OneCoin to scam them all

A review of "The Missing Crypto Queen" by Jamie Bartlett

What’s the difference between a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, and a multi-level marketing business like Herbalife? One is a scam and a cult that will consume your life, leave you unable to think or talk about anything else to a degree that alienates you from all your friends, and leave you much poorer than you were when you started dabbling in it. The other sells vitamins and stuff.

Okay, maybe that’s going a bit too far. The jury is very much out on whether cryptocurrency is just a passing fad or something that will revolutionise the way we spend, save and even govern ourselves. (A third possibility, which is that it will stick around on the side without completely changing the world, is a dark horse.) But even crypto backers have to concede that a shiny new, futuristic, much-talked-about and barely comprehensible product really lends itself to fly-by-night get-rick-quick schemes and fraudsters.

OneCoin is probably the most notorious example of a cryptocurrency scam. And its co-f…