1
00:00:03,920 --> 00:00:05,920
The film you're about to watch -

2
00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:08,720
in fact, this whole series -

3
00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:13,560
consists almost entirely of
middle-aged white guys

4
00:00:13,560 --> 00:00:15,280
talking about tech.

5
00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:22,640
There, I've said it.

6
00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:24,800
Let's move on.

7
00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:33,760
OK. What, do you want to let it go?

8
00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:35,520
All right. Look, look!

9
00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:37,720
Yeah. Ahh!

10
00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:43,720
When I was five years old,

11
00:00:43,720 --> 00:00:46,600
my dad sat me down with
a box set of LPs...

12
00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,360
..and played me this.

13
00:00:50,360 --> 00:00:52,680
MUSIC: Das Rheingold: Prelude
by Richard Wagner

14
00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:54,160
Wagner.

15
00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:55,680
The Ring Cycle.

16
00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:01,800
It was a story about gold
and about power,

17
00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:04,240
about misfits and mythical beings

18
00:01:04,240 --> 00:01:07,040
in a quest to become lords
of the universe.

19
00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:10,080
It was epic.

20
00:01:11,960 --> 00:01:14,240
I got hooked on tales of people

21
00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:16,520
who wanted to rule the world.

22
00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:17,680
CHANTING

23
00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:21,200
Absolutely wild celebration here.

24
00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:23,480
I became a journalist,

25
00:01:23,480 --> 00:01:24,680
a war reporter.

26
00:01:24,680 --> 00:01:25,880
INDISTINCT SHOUTING

27
00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:29,080
This whole bridge is full
of petrol bombs,

28
00:01:29,080 --> 00:01:30,600
and it's about to go off.

29
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:36,680
But then, I did a podcast about
conspiracy theories...

30
00:01:38,320 --> 00:01:40,840
..and I came across
this mysterious figure,

31
00:01:40,840 --> 00:01:43,040
Satoshi Nakamoto...

32
00:01:44,480 --> 00:01:47,160
..the anonymous creator of Bitcoin.

33
00:01:47,160 --> 00:01:50,360
Bitcoin isn't controlled by
a government or a central bank.

34
00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:52,680
It's a completely virtual currency.

35
00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:59,440
Satoshi appeared
out of nowhere in 2008.

36
00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:02,160
And, just as suddenly,
three years later,

37
00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:03,720
he vanished.

38
00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:07,280
Satoshi Nakamoto.

39
00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:08,600
Who is it?

40
00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:11,960
People have been trying to find
this guy for years now.

41
00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,320
No-one has succeeded.

42
00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:16,600
Intelligence agencies have not
been able to figure out

43
00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:17,560
who Satoshi is.

44
00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:20,440
It's amazing that
it hasn't come out.

45
00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,200
No fingerprints,
no identification, nothing.

46
00:02:23,200 --> 00:02:26,000
And his invention, Bitcoin,

47
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,640
is now one of the world's
largest currencies.

48
00:02:29,640 --> 00:02:31,840
A lot of people are making
a lot of money.

49
00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:37,120
Says here in the paper,
they found gold up at Sutter's Mill.

50
00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:38,720
HE LAUGHS

51
00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:41,040
Wouldn't we feel silly
if it turned out to be true?

52
00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:46,880
Should I tell you the truth?

53
00:02:46,880 --> 00:02:50,120
I'm not really interested in
who Satoshi Nakamoto is

54
00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:52,760
because he invented a new
form of money.

55
00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:55,040
I'm interested in why.

56
00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:56,120
Right, what was the plan?

57
00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:58,520
What was he trying to do with it?

58
00:02:58,520 --> 00:03:01,680
Because a lot of these
tech guys, right,

59
00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:04,160
they don't believe in democracy.

60
00:03:07,400 --> 00:03:12,480
So, what if Bitcoin was
part of a plot

61
00:03:12,480 --> 00:03:13,880
to bring it all down?

62
00:03:13,880 --> 00:03:15,040
SIREN WINDS UP

63
00:03:15,040 --> 00:03:17,400
The whole world is under attack.

64
00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:18,800
Can it survive?

65
00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:31,840
So, I started emailing people,

66
00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:33,200
putting out feelers.

67
00:03:34,960 --> 00:03:37,560
At first, I didn't hear much back.

68
00:03:37,560 --> 00:03:39,400
Hackers and cryptographers,

69
00:03:39,400 --> 00:03:41,760
they're a secretive bunch.

70
00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:44,360
The Google subscriber you have
called is not available.

71
00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:45,480
HE SIGHS

72
00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,560
There seemed to be
some kind of an omerta,

73
00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:51,760
a secret vow of silence
surrounding Satoshi.

74
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:56,080
But then, I had a breakthrough.

75
00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:58,440
HE CHUCKLES
It's all going to be worth it.

76
00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:01,200
Somebody put me in touch with
someone who was supposed

77
00:04:01,200 --> 00:04:02,360
to know something.

78
00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,440
OK, I have information.

79
00:04:05,440 --> 00:04:07,240
I have news.

80
00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:08,680
And I'm going to...

81
00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:11,040
His name was Mike Lorrey,

82
00:04:11,040 --> 00:04:15,360
and he claimed to have been there
in the early days of crypto.

83
00:04:15,360 --> 00:04:16,680
..pin you.

84
00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:19,280
What a fantastic background.

85
00:04:19,280 --> 00:04:21,160
What...what is that? Oh.

86
00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:27,760
That is a virtual model of
a nuclear reactor on Mars.

87
00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:30,200
OK, you've already blown my mind,
and we haven't even started talking

88
00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:32,160
about what I wanted to talk about!
THEY LAUGH

89
00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:34,520
So, I started by giving
him my spiel -

90
00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:36,320
about how I was on
the hunt for Satoshi,

91
00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:38,320
and I didn't really know
anything about him.

92
00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:40,160
Impossible task,
lots of people tried.

93
00:04:40,160 --> 00:04:41,240
Blah, blah, blah.

94
00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:42,480
And then, he goes...

95
00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:44,680
Well, I can tell you...

96
00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:48,960
..he's one of a half dozen people.

97
00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:50,760
Whoa! All right.

98
00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:53,720
OK, I didn't even ask you,
man, but, OK, fine.

99
00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:54,800
Thank you.

100
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:55,840
And it was...

101
00:04:55,840 --> 00:04:57,320
Well, let me start at the beginning.

102
00:04:57,320 --> 00:04:58,440
So, in the '90s...

103
00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:00,760
.."We go all the way back in
the '90s," and blah, blah, blah,

104
00:05:00,760 --> 00:05:02,000
blah, blah, blah, blah.

105
00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:04,360
And I keep him talking for ages.

106
00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:07,000
And then,
he starts mentioning names.

107
00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:09,640
And so, that's where I-I met
Hal Finney...

108
00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:10,720
Mm-hm.

109
00:05:10,720 --> 00:05:12,760
..I met Ralph Merkle... Mm-hm.

110
00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:16,000
..and Nick Szabo and Wei Dai.

111
00:05:17,480 --> 00:05:19,840
You can hear me going,
"Mm-hm, mm-hm,"

112
00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:22,120
as I'm, like, scribbling down
these names, right?

113
00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:24,760
OK, so, Hal Finney.

114
00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:27,440
Ralph Merkle.

115
00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:29,720
Oh, he's a funny-looking guy,
isn't he?

116
00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:31,720
Nick Szabo.

117
00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:33,120
OK, Wei Dai -

118
00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:36,840
this guy is pretty mysterious.

119
00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:41,160
All of us involved were
either libertarians

120
00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:42,920
or crypto-anarchists.

121
00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:44,160
What's a libertarian?

122
00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:47,920
Well, people who don't like
governments. Right?

123
00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:49,720
Erm, as for a crypto-anarchist,

124
00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:52,080
I'm not sure, but I think
we're going to find out.

125
00:05:52,080 --> 00:05:56,600
So, there was... All right.
..Adam Back was another guy.

126
00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:57,840
Bingo!

127
00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:02,080
It feels like he's spilled
the beans, right?

128
00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:10,720
You look very pleased.

129
00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:12,360
I am pleased.

130
00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:14,280
I am pleased, you know?

131
00:06:14,280 --> 00:06:16,560
They told me to go
and find Satoshi Nakamoto,

132
00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:17,880
and we've just found him.

133
00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:19,240
It's one of these people.

134
00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:24,920
But, you know, that's not
enough proof, is it?

135
00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:30,360
Obviously, we need to
bottom this out.

136
00:06:30,360 --> 00:06:33,200
I mean, this guy might be
a total fantasist.

137
00:06:33,200 --> 00:06:35,400
We should try and talk to
these people, right?

138
00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,680
I knew almost nothing about
the world Satoshi had created.

139
00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:50,560
So, I travelled to Miami

140
00:06:50,560 --> 00:06:53,800
for a mega-gathering of
Bitcoin enthusiasts.

141
00:06:57,760 --> 00:07:00,040
There is another reason I'm here,

142
00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,360
but I'll come back to that.

143
00:07:02,360 --> 00:07:03,600
Good morning, everyone.

144
00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:05,600
I'm Pete Rizzo,
editor of Bitcoin Magazine,

145
00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:07,960
and it's opening day
at Bitcoin 2023.

146
00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:10,240
Thousands of people are
descending on Miami, Florida.

147
00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:11,440
Hundreds of vendors.

148
00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:13,440
We've got HODlers,
we've got celebrities,

149
00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:15,640
we've got the car from
Back To The Future.

150
00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:18,360
Back To The Future.

151
00:07:18,360 --> 00:07:20,440
HE CHUCKLES

152
00:07:20,440 --> 00:07:22,920
We have ciphers,
we have scavenger hunts,

153
00:07:22,920 --> 00:07:26,160
we have some Bitcoin trivia,
and, like transfers from

154
00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:28,880
Lightning Wallet to Bitcoin Wallet.
So...

155
00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:30,880
Like, literally half of
what you're saying is going

156
00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:32,440
so far over my head.
Yeah, sorry.

157
00:07:32,440 --> 00:07:34,440
And so, now this inscription thing -

158
00:07:34,440 --> 00:07:36,240
oh, it's really blowing up
the market.

159
00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:42,320
I felt like I'd stumbled
through a portal into

160
00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:44,520
some kind of weird village fete.

161
00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:55,160
A village fete with a VIP area
that we weren't allowed into

162
00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:57,640
unless we paid $10,000.

163
00:07:59,360 --> 00:08:00,560
What does that say?

164
00:08:00,560 --> 00:08:02,280
"We are all Satoshi."

165
00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:03,440
Just checking.

166
00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:12,840
15 years ago, this trillion-dollar
industry didn't exist.

167
00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:16,640
It was just an idea in
someone's head.

168
00:08:21,160 --> 00:08:24,120
This is the guy who is actually
called Satoshi Nakamoto -

169
00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:25,840
who's not Satoshi Nakamoto.

170
00:08:27,040 --> 00:08:29,480
I have nothing to do with Bitcoin.

171
00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:31,000
I never worked for the company.

172
00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:32,920
I don't know any people there.

173
00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:36,480
64-year-old Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto

174
00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,320
emerged from his Southern
California home Thursday

175
00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:41,880
and walked right into
a media frenzy,

176
00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:44,000
hours after Newsweek magazine

177
00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,040
claimed he was the mystery
man behind Bitcoin.

178
00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:53,440
If you go online,

179
00:08:53,440 --> 00:08:56,920
you'll find literally thousands
of Satoshi sleuths.

180
00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:01,680
There are plenty of theories,

181
00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:03,400
very few facts.

182
00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,880
The first anyone heard of Bitcoin

183
00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:11,240
was in October 2008.

184
00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:14,120
We are officially in recession,
and things may very well...

185
00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:16,920
Some are calling a cascading
crash, day after day...

186
00:09:16,920 --> 00:09:18,720
Around the world, triple digits...

187
00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:21,080
It was the financial crisis.

188
00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:23,440
The markets were in meltdown.

189
00:09:23,440 --> 00:09:26,400
Investors are losing confidence
in the banking system.

190
00:09:26,400 --> 00:09:28,760
They're losing confidence
in the economy.

191
00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:33,400
Someone posted a paper on
an obscure internet forum

192
00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:36,680
called the Cryptography
Mailing list.

193
00:09:36,680 --> 00:09:39,240
Look at this. A cipher.

194
00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:41,320
And short enough to be a headache.

195
00:09:41,320 --> 00:09:44,400
Well, let's go back to the office
and get started on it.

196
00:09:44,400 --> 00:09:48,120
They said they'd invented
a new sort of money...

197
00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:52,440
..a kind of digital gold that could
be sent over the internet,

198
00:09:52,440 --> 00:09:55,080
completely cutting out the banks.

199
00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:57,040
Change has come to America.

200
00:09:57,040 --> 00:09:59,880
CHEERING

201
00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:02,520
And, yeah, I did try
the email address.

202
00:10:02,520 --> 00:10:03,840
It bounced back.

203
00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:11,160
There were almost no clues to
Satoshi's real identity.

204
00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:14,240
Almost.

205
00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:18,280
CHEERING

206
00:10:18,280 --> 00:10:20,240
There was one strange thing.

207
00:10:22,640 --> 00:10:24,920
Whenever he wrote anything,

208
00:10:24,920 --> 00:10:26,720
he tended to use British,

209
00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:28,440
rather than American English.

210
00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:32,040
And the only Brit on my list

211
00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:33,880
was Adam Back.

212
00:10:33,880 --> 00:10:35,920
He's British.

213
00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:37,800
Was this guy Satoshi?

214
00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:42,280
This was the other reason
I'd come to Miami.

215
00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:46,800
I knew he was at this conference...

216
00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:48,640
..but he was ignoring my emails.

217
00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:56,360
Adam Back.

218
00:10:58,280 --> 00:10:59,960
What's the rotating trainer?

219
00:10:59,960 --> 00:11:03,160
Oh, that's just a Bitcoin orange
shoe with some cool signatures

220
00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:05,520
from famous people.
Right, right, right.

221
00:11:05,520 --> 00:11:07,120
And I recognise that one -
Adam Back. Yeah.

222
00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:08,840
He was here yesterday.
He's like a legend here, right?

223
00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:10,760
Yeah, he is a legend.
Right, did you see him?

224
00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:12,960
I was blessed with
his presence yesterday.

225
00:11:16,560 --> 00:11:18,920
He came down from the digi-gods.

226
00:11:18,920 --> 00:11:21,520
THEY LAUGH
Yeah, it was an awesome moment.

227
00:11:21,520 --> 00:11:22,760
All right, thank you so much.

228
00:11:22,760 --> 00:11:25,120
I mean, you're looking at
the history and the backbone of

229
00:11:25,120 --> 00:11:27,480
the blockchain
and Bitcoin right here.

230
00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:30,000
So, this thing, basically, you can
mine Bitcoin with it, right?

231
00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:32,040
Yes. This is the DNA of Bitcoin.

232
00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:33,640
This is the engine? Yes.

233
00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,880
This story is not really about
all the technical stuff,

234
00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:40,880
the blockchain, the mining.

235
00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:42,440
If that's what you're after,

236
00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:44,800
you're watching
the wrong documentary.

237
00:11:44,800 --> 00:11:47,520
This is about,
what does Bitcoin mean?

238
00:11:49,880 --> 00:11:54,120
And all we really need to know
about how it works is this.

239
00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:00,160
With normal money, transactions
are verified by a bank.

240
00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:04,320
They keep the score of
who has what.

241
00:12:06,680 --> 00:12:11,000
With Bitcoin, the record of
transactions is spread across

242
00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,360
a network of computers -

243
00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:15,640
which means there's
no central authority...

244
00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:16,760
Good morning.

245
00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:18,720
..and governments can't control it.

246
00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:21,080
..That it is an investment
stake in the banks.

247
00:12:21,080 --> 00:12:24,000
It can withstand the global
financial storms.

248
00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:26,920
It's Freedom Money,
it's decentralised.

249
00:12:26,920 --> 00:12:29,960
There's no control for a human
to make decisions.

250
00:12:29,960 --> 00:12:31,560
With Bitcoin, you are the bank.

251
00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:33,160
You don't need a middle person.

252
00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:34,840
Freedom Money? Yes.

253
00:12:34,840 --> 00:12:36,120
It's Freedom Money.

254
00:12:38,680 --> 00:12:43,680
I'd come to Miami expecting to find
a bunch of pyramid-scheme scammers

255
00:12:43,680 --> 00:12:45,360
and get-rich-quickers.

256
00:12:47,320 --> 00:12:49,800
But there's something else going on.

257
00:12:52,680 --> 00:12:56,920
"Chancellor on the brink
of second bailout for banks."

258
00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:01,920
This bland headline from
The Times of London -

259
00:13:01,920 --> 00:13:05,560
Satoshi had buried it in the
Bitcoin source code.

260
00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:10,160
It was a message in a bottle.

261
00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:13,280
From the very beginning,

262
00:13:13,280 --> 00:13:15,600
Bitcoin was a political project.

263
00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:25,320
But also, yet more evidence that
Satoshi might be British.

264
00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:27,120
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

265
00:13:28,200 --> 00:13:30,080
What is up, Miami?

266
00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:33,800
How y'all doing out there?

267
00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:35,560
SCATTERED CHEERING

268
00:13:35,560 --> 00:13:38,280
And I'm very fortunate to
be joined by Adam Back.

269
00:13:38,280 --> 00:13:40,600
APPLAUSE

270
00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:45,240
Bitcoin is interesting
to many people for many reasons,

271
00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,200
but one of the differentiated

272
00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,840
properties of it is that it's...

273
00:13:49,840 --> 00:13:52,200
The words coming out of his mouth

274
00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:54,560
are literally
incomprehensible to me.

275
00:13:54,560 --> 00:13:57,440
..And somebody put together some
glass-node data to estimate

276
00:13:57,440 --> 00:13:59,040
that there are one million UXTOs...

