Feeling Low Cotton

Gerald Cotten ran QuadrigaCX, one of Canada’s largest crytopcurrency exchange companies.  Last month, the company announced that 30 year old Mr. Cotten died in early December of complications from Crohn’s Disease while building orphanages in India.  The company also announced that $140 million of cryptocurrency was unavailable because all of the currency was stored on a laptop that only he had access to and no one knew the password.   There is concern that the cryptocurrency will be locked on the laptop forever.  However, digital forensic experts have questioned whether the currency is actually on the laptop and whether it was moved previously.

One planning point, one investment point, and a lot of shade.

1. This is a classic instance of making sure that your heirs can access your digital accounts after your death.  I advise my clients to write down their passwords to prevent heirs from being locked out after death.

2. Cryptocurrency investments can be dangerous enough without trusting them to a twenty-something operating on a laptop out of his house in Nova Scotia.

3. Not to be a conspiracist, but I do question the legitimacy of reports of a young man dying of Crohn’s disease (mortality rate of 1%) while overseas doing charity work with the death reported a month later, and $140 million possibly missing and not simply locked on a computer.  Feel free to call me a cynic, though.

Photo Credit:  Benoit Tessier/Reuters
License:  Fair Use/Education (from linked article)

Apple, Italians, and Encryption

In a topic that is evergreen, an Italian man adopted a boy from Ethiopia in 2007.  The boy tragically died of cancer last year at the age of 13.  The boy owned an iPhone 6 which both he and his father accessed by finger print ID.  After his son died, the father lost access to the phone because he claims the phone restarted during an access attempt.  The father has since written to Tim Cook begging him to assist with unlocking the phone so he can see the last two months of his son's photos and life.   Apple has been unable to assist him.  In lieu of unlocking the phone, the guy has said he will accept a donation to an orphanage benefiting Ethiopian children. Three repetitive points and one new one:

1. People should share their passwords if they want loved ones to access their electronic devices after death, especially if they are terminally ill.
2. This guy is delusional if he thinks Apple will assist him with unlocking his son's phone to simply view photos and texts (which likely say "hey",) when they would not assist the FBI  in accessing the phone of a mass murderer.
3.  Am I the only one who thinks that this guy is an FBI/NSA plant testing Apple and its devotion to privacy?
4. Donation to an Ethiopian orphanage?  If Italians feel guilty about Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia, let them fund orphanages rather than shake down US companies.