Bitcoin Goes to Hollywood

All right. Hello, Bitcoin Conference. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, Genesis Block. Welcome, welcome.

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My name is Mike Germano. I'm the former president here of Bitcoin Magazine and now I can call myself the Chief Marketing Officer here at Bitcoin. I'm very excited because we have a panel to talk about Bitcoin going to Hollywood.

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Some of you might have just come from Michael Saylor, who's the man who really brought Bitcoin to Wall Street. I'm excited to talk about the people bringing Bitcoin over to Hollywood.

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We have the stars of the short film Self Custody that recently came out. I have Garrett Patten, who is writer, producer, and star of the show, correct?

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Director.

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Director. This is very important. And also what we have here is the great Olympic gold medalist, two-division UFC champion, twice on Joe Rogan, the king of cringe, Henry Cejudo.

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He did an excellent job starring in his first film, so thank you very much.

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Did you mention Olympic gold medalist?

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Did I mention Olympic gold medalist? Yes.

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And also one of the stars of the film, Adrian Grenier, who is my wife's favorite from The Devil Wears Prada, so thank you for that. I know him from the show Entourage, but he is also a great philanthropist, a person who has directed, written, and understood Hollywood better than us. He made a show about understanding Hollywood better than us. So we thought, who better to have on our Hollywood and Bitcoin panel than you? Thank you so much for being our surprise guest and showing up.

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Thanks for having me.

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Absolutely.

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Before we get to all the secrets, I want to start with: why would you make a film about Bitcoin? Tell us a little bit about Self Custody and how it was made.

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Self Custody was inspired by several true stories. Everybody here has tremendous stories around Bitcoin. If you watch Self Custody, you see that it was inspired by true stories about one man's journey to save his family, recover his seed phrases, and get access to his Bitcoin. It's a thriller, and audiences are relating really well to it. A lot of people who didn't even understand Bitcoin are now starting to understand it, and that is one of our goals.

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Excellent.

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One of the things I think is important for us is that Hollywood happens to be the one place that has not really told Bitcoin stories. There is a lot of Bitcoin out there. We have made lots of documentaries. We have 738,000 documentaries made by Bitcoiners, and that's all great. But there is something different when the mainstream gets to see a TV series or a movie.

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For those of you who don't know, there are two movies currently in production. One is with Netflix, John Cena, and Jennifer Garner. I think that will be funny and wonderful. There is also another movie in production that is being financed by Calvin Ayre, a movie about himself, and Pete Davidson is playing him. That's right. Pete Davidson is a comedian, and Calvin Ayre is a joke, so that's wonderful.

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Once again, with a movie being called Bitcoin, that is really positioning it. This could be the year that Hollywood finally starts to see why the Bitcoin story is important. Bitcoin is important, but so are the people behind the code. Why has Hollywood not looked at this story yet? When you were making it, what was not there?

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First off, I think Hollywood never fully understood Bitcoin until recently. Most of the comments I got back from other producers and other people in Hollywood were that they thought Bitcoin was something somebody did in a basement somewhere, and they were making Bitcoin. Now they are starting to be educated on it.

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That was our goal in making Self Custody. We are now in the works with a show that will be a major TV show all around Bitcoin, with different plotlines meeting together and making it more mainstream in society. That is what we are working on now.

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Adrian, we have seen great storylines being made in Hollywood. What do you think about Bitcoin and the Bitcoin story would resonate with audiences?

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Well, as a Bitcoin maxi myself.

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There we go.

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The learning curve can be steep, especially for newcomers. There is something fundamentally inaccessible about Bitcoin for the majority of people. What we are looking to do is really start to tell the stories of the mystery behind it, the human stories, the characters, and the makeup of the world.

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If you know anything about Hollywood, it is all about the world, the drama, and the conflicts that you find. Those are the jewels of the stories that make up these conflicts. I would not look at this as a story that tries to get you to understand what Bitcoin is. It is really about telling your stories. It is about mining this culture and bringing those stories to the forefront, looking at the people and the humans who make up the passion, the excitement, the risk taking, the sovereign wild, wild West thinking that goes behind building this industry.

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That's right. You said you are currently in development of a TV series.

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We are currently in development of a TV series. Some executive producers with some big shows are actually here with us tonight. We are full steam ahead. We are making a show, and we are very excited about it.

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So this is the first place to hear you announce that you are making a show?

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We are making a show.

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About Bitcoin culture, here at the Bitcoin Conference. So I am very excited about that.

