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(crickets chirping)

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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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(lively music)

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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- [Director] How you feeling?

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- Very excited.

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Making history.

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And also, there's gonna be a lot

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of very pleased people at the school.

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It's not just a tech thing.

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It's not just a new invention.

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It's something that can
actually help real people.

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So, it's fun to do that and exciting.

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It gives it all meaning,
not just interest.

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- [Director] Living at
the bottom of Africa

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can really make world
affairs feel like things

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that just happen somewhere else.

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So in 2014, when I heard the
word Bitcoin for the first time

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I made it my mission to find out

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what is so wrong with the way things are

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that people are trying

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to change the financial
system for everyone.

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The thing about storytelling though,

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the story you expect is
never the one you find.

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I reached out to friends to find out

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who knew about this thing called Bitcoin

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and I was pointed in the
direction of Lorien Gamaroff.

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Within four minutes of receiving my email

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about being interviewed on Bitcoin,

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Lorien responded, saying,

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"Yes, I do believe that
this will impact our lives

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"as much as the internet has done."

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So can you first explain to
me what cryptocurrency is?

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- All it is, essentially, is
a mechanism for being able

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to transfer digital assets
without there having

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to be a duplicate of that digital asset.

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I'll give you an example.

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If you have an MP3, or a digital photo,

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it's very easy to make a copy
of that digital photo or MP3

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and send it to multiple friends,

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or what this term is called, double spend.

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In 2008, an anonymous
developer, or engineer,

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or financial guru devised a way

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to create a digital currency,

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which essentially solved that problem,

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where you could create a digital asset

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that could be transferred
from entity to another

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and couldn't be easily copied.

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In 2011, I read a blog
about an underground website

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that was using this new internet
currency that was different

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from any other currency that
had ever come before it,

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and I immediately decided to
try and play around with it

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and see where it would go,
and acquired a number of them,

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when they were worth very little.

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And then, over the years I've
just seen the usage explode

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and people come around to the idea

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that this could very will
be the next innovation

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that disrupts and upturns our lives,

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and has a massive positive impact.

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- There are thousands of
cryptocurrencies out there

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and they're quite diverse in terms

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of what their intentions are

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and what they were designed to do.

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So, for me the discussion
begins with Bitcoin.

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It's the the proto cryptocurrency.

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It's the first one that mattered.

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- When you first geek out about Bitcoin,

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and blockchain, and cryptocurrency,

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you tend to become very
excited about the tech itself,

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and I think I made the mistake
quite a few times early on

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of getting too technical
when I'm just speaking

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to my mum, or my wife, or friends

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who just want to understand how it works.

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It's digital money.

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- [Director] In 2016,
we attended the Bitcoin

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and Blockchain Africa Conference,

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so we could hear people
who get it, explain it.

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There was a woman on stage from
Botswana who educates people

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on both the potential
and risks of Bitcoin.

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After she shared her personal story,

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I snuck over and slipped a
piece of paper into her hand

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with the hastily scrawled words,

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I'm making a documentary and
I would love to interview you.

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- Come, come, come.

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(whistling)

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(goats bleating)

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Welcome to my farm.

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This is a very small farm
that I started in 2017,

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when the Bitcoin market went a bit up.

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I managed to buy the goats

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and I bought myself some chickens,

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and I set up the farm.

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And I also managed to buy myself this car.

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That is why it has got all
these Bitcoin stickers.

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You can come and check out my goats.

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They are like way cool.

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The other ones are not yet here.

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I think they're still in the bush.

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The humble beginnings. (laughing)

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I'm hoping in the future

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I'll have much, much wider farm

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as I continue in my journey of Bitcoin.

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So this is a Bitcoin farm.

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But instead of mining
Bitcoin, I'm mining goats.

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(laughing)

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The piece of land, I got it in 2011,

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so from 2011 until 2017
there was nothing happening.

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I couldn't clean it up
because I didn't have money.

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Some of my goats are coming.

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It's one of my passions

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besides teaching people about Bitcoin.

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My husband is the one
who is always coming here

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most of the time

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because as for me, I'm always
busy doing my education

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and doing my Satoshi Centre,
and sometimes touring.

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People have flooded
Africa with a lot of scams

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and a lot of our people are
falling into those scams.

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So I'm not basically
only focused on Botswana.

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Where education is needed, I go.

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(laughing)
(bells dinging)

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The whole idea of the farm

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is so that I can be
able to sustain myself.

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I'm just educating people

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without making any profit out of it.

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For me, education is very important

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even though I get stressed

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when my life is not
working according to plan,

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and my vision for the Satoshi Centre

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is not really accomplished, I would say,

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but I'm always grateful
for the Bitcoin community

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because they are really
a super, amazing family.

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Everyone in the Bitcoin
space, they're amazing.

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(soft music)

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- [Director] The original document

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that outlined the vision to
reinvent the world of finance

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and technology was released in 2008

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against the backdrop of
the financial crisis.

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In order to understand all of that,

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the most obvious place to start was money.

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What is money?

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Where did it come from?

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And why isn't the way it
works working for us anymore?

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- One of the first things
we figured out to do

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that really distinguished us

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from the other animals on this
planet was invent language

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and a way of communicating with each other

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that could convey very complicated ideas.

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We could have armies of 100s
or 1000s of individuals,

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where other great apes would only be able

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to organize in clusters of
up to about 100 individuals.

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So, that gave us an edge.

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Language was extremely powerful
as an organizing mechanism,

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but the thing we needed next was a way

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of making our trust in
each other portable.

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We used seashells.

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Baboon bones were a popular
form of currency in Africa,

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but money is, and always has
been, a form of an IOU note.

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I could give you something
and you could trust that

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that thing had value because
society believed it did.

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Things like dollars and rands,
we call those fiat currencies

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and fiat is a Latin word
that means 'let it be done'.

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It basically means that they have value

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because governments say they do.

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Governments tell us that
you will use this money.

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You will accept it as repayment of debt

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and you will pay your
taxes in this currency.

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So, it really is just
is because we say so.

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There was a period where fiat currencies

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were backed by the gold standard,

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and now really money is just backed

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by a government's ability
to enforce taxation

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within its borders.

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Governments, or their
central banking authorities,

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can print as much money as they want to.

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The decision to print money

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is something that lies
with a few individuals.

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It's open to flawed decision
making and really it's fair

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to say that fiat money
isn't backed by anything.

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(soft music)

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- [Director] For a time,
Bitcoin felt like a lot of talk

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and very little action,

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but Lorien was taking
Bitcoin out of academia,

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out of the future,

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and creating a real
world use for it in 2015,

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something tangible for the world to see.

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- If you consume electricity,

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you're gonna have a meter
installed at your property.

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There's two modes that
that meter can be in,

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either postpaid or prepaid.

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Postpaid is where you
just consume the utility

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and at the end of the
month somebody will come

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and read your meter and
then send you a bill

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and then you pay.

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You're consuming first and then you pay.

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Now prepaid meters are
trying to solve the problem

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where people are consuming
and then not paying,

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which is a problem we have,
and it's showing itself

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in our energy provider,
Eskom, where they say

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they don't have enough money
to maintain the power stations

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because they can't recover
from the municipalities.

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The municipalities can't recover

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because nobody wants
to pay for the utility.

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They've already consumed it.

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So, they're trying to close that gap

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by switching all their
customers on to prepaid,

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so they can't consume unless they've paid.

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But it then introduces another problem

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from a consumer's point of view.

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At least 80% of Africans are unbanked.

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If they want to make a
payment they have to use cash.

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Obviously now, the costs are increased

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because the vendor has costs,

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and there's traveling
costs, security costs.

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So, although prepaid systems

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will solve the recovery from
the utility's point of view,

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it doesn't solve anything from
the consumer's point of view.

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Bitcoin is a payment system,

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which is an electronic payment system,

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that is outside of the banking system.

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Anybody who has an app
on their mobile phone,

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it doesn't even have to be a smartphone,

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they can easily become
part of the Bitcoin economy

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and have access to electronic payments.

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So, it's just a common sense
thing if you think about it,

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that being able to make
Bitcoin a payment method

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for a pre-payment system
opens up that massive market,

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and it has opportunity to
drastically reduce costs

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and increase efficiency,

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at least from the
perspective of the consumer.

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So now, there's a solution, Bitcoin,

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and applied to smart metering

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can solve a massive
problem throughout Africa

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as well as Latin America and Asia Pacific.

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(birds chirping)

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(greeting in foreign language)

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- I started my journey with Bitcoin

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in a little bit of a sad way.

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- [Director] Can you tell me that story?

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- My son, right here on the wall.

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In 2007, I gave birth to a baby boy.

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His name was called
Pako, which means praise.

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He was born with a heart defect

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called hypertrophic
obstructive cardiomyopathy.

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I was looking for ways in
which I can raise money

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and probably take him overseas.

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It was kind of difficult here in Botswana

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for them to promise me anything.

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One time, the doctor told me

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that there's literally
nothing that they can do.

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When we brought to South
Africa, I was very happy.

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I said my son would get help.

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But they said to me, "For us
to be able to help your son,

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"we finish first with the
list that is in South Africa

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00:11:00,157 --> 00:11:02,057
"for children who need transplants."

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So I went online to try and do freelancing

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00:11:06,330 --> 00:11:08,330
so maybe I can be able to raise more funds

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00:11:08,330 --> 00:11:09,373
to be help my child.

258
00:11:10,270 --> 00:11:11,810
Then I remember I got across a survey

259
00:11:11,810 --> 00:11:13,270
where they say you can do a survey

260
00:11:13,270 --> 00:11:15,940
and you can be paid in Bitcoin.

261
00:11:15,940 --> 00:11:19,890
I went through that, worked my heart out.

262
00:11:19,890 --> 00:11:23,180
I never got any Bitcoins
from the work that I did.

