the programmers or the controlling group and get back to you.
This arrangement has been put in place in order to allow the developers to fully focus on implementation instead of communication, as the tools to communicate privately are cumbersome and not usable on all development environments and locations - which as it happens is one of the things this project aims to fix!
I assume you have already read most of the relevant posts on the forums. There probably won't be any more public posts about the project until the launch gets nearer, so let's keep the communications in Bitmessage. I will create an account in the forums just in case you happen to lose your Bitmessage keys or it stops working or there is some other urgency, and will let you know when I have registered one.
If you happen to know personal details of any of the people involved with the project, considering the nature of the project and the things it could potentially accomplish, it would be appreciated if those details would be kept out of the discussions. If any of those people give an ok to release the info at some point, then that changes things, but as long as we don't have clear approval let's honor their right to privacy. Also, please keep everything we share and discuss with you to yourselves, including technical and financial details, as the consequences of the competition piecing leaked details together and getting the same sort or revelations our expert programmers have had could be disastrous.
In the near future I will detail a simple procedure to get near complete communication anonymity using air gapped Raspberry Pi/Pi2, which you can opt to use if you wish to have maximum privacy regarding your possible involvement in the project. Also there will be proof that I am messaging on behalf of the party that you think I am.
[Sent to multiple recipients]
Good questions! Some answers:
1. There will be a post in the forums from the user you have been following which will contain an encrypted "password" I will send you before the actual post. I have not yet received the password so the post hasn't been made yet. I will send a bitmessage to you all when I get the password, along with the instructions to decrypt the password from the post that will be made.
2. This I don't know yet. I would imagine angel investments could be needed all the way up until the public ICO, which is likely 4 to 6 months away still.
3. This is unknown as well. The intent is to use as little angel investment as possible, and request funds when they are actually needed. For example to pay salary for developers or crypto/math experts. If a developer wants weekly salary, then angel investors could send the payment to the developer once a week until the job is done. There could also be other needs, but the total amount is unknown at this point. What we need eventually though, is commitment to invest, so it will be known before the funds are needed that there will actually be funds.
4. The number of potential investors is between 5 and 10, and the amount you said appears to be close the median. It is a good amount as it wouldn't be an ideal situation to have one or two huge whales owning too large % of the coin.
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Thanks for your message. I understand everything, but I have some questions:
1. How can I be sure you are the one involved in the project?
2. When will the angelinvest-period end? In other words: until when can I invest and be part of it?
3. How many USD are you aiming for as an investment?
4. How many investors said the are interested in investing and how many USD do they want to invest.
I want to invest at least USD 3000.
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[Sent to multiple recipients]
I am contacting you because you have recently demonstrated interest in a certain altcoin project.
I am not one of the technical experts working on the project, I am just a middle man relaying messages between the team and potential angel investors. With that in mind, I will try to answer any questions you have to the best of my ability, and if I don't know the answer, I will consult the programmers or the controlling group and get back to you.
This arrangement has been put in place in order to allow the developers to fully focus on implementation instead of communication, as the tools to communicate privately are cumbersome and not usable on all development environments and locations - which as it happens is one of the things this project aims to fix!
I assume you have already read most of the relevant posts on the forums. There probably won't be any more public posts about the project until the launch gets nearer, so let's keep the communications in Bitmessage. I will create an account in the forums just in case you happen to lose your Bitmessage keys or it stops working or there is some other urgency, and will let you know when I have registered one.
If you happen to know personal details of any of the people involved with the project, considering the nature of the project and the things it could potentially accomplish, it would be appreciated if those details would be kept out of the discussions. If any of those people give an ok to release the info at some point, then that changes things, but as long as we don't have clear approval let's honor their right to privacy. Also, please keep everything we share and discuss with you to yourselves, including technical and financial details, as the consequences of the competition piecing leaked details together and getting the same sort or revelations our expert programmers have had could be disastrous.
