The most recent episode of Futurama features a variety of jokes about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency so I decided to take a look.
My other videos mentioned in this video:
Donald Trump Tried a Coup:
Episode on Effective Altruism:
Innovated – Blockchain City:
Episode on Three Arrows Capital:
Playlist on FTX:
Episode on Bitcoin:
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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:23:10 Bennett Tomlin Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my personal channel. Today we are discussing Futurama. Futurama holds a special place in my heart. Back in my sophomore year of college, after having my heart broken and my knee blown out, I was wallowing in a deep depression and I watched countless hours of Futurama on endless repeat straight from the end of the last season back to the beginning of the first season. 00:00:23:12 - 00:00:35:09 Bennett Tomlin Recently, Futurama has been brought back from the long dead by Hulu, and the new episodes are...okay. This isn't a full review of them though. Maybe I will do that at one point. 00:00:35:09 - 00:00:47:19 Bennett Tomlin The reason I'm bringing Futurama up is because their most recent episode is all about Bitcoin and I'm a professional cryptocurrency researcher and I am a semi-professional cryptocurrency podcaster. 00:00:47:21 - 00:00:56:01 Bennett Tomlin So I've decided to pull out every single Bitcoin and crypto reference from the episode and overexplain them all to you until they're no longer funny. 00:00:56:01 - 00:01:07:06 Bennett Tomlin The episode opens as nearly all of them do with the professor walking in, but this time he announces that he has suffered the fate of many cryptocurrency traders. 00:01:07:06 - 00:01:18:23 Professor Farnsworth News. Bad we're bankrupt. Oh, I borrowed money to invest in bitcoin. Then the price crashed and I sold at a huge loss. We’re ruined. 00:01:18:23 - 00:01:35:07 Bennett Tomlin What's especially funny to me about this joke is that it could be about many of the individuals who did this the retail traders who lost tons of money, their life savings in many cases, but also many of the top traders in hedge funds who have recently gotten blown up. 00:01:35:14 - 00:01:48:28 Bennett Tomlin Alameda Research and Three Arrow Capital, not to mention others. However, shortly after announcing they are bankrupt, the attention is back to the TV, where we learn that volatility works both ways. 00:01:48:28 - 00:01:50:28 Newscaster In other news, Morvo, Guess what's back? 00:01:51:14 - 00:01:52:16 Newscaster The planet Clarg? 00:01:52:21 - 00:02:01:21 Newscaster Nope. The price of Bitcoin. While the virtual money is soaring, once again, leading to a high tech gold rush. 00:02:01:27 - 00:02:07:04 Newscaster Prospectors are heading west where cheap filthy electricity, beckons the desperate. 00:02:07:04 - 00:02:17:29 Bennett Tomlin The scare quotes on money are great here, as is the metaphorical gold rush. There are currently a bunch of Bitcoin mines being built wherever the energy is lowest. 00:02:18:01 - 00:02:38:17 Bennett Tomlin Often this means where hydroelectric power is plentiful. But there are some that get built in other places too, because that's how Bitcoin mining works. And what this does mean is that Bitcoin miners tend to kind of rush to the same physical location as if they're actually mining something that exists. If that location has the cheapest power available. 00:02:38:17 - 00:02:43:14 Bennett Tomlin This gives our professor an idea and how to solve their bankruptcy. 00:02:43:16 - 00:02:45:23 Bennett Tomlin But Leela has a word of caution, 00:02:45:28 - 00:02:48:17 Professor Farnsworth This gives me a desperate idea. 00:02:48:25 - 00:02:52:17 Leela Haven't you learned that Bitcoin is just a pyramid scheme for rubes? 00:02:52:17 - 00:03:12:14 Bennett Tomlin Leela takes the easy response to Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies here, which is that so many people have already gotten hurt. And this niche thing that has limited it, if any benefit. So why would you engage with it at all? Why would you not look at all the people, including in this case, the professor himself, who've already gotten hurt and decide to just stay away? 00:03:12:21 - 00:03:27:14 Bennett Tomlin And I think that's a defensible stance to have on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Now, I don't think they're literal Ponzi schemes and I've explained why before, but like being dismissive of them is understandable with how much hurt they've 00:03:27:14 - 00:03:35:23 Bennett Tomlin The professor, Like many formerly top cryptocurrency investment firms, isn't interested in Bitcoin for Bitcoin, though. 00:03:35:23 - 00:03:40:03 Professor Farnsworth Yes. And my plan is to exploit those 00:03:40:03 - 00:03:57:06 Professor Farnsworth rubes. You see the new mining chips are made from element 81 thallium, A rare element found out west. I plan to actually mine it, then sell it to the Bitcoin miners. It's a sure way to repay my loan brokers. 