263
00:11:23,180 --> 00:11:25,040
A lot of things that I met were scams.

264
00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:27,300
One scam after another.

265
00:11:27,300 --> 00:11:32,300
And then in April, on the
4th, my son died, so yeah.

266
00:11:40,257 --> 00:11:42,422
(soft music)

267
00:11:42,422 --> 00:11:43,550
The first time I heard about Bitcoin

268
00:11:43,550 --> 00:11:45,910
was to raise money for my son.

269
00:11:45,910 --> 00:11:48,330
So when he died, I felt
like I have lost the purpose

270
00:11:48,330 --> 00:11:50,180
for why I should work online.

271
00:11:50,180 --> 00:11:52,163
So I just stopped.

272
00:11:53,500 --> 00:11:55,130
Something was just nagging me in my head,

273
00:11:55,130 --> 00:11:57,190
like you need to go back
to that Bitcoin thing

274
00:11:57,190 --> 00:12:01,370
and look at it and see if
it can be of any worth.

275
00:12:01,370 --> 00:12:03,820
The more I read, the more I get learned.

276
00:12:03,820 --> 00:12:06,540
I decided let me take
another step further.

277
00:12:06,540 --> 00:12:08,360
It's no longer about my son,

278
00:12:08,360 --> 00:12:10,880
now it's about changing my country.

279
00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:12,780
It's about changing the people.

280
00:12:12,780 --> 00:12:14,000
I will group together people

281
00:12:14,000 --> 00:12:16,499
and I will teach them about Bitcoin.

282
00:12:16,499 --> 00:12:19,460
So 2013, I did my first meet-up.

283
00:12:19,460 --> 00:12:21,710
But before the meet-up, I did a video,

284
00:12:21,710 --> 00:12:22,840
which I put on YouTube.

285
00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,720
I did an old t-shirt
with my Bitcoin address

286
00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:27,810
and I was like, I want
to work for this company.

287
00:12:27,810 --> 00:12:30,890
Even by then I don't even
understand what Bitcoin was.

288
00:12:30,890 --> 00:12:32,890
Like for me, it was more like a company.

289
00:12:34,160 --> 00:12:38,200
Then 2014, my group was growing

290
00:12:38,200 --> 00:12:40,940
and I kept on educating
people about Bitcoin

291
00:12:40,940 --> 00:12:42,813
from that moment onwards.

292
00:12:46,690 --> 00:12:49,330
- [Director] So why can
we trust that crypto

293
00:12:49,330 --> 00:12:51,220
is worth something?

294
00:12:51,220 --> 00:12:55,160
- Bitcoin, as a primary
example, has a finite supply,

295
00:12:55,160 --> 00:12:57,750
which makes it a deflationary currency.

296
00:12:57,750 --> 00:13:01,150
It actually in very real
terms is scarcer than gold.

297
00:13:01,150 --> 00:13:03,440
There's no central
authority that can decide

298
00:13:03,440 --> 00:13:06,610
to raise interest rates
or to print more money

299
00:13:06,610 --> 00:13:08,450
as a part of quantitative easing.

300
00:13:08,450 --> 00:13:10,540
The Bitcoin network runs itself.

301
00:13:10,540 --> 00:13:13,080
Once the network was set in motion,

302
00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:16,503
that system runs by consensus.

303
00:13:18,500 --> 00:13:21,682
- [Director] Can you tell me about Usizo?

304
00:13:21,682 --> 00:13:24,650
- [Lorien] Sure, imagine
a poor school in Africa.

305
00:13:24,650 --> 00:13:26,800
They have a Bitcoin meter.

306
00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:28,770
Anybody from anywhere
in the world could pay

307
00:13:28,770 --> 00:13:32,210
for a week or month's worth of electricity

308
00:13:32,210 --> 00:13:36,343
directly without having to
go to that organization.

309
00:13:37,312 --> 00:13:39,930
I actually thought instead of
just talking about something,

310
00:13:39,930 --> 00:13:41,180
why don't I go and do it?

311
00:13:43,328 --> 00:13:44,440
- [Director] What does Usizo mean?

312
00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:47,264
- Usizo is a Zulu word, it means help.

313
00:13:47,264 --> 00:13:49,350
(soft music)

314
00:13:49,350 --> 00:13:50,340
The whole point of this project

315
00:13:50,340 --> 00:13:52,970
is to kind of relieve the
burden of the electricity.

316
00:13:52,970 --> 00:13:54,860
I mean, obviously
there's a lot more things

317
00:13:54,860 --> 00:13:56,380
to be paid for in the school

318
00:13:56,380 --> 00:13:58,590
and these schools have small budgets.

319
00:13:58,590 --> 00:14:01,620
If they can have that
burden lifted a little,

320
00:14:01,620 --> 00:14:05,430
where they don't have to
actually pay for the utilities,

321
00:14:05,430 --> 00:14:08,120
then they can then spend
what little they have

322
00:14:08,120 --> 00:14:09,730
on other things.

323
00:14:09,730 --> 00:14:11,130
One of the struggles that we've had

324
00:14:11,130 --> 00:14:14,810
is trying to get a metering
company to agree to the project.

325
00:14:14,810 --> 00:14:16,620
A lot of these metering
companies make a lot of money

326
00:14:16,620 --> 00:14:18,450
on the vending solutions they've supplied,

327
00:14:18,450 --> 00:14:23,450
taking the fees from
the fiat transactions.

328
00:14:23,860 --> 00:14:26,210
Now, having a
blockchain-based system means

329
00:14:26,210 --> 00:14:30,300
that the funds go directly
through to the meter,

330
00:14:30,300 --> 00:14:32,210
and so the metering companies
that we've been dealing with

331
00:14:32,210 --> 00:14:33,790
weren't willing to go
along with the project.

332
00:14:33,790 --> 00:14:35,740
So, it was quite an uphill struggle,

333
00:14:35,740 --> 00:14:38,822
but luckily we have found
some enlightened partners.

334
00:14:38,822 --> 00:14:41,313
We've got about two bars out of the three.

335
00:14:43,230 --> 00:14:45,280
So, I think communication should be fine.

336
00:14:49,060 --> 00:14:50,140
But we also have an antenna.

337
00:14:50,140 --> 00:14:52,730
So what we can do is perhaps
bring an antenna through here

338
00:14:52,730 --> 00:14:54,933
just to boost the signal.

339
00:14:55,773 --> 00:14:57,430
So, once we get the
donation going through,

340
00:14:57,430 --> 00:15:00,350
and the meter can pick up the
payment on the blockchain,

341
00:15:00,350 --> 00:15:03,540
the next step is for the
actual meter to switch on,

342
00:15:03,540 --> 00:15:05,343
and then we should see
the school light up.

343
00:15:05,343 --> 00:15:06,920
It will be hard to see now,

344
00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:09,490
but at least we'll see something happen,

345
00:15:09,490 --> 00:15:12,990
and then on Monday night
when it's all pitch-dark,

346
00:15:12,990 --> 00:15:15,910
I think it'll be quite spectacular,
when everything goes on.

347
00:15:15,910 --> 00:15:18,227
That's the theory, very exciting.

348
00:15:18,227 --> 00:15:20,060
(lively music)

349
00:15:20,060 --> 00:15:24,180
- The blockchain is the
operating system that it runs on.

350
00:15:24,180 --> 00:15:26,440
So, you can see it as your Windows,

351
00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:29,370
or your Linux, or macOS X.

352
00:15:29,370 --> 00:15:32,290
The software layer is the blockchain

353
00:15:32,290 --> 00:15:36,900
and Bitcoin is an app that
runs on top of the blockchain.

354
00:15:36,900 --> 00:15:39,060
- [Director] Blockchain is
the magic behind the money,

355
00:15:39,060 --> 00:15:41,360
but really it's just a
decentralized database

356
00:15:41,360 --> 00:15:42,880
stored on a very large network

357
00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:45,060
of computers all over the world.

358
00:15:45,060 --> 00:15:47,100
It is the technology
that underpins Bitcoin

359
00:15:47,100 --> 00:15:48,570
and other cryptocurrencies,

360
00:15:48,570 --> 00:15:51,140
but it's not just for
monetary transactions.

361
00:15:51,140 --> 00:15:53,680
You can use it to store
data like patents or wills,

362
00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:55,210
or to exchange anything of value,

363
00:15:55,210 --> 00:15:58,763
such as products, properties,
services and even votes.

364
00:16:00,140 --> 00:16:03,650
The authenticity of the exchange
of value, or transactions,

365
00:16:03,650 --> 00:16:05,730
is verified by the community as a whole,

366
00:16:05,730 --> 00:16:08,330
rather than by a single
entity, removing the risk

367
00:16:08,330 --> 00:16:10,480
of a single point of
failure in the system.

368
00:16:11,390 --> 00:16:14,830
Each transaction is recorded
on a public distributed ledger

369
00:16:14,830 --> 00:16:19,733
that can be viewed by anyone in the world.

370
00:16:19,733 --> 00:16:22,600
- The blockchain is a
decentralized system,

371
00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:24,630
and the strength of the blockchain

372
00:16:24,630 --> 00:16:27,020
is that everybody's
checking everybody else.

373
00:16:27,020 --> 00:16:30,870
No single institution is in
charge of this information.

374
00:16:30,870 --> 00:16:33,900
Now that differs from the
current financial system

375
00:16:33,900 --> 00:16:36,480
that we actually do
have all over the world.

376
00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:37,600
In the case of South Africa,

377
00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:40,120
in the center of our financial system,

378
00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:42,000
is the South African Reserve Bank.

379
00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:45,080
And the Reserve Bank
checks all the other banks,

380
00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,200
and all the other banks check us.

381
00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:50,290
And that's the difference
between a decentralized system,

382
00:16:50,290 --> 00:16:53,363
the blockchain, for example,
and a centralized system.

