The Story of Bob Surplus

[dload.1]

Dang man, I thought Bob was just a pumping used car salesman.

This whole write up, very entertaining and eloquent, actually gave me a newfound respect for BobSurplus.

from what it looks like maybe you can be one of his new members i think they have openings now. lol 

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[1713564335]

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[kingscrown]

[The Sound And Fury]

OP updated:



Part 6.  The Fall of the Salamander

Gentle readers. Look at the stage.

There is movement now. Different shades of darkness within the darkness.

You can see the ronin, my former brothers-in-arms, warming themselves around fires in the shadows of Paul and David. But they are fewer now. How many of you are left?
How many of you have laid down your weapons and withdrawn to your homes, your families?
 
You can see the darkness that has enveloped Bob. The darkness of a leader without followers, cut off from his greatness. Alone.

You can see the battle camps of Paul and David, ringed by the fires of their ronin.  They have found each other in the darkness. War makes strange bedfellows. Now they are pegging their fortunes and trying desperately not to fall.

Deep in the backround you can see Lin. Unmoving. Invisible. Betting that everyone will finish each other off, leaving him unscathed.

You can see Steve. Tied to his sins, roped permanently to David. Sinking slowly in this wine dark sea.

But you cannot see the Salamander.

He was the first to fall.


_________________________________________



When the Salamander saw what was happening in Cambodia he should have just walked away. He should have gotten on the plane and messaged Bob it’s a clusterfuck. Keep the fuck out.

But he didn’t.

The Salamander was a fixer.  He was not supposed to be the fixer in BitBay though. He was supposed to be the briefcase man, the bridge between the Chinese and Bob. After all, months earlier, the Chinese had brought on the wunderkind Zimbeck; no one imagined that Zimbeck would become the one thing that needed fixing the most – but the one thing that could not be fixed.

For starters, Zimbeck was in Cambodia. The logic was that Zimbeck could hire and train a team of Cambodian devs for a fraction of what that might cost in the West. There was just one problem with this. There seemed to be no devs in Cambodia. And Zimbeck was having no luck training devs himself. He was even having problems getting the first Bay wallet to compile.

The Salamander looked at this situation, and looked at the BitBay roadmap. Smart contracts were supposed to be released in three weeks. A functioning decentralized market in less than two months. This was clearly a situation in need of fixing.

There was another problem. David began to tell the Salamander that of all the technology he was working on, only the pegging would be exclusive to Bay. Everything else – the multicoin wallet, the markets, the mesh technology  - would be shared with Halo. He even told Salamander that the Halo Nighttrader and markets would be released about the same time as BitBay.

The Salamander knew this was a headshot for BitBay.  BitBay’s whole identity was to be the first online decentralized marketplace. To have Halo offering essentially to license the same thing to anyone who came along made no sense at all.  Again – here was a situation that needed fixing.

But there was a problem. Somewhere along the line, David had become a partner in BitBay. So no one could tell him what to do.

It is standard operating procedure in any corporation, even in politics – that when one takes on a partnership role, one must divest oneself of any asset that can lead to conflict of interest. But this had not happened here. David was full speed ahead on Halo. While being a partner in Bay. And since he was a partner, no one could exert any authority over him.

The situation could not possibly be fixed.

This was the Salamander’s fatal mistake. He should have turned around and messaged Bob, it’s a clusterfuck. Stay the fuck away.

But he didn’t. He set about trying to fix the situation.

Gentle reader. You all know what happened next. David and the Salamander fought each other to a bloody finish, first in private, and then in public.

The irony in David’s situation is this: he was a full partner in Bay. Bay was not yet tarnished – it had heavy backing, and a shot at being the first true decentralized marketplace in Asia. If he had just ported Halo into Bay and respected basic divestment procedures, he could have been rich beyond what Halo would ever make him.

