We concluded our experiment as we returned home from Singapore, on November 2, 2013. In total, Beccy and I lived on bitcoin for 101 days. It’s now been exactly that long since we finished. A lot has happened in that time.
When we finished, a single bitcoin was worth roughly $200, BTC China was fast rising to become the world’s largest exchange, neither Overstock.com nor Newegg had announced any bitcoin plans, and Mt. Gox appeared to be healthy and happy. The price of bitcoin had been on a steady rise.
And kept rising.
As the price of bitcoin rose, media interest in our film rose with it.
Max Keiser was ahead of the pack, as he often is. He invited us to be on his show in London. Having just taken three weeks off work for our global trip, Beccy stayed in the States, and Austin went to London.
While there, The Wall Street Journal arranged a followup interview after we talked with reporter Paul Vigna in New York three weeks earlier. Austin also met up with with the fantastic staff from Coindesk. They were kind enough to name us one of the best bitcoin merchant pioneers of 2013.
NPR’s “Here & Now” interviewed us for their national broadcast, as well as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
We had interview requests coming in daily from a wide variety of media outlets, from local to global, niche to general interest. Austin even went to New York again for an interview. Some never aired, but hopefully will soon.
From the Wall Street Journal, to Al Jazeera, to NPR, a lot of major media outlets wanted to hear our story.
When the price dropped at the beginning of December, media requests slowed a bit, but our lives didn’t. The Inside Bitcoins conference in Las Vegas was a unique experience. It was fascinating to be with such a large group who not only understand bitcoin, but believe in crypto-currency’s future, both as a financial opportunity, but a force for good in the world.
Throw into the mix Beccy’s seasonal business, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, and we had a full calendar for the last couple months of 2013.
We even squeezed in a screening of the footage our crew is working with.
From 200 hours of raw footage of me and Beccy, the editors cut down to about 3 hours. We’ve seen a chronological run through of the major points that will be in the documentary, but there’s plenty still to work on. They’re now cutting the narrative together, weaving in the story of bitcoin itself, with dozens of interviews. We also will add motion graphics explaining some of the finer mechanics of bitcoin and currency in general, an original score, titles, and translations into several languages.
Starting out on a project like this is a big leap of faith. None of us have made a feature film before. But after the better part of a year of planning and filming and editing, you know what? It looks like we’ll have a film everyone can be proud of, including you, the supporters of this project.
I’m looking forward to meeting you when we debut the movie. Here’s hoping we make it to your town.