This is not exactly true. Maybe half of the assets issued and traded at GLBSE have been mining bonds (/me operating one of them), with the collected coins from IPO being used to crowd-fund mining equipment. Or funding ASIC developments (like ASICMINER). True that the other half of Bitcoin economy was build around Pirate directly (via PPT) or indirectly (investment funds, insurances, etc.), but I'd refuse to accept that those constructs have been set up and operated to fraud investors intentionally.

We had some sort of euphoric phase where the majority of investors assumed that 1.5% weekly returns are doable in long term - an unquestionable indication that we were in a bubble that was going to burst. Nefario closing down GLBSE only shorten what was inevitable (after Pirate collapsing and taking half of the economy with him), but his chosen way to put this to an end effectively harmed the honest people and favoured those with dishonest intentions. Look into the securities section and check who is establishing direct dealings with their investors to pay back their obligations... All others got a great opportunity to wash their hands of responsibility claiming they can't do much without their investor's data


I personally lost more to Pirate than I did with GLBSE, but the later incident shook my confidence in the Bitcoin scene way more: while I was just stupid and greedy enough to give my hard earned coins to Pirate (i.e. it was my responsibility and I kind of deserved what I got), loosing coins with the GLBSE fiasco just left one impression: whom can I trust if not Nefario (who has been one of a handful community members many of us blindly trusted)?


What a pity.