Topic: Mattew N. Wright still passing off a scam in the past as just a "prank" (Read 3400 times)

That's the point that makes me mad at him. When he is saying that his bet was a "prank" to "teach people a lesson", he is telling us:

"you are so stupid that you didn't even realize my bet was a joke to teach you all a lesson".

As this is BS, because he obviously thought Pirate was legit and he told that many times, IMO he is just lying to himself to maintain the delusion that he is smarter than everybody else.

Thank you KaTXi, appreciate that!

I'm one of the "shareholders" of the Avalon Batch 3 he auctioned. He has 2 ordered and 1 of them is sold to people like me, in small branches, so he won't get ANY BTCs from the mining he will (I hope) do with that Avalon.
I still trust him, and this is a GREAT opportunity to prove the community that he is legit: If he pays in a weekly (as promised) schedule he is clean to me (we all make mistakes).

PS: I'll keep you all posted on this Batch 3 auction and if he pays or not. It's the best way for him to be "re-trusted" again.

In the 2 years I've been a major contributor to the bitcoin business community I've never scammed anyone and I don't intend to. I'm a builder. You're obviously free to judge me on my mistakes, failed businesses, or even my haircut though. Every bit of feedback helps me do a better job. Click the link in my signature for a list of mistakes you might want to judge me on some more. 

Mattew attempted to scam and wont be long I imagine till the next scam of his.

Matthew,

I have no skin in this game but it's pretty clear that your best course of action is to continue to try and compensate those you owe a debt to, keep your nose clean, and STFU.  Sorry to be blunt, but trying to explain yourself by using words like "stunt," "lesson," and "prank" is only pissing people off even more.  You're better off just saying you were wrong and are trying to make amends, and leave it at that as every sentence you write is going to be scrutinized.  By coming back and trying to justify your actions or give insight into your thought process, you're just coming off as someone who isn't 100% remorseful.  Forgiveness comes in time and by your deeds, nothing you say is going to speed up that process, to the contrary, it will probably just slow things down.  JMHO.

Which is exactly my point....

And since you only replied to this off-topic comment, I'll assume you agree with the rest of what I said.

I'd be happy to answer your question (thank you for keeping the loaded words and insinuations to only a few this time . I know it was difficult for you  ). I have no need to make any public announcements because I don't owe the community any debt (at least I was under the impression this community is far larger than the number of people involved in my bet..at least I hope it is or bitcoin has no chance of success).

Most have already been paid, but the people remaining I have made settlements with and they will be paid per their terms, and yes, not only did the auctioned shares go straight to paying some of those settlements but bitcoins mined from those rigs will also be used for settlements. I'm not involved in bitcoin for profits at the moment, I'm involved to make money so that I can pay what I agreed to pay. Since that bet I was told by someone "trust takes years to build and seconds to break". I take that to heart now and have no intention of being in any role that requires unnecessary trust. That said, I've made my personal life and identity public to a point of weakness, to ensure that I am held accountable for my actions always. I'm happy to learn and help others learn from my actions as well. Can't wait to finish making things right and continue doing what I do best-- building.

See you around Rampion.

So, you are publicly stating that all the BTC generated by your Avalon (except the % you have auctioned) will go to repay your debt with the community?

That would be a good start, Matt.

Rampion. your trolling is starting to become obvious. That post was made almost 9 months ago (not a few) and it was made when I left the first time and hadn't attempted to make things right. The fact that you'd cheaply try to paint a picture otherwise shows me you're not interested in making things right, just attempting to make me look bad.

Some are noobs, some are trusted members who know me. You continue to use loaded words to paint a darker picture to fit your skewed reality. Case in point:

I saw this kind of ignorance in the auction thread itself. People don't realize that in order to pay back millions of dollars in faux internet bets denominated in BTC, you actually have to earn BTC. It seems like a much smarter thing to do to purchase a mining rig that earns BTC when you have to make payments in BTC over a long period of time, doesn't it? Also, why did you think that those bitcoins that went towards buying the rig were mine? Did you think I don't have any friends who know my difficult situation? You sure do love making assumptions, something only a troll would be doing.

