- The video discusses the rise of cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, and the technology behind it called blockchain.
- Bitcoin's value has surged in recent years, attracting attention from celebrities and the general public.
- However, there are still technical issues to be resolved before Bitcoin can become a widely used currency.
- The video explains that blockchain technology allows for faster and more secure transactions, as it is decentralized and stored across multiple computers.
- Companies like Walmart and J.P. Morgan are experimenting with blockchain for data and transaction security.
- The video concludes by highlighting the hype around blockchain, with companies adding the term to their names to attract investment.

- Long Island Ice Tea renamed themselves Long Blockchain and their stock tripled, showing the power of the blockchain hype.
- There are now over 1,500 cryptocurrencies available, some with ridiculous names like TITCOIN and DEEPONION.
- Initial coin offerings (ICOs) raised over $6 billion in 2017, with some companies raising millions in seconds.
- Many people are buying cryptocurrencies without understanding the details of the startups behind them.
- There is a subculture of YouTube personalities and subreddits dedicated to buying and promoting cryptocurrencies.
- Pump and dump schemes and other fraudulent activities are prevalent in the crypto market.
- BitConnect, a cryptocurrency that promised high returns, collapsed and was labeled as a Ponzi scheme.
- It can be difficult to differentiate between legitimate blockchain companies and scams during the speculative mania.
- Block.one, a startup that raised $1.5 billion for its EOS project, has been criticized for having no clear purpose or software.
- The crypto market is currently unregulated and ripe for exploitation.

- The video discusses the cryptocurrency EOS and its association with Brock Pierce
- Brock Pierce has a controversial past and has teamed up with EOS to promote their product
- The video questions the trustworthiness of someone who organizes a unicorn wedding at Burning Man and is trusted with $1.5 billion
- The video suggests that investing in cryptocurrency is more like gambling than investing
- The crypto market is volatile and insufficiently regulated, with frequent pumping and dumping
- The video advises to never invest more than you are willing to lose and to be cautious in the cryptocurrency space.

The video discusses the rise of cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin, and the technology behind it called blockchain. It highlights the technical issues that still need to be resolved for Bitcoin to become widely used. The video explains the benefits of blockchain technology for faster and more secure transactions. It mentions companies like Walmart and J.P. Morgan experimenting with blockchain. The video also discusses the hype around blockchain, with companies adding the term to their names to attract investment. It mentions the large number of cryptocurrencies available and the popularity of initial coin offerings (ICOs). The video warns about the prevalence of fraudulent activities in the crypto market and the difficulty of differentiating between legitimate companies and scams. It mentions the controversy surrounding the cryptocurrency EOS and its association with Brock Pierce. The video suggests that investing in cryptocurrency is more like gambling and advises caution in the crypto market.

Digital currencies are generating a lot of excitement. John Oliver enlists Keegan-Michael Key to get potential investors equally excited about the concept of caution.

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-♪ ♪ -♪ ♪ Technology, the thing that will eventually make television so high-def, I will no longer be allowed to appear on it.

And I want to approach this subject carefully, because discussions of any new technology tend to age very badly, as this news report from less than 5 years ago shows.

The first users of Google glasses surely will not be the last.

I think it'll end up changing our lifestyles.

You know, changing the way we interact with each other.

Because for some reason, people didn't mind doing this with their hands if the alternative was wearing a stupid robot on their face all day.

The point is, it is dangerous to make predictions about where tech is going.

So that said, tonight, we're going to talk about cryptocurrencies.

Everything you don't understand about money combined with everything you don't understand about computers.

--LAUGHTER --The main currency you've probably heard about is Bitcoin.

It's been all over the news, because last year, its value exploded from around $1,000 at the beginning of the year, to $9,000 by November, to nearly $20,000 by December.

Bitcoin became such a hot topic that paparazzi started asking celebrities about it.

Watch Michael Keaton leaving a restaurant.

to my buddy about that, He knows about this.

