The only lesson you taught the community was that you are not a reliable business partner.
No, I'm pretty sure if anyone is learning a lesson right now, it's the loud mouths who were attacking Pirate investors for being "ignorant". I guess they too are getting a dose of their own medicine!
No, I'd be willing to bet (hah) that most of the people who got scammed where pirate investors looking to hedge.
Indeed. It was pretty
clear to me he wouldn't pay a loss from the get-go, and quickly became an obvious self-parody.
The people he hurt were the hedgers.
I suspect most of Team Ponzi realized that Matthew was more likely than not full of shit, but reckoned it was even less likely Pirate would pay back depositors. It would be rational to make a "bet" where you're 99% sure Matthew won't pay if you also think there's only a 0.1% chance Pirate will pay back his "investors." EV for such a bet is 1.009.