The Good Tech Companies - How Crypto Made Its Way to TV, From The Good Wife to The Simpsons

Starting point is 00:00:00 This audio is presented by Hacker Noon, where anyone can learn anything about any technology. How Crypto made its way to TV, from The Good Wife to the Simpsons, by Obite. Most people associate the term crypto, with complex graphs and obscure digital wallets. However, an increasing number of TV shows have been incorporating cryptocurrency concepts into mainstream discourse through their plots and stories in an easy, more natural way. On screen, we've seen things like legal dramas debating whether digital money, is real, hacker thrillers using Bitcoin Asa plot device, and animated sitcoms turning tokens and NFTs into jokes and lessons. These moments have helped to shape how we all think

Starting point is 00:00:40 about crypto networks and digital assets, even if we're not actively investing. In a way, television has been an unexpected classroom for what crypto is and what it might become. Let's explore some unforgettable moments where pop culture met crypto, The Good Wife, it's interesting and fascinating, to note that one of the first mainstream depictions of cryptocurrency on TV occurred on a legal drama show and not on a technical one. Given this fact, it's even more fascinating that many of the audience members watched this storyline long before they ever heard the word, Bitcoin. The Good Wife was produced by Robert and Michelle King and debuted in 2009 as a legal, political drama. In Season 3, Episode 13, Bitcoin for Dummies, aired in 2012. The show exposed millions of viewers to Bitcoin

Starting point is 00:01:28 before it became a significant player in the market. The episode includes a brief educational video about what Bitcoin is and how it works. However, the whole storyline focuses on Alicia Floric as she defends another lawyer, whose anonymous client is suspected of inventing Bitcoin. The U.S. government indicated that creating any new currency that competes with the U.S. dollar is illegal. B-Y-J-S-E-R-Y-Z and embeddable equals true the script references several of the debates on Bitcoin happening back then. Is Bitcoin a real currency? Who's controlling it? Will governments be able to

Starting point is 00:02:12 regulate a decentralized system like this? The fact that they could buy one entire BTC for a few dollars tells us a lot about the time. Also covered was the anonymity element surrounding the person behind Bitcoin, the overall mystery of who that is, and the conflict between innovating and regulating. While some of the content in the episode is not 100% correct, Formany who see it for the first time, this would be an introduction to cryptocurrency well before it became a household term. Mr. Robot, people expected awesome visuals of hacking from Mr. Robot, but didn't realize how accurately crypto terminology fit into the storylines of the show. From stealthily hidden Bitcoin addresses to technically accurate wallet discussions and even a fictitious corporate cryptocurrency. The writers

Starting point is 00:02:57 portrayed crypto Asa significant part of the digital world, not just a novelty. Mr. Robot was created by Sam S. Mile and released in 2015. It follows Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer caught up in the world of anarchist hackerstrying to bring down corporatism. This story provided a perfect opportunity for writers to incorporate concerns about financial uncertainty and digital privacy issues related to cryptocurrency. HTTPS colon slash YouTube. B, G. H-H-O-A-K-W-Z-D-H-D-H-J-B-S-W-X-O-A-O-N-R-U-X-L and embeddable equals true over the course of the series, we see the use of Bitcoin as an underground currency by hackers, activists, and criminal organizations. In the second season, there's a remarkable moment when a systems administrator complains about

Starting point is 00:03:47 how attackers keep emptying the Bitcoin wallets, thus requiring them to evaluate their hot-vers-cold storage method, a real-world security concern. Another episode shows Easter egg wallet addresses hidden in code. Fans scanned them and discovered they were functional. Bitcoin is often used in contrast to the fictional digital coin, e-coin, created by a corporation, which the company uses as a tool for maintaining control over its customers. The struggle between underscore- underscore-decentralized and centralized underscore- underscore-technology also becomes a theme throughout the entire series. For a mainstream audience, Mr. Robot offered one of TV's most nuanced portrayals off Crypto's ideological battlefield. The Simpsons, few shows can turn something as technical as distributed ledger technology, DLT, into a joke sung by Jim Parsons, and somehow make it accurate.

