Dr. Michael Moriarty says we should not trust Coinbase... Your thoughts?

[campycoin]

Have you read the interview with the owner of the Bitcoin Network of Sites Dr. Michael Moriarty? 

He owns
bitspeculate.com
bitplastic.com
coinchimp.com

and like 50 others

He has a lot to say in that interview read it here

 http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/exclusive-interview-bitcoin-networks-dr-michael-moriarty-stanford-phd-becomes-bitcoins-doc-ock/2014/05/17

including that we should boycott Coinbase....

opinions?

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[franky1]

yet he himself does scam sites, runs off with the cash and shuts them down. then re-opens another site.

he tries to make people believe he has had atleast 50 businesses running non stop since 2011, and has 4 years worth of reputation.

his word is not even worth the pressure used for him to type a message. let alone being used to persuade people to avoid coinbase, purely to use his service.

the dude cant even have the courage to show his real face or name.. (his real name is not related to sherlock holmes in anyway)

as for his interview..

thats him with his propaganda machine asking his best friend who also runs a newsletter blog (both people pretending to be proper news media, yet failing) to publicize him and his "50 plus businesses"

im starting to think that Dr Michael Moriarty. is a trendon shavers like guy with a pseaudonym hinting at his lack of morals.
EG pirate. known scallywag that steals from others in the international waters
moriarty. known criminal mastermind with a network of criminal activity he can access at any time.

i think it calls time for a moriarty 'shoe on head' type of event to reveal himself publicly and self dox his identity. seeing as he supposedly has so much legit business.
does anyone of his customers know his true identity. and should we be trusting someone with 50 businesses to hide away?.. i think not

here is some of the doctors 'i have been hacked' excuses, kind of strange how only individuals accounts get hacked when a true hacker has access to it all. and how each hack happens on different days again only affecting individual people, not masses
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1v9pzr/bitplastic_scam/
ill get into more detail about other scam attempts at the bottom

and as for his self publicity, this makes me laugh
(note the youtube uploader) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00q1U3xdXPM
ill get into more publicity attempts at the bottom

and as for the page loads (more so then actual visitors) bit plastic does not hav proof of 5000 customrs and 10k visitors per day
http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&c=1&y=t&b=ffffff&n=666666&r=1y&u=bitplastic.com&flag=1

so a source self-publicity. read this. as it made me laugh
http://tedjonesweb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/bitplasticcom-scam-bitplastic-bitcoin.html

and someone else seems to have looked into the doctor too
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=601675.0

all-in-all
the doctor says he has been running sites since 2011 onwards yet apart from finding links that are quotes of him saying 2011, i can only find evidence of actual activity far later. including the lastest scam that is supposedly a debit-card scam, which is only ben running for a year... yet is his 'BitPlastic is our first and most popular site'.

yet visitor stats and domain registration show its more recent and not popular.

SO DO NOT USE ANY OF MORIARTIES SITES.

[Sealed]

It sounds like he's flogging a competitor because he's trying to launch his own service. More power to him if he wants to try, but his claims still don't hold water.

Coinbase shares none of the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme. They make their money off of merchant and order fees, not user deposits. Unlike MtGox, they've never had restrictions on the amount or frequency of bitcoins you can withdraw, and even offer tools like paper wallets to make it easier.

If this doc guy wants to make his truly anonymous exchange, he's either going to be hit hard with fraud, shut down, or driven offshore for not complying with KYC/AML laws

[DonnyMontana]

His comments are basically not about Coinbase itself, but rather companies like Coinbase that centralize keys. (e.g. almost every exchange, companies like Circle, lots of user-friendly wallets)

He mentions a number of things as to why
"US banning bitcoin and seizing Coinbase funds. I think this one is in the realm of 'not-gonna-happen'. Or perhaps more accurately 'if it happens, bitcoin is doomed anyway'."

I think people don't understand what a ban in the US would do. First of all, all 'public bitcoin activity' is out on day 1. That means banks won't service you, no ATMs, no deposits at exchanges, no payment processors like Bitpay or Coinbase. It means merchants will walk away and it means all VC investments leave.

It also means bitcoin drops to a near worthless price within hours. Miners stop mining, the network security breaks down and it becomes easy to do 51% attacks on the network. Trust is completely lost. Price volatility skyrockets. Most exchanges are effectively rendered unusable and shut down (example in China). You can trade on localbitcoins.com, but you never know if you're trading with an FBI agent.

There is no reputation or trust anymore. Bitcoin can still be used, but there's no point anymore. Because it's illegal, it's now risky, expensive, there is lots of friction in the system. It's no longer a better currency, and virtually nobody wants it and you can't find anywhere to spend it. Even on places like Silk Road, you don't know if you're buying from an FBI agent when you give them your address to have illicit goods, or hell, even completely licit goods (purchased with illegal bitcoins) sent to you.