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Think about it like Entourage. This is the culture and lifestyle of Bitcoin. Instead of the Hollywood lifestyle, it is about the people. Think about the ballers and the whales and how they live their lifestyles. Think about the guys who lost their shirts in Bitcoin. We are telling those stories, but through the device of this series.

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I think why that's important, being on the Bitcoin Magazine media side and media side, I know how important stories are. Sometimes Bitcoiners just think the code speaks for itself. But when you look at a TV series, The Bear came out and all of a sudden there was a peak in people trying to be chefs, not because it looked easy, but because it looked rewarding. The Queen's Gambit came out and chess sets sold out everywhere.

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What this show can do by talking about the culture is really invite people in. I think that was what I was most excited about hearing.

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Both good and bad, right? Nobody is going to be good at taking care of their shit. Those who are successful and understand the world are going to do well. They are going to be on top and they are going to be the masters of the game. Then there are those who are coming in and trying to get into it, and maybe they do not do so well. There is tragedy there as well.

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But that is the beauty of self custody. You are your own custodian, and you are trusting yourself as opposed to an outside institution.

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Speaking of trusting in yourself, Henry, not only are you taking the jump into acting, which I think you are doing a great job at, but being at the top, being an Olympic champion, being a UFC champion, and understanding how to believe in yourself, a lot of the Bitcoiners here believe in themselves when no one else does. Why do you think a lot of fighters tend to be pro-Bitcoin?

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I think it's because we are risk takers. When we go out and fight, we have to have that preparation, but sometimes there are injuries. Right now we are in a bear market, right? Even when we are injured, we still have to prepare to get ready for that next wave that's supposed to come up.

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As a fighter, fighting in front of 25,000 people is pretty nerve-racking, but it is also what motivates us. We look for that adrenaline. Even the big thing for a fighter in general is discipline. Can you stay disciplined and also promote the brand?

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I remember I had to step outside my box and create a character, the king of cringe, Triple C, not being the most humble person. When you see things like that, it works. If you are able to invest in yourself, be disciplined, study, and prepare for that next wave, you will strike gold.

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I think you bring up a great point. You were talented. You won, but you had to sell the tickets. You had to create that entertainment. You were Hollywood in the UFC. That storyline is important to get people to care.

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Can you tell us a little bit more about that? And the second part of my question, which I think is important, is every Bitcoiner here knows we are waiting for the moment that a Bitcoiner gets to go on Joe Rogan. I hope it's not Michael Saylor. For all of you who think Michael would be good on Joe Rogan, I do not think so. But you have been on Joe Rogan twice. If you can give any advice to any Bitcoiners on how they could even remotely get on Joe Rogan, because that is our white whale.

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Can you refer to the first question? I can talk about the rest.

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I think the first question does not matter. The second question is all I care about.

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I believe it all goes back to branding. Sometimes my wife and I study psychoanalysis, and we were studying pride and humility. What is humility? Real humility is not something that bows or looks at you and says, that's very graceful. Real humility is someone who is willing to express their weaknesses and has the ability to ask for help. That's real humility.

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What is pride? Pride is being self-centered and egotistical. It is all about you. If you fall more into that humility side, having the ability to go out there and go for it despite the outcome, or having the ability to go out there and try to learn, everybody has different gifts.

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I am five-four. I call myself the five-four giant. I am able to use my ability on the persona side, on the marketing side, but also on the technical side. The more you understand you, and the more you can be you, these things fall into place.

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I just want to take a moment to honor this gentleman right here. Since I've gotten to know Henry, he is such a mature, wise elder. He is a sage motherfucker. This guy gives me so many little tidbits of wisdom, all while taking calls and making deals all day long. I'm like, who is that? He's making million-dollar deals over here. You should get in with him and whatever he's investing in because he is up to something.

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When you are hanging out with Henry, you forget that four months later he is going to go in the ring and battle. I've known Henry for a long time, and it almost seems unreal.

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I thought the real reason was because, in order to compete with the John Cena movie, we were going to pit you against John Cena. That was the original point.

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Cena who?

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There we go.

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We had a couple of the best stunt coordinators in Texas on Self Custody, and Henry shows up and made the fight scene 10 times better. He was teaching these guys what to do. It was amazing to watch.

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The fact is, for the movie, you use a real fighter for a fight scene. If you are going to do a story about Bitcoin, how important is it to really participate in and understand the Bitcoin culture?

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You hire a Bitcoin maxi to play the Bitcoin guy.

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There we go.

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I remember Garrett had this idea. He said, I think there is a character that might be right for you. The monologue was basically like boxing in my own head about self custody and sovereignty and all that stuff. I was like, bro, you've really been paying attention, haven't you?

