While you are relaxing on holidays or saving yourself and your loved ones on self-isolation, you can relax a little from the news and schedules and just watch a movie. In the article, I offer a selection of featured films and documentaries about cryptocurrencies, as well as tell which TV series like to pay tribute to the innovative industry.
I will be dropping youtube links for some films.
Documentaries
1. Bitcoins in Argentina
2013
The film shows how the people of Argentina uses Bitcoin to protect their funds from hyperinflation.
2. Bitcoin in Uganda
2014
It tells the story of a student from Uganda, to whom his parents use bitcoin to transfer money cheaply abroad.
3. Life on Bitcoin
2013
The experiment was filmed by American newlyweds Austin and Becky Craig. Back in 2013, they decided to spend the first 90 days of their married life, paying for all purchases with Bitcoin only. The couple wanted to prove to the skeptics that this is possible. Spoiler alert: It wasn't easy, but they did it. Craigs were able to pay for everyday purchases, did not starve to death or run wild. They often had to convince sellers to accept Bitcoin instead of dollars. After the film, the couple raised more than $ 70,000 on Kickstarter, for which they went on an international tour with the presentation of the film. The picture turned out to be kind, sweet and great for family viewing.
4. Deep Web
2015
The film tells the story of the Silk Road darknet platform, the emergence of a decentralized, shadow, encrypted Internet, as well as the role of Bitcoin in all this. Much attention is paid to FBI investigations and legal consequences for the creator of Silk Road, Ross Ulbricht. The voiceover belongs to big Bitcoin enthusiast Keanu Reeves.
5. The Blockchain and Us
2017
Swiss filmmaker Manuel Stagars describes the state of the blockchain in 2017 through numerous interviews with experts from five countries. The film is only half an hour long and during this time the following questions are raised: how blockchain can benefit the economies of countries, how it will change society, what does it mean for each of us, etc. The author admits that he deliberately poses more questions than answers. The film has been shown at the Davos Economic Forum and at several documentary festivals, translated into eight languages and is considered one of the best documentaries on the topic.
6. Magic Money: The Bitcoin Revolution
2018
The film tells about the beginning of the history of cryptocurrencies and about the way they went. Filmed in Australia, the film features conversations with Bitcoin Cash creator Roger Ver, analyst Tony Weiss, investor and crypto enthusiast Trace Mayer, crypto entrepreneur Jeff Berwick, and other prominent industry figures. Most of the time was devoted to Roger Ver and his "sermons" about the revolutionary nature of bitcoin. He believes that cryptocurrencies will someday replace fiat in day-to-day transactions, taking financial power away from regulators and authorities and handing it over to ordinary users. The film also shows examples of how digital assets are being used by people in the world's poorest countries that could not access banking services.
7. Blockchain City - The Future of Cities Driven by Blockchain
2018
The film tells the story of cities and countries that test blockchain in everyday life: Dubai, the Netherlands and Estonia. The creators are confident that blockchain will transform our future in more ways than we currently envision.
8. Trust Machine: The Story of Blockchain
2018
This film is an excellent introduction to the world of blockchain that describes the key principles of the technology. The author understands what decentralized distributed ledgers and cryptocurrencies are, what are their advantages and risks, what practical application they have found now. The main question is - is the blockchain ready to become something more than a bubble?
The answer is yes: blockchain can change the financial world and help fight income inequality and poverty in developing countries. The film contains many interviews with famous representatives of the crypto world, and Rosario Dawson, an American actress, singer and writer, comments on it.
9. BIT X BIT: Belief in Bitcoin (BIT X BIT: In Bitcoin We Trust)
2019
The film shows the history of the creation and development of blockchain and bitcoin, tells how they create a new system of value transfer and change the world. This is an educational film - if you are already familiar with the topic, you will find little new for yourself. But you can listen to interviews from industry representatives from around the world, for example, the Winklevoss twins, Andreas Antonopoulos, Peter Todd and others.
10. Cryptopia: Bitcoin, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet
2020
In 2015, Australian Torsten Hoffman made the film Bitcoin: The End Of Money As We Know It, which tells about what bitcoin is, why it is needed, how it will change the world and why he is the future of the financial system. This year, the author released a new film, analyzing the path traveled by the coin in five years and re-evaluating its prospects. Hoffman remains convinced that Bitcoin is the next life for the financial system. This time, the main attention is focused on the question of whether cryptocurrencies can become the basis for a new decentralized Internet.
Art films
11. Theft of bitcoins (Bitcoin Heist)
2016
A Vietnamese action movie with kung fu, gunfights, chases, handsome men and women, a luxurious life - all against the backdrop of a bitcoin adventure. A hacker nicknamed the Ghost steals cryptocurrency by the millions, no one can catch him, and he is preparing to commit his biggest crime. Interpol tried all the official methods, but was never able to catch the Ghost. One of the special agents decides to use illegal methods and gathers a team of professional burglars - a kind of "suicide squad" - who must stop the hacker.
12. Drug (Dope)
2015
The film follows Malcolm, a teenager from Inglewood, a disadvantaged Los Angeles area. He dreams of going to Harvard, but the school counselor believes that the guy has no chance. After participating in an underground party, he finds in his bag a large batch of ecstasy, a pistol and an iPhone - the teenager is involved in drug trafficking. To survive, he and his friends create a website for the sale of drugs for bitcoins. Take a look and see if Malcolm can get out of this story and go to Harvard.
