Quote from: Rassah on September 10, 2012, 03:23:11 AM

Sorry, your "obvious sarcasm" sounded like "egotistical trolling by someone who didn't even read what the initial bet post was about."
Good luck in your Magazine investments. Did you know only 21million copies will ever be produced?

While 21 million seems to be a pretty steep hill to climb, my guess is that not many people will think to have them slabbed in nitrogen charged, hermetically sealed archival grade slabs, and stored in a secret underground vault that is impervious to anything other than a direct thermonuclear strike. So mine will be the only pristine copies left in 20 years, and I will so own that market. Just like I own the market for 1995 Hot Wheels First Editions on Euro Cards. Those babies are in similar storage right now. Yeah, my retirement is set.

Quote from: thezerg on September 10, 2012, 03:26:00 AM

Wierd to see this coming from you. You normally take a very hard line. Sure pirate is the bigger criminal. I'm sure people are after him too. But if Matthew had won, it would have been for about 1M dollars I think. Please remember the context where Vanderoy just made a real bet 50k USD and won. The original bet at 10k was not so out of line.

I did not bet or think he'd pay. Regardless that does not excuse him. We need zero tolerance for these people. Big or small.

I want to pay suppliers in bitcoin. How's that going to happen if they come to these forums and see this cr*p from what seems to be pivotal members of the community?

Sorry to digress from my normal perky character, but we have serious ethical issues here, and my read (and I could be wrong, it's happened once or twice...) is that Matty was thumbing his nose at the greed, stupidity and failure to pay attention to the most basic details that is the hallmark of this community. I did not bet. I don't bet on bitcoins. I bet on craps, Premier League Soccer, and College Football. Not on the integrity of a pirate with a track record that is less than sterling. And certainly not in an obvious attention-whore public mockery like Matt's OP.

I would love to see bitcoins mainstreamed. I have been working on a Fortune 300 supplier and how to integrate bitcoin into their e-commerce strategy. And every single bitcoinica, priate, bitscalper, BTC-Guy, Mr. Bitcoin and so on sets the discussion back further and further, and makes me look like I am promoting the private currency of fools and small time international drug dealing. Now with added political extortion thrown in for good measure.

My basic point is that trashing Matty for this ill-conceived value lesson is classic baby being tossed out with the bath water. We have serious issues in our little funhouse, and serious bad people stealing serious amounts of money. Pirate, the intersango gango, Zhou Tong, Notorious Relic Dealer Chen, bitscalper and the like should be strung up by their thumbs and ritually abused by angry koalas until they repay the good people they have fleeced. Matt just pointed out how stupid we all look chasing after these phantoms and then getting indignant when the inevitable embarrassment of having been ripped-off comes to light.

Quote from: Rassah on September 10, 2012, 03:38:43 AM

Quote from: LoupGaroux on September 10, 2012, 03:17:35 AM

he punk'd the community and held up a mirror so they can see how foolish they look. Pretty smart PR work.

Incidentally, what did you mean by looking foolish? Did you consider the community saying that BTCS&T and other similar HYIPs are either ponzis, scams, or dangerously stupid "investments" to be foolish?

Okay, so this is an edit within and edit, and may cause the universe to collapse, if so I apologize in advance, but I absolutely loathe chain posting. It's just so declasse.

No. I think the community should be required to get up every morning and give the Pledge of I Shall Not Ever Again Be A Willing Imbecile And Believe In HYIPS, Ponzis or Obviously Stupid And Impossible To Sustain Bad Investments Allegiance to the flag of bitcoin.

What is foolish is the amount of outrage over Matt's stunt. All of y'all be honest with yourselves, and in the privacy of your own heart ask yourself... if pigs had flown and pirate had paid... were you going to willingly send your coins to Matt? Hell no, you weren't. Not a single one of the Glorious Google Spreadsheet 72 would have sent him a coin. Maybe some gratitude for guilt-tripping pirate into doing the right thing, but anyone with half a clue saw that this was a stunt. And Matt is still throwing it in our faces (that's the looking foolish part) by pointing out how blinded by greed we act, and how willing we are to be led around by any Pied Piper who will promise us crazy fuck-you money.