Blowing the lid off the CryptoNote/Bytecoin scam (with the exception of Monero)

[Este Nuno]

I wouldn't exactly call XMR being ignored. lol...

Yes it is, none of the major coin news website or bitcoin people are publicly talking about it (exception of gmaxwell and a few others), when its clearly the only coin that can surpass bitcoin on the long-term, yet they flirt with an obvious vaporware like Etherium, it makes me mad and sad.

Bitcoin people purposely ignore any alt though no matter what(I guess with the exception of the one you mentioned). They'll cover their ears until the end of time.

Etherum is an alt that's not calling itself an alt. So some Bitcoiners don't see through it. And then there is the fact that they have V. Buterin who is a prominent Bitcoiner, so that helps them ignore the altcoin association.

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[alainmeier]

Alain here from the Stanford Bitcoin Group. I am not related to the CryptoNote project at all, nor is the Stanford Bitcoin Group. I started an open source project called Cryptonote (https://github.com/alainmeier/cryptonote) in May 2013 and then was approached in March 2014 by someone from the CryptoNote cryptocurrency project who wanted to buy the domain, so I sold it to them. It's just an unfortunate coincidence.

[smooth]

Alain here from the Stanford Bitcoin Group.

Can you authenticate your identity?

[rethink-your-strategy]

Alain here from the Stanford Bitcoin Group. I am not related to the CryptoNote project at all, nor is the Stanford Bitcoin Group. I started an open source project called Cryptonote (https://github.com/alainmeier/cryptonote) in May 2013 and then was approached in March 2014 by someone from the CryptoNote cryptocurrency project who wanted to buy the domain, so I sold it to them. It's just an unfortunate coincidence.

Oh haaaai Alain. First time caller, long time listener. Any chance you could shove a Tweet up on https://twitter.com/alain to verify that it's really really you?

[alainmeier]

Alain here from the Stanford Bitcoin Group.

Can you authenticate your identity?

Hopefully this is sufficient.

https://twitter.com/Alain/status/500765479393177601

[rethink-your-strategy]

Alain here from the Stanford Bitcoin Group.

Can you authenticate your identity?

Hopefully this is sufficient.

https://twitter.com/Alain/status/500765479393177601

OP updated, thanks for the clarification, dog.

[graphfox]

Pretty funny you decided to single my post out. I clearly had no intentions to convince anybody. It was strictly for my own affirmations. Should have expected it would piss off a few cynics.

[Este Nuno]

Alain here from the Stanford Bitcoin Group. I am not related to the CryptoNote project at all, nor is the Stanford Bitcoin Group. I started an open source project called Cryptonote (https://github.com/alainmeier/cryptonote) in May 2013 and then was approached in March 2014 by someone from the CryptoNote cryptocurrency project who wanted to buy the domain, so I sold it to them. It's just an unfortunate coincidence.

The CryptoNote team has claimed that the name 'CryptoNote' was something they had been using for previous projects. Almost like they wanted to imply that they were associated with the Stanford group.

Do you happen to have any details on the person who bought the domain from you?

Were you curious about their project at all at the time? Did they let you look at any source, or ask for your opinion?

[mmortal03]

After that interview I was certain that cryptonote was a scam.

Yup. I remember arguing with you in defense of bytecoin. I just couldn't believe these people would attempt such an elaborate scheme with technology that was so promising.

It makes me wonder if they really were the original cryptonote developers, or if they stole the tech from someone else and rebranded it as cryptonote.

These were my thoughts, as well. I just wonder why the original developers wouldn't have come forward if that was the case? Stolen from a government or private company might be two cases where they wouldn't necessarily come forward.

Edit: Roy Badami beat me to the punch with some additional angles:

• They figure it would be pointless, as it would be too difficult to substantiate that they really were the Cryptonote team
• They wish to keep their anonymity and fear having their cover blown - perhaps the Bytecoin team know their identity so they don't want to pick a fight with them

[Majormax]

Boolberry has the same mail host, but the rest doesn't match up.

zoho is the only (major) provider that still has multiple free email accounts on a private domain.

So that's why it's used by at least 1 of those 7 other coins I mentioned, right?

Go play in the traffic, moron.

I thought you had something worth following until I read this comment. Don't understand, why so uncivil ??

It taints your point of view.

[fluffypony]

I thought you had something worth following until I read this comment. Don't understand, why so uncivil ??

It taints your point of view.

Typical ivory tower complex - when clever people know they're clever and know what they're saying is (mostly) factual they tend to present it from the top of their ivory tower. Often they forget that there are other clever people also sitting in ivory towers, and all they do is shout loudly over each other;) That having been said, if you can wade past the douchebag behaviour there are many things I can't fault OP on or outrightly disprove.

Edit: except for his date format. We use year/month/day (South Africa), and Americans use month/day/year, so to see it day/month/year is extremely confusing for me.

