[Payout Updates] Bitcoinica site is taken offline for security investigation

[genjix]

Bitcoinica LP crew is definitely not businessmen at heart. Should have set up a blog, with daily updates, put adsense ad on it. They would by now make more money out that blog that it was stolen. LOL

This has got to be the stupidest post I've read. Why would be blogging instead of processing payouts? And putting ads on there? I'd rather not be a businessman then. Thanks for the bad advice.

[ninjarobot]

49 days later... still looking at a big fat 0

I felt like a fool for trusting Bitcoinica with my money & I still feel like a fool for trusting Bitcoinica to refund my money.

I am not a small customer (5 digit USD currency account, 4 digit BTC currency account). I kept my own records. And most of it should be really easy to verify. For example I wired 10K USD to their CORE CREDIT bank account in NZ that cleared on May 09, 2012. No positions. Why do I have to put up with all this 'soon' nonsense when Patrick, Donald and Zhou have confirmed my claim is accurate weeks ago?

[ydenys]

Bitcoinica LP crew is definitely not businessmen at heart. Should have set up a blog, with daily updates, put adsense ad on it. They would by now make more money out that blog that it was stolen. LOL

This has got to be the stupidest post I've read. Why would be blogging instead of processing payouts? And putting ads on there? I'd rather not be a businessman then. Thanks for the bad advice.

‘Processing pay outs’, yes. Yet another prompt reply. It seems you are so active on these forums, I wonder how you get the time of day with all this awful processing. Sure a nice reply as usual, ‘call the police – forget about your money’ style, so valiant, so true and tothe point. I may even believe that some people did get their money back. Maybe can even name all 8 of them. I just wiped my mouth, pity. You, guys, can hope if you choose, but take your hope for what it is; imposing this disease on others is just a bad taste.

Anyway, these people are damned whatever they do with not much of a future in the Bitcoin project. Zou is ‘out’ for a reason. (Whatever ‘hash not found’ spin they may put on it for the gullible ones). They know it, their sponsors know it. Talk about a deal which went sour/conspiracies if you choose, possible law enforcement; but kindly asking them for ‘updates’ and your money back is so sickeningly naïve.

On the other hand, maybe just give them a few more months to filter out all those overwhelmingly credible fake claims. They are not the bad guys, after all. Post some encouragement. Keep checking your email, obviously. Checking your claim page may also do your health some good.

[ydenys]

Sorry had to post that, more reserved normally. Hot day.

[bremer-btc-user]

Bitcoinica LP crew is definitely not businessmen at heart. Should have set up a blog, with daily updates, put adsense ad on it. They would by now make more money out that blog that it was stolen. LOL

This has got to be the stupidest post I've read. Why would be blogging instead of processing payouts? And putting ads on there? I'd rather not be a businessman then. Thanks for the bad advice.

@ genjix
why do you call us or any individual "Stupid"?
stupid is:
- to have no security concept at all
- stupid ist to get no backups at all
- stupid ist ot process payout that don't happen mostly at all for weeks and weeks
- stupid is to try to avoid fraudulent claims instead of pay out whats claimed at 100% on fragments of restored data that maybe never will be restored fully, even if it means to take a bis loss even if it needs to find an other investor to bear this, instead of sort out some prooved fake-claims an pay the rest.
- stupid is to strugle with resaech that will not proove anything instead of pay and build new an origianlly sucessful businessm, instead of destroying all confidence your customers ever had and will have in future...

this annoys me, at bicoinica according the hack there ist told "the hacker stole from us not from you", so this means in fact NOW YOU STEAL EVERY DAY FROM US !!!!

it is nor our duty to proove if our claims are honest,ITS YOURS to do so if it's not!!!! Pay what's ours not yours! pay even more than what ever was our's if your not able to proove that a claim is a faked!

Anyhing else will continue this endless pain!!!!

[bremer-btc-user]

sorry for my bad english typing I'm quite upset...
Sorry @genjix maybe your not the one to be the one to be blamed for this, but you wrote sonething about stupid statements...so it was you i targeted...

[genjix]

Are you asking me to make a blog?

‘Processing pay outs’, yes. Yet another prompt reply. It seems you are so active on these forums, I wonder how you get the time of day with all this awful processing.

Yes, it was people in this thread asking for regular updates on payouts (which I'm giving). I cannot both be active, and not be active in giving updates.

[ydenys]

Are you asking me to make a blog?

‘Processing pay outs’, yes. Yet another prompt reply. It seems you are so active on these forums, I wonder how you get the time of day with all this awful processing.