In the near future I will detail a simple procedure to get near complete communication anonymity using air gapped Raspberry Pi/Pi2, which you can opt to use if you wish to have maximum privacy regarding your possible involvement in the project. Also there will be proof that I am messaging on behalf of the party that you think I am.
[Sent to multiple recipients]
What ever the angel investors are investing before we get to the ICO phase, they will get M / 2 + 1 buying power at the ICO on the weighted average ICO price. M is the number of months between when the investment has been placed and the beginning of the ICO. There will be multiple ICOs, i.e. it will be a "Trickle ICO", where buyers can place bids to buy batches of coins while seeing other buyers' bids.
The weighted average ICO price will be set by the moment when which they agree to receive coins. So all ICOs up to that point will factor into their weighted average price. So thus they can decide which ICOs might be too small and not represent the market price. They can decide to wait to see if future ICOs are lower price. But they can't revert to the prior time once they've decided to wait longer to convert to coins. It is simpler this way than having the angel investors bidding at the ICO auctions with the other buyers, because the bidding will likely involve some sort of collateral or escrow to prevent fake bids.
So for example, an investment of $3,000 is made 3 months before the ICO. The investor will then get coins from the ICO for total of $3,000 * (3 / 2 +1) = $3,000 * 2.5 = $7,500
Chart for $1,000 investment:
6 months: $4,000
5 months: $3,500
4 months: $3,000
3 months: $2,500
2 months: $2,000
1 month: $1,500
As the aim is to take funding when it's needed, and it could be needed on weekly basis (depending on if additional programmers or experts are hired who want to be paid weekly) all the way up until the ICO, not everyone can go all-in at the beginning for the maximum M. On the other hand, the visibility increases and risk for the investor diminishes the closer we get to the launch.
If there is anything unclear, please let me know and I will try to explain better.
[Sent to multiple recipients]
As the SEC has a stance against unregistered ICOs, it is imperative that no communication outside Bitmessage is made that implies any specific individuals as being involved in the project. This offers plausible deniability. It would be best if we avoided mentioning any specific names even in Bitmessage, especially if you are using Windows computers to write those messages.
In other news, a very prominent programmer and notable member of the bitcointalk forums experienced in the technology that is needed is contemplating to join the project as a developer. He is earning up to $20,000 a month by doing work outside the crypto scene, but raising that much money at this stage is not what we want (the M factor would cause the angel investors to own too large % of the coin). There are ongoing discussions and negotiations to get him to accept coins (perhaps some part in coins some part in BTC even) until the first ICO where we'd like to raise $100,000, after which he could be paid in $ (or BTC) to finish the work getting to the main net and launch. The first ICO is likely to be held when the coin gets to testnet so there's something for people to play with and see it's not just vaporware, and the plan is to get there as fast as possible, with as little expenses as possible.
[Sent to multiple recipients]
Instuctions for a cheap option to employ an air gapped computer (i.e. a computer without internet connection that is not infected with spyware) for maximum privacy and security.
The plan in short is to use Raspberry Pi2 to write and encrypt messages, and then use another computer with internet connection and Bitmessage (BM) to send the encrypted message. And when receiving encrypted BM messages, to move the message to Pi2, decrypt and read it there. At no point are the messages in decrypted (plain text) format on the computer that is connected to the internet.
Note that using this method is not mandatory, but strictly optional for those who want maximum privacy regarding their possible involvement with the project. It can also be useful for storing cold wallets and other sensitive information.
These instructions assume you have a Linux computer with an internet connection, but using Windows or Mac should also be easy. I'll try this procedure using a Windows PC as well and write instructions if you happen to have Windows and can't get this done on your own.
You will need
- Pi2 (and a power adapter, and an HDMI cable if you don't already have one spare)
- quality microSD card (class 10, 8GB is recommended) for the operating system
- another microSD card for transferring files between the air gapped Pi2 and internet facing computer, quality not important
- two new USB microSD card readers, one for the Pi2 and one for the internet computer
- new USB keyboard
- new USB mouse
You might order a Pi2 starter kit from amazon, for example this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-Model-Starter-Case--Power-Supply/dp/B00TFV5QTA which comes with a handy case that protects your Pi2 from damage. If you order a kit with more stuff in it, such as a Wi-Fi adapter, then do not insert the Wi-Fi adapter into the Pi2 as we want it to never have been connected to any network.
