Quote from: The Pharmacist on October 28, 2018, 03:02:38 PM

Quote from: hilariousetc on October 28, 2018, 07:44:40 AM

I'm really on the fence about mdayonliner. He could just be one of those naive guys who jumps into the deep end head first and wants to just make a bit of cash as fast as he can and however he can

I've said it before, I think mdayonliner was just being too ambitious both in his efforts to make money and build a reputation for himself on bitcointalk--the latter is always why I thought he offered to escrow that huge amount. But I also agree that once an amount like $100k is in someone's hands, there's got to be some temptation to just take it and run. I never thought his escrow offer was a scam attempt, but it was ill-advised at best.

As far as the ponzi stuff goes, I have very mixed feelings on it, but only as far as when it happens on bitcointalk. For one thing, ponzis have their own section here, so you know they're rampant and Theymos doesn't give a shit about them, and another reason is that I think most people who participate in these "investor-based games" basically know what they're getting into and that just like other forms of gambling, there's only a small chance of winning. I've always thought that whole section should be nuked, but it must benefit the forum or the bitcoin community....or someone.

Sometimes people's goal is just to make money in any which way they can. I think his ponzi past it's relevant because there's usually a certain type of people who get involved with them - get rich schemers who don't really care how or why they get their money as long as it enriches them. Of course, many of them probably know what they're getting into and accept the risks, but if you're ok with making money from ponzis where you know someone is going to end up out of pocket it's not a big step to taking money that doesn't belong to you when you get the chance, especially when it's a huge amount and running off with it would likely have no repercussions legally. As with mdayonliner we will never know whether he would have or not, but the risk for me is too big to ignore unluckily for him. I never really trust anyone who offers to hold onto other's money when they're not qualified to and more often than not it does go sour when they do and that's why this is such a big issue that makes me intrinsically distrust people when they do it.