The Bitcointalk 50 BTC VIP club. Where are they now ? Complete list.

[xtraelv]

No they didn't change their names. They may have been omitted from the list by oversight. They don't appear on the later list either.

OK, so another theory. Maybe they didn't donate 50 BTC but were gifted the VIP status because of their contribution to Bitcoin and the forum.

Yeah - I did think that could have been the case. Especially with Hal being a bitcoin icon.

Mark Karpeles (MtGox) provided the hosting and provided technical services to bitcointalk from 2011 onwards. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=42572.0 so probably provided services well in excess of the 2011 50BTC value.

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[theymos]

Maybe they didn't donate 50 BTC but were gifted the VIP status because of their contribution to Bitcoin and the forum.

Right. I posted about this somewhere when I did it.

IIRC MagicalTux also got VIP without paying 50 BTC because he contributed significant resources in other ways.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Funny how many of them turned out to be complete criminals--Mt. Gox, pirateat40, and TradeFortress are the first ones I noticed.  I don't recognize many of the other members, so they probably wised up and went elsewhere after realizing that bitcointalk has been infested with spammers and there's not much real discussion going on.  Either that or they're so busy spending their millions that they have no time for discussion forums.  

Who woulda thought that those 50BTC they donated in 2011 (or whenever) would be worth so much in 2018?  That aspect of this still blows my mind.  I try to keep in mind that in 2025 we could be thinking much the same thing about the bitcoin we held in 2018.  Anyway, great thread OP.

another proof how corrupt the core of this industry is antaopolus, will soon understand why the people would follow the nsa blockchain

regards

You had to quote the whole fucking OP just for that???

[Tyr808]

Interesting thread. Fun how most of them were at one stage involved with dodgy/dishonest activities.

[xtraelv]

Interesting thread. Fun how most of them were at one stage involved with dodgy/dishonest activities.

I think the "dodgy" is a sliding scale.

There are those that are clearly dishonest.

There are those that get into financial trouble due to their own fault  and hide it / try to trade out of it and then become dishonest.

There are those that get into financial trouble due to no fault of their own and hide it / try to trade out of it and then become dishonest.

There are those that get into financial trouble and cannot pay back their creditors.

This is one of the things that I realized with Mark Karpeles - he would have been a multi-millionaire if he had just held onto his original bitcoin and never started MtGox.
Without MtGox - bitcoin may have never reached the peaks it did and without MtGox some people would still have their bitcoins. Without the lessons learned from MtGox it could have been another exchange that ended up the same way. I never lost any bitcoin to MtGox (I wasn't into crypto yet) and I have a bias towards exchanges because I know just how hard they are to run and the amount of attempted attacks they get daily.

[xtraelv]

Maybe they didn't donate 50 BTC but were gifted the VIP status because of their contribution to Bitcoin and the forum.

Right. I posted about this somewhere when I did it.

IIRC MagicalTux also got VIP without paying 50 BTC because he contributed significant resources in other ways.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=38071.msg3272219#msg3272219



Thanks for confirming that. I found the post.

[Quickseller]

Funny how many of them turned out to be complete criminals-

A disproportionate number of VIPs ran a business on the forum -- they likely donated the 50 BTC as a way of giving back to the community -- and many businesses failed for one reason or another, and failed businesses often have similar characteristics of a scam. 

The barriers to entry into most "industries" were very low back then, a lot of community members were more trusting with their coins than they probably should have been, and it took longer than normal for things like poor management and poor security practices to be exposed.

I suspect that some of the VIPs who have only one or two posts likely were involved in some kind of shady dealings and have subsequently deleted their posts to cover their tracks....this may have been the result of outright scams, or it may have been the result of poor management and/or deals that went poorly.

[Fiord]

Funny how many of them turned out to be complete criminals--Mt. Gox, pirateat40, and TradeFortress are the first ones I noticed.  I don't recognize many of the other members, so they probably wised up and went elsewhere after realizing that bitcointalk has been infested with spammers and there's not much real discussion going on.  Either that or they're so busy spending their millions that they have no time for discussion forums.  

As far as I know, it's only proved that pirateat40 was criminal, but he was caught, and did 18 months in prison, so he probably does not have a millions, although maybe he could get rich after that, because to run such a scheme as he did you need to be at least an intelligent guy.

And as for the rest, Mt. Gox, and TradeFortress has not been proven to be scammers, but they are of course to blame that many people have suffered and lost a lot of money.

[Foxpup]

Funny how many of them turned out to be complete criminals--Mt. Gox, pirateat40, and TradeFortress are the first ones I noticed.

I suspect they figured that VIP membership would make them appear more legitimate, so as to lure in more victims. That's actually why I never bought VIP membership: I don't want any guilt by association.

[xtraelv]

A disproportionate number of VIPs ran a business on the forum -- they likely donated the 50 BTC as a way of giving back to the community -- and many businesses failed for one reason or another, and failed businesses often have similar characteristics of a scam. 

