As the final settlement transaction has been broadcast, the receivership is now considered officially closed. All BitBet customers with outstanding bets have either been fully refunded, or paid out of their winnings.

While the receivership itself was of moderate complexity, my job was made considerably easier by the help and professionalism of Mircea Popescu and Matic Kočevar. I thank both of them very much for entrusting me with this task. I hope they, and the other stakeholders, are satisfied with my service.

The Bitcoin Foundation’s tax, due on the receiver’s fee, has been paid.

As promised after the successful sale of the BitBet assets and after the correct reception of the rest of the cash, the final settlement transaction is being put on display as an opportunity for the public to voice any complaints or concerns.

If no valid points are raised that would require modifications by Wednesday the 20^th of April the transaction will be signed, broadcast, and the BitBet receivership will be considered closed.

Please not that amounts going to identical addresses are aggregated, the amounts owed to Mircea Popescu have already been deducted.

As usual, questions and comments are welcome.

Second version of the raw transaction.

The raw transaction.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

TXID of the the second version of the unsigned BitBet receivership final
settlement transaction being put on public display today.

ab1e4c34b1108c5e8d7285ff8761ab8a2768b2263bab894a695c3f693521c3fb

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1

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yxn573jDVUf9NyfYJDZkF1dgxcWUN7WLu5C2z1MWqA5e9loLrDNGP9YCJzrOeksk
3nvBg6/MOb6l2+Ivaona5bWoeZF2SnZircq+QhFgSMtZUzrw9nOkM87ONW29Zeq6
A96FPVsmI9SgiJS7geRT5Cu4txKov9xbwYG2akVPqF5zT/0XE9L9lz8bGtEd10Zj
XcfuEY6RZfyd77DFx/TeUWzpyDwUZaIRIS5fsUcn10tYQursDZe2zgOMYnVhGFON
YvA0NitGEwgGxi6ThyyYJaylH/94TXGse3ySqeiCX2tSm57Lxf7X9VK2sJRdrnc=
=xz+S
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

April 14^th update: As discussed in #trilema [1, 2], it appears BitBet owes Mircea Popescu the sum of 0.8 BTC for the seeding of bets that has not been billed to the company yet, as was normally the case. This includes all bets^[5] that were seeded after the last report certified by both representatives. This amount has been accounted for in the liabilities.

Erratum: BitBet’s receivership first report mentioned a hot wallet amount that was off by 0.00040948 BTC, the report has been corrected.

State of the receivership process

As planned, the assets auction ended last week. The 86 BTC payment has been received
and confirmed. The actual assets have been transferred, eight bets have been resolved^[1], the rest will be refunded.

Assets: 1`040.78385211 BTC, detailed as:
  - Cash: 1`040.78385211 BTC (of which 841.33337474 BTC is currently under my control): 
    (1) Outstanding bets: 942.81955914 BTC,
    (2) Unpaid resolved bets: 8.75451297 BTC,
    (3) Zeroconf bets on unhandled proposals: 1.99978000 BTC,
    (4) Gracious donations: 1.21000000 BTC,
    (5) Sale of the assets: 86.00000000 BTC.    

Liabilities: 961.58027519 BTC, detailed as:
 - House bets paid for by Mircea Popescu: 0.8 BTC
 - Receiver's fee: 13.37 BTC
 - Bettor winnings: 331.01977044 BTC[2]
 - Bettor refunds for unresolved bets: 614.38072474 BTC[3]
 - Bettor refunds for zeroconf bets on un-handled proposals: 1.99978000 BTC
 - Bitcoin transaction fee for the payout transaction: 0.01000001 BTC[4]

Net surplus: 79.20357692 BTC

This net surplus is to be distributed to shareholders. The 5 million MPEx-traded shares are being guaranteed a minimum value of 0.00001 BTC per amounting to a 50 BTC total. This leaves 29.20357692 BTC to be split equally between Matic Kočevar and Mircea Popescu, joint holders of the rest of the 10 million BitBet shares.

See the detailed liabilities table for more information and don’t hesitate to point out any errors or inconsistencies in the comments.

^[1] The resolved bets:

• Mariano Rajoy to remain PM of Spain after December Election
• Ethereum to top $1 billion market cap before 2017
• AlphaGo will defeat Lee Sedol overall in March 2016 match
• Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) to drop below 14,000 before 31 March 2016
• Mercado Bitcoin out of business OR acquired before Apr 2016
• Silver at or over $19/oz before April
• Bitcoin to top $700 before Apr 2016
• Connor McDavid will live up to the hype

^[2] The ‘bettor winnings’ item does not include the house bets winnings as a liability anymore (0.67314231 BTC). The sum of the house bet winnings and the bettor winnings differs from the previously reported sum by 115 satoshi as a result of rounding being applied in one case to the lump sum, and in the other case to each one of the amounts that will be paid out.

