Photo: Jeff Neumann/SHOWTIME
If youre a fan of the Showtime drama Billions but having a tough time following the current seasons cryptocurrency story lines, youre not alone. Not only do the actors have trouble keeping up with the series twists and turns, even those who work in the financial sector dont necessarily understand crypto mining, a subject that pops up several times in season five. Half the people in finance couldnt explain what mining is to you, says New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich, who joined the Billions writers room this season as a consulting producer. A large percentage of them have no idea, because its complex.
As the writer of Bitcoin Billionaires and The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal the latter of which was adapted into the movie The Social Network Mezrich is a natural fit for the Billions team. His expert knowledge of cryptocurrency has provided the series with an opportunity to further explore this once-dark, underground area of finance. He also wrote this seasons third episode, which has Gordie Axelrod (Jack Gore), son of billionaire Bobby Axe Axelrod (Damian Lewis), running his own crypto-mining operation.
From the safety of his home in Quechee, Vermont, where hes riding out the COVID-19 pandemic, Mezrich was kind enough to guide Vulture through the intricacies of these esoteric plotlines. The result is this useful explainer for those of us who love Billions, but are still lost when characters like Axe and Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti) start talking Bitcoin and blockchain.
Its a form of electronic money that sparked interest in recent years due to its skyrocketing prices. Its money that goes instantly from one person to the other, and theres no middleman, says Mezrich. A can be sent from person-to-person via their phone, just like a text.
The most well-known example of cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, which was created in 2009. But theres almost an infinite amount of cryptos at this point, says Mezrich.
This is the process of how the money is transferred from person-to-person. Because cryptocurrency doesnt use banks, miners are the ones who verify each transaction. Say I send you a Bitcoin, says Mezrich. The way that transaction is verified is, miners are working on computers attached to the network, which are doing these mathematical equations. And these equations, when theyre solved, they verify our transaction, and as a reward, the miner gets a certain amount of Bitcoin.
The process is very much like a contest, because all these different miners are competing to solve the equation, with the winner getting the Bitcoin. Mezrich likens mining to the race for the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: You open all these wrappers and one of them is gonna have a piece of gold in it. But you dont know which one, and so youre incentivized to get all the [chocolate bars] you can. This is what these miners are doing: Theyre just continually trying to solve these equations. Because whoever solves it first, gets the golden ticket the Bitcoin.
You probably remember this term being bandied about by Chuck last season regarding mobile voting. A blockchain is a digital database containing information that can be simultaneously used and shared within a large, decentralized, publicly accessible network, according to Merriam-Webster.
Because its where all crypto transactions are logged. If I send you one Bitcoin, says Mezrich, that transaction is logged onto the blockchain. And the way it becomes verified is by these miners. Theyre the ones who essentially put these equations onto the blockchain.
Those guys are miners, and they were dealing with the aforementioned mathematical equations, which are not only very complicated, but require enormous amounts of computing power, says Mezrich. If you walk into a crypto mine, its computer after computer after computernot unlike what was inside the sketchy warehouse that served as the miners base in the episode.
The miners were drawing power from a town in upstate New York, which is where the legal issue comes into play. The problem is, if youre mining Bitcoin and you need to draw tons and tons of power, eventually, that cost can be more than what youre earning, explains Mezrich. So miners are always trying to find cheaper electricity. Enter the small town in question: The town gave the miners priority over their electrical power. By doing that, the miners are saving a lot of money, and they make a kickback deal with the town to get cheap electricity, but the way they get the cheap electricity is its being routed to them rather than the rest of the town, causing brownouts.
Axe is involved because hes the leader of a consortium that combined its resources to fund this operation. In the general scheme of things, its not a bring-down-Axe crime, but its certainly a way in [for Chuck], says Mezrich. So for now, there isnt enough evidence connecting him to this venture for Chuck to take legal action yet.
Instead of just mining Bitcoin, Gordie was mining a lot of different cryptos at once out of his prep-school basement. The way Axe describes his sons scheme to Wags (David Costabile) Its the smart way to do the stupid thing he was doing isnt much different from how Mezrich explains it. With multi-mining, you have a better chance of making money and you have less of a chance of getting caught, because youre hacking electricity on a smaller scale.
He was trying to pull down enough electricity to power a whole bank of crypto mines a bunch of computers to run all these calculations, says Mezrich. In so doing, he ended up short-circuiting and causing a massive power-grid failure.