383
00:16:54,230 --> 00:16:57,040
If I, for example, want to
give you government money,

384
00:16:57,040 --> 00:16:59,900
or Central Bank money, and I do a transfer

385
00:16:59,900 --> 00:17:03,010
from my cellphone to your cellphone,

386
00:17:03,010 --> 00:17:05,770
it is impossible for me to transfer money

387
00:17:05,770 --> 00:17:09,830
from one bank account directly
into another bank account.

388
00:17:09,830 --> 00:17:11,720
We think that is what happens,

389
00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:16,270
but what really happens is that
I send a message to my bank,

390
00:17:16,270 --> 00:17:18,520
which will send a message
to the Central Bank,

391
00:17:18,520 --> 00:17:20,930
which will send a message to your bank

392
00:17:20,930 --> 00:17:23,490
to make a deposit into your bank account.

393
00:17:23,490 --> 00:17:26,240
So there's somebody else always in charge.

394
00:17:26,240 --> 00:17:28,430
There's always a middle man somewhere

395
00:17:28,430 --> 00:17:30,784
between my account and your account.

396
00:17:30,784 --> 00:17:33,145
(soft music)

397
00:17:33,145 --> 00:17:35,940
- [Director] So who invented
blockchain and Bitcoin?

398
00:17:35,940 --> 00:17:38,595
- The creator of Bitcoin,
the cryptocurrency

399
00:17:38,595 --> 00:17:41,310
and the technology, is Satoshi Nakamoto.

400
00:17:41,310 --> 00:17:43,420
People think it's a group of people,

401
00:17:43,420 --> 00:17:46,170
or it could be an individual,
he's a complete mystery.

402
00:17:46,170 --> 00:17:47,930
No-one knows who he is.

403
00:17:47,930 --> 00:17:49,410
People have their suspicions.

404
00:17:49,410 --> 00:17:51,620
I have my suspicions as well.

405
00:17:51,620 --> 00:17:52,800
Several people have come out

406
00:17:52,800 --> 00:17:55,470
to claim that they are Satoshi Nakamoto.

407
00:17:55,470 --> 00:17:57,430
I think it's quite nice
that it's a mystery.

408
00:17:57,430 --> 00:17:59,180
I like the fact that
I don't know who it is

409
00:17:59,180 --> 00:18:00,780
and I think we would be disappointed

410
00:18:00,780 --> 00:18:02,403
if we found out who it was.

411
00:18:03,370 --> 00:18:05,010
- [Director] So why did
you name your dog Satoshi?

412
00:18:05,010 --> 00:18:06,827
(laughing)

413
00:18:06,827 --> 00:18:08,209
- Bitcoin and cryptocurrency,

414
00:18:08,209 --> 00:18:11,360
and blockchain technology
has taken over my life.

415
00:18:11,360 --> 00:18:14,783
I love Bitcoin, I really do,
and I like what it stands for,

416
00:18:16,184 --> 00:18:18,251
and the name suits him completely.

417
00:18:18,251 --> 00:18:20,501
(laughing)

418
00:18:22,210 --> 00:18:24,099
- I'll organize small
talks and I'll go around.

419
00:18:24,099 --> 00:18:27,230
I've been in Gabarone,
and I went to Francestown

420
00:18:27,230 --> 00:18:29,250
to go and teach people about Bitcoin.

421
00:18:29,250 --> 00:18:31,740
I met students who are into IT.

422
00:18:31,740 --> 00:18:33,850
We talked blockchain and all that

423
00:18:33,850 --> 00:18:36,740
and I began to tell them
about the possibility

424
00:18:36,740 --> 00:18:40,020
of changing the way
things are in our country.

425
00:18:40,020 --> 00:18:41,933
The way things are in the world.

426
00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:46,180
I was inspired by Satoshi Nakamoto,

427
00:18:46,180 --> 00:18:49,270
liberating the people
from what was happening

428
00:18:49,270 --> 00:18:50,890
during the financial crisis,

429
00:18:50,890 --> 00:18:53,500
coming up with something that
would really help people.

430
00:18:53,500 --> 00:18:57,200
The Satoshi Centre's vision
was to create a community lab

431
00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,430
where people can come
and learn about Bitcoin

432
00:19:00,430 --> 00:19:02,563
and also be able to be very creative.

433
00:19:03,670 --> 00:19:07,060
- Somebody came up with this
idea of making it possible

434
00:19:07,060 --> 00:19:10,260
to trust the record of ownership of money,

435
00:19:10,260 --> 00:19:14,020
without trusting any
individual in the ecosystem

436
00:19:14,020 --> 00:19:15,860
that makes things work together

437
00:19:15,860 --> 00:19:18,740
and that is such a clever invention,

438
00:19:18,740 --> 00:19:21,050
that we have to make it work

439
00:19:21,050 --> 00:19:24,350
and make it valuable in the
way we apply it to society.

440
00:19:24,350 --> 00:19:27,720
If you compare it to the
traditional financial system,

441
00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:30,640
I don't think any of us really get excited

442
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:32,210
about going to our bank,

443
00:19:32,210 --> 00:19:36,010
or excited about logging
onto a banking system.

444
00:19:36,010 --> 00:19:38,630
One of the disadvantages of cryptocurrency

445
00:19:38,630 --> 00:19:40,940
is the complexity stall,

446
00:19:40,940 --> 00:19:44,220
that we're working with a
very rough, technical thing

447
00:19:44,220 --> 00:19:45,740
where you need to understand things

448
00:19:45,740 --> 00:19:48,450
like the transaction fees
and things like that.

449
00:19:48,450 --> 00:19:50,350
But, to be fair, if you compare it

450
00:19:50,350 --> 00:19:52,110
to the traditional financial system,

451
00:19:52,110 --> 00:19:54,900
that's not really clear as crystal either.

452
00:19:54,900 --> 00:19:56,870
It's really very difficult to understand

453
00:19:56,870 --> 00:19:59,420
how banking fees are
going to apply to you,

454
00:19:59,420 --> 00:20:02,510
what's it going to cost
to transfer 10 000 rands

455
00:20:02,510 --> 00:20:04,010
to a U.S. bank account.

456
00:20:04,010 --> 00:20:06,715
Things like that are
also very, very complex.

457
00:20:06,715 --> 00:20:08,990
(soft music)

458
00:20:08,990 --> 00:20:11,030
- What we're gonna
basically do is an auction.

459
00:20:11,030 --> 00:20:14,050
The item in question is this over here,

460
00:20:14,050 --> 00:20:15,687
which is a 100 rand note.

461
00:20:15,687 --> 00:20:18,840
You're gonna be bidding
for this 100 rand note.

462
00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:19,960
It's a standard auction.

463
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:21,800
Whoever wins the auction
gets the 100 rand note.

464
00:20:21,800 --> 00:20:24,880
A slight switch though on
the traditional auction model

465
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:27,030
is that the person who comes second

466
00:20:27,030 --> 00:20:29,130
has to pay whatever their bid was,

467
00:20:29,130 --> 00:20:30,490
but they don't get the note.

468
00:20:30,490 --> 00:20:31,990
So, I'm gonna open it up at 10 rand.

469
00:20:31,990 --> 00:20:34,530
Would anybody pay me 10
rand for a 100 rand note?

470
00:20:34,530 --> 00:20:35,363
Who's first?

471
00:20:35,363 --> 00:20:37,183
10 rand, we got 10 rand in the back.

472
00:20:38,940 --> 00:20:40,573
180 rand going once,

473
00:20:41,450 --> 00:20:43,760
180 rand going twice.

474
00:20:43,760 --> 00:20:46,530
Sold for 180 rand.

475
00:20:46,530 --> 00:20:48,550
You can come and settle afterwards

476
00:20:48,550 --> 00:20:49,970
and the person who came second

477
00:20:49,970 --> 00:20:51,695
needs to settle with me as well.

478
00:20:51,695 --> 00:20:52,990
(laughing)

479
00:20:52,990 --> 00:20:56,210
It's not that central financial
authorities were a bad idea.

480
00:20:56,210 --> 00:20:58,200
It gave us a way of scaling up to what now

481
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,040
is the global financial system.

482
00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:02,380
It gave us a way of
trading with each other.

483
00:21:02,380 --> 00:21:04,090
You could travel to the
other side of the world

484
00:21:04,090 --> 00:21:06,200
and you could start to
trade with people there,

485
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:09,430
and that was fantastic,
but where it has failed us,

486
00:21:09,430 --> 00:21:12,200
for example, is where
human greed has been able

487
00:21:12,200 --> 00:21:15,200
to manipulate the system,
to put it quite bluntly.

488
00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:16,920
That's the second highest price

489
00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:18,800
I've ever gotten for a 100 rand note.

490
00:21:18,800 --> 00:21:20,440
It's a great game for me

491
00:21:20,440 --> 00:21:24,880
because I essentially
now have made 310 rand

492
00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:27,520
and parted with 100 rand, right?

493
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:29,700
The game of course is rigged.

494
00:21:29,700 --> 00:21:32,240
It's designed so that I'm gonna win

495
00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:34,660
and it has to do with
the irrational mindset

496
00:21:34,660 --> 00:21:36,100
people have around money.

497
00:21:36,100 --> 00:21:37,250
We all remember what happened

498
00:21:37,250 --> 00:21:39,760
with the financial crisis in 2009.

499
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:41,810
In that situation, we were reminded again

500
00:21:41,810 --> 00:21:43,630
that banks can fail.

501
00:21:43,630 --> 00:21:45,610
We have a fractional
reserve banking system

502
00:21:45,610 --> 00:21:48,480
in most countries where
banks don't actually

503
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:49,830
have to have all of the money

504
00:21:49,830 --> 00:21:52,220
that they're storing on
behalf of their customers,

505
00:21:52,220 --> 00:21:55,540
they only need to keep
enough of that money around

506
00:21:55,540 --> 00:21:58,250
that they can satisfy all
of the withdrawals requested

507
00:21:58,250 --> 00:21:59,920
in any given period.