277
00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:00,480
But it doesn't matter.

278
00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:04,000
I'm thinking...it's him.

279
00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:05,680
It's Satoshi.

280
00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:07,680
ANGELIC SINGING

281
00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:10,040
There are lots of people
trying to stack their stats...

282
00:14:10,040 --> 00:14:13,560
In a minute, he's going to come
offstage and disappear

283
00:14:13,560 --> 00:14:15,840
into the forbidden VIP area.

284
00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:17,360
So, I thought it was cool.

285
00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:18,920
Damn right.
APPLAUSE

286
00:14:18,920 --> 00:14:20,760
And then...

287
00:14:20,760 --> 00:14:22,800
..pff, he'll be gone.

288
00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:24,680
APPLAUSE CONTINUES

289
00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:27,840
I had to try to sneak in.

290
00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:34,120
Thank you.

291
00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:41,320
Right. Where do we think he is?

292
00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:45,800
Sorry, we...
Sorry, no recording back here.

293
00:14:45,800 --> 00:14:47,360
We - oh, OK, right. So...

294
00:14:47,360 --> 00:14:48,760
None at all. Sorry.
That's OK, that's fine.

295
00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:50,800
You can't be back there with that...
So, I-I just, erm...

296
00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:53,960
I've been talking to, erm,
Adam Back's people.

297
00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:55,880
He said to come
and find him afterwards,

298
00:14:55,880 --> 00:14:57,600
so I'm just trying to locate him.

299
00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:01,080
OK. Can you help us find
where he might be? No.

300
00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:02,240
Sorry.

301
00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:05,880
OK. I-I'm not trying
to be difficult.

302
00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:07,400
I'm not trying to be difficult.
You gotta go.

303
00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:09,320
I just want you to...
I just want you to help.

304
00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:11,960
Let's go on out. E-Excuse me...
Head in that direction.

305
00:15:20,440 --> 00:15:22,640
Let's try and see if we can
find him out back.

306
00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:34,440
I don't know, this all looks
a bit improbable.

307
00:15:34,440 --> 00:15:37,440
Do you think, if we go out of here,
we're going to set off an alarm?

308
00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:46,920
WHISPERS: I think we lost him.

309
00:15:46,920 --> 00:15:48,240
I think we lost him.

310
00:15:52,080 --> 00:15:54,840
Wait, I just got a call from Daisy.

311
00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:55,880
Hello?

312
00:15:55,880 --> 00:15:58,360
He's - OK, he's there. Hi.

313
00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:00,640
I think he's with Daisy.

314
00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:02,520
Oh, there he is. There he is.

315
00:16:02,520 --> 00:16:03,960
Got him.

316
00:16:03,960 --> 00:16:05,760
I thought he'd be suspicious,

317
00:16:05,760 --> 00:16:07,480
maybe even hostile.

318
00:16:07,480 --> 00:16:09,840
Hi. Sorry, I-I'm Gabriel.
I'm so sorry.

319
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:12,160
I'm the guy who's been
pestering you.

320
00:16:12,160 --> 00:16:13,440
But I was wrong.

321
00:16:13,440 --> 00:16:14,920
Thank you so much for coming...

322
00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:17,400
He even flew to London
to spend the day with me.

323
00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:20,560
GABRIEL CHUCKLES

324
00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:22,280
I'd been warned.

325
00:16:22,280 --> 00:16:24,880
"Whatever you do,
don't ask Adam Back,

326
00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:27,440
"'Are you Satoshi Nakamoto?'"

327
00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:31,520
So...now what?

328
00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:32,600
So...

329
00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:42,440
So, erm...

330
00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:44,800
..I was writing programmes by

331
00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:48,080
typing in the hex numbers from
the reference manual.

332
00:16:48,080 --> 00:16:53,440
And, you know, I still know,
like, decimal 201 is return in...

333
00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,040
..in Z80 machine code.

334
00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:58,560
Like, what else were you into,
apart from computers?

335
00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:02,280
What else were you
spending your time doing?

336
00:17:03,680 --> 00:17:05,520
Mm.

337
00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:09,080
So, here I was,
in a park in London.

338
00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:12,520
Either I was sitting next
to Satoshi Nakamoto,

339
00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:16,320
possibly one of the richest and
most powerful men on the planet...

340
00:17:18,680 --> 00:17:21,200
..or just some random
computer geek.

341
00:17:23,120 --> 00:17:26,360
It wasn't about making money,
b-but the, you know, of the...

342
00:17:26,360 --> 00:17:28,920
..Ability to browse the web
anonymously was another one...

343
00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:31,280
Either way...
..But also, the ability to...

344
00:17:31,280 --> 00:17:32,760
..I was having trouble following
his conversation.

345
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:33,960
But that was difficult to do.

346
00:17:33,960 --> 00:17:35,520
Technologically,
it was harder to do...

347
00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:38,040
They didn't have the banking set up,

348
00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:40,880
but they would run
a demo server and they...

349
00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:43,800
I'd been warned not
to bring up Satoshi with him.

350
00:17:43,800 --> 00:17:45,080
I forget the name of them...

351
00:17:45,080 --> 00:17:47,000
But I had to ask.

352
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,600
Yeah, the name sounds
ostensibly Japanese, right?

353
00:17:49,600 --> 00:17:52,040
And then, you've got a British
headline. Satoshi Nakamoto.

354
00:17:52,040 --> 00:17:53,400
And...

355
00:17:55,040 --> 00:18:00,720
..the writing style apparently
is predominantly British spellings.

356
00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:04,520
Right, it must mean that lots of
people, like, lots of people

357
00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:07,320
have taken that little clue
to think that it's you.

358
00:18:07,320 --> 00:18:11,640
Because you're, like,
one of the Brits in this sphere.

359
00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:13,920
Erm, I-I-I've, you know,

360
00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:16,760
I'm happy to say it's not me.

361
00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:18,280
And...

362
00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:19,840
It's not you? It's not me.

363
00:18:19,840 --> 00:18:23,240
And, you know, I think every
indication is that he took steps

364
00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,960
to be anonymous,
and clearly intended to be.

365
00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:28,760
So, presumably,
it will stay that way.

366
00:18:33,640 --> 00:18:36,880
Of course, if Adam Back is Satoshi,

367
00:18:36,880 --> 00:18:39,520
that's exactly what he would say.

368
00:18:46,120 --> 00:18:48,880
But, during our little chat
on the bench...

369
00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:50,600
It's not really about the money.

370
00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,600
It's more about,
this is world-changing stuff.

371
00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,440
..he said something about
a revolution.

372
00:18:56,440 --> 00:19:00,120
There are certain tipping
points in society, so...

373
00:19:00,120 --> 00:19:05,200
..one was the historical
separation of the church and state,

374
00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:07,080
and the invention of
the printing press,

375
00:19:07,080 --> 00:19:08,760
the invention of the internet -

376
00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:10,680
and Bitcoin is one of those
on that scale, I think.

377
00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:12,240
Seriously? I think so,

378
00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,280
because the government's
biggest vehicle of control

379
00:19:15,280 --> 00:19:16,840
is their ability to print money.

380
00:19:16,840 --> 00:19:21,240
What do we think that, you know,
separating money from the state

381
00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:23,600
is going to do? And what do you
think it's going to do?

382
00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:25,880
It's going to change things
in a big way.

383
00:19:25,880 --> 00:19:27,240
You sound like a man with a mission.

384
00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:29,280
Yeah, I was always mission-oriented.

385
00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:31,000
THEY CHUCKLE
Yeah.

386
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,480
CHANTING: Where's our votes?!
Where's our votes?!

387
00:19:33,480 --> 00:19:35,840
Where's our votes?!

388
00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:38,720
In my previous life as
a news reporter,

389
00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:41,640
I spent a lot of time
covering America

390
00:19:41,640 --> 00:19:45,240
and the violent culmination of
the first Trump presidency.

391
00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:50,560
These people feel that,
for many years now,

392
00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:53,200
traditional government has not
been working for them.

393
00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:59,360
And I remember coming
across this video.

394
00:19:59,360 --> 00:20:01,960
..Example of a dissenting technology

395
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:05,160
where I think it is purely
anti-governmental,

396
00:20:05,160 --> 00:20:07,040
is something like crypto.

397
00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:10,880
The guy speaking is one of the most
powerful men in Silicon Valley.

398
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:13,240
Good evening.

399
00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:14,680
I'm Peter Thiel.

400
00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:16,280
Peter Thiel.

401
00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:20,120
I build companies, and I support
people who are building new things,

402
00:20:20,120 --> 00:20:22,880
from social networks
to rocket ships.

403
00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:26,440
He'd said he no longer
believed in democracy...

404
00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:28,760
And it's time to rebuild America.

405
00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:32,960
..and that he wanted to live
for 1,000 years.

406
00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:38,000
..And Satoshi learned that you had
to be anonymous, and you had to...

407
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:39,840
I didn't think much of it
at the time,

408
00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:41,520
but in this video,

409
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,680
Thiel starts talking about Satoshi.

410
00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:47,600
You know, my sort of theory
on Satoshi's identity was that

411
00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:49,880
Satoshi was on that beach
in Anguilla...

412
00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:51,600
A meeting on a beach.

413
00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:54,320
And, you know, it was,
"We're beginning the revolution

414
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:56,120
"against central banks
on the beach...

415
00:20:56,120 --> 00:20:58,720
A revolution against central banks?

416
00:20:58,720 --> 00:21:00,600
"..and we're going to blow up
all the central banks,

417
00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:01,840
"starting right now."

418
00:21:01,840 --> 00:21:04,640
That meeting was
the excitingly-titled

419
00:21:04,640 --> 00:21:07,720
International Financial
Cryptography Conference.

420
00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:11,960
It was held on a Caribbean island,

421
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:16,560
and it featured briefly in
a documentary in the late 1990s.

422
00:21:16,560 --> 00:21:20,280
It was organised by this guy,
Vince Cate.

423
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:27,880
If I could link any of my suspects
to his meeting on the beach...

424
00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:32,120
..well, then, we'd be one step
closer to finding Satoshi.

425
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:37,200
ECHOING: Satoshi was on
that beach in Anguilla...

426
00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:40,560
..they're going to blow up all the
central banks, starting right now.

427
00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:49,840
ON PHONE: Hello.

428
00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:51,600
Oh, hi, Vince.

429
00:21:51,600 --> 00:21:53,080
This is Gabriel Gatehouse.

430
00:21:53,080 --> 00:21:55,680
I'm a journalist from London,
and I'm making a documentary...

431
00:21:55,680 --> 00:21:59,240
So, I think...it's probably
that white house there.

432
00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:03,600
Wow, look at these weird
stone sculptures.

433
00:22:06,680 --> 00:22:08,440
Hey! Gabriel.

434
00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:11,960
Welcome, welcome. Good to meet you,
how are you? Come on in.

435
00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:13,080
Oh, my goodness.

436
00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:17,920
This is exactly what I imagined
a coder's den would look like.

437
00:22:17,920 --> 00:22:20,840
DOGS BARK IN DISTANCE

438
00:22:20,840 --> 00:22:23,240
So, while we were married,
my wife had this picture

439
00:22:23,240 --> 00:22:24,920
blown up and framed.

440
00:22:24,920 --> 00:22:27,920
And then, in the divorce,
she got the house

441
00:22:27,920 --> 00:22:29,760
and all that stuff,
and I got this picture.

442
00:22:29,760 --> 00:22:30,880
GABRIEL LAUGHS

443
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:32,600
She didn't want
the picture any more.

444
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:36,280
But tell me about this guy.
What did this guy do to have fun?

445
00:22:36,280 --> 00:22:38,560
Built things and blew up things.

446
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:40,840
Explosives. Really? Rockets.

447
00:22:40,840 --> 00:22:41,600
You know. Hmm.

448
00:22:45,320 --> 00:22:48,120
This guy is a troublemaker!
A little bit.

449
00:22:48,120 --> 00:22:50,480
You ARE a revolutionary!

450
00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,040
You're chucking bombs.
I like science, right?

451
00:22:53,040 --> 00:22:55,520
It's like the challenge
of making something.

452
00:22:58,400 --> 00:23:02,400
So, there's this clip
that I got interested in,

453
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:04,280
of Peter Thiel saying

454
00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,720
Satoshi Nakamoto was there at
that meeting on the beach

455
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:11,080
in Anguilla, in 2000.

456
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,800
Do you think that Satoshi
Nakamoto was on that beach?

457
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:17,440
I would think the odds
are good, yes.

458
00:23:17,440 --> 00:23:19,960
Yeah. Why?

459
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:24,360
Because there weren't
that many people involved in

460
00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:28,440
this kind of thing, and most of
them were here, right?

461
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,480
So, you know, the odds are good.
THEY CHUCKLE

462
00:23:31,480 --> 00:23:34,120
Vince was a charming host.

463
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:37,200
If you look right under there,
in that black thing, it says...

464
00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:40,560
He showed me where he'd held
his meetings all those years ago.

465
00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:45,680
It does look like it's been
forgotten by the world.

466
00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:49,440
Can I show you something?

467
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,160
But every time
I pressed him for names...

468
00:23:52,160 --> 00:23:54,080
There's a whole bunch of names.

469
00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:55,480
..I got nothing.

470
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:59,360
I honestly don't remember
most of these names.

471
00:24:01,640 --> 00:24:04,560
He just kept saying the same thing.

472
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:06,440
"I can't remember.

473
00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:07,760
"Speak to Bob."

474
00:24:09,800 --> 00:24:11,680
This is Bob's? Yep.

475
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:16,280
Bob Hettinger, another old hacker
living on the island.

476
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:17,400
Hiya, Bob.

477
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:20,520
Vince said the whole conference
was Bob's idea.

478
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:26,080
I don't look good on camera.

479
00:24:26,080 --> 00:24:27,840
I don't sound good on video.

480
00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:32,480
Well, we're mainly after you
for your memory.

481
00:24:32,480 --> 00:24:34,160
Yeah. So...

482
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,920
Th-That is probably wrong, too,
but we'll figure it out.

483
00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:37,880
THEY CHUCKLE

484
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:43,280
Peter Thiel was here.

485
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:45,160
Peter Thiel was here? Yeah.

486
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,560
So, let me just kind of cut to
the chase and tell you...

487
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:49,880
There is no chase.

488
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:51,720
It's all complicated. Because...

489
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:54,440
Who were the people who were here,
who were important?

490
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,800
In '97, '98, '99, 2000?
BOB CHUCKLES

491
00:24:57,800 --> 00:24:59,480
This is my big moment here.

492
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,040
This... Look at me right now.

493
00:25:02,040 --> 00:25:04,840
I am not Satoshi Nakamoto.

494
00:25:04,840 --> 00:25:06,520
There. OK! All right?

495
00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:08,080
Do you know who is?

496
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:10,000
HE SIGHS
We all have our theories. Yeah?

497
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:12,480
But, you know, I'm Spartacus.

498
00:25:12,480 --> 00:25:14,200
We're all Spartacus.

499
00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:16,480
I'm not going to laugh at you, OK?

500
00:25:16,480 --> 00:25:17,880
OK. I'm not going to lie.

501
00:25:17,880 --> 00:25:20,800
But - I hear a "but" coming.
No, it's just ridiculous.

502
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:21,960
HE LAUGHS

503
00:25:24,840 --> 00:25:27,480
Do you think it's...

504
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:31,800
Do you think it's
a worthwhile thing to know,

505
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:33,080
in order to understand the world...?

506
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:35,360
First of all, I think
it would be fundamentally evil.

507
00:25:35,360 --> 00:25:36,480
Evil? Evil.

508
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,360
It's dangerous, right?

509
00:25:38,360 --> 00:25:42,880
The person who is Satoshi Nakamoto
made the Genesis Block,

510
00:25:42,880 --> 00:25:46,400
and the Genesis Block is worth
how much now, Vince?

511
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:48,880
A crazy number.
Billions and billions of dollars.

512
00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:56,840
When Satoshi first
fired up his code,

513
00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:00,600
he tested it out by creating
thousands of Bitcoin.

514
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:06,240
Those Bitcoin are sitting on
the internet untouched.

515
00:26:07,840 --> 00:26:12,320
Whoever has the keys to those
original Satoshi wallets

516
00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:15,560
could potentially be one of
the richest people on the planet.

517
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:21,880
I really, honest to God, believe
that there are scary, bad people

518
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:26,280
out there who would just kidnap him
or the people he loves

519
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:30,080
and threaten them until he coughs up
the key to the Genesis Block.

520
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:33,760
So, you think we're on
a kind of dangerous search?

521
00:26:33,760 --> 00:26:36,280
Well, fuck. Yeah, it's dangerous.

522
00:26:36,280 --> 00:26:39,880
You know, it's not dangerous
for you, I don't think.

523
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,320
You know, you'll probably get
a Peabody Award,

524
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:44,080
or a Pulitzer Prize.

525
00:26:44,080 --> 00:26:46,360
You know, like the guys
who lied about Trump.

526
00:26:46,360 --> 00:26:47,400
Erm - hi.

527
00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:50,640
Erm, you know, those guys got
all kinds of awards,

528
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:53,560
and you'll probably get all kinds
of awards if you find Satoshi.

529
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:54,760
But that's not the point.

530
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:56,960
Satoshi will get hurt.

531
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:01,680
Thank you very much.

532
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,280
Should we take a break and eat?

533
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:05,040
Yeah, let's get the rest
of the food.

534
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:06,960
Yeah. Yeah.

535
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:09,320
I kept trying to prod Bob into
spilling his secret...

536
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:11,240
..Here on Anguilla, and I'm
interested in these conferences

537
00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:12,280
as the kind of...

538
00:27:12,280 --> 00:27:13,680
..but he clammed up.

539
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:15,200
..the origin story of Bitcoin.