Mezrich admits that Billions took a bit of dramatic license here.
He absolutely committed a crime by tapping into his schools (and the towns) power grid. If he had had his own power source, if he was just working at home with that, it wouldnt be illegal, says Mezrich. As for the actual crypto mining, Mezrich used Gordies tradition-bound prep-school headmaster as a stand-in for those who still see Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as the dirty part of the finance world. The mainstream has still not accepted it, he says. The headmaster would be one of the types who sees [Gordies behavior] as an affront to the men of honor that these kids are supposed to become.
View original post here:
What to Know About Billions' Cryptocurrency Drama If You Know Nothing About Cryptocurrency - Vulture
- Bitcoin Just Did Something It Has Only Done 3 Times Before. The Cryptocurrency Usually Does This Next. - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Market News: Bitcoin Halving Steadies Price, Network Transaction Fees Spike - Investopedia - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Just Did Something It Has Only Done 3 Times Before. The Cryptocurrency Usually Does This Next. - Yahoo Finance - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- 10 Best Cryptocurrencies To Buy In April 2024 - Forbes - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Movement Labs raises $38 million to build layer 2 blockchain on Ethereum with Facebook tech - Fortune - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cardano Founder Charles Hoskinson Reiterates Core Purpose of Cryptocurrency Here's What You Need to Know - Cryptonews - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- From Cryptocurrency to Cannabis: 7 Penny Stocks on the Rise - InvestorPlace - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- South Carolina: Cryptocurrency scams on the rise in Upstate - WYFF4 Greenville - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Binance BNB Memecoin Traders Join 100X New Cryptocurrency On Uniswap - Yahoo Finance - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- The Future of Real Estate: Investing in Tokenized Properties with Cryptocurrency - ForexLive - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- The Current Position with Cryptocurrency Regulation in the United States - Latest Cryptocurrency Prices & Articles - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- 3 Must-Know Facts About Ethereum, Before You Buy the Cryptocurrency - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: 3 Meme Coins To Watch In May for Exponential Gains - Watcher Guru - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- EOS Falls 14% In Bearish Trade By Investing.com - Investing.com - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- The UItimate Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000 Today - The Motley Fool - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Romance scams involving AI images, cryptocurrency on the rise in Chicago - CBS Chicago - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Halving Event Of 2024: The Aftermath Forbes Advisor Australia - Forbes - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Ethereum Classic Down More Than 4% Within 24 hours - Benzinga - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: Top 3 Coins To Buy Now For 10X Gains In 2024 - Watcher Guru - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- What's going to be different with the halving of Bitcoin this time? - Euronews - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency OKB Decreases More Than 3% Within 24 hours - Benzinga - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency OKB Decreases More Than 3% Within 24 hours - Investing.com UK - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Kaspa Falls More Than 3% In 24 hours - Benzinga - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- BRICS To Replace US Dollar With Cryptocurrency for Trade - Watcher Guru - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Halving Sparks Unprecedented Transformation in Cryptocurrency Market - West Island Blog - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Influential Analyst on YouTube Shares High-Potential Cryptocurrency That Could Beat Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE) Gains in This Bull Run -... - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Uniswap Up More Than 3% In 24 hours By Benzinga - Investing.com UK - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Bitcoin is halving again what does that mean for the cryptocurrency and the market? - The Conversation - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Ethereum Classic Down More Than 4% Within 24 hours By Benzinga - Investing.com UK - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- RackNerd Expands Cryptocurrency Payment Options with Coinify Integration, Accepting Over 30 Cryptocurrencies - PR Web - April 25th, 2024 [April 25th, 2024]
- What Meltdown? Crypto Comes Roaring Back in the Philippines. - The New York Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Chinas cryptocurrency investors made gains of US$1 billion in 2023 - South China Morning Post - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- 1 Super Cryptocurrency Could Soar to $200,000 by 2025, According to a Wall Street Analyst - The Motley Fool - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Miners Need to Report their Energy Use - Earthjustice - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Understanding the Fundamental Differences Between Cryptocurrency and Fiat Currency - FinSMEs - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- SOL Flips BNB, Becoming 4th Largest Cryptocurrency as Ethereum Becomes Next Target - CCN.com - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Prosecutors seek from 40 to 50 years in prison for Sam Bankman-Fried for cryptocurrency fraud - The Associated Press - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: 3 Meme Coins That Could 15x