508
00:21:59,920 --> 00:22:04,120
When a bank gives you a loan
to buy a house, for example,

509
00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:05,810
they don't have to have that money either.

510
00:22:05,810 --> 00:22:09,110
That's basically money they
can make out of thin air.

511
00:22:09,110 --> 00:22:10,630
But when you have a run on the bank,

512
00:22:10,630 --> 00:22:11,670
when there's a crisis

513
00:22:11,670 --> 00:22:13,190
and everybody tries to pull their money

514
00:22:13,190 --> 00:22:15,300
out of the banking
system at the same time,

515
00:22:15,300 --> 00:22:17,070
banks don't have that money

516
00:22:17,070 --> 00:22:19,160
and that causes them to collapse.

517
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:20,490
Governments then stand

518
00:22:20,490 --> 00:22:22,840
as what we call a lender of last resort.

519
00:22:22,840 --> 00:22:25,460
So, governments say, if the
bank doesn't have enough money

520
00:22:25,460 --> 00:22:27,370
to sort out all of its customers,

521
00:22:27,370 --> 00:22:30,030
we'll step in and we'll lend
them the money to do that.

522
00:22:30,030 --> 00:22:32,680
But, of course, that money needs
to come from somewhere too,

523
00:22:32,680 --> 00:22:35,760
and so what happened in
2009 was you had banks,

524
00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:36,960
which didn't have enough money

525
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,430
to pay all of the people
trying to withdraw their money.

526
00:22:39,430 --> 00:22:41,240
The U.S. government
didn't have enough money

527
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:43,380
to act as a lender of last resort,

528
00:22:43,380 --> 00:22:47,740
and so, the U.S. taxpayer
effectively had to bail out a bank

529
00:22:47,740 --> 00:22:50,040
with a tax-free, non-reversible loan

530
00:22:50,040 --> 00:22:52,500
that never had to be paid
back to the taxpayer.

531
00:22:52,500 --> 00:22:55,050
Now, it doesn't really matter
how you present that story.

532
00:22:55,050 --> 00:22:56,500
It doesn't strike me as fair.

533
00:22:57,630 --> 00:22:59,630
- [Director] Every country's
economy is intertwined

534
00:22:59,630 --> 00:23:01,840
with every other country's economy,

535
00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:03,790
imports, exports, investments,

536
00:23:03,790 --> 00:23:05,670
and the world reserve currency,

537
00:23:05,670 --> 00:23:08,340
meant that the financial crisis in America

538
00:23:08,340 --> 00:23:11,150
became the global financial crisis.

539
00:23:11,150 --> 00:23:12,960
The saying before 2008

540
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:15,730
was that the banks were too big to fail,

541
00:23:15,730 --> 00:23:18,253
but the bigger they are,
the harder they fall.

542
00:23:19,220 --> 00:23:20,260
Over a decade later,

543
00:23:20,260 --> 00:23:22,120
there are now banks that are even bigger

544
00:23:22,120 --> 00:23:23,520
than the too-big-to-fail banks

545
00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:25,373
of the financial crisis years.

546
00:23:27,120 --> 00:23:29,240
- Hi, my name is Bheki Mahlobo,

547
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:31,680
and I have a question
for the chief economist.

548
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:33,840
So, I'm an economics student,

549
00:23:33,840 --> 00:23:35,147
and I'm not sure if you've noticed,

550
00:23:35,147 --> 00:23:37,270
but a lot of people in the Bitcoin space,

551
00:23:37,270 --> 00:23:40,660
they know more about economics
than most PhD students

552
00:23:40,660 --> 00:23:41,896
in universities actually.

553
00:23:41,896 --> 00:23:43,120
(crowd laughing)

554
00:23:43,120 --> 00:23:46,260
This is because in university
we're not particularly exposed

555
00:23:46,260 --> 00:23:48,170
to different, other schools
of economic thought,

556
00:23:48,170 --> 00:23:50,850
like the Austrian school
of economics, for example,

557
00:23:50,850 --> 00:23:52,970
and if we're not exposed to certain things

558
00:23:52,970 --> 00:23:54,400
then we won't question certain things,

559
00:23:54,400 --> 00:23:55,990
for example, like money.

560
00:23:55,990 --> 00:23:58,960
In school we're not particularly
taught what money truly is.

561
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:01,660
What is your opinion of Bitcoin being used

562
00:24:01,660 --> 00:24:06,660
as a way to escape this
economy that exists right now?

563
00:24:07,020 --> 00:24:09,360
- You're absolutely right
that in our universities

564
00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:12,120
we should teach other
schools of thought as well,

565
00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:13,650
and a very important school of thought

566
00:24:13,650 --> 00:24:16,330
is the school of thought of real freedom.

567
00:24:16,330 --> 00:24:17,550
And I've got a suspicion.

568
00:24:17,550 --> 00:24:19,520
This new technology will
really put the power

569
00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:21,280
in the hands of the individuals

570
00:24:21,280 --> 00:24:25,140
and allow us to experience
that real, real freedom

571
00:24:25,140 --> 00:24:27,870
and not to enslave us the way

572
00:24:27,870 --> 00:24:30,210
that politicians have been enslaving us

573
00:24:30,210 --> 00:24:32,450
for the last couple of hundred years.

574
00:24:32,450 --> 00:24:34,190
This is a real freedom,

575
00:24:34,190 --> 00:24:35,600
but not only is it real freedom,

576
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:37,730
it's very, very dangerous and with that,

577
00:24:37,730 --> 00:24:39,713
goes a huge responsibility as well.

578
00:24:40,909 --> 00:24:44,550
- [Director] 21-year-olds don't normally

579
00:24:44,550 --> 00:24:47,130
go to events like we did the other day.

580
00:24:47,130 --> 00:24:47,963
- Yeah, yeah.

581
00:24:47,963 --> 00:24:50,497
- [Director] That's not a
normal 21-year-old thing to do.

582
00:24:50,497 --> 00:24:53,333
- Usually like clubs
and stuff, right, yeah.

583
00:24:54,351 --> 00:24:55,730
The first time I heard about Bitcoin

584
00:24:55,730 --> 00:24:58,000
was from a movie called 'Dope'.

585
00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,940
This movie doesn't cover
Bitcoin in a positive light.

586
00:25:01,940 --> 00:25:03,740
And then, I heard it again, and I was like

587
00:25:03,740 --> 00:25:07,540
maybe let me look at it and
do a little bit more research,

588
00:25:07,540 --> 00:25:09,600
and that's where I fell
down the rabbit-hole

589
00:25:09,600 --> 00:25:10,930
as the saying says.

590
00:25:10,930 --> 00:25:13,640
My economics teacher
was heavily into gold.

591
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:15,660
So he was explaining
central banking, right,

592
00:25:15,660 --> 00:25:17,090
and fractional reserve banking,

593
00:25:17,090 --> 00:25:21,860
and inside I was like whoa,
this seems a little bit shady.

594
00:25:21,860 --> 00:25:24,890
He explained that we actually
don't need the system.

595
00:25:24,890 --> 00:25:26,590
In a normal economy things are supposed

596
00:25:26,590 --> 00:25:29,700
to get cheaper over time,
not expensive over time,

597
00:25:29,700 --> 00:25:32,210
and the common thing that
I'm hearing on the news

598
00:25:32,210 --> 00:25:34,660
or YouTube is that no, we need inflation

599
00:25:34,660 --> 00:25:37,150
so that there's economic growth.

600
00:25:37,150 --> 00:25:38,390
I did a little bit more digging

601
00:25:38,390 --> 00:25:40,750
and then that's when I found Mises.

602
00:25:40,750 --> 00:25:43,580
They follow the Austrian
school of economics,

603
00:25:43,580 --> 00:25:45,120
and then they explain that no,

604
00:25:45,120 --> 00:25:47,370
we actually don't need
inflation for economic growth,

605
00:25:47,370 --> 00:25:49,150
and, in fact, that whole statement

606
00:25:49,150 --> 00:25:51,033
is a whole contradiction in itself.

607
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:53,830
When you define economic growth

608
00:25:53,830 --> 00:25:55,800
it's the increase in production,

609
00:25:55,800 --> 00:25:58,620
and the increase in production
causes prices to decrease.

610
00:25:58,620 --> 00:26:00,780
An example of this would be technology.

611
00:26:00,780 --> 00:26:03,270
When the first phone came
out it was quite expensive

612
00:26:03,270 --> 00:26:05,240
and then eventually
there was a lot of people

613
00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:07,280
contributing to different designs,

614
00:26:07,280 --> 00:26:09,530
basically providing
alternatives to smartphones

615
00:26:09,530 --> 00:26:12,530
and then the prices of
smartphones decreased over time.

616
00:26:12,530 --> 00:26:15,530
That also could apply
to the economy as well,

617
00:26:15,530 --> 00:26:18,810
and now I know, this person,
what he's saying on TV,

618
00:26:18,810 --> 00:26:20,377
is utter nonsense.

619
00:26:20,377 --> 00:26:22,153
And then, what can I do about it?

620
00:26:22,153 --> 00:26:24,141
It's like buy Bitcoin, bruh.

621
00:26:24,141 --> 00:26:24,980
(soft music)

622
00:26:24,980 --> 00:26:27,820
- Using this greedy algorithm
I can make a lot of money,

623
00:26:27,820 --> 00:26:30,390
and actually the only way
you could've won that game

624
00:26:30,390 --> 00:26:32,080
was to not play it.