Be very careful not to mix the USB card readers - never stick a USB device into the Pi2 that has been used on any other computer! If the readers are identical, use a marker or sticker or tape to identify them. This goes for the keyboard and the mouse as well. Buy new microSD reader, new keyboard and mouse, and use them only on the Pi2. Spyware can infect all USB devices, and the air gapped computer needs to stay clean.
Also don't bother ordering the pre-installed NOOBS card, unless you get lucky, you will probably just get a corrupted cheapo sd card with the NOOBS on it that the Pi2 can't even read. That happened to me, and I bought a quality class 10 microSD and put Ubuntu MATE on it and it's working flawlessly so far.
Download and install Ubuntu MATE
Using your internet facing computer, go to
https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/Download the image, insert the class 10 microSD card into the USB card reader, and insert the reader into the internet computer.
Open a terminal window (use shortcut key CTRL+ALT+T or open it from the menu), and go to the folder you downloaded the image into:
cd ~/Downloads
Extract the downloaded .img.bz2 archive to get the image file by typing this command into the terminal window:
bunzip2 ubuntu-mate-15.04-desktop-armhf-raspberry-pi-2.img.bz2
Check where the microSD is mounted by typing this command:
lsblk
In my case the microSD was mounted on sdc, this depends on your particular system.
Write the image file to the microSD card as root by typing this command:
sudo dd bs=1M if=ubuntu-mate-15.04-desktop-armhf-raspberry-pi-2.img of=/dev/sdX
(where the sdX is the microSD device name you verified using the lsblk command, for example sdc)
Writing the image will create a 4 GB partition on the micro SD card. It can be resized after the Ubuntu MATE installation is complete.
Remove the microSD from the USB card reader, and insert it into the Pi2's microSD slot (do not use the USB reader for this). Plug the Pi2's power cord in, and it will boot. Follow the Ubuntu MATE installation instructions, it is very easy. When the installer asks for user name, there is an option to encrypt your home folder. Do this, so if you lose your microSD card or it gets confiscated, at least your files in your home folder should be unreadable by anyone else.
Once the Ubuntu MATE operating system is installed and booted up, we can resize the system drive to its full capacity. Open a terminal window (use shortcut key CTRL+ALT+T or open it from the menu), and type the following command:
sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk0
The fdisk application will open, and a list of choices is presented. Delete the second partition by clicking 'd' and '2', then re-create it using the default values by clicking 'n', 'p', '2', 'enter', and 'enter', and finally write the changes and exit by clicking 'w'. There might be an error "re-reading the partition table failed: device or resource busy", but that doesn't matter, just ignore it.
Reboot the Pi2, and after it has booted up, open the terminal window again, and type the following command:
sudo resize2fs /dev/mmcblk0p2
Now you should have the full capacity of the SD card available.
I will detail how to actually use the air gapped computer to send and read messages next.
[Sent to multiple recipients]
These are the instructions for encrypting and decrypting messages on the air gapped computer such as the Pi2. Do not generate any keys on a computer that has been connected to any network or has had any USB devices plugged in that have been pluggin into other devices!
Again, this is optional for those who care a great deal about their information security.
