scambust (OP)
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March 12, 2015, 06:41:14 PM |
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Otoh and I have basically written off our investments in VIA and XCH (between the syndicate of investors I work with it is around 3M VIA). A lot has been mishandled behind the scenes. At this point, I'd like to see some transparency as to how the original funds have been used and how much of the original funds remain. I've been very close with the projects since it's inception. It's probably best to just disclose everything so the community knows where things stand moving forward.
I think the window of opportunity VIA ever had has been missed, mostly due to Btcdraks inability to create any sort of meaningful adoption of VIA.
I'll be putting a more official post together soon, but in the meantime feel free to ask any questions.
-masternode
I was led to believe there was much more happening and now I suspect that's not really the case, which is why I think the best approach moving forward for the community as well as the project is to take assessment of what's happening, what exactly funds have been used for to date, and how much of the original funds remain.
As far as my involvement goes, from the beginning, I've pushed this coin behind the scenes. I've probably been one of the largest evangalists for the coin. Hell, I even converted 200k VIA for XCH as a show of support, even though I wasn't totally excited about a surprise second raise. I introduced Btcdrak to Expresscoin, and pushed to have Expresscoin adopt VIA (which eventually fell through because Btcdrak mishandled the press release and ran it without their review). Ultimately this cost me my relationship with Expresscoin, as their CEO was going to add the coin as a personal favor. I'm pointing this out specifically as an example about the level of involvement that I've had with this coin, and that when I say there are things happening behind the scenes I typically am in the know. With this coin, while before I thought a lot more was happening, I'm beginning to suspect that's no longer the case and I have some very serious concerns.
I tend not post too often, but I have a history of working closely with alt coins and helping them achieve their goals. Fwiw, I was also personally responsible for having DRK added to Bitfinex, I helped create the Darkcoin Foundation, I brought aboard the single largest investors to DRK, VIA and XCH, among other things (if you would like other examples of my involvements).
At this point I think it's best to get some transparency, and go from there.
What would you like to know, everything? My request for transparency is exactly the same request as yours. I think at this point it's important for Drak to let us know on record what's been happening. The last he told me back in December (and probably the biggest event that was supposedly happening behind the scenes) was that Patrick Byrne reached out to him about getting involved in the Medici project. Not only am I suspecting that isn't happening at this point, but now I'm beginning to wonder if that was ever really going to happen. I think it's best for Drak to disclose everything to the community now, don't you?
First of all, I understand very well your frustration, it's very understandable. Second, I imagine it is you who is behind this sudden dumping 50k at a time. I also understand that... although it means the price is goind to sink into oblivion if you and your group are getting out. This is not FUD as the usual suspects will immediately cry, just look at recent sales and the book and you will see there's a significant dumping going on -and reflected in the price- 50k VIA at a time. We are talking some MAJOR dumping. Third, this is not new. For sure you were fully aware of Drak's "peculiarities" when you were "in the know" or so you were led to believe. I find it very, VERY despicable that situation/attitude. And, at the same time, logical. This has been carried out, since the beginning, in a way that is laughable from any perspective, with drak being allowed to do as he pleased on every single aspect of the project, ZERO transparency, ZERO control on the part of the community and ZERO co-operation (with the community) on the part of the biggest investors. Like you. The community should turn its back on you now. And continue turning its back on Drak and his OUTRAGEOUS ways. Sorry guys but this looks very much like the beginning of the inevitable end that has been anticipated for months now. Who needs this kind of unacceptable BS, really. In case you did not know, you have been taken for a ride. You have been hidden any and all information while "deals" of some kind or another were done while all those "many things were happening in the background". There's no way, none whatsoever, to come out of this in any positive way. I tried to help. I tried to put some common sense in this project in which I have made the grave mistake to invest a substantial amount. It is obviously very late to salvage even a small part of it, this is going to be quite bloody. Because it is obvious that we are dealing here with just a crypto nerd with a monumental Napoleon complex that has as much chance of being successful in any project as Sarah Palin trying to win the White House. Transparency, is crying now "masternode" ... Ironic. What exactly do you expect? Laughable, really... welcome to this side of the pathetic charade. In your case, very deservedly after you were an active accomplice on the other side. Too late now for transparency or whatever iteration of it would be sanctioned by Napoleon. Action, not just lame transparency -unreal otherwise- would have been required. On many fronts. What you'll get is a bad attitude, the usual disdain and more probably than not, censorship galore. Oh, and BIPP66 thingy. Pathetic, really. Fwiw, we are not responsible for the dumps. We still continue to hold the coin, we have just written it off. At this point I think its best to get a fair assessment of where the project is at before anyone tries to make suggestions on how to move forward. this thread is a lot more active since the dev left.  Last developement update was 30th of Jan... Compared to every few days....