625
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:34,210
The problem is, when you
have money on the table

626
00:26:34,210 --> 00:26:37,360
human beings start acting
in a very curious way,

627
00:26:37,360 --> 00:26:40,090
but I wanna use this auction as an example

628
00:26:40,090 --> 00:26:42,020
of our banking system,

629
00:26:42,020 --> 00:26:43,470
and, in fact, the financial system

630
00:26:43,470 --> 00:26:45,170
that runs the world today.

631
00:26:45,170 --> 00:26:46,960
Because it is rigged.

632
00:26:46,960 --> 00:26:49,220
There are rules that have
been put in place that mean

633
00:26:49,220 --> 00:26:51,640
that you will lose every time you play

634
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:53,370
and somebody will make a lot of money

635
00:26:53,370 --> 00:26:55,010
because they control the algorithm

636
00:26:55,010 --> 00:26:57,120
that ensures that you lose.

637
00:26:57,120 --> 00:26:58,390
Our current banking systems,

638
00:26:58,390 --> 00:27:00,450
while they're useful for
things like being carrots

639
00:27:00,450 --> 00:27:02,240
and going to the movies and stuff,

640
00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:04,800
are exploitive, and they're exclusionary,

641
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:06,440
and they cut out a lot of the world,

642
00:27:06,440 --> 00:27:08,650
and we don't have to play the game anymore

643
00:27:08,650 --> 00:27:11,773
because we have the
technology now to opt out.

644
00:27:13,550 --> 00:27:16,270
Money was always centralized,
was always opaque,

645
00:27:16,270 --> 00:27:19,490
was always exclusionary,
had too many middlemen,

646
00:27:19,490 --> 00:27:22,240
too many rent-seekers, too
many people quite frankly

647
00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:24,950
benefiting from exploiting others.

648
00:27:24,950 --> 00:27:27,690
Finally, we could use the internet

649
00:27:27,690 --> 00:27:29,880
to create a financial system

650
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:32,280
that benefited everybody potentially,

651
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:34,960
that was resistant to censorship,

652
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,150
that nobody could take control of,

653
00:27:37,150 --> 00:27:39,260
that's what the world had been waiting for

654
00:27:39,260 --> 00:27:41,913
and finally it arrived
with the Bitcoin network.

655
00:27:42,875 --> 00:27:45,230
- I was never interested
in all these subjects,

656
00:27:45,230 --> 00:27:47,770
this economics and finance,

657
00:27:47,770 --> 00:27:51,047
and since Bitcoin I became interested,

658
00:27:51,047 --> 00:27:55,200
and I would still be
living in my oblivious way,

659
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,510
hoping that whoever's running
the system is running it fine

660
00:27:58,510 --> 00:28:00,720
and that we don't end up in the same way

661
00:28:00,720 --> 00:28:04,930
that Zimbabwe ended up where
their money became worthless.

662
00:28:04,930 --> 00:28:07,490
It's not so much about not
having a long-term view,

663
00:28:07,490 --> 00:28:10,200
it's just about being educated on this

664
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:13,343
and the majority of people
aren't educated on this.

665
00:28:15,350 --> 00:28:16,946
- Can I just go on and say something else

666
00:28:16,946 --> 00:28:17,779
that I think it is important?

667
00:28:17,779 --> 00:28:18,612
- [Director] Absolutely, absolutely.

668
00:28:18,612 --> 00:28:21,350
- Okay, if we use a blockchain system,

669
00:28:21,350 --> 00:28:24,580
the power is actually where
I believe it should be

670
00:28:24,580 --> 00:28:26,930
and that's in the hands
of the individuals.

671
00:28:26,930 --> 00:28:30,280
We do not need the
permission to transfer money

672
00:28:30,280 --> 00:28:32,740
between my account and your account.

673
00:28:32,740 --> 00:28:35,560
And that, of course, also
opens the possibility

674
00:28:35,560 --> 00:28:37,400
for things like, for example, fraud

675
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,130
and tax evasion and all
sort of illegal things.

676
00:28:40,130 --> 00:28:43,078
And the responsibility
is also in the hands

677
00:28:43,078 --> 00:28:46,347
of the individuals, the
way I believe it should be.

678
00:28:46,347 --> 00:28:47,425
- [Director] Why?

679
00:28:47,425 --> 00:28:49,890
Why should we have that
kind of responsibility?

680
00:28:49,890 --> 00:28:53,430
- In all instances when governments
got involved with money,

681
00:28:53,430 --> 00:28:57,430
in all instances without
one single exception

682
00:28:57,430 --> 00:29:00,300
they have either destroyed the money

683
00:29:00,300 --> 00:29:03,170
or they are in the
process of destroying it.

684
00:29:03,170 --> 00:29:05,980
So don't think that a
politician or Central Bank

685
00:29:05,980 --> 00:29:07,960
is in the position that
you can always trust him.

686
00:29:07,960 --> 00:29:10,680
It's just another individual,
just another human,

687
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:13,853
and they always make
mistakes and it's inevitable.

688
00:29:15,800 --> 00:29:18,390
But ideologically, I also believe

689
00:29:18,390 --> 00:29:21,420
that I should have the
right to decide for myself

690
00:29:21,420 --> 00:29:22,253
whether I want to lend you money,

691
00:29:22,253 --> 00:29:24,220
whether I want to borrow money,

692
00:29:24,220 --> 00:29:27,270
it's not up to some politician
or some other institution

693
00:29:27,270 --> 00:29:29,200
to tell me what I can and what I can't do.

694
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:30,723
That's my business.

695
00:29:31,959 --> 00:29:34,620
(soft music)

696
00:29:34,620 --> 00:29:36,640
- [Director] There exists
a definite two-camp divide

697
00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:39,170
over whether Bitcoin should
be used to facilitate liberty

698
00:29:39,170 --> 00:29:41,900
and self-sovereignty or
if it should be regulated

699
00:29:41,900 --> 00:29:43,133
to protect users.

700
00:29:45,030 --> 00:29:48,840
Can you give me an example of
some of these crazy schemes

701
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:50,910
that people are coming
up with using crypto?

702
00:29:50,910 --> 00:29:53,200
- There's so many.

703
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:55,814
I remember, but most of them
coming from South Africa.

704
00:29:55,814 --> 00:29:56,820
(laughing)

705
00:29:56,820 --> 00:30:00,170
So in the very beginning, I
remember they used to call me

706
00:30:00,170 --> 00:30:01,510
and try to recruit me.

707
00:30:01,510 --> 00:30:02,363
They say like, "You've
got a network of people

708
00:30:02,363 --> 00:30:04,190
"you can make a lot of money."

709
00:30:04,190 --> 00:30:05,737
I'm like, "I would rather be poor

710
00:30:05,737 --> 00:30:07,610
"than to join something
that at the end of the day

711
00:30:07,610 --> 00:30:09,140
I'll hurt my own people."

712
00:30:09,140 --> 00:30:10,380
There's always a joining thing.

713
00:30:10,380 --> 00:30:12,370
It's like a pyramid scheme.

714
00:30:12,370 --> 00:30:13,550
The lady came to our office.

715
00:30:13,550 --> 00:30:15,130
She was really heartbroken

716
00:30:15,130 --> 00:30:17,527
because she has put a lot
of money into a scheme

717
00:30:17,527 --> 00:30:19,730
and then it disappeared.

718
00:30:19,730 --> 00:30:23,000
People actually put [in]
their children's school fees.

719
00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,430
What I know is once you start
having an influx of people

720
00:30:26,430 --> 00:30:27,460
calling and saying they want Bitcoin,

721
00:30:27,460 --> 00:30:29,620
know that there's a scheme coming up.

722
00:30:29,620 --> 00:30:32,230
So they're good in a sense
maybe they make Bitcoin

723
00:30:32,230 --> 00:30:33,510
to be used a lot.

724
00:30:33,510 --> 00:30:35,850
But at the same time, they're really bad.

725
00:30:35,850 --> 00:30:37,733
The bad surpasses the good.

726
00:30:38,741 --> 00:30:41,650
One of the biggest challenges
to explaining Bitcoin

727
00:30:41,650 --> 00:30:45,580
is to somebody who comes
already with the 'preknowledge'

728
00:30:45,580 --> 00:30:48,177
of what Bitcoin is and then
they come to you and say like,

729
00:30:48,177 --> 00:30:49,957
"How much do I join?

730
00:30:49,957 --> 00:30:52,010
"How would I make money very quick?"

731
00:30:52,010 --> 00:30:53,350
You try to convince the person

732
00:30:53,350 --> 00:30:56,120
that it's not about joining,
it's like a revolution.

733
00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:58,640
It's like a new technology
arising altogether.

734
00:30:58,640 --> 00:30:59,930
It's about you understanding.

735
00:30:59,930 --> 00:31:02,597
They're like, "No, but it's not that."

736
00:31:04,360 --> 00:31:07,960
The pros for me, is liberation, freedom,

737
00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:10,730
the ability to control your own money

738
00:31:10,730 --> 00:31:14,160
or the ability to send any
amount of crypto or carry it.

739
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:16,690
Imagine if you were to
carry a chunk of gold,

740
00:31:16,690 --> 00:31:19,520
you want to pass through the
border or whatever, you can't.

741
00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:22,020
So that's the beauty of Bitcoin.

742
00:31:22,020 --> 00:31:24,920
The negativity is people using it wrongly,

743
00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:27,130
making our people poor.

744
00:31:27,130 --> 00:31:29,610
Also, lack of regulations and stuff.

745
00:31:29,610 --> 00:31:33,040
If you can have maybe some
sort of regulatory framework,

746
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,570
it will also help protect us.

747
00:31:35,570 --> 00:31:36,640
I know you cannot control it

748
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:38,580
because of the way it was created,

749
00:31:38,580 --> 00:31:42,108
but just regulations, it
can help a little bit.