540
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:21,040
I began to feel as if they were
playing some kind of game with me.

541
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,000
Had my trip to this island paradise

542
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:26,920
been a total waste of time?

543
00:27:30,240 --> 00:27:32,720
So, what other kind of shots
do you think we should do?

544
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:36,960
Well, a shot just going along
the shoreline would be lovely.

545
00:27:40,040 --> 00:27:43,600
But one thing Bob said
stuck in my mind.

546
00:27:43,600 --> 00:27:45,640
You know, I'm Spartacus.

547
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:47,920
He wasn't the only one
to bring that up.

548
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,680
We're all Spartacus. It doesn't...

549
00:27:49,680 --> 00:27:52,800
You're all Satoshi?
We're all Satoshi. OK?

550
00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:55,160
And who that one person is,

551
00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:56,760
it doesn't matter.

552
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,280
It doesn't matter
which Cypherpunk it was.

553
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:00,720
Cypherpunks.

554
00:28:03,280 --> 00:28:07,600
Back in the 1990s, Vince, Bob,
and a bunch of other geeks

555
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:09,960
joined an underground mailing list.

556
00:28:11,440 --> 00:28:13,800
So, I hung out on
Cypherpunks for a year,

557
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:17,880
and in that time, I got what
I call now the Cypherpunks stoke.

558
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,360
It was on an offshoot of
that mailing list

559
00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:24,880
that Satoshi first posted
his idea for Bitcoin.

560
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,000
And Cypherpunks was where
the whole crypto thing came from.

561
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:38,480
My God - they're all here!

562
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:40,040
Hal Finney.

563
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:42,040
Wei Dai.

564
00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:43,760
Oh, look!

565
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:45,040
Nick Szabo.

566
00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,440
Lugano, Switzerland.

567
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:54,200
In the slightly strange world
of Bitcoin conferences,

568
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:56,880
the Cypherpunks are like gods.

569
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,560
All of our Satoshi suspects

570
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:05,800
were part of this secretive group
of hackers and cryptographers.

571
00:29:08,160 --> 00:29:10,360
They were obsessed
with anonymity...

572
00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:13,040
..for good reason.

573
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:20,040
That man who just walked past me -

574
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:21,840
That's Phil Zimmerman.

575
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:27,840
Phil Zimmerman who, in 1991,
created the encryption programme

576
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:30,360
called Pretty Good Privacy -
or PGP.

577
00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:36,000
PGP was a piece of software
that allowed you to send an email

578
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:38,520
without the rest of the internet
being able to read it.

579
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:41,720
Pretty good privacy.

580
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,760
But the US government believed
that Phil's encryption software

581
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:51,080
was a threat to national security,

582
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:53,440
and they came after him.

583
00:29:53,440 --> 00:29:55,840
What we're afraid of is
the terrorists hit

584
00:29:55,840 --> 00:29:58,120
their encryption button
on the telephone.

585
00:29:58,120 --> 00:29:59,800
And, even though we have access,

586
00:29:59,800 --> 00:30:02,080
we can't understand what
they're saying.

587
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:04,440
They wanted to put Phil on trial,

588
00:30:04,440 --> 00:30:06,840
accusing him of being
an arms dealer.

589
00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:13,320
They had laws prohibiting
the export of strong cryptography.

590
00:30:13,320 --> 00:30:15,760
They regarded it as a munition.

591
00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:22,160
So, if I had exported
missiles to Libya...

592
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:25,440
DISTANT EXPLOSION

593
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,240
..I would've been violating
the same law that I violated

594
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:30,520
by exporting PGP.

595
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:32,160
Did you think you might go to jail?

596
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:34,000
Yeah, I thought -
I knew I was guilty.

597
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:35,920
HE LAUGHS
Right.

598
00:30:35,920 --> 00:30:38,200
I mean, you know, I...

599
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:40,480
..I had a family to take care of.

600
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:42,600
And, you know, I had small children.

601
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:45,360
You know, they would be homeless
if I went to prison.

602
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:49,200
But to the Cypherpunks,

603
00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:50,920
Phil wasn't a terrorist.

604
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:52,640
He was a freedom fighter.

605
00:30:54,760 --> 00:30:56,480
He even had a song
written about him.

606
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:06,440
# Nobody can break it

607
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:08,240
# However good they be

608
00:31:08,240 --> 00:31:11,280
# Everybody's PC got the PGP... #

609
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:15,120
Electronic mail -
or email, for short -

610
00:31:15,120 --> 00:31:17,840
involves linking the computer
to the telephone system

611
00:31:17,840 --> 00:31:19,200
via a modem.

612
00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,840
While the rest of us were getting
to grips with the internet,

613
00:31:23,840 --> 00:31:25,760
the Cypherpunks realised that

614
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:29,440
the state could use this
new technology to spy on us.

615
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:37,840
It was Big Brother, 1984 -
a totalitarian nightmare.

616
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:44,240
But computers could also
set us free...

617
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:45,960
I think I've got it. Good!

618
00:31:45,960 --> 00:31:47,640
Z is D.

619
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:52,240
..with encryption so strong,
no government could break it.

620
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,920
J is R.

621
00:31:54,920 --> 00:31:57,040
It's terrific, ain't it?

622
00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:01,080
This idea - that code could
shift the balance of power

623
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,560
from the establishment
to the individual,

624
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:07,920
that technology could protect us
from a dystopian future -

625
00:32:07,920 --> 00:32:11,240
that was key for the Cypherpunks.

626
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:15,120
The whole motto for the Cypherpunks
was, "Cypherpunks write code."

627
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:18,480
Whoever did Bitcoin, I think
that's the ideas they had,

628
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:23,720
is that you just write some code,
and you can change the world.

629
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:26,960
Phil Zimmermann's clash with the
US government influenced

630
00:32:26,960 --> 00:32:29,680
one Cypherpunk in particular.

631
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:33,080
I got several volunteers
to help me with the project.

632
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:34,880
One of them was Hal Finney,

633
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:37,600
and he stood out especially.

634
00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:38,720
Did a great job.

635
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:40,480
Hal Finney.

636
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:44,080
Hal is a really great
software engineer.

637
00:32:46,800 --> 00:32:51,200
Even though Phil
eventually won his case,

638
00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:54,040
the whole thing
destroyed Phil's life.

639
00:32:54,040 --> 00:32:56,000
And Hal saw all of that.

640
00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:58,880
He was there the day that
the feds arrested Phil.

641
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,720
If Hal did know who Satoshi was,

642
00:33:03,720 --> 00:33:06,200
it's not inconceivable that
he would've said,

643
00:33:06,200 --> 00:33:09,240
"Look, mate, don't put
your name out there,

644
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,720
"because look what happened
to Phil." Yeah.

645
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:13,240
Do you think that's possible?

646
00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:14,440
Yeah.

647
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:19,360
Do you think Hal did know
who Satoshi was?

648
00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:29,480
I'm sensing a real reluctance
from you to talk about how...

649
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:31,000
Oh, you think?

650
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:32,400
THEY LAUGH

651
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:33,520
Go on, be blunt.

652
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,520
HE LAUGHS

653
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:41,080
Erm...

654
00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:49,320
You know, I don't really want to
get into a conversation about the...

655
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:51,160
..all the ins and outs of...

656
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:54,240
..who is Satoshi.

657
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:57,040
So, I - especially with
a camera rolling.

658
00:33:57,040 --> 00:33:59,280
So...
HE CHUCKLES

659
00:34:02,880 --> 00:34:04,640
Here's what we do know.

660
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:08,000
Just days after Bitcoin
first appeared,

661
00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:10,360
Hal downloaded the software.

662
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:13,880
He was in touch with Satoshi,

663
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,080
helping to fix bugs in the code.

664
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:21,760
There are those who think
that Hal was Satoshi.

665
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:26,480
Perhaps, after what he'd seen
happen to Phil,

666
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:28,160
he didn't want to take any chances.

667
00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:32,640
Was he, in fact, emailing himself?

668
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:39,120
And there's more evidence
that points to Hal...

669
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:43,920
..because he'd grown-up not far
from a guy called

670
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,880
Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto.

671
00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,280
I have nothing to do with Bitcoin.

672
00:34:49,280 --> 00:34:53,520
I just believe that somebody put
that fictitious name in there.

673
00:34:54,680 --> 00:34:56,600
Coincidence?

674
00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:58,880
So, it's really meant as
a benchmark to see what

675
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:00,440
the state of the art is for...

676
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:04,920
There is another tragic reason
to think Hal could be Satoshi.

677
00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,000
By a cruel twist of fate,

678
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,600
just when Bitcoin was taking off,

679
00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:13,240
Hal was dying.

680
00:35:15,040 --> 00:35:17,840
He had Motor Neurone Disease.

681
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:20,400
I met Hal shortly before his death.

682
00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:22,720
I went to his home,
and he was surrounded by

683
00:35:22,720 --> 00:35:24,480
a family who loved him.

684
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:27,080
And he had love in his heart

685
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:28,400
all the way to the end.

686
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:35,720
Around the time that Hal's
condition was worsening,

687
00:35:35,720 --> 00:35:38,320
making it increasingly
difficult for him to work...

688
00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:42,600
..Satoshi left the Bitcoin project

689
00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:43,840
and disappeared.

690
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:52,800
But there's one inconvenient fact.

691
00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:56,800
Hal Finney had been a keen runner.

692
00:35:58,040 --> 00:36:01,960
And, back in 2009, he set off
on a ten-mile race

693
00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:03,360
in Santa Barbara.

694
00:36:05,360 --> 00:36:08,520
Just as he was crossing
the finishing line,

695
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:12,360
Satoshi Nakamoto
was responding to emails.

696
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:16,880
I asked Hal if he was Satoshi,

697
00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:18,680
and he told me, no, he wasn't.

698
00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:23,400
I've talked to his wife, Fran,

699
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:24,840
and she asked him,

700
00:36:24,840 --> 00:36:26,640
and he told her that he was not.

701
00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:31,600
Fran has not lived the high life.

702
00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:37,360
She obviously doesn't have the
giant pile of Bitcoins

703
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,040
that were in Satoshi's wallet.

704
00:36:40,440 --> 00:36:47,880
So...you know, I-I think we have
to take him at his word.

705
00:36:47,880 --> 00:36:49,600
It's too late to ask him again.

706
00:36:52,280 --> 00:36:54,120
What should I do, Phil,

707
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:57,320
if I found out who Satoshi was,

708
00:36:57,320 --> 00:36:58,480
as a journalist?

709
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:06,000
You know, Satoshi prefers
to remain anonymous.

710
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:07,680
Can't we let him remain anonymous?

711
00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:11,760
You're telling me,
even if I did find out,

712
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:14,040
I shouldn't tell the world?

713
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,320
Well, I think you have to look at...

714
00:37:18,240 --> 00:37:20,880
..everything you've learned in life

715
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,160
before approaching the story.

716
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:30,000
You know, what kind of boy
did your mama raise?

717
00:37:35,240 --> 00:37:36,680
Golly!

718
00:37:36,680 --> 00:37:37,920
HE LAUGHS

719
00:37:41,640 --> 00:37:44,640
I would've thought that, to say...

720
00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:48,360
..thinking of you as a young person,

721
00:37:48,360 --> 00:37:54,440
if I was to have given you
the idea not to go intellectually,

722
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:56,720
or with your mind,
or something down one road,

723
00:37:56,720 --> 00:37:57,880
you'd go down it.

724
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:02,760
That's the kind of boy
I seem to have raised.

725
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:04,680
THEY CHUCKLE

726
00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:06,960
Right, so you're saying to me...

727
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,480
You're saying to me, you think
I will just carry on?

728
00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,040
I mean, you've always had
this terrier quality.

729
00:38:14,040 --> 00:38:17,760
Once you get hold of something,
you know, you kind of want

730
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:21,240
to worry it away till you've...
sorted it out.

731
00:38:21,240 --> 00:38:23,840
But what do you think I should do?

732
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:32,600
What do YOU think you should do?

733
00:38:36,680 --> 00:38:41,240
Well, I think...
I'm going to carry on.

734
00:38:41,240 --> 00:38:44,560
Because there was something
that Mike Lorrey said

735
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:46,560
that I hadn't picked up on.

736
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:48,840
And so, you know, Hal -

737
00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,400
it was his demand that the paper

738
00:38:51,400 --> 00:38:53,440
be published with a pseudonym

739
00:38:53,440 --> 00:38:55,960
that was not connected to any of us.

740
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:59,840
What if Satoshi wasn't
one of these guys?

741
00:38:59,840 --> 00:39:02,520
Even if it was connected
to just one of us,

742
00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:05,680
they would basically force
everybody else out in the open.

743
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:09,880
What if Satoshi was a collective?

744
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:13,640
A pseudonym shared by more than
one of our suspects?

745
00:39:17,360 --> 00:39:21,760
But if Satoshi's identity was
such a dangerous secret,

746
00:39:21,760 --> 00:39:24,040
then why was Mike Lorrey
telling me all this?

747
00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:30,520
HARD ROCK MUSIC PLAYS
# Live free or die... #

748
00:39:35,400 --> 00:39:37,040
ALL: We will not comply!

749
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:39,600
THEY CHEER

750
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:50,760
In June, there's a state-wide event

751
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:53,240
called the Porcupine
Freedom Festival,

752
00:39:53,240 --> 00:39:54,760
or PorcFest.

753
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:58,680
Usually brings between
4-5,000 attendees.

754
00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:01,040
My source, Mike Lorrey,

755
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:04,400
had invited me out to this
libertarian camping festival

756
00:40:04,400 --> 00:40:05,600
in New Hampshire.

757
00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:06,840
Hi.

758
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,920
A mix of libertarians who
already live here,

759
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:13,720
and people who are coming
to see what it's all about.

760
00:40:13,720 --> 00:40:16,960
The guys who run PorcFest
are part of something

761
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:19,400
called the Free State Project.

762
00:40:19,400 --> 00:40:21,760
New Hampshire can be free
with your help.

763
00:40:21,760 --> 00:40:23,440
Sign the petition
and learn more at...

764
00:40:23,440 --> 00:40:27,840
They reckoned that if enough
libertarians moved to New Hampshire,

765
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:32,240
they could take over,
abolish laws, cut taxes,

766
00:40:32,240 --> 00:40:35,240
and eventually get rid of
government altogether.

767
00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,840
It's time for New Hampshire
to declare independence,

768
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,480
just like we did from the King

769
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,120
a couple of hundred years ago!
CHEERING

770
00:40:45,120 --> 00:40:47,040
In their version of Utopia,

771
00:40:47,040 --> 00:40:50,520
you'd pay a private company
to take care of infrastructure

772
00:40:50,520 --> 00:40:52,240
like schools or roads...

773
00:40:54,120 --> 00:40:56,680
..or else, just do it yourself.

774
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:02,360
I didn't expect there to be
this many children.

775
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:05,920
It's a funny place, isn't it?

776
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:08,200
Guns and kids.

777
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:09,880
And politics.

778
00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:12,240
He's like, "Child abuse!"
I'm like...

779
00:41:12,240 --> 00:41:14,560
When I see a little fucking kid,
I'm like...

780
00:41:14,560 --> 00:41:16,600
CHILD SQUEALS IN DISTANCE

781
00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:18,520
I'd come all the way out here -

782
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:21,240
but Mike Lorrey was nowhere
to be found.

783
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:24,320
Mike!

784
00:41:24,320 --> 00:41:25,960
Hi, it's Gabriel Gatehouse here.

785
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:30,880
I came to New Hampshire in
the hope of finding PorcFest.

786
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:34,920
Are you here?

787
00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:37,320
OK. No - OK.
HE CHUCKLES

788
00:41:38,440 --> 00:41:40,320
Mike said he was ill,

789
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:42,160
and would be out of action
for a few days.

790
00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:45,560
What now?

791
00:41:46,720 --> 00:41:49,920
Well, it turns out that libertarians

792
00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:51,880
have a lot to say about crypto.

793
00:41:55,960 --> 00:41:59,680
We're heading towards Keene,
New Hampshire, which...

794
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:04,960
..at one point, at least,
was kind of the global epicentre

795
00:42:04,960 --> 00:42:07,320
of the Bitcoin experiment
in real life.

796
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,640
Basically, there was this guy
called Ian Freeman -

797
00:42:10,640 --> 00:42:12,400
I don't think that's his real name.

798
00:42:12,400 --> 00:42:14,040
Have a seat, have a seat!

799
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:20,120
And he tried to get shops to take
Bitcoin instead of the dollar.

800
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:22,560
But then, the FBI came for him.

801
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:25,760
Good morning.

802
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:29,560
HARD ROCK MUSIC PLAYS
# Live free or die... #

803
00:42:29,560 --> 00:42:33,280
They use the battering ram
to smash in this window here.

804
00:42:33,280 --> 00:42:35,080
Then they sent a drone in.

805
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:38,640
Into your house? Uh-huh.
Yeah, it was very loud.

806
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:41,240
If they'd just knocked on your door,
what would've happened?

807
00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:43,080
We would've opened it
and gone outside.

808
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:48,320
This is Free Talk Live,
here in Keene tonight...

809
00:42:48,320 --> 00:42:51,320
Ian Freeman hosts
a libertarian radio show

810
00:42:51,320 --> 00:42:53,800
called Free Talk Live.

811
00:42:53,800 --> 00:42:56,160
He would've been at PorcFest...

812
00:42:56,160 --> 00:42:58,880
..except he was under house arrest.

813
00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:00,640
In the Crypto Six case...

814
00:43:03,040 --> 00:43:05,840
Prosecutors said
he was a money launderer,

815
00:43:05,840 --> 00:43:09,040
allowing criminals to use
his Bitcoin exchange

816
00:43:09,040 --> 00:43:11,360
to scam dozens of elderly victims

817
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:13,840
out of their life savings.