13. Virality (Viraali)
2017
A Finnish psychological drama reflecting on the dangers of modern society. This is not an entertainment film. It tells about four unrelated characters in parallel. Kari is an intellectual policeman about to become a physicist who has a complicated relationship with a cellist. Yang is a young, talented, shooting rapper. Harry is an elderly banker, grieving over the death of his wife. Mick is a cell phone dealer who dreams of a change. All together, they accidentally end up on a mining farm in a bank office. Unfortunately, bitcoins won't make them happy.
14. How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)
2019
German teen TV series for two seasons on Netflix, based on a true story. In 2013, a German teenager Maximilian started selling drugs right from his own bedroom and in two years sold illegal substances worth € 4.5 million. He worked like a professional: darknet, left IP addresses, encryption, bank accounts with fake passports. The guy was arrested in 2015 and sentenced to seven years in prison.
The real story of Maximilian was not very suitable for cinema - the student almost never left his own room. Therefore, the creators of the series turned him into a schoolboy named Moritz. His heart is broken - the girl went to the drug dealer. To return love, Moritz decides to become the coolest drug dealer in town. Together with his best friend Lenny, a terminally ill guy, he launches a drug trade via the Internet, of course, for bitcoins. Whether Moritz will be able to return his beloved and not go to jail is the main intrigue of the series.
Despite the provocative plot, the series is instructive - drugs in it are evil, people feel bad from them, I don't want to repeat after them. Building his own drug cartel, Moritz gets answers to questions that are relevant for an adult as well: what is love, friendship, devotion. This is Breaking Bad for teenagers. A nice bonus - the series is short: 6 episodes of 30 minutes per season, you can watch it in one evening.
Unfortunately, most feature films that mention digital assets are crime dramas or thrillers. It is sad that filmmakers associate digital assets only with something illegal. We have not found a single film about cryptocurrencies where the hero would get rich on digital assets and live happily.
15. Crypto
2019
This is a financial thriller. Martin is a banking analyst specializing in anti-money laundering. Having fallen out of favor with the authorities for diligence and honesty, he is ordered to audit a provincial bank in the city in which he grew up. The town has changed: now the local bar accepts bitcoins, and a childhood friend has his own mining farm. Martin accidentally uncovers a multi-million dollar money laundering scheme going through a local art gallery. Fraudsters sell paintings for cryptocurrencies. This is the most difficult and dangerous thing in his career. Having got involved in him, he crosses the road of the Russian mafia and endangers his own family. The big plus is the cast of the film: Beau Napp, Kurt Russell and Luke Hemsworth.
TV series
16. Mr. Robot
2015-2019
The already cult American TV series tells about the brilliant and unsociable hacker Elliot Alderson. The leader of a hacker group is trying to recruit him in order to destroy a corporation seeking to gain control of the world. Cryptocurrencies are often mentioned on the show. So, the main villains - the Corporation of Evil - issues its own cryptocurrency and with its help wants to gain control over every wallet and seize financial power. In one episode, Elliot uses cryptocurrencies and mixers to hide transaction history for money laundering. It's funny that the series showed the address of a real bitcoin wallet. After the episodes aired, fans of the show started sending coins to it. In total, 0.00432954 BTC was sent - several tens of dollars.
17. Startup
2016
The American television crime drama streaming service Crackle has 3 seasons about the FBI's fight against financial criminals. Special agent Phil Rusk, played by Martin Freeman, is investigating the illegal activities of an old criminal who asked his son, a talented financier, to help legalize his proceeds. He, in turn, with the help of programmers created a new cryptocurrency GenCoin, which cannot be tracked or controlled, and transferred his father's money into it. Rusk will have to find a way to prove the criminal source of funds and stop the scammers. Several more storylines are developing in parallel. The series warns that cryptocurrencies are not a panacea and can be used for evil in the wrong hands.
18. Miners
2019
Russian YouTube series. The episodes are short, 10-20 minutes each, the last one has not yet been released. The series tells about the amateur miner Andrei and his friends. Andrey finds a bitcoin wallet with a large amount on a second-hand HDD accidentally bought. He makes a transaction with him, but after that he and a journalist friend are kidnapped by unknown persons. So Andrei is drawn into mysterious events in which the legendary Satoshi Nakamoto may be involved.
Miners is an amateur project. The actors are inexperienced, the shooting is low-budget, many scenes were shot in the Screen Life format, when the action unfolds on a computer screen. This will not go to everyone, but the authors tried. This is an attempt to comprehend the role and functions of cryptocurrencies in modern society through a detective story. If this was filmed in America, it would be a good detective series.
The series was filmed by the television production company Says and Shows from Lipetsk. The studio tried to raise money by crowdfunding on Planeta.ru, but users did not support the idea. An initially unnamed major film company approached the studio with an order to develop a story about miners. Later, she abandoned the idea of shooting the series, and the authors decided to shoot the series on their own. In addition to the Miners, the studio has also released documentaries about the history of bitcoin, The Gold of the Bitcoin Digital Age and Bitcoin and the State . By the way, they are sensible, albeit a little outdated. If you want to feel a little nostalgic and wonder what a huge way cryptocurrencies have gone, be sure to take a look.
19. The Big Bang Theory - Season 11, Episode 9
2017
At the height of the 2017 crypto boom, the heroes of the series Leonard, Raj and Howard recall that they mined a lot of bitcoins in 2012. It's funny that the main smart girl Sheldon Cooper did not participate in mining at the time, fearing tax consequences. The heroes hardly remember that the bitcoins were on the laptop, which Penny, the wife of one of the heroes, gave to her ex-boyfriend. The episode is worth watching, even if you are not a fan of the show: it clearly shows how Bitcoin has gone from a worthless digital trinket to a cherished asset that can make its owners rich. The series also shows well how not to store cryptocurrency and why a lot of early mined bitcoins have disappeared forever.
Do have a pleasant day.