A Death In Cryptoland Introduces | Understood: Who Broke the Internet

Where did Elon Musk’s epic ambitions begin? In search of clues we return to his sheltered youth in apartheid South Africa, a world engineered for white supremacy. Along the way, we connect the dots between a bizarre White House ambush of South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to teenage Elon’s ego-powered quests in video games. Finally, was his “draft dodge” from military service a moral act or an opportunist’s exit? Know more, now. Understood is an anthology podcast from the CBC that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/CryptolandxMoM 

The Outlaw Ocean is an anthology podcast that plunges you into the vast and often lawless world of the open seas. Today we're featuring an investigation from S2 called The Repo Man of the Seas. In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Urbina joins Max Hardberger. Depending on who you ask, Max is either a seagoing James Bond or a swashbuckling pirate. Hardberger runs a rare kind of repo service, extracting huge ships from foreign ports. His company is a last resort for ship owners whose vessels have been seized, often by bad actors, and over the years he’s built a reputation for taking the kinds of jobs others turn down. Hardberger’s specialty is infiltrating hostile territory and taking control of ships in whatever way he can – usually through subterfuge and stealth. Whatever part of the world his missions take him, Hardberger thrives in its grey areas.More episodes of The Outlaw Ocean are available at: https://link.mgln.ai/oo-crypto

It's not you — the internet really does suck. Novelist, blogger and noted internet commentator Cory Doctorow explains what happened to the internet and why you're tormented by ads, bots, algorithms, AI slop and so many pop-ups. Spoiler alert: it wasn't an accident.In Understood: Who Broke the Internet, Doctorow gets into the decisions made by powerful people that got us here, and most importantly, how we fix it. More episodes of Who Broke the Internet are available at: https://link.mgln.ai/jBaUeU

The revelation that Gerry’s house of cards had been falling apart — just as he’s reported dead in India — leaves people wondering: is this an exit scheme? Could Gerry still be alive? From buying a death certificate to Haitian zombie powder, people talk about the conspiracy theories. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/a-death-in-cryptoland-transcripts-listen-1.6035764

As financial investigators struggle to find any of the missing quarter of a billion dollars, they begin to make some bizarre discoveries around how the exchange had operated — finding funny business from the very start. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/a-death-in-cryptoland-transcripts-listen-1.6035764

Despite Michael Patryn’s denials that he’s a fraudster named Omar Dhanani, customers aren’t buying it. They’re demanding proof. A mugshot. A secret service agent, a felon-turned podcaster, and a childhood friend tell the story of Omar, the man Michael insists he’s not. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/a-death-in-cryptoland-transcripts-listen-1.6035764

Gerald Cotten and his business partner, Michael Patryn, launch QuadrigaCX on Boxing Day, 2013. There’s hype in the budding Bitcoin community and the small exchange seems to have a meteoric rise. But cracks begin to appear, problems with the banks, a software bug, and delays in paying back customers. Meanwhile, online rumours of a criminal past dog Michael Patryn. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/a-death-in-cryptoland-transcripts-listen-1.6035764

QuadrigaCX collapses and there’s widespread panic. An online sleuth searches for answers through a tangle of websites, hidden identities and a trail of emails. He uncovers a pattern of deception that predates his exchange, linking Gerry to a shadowy underworld of fraudsters. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/a-death-in-cryptoland-transcripts-listen-1.6035764

Upon checking into a luxury resort in India, Gerald Cotten complains to staff he’s feeling ill. He and his wife are taken to a hospital and within 24 hours the young CEO is declared dead. A month passes before word gets out to customers that QuadrigaCX’s CEO is gone — along with their money. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/a-death-in-cryptoland-transcripts-listen-1.6035764

When news spread that Gerald Cotten, CEO of QuadrigaCX, died on his honeymoon in India — and had been dead for a month — it set off a series of events that shook the cryptocurrency world. A quarter of a billion dollars worth of customer funds was gone. Two years on, conspiracy theories persist, leaving many asking, is he really dead? A Death in Cryptoland launches May 25.