Instead, there he is, gentle readers – before you on the stage. Encamped in the darkness. Exiled. Surrounded by rings of believers, and the fires of his ronin.

We will return to David. But first we must witness the rest of the Salamander’s fall.


To be continued.

[Vlad2Vlad]

OP - you're a great writer, man.  I totally enjoyed reading your story.  I never read long posts but I read every word and I'm thinking about going back for seconds cause it was that good.

Cheers!

[The Sound And Fury]

Intermezzo:

My former brothers-in-arms.
 
There is nothing more dangerous than unpaid soldiers.  All of you got your share of the BitSwift ICO. But many of you were paid nothing from Bay.  

You now have two scores to settle. One for money, and one for revenge.
 
Some of you are now riding for Paul. He became your leader long ago. Your saddlebags are filled with Swift, and you fate is thrown in with his.

Some of you are now riding for Zimbeck.  Bob did not pay you your share of the Bay ICO, and Zimbeck was right there when you turned. He wanted revenge on Bob and the Salamander. And so did you. And now, your bags heavy with Bay from the ICO, you must ride for Zimbeck if you hope to ever get out alive.

Some of you are still riding for Bob. You were paid from the BitBay ICO. Nothing has changed for you.

Oh my brothers, I see you. I see each of you. I recognize you in the torch light as you pass. On your way to strike a hidden blow for Bob. Or Paul. Or David.
  
I do not judge you. You are ronin. You are my brothers in arms.

Do not judge me for telling this tale. My dagger is not drawn for you.

[The Sound And Fury]

The Salamander was falling apart.

By now, he was the only leader left in the group. Bob was AWOL, and Paul had left the group in late October, leaving only the Salamander to hold things together.

The Salamander was spectacularly unsuited for this role. He was quiet, prone to mood swings, and exhausted from weeks of trying to fix the BitBay situation. He felt like he was the only one in the group working hard. Bob was nowhere to be found, and without a leader, the group was coasting; except for the occasional tweet or forum post, no one seemed to be doing anything. Bay had gone briefly above 300 just after the ICO, fallen back to ICO price, and then began its steady decline.

The situation in Cambodia was going from bad to worse. Zimbeck was unable to compile the first Bay wallet, which the exchange would require to release the first ICO funds. The Salamander stepped in and fixed the situation, bringing in another dev who solved in a few hours the problem that had stumped Zimbeck for days. A fight then broke out in which Zimbeck berated the dev and called him a monkey, ending any chance of further help.

The development schedule fell more and more behind. Zimbeck spent increasing amounts of time and energy on the forums distancing himself from the Bay project. He was a partner in BitBay and had received his share of the ICO funds already - facts he was keeping hidden from public view -  so nothing could be done to bring him into line. Even worse, a massive amount of free coins had been released to David. David refused to lock these coins up in escrow.  This made any kind of pump from Bob’s side far too risky. Bob made it clear to the Chinese he would not risk a pump until David’s coins were safely locked away. David refused. The situation was at an impasse. There would be no pump.

It was now weeks after the ICO. Bitbay was steadily dropping in price. None of the elements needed for a marketing push were being delivered to the Salamander. The website could not be built, because there were no screenshots of smart wallets, or coherent written explanations from David as to exactly how any of the promised tech would work: hedging, pegging, the marketplace, smart contracts, or the mesh tech. And when the smart wallet was finally delivered a week overdue, it didn’t work.

Nothing to market with. A broken wallet.  No pump machine. A dev who was answerable to no one.

He was trying to fix BitBay, and he was getting nowhere.

During the same weeks, the foot soldiers were looking to the Salamander for answers that were just not there. They had been told that they would have to ‘work hard’ this time to get an ICO cut – but it wasn’t really clear what that meant. And they had not gotten paid. They were waiting for the pump to begin, but with no marketing materials, a broken wallet,  and no Bob – there was nothing to pump on.

