Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery (2021)

(On TV, September 2021) I’m not sure if I can properly express my all-encompassing dubiousness at the concept of cryptocurrency, and it’s not a documentary like Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery that will make me feel any better about it. Rest assured that it’s skepticism at all levels, starting with the idea that cryptocurrency is a libertarian (hence dumb) attempt to decentralize something that should not be — it’s an idea incompatible with civil society, and its scamful implementation managed to make it even worse. Never mind the environmental impact of it — even a decade in the cryptocurrency age, it’s an idea that doesn’t solve any existing problem. It’s something without practical value except as a financial speculation instrument, and that is the root of most of the other problems — as a form of gambling (at best) and deliberate deception (at worst), cryptocurrency continues to attract criminals, scammers and hustlers — and they all have very lengthy arguments about why we should give them our money to perpetuate this nonsensical bubble they plan on profiting from. Dead Man’s Switch gets interested in one of the worst scandals of Bitcoin’s history so far — the Canada-based QuadrigaCX scam and the sudden disappearance of its founder Gerald Cotten, leaving more than a hundred million dollars unaccounted for. The technical details can be complex, but the story itself isn’t: a threadbare scam clothing itself in techno-libertarian ideals to masquerade living a lavish lifestyle on investor money. When the sharks started circling, as they always end up doing, the owner went to India and died. Or should that be “died”? As the title of the film suggests, there are still plenty of unanswered questions about Cotten’s QuadrigaCX and writer-director Sheona McDonald patiently takes viewers through a years-long story of deception and fraud. What eventually emerges is familiar: A pair of men (one of them with a criminal past and two changed names) used to penny-ante scams are suddenly swept along the Bitcoin bubble and getting more money than they knew what to do with. Lavish spending explains where some of the money went, but the whole leaving-to-India-when-questions-arose thing remains open-ended, as the journalists interviewed for the documentary recount persuasive arguments for and against Cotten’s death over there. For all of the entertaining and clear-eyed explanations in Dead Man’s Switch, the most frustrating element of the film remains its lack of answers. Two of the people who would know are not talking, and an official investigation isn’t over yet. I can’t quite say I had a good time watching the film — the concept of cryptocurrency goes unexamined, and many of the interviewees are quite heavily invested in the concept. It’s also frustrating to leave so many questions unanswered, and watching the film so soon after its release offers none of the additional answers that will eventually emerge (Watch the Wikipedia article, I suppose). But as far as high-tech docs go, Dead Man’s Switch is more skillful than most in giving both a polished sheen to its cinematography and clearly explaining its topic. This being said, I’m still waiting for that anti-crypto takedown…