Drak if you serious about your work something has to start happening...
The dev is busy trading BTC at Whaleclub.I won't waste anyone's time. I just got off the phone with Drak. It was not an easy conversation. Among other things, I mentioned the idea of making an assessment of the situation, letting us know how much money is left and to consider returning remaining BTC to investors (which btw, was proposed to me by another member of this community and one of the 5 largest VIA holders). His reponse was basically that was that this was never presented as an investment, which obviously didn't settle well with me (and makes VIA appear more and more like a coin grab). However on his behalf as we discussed it more he seemed open to the possibility of this. My estimation is that the burn rate on this project has been somewhere around $5k per month. I can disclose those numbers later, but I have pretty intimate knowledge about whats going on and the financials. Even before considering something like this, we need to have full transparency. We really just need to assess the likelyhood of the success of the project. My view is that it's extremely low. Even if there were some interest from Patrick Byrne, it's just that interest. And I don't really see how any large players can be willing to taking any kind of gamble on a coin that is in utter shambles. We have to ask ourselves what real competitive advantage does VIA present over BTC or any other coin that might get the interest of others. It really is just speed, and that is no longer the case in the ALT world (with DRK having 3.5 second trustless confirmations) and soon to be gone with respects to BTC as both CHAIN and Blockstream (sidechains) are massively funded and attempting to solve specifically the speed issue of BTC confirmations. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/chain-2 (Chain has $13.7M in funding) https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/blockstream (Blockstream, who is researching sidechains, has $21M in funding) So we can safely say the speed advantage over BTC will very likely be gone within 6 to 18 months, which outlines specificall the window VIA has. When BTC becomes faster, so will Counterparty, and that kills XCH's chances of being a success. Now if you look at VIA / XCH adoption and community growth over the last 8 months and use it as reference, it's pretty easy to see things have literally moved backwards, not grown. With Drak at the helm, I just can't see how that could move forward enough so to capitalize on the window of opportunity before it shuts, leading me to believe the likelyhood of the success of this coin is extremely small (<1%). Small enough that it's clearly not worth pursuing in my opinion. At this point let's get all the info. Look at where money has been spent and what remains. Let's get disclosure on what's really on the horizon, and figure out a reasonable outcome from a fair assessment of where things stand. I may be at odds with how Drak has handled VIA so far, but I think he has it in him to do the right thing from here. i'm going to try to stay level headed and calm. but i too am one of the early adopters of VIA (top 10, maybe even top 5 holder).
to say i am disappointed with the last few months would be putting it mildly. as lead developer, Drak has to take responsibility for the direction and adoption of VIA. he can't say that now that he's built it, his job is done. i'm not saying he has said that. but the lack of activity feels a bit like he might be feeling that way.
the ICO was very successful. to let VIA die on the vine with hundreds of bitcoins in the war chest is bizarre.
i guess my question is, why not "throw some money at the problem" and get aggressive about marketing, enhancements, new features, etc. all of which will cost some money.
by doing so, Drak stands to lose some of the BTC he has. but by not doing so, every single holder of VIA will almost certainly lose.
if Drak is not willing, for some reason, to spend the ICO coins on VIA/XCH, then i agree with masternode that returning the ICO coins that remain is the honorable thing to do.
You and masternode both then stand to be sorely disappointed pretty soon. Drak is not returning a single penny. Furthermore, he feels quite entitled to do as he -and only him- pleases with it. This "was never meant to be a business", or you still think I haven't read it carefully enough? so masternode basically wants to
1. kill Via/ XCH and
2. organize refund/ buyout.