818
00:43:13,840 --> 00:43:16,120
Back up! You're not allowed
in this area.

819
00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:17,120
This is a law enforcement area.

820
00:43:17,120 --> 00:43:19,480
Hey, don't touch me! Back up!
Don't touch me! Back up!

821
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,480
The government said
Ian Freeman was dangerous.

822
00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:25,640
It's ridiculous, the idea...

823
00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:27,520
Are you dangerous?
No, of course not.

824
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:29,960
But you want to be dangerous?
Dangerous in what way? No.

825
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:31,920
Like, dangerous to the...
To the status quo?

826
00:43:31,920 --> 00:43:33,600
To the status quo, right?
Sure, yeah.

827
00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:35,560
I mean, we're a peaceful threat
to the status quo.

828
00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:37,920
Sure, but your whole point is that
you want to be dangerous to them.

829
00:43:37,920 --> 00:43:39,160
Otherwise, everything
would be pointless.

830
00:43:39,160 --> 00:43:40,800
Well, we want the state to go away.

831
00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:46,000
How does Bitcoin fit into
this kind of vision?

832
00:43:46,000 --> 00:43:49,160
Well, Bitcoin's really cool,
and cryptocurrency in general,

833
00:43:49,160 --> 00:43:53,880
because it has, for the first time
in generations, if not ever,

834
00:43:53,880 --> 00:43:57,840
it has put the power of money
into the hands of the individual.

835
00:43:57,840 --> 00:44:01,840
For people who love freedom,
Bitcoin's about the freedom.

836
00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:04,720
That's what Bitcoin -
that's what cryptocurrency is about.

837
00:44:08,200 --> 00:44:10,600
Satoshi Nakamoto created this thing

838
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,120
that takes power away from bankers.

839
00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,600
And that's why they're
fighting it tooth and nail here

840
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:24,280
in the United States,
they hate it.

841
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:25,880
We're not going anywhere.

842
00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:28,160
You can go after
Ian Freeman all you want.

843
00:44:28,160 --> 00:44:29,320
We're not going anywhere.

844
00:44:29,320 --> 00:44:33,320
We're going to remain, and we'll
continue to fight for freedom.

845
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:35,800
I want to say hey to Mr Bitcoin,
who came out today.

846
00:44:35,800 --> 00:44:38,560
CHEERING
Hi, Mr Bitcoin!

847
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:40,560
And I understand that, you know,

848
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:43,000
when you do activism like we do,

849
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:46,160
it could result in going to a cage.

850
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:49,640
And it's quite scary out there,
with what the government are willing

851
00:44:49,640 --> 00:44:51,920
to do to keep their power.

852
00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:53,280
It's pretty dark.

853
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:56,800
Not long after
we shot this interview,

854
00:44:56,800 --> 00:45:00,480
Ian was sentenced to
eight years in prison...

855
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:04,880
..for, among other things,
running an unlicensed business

856
00:45:04,880 --> 00:45:07,640
and turning a blind eye to
the criminals using

857
00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:09,360
his Bitcoin exchange.

858
00:45:13,680 --> 00:45:16,080
The state is a new form of slavery.

859
00:45:16,080 --> 00:45:18,440
You aren't in control of your life.

860
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:20,960
But, you know,
every empire comes down.

861
00:45:20,960 --> 00:45:22,920
They don't survive forever.

862
00:45:25,200 --> 00:45:27,640
PHONE LINE RINGS

863
00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:33,920
Hello? Oh! Hi, Mike.

864
00:45:36,480 --> 00:45:37,720
For tomorrow morning?

865
00:45:37,720 --> 00:45:40,520
Yeah, we can do tomorrow morning.
That would be fantastic.

866
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:44,440
I-Ideally, we'd come and film,
I think, at your house,

867
00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:46,800
if that would be possible.

868
00:45:46,800 --> 00:45:51,880
No, my house is not...
conducive to this.

869
00:45:51,880 --> 00:45:53,240
OK.

870
00:45:53,240 --> 00:45:58,200
I've got a place across the river
in Windsor, Vermont.

871
00:45:58,200 --> 00:45:59,440
Fantastic. All right.

872
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:01,640
I really appreciate it, Mike.
All righty.

873
00:46:03,600 --> 00:46:08,720
I wanted to ask Mike about that idea
that Satoshi was a collective -

874
00:46:08,720 --> 00:46:10,640
but he sounded a little paranoid.

875
00:46:13,200 --> 00:46:17,080
He asked me to meet him in
a safe house across state lines.

876
00:46:18,840 --> 00:46:21,120
Maybe he's got something to hide,

877
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:23,880
or he's got a secret...

878
00:46:23,880 --> 00:46:25,320
..that he's ready to spill.

879
00:46:26,560 --> 00:46:28,040
Maybe he's ready.

880
00:46:37,520 --> 00:46:41,840
I'd come to New Hampshire
to meet my source, Mike Lorrey,

881
00:46:41,840 --> 00:46:44,880
the guy who'd let slip that Satoshi

882
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:47,240
might be some kind of collective.

883
00:46:47,240 --> 00:46:50,160
Even if it was connected
to just one of us,

884
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:53,600
they would basically force
everybody else out in the open.

885
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:57,880
He'd asked me to meet him
in a safe house.

886
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:00,240
Mike, good to see you.
How are you doing? Great.

887
00:47:00,240 --> 00:47:02,720
It turned out to be
an empty community centre.

888
00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:08,960
When I first contacted you,
what did you think?

889
00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:14,640
Well, you were referred by
someone I trust. OK.

890
00:47:14,640 --> 00:47:21,080
So, I assumed that they knew
what they were talking about.

891
00:47:21,080 --> 00:47:25,480
But at the same time,
I was concerned that this was

892
00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:30,480
just another way for the feds
to get at Prime players.

893
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:33,880
You thought I was the feds?
Well, I had a suspicion.

894
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:37,120
But, like, as we're sitting
here now, do you think I'm...

895
00:47:37,120 --> 00:47:38,520
Do you think I'm a spy?

896
00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:40,480
My concerns are much lower.

897
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:46,200
I would've expected that some feds
would've shown up by now. Right.

898
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:48,760
I would've pulled out the little
pistol in my sock and...

899
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:50,040
THEY LAUGH

900
00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,440
Er...OK.

901
00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:57,560
Do you think you know
who Satoshi is?

902
00:47:57,560 --> 00:47:59,840
And do you think there's
value in knowing that?

903
00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:01,400
I believe I know who it is.

904
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:03,240
I'm not absolutely positive.

905
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:07,360
I don't want to know.
Why not?

906
00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:10,560
Well, the same reason
I don't tell people where I live.

907
00:48:10,560 --> 00:48:12,400
What do you mean by that?

908
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:19,040
Given the abuses with Gitmo
and Abu Ghraib,

909
00:48:19,040 --> 00:48:22,200
the WikiLeak guys, Snowden...

910
00:48:22,200 --> 00:48:24,160
ECHOING: If you reveal information,

911
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:26,680
you go to prison for
the rest of your life.

912
00:48:26,680 --> 00:48:31,720
Knowing the identity of Satoshi
Nakamoto would achieve what?

913
00:48:31,720 --> 00:48:34,680
It would be like them
catching Osama Bin Laden,

914
00:48:34,680 --> 00:48:36,200
from their point of view.

915
00:48:38,000 --> 00:48:39,560
Really? Yeah.

916
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:44,000
A terrorist who's responsible
for the murder of thousands

917
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:46,840
of innocent men, women,
and children.

918
00:48:48,360 --> 00:48:54,480
So, you think the American
establishment sees Satoshi Nakamoto

919
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:57,040
as the kind of financial equivalent
of Osama Bin Laden?

920
00:48:57,040 --> 00:48:58,200
A large chunk of them do.

921
00:49:00,680 --> 00:49:04,200
The way you describe
American society today

922
00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:06,400
sounds like a dystopia.
Oh, yes.

923
00:49:07,800 --> 00:49:09,160
Yes.

924
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:12,440
HELICOPTER FLIES
SIREN WAILS

925
00:49:12,440 --> 00:49:14,200
When we first spoke,

926
00:49:14,200 --> 00:49:17,000
Mike had given me this
list of names.

927
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,520
Hal Finney, Ralph Merkle,

928
00:49:19,520 --> 00:49:21,080
and Nick Szabo...

929
00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:23,880
You gave me this tantalising clue,

930
00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:26,640
which was that Satoshi wasn't
an individual,

931
00:49:26,640 --> 00:49:28,040
but was a collective.

932
00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:29,800
Did I understand that correctly?

933
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:36,640
Loose collective, you know, people
from the same online community

934
00:49:36,640 --> 00:49:41,880
who felt the same way
and were used to collaborating

935
00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:44,920
on developing each other's ideas.

936
00:49:44,920 --> 00:49:47,960
Cos what my idea is, if I can
speak to all of the people

937
00:49:47,960 --> 00:49:50,680
who kind of made up the
collective Satoshi... Yeah.

938
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:54,600
..then I can understand this project
and what they were trying to create.

939
00:49:54,600 --> 00:49:56,400
If I could figure out
that backstory...

940
00:49:56,400 --> 00:49:59,280
So, Nick Szabo, Hal Finney...

941
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:01,560
I'd come here hoping
that Mike Lorrey

942
00:50:01,560 --> 00:50:03,920
would spill the beans on Satoshi.

943
00:50:03,920 --> 00:50:06,240
..Myself and a few others were
all pretty much libertarians

944
00:50:06,240 --> 00:50:07,360
or anarchists...

945
00:50:07,360 --> 00:50:09,640
..but he wanted to tell me
about something else.

946
00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:10,600
..we were all transhumanists...

947
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:12,960
Something much weirder.

948
00:50:12,960 --> 00:50:16,400
And so, we were all on
the Extropians list,

949
00:50:16,400 --> 00:50:18,960
that the Extropy Institute ran.

950
00:50:18,960 --> 00:50:24,720
Erm, very individualist-oriented,
futurist think tank.

951
00:50:24,720 --> 00:50:29,040
And so, they were pushing all
of the ideas that are now

952
00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:30,960
what's called transhumanism.

953
00:50:30,960 --> 00:50:34,880
Like what?
Well, artificial intelligence,

954
00:50:34,880 --> 00:50:38,640
intelligence augmentation of humans,

955
00:50:38,640 --> 00:50:44,320
erm, space colonisation,
digital currencies,

956
00:50:44,320 --> 00:50:47,280
nanotechnology, genetic engineering.

957
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:54,680
The Extropians had an almost
blind faith in technology.

958
00:50:57,040 --> 00:50:59,840
They believed it could make
humans immortal.

959
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:04,840
When one of our
Satoshi suspects died,

960
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:07,640
he had his head frozen in the hope

961
00:51:07,640 --> 00:51:10,880
that he might be resurrected
in the future.

962
00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:13,840
Preserving you until
such time that you can have

963
00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:17,760
your personality uploaded into
a cyborg or a clone.

964
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:23,680
And we were all fans of
Neal Stephenson,

965
00:51:23,680 --> 00:51:28,000
so Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash,
The Diamond Age.

966
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:30,640
OK, stop, stop, stop!

967
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:33,000
There's too much going on here.

968
00:51:33,000 --> 00:51:36,120
Neal Stephenson -
he's a sci-fi writer.

969
00:51:36,120 --> 00:51:37,960
Mike called his novels

970
00:51:37,960 --> 00:51:40,840
"the books of the Extropian Bible".

971
00:51:47,040 --> 00:51:49,680
"And we have a small,
extremely literate power elite,

972
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:51,440
the people who go in...

973
00:51:51,440 --> 00:51:54,160
He wrote about cryptocurrencies
way before Bitcoin.

974
00:51:54,160 --> 00:51:55,840
"..who understand that
information is power..."

975
00:51:55,840 --> 00:51:58,200
He came up with the idea
of a Metaverse

976
00:51:58,200 --> 00:52:01,160
when Mark Zuckerberg was still
at primary school.

977
00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:03,880
Today, we're going
to talk about the Metaverse.

978
00:52:03,880 --> 00:52:06,840
For some of the most powerful men
in Silicon Valley...

979
00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:08,520
Perfect.

980
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:11,360
..Neal Stephenson is like a prophet.

981
00:52:13,120 --> 00:52:16,280
The founders of Google -
they were influenced by him.

982
00:52:16,280 --> 00:52:17,400
This is incredible.

983
00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:21,400
Jeff Bezos hired him to work
at his space tourism company,

984
00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:22,960
Blue Origin.

985
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:24,680
When PayPal started,

986
00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:27,040
Stephenson was required reading.

987
00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:28,640
And who ran PayPal?

988
00:52:30,040 --> 00:52:32,320
Elon Musk.

989
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:34,800
And, of course, Peter Thiel.

990
00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:39,080
..blow up all the central banks,
starting right now.

991
00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:45,320
The world envisaged in this book

992
00:52:45,320 --> 00:52:51,040
is one where there's no such thing
as a strong federal state any more,

993
00:52:51,040 --> 00:52:55,520
with central taxes and
social security systems,

994
00:52:55,520 --> 00:52:56,640
or any of that.

995
00:52:56,640 --> 00:53:00,240
Sovereignty has fragmented
into these, kind of,

996
00:53:00,240 --> 00:53:02,600
he calls them burbclaves.

997
00:53:04,080 --> 00:53:06,880
Whatever nation-state, whatever
country you happen to be in,

998
00:53:06,880 --> 00:53:09,400
you could just withdraw from it

999
00:53:09,400 --> 00:53:11,440
and set up your own little thing

1000
00:53:11,440 --> 00:53:12,760
with whoever wants to join.

1001
00:53:14,080 --> 00:53:15,920
So, if you're a white supremacist,

1002
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:19,400
you can join the
Ku Klux Klan burbclave.

1003
00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:22,520
Or, if you're into
neoliberal capitalism,

1004
00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:25,760
you can join the burbclave
where everything is basically

1005
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:28,000
financialized and money is king.

1006
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:35,120
If you look at
the plot of Snow Crash,

1007
00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:38,440
it portrays what we call
a post-federal world,

1008
00:53:38,440 --> 00:53:42,080
where the federal government has
collapsed from hyperinflation,

1009
00:53:42,080 --> 00:53:46,480
cos everybody's been able to avoid
taxes from cryptocurrencies,

1010
00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:49,240
and starve the government
of tax revenues.

1011
00:53:49,240 --> 00:53:52,200
And Bitcoin's basically
the project to take away

1012
00:53:52,200 --> 00:53:55,920
the power from the state to do
all that kind of stuff. Yes.

1013
00:53:55,920 --> 00:53:57,880
Simple. Clear.

1014
00:53:57,880 --> 00:54:01,960
It's important that people
understand where Bitcoin came from,

1015
00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:05,480
so that their fears about it
can be allayed.

1016
00:54:05,480 --> 00:54:08,400
But, at the same time,
they can understand where we want

1017
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:09,920
to take society for the better.

1018
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:14,720
I don't know about you,

1019
00:54:14,720 --> 00:54:17,800
but my fears are not allayed.

1020
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:23,320
The world today looks very different
to what it did 500 years ago,

1021
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:26,440
and there are all kinds of twists
and turns of technology

1022
00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:28,480
that got us there.

1023
00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:31,880
So, somebody has to build
the things to get there.

1024
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:33,680
What's your favourite book?

1025
00:54:33,680 --> 00:54:35,880
Snow Crash.
THEY CHUCKLE

1026
00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:39,240
For some people,

1027
00:54:39,240 --> 00:54:42,560
Satoshi didn't just invent
a new kind of currency.

1028
00:54:42,560 --> 00:54:45,280
He invented a libertarian weapon

1029
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:47,760
designed to undermine the state.

1030
00:54:47,760 --> 00:54:49,680
ECHOING: Every empire comes down.

1031
00:54:49,680 --> 00:54:51,560
They don't survive forever.

1032
00:54:56,360 --> 00:54:59,000
The future that he and
the Cypherpunks

1033
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:01,480
and crypto-anarchists imagined,

1034
00:55:01,480 --> 00:55:04,440
it's not as far off as
you might think.

1035
00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:08,040
Tucked away on an island off

1036
00:55:08,040 --> 00:55:10,320
the coast of Central America,

1037
00:55:10,320 --> 00:55:12,960
a group of tech bros are already

1038
00:55:12,960 --> 00:55:15,160
building their own burbclave,

1039
00:55:16,680 --> 00:55:22,160
A private state, in incubator
for a new world order.

1040
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:27,760
That's next time.

1041
00:56:06,000 --> 00:56:08,280
TYPING ON KEYBOARD

1042
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:11,260
Dear Neal,

1043
00:56:11,260 --> 00:56:12,900
I don't know if...

1044
00:56:12,900 --> 00:56:15,900
For months, I've been emailing
Neal Stephenson

1045
00:56:15,900 --> 00:56:17,800
..but I'm really hoping I can
persuade you

1046
00:56:17,800 --> 00:56:19,120
to speak to me for this documentary...

1047
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:22,320
The sci-fi writer who predicted how
cryptocurrencies

1048
00:56:22,320 --> 00:56:24,920
would shatter our world.

1049
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:27,200
CONTINUES TYPING
I started wondering about the

1050
00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:28,280
world of Snow Crash...

1051
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:30,480
And I have heard nothing back.

1052
00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:35,480
I've contacted him through
his publicist,

1053
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:37,040
I've contacted him through
his publisher.

1054
00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:39,960
WOMAN: I'll be able to contact Neal
as long as...

1055
00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:43,480
I've had emails forwarded to him,
I'd like to get

1056
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:46,760
a sense of Neal Stephenson at work.

1057
00:56:46,760 --> 00:56:49,120
I mean, he's an impressive looking
guy. That's the other thing.

1058
00:56:49,120 --> 00:56:51,480
He's exactly what you think he
should look like.

