To millions of people, cryptocurrencies are still a mystery, but for Ray Trapani, he and his friends seemed to just get it.
Well, they at least understood it enough to scam people out millions of dollars.
Netflix’s 2024 documentary Bitconned takes a look at the 2017 boom of Bitcoin and the growth of the cryptocurrency community, as well as the bizarre stories that followed.
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The documentary focuses on Trapani, who co-founded cryptocurrency firm Centra Tech alongside Sohrab Sharma and Robert Farkas.
Trapani and Sharma started Centra Tech in 2017, with the company claiming to have developed a type of cryptocurrency wallet and card which allowed it to be converted into normal money instantly.
Long story short, they hadn't.
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Throughout the doc, the trio brag about how easily they were able to make money and string people along for their own ends.
During the documentary, Trapani even so much as says he didn’t have much empathy for those he did scam.
However, speaking to UNILAD, Trapani insisted not only did he play himself up for the documentary, but since the scams of Centra, he has improved himself as a person.
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“I am definitely more empathetic now. Over the past four years I have basically been trying to give back as much as possible as far as working with people with trauma, addicts and also sexual abuse victims because that is something that happened with me as a kid,” he told UNILAD.
At the time, however, Trapani wasn't put off by the moral issues of scamming people.
“In the documentary...my whole point about not having empathy for the people that lost money, the reason it was hard [to have empathy] was because [...] I had never spoken to them on the phone, I had never seen a [real] picture of them, never met any of them," he said.
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“But I think that aspect of it made it a little bit harder because it didn’t feel like real people, it just felt like you were almost battling the internet, fake internet people."
Trapani added that they were very much just pictures of animals and names in chatrooms. But he says he now implores everyone to have more empathy regardless.
“[I’ve been learning] to just be empathetic towards overall society which I think I'm better at these days," he added.
The documentary explained that Trapani, along with Sharma and Farkas, pleaded guilty for their crimes. However, Trapani seemed to get the lightest of the sentences - getting time served and a supervised release of three years for his cooperation from the outset.
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Sharma was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2021 and remains behind bars, while Farkas was sentenced to one year in prison.
Despite Trapani’s genuine claims that he has set himself on a better path now, social media users have been less forgiving, while also still admitting they enjoyed the documentary.
“Bitconned on Netflix is one of the craziest documentaries I’ve seen in a while,” wrote one X user.
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“Bitconned on Netflix p*ssed me off. I didn’t need a show to remind me of the painful truth that [people like this] can win after all.” another added.
“When you get a chance, watch Bitconned on Netflix. The s*** is wild. They played ppl and took all they money," a fourth added.
Trapani insisted he had big business and outreach programs for those in need in the future, so it's unlikely we have heard the last of him.
Watch Bitconned on Netflix now.
Topics: Cryptocurrency, Netflix
Gerrard Kaonga