The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin Page #12

"silk road got raided

and the government seized

$3.6 million in bitcoin.

Is there a way to invalidate bitcoins?"

( CHUCKLES )

I replied, "no."

- ( DANIEL SPEAKING )

- ( KEYBOARD CLICKING )

People are starting

to finally realize

that bitcoin has nothing

to do with how people use it.

It's just money.

It's like gold.

Of course,

not everyone thinks

bitcoin is the way

of the future.

JAMES ANGEL:

Bitcoin will not be able

to survive or thrive

without becoming legitimate.

I don't see it

having a serious place

in our financial system.

There are

really good reasons

why we have central banks

that have the power

to put out financial fires

by printing money.

I'm worried

about the technology.

As darth vader once said,

"don't put all your faith

in technology."

I think

10 years from now,

we'll look back on this

and just kind of chuckle

at the bitcoin fad.

"Oh yeah,

I remember bitcoin.

Oh yeah,

I remember that."

MAN:

It's financial freedom.

Come on, bro.

This is the new world, bro.

DANIEL:

Others are more optimistic.

I think

within 10 years,

you're gonna have a lot

of people using bitcoin,

but they're not gonna realize

that they're using it,

because it's gonna be a protocol

that's imbedded underneath

whatever financial service

they're using today.

And by bitcoin

being open-source

it's what can allow all these

different mobile wallets

and all these

financial technologies

to all talk to each other,

especially

around the world.

VOORHEES:

Whoever the hell satoshi was,

he should go down in history

as one of the greatest people

or groups of people

that ever existed.

This is a technology

that mankind has needed

for thousands of years.

People have been dealing

with monetary shenanigans

since the Roman empire

clipping gold coins.

And finally people

can escape it.

I'm cautious to try

to predict the future.

We don't really know.

I tend to be

a technological optimist.

I see the democratization

of technology

as being

a really positive thing.

And I think that's

a really powerful force

that is really

only just beginning.

Not bad. Oh!

( GRUNTS,

BREATHING HARD )

( LAUGHS )

( SIGHS )

Recently, as the price has

been floating around 200 again,

I have a lot of friends

that have asked me,

"are you gonna cash out

some of your bitcoins now?

The price is really high.

You should get some dollars out of it."

I kind of tell 'em,

"no, don't you see it?"

I've met so many

interesting people

and there seems to be

one thing that kind of binds

a lot of them together,

and that is that

they're willing

to face opposition

and follow through on the ideas

that they believe in.

The people who try

the crazy ideas

often fail and then everybody

likes to point their fingers

and laugh and say,

"that was such a stupid idea."

But once in a while

it works out.

I think bitcoin

is proving to be

one of those things.

The decision to bring

virtual currency

within the scope

of our regulatory framework

should be viewed as

a positive development

for this sector.

I'm here to testify,

because I believe

that digital currency

represents

one of the most important

technical

and economic innovations

of our time.

We are enthusiastic

about the potential

of virtual currencies

and the digital economy

for social good.

This latest generation

of technology

which we're talking

about today

takes things to a whole

new level.

There's a bit

of a shared

responsibility here

in trying to figure out

how to make this work.

It is a little strange

that bitcoin...

we don't know who

the creator is

and so that often

conjures up the idea

that there's

some risk here that

we have not...

you don't think it was

Al Gore, do you?

( LAUGHTER )

If you think a little broadly,

this could, again, have

huge huge implications.

( CHIMES )

DANIEL:
2013 was the year bitcoin

first entered the mainstream

and 2014 got off

to a dramatic start.

Just as we were wrapping

things up on our film,

Charlie shrem was arrested

after returning from a bitcoin

conference in Amsterdam.

He could be facing

up to 30 years in prison

on charges related to his

activities at bitinstant.

In j.F.K.,

you walk right off the plane,

and you go straight

to customs.

About three agents

in front of me

and then four agents

behind me said,

"Mr. shrem,

please come with us."

They took me

to an interrogating room,

told me that

I'm being arrested

on federal crimes

of money laundering,

running an unlicensed

money transmission business

and failing to file

suspicious-activity reports.

DANIEL:
The indictment alleged

that Charlie had sold bitcoins

to a reseller that operated

on the silk road.

What sucks

is the house arrest.

I have to pretty much be here all the time,

every day. I can't even go outside

unless I'm going to my lawyer's office,

which is once or twice a week.

I pretty much lost

my freedom,

lost everything that I've

built over the past year.

DANIEL:

Charlie's arrest wasn't the only bad news

that rocked the community

in the new year.

For months there had been rumors that mt.

Gox had become insolvent.

And in February

the site went offline.

- ( MAN SPEAKS )

- ( KARPELES SPEAKS )

Do you still have

everyone's bitcoins?

I'm not touching you.

I haven't touched you.

Do you still have

everyone's bitcoins?

( KARPELES SPEAKS )

( CAMERAS CLICKING )

DANIEL:

The rumors turned out to be true.

( SPEAKING JAPANESE )

DANIEL:
Mt.

Gox had reportedly been hacked

and nearly half a billion dollars

worth of bitcoin were missing.

Mark was forced

to step down as c.E.O.

And mt. Gox went

into bankruptcy.

A national magazine

claims to have identified

the mysterious founder

of the worldwide

digital currency

called bitcoin.

Tonight he is

speaking out,

but he says he has

nothing whatsoever to do

with bitcoin.

MAN:
Why did you create bitcoin,

sir?

Okay.

( LAUGHS )

MAN #2:
Sir,

can we ask you about bitcoin?

- No no no no no.

- Why were you involved in bitcoin?

Okay, I'm not involved

in bitcoin, okay?

- Who's involved in it?

- Wait a minute.

I want a free lunch first.

I'm gonna go with this guy.

I want a big one.

( LAUGHS ) Yeah.

Oh, okay. Yeah,

this will be good.

- Oh jeez.

- We have some water.

Hey, where's yours?

DANIEL:

"Newsweek" claimed the creator of bitcoin

had not used a pseudonym.

They connected the dots

to a 64-year-old

Japanese man

living in Los Angeles...

Named Dorian prentice

satoshi nakamoto.

Nakamoto immediately denied

the allegations

and said he'd tell his story

to the first reporter

who agreed

to buy him lunch.

The main reason

I'm here is

to clear my name,

that I have nothing

- to do with bitcoin...

- Yup.

...nothing to do

with developing.

I was just an engineer

doing something else.

DANIEL:

As the media frenzy escalated,

"newsweek's" claims

started to unravel.

Holes in the story

led many to believe

it was nothing more

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