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Topic: [Payout Updates] Bitcoinica site is taken offline for security investigation - page 40. (Read 156693 times)

Vod
legendary
Activity: 3668
Merit: 3010
Licking my boob since 1970
Do something? Like what? There isn't much but the shaming and blaming game.

Demand a police file number.  If they refuse, they are scamming you, period, and you should start legal action right away.
legendary
Activity: 1526
Merit: 1001
Do something? Like what? There isn't much but the shaming and blaming game. Card's been played. I can post every day on Intersango forums that I want my money back, but for a hundred bitcoins I won't and can't do shit. One thing I can do though is to tell people who have nothing at stake here, and look like they fled to Argentina in 1945 that I don't appreciate their advise.

Back to the topic: Genjix, for people who weren't verified yet on Bitcoinica and no password hash was found. Do you need our passports or not? Thank you.
hero member
Activity: 616
Merit: 502
ha! If we are talking about the ultimate stupidity - that I have the same idea  Roll Eyes ...

Bitkoinika owners! Pay me (on my account Gox) and bitcoin wallet all the money that you have. All the money the participants (cold wallet). btc and dollars. And give me a list of claims. I immediately exchanged all dollars in coins. I will not do anyone any payments for 2 years. After a 2 years course (price) will be so much higher that I could easily pay for ALL claims (including fake) Tongue Wallet will be seen in blockexsplorer, everyone can see that the money in place. I am in Russia, and legally unavailable to American authorities. Exert pressure on me to be pointless, I'll be anonymous.

 Only a matter of trust ..  Tongue Tongue Tongue Tongue Tongue Tongue Tongue Tongue Tongue
Vod
legendary
Activity: 3668
Merit: 3010
Licking my boob since 1970
If you haven't lost anything, just shut up. It's all just blah blah blah. Please stop posting novels.

Payout updates, please. Or tell us how we can help. Block explorer must be the way to go to verify our claims, eps. for everyone who didn't have any position or held any USD. About the reproaches, most of us sure have better things to do than keep posting here for weeks. We have every right to be impatient because we don't even have assurance we are getting our coins back. Will write another email to enquire about my claim.

Don't be a ....  He's giving you good advice - stop lying back and waiting for them to get away with this and do something.  I can guarantee you every person involved at Bitcoinica has already received 100%+ of their personal interests in this scam.

It's been a month and they haven't even reported anything to law enforcement.  What does that tell you?
sr. member
Activity: 574
Merit: 250
If you haven't lost anything, just shut up. It's all just blah blah blah. Please stop posting novels.

Payout updates, please. Or tell us how we can help. Block explorer must be the way to go to verify our claims, eps. for everyone who didn't have any position or held any USD. About the reproaches, most of us sure have better things to do than keep posting here for weeks. We have every right to be impatient because we don't even have assurance we are getting our coins back. Will write another email to enquire about my claim.

Looks like we have a volunteer for shill right here...

Thanks for your salacious words about my posting length- get stuffed. When I need a simpleton to filter my words for the lowest common intellectual denominator, I'll be sure to keep you in mind.
legendary
Activity: 1526
Merit: 1001
If you haven't lost anything, just shut up. It's all just blah blah blah. Please stop posting novels.

Payout updates, please. Or tell us how we can help. Block explorer must be the way to go to verify our claims, eps. for everyone who didn't have any position or held any USD. About the reproaches, most of us sure have better things to do than keep posting here for weeks. We have every right to be impatient because we don't even have assurance we are getting our coins back. Will write another email to enquire about my claim.
sr. member
Activity: 574
Merit: 250
Okay, as I don't want to be the tar-baby painted with the "scammer" paintbrush, and the enlightened PR Division of Bitcoinica has seen fit to move into the "Everyone who opposes us is a scammer mode," I offer the following in the sense of full disclosure:

LoupGaroux has nothing invested in Bitcoinica. Not personally, not through proxy, representation or elect, and I do not advise anyone who has anything in Bitcoinica in any formal form that could be considered as having material impact on the likelihood of any refund, return of capital or liquidation. Nothing, nada, zippo in the extreme. I played it very briefly when it first came out, got zhoutonged in one of the first poorly advertised margin calls, lost 10 btc on stupid guesses about market movement and never went back.

I am here purely as a non-involved party to offer amicus briefs as a devil's advocate. I have a certain history in discovering scams, and tend to be an early adopter in the world of pissed-off villagers with torches and pitchforks. And my LoupySense is tingling big time on this particular sordid chapter of Bitcoin lore.

