No I'm not trying to stir up speculation. But look at the facts here...

1) A guy we only know as 'Nefario' starts a Bitcoin securities market -- but during a big presentation in late 2012 doesn't know what 'arbitrage' means, and has referred to stock shares as 'equity steak' in private messages.

2) In Sep 2012, Nefario gives this talk, and it seems like things at GLBSE are going great.  When an audience member asks a question regarding legality, he casually dismisses the problem, and indicates he hasn't even bothered consulting a lawyer.  He acts completely arrogant yet clueless.

3) Weeks later, 'Nefario' shuts down the exchange without any explanation.  He refuses to release the shareholder database for over a month, there is evidence he ignored shareholder bylaws in shutting the whole thing down, and it comes out that the "Treasurer" of the organization only holds about 10% of the user funds.  The rest of the funds are under 'Nefario's' Direct control.

4) Even during the payout phase, which has taken way too long, there are screw-ups, double payments, etc.

5) The Treasurer claims that not only did Nefario violate shareholder bylaws repeatedly, and indicates he wouldn't listen to their votes, but the Treasurer also claims that Nefario was using user funds for personal purposes (hiring a lawyer, etc)

6) Nefario was involved in these forums, registering domain names as early as Dec 2010.  This is around the time Satoshi registered on Bitcoin talk.  This means Nefario was a REALLY early adopter  (yet can't spell 'equity stake'?) .  It's interesting yet strange.

7) Nefario is connected via these domain registrations (some of which are businesses which have absolutely nothing to do with Bitcoins).  The addresses he is connected to include one in Ireland, possibly one in China, and at least two in the UK.

The guy is so broke at one point that he has to borrow 400 pounds off Bitcoin-OTC (against some of his bitcoins) to pay for some basic necessities in his life.

9) So he's completely broke at one point recently, but he has lived in Ireland, China, and multiple places in the UK.   Which is it?  

How much was he paying himself out of GLBSE?  Where are the financial records?  Where did the money go?  Why was the exchange shut down?  Was he visited by the authorities?  If so, whom?  What did they say?  Are any clients at legal risk?  Are any shareholders at legal risk ?  Who holds copies of the database?  What have his lawyers said (if he has consulted with any)?

This whole thing stinks.

Here's my point:

These facts look pretty shady.

You can register a domain name with a fake name.  It's easy, and anyone that has registered domains knows that you can either enable Domain Privacy (so it doesn't show your address) , or you can use a completely fake name entirely.   There is no reason that these WHOIS queries should be listed under his real name, unless he gave that name when registering.

If there are business records showing his name is identical to the WHOIS registration, then that adds to the evidence that it's his real name.  I have not seen those records.

I don't think it's unreasonable considering the circumstances to ask if this is the guys real name.   There is no evidence to suggest that Nefario has an alias, but also I don't consider a WHOIS query to be proof of someone's name -- especially when we are talking about a guy with poor judgement at best, and a scammer or narc at worst.

I think what happened is as follows:

Nefario is a decent developer, but doesn't know anything about finance and foolishly ignores the laws regarding the exchange of securities.  At one point, probably in late September or October 2012, he consults a lawyer or gets a visit from the authorities, and so gets spooked.  He either unilaterally decides to shut everything down to avoid jail time / liability, or has been visited by the authorities who have threatened him.  He ignores all the shareholder bylaws and does whatever he wants.

If it was the authorities, he has NOT told the public the details (even though this would be his moral obligation in either case).  So the guy is obviously foolish and completely untrustworthy.  The silence (he hasn't been on the forums in awhile now) and the lack of transparency are the proof that something is up.

If you can prove to me his real name is James (with evidence besides a WHOIS query)  , then I'll believe it.  But otherwise, considering the other lies, half-truths, and complete lack of transparency here, I don't think it would be prudent to assume we know his real name based on a domain registration, since these are easy to fake.

And if I was a shareholder or a business at GLBSE, I'd demand Nefario come on here and explain the whole truth to the public -- tell us exactly what the hell happened.  That is his obligation, but he won't do that , because his prime directive is to protect his own ass above all else .