1 guy said, yeah, he probably want to, another friend of mine said,

not like it's a bad thing, they just don't know where it's gonna go.

I've gotta say, you do not expect conversations with paparazzi to be so nuanced.

Hey, Cardi B, what are your thoughts on the idea of universal basic income?

Well, it could go a long way to reducing inequality, but I don't think the American people would support the tax increase necessary to fund it.

You can read all about it in my book, Cardinomics, Making Money moves for a new American century.

Because just a few years ago, you'd only hear about Bitcoin from that 1 guy in your office who wouldn't shut up about it.

And The reason that we're calling him Dan is that Dan is the exact guy in our office who's been annoying everybody with his you gotta get into Bitcoin shit for years.

It's honestly not the only reason, but it's the easiest 1 to bring up right now.

The point is, lately, more and more normal people, or non-Dans, have been getting into cryptocurrencies, partly because they may have seen stories like this.

I had to open my door just to get food at the drive-thru.

Everything changed when he met a friend who introduced him to Bitcoin.

He became a millionaire at 24, all by investing in Bitcoin.

I can literally put in a trade, wait a few hours, let the exchange rate fluctuate, and I'm actually able to profit from the world's largest financial market in the world.

Yes, that man is apparently a millionaire now, which is presumably why he's being interviewed on the most expensive outdoor swamp log in South Florida.

And despite the fact that Bitcoin has dropped by nearly half since the start of this year, there is still a cryptocurrency fervor going on with people watching people like that guy get rich, or hearing about others on Reddit or Twitter, and feeling driven to invest in crypto due to FOMO, or fear of missing out.

Now, FOMO is a term that many of you probably already knew about, but I'm 40 years old, British and oblivious, or FYOBO.

So with all this excitement and curiosity, We thought we'd try and explain a few things tonight.

Bitcoin, blockchain, the technology that allows it to exist, and cryptocurrencies in general.

And I'm going to be simplifying things a lot here.

So let's start with Bitcoin, which is a digital decentralized currency.

That basically means Bitcoin only exists as computer code, and there is no bank or government creating or controlling it.

And I know that this is already a little hard to understand, so I'll let this man in a Bitcoin suit give you a surprisingly decent explanation.

Open source, not controlled by any government, corporation, or individual.

That is a nuanced and accurate explanation of a complex topic delivered with the help of a man in a stupid costume, and I would love to make fun of that, except it's literally the entire business model of this fucking television show.

And look, you may at this point be thinking, but wait, how do you make money from Bitcoin?

To which Dan would say, you just trade it on exchanges like any other currency.

And if you then asked, well, how does it have value?

Dan would reply, how does any money have value, man?

And then he'd say, call me the brain-filator, because I just blew your fucking mind.

To which you'd say, forget I asked, Dan, you're absolutely gross, I hate you.

But the problem is, Dan is kind of right.

Like most currencies, The fundamental reason that Bitcoin has value is because people agree that it has value.

In fact, at the moment, it's really being treated more like a speculative investment than a currency.

Why is this Beanie Baby currently being offered for sale on Etsy at a price of $15,000?

Well, because its owner thinks that someone will pay that for it.

I just bought this at a yard sale for $10,000.

And look, while Bitcoin is very interesting as a concept, there are still some complicated technical issues to work out before it can become a usable, everyday currency.

Hundreds are in Miami this week for a Bitcoin conference, but it had to stop taking Bitcoin as a payment for tickets last week, suggesting there are still some kinks to work out with the currency.

A Bitcoin conference stopped taking Bitcoin, which is a red flag, since that's the 1 place you'd think it would be accepted.

It's like when I tried to pay for access to the Republican National Convention using Ronald Reagan's dusty skeleton bones.

Everyone there agreed they had value, there just wasn't an adequate network in place for the completion of our transaction.

But, whether Bitcoin catches on or not, many people believe that the really exciting thing about it is the potential of the innovative technology that it's built on, and that's something called Blockchain.

