Bitcoin moved the paradigm in business for online drug dealers and hitmen for hire. As seen in the infamous Silk Road case lanced against Ross Ulbricht, Bitcoin’s pseudonymity allowed Silk Road and its “customers” to get exactly what they wanted; drugs, and money to buy more drugs. And by more drugs, think one billion dollars’ worth.
Bitcoin Is More Than a Currency
Ulbricht apparently shoved that money pretty deep into his mattress too. We still haven’t found most of those $79.8 million dollars he earned in commissions from Silk Road. Perhaps we never will; the wake of cryptocurrencies is already turning its head in other directions.
Bitcoin today is more than a currency; now it means something to people. It evolved from a minor curiosity to a store of value and a force for change, and, in many cases, a force for good. Proponents, especially millennials like Ulbricht, look to virtual currencies as a North Star leading the way forward.
As bitcoin gains mainstream adoption and enters consumer consciousness, it’s only natural that it also begins taking its place as a cultural icon.
We’ve already seen it in shows like “The Simpsons,” “House of Cards,” “Almost Human,” and “The Big Bang Theory.” There are even books and movies about Bitcoin too. Like the book by Nick Bilton,“American Kingpin,” which features Ulbricht’s odyssey of wagon bookseller to a lynchpin in the criminal underworld.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Bilton said that he “actually lived a few blocks away from the library where Ross Ulbricht was arrested,” and that Bilton could see (some) things from Ulbricht’s point of view.
“After reading Ross’s writings about legalizing drugs, I could completely understand his arguments. But when you see what actually happened with Silk Road, you can comprehend why the judge chose to hand down such a harsh sentence.”
Getting on Board the Rocket
There are also five movies and documentaries on the pioneer cryptocurrency including, “Banking with Bitcoin,” “The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin,” “Bitcoin Heist,” “Deep web,” and “Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It.” And that’s just the start. Websites like CryptFlix, for instance, stream documentaries, ICO news, and even crypto-related music videos.
And just like the cryptocurrency market, artists, producers, and writers, have all piled into the bitcoin rocket to the moon. Many are looking to this market sector as their first real foothold into financial independence and getting out of student debt.
We will inevitably see a lot more media coming out in future, with greedy and whimsical expectations being the norm for this kind of thing. Think Lambos on the moon, everywhere.
It’s hard to imagine that such a technology lay dormant for ten years before its potential detonated. Ironically, we had plenty of time to write books and to film movies about it, so why didn’t we?
Despite the steep dive in price, bitcoin is still worth a lot of money. The number of crypto millionaires and billionaires cropping up on a seemingly-daily basis means we’ll probably never hear the end of bitcoin. The only question now is, what’s going to be the next bitcoin?
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