In other words, this idea that bitcoin is made illegal in the US or bitcoin companies start to get shut down because they use bitcoin is not a reason for me to manage my own keys because in such a scenario, I wouldn't even want or care for bitcoin private keys any more than the least accepted unknown shitty altcoin there is.

[DonnyMontana]

Apart from that he makes some points about hacking of Coinbase servers, and I think this makes sense to an extent. There is a risk bitcoins are stolen, and if you trust yourself more with the coin than Coinbase's security team, then do it yourself. But many of us are far safer with Coinbase than their windows xp computer, Coinbase is very explicitly a user-friendly service catering to an audience with little or no expertise in cryptography or security. And given how much Coinbase stores in cold storage, I'd frankly not worried.

[miragecash]

I don't know this Moriarty, but Coinbase did recently force me to agree to a new TOS or else they won't provide me additional services. This is ridiculous because I have some money in Coinbase. What's on their new TOS? It says that you cannot pay a person who is not also a Coinbase customer. Whoa, what's that? What they're describing is NOT bitcoin anymore. You cannot make payments internationally if this is true because obviously someone in Kuala Lumpur is NOT gonna be a Coinbase customer. Ugh. This stinks almost as much as Mt. Gox. Their sorry excuse is that they want to "know their customer". They can arbitrarily block you from transferring your funds outside of Coinbase. You may have been able to transfer funds out of Coinbase today, but tomorrow? Who knows!?

P.S. I also don't think Coinbase is a "scam" because if you want, you can always take your money out as Dollars. You just can't freely do it in bitcoin.

[miragecash]

"US banning bitcoin and seizing Coinbase funds.
It also means bitcoin drops to a near worthless price within hours.

I disagree. If the US government is desperate enough to try to ban bitcoin, then the dollar has already collapsed. This means that bitcoin has already replaced the dollar as a reserve currency. A ban at this point will be ignored by the citizens of the USA.

[DonnyMontana]

Now I don't use Coinbase myself, I can't stand a 1% fee personally, but I don't see reason for most of its users to boycott it.
Let's not forget this person has a vested interest in 'boycotting Coinbase' as he runs a competitor service. That's okay, it doesn't mean he's wrong. But just keep that in mind.

[DonnyMontana]

However, it did feel a bit disingenuous when I find that CoinChimp actually has a bitcoin wallet where they store your coins in cold storage, not unlike Coinbase. And where they, unlike BTC-E, aren't anonymous, they have an address to mail money to, the founders are known. In other words, not complying with legal responsibilities of being a money transmitter while also managing your bitcoins is something I'd be MUCH more worried about as a user, as this is the type of thing Liberty Reserve tried to do. Transmit money, report nothing, manage people's funds yet not be anonymous or untraceable. That means you're in trouble before long, which means your customers are too.

[notbatman]

Hooked on phonics?

Isn't Moriarty the STNG character cooked up by the central computer to defeat commander Data?

[franky1]

However, it did feel a bit disingenuous when I find that CoinChimp actually has a bitcoin wallet where they store your coins in cold storage, not unlike Coinbase. And where they, unlike BTC-E, aren't anonymous, they have an address to mail money to, the founders are known. In other words, not complying with legal responsibilities of being a money transmitter while also managing your bitcoins is something I'd be MUCH more worried about as a user, as this is the type of thing Liberty Reserve tried to do. Transmit money, report nothing, manage people's funds yet not be anonymous or untraceable. That means you're in trouble before long, which means your customers are too.

coinchimp is moriarty. so can you give me all his dox (meaning his real name not moriarty pseudonym)

[franky1]

Hooked on phonics?

Isn't Moriarty the STNG character cooked up by the central computer to defeat commander Data?

kind of. if i remember the episode. the central computer used a holodeck program that was running a sherlock holmes holo-program, and took on the identity of sherlocks arch nemisis. thank god STNG wasnt running a holoprogram of pokemon.. or Commander data would have had to defeat pikachu

[bitsmichel]

including that we should boycott Coinbase...

The usage of credentials does not make it more creditable. I have credentials as well, and I think several people on this forum. Anyone can scream 'boycott this'.
So lets look at the arguments.

CoinBase, which has all the markings of another ponzi scheme, since they encourage you to store your coins with them more or less permanently. 

They allow to send money to another bitcoin address, whether in coinbase or not :
http://cdn.instructables.com/FVC/8XST/HT2U0T2Y/FVC8XSTHT2U0T2Y.MEDIUM.jpg
So this argument does not make sense.

Bitcoin exchanges get hacked constantly, which means user information is vulnerable to hackers.

This is true sometimes, but does not make the site a Ponzi schemes. Many things get hacked, probably his sites too.
Sure, offline wallets are more safe.

