The Two-Bit Idiot vs Bitcoin Foundation

[jaybny]

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/78868284696/coup-or-death-for-the-bitcoin-foundation

Coup or Death for the Bitcoin Foundation?

Not a happy Friday, Idiots.

War.

I have been extremely outspoken about the illegitimacy of the Bitcoin Foundation’s current board of directors and the dire need for immediate changes.  Only a swift and thorough overhaul of the Foundation’s leadership can preserve Bitcoin’s image with regulators, legislators and the general public.  It is unacceptable that the current leadership has not already announced plans to exit gracefully from their positions of power, despite the glaring incompetence and negligence of Chairman Peter Vessenes and Executive Director Jon Matonis.  

This must change.  Now.  

Behind the scenes this week, I solicited the input of dozens of leaders throughout the industry who represent many of the corporate sponsors and lifetime individual members of the Foundation.  The individual response has been nearly unanimous: these gentlemen must go, immediately.  However, the corporate response has been understandably tepid.  Truly good and professional executives have been caught between a rock and a hard place: Vessenes and Matonis are obstinate individuals who will be hard to force from their positions, and a public battle will cause additional media backlash for Bitcoin, which will hurt these executives’ businesses.  

I have no similar fiduciary obligations to maintain the peace.  

Moreover, I believe that it is only with proactive measures that we can truly wipe the slate clean from Mt. Gox.  Vessenes and Matonis are pioneers who deserve credit for their early work with the Bitcoin Foundation, but they have also outlived their usefulness in an industry that attempts to grow like the internet despite the inertia of the financial services community and the many regulatory and legislative roadblocks.  

And for better or for worse, with all of its blue-chip sponsors and leading role to date in events such as the Senate Bitcoin hearings and NYDFS BitLicense hearings, the Foundation is the mouthpiece for the entire industry.
 
Peter Vessenes and Jon Matonis are not scapegoats.  They are not innocent bystanders.  And they are not ethically entitled to remain in their board seats through later this year.  

On Monday, I plan to publish a full article which elaborates on these damning facts and much more:  


1) The Foundation never once warned Bitcoin investors about keeping deposits in Mt. Gox, despite clear red flags dating back to at least April 2013.  Nor did the Foundation craft or advocate for best practices such as technical transparency, deposit audits, or appropriate consumer protection disclosures.  This was a colossal failure of leadership.
  
2) There is evidence that Bitcoin Foundation board members may have had direct access to Mark Karpeles which allowed them to personally deposit and withdraw funds from Mt. Gox, despite persistent delays for other customers.

3) There is a troubling and inappropriate overlap between Peter Vessenes’ staff at his private company, CoinLab, and the Bitcoin Foundation’s staff, which goes far beyond shared office space.  

4) The current leadership has shown a stunning disregard for proper communications with its members.  The importance of immediate resignations (rather than gradual) is highlighted by the Board’s secret plans to move the Foundation’s headquarters to London without input from members and sponsors.

5) Peter Vessenes has had a nine month conflict of interest regarding Mt. Gox given that his company CoinLab was involved in an active multi-million dollar lawsuit against Mark Karpeles and Mt. Gox, following a failed partnership.  Both men remained on the board of directors, and the Foundation failed to draft adequate by-laws that would allow them to address situations such as this where directors had material conflicts, which would compromise their ability to act in the best interests of its members.


This egregious behavior and negligence may not be the worst of the information to come.  I have been unable to reach representatives of the Foundation for comment on a myriad of other accounting issues related to the treatment of member donations.

***

At this week’s Texas Bitcoin Conference, I was fortified by near-unanimous agreement (and, at times, applause) that the current leadership must resign or be forced out of their positions on the Foundation.  Yet I have also been warned that I am playing a dangerous game, with cunning and ruthless power brokers.  I have been discouraged by corporate sponsors of the Foundation not to make a public stink which would be “counter-productive” and “irresponsible” for Bitcoin.  Most would prefer to let the Mt. Gox scandal blow over, but I would rather wipe the slate clean definitively, blood or no.  

To the chagrin of the less confrontational, I plan to attack.  And in putting my personal and professional reputation on the line, I will attack ruthlessly, from the front, and (figuratively) shoot to kill.  