You incorrectly assume I had a profit to begin with, instead of a huge net loss in addition to making good on my promises. All you're doing is proving to me that you don't actually care about this issue, you just want to spew misdirected venom.

The mistakes I made are mine to own and make up for. It is absolutely clear to everyone here that Rampion has a hard on for trolling me (as could be seen as far back as the auction thread). I'll be happy to prove anyone of like thought wrong with future actions, but I'm a little tired now responding to uninformed vitriol. If you can post an actual argument, I'll obviously respond (because I enjoy learning, especially about myself!). Judging by the direction you're taking though, it seems you're out of steam and are stuck on a loop so I'll go ahead and leave this one for now.

Please look up the definition of that word. It doesn't mean what you think it means.

Despite everything, I appreciate even the trolls for helping to remind me of what I should be striving to be better then. Thanks for that.

I'm probably twice your age, and yeah I've been in the scene probably while you were still in diapers.  I understand completely the hacker mentality, and kid - you ain't even close.  A hacker seeks to take things apart, understand how they work, then modify them and/or make them better.   Where in your messed-up sense of logic does your "stunt" fit into those parameters? 

Yeah you made a mistake.  You thought you were smarter than everyone else and it blew up in your face.  I also think you acted on some bad information (maybe from pirateat40 himself) and got MNW'd in the end.

Matt, I hope you have at least the balls and the decency to keep the promise you did in your "apology" to the community, just a few months ago:


Oh... Wait... You are now auctioning shares of your batch #3 Avalon to noob members, in the auctioning subforum. Instead of using that income to repay your debt, you come back to the community to increase your profit.

Post after post you just expose how untrustworthy you are. Your words don't mean nothing. Do you know why? Because you think you are much smarter than you really are, and you live in that perpetual delusion.

You know damn well if you won, you would have pursued our debt and made sure anyone who didn't pay up received a scammer tag. I went in when the amount was capped to 10K BTC, thought you were nuts, did some math, decided why not, this ponzi has came to it's end, free money. No payments from pirate... you got cold feets... decided let's go nuts and pretend it was a prank, accepted crazy bets until you reached 80k + BTC.
Seriously man? We've seen so many ponzi schemes throughout the years it's not even necessary to research anything when you see a continuous percentage far higher than any man has ever been able to make it's obviously a scam. Then add an anonymous internet currency and the fact that a person so incredible smart he can earn more % than any man in history before him decided that hey, why not just deal with the hassle of investors and share the wealth. The numbers don't add up it's a no brainer.
Most people were not falling for anything, they were just greedy and wanted more bitcoins. They knew it was a ponzi scheme and invested with the plan to get out before all the other suckers. Anyone with more than half a brain knew those returns offered is impossible long term.

No, the mob should provide evidence. E.g show to any other investment that has been able to offer such returns long term. Or maybe prove what's wrong with the exponential growth argument.

Well, that's what it did, suckers started buying up pirate debts to hedge, because they believied your bet was legit.

Would have kept? If this was a prank you wouldn't have accepted any money in the first place.

Well lesson learned, and it wasn't a prank.


Well I don't know about your country, but if you read the law here, a child is defined as someone in the age range of 0-18 and if you think a 17 year old is hot, or even a 17.9 year old, that makes you a pedo because you find children attractive you sick son of a bitch!!. Now you have three options:
1. Be proud to be pedo
2. Chicken out and say you don't find anyone less than 18 years of age attractive.
3. Point out these mistakes whenever you see people making them.

You must never have been a hacker before if you don't understand that logic. I admit it's a controversial logic that non hackers don't understand, and it's something TradeFortress is pulling right now by suckering newbies into trusting him on Ripple etc (which I don't approve of), but at the time I thought it was an appropriate display and I had always had problems with my boundaries in regards to trolling. I don't have those problems now, my life has been fundamentally changed thanks to a wake up call, a few creative outlets presenting themselves and a new job that keeps me thinking about consequences of actions.

