We open with a location dupe of Mesopotamia and West Texas, fantastic start that really sets the stage for the rest of this documentary. Ben Mckenzie, writer and director, walks us through his early career (especially his time on The O.C. which becomes a bit of a running joke) up to his 5 season run on FOX’s GOTHAM and up to COVID and the pandemic era. He goes into his personal relationships, financial woes, and his background in economics all in order to substantiate credibility. A smart move, especially with an ever growing and always skeptical audience. Everyone believes celebrities and influencers are hawking them products, so it is refreshing to see someone of status lend their creditability to challenge the new “norm,” i.e., something cryptocurrency.
I’m old enough to have seen, with very wary eyes, the emergence and dissolution of crypto. What the currency promised to do and the marginalized communities it excluded through technology like a digital wallet and so on. Much like Ben, I too was and still am skeptical of a digital coin revolution and he does a great job highlighting that. From the very controversial Odyssey actor Matt Damon, to Shaq, Tom Brady, BTS, Kevin O’Leary and many other recognizable faces. Crypto and Bitcoins advertisement campaigns were spread far and wide.
The irregularities of this pseudo financial culture really come together when Ben makes it to a Bitcoin convention in Miami. Bitcoin art, vulgur sculptures, a 15-20 minute transaction if you could get a machine to work are just a few of the bizarre abnormalities. The floor seemed just as unstable as the coin itself. We travel to El Salvador to see how Bitcoin has changed the lives of Salvadorians. To no one’s surprise, the promise did nothing to improve lives. A former American citizen named Corbin, who lives a self assembled concrete shack near the “Bitcoin Village” site, has gone all in. He, like many, are waiting for their coin to inflate, sell, and get rich. It reflects every pump and dump modern day financial scheme, something else that MacKenzie makes note of. It did little and offered nothing.
After a brief hiatus and on set visit to his wife which includes a shocking omission from Gerard Butler, MacKenzie is back on his trek to discover the truth behind the digital currency. In conversation with Celcius Bank's Alex Mashinsky, Ben really flexes his financial intelligence. Mashinsky admits to the possibility of a majority of crypto’s value as "digital inflation" with as little as 15% of it as real money. He manages to a shocking interview with the now incarcerated Sam Bankman Fried (serving a 25 year sentence for fraud). In their conversation, Ben isn’t playing hardball because he doesn’t have to. He, like many, understands that it is all smoke and mirrors and Sam’s response quickly fall apart when Ben highlights the obvious. It’s almost hard to watch Bankman trip over the question about how much he’s donated to Politicians before being told he has to go by a voice off screen.
What Mackenzie does that’s quite different here than other cryptocurrency documentaries is humanize the experience. Not only do we get an intimate look at his family life but even the people who lost money (through Mashinsky). It really shows a hidden element of these modern day finance schemes. These victims are real. Hearing their personal stories of humiliation really gives this movie the edge to drive home just how predatory this system really is.
So where does that leave us? Even a few of the victims are seen at the end still believing in the dream of crypto having already suffered and experiencing financial loss and public humiliation. We are always thinking about money. Yesterday’s Bitcoin and crypto scheme is now today’s prediction market mayhem. It all works off the same idea, you give financially desperate, ill informed people, false hope. You tell them you can play and win, even if you have no money to lose, here is your chance. You flood social media with advertisements, establish credibility with celebrities and actors, and create an unregulated, unprotected system. Mackenzie’s documentary and his mission is ultimately worthwhile, finding himself in front of the Senate Committee in December of 2022. Today, Crypto's is just as volatile as it was. Ben McKenzie offers all the right tools for a discerning viewer unfamiliar with these markets to understand the risks. Informative, smart, and sincere. A great documentary that takes a fresh angle on a controversial topic. This is a total knock out and one to see.
I’m old enough to have seen, with very wary eyes, the emergence and dissolution of crypto. What the currency promised to do and the marginalized communities it excluded through technology like a digital wallet and so on. Much like Ben, I too was and still am skeptical of a digital coin revolution and he does a great job highlighting that. From the very controversial Odyssey actor Matt Damon, to Shaq, Tom Brady, BTS, Kevin O’Leary and many other recognizable faces. Crypto and Bitcoins advertisement campaigns were spread far and wide.
The irregularities of this pseudo financial culture really come together when Ben makes it to a Bitcoin convention in Miami. Bitcoin art, vulgur sculptures, a 15-20 minute transaction if you could get a machine to work are just a few of the bizarre abnormalities. The floor seemed just as unstable as the coin itself. We travel to El Salvador to see how Bitcoin has changed the lives of Salvadorians. To no one’s surprise, the promise did nothing to improve lives. A former American citizen named Corbin, who lives a self assembled concrete shack near the “Bitcoin Village” site, has gone all in. He, like many, are waiting for their coin to inflate, sell, and get rich. It reflects every pump and dump modern day financial scheme, something else that MacKenzie makes note of. It did little and offered nothing.
After a brief hiatus and on set visit to his wife which includes a shocking omission from Gerard Butler, MacKenzie is back on his trek to discover the truth behind the digital currency. In conversation with Celcius Bank's Alex Mashinsky, Ben really flexes his financial intelligence. Mashinsky admits to the possibility of a majority of crypto’s value as "digital inflation" with as little as 15% of it as real money. He manages to a shocking interview with the now incarcerated Sam Bankman Fried (serving a 25 year sentence for fraud). In their conversation, Ben isn’t playing hardball because he doesn’t have to. He, like many, understands that it is all smoke and mirrors and Sam’s response quickly fall apart when Ben highlights the obvious. It’s almost hard to watch Bankman trip over the question about how much he’s donated to Politicians before being told he has to go by a voice off screen.
What Mackenzie does that’s quite different here than other cryptocurrency documentaries is humanize the experience. Not only do we get an intimate look at his family life but even the people who lost money (through Mashinsky). It really shows a hidden element of these modern day finance schemes. These victims are real. Hearing their personal stories of humiliation really gives this movie the edge to drive home just how predatory this system really is.
So where does that leave us? Even a few of the victims are seen at the end still believing in the dream of crypto having already suffered and experiencing financial loss and public humiliation. We are always thinking about money. Yesterday’s Bitcoin and crypto scheme is now today’s prediction market mayhem. It all works off the same idea, you give financially desperate, ill informed people, false hope. You tell them you can play and win, even if you have no money to lose, here is your chance. You flood social media with advertisements, establish credibility with celebrities and actors, and create an unregulated, unprotected system. Mackenzie’s documentary and his mission is ultimately worthwhile, finding himself in front of the Senate Committee in December of 2022. Today, Crypto's is just as volatile as it was. Ben McKenzie offers all the right tools for a discerning viewer unfamiliar with these markets to understand the risks. Informative, smart, and sincere. A great documentary that takes a fresh angle on a controversial topic. This is a total knock out and one to see.
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