OP updated:
Part 5: Everything Falls Apart
Part 1: Bob.
There was a mole in the group.
We figured this out about halfway through XST. We were getting dumped into every time we pushed.
The worst part about the mole was not the information they stole, or the BTC they cost us, it was what they did to the fabric of the group. We were unable to root out the mole, and this changed everything.
The group chat had up until then been a rowdy, raucous free for all where Bob and the footsoldiers rubbed shoulders and smoked weed every day. Plays were discussed, strategies analyzed. Bob would hold forth on how to trade, how to make stacks. He would greet everyone with delight as they arrived. Bro! How you doin? You selling some? Dont be greedy man, put up some small sells every day. But most of the chat was way off topic. Real estate in South America. How to stop Isis. Profit margins in a pizza business. Nootropics. Tattoos. Every variety of sex known to or ever possibly performed by humans, including midget clowns. Especially midget clowns.
The chat was our dusty meeting place that we hurried to as soon as we switched on our computers each day. It was open all day on our phones at work. It was the last window closed before sleep at night. And upon awakening, we would scroll the hundreds of messages, hungry for everything we had missed out on while sleeping.
That all came to an end because of the mole. And because the chat was our very heart, it was the beginning of the end for the group.
Once we were aware there was a mole, strategy was rarely talked about in the chat. Group plays were no longer discussed among equals, they were passed down from on high, carefully filtered. Bob withdrew from the chat more and more.
This killed us. The foot soldiers missed Bob. We liked him a lot. We had gathered around closely whenever he was there. And now he was mostly gone.
We were increasingly without a leader. Pauls cool, cerebral style attracted some of the soldiers, but that could not fill the vacuum of Bob. The Salamander was even less suited to step in and lead. He was not a social animal like Bob. He was a quiet man, a fixer, a behind the scenes specialist.
But Bob did not see these things and trusted that somehow the group was being led. His mind was elsewhere. He was getting ready to leave for nearly a month on a trip and would not be back until just before the BitBay ICO. The Salamander was leaving the same day for Asia, where he would be coordinating preparations for BitBay. Bob asked Paul to hold the fort while he was gone.
2) The Salamander
I knew the Salamander least of all. He rarely spoke in the chat unless directly addressed. It was clear Bob trusted him, and that he played a key role in the group. But it was unclear to almost all of us who he was, and what exactly he did.
What I will tell you of the Salamander I mainly found out later, after things had fallen apart. And that was this: he was the fixer. The briefcase guy. The one who would go where the job needed to get done, then leave. And no one would know he had been there.
He had found us the coin for BitSwift. He was quietly involved in a half a other dozen coins. He had open back channels to almost everyone in crypto. He was everything Bob was not: quiet, methodical, invisible.
As the group began to stumble, the Salamander on his way to Asia to coordinate the BitBay ICO with the Chinese partners and David Zimbeck. In a perfect world, this would have worked out well. After all, the Salamander was a fixer. A project organizer. But as you know, gentle reader, this was not to be.
3) The bag holders.
We were looking for a leader. We came to the chat every day as October wore on. Anyone seen Bob? became a standard phrase we would find sitting in the chat window. Rotting. Unanswered. Just a blinking cursor.
The Mintpal 2.0 launch delay had killed us. Of course we had stayed in XST too long. We could have been out with 200 300% profits. But the air had been thick with moon talk and the tech looked good and Bob didnt actually tell us directly, get out. now. Bob never said, no more. So we stayed in, and got hammered by dumps.
It was decided that XST launching on Mintpal 2.0 was going to be our exit. But Mintpal went down in flames and soon after, weaknesses were uncovered in the Stealth anon. XST tanked. And we were truly screwed.
Less than a month later, Swift was at the top, up almost 400% since the ICO. And the same thing happened. Everyone Bob included - was talking moon. So we did not exit. We foot soldiers wanted to be team players, so we set high support. And got dumped into again.
Around that time, about a dozen people from the crew had decided to do a meet up in Amsterdam. Bob changed his flights so he could be there. The Salamander was on his way to Asia, and he too rebooked. When chat started streaming in from the whole crew in the basement of the Bulldog in Amsterdam it sounded fucking legendary. One of us messaged back, what is Bob saying about Swift?
I cant believe those guys havent gotten out. What, they are up 300% and thats not enough? What have I said, over and over again. Dont be greedy. Sell a little every day.
Bob was almost out of Swift. Paul was just getting started. We were holding bags of worthless XST, and had missed our exit from Swift. There was a mole in the group. We had no leader. The mood was turning foul.
Everything was falling apart.
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Intermezzo:
The BitBay ICO was a different animal for Bobs group. It was, in some ways, a risky move.
For the first time, Bob would not control the coin.
Bobs involvement was fairly limited: the Chinese heavies who were starting BitBay had lined up a dev in Zimbeck. But they had no expertise in marketing a coin. This was to be the responsibility of Bob and his group, in return for their share of the ICO.
The problem was that Bob did not control the majority of the coin supply. Bob was an old school pumper: he knew that knowing where the coins were, and having control over what was happening with them was crucial for moving a market. With BitBay the Chinese would hold the majority of the coins. And they could shaft Bob at anytime.
The Salamander was sent to China to sign off on the deal for Bob. The Salamander was not supposed to be the fixer this time around: Steve was in charge of the project. And Zimbeck of Halo fame had signed on to be the dev.
But what the Salamander found happening in Cambodia needed fixing. And thats where the trouble began.
To be continued.