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Bitcoin Claims Its First "Real" Victim
[UPDATE: Tech in Asia has updated the article to emphasize that suicide is only suggested and not certain]
The last few weeks have been dismally littered with two things. The virtual losses of virtual wealth from virtual currency speculation and the very real losses of very real humans with very real senior financial services positions. Sadly, as NewsWatch reports, tonight sees the two trends converge as the 28-year-old CEO of Singapore-based Bitcoin exchange First Meta has been found dead. The exact reason that may have led to the suicide is not known, and whether the Police have concluded that the cause of death is suicide is also unofficial.
According to Tech in Asia, Singapore-based Bitcoin exchange platform First Meta’s 28 year old CEO Autumn Radtke committed suicide.
Reasons are currently unknown.
First Meta is a Singaporean start up company that runs a exchange platform for virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. The news of suicide of its CEO Autumn Radtke spread on Facebook and Twitter, drawing attention from the BItcoin industry.
The exact reason that may have led to the suicide is not known, and whether the Police have concluded that the cause of death is suicide is also unofficial. First Meta has stated that an official announcement will be given by the company soon.
Before joining First Meta, Radtke was the Director of Business Development at Xfire – a company that develops IM systems for gamers. Radtke was also the Co-founder, Business Development at Geodelic Systems, Inc.
There have been 9 senior financial services deaths in recent weeks:
1 – William Broeksmit, 58-year-old former senior executive at Deutsche Bank AG, was found dead in his home after an apparent suicide in South Kensington in central London, on January 26th.
2- Karl Slym, 51 year old Tata Motors managing director Karl Slym, was found dead on the fourth floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok on January 27th.
3 – Gabriel Magee, a 39-year-old JP Morgan employee, died after falling from the roof of the JP Morgan European headquarters in London on January 27th.
4 – Mike Dueker, 50-year-old chief economist of a US investment bank was found dead close to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State.
5 – Richard Talley, the 57 year old founder of American Title Services in Centennial, Colorado, was found dead earlier this month after apparently shooting himself with a nail gun.
6 -Tim Dickenson, a U.K.-based communications director at Swiss Re AG, also died last month, however the circumstances surrounding his death are still unknown.
7 – Ryan Henry Crane, a 37 year old executive at JP Morgan died in an alleged suicide just a few weeks ago. No details have been released about his death aside from this small obituary announcement at the Stamford Daily Voice.
8 - Li Junjie, 33-year-old banker in Hong Kong jumped from the JP Morgan HQ in Hong Kong this week.
9 - James Stuart Jr., a "very successful banker" and Former National Bank of Commerce CEO found dead (with no details of what caused the death) in Scottsdale, Az.
and numerous Bitcoin-related losses - from today's Flexcoin "bank" losses to the infamous Mt.Gox debacle:
As Wired notes,
... But beneath it all, some say, Mt. Gox was a disaster in waiting. Last year, a Tokyo-based software developer sat down in Gox’s first-floor meeting room to talk about working for the company. “I thought it was going to be really awesome,” says the developer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. Soon, however, there were some serious red flags. ...
According to a leaked Mt. Gox document that hit the web last week, hackers had been skimming money from the company for years. The company now says that it’s out a total of 850,000 bitcoins, more than $460 million at Friday’s bitcoin exchange rates. When bitcoin enthusiast Jesse Powell heard this, he was reminded of June 2011.
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I'm kidding. You set that up yourself if you want to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_sharing
You could even have a dead-man switch to transmit the funds.
Or do you really prefer banks/lawyers/IRS to divvy up your estate?
+ a whole bunch, aphlaque! I have to come up with a dead-man's switch sometime for my family. Good planning and all.
"So, if you die and don't hand on your 'wallet' to someone else it's just 'poof' gone?"
Ever wonder how much buried gold and silver is out there, lost forever, because the owner never told anyone?
Just because you can lose it, doesn't mean it isn't money. In fact, I'd argue that the BEST money is the kind that can get lost forever accidentally.
No more lost than the first time those atoms were ever found. Bitcoin's another story.
This thing's too fragile to be used as money. It fails every benefit money ever had.
BitCoin is currency, not money.
Money and currency are not the same.
Currency must be stable enough to use for income & spending.
Bitcoin isn't. Bitcoin is a pennystock without the company connected to the stock.
If "they" can't take it when you no longer have willpower (i.e., you are dead), "they" can't take it while you still have will. Bitcoin requires responsibility, nobody is holding your hand. If you don't enable a plan to transfer your bitcoins while you are alive, then yours are lost when you die and the remaining bitcoins in the world become more scarce.
......aaaaaaaand, it's gone.
"With virtual currency, maybe you CAN take it with you."
As long as one brings along the e-WALLET with him/her into the other universe.
There are some very old traditions in Asia whereas folks burn some specially designed confetti paper money to transfer wealth to the other universe for their beloved ones.