1 is easy. Congratulations. Good job.
2 is ridiculous. There is no way to do this. No just way. Why to refund ICO investors? Some people bought at 60k sat levels in the open market. Some are buying now below ICO level. And what about XCH?
Option 2 is dellusional. Via remained above the initial 6k price for almost 8 months so how is it possible for any ICO buyer to have lost money when they had literally 8 months to take profits?!!! LOL! Even just the suggesting you can "wind down" a coin shows he has no real understanding of the blockchain... Wasn't that the whole point of bitcoin to be antifragile and robust against centralized control? So long as viacoin is secure, the coin will live on, hopefully without idiots like masternode on board. Masternode approached me right at the beginnings of viacoin. He was very personable and friendly, and explained he was a big gun behind Darkcoin (and others) and had lots of experience in the startup world and would like to help viacoin succeed. He said he had lots of powerful connections and could help spread adoption really quickly. Naturally, I took him as an advisor and accepted him into my confidence. He said “I don’t want to try to force you to do stuff, just let me give you advice as an experienced investor in startups”, so it seemed like the right and beneficial thing to do. At this point, however, I believe he did this to position himself such he would be privy to sensitive tradeable information in advance. Of course, being involved in the deals meant that he would be privy to certain information first. I was completely clear with masternode that anything we discuss for viacoin must remain confidential until we agreed to make it public. Alarm bells began to ring for me when he started sharing privileged information with me about other projects his associates were involved in. I became concerned he might actually be using his position with viacoin to his advantage and leaking to his group. I gradually pulled back and stopped sharing details with him or asking for advice. Ultimately, he resented me for this and we had a hard falling out because I was no longer being forthcoming. This culminated in strongarm threats that “things will get ugly” and that he would make sure I would “never work in this space again” if I didn’t cooperate. I thought he wanted out of viacoin so I offered to contact him with an OTC buyer. He refused. So now, masternode is misrepresenting and casually leaking sensitive things in the works, proving that he doesn't care about viacoin or anyone else. It is a personal vendetta disguised under the pretense of “informing the community”, even promoting darkcoin in this forum. He’s treating our decentralized community like a startup that he can shut down at whim. As someone recently pointed out in the thread, the bitcoin protocol was designed to be robust against centralization. Once you start the network, you can’t just turn it off like you turn off your phone. This is the beauty of decentralized systems - no single actor can take it down. So moving forward, I have read the forum carefully and I take it as a positive sign that people still have passionate opinions on viacoin’s future success. I believe we can have a good discussion about how to move forward constructively with the project. I understand people are not happy with the price of viacoin - that’s not really under my control; even bitcoin has it’s ups and downs just like any market. I have yet to sell any viacoin. We could even agree Bitcoin has been bleeding for 15 months despite wide adoption and publicity. This is why I am not entirely convinced that price will be affected by promotion but I do agree adoption is the key to everything and have quietly been doing my part to get adoption, successfully and unsuccessfully. I think we would all like to spend our time focusing on the future and how to make viacoin better. I’ve been allocating most of my time in development and working out various deals. I prefer to under promise and over deliver. But now, I’d like to concentrate on how to grow the community and encourage adoption because listening to everyone, it seems that is what the community wants. I understand that this bear market can be a tough time for many investors, so I will be spending more time on the forums to discuss your concerns. Viacoin is a decentralised community, but the the core of viacoin is the network. A strong secure network is the keystone. That is why I have been concentrating on building the foundations and the viacoin network has been going from strength to strength. Viacoin is well maintained and up to date with all the new features and bug fixes from Bitcoin 0.10. We have had 5 software major releases of the viacoin in 8 months. The network runs at about ~700GH/s and is mined by some of the biggest bitcoin mining companies in the world! One of them is f2pool Discus Fish. When choosing a blockchain, there are actually very few that could be considered remotely secure based on network hash. Viacoin is definitely one of those now. I am also disappointed at the attempts to downplay Peter Todd’s achievements for viacoin or say that he gets paid for “doing nothing”. Peter’s hard work on viacoin is well documented and its