Life imitates art. The last few months have supplied real Shakespearean drama. Crypto is full of thrilling stories. And perhaps as the greatest gift for us, the crypto community, we are now in the spotlight to tell the story we think is truly important and let art imitate life.

I have noticed, and I have been guilty of this myself, that people try to reduce the major events that have happened to a parody or a comedy. That would be an enormous waste of material. 

I am sure there are probably tens of people writing screenplays for a crypto movie or a series. My goal here is to influence them not to write a caricature but take the opportunity to explain the underlying motives, ambitions, mission, and potential impact of crypto to a wide audience. 

Crypto is rich in archetypes. The original sin of desire transpires in a culture founded on mimetism. And crypto loves its scapegoats. We live a story of the thin line between the wisdom and madness of the crowds, a story of reflexivity in a world where value is derived from the memes of production.

The richness of our industry should inspire a generational work of art, embedding it into a recurring theme of power and wealth and what it does to people. This is a story that’s been told for centuries, and now we’re telling it through the quirky tales of our beloved industry.

2022 is just a climax. It is important to tell the story from the very beginning and let the audience live the escalation. Allow them to experience it through real people who have other identities than just the one in crypto. Otherwise, we turn into a caricature and we miss a generational opportunity to explain what is truly happening.

Perhaps “today” makes for a great beginning of this imaginary (crime) drama TV series. We begin by telling the story after the fact because today we have turned into a caricature. But how did we get here? This is our moment to start explaining.

Imagine a Frank Chaparro-looking character in aviator glasses and a Cuban shirt holding up a newspaper with this specific WSJ picture and putting it down. To our surprise, the live picture is exactly the same -  a real-life image of this scene.

Frank Chaparro-looking-guy goes like:

“Here we go. Crypto is dead. Again. But while everyone still focuses on why it’s dying [snapshots of the articles claiming BTC/crypto is dead] few tell a story why it’s still around. So when did this story begin?

Well, some say it was in the 2008 [Lehman snapshot] , some in 2009 [“Chancellor on brink of second…” article snapshot], some in the 1970s [Nixon/Wtf happened in 1973 snapshot]. This story can be told in many ways. The way we’re telling the story - it starts in 2015.”

A shiba-inu comes to him and he pets the dog. That would be our beginning: we get transported back to the early days of Ethereum. 

We have been given a difficult task of explaining how cypherpunks turned into cryptobros, and how all those Wall Street guys joined the anarchy which has turned into frothy Miami parties. This is the crypto tv series where Sopranos meets Entourage meets Mad Men. 

Banker’s Renaissance

Hollywood has been telling us that the banker is the new gangster. This meme does not explain anything, only deepens the alienation. The audience is often presented with evil financier types, but rarely we dig deeper into “how does this happen”.

I believe our story should explain the relationship between money and society told partly through a story of a banker turned crypto founder & investor. This is very much a story of Tony Soprano but in a parallel universe where he became a different type of gangster. But our Tony wants to redeem himself.

Our (anti)hero lives in the contrast of the old and the new. He comes from the old but grows into the new. He symbolizes a man that struggles through a major societal transformation.

The conversation that will echo this sentiment is embodied in Tony Soprano’s first meeting with Dr. Melfi when Tony said:

“...I've been thinking…It’s good to be in something from the ground floor. I came too late for that. I know. But lately I’m gettin the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over”

Dr. Melf responded: “Many Americans I think feel that way”

This is the story we’re telling: The old and the new, the dreams and aspirations and the ugliness of its realization.

Great stories are not about the events itself but about the depth of the character and about how you can connect this extremely complex canvas of crypto stories to the rich portrayal of an individual's private life and relationship between these individuals.

We’d build this series bottom-up, from the individual characters to the actual events just like the great novels do. Characters are primary, events are secondary and results of individuals’ motives. The events that unfold should explore crypto from its origins. This cannot be done in a superficial way. If there ever is a crypto series it should have novelistic quality to it

The underlying motive will remain turning a message of “Sovereign Individual” into a 24/7 online casino. From redemption through anarchy to froth. 

We would begin to tell the story at the inception of Ethereum since this marks the beginning of crypto transitioning from a niche, nerdy and anarchic movement into a money-making industry. 

Characters in The Supercycle

The characters will be mostly archetypes rather than real people. Some will resemble real personas but will be only loosely based on real-world events.

First, we need an entertaining anchor and I would anchor the story around one main character whose struggle I mentioned above. Meet Tony (a tribute to Tony Soprano). 

Who is Tony?

The NY-based fund manager in his early 40s that turns to crypto as his TradFi career is going nowhere becomes unfulfilled. He is a charismatic and energetic man that fights his own demons. 

He is an antihero in the Don Draper/Tony Soprano narcissistic fashion. We will see Tony’s internal conflicts:

• as a family man vs being a narcissist egomaniac 
• being a visionary vs being a ruthless sociopathic financier
• being charming and full