PIRATE BUSTED: Bullish or Bearish? | Bitcointalksearch.org

vokain

legendary

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Quote from: MOB on July 26, 2013, 01:40:17 AM

How did he only walk away with $164,000.

The hackers at bitfloor got away with more in one fell swoop and no coppers are chasing them.

i imagine it takes more thought and planning in hacking an exchange and leaving no traces vs running a ponzi.

MOB

hero member

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How did he only walk away with $164,000.

The hackers at bitfloor got away with more in one fell swoop and no coppers are chasing them.

giantdragon

legendary

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Quote from: ?? on ??

The only ways around this would be for the deposit taker to either receive authorization from the SEC (yeah right), or try to block American clients. Satoshi Dice started doing this with an IP checker (though it is not hard to get around it). I think this is sufficient to remain out of the regulator's crosshairs as it is enough to show that they are not actively seeking US-based clients.

It is very naive to believe that blocking US IPs will prevent from crackdown! Erik Voorhees already understand this and took proactive measures (i.e. sold SatoshiDICE while fools still believe IP blocking will save from govt attack and thus ready to pay $12M).

The only safe way is to move away from the U.S./its friendly countries IMHO. Most "grey" BTC service owners will do this in the future when pressure become too tough.

crumbs

full member

Activity: 210

Merit: 100

Quote from: byronbb on July 24, 2013, 11:03:54 PM

Quote from: ElectricMucus on July 24, 2013, 10:43:09 AM

On the bright side this news should at least deter any potential imitators.

BFL jokes aside, I am surprised we have not seen a massive ASIC scam.

I could be dead-wrong, but this: https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/activemining-the-official-active-mining-discussion-thread-252531
TL;DR: ActiveMining, a shell company ("virtual identity" in the words of its "owner") with a Belize registration, a London PO Box mailing address, an empty warehouse in Missouri, US, claims of 28nm chips and plenty of knowledgeable investors with ~month-old accounts rabidly defending its honor. Oh, almost forgot -- selling "virtual shares."

byronbb

legendary

Activity: 1414

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HODL OR DIE

Quote from: ElectricMucus on July 24, 2013, 10:43:09 AM

On the bright side this news should at least deter any potential imitators.

BFL jokes aside, I am surprised we have not seen a massive ASIC scam.

JimboToronto

legendary

Activity: 4186

Merit: 4855

You're never too old to think young.

It hasn't seemed to have any effect so far.

I think anyone who would confuse the Ponzi scheme with Bitcon would have sold out long ago.

ElectricMucus

legendary

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Marketing manager - GO MP

On the bright side this news should at least deter any potential imitators.

Cluster2k

legendary

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Merit: 1018

Back when PirateAt40's inevitable scam collapsed I mentioned the collapse to a friend. He had heard about bitcoins before and said 'see, I told you that bitcoin thing was just a scam'. I had to carefully explain PirateAt40 used bitcoin to commit a scam. It was just a tool.

In the short term the SEC action means the general public hears about bitcoin and another scam, which is definately not good. Longer term the news may be better as the US government is interested in chasing people setting up obvious scams, even when it comes to things the US government doesn't recognise as money.

A Zero Hedge link to the main article claimed Mr Shavers had already spent a large chunk of the bitcoins by carefully investing in his own personal lifestyle. Don't expect a seizure and large amounts of bitcoins to be handed back to mathematically challenged victims. 1% returns per day, who would honestly believe that? Seems like quite a few did.

MikeH

sr. member

Activity: 406

Merit: 250

it's not good because people are seeing 'bitcoin' and 'ponzi scheme' in headlines and don't read the story - they just comment with told you so!! eediots.

crumbs

full member

Activity: 210

Merit: 100

Quote from: ?? on ??

This news has much more to do with HYIPs/PONZIs than it does with BTC.

Earlier this year, a long-running and extremely popular HYIP called Profitable Sunrise ...

The name is pure win & kittens! Cheesy

mp420

hero member

Activity: 501

Merit: 500

Those who benefited most from the ponzi were Pirates co-conspirators (or early investors, depending on your viewpoint) who got out of the scheme before it collapsed.

