Bitcoin, the digital currency which is sweeping the world and outdoing itself year upon year, could well be the biggest thing for moving technology forward since Facebook and the iPhone. Both those aforementioned revolutions in the advancement of social media and mobile have had films made about them, so there is certainly strong potential for a feature about the versatile e-currency.

The pictures made about the rise of Apple and Facebook have mainly focused on the geniuses behind the inventions, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg. The most recent biopic, Steve Jobs, starred Michael Fassbender as the late co-founder of one of the biggest technology companies of all time, which is now worth $750 billion. The film directed by Danny Boyle premiered at the 2015 Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, and went on to win a Golden Globe award for Best Screenplay at the 73^rd Golden Globes. Fassbender and Kate Winslet also received nominations for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress respectively at the 88^th Academy Awards. In addition to critical acclaim, the Universal Pictures film was a box office hit. It made $34 million worldwide.  

With Steve Jobs doing well so recently, does that mean that there is an instant market for a Satoshi Nakamoto movie? Possibly not, because currently, the mysterious founder of bitcoin is nowhere near as well-known as the brains behind Apple. But as bitcoin continues to sweep the world, in the near future people will know the name. Bitcoin rose to record highs of over $4000 per bitcoin this year, which is an amazing rise from 2010 when 10,000 bitcoins were used to buy two pizzas. This growth is down to massive sectors such as the online casino industry embracing the currency, where there are now specialist bitcoin games such as Dragon Kingdom and Sticky Bandits to be played on this site and many others. Huge companies like Subway and Starbucks have also helped to spread the word by offering bitcoin payments.

One stumbling block is the fact that not much is known about Nakamoto, so a biopic in the same vein as Steve Jobs is out of the question. A bitcoin film could focus on the impressive rise of the currency, though, and could possibly look to emulate David Fincher’s The Social Network in some ways. The film which starred Jesse Eisenberg as a young Mark Zuckerberg opened at the 48^th New York Film Festival in 2010, and then made its nationwide release a week later. It went on to win three accolades at the 83^rd Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing, as well as Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Score.

The fairy-tale rise of bitcoin as it continues to smash records would perhaps suit the direction of Boyle over Fincher, but if the writers opted to focus more on the mysterious nature of the currency and the founder, then the Fight Club director would certainly make the obvious choice. The fact that bitcoin has become such a major breakthrough in the history of currency suggests that some kind of film centred on it will surface in the future. Early name suggestion – The Cryptocurrency.