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Let’s listen to the podcast “The Missing Cryptoqueen” together from the beginning, as the new episodes arrive. This second presents new facets of Dr. Ruja and expands the scope of the podcast. Good news: “The Missing Cryptoqueen” may be even more interesting than we previously thought. As BBC presenter Jamie Bartlett puts it, “we thought we were looking for a missing billionaire, but now we seem to be entering a world much darker than we thought.”
NewsBTC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” listening group is now in session. In the first few minutes of this episode, Dr. Ruja Ignatova: “In two years no one will talk about bitcoin anymore.” A line from every crypto scammer’s book out there.
Remember you can download episodes straight from the BBCor listen to “The Missing Cryptoqueen” on Apple, Spotifyor iVoox.
About Episode Two of “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s”, “The Bitcoin Killer”
This podcast is moving fast. It’s only the second episode of “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” and the whole OneCoin fiasco is already breaking down. The producer and host move between telling the story of what happened and the actual search for Dr. ruja. The team went to Bulgaria and asked around about the controversial character. Every time they called her, Bulgarians began to talk loudly among themselves.
They go to places she visited, of course, but everyone seems to know Ruja Ignatova.
In any case, the audience of “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” is not exactly a cryptocurrency savvy. The episode opens with a terrible definition of what money is and a shaky explanation of how blockchain technology works. This is necessary, because we soon find out that OneCoin was not even running on a blockchain. This was a scam through and through from the start.
The podcast/radio documentary also serves as a living and breathing explanation of how a Ponzi scheme works. And the protagonists of the story tell you exactly what happened in their own words. One of the victims, Jane; a developer turned OneCoin whistleblower; and OneCoin declarant Timothy Curry are the guests in the second episode of “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s”.
In the fourth quarter of the episode, the team goes to the marina where the boat where Dr. Ruja’s disappeared was located. The Bulgarians call there the mafia. And the developer who became a whistleblower also alludes to it.
BTC price chart for 10/06/2022 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
An almost ever-present feature of a scam or Ponzi
In addition to the lack of a blockchain, “The Missing Cryptoqueen” points to an almost ever-present feature of a scam or Ponzi:
- People could not withdraw or spend the purchased tokens.
In this case, OneCoin only lived in a SQL database in Bulgaria. The naive investors saw the price rise and believed they were killing, but their tokens were just numbers on a screen. They could not exchange them for other cryptocurrencies because OneCoin was not a cryptocurrency. It didn’t run on a blockchain.
At the time, the team contacted OneCoin with these allegations and they denied everything and blamed the authorities and regulations for the lack of usability of their token. Classic scammers.
Quotes from “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” Episode Two – “The Bitcoin Killer”
- “The $10,000 that Jen invested that she thought was now worth more than $100,000 in one coin was just a number that someone in an office in Bulgaria had made up and could just as easily delete. OneCoin is not a real cryptocurrency, it just pretends to be one. It’s fake, it’s a scam, and it just might be the scam of the century.”
- “OneCoin was only possible thanks to Dr. ruja. Whenever we see complicated technology that we don’t understand, we make judgments about it based on things we do understand. Like the fact that the boss was an inspiring, successful businesswoman. dr. Ruja’s magic trick was to use the hype and terminology of legitimate cryptocurrencies. So ordinary people like Jen couldn’t tell the difference between real and fake.”
Additional material and episode credits
This week’s extra material comes courtesy of Investopediawhich summarizes the plot of “The Missing Cryptoqueen’s” as:
“OneCoin was a cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scheme. The companies behind the plan were OneCoin Ltd. and OneLife Network Ltd., founded by Bulgarian Ruja Ignatova, who disappeared in 2017. But not before the plan brought in $4 billion.”
And finally, the closing credits of the episode:
Presenter: Jamie Bartlett
Producer: Georgia Catt
Story Advisor: Chris Berube
Editor: Philip Sellars
Original music and sound design: Phil Channell
Original music and vocals: Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir
Previous Guides to BBC’s “The Missing Cryptoqueen” Podcast:
Featured Image: The Missing Cryptoqueen podcast logo from the BBC | Charts by TradingView
