Bitcoin Conference 2012- London 15-16 Sept | ANNOUNCEMENT sponsorship available!

[molecular]

Several pages of arguing about Amir's involvement and responsibility instead of just kicking him out of conference planning? This won't end well.

kicking him out? what the fuck, man! the conference wouldn't even exist without him. Anyone can organize a conference, it's a free market for bitcoin conferences, dude. Don't like this one? Roll your onw. Shut up or put up!

[molecular]

Perhaps we should request that Nefario lock this thread, and create a new one.

There are already many Bitcoinica threads...  please use those.

No matter your position on this issue, you are spamming this thread with off-topic content.  Yes, even you, genjix

I'm guilty, too. Too easy to get dragged in.

Back on topic: where are you guys staying... can't seem to find an affordable place. Let's start the berlin vs. london discussion again while we're off-topic?

[lonelyminer (Peter Šurda)]

Lol, is that like saying murderers are ok to murder because that's their personality type?

It seems to me that Amir's involvement and level of culpability are grossly exaggerated, just like here bringing up the murder. Why not take out the big guns and bring up the Hitler analogy, shall we?

Whatever his transgressions might have been, they were outside of his area of expertise. He should be held accountable for them, but I see no reason why he shouldn't be useful to the Bitcoin community in other capacity. Calling for revenge is emotional and counterproductive.

Putting the legalities of what Amir did aside, he DID violate his ethical obligations to Bitcoinica's customers by releasing the source code and by refusing to relinquish his control of Bitcoinica.

Amir was under no obligation towards Bitcoinica's customers to keep the source code confidential. That is an internal Bitcoinica issue. And since he did not appear to have had much control over Bitcoinica in the first place, I don't see how refusing to relinquish said control could have had much effect on anything.

If I was in his position, I would definitely fear for my life, and wouldn't set foot anywhere near a Bitcoin gathering of any kind until the situation was resolved.  I don't know why he is so anxious to put his life in danger.  People have been killed over much smaller things.

If anything, this says much more about the people who wish him unwell than about Amir himself.

[muyuu]

...the emo guy who's involved in 200 projects and delivered none to a decent standard.

You've just described every self-styled "entrepreneur", "visionary", and "ideas person" I've ever met.

That's because you've only met failures then.

[repentance]

From what I understand, it is.

It's the explanation which fits the narrative offered by Zhou.  That by no means validates its truth.  As Amir pointed out just after the discovery of the MtGox intrusion, whoever perpetrated the Rackspace hack gained access to the information required to breach the MtGox account. 

Given the friction which existed at camp Bitcoinica following the Rackspace hack, it's also entirely possible that while bitching to other people about one another's perceived failings, one of the insiders inadvertently disclosed critical information to an outsider.

[muyuu]

2. There was a deal in the works for Bitcoinica to be sold for enough money to cover the entire shortfall for returning customer funds. That deal fell apart because Amir open sourced the code. Open sourcing it destroyed most of its value in the eyes of the potential buyers.

I would not value the source code for more than 10k, that's how much I estimate it would cost to pay a developer to write it from scratch. The value of Bitcoinica, in my opinion, was in its market share and alleged regulatory compliance. The value of infrastructure, security and business processes is zero as it was a total disaster.

You've brought this point a few times and it's total nonsense.

Nobody cares what you value the source code. The fact here is someone was willing to pay a lot of money, and releasing the source was the direct cause that they pulled back the offer. So it costed the IP valuation of whatever remains of Bitcoinica a substantial amount of money, of which whoever released the code is liable.

Perhaps because people were overestimating the quality of the code, perhaps because of the "brand name" Bitcoinica once had (also severely damaged by the release), perhaps because it wasn't worth it and the release just proved it. Or simply because it made it trivial to make a clone that people would immediately recognise as equivalent. If doesn't f***ing matter. It also doesn't matter what you would pay a developer to do it from scratch, if it was secret nobody would know if there was something really unique and unbeatable in that code that wouldn't be doable within that budget. Your hindsight reasoning simply doesn't matter.

It was a mistake with serious implications for everybody affected. And that's not even touching the issue about the MtGox key working as password in lastpass.

[aq]

I am really amazed by lonelyminer.
Lonelyminer stays calm, professional, rational while everyone else is blinded by emotions rage and trying to show off their worst side.
The Bitcoin community should be glad to have him.

