But Cotton didn't do anything like that. And so, Cotten at the moment is both dead and alive, in that weird quantum way of it. He is alive in the hope of Quadriga creditors that all that ether is not merely, well, ethereal. But even if it's not his body in the crypt, until Cotten is actually found, and until he divulges the cryptographic keys needed to transfer Quadriga's ether on the Ethereum blockchain, he might as well be dead. The Quadriga story remains one of the best real-world demonstrations both of blockchain's strengths and its risks. Like the old mythical Swiss numbered accounts, and maybe like Das Safe's anonymous/non-anonymous deposit boxes, assets on a blockchain are incredibly secure. With the codes and keys, you alone can move your cryptoassets, and you can do so anonymously. But if anyone else gets those the codes and keys, you are screwed. Any imposter can take your assets as easily as you can -- and just as anonymously. A crypto-thief can be as good as dead to you, and yet alive enough to enjoy his crypto-booty at the same time. Now that's superpositioning!