[Ultros]

Thanks for this threads OP, great work. It deserve to be bumped till 2016 at least.

[mmortal03]

I don't know what a 'coin mill' is as I don't really follow the altcoin scene except for Monero.

A coin mill is what you get when you have hundreds and now approaching thousands of altcoins. People naturally begin to specialize in creating coins and turn it into a business and then into a streamlined process. You didn't really think that all 1000 altcoins were each created by inspired individuals who think they are the next Satoshi. In fact many are cranked out by well oiled machines.

To run a coin mill you make small variations (or sometimes exact clones), create a marketing plans for each one, create a pretty web site and sometimes a "white paper", figure out what you can get away with when it comes to premines/instamines/etc., pump them up using shills, PR campaigns, etc., and then dump for some net profit before winding down your involvement as the coin spirals the drain. The net profit on each coin doesn't even need to be that large, because you can do lots of them easily.

With respect what the other guy said about variations and survival of the fittest, that is certainly going to happen, and you are free to make your own guess about the eventual winners. But as a buyer you had better beware when you are buying one of these coin mills' coins because almost by definition they are pump-and-dumps.

In my view the OP really believes he is warning people, not telling people, not to get involved with these scams (and that is certainly where I'm coming from). If you choose to ignore the red flags, do so at your own peril.

It makes me think of some sort of evil "lean startup" pump and dump strategy of applying the minimum viable product method across multiple variations, and diversifying your resources across these, and using these scamming tactics to try to make each look independent from the other.

[Majormax]

I thought you had something worth following until I read this comment. Don't understand, why so uncivil ??

It taints your point of view.

Typical ivory tower complex - when clever people know they're clever and know what they're saying is (mostly) factual they tend to present it from the top of their ivory tower. Often they forget that there are other clever people also sitting in ivory towers, and all they do is shout loudly over each other;) That having been said, if you can wade past the douchebag behaviour there are many things I can't fault OP on or outrightly disprove.

Edit: except for his date format. We use year/month/day (South Africa), and Americans use month/day/year, so to see it day/month/year is extremely confusing for me.

True. Best to look at content objectively rather than style, then.

I believe only Americans use that (strangely illogical, for the digital age) format.

[TooDumbForBitcoin]

We use year/month/day (South Africa), and Americans use month/day/year, so to see it day/month/year is extremely confusing for me.

I believe only Americans use that (strangely illogical, for the digital age) format.

People in the US grow up expecting birthday presents, and the US economy has several sectors that like pressuring people into buying birthday presents and cards.

[MrPiggles]

We use year/month/day (South Africa), and Americans use month/day/year, so to see it day/month/year is extremely confusing for me.

I believe only Americans use that (strangely illogical, for the digital age) format.

People in the US grow up expecting birthday presents, and the US economy has several sectors that like pressuring people into buying birthday presents and cards.

I can confirm, as a non American, I have never ever had a birthday, or a birthday present


 

[TooDumbForBitcoin]

We use year/month/day (South Africa), and Americans use month/day/year, so to see it day/month/year is extremely confusing for me.

I believe only Americans use that (strangely illogical, for the digital age) format.

People in the US grow up expecting birthday presents, and the US economy has several sectors that like pressuring people into buying birthday presents and cards.

I can confirm, as a non American, I have never ever had a birthday, or a birthday present


 

Sad, that.  If one of your friends is reading this, perhaps they'll get you a birthday, and a primer on logic as a present.

[samaricanin]

Great tread observe further research.

[AlexGR]

Batshit Insane

The Bytecoin guys revel in creating and using sockpuppet accounts. Remember that conversation where "Rias" asked who would put v1 on a whitepaper with no v2 out, and AlexGR said "a forward looking individual"? The conversation took place on May 30, and was repeated verbatim by shill accounts on Reddit on August 4 (also, screenshot in case they take it down).

I was reading and suddenly my name popped up and I was like, lol?

Then I clicked on the reddit link and I was WTF is this? Someone took my quote and posted it on reddit? Why? That's indeed batshit crazy from my perspective.

Note that I don't have a reddit account.

For me, versioning is proper for electronic texts and I'm always practicing it for my papers or ebooks. Unlike paper books which are "solid", electronic papers / books can "evolve", thus versioning makes sense and why I said "a forward looking individual".

For the record, I have nothing to do with Bytecoin, Monero, BBR, Duckcoin etc etc, I am mainly into Darkcoin and only hold other anon coins as a hedge. I also believe that Bytecoin is problematic due to it's huge (effective) premine as well as the underlying tech which can't scale for real world adoption. Not until something is done for it that is.

[Gleb Gamow]

Regardless of CryptoNote being a scam or NOT, you should be commended for your analytical skills and the amount of effort you put into this.

He beats me by a tad in uncovering shit, and by a mile, or several, in how he's able to articulate his findings, something I continue to work on. Thanks, OP.