[molecular]

I am really amazed by lonelyminer.
Lonelyminer stays calm, professional, rational while everyone else is blinded by emotions rage and trying to show off their worst side.
The Bitcoin community should be glad to have him.

oh man, +1 this. The other "man of reason" notable is Joelkatz.

[disclaimer201]

I am really amazed by lonelyminer.
Lonelyminer stays calm, professional, rational while everyone else is blinded by emotions rage and trying to show off their worst side.
The Bitcoin community should be glad to have him.

If you keep someone like Amir in a central position of responsibility, it surprises you that people get a little emotional?

[molecular]

I am really amazed by lonelyminer.
Lonelyminer stays calm, professional, rational while everyone else is blinded by emotions rage and trying to show off their worst side.
The Bitcoin community should be glad to have him.

If you keep someone like Amir in a central position of responsibility, it surprises you that people get a little emotional?

no

[mistfpga]

Right,

So, where are we at?  I am flying back to london in a bit (from australia) and really want to attend this conf and the two day hackathon before hand.  I might even be able to put a few bitcoiners up for a few nights. (I have a couple of spare rooms if I turn my rigs off) london is still overpriced from the olympics, and will be for a couple more months yet - then we get to the xmas holiday gouge.

Myself and the mistfpga team have developed some new hardware we wanted to work on with the community to get extended functionality into security modules (ideally, from people with hot wallets) and saw this as an ideal time to do this.

We aim to  provide Hardware Security Modules complete with antitamper, for under £1k - (prototyping is done on a rasberry pi, although the final product will be an fpga solution. - but the prototypes, and rasberry pi code will all be open sourced) the mist team has been working on HSM's and Datacryptors for over 20 years (combined).

Is there going to be a boycott?  if so, will people attend the hackathon beforehand? or is that tainted too?

edit: oh yeah, and I want to try to get some people onboard for the bitcoin testing project...

Cheers guys.

Steve

[Nefario]

Announcing more sponsorship opportunities tomorrow.

I'll be in London from September 1st for the whole month for anyone who is around.

[Tachikoma]

Any of the tickets left?

We sold 10% of the 700 tickets available so far. I'm about to close the issuing of the first 100 tickets.

I would say, yes!

(Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=96604.msg1068120#msg1068120)

[cst]

My bad, got the TL:DR bug and didn't see the site link. Guess 'why does it expect me to pay using paypal' has already been asked.

I think you can still email genjix to pay with BTC, that's how I got my ticket.

[Matthew N. Wright]

Just so you all know, there will be horseheads involved.

[Nefario]

Any of the tickets left?

We sold 10% of the 700 tickets available so far. I'm about to close the issuing of the first 100 tickets.

I would say, yes!

(Source: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=96604.msg1068120#msg1068120)

See here for tickets, payable in BTC, I think over 200 have been sold at this point so the place is going to be buzzing.
http://www.bitcoin2012.com/tickets

[Nefario]

Just so you all know, there will be horseheads involved.

 

[molecular]

Amir asked me (and others) wether we would resell Conference Tickets.
(Amir or some other organizer, can you please confirm this to increase trust in the tickets I'm selling being valid and official)

I decided to auction some off at bitmit, starting at BTC 0.01:

• Bitcoin Conference 2012 Ticket
  
  
  
  https://www.bitmit.net/de/trade/i/5287-london-bitcoin-conference-ticket/description
  
  
• Bitcoin Conference 2012 Ticket + 1 Casascius physical bitcoin
  
  
  
  https://www.bitmit.net/de/trade/i/5288-bitcoin-conference-2012-ticket-1-casascius-physical-bitcoin
  
  
• Bitcoin Conference 2012 Ticket + 1 oz. Silver Eagle
  
  
  
  https://www.bitmit.net/de/trade/i/5289-bitcoin-conference-2012-ticket-one-1oz-silver-eagle
  

[Otoh]

The OP states the venue as The Imperial (Hotel) but the main site lists the Royal National (Hotel), Russell Square - could someone please confirm which it is if they aren't the same & the exact address, Bedford Way? - Woburn Place? Many thanks.

Edit - seems that they are next door to each other with the main entrance on Woburn Place & secondary entries on Bedford Way, near Russell Square - so np I'll find it

[dissipate]

Did anyone notice that bitdaytrade is still listed as a sponsor even though their site got hacked to hell and was shut down?