WOW this was frustrating. So many questions and ended so abruptly. I think they prob should have done this in another five years time and see what else comes out. Leaves you with an empty feeling.

If you propose a new form of money whose main attraction is that it is free of governmental control, it almost stands to reason that the users and service providers are going to be biased towards those people who stand most to gain from this benefit; and the people who suffer most from governmental power are those who want to engage in activities that governmental deem criminal. Thus, it's no surprise that crime is well represented in the cryptocurrency space; criminals seek to launder their fortunes in crypto, but also, many fraudsters prey off crypto "investors". The fact that said investors are generally looking to make a quick buck themselves makes them perfect marks for a scam. The story of Quadriga QX is amazing - two proven fraudsters establish a cryptocurrency exchange, make off with all the money, then one dies in peculiar circumstances and, because of the "secure" way the technology works, no-one else can access whatever crypto they had left. This documentary puts together the story, albeit without much emphasis on the wider context: such stories are routine in crypto (indeed, the surviving founder has since been implicated in another scam) because, given the incentives in the industry, why wouldn't they? I enjoyed the film, but it misses a trick in not telling the wider story: how a nonsense theory of how crypto can save the world and make you rich at the same time has lured people into to a system that is in every respect worse than the financial orthodoxy it purports to replace.

"Trust No One" (2022 release; 90 min.) is a documentary about a massive bitcoin fraud that occurred in 2018, made trickier by a (faked) death of one of the principals. As the movie opens, we are in "Vancouver" and we get to know several people in the local bitcoin scene, recounting on how a guy name Gerry Cotten came out of nowhere to launch a bitcoin exchange called QuadrigaCX. Cotten's fame and fortune rose rapidly... At this point we are 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary directed by Luke Sewell ("No Place To Call Home"). Here Sewell takes a look back at a massive bitcoin fraud (in the hundreds of millions of dollars). Along the way we get a crash course on Bitcoin 101. The film is really a two-for-one: understanding the world of bitcoin (which I myself knew very little about, not sure that I know a lot more after seeing this); and the mysterious disappearance of Gerry Cotten (faked death? Something else?). The movie relies on some talking heads, none better than the investigative reporters at the Globe and Mail (in Toronto). Still, I just had the constant impression that this is a bare-bones documentary, not so much the production of it, but the real substance of this story. The abrupt ending did not help things. Please note that this documentary is simply called "Trust No One", without the additional "The Hunt for the Crypto King" as it is listed here on IMDb.

"Trust No One" premiered on Netflix last week. If you have any interest in the world of crypto currencies, or are simply interested in a whodunit/where is he type documentary, I'd readily suggest you check this out (with low expectations),and draw your own conclusion.