1059
00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:55,480
He's the man who not just predicted
the future,

1060
00:56:55,480 --> 00:56:57,720
maybe he created the future.

1061
00:56:58,840 --> 00:57:01,720
CLICKS FINGER
This whole thing began

1062
00:57:01,720 --> 00:57:03,440
with a simple question.

1063
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:06,800
Who is Satoshi Nakamoto?

1064
00:57:08,280 --> 00:57:12,520
I can tell you he's one of
a half dozen people.

1065
00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:16,040
Bitcoin, his invention,

1066
00:57:16,040 --> 00:57:18,880
has become on of the biggest
currencies in the world,

1067
00:57:18,880 --> 00:57:21,720
but Satoshi has vanished.

1068
00:57:23,040 --> 00:57:27,120
Intelligence agencies have not been
able to figure out who Satoshi is.

1069
00:57:27,120 --> 00:57:30,360
I'm sensing a real reluctance
from you to talk.

1070
00:57:30,360 --> 00:57:33,080
Oh, you think?
THEY LAUGH

1071
00:57:33,080 --> 00:57:35,600
You think were on
a kind of dangerous search?

1072
00:57:35,600 --> 00:57:38,160
Well, fuck. Yeah, it's dangerous.

1073
00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:45,880
On my search, I'd stumbled into
some kind of libertarian revolution.

1074
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:49,720
A revolution that's inspired some of

1075
00:57:49,720 --> 00:57:52,440
the most powerful people in
Silicon Valley.

1076
00:57:52,440 --> 00:57:55,760
We'll blow up all the central
banks,
starting right now.

1077
00:57:55,760 --> 00:58:00,160
Every empire comes down.
They don't survive forever.

1078
00:58:00,160 --> 00:58:02,520
Back up your not allowed in
this area.

1079
00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:06,000
This movement emerged out of the
1990s

1080
00:58:06,000 --> 00:58:09,720
with a secretive group of hackers
and
cryptographers.

1081
00:58:10,640 --> 00:58:14,240
The whole motto for the Cypherpunks
was "Cypherpunks write code."

1082
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:15,840
Whoever did Bitcoin,

1083
00:58:15,840 --> 00:58:18,520
I think that's the idea that
they had.

1084
00:58:18,520 --> 00:58:20,960
Just write some code
and you can change the world.

1085
00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:23,360
And we were all fans
of Neal Stephenson so,

1086
00:58:23,360 --> 00:58:26,520
Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash.
The Diamond Age

1087
00:58:26,520 --> 00:58:29,760
were all books of
the Extropian bible.

1088
00:58:29,760 --> 00:58:33,720
So far, I'd failed to find
Satoshi Nakamoto

1089
00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:38,160
But if I wanted to what kind of
world
Satoshi was trying to create

1090
00:58:38,160 --> 00:58:40,520
when he invented Bitcoin.

1091
00:58:40,520 --> 00:58:43,320
Then, perhaps, Neal Stephenson was
the key.

1092
00:58:45,280 --> 00:58:47,000
So I kept pestering him.

1093
00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:50,600
Dear Neal...

1094
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:56,920
Finally, he agreed to meet me near
his home in Seattle.

1095
00:58:56,920 --> 00:59:00,680
At a place called the Hazard
Factory.

1096
00:59:03,280 --> 00:59:06,280
I love the sign that says,
"Do not."

1097
00:59:06,280 --> 00:59:08,800
"Violators will be."

1098
00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:19,120
Neal is usually kind
of back over here... OK.

1099
00:59:19,120 --> 00:59:20,200
..by the CNC machine.

1100
00:59:22,720 --> 00:59:25,080
Hi, Neal.

1101
00:59:25,080 --> 00:59:27,280
Hi. I'm Gabriel. Yeah, nice to
meet you. Nice to meet you.

1102
00:59:29,240 --> 00:59:32,120
Hidden away in his metal workshop,

1103
00:59:32,120 --> 00:59:35,560
Neal Stephenson is building
a model of the cosmos.

1104
00:59:44,840 --> 00:59:47,040
So, eventually
it's going to look like this.

1105
00:59:48,800 --> 00:59:51,880
The '90s were this era
of extreme idealism.

1106
00:59:53,000 --> 00:59:55,200
Everyone saw this vision of...

1107
00:59:56,480 --> 00:59:58,280
.."OK, we're going to make
everything digital.

1108
00:59:58,280 --> 01:00:00,960
"We're going to put everything on
the internet - everything."

1109
01:00:00,960 --> 01:00:03,240
You know,
"We're going to put money there.

1110
01:00:03,240 --> 01:00:05,600
"We're going to decentralise banks.

1111
01:00:05,600 --> 01:00:10,240
"We're going to undercut the evil
power structures of big countries,

1112
01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:12,280
"big governments.

1113
01:00:12,280 --> 01:00:15,400
"And we're even
going to turn it into immortality.

1114
01:00:15,400 --> 01:00:16,920
"We're going to..."

1115
01:00:16,920 --> 01:00:20,600
You know, "We're going to
turn ourselves into digital..."

1116
01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:22,080
You know, digital gods.

1117
01:00:24,200 --> 01:00:26,880
He wants to be Ozymandias,
king of kings.

1118
01:00:26,880 --> 01:00:29,840
In Stephenson's sci-fi future,

1119
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:34,240
cryptocurrencies sap the state
of its power,

1120
01:00:34,240 --> 01:00:39,320
democracies crumble,
humans merge with machines,

1121
01:00:39,320 --> 01:00:44,480
and technology allows a chosen few
to
live forever in the metaverse.

1122
01:00:46,840 --> 01:00:50,000
We have a small,
extremely literate power elite.

1123
01:00:50,000 --> 01:00:52,840
The people who go into
the metaverse, basically,

1124
01:00:52,840 --> 01:00:55,320
who understand that
information is power,

1125
01:00:55,320 --> 01:00:56,960
and who control society

1126
01:00:56,960 --> 01:00:59,440
because they have this
semi-mystical ability

1127
01:00:59,440 --> 01:01:01,880
to speak magic computer languages.

1128
01:01:04,680 --> 01:01:10,160
I mean, that seems to me
pretty prophetic, in a way.

1129
01:01:10,160 --> 01:01:13,280
Do you ever worry that
you've created this template

1130
01:01:13,280 --> 01:01:17,920
that is showing these powerful
Silicon Valley tech guys

1131
01:01:17,920 --> 01:01:19,880
this is the way to go?

1132
01:01:19,880 --> 01:01:22,880
I think the book
shows possibilities,

1133
01:01:22,880 --> 01:01:26,720
and the possibilities, by and
large,
kind of make sense.

1134
01:01:26,720 --> 01:01:30,640
I mean, readers say,

1135
01:01:30,640 --> 01:01:32,240
"Oh, yeah,
I could see that happening."

1136
01:01:32,240 --> 01:01:34,080
You know, "That makes sense."

1137
01:01:34,080 --> 01:01:38,400
And it seems to me that ultimately
what it's about is about, like,

1138
01:01:38,400 --> 01:01:40,040
who's going to rule the world.

1139
01:01:40,040 --> 01:01:41,000
I think...

1140
01:01:42,240 --> 01:01:46,640
..that at least the people I talked
to were entirely earnest

1141
01:01:46,640 --> 01:01:51,040
and serious about trying to do away
with centralised power structures.

1142
01:01:51,040 --> 01:01:53,640
And in the course
of pursuing that goal,

1143
01:01:53,640 --> 01:01:56,720
some of them have actually
become pretty powerful.

1144
01:01:56,720 --> 01:01:59,560
So, there's a funny
contradiction there.

1145
01:02:01,200 --> 01:02:06,080
Stephenson told me he was no
prophet,
he was just an entertainer.

1146
01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:14,960
But some are working to turn
Stephenson's fantasy into a reality.

1147
01:02:21,880 --> 01:02:23,520
There he is - orange T-shirt.

1148
01:02:23,520 --> 01:02:24,760
He's on the travelator.

1149
01:02:30,040 --> 01:02:31,440
It's the documentary crew.

1150
01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:32,880
They've just started filming me.

1151
01:02:37,200 --> 01:02:39,560
This is Patri Friedman,

1152
01:02:39,560 --> 01:02:42,600
son of an anarcho-capitalist,

1153
01:02:42,600 --> 01:02:45,320
grandson of a
Nobel Prize-winning economist...

1154
01:02:46,880 --> 01:02:51,720
..single dad and crypto bro,
who wants to change the world.

1155
01:02:54,680 --> 01:02:56,200
What are you reading?

1156
01:02:56,200 --> 01:02:57,840
I only read...

1157
01:02:57,840 --> 01:02:59,720
I only read one genre of fiction
these days.

1158
01:02:59,720 --> 01:03:01,160
Which is? It's a new one.

1159
01:03:01,160 --> 01:03:03,920
It's called cultivation
or progression fantasy -

1160
01:03:03,920 --> 01:03:06,360
generally called LitRPG.

1161
01:03:06,360 --> 01:03:08,720
And so it's these universes where,

1162
01:03:08,720 --> 01:03:13,560
characters who are just absolutely
dedicated to climbing in power,

1163
01:03:13,560 --> 01:03:16,520
they get so strong that
they are immortal,

1164
01:03:16,520 --> 01:03:19,080
and then so strong that
they can challenge

1165
01:03:19,080 --> 01:03:21,520
the gods themselves.
GABRIEL CHUCKLES

1166
01:03:21,520 --> 01:03:24,800
So how can I not love this as,
like,
a transhumanist?

1167
01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:26,320
You grind and you grind
and you grind

1168
01:03:26,320 --> 01:03:27,720
to get better and better and
better,

1169
01:03:27,720 --> 01:03:29,600
to live forever
and control the world,

1170
01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:30,720
to protect your loved ones.

1171
01:03:33,520 --> 01:03:38,200
In a lot of them, like, 90% of
humans die in the first 24 hours.

1172
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:40,720
You get strong or you die.

1173
01:03:40,720 --> 01:03:43,000
I fucking love it.

1174
01:03:43,000 --> 01:03:44,320
Shall I show you what I'm reading?

1175
01:03:48,080 --> 01:03:52,000
This is a great book.

1176
01:03:52,000 --> 01:03:54,840
COMPUTERISED VOICE:
Warning, warning, warning...

1177
01:03:54,840 --> 01:03:59,240
In Snow Crash, countries have been
replaced by corporations.

1178
01:04:01,040 --> 01:04:03,400
Let's think of government as
an industry,

1179
01:04:03,400 --> 01:04:07,040
where countries are
firms and citizens are customers.

1180
01:04:07,040 --> 01:04:10,200
Patri has already started
building that world.

1181
01:04:12,960 --> 01:04:16,600
A lot of people look at
government through the lens of,

1182
01:04:16,600 --> 01:04:19,560
"Is it moral?",
or, "Does it represent me?"

1183
01:04:19,560 --> 01:04:20,760
And I take a different view.

1184
01:04:20,760 --> 01:04:22,160
I say drop that,

1185
01:04:22,160 --> 01:04:25,600
and just look at government
as an industry.

1186
01:04:25,600 --> 01:04:28,240
We've got this legacy industry
doing a crappy job.

1187
01:04:28,240 --> 01:04:29,720
How do we fix it?

1188
01:04:29,720 --> 01:04:32,400
With start-ups, with competition.

1189
01:04:32,400 --> 01:04:35,480
We just have to change the world
so that people can create cities

1190
01:04:35,480 --> 01:04:38,240
and countries like they start
companies today.

1191
01:04:38,240 --> 01:04:39,360
Simple, right?

1192
01:04:39,360 --> 01:04:41,640
I mean, not easy, but simple.

1193
01:04:41,640 --> 01:04:44,000
APPLAUSE

1194
01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:48,400
This whole movement, it's only
possible because of Bitcoin.

1195
01:04:48,400 --> 01:04:51,080
Are new countries even possible,
right?

1196
01:04:51,080 --> 01:04:52,760
We've started new companies
like Google,

1197
01:04:52,760 --> 01:04:54,520
we've started new communities
like Facebook,

1198
01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:56,960
we've started new currencies
like Bitcoin and Ethereum.

1199
01:04:56,960 --> 01:04:58,080
Can we start new countries?

1200
01:04:58,080 --> 01:04:59,200
That's the concept of
the network state.

1201
01:05:00,520 --> 01:05:02,880
People from Patri's tribe -

1202
01:05:02,880 --> 01:05:06,120
the anarcho-capitalists,
the libertarians -

1203
01:05:06,120 --> 01:05:08,800
they got into cryptocurrency early.

1204
01:05:08,800 --> 01:05:13,120
And some of them got rich -
really, really rich.

1205
01:05:17,520 --> 01:05:19,960
So I wrote a book on seasteading
back in 2004,

1206
01:05:19,960 --> 01:05:22,320
and then in 2007 Peter Thiel
funded me to start

1207
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:23,480
the first competitive
governance non-profit,

1208
01:05:23,480 --> 01:05:24,640
the Seasteading Institute.

1209
01:05:24,640 --> 01:05:28,240
Peter Thiel,
the Silicon Valley investor who said

1210
01:05:28,240 --> 01:05:32,080
he believes freedom and democracy
are no longer compatible.

1211
01:05:33,200 --> 01:05:36,480
One of the things
I like about technology is that,

1212
01:05:36,480 --> 01:05:38,760
when technology's unregulated,

1213
01:05:38,760 --> 01:05:40,440
you can work on changing the world

1214
01:05:40,440 --> 01:05:42,720
without getting approval
from other people.

1215
01:05:42,720 --> 01:05:43,840
At its best,

1216
01:05:43,840 --> 01:05:46,040
it is not subject
to democratic control.

1217
01:05:47,960 --> 01:05:52,200
The network staters argue that
democracy is out of date.

1218
01:05:55,320 --> 01:05:57,720
PATRI: The United States is still
using a constitution

1219
01:05:57,720 --> 01:06:00,080
written over 200 years ago.

1220
01:06:00,080 --> 01:06:03,160
If you drove a car from
200 years ago, it would be a horse.

1221
01:06:05,120 --> 01:06:08,520
They want new systems,
fit for the modern world -

1222
01:06:08,520 --> 01:06:11,760
tech-based alternatives
to public institutions...

1223
01:06:12,880 --> 01:06:17,920
..from healthcare,
to policing, to education.

1224
01:06:17,920 --> 01:06:21,560
I want to redesign, like, kind
of...
Everything. ..everything.

1225
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:23,520
You know, I focus on, like,
governing,

1226
01:06:23,520 --> 01:06:25,240
but I think that we've got a lot
of 20th century systems

1227
01:06:25,240 --> 01:06:26,480
that need to be redone.

1228
01:06:26,480 --> 01:06:28,920
But the money for this comes from
Peter Thiel, number one,

1229
01:06:28,920 --> 01:06:30,360
and crypto, number two.

1230
01:06:30,360 --> 01:06:32,640
Oh, thank you.

1231
01:06:32,640 --> 01:06:34,080
Nice to meet you. Thank you.

1232
01:06:34,080 --> 01:06:35,920
My dreams are simple, really.

1233
01:06:35,920 --> 01:06:40,320
I just want to help start 1,000
new societies all around the world.

1234
01:06:40,320 --> 01:06:44,040
These people talk
a lot about voice versus exit.

1235
01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:45,720
Voice is democracy -

1236
01:06:45,720 --> 01:06:48,280
try and change
the world through voting.

1237
01:06:48,280 --> 01:06:51,880
Or, "Fuck it, exit!" - just leave.

1238
01:06:51,880 --> 01:06:53,640
And these are exit people.

1239
01:06:58,600 --> 01:07:00,560
When I first spoke to Patri,

1240
01:07:00,560 --> 01:07:05,520
he told me he'd been warned not to
talk to the mainstream media.

1241
01:07:05,520 --> 01:07:07,800
Hey, how are you?

1242
01:07:07,800 --> 01:07:08,960
PATRI OVER LAPTOP: Pretty good.

1243
01:07:08,960 --> 01:07:14,400
We are very grateful to you
for agreeing to speak to us.

1244
01:07:14,400 --> 01:07:16,080
You know, I like the spotlight.

1245
01:07:16,080 --> 01:07:19,720
And so my inclination's always
been to say yes to everything.

1246
01:07:19,720 --> 01:07:24,360
I'm definitely well above the
average on the narcissism spectrum.

1247
01:07:26,160 --> 01:07:27,680
But I've gotten bitten a few times.

1248
01:07:29,320 --> 01:07:31,520
But it seemed like
he just couldn't resist.

1249
01:07:33,080 --> 01:07:35,880
He wanted to show me this
brave new world he's building.

1250
01:07:39,600 --> 01:07:44,920
He's using his investors' millions
to
fund eight new start-up cities.

1251
01:07:44,920 --> 01:07:47,520
And Patri said we can follow him

1252
01:07:47,520 --> 01:07:49,880
to the one he's thinking of
moving to himself.

1253
01:07:52,280 --> 01:07:53,800
VOICE-OVER: Prospera is building

1254
01:07:53,800 --> 01:07:56,560
the fastest growing private city
project in the world,

1255
01:07:56,560 --> 01:07:58,200
elevating human potential through

1256
01:07:58,200 --> 01:08:01,280
a radically decentralised private
governance framework.

1257
01:08:01,280 --> 01:08:06,160
It's on an island off the coast of
Honduras, in Central America...

1258
01:08:07,480 --> 01:08:12,240
..a real-life Burbclave,
where tech bros rule.

1259
01:08:12,240 --> 01:08:15,000
He wants to be Ozymandias,
King of Kings.

1260
01:08:15,000 --> 01:08:16,560
Look, it's simple...

1261
01:08:16,560 --> 01:08:20,920
VOICES SWIRLS AND ECHO

1262
01:08:37,240 --> 01:08:41,120
Just landed in Coxen Hole, Roatan.

1263
01:08:48,200 --> 01:08:51,200
What do the people on the island
think about Prospera?