Yes, it was people in this thread asking for regular updates on payouts (which I'm giving). I cannot both be active, and not be active in giving updates.

Yes, it is just you are evidently active on the forums and not so evidently with the actual ‘pay outs’.

[CleverMiner]

Yes, it was people in this thread asking for regular updates on payouts (which I'm giving). I cannot both be active, and not be active in giving updates.

What updates ?

13 June 15:00 ?

I see you post on IRC, I see you post on the forum, (about other things) Anyone else should be giving us updates ?

We're expecting daily updates not monthly ones.

[cryptoanarchist]

Sorry had to post that, more reserved normally. Hot day.

Don't be sorry - it needed to be said. If I had had any money there I'd be saying the same things.

[dopamine]

can we piss in a bucket at least, maybe we can fill the bucket up before we can get an update 

[Vladimir]

Let's have a look at this in the context.
the post immediately above my post:

OK - so........... I got a mail that my account is verified as accurate - but nothing but crickets after.

I was apparently under the mistaken impression that meant I was to see some kind of funds returned?

Again - wtf? Kinda irritating because now I'm checking the damn inbox again, and I really don't want to check if the check isn't coming in the mail.

Or, are we doing the - communicate one line of email and then nothing for yet another month. This game is getting tiring

same for me, checking emails several times per day, without any news any more.. very disappointing

Bitcoinica LP crew is definitely not businessmen at heart. Should have set up a blog, with daily updates, put adsense ad on it. They would by now make more money out that blog that it was stolen. LOL

This has got to be the stupidest post I've read. Why would be blogging instead of processing payouts? And putting ads on there? I'd rather not be a businessman then. Thanks for the bad advice.

...
stupid is:
- to have no security concept at all
- stupid ist to get no backups at all
...

Thank you, bremer-btc-user.

@genjix:
This is very rich for YOU and rest of your gang to call ANYONE here stupid. Real pro!. And no, it was not an advise, it was a joke. You are too smart apparently to get it.

I quit advising Bitcoinica the moment my advise to use colocation instead of linode back in September 2011 was
ignored. I have not been advising anyone in Bitcoinica since then. So please do not even for a second imagine that I am advising you here.

Funnily enough, after you guys got owned by linode, you (Bitcoinica) have "fixed" it by moving to rackspace VPS's, GENIUS! (yea for real smart ones clarification: this means IDIOTS!). Do not you see now all the hilarity of this?

P.S. Ohh and by the way "LOL" means "laughing out loud", often used on interwebs as substitute for smiles and it is usually indication that there is a joke somewhere close by.

[bulanula]

Let's have a look at this in the content.
the post immediately above my post:

OK - so........... I got a mail that my account is verified as accurate - but nothing but crickets after.

I was apparently under the mistaken impression that meant I was to see some kind of funds returned?

Again - wtf? Kinda irritating because now I'm checking the damn inbox again, and I really don't want to check if the check isn't coming in the mail.

Or, are we doing the - communicate one line of email and then nothing for yet another month. This game is getting tiring

same for me, checking emails several times per day, without any news any more.. very disappointing

Bitcoinica LP crew is definitely not businessmen at heart. Should have set up a blog, with daily updates, put adsense ad on it. They would by now make more money out that blog that it was stolen. LOL

This has got to be the stupidest post I've read. Why would be blogging instead of processing payouts? And putting ads on there? I'd rather not be a businessman then. Thanks for the bad advice.

...
stupid is:
- to have no security concept at all
- stupid ist to get no backups at all
...

Thank you, bremer-btc-user.

@genjix:
This is very rich for YOU and rest of your gang to call ANYONE here stupid. Real pro!. And no, it was not an advise, it was a joke. You are too smart apparently to get it.

I quit advising Bitcoinica the moment my advise to use colocation instead of linode back in September 2011 was
ignored. I have not been advising anyone in Bitcoinica since then. So please do not even for a second imagine that I am advising you here.

Funnily enough, after you guys got owned by linode, you (Bitcoinica) have "fixed" it by moving to rackspace VPS's, GENIUS! (yea for real smart ones clarification: this means IDIOTS!). Do not you see now all the hilarity of this?

P.S. Ohh and by the way "LOL" means "laughing out loud", often used on interwebs as substitute for smiles and it is usually indication that there is a joke somewhere close by.

Incompetence is a disease.

Bitcoinica and Intersango is the carrier.

EPIC response Vladimir.

It's funny because it's TRUE !

[ninjarobot]

13 June 15:00: Initial payouts have been made to verified people for 50% of their claim.

Can we please get an update with some real factual data? The last one was made half a month ago. And so far all we know is that ~5% of the smaller accounts got 50% of their BTC balance back and 0% of their USD balance.

