
Software Engineer Loses Life Savings in Quadriga Imbroglio - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-09/software-engineer-loses-life-savings-in-quadriga-imbroglio
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floatingatoll
Alternate headline:

“Software engineer loses life savings during Bitcoin tax evasion scheme”

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pseudolus
That's a little harsh and likely untrue as he was a salaried employee whose
earnings were probably reported to the IRS which in turn shares information
with the Canadian Revenue Agency. What he was probably trying to accomplish
was a cryptocurrency variation of "Norbert's Gambit", an entirely legitimate
mechanism that allows individuals to basically eliminate exchange fees when
converting US dollars to Canadian dollars and vice versa [0]. Unfortunately
for him, the 1-2% he was trying to save cost him everything.

[0]
[https://www.finiki.org/wiki/Norbert%27s_gambit](https://www.finiki.org/wiki/Norbert%27s_gambit)

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floatingatoll
Okay, sure, let’s run with that.

Alternate headline, “fees” variant:

“Software engineer loses life savings during Bitcoin fee evasion scheme”

The point being, he consciously traded a safe thing (losing a percentage of
his money doing the transfer in insured ways) for a high-risk thing (no
percentage taken, but not insured). He lost his bet due to a black swan event.
I’m not inclined to sugarcoat this; he had every opportunity to know the
risks, and earns no sympathy from me for losing his gamble.

Whether it’s taxes or forex fees he’s avoiding, the point remains: Safety
comes with a price, and refusing to pay that price carries a risk of loss.