Now, Normally, if I wanted to send money to someone across the world, a bank would need to verify that transaction and it could take days.

But with Bitcoin, it is vastly faster because no bank is involved.

And that is because blockchain technology allows a record or a ledger of every Bitcoin transaction ever made to be stored not in 1 place, but across vast numbers of computers.

That is part of what people mean when they say Bitcoin is decentralized.

And decentralization has a lot of theoretical advantages from speed to security.

The key point here is that this is a distributed ledger.

All the other ledgers that we have, all banking ledgers, all company ledgers, they all sit and reside inside that company, which means they have 1 point of attack, they can be hacked.

JPMorgan was hacked by, you know, cyber thieves not so long ago.

Home Depot, Target, we've had all these companies get hacked.

Precisely because there's 1 central repository of information.

The Bitcoin ledger resides on, you know, thousands of computers.

And when you think about it, that sounds great.

And because of the complicated process the network uses to verify records, it is very secure.

Now relax, I'm not gonna get into what that process is or how it works, but I will share a really helpful, really dumb metaphor for why it is safe.

The way I like to think of it is that a blockchain is a highly processed thing, sort of like a chicken McNugget.

And if you wanted to hack it, it'd be like turning a Chicken McNugget back into a chicken.

that, but for now, it's going to be tough.

So why is that reporter so happy about the idea?

Because if anyone ever figures out how to turn a chicken McNugget back into a chicken, that chicken is going to be fucked up!

He's gonna spend the rest of his life suffering from PTSD and writing haunting poetry about the experience.

So, very basically, that is the blockchain, a database that is nearly impossible to hack or tamper with, and which could possibly improve security, efficiency, and trust.

That is why big companies like Walmart, IBM, and J.P.

Morgan have all been experimenting with blockchain as a way to potentially share and secure data and transactions in a reliable, easy-to-access way.

No 1 yet knows what blockchain is really capable of.

Honestly, don't worry if you still don't understand it.

And sure, he'll throw around terms like supply chain management, and it makes me wanna punch him in his fucking face.

Stop leaving printouts of Reddit threads on my desk, Dan!

-♪ ♪ -♪ The problem is, there is now enough excitement around the very word, blockchain, that it's become a magnet for investment.

Reuters found that existing companies that merely added the word blockchain to their name saw their stock price, on average, increase more than threefold.

Long Island Ice Tea renamed themselves Long Blockchain, and guess what happened?

To people who watch markets, this seems so stupid, it's not even worth reporting.

Well, I don't care how stupid it is, it clearly works.

That is why from now on, this show will be called Last Bit Tonight with Blockchainever.

So now, at this point, you know basically what Bitcoin is, it's the future, bro.

And why people are excited about blockchain.

It won't let people chicken up your nugs.

But, you might still be wondering, well, What about all the other cryptocurrencies that I've heard about?

Okay, well, the key software to create a coin is open source, meaning that just about anyone can create 1.

There are now over 1,500 cryptocurrencies that you can buy with names like TITCOIN, TRUMPCOIN, JESUSCOIN, INSANECOIN, ELECTRONIUM, WAX, PARTICLE, DEEPONION, SNOVIO, PLUTON, NEWBITS, and CLAMS, a list so insane that you can't tell which ones are real and which are made up, because they're all real.

I tried to come up with a dumber name than Deep Onion, and it just can't be done.

And look, not all of these coins are like Bitcoin, just hoping to be the next currency.

Oftentimes, startup companies will sell a coin to try and raise money as an alternative to issuing stock, and sometimes, those coins are meant as tokens to be used for services that the start-up might eventually provide.

Cheese, only virtual and not redeemable at a rat-based food emporium.

It has become incredibly easy to issue coins, so companies are doing it a lot.

Initial coin offerings, or ICOs, raised over 6000000000 dollars in 2017, with 1 company raising 35 million in under 30 seconds.