Looking back though, it was in fact inappropriate and over the top and could have given people a certain sense of comfort to do more stupid things with their money (aside from the already stupid thing they did with it). The battle I was fighting was a losing one though and I made things worse by deflecting the attention away from the real criminal. What else is there to talk about? After 8 months and having already apologized, started settlements with everyone involved (paying half already), you'll excuse me if I don't jump up and down to help you beat this dead horse. Is this just because you don't like the word "prank"? I'll use a different word then. How about "stunt"?

This.   


So, an analogy would be that in order to show the level of trust of a neighborhood, you would need to break into those people's homes and steal a few things.  You would have given them back later, right?  In order to show the unwashed masses not to trust an Internet forum user, you scam them. 

And still calling it a "lesson" or a "prank" doesn't help your cause. 

So you are really saying that if you'd win that bet you would have declined cashing it? You would have said: this is only a prank, as nobody did escrow I just condone everybody's debt?

That's BS, and you know it.

I have neither believed he was legit nor non-legit, only that people were so quick to judge (just like you) what they didn't research or understand themselves. It doesn't matter what I *posted* at that time, because most of it was posted to draw out logical fallacies, discussion or to piss off trolls who already had grudges against me (people like you right now). I naively thought my stunt would somehow have an impact to stop the blind trust in this community, at the same time I was honestly enjoying myself bothering people like you who think they have me "figurered out". Yea, it was pretty dumb and I was definitely detached from reality on it. As some others posters have already said elsewhere, "he only taught himself a lesson". People are still falling for total bullshit here on a daily basis, so overall it was just a waste of reputation and a pretty immature thing to do.

I still have no evidence he was a ponzi, just common sense and speculation that he was one. I still have no evidence Zhou Tong stole money from Bitcoinica, just common sense and speculation. What I've learned from all this is that you shouldn't interrupt the mob mentality unless you have *evidence* against them, not just opinion. It was very entertaining to screw with the mob, push them on, etc, but I honestly was so disconnected that I wasn't realizing the gravity of the situation (e.g. they weren't just trolls, they were people afraid of losing their money)

There's always a chance I could have won the bet, but that wouldn't have told anyone if Pirate was a ponzi or not, it could have simply meant his con was intended to be even longer and pull in more suckers. It has already been argued that he could have used my bet to instill *more* trust for his scam (which is not what I had intended and felt horrible after making that connection myself). What I would have done with funds if I had won is obvious. I am here to build, I am friends with almost every business and exchange owner in bitcoin. Do you really think I would have kept the money if I had won? Really? Why do you think I am driven by money? I waste money all the time just to get ideas out there (as you should know by now) and see if things will work, probing and poking the world around me. I want to correct my ideas and become successful on honest terms, I always have. This community is largely negative, bias and abusive though, and that has jaded my opinion quite a lot. Luckily, I have bounced back and have a new "fence" to not cross in my life.

You assume too much. What you mean is, if *you* had wanted to teach a lesson, *you* would have done A or B. I am not you, and I didn't understand what was going to happen. I was disconnected from reality on that one.

I was laughing at you all until I realized that what I had done had collateral damage, in which case I stepped up and am making good on it like any man should. I'm not sorry for pulling a prank, I'm sorry for not realizing the damage it was causing. I threw eggs at a guy's house and broke his window basically, and you're here telling me that "You obviously knew that throwing that egg would break the window". Really? I "obviously knew"? You really don't know me very well if you think I "obviously know" things before doing them.  

I've admitted all my mistakes regarding that bet. Your opinion and repeating the same thing over again is not going to materialize a new mistake out of thin air. If you can prove to me that I did something that I didn't realize I was doing, I'm obviously going to learn from it, but you can't argue with a person who knows themself and why they do things that they intended to hurt others. You're wasting your time.

Repeating that to yourself doesn't make it true. Only I know how sorry I really am and everyone who was involved in the bet who has continued communication with me knows what's really going on in my life, mind and heart after all that mess. You're a bystander, so obviously you don't know the whole story, but you don't need to. All you need to know as a member of the community is that I'm not a danger, not a scammer, and am making good on my misguided promises of past as I grow up and take the reigns, raise the bar and look for a more mature existence.