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This guy is like the silent assassin. He is always thinking. He is always mining and finding the best stories and the best language to communicate. I was like, absolutely, of course. This character was built for me.

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There is something to be said about typecasting on some level. You want to have someone who is camera friendly, who can sell tickets, but then you want them to do the job that needs to be done for the character.

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We were talking about that. I cannot wait to start casting this show, just to see if we are going to hire an actor to play the guy, or if we are going to find one of you out here to come in and play the role because you actually embody it.

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You ready? You want to audition right now? Get him up here. Get him an audition.

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We'll talk to you later. We love the sign. We love the energy. You're already hired in my view.

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Okay, good. So we have already hired someone. Now we have our first actor. Perfect.

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Looking at when you first got involved in Bitcoin, I think you go through different stages. Here we have maxis, people who have been in a little while, and people who are new to it. What part of the storyline for this Bitcoin community do you really think is most interesting? Everyone has something different. Some people care about privacy.

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The show actually has multiple storylines that come together at the end. It looks like it is going to be six storylines that merge together into one big organization. Think of the show Billions with a little bit of Entourage in it. That is the feeling we are going for.

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We have some of the best showrunners working on it in-house, some of the best Hollywood producers working on it with us, and it is going to be one wild ride.

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Can I throw in my answer to that?

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In many ways, America is a perfect place to tell the Bitcoin story because we were built on a culture of self custody, sovereignty, and imagination of what could be, what we could create, and taking high risk to push up against invention and build a new world.

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That is what this culture is. That is what Bitcoin promises: an opportunity for you, if you are willing to take responsibility for your destiny, to build and create it. In many ways, this is a Western. This is a wild, wild Western in the modern day.

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I like that analogy.

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Something you brought up, and Henry brought it up, is exciting. Henry brought up not having an ego. One of the things here is, in Bitcoin, you really check your ego. When you come into Bitcoin, you say, I'm willing to learn.

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A lot of Bitcoiners will tell you, when I was in the media space and I would try to orange-pill people, big folks in the space would say, I already knew Bitcoin when it was a thousand. They would not check their ego and say, hey, I am willing to read up on it. I am willing to understand it.

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Even hearing about your career, taking a step back from Hollywood and trying to get outside of this, building that sovereign independent lifestyle, it sounds like you are the ideal person saying, I am willing to look into Bitcoin. In my past life, meeting folks at the high end, they did not even want to look into Bitcoin.

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We are storytelling creatures, and I am an apex predator in that business of storytelling. When I look at Bitcoin, it is a tool of communicating new ideas and new stories, as opposed to just taking down the played-out narratives that we are told about how things have to be, how you need to be, how your money needs to be confiscated in these ways, and what inflation does to you.

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I really feel like there is a new horizon. We get to be part of that narrative and that story. I am not saying it is going to be easy, but we get to tell that story. If we are not adaptive, if we are not always looking to rehash and re-figure out where the direction is, you do not just put it on cruise control. You have to be paying attention. You have to be driving because you are in charge. You are always adjusting, always making micro decisions about what we are going to be and how we are going to be.

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I think a lot of people in the Bitcoin space have a very decentralized, independent mentality. We think we can just make something and people will watch it. Maybe we look at the white paper and say, just read the white paper. Now hundreds of millions of people use Bitcoin, but there is so much that goes on behind the scenes with that.

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It is the same for movies and films. A lot of people who make content do not realize everything that goes into making a film, everything that goes into a TV series. Unfortunately, there are gatekeepers, but they are the gatekeepers to massive eyeballs.

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Can you tell us a little bit more about why we are fortunate to have people in the industry who can help guide this? There is a Bitcoin story to tell, and Self Custody, maybe no one ever saw it, but why is this going to be different?

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I think we have done a lot in the industry. I tend to look at this as just outside the gates of Hollywood. A lot of the financing is already coming in from the Bitcoin world. It is Hollywood, but I believe we are going to tell a story that is going to be a mainstream story, just outside the gates of Hollywood.

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It is a bridge. It is a way to merge what Hollywood is so good at. It is a renaissance in many ways, not independent film, but sovereign independent film. Who the hell knows? But we have so much ability to finance, create, produce, and then distribute.

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The gatekeepers are looking for new jobs in many ways. Movie making has been democratized by your cell phone, and anybody can make content now. The distribution channels are democratized through the internet. Now, with Bitcoin, exchange of value is democratized. We can find our financiers, find our distributors, find our creators, and actually do it in the most independent way, more than they did back in the '80s and '90s when independent film was really at its peak. There is a renaissance right now, and it is coming.