Number four above is interesting due to the history of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
The builder was so confident about it that he pocketed the insurance premiums!
The classic film footage of the bridge swaying and twisting is a good illustration of the effects of destructive interference (self sustaining oscillation).
Anyway,it was called "Galloping Girdy".Just wondered if it was relevant in his mind at the time,poor man...
It's a bridge, where if you jumped you would die,... a very high suspension bridge, and there is not another in the Pacific Northwest, lots of people die from this bridge, ... just like San Francisco Golden Gate, ... a Suicide Magnet.
*
Probably more interesting is the Pitbull connection to Tacoma, the site of your bridge, and Tacoma being the #1 place on earth for love of pitbulls.
Did she own a nail gun??
Yes, but it was virtual.
"There have been 9 senior financial services deaths in recent weeks:"
Tylers, exactly within the last 24 months how many financial services deaths (all causes: suicide or suicided or others) have occurred?
If in recent weeks the death tolls are nine already, then the number for the last 24 months must be mind-boggling!
I think the numbers are being manipulated!
seasonally adjusted
9 senior financial services deaths
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How can a 28 year old be a 'senior fiancial service' executive? Was she working for Goldman Sacks or JPM?
I remember years ago every 20 year old stock brokers biz card said "Vice President".
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In this case Dual Passport young protegee future Billionaires are dying all over Asia? Hmmmm maybe its payback time?
Why are they even in ASIA doing this when they could be doing this in Israel where its illegal?
zionhead101 How can a 28 year old be a 'senior fiancial service' executive? Was she working for Goldman Sacks or JPM?
So if you started your own company at whatever age, would you not be a senior executive?
Is a kid with a lemonade stand, not actually a senior executive?
Anyway, I digress. Many of these technology based companies have people that are young so I am surprised you even ask the question. Haven't some of these technology companies started by college kids or college drop outs?
"Senior" means OLD, ...
My point is last week they were saying 'banker', and this week its 'senior financial service executive ', also WRT your assertion the lemonaide stand or <50 employee company doesn't use the term's executive, or any title.
Her title in PUBLIC was "CEO" of a small business, funded by CALIF/ISRAEL venture capital.
What we have to ask, is why was she operating in Singapore, most likely just like mt-gox to circumvent the US money laundering laws.
*
Lastly, she was not a "SENIOR FINANCIAL SERVICE EXECUTIVE", she was a startup founder of a very small organization that came out of SIM-CITY, and VIRTUAL-LIFE... another words she was female game junky.
~duplicated
It would be easy to make her commit suicide.
One merely has to point out some much worse alternative scenarios. Does she have family? Children? Etc. Would she prefer a long slow lingering death or something quick?
Many will choose the easy way out.
So how are the winklevoss twins doing these days?
Winkelfucks kept their Assets at the Bank of Mt-Gox you figure how they're feeling now.
She was a babe.
My Daughter is older than she was.
I hope that her Mother and Father and family find comfort in their grief.
That is so sad!
Thoughts to her family.
Glad I stayed a thousand miles away from Bitcoins.
Let's not forget Huntercoin's Mikhail Sindeyev (AKA "thecoder). Who died on 14 Feb. , at the feeble old age of 27, from a "stroke".
Dependent on a computer-reliant third party to access your savings?
That's called COUNTERPARTY RISK, my friends...!
Something gold bullion doesn't have.
These are "vaulted" bitcoins. All 3rd party bitcoin storage gets attacked and the bitcoins stolen, pretty much without fail. All my bitcoins are not vaulted and, like you, neither is my gold.
So a bunch of 1s and 0s, backed by nothing, killed someone.
Go long shielded cable?
Backed by supply and demand, just like _everything_ else.
Jesus H Christ
28 yrs old young beautiful, intelligent successful. What the hell is wrong with this planet!
It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpn8MANhdLU
BITCOIN PONZI DANGEROUS TO HEALTH
What point of this will you folks always deny?
This woman drink the kool-aide served by fonestar 24/7 on ZH.
She had her family and friends invest in her biz,... and she lived games and virtual worlds.
Then one day it all caught up with her and she decided to call it quits.
Rock Star's do the same thing they shine brightly when young and burn out quickly.
When will anybody here ever admit that these virtual-worlds, and sim-city, and fake money scam's are dangerous to your mind and health?
"What the hell is wrong with this planet!"
This beautiful planet is cursed with the presence of the scourge of the universe..........homo sapiens. Didn't you notice that warning beacon at the edge of the system?
Nobody mentioned Exchanges are getting hacked.. Woman wakes up sees 2 million of her business stolen, she might just Suicide in despair.. I'll wait to see if the exchange was raided before i make Judgement
They had all their CASH invested in MT-GOX,... which means everything is now gone.
