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Topic: The pirate-based shitstorm was and is a necessary regulator (Read 2829 times)

legendary
Activity: 2646
Merit: 1137
All paid signature campaigns should be banned.
Bitcoins are like adult money, you control it and nobody can tell you what to do with it. And nobody can help you if you you do something stupid with it.

If the government controlled bitcoin I would have been prevented from losing 10BTC to satoshi dice, but freedom must include the freedom to do something stupid.

I look forward to the day the first criminal demands a large ransom paid in bitcoins.  Not because I support the criminal or the crime, but because I want to see what the reaction from various governments/Mastercard/Visa/banks will be.

We all know bitcoin is pseudo anonymous with every participant holding a copy of all transactions (bad for the criminal), and that eventually to cash out bitcoins the criminal must hit the established banking system (yikes), but it will be a good test to see just how Free bitcoins are.
Didn't this already happen in the Romney tax returns extortion case?  And the result was that the guy was caught and arrested.

Interestingly he was caught in a way similar to the molecular/joe incident mentioned above:  he delivered a flash drive that contained a picture of a cat on it and the picuture of the cat was used against him.
legendary
Activity: 1692
Merit: 1018
Bitcoins are like adult money, you control it and nobody can tell you what to do with it. And nobody can help you if you you do something stupid with it.

If the government controlled bitcoin I would have been prevented from losing 10BTC to satoshi dice, but freedom must include the freedom to do something stupid.

I look forward to the day the first criminal demands a large ransom paid in bitcoins.  Not because I support the criminal or the crime, but because I want to see what the reaction from various governments/Mastercard/Visa/banks will be.

We all know bitcoin is pseudo anonymous with every participant holding a copy of all transactions (bad for the criminal), and that eventually to cash out bitcoins the criminal must hit the established banking system (yikes), but it will be a good test to see just how Free bitcoins are.
donator
Activity: 2772
Merit: 1019
Dollars are like toy money given to us by our parent governments. They tell us how to use it and watch carefully and they try to get it back if you did something stupid with it.

Bitcoins are like adult money, you control it and nobody can tell you what to do with it. And nobody can help you if you you do something stupid with it.

I _love_ this analogy. Will use it.
newbie
Activity: 56
Merit: 0
Dollars are like toy money given to us by our parent governments. They tell us how to use it and watch carefully and they try to get it back if you did something stupid with it.

Bitcoins are like adult money, you control it and nobody can tell you what to do with it. And nobody can help you if you you do something stupid with it.

If the government controlled bitcoin I would have been prevented from losing 10BTC to satoshi dice, but freedom must include the freedom to do something stupid.
legendary
Activity: 1666
Merit: 1000
Good OP and response by Kluge.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
It kept me entertained for a looong time. You guys have no idea how much I laughed when entire scheme collapsed.

Yet you waited until November 12th to register your account on this forum?
Yes, what's wrong with that?
donator
Activity: 2772
Merit: 1019
1 year after the MF GLOBAL meltdown 1.6 BILLION! dollars is still unaccounted for and it is high unlikely John Corzine who the US Congress recently found at fault will server a day in jail.

This reminds me of myself: This particular mistype happens to me a lot. I also tend mistype "silkraod" as it turns out. That brain-bug recently cost me 14 BTC. So BCB, just a tip: don't try to be anonymous. And if you ever do: use a spellchecker.

Molecular

I'm not anonymous, really.  No one is really anonymous on the internet.  And yes I've sent the wrong amount of BTC before but I've had the fortune to be trading with honest traders who've returned the difference.


oh no, I haven't sent the wrong amount to anyone. I put up a bounty as joe23 to find out who he really was as an experiment. They found me because joe23 mistyped silkraod just as exactly one other forum user does: molecular. Wink
BCB
vip
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1002
BCJ
1 year after the MF GLOBAL meltdown 1.6 BILLION! dollars is still unaccounted for and it is high unlikely John Corzine who the US Congress recently found at fault will server a day in jail.

This reminds me of myself: This particular mistype happens to me a lot. I also tend mistype "silkraod" as it turns out. That brain-bug recently cost me 14 BTC. So BCB, just a tip: don't try to be anonymous. And if you ever do: use a spellchecker.

Molecular

I'm not anonymous, really.  No one is really anonymous on the internet.  And yes I've sent the wrong amount of BTC before but I've had the fortune to be trading with honest traders who've returned the difference.
hero member
Activity: 632
Merit: 500
donator
Activity: 2772
Merit: 1019
1 year after the MF GLOBAL meltdown 1.6 BILLION! dollars is still unaccounted for and it is high unlikely John Corzine who the US Congress recently found at fault will server a day in jail.

This reminds me of myself: This particular mistype happens to me a lot. I also tend mistype "silkraod" as it turns out. That brain-bug recently cost me 14 BTC. So BCB, just a tip: don't try to be anonymous. And if you ever do: use a spellchecker.
legendary
Activity: 1652
Merit: 1016
It kept me entertained for a looong time. You guys have no idea how much I laughed when entire scheme collapsed.

