Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet

It is a must see, eye-opening and entertaining movie about past, present and the future of crypto currencies and blockchain. It discusses all major political and development angles that cryptocurrencies are facing today.

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.

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.

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.

Some context to start with: I had the chance to see this doc at an exclusive preview session so who knows if it was the final cut. In my opinion it should be since this was a great "tour de force" covering a hot topic full of history and interesting characters.

The chapters build upon each other nicely, the narrator keeps everything well in check, especially if some of the figures in the movie start ranting. Funny as well!

So yah, if you want to learn about that hype around blockchains, cryptocurrencies / Bitcoin and some really grand ideas for the future, those 80something minutes are well invested time. Also superior to going down the online rabbitthole which is particularly deep and confusing on those topics. And clearly less fun.