Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Are we surprised? I hear the sounds of lots of heads vigorously shaking 'no'.

There are two types, largely speaking, of crypto wallets: online and offline. An offline wallet is where the information is written to some sort of physical media and disconnected from any computer or internet connection unless you need to access the keys. Then you have to enter a long password or recovery phrase.

Well, these 'brilliant' people at Prime Trust created an encrypted physical key into which deposits were made, ultimately totaling almost $40,000,000US, including Etherium and Bitcoin. And the actual keys were burned onto titanium objects. At no time were paper or apparently electronic copies of the keys or recovery keys made.

And the physical recovery keys were lost.

And they didn't record the recovery phrases.

And now the money held in that wallet can never be recovered. You can only make X number of attempts before the device wipes out all the data.

Now, here's the great part. The company marketed itself as a "...crypto fintech company designed to help other startups offer crypto retirement plans, know-your-customer interfaces, ensure liquidity, and a host of other services. It says it can help companies build crypto exchanges, payment platforms, and create stablecoins for its clients. The company has not had a good few months. In June, the state of Nevada filed to seize control of the company because it was near insolvency. It was then ordered to cease all operations by a federal judge because it allegedly used customers’ money to cover withdrawal requests from other companies."

I would scream so loud if I found out that my retirement plan had any portion being invested in crypto!

https://www.404media.co/crypto-startup-prime-trust-files-for-bankruptcy-after-losing-password-to-38-9-million-crypto-wallet/

https://slashdot.org/story/23/08/26/0318207/crypto-startup-bankrupt-after-losing-password-to-389-million-physical-crypto-wallet

The drug, Aloquin, was used to treat eczema and consisted of an old generic antibiotic and extracts from aloe vera. The price went from about $250 a tube to almost $10,000 a tube. Apparently patients balked at the price and rejected the prescriptions.

Insurance plans wouldn't pay $10k for such an old medication of dubious efficacy, the company had trouble being profitable. The article states that "The filing also said that manufacturing issues, a dispute with a wholesaler, and competition from generic creams contributed to the bankruptcy."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/infamous-pharma-company-declares-bankruptcy-after-3900-price-hike/

For myself, in November I went and saw my lung doctor about a persistent cough that had been bugging me for some months. He changed one of my meds, an inhaler for asthma control (I also carry a rescue inhaler) to two nebulized meds. I had been getting the inhaler for free via mail order. The two nebulized meds were $6 each at my local pharmacy. Starting in January, one of the meds were removed from my pharmacy benefits company's formulary and replaced with a drug that became $140 at my local pharmacy - and would increase in price after 3 months!

So I was forced to get it mail order, the two drugs became $130 for a three month supply.

I don't like getting my meds mail order as by getting them locally, that money supports local jobs, not jobs in another state. We have a bad enough economy here, and it may not be much, but it's something.

just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection!

Apparently they have been fighting some lawsuits from a few years ago and have not been able to reach an out of court settlement so they're trying to protect their assets.

It's not a great hospital in terms of quality of service, but it's the only one we have. Personally, if I needed a hospital and had any choice in the matter, we'd go to Las Cruces or El Paso. But they're going to continue normal operations while all this goes on. The sucky thing is they are the largest non-military, non-government (not to be redundant) employer in the county.

My wife had an interesting observation: you hear of doctors closing shop and clinics closing, and here obviously a hospital in trouble -- but you never hear of health plans folding. I might have heard of a health plan not making it, look at the mergers in pharmacy benefit providers, but it's not very often.