Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It
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- Year:
- 2015
- 60 min
- 733 Views
1
[Voiceover] Look closely.
What do we all have in common?
the world you live in,
You need food, water,
shelter and money.
Half of every transaction
involves money,
in exchange for
goods or services.
Stocks, a loaf of
bread, illegal drugs,
You gotta pay for it.
We spend much of our
live chasing money
to make a living,
and accomplish our dreams.
But it's also an
instrument of destruction.
Some might say evil.
Driving criminals to lie,
steal and even murder.
- The existing banking system,
extracts enormous
value from society
and it is parasitic in nature.
- [Voiceover] Money is
a catalyst for the worst
and the best of human endeavor.
Before civilization,
we created currency.
Fuel for wars.
The path to power.
Champion and enemy
of innovation.
Money is so integral
to our society,
and our global economy,
that its true nature
remains a mystery to most.
This is the story of money.
Perhaps the end of
money as we know it.
No matter how fat
your bank account,
or how thin your wallet.
To us it's all cold, hard cash.
There are some who
want to kill it.
Get rid of it.
Burn your dollars,
your euros, your yen,
and transform every
penny you have,
into ones and zeros.
Digital currency
entrusted to the web
and computers spread
across the planet.
Magic internet money.
It's called
cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.
Invented in secret,
it was a gift to the world.
- It's not just a currency,
but it's actually
programmable money.
- [Voiceover] A potential
curse on bankers.
- I mean, there's nothing
that the big banks or
politicians can do to stop it.
- [Voiceover] Breaking
every governments grip
on money supply.
- What the internet
did for information,
Bitcoin is doing for money.
- Could it be the new gold?
- No, you have to really stretch
your imagination,
to infer what the intrinsic
value of Bitcoin is.
- Regulators, the Federal
Reserve, the banking system,
at least understand
this is a thing
that they have to
take seriously.
- This going to change
the economic culture.
- Bitcoin could be a
micro-economic miracle worker
and it could be a
macro-economic wrecking ball.
- [Voiceover] Is Bitcoin
the currency of the future,
a Godsend for criminals,
or a recipe for
financial disaster?
If you trust your
money just as it is,
we have a little story to share.
(dramatic instrumental music)
Once upon a time
there was a big party,
with everyone standing
around the punch bowl, drunk.
Politicians credited
the strong economy
to their wise decisions.
Businesses jumped into
new profitable markets,
ignoring risk.
If fact the experts
said there was no risk.
Then, troubling market
data from minor countries,
spooked the markets.
Rumors spread.
More bad news rattled
housing prices,
at the heart of the
financial world.
A major bank went insolvent.
Investors and
businesses made a run
on the other banks,
demanding their cash deposits.
The largest financial
institutions
in the center of the
modern world were frozen.
Assets were seized,
banks foreclosed.
and then finally,
the government stepped in.
The largest bank bailout ever.
Swift action by the head
Remember that?
No you don't.
Rome, 33 A.D.
Ground zero for the first
recorded liquidity crisis
and government
bailout in history.
world had ever seen,
was brought to its knees
by a banking disaster.
Emperor Tiberius used money
from the National Treasury,
to bail out the country's
troubled banks and companies.
History may not repeat itself,
but it certainly rhymes, badly.
People in power and their money,
have always been at
the very center of it.
(violin instrumental music)
The story of money
is as old as
civilization itself.
When we lived in small tribes,
keeping track of debt was easy.
You owed somebody
a load of firewood.
A neighbor owed you
a piece of meat.
Credits and debits
were kept in your head.
A mental ledger.
- Currency's a
language that allows us
to express transactional
value between people.
It's technology that's
older than the wheel.
It's as old as fire.
- [Voiceover] When
humans wanted to trade
outside their tribe or village,
they needed something,
everyone could agree had value.
Something scalable.
Enter commodity monies.
There were many kinds,
but each had to embody
the same five characteristics.
relatively scarce,
easily recognizable,
can be cut into smaller pieces.
You can substitute one piece
And you can carry it around
without too much trouble.
In ancient Rome, it was salt.
It was whale teeth on Fiji.
Yak dung in Tibet.
Shells in Africa and China.
Grains, metal,
ivory, rare stones,
leather, fish.
If it had the five characteristics
of commodity money,
someone probably
used it as currency.
- And then you ask,
what value did these
currencies have?
If you go into a primary school,
you'll see children
exchanging rubber bands
and Tamagotchi
and Poke-man cards
and candy and any
other form of currency.
People invent currency,
when they have no
other currency.
And now they're going to
invent digital currencies.
- [Voiceover] But commodities
that aren't durable,
A bad Cacao crop,
or a huge new salt discovery,
can throw your currency
and economy into turmoil.
A more stable system was needed.
About 2,500 years ago,
the first metal coins
were minted in China,
and in what is now Turkey.
These coins shared the
same five characteristics
with commodity money,
but were also very durable.
In some cases,
coins are the only thing left
of entire civilizations.
- Money does not originate
with governments.
Money arises naturally,
as markets begin to develop.
And as people with a
division of labor realize,
that if I have eggs,
and you have a cow,
we may need some
medium of exchange,
in order for you to buy my eggs,
or for me to buy your cow.
- [Voiceover] Coins
were an objective
and universal unit of account
and they allowed people
to buy and sell goods
over vast regions.
Coins worked,
but only if people trusted
that the king or emperor,
who issued them,
wasn't cheating on
the metal content.
Using coins also meant,
that an authority now
controlled the supply
of your currency.
Money and political power,
were inextricably
linked, centralized.
Minting coins in a steady
and predictable manner,
allowed economic
growth and stability.
The Wu Zhu coin in China,
retained its value
for 500 years.
In Constantinople, the solidus
lasted for 700 years.
- But in those times,
the coins didn't
have the milled,
this sort of milled edge.
They were flat,
and what used to happen,
was as coins were passing
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"Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 Dec. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/bitcoin:_the_end_of_money_as_we_know_it_4139>.
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