 And that is a fact regardless of whatever his real name is.

At present, I've concluded there are only a few 'legit' remaining alt-coins at the moment (ie. not dead yet) , with varying degrees of legitimacy.

Litecoin (LTC)
PPCoin (PPC)
Namecoin (NMC)
Devcoin (DVC)
Terracoin (TRC)
Liquidcoin (LQC)


All of the remaining alt-coins which are not dead are Bitcoin Forks -- with the two main exception being PPcoin (using 'proof of work' along with 'proof of stake') and Liquidcoin (which is based on Tenebrix and modified Bitcoin).

The main advantage of a pure Bitcoin fork (Litecoin, Namecoin, Devcoin, and Terracoin) is that the security model is well analyzed, and the strengths and weaknesses are well-known.   Yet we avoid the existing bureaucracy and codebase from Bitcoin, allowing the development to take a different direction from BTC.

However, this 'inheritance' of Bitcoin's security model certainly does not apply to PPcoin.

I have yet to see a comprehensive whitepaper or design document on PPcoin.   There is a complete lack of transparency with PPcoin, and it seems to be based upon novelty of 'proof of stake' without any comprehensive cryptographic rationale.

Criticisms of PPcoin:

(1) The author has not published a Design Document or a Protocol Specification ... only an extremely shallow non-academic whitepaper , which prevents analysis of how addition of proof-of-stake affects the security model.

(2) The author is not amenable to community suggestions (such as integrating the proof-of-stake and proof-of-work blocks together, rather than keeping them separate) to increase security.

(3) There have been numerous criticisms regarding the PPcoin protocol security on these forums, but the PPcoin author seems to take a 'trust me I'll fix it in the next release' approach to security.  Why rush to release PPcoin in an immature form (with an awful name), rather than taking the time to get the design right from the start?   Arrogance and secrecy is not a substitute for security.

(4) It appears the PPcoin algorithm uses SHA256 rather than Scrypt.  Why is this fact so buried (in that we need to wade through the source to learn about it?)   

(5) Lack of transparency.  There is not an open discussion of flaws, strengths, weaknesses and possible attacks.  These are shot down by the author as being 'unrealistic' even though these attacks (accumulating 'stake' to attack the protocol) are quite realistic.

(6) The phonetic name "Pee-pee coin"... Would Coca-Cola have succeeded if it was called "PP-cola"?

As such, I do not consider PPcoin to be a secure alternative cryptocurrency.   Certainly not until the PPcoin author takes the time to draft and publish a comprehensive and detailed design document and/or protocol specification (with rationale for design choices, strengths, weaknesses, etc) to the community (rather than suggesting the community wade through the source code , and reverse engineer the protocol from the source).

Why is nefario connected with all these other businesses?  Do we even know his real name?   This is starting to look really shady.  Do we even know his name is actually James McCarthy?

This is from the litecoinforums...

Nefario registered bitcoinglobal.com back in late December 2010 !

bitcoinglobal.com

   Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)
   Domain Name: BITCOINGLOBAL.COM
      Created on: 28-Dec-10
      Expires on: 28-Dec-12
      Last Updated on: 08-Jan-12

   Registrant:
   James McCarthy
   Whiterock Cottage
   Hacketstown, Carlow C01
   Ireland

   Administrative Contact:
      McCarthy, James  doctor.nefario@gmail.com
      Whiterock Cottage
      Hacketstown, Carlow C01
      Ireland
      +353.0863702317

Brainwallets are a great idea; just don't forget the phrase if you are storing a lot of money!

BTC is essentially the digital equivalent of gold due to its scarcity.

Yes I think trusting unconfirmed transactions (or low confirmation transactions) opens up possibility of double spend attack depending on which blockchain the network ultimately agrees upon.  Anyone care to elaborate?

This is why you should only use services like exchanges or instawallets for temporary holding of small amounts of BTC.  Larger amounts should always be in an offline wallet (cold storage).

Hi I'm fido I like bitcoins and other alt currencies (LTC etc).  I'm joining to discuss these topics.