750
00:31:42,108 --> 00:31:44,910
(lively music)

751
00:31:44,910 --> 00:31:46,370
- [Director] Since Bitcoin's early days

752
00:31:46,370 --> 00:31:49,100
it's been shrouded in
mystery and controversy,

753
00:31:49,100 --> 00:31:52,340
from the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox,
one of the early exchanges,

754
00:31:52,340 --> 00:31:55,200
to the infamy caused by the
dark web Silk Road marketplace

755
00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,083
that accepted Bitcoin for
nefarious goods and services.

756
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:00,520
While Silk Road became one

757
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:02,690
of the first use cases for Bitcoin,

758
00:32:02,690 --> 00:32:04,600
it also perhaps put
the mainstream adoption

759
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:06,350
of cryptocurrencies years behind

760
00:32:06,350 --> 00:32:08,100
where it might have been otherwise.

761
00:32:09,551 --> 00:32:13,100
- It was run by Dread Pirate
Roberts, or Ross Ulbricht.

762
00:32:13,100 --> 00:32:15,300
If you follow the news you
know that Ross Ulbricht

763
00:32:15,300 --> 00:32:17,550
was found guilty by a jury.

764
00:32:17,550 --> 00:32:20,390
The federal judge took his
activities very serious

765
00:32:20,390 --> 00:32:24,050
and she actually sentenced
him to serve a life sentence.

766
00:32:24,050 --> 00:32:26,260
They counted at least six individuals

767
00:32:26,260 --> 00:32:28,450
who had purchased
narcotics off of Silk Road

768
00:32:28,450 --> 00:32:30,670
and died as a result.

769
00:32:30,670 --> 00:32:33,410
What we basically are focused on,

770
00:32:33,410 --> 00:32:37,120
one, is criminal offenses
involving digital currency,

771
00:32:37,120 --> 00:32:40,250
which could be any sort of
crime, whether it's narcotics,

772
00:32:40,250 --> 00:32:41,280
whether it's murder-for-hire,

773
00:32:41,280 --> 00:32:43,810
whether it's identity theft and so on,

774
00:32:43,810 --> 00:32:47,650
in which the bad guys
are utilizing Bitcoin

775
00:32:47,650 --> 00:32:49,410
rather than other forms of money

776
00:32:49,410 --> 00:32:51,220
because they, in our experience,

777
00:32:51,220 --> 00:32:52,720
believe it to be untraceable,

778
00:32:52,720 --> 00:32:57,060
which is clearly an
accident on their part,

779
00:32:57,060 --> 00:33:00,160
a misunderstanding to say
the least. [crowd laughing]

780
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:04,025
But we also deal with the
regulation of exchanges of money.

781
00:33:04,025 --> 00:33:07,320
(woman mumbling)

782
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:08,208
- [Lorien] Very nice.

783
00:33:08,208 --> 00:33:10,442
- Don't touch, don't touch.

784
00:33:10,442 --> 00:33:12,558
- No, you must be careful.

785
00:33:12,558 --> 00:33:15,860
Every single transaction that
occurs in the Bitcoin network

786
00:33:15,860 --> 00:33:17,730
is recorded in something
called the blockchain,

787
00:33:17,730 --> 00:33:20,080
a public ledger of every
transaction that's made.

788
00:33:20,080 --> 00:33:21,513
The only problem is that

789
00:33:21,513 --> 00:33:23,160
even though you can see
every single transaction,

790
00:33:23,160 --> 00:33:25,080
and you can see the addresses,

791
00:33:25,080 --> 00:33:28,250
which are like the account
numbers of the people

792
00:33:28,250 --> 00:33:30,210
that are holding those bitcoins,

793
00:33:30,210 --> 00:33:33,120
you don't actually know who
those addresses belong to.

794
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:37,220
So, the correct term isn't
anonymous, it's pseudonymous.

795
00:33:37,220 --> 00:33:39,530
Cash is truly anonymous.

796
00:33:39,530 --> 00:33:42,920
If you have a suitcase of
cash and you go and spend it,

797
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:45,600
there's no way that that
transaction is recorded.

798
00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:50,320
So, Bitcoin is less anonymous than cash

799
00:33:50,320 --> 00:33:53,160
and we certainly know how cash can be used

800
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:54,490
for nefarious purposes.

801
00:33:54,490 --> 00:33:56,060
We know that suitcases of money

802
00:33:56,060 --> 00:33:57,810
and drug deals happen all the time.

803
00:33:59,430 --> 00:34:00,620
- [Director] There was a
name that kept coming up

804
00:34:00,620 --> 00:34:02,820
in conversation and research,

805
00:34:02,820 --> 00:34:05,600
and for his name alone it
felt necessary to meet him.

806
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:06,583
Fluffy Pony.

807
00:34:07,770 --> 00:34:09,300
It's a nickname that stuck years ago

808
00:34:09,300 --> 00:34:10,510
that despite his best efforts,

809
00:34:10,510 --> 00:34:12,670
Riccardo is not able to get rid of,

810
00:34:12,670 --> 00:34:14,620
but amongst the noise of the crypto world,

811
00:34:14,620 --> 00:34:16,503
Fluffy Pony definitely stands out.

812
00:34:20,290 --> 00:34:22,520
Why is privacy so important

813
00:34:22,520 --> 00:34:26,080
and how is it lacking in the
way we currently do things?

814
00:34:26,080 --> 00:34:29,033
- Privacy is the natural state of things.

815
00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:32,290
You're not closing the
door at the bathroom

816
00:34:32,290 --> 00:34:35,840
because you want to plot to
overthrow the government.

817
00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:37,210
You're closing the door at the bathroom

818
00:34:37,210 --> 00:34:40,310
because you don't want
people to see you on the loo.

819
00:34:40,310 --> 00:34:43,560
There's certain aspects of our
life we wanna keep private,

820
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:46,310
that we might reveal to certain people.

821
00:34:46,310 --> 00:34:47,940
We hopefully take our clothes off

822
00:34:47,940 --> 00:34:49,580
in front of the person we're married to,

823
00:34:49,580 --> 00:34:52,810
but we don't go and walk around
the shopping center naked.

824
00:34:52,810 --> 00:34:57,500
But privacy has become, it's
sort of become, overshadowed

825
00:34:57,500 --> 00:34:59,610
by oh bad people want privacy,

826
00:34:59,610 --> 00:35:02,240
or things like if you
have nothing to hide,

827
00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:04,380
then why do you care about privacy?

828
00:35:04,380 --> 00:35:06,260
It's not about wanting
to hide it from everyone.

829
00:35:06,260 --> 00:35:09,930
It's just that we wanna control
who sees the information.

830
00:35:09,930 --> 00:35:11,200
If law enforcement or the government

831
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:12,670
want information about me,

832
00:35:12,670 --> 00:35:14,490
they should have to come knock on my door

833
00:35:14,490 --> 00:35:16,000
to get that information.

834
00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:18,410
They shouldn't be able to
just get that information

835
00:35:18,410 --> 00:35:19,490
because my bank is telling them

836
00:35:19,490 --> 00:35:22,258
about every transaction I've ever done.

837
00:35:22,258 --> 00:35:25,620
(lively music)

838
00:35:25,620 --> 00:35:28,630
- I know people say there is
information on the internet,

839
00:35:28,630 --> 00:35:29,730
but it's different.

840
00:35:29,730 --> 00:35:33,450
If I'm able to really
expand on the information

841
00:35:33,450 --> 00:35:34,680
maybe you picked from the internet

842
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:37,570
and make you understand,
it makes me feel good

843
00:35:37,570 --> 00:35:39,640
because I know I've empowered you,

844
00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:41,070
you will take the same knowledge

845
00:35:41,070 --> 00:35:43,360
and you give it to someone.

846
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:47,099
So if I'm able to reproduce
someone who does what I do.

847
00:35:47,099 --> 00:35:49,292
(soft music)

848
00:35:49,292 --> 00:35:52,083
That's the real deal,
that's the real deal, yeah.

849
00:35:53,650 --> 00:35:55,340
Had it not been for him,

850
00:35:55,340 --> 00:35:57,230
I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

851
00:35:57,230 --> 00:35:59,860
He made me to know about Bitcoin.

852
00:35:59,860 --> 00:36:03,060
So because I was trying to
help him during that time,

853
00:36:03,060 --> 00:36:04,970
now I'm helping people with knowledge.

854
00:36:04,970 --> 00:36:07,990
So it's like transferring
whatever I wanted to do for him

855
00:36:07,990 --> 00:36:11,243
now he's somehow doing it
for the people through me.

856
00:36:11,243 --> 00:36:13,520
I'll continue to honor him, yeah.

857
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:15,277
He'll be my baby forever.

858
00:36:15,277 --> 00:36:16,170
(laughing)

859
00:36:16,170 --> 00:36:17,263
Yep, yeah.

860
00:36:23,750 --> 00:36:27,110
- When I got introduced to
Bitcoin, it's like okay,

861
00:36:27,110 --> 00:36:29,960
let me save, each month
I save, I save, I save.

862
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:31,640
I think more about the future,

863
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:32,477
what's gonna happen in the future

864
00:36:32,477 --> 00:36:36,823
and I orientate my actions
today that'll impact the future.

865
00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:39,380
I mean, that's the reason
why I'm studying, right?

866
00:36:39,380 --> 00:36:42,210
I'm like, it seems like some
really interesting stuff

867
00:36:42,210 --> 00:36:44,050
in the space of crypto.

868
00:36:44,050 --> 00:36:46,230
I'm not saying I'm against banking,

869
00:36:46,230 --> 00:36:48,110
I'm just against
fractional reserve banking.

870
00:36:48,110 --> 00:36:50,870
So, I orientate my actions towards that,

871
00:36:50,870 --> 00:36:52,323
the new financial system.

872
00:36:54,250 --> 00:36:55,510
I would be a lot more stressed

873
00:36:55,510 --> 00:36:57,270
if I didn't have Bitcoin, honestly.