I agree. A failed business is not a "scam". But people who lose money or assets don't see it that way. I agree that most of the VIPs took risks and ran businesses and most of them with a large degree of success.

The barriers to entry into most "industries" were very low back then, a lot of community members were more trusting with their coins than they probably should have been, and it took longer than normal for things like poor management and poor security practices to be exposed.

Hindsight is great for detecting security lapses. Management of chaos is difficult. Startups and pioneering technology has unknown risks that become obvious with hindsight.

I suspect that some of the VIPs who have only one or two posts likely were involved in some kind of shady dealings and have subsequently deleted their posts to cover their tracks....this may have been the result of outright scams, or it may have been the result of poor management and/or deals that went poorly.

I suspect the ones that only made a couple of posts are alts of other accounts or left the scene after an exchange collapsed.

As far as I know, it's only proved that pirateat40 was criminal, but he was caught, and did 18 months in prison, so he probably does not have a millions, although maybe he could get rich after that, because to run such a scheme as he did you need to be at least an intelligent guy.

And as for the rest, Mt. Gox, and TradeFortress has not been proven to be scammers, but they are of course to blame that many people have suffered and lost a lot of money.

Karpeles has a previous French conviction "https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1227216-karpeles-english.html"

Karpeles has spent time in prison and is currently still facing charges for unauthorized loans and charged with fraud and embezzlement, and manipulating the Mt. Gox computer system (willy bot) to increase the balance in an account (not related to the missing 650000 bitcoins).
MtGox history

But the case has not yet been tried so not yet proven.

Despite of the massive catastrophic disaster when MtGox collapsed - MtGox was also responsible for some of the success of bitcoin and Karpeles did many good things.

The willy bot - if proven would have been responsible for artificially inflating the price of bitcoin.

I suspect they figured that VIP membership would make them appear more legitimate, so as to lure in more victims. That's actually why I never bought VIP membership: I don't want any guilt by association.

Other than perhaps the exception of a few - I'd disagree. I don't think there was much of an ulterior motive. 50 BTC was about US$250 at the time.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

Nice list! This is a trip down the memory lane for me.

[cissrawk]

Nice list! This is a trip down the memory lane for me.

wait, you still active?

[TheQuin]

Nice list! This is a trip down the memory lane for me.

wait, are you still active?

I think his account has been hacked again. It was actively trolling a year or so back. No way the posts could  seriously be mistaken for actually being him.

Here's an example of a very serious looking loan request.

Username: TradeFortress
Loan amount: 10 BTC
Loan reason: shitcoin daytrading and buying tim tams
Collateral Offered: this forum account
Interest Offered: 50% of whatever I make
Your BTC address: 1HET6QcrkJAdzCAo3HNLauddsHGxYagMZS
Repayment total: indeterminate
Date of repayment: when you want to

[Tyr808]

Lol @ shitcoins daytrading an timtams.

[🏰 TradeFortress 🏰]

My account isn’t hacked. I’m actually continuing to make repayments to the best of my ability.

[Quickseller]

My account isn’t hacked. I’m actually continuing to make repayments to the best of my ability.

Out of curiosity, what is your criteria for repaying what you owe?

[qwk]

A failed business is not a "scam". But people who lose money or assets don't see it that way. I agree that most of the VIPs took risks and ran businesses and most of them with a large degree of success.

When you're handling other people's money, failure due to negligence or incompetence may be considered a crime.
OTOH, I agree that there was usually no or very little criminal intention in many of the failed businesses of the past.
So I don't hold any grudges.

And as for the rest, Mt. Gox, and TradeFortress has not been proven to be scammers, but they are of course to blame that many people have suffered and lost a lot of money.

Despite of the massive catastrophic disaster when MtGox collapsed - MtGox was also responsible for some of the success of bitcoin and Karpeles did many good things.

Mark was a kid. Mark was a subpar coder. Mark had too much money at his hands and became cocky about his success.
What could possibly go wrong?

Looking back, I think its worth mentioning that many of the important players in Bitcoin's early ecosystem's development were kids with too much money. Which is probably a good enough explanation for the amount of failure we've seen.

Then again, I'm an old grumpy man and always complain about the young

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Nice list! This is a trip down the memory lane for me.

As if you have the balls to still hang around here.

Unbelievable that you’re not incarcerated.

[TheQuin]

My account isn’t hacked. I’m actually continuing to make repayments to the best of my ability.

OK, if that's the case you owe me 0.04 BTC for being in your signature campaign.

[xtraelv]

Mark was a kid. Mark was a subpar coder. Mark had too much money at his hands and became cocky about his success.
What could possibly go wrong?

Looking back, I think its worth mentioning that many of the important players in Bitcoin's early ecosystem's development were kids with too much money. Which is probably a good enough explanation for the amount of failure we've seen.

Then again, I'm an old grumpy man and always complain about the young

Hahaha

I'm an old grumpy man and (with the exception of my limited area of expertise)...am a subpar coder. 

To run an exchange takes big cojones. A lot of the guys with the skills to do it can earn well - doing less risky ventures.