It is not entirely unbelievable that the authorities will want to go after the early investors and passthrough services. Even if they believed in the scheme it constitutes criminal negligence to actually act on such frivolous beliefs, propagating the scheme.

None of this matters much, as far as the BTC market is considered.

jaakkop

member

Activity: 63

Merit: 10

Quote from: Chalkbot on July 23, 2013, 12:30:44 PM

I don't think it matters if the coins come back or not. It's bullish in the sense that the SEC saw fit to get involved. If this was a WoW gold ponzi, the chances of that happening are highly unlikely, despite the fact that they are traded for dollars on the secondary market. This will work as an indirect endorsement for bitcoin legitimacy.

My thoughts exactly

Getting back those coins would be interesting to see... Brainwallets and plausible deniability ftw

GeniuSxBoY

hero member

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What ever happened to that Bruce Wagner motherfucker? Did karma get him yet?

Kluge

donator

Activity: 1218

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Pointless and without teeth. Mostly indifferent.

Short-term bullish, long-term bearish, but not much - I guess. Potentials will be lost by being turned off to BTC as a ponzi scheme, but having it mentioned is always good while BTC isn't mainstream. SEC "involvement," though, I don't think many will take seriously, as there isn't any serious effort being displayed by the SEC.

"We found a guy who people reported stole money, and we believe them. We think he's bad. We charged this guy who may or may not still be in the US, but we think he was a Texan. Please don't start or invest in ponzis. We're still an effective LEO bureaucracy, because even if no results come of this, we've made a statement condemning bad actions."

Lemme know when they have him in captivity, because right now, this comes off to me as an indication of powerlessness by the SEC.

ArticMine

legendary

Activity: 2282

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Monero Core Team

Whether this is bullish or bearish in the short term depends on how much BTC are left. I suspect well under 100K BTC. Still we must keep in mind there may be creditors here such as the IRS who would likely sell BTC to cover unpaid withholding taxes for example. Short term somewhat bearish. Long term bullish.

Cyberdyne

hero member

Activity: 630

Merit: 500

Quote from: Birdy on July 23, 2013, 09:08:49 PM

Quote from: bitcon on July 23, 2013, 08:37:42 PM

if the investors get their btc back, it might be bearish if they cash out. if Trendon had an encrypted or hidden wallet, or the BTC are unrecoverable, then having 700,000 BTC vanish / locked out of the blockchain would be a bullish thing.

It's not 700,000 BTC, nearly all of that had been paid out earlier in the scheme, lost in daytrading or sold for cash already.

-> this amount will not be locked out the blockchain
-> people won't get it back

The benefitters of his scheme were obviously all those day-traders that were on the other side of his losing trades. The money then is long gone.

Birdy

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Quote from: bitcon on July 23, 2013, 08:37:42 PM

if the investors get their btc back, it might be bearish if they cash out. if Trendon had an encrypted or hidden wallet, or the BTC are unrecoverable, then having 700,000 BTC vanish / locked out of the blockchain would be a bullish thing.

It's not 700,000 BTC, nearly all of that had been paid out earlier in the scheme, lost in daytrading or sold for cash already.

-> this amount will not be locked out the blockchain
-> people won't get it back

byronbb

legendary

Activity: 1414

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HODL OR DIE

Quote from: Hyena on July 23, 2013, 02:51:48 PM

How did they manage to bust a half-wit con man ?

??

bitcon

legendary

Activity: 2212

Merit: 1008

if the investors get their btc back, it might be bearish if they cash out. if Trendon had an encrypted or hidden wallet, or the BTC are unrecoverable, then having 700,000 BTC vanish / locked out of the blockchain would be a bullish thing.

Coinseeker

sr. member

Activity: 252

Merit: 250

I just read the CNN version of the bust and it didn't read negatively toward Bitcoin at all. In fact, it basically justified Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as legitimate and warned people to beware of such scams when dealing with virtual currencies. I think it's a real stretch to call this "bullish" news but I don't see any need for anyone to panic either.

Topic: PIRATE BUSTED: Bullish or Bearish? (Read 4094 times)