874
00:36:57,270 --> 00:36:58,345
- [Director] Why?

875
00:36:58,345 --> 00:36:59,360
- Let's say, for example,

876
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:02,650
if we have the Central Bank
government decides like

877
00:37:02,650 --> 00:37:05,403
yo, I'm gonna print like two trillion rand

878
00:37:05,403 --> 00:37:06,610
into the economy.

879
00:37:06,610 --> 00:37:09,750
The consequences of that
would be hyperinflation.

880
00:37:09,750 --> 00:37:11,837
I can't remember who said
this, but it says like,

881
00:37:11,837 --> 00:37:14,257
"Bitcoin's not about getting
your money out of the country,

882
00:37:14,257 --> 00:37:17,440
"it's about getting your
country out of your money."

883
00:37:17,440 --> 00:37:19,640
Essentially, it's like
protecting your savings,

884
00:37:19,640 --> 00:37:22,910
protecting your stored value,
that's why I'm into Bitcoin.

885
00:37:24,960 --> 00:37:27,640
- I think the financial
crisis started a discussion

886
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:30,240
that Bitcoin then accelerated

887
00:37:30,240 --> 00:37:32,130
around why the financial
system works the way it does

888
00:37:32,130 --> 00:37:34,610
and whether or not it
should work that way.

889
00:37:34,610 --> 00:37:36,300
How can we make it more transparent?

890
00:37:36,300 --> 00:37:37,910
How can we make it more fair?

891
00:37:37,910 --> 00:37:40,790
How can we improve the world
of money for everybody?

892
00:37:40,790 --> 00:37:42,280
But it was a very difficult discussion

893
00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:45,090
to have with people in
the early days of Bitcoin.

894
00:37:45,090 --> 00:37:47,450
I was writing for Finweek
Magazine at the time

895
00:37:47,450 --> 00:37:50,220
and I did a story on Bitcoin in 2011,

896
00:37:50,220 --> 00:37:52,110
and some of my colleagues
literally laughed at me.

897
00:37:52,110 --> 00:37:53,027
They were like, "This is the dumbest thing

898
00:37:53,027 --> 00:37:55,177
"we've ever heard of, it's a bubble,

899
00:37:55,177 --> 00:37:56,977
"it'll never be worth more than $9."

900
00:37:58,346 --> 00:38:00,930
At its height it was worth $20,000

901
00:38:00,930 --> 00:38:03,630
and it's gonna be worth a
lot more than that one day,

902
00:38:03,630 --> 00:38:06,070
and every time we see this cycle.

903
00:38:06,070 --> 00:38:08,220
We have people laughing,
it's not gonna last,

904
00:38:08,220 --> 00:38:09,680
it's over-inflated,

905
00:38:09,680 --> 00:38:10,980
and every time they're right

906
00:38:10,980 --> 00:38:12,390
for a very short period of time,

907
00:38:12,390 --> 00:38:14,040
and then every time they're proven

908
00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:16,950
ultimately wrong in the medium-term.

909
00:38:16,950 --> 00:38:17,980
I believe that one day

910
00:38:17,980 --> 00:38:20,240
it's something that you
won't have to understand.

911
00:38:20,240 --> 00:38:22,060
It just makes your life better.

912
00:38:22,060 --> 00:38:23,200
Very few people can tell you

913
00:38:23,200 --> 00:38:25,200
exactly how their smartphone works.

914
00:38:25,200 --> 00:38:26,830
It doesn't matter because the narrative

915
00:38:26,830 --> 00:38:28,680
has become about why it's good for them.

916
00:38:28,680 --> 00:38:30,350
What does it enable in their lives?

917
00:38:30,350 --> 00:38:32,630
Well I can speak to my grandchildren.

918
00:38:32,630 --> 00:38:34,130
I can stay up-to-date with the news.

919
00:38:34,130 --> 00:38:36,130
I can take pictures of my family.

920
00:38:36,130 --> 00:38:38,210
Those are the things that matter.

921
00:38:38,210 --> 00:38:41,030
How the processor works
and all of the software

922
00:38:41,030 --> 00:38:42,210
that makes it possible,

923
00:38:42,210 --> 00:38:45,073
nobody really needs to
understand the bits and pieces.

924
00:38:46,523 --> 00:38:49,440
(crowd chattering)

925
00:38:50,780 --> 00:38:54,393
- Welcome to Emaweni, in
the middle of the night.

926
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:57,210
- [Director] At two
o'clock in the morning,

927
00:38:57,210 --> 00:38:58,810
I followed Lorien out to Soweto

928
00:38:58,810 --> 00:39:00,150
to witness history being made

929
00:39:00,150 --> 00:39:02,943
with a live demonstration of
his Bitcoin prepaid meter.

930
00:39:04,036 --> 00:39:05,790
Lorien would be Skyping
through to a conference

931
00:39:05,790 --> 00:39:08,520
on the other side of the
world at MIT in Boston,

932
00:39:08,520 --> 00:39:11,010
where his friend Ed would
be making a Bitcoin payment

933
00:39:11,010 --> 00:39:12,343
straight to the meter.

934
00:39:13,860 --> 00:39:15,440
- So, what I'm gonna do

935
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:16,690
is I'm actually going to -

936
00:39:20,110 --> 00:39:22,963
be ready, okay, so let's get
this whole thing started.

937
00:39:23,850 --> 00:39:25,820
They're gonna be calling right now,

938
00:39:25,820 --> 00:39:27,525
in about two minutes

939
00:39:27,525 --> 00:39:30,584
and then I'm gonna come to that classroom.

940
00:39:30,584 --> 00:39:31,640
- [Woman] Okay.

941
00:39:31,640 --> 00:39:34,580
- Shame, they've been here
for two hours, three hours.

942
00:39:34,580 --> 00:39:35,850
They got here at 12.

943
00:39:37,144 --> 00:39:40,061
(computer ringing)

944
00:39:42,008 --> 00:39:43,086
Hi, Ed.

945
00:39:43,086 --> 00:39:44,430
- [Ed] This is a pack room here.

946
00:39:44,430 --> 00:39:46,410
- Hi, everybody.
- Can you see all of them?

947
00:39:46,410 --> 00:39:49,920
- Hi, nice to see you
all, thanks for coming.

948
00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,920
- [Ed] Could you shortly
explain where you are

949
00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:54,660
and what you're doing there?

950
00:39:54,660 --> 00:39:57,050
- Sure, I'm in a city outside

951
00:39:57,050 --> 00:39:58,930
of Johannesburg, in South Africa,

952
00:39:58,930 --> 00:40:00,130
it's called Soweto.

953
00:40:00,130 --> 00:40:01,170
Where I am right now is very close

954
00:40:01,170 --> 00:40:04,170
to where Nelson Mandela
used to live in his youth,

955
00:40:04,170 --> 00:40:05,700
and I'm in a small school.

956
00:40:05,700 --> 00:40:07,200
We're gonna be demonstrating

957
00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:11,330
our blockchain prepaid metering system.

958
00:40:11,330 --> 00:40:14,404
So, this is now one of
the electrical boxes.

959
00:40:14,404 --> 00:40:16,110
I don't think you can actually see,

960
00:40:16,110 --> 00:40:18,250
but there is a (dog barking),

961
00:40:18,250 --> 00:40:20,450
this is now just a conventional meter box,

962
00:40:20,450 --> 00:40:23,670
but there's a blockchain
enabled meter over there,

963
00:40:23,670 --> 00:40:27,890
and what we're gonna do now is
I'm gonna go to the classroom

964
00:40:27,890 --> 00:40:32,120
and there's some teachers
there, and it's all dark,

965
00:40:32,120 --> 00:40:35,409
and Ed's gonna now make the transaction.

966
00:40:35,409 --> 00:40:36,901
- [Ed] How long

967
00:40:36,901 --> 00:40:38,090
does the transaction take?

968
00:40:38,090 --> 00:40:39,855
- [Lorien] The transaction takes about,

969
00:40:39,855 --> 00:40:41,306
it should take about 30 seconds.

970
00:40:41,306 --> 00:40:42,190
(people chattering)

971
00:40:42,190 --> 00:40:43,023
All right.

972
00:40:45,777 --> 00:40:46,663
Go for it.

973
00:40:46,663 --> 00:40:48,230
Okay, and now we wait I guess.

974
00:40:48,230 --> 00:40:49,980
And we hope it works.

975
00:40:51,100 --> 00:40:52,070
So yeah, now what's happening

976
00:40:52,070 --> 00:40:53,110
is it's now going through the blockchain,

977
00:40:53,110 --> 00:40:55,450
the meter's gonna detect the payment,

978
00:40:55,450 --> 00:40:56,830
it's gonna calculate the tariff,

979
00:40:56,830 --> 00:40:59,590
and then load the required
amount of electricity

980
00:40:59,590 --> 00:41:01,280
onto the meter.

981
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:02,230
So, there's nothing on it at the moment.

982
00:41:02,230 --> 00:41:03,939
That's why we're in the dark.

983
00:41:03,939 --> 00:41:06,933
And, hopefully in a few seconds

984
00:41:06,933 --> 00:41:09,140
the meter should be activated.

985
00:41:09,140 --> 00:41:10,751
I'm actually sitting in
one of the classrooms here,

986
00:41:10,751 --> 00:41:11,918
so you can see

987
00:41:14,249 --> 00:41:16,578
the staff here, ready?

988
00:41:16,578 --> 00:41:18,911
(chuckling)

989
00:41:20,524 --> 00:41:23,537
This should be a few, about 30 seconds.

990
00:41:23,537 --> 00:41:26,204
- [Ed] 41 seconds.
- 41 seconds, okay.

991
00:41:32,821 --> 00:41:33,654
All right.