And no amount of abuse, cursing, outrage or quasi-legal break-dancing is going to change the fact that the Keystone Konsultancy Kops have adopted a whole lot of liability here, and are doing an extremely poor job of dealing with it. They are following the script to implode this and make off with the goods as if they are being coached by an expert. I wouldn't be surprised if within the next 72 hours some "lurker" who proclaims sterling reputation and credentials offers to set up a donation fund to help these poor good souls out. Which, like pretty much everything we have seen or read to date will be so much hot air, and crafted of the same disingenuous whole cloth as all existing disinformation, lies, inconsistencies and bumbling nonsense that has been their stock in trade.

If Consultancy, or whatever identity you are hiding behind this week, has the funds to promise (but not actually deliver!!) refunds to a select group of claimants, then they have an obligation to make the same offer to ALL claimants. Poor records, needing to add columns to your database, trying to unravel the intricacies of Sino-Kiwi business registration, and whether the beauty mark on zhoutong's left cheek is proof that he is a real person have no bearing on your OBLIGATION to the investors. You took it on knowing it was a load of crap, with corrupted records, headaches and a reputation as fucked as Paris Hilton's virtue. All you have shown to date is a well planned scheme to sit on the assets, not prove one word of these allegations about hacking, and refuse to return any of the funds, USD or BTC, that you are holding in trust for the investors.

Them's the real factoids here kiddies, the Bitcoin Consultancy is muddying up the waters, but the truth is that they are liable to a very high degree, and as soon as the mob decides enough is enough and takes action- they will be well and truly fucked. Throwing out the standard con-man protestations of "litigation will destroy the assets", "Courts will only delay this process" and similar tripe is further lies.
full member
Activity: 187
Merit: 100
I was just looking at a piece of code for hedging and saw 3 bugs and numerous hacks to work around flaws. It doesn't surprise me that third time lucky it blows up.

Care to point out the 3 bugs and various hacks?

I know it's not world-class code, but isn't it just business logic and nothing else?

Quote
class HedgingJob
  
  @queue = :normal
  
  def self.perform
    
    confidence_level = Setting.where(:key => "confidence_level").first.value.to_f
    surplus = Setting.where(:key => "surplus").first.value.to_f
    if Setting.where(:key => "buy_factor").first
      buy_factor = Setting.where(:key => "buy_factor").first.value.to_f
      sell_factor = Setting.where(:key => "sell_factor").first.value.to_f
    else
      buy_factor = 1
      sell_factor = 1
    end
    
    if surplus.abs > confidence_level
      amount = surplus.abs - confidence_level
      if surplus > 0
        amount *= buy_factor
        price = Ticker.last_tick("BTCUSD").selling * 1.02
        response = MtGox.buy!(amount, price)
        Setting.change_surplus(0-amount/buy_factor)
      else
        amount *= sell_factor
        price = Ticker.last_tick("BTCUSD").buying / 1.02
        response = MtGox.sell!(amount, price)
        amount = 0 - amount
        Setting.change_surplus(0-amount/sell_factor)
      end
      
      Trade.create(:amount => amount, :price => price, :response => response.to_s[0..253])
    
    end
    
    
    
  end
  
end

There's no excuse to write methods longer than 3-5 lines in ruby, and a functional style would help to understand, verify and test this much better. You should really separate the code which accesses the DB, calculates the amount to buy or sell, and executes the hedging trade with the result for better testability.

Also, unless you still own the code, posting and discussing this openly may get you into hot waters with whoever salvages the remaining pieces of bitcoinica.

-coinft.
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
Genjix is wrong by saying that ALL of the noise comes from scammers, obviously. A lot of real, honest users have been wronged by this incident so it's absolutely predictable that not all of them would stick to writing polite emails.

However, some people making noise might be expecting unreasonable compensation (like liquidation at whatever point in time suits them best, or stuff like that). And maybe also the odd scammer is making noise, too.

But saying all noise comes from scammers is definitely over the top, you should take that back Genjix.

How to avoid scammer tag on forum after this debacle ? Claim all the people that complain ARE scammers in the first place !

Genius, I tell you !

Will you quit changing sides, you're confusing me.  Wink

Seriously, this is going to take a while since they have one side who has access to the verified documents, and it's to his best interest to not show those to anybody else, coupled with claiming he won't, and another side that's verifying clients via re-supplied verified documents to match them up with...