Normally, when someone makes that much money that fast, they did it by walking up to Bill O'Reilly, sitting in silence for 26 seconds, and then saying, -"I recorded our phone calls." -$25,000.

Of people buying these coins are not paying much attention to the details of the startups they're attached to.

They are just responding to the huge fervor.

There is an entire online subculture of YouTube personalities and subreddits that have a cult-like devotion to buying these coins.

And if you stumble into 1, you'll find they have a whole shorthand.

1 key term is HODL, based on a misspelling of hold.

Don't sell when prices drop, instead hodl in the face of FUD, fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Otherwise, you might miss out when the coin moons or rockets up in value, meaning you'll get wrecked or lose money and never be able to afford the trader's ultimate goal, a Lambo, which is short for Lamborghini, because of course it fucking is.

And if you are thinking that these terms belong in a rap video, some crypto traders agree.

Throw your hands in the air, man ♪ -♪ Fly!

♪ If you're down with the blockchain ♪ -♪ I ain't got time for the haters, man ♪ -♪ Nope!

We about to grow to a million ♪ -♪ Grow!

-♪ Hodl gang, hodl gang, hodl gang ♪ -♪ Oh!

♪ Tell me, are you down with the crypto?

♪ Hodl gang, hodl gang, hodl gang, hodl gang, hodl gang, hodl gang, hodl gang.

And I've got to be honest there, it is hard not to watch that and deep down want to be in the hodl gang.

The point is, Many people are buying coins for no reason other than that other people are buying them.

And this mania has gotten to the point where even a coin started as a complete joke, like Dogecoin, can rocket up in value.

It's named after an internet meme that was popular at the time, a photo of Shiba Inu with colorful comments written in broken English around it, as you can see.

Now, Dogecoin's total market value has almost doubled since the start of this year to over 2000000000 dollars.

There appear to be no obvious reasons for this.

Yeah, that's because there were no obvious reasons.

The whole point of the coin was to make fun of how people will buy anything, and then people did exactly that.

That is no less ridiculous than if you started a joke band after The Beatles called The Waffles that was all St.

Bernard's, and they went on to have 40 number 1 hits and were knighted by the queen.

This is clearly ridiculous, but for investors, it's also potentially dangerous, because right now, this market is essentially the Wild West and ripe for exploitation.

For instance, it can be easy to manipulate the value of certain coins through things like pump and dump schemes.

Regulators crack down on those when they happen with stocks, but they've been slower to act in the crypto market.

And that may explain why some groups have felt perfectly comfortable posting videos like this.

Welcome to Crypto Calls, a leading cryptocurrency pump group, where we skyrocket the value of coins for 6 hours at a time for information about our weekly pumps including the name of the coin we are pumping follow our telegram channel once released be sure to buy the coin as quickly as possible when everyone in the group has purchased the coin we will begin advertising it to other investors on social media.

During the final hour, outside investors will fill our orders as they FOMO into the coin that we have increased in value 1,000 to 2,000 percent.

By the time that the 6 hours is up, everyone in our group will have sold for profit.

It's kind of destabilizing just to have brazen advertisement for something that you could have sworn was illegal.

It's like watching a commercial and hearing, hey, Do you not have a child?

Then Kidnapper's Corner is the group for you.

Here at Kidnapper's Corner, we take children that are not ours and bring them home with us.

And look, pump and dumps are just the beginning here.

There are dodgy companies everywhere, some of which just look like old-school frauds with some crypto source poured on top.

At 1 point, it was worth around 3000000000 dollars.

Now, BitConnect told investors that if they handed over money, they could get returns as high as 40 percent a month.

And a rate of return that high may immediately seem suspicious to you, but remember, the market was soaring and Biconnect had excited investors like this guy who spoke at 1 of the conferences.

What's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, what's up, Biconnect!

Let me tell you that we are really changing the world as we know it.

The world is not anymore the way it used to be.

I saw someone that irrationally exuberant about a major commitment, he was roughly 7 years away from divorcing Katie Holmes.

