A death to “one” guy from a crypto exchange may leave investors out $190 million.
With the vast array of password managers, encryption and authentication apparently relying on one person to have the password to $190 million of Bitcoin was a thing for QuadrigaCX.
With Gerald Cotten the CEO of QuadrigaCX succumbing to illness there are a lot of Bitcoin investors left in the dark. It is these Bitcoin investors that are going to pay for poor planning and management from QuadrigaCX and for actually storing their bitcoin at the hands of a corporation.
Having control over your data or virtual money is a sure-fire way to avoid manipulations and corruption but I bet they didn’t think the CEO taking a master password to the grave would be an issue.
Putting your digital currency into an online wallet or service such as QuadrigaCX is exactly as giving someone on the street $100 to look after. It can become untraceable really quick….
Its amazing with all the corruption, scams and unethical behaviour these amateur online coin stores are so trusted.
Too much trust in a trustless system?
Virtual currencies and blockchain come with the sure anonymity facit and leave no crumbs trait. It is this untraceable reason that crypto has become the currency of choice when buying shady services or goods online.
It’s a matter of trust for virtual currency storage and apparently Mr Cotten didn’t trust anyone or anything else with the password for QuadrigaCX.
Looking at it from a traditionalist point of view, it’s not a good look on Bitcoin or any of the alt coins for that matter. This would never happen with real money and real money doesn’t just go missing as you often find with Bitcoin. For those blowing the trumpet to get Bitcoin mainstream unfortunately too many times it has let you down.
Misuse of the system
For just one person to make $190 million dollar gaping hole so easily and quickly is something you shake your head at. Its ridiculous.
Another way to look at this incident is ponzi scheme, a grab and run. That give some ease to the fact of stupidity in having one person keep the password but it can also show that QuadrigaCX is corrupt.
It’s a case for taking your pick, corporation was dodgy and stole bitcoin from its users or they were incredibly stupid in allowing someone to take a master password to the grave. Far lower than amateur what ever was the case it doesn’t bode well for QuadrigaCX nor crypto currency having a tilt at being better respected in the general world.