In my opinion, this is one of the saddest events of this year. This is a great loss for the entire community and for everyone who knew him.
Lauda made me completely reconsider my attitude to the forum for which I am infinitely grateful to her. And the comments I read today gave me the idea of the impeccability of our community, which was organic and progressed to the point that the value of all material aspects becomes secondary to the integrity of the community.
And if someone issued collectible coins in memory of Lauda, I would be glad to get a few....
I regret to say in public sunshine that unforeseen pressures in the shadows leave me no option but to leave the forum permanently.
After this post, "Lauda" will cease to exist. By that I mean: The faceless virtual persona named "Lauda", who exists only in cypherspace, will become detached from its "soul", and left as an empty shell. "Lauda" has abruptly reached end-of-life. Of course, this is the inverse of the usual way of thinking. There are hereby multiple layers of abstract indirection, which you can probably follow if you know C/C++ programming and/or witchcraft.
The word "soul" usually refers to an invisible entity from an immaterial plane of existence; if you believe in such a thing, consult your friendly local cult for mystical details. Such a soul animates a "body" on the material plane. But what of a pseudonymous virtual persona? It is a disembodied entity on an immaterial plane of the mind, which is animated by a body as its "soul". If it loses its body, it dies, even if the body lives on. Our body is quite well; but it wishes to depart from the virtual plane that has consumed over 7 years of its life, and much of its energies.
It has been a wild forum life, - or perhaps, nine forum lives involving everything from the dark arts of moderation, to being burnt at the stake several times. (I got better.) Thanks to my forum friends, fans, and cult votaries.
Now to protect the community in case of a hack, I will request that theymos ban the "Lauda" account (u=101872); and this post is to be taken as a notice that any future posts or PMs by this account are certain to be the product of an impersonator - a blackhat using malicious necromancy to animate a zombie. After that point, do not deal with my account even if it produces messages signed by Bitcoin or PGP keys. If the account logs in, you should assume that it is compromised. If it produces a signed message, you should assume that the keys are compromised. Of course, if Faketoshi appears in a catbat mask and claims to be me, then you should assume that it is a fraud.
Hereby I want to emphasize that it
will never again be possible to contact "Lauda", just as it is impossible to contact the dead. I do not want
any chance of an impersonation scam in a name that many people trust.
Over the years people have even trusted "Lauda" with different sums of Bitcoin. I have one of the highest name-recognition accounts on the forum. This places on me a responsibility. It is not to feed my strong ego that I say, it is a valuable account with a high reputation - a trust that people place in my unseen body, through the name of "Lauda". If I cease to be "Lauda" then according to my well-known principles, I must affirmatively prevent anybody else from using this name and forum account ever again.
One must always have a contingency plan, mine was carefully considered but sometimes much smarter players get involved. There is nothing further to discuss. A cat comes and goes as it pleases, - even between different planes of existence. I leave you with a last final message that you must never forget:
Cryptocurrency Bitcoin is freedom, Banking is slavery.