^[3] The ‘bettor refunds for unresolved bets’ does not include the house bet refunds as a liability anymore (2.15000000 BTC)

^[4] This particular amount was picked because the payout transaction will be quite large, and because an even number of satoshis was needed for the amount to split among the BitBet representatives.

^[5] The bets that were seeded, but not billed to the company:

+---------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Seeded              | Title                                                              |
+---------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| 2016-03-11 17:12:55 | John Kasich gets the Republican Party Nomination                   |
| 2016-03-07 04:31:49 | UK referendum will result in favour of remaining in EU             |
| 2016-03-01 20:21:45 | Bitcoin to top $900 before Sep 2016                                |
| 2016-02-29 16:50:15 | Donald Trump will win the 2016 United States Presidential Election |
| 2016-02-12 06:16:02 | AlphaGo will defeat Lee Sedol overall in March 2016 match          |
| 2016-02-12 06:00:42 | Ethereum to top $1 billion market cap before 2017                  |
| 2016-02-04 17:46:50 | Parties SMER-SD and SNS to win supermajority in Slovak parliament  |
| 2016-02-04 06:42:37 | Ted Cruz will be the Republicans' 2016 Presidential Nominee        |
+---------------------+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Update April 8^th: The payment has correctly confirmed, BitBet’s new owner can take possession of the actual goods and is kindly asked to issue a receipt to the receiver.

As announced, the BitBet auction has taken place, and after a few deadline extensions and an almost-winner, znort987 (9F1C2534ACEE115E18EF02A5FD5AA2A5E26602B0) ended up being the last man standing.

In order to proceed, he is kindly asked to transfer the sum of 86 BTC to 1DavouTAsveznCFHsz688xvbrRAq4u2qm8. Once the payment is confirmed, the assets will be transferred.

I will then start working on creating the final settlement transaction paying all outstanding liabilities. Once the transaction is ready it will be put on public display for a few days. If no complaints are made or discrepancies pointed out, it’ll be signed and broadcast.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

In order to complete the sale of the BitBet assets to 9F1C2534ACEE115E18EF02A5FD5AA2A5E26602B0,
the sum of 86 BTC is to be transferred to the 1DavouTAsveznCFHsz688xvbrRAq4u2qm8 address.

Once the payment is confirmed, the assets will be transferred to their new owner.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1

iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJXBvLGAAoJEBMojqsBcTQo1rkH/0tm8u8f91+Tt4JjU7L1ZPj6
CE5MoOSjlLyYoFZyBbH3yJImJseDpvDxO+DA+MDK+SPoS8WEP7bpSLcA7xlwdc7h
kPhvq4klSUSvHcAFXwYpjq/E1QxgPL2+tPVWSgT7eMWmflXKhjBpBtb47cUZwJCz
x9z7KCqhjzcwqSB7iRNJnbuIZv707VYaROd211/4N8AvKanPZLVTUlDOladyCkdS
M9Cyf6nG8RsMkB2blb2jad9FlWgXWb8ZlrifoEp9WFKXeYpw1AeJkhqWl1rTuXrm
uYjWcmuSwOQWF7tC4Fy+bm3YJYdNjOuvzA9weaHo40+DHfFWpayGWogx2X/8bsM=
=wK75
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

As Pete Dushenski aptly points out, “the end of Wednesday the 6^th of April” doesn’t precisely define a deadline for the BitBet assets auction.

Therefore it appears to me that, in the interest of maximizing the auction revenue, the most sensible course of action is to interpret this as “the end of Wednesday the 6^th of April in whatever timezone this event happens last”.

The precise auction deadline is therefore 2016-04-06 23:59:59 GMT-12, which conveniently reduces to “Thursday the 7^th of April at noon GMT”.

As already said the auction ends one hour after the last best bid improving the previous one by over one Bitcoin has been posted, or at the specified deadline, whichever comes last.

The conclusion of all of this naturally being:

<mircea_popescu> you’re like totally a noob receiver and everything.

State of the receivership process

As BitBet’s receiver I am pleased to present this second progress report to all the interested parties. The next progress report will be published after the auction is completed, it will list the final payout amounts and beneficiaries for public review.

Auctioneering of the assets

As of today, the highest bid for the BitBet assets (other than the cash) is 9 BTC, by Stanislav Datskovskiy, aka asciilifeform.

The Twitter account will be included in the package, there is an API access key in the code, control over the domain will also allow the buyer to reset the account password.

BitBet’s hosting is currently provided graciously by Matic Kočevar. The buyer is expected to provide his own hosting setup. I will setup and provide the necessary infrastructure in the interim to keep BitBet online, should Matic Kočevar request so.

In the interest of maximizing BitBet’s assets, the bidding deadline will be extended if necessary. The precise deadline will be the end of Wednesday the 6^th of April (as previously stated), or one hour after the last bid that improved the previous best bid by more than one full Bitcoin, whichever comes latest.

State of the assets and liabilities

Assets

My inventory of the assets has shown a discrepancy between their theoretical amount, and the amount I currently have under my control, the difference is 199.45006789 BTC. Mircea Popescu has stated he would have the numbers checked, and provide a complimentary sum, if applicable.