Yeah, and I don't blame him for anything there.

Now, that man's passion has become famous in the crypto world, as well as his conviction that the business he'd become involved in was 100% legit.

I am saying to so many people who said that this was going to be a con artist game, that this was gonna be a scammer game, hey, you're gonna lose all your money.

When I started to put $10,000 a day on her, right on her, you know, on her table, then she's going to say, whoa!

Always nagging you not to get sucked into get-rich-quick schemes, leaving your marriage in a state of financial ruin.

Regulators in 2 states issued cease and desist orders and BitConnect's reportedly been labeled a Ponzi scheme by many in the industry.

Something nobody had any reason to suspect from their promotional material, except that it featured this actual illustration of their bonus system, which seems to just be a picture of a man coming up with the idea for a pyramid scheme.

And I am not saying that every crypto coin is a scam, just as I'm not saying that every blockchain company is bullshit.

What I am saying is, in a speculative mania, it can be incredibly hard to tell which companies are for real.

And if you want a good example of this, just look at Block.one.

It's a startup whose coin offering has so far raised 1 and a half billion dollars, which will go toward developing a new type of software project called EOS.

Now, just for context, it took Facebook 7 years to raise a billion dollars from investors.

And that is despite the fact that Wall Street Journal described Block.one as a software startup that doesn't plan to sell any software, and describes what it's selling, a digital token, as having no purpose.

And while the company insists that EOS will be the most powerful infrastructure for Decentralized Applications, which they say will be usable.

So you sort of just have to take their word for it, and they do talk a big game.

Everything will be better, faster, and cheaper.

Everything that exists is no longer going to exist in the way that it does today.

Everything in this world is about to get better.

Everything that exists will no longer exist in the way that it does.

How the fuck is Eos going to change this iguana?

How is Eos going to both alter and improve Susan here.

Now, that sleepy, creepy cowboy from the future is named Brock Pierce.

He began his career appearing in The Mighty Ducks and in a gushers commercial as a child who turns into a banana.

Well, that banana then got involved with some very unsavory figures.

Just Google Brock Pierce scandal is all I'm saying there.

And then, he teamed up with EOS to help promote their not-yet-a-product.

He actually gave a speech at a tech conference last fall.

And I want you to remember, as you listen to every word he's about to say, the company he's describing has raised $1.5 billion.

This is a chestahedron that I'm wearing, which is the, the logo of EOS.

The chestahedron is the sacred geometrical shape of the heart.

And if you're going to bring a technology to the world that has the potential to change everything, it's good when you do it with intention.

And that seems like a good place to begin.

This was my wedding at Burning Man last year.

All the groomsmen were the color of the rainbow plus pink.

All the bridesmaids, the color of the rainbow plus pink, and my best man was a woman dressed in black, cracking a whip.

Okay, stop, Brock, stop, because I was already out at Chesterhedron.

And I simply refuse to believe that a man who has the time to organize a unicorn wedding at Burning Man should be trusted around 1 and a half billion dollars.

If someone turned up to mow your lawn and gave you that exact speech, you would tell them, no way, I don't trust you with my lawn.

You're just gonna organize a warlock quinceañera on it.

At the start of this piece, I said that I didn't want to make predictions, and who knows?

Maybe EOS is going to be the next Google.

I don't think it is, And I certainly don't think it can be worth over a billion dollars at this point, but I could be wrong.

The point is, if you choose to invest in the cryptocurrency space, just know that you're not investing, you're gambling.

Which is fine, but you should know that that is what you're doing.

Or it could be worth billions and adopted as a new global currency.

Although, if that does happen, I for 1 will not experience it because I'll be in an underground bunker trying to avoid Dan's smug little face for the rest of time.

I hate your belt more than anything else in that photo.

The important thing to remember here is that this is a brand new, very complicated space, and literally nobody knows how it's going to develop.

Caution is a tough sell when you're up against BitConnect and Hodl Gang.

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