Starting point is 00:04:40 That's the genius behind The Simpsons. It uses a combination of absurd fun and complexity toe entertain viewers while still providing them with useful education at the same time. Originally conceived by Mad Graining, The Simpsons began its run in 1989. Since Ethan, it's been able to provide its viewers with insight into just about every cultural movement from the last 30 years and has certainly followed along AS Cryptocurrency became a more prominent form of payment. In season 31, episode 13, Frank Coin, which aired in 2020, Professor Frank created his own version of cryptocurrency. He used it to become the richest person in Springfield, at least temporarily.

Starting point is 00:05:19 One of the highlights of that particular episode was a cameo by Jim Parsons, known for his role as Sheldon Cooper, who provided an explanation of the concept of blockchain in an easy way. A ledger of every transaction, added to a chain of previous ledgers. It WAS essentially a cartoon-friendly version of a real D-L-T tutorial. H-T-TPS-C-S-B-S-B-J-J-V-M-C-E-E-C-E-E-C-E-E-5-H-S-T-B-Z-P-T-T-J. A-U-V-E-C and embeddable equals True, Treehouse of Horror 34, in 2023 brought back crypto through the segment titled, Wild Bart's Can't Be Token. Here, we follow Bart on his journey as a non-fungible token, NFT, while Marge navigates through the chaotic digital art world to save him. This episode

Starting point is 00:06:09 highlights NFT, hype cycles, the speculative pricing of digital assets, and the perception that something once deemed priceless can become valueless in a matter of minutes. It's a thought that many investors who enter the space in 2021 will surely relate to. H-T-TPS colon slash-slash-U-2. B, C-E-N-Z-D-3P-4-N-A-7-F-C-SY-D-V and embeddable equals true other crypto cameos. Crypto is appearing in an increasing number of non-technical shows. Camios like that are evidence of how digital assets are now being recognized in many forms of pop culture. This is especially true with tech satire-based shows, such as Silicon Valley, 2014.

Starting point is 00:06:53 During its later seasons, the show was well known for its parodies of initial coin offering, ICO, mania, token launches, and startup hype. The tone was never as serious as Mr. Robot, however, it still captured some of the absurdities of the technology startup founders, all trying to invent some form of token just because everyone else was doing so. HTTPS colon slash YouTube. B, ZF 87K5 OP0U, C equals R60 Low XXTiGP6DLKJ and embeddable equals true crime and detective series sometimes use the word Bitcoin as shorthand for illegal payments, ransomware demands,

Starting point is 00:07:32 are digital trails left by criminals. While all of these portrayals are generally found to be overly simplified examples of how crypto is used for crime, these types of representations have normalized the concept that digital finance is just another aspect of the modern financial system and the way that it works in conjunction with other forms of money. Even some sitcoms have made references to investing in some type of coins on daving and NFT. These moments matter more than they seem. They signal that crypto vocabulary has crossed into casual conversation, the same way, email, or apps, once did. What pop culture gets right, and what it gets wrong. The most interesting thing about crypto and pop culture is how the portrayals

Starting point is 00:08:13 worked together. Some serious, some satirical, some wildly exaggerated. Each version shapes audience understanding, whether by teaching, warning, or just making people laugh. Shows like the Good Wife and Mr. Robot get closest to the technical truth, exploring legality, decentralization, and wallet security. There are some concepts they didn't fully understand themselves, though. In the Good Wife, for instance, they didn't even mention the open source nature of Bitcoin. For them, Bitcoin had to be developed by a company. Besides, unlike their assumptions, anyone can send messages through crypto transactions, not only the Bitcoin founder. Meanwhile, The Simpsons provides the most accessible beginner-friendly explanations wrapped in humor, but it limits them to one type of

Starting point is 00:08:58 distributed ledger, the blockchain. There are others around, even more decentralized, the directed acyclic graph, DAG, used by Obite, for example. Despite all these inaccuracies, together, they build a basic vocabulary, ledger, token, mining, anonymity, storage, P2P. And exposure matters, pop culture is where many viewers encounter crypto for the first time. These portrayals spark curiosity, encourage questions, and make the technology less intimidating. Even flawed depictions can push people to explore further, featured vector image by free pick thank you for listening to this Hackernoon story, read by artificial intelligence. Visit hackernoon.com to read, write, learn and publish.

The Good Tech Companies - How Crypto Made Its Way to TV, From The Good Wife to The Simpsons

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