Faces of Bitcoin – A Documentary By The People For The People

EasyBitz Inc have been hitting the streets of New York. Speaking to retailers they uncovered many different perceptions of Bitcoin, from just as many people. This planted the seed for their documentary project.
“As we come to terms with what money really is and just how powerful we are as individuals we naturally seek out emotional reinforcement. Hearing the stories of others is the best reinforcement there is. The human element is the emotional support that will truly bring bitcoin to the masses and story telling is the key. We see this as a decentralized open source project just like all the technology work we do, and Bitcoin itself.”
— – CEO of EasyBitz, Ray Yusuf
Ray Yusuf Is building a collection of video clips showing who makes up the Bitcoin community. Collectively these clips will form a documentary, showing the ‘Faces of Bitcoin’. There are only two requirements: That you love Bitcoin and have owned or used Bitcoin at least once. Everyone is welcome and can say anything. We sat down with Yusuf, to clarify the story:
“We’re building a bitcoin rewards network that supports over 89,000 cities. We will utilize this growing network to publicize the movie as it has already been effective in introducing us to people with awesome stories. We began by signing up local merchants and we quickly learned that we had to do a lot more. Connected bitcoin users to the merchants was critical and connecting the bitcoin users to each other is also necessary.
As we began signing up retail merchants in New York City to accept bitcoin. The responses and questions of merchants using bitcoin showed us how different their perceptions were.
The amazing thing was how connected all the stories are. Bitcoin has a magical effect we call Closing the Circle, it flows like water through occupations, nationalities and interests and somehow it always comes back full circle. The synchronicities were mind blowing, especially when you get bit coiners who never met together in a room as we do for our weekly bitcoin happy hours. The speed which connections and relationships are made is astonishing. Only bitcoin can do that.
My favorite thing about bitcoin is the questions it makes us ask. One question in particular has the potential to change the very fabric of our entire civilization. "What is money" It’s the question so many of us are asking ourselves now. The very nature of what money is, where it comes from and what gives it value is so occulted that most don’t even realize it is an issue.
When I began to ask this question to myself it lead me down a trail of discovery that was intellectually quite simple but emotionally challenging. When I explained to others what bitcoin is I would see them mirror my reaction. The clearest example was a nanny. She was a sweet lady from south America taking care of the children of a manhattan couple.
I explained the technical concept of a decentralized public ledger to her and she got it intellectually in a snap.. but emotionally she just couldn’t get over how machines could make money, money that she had to work for her entire life. When I explained to her that before bitcoin only central bankers could make money she was even more amazed. She was hungry to know more but she needed some emotional support for the entire thing to be real to her.
As we continued to meet more people in bitcoin we noticed how amazingly diverse it was becoming. Tech geeks were fast becoming the minority as artists, business people and normal folks were joining the bitcoin family. Their stories were all so amazingly rich, with or without bitcoin but together a truly rich tapestry and story arc was forming, the kind that real storyteller’s dream of telling.
As we meet and film more people the grand nature of this whole thing becomes more and more evident. We’re letting the story guide us. Something tells us this may turn into a series but we do want to come out with a full length film by Summer 2015. We may have to have a crowdfunding campaign to raise the funds for the travel necessary to do this.
Right now we have about 21 countries on our list, and it’s fast growing. The amount of amazing people in the world of bitcoin, and where they are, is a testament to how global bitcoin has become.
We’re not charging for the film, it will be free to download. We want everyone to see it. We are going to distribute it to all the indie cinemas we are signing up around the city. We’ll also be throwing free screenings in every park in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. We see it is a big grass roots experiment in film distribution as well. There are so many amazing filmmakers out there making so many amazing films. We see the Bitcoin community and the payments network EasyBitz is building as being one of the most promising new innovations in indie film distribution.
We encourage all bitcoiners to make an account at easybitz.com. You’ll earn bitcoin and help to grow the retail bitcoin network. People call it the foursquare of bitcoin but it is a lot more in that we want to really connect small business with bitcoiners on grass roots level. You’ve gotta try it to understand it. Those interested in helping and sharing director credits please contact me at ray@easybitz.com and let’s get it going!”
- Ray Yusuf
B.Holmes, author of The Range of Illusion and The Private Key installments, is currently located in Thailand, researching and writing about crypto. You can follow B.Holmes on twitter @BanteringB, or contact via email: bholmes@banteringbeepublishing.com
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