00:03:57:06 - 00:04:09:14 Bennett Tomlin Now, as far as I know, thallium is not actually used in very many computer chips, but this type of picks and shovel philosophy has been the stated investment thesis for many cryptocurrency firms. 00:04:09:16 - 00:04:17:04 Bennett Tomlin So why not Planet Express? We also immediately get the reveal about who loaned the professor money to buy Bitcoin. 00:04:17:06 - 00:04:22:08 Robot Mafia Oh, yeah. We're also leg brokers. 00:04:22:10 - 00:04:24:03 Philip Fry Goodbye, Robot Mafia. 00:04:24:03 - 00:04:32:07 Bennett Tomlin That's right, the robot Mafia. An appropriate choice for cryptocurrency lender. Just knowing what I know about actual mafias. 00:04:32:07 - 00:04:38:05 Bennett Tomlin The team heads out west and as they get closer they encounter a strange atmospheric phenomena. 00:04:38:05 - 00:04:47:17 Professor Farnsworth The Bitcoin miners are using such colossal amounts of power that it's ionizing the atmosphere. We'll need to land and drive the rest of the way. 00:04:47:17 - 00:04:48:22 Bennett Tomlin The joke here is pretty obvious. 00:04:48:22 - 00:05:15:17 Bennett Tomlin They think Bitcoin uses an absurd amount of energy for what it is, and this has serious environmental effects. The really fun thing about Bitcoin and by fun I mean horrifying, is that the incentives of Bitcoin are such that the more valuable Bitcoin is, the more energy spend will be consumed in the mining process. This means if you know anyone who is hoping the price of Bitcoin will continue to go steeply up, They are also hoping that the energy consumption of Bitcoin will continue to go up. 00:05:15:20 - 00:05:16:21 Bennett Tomlin The more you 00:05:16:21 - 00:05:21:24 Bennett Tomlin They finally arrive at the city and it has a name that Elon Musk would certainly recognize. 00:05:21:24 - 00:05:27:21 Professor Farnsworth There. 00:05:27:23 - 00:05:31:04 Doge City Prospector Welcome to Doge City. Looks like you got seven horse walkers and a galoot. 00:05:31:04 - 00:05:47:27 Bennett Tomlin Yep, that's right. A Dogecoin reference though I think the people who live in Doge City is more than the number of daily transacting users for Dogecoin as they ride into doge city past lazy bitcoin holdings in wallet, they realize it looks strangely archaic. 00:05:47:27 - 00:05:51:18 Amy Wong Kind of old fashioned for a town built on high speed computation. 00:05:51:24 - 00:06:01:02 Professor Farnsworth Well, every what of electricity goes to the Bitcoin mining computers. For everyone else, it's practically like living in the Old West. 00:06:01:08 - 00:06:22:28 Bennett Tomlin Now, what's fun for me about this joke is the fact that it could be a reference to the paradox of thrift. Bitcoin is a deflationary currency, which means it disincentivizes spending, which is a part of why it's a bad basis for an economic system. So I love to imagine this is the writer saying Bitcoin would send your economy careening backwards and we all would be living effectively in a pre electricity era. 00:06:22:28 - 00:06:31:06 Bennett Tomlin After this group steps in at the local saloon Bender finds himself attracted to an auction and we get to see how they spend bitcoin. 00:06:31:06 - 00:06:33:23 Auctioneer All right, Up next, our final item. 00:06:33:28 - 00:06:36:28 Auctioneer This burro is in near mint condition. Perfect for: 00:06:36:28 - 00:06:38:17 Auctioneer Hauling Bitcoin, light housework, 00:06:38:17 - 00:06:41:07 Auctioneer Or just abuse. Bidders, bidders, do I have any bidders? 00:06:41:08 - 00:06:43:13 Bidder 1 12 millionths of a bitcoin. 00:06:43:14 - 00:06:46:02 Auctioneer 12 micro bitcoin. Yeah. 13, 13, 13. 00:06:46:03 - 00:06:47:11 Bidder 2 Not from me, you don't. 00:06:47:13 - 00:06:48:12 Bender 15. 00:06:48:12 - 00:07:05:04 Bennett Tomlin They're talking about micro bitcoins here, which is not something actual bitcoiners do. They wanted to make this more realistic. They would multiply these numbers by 100 and denominate them in sats or satoshis the base unit for bitcoin and the one that bitcoiners actually use the group eventually takes some thallium. 00:07:05:04 - 00:07:09:07 Bennett Tomlin They found two an assayer and here we see a demonstration of crypto mining. 00:07:09:07 - 00:07:13:00 Professor Farnsworth May I ask who turns the thallium into microchips? 00:07:13:03 - 00:07:35:26 Assayer I’m an all in one operation. My motto is he who smelts it, delts it. pop one of those in a high end server and wham you’re mining crypto. Oh, lookie there another Bitcoin. Dog dumplings. 00:07:35:27 - 00:07:37:22 Assayer It's just a dang 00:07:37:22 - 00:07:58:25 Bennett Tomlin Now technically there's a few problems with this scene. Both bitcoin and Ethereum are cryptocurrencies. Yes, but one Ethereum is no longer mined and it seems unlikely to me that a thousand years in the future they would go the other direction. And that decision to even when Ethereum was mined, it was mined using different algorithms and hardware than Bitcoin. 