MT-Gox was like a Dominoe set in V-for-Vendetta, and now its going to take down 1000's & 1,000's of people.
Judging by the picture, looks like she was cute. Too bad.
Do not search google images for her name. Do not do it. What has been seen can never be unseen. Now get me the friggin' bleach!
I noticed the pictures of her hob-nobbing with the rich and famous at an LA charity event, attended by the usual collections of TV stars, surfer dudes, and old rich guys who literally "run the show."
Did she have a child?
Autumn Radtke, the American chief executive of Singapore-based virtual currency company First Meta, has died according to Douglas Abrams
* [ Note that Douglas Abrams, dual passport, is SIM-CITY ]
Well 5 days ago is a long, time so the CEO chose to keep TRAID investor money at MT-GOX, ... you know how the story ended.
In a little-discussed announcement, First Meta took in nearly half-a-million dollars for the expansion of its multi-world virtual currency exchange. Singapore-based First Meta is unique in that they have consistently provided a two-way exchange service for virtual currencies that typically only see one-way activity. Why is this significant? For starters, it gives individuals the opportunity to cash out or monetize their virtual world activities just as I outlined in my previous article Virtual Currencies and Roach Motels. When it comes to Linden Dollars, IMVU Credits, Frenzoo Gold Coins, and other currencies, it is this two-way convertibility and getting the most out of your virtual assets that make the team at First Meta stand out.
The investment announced on March 29th came from Silicon Valley business accelerator Plug and Play Tech Center and Singapore’s National Research Foundation. The new capital will be used to build the next generation of its virtual goods and currency exchange and expand support to other platforms. First Meta was founded in February 2007 by Douglas Abrams and Aileen Sim who then had their early prominent business success in Second Life with MetaCard and virtual ATMs. It is important to note that the co-founders also have a background in banking, finance, and venture capital which could prove valuable as virtual exchanges encroach upon their more traditional trading house brethren.
Online virtual currency trading has close similarities to online forex trading so obviously it is a natural progression for the nonpolitical digital currencies. According to new CEO Autumn Radtke, “Consumers are being bombarded with virtual currency today like we’ve never seen before. As gaming becomes more mainstream so will secondary trading. We’re here to help the new generation of game companies and currency issuers participate in revenue and avoid the black market fraud problems associated with unsanctioned trading.”
Unlike most third-party dealers of game currencies and virtual currency platforms, First Meta emphasizes the potential for publishers and game developers to open up their proprietary currency to player-2-player trading which gives users the much-desired liquidity and also introduces the currency to new users thereby exploiting the inherent viral nature of a currency. Citing new revenue streams for their partners, they claim to have the most robust player-2-player virtual asset trading platform in the industry. As they say: “Why let someone else profit from your hard work?”
Trades at First Meta may occur between two different virtual currencies or between the virtual currency and the US Dollar or Euro. This highlights what I believe is a growing trend for virtual world environments and MMO gaming — namely the ability for participants to extract digital value from the virtual experience and convert it into real-world money.
Expected to be released on May 15th, Blizzard’s Diablo III takes this value extraction to the extreme with their controversial real money auction house. Apparently, so much was at stake regarding the real currency trade that South Korean officials even persuaded Blizzard to remove the auction house feature from the local market version. Moreover, gold farmers are reportedly stunned as GamesRadar’s Tyler Nagata observes:
Traditionally, the black market for in-game items has been the elephant in the room that game developers just don’t talk about. That’s why the real money auction house for Diablo III marks a huge shift for how game studios handle player driven economies in online games. By taking the cash-for-item trades away from traditionally sketchy gold farmer sites and putting it under the official banner of its Battle.net service, third-party gold farming businesses and services may become a thing of the past if more online games adopt a similar business model to Blizzard’s moving forward.
Mabe she is part of the bankster off'ing club
Sim City, black-market-gaming, Israel, and deep ties to MT-GOX and the Zio-Gaming world.
Yep, ... suicide my ass, ... move along
The pitbull reportedly grabbed a paw full of thumb drives and a one-way flight to the Cayman Islands.
Second Life Goes Glasshole
Israeli startup First-Meta is set to take on Google Glass with its own model of augmented reality glasses, the Meta Pro, unveiled over the weekend.
Weighing in at just 180 grams and shaped like normal sunglasses, the new model is considerably more advanced than the company’s older model, with advanced graphic capabilities, a much larger display area and three cameras enabling three-dimentional filming in real time.
The Meta Pro is being offered on the company’s website at an advanced purchase price of $3,000 and is expected to hit the market next June. “It is aimed mainly at people who paid $1,500 to Google Glass in early release and were disappointed,” explains Meron Gribetz, the company’s founder.
Meta’s 35 employees live and work out of a Portola Valley mansion overlooking Silicon Valley where several reporters were invited for a close-up look at the new product. Besides a breakthrough in the glasses’ design, a noted improvement could be seen in user experience and graphic capabilities.
