The United States Scammers Service, Formerly Marshalls Service.

We find from Qntra that the USMS is going to bat with a reiteration of the "fake Bitcoin aucton" scam. The interesting details :

The [imaginary] 50,000 BTC are split into 20 [imaginary] different blocks
The first 10 [imaginary] blocks are grouped in Series A, the second in Series B.
Series A blocks [imaginarily] consist of 2,000 [imaginary] coins and a deposit of $100,000 is required per bid entered on Series A.
Series B blocks [imaginarily] consist of 3,000 [imaginary] coins and a deposit of $150,000 is required for each bid entered on Series B.

Translation : MP was right, so we want 10% of the BTC valued at 500 each.

TERMS OF SALE
Cash. The bid must be an all cash offer. Bids that are contingent on financing terms of any kind will not be considered.

Translation : Banking system lolololol.

Bidder Qualification. The USMS reserves the right to reject any bid for any reason whatsoever. The USMS reserves the right to sell all, some or none of the bitcoins at auction.

5) Is there a reserve price for this auction?
The United States Marshals Service reserves the right to sell some, all or none of the bitcoins for any reason. There is no disclosed reserve price for this auction.

Translation : we don't actually have the coins, but we will pretend like we've sold them to you if you're one of our agents. Then you can pretend like you have coins you don't and we can pretend like we confiscated coins we didn't and lo and behold! fiat Bitcoin!

What, pray tell, would be the difference between the USG holding a fake auction for imaginary goods via the USMS, and theymos & co holding a fake auction via Garr255 ? If you come up with something make sure to let me know!

6) What information about the auction process or results will the USMS release?

The USMS will contact the winning and losing bidders directly. The USMS will not release any information to the general public pertaining to the auction process or results.

Because that is legal now! Notwithstanding that on the first pass of this same scam, they promised they will release data. Then they didn't release it. Then they got FOIA requests, which they were legally required to answer within 30 days. Except they didn't. Because the US is a rogue state, and its idea of "the rule of law" is related to law in the same way Soviet "democracy" was related to democracy : as a pure exercise in nominalism.

So then some schmuck posing as a civil servant came out with an announcement that they'll release data within 30 days, two weeks after the legal term. Because this is how it works now, civil servants have this authority in some sort of parallel universe, where they not only break the law but construct an alternative law instead. What, problem ?

And then they didn't respect that, either. But you don't think they'd come out and say it plainly, "MP actually has better access to our own classified information than we do", would you ? Because the pretense must be maintained at all costs! So what if they're poor ? They can pretend like they're rich, can't they ? So what if they're stupid ? They can pretend like they're clever, neh ? So what if they don't have a leg to stand on, or much of a point, or any sort of future ? THEY CAN PRETEND LIKE THEY DO! NOBODY WILL EVER TELL THE DIFFERENCE!

Srsly guise... Flondor.

To recap, for the slow witted :

1. The USG made up an imaginary stash of BTC.
2. This is handy, because if you are going to try and depress the BTC price artificially having at least some of the market participants believe you hold some stocks is helpful. If the misadventures of paper gold are any indication, it doesn't actually matter how unfounded those beliefs are.ⁱ
3. This is also handy because if you are going to borrow like you're Obama it significantly helps your credibility to pretend like you actually own some. You know, just like Madoff & co.
4. This is also handy because maybe there are somewhere rich people interested in Bitcoin that are idiotic enough to sign a form for you, because why the hell not, right ? More information is never worse than less information, so what if you'll tell them they "didn't win" the mystical auction that never happened for goods you never had ? Not like they have any recourse anyway.

Meanwhile in the unintentional side effects camp :

1. Inadvertently confirmed that MP was right all along, and a fair value for BTC exceeds 500 USD per.
2. Inadvertently confirmed that MP somehow knew how the other auction turned out.
3. Inadvertently confirmed that the USG-owned banking system is a joke, that they were routed in the earlier financial clash, and other things.

I tell you, nude emperors are a lot of fun to play with. Especially when too big, too frail.

1. This is how the G20 works to keep gold prices artificially depressed : by (falsely) claiming to hold large stocks, and by selling to (naive buyers) paper certificates of ownership in those imaginary stocks.

   Unfortunately in the case of gold faling for such shenanigans is not easily avoidable, because unlike Bitcoin, gold is a physical item : it takes up storage space and it will interact with people through a simple unified API called "physics". In other words : anyone can put in his pocket "your" gold just as well as you can. It doesn't magically crumble into meaningless dust the way an encrypted Bitcoin wallet does.

   Talk about the great value of "physical", right ? It's a great thing, at least for the people making their living building and selling vaults, outfitting and hiring out guards and so on. [↩]