unnecessary to attack him to leverage an issue with me. CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY http://blog.viacoin.org/2014/10/01/petertodd-dev-update.htmlhttp://blog.viacoin.org/2014/11/13/petertodd-dev-update.htmlDiscourage NOPs reserved for soft-fork upgrades https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/5000#issuecomment-58889473Accept any sequence of PUSHDATAs in OP_RETURN outputs https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/5079SCRIPT_VERIFY_MINIMALDATA unittests https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/commit/cd9114e5136ecc1f60baa43fffeeb632782f2353 (also see my comments https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/5065#issuecomment-59100744 on the pull-req) Check against MANDATORY flags prior to accepting to mempool https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/5253 and Fixed a DoS attack! Also see related post http://www.mail-archive.com/bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net/msg06466.html on the bitcoin-dev mailing list. BIP62/STRICTENC review and tests https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/5247Discourage fee sniping with nLockTime https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/2340#issuecomment-58617533 http://blog.viacoin.org/2014/12/25/petertodd-dev-update.htmlmicropayment channel demo https://github.com/petertodd/checklocktimeverify-demos/blob/master/micropayment-channel.py Near-zero fee transactions with hub-and-spoke micropayments http://www.mail-archive.com/bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net/msg06576.htmlSetting the record straight on Proof-of-Publication http://www.mail-archive.com/bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net/msg06570.htmlThe relationship between Proof-of-Publication and Anti-Replay Oracles http://www.mail-archive.com/bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net/msg06617.html I know some of that stuff is not very sexy. It’s not fancy anon or dubious instant confirmations. But they are essential improvements and bug fixes that contribute to the robustness of the network, which is the core of the project. So regarding CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY. I am sure most people dont understand how important this new opcode is. It might seems like an obscure technical feature. But that is exactly how P2SH (multisig) started out. It was added to bitcoin with great urgency because the developers thought it was essential for bitcoin. Well they were right, but no-one even care for 2-3 years. Then multig started to be talked about in early 2014, and now in 2015, it have been implemented in just about every major wallet for bitcoin. Adoption of technology can take time. Who has been involved with viacoin and clearinghouse? Well Grynn San helped a lot pre-release of viacoin and for a few months afterwards. He is unfortunately a diabetic and had severe complications which mean he has been unable to work much. Grynn was paid (what masternode said about debt is completely false). Maran also worked on ClearingHouse to implement the Blockchain Notary as a paid developer. Reorder from 1GH has been instrumental to the project and works as an unpaid volunteer. We discussed this and he did not want remuneration. Peter of course is chief scientist and gives advice as a paid consultant. Esotericizm was involved in making a mobile wallet for viacoin on Android. I’ve worked very hard doing what I set out to do. It’s involved lots of long hours and sleepless nights. Maintaining this sort of thing requires a lot of thought, care and discussions because consensus systems are hard and one needs to be careful about the effects on the network. I have always just quietly worked on things without much fanfare. I prefer to under promise and over deliver. I have evangelised viacoin a lot in the background. For example, I got adoption at woodwallets; coinpayments.net, the altcoin version of bitpay; and giffoff (was pock.io) which allows purchase of 1500 variety of giftcards payable with viacoin. A friend of mine got viacoin added to Litepay, a fiat gateway in Europe for viacoin. I just went ahead and did these things. I frankly don’t understand why the community isn’t doing the same. If everyone made an effort to get one merchant each to adopt viacoin… our collective voice would be deafening. So overall, just like bitcoin, it really is up to the community to band together to evangelize viacoin. A few people have contacted me with ideas on how to kick start this a bit more which I am keen on exploring. So let’s discuss the nuances. I am going to be more active on the forums, especially to facilitate the future plans. I had always envisioned crowdsourcing evangelism from the community instead of relying on a single whale early adopter and I believe that together we can make that happen. So while I would prefer to focus on the technical stuff (stick to what I’m good at), I acknowledge that that people would appreciate discussing future positive plans for viacoin during the difficult times of the bear markets. Interesting that Drak says these things as much of it is simply not true. I have a strong reputation in crypto that speaks for itself. But I should clarify a