Bitcoin is no longer for nerds and computer geeks only, but has become a mainstream digital currency used all over the world.
Also, thanks to great media coverage, Bitcoin has become popular in all segments of the population and not only among industry experts.
Millions of people use Bitcoin daily for payments and the blockchain for secure transactions and contracts.
And that’s why the movie industry is so interested in this topic.
Tomer Kantor, film director and producer said to Cointelegraph:
“Cinema doesn't allow the viewers to choose, it tells them what to choose. Bitcoin is a tool, so every movie where it's used would always show the perspective of the director's desires for that tool.
We'll see Bitcoin being mentioned a lot more in TV and Film as it matures, simply because more people will be using it as a tool.”
Kantor directed two interesting documentary about Bitcoin: “Ulterior States” (2015) and “Bitcon in Kenya” (2014).
Movies reflect people’s attention to specific subjects
With the rise of Bitcoin fortune, there are always more films and documentaries on the subject.
In fact, movies are similar to a litmus paper that indicate when technologies are ready to have a big impact on our daily life.
As happened in the past with other revolutionary technologies such as the Internet and personal computers, the movie industry takes care of a topic when it becomes popular.
Steve Beauregard, GoCoin CEO and Founder commented:
“I remember in the early days of BlackBerry Smartphones, that we realized they were gaining popularity when they started showing up in movies and on television shows. I believe the same is true with Bitcoin having cameo mentions in movies like “Dope”, it is clear it is becoming more of a “thing."”
Some practical examples from the world’s movie industry and Hollywood
So, take a look at some examples of movies about technology. When did they come out?
The first documentary related to personal computers and the Internet is called Terminal Madness (1980), the same year the VIC-20 sold more than a million units.
The Google Boys was released in 2004. That same year, on August 18, Google listed its stock on Wall Street with an initial public offering of 19,605,052 Class A shares.
The Social Network, the well known movie about Facebook, came out in 2010 when this social website had the global attention of 500,000,000 active users. The film also won the "Hollywood Ensemble Award" from the Hollywood Film Awards.
And these are not just coincidences.
SiamoSoci CEO and BlockchainLab member Dario Giudici said:
“The movie industry and also television have always more attention to the theme of technological innovations and startups. Especially in Europe, where this market is going really well. I’m speaking about television shows like Dragons' Den and Shark Tank, as well as numerous movies and documentaries on Bitcoin. According to me, the relationship between new technologies and cinema is a natural step. Cinema decides to speak about these topics because they have a big impact on our daily life.”
More and more movies about Bitcoin and Blockchain
From 2012 there have been many audio-visual products related to Bitcoin.
Those are short films such as Bitcoin in Argentina and Bitcoin in Uganda, documentaries like The end of money as we know it and The rise and rise of Bitcoin, films like Dope, but also several world famous TV series that dedicated episodes to Bitcoin.
In this way Bitcoin came to be in the center of court hearings such as in the Good Wife episode Bitcoin for Dummies, or in investigations such as in the case of TV series like Almost Human, CSI Cyber and many more.
As of today, there are at least twenty different tv series that decided to talk about Bitcoin.
At the beginning they were just short movies and low budget documentaries, as always happens with unfamiliar topics.
But now Bitcoin is well known, and not only in the financial industry, so movie budgets are growing fast and medium/high budget audio-visual products are increasing.
High budget movies about Bitcoin
One of the latest big projects is Deep Web, a documentary about the Ross Ulbricht trial for the Silk Road case.
Its budget was about $80,000 raised through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarer.
Another important project is Dope with a budget of $7,000,000. This was the first movie to accept Bitcoin thanks to a partnership between Lionsgate, Movie Tickets and GoCoin.
“I have seen the movie (Dope), and I understand the temptation to simply pigeonhole Bitcoin as a currency for underground transactions, but the truth is cash is still the best way to make an untraceable transaction. Bitcoin leaves behind a permanent record of the transaction that can never be erased. As the law enforcement official were quoted as saying in the infamous Silk Road case, the use of Bitcoin did not hamper their investigation. It likely made it easier”, commented Beauregard.
Lionsgate and Movie Tickets allow bitcoin payments
Some months ago, the Lionsgate company started to accept bitcoin on their platform.
Lionsgate was the first company to allow this kind of payment thanks to a partnership with GoCoin.
Beauregard continued:
“GoCoin has offices in Los Angeles where a high percentage of movies are filmed and produced. These deals evolved from relationships of the GoCoin founding team. MovieTicket.com and Lionsgate shop have expressed interest in evolving the payment options beyond just the one-time purchase. The longer term vision is to incentives their customers in engaging ways to make their products accessible even to those that don't have US credit cards.”