# Generating encryption keys on the air gapped computer
# You will need a public key which we will
# use to send you encrypted content that
# only you will be able to decrypt.
# Using your air gapped computer, generate
# a new key:
gpg --gen-key
# Follow the instructions, and select 1 for RSA,
# 4096 for the key length, 0 for non-expiring key,
# and when it asks for your real name, just make
# up a name you'd like us to see, but please don't
# use "anon" or "anonymous" or "user" because the
# list of keys will get confusing when we import
# your keys and have 10 keys called "anonymous"
# there. You can leave email address and comment
# fields empty. Then select O to save and start
# generating the key (it will take a while). Also
# make sure you don't forget the password that is
# needed to protect your private key.
# When the key is ready, export the public key
# to a text file:
gpg --export --armor > pubkey.asc
# Plug the microSD card that is used to transfer
# files between the air gapped computer and the
# internet computer into the USB microSD card
# reader, and plug the reader into the USB slot
# of the air gapped computer. Do not mix the USB
# readers - dedicate one reader for the Pi2 and
# one reader for the internet computer.
# Then copy the pubkey.asc to the microSD card:
cp pubkey.asc /media/yourusername/sdcardname
# Next eject the USB card reader (or shut down
# the Pi2) and remove the microSD card from the
# reader, walk the microSD card to the internet
# computer, open the pubkey.asc, and copy-paste
# the contents into a bitmessage and send that
# to me.
# Sending from the air gapped computer
# You will need my public key to encrypt the message.
# When you have your air gapped computer ready, request
# the key from me, and I will send the key to you in a
# bitmessage. Copy-paste the key into a text file, copy
# the file to microSD, walk the microSD to the air
# gapped computer, and import the key:
gpg --import pubkey.asc
# Now check that you have my key imported:
gpg --list-keys
# You should see an entry with the name "Altcoin Project"
# Write your message you want to send me into a text
# file, and encrypt the text file using my public key:
gpg -e --s2k-cipher-algo AES256 --s2k-digest-algo SHA512 message.txt
# It will ask you to enter the user ID whose key to use to encrypt
# the file. Type "Altcoin Project" (without the quotes), and hit enter.
# If will ask for confirmation, just answer "y", and for other
# recipients, just hit enter to finish.
# Next, encode the encrypted file to ASCII:
base64 message.txt.gpg > message.txt.gpg.b64
# Copy the encoded file to the microSD, walk the microSD
# to the internet computer, and copy-paste the file's
# contents to Bitmessage.
# Receiving
# Copy-paste the encrypted text from Bitmessage to a text
# file message.txt.gpg.b64. Copy the file to microSD, walk
# the microSD to the air gapped computer, copy the file
# from the microSD to the air gapped computer's drive
# (do not decrypt the file to the microSD!)
# Decode the ASCII file:
base64 -d message.txt.gpg.b64 > message.txt.gpg
# Decrypt the file (you will need your previously set
# password of your private key to be able to decrypt)
gpg -d message.txt.gpg > message.txt
[Sent to multiple recipients]
I don't mind trying to answer at all, that's what I'm here for. I will relay questions to someone who knows if I'm unable to answer.
[1] There are no set dates or set amounts regarding funding yet. This is because the negotiations with additional programmers are still ongoing. We don't want to take money just for the sake of taking it, but when it is actually needed. This will both reduce the risk for the investors, and for the controlling group as well as they don't have to spend energy on managing and holding actual funds, not to mention the additional liabilities that would bring. But we are getting good information on the number of people interested in investing, so this helps to plan the project ahead. We are trying to get some concrete numbers for you soon and I will let you know as soon as I have them.
[2] At this time it looks like BTC will be used for payments. Any altcoin could also be used to send BTC by using services such as ShapeShift.io. Currently the plan is that the investors will pay directly to contractors, so when a payment is needed, I will get a BTC address and amount from the controlling group (and I suspect also what the payment is used for), and will relay that info to you.
The white papers for network consensus and anonymity are currently being finalized, and some coding has already been done. The coding will soon proceed full speed, which also means the amount of work left and funding needed will become more clear.
------------------------------------------------------
Hi,
Just wanted to confirm I've received all the messages from you. I've got a couple of minor questions, I hope you don't mind answering them.
[1] When does the pre-ICO peroid start? Am I already able to invest? I know you said not everyone is able to go all-in at the start, but having some kind of startdate would be nice.
[2] If I understood correctly, BTC is currently the only viable payment method? How do I obtain details for an investment payment?
Thanks in advance.
Kind regards,
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1174653.0