Movie Review : Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King (2022)
Fifteen years ago, no one would’ve said the internet was a mistake. Concerned parents and aging assholes notwithstanding, people enjoyed finding answers to every question they’ve ever had on Google, connecting to ex-lovers on MySpace and buying their favorite songs for a dollar on iTunes. But the simple times didn’t last. Web 2.0 turned us against one another and made a bunch of rich assholes even richer and now Web 3.0 is upon us and God know what kind of lawless bullshit it’ll unleash upon us.
Luke Sewell’s Netflix documentary Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King did give us (intentionally or not) a sneak peak at this oncoming clusterfuck, though.
Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King tells the too little known story of Gerald Cotten, founder of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX. That means it’s the place when you either invest your money into cryptocurrency or cash out your sweet gains. It did great while people were investing and not so great when people were trying to cash out. A couple weeks after going rogue with 200 million dollars Cotten died in mysterious circumstances in India. Or not.
Schrödinger’s Gerald Cotten
Alright. This documentary features the cryptocurrency investors community’s investigation of a) Gerald Cotten’s death b) the disappearance of their life savings c) whether or not these two occurrence are linked. It doesn’t really matter whether or not they are, because Trust No One illustrates a deeper problem that will eventually affect us all: the next iteration of the internet is built on, first and foremost, trust between user and it has been designed by people who lack the capacity to.
It doesn’t really matter whether or not Gerald Cotten is dead. Although his alleged crime is spectacular and heartbreaking for small, well-meaning investors, Luke Sewell’s documentary illustrates that he is the product of a culture of scammers who are trying to do the same than than the people they claim to oppose: gain power and feel important. There’s only one way to do that: money. That’s exactly what Gerald Cotten did with QuadrigaCX and by bailing out with his clients’ money.
There might be an official narrative surrounding Cotten’s death, but I do think this fucker’s still alive. But that’s beside the point.
If Gerald Cotten is alive people who were defrauded by him (and crypto bros in general) will say it’s another proof that empowering institutions is dangerous and if Gerald Cotten is dead, they will claim empowering an individual is dangerous and that we need more decentralization. By disappearing, Cotten gave an already distrusting bunch a reason who blame whatever they want to blame and work on a future that will benefit only themselves. These are the people building your next utopia.
The false dichotomy of Cryptocurrency
Another point Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King made sneakily well is exposing the false dichotomy crypto bros are so gung ho about: centralized vs decentralized. Regulated vs lawless. All of these guys who tried to get rich with Bitcoin and were left with their dicks in their hand sure turned to centralized institutions for help: police, government, etc. Their philosophy failed them because it was short sighted and self-interested and that they were a little unlucky. But it failed on their own terms.
Of course, this is a larger problem that affects many spheres of society. These guys are not idiots, but they' aren’t special either. They are merely normal, intelligent human beings. It’s kind of human nature to claim loud and proud that the solution to a problem is just to eradicate a problem. Not try to transform something that exists into something else. Something better of their own design.
Originally built as an answer to the ‘08 financial crisis, cryptocurrency suffers from many logistic and philosophical problems, but the biggest one will forever be human nature.
*
From a bird’s eye view, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King is a documentary about a broken system and a broken future. It portrays a society of isolated and powerless people who feel special for dreaming the same dreams as anybody else: power, wealth, fame, validation, etc. Gerald Cotten’s death or lack thereof is just accessory to this bleak vision. There were exit scams before him and there will be many more after him. His was just more spectacular than the others.