They began to simply blame it on Bob. So few of the ICO’s dirty little secrets were known to them – the fake BTC at BTer, the problems behind the scenes with David,  the immense number of free coins that were actually out there – that the foot soldiers simply could not understand why the coin wasn’t being pumped. They could not understand the simple sentence they kept hearing again and again. It’s not our coin. It’s not our coin.

The price of Bay kept falling. The foot soldiers bags grew heavier. The mood grew more foul. Everyone wanted answers from the Salamander. And he had none.

He grew sour and bitter in the group chat. He spoke openly against Bob. This went on for days until others began to tell him they were sick of his moaning, and that he should leave.

It was that very evening that Bob finally returned to the chat. Back from his trip, moved into a new apartment, internet finally hooked up.  He was in a jovial mood and did not notice the mutinous atmosphere when first arrived. People began to question him about getting paid. It seemed as though Bob was not taking any of it seriously. He told the Salamander to lighten up.

And that was all it took.

The Salamander left the chat. His icon blinked once. And then it was gone.


To be continued.

[YarkoL]

This is not the first time on this forum
that I've thought to myself, why isn't this
chap making money writing novels instead
of meddling in these crazy shenanigans.

Makes me wonder if there is something
about crypto that pulls people with talent
for writing.
Oh and keep posting  

[djm34]

This is not the first time on this forum
that I've thought to myself, why isn't this
chap making money writing novels instead
of meddling in these crazy shenanigans.

Makes me wonder if there is something
about crypto that pulls people with talent
for writing.
Oh and keep posting  

scamming people and writing "lol" and other popular acronyms takes way too much time

[Triffin]

Great story OP ..

Looks like "Bob" still has some active disciples out there ..
Or just ripping off his MO ..

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=765426.msg9872423;topicseen#msg9872423

Triff ..

[Salamander-EQUALS-Gekko]

Sound and Fury = The Salamander = Gekko.

[looksgoodwillmine]

bravo, i would mine this thread if i could. <3

[djm34]

just for those who don't seem to know:
You don't need to make a new account each time you want to post a message, you can use the one you already made before...
It seems obvious, but looking at those 2 or 3 threads about bitbay, it doesn't seem to be obvious for everybody  

[PhattyBanks]

what a fun read, very nicely done

[EvilDave]

just for those who don't seem to know:
You don't need to make a new account each time you want to post a message, you can use the one you already made before...
It seems obvious, but looking at those 2 or 3 threads about bitbay, it doesn't seem to be obvious for everybody  

ROFLMAO..........

[The Sound And Fury]

Op Updated:


Gentle reader.

The time has come to end this story.

I will tell you the fates of Bob and Steven and Lin and the Salamander. And Paul and David.

And I will finish with a word to the people I miss the most.

My brothers in arms.

_____________

Bob

Bob was outplayed by the Chinese. Played to a draw by David. Abandoned by his lieutenants. Cursed by his soldiers. And now he is nearly alone.

But I think I will take an extra moment here for Bob. After all, it is the Story of Bob.

People like to hate Bob. I saw his other side, so it's not so black and white for me. Twice in six months guys on the crew got hacked and lost all their coins. Got taken down to zero. Bob heard about it both times, and made it right, behind the scenes.

One strange thing about Bob I never quite figured out. He liked people who clearly hated him. Even after someone became his enemy, he still liked them a lot. Back when the mole was doing the most damage, I was on Mumble in the middle of the night with him one night. No one else around. We were smoking weed and speculating on who might be the mole in the group.  About one guy in particular, a guy who was really, really smart. Bob said, yea.... it might be him. Your right. He paused. But you know what? Even if it is him? I still like him a lot.

But in the end, I can't say I feel sorry for Bob. The group falling apart was his fault. I saw it coming a mile away, and I made sure I got paid before I left.  My brothers who didn’t collect?  Bob will have ronin after him for months.