few things, as I don't mind being totally open about my work: I have never actively traded VIA for day trade profits nor has Otoh. We typically accumulate large positions very early and help nurture the projects, a lot like what we have done with Darkcoin. Yes there are times we sell, but it's not done on a daily basis, or even a weekly basis for that matter. Also, I want to be very clear, I've never released any priveledged information to Drak about other projects, and if he believes so I welcome him to share it here as I'm that confident he won't be able to give me an example. "Alarm bells began to ring for me when he started sharing privileged information with me about other projects his associates were involved in. I became concerned he might actually be using his position with viacoin to his advantage and leaking to his group." Yes, Drak was telling me priveledged information that could be advantageous. And like I said in many previous posts, we were already the largest holders of VIA and XCH and we haven't sold our VIA position. And to say there were alarm bells at this point or prior is interesting and I'll point out why. Drak had shared with me that Patrick Byrne was interested in VIA and that they wanted him to fly out to the states in February. Drak had contacted me because he knew I represent some of the largest holders, and wanted to see if we could secure a block of coins for Patrick. I told him I could ask Otoh but I was not willing to sell any, in fact I told him I was interested in purchasing more (quite the opposite of what he claims of him feeling I was looking for a way out). Also, one extremely important point here: If there were really red flags prior to this, wouldn't Drak have just told me he has found a large interested buyer and not disclose names? Drak had informed me that he didn't mind me accumulating more just not to run up the price. Drak even advised me on the trade saying if anything to place bids just below the market. I debated including this info, but I figure at this point it's best to disclose everything. Eventually he become extremely upset when I informed him that I spoke with my attorney because I had some interest in accumulating a bit more VIA (We wound up acquiring maybe 7 btc more worth over the next 4 weeks at a price of 10-12k satoshi, hardly increasing our already sizable position of millions of coins). And to be honest I was quite surprised that he expected me not to consult with an attorney regarding anything, especially this as the last thing I wanted to do was put my self in any sort of legal problems. Fwiw, my attorney had informed me that as long as I was not manupaliting prices, since it's an unregulated market, that it was ok to accumulate more without any legal risk. Drak was not happy about the fact that I spoke to my attorney regarding this issue (but he was totally fine with my buying) and then decided to stop communicating with me over me obtaining legal consultation. This was definitely interesting as it seemed extremely irrational, not to mention as a trader wouldn't Drak want to know where legal lines are? February came and went and Drak had become even more silent on the forums as well as with others that he normally communicates with whom I am close with as well. I began to wonder what was happening behind the scenes, and began to question if a lot of what he's represented to this point was really as it seemed. Prior to this incident I had done everything I could to help Drak push this project forward. I had brought on the largest base of investors (as a group we still hold over 3M VIA and around 12M XCH), I had converted 200k VIA for XCH even though I was not excited about the surprise second raise, I had introduced Drak to other companies in the crypto space in an effort to get him and his coin support. However, continuously since the beginning of VIA, I've seen him systematically shut down interest in this project as he has turned it into one of the smallest communities I've seen for a cryptocoin. Again, my actions in my projects speak for themselves. I've been active in helping other coins and investments succeed, and Drak has spawned practically zero adoption of VIA. These are simply facts. If Drak thinks I'm trying to kill his coin he is wrong. The truth is I have lost faith in it, more specifically his ability to create any sort of adoption or community behind it, enough so that I think the best course of path is for him to shut it down and return remaining funds to coin holders. However I'm open to other possibilities. I point out that I do question if he is being totally honest with the community. Otoh checked out long ago, because he is convinced that Drak is not. However, if the community wants to move forward with the project, then so be it. If that is the case I propose that we have a trusted finance officer put in place to administrate the funds (which is why i've been trying to get an idea of where finances are). If he is truly as straightfoward as he tries to appear this should be a total non-issue right? If he is opposed to this, well, then we have to ask ourselves why? Supply and demand... this is what make the price, not core developpers. It's up to the community to create demand.