By Monday, I expect that either: a) Vessenes and Matonis resign gracefully from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, and announce that their terms will end on an accelerated schedule which coincides with the already scheduled elections in April, or b) the corporate sponsors of the Foundation publicly distance themselves from the organization and clarify that the Bitcoin Foundation no longer represents the true interests of its members.

Otherwise, by Monday at 3pm ET / 12pm PT, I will post my full expose of the unprofessionalism and negligence of the Bitcoin Foundation.  (If I get hit by a bus this weekend, my lawyers will release it.)

In addition, and immediately upon publishing that expose, I plan to provide a collated and annotated document dump to Fortune and Wired to let them make their own professional judgments of the Bitcoin Foundation and our industry’s current leadership.  (I am doing this for free, I might add.)

On Wednesday, I will share those same documents with the broader media community, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, the Verge, Forbes, the Associated Press and anyone else who asks, and begin lining up on-camera media interviews with CNBC, CBS, Fox News, Al Jazeera and others who have expressed interest in this story to date.

I assure you, I am ready to go nuclear.  Because this is important.

Make no mistake: Peter and Jon will either step down from their leadership positions, or the corporate sponsors of the Foundation will quickly assemble and publicly distance themselves from the Foundation, writing off the organization as an illegitimate zombie entity.  I am posting an open letter calling for their swift resignations on Reddit and on the Bitcoin Foundation’s own Forum.

I hope to eat my article, keep the documents that I have to myself (and likely prosecutors as I am likely to be subpoenaed), and redirect the focus of the Bitcoin community from scandal and frustration to that of progress and innovation.

To Peter, Jon and their supporters:

You have 72 hours.

-TBI

[BTCisthefuture]

i agree the foundation has done a poor job at many things, and i agree if its board members are doing things that aren't ethical or potentially even illegal it should be presented to the public/media.

i do disagree with the whole drama show though,  this is essentially blackmail and just creating childish drama.  if the documents are that bad , just release them already.

[zyk]

2) There is evidence that Bitcoin Foundation board members may have had direct access to Mark Karpeles which allowed them to personally deposit and withdraw funds from Mt. Gox, despite persistent delays for other customers.

If that is true...and it will be easily provable if Mark hasn´t been free to destroy all records yet....they have to go to jail as they have been done the thiefing of the whole

community !

[zyk]

and most importantly they have to give up all of their stashes to the victims...BBuilder must be soaring right now

[zyk]

By Monday, I expect that either: a) Vessenes and Matonis resign gracefully from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, and announce that their terms will end on an accelerated schedule which coincides with the already scheduled elections in April, or b) the corporate sponsors of the Foundation publicly distance themselves from the organization and clarify that the Bitcoin Foundation no longer represents the true interests of its members.

Otherwise, by Monday at 3pm ET / 12pm PT, I will post my full expose of the unprofessionalism and negligence of the Bitcoin Foundation.  (If I get hit by a bus this weekend, my lawyers will release it.)


resign gracefully ? riding in the sunset with all the criminally gotten assets of the poor suckers ?  Are you mad ? As you are acting and rightfully so, it is urgently nesessary

to file an instant criminal complaint with the japanese authorities !

[zyk]

I hope to eat my article, keep the documents that I have to myself (and likely prosecutors as I am likely to be subpoenaed), and redirect the focus of the Bitcoin community from scandal and frustration to that of progress and innovation.

You are not free to eat your documents and change your position of a truthseeker to a bought out complicit ! Make no mistake, put em up now....

being the drama queen, you can leave to the media...idiot!

[redhawk979]

An organization founded by disorganized paranoid anti-government libertarians never bothered to hire a lawyer to draft their bylaws and instead just said "whateva" and continued to operate despite massive conflicts of interest and self-destruction? No wai.

[Beliathon]

Release the truth or shut the fuck up about it. No one cares about your personal, attention-whoring battle.

Everyone cares about the truth.

[genco]

This is a bluff.

His allegations are pretty good conjecture, but he has no evidence. He had to do this public announcement to get his opponent to bite at the bluff.

He's a gossip that throws likely scenarios out there and sees if they stick.

[zyk]

This is a bluff.

His allegations are pretty good conjecture, but he has no evidence. He had to do this public announcement to get his opponent to bite at the bluff.

He's a gossip that throws likely scenarios out there and sees if they stick.

he has another track record....and you have been already had the last time...you want to get fooled twice...suck it up newbie

[zyk]

This is a bluff.