By now you guys should have a concrete plan containing WHO/WHAT/WHEN/WHERE/WHY/HOW. Please communicate it to your customers. Update the individual claim pages with verification status and expected payout dates and percentages. If the strategy is to solve the problem by dragging this out hoping customers will forget and go away then you are mistaken.

I was one of Bitcoinica's largest customers. I have extended you my continued patience and trust to sort this out. Now after 50+ days of inaction you have degraded me to practically having to beg for my *own* money back. Well done. Top notch customer service indeed.  

Oh, and Tihan - Can you please nullify the NDA you have with the Bitcoin Consultancy guys? We need to move forward beyond words and empty promises. We need meaningful action & full transparency. It is clear that Bitcoinica LP was (and still is) completely dysfunctional. This is not how you run a professional operation.

[mystery2048]

Why is bitcoinica still down? What is happening?

[kokjo]

Why is bitcoinica still down? What is happening?

maybe you should read the thread.... im sure there is a explanation some where.

[genjix]

13 June 15:00: Initial payouts have been made to verified people for 50% of their claim.

Can we please get an update with some real factual data? The last one was made half a month ago. And so far all we know is that ~5% of the smaller accounts got 50% of their BTC balance back and 0% of their USD balance.

By now you guys should have a concrete plan containing WHO/WHAT/WHEN/WHERE/WHY/HOW. Please communicate it to your customers. Update the individual claim pages with verification status and expected payout dates and percentages. If the strategy is to solve the problem by dragging this out hoping customers will forget and go away then you are mistaken.

I'm seeing a lot of claims marked accurate (especially the larger ones). 75% of the claimed value has been marked as accurate with the remaining ones marked 'undecided' (the vast majority). This number is hugely skewed by a few people with very large balances.

The total amount actually paid out thus far is 1/6th of the total claimed value.

I was one of Bitcoinica's largest customers. I have extended you my continued patience and trust to sort this out. Now after 50+ days of inaction you have degraded me to practically having to beg for my *own* money back. Well done. Top notch customer service indeed.  

Oh, and Tihan - Can you please nullify the NDA you have with the Bitcoin Consultancy guys? We need to move forward beyond words and empty promises. We need meaningful action & full transparency. It is clear that Bitcoinica LP was (and still is) completely dysfunctional. This is not how you run a professional operation.

Well there's a competing dichotomy here. To process the claims, we have limited information and we cannot tell people what we know and don't know exactly. It's a process of rebuilding a database with imperfect information against malicious agents.

People are getting paid out, but again as I said, the process is very slow. In fact Donald right now has done the majority of work. Many of the claims I processed got reverted because I was making mistakes and doing them improperly. :/ There is lots of information, and a bunch of bottlenecks. For instance, lets say one staff member has access to information X, which the other staff member needs, then there's lag there. So it's not totally as efficient as it could be.

I favoured using a completely mathematical/statistical approach (build stats to cross match and home in on an acceptable dataset using hypothesis testing and confidence intervals). But the others decided that it's less risky and better to do them manually (despite taking longer). I still think the statistical approach is a good one and worth the risk.

[coinft]

13 June 15:00: Initial payouts have been made to verified people for 50% of their claim.

Can we please get an update with some real factual data? The last one was made half a month ago. And so far all we know is that ~5% of the smaller accounts got 50% of their BTC balance back and 0% of their USD balance.

By now you guys should have a concrete plan containing WHO/WHAT/WHEN/WHERE/WHY/HOW. Please communicate it to your customers. Update the individual claim pages with verification status and expected payout dates and percentages. If the strategy is to solve the problem by dragging this out hoping customers will forget and go away then you are mistaken.

I'm seeing a lot of claims marked accurate (especially the larger ones). 75% of the claimed value has been marked as accurate with the remaining ones marked 'undecided' (the vast majority). This number is hugely skewed by a few people with very large balances.

The total amount actually paid out thus far is 1/6th of the total claimed value.

...

What is the hold up paying out the verified accounts (at least the promised 50%)? 1/6 is a lot smaller than 75%. I got my accurate verification long ago, is there anything we can do to speed up payouts? Is there a separate payout verification process after accuracy is established? After being somewhat relieved after the verification email I start to feel being abandoned again.

-coinft.

[Serge]

does not look like this incident will be resolved this year

[bulanula]

does not look like this incident will be resolved this year

Who would like to take bets on which comes first :

-BFL ASIC launch
-Bitcoinica relaunch
-reward drop