Thanks for this professional and mature answer btcdrak, you are beautifully doing your job.
Interesting that Drak says these things. I have a strong reputation in crypto that speaks for itself. But I should clarify a few things:
BRO You just admitted twice that you got insider information, and you traded on insider information. Its written right there. Basically, you used whatever information BTCdrak has given you in good faith and acted on it. You just proved his point. Also talking to your lawyer... Come on man... Also advantegous information when VIA is at 10K is a fucking gold mine dude. if you believe in the project you buy when the price is in the dumps (especially if you get insider info) not when it goes to the MOON. LATER EDIT: Also its not your business or anyone's business other than BTCDrak's of where his finances are. Stop acting so entitled. You are also a scumbag. gtfo I see Drak-ass delete my truths
But ask yourself, why he spend all day tweeting and trading Bitcoin & seeking praise in his whale club instead of answering community questions?
Compare # of tweets from Drak To developer Vitalik
 Is this what Drak do all day instead of work?
 Maybe you should focus on your coin Drak not fun house
 But no merger with Zynga like you suggest
 Instead of drawing pretty paint picture you get to work coding, we paid you 600 btc after all
 Improve your public relation game
 Nice to see time to sit watching charts all day
 More time wasted trading and caring about self and not investors
 Welcoming more scammer to his secret club
 ....and here a scammer everywhere a scammer
 More time, more money, interest in other alts, not his own coin
 Ask me community ARE YOU Hopeful?
 CAN YOU CONFIRM VIACOIN LEGIT?
And before you delete my post Drak, stop thinking you are victim
 Just to add to my previous post. People need to stop thinking about viacoin as a startup, this is the wrong paradigm. A startup is a centralised company with owners. No-one owns viacoin. Viacoin is an open source project and the viacoin network is democratic and we have to convince miners to accept any changes we propose in the software. We have to even convince miners to mine in the first place...
The future is in decentralisation because decentralised systems are more robust and even in nature we see decentralisation as a natural phenomenon. Yet, components of a decentralised systems in nature act together and give the appearance of being one thing. So long as the viacoin network is strong, and the system works (e.g. tokens cant be double spent and the maths behind private keypairs etc remains solid), everything else can function. People can utilise viacoin as a payment system, build embedded applications, run businesses and services, etc. etc.
Ultimately we want to bootstrap and kickstart the community and make a well lit fire which will rage independently afterwards.
LOLZ! People forgot what happened to Auroracoin. Baldur Odinsson, the lead dev, only promised to distribute the coin to Icelanders. The community SHOULD HAVE BEEN the one responsible for promoting Auroracoin.
Even the Dogecoin community have their community leaders. Just as I suspected, BTCDrak's intent was just to sell you a wonderful product no one wants. Easy money!Thanks Drak
yes, the community is an essential part. a successful "coin" needs this. but also a successful coin needs a leader. i think it needs both. i'm not saying you are refusing to lead. but i still am a little wary that you want the community to possibly pull more of the weight than is reasonable. you can not single-handedly resurrect VIA, nor can the community. but between the two at this moment in time, you are the more critical component in my opinion . it seems like projects that are doing well, or recovering from lows, have very active development - and very active communication - from the lead dev. i feel like the lack of communication over the past few months is what triggered the recent drop in the price of VIA to some depressing levels. it gave the impression that nothing was happening, while at the same time, some interesting things were happening with other coins. basically, VIA is being leapfrogged.
for what it's worth, people like myself, masternode, otoh, others haven't sold a single VIA. some people have asked for "proof" of this. no idea how to prove it, but those people can do some blockchain research if they are so paranoid.
as far as this horrible forum is concerned, i think unfortunately it is a place that you must continue to use for communication. like mos eisley, here "you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy." but i think it's a requirement. particularly now, with what is happening.
ready to look forward, not backward.
He does not have time to lead Viacoin sheep. BTC trading is what he wants.
I warned you last December https://twitter.com/scambust/status/545207579165478914https://twitter.com/scambust/status/572787929401180160
https://twitter.com/scambust/status/575326060121714690 |