Perhaps coinbase is a competitor of one of his sites and he tries to win more customers using his credentials 

[moriartybitcoin]

yet he himself does scam sites, runs off with the cash and shuts them down. then re-opens another site.

he tries to make people believe he has had atleast 50 businesses running non stop since 2011, and has 4 years worth of reputation.

his word is not even worth the pressure used for him to type a message. let alone being used to persuade people to avoid coinbase, purely to use his service.

the dude cant even have the courage to show his real face or name.. (his real name is not related to sherlock holmes in anyway)

as for his interview..

thats him with his propaganda machine asking his best friend who also runs a newsletter blog (both people pretending to be proper news media, yet failing) to publicize him and his "50 plus businesses"

im starting to think that Dr Michael Moriarty. is a trendon shavers like guy with a pseaudonym hinting at his lack of morals.
EG pirate. known scallywag that steals from others in the international waters
moriarty. known criminal mastermind with a network of criminal activity he can access at any time.

i think it calls time for a moriarty 'shoe on head' type of event to reveal himself publicly and self dox his identity. seeing as he supposedly has so much legit business.
does anyone of his customers know his true identity. and should we be trusting someone with 50 businesses to hide away?.. i think not

here is some of the doctors 'i have been hacked' excuses, kind of strange how only individuals accounts get hacked when a true hacker has access to it all. and how each hack happens on different days again only affecting individual people, not masses
http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1v9pzr/bitplastic_scam/
ill get into more detail about other scam attempts at the bottom

and as for his self publicity, this makes me laugh
(note the youtube uploader) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00q1U3xdXPM
ill get into more publicity attempts at the bottom

and as for the page loads (more so then actual visitors) bit plastic does not hav proof of 5000 customrs and 10k visitors per day
http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?&w=400&h=220&o=f&c=1&y=t&b=ffffff&n=666666&r=1y&u=bitplastic.com&flag=1

so a source self-publicity. read this. as it made me laugh
http://tedjonesweb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/bitplasticcom-scam-bitplastic-bitcoin.html

and someone else seems to have looked into the doctor too
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=601675.0

all-in-all
the doctor says he has been running sites since 2011 onwards yet apart from finding links that are quotes of him saying 2011, i can only find evidence of actual activity far later. including the lastest scam that is supposedly a debit-card scam, which is only ben running for a year... yet is his 'BitPlastic is our first and most popular site'.

yet visitor stats and domain registration show its more recent and not popular.

SO DO NOT USE ANY OF MORIARTIES SITES.

Hi Frank1

Have you used one of my sites and had a bad experience? If so, I am *as always* happy to address anything and everything publicly right here on BitcoinTalk.  If you've had a bad experience, I'm all ears!

[moriartybitcoin]

However, it did feel a bit disingenuous when I find that CoinChimp actually has a bitcoin wallet where they store your coins in cold storage, not unlike Coinbase. And where they, unlike BTC-E, aren't anonymous, they have an address to mail money to, the founders are known. In other words, not complying with legal responsibilities of being a money transmitter while also managing your bitcoins is something I'd be MUCH more worried about as a user, as this is the type of thing Liberty Reserve tried to do. Transmit money, report nothing, manage people's funds yet not be anonymous or untraceable. That means you're in trouble before long, which means your customers are too.

We don't have an address to mail money to.  I don't know where you saw that, but it was definitely NOT on CoinChimp.

Of course CoinChimp offers a Bitcoin wallet.  We deposit coins to your CoinChimp wallet when you buy them.  They are stored by default in cold storage NOT on a live wallet on the server, therefore they are not vulnerable to hackers.  You can withdraw your coins to a third-party wallet or an electrum wallet simply by clicking Withdraw BTC, which we encourage people to do.

Unlike CoinBase, we don't request ID or verification from our customers. 

[moriartybitcoin]

I don't know this Moriarty, but Coinbase did recently force me to agree to a new TOS or else they won't provide me additional services. This is ridiculous because I have some money in Coinbase. What's on their new TOS? It says that you cannot pay a person who is not also a Coinbase customer. Whoa, what's that? What they're describing is NOT bitcoin anymore. You cannot make payments internationally if this is true because obviously someone in Kuala Lumpur is NOT gonna be a Coinbase customer. Ugh. This stinks almost as much as Mt. Gox. Their sorry excuse is that they want to "know their customer". They can arbitrarily block you from transferring your funds outside of Coinbase. You may have been able to transfer funds out of Coinbase today, but tomorrow? Who knows!?

P.S. I also don't think Coinbase is a "scam" because if you want, you can always take your money out as Dollars. You just can't freely do it in bitcoin.

You could take your money out in 'dollars' on MtGox too. Was MtGox a scam?