1264
01:08:51,200 --> 01:08:54,880
A lot of people are looking at it
like it's a bad thing.

1265
01:08:54,880 --> 01:08:57,720
And what a lot of people are scared
of is robots.

1266
01:08:57,720 --> 01:08:59,000
Robots? Yeah.

1267
01:09:00,960 --> 01:09:03,240
These robots,
have you seen them yourself?

1268
01:09:03,240 --> 01:09:05,240
I've seen what they look.

1269
01:09:05,240 --> 01:09:07,680
Like something like a hand
or something.

1270
01:09:07,680 --> 01:09:09,560
No idea what's going on in there.

1271
01:09:11,640 --> 01:09:12,680
That's far-out.

1272
01:09:12,680 --> 01:09:13,920
I didn't know about the robots.

1273
01:09:13,920 --> 01:09:15,240
Yeah, they have robots there.

1274
01:09:19,560 --> 01:09:22,160
TAXI DRIVER:

1275
01:09:22,160 --> 01:09:23,240
GABRIEL: Mm-hm.

1276
01:09:25,240 --> 01:09:26,200
TAXI DRIVER:

1277
01:09:27,520 --> 01:09:29,080
THEY CHUCKLE

1278
01:09:29,080 --> 01:09:32,600
The magic word that opens
everything - Bitcoin.

1279
01:09:32,600 --> 01:09:34,120
LAUGHTER

1280
01:09:35,400 --> 01:09:39,400
PATRI: All right, first in-person
sight of the Duna Towers.

1281
01:09:39,400 --> 01:09:42,160
14 stories - it's going to be
the tallest building on the island.

1282
01:09:43,680 --> 01:09:46,240
And here we have the sign
for Prospera.

1283
01:09:48,680 --> 01:09:50,200
So exciting!

1284
01:09:53,080 --> 01:09:55,840
What we'd like to do, if possible,
is
just, like, you guys do your thing,

1285
01:09:55,840 --> 01:09:57,160
imagine we're not here.

1286
01:09:57,160 --> 01:10:00,560
And you've come for your tour,
right, Patri?

1287
01:10:00,560 --> 01:10:01,960
Yeah. I mean,
I want to see everything.

1288
01:10:01,960 --> 01:10:03,600
I want to see this,
the Beta offices,

1289
01:10:03,600 --> 01:10:05,520
the circular factory.
Let's walk around.

1290
01:10:05,520 --> 01:10:06,880
I wanna see whatever there is
to see.

1291
01:10:08,800 --> 01:10:11,880
Wow. I mean, that's just
going to be amazing. Yeah.

1292
01:10:11,880 --> 01:10:14,080
I mean, the views from the top...
Yeah, yeah.

1293
01:10:15,600 --> 01:10:18,160
I just love that idea to be in
the same space with

1294
01:10:18,160 --> 01:10:19,560
so many other entrepreneurs...
Yeah.

1295
01:10:19,560 --> 01:10:21,040
..the ones that are here early.

1296
01:10:21,040 --> 01:10:22,440
Like, bump into each other.

1297
01:10:22,440 --> 01:10:24,480
Community. Yeah, yeah.

1298
01:10:24,480 --> 01:10:25,560
Yeah, it's going to be awesome.

1299
01:10:35,000 --> 01:10:37,240
They have big dreams for Prospera.

1300
01:10:38,480 --> 01:10:42,520
They want to create a futuristic
city, that'll attract thousands of

1301
01:10:42,520 --> 01:10:45,360
international frontier
tech entrepreneurs...

1302
01:10:47,720 --> 01:10:51,160
The idea is - close the loop
between digital and physical.

1303
01:10:51,160 --> 01:10:55,000
..people and their robots,
who will build the future

1304
01:10:55,000 --> 01:10:57,000
without interference from
government.

1305
01:10:57,000 --> 01:10:59,360
And then you can send it
to the circular factory.

1306
01:10:59,360 --> 01:11:01,000
And that's what these robots can do
really well.

1307
01:11:02,400 --> 01:11:05,920
But the Honduran president who
granted them this enclave

1308
01:11:05,920 --> 01:11:08,760
was busted for corruption.

1309
01:11:08,760 --> 01:11:11,640
NEWS REPORT: The former president's
alleged to have helped facilitate

1310
01:11:11,640 --> 01:11:15,520
half a million kilograms
of cocaine through Honduras.

1311
01:11:15,520 --> 01:11:18,520
Hernandez declared that he wanted,
and I quote,

1312
01:11:18,520 --> 01:11:22,760
"to stuff the drugs right up
the noses of the gringos".

1313
01:11:24,600 --> 01:11:27,160
And now, a new president
has been elected.

1314
01:11:27,160 --> 01:11:31,400
TRANSLATION:

1315
01:11:33,680 --> 01:11:36,400
CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

1316
01:11:36,400 --> 01:11:40,920
Xiomara Castro ran on a promise to
take back the land from Prospera.

1317
01:11:40,920 --> 01:11:42,200
Es un enemigo!

1318
01:11:43,840 --> 01:11:47,240
But Prospera is fighting back.

1319
01:11:47,240 --> 01:11:49,960
They're suing the government
for $11 billion.

1320
01:11:51,480 --> 01:11:55,720
And if they win, Honduras
will be effectively bankrupt.

1321
01:12:01,760 --> 01:12:03,240
If the world is changing

1322
01:12:03,240 --> 01:12:05,600
and power is no longer with
the politicians,

1323
01:12:05,600 --> 01:12:07,880
but power is with the big
tech guys. The tech people.

1324
01:12:07,880 --> 01:12:08,720
Right. Yeah.

1325
01:12:08,720 --> 01:12:11,080
I think it's incredible. I love it.

1326
01:12:11,080 --> 01:12:13,520
For me, the fact, like,
first the tech boom

1327
01:12:13,520 --> 01:12:18,000
and then crypto each showered
wealth
on people who are my tribe.

1328
01:12:19,160 --> 01:12:23,000
And tech gave tons of money to
people who think in certain ways -

1329
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:24,280
to systematisers,

1330
01:12:24,280 --> 01:12:26,000
to people who believe in making
new things

1331
01:12:26,000 --> 01:12:28,000
and not accepting current
reality, right?

1332
01:12:28,000 --> 01:12:29,760
Imagine something and then build
it.

1333
01:12:29,760 --> 01:12:31,440
The people who are dreamers
and doers.

1334
01:12:31,440 --> 01:12:32,560
And that's amazing -

1335
01:12:32,560 --> 01:12:33,960
that's what we need to
change the world.

1336
01:12:33,960 --> 01:12:35,880
And then crypto did that again,

1337
01:12:35,880 --> 01:12:39,000
for the libertarians and
the anarcho-capitalists and,

1338
01:12:39,000 --> 01:12:42,520
like, exactly
the kind of people who are like,

1339
01:12:42,520 --> 01:12:45,520
"Yes, we want to live in
a different kind of society."

1340
01:12:45,520 --> 01:12:47,120
Like, "Yes, we're willing
to bet on something

1341
01:12:47,120 --> 01:12:48,720
"that other people think is weird."

1342
01:12:48,720 --> 01:12:51,480
Like, trying to make it
so we can live to 160,

1343
01:12:51,480 --> 01:12:53,400
and making charter cities,

1344
01:12:53,400 --> 01:12:55,000
and someday making
independent states.

1345
01:12:55,000 --> 01:12:59,320
So crypto has caused
a transfer of wealth -

1346
01:12:59,320 --> 01:13:00,800
and therefore, power -

1347
01:13:00,800 --> 01:13:04,240
to a bunch of people who are into
this kind of thing.

1348
01:13:04,240 --> 01:13:05,200
Exactly.

1349
01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:10,280
We put this up here because,
after lunch,

1350
01:13:10,280 --> 01:13:12,640
I'm getting my genes edited,

1351
01:13:12,640 --> 01:13:15,080
in a treatment only available here
in Prospera.

1352
01:13:15,080 --> 01:13:16,680
APPLAUSE

1353
01:13:20,120 --> 01:13:24,520
Because the tech bros that run
Prospera write their own laws,

1354
01:13:24,520 --> 01:13:27,720
they can do things that would be
illegal almost anywhere else

1355
01:13:27,720 --> 01:13:29,000
in the world.

1356
01:13:29,000 --> 01:13:32,600
Things like human gene editing.

1357
01:13:33,640 --> 01:13:34,920
SHE SCREAMS

1358
01:13:37,200 --> 01:13:38,280
How are you getting there?

1359
01:13:38,280 --> 01:13:40,640
The clinic's sending a car. OK.

1360
01:13:40,640 --> 01:13:42,280
Can we squeeze in the car
with you?

1361
01:13:42,280 --> 01:13:43,480
Oh, the driver's here waiting.

1362
01:13:43,480 --> 01:13:46,160
OK, let's see. "Small red car".

1363
01:13:46,160 --> 01:13:47,600
Small red car.

1364
01:13:47,600 --> 01:13:48,720
A challenge.

1365
01:13:48,720 --> 01:13:49,960
All right.
GABRIEL CHUCKLES

1366
01:13:53,000 --> 01:13:54,120
GABRIEL GRUNTS

1367
01:13:54,120 --> 01:13:55,800
All right.

1368
01:13:55,800 --> 01:13:58,160
Are you feeling nervous at all?

1369
01:13:58,160 --> 01:14:02,560
No. It's just turning
a knob in my body to get it

1370
01:14:02,560 --> 01:14:05,080
to make more of something
that it already makes.

1371
01:14:05,080 --> 01:14:08,560
Patri is about to
alter his genetic code

1372
01:14:08,560 --> 01:14:11,560
to make it produce more of a
particular protein...

1373
01:14:11,560 --> 01:14:13,280
Just says,
"Hey, make more follistatin."

1374
01:14:13,280 --> 01:14:14,600
..follistatin.

1375
01:14:14,600 --> 01:14:18,160
To make me stronger
and lower my epigenetic age.

1376
01:14:25,600 --> 01:14:29,320
Patri's documenting the whole thing
for his Instagram feed.

1377
01:14:29,320 --> 01:14:33,720
Super excited for getting
my gene therapy injection.

1378
01:14:33,720 --> 01:14:36,560
I know I should be scared,
but it just seems so fun!

1379
01:14:36,560 --> 01:14:38,920
You ready, Patri? Yeah.

1380
01:14:38,920 --> 01:14:42,160
Now he's roped me in to be his
personal cameraman.

1381
01:14:43,960 --> 01:14:46,240
Feel better, live better.

1382
01:14:46,240 --> 01:14:47,320
Don't we all want that?

1383
01:14:55,920 --> 01:14:59,000
"I understand that some of the
services, procedures and products

1384
01:14:59,000 --> 01:15:01,600
"offered by Garm have
not been evaluated, tested

1385
01:15:01,600 --> 01:15:04,520
"or approved by the United States
Food and Drug Administration."

1386
01:15:04,520 --> 01:15:05,720
That's why I'm here.

1387
01:15:16,640 --> 01:15:18,320
How are ya?

1388
01:15:18,320 --> 01:15:20,000
I'm good, thanks. How are you?

1389
01:15:20,000 --> 01:15:21,080
Couldn't be better.

1390
01:15:40,800 --> 01:15:42,040
Here comes the sting.

1391
01:15:51,600 --> 01:15:53,080
How are you feeling?

1392
01:15:53,080 --> 01:15:54,360
PATRI GROWLS

1393
01:15:54,360 --> 01:15:56,480
Hulk time!

1394
01:15:56,480 --> 01:15:58,760
Careful, you'll rip your shirt!
PATRI GROWLS

1395
01:15:58,760 --> 01:16:00,440
PATRI CHUCKLES

1396
01:16:00,440 --> 01:16:01,800
Have YOU had it done?

1397
01:16:01,800 --> 01:16:03,080
Yeah.

1398
01:16:03,080 --> 01:16:04,280
And so, what was your experience?

1399
01:16:05,920 --> 01:16:07,280
GABRIEL CHUCKLES

1400
01:16:07,280 --> 01:16:09,400
Oh, he's wiry.

1401
01:16:09,400 --> 01:16:12,600
We can't stop people from ageing,
but what we can do is,

1402
01:16:12,600 --> 01:16:16,320
we can offer
and explore different things

1403
01:16:16,320 --> 01:16:20,000
that can contribute to longevity.

1404
01:16:20,000 --> 01:16:25,240
When you talk about life extension,
most people say, "That's bad."

1405
01:16:25,240 --> 01:16:28,120
Their reaction is like,
"Why would you want to do that?"

1406
01:16:28,120 --> 01:16:31,680
If there was a way for us
to live to an average of,

1407
01:16:31,680 --> 01:16:36,680
like, let's say, from 80 to 160,
their reaction to that is negative.

1408
01:16:36,680 --> 01:16:38,360
That's insane.

1409
01:16:38,360 --> 01:16:40,920
Taking off those years,
it's advocating for, like,

1410
01:16:40,920 --> 01:16:43,160
mass murder halfway through
people's lives.

1411
01:16:44,240 --> 01:16:46,280
PATRI GROWLS

1412
01:16:46,280 --> 01:16:48,720
That's the values that's
against, like,

1413
01:16:48,720 --> 01:16:50,480
me and my tribe's values.

1414
01:16:50,480 --> 01:16:53,080
And if you want to choose to die,
go and fucking die.

1415
01:16:53,080 --> 01:16:54,640
But don't advocate that, like,

1416
01:16:54,640 --> 01:16:56,920
all the humans on earth die
before their time.

1417
01:16:56,920 --> 01:16:57,720
That's insane!

1418
01:16:57,720 --> 01:16:59,680
And it's normal!

1419
01:16:59,680 --> 01:17:01,040
Show us those muscles. Go on.

1420
01:17:01,040 --> 01:17:02,960
Hang on, let me... Go on, go on.

1421
01:17:02,960 --> 01:17:04,080
OK, this is the before.

1422
01:17:07,240 --> 01:17:09,320
And that's what makes it fun.

1423
01:17:09,320 --> 01:17:11,600
I'm trying to get, like,
even stronger from being strong.

1424
01:17:12,960 --> 01:17:15,760
Like, I'm going to be completely
honest with you.

1425
01:17:15,760 --> 01:17:17,320
I think you're a lovely guy,

1426
01:17:17,320 --> 01:17:19,800
and lots of these people are
really nice people.

1427
01:17:19,800 --> 01:17:23,200
And obviously, like, the
current world is not perfect, right?

1428
01:17:23,200 --> 01:17:25,480
There's a lot of inequality
and stuff.

1429
01:17:25,480 --> 01:17:27,080
But it kind of feels like

1430
01:17:27,080 --> 01:17:29,440
the world that you're building here
would inevitably turn into

1431
01:17:29,440 --> 01:17:31,120
this kind of two-tier society

1432
01:17:31,120 --> 01:17:35,960
where there's the kind of
hyper-mobile cyberspace people...

1433
01:17:35,960 --> 01:17:41,040
Yeah. ..who are then kind
of served by this kind of
underclass.

1434
01:17:43,000 --> 01:17:45,880
I mean, in a way that's different
than how the world works today?

1435
01:17:47,560 --> 01:17:49,880
I guess I wonder if you're
comparing
to utopia.

1436
01:17:49,880 --> 01:17:52,320
There's no claims of utopia here.

1437
01:17:52,320 --> 01:17:55,720
Maybe I'm just a
stuck-in-the-past Luddite,

1438
01:17:55,720 --> 01:17:57,920
but I just, I worry about the
future.

1439
01:17:58,800 --> 01:18:00,600
There's a lot to worry about,
but not us.

1440
01:18:02,880 --> 01:18:03,840
Huh.

1441
01:18:08,640 --> 01:18:10,200
All right, we got to go.
We got to go. OK.

1442
01:18:11,920 --> 01:18:13,240
In the beginning,

1443
01:18:13,240 --> 01:18:17,880
Bitcoin was a project
to claw back power from the state,

1444
01:18:17,880 --> 01:18:21,000
to put control of money into
the hands of the individual.

1445
01:18:24,960 --> 01:18:28,600
But since Satoshi disappeared,
crypto has evolved.

1446
01:18:29,880 --> 01:18:32,920
It's morphed into
a multi-trillion-dollar industry.

1447
01:18:34,120 --> 01:18:36,320
Power is being concentrated again...

1448
01:18:37,320 --> 01:18:38,440
..but in different hands.

1449
01:18:38,440 --> 01:18:40,320
The one thought that I was
just struck by - he says,

1450
01:18:40,320 --> 01:18:42,280
"The moral imperative of our time
is

1451
01:18:42,280 --> 01:18:45,440
"to turn all states into
peaceful service companies."

1452
01:18:47,440 --> 01:18:50,280
Backed by their crypto billions,

1453
01:18:50,280 --> 01:18:55,840
the new lords of tech think
the sci-fi dreams of their childhood

1454
01:18:55,840 --> 01:18:58,040
are now within their grasp.

1455
01:19:00,600 --> 01:19:03,640
COMPUTER GAME LEVEL-UP TONE

1456
01:19:04,920 --> 01:19:06,920
Can you, like, 360 me? Yeah.

1457
01:19:06,920 --> 01:19:09,560
Be my drone, Gabriel. OK.

1458
01:19:09,560 --> 01:19:11,040
Anything for you, Patri.

1459
01:19:16,440 --> 01:19:18,480
VOICE-OVER: I want to chip away
at democracy

1460
01:19:18,480 --> 01:19:20,240
so we can try out other things
that might be better.

1461
01:19:21,640 --> 01:19:24,560
You learn new things
by trying new things.

1462
01:19:24,560 --> 01:19:26,040
If you don't try new things,

1463
01:19:26,040 --> 01:19:27,720
you get no innovation
and things are stagnant.

1464
01:19:29,240 --> 01:19:31,080
It's just as true
for government as anything else.

