It seems that many of the posts since my "I've seen a pirate post" claim that I am somehow lying or misleading people on the forums. Here is the simple truth.
I brought my brother-in-law to Vegas to hang out and meet some people related to bitcoin. We've had the opportunity to meet pirateat40, reeses, Goat, copumpkin, pidgeons, Coinabul, Partrick from Intersango, OneFixt and his girlfriend, BurtW and Scared. I've probably missed a few people in the list.
I must say, meeting all of these people has been a pretty awesome experience. Pirate is a nice guy and we had a great time playing craps (BurtW taught pirate, Goat and I how to pay), roulette and 3 card poker. I also got to spend some time in the poker room with OneFixt. We've eaten dinner together, talked bitcoin and it's future and played some games in the casino.
Does this make me an expert in what pirate does? No.
For all of you that claim that because I've met pirateat40 I am now somehow responsible for his actions, well, you're logic is flawed.
Perhaps I can clarify the problem here.
Nobody here, except for a select few, really have any idea of what Pirate does. Furthermore, he is responsible for a lot of peoples' money.
Also, nobody here, except for a select few, have any sum of Bitcoins anywhere near the amount that Pirate, you, Goat, and likely several of the other ones that flew to Vegas have. Additionally, many that flew to Vegas are some of Pirate's 'first in line' if you will -- they run pass-throughs and/or have very early Pirate accounts.
Consider how this appears from those outside looking in. Some of the biggest names in Bitcoin meet with the 'biggest dog' (known, that is) in Bitcoin. Yet, after this meeting, not much at all is said.
For example, nothing is said about...
1) If Pirate appears as he does in the photos that are believed to be of him
2) If Pirate discussed his operations or continuing plans for operation with those who attended
3) If Pirate seems (opinion, of course) as though he is acting in the best interest of his lenders
4) If Pirate seems (opinion, of course) as though he is acting in the best interest of Bitcoin
And thus many of us are left to wonder...
1) Is Pirate going to steal everyone's money? E.G. by selling all BTC and crashing the market, killing everyone's investments.
2) Are there others on the Bitcoin forum who are working as a part of Pirate's operation (i.e. they do more than lend Pirate BTC)
3) Is Pirate (or others) deliberately trying to to mask his identity?
Etc., etc., etc.
Here's the thing. Pirate has said things like "I'm looking to pull one bigger than my Bitcoin." It's a big mistake for him to say something like this. As I've said before, I'm almost completely sure about what Pirate does, but when he makes statements like that, it's really quite stupid of him if he wants to be truly successful. It was
solely because of those types of comments that I withdrew my PPT investments. I don't even think Pirate has even said something along the lines of, "To my lenders -- I have your best interest at heart."
To people that have a lot of money to begin with (i.e. those that flew to Vegas), it's easy to say "have trust in actions!" and forget the words, but to those without a lot of money, those words cast a large shadow of doubt.
Pirate's operation is called Bitcoin Savings &
Trust. We're trying to access that trust part. Some of us don't have the time or money to fly to Vegas to check the guy out. Would I have gone if I had the opportunity? Yes, yes I would have. But that possibility was unrealistic.
Now, with regards to you, GigaVPS, we assume that you are a lender, just like us, and are no different than the rest of us in the sense that we assume that you are a simple Pirate investor. However, vague responses like "I have seen a Pirate, and he looks like a Pirate," while ultimately playful in nature, appear much different to the rest of the community. It seems as though you are intentionally hiding something, or that Pirate has asked that you not reveal too much about what was discussed, etc.
Given that this forum has been virtually obsessed with Pirate's operation for the last 2 months, you have an opportunity to help relieve some of the community's worries. Care to help us out a bit?
On a side note, Pirate, if you're reading this, consider what I just said. You could actually have more investors deposit (more than you do already, thus allowing yourself the opportunity to profit even more) if you yourself alleviated some of these worries rather than displaying your typical brazen attitude. That attitude might work because you have leverage, and you have the leverage you do because of your wealthiest lenders. But, there are little guys here too who prefer reassurance rather than brazenness.
. Seriously, if it was a ponzi, don't you think he would take some of the advice about reassuring new investors?
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