His allegations are pretty good conjecture, but he has no evidence. He had to do this public announcement to get his opponent to bite at the bluff.

He's a gossip that throws likely scenarios out there and sees if they stick.

he has another track record....and you have been already had the last time...you want to get fooled twice...suck it up newbie

I really don´t know why the majority of bitcoinhodlers even pretend in wanting to know the truth.......you never ever want to hear it and even in hindsight are you able to

run your psychopathic relativations of complete denial...let alone project a the consequences of the known facts which is : BTC is completly fucked up and over in the hands of

dumply thiefing scumbags !

[~Coinseeker~]

They should add this drama to Netflix.   I mean seriously, people are surprised by this?  You want to run billions of dollars through an unregulated currency and central organization and think what?  The inherent greed of people will just magically disappear?  Of course there is insider trading...why wouldn't there be?  Of course there is rampant corruption...why wouldn't there be?  Of course the markets are completely manipulated...why wouldn't they be?  They're unregulated.  Oh that's right...regulations are just governments attempt to control people, not actually prevent these abuses. 

Yeah...and in the words of Bill Maher (making fun of Libertarians), "Stop lights?  How dare the government tell me when I can and can't go?"   

[tvbcof]

Release the hounds!

[zyk]

They should add this drama to Netflix.   I mean seriously, people are surprised by this?  You want to run billions of dollars through an unregulated currency and central organization and think what?  The inherent greed of people will just magically disappear?  Of course there is insider trading...why wouldn't there be?  Of course there is rampant corruption...why wouldn't there be?  Of course the markets are completely manipulated...why wouldn't they be?  They're unregulated.  Oh that's right...regulations are just governments attempt to control people, not actually prevent these abuses. 

Yeah...and in the words of Bill Maher (making fun of Libertarians), "Stop lights?  How dare the government tell me when I can and can't go?"   

that has nothing to do with regulations: there are already laws that you can´t steal someones assets in custody.....be it bitcoins or your car ( if thats easier for you to

halluszinate )   !

[God]

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/78868284696/coup-or-death-for-the-bitcoin-foundation

Double space after period, the two bit idiot must be Satoshi!

[repentance]

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/78868284696/coup-or-death-for-the-bitcoin-foundation

Double space after period, the two bit idiot must be Satoshi!

Lulz.

[~Coinseeker~]

They should add this drama to Netflix.  I mean seriously, people are surprised by this?  You want to run billions of dollars through an unregulated currency and central organization and think what?  The inherent greed of people will just magically disappear?  Of course there is insider trading...why wouldn't there be?  Of course there is rampant corruption...why wouldn't there be?  Of course the markets are completely manipulated...why wouldn't they be?  They're unregulated.  Oh that's right...regulations are just governments attempt to control people, not actually prevent these abuses.  

Yeah...and in the words of Bill Maher (making fun of Libertarians), "Stop lights?  How dare the government tell me when I can and can't go?"  

that has nothing to do with regulations: there are already laws that you can´t steal someones assets in custody.....be it bitcoins or your car ( if thats easier for you to

halluszinate )  !

You must not have read the blog post.  Part of what he is suggesting, is insider trading.  One of many things regulations are enacted to prevent. Although, it would seem Bitcoin doesn't need to worry about outside forces destroying it...Bitcoin is doing a pretty good job of destroying itself.  Good news is...the tech is here to stay so, doesn't matter to me what brand name you put on it.  Eventually the world will get it right.  Just like the internet.

No worries here...I'm just enjoying the show.

http://static4.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/Coon+eating+popcorn+_201cf083c1bcfcc2a86a7590b9ae193f.gif

[mysidia]

I look forward to seeing the documents on Wednesday.

Some cold hard evidence would be nice;  without lots of extra commentary, speculative inferences, demands, and ultimatums...

[Bitcoin_is_here_to_stay]

I look forward to seeing the documents on Wednesday.

Some cold hard evidence would be nice;  without lots of extra commentary, speculative inferences, demands, and ultimatums...

Yeah. I also do not like this "if  they step down, you will never know what I am talking about". TBI seems to mean well, but he got carried away. It ain't whistle blowing. It is blackmail.

[tvbcof]

Release the hounds!

Opps!

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/post/79170277293/why-i-lost-my-shit-on-friday