Getting started and learning about Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, and Blockchain can be a long and complex task. If you’re anything like me and find it easier to learn about a subject by watching YouTube videos or documentaries, here is a list I’ve compiled of our 10 best cryptocurrency documentaries to watch in 2024.
Depending on your location, my top 10 must-watch Bitcoin and blockchain documentaries can be found on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and even free on YouTube. They should help you learn about history and technology.
I’m sure I have missed plenty of Crypto and Bitcoin-related documentaries. If there are any you feel should be added to the list, please let me know in the comments below!
10 Best Crypto Documentaries to Watch in 2024
- Banking on Bitcoin
- Magic Money: The Bitcoin Revolution
- The Bitcoin Gospel
- The Blockchain and Us
- Bitcoin End of Money as We Know It
- The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin
- Ulterior States [IamSatoshi Documentary]
- The Bitcoin Phenomenon
- Deep Web
- Bitcoin: Beyond the Bubble
1. Banking on Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the most disruptive invention since the Internet, and now an ideological battle is underway between fringe utopists and mainstream capitalism. The film shows the players defining how this technology will shape our lives.
The Banking on Bitcoin documentary, released on Netflix in 2016, provided many people with their first introduction to the world of cryptocurrency. It stars many of Bitcoin’s early adopters, such as Charlie Shrem, Erik Voorhees, and the Winklevoss twins. Director Christopher Cannucciari is working on another Bitcoin-related documentary, ‘The Search for Satoshi.’
Released: 2016
Director: Christopher Cannucciari
2. Magic Money: The Bitcoin Revolution
Magic Money is a documentary film that explores the mysterious origins of Bitcoin. Starring Bitcoin celebrities Roger Ver and Tony Vays, it looks into the world’s first digital currency, Bitcoin and its role in society and how this digital currency could reshape the future of our world. For the first time in history, money was no longer controlled by banks and governments but by the people.
Released: 2017
Director: Tim Delmastro
3. The Bitcoin Gospel
Is Bitcoin the blueprint for a bankless currency or the biggest pyramid scheme ever? What if we could create money ourselves without the need for banks? Money that can’t be forged will appreciate rather than depreciate and that can be used worldwide without transaction costs. It exists, and some people consider it to be the digital version of precious Gold: Bitcoin.
4. The Blockchain and Us
When the Wright brothers invented the airplane in 1903, it was hard to imagine that over 500,000 people would be travelling in the air at any point today. In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin and the blockchain. For the first time in history, his invention made it possible to send money around the globe without banks, governments, or any other intermediaries.
Released: 2017
Director: Manuel Stagars
5. Bitcoin End of Money as We Know It
This is a concise and informative crash course about Money and Crypto Currencies for anyone who has not fully understood the controversial Bitcoin yet.
Released: 2015
Directors: Torsten Hoffmann (co-director), Michael Watchulonis (co-director)
6. The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin
A computer programmer becomes fascinated with the digital currency Bitcoin, and through his involvement in the Bitcoin community, we learn about the impending global impact of this amazing new technology.
Released: 2014
Director: Nicholas Mross
7. Ulterior States [IamSatoshi Documentary]
Ulterior States, an IamSatoshi production, is an argumentative documentary project. The participatory development, production, and post-‘ guerilla-film-making methods’ bounced between (non-academic) literature research, video interviews, and studio sessions. This investigative process allowed for real-life conversations with some thought leaders within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In an attempt to portray the community behind the message to adopt a network, being a one-man team allowed easier access to the subjects. The enthusiasm and commitment that saturate the lens in many parts of the film expose how the Bitcoin adopters want to explore, probe, and show the world something important that would otherwise be overlooked.
Released: 2015
8. The Bitcoin Phenomenon
Produced for SQ1.tv, this Bitcoin documentary looks at the history, ideologies, and conflict between the politics of the early adopters and the VCs/entrepreneurs pushing to take Bitcoin mainstream.
SQ1.tv interviewed many of the leaders in the Bitcoin movement, including Gavin Andresen, the former lead developer; Jeremy Liew, a venture capitalist; Erik Voorhees, one of the notable libertarians in the movement; Fred Ehrsam, co-founder of Coinbase; Peter Vessenes, head of the Bitcoin Foundation.
Released: 2014
9. Deep Web
A feature documentary that explores the rise of a new Internet: decentralized, encrypted, dangerous and beyond the law, with particular focus on the FBI capture of the Tor hidden service Silk Road and the judicial aftermath.
Released: 2015
10. Bitcoin: Beyond the Bubble
If you are struggling with the jargon-filled world of Bitcoin, then Bitcoin: Beyond the Bubble is for you. The film also examines other forms of money throughout history, such as gold, silver, and the US dollar. And Bitcoin is just seen as the next obvious evolution of money.
Released: 2018
Final Thoughts
I hope you find my top 10 Bitcoin documentaries list helpful! If you feel I have missed a must-watch documentary related to Bitcoin, Blockchain or Crypto, please let me know in the comments below, and I will add them to the list.