Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet

I still see little in crypto, except a way for people to somehow profit from promoting themselves and their hustles. This doc has a lot of fluff from promoters asserting bold, ephemeral ideas and plans as though they are true and the 'next step' in shopping, social media, distribution networks, and money. As much as I love progress, I find it extremely difficult to accept their visions as being anything but wishful proposals they want others to bank.

It provides 'balance' by quoting distinguished but archaic and establishment figureheads. These include Warren Buffett, who famously doesn't have a clue about tech, and Nouriel Roubini, who - besides being an expert on macro economic trends, accurately describing the Great Recession earlier this century when most didn't know it was developing - does have a clue about tech but is famously pessimistic.

Much of it has already been covered many times. The only take away I had, was when a guy said that it's better to be in for just 1% of your total wealth and lose out, than not be in at all. He jokes, that if that 1% turned out to give you total financial independence, to name your first born after him. Ha ha, funny, but also he's aiming his marketing at younger people without kids. In another part of the show, they stated younger people take up crypto much more than older, so it seems he knows his demographic market.

More cynical promotion, to develop a new industry and user base.

Taking a neutral position on both crypto and blockchain tech, this doco deep dives the history of the underlying tech and then explores the present and future potential. One comment I got from everyone we interviewed last night was the love of honestly and transparency in the doco - it's true that crypto and blockchain have evolved from mysterious roots and basements and gone through a hype and collapse phase in 2017-19. It's also true that major corporate and political players have at the same time cast shade on the grass roots coins and startups whilst also invested millions and branched internal "skunkworks" ops in their organizations in exploring this tech for their own "private" blockchain purposes. What is clear in this doco is that the underlying idea of blockchain and what it seeks to achieve - transaction speed, low cost and high efficiency; and transparency and irrevocable truth from a distributed ledger - these core concepts are in themselves the promise of blockchain theology and the kinds of modern use cases that an incredibly tech connected world, growing off the back of leaps in computing/mobile and internet accessibility, can leverage for all kinds of purposes.

Informative documentary if you want a quick summary of the history of the crypto so far. Doesn't really explain how blockchain works in a too technical way, so it's easy to understand.

A very well balanced and easy to follow documentary that not only hears from the proponents of the space, but also its critics and controversial figures. The documentary opens the kimono to reveal many things newbies and even veterans in the space may have not known. A recommended watch for those curious about Bitcoin and its hardcore fan base.

Bitcoin is currency, not money. Money has to be a commodity first, and a medium of exchange second e.g. Silver. Silver is used in batteries, cars, mirrors, water filters etc etc. But it can also be used as a medium of exchange. Money has to be a stable store of value over hundreds of years. E.g. The dollar has lost 98% of its purchasing power within a few decades I.e. The dollar is currency, not money. Similarly, Bitcoin is simply a medium of exchange, in the form of a digital token I.e. Currency. It is not money. The film comes across like a pump-and-dump scheme. "We know it's going to a million dollars a coin". Do we know that? I sure as hell don't. There are 15,000+ cryptos out there. Crypto is the latest get rich quick scheme, but the ship has already sailed. There's no questioning the blockchain technology will have applications in the future, but it isn't isolated to Bitcoin. It has other applications. It also doesn't give Bitcoin 'value' in the same way the dollar is sometimes said to be 'backed by the US government'. Nonesense to those who understand what money actually is.