1465
01:19:36,080 --> 01:19:39,000
Instead of trying
to spend billions of dollars

1466
01:19:39,000 --> 01:19:40,880
trying to build a new country,

1467
01:19:40,880 --> 01:19:42,040
you want to do something that works

1468
01:19:42,040 --> 01:19:43,800
much more incrementally
and organically,

1469
01:19:43,800 --> 01:19:46,160
where it works on a modest scale,

1470
01:19:46,160 --> 01:19:48,360
and then you can sort
of scale it from there.

1471
01:19:52,680 --> 01:19:53,600
Does it swing?

1472
01:20:10,160 --> 01:20:11,520
Sort of.

1473
01:20:24,080 --> 01:20:27,600
Was this Satoshi's plan
from the start?

1474
01:20:27,600 --> 01:20:30,440
A whole new way
of organising society,

1475
01:20:30,440 --> 01:20:36,720
privatised city states financed by
crypto and built on the blockchain?

1476
01:20:38,800 --> 01:20:41,360
There's only one way to know
for sure,

1477
01:20:41,360 --> 01:20:44,640
and that's to find the man himself.

1478
01:20:44,640 --> 01:20:46,440
And you know what?

1479
01:20:46,440 --> 01:20:51,400
I've got a new suspect -
someone who wasn't on our radar.

1480
01:20:52,520 --> 01:20:55,000
With the disappearance
it would be consistent,

1481
01:20:55,000 --> 01:20:57,280
because, you know, it's easy to
avoid giving yourself away

1482
01:20:57,280 --> 01:20:58,200
when you're dead.

1483
01:21:14,680 --> 01:21:17,440
We've all got our favourite
detective stories, right?

1484
01:21:18,560 --> 01:21:21,800
They all kind of
follow the same pattern.

1485
01:21:21,800 --> 01:21:24,160
The truth is only arrived at

1486
01:21:24,160 --> 01:21:27,280
by the painstaking process
of eliminating the untrue.

1487
01:21:27,280 --> 01:21:29,680
And so that's where I met
Hal Finney...

1488
01:21:29,680 --> 01:21:32,040
We start with a bunch of suspects.
..Ralph Merkle...

1489
01:21:32,040 --> 01:21:33,800
Any one of them could have done it.
..and Nick Szabo.

1490
01:21:33,800 --> 01:21:38,040
And we follow the clues
until the final reveal.

1491
01:21:40,400 --> 01:21:43,080
And now I have a
most regrettable task to perform.

1492
01:21:47,000 --> 01:21:49,880
Well, that's kind of how it's been
for me,

1493
01:21:49,880 --> 01:21:52,520
looking for Satoshi Nakamoto.

1494
01:21:54,800 --> 01:21:56,280
We tracked down Adam Back.

1495
01:21:56,280 --> 01:21:58,320
It's not you? It's not me.

1496
01:21:58,320 --> 01:22:00,640
He denied it, of course.

1497
01:22:00,640 --> 01:22:02,600
But there were others in the frame.

1498
01:22:02,600 --> 01:22:05,320
Oh, my God, they're all here!

1499
01:22:05,320 --> 01:22:07,600
Hal Finney, Wei Dai...

1500
01:22:07,600 --> 01:22:10,160
Ooh, look, Nick Szabo.

1501
01:22:10,160 --> 01:22:12,680
APPLAUSE

1502
01:22:12,680 --> 01:22:14,320
Nick Szabo.

1503
01:22:14,320 --> 01:22:16,440
A decade before Bitcoin,

1504
01:22:16,440 --> 01:22:20,080
he'd proposed something called
Bit Gold.

1505
01:22:20,080 --> 01:22:21,440
You can think of Bitcoin as

1506
01:22:21,440 --> 01:22:25,080
an army of robots checking up on
each other's work,

1507
01:22:25,080 --> 01:22:26,360
verifying each other's work.

1508
01:22:28,440 --> 01:22:32,200
I got close to him a couple of
times, but he didn't want to talk.

1509
01:22:33,720 --> 01:22:35,840
Ralph. Ah, there you are! Hello!

1510
01:22:35,840 --> 01:22:39,080
I spent an afternoon with
Ralph Merkle and his wife, Carol.

1511
01:22:39,080 --> 01:22:41,000
This is Gabriel. Hi, Carol.
Gabriel, this is Carol.

1512
01:22:41,000 --> 01:22:42,160
Nice to meet you.
Very nice to meet you.

1513
01:22:43,520 --> 01:22:46,280
Lovely guy - but not Satoshi.

1514
01:22:47,400 --> 01:22:49,760
You want me to express
an opinion on

1515
01:22:49,760 --> 01:22:51,720
one of the greatest mysteries
of the century?

1516
01:22:51,720 --> 01:22:52,960
Yes!

1517
01:22:52,960 --> 01:22:54,200
Absolutely not!

1518
01:22:56,000 --> 01:22:59,560
Our search led us to
a coder who was the last person

1519
01:22:59,560 --> 01:23:03,000
to communicate with Satoshi
before he disappeared.

1520
01:23:03,000 --> 01:23:04,760
Really good to meet you.
I'm Gabriel.

1521
01:23:04,760 --> 01:23:07,200
Did you get a sense that
he was withdrawing?

1522
01:23:07,200 --> 01:23:08,360
Yeah.

1523
01:23:08,360 --> 01:23:10,840
Did you get a sense of why? No.

1524
01:23:10,840 --> 01:23:12,640
Did you ask him? Yes.

1525
01:23:12,640 --> 01:23:13,720
And what did he say? Nothing.

1526
01:23:17,720 --> 01:23:20,080
And so the quest went on.

1527
01:23:20,080 --> 01:23:23,640
For police work is not all glamour
and excitement and glory.

1528
01:23:23,640 --> 01:23:26,800
There are days and days
when nothing goes right.

1529
01:23:26,800 --> 01:23:31,120
Sometimes the thing you need to
crack the case wide open

1530
01:23:31,120 --> 01:23:32,080
is a little bit of luck.

1531
01:23:33,400 --> 01:23:35,880
THUNDER RUMBLES

1532
01:23:38,960 --> 01:23:43,360
And while we were in Switzerland
filming that cypherpunk conference,

1533
01:23:43,360 --> 01:23:44,840
this happened.

1534
01:23:44,840 --> 01:23:47,440
Hi. Hi. Are you the artist?

1535
01:23:47,440 --> 01:23:49,800
He is the artist, yeah.
Great, I really like it.

1536
01:23:49,800 --> 01:23:52,160
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much.

1537
01:23:52,160 --> 01:23:54,720
We honoured them like apostles.
Like apostles?

1538
01:23:54,720 --> 01:23:57,480
Yeah, really. They are the 12.
It's a little bit like a church.

1539
01:23:57,480 --> 01:24:00,240
This is the Sistine... The chapel.

1540
01:24:00,240 --> 01:24:01,440
The Sistine Chapel.

1541
01:24:03,560 --> 01:24:08,480
Do you think that one of these guys
-
or some of these guys - are Satoshi?

1542
01:24:08,480 --> 01:24:09,520
Yeah, for sure.

1543
01:24:09,520 --> 01:24:11,280
Who do you think? I have...

1544
01:24:11,280 --> 01:24:12,440
Nobody knows.

1545
01:24:12,440 --> 01:24:13,560
I have three favourites.

1546
01:24:13,560 --> 01:24:14,680
Go on.

1547
01:24:14,680 --> 01:24:17,160
One is Nick Szabo
together with Hal Finney,

1548
01:24:17,160 --> 01:24:19,040
because Nick Szabo had
the intellect... Yeah.

1549
01:24:19,040 --> 01:24:21,960
..and he had the skills to do it.
Yeah.

1550
01:24:21,960 --> 01:24:24,560
And then there was
a guy who is nearly forgotten.

1551
01:24:24,560 --> 01:24:26,840
It's Len Sassaman.

1552
01:24:26,840 --> 01:24:28,200
You know him?

1553
01:24:28,200 --> 01:24:29,640
He knew Adam,

1554
01:24:29,640 --> 01:24:33,480
he knew Phil Zimmermann,
he knew Wei Dai,

1555
01:24:33,480 --> 01:24:35,320
he worked together with Hal Finney,

1556
01:24:35,320 --> 01:24:39,760
and he disappeared
weeks after Satoshi's last message.

1557
01:24:39,760 --> 01:24:41,960
Because he suicide...
He committed suicide.

1558
01:24:43,560 --> 01:24:45,160
This is...

1559
01:24:45,160 --> 01:24:47,440
This would be my favourite -
Len Sassaman.

1560
01:24:47,440 --> 01:24:48,880
You think Len Sassaman?

1561
01:24:50,560 --> 01:24:51,960
Len Sassaman.

1562
01:24:53,200 --> 01:24:56,640
He didn't have his portrait
up among the apostles.

1563
01:24:56,640 --> 01:25:00,240
But at the end of the '90s
he was in California,

1564
01:25:00,240 --> 01:25:03,480
sharing a flat with another
cypherpunk who did.

1565
01:25:07,800 --> 01:25:11,160
I'm here with Bram Cohen.

1566
01:25:11,160 --> 01:25:13,520
Yes, I'm Bram. He is Bram.

1567
01:25:13,520 --> 01:25:17,360
I like working on hard and
interesting and rewarding problems.

1568
01:25:19,960 --> 01:25:23,440
He has Asperger's syndrome,
based on self-diagnosis.

1569
01:25:23,440 --> 01:25:25,720
Where does he say that? On his...?

1570
01:25:25,720 --> 01:25:26,960
Wikipedia.

1571
01:25:26,960 --> 01:25:28,280
THEY BOTH CHUCKLE

1572
01:25:29,560 --> 01:25:31,840
Cohen's hobbies include
original origami

1573
01:25:31,840 --> 01:25:33,040
and juggling up to five balls.

1574
01:25:34,360 --> 01:25:38,600
MELLOW HANDPAN MUSIC

1575
01:25:41,360 --> 01:25:44,920
I do these sets of, like,
200 catches...

1576
01:25:46,800 --> 01:25:48,680
..of five balls. But, yeah.

1577
01:25:50,440 --> 01:25:51,640
That's crazy. Well done.

1578
01:25:51,640 --> 01:25:52,600
Yeah, thanks.

1579
01:25:55,560 --> 01:25:56,760
GABRIEL CHUCKLES

1580
01:25:56,760 --> 01:25:59,760
Just start off by telling me about
Len Sassaman.

1581
01:25:59,760 --> 01:26:04,240
Oh, uh, well, he's long gone now.
Mm.

1582
01:26:04,240 --> 01:26:07,240
And he was my friend,

1583
01:26:07,240 --> 01:26:09,680
but he was mostly just kind
of this rah-rah,

1584
01:26:09,680 --> 01:26:12,920
you know,
ranty cypherpunk kind of person.

1585
01:26:12,920 --> 01:26:14,640
And there was the
Cypherpunks Mailing List,

1586
01:26:14,640 --> 01:26:17,040
and he really liked posting,
you know,

1587
01:26:17,040 --> 01:26:20,840
righteous political diatribes
to it under pseudonyms.

1588
01:26:20,840 --> 01:26:22,880
That was, like, his life.

1589
01:26:22,880 --> 01:26:24,440
Under pseudonyms? Yes.

1590
01:26:24,440 --> 01:26:26,360
Yeah, yeah.

1591
01:26:26,360 --> 01:26:27,360
Good afternoon.

1592
01:26:29,040 --> 01:26:31,640
I am Len Sassaman,
otherwise known as Rabbi.

1593
01:26:33,080 --> 01:26:37,560
Len was a popular speaker on
the hacker convention circuit.

1594
01:26:37,560 --> 01:26:41,400
Here he is at Defcon 11, in 2003.

1595
01:26:42,920 --> 01:26:47,320
A little bit about my background -
I've been a cypherpunk,

1596
01:26:47,320 --> 01:26:51,040
crypto researcher-ish person
for about ten years now.

1597
01:26:52,480 --> 01:26:54,440
It seemed so innocent.

1598
01:26:54,440 --> 01:26:56,640
He did a lot of just
political ranty stuff.

1599
01:26:57,600 --> 01:27:00,480
Like what? Give me an example.

1600
01:27:00,480 --> 01:27:02,840
It was all this, like,
very libertarian,

1601
01:27:02,840 --> 01:27:05,880
you know,
"There should be no government."

1602
01:27:05,880 --> 01:27:08,240
Not quite that anarchic,
but you know.

1603
01:27:08,240 --> 01:27:10,520
And, "Technology will save us all",
kind of stuff.

1604
01:27:10,520 --> 01:27:14,640
The big cypherpunk theory is

1605
01:27:14,640 --> 01:27:18,600
political activism by writing code,
right?

1606
01:27:18,600 --> 01:27:21,920
You build tools
to make things happen.

1607
01:27:21,920 --> 01:27:23,280
Like, an example would be,

1608
01:27:23,280 --> 01:27:26,520
he wanted something like Bitcoin
to exist.

1609
01:27:26,520 --> 01:27:30,800
The idea that there should be a
cryptocurrency that did this stuff.

1610
01:27:33,760 --> 01:27:36,480
By 2011, Bitcoin was growing.

1611
01:27:37,680 --> 01:27:39,720
It was spreading from
the dark web -

1612
01:27:39,720 --> 01:27:42,760
where people used it
to buy drugs, mostly -

1613
01:27:42,760 --> 01:27:44,600
to more mainstream websites.

1614
01:27:46,960 --> 01:27:49,600
But when Wikileaks started
using Bitcoin...

1615
01:27:49,600 --> 01:27:53,040
ARCHIVE: What Wikileaks has done
amounts to espionage.

1616
01:27:53,040 --> 01:27:57,440
..Satoshi worried that they'd kicked
the hornet's nest.

1617
01:27:57,440 --> 01:28:01,040
The authorities might come after him
and shut the whole project down.

1618
01:28:06,280 --> 01:28:09,880
I remember Bitcoin was more
a silly project back then. Right.

1619
01:28:09,880 --> 01:28:12,240
It was an experiment that
got out of hand.

1620
01:28:14,080 --> 01:28:17,240
In April that year, Satoshi emailed,

1621
01:28:17,240 --> 01:28:20,880
"I've moved on to other things."

1622
01:28:20,880 --> 01:28:24,280
And that was it - he was gone.

1623
01:28:24,280 --> 01:28:26,560
Satoshi actually ragequit.

1624
01:28:26,560 --> 01:28:27,800
What is "ragequit"?

1625
01:28:27,800 --> 01:28:32,280
Ragequit, where you go,
"Fuck y'all! I'm out of here!",

1626
01:28:32,280 --> 01:28:36,520
and just leave,
and burn the bridges on the way
out.

1627
01:28:37,720 --> 01:28:41,440
Well, the next issue is why
anonymity is a good thing.

1628
01:28:43,800 --> 01:28:44,760
Can you guys hear me OK?

1629
01:28:46,440 --> 01:28:51,240
Ten weeks after Satoshi disappeared,
Len killed himself.

1630
01:28:53,360 --> 01:28:54,880
He was 31 years old.

1631
01:29:01,240 --> 01:29:03,880
He had just always depression.

1632
01:29:03,880 --> 01:29:05,120
Um...

1633
01:29:08,360 --> 01:29:09,880
You know, and he tried to...

1634
01:29:09,880 --> 01:29:14,360
Like, when he died, he tried to
delete his Wikipedia page,

1635
01:29:14,360 --> 01:29:16,920
he deleted his old LiveJournal.

1636
01:29:16,920 --> 01:29:20,040
He really tried to
wipe himself out.

1637
01:29:20,040 --> 01:29:22,400
My final comments are,
I'm out of time,

1638
01:29:22,400 --> 01:29:24,600
so who wants to sneak in
some questions?

1639
01:29:25,760 --> 01:29:27,200
Yes.

1640
01:29:27,200 --> 01:29:29,400
VOICES FADE OUT

1641
01:29:34,000 --> 01:29:37,960
Do you think Len was Satoshi?

1642
01:29:37,960 --> 01:29:40,000
Well...
BRAM SIGHS

1643
01:29:40,000 --> 01:29:42,280
..a pretty good likelihood
he was involved in it.

1644
01:29:42,280 --> 01:29:43,280
Unlikely he wrote it,

1645
01:29:43,280 --> 01:29:45,720
because there's a bunch of things
that just don't match all there.

1646
01:29:45,720 --> 01:29:46,840
The code? Yeah, the code.

1647
01:29:49,120 --> 01:29:50,040
The thing is...

1648
01:29:51,240 --> 01:29:54,120
..Len didn't seem to have
the technical skills to do it.

1649
01:29:56,880 --> 01:29:59,400
But he knew someone who did -

1650
01:29:59,400 --> 01:30:00,520
an old colleague...

1651
01:30:01,640 --> 01:30:03,040
..Hal Finney.

1652
01:30:07,880 --> 01:30:10,440
They'd worked together on PGP,

1653
01:30:10,440 --> 01:30:12,880
the encryption software that had got
Phil Zimmermann

1654
01:30:12,880 --> 01:30:14,240
in trouble with the law.

1655
01:30:16,600 --> 01:30:21,080
The idea that Bitcoin was something
that Hal wrote,

1656
01:30:21,080 --> 01:30:24,520
and then Len was doing all
the ranty posting about it,

1657
01:30:24,520 --> 01:30:26,320
would fit really well.
BRAM CHUCKLES

1658
01:30:31,640 --> 01:30:34,880
But Len couldn't have been
the only one posting as Satoshi.

1659
01:30:36,640 --> 01:30:38,920
Because in 2014,

1660
01:30:38,920 --> 01:30:41,280
three years after Len died,

1661
01:30:41,280 --> 01:30:46,160
Satoshi broke his silence
to make one final statement.

1662
01:30:46,160 --> 01:30:47,400
It was only a few words.