00:07:59:02 - 00:08:13:12 Bennett Tomlin So you couldn't use a Bitcoin mining rig to mine Ethereum or vice versa. Still kind of fun to show the rivalry between Bitcoin and Ethereum. I guess a later scene in the show shows us a scheme to seize Bitcoin. 00:08:13:12 - 00:08:22:04 Roberto steal. that stagecoach. It's taking a USB stick with the company's weekly haul of Bitcoin credentials to a bank in San Francisco. 00:08:22:04 - 00:08:33:10 Bennett Tomlin Yes, it really is possible to steal bitcoin physically in this way though. Hopefully there are passcodes and encryption outside of just physically sending an unencrypted hardware wallet. 00:08:33:12 - 00:09:11:01 Bennett Tomlin But hey, Wells Fargo, I mean Wells Crypto would probably fuck that up the same way they fuck everything up. Eventually the group realizes that perhaps things are not what they seem and there might be something strange going on at the tavern slash brothel in the bitcoin mining city. Actually, before I get into this, if you guys are interested in brothels in Bitcoin mining cities, you should listen to the podcast that Cas and I hosted called Innovated Blockchain City, where we took a look at a smart city that was supposed to be built connected to a brothel and a bunch of other stuff in Nevada, and it feels appropriate for that. 00:09:11:01 - 00:09:20:24 Bennett Tomlin So check out Innovated, I’ll put a link in the description. But our group of Futurama friends here realize that there's something strange going on at the tavern slash brothel. 00:09:20:24 - 00:09:23:11 Professor Farnsworth Oh. 00:09:23:13 - 00:09:29:16 Professor Farnsworth Oh. It's an immense Bitcoin mine or an even worse brothel. 00:09:29:22 - 00:09:34:28 Amy Wong These aren't servers. They're robot heads. Someone's using them to mine Bitcoin. 00:09:35:03 - 00:09:38:04 Hermes Conrad That's actually a pretty reasonable use case for robot heads. 00:09:38:04 - 00:09:49:24 Bennett Tomlin So the reason this is hilarious to me is because one of the most common types of malware nowadays is cryptocurrency. Miners, like seriously, tons of cryptocurrencies are mined by bad firms that were created by malware. 00:09:49:29 - 00:09:56:23 Bennett Tomlin And so this definitely seems like that's what's being alluded to here. Unfortunately, our friends are discovered. 00:09:56:23 - 00:10:01:26 Tavern Owner Didn't you ever wonder who was getting rich off all this Bitcoin nonsense? 00:10:01:28 - 00:10:02:17 Zoidberg Never. 00:10:02:18 - 00:10:07:09 Tavern Owner Computer servers are expensive. Robot heads are cheap, heck, free. 00:10:07:12 - 00:10:12:20 Professor Farnsworth Mining bitcoin with kidnaped robot heads. It's pure evil. 00:10:12:20 - 00:10:26:11 Bennett Tomlin Yep, the person getting rich is the one stealing, which again is very crypto though as the professor said, that would be pure evil. Unless of course there was a way around good and evil. 00:10:26:11 - 00:10:30:06 Tavern Owner Hardly. I donate all the proceeds to a local orphanage. 00:10:30:07 - 00:10:31:20 Professor Farnsworth Oh. 00:10:31:20 - 00:10:36:21 Bennett Tomlin Yep. An effective altruism joke. You should watch my full podcast episode on that by the way. 00:10:36:26 - 00:10:46:16 Bennett Tomlin But yeah, she did the Sam Bankman-Fried she was doing FTX. She was doing the classic I Do Evil for Good Ends and she even has a better name for it than they ever came up with. 00:10:46:16 - 00:10:50:03 Tavern Owner And I can't let you tell anyone about my generous scheme, 00:10:50:03 - 00:11:07:10 Bennett Tomlin I loved both the name, generous scheme and the threats to people who might expose it, both such beautifully crypto things. I say as someone who has received multiple cease and desist letters, when the group finally gets Bender back together, he gives us a description of cryptocurrency mining. 00:11:07:10 - 00:11:14:02 Bender Crypto mining was total hell. Any number you can think of is a number bigger than that. 00:11:14:02 - 00:11:31:07 Bennett Tomlin This is pretty close to how Bitcoin mining actually works. You're running a hash function until you get a number with enough zeros at the beginning that you're lower than the current difficulty target and your block can be accepted. So endlessly hashing to get a specific value does feel kind of like think of the biggest number you can add one. 00:11:31:12 - 00:11:55:26 Bennett Tomlin So I think Bender's description here is kind of fun, if not perfect. So that's it. I was glad in there. Cryptocurrency critique. They landed on some of the criticisms they did, including references to effective altruism too. But firms mining cryptocurrency and that many of the people getting rich are the worst ones. And even though I think these episodes have flaws, I'm personally glad to have this show back. 00:11:55:29 - 00:12:06:07 Bennett Tomlin If you enjoyed this brief reaction. Then please consider checking out some of my more serious content, like my recent video where I took a look at Donald Trump's indictment for the coup he planned. Thank you for tuning in.