[moriartybitcoin]

I don't know this Moriarty, but Coinbase did recently force me to agree to a new TOS or else they won't provide me additional services. This is ridiculous because I have some money in Coinbase. What's on their new TOS? It says that you cannot pay a person who is not also a Coinbase customer. Whoa, what's that? What they're describing is NOT bitcoin anymore. You cannot make payments internationally if this is true because obviously someone in Kuala Lumpur is NOT gonna be a Coinbase customer. Ugh. This stinks almost as much as Mt. Gox. Their sorry excuse is that they want to "know their customer". They can arbitrarily block you from transferring your funds outside of Coinbase. You may have been able to transfer funds out of Coinbase today, but tomorrow? Who knows!?

P.S. I also don't think Coinbase is a "scam" because if you want, you can always take your money out as Dollars. You just can't freely do it in bitcoin.

Oh, this is CLASSIC AML/KYC verification scam. It is the EXACT same scam that Paypal uses to steal MILLIONS of dollars from customers.

'Sorry, your account is frozen until you submit verification documents.'  Then you can spend months trying to get verified and it may never happen.  And guess what? They are earning interest on your money during that time!

CoinBase uses the same scam.  CaVirtex too (in fact, they held my Bitcoins for months while they banned my account simply for using TOR).

When you deposit Bitcoins to an online wallet, you expect to be able to withdraw them. If the site suddenly changes its TOS and says you need to submit xyz verification to withdraw your coins, that's a scam. What if you don't have a proof of address (many people live in an RV)?  Oh well, sorry, we can't verify your account, we'll just have to hold on to your coins ...

Gox did the same thing!  Open yours eyes folks.

[moriartybitcoin]

'yet he himself does scam sites, runs off with the cash and shuts them down. then re-opens another site.'

Wow FRANKY that is quite an accusation against me.  I would like to know what site I have 'run off with the cash' with and shut down???

None of my sites have ever been shut down except BitFiverr.com which I cancelled when Fiverr.com started accepting Bitcoin, but users of Bitfiverr were immediately refunded any Bitcoins they had on the site (which wasn't much, as we had very few users).

So, again, I am curious what sites you think I have started and then shut down??!

If you can't back up this quite serious allegation with some relevant facts and evidence, then you're just purely slandering me.  Maybe you work for Coinbase - I have no idea what your beef is.  As far as I can tell, you've never used one of my services.

[miragecash]

It is not an argument but a statement of fact. That clause stating that they can block you from transferring bitcoin out to a non-coinbase customer is really in their TOS that you have to sign to continue using their service. However, understandably, they are not publishing (at least i cannot find it) on their website. In all fairness to Coinbase, after I signed the odious TOS, I was able to transfer out my funds, so maybe that's a feature they plan on implementing later? Who knows? Probably, they are only selectively blocking people who use Coinbase to buy bitcoin for sale on localbitcoins.com probably from pressure from the US Government's FINCEN anti-money laundering unit. This is ridiculous because they are punishing people as guilty before investigation (just like paypal). I thought in a democracy, you are innocent until proven guilty? Maybe I'm just naive....

including that we should boycott Coinbase...

The usage of credentials does not make it more creditable. I have credentials as well, and I think several people on this forum. Anyone can scream 'boycott this'.
So lets look at the arguments.

CoinBase, which has all the markings of another ponzi scheme, since they encourage you to store your coins with them more or less permanently. 

They allow to send money to another bitcoin address, whether in coinbase or not :
http://cdn.instructables.com/FVC/8XST/HT2U0T2Y/FVC8XSTHT2U0T2Y.MEDIUM.jpg
So this argument does not make sense.

Bitcoin exchanges get hacked constantly, which means user information is vulnerable to hackers.

This is true sometimes, but does not make the site a Ponzi schemes. Many things get hacked, probably his sites too.
Sure, offline wallets are more safe.

Perhaps coinbase is a competitor of one of his sites and he tries to win more customers using his credentials 

[bitsmichel]

It is not an argument but a statement of fact. That clause stating that they can block you from transferring bitcoin out to a non-coinbase customer is really in their TOS that you have to sign to continue using their service. However, understandably, they are not publishing (at least i cannot find it) on their website.

In this case I agree with your point.

I thought in a democracy, you are innocent until proven guilty? Maybe I'm just naive....

In the original sense it means "rule of the people". It is dervied from acient greek δῆμoς (dêmos) "people" and κράτoς (kratos) "power" or "rule".  The current system is more like an aristokratia "rule of an elite".

Here in the US you can be held in prison indefinitely without charge or trial. This is actually a law within the US legal system since 2012 or so, but I am not a lawyer. As far as guilty is concerned, the US has an enormous database of the peoples everyday activities, talks, locations and so on..  if they want they can scrutinize everything (the PRISM program). Of course there is no justice in unjust laws, but we live in a system where the expression "befehl ist befehl" still is valid to a lot of people. tl;dr; if they want to f*ck up your life, they have the legal authority to do so.