This is the story of Gerald Cotten and the many people who ended up with empty bank accounts after investing in his Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange, QuadrigaCX. What does a crypto exchange do? The movie explains it concisely and it almost makes sense: A guy like Cotten takes an investment, converts it to Bitcoin and trades it in hopes of turning a profit, kind of like a stock day trader does. Cotten ’s described as a nerdy guy who felt like an outcast, but found a community of like-minded types in the cryptocurrency world. Cotten was in India when he got sick and unexpectedly died; he was 30. At the time, QuadrigaCX was Canada’s biggest crypto exchange, holding north of $200 million. But nobody could access the keys and passwords to the company’s accounts and, against conventional wisdom, the company had no safeguards to stop such a thing from happening. Everyone who invested their money was left grasping at empty air. Internet forums foster ideas such as Cotten faked his death and took the money. The journalists and forensic accountants who lend the voice of reason, explores the oddities in the Cotten narrative, ruling out some of the crazier stuff in a quest for the truth.
David Attenborough reveals the surprising truth about the cold-blooded lives of reptiles and amphibians. These animals are as dramatic in combat, as colourful in their communication and as tender in their parental care as any other animals. Join giant courting crocodiles, jousting tortoises and bright red sumo-wrestling frogs in their sophisticated, solar-powered lives.
Virgilio Martínez is the chef/owner of Central, a restaurant in Lima, Peru that currently sits at number four on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. After a decade spent cooking in kitchens around the world, Martínez only found his true identity as a chef when he began exploring the different regions of his native Peru, from the ocean to the Andes. While some chefs are obsessed with a 'sense of place,' Martínez strives to offer his guests a sense of many places — entire ecosystems over the course of a tasting menu. Martínez always had an adventurous spirit, but growing up in Peru during the 70s and ‘80s meant that many parts of the country were closed off to him. As a teenager, he learned that pursuing a career in the kitchen would allow him the freedom to travel all over the world. The chef ended in charge of a restaurant in Madrid. This is really where Virgilio started to develop his experimental style. Martínez decided to leave Spain to go and work on opening his own restaurant in Peru. He decided to explore the idea of cooking dishes based on altitudes and ecosystems. Martínez runs Central’s kitchen with his wife, Pia León. They developed the altitude-based menu concept together. Martínez’s sister, Malena, has a science background, so he brought her on as part of the team to explore different terrains in search of ingredients that they could use at the restaurant. Virgilio remarks: 'We use 180 ingredients, and 50 percent of them are unknown.' The altitude-themed tasting menu was introduced in 2012, and the following year, Central landed at the bottom of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Two years later, it soared to number four.
The film documents the historic journey of a team of adventurers as they strive to complete the world's first completely human powered ocean row from Cape Horn to the Antarctic Peninsula across The Drake Passage, the most dangerous 600 miles of open ocean on Earth. The expedition was captained by Icelandic explorer Fiann Paul, who was joined by a team of six record-holding explorers and athletes from four nations and three continents, including Colin O'Brady. The row pushes the entire crew to their limits, testing their physical and mental strength as they work to accomplish something many think was impossible.
Our planet is one in a billion. How incredible, awe-inspiring life is driven by its natural forces - and how we can ensure humans become a force for good. David Attenborough narrates a series revealing how the forces of nature drive, shape and support the Earth's great diversity of life. The first edition examines volcanoes, which responsible for both for the planet's breathable atmosphere and the oceans, but are also the architects of the planet, with over 80% of the Earth's surface being the result of magma bursting up from the molten interior - providing a platform for life.
Super quick computers and advanced mathematical formulas have taken over trading on the financial markets from human beings -algorithms- which seem to have a life of their own. The only ones who understand the system in any way are its architects, the algorithm developers. Haim Bodek is one such algo-developer. After finding some strange wrongdoings he set out on a personal crusade against this elusive system". The machinery behind our financial markets, consisting of mathematical models, data centers and miles and miles of fiber optic cables, is disguised by technological complexity and secrecy. The builders of this financial system are a new breed of Wall Street employees -quants- mathematicians and physicists who are responsible for a technological revolution. Haim Bodek is a quant; he specialized in artificial intelligence and worked for Goldman Sachs. He knows the system from the inside, he helped build it. Haim Bodek was invited to tell his story at the "Battle of the Quants" - a recurring event where quants discuss high-frequency trading, amongst other things. Bodek wrote an algorithm for trading machines that would generate guaranteed income - a money machine that weathered the financial meltdown of 2008. But then from one day to the next the algorithm stopped working.
Cotten was in India when he got sick and unexpectedly died; he was 30. At the time, QuadrigaCX was Canada’s biggest crypto exchange, holding north of $200 million. But nobody could access the keys and passwords to the company’s accounts and, against conventional wisdom, the company had no safeguards to stop such a thing from happening. Everyone who invested their money was left grasping at empty air. Internet forums foster ideas such as Cotten faked his death and took the money. The journalists and forensic accountants who lend the voice of reason, explores the oddities in the Cotten narrative, ruling out some of the crazier stuff in a quest for the truth.