While the previous version presented holograms with basic graphics and limited functionality, the new edition offered a spectacular graphic interface, including the ability to view films at high-definition quality and interact with the holograms much more smoothly and intensively. A new application provides an ability to “sculpt” a hologram using hand motions.
“You can place these holograms anywhere in the house where they’ll always be waiting for you,” explains product manager Matt Kitch. “For example, you can put a hologram that is actually a cookbook application in the kitchen that will wait for you every time you want to cook.”
The graphic interface was designed with the help of Jayce Hansen, one of Hollywood’s leading designers, as well as the ad for the product’s launch, which was filmed through the glasses. “This is the man who did Iron Man and Hunger Games,” boasts Gribetz. “I chased after him for two years until we met last month and I demonstrated the glasses for him in a Hollywood hotel. He became enthused and agreed to work with us while working on the new Star Trek. I hope he eventually becomes our art director.”
Another interesting collaboration began with SpaceX, Elon Musk’s satellite rocket company. “They think the glasses can be a big help in a certain part of satellite design,” says Gribetz. “There is one stage in their work process where they can’t see all the elements at once, and the 3-D holograms can solve this problem. We’ve begun to work with them on an application that will help them, and we’ll be demonstrating it to Musk within a few months. I hope to develop closer cooperation with them if it succeeds.”
The Meta Pro will come with a pocket computer attached with a thin wire. “This is the most powerful pocket computer there is today,” says Gribetz. “The battery lasts six hours, which we believe will be the average daily usage time.”
Kitch adds that the glasses will replace the cellular phone for many activities.
“We have an application that draws information from your cellphone and displays all the applications in front of you,” he says. “This is the most important thing, because it allows you to leave the phone at home and go around with just the glasses. Why watch a Youtube clip on an iPhone when it can be watched through the glasses on an infinitely large screen?”
Watching Porn while Driving, so much like California,...
If you see someone wearing any glasshole variant that person should be punched in the face for privacy invasion.
Damn what a waste of a fine female
Facebook Buy's DRONE Company
Facebook in talks to buy drone company Titan Aerospace: report Sydney Morning Herald - 33 minutes ago Facebook is in talks to buy Titan Aerospace, a maker of solar-powered drones, to step up its efforts to provide internet access to remote parts of the world, according to reports. *Choose to opt-out of FACEBOOK? We'll find you and nail your ass.
PS the US has no gold left !!!!!!!!
First VICTIM of BITCOIN?
I call BULLSHIT 10's of 1,000's of PEOPLE for years now have lost their life saving's to BITCOIN, and they''re NOT victims?
Please somebody define victim?
Furthermore this GAL knew exactly what she was doing QUEEN-BEE of the a black-market gaming operation, and was funneling black-market money worldwide, for virtual worlds, think lindon dollars, or sim-city.
Her mistake was drinking the KOOL-AIDE an using MT-GOX as her bank, ... an as we all MT-GOX was HOTEL-CALIFORNIA your $$$ can come in, but they could never leave.
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This woman is no more a VICTIM, than KARPELES or SHREM.
A victim is one of the people that MT-GOX or fonestar ROBBED, now those are victims.
haha. when you're an idiot like yourself, you're destined to become someone's victim
Nobody I know has lost any money at all. Most folk I know made around 5000% profit from btc in 2013.
Idiot.
I wonder how much cash flow has been diverted away from precious metals because of Bitcoin?
Think about it, the bullion banks are losing physical gold rapidly, they desperately require a diversion to get the general public on a global scale out of the game.
But it has to be viable, something the muppets will accept and embrace with open arms.
Remember I'm only a crazy nut job till I'm proven correct lol, in any case it's only one of many theoretical theories that floats around this head on a daily bases.
Over $10 Billion USD, but we don't know the churn rate or velocity, hell we don't even know the exchanges didn't collude all along on the price.
All that is known is that you could BUY BTC, and that they never let anybody get the $$$ back.
Certainly BITCOIN was a distraction and kept a lot of billionaire nerds from playing GOLD, ... while they bought mining hardware instead.
Another good question, is how good was BITCOIN for hardware company's, well except what the fuck butter-fly they're all getting sued now.
Looks like 'they' are tidying up a few loose ends before closing the operation.
Long Live Fiat
hackers .................... bullshit
Greed causes these things. Her greed and 'their' greed. Leave greed to those only willing to pay the ultimate price, and I am not speaking about death.
Good job Tyler. I guess I've linked enough content from you. An occasional link back would be nice. But then again, maybe you don't want to slip all the way down the rabbit hole ;-)
Two Untimely Deaths – Bitcoin. Posted March 2nd, 2014Saw this article about mining bit coins thought it was useful http://eprofits.com/article/diy-bitcoin-mining-from-home