Liabilities

The liabilities I have certified are:

• Receiver’s fee: 13.37 BTC
• Bettor winnings: 331.69291390 BTC (335.04334737 BTC before 1% fee)
• Bettor refunds for unresolved bets: 616.53072474 BTC
• Bettor refunds for zeroconf bets on un-handled proposals: 1.99978000 BTC

I did not certify Mircea Popescu’s claim to 17.94766149 BTC. The BitBet contract, as signed by Mircea Popescu and Matic Kočevar, explicitly states:

3.2(d) All decisions with regards to any aspect of BitBet, measures taken in regards to any aspect of BitBet operation, any actions, activities or agreements involving BitBet will require unanimous agreement of all the representatives of BitBet. Any such decision, measure, action, activity or agreement which fails to obtain unanimous agreement of all BitBet representatives is void and unenforceable.

As of today, Matic Kočevar still refuses to endorse the decision to proceed with a second payment, as per the contract the decision can therefore only be considered void, and its consequences unenforceable. As a consequence it follows that BitBet may not deduct the amount that was paid a second time from its liabilities to certain winning addresses.

State of the receivership process

After working a few days on the BitBet receivership process I am pleased to present all interested parties with my first progress report. The work I have undertaken during these few days focused mainly on the identification and accounting of the theoretically available assets, as well as the listing of existing claims against BitBet.

As of today, I have received:
– from Matic Kočevar: the deedbot’d DB, codebase, and contents of the hot wallet amounting to 4.83337474 BTC [1, 2]
– from Mircea Popescu: the bitbet.us domain and the sum of 750.5 BTC.

Auctioneering of the source code, database and domain name

The source code, database, and domain will be auctioned as a single package during the next week, bids should be published directly in the comments, the highest bid at the end of Wednesday the 6th of April 2016 will be retained as buyer for the whole package.

After the completion of the auction I will publish a final list of assets, the list of certified claims (after resolving whatever bets can actually be resolved at that point in order to maximize the fee revenue). After that I shall give a few days for interested parties to comment and finally proceed to the actual transfers (Bitcoin and other assets).

State of the assets and liabilities

As of the today, the minimum  value of the assets in my possession is ~755 BTC, while the maximum total amount for the liabilities, should all claims be certified, is ~981 BTC.

Assets:
  - Cash: 954.78385211 BTC (of which 755.33337474 BTC is currently under my control): 
    (1) Outstanding bets: 942.81955914 BTC,
    (2) Unpaid resolved bets: 8.75451297 BTC,
    (3) Zeroconf bets on unhandled proposals: 1.99978000 BTC,
    (4) Gracious donations: 1.21000000 BTC.

  - Non-cash assets for which the value is to be determined during the auction:
    - the 'bitbet.us' domain name,
    - the BitBet database,
    - the BitBet source code.

Liabilities: 981.54108013 BTC, detailed as:
 - Mircea Popescu's bill: 17.94766149 BTC
 - Receiver's fee: 13.37 BTC
 - Bettor winnings: 331.69291390 BTC (335.04334737 BTC before 1% fee)
 - Bettor refunds for unresolved bets: 616.53072474 BTC
 - Bettor refunds for zeroconf bets on un-handled proposals: 1.99978000 BTC

Data used for this report

See the data files in plain text format, or in CSV format.

The lists of Bitcoin addresses to be used by BitBet, as transmitted by Matic Kočevar and clearsigned by Mircea Popescu [1, 2].

April 6^th update: additional data as per my response to hanbot’s comment. It includes the outstanding bets as well as the resolved but unpaid ones. It also has the resolution timestamp included.

As sad as it is, it appears BitBet has gone into receivership territory, and is therefore in need of a liquidator.

This letter of intent constitutes a formal offer from me, David François, senior lord of Bitcoin, TMSR~, to actually implement this liquidation, with the goal of maximizing stakeholder revenue, and if at all possible ensure operational continuity.

The actual implementation of the liquidation would consist of the following steps, as per Mircea Popescu’s description:

• construction of the list of existing claims,
• certification or rejection of each individual claim,
• open sale of the disposable assets (either as a package, or separately),
• payment of the liabilities on a best-effort basis, ordered by priority (certified bills, bet winnings & refunds, shareholders)

In order to accept my appointment as liquidator and proceed with these actions, I require:

• A signed acceptance statement by Mircea Popescu, and Matic Kočevar,
• the actual assets (cash, domain, code, database).

The transfer of the BitBet cash is to be made to the 1DavouTAsveznCFHsz688xvbrRAq4u2qm8 Bitcoin address and should include a 0.001 BTC fee that will be certified as a valid expense against BitBet.

The liquidation implementation will be charged against BitBet in the form of a certified 13.37 BTC bill for which I shall be the beneficiary.

The contemplated timeframe for completion of the liquidation is two weeks starting from the moment all the BitBet assets are under my control.