This Bull Season - Watcher Guru - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Can the Bitcoin surge push India to overcome its cryptocurrency hurdles? - The National - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- The Ultimate Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000 Today - Yahoo Finance - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency laundryman gets hung out to dry - The Register - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Bitcoin price predictions: How much more could it rise in 2024? - Euronews - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Shiba Inu Is Skyrocketing: Is It a Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Right Now? - Yahoo Finance - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- 1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Before It Soars 1,328%, According to Cathie Wood of Ark Invest - The Motley Fool - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- The other Bitcoin rally: How scams are cashing in on the cryptocurrency fever - EL PAS USA - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Kalshi Prediction Market To Introduce Cryptocurrency Betting (Payouts In USD) - Blockchain Magazine - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Hits Record $72,000, Emboldening Crypto Industry - The New York Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Solana (SOL) Flips BNB to Become 4th Largest Cryptocurrency - Watcher Guru - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Predicting which Cryptocurrency will Boom in 2024 - ForexLive - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Nigeria's Cryptocurrency Crackdown Will Have Consequences, Experts Say - Voice of America - VOA News - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Crypto ETN providers head for UK but urge rethink on retail ban - Financial Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Trump Signals Positive Stance on Cryptocurrency If Elected to the White House - Yahoo Finance - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Bulls vs. Bubble Bears: A Cryptocurrency Clash - Crypto Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Imprison crypto fraudster Bankman-Fried 40 to 50 years, say feds - New York Daily News - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Is This The Best Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000? - Analytics Insight - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- How Immortalboost.com Connects Gamers and Cryptocurrency - TheXboxHub - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Avalanche (AVAX) Created Millionaires, Here's The New A.I Exchange Cryptocurrency Predicted Huge Gains In 2024 - Analytics Insight - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Solana volume leapfrogs Ethereum as memecoin frenzy seen sending price to $415 - DLNews - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Bitcoin alternatives, from Ether to Dogecoin - Quartz - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Price on March 12: Bitcoin trades near $72,000; Toncoin, Avalanche jump up to 34% - The Economic Times - March 18th, 2024 [March 18th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: 3 Coins To Watch Under $1 as Bitcoin Hits $56,000 - Watcher Guru - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- The Ultimate Cryptocurrency to Buy With $1,000 Today - The Motley Fool - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- The vast Ponzi scheme that is cryptocurrency - The Pasadena Star-News - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Exploring the World of Global Cryptocurrency Exchanges - Indiana Daily Student - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency Prices And News: Bitcoin Price Hits 27-Month High Above $57000 - Investor's Business Daily - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- 7 Best Cryptocurrency Investing Strategies | Investing | U.S. News - U.S News & World Report Money - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency fraud costs: $1.56 billion in 2023 - Accounting Today - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Expanding Horizons: WDC Quantify's 2024 Plan to Revolutionize Cryptocurrency Trading and Investment - Morningstar - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- BC Court Upholds Temporary Freeze on Cryptocurrency Mining Connections to BC Hydro Grid - BlockTribune - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms Win Temporary Restraining Order Against DoE Cryptocurrency Mining ... - BlockTribune - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Bitcoin price passes $57,000 to hit 2-year high - Quartz - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- More from Fed's Schmid: Would be a mistake to consider cryptocurrency as a currency - ForexLive - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- 1 Top Cryptocurrency to Buy Before It Soars 4,500%, According to Cathie Wood's Ark Invest - The Motley Fool - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Cryptocurrency: 3 Coins That Could Surge in March - Watcher Guru - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Blockchain Unveiled: Beyond Cryptocurrency Lies a World of Opportunity - AutoGPT Official - AutoGPT - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Updated Bitcoin prices outlook for 2024 By Investing.com - Investing.com - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Suspicious Activity Surrounds BitForex Cryptocurrency Exchange The Merkle News - The Merkle Hash - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Donald Trump's Cryptocurrency Portfolio Tops $5M, Thanks to $2.9M in Trump-Branded Tokens Bitcoin News - Bitcoin.com News - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Matthew Perry's X account hacked and soliciting cryptocurrency donations through fraudulent site - MSN - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]
- Bitcoin: Here's why the flagship cryptocurrency keeps soaring - Cointribune EN - February 27th, 2024 [February 27th, 2024]