This may take longer than I thought.

~Bruno~
hero member
Activity: 518
Merit: 500
Genjix is wrong by saying that ALL of the noise comes from scammers, obviously. A lot of real, honest users have been wronged by this incident so it's absolutely predictable that not all of them would stick to writing polite emails.

However, some people making noise might be expecting unreasonable compensation (like liquidation at whatever point in time suits them best, or stuff like that). And maybe also the odd scammer is making noise, too.

But saying all noise comes from scammers is definitely over the top, you should take that back Genjix.

How to avoid scammer tag on forum after this debacle ? Claim all the people that complain ARE scammers in the first place !

Genius, I tell you !
donator
Activity: 980
Merit: 1000
Genjix is wrong by saying that ALL of the noise comes from scammers, obviously. A lot of real, honest users have been wronged by this incident so it's absolutely predictable that not all of them would stick to writing polite emails.

However, some people making noise might be expecting unreasonable compensation (like liquidation at whatever point in time suits them best, or stuff like that). And maybe also the odd scammer is making noise, too.

But saying all noise comes from scammers is definitely over the top, you should take that back Genjix.
newbie
Activity: 11
Merit: 0
Hello angry mob,

I've been silently lurking around and watching these discussions for awhile and like many of you I'm waiting for my medium-sized bitcoinica balance to be sent back.  I just want to throw a few ideas out there.

I have to point one thing out.  Bitcoinica got hacked I think twice before this last fatal blow, and despite that I decided to maintain some money in there.  In assessing the risks, the big things that stood out were that it would be hacked again in a much more serious manner (like what happened), or that there would be some sort of government action that would kill bitcoin and/or shut down bitcoinica without being able to get the money out, or that the bitcoinica operator would simply run with the money like so many others have.  Of course I wasn't hoping for those things to happen, but given where bitcoin's at, given I knew bitcoinica was run almost entirely by one guy who got hacked already, they were serious risks to consider.  I was tempted by the interest rates, and the leverage, to put much more money in, but I held back due to those risks.

Now that's no excuse, of course, for the things they've done horribly wrong.  I have my own consumer-facing services out there not related to bitcoin or any financial mechanism, and even though there's nothing remotely as valuable as a bitcoin wallet there, I put in a few days investment to have database backups at multiple sites, multiple companies, etc.  It's one of many disaster recovery techniques bitcoinica failed at horribly.  The cost/benefit of doing that is a no-brainer.  Even with no hacker, rackspace could have burned down or shut down and had the same result as what we've seen.

And obviously PR and customer service are not in the DNA of any of the parties that now seem responsible at bitcoinica at this point.  Over and over customers have asked for detailed email status updates, for example.  There are services that can send such mass emails, and they are very cheap and easy to use, and abide by the anti-spam laws by allowing people to unsubscribe etc.  The amount of cost and work to set such a thing up and push emails out daily is miniscule and would have done wonders to keep some trust in this crew.

But one thing that seems clear as that these guys are at least working hard to sort this out.  I could be putting my bitcoinica-held money to work in all kinds of ways, and I don't know if I'll ever get it back.  But given the daunting task they face, I'm really not sure what they could be doing better, in terms of processing claims.

So I have to ask -- what could they be doing better in terms of sorting out claims? Granted their communications about the process are horrific in their deficiencies, and the database loss was unforgivable...

but going forward, in terms of actually figuring out who gets what, if anything, what could they be doing differently? They are collecting passwords where they can validate em, trying to match up old records, trying to consider identification, and trying to do it for thousands(?) of users when they have a couple of people who can actually be trusted to work on it, also while they are in the middle of an operational transition of some sort that internally has seemed to have caused a big lack of agreement about who is in charge of what.

hero member
Activity: 761
Merit: 500
Mine Silent, Mine Deep
Thanks for sharing the IRC chatlog Guruvan.

I think only the scammers are making noise here to rush the process for their selfish gains.

Please realize you and Amir are acting as official representatives of Bitcoinica LP. Calling customers that have been waiting for over a month to get their funds back and are considering all options open to them 'scammers' and 'stupid' is not very professional.

Do you think I or many others with funds in Bitcoinica enjoy having to read up in this thread every day to see if anything meaningful has been done or said? I suggest you guys put back the support platform help.bitcoinica.com to deal with customer questions and issues since that is a separate component and much better suited for the purpose.

