Well, it’s finally happening. I’m in Vancouver with David Gerard, my mentor and the person responsible for turning me into a bitter nocoiner. If it weren’t for him, I would be doing something productive and useful with my life. Instead, I’m writing about crypto for my blog. Next thing you know, I’ll be a Wikipedia gatekeeper.    

This is my first time meeting him in the flesh. I flew in from Boston Saturday with a layover in Toronto, and almost as soon as I got here, David — who arrived several hours earlier on an eight-hour direct flight from London — met me in the hotel lobby. He was everything I pictured — six-foot-four-inches tall, legs a mile long, says “fuck” a lot and likes to drink beer. Naturally, we made a bee-line to the bar.  

We’ve both come here to be interviewed for a documentary on failed Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX. I initially met with filmmaker Sheona McDonald last year in Nova Scotia — after a harrowing drive through a blizzard to attend a Quadriga court hearing — so the plan to bring me and David together has been in the works for nearly a year.

The documentary is for CBC, Canada’s national public broadcaster. We aren’t sure when it will be out, but Sheona tells us the film may be in a few festivals first before it’s on TV.

It’s been a tight schedule this weekend. After a long day of travel, this morning, we went to this cool loft in downtown Vancouver for the filming. I was on the hot seat first, followed by David. As it turns out, talking for two-hours is really exhausting, especially when you’ve had only a few hours of sleep.

But this is exciting stuff, and it’s great to be able to hash over the details on what went on inside Quadriga with David. Sheona keeps asking us if we think Gerald Cotten, Quadriga’s cofounder who supposedly single-handedly drove the exchange to insolvency after February 2016, is really dead. David is split 50/50, but I’m leaning toward, no that’s not his body buried in Nova Scotia.

This evening, we got to meet up with fellow journalist and Vancouver local Cali Haan for a nocoiner convention at Starbucks and later for a beer.

We have more filming ahead Monday. While today we were interviewed separately, tomorrow Sheona will shoot us in a coffee shop, sharing ideas about what we think happened with Quadriga. And then after that, it’s off to the airport.

See also David’s post.

Want to learn more about Quadriga? Read the timeline.

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