I'm not mad at you for trying to call me out on what you logically believe to be a hole, but I do have understanding that when you're drunk in the street and punch someone in the face, simply saying "I'm sorry" the next day doesn't cut it, and that you and people like you will keep me company for quite a while. I'm not afraid of that as I know myself and what my intentions in life are (hint: they're to build, not destroy).

Count the threads I've started and replied to in this community regarding this issue. Count the lost businesses, contacts, relationships, trust and well, money, that I've lost doing the *right* thing. I'm pretty sure the harsh truth has been faced and you're the one avoiding it now.

I can live with that. There are some people who think because I said a 17 year old girl is hot in her pictures (which she is), that that makes me a pedo (someone who likes toddlers), or someone who thinks because I stood up for what I thought was right that I am a "paid shill" of this or that. I can honestly live with one more anonymous, sockpuppet voice not trusting me. I'm not here for you, I'm here for me and the people who appreciate me. Not to be cliche but, "Hater's gonna hate".

Cheers

What is beyond me is how you can still say that your bet was a "prank" to "show people a lesson about escrow". That point should be enough for you to keep indefinitely your scammer tag.

Why? Because it's BS. You thought Pirate was legit, and in fact you said many times that "he may be doing something we do not understand, but I think he is legit", I remember that. Thus, you really thought that Pirate was not a ponzi (you said it in many posts), so there's no way you were going "to teach the community a lesson", because you really thought you had chances to win that bet. If you wished to "teach a lesson", you would have created a bet that you had no chances to win (and with a complete different wording and terms), and this is not the case at all.

Your post history proves that you really thought Trendon was legit, so you are either lying to yourself to maintain the delusion that you are smarter than everybody else, or you are just laughing at us all. Honestly, I think it's the first option, which is a pity, because the real step forward for you would be to admit your real mistake: you thought you would have made big money because you thought you were much smarter than everybody else, but when you realized you were going to lose you just decided to chicken out because you did not want to spend the rest of your life paying people what you owe them.

Saying over and over yours was just a "prank" to "teach a lesson" just proves you are not really sorry about what you did, and that you are avoiding to really face the gravity of your default (because it was so obvious it was a prank... Right?).

That's what makes me mad at you, not the fact that you defaulted, but that you are looking for shortcuts to avoid facing the harsh truth - and doing that in front of yourself is more important than doing it in front of the community.

Until you don't do that, for me you will still be an untrustworthy, mentally unbalanced child.

Will do.

You contradicted yourself there. The community *was* asking for it, and they got it (albeit not a smart thing to do). The level of scams and trust to strangers at that time in the forum was insane. The stunt that I pulled was to show that no matter who you trust, an escrowless bet with an internet stranger is the epitomy of stupid. I went out of my way to make it painfully clear to everyone that "I cannot tell a lie", and other textbook scammer claims, and people still went on blind faith. I even raised the maximum bets allowed to give the same people a chance and it backfired because they only took it more seriously. What I did was stupid, the *wrong* way to "teach a lesson" (which TradeFortress is now learning as well) and I regret having gone down that path.

As for being banned, I've been banned many times, for many reasons, never created a sock puppet account to subvert the ban and always took it seriously as a reflection of myself, corrected myself, and came back to work harder, troll less, and do more "good". My intention is to have a net positive effect on the community and to get these ideas out of my head and working before I die. If my childish games have taught me a lesson to be more serious, and I understand what is expected of me, why would you attempt to rob me of the chance to make up for my mistakes by banning and ignoring? Have you never made a mistake? Do you not believe in reform? Do you think anyone who has been to jail before should be forced to stay there forever? Do you not realize that sometimes people's biggest mistakes are the defining point in their life before they go on to do great things? How about instead of mocking the person I was, you inquire as to the person I strive to be? Or, you and a few others on this forum could just post your life history as I have always done openly and let's see what petty, superficial criticisms we can come up with to make blanket judgements on your character.

I'm not the same person I was when I posted that bet. I was completely disconnected from reality. Thanks everyone here who has had their share of mistakes for cluing me into the real world, and to everyone else who wastes a breath trying to slow me down, I'll be happy to drive you crazy by simply continuing on a path of learning and experience. Enjoy the show I guess.