Well, the idea was that doctors would give fake death certificate and the body was cremated.... So they can show his dead ashes, in the wind...
By the way, I would like to underline the fact that things like this happening is actually GOOD. It just shows that cryptos are not ready for prime time and whatever loss or hacking happens is better happening NOW then later on when actual average people want to use them and not just crypto fans. Here is another interesting tidbit: Bitcoin is still in Beta. Yes, the most successful and oldest crypto after all these years still hasn't been released as a "ready for the mass" version. Let that sink in for a while...
I am reading up on the case and I am more and more convinced there is some kind of foul play going on. From Reddit threads: " But the exorbitant amount to money left to the dogs, in the will written two weeks before a sudden death from a manageable disease,while building an orphanage, while on honeymoon, in India!! A death announced a full month after the event. " "Users have been complaining over the course of the past year about difficulties withdrawing money from the exchange. The Globe has spoken to several of these clients, some of whom experienced months of delays trying to withdraw tens of thousands of dollars. None of them wished to be identified due to privacy concerns. The largest individual user account balance is valued at $70-million." "he squandered all his customer funds so committed massive fraud, and while all this is going on a month before it all closes down he takes a quick trip to India to build an orphanage. Build an orphanage with a charity company that specifically says they build the orphanage for you. Seems like a strange time? Yup. Has he ever done charity in India before? Not that I ever heard. Any done any charity? Not that anyone has found yet. But now was the time. And he wasn't fleeing the country, nonono. Just had vacation time that was expiring, had to use it. Then he unluckily died, just as he was going to be the center of a massive financial fraud in Canada. What are the odds." Back in Sept, there were warning signs about the exchange: https://www.blockhaven.ca/releases/quadrigacx-a-potential-risk-for-investors In the crypto industry they call it exit scam...
I thought anonymity was the whole damn point of these things. If he's smart enough to do what he did legitimately, building a damn exchange... I gotta assume he's one step ahead of the average bear when it comes to laundering some of this money. Granted you know more than me about this stuff (that's not a great feat btw) ... but I'm with Pek. This cat did the Houdini and he's living large on some beautiful waterfront compound somewhere in India... he's got a plan. I think he's going to help people... albeit he fvck'd quite a few too. Robinhood.
I am 100% sure the exchange didn't have the deposits. But I think there is a chance that the CEO is dead, and I am implying possible murder. If you doubt me, read the provided link in the previous post. The exchange had no physical address in Canada, was using a Polish bank account. That Polish bank had only 3 mm bucks in 2010 yet they made a 1.5 mm profit. Everything is registered in Panama, the name are fictitious etc. So if you need a fall guy because the exchange had either mob money or has been slowly drained of funds, who else is better than the CEO with a serious illness? But here comes the best par: "Another important risk is that every deposit is converted into "Quadriga Bucks", this means that legally speaking, your money becomes the exchange's money, and they can revoke your account with your funds in it at any given time without giving you any proper explanations for it. This legal maneuver shields the exchange in the event of insolvency or any other problems related to the customer's funds. Again, this represents a risk that any deposit implies that you give up ownership of your funds and that your money is literally "gone" into a black hole, until you decide to withdraw it from the exchange."
Big ifs. This isn't a discounted sale from face value where a company offers 5 cents on the dollar, the probabilities here without knowing operational structure you would be offering something like 0.0005 cents on the dollar. Non zero, but lottery ticket realm. If the story is legit, the only way is to get the private keys assuming there's a copy lying around.
@vanzandt It's not terribly difficult to build an exchange. There are white label solutions available. And it's pseudonymous not anonymous. @Pekelo Now we are speculating but here are some facts: 1)The company did have multiple physical addresses. Just trust me on this one. 2)The Quadrigabucks was to get around regulations dealing with fiat. 3)The polish bank mentioned was part of a raid by Polish authorities dealing with Colombian cartel money. 4)You can absolutely see if the exchange has the funds on the blockchain, IF you know the address. 5)With today's tech, even with tumblers/atomic swaps one can track movement of funds from the addresses. If he's alive or someone else has access it will be known. There's a possibility he ran with the money, my personal take was that the guy is indeed dead and everyone's fucked. The possibility I will entertain is that he was killed. I don't think he ran, there are better ways to exit scam.
Where is Gerald Cotten body or ash? Any idea whether DNA will be done to 100% confirm body or ash is indeed Gerald Cotten? Interestingly, Gerald Cotten signed his last will 12 days before his death.
I don't know you, why would I trust you? Quote the addresses. Even if you manage to have one, the story is full of red flags. Look up the parent company, Bitfinex...
Not really. Once you expose one of your addresses to someone and they can put your name to it then you're doxxed. Once you're doxxed they can trace your transactions. e.g. a BTC exchange. BTC is anonymous in the sense that there's no inherent ID to you built into the blockchain. So if you exchange BTC for goods/services with another individual (the libertarian wet dream) then it's much more anonymous. But even then that one guy knows one of your addresses. There are other coins with true anonymity built in with no traceability. For better or worse BTC has the first mover advantage.