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One of the past businesses I was involved with had Harley-Davidson dealerships. I look at what the show Sons of Anarchy did for the Harley-Davidson world. Sales went up. It was dramatic. A show like this for the Bitcoin community, just outside the gates of Hollywood, like we said, but showcasing the Bitcoin world and making it more mainstream, I think it is a brilliant idea. It is something we are excited about.

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It is funny. Bitcoin going mainstream, sometimes I feel like Bitcoiners treat it like it is their band and they do not want anyone to know about it, or they only want the right people in. I think that is very cringe. We should want to see as many Bitcoiners come in as possible.

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The truth is, not everyone comes in through the white paper. They come in through different stories. A friend told them. They got excited by something they read. The more ways we can tell these personal stories, the better.

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I think that is the biggest thing that is lacking in our industry. Bitcoin is peer to peer. It is personal. That is very personal. I know we love our privacy and want to keep everything as secret or private as we can, but allowing these stories to be told is important.

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More importantly, we do not have to put names and faces to it. You can dramatize it a little bit in how you write it. I think why Silicon Valley did well was because they told all the dirty secrets in Silicon Valley without names. That is the exciting part here.

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What are some Bitcoin stories that you have already heard that you find interesting or even weird?

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There are thousands of them. If you watch Self Custody, that was inspired by three stories that were pretty close to me. Watch Self Custody. That is one story out of thousands of stories that have been brought to us, and we have been working with the showrunners.

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Bitcoin is exciting. It is thrilling. There is so much in this space, and there are so many interesting stories. Not just the big ones, like the guy who lost hundreds of millions at the landfill. There are tons of stories that affect individual people on a good level and a bad level, with risk and rewards.

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Watch Self Custody, and you will see one example of many, many more stories that you all live every day. By the way, we would love to know more. We do not know all the stories, so we would love to know your stories.

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Seriously, if you want to be cast and you want to audition, or if you want to finance it, where should we send them?

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They can reach me at TBK Productions. That's my Instagram, TBK Productions.

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Or mine, Adrian Grenier on Instagram. Reach out. Be a part of it. We want to try to bring everybody in and give you all an opportunity to participate. We want the Bitcoin community heavily involved in this.

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And if you want to finance that film, just send the money to me. Mike Germano, please just send the money to me.

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Henry, you are new to this acting. First off, we are excited you are here. What got you most excited to want to continue that and continue with this team?

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First of all, I have known Garrett for quite some time now. And then, obviously, you talk about Vince from Entourage, and you are like, really? I get a chance to be a part of a film?

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Entourage is pretty much my favorite show. It is exciting. I think the preparation of creating a character before acting is something I already had. I was not your typical fighter who was just mean-facing with his shirt off. I was the guy who was a jester. I was pulling things out of the bag, whipping snakes, kicking pillows, talking smack, doing the whole thing to draw attention.

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I feel like a lot of my career already prepared me for acting. I have been acting my whole life, Mike.

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There you go. Excellent.

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I think you bring up an important point. A lot of people are fans of the show Entourage. I have no idea what it is like to have people tell you about that all the time. When you think about making a Bitcoin series, what is interesting is there are hundreds of millions of people who own Bitcoin. These are people who are so passionate about it.

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With a major mainstream series like that, how do you think people will react to something like this? Is that good or bad? Looking at everyone here now, this is in development. Nothing is made yet. I can imagine in a couple of years, when this show is one of the big shows out there, what is it going to look like?

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I am very blessed. Being on a hit television show called Entourage that defined an era, that was an iconic character that captured the hearts and minds of a whole generation and corrupted a few while we did it.

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I had the luxury of taking a healthy hiatus, building a family, and I have been very picky about what I wanted to do next. It was not until this that I was like, that's what I want to do next. That's exactly what I want to do next.

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For me, I am just happy to get back in there and make something awesome. I am humbly excited.

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In many ways, Vegas was the spawning ground for the show. I do not know if you know the story, but when we first started the show, Mark Wahlberg took the cast to Vegas for a crash course in being Mark Wahlberg and the entourage. So we cut our teeth in these halls, so to speak. I cannot wait to get back out there, because this is my demographic in many ways.

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We are happy to bring you home. Hopefully for this, we are not going to bring you to a basement with a bunch of cypherpunks, so we will come up with different ways to embrace it here.

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Thank you, everyone. Once again, check out the film Self Custody on Amazon Prime. Thank you, everybody. Have a nice day.