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

I still have not heard a single customer publicly confirm they have received 50% of their deposits in the forum and we are now another 3 days further down the road. Until someone does I have to treat the validity of this announcement with some skepticism.
legendary
Activity: 1918
Merit: 1570
Bitcoin: An Idea Worth Spending
donator
Activity: 1731
Merit: 1008
I think only the scammers are making noise here to rush the process for their selfish gains.

this line show how wrong you are, you are keeping the ppls money and dont pay any compensation, if you compensate me with lets say 0,1-0,5% from total balance for each day that can be "fair", you keep my funds and i cant join the market, calling ppl scammers show how ignorant you are, ppl join the bitcoin thing for the profit and you dont allow ppl to make a profit
genjix That's a bunch of shit and you fucking know it- but I would expect continued attempts by you to discredit any and all claims.
How much money have you had in there to bother us all with personal attacks ? While I agree on most of what you say, please start a new thread about it,
Sorry ,,,/not your fault/ Following this shit has gotten very tiresome.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
I think only the scammers are making noise here to rush the process for their selfish gains.

this line show how wrong you are, you are keeping the ppls money and dont pay any compensation, if you compensate me with lets say 0,1-0,5% from total balance for each day that can be "fair", you keep my funds and i cant join the market, calling ppl scammers show how ignorant you are, ppl join the bitcoin thing for the profit and you dont allow ppl to make a profit


genjix That's a bunch of shit and you fucking know it- but I would expect continued attempts by you to discredit any and all claims.
hero member
Activity: 532
Merit: 500
I just want to ask, Was it worth it all you short-selling bastards?

btc is up compared to where it was a month ago. Fuck short-selling! Great job bitcoinica hackers!

That is all!

Fact: Every BTC that gets shorted has to be bought back at a later time.
Fact: Every BTC that gets longed (on leverage) has to be sold back at a later time.

Bitcoinica's effect on the price is _always_ only temporary due to these simple facts.

Assuming they aren't a bucketshop that only does paper trades.

Bingo! and that's why there's been no effect until some weeks later when there's real bank runs in europe.

but then - that's probably why there isn't really enough money to cover the customers, and that's probably why it was "robbed" in the first place - but some fool will tell me I have my tinfoil hat on wrong - and that zhoutong cashing out into USD in a hurry on the forum wasn't a red flag signaling all this.

I'm sorry people but after today's conversation - I am seriously starting to wonder if there is any intention AT ALL to return the funds.

With the negative shit that phantomcircuit has spewed the whole fucking time about zhoutong this, and zhoutong that, and the tone of this conversation http://pastie.org/4096261 I'm starting to get the impression that

1. Not much chance of anyone gettting any money back but
2. badmouthing him is going to assure that you don't

I am sick and goddamn tired of phantomcircuit's bullshit intimidation tactics - but that's ok - karma has a way of fucking people who do that.

Frankly I'm sick of these assholes holding money hostage. But, what can we do - it's wrth nothing to anyone anymore - phantomcircuit & gejix have fucked their reputations on this shit, and they're not gonna have anything at all to show for it.
sr. member
Activity: 437
Merit: 250
If a reputable person will setup a legal fund and maintain it I'm offering to donate to the cause. Even though I don't expect to ever get my couple hundred dollars back in btc. I still want to help. Actions speak way louder than words. Right now the owners of bitcoinica obviously think they can put this off indefinitely. They think we are all talk and nothing will happen to them.  How can genjix say that people who are being impatient, must be scammers. We have been patient for over a month. Am I the only one who is infuriated? I told zhoutong that something was happening the night of the attack and they couldn't get the hacker out of their system? What a fail. The hack is irrelevant now though they are just making more and more money as time goes on off our btc

edit: I just wanted to clarify I don't blame this on zhoutong, it does seem like he has been the most helpful and the most willing to try to make things right
hero member
Activity: 616
Merit: 502
just do not take more claims ... (I think you've already done) Continue to buy for the money customer .. 1 more ... 2 dollars up - and have enough money for that would return 100% of everything.  Roll Eyes I am happy and I'll wait. The operation is going well. Bitcoinica save and trust  Grin. You are doing a good job for the community. Or am I wrong?
vip
Activity: 490
Merit: 502
Even though it's someone else's intellectual property, it'll be great if I can get permission from Bitcoinica LP to open source the legacy version of Bitcoinica.

If the code is really rubbish like some Consultancy people said, they shouldn't mind sharing the rubbish. I'm very interested in sharing the code though.
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