Yet you waited until November 12th to register your account on this forum?
BCB
vip
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1002
BCJ
1 year after the MF GLOBAL meltdown 1.6 BILLION! dollars is still unaccounted for and it is high unlikely John Corzine who the US Congress recently found at fault will server a day in jail.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/francinemckenna/2012/10/31/on-mf-global-anniversary-something-still-missing/

Trendon Shavers is a piker compared to this and probably has nothing to worry about from the SEC investigation.

sr. member
Activity: 434
Merit: 250
I actually learned during this ordeal that the SEC can really only hand out slaps on the wrists for obvious fraud. Yay government!
BCB
vip
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1002
BCJ
for the record "Pirate"/"Pirateat40" === "Trendon Shavors"

If you could refer to him by his proper name rather then his nic it's helps with SEO.  The more hits "Trendon Shavors" gets on google, the more likely other who have yet to be scammed by will be kept inform of his methods.

Thanks.


I'm pretty sure it's spelled Shavers, but sure, optimize the wrong spelling.

And he writes Shavors instead of Shavers like 95% of the time lol

fuck fuck fuck.... i'm foiling my own plan.  Post Updated! 

Thx to the bitcointalk spelling patrol! Anyone who bothers to read my posts knows I NEED it!

Thanks.
legendary
Activity: 1358
Merit: 1002
for the record "Pirate"/"Pirateat40" === "Trendon Shavors"

If you could refer to him by his proper name rather then his nic it's helps with SEO.  The more hits "Trendon Shavors" gets on google, the more likely other who have yet to be scammed by will be kept inform of his methods.

Thanks.


I'm pretty sure it's spelled Shavers, but sure, optimize the wrong spelling.

And he writes Shavors instead of Shavers like 95% of the time lol
legendary
Activity: 1904
Merit: 1002
for the record "Pirate"/"Pirateat40" === "Trendon Shavors"

If you could refer to him by his proper name rather then his nic it's helps with SEO.  The more hits "Trendon Shavors" gets on google, the more likely other who have yet to be scammed by will be kept inform of his methods.

Thanks.


I'm pretty sure it's spelled Shavers, but sure, optimize the wrong spelling.
BCB
vip
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1002
BCJ
for the record "Pirate"/"Pirateat40" === "Trendon Shavers"

If you could refer to him by his proper name rather then his nic it's helps with SEO.  The more hits "Trendon Shavers" gets on google, the more likely other who have yet to be scammed by will be kept inform of his methods.

Thanks.
member
Activity: 83
Merit: 10
We all know what happened. The "credit crunch," the "collapse," the "SEC emails," the shitstorm. Pirate ran off with the money, and with him went the shaky foundations of the impromptu Bitcoin lending economy. Even the biggest names in trustworthiness have failed to be responsible with other peoples' money. Lots of money was lost, there's no one left to trust, and that's a good thing.

First off, I am sympathetic towards those who lost money. The fiat world is so heavily regulated that jumping off a cliff is nearly impossible, and those who manage to do so find their landing padded by more regulation, lawsuits, insurance, government guarantees, and ultimately, welfare safety-nets. Thus, the risks associated with transacting  bitcoin are almost surreal in magnitude. It's not only easy to steal, but transactions are irreversable, and loot is easy to launder.

There have been cries for regulation; AnCap opponents have pointed to every major theft over the past few years and said, "see? this is how regulation gets started." Yet the SEC has not returned a single satoshi to any one of Pirate's victims, and with Bitcoin, regulation backed by governmental force is fundamentally impossible.

We must turn to the ultimate regulator: the free market. Though destructive, the shitstorm was a natural tool which arose from truly free exchanges of value. And it's worked exactly as it is supposed to. Next time, the fools (myself included, though my gains currently outnumber my losses) will be a little smarter with their money, or they shall be parted from it again.

Nature simply punishes morons - while state is babysitting them. But pirates ponzi had some other good side: It kept me entertained for a looong time. You guys have no idea how much I laughed when entire scheme collapsed.
legendary
Activity: 1050
Merit: 1003
Make no mistake - all this shit that happened is a direct consequence of the state.

That is some hilarious shit right there. Pirate Ponzi is a direct consequence of the state. Love it!
legendary
Activity: 1078
Merit: 1003
Make no mistake - all this shit that happened is a direct consequence of the state. This is painfully obvious as soon as you agree that we don't and never can have a free market as long as there is a state. Why? Because anonymity and responsibility don't mix.

The state is the reason why so many must hide their identity, since if they want to preserve their safety, well being and wealth, this is the only way to avoid a giant mafia of thugs hurting and robbing them simply for providing a voluntary service to their customers. Were this not the case, non violent ostracization would be made possible as punishment for those service providers that violate their promises and eventually the bad apples would get weeded out. And there are many bad apples.

But being a service provider willing to defraud is not why fraud happens, largely it's still a cost benefit analysis. When your legitimate business doesn't earn you enough to live comfortably but defrauding your clientele would while not really having any negative repercussions for you, there's rarely anyone who possess enough integrity to resist such a temptation. The only thing that customers have here is the hope that the merchant isn't willing to kill his golden goose. And because there are infinite amount of reasons why someone could find it more profitable to kill the golden goose now and run with their customer's money that hope simply is not enough.

You need to know who you are dealing with, it's as simple as that. You need to know their name, their body, their home, if possible their record, their friends, what ever you can in order to significantly increase the cost of defrauding you. I think it's the only way to effectively apply regulations by customers i.e. the only way a free market can possibly function. And until there's a state for most that simply isn't an option and so I do not believe we will be able to solve this, not unless we can figure out a way to create unique IDs and still hide our identity from the government.
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