Now, now smoothster... take your meds and relax friend. I do care if people lost money. I care a great deal, as I am one of those people who is currently at a net loss with the pirate disaster. And, no, for the record, I am not going to whine about it, I'm a big boy and decided to throw a couple coins into that cesspool, and no, I never told anybody how filthy or shady it was before we all collectively got screwed. And for full disclosure, my name does not appear on Matty's list of bettors. It never would have. I only bet three things, craps, Premier League soccer and US football. Never on shady, stupid plays having book made on how ignorant people can be. Which I assure you is what rational people saw Matty's bet to be.

But, let's take a moment and pull the curtain back for a peek at the reasoning behind my thoughts...

First off, I have nothing to lose here. Net, net, net since day one with bitcoins, I am comfortably ahead. I got to ride the roller coaster in the $30 era, and I have kick-out points in anything I do financially. I kicked, and own all my mining rigs free and clear, have put a few shekels aside as profit, and could give a rat's ass about reputation. What a group of anonymous folks on an online forum think of me means nothing to me. I an universally reviled in other online communities, including one where I am considered to be the most massive douche-bag of all time because I rode a flashy investment vehicle to a rapid killing, and bailed before the market inevitably tanked, with a shiny 5 series BMW to show for 30 days work, because I didn't share the secret of my success with the rest of the nasty insiders who were manipulating the game. I out-gamed the gamers, and that pisses people off.

Second off- Matthew is a well meaning goofball character. He is Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in terms of self-promotion, and is an incurable attention whore. Unfortunately like most whores that I know, he is rather indiscriminate about who he bumps nasties with. Here he thought to make a point via the vehicle of pranksterism, and to shame the folks that called ponzi/scam/douche-bag early on what he (Matthew) felt was a valid investment. Well, that turned out to be a pretty bad decision. Sort of what championing Zhou Tong was like earlier this summer for him. So, let's stipulate that he is rash, impulsive and doesn't use up a lot of pre-planning on what checks his furious typing skills are writing.

But, I suggest we look at him in a different light than a fraud. Who here didn't know Matt was the class clown? Who here didn't expect him to find some silly-ass way to welsh the bet? Who here, and be honest now, actually thought that some happy go lucky entrepreneurial techno-impresario in Korea with a fetish for horse costumes actually had a million dollars in bitcoin stashed to play at silly buggers with? Who suffered actual damages? Nobody bought that critical surgery to keep Mom alive with their anticipate winnings from this absurd wager. Nobody is losing their homes, lives, honor or one single penny of their wealth. And quite frankly, I don't think a single person on the list would have actually paid a penny to Matt if pirate had decided to spank his little ass and make good. Especially not the piling on at the last moment clowns who got ouchy when he wouldn't take their bets.

But, he didn't win. He found his silly little technicality (and Matty- if you are reading this, there are a whole lot better ways to play this particular prank! Write me, you could have done this a lot less suicidally.) and thought everyone who have a big belly laugh at themselves for such a silly joke, and move on. Oops. Apparently a whole lot of very angry, very easily impressed folks thought they could recoup their losses through the simple expedient of a sure thing bet. Forgetting only the most basic rule that every gambler should know... the House is the only winner in any wager.

So, all snide comments and alleged side sitting aside, nobody lost a thing. Except Matt. He lost a job, he lost his honor, his lost his reputation, he lost the respect that he had worked very hard to build, and he lost his nickname which is now besmirched with a Scammer Tag. A richly deserved, and agreed in advance Scammer Tag.

Do we execute him a nineteenth time for this dumb move? Your call, Caesar. My point in this, and indeed in defending Matthew from some of the vitriol, is that we have really big, slimy ashholish fish to fry in these affairs. Matt is a very, very minor sideshow that means nothing when compared to the great fraud that has happened. Let's not spend all our time beating the poor kid to death for making a dumb choice- let's all gang up instead on the assholes who are actually stealing really big amounts of money. Let's grab the pitchforks and torches, the tar and the feathers and go Biblical on their asses. We have real villains to worry about here, so who are still mouth-breathing their schemes all over this community every day, and we are all too busy with the minutia to see the meteor crashing into our world.

So, if that still makes me a despised jackass in your eyes, eh, whatever. Sorry you feel that way. Chances are you will never have the exquisite pleasure of knowing firsthand anything about my balls, pro or con, as I play strictly het, and whatever you are alluding to with having the "most to lose" is so vague and churlish that I won't dignify it with a specific response.

And finally (yeah, I know TL;DR...) why limit yourself with necro ad hominem attacks... get Mr. Bitcoin in your post for some besmirching, what about Pattaya Brucie? Bitscalper? C'mon, you can do a whole lot better than BCX.

With enormous respect, I remain, cordially, your friend,

Loup Garoux. (and I fucking hate emoticons, and consider them to be a tool of the devil and otaku girls so I will not give you any, but insert some in your mind as appropriate.)