992
00:41:34,758 --> 00:41:35,928
- [Ed] Maybe you should
just switch them on.

993
00:41:35,928 --> 00:41:39,261
- No, no, not fair if there's switching.

994
00:41:45,044 --> 00:41:49,345
This is usually what
happens in the live demo.

995
00:41:49,345 --> 00:41:50,345
- [Ed] Yeah.

996
00:41:52,296 --> 00:41:56,129
Let me just check if I
have the right address.

997
00:41:57,530 --> 00:41:59,530
Yeah, yeah it's Emaweni.

998
00:42:02,714 --> 00:42:05,333
- Hmm, oh there we go.

999
00:42:05,333 --> 00:42:08,333
(teachers cheering)

1000
00:42:13,027 --> 00:42:16,860
(singing)

1001
00:42:28,270 --> 00:42:31,220
I've got four sons who are busy.

1002
00:42:31,220 --> 00:42:32,820
One of the things that
I've been involved with

1003
00:42:32,820 --> 00:42:34,530
is the Cub Scouts.

1004
00:42:34,530 --> 00:42:37,640
I take my sons there on a Friday night.

1005
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:41,430
We get involved teaching
kids how to be independent,

1006
00:42:41,430 --> 00:42:43,970
and also, most importantly,
be good citizens.

1007
00:42:43,970 --> 00:42:45,820
It's very important to get children

1008
00:42:45,820 --> 00:42:48,750
to consider their
communities and their society

1009
00:42:48,750 --> 00:42:52,260
and to be empathetic to other people,

1010
00:42:52,260 --> 00:42:55,170
to try and make their communities better,

1011
00:42:55,170 --> 00:42:58,963
to build it up, to try
and think civic-mindedly.

1012
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:04,890
- [Director] This is the
thing that I struggle with.

1013
00:43:04,890 --> 00:43:08,710
So in Africa, I don't know that it helps

1014
00:43:08,710 --> 00:43:10,440
to resolve third world problems

1015
00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:14,010
because if you live in a hut

1016
00:43:14,010 --> 00:43:15,540
you don't have access to the internet.

1017
00:43:15,540 --> 00:43:17,330
You don't have access to a phone.

1018
00:43:17,330 --> 00:43:19,300
Do you think that it's actually something

1019
00:43:19,300 --> 00:43:22,310
that could really
genuinely make a practical,

1020
00:43:22,310 --> 00:43:24,040
real-world, difference here?

1021
00:43:24,040 --> 00:43:26,970
- I tend to think that
cryptocurrencies have potential

1022
00:43:26,970 --> 00:43:28,900
to solve real world
problems all over the world.

1023
00:43:28,900 --> 00:43:30,800
You're not gonna solve all
the problems, certainly.

1024
00:43:30,800 --> 00:43:33,930
Even if it just becomes a
global reserve currency,

1025
00:43:33,930 --> 00:43:37,510
the local currency for a
country becomes less important,

1026
00:43:37,510 --> 00:43:40,800
where people can trivially
shift from whatever

1027
00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:43,110
the local currency is into Bitcoin,

1028
00:43:43,110 --> 00:43:44,670
and then it doesn't matter

1029
00:43:44,670 --> 00:43:46,190
what happens to the local currency.

1030
00:43:46,190 --> 00:43:48,260
Now, your reliance isn't on the government

1031
00:43:48,260 --> 00:43:50,550
to keep the economy stable

1032
00:43:50,550 --> 00:43:53,400
because you've got a back-up,
you've got a fallback.

1033
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:55,930
That's very powerful and I think that

1034
00:43:55,930 --> 00:43:58,760
that's something that
could have lasting effects

1035
00:43:58,760 --> 00:44:01,640
and impact in Africa.

1036
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:05,190
We've had this leapfrog thing that occurs,

1037
00:44:05,190 --> 00:44:07,860
where there's an innovation,

1038
00:44:07,860 --> 00:44:11,020
like digital cellphones
when they came out,

1039
00:44:11,020 --> 00:44:12,030
those were the first cellphones

1040
00:44:12,030 --> 00:44:14,530
that really got deployed in South Africa,

1041
00:44:14,530 --> 00:44:17,950
and because of that we were on 3G faster

1042
00:44:17,950 --> 00:44:21,440
than the United States and most of Europe,

1043
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:23,560
and it's just because the infrastructure

1044
00:44:23,560 --> 00:44:24,800
is a little bit more modern,

1045
00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:27,530
because it was deployed
slightly later in the game.

1046
00:44:27,530 --> 00:44:31,610
There are a class of problems in Africa

1047
00:44:31,610 --> 00:44:35,700
where we can just leapfrog,
and use cryptocurrencies

1048
00:44:35,700 --> 00:44:38,443
to our advantage, and I think
that's what's gonna happen.

1049
00:44:39,520 --> 00:44:41,660
- Even though, myself
on a day-to-day basis,

1050
00:44:41,660 --> 00:44:44,490
I don't use Bitcoin in
the way I would like.

1051
00:44:44,490 --> 00:44:46,167
I do wanna be able to spend Bitcoin

1052
00:44:46,167 --> 00:44:48,620
and I do wanna be able
to have people out there

1053
00:44:48,620 --> 00:44:51,010
in this country spending Bitcoin.

1054
00:44:51,010 --> 00:44:54,610
I want merchants and service
providers to accept Bitcoin.

1055
00:44:54,610 --> 00:44:57,750
So, instead of waiting
for them to do that,

1056
00:44:57,750 --> 00:45:00,770
I'm now going and actually
providing those tools.

1057
00:45:00,770 --> 00:45:04,950
I will certainly strive
to create the opportunity

1058
00:45:04,950 --> 00:45:08,290
for people to spend it
in their day-to-day lives

1059
00:45:08,290 --> 00:45:10,690
and also to accept it in
their day-to-day lives.

1060
00:45:12,050 --> 00:45:13,930
- [Director] Ironically,
the story I expected

1061
00:45:13,930 --> 00:45:15,980
was to be told by a bunch of men in suits

1062
00:45:15,980 --> 00:45:17,533
just in pursuit of more money.

1063
00:45:18,650 --> 00:45:20,830
I expected to find
bandits, and terrorists,

1064
00:45:20,830 --> 00:45:24,093
and everyday-Joes organizing
dark deeds in dark places.

1065
00:45:25,020 --> 00:45:26,530
But in the last five and a half years,

1066
00:45:26,530 --> 00:45:27,920
the story I thought I would be telling

1067
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:31,593
about the crypto space in
Africa never materialized.

1068
00:45:32,810 --> 00:45:34,690
I've realized that my
pessimism at the beginning

1069
00:45:34,690 --> 00:45:37,780
of this journey was
actually just misplaced,

1070
00:45:37,780 --> 00:45:41,283
but regardless, that pessimism
has now turned to optimism,

1071
00:45:42,380 --> 00:45:45,220
not so much because of the
tech, but because of the people

1072
00:45:45,220 --> 00:45:49,310
who are using it to make the
circle both bigger and better,

1073
00:45:49,310 --> 00:45:51,960
and that's what I call the
beginning of a revolution.

1074
00:45:58,914 --> 00:45:59,747
(lively music)

1075
00:45:59,747 --> 00:46:02,203
- Just off the top of my head.

1076
00:46:03,404 --> 00:46:04,630
- Bitcoin. (laughing)

1077
00:46:04,630 --> 00:46:06,174
- Ethereum Classic.

1078
00:46:06,174 --> 00:46:07,043
- Huntercoin.

1079
00:46:07,043 --> 00:46:08,245
- Monero.

1080
00:46:08,245 --> 00:46:09,200
- Ethereum.

1081
00:46:09,200 --> 00:46:10,484
- Ripple XRP.

1082
00:46:10,484 --> 00:46:11,402
- Bitcoins.

1083
00:46:11,402 --> 00:46:12,980
- Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Silver,

1084
00:46:12,980 --> 00:46:14,850
Bitcoin Diamond, Bitcoin Private,

1085
00:46:14,850 --> 00:46:16,330
all of the things that start with Bitcoin

1086
00:46:16,330 --> 00:46:17,787
and have another word after it.

1087
00:46:17,787 --> 00:46:19,420
- Dash, Zcash.

1088
00:46:19,420 --> 00:46:20,990
- There's Cardano.

1089
00:46:20,990 --> 00:46:21,823
- EOS.

1090
00:46:21,823 --> 00:46:23,468
- Stellar Lumens.

1091
00:46:23,468 --> 00:46:24,537
- Calibur.

1092
00:46:24,537 --> 00:46:25,590
- IOTA.

1093
00:46:25,590 --> 00:46:27,440
- There's another one called E-Ora.

1094
00:46:27,440 --> 00:46:28,586
- Bitconnect.

1095
00:46:28,586 --> 00:46:30,330
(laughing)

1096
00:46:30,330 --> 00:46:33,093
I'm sorry, I'm sorry,
that was like a scam coin.

1097
00:46:34,439 --> 00:46:35,932
- Did I say Dash?

1098
00:46:35,932 --> 00:46:38,432
Of course Dash, Litecoin Cash.

1099
00:46:42,143 --> 00:46:44,550
(laughing)

1100
00:46:44,550 --> 00:46:46,160
- I just hit a blank.

1101
00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:48,110
- Now they're escaping me, these coins.

1102
00:46:49,020 --> 00:46:50,063
As many as I can.

1103
00:46:53,510 --> 00:46:55,810
- There's so many, it's
hard to think of them.

1104
00:46:57,142 --> 00:46:57,975
- UBU.

1105
00:46:59,430 --> 00:47:00,263
BNB.

1106
00:47:02,780 --> 00:47:03,613
PRIVEX.

1107
00:47:05,100 --> 00:47:06,504
This should be a lot easier.

1108
00:47:06,504 --> 00:47:07,694
(laughing)