Perhaps you would have liked it if Bob had been put out of the Game for good. But he will be back. How could he not? There are too many coins that want pumping. Too many people who want profit. There will always be foot-soldiers. Look over in nearby threads. There will always be “believers”. There will always be “investors”.  And there will always be messiahs to lead them.


Steven

Steven is still falling. He is tied to his sins, roped permanently to David. Sinking slowly in this wine dark sea.


Lin
Lin escapes. He lives to fight another day. His strategy worked. There is no moral outcry over his actions. No one has started a viral campaign against BTer.
So disappointing. Gentle reader, you would have liked to see him fall. But you left it up to Bob and Paul and Steven and the Salamander. Lin proved himself smarter than all of them. And you simply did not care.


The Salamander

The Salamander will eventually return. He is a fixer. A briefcase man. There is always be a need for him. We all hatch plans and set events in motion. We all are involved in larger movements. Salamanders move on a right angle plane to our movements, our events, our lives, unseen. They fix what needs fixing. And then they disappear.

___________


What a disappointing ending so far. So ambiguous. All the bad guys are getting off easy.
 
We would like a sharper moral clarity to come out of this sad mess. We would like it if – at the end of this story  – the world would appear a little different than when we started this tale.

But it doesn’t, does it?

In this story we have seen both Swift and BitBay  get created out of thin air. We have watched both ICO’s get staged by Bob Surplus. Devs who have collaborated knowingly and willingly in his rigged ICO’s and reaped handsome rewards are still comfortably in their jobs, supported by their communities.

During the four days of this story, both BitBay dev and the BitSwift dev moved their coins to private forums. Away from the public eye. Their “investors” and “believers” applauded these moves.

During this time, the market price of BitSwift is relatively unchanged. The same is true of BitBay
.
So the altcoin market around us has spoken. It has shrugged. It is morally unimpressed.

You cannot expect your story teller to give you a better ending than the ending that is actually happening, can you?

An ending that includes both these devs coming to these very pages to sneer at Bob Surplus?

Proclaiming their own moral superiority to people of his type?

Gentle reader.

Now you know who my dagger is for.

The hypocrites.

The doxxers.

The cowards.


______________________________


The Hypocrites

You profited from your alliances with Bob. You were in on the ICO's. You dev the coins he midwifed. You cling tightly to the money he helped you make. All the while proclaiming that he is scum, that he should swing for his sins.


The Doxxers - on all sides

You fancy yourselves as heroes. As equalizers.
 
You give yourself a moral free card, because you are convinced of the righteousness of your cause.

You give yourself the right to be judge, jury, and executioner.
 
You are the worst kind of coward. And this is why:

You could act on your own information. You could get on that plane.

You could go knock on that door.

But you hope someone else will do your dirty work.

That someone else will settle your score.

That someone will ‘get what’s coming to them’

With you at a safe moral distance.

You say, but I am doing it for others.

No. You are not.

If "others" really want it done, they can do the research. They can get on that plane. They can go knock on that door.

Do you really believe it is ok to be judge, jury and executioner? You do?

My dagger is for you.


_____________



To my brothers in arms. You know who you are.

I would like to end on a serious note. Thank you for the discussion of penises.  Weed.  Midget clown sex. Calise. Especially Calise. Panamanian land prices. West coast pizza. The bitch who stole the money. East coast snowstorms. Weed.  Anarchism. Nootropics.  Bill Clinton. The Middle East. RG3. GTA.  Weed. Taylor Swift.  For each bro. Each lol.  And everything in between.


The End.

[spookycoins]

Thank you for the fascinating read.
Truly appreciate you sharing this.

[jackfruit]

[djm34]

that was "the blues of the scammers"

[dobbscoin]

Praise "BOB"

[goosoodude]

Excellent read. I am glad I read it all now as I couldnt have waited waiting for the next installments.

I am disappointed with the ending, as I would have like more information of how Lin, David and the others played it out. The ending looks rushed.