1663
01:30:54,720 --> 01:30:58,160
The main reason I'm here
is to clear my name

1664
01:30:58,160 --> 01:31:00,360
that I have nothing to do
with Bitcoin.

1665
01:31:01,360 --> 01:31:04,960
Hal had grown up
a few blocks away from Dorian.

1666
01:31:04,960 --> 01:31:08,360
I just believe that somebody put
that fictitious name in there.

1667
01:31:10,320 --> 01:31:12,240
Did Hal feel guilty

1668
01:31:12,240 --> 01:31:15,000
because he'd inadvertently put
an innocent man in the frame?

1669
01:31:17,000 --> 01:31:19,560
He had love in his heart
all the way to the end.

1670
01:31:25,200 --> 01:31:26,840
I don't know.

1671
01:31:26,840 --> 01:31:31,240
The thought that, you know, they
had
potentially built this thing

1672
01:31:31,240 --> 01:31:34,200
and then both died really horribly
afterwards is just like...

1673
01:31:35,360 --> 01:31:38,560
..I don't know, it's something
I hope isn't what happened.

1674
01:31:43,040 --> 01:31:46,240
But also, with the disappearance,
it would be consistent because,

1675
01:31:46,240 --> 01:31:48,000
you know, it's easy to avoid
giving yourself away

1676
01:31:48,000 --> 01:31:49,000
when you're dead.

1677
01:32:11,520 --> 01:32:12,760
BOB HETTINGER: First of all,
it's dangerous.

1678
01:32:14,520 --> 01:32:18,320
There are scary, bad people out
there who would just kidnap him,

1679
01:32:18,320 --> 01:32:19,600
or the people he loves.

1680
01:32:21,120 --> 01:32:23,360
Satoshi would get hurt.

1681
01:32:25,880 --> 01:32:27,920
BRAM: I try not to think about it
too much,

1682
01:32:27,920 --> 01:32:29,840
because what's the benefit
of knowing?

1683
01:32:29,840 --> 01:32:30,800
What does it matter?

1684
01:32:32,080 --> 01:32:33,640
You want them to be dead in peace?
Yes.

1685
01:32:37,440 --> 01:32:39,640
Satoshi prefers to remain
anonymous.

1686
01:32:40,960 --> 01:32:42,760
Can't we let him remain anonymous?

1687
01:32:46,400 --> 01:32:49,280
VINCE CATE: It doesn't matter
which cypherpunk it was.

1688
01:32:49,280 --> 01:32:50,240
We're all Spartacus.

1689
01:32:51,520 --> 01:32:52,560
We're all Satoshi.

1690
01:32:55,080 --> 01:32:56,160
Perhaps they're right.

1691
01:32:58,560 --> 01:33:02,440
Perhaps it doesn't matter which
cypherpunk wrote the actual code.

1692
01:33:04,720 --> 01:33:05,720
Nick Szabo...

1693
01:33:05,720 --> 01:33:08,120
All of our suspects were part of

1694
01:33:08,120 --> 01:33:11,120
a loose collective of hackers
and cryptographers...

1695
01:33:12,320 --> 01:33:18,360
..who were exchanging ideas,
fixing each other's code,

1696
01:33:18,360 --> 01:33:22,600
and probably passing the Satoshi
pseudonym among them.

1697
01:33:23,760 --> 01:33:26,600
Nakamoto.

1698
01:33:30,000 --> 01:33:33,080
No fingerprints, no identification
-
nothing definite.

1699
01:33:34,160 --> 01:33:35,520
Take a look.

1700
01:33:35,520 --> 01:33:37,880
But here's the thing -

1701
01:33:37,880 --> 01:33:41,760
all the evidence they left behind
is circumstantial.

1702
01:33:41,760 --> 01:33:45,400
In the world of crypto,
there is only one accepted proof.

1703
01:33:47,760 --> 01:33:52,240
The person who is Satoshi Nakamoto
made the Genesis Block,

1704
01:33:52,240 --> 01:33:54,720
and the Genesis Block
is worth how much now, Vince?

1705
01:33:54,720 --> 01:33:56,320
Billions and billions...
It's a crazy number.

1706
01:33:56,320 --> 01:33:57,600
Billions and billions of dollars.

1707
01:33:59,680 --> 01:34:03,240
If you've got the keys
to those original wallets,

1708
01:34:03,240 --> 01:34:08,320
then, according to Bitcoin legend,
you are Satoshi.

1709
01:34:12,720 --> 01:34:15,800
And no one has ever touched
those Bitcoin.

1710
01:34:18,320 --> 01:34:22,560
Which lends credence to
the idea that Satoshi might be dead.

1711
01:34:26,880 --> 01:34:27,920
And if they are...

1712
01:34:29,480 --> 01:34:30,440
..then we'll never know.

1713
01:34:40,960 --> 01:34:43,160
Except for one thing.

1714
01:34:46,840 --> 01:34:49,960
A lot of these guys,
they don't believe in death.

1715
01:34:55,600 --> 01:34:56,800
Here it is.

1716
01:34:58,040 --> 01:35:00,240
Phoenix, Arizona.

1717
01:35:03,760 --> 01:35:09,680
Inside this building,
stored in a vat of liquid nitrogen,

1718
01:35:09,680 --> 01:35:12,720
is the frozen head of Hal Finney.

1719
01:35:18,960 --> 01:35:22,440
He hoped that,
at some point in the future,

1720
01:35:22,440 --> 01:35:24,960
perhaps not so long from now,

1721
01:35:24,960 --> 01:35:27,800
technology would bring him back
from the dead.

1722
01:35:38,680 --> 01:35:42,160
It's here in this anteroom
to the afterlife...

1723
01:35:43,680 --> 01:35:46,400
..that our story
comes to its conclusion.

1724
01:35:58,160 --> 01:36:01,000
The CEO of Alcor
had been a little reluctant

1725
01:36:01,000 --> 01:36:03,120
to let us in with our cameras.

1726
01:36:03,120 --> 01:36:05,520
Good morning. James. How are you?
I'm Gabriel.

1727
01:36:05,520 --> 01:36:06,640
What's your name? Gabriel.

1728
01:36:06,640 --> 01:36:09,000
Gabriel, come on in.
Very good to meet you.

1729
01:36:09,000 --> 01:36:12,200
You know, I think we're very
misunderstood in the media. Yeah.

1730
01:36:12,200 --> 01:36:13,960
I understand the fascination,
you know,

1731
01:36:13,960 --> 01:36:15,680
with what we do, because obviously,

1732
01:36:15,680 --> 01:36:19,280
we take bodies and things
and we call them patients.

1733
01:36:19,280 --> 01:36:21,760
Our members become patients
at the time of death.

1734
01:36:21,760 --> 01:36:23,000
So, on the wall here,

1735
01:36:23,000 --> 01:36:25,360
we have people
from all over the world.

1736
01:36:25,360 --> 01:36:29,040
So, Hal Finney, you know,
he passed away in 2014

1737
01:36:29,040 --> 01:36:31,400
and we have his brain
in stasis here.

1738
01:36:32,640 --> 01:36:35,480
So, that's back of the house.
There's nothing there to see.

1739
01:36:35,480 --> 01:36:36,720
In any event, come on this way.

1740
01:36:36,720 --> 01:36:39,760
So, when our team gets a call,
so, when this phone goes off,

1741
01:36:39,760 --> 01:36:41,560
our team can deploy anywhere
in the world.

1742
01:36:41,560 --> 01:36:44,000
We try to deploy within a few
hours.

1743
01:36:44,000 --> 01:36:46,040
This all happens quickly.

1744
01:36:46,040 --> 01:36:48,040
Just because your heart has died,

1745
01:36:48,040 --> 01:36:49,640
that doesn't mean your brain cells
have died.

1746
01:36:51,600 --> 01:36:53,120
We're going to walk through
the back here

1747
01:36:53,120 --> 01:36:55,000
and go to our patient care bay now.
OK.

1748
01:36:55,000 --> 01:36:56,800
So you'll actually get
to see where patients are stored.

1749
01:36:58,920 --> 01:37:03,880
Feels like, I don't know,
opening some kind of tomb.

1750
01:37:03,880 --> 01:37:06,800
Well, it's a very serious thing,
and I tell people to show
reverence.

1751
01:37:06,800 --> 01:37:09,160
I am going to allow you to walk
through, and I'll walk with you.

1752
01:37:09,160 --> 01:37:11,440
But, you know,
it's a reverent space.

1753
01:37:11,440 --> 01:37:12,960
So it's a serious thing.

1754
01:37:16,760 --> 01:37:19,120
Wait, so this is...? Patient care.

1755
01:37:19,120 --> 01:37:20,400
This is where our patients
are stored. OK.

1756
01:37:20,400 --> 01:37:22,120
200-plus people.

1757
01:37:23,880 --> 01:37:26,560
And it's surprisingly not as cold
as you would expect,

1758
01:37:26,560 --> 01:37:27,880
so go ahead and walk through.

1759
01:37:38,520 --> 01:37:43,560
Each of these cylinders holds
four full bodies, or 40 heads.

1760
01:37:45,200 --> 01:37:47,440
It costs $80,000 for a head...

1761
01:37:49,160 --> 01:37:51,360
..over 200 grand for a body.

1762
01:37:57,560 --> 01:37:58,800
Can I ask this? Sure.

1763
01:37:58,800 --> 01:38:00,560
Do we know which one
of these Hal Finney is in?

1764
01:38:01,800 --> 01:38:03,800
If I did, I couldn't tell you. OK.

1765
01:38:03,800 --> 01:38:04,880
But he's in one of these?

1766
01:38:04,880 --> 01:38:06,040
He is in one, yes.

1767
01:38:09,000 --> 01:38:11,400
I call it a cruise ship - a cruise
ship into the future, right?

1768
01:38:11,400 --> 01:38:12,960
But again...
A cruise ship into the future?

1769
01:38:12,960 --> 01:38:14,080
Yeah, think about this.

1770
01:38:14,080 --> 01:38:16,360
Like, I'm on a boat with
a bunch of other people

1771
01:38:16,360 --> 01:38:18,640
who've elected to do this.

1772
01:38:18,640 --> 01:38:19,880
And they are fascinating people.

1773
01:38:19,880 --> 01:38:21,320
I wish I could tell you
some of the people.

1774
01:38:21,320 --> 01:38:22,520
They're people you've heard of,

1775
01:38:22,520 --> 01:38:25,000
that have invented things that
have changed the world,

1776
01:38:25,000 --> 01:38:26,560
and I get to be
a passenger on that cruise ship.

1777
01:38:31,640 --> 01:38:35,400
Do people take things with them?

1778
01:38:35,400 --> 01:38:39,720
Yes, when you sign up here,
you're actually given a box.

1779
01:38:39,720 --> 01:38:40,840
And that box -

1780
01:38:40,840 --> 01:38:42,720
called a memory box,
or what have you -

1781
01:38:42,720 --> 01:38:44,200
that is not stored here.

1782
01:38:44,200 --> 01:38:47,280
Just to make it clear to everybody,
we don't have that here.

1783
01:38:47,280 --> 01:38:49,000
And so you get a memory box to...

1784
01:38:49,000 --> 01:38:50,800
Essentially,
if you were to be reanimated -

1785
01:38:50,800 --> 01:38:53,160
your brain - in any meaningful way,

1786
01:38:53,160 --> 01:38:56,520
that would be a way for you
to kind of, like, connect the dots.

1787
01:38:56,520 --> 01:38:59,000
So, what kind of things do people
put in their box?

1788
01:38:59,000 --> 01:39:01,360
Photos, thumb drives.

1789
01:39:01,360 --> 01:39:04,160
Some people, you know,
there's a big question of money.

1790
01:39:04,160 --> 01:39:05,680
What happens if you're brought back

1791
01:39:05,680 --> 01:39:07,480
and there's no money to live
off of? Right.

1792
01:39:11,600 --> 01:39:15,440
What if Satoshi, whoever they
were... Mm-hm.

1793
01:39:17,360 --> 01:39:21,840
..was, let's say,
preserved in a facility like this?

1794
01:39:23,360 --> 01:39:27,720
They would need money when they were
reanimated in the future. Sure.

1795
01:39:28,960 --> 01:39:32,200
Could that original
Bitcoin wallet be, basically,

1796
01:39:32,200 --> 01:39:35,000
a trust for the afterlife?

1797
01:39:35,000 --> 01:39:36,160
Could be.

1798
01:39:36,160 --> 01:39:37,480
Like, when I first thought of it,
I was like,

1799
01:39:37,480 --> 01:39:39,440
"Oh, no, that's a crazy theory."

1800
01:39:39,440 --> 01:39:41,880
Is it crazy? Is it?

1801
01:39:41,880 --> 01:39:43,120
Or is it logical?

1802
01:39:43,120 --> 01:39:44,080
What would you do?

1803
01:39:47,640 --> 01:39:50,000
VOICE-OVER: What WOULD I do?

1804
01:39:50,000 --> 01:39:54,240
Well, if I believed I was
going to come back from the dead...

1805
01:39:55,120 --> 01:39:56,520
..I'd do what the Pharaohs did.

1806
01:39:57,880 --> 01:40:01,800
I'd have myself buried
with my treasure.

1807
01:40:07,760 --> 01:40:10,760
Perhaps no one has touched
those original wallets...

1808
01:40:14,200 --> 01:40:17,280
..because they're a pot of gold
for the future.

1809
01:40:29,480 --> 01:40:32,760
Or maybe there's
a simpler explanation.

1810
01:40:32,760 --> 01:40:35,120
BRAM: Satoshi actually rage quit.

1811
01:40:35,120 --> 01:40:37,400
"Fuck y'all! I'm out of here!"
BRAM CHUCKLES

1812
01:40:37,400 --> 01:40:38,480
And just leave,

1813
01:40:38,480 --> 01:40:39,720
and burn the bridges
on the way out.

1814
01:40:40,960 --> 01:40:46,880
Maybe, whoever Satoshi was,
they destroyed the keys,

1815
01:40:46,880 --> 01:40:48,440
got rid of them,

1816
01:40:48,440 --> 01:40:51,520
to ensure that they would remain
anonymous forever.

1817
01:40:58,880 --> 01:41:00,880
VINCE CATE: So, you know how
when Cortes came to the New World,

1818
01:41:00,880 --> 01:41:02,600
he burned his ships
so there was no going back?

1819
01:41:05,000 --> 01:41:08,720
I would suspect that all
those early Bitcoin that he did,

1820
01:41:08,720 --> 01:41:10,920
he's probably destroyed the keys
for those coins.

1821
01:41:12,720 --> 01:41:16,040
And that anything that could prove
that he was Satoshi,

1822
01:41:16,040 --> 01:41:17,000
it's all gone.

1823
01:41:18,480 --> 01:41:20,680
So it would never be possible
to change his mind.

1824
01:41:25,080 --> 01:41:29,760
In the 1990s,
at the dawn of the internet age,

1825
01:41:29,760 --> 01:41:32,240
a group of cypherpunks
had a vision.

1826
01:41:35,760 --> 01:41:38,120
MIKE LORREY:
Artificial intelligence,

1827
01:41:38,120 --> 01:41:42,440
intelligence augmentation of
humans,

1828
01:41:42,440 --> 01:41:44,000
nanotechnology,

1829
01:41:44,000 --> 01:41:46,280
genetic engineering,

1830
01:41:46,280 --> 01:41:47,800
space colonisation.

1831
01:41:49,040 --> 01:41:51,240
Bitcoin was just a part of it.

1832
01:41:53,640 --> 01:41:55,840
They wanted to change everything...

1833
01:41:57,560 --> 01:42:01,160
..from the way we use money,
to the way we're governed,

1834
01:42:01,160 --> 01:42:03,360
to conquering death itself.

1835
01:42:05,880 --> 01:42:10,440
Once upon a time, those ideas
seemed like distant dreams.

1836
01:42:14,480 --> 01:42:15,560
Not any more.

1837
01:42:15,560 --> 01:42:17,960
APPLAUSE

1838
01:42:17,960 --> 01:42:20,240
DONALD TRUMP: His name is Elon Musk.

1839
01:42:20,240 --> 01:42:21,880
He saved free speech.

1840
01:42:21,880 --> 01:42:24,800
He created
so many different, great things.

1841
01:42:26,280 --> 01:42:27,840
Come here.

1842
01:42:27,840 --> 01:42:29,560
Take over, Elon. Just take over.

1843
01:42:34,440 --> 01:42:36,120
Hi, everyone.

1844
01:42:36,120 --> 01:42:38,920
CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

1845
01:42:38,920 --> 01:42:40,520
All of a sudden,

1846
01:42:40,520 --> 01:42:44,760
the geeks and misfits who got
rich off the cypherpunk revolution...

1847
01:42:45,560 --> 01:42:46,640
..are in charge.

1848
01:42:48,360 --> 01:42:51,160
The 20th century went on
in this zombie way for,

1849
01:42:51,160 --> 01:42:53,800
like, another 20 years in
the 2000's and 2010's.

1850
01:42:55,480 --> 01:42:59,760
And somehow the 20th century
is actually over.

1851
01:43:03,720 --> 01:43:05,040
I don't see how it recovers.

1852
01:43:06,720 --> 01:43:08,040
It's over.

1853
01:43:10,160 --> 01:43:15,320
COMPUTERISED VOICE: Warning,
warning, warning, warning...

1854
01:43:15,320 --> 01:43:18,320
The future begins right now...

1855
01:43:20,800 --> 01:43:23,240
..and it belongs to them.

1856
01:43:23,240 --> 01:43:26,080
UPBEAT ROCK MUSIC,
CHEERS AND APPLAUSE

1857
01:43:29,160 --> 01:43:30,520
ELON MUSK ROARS

1858
01:43:52,640 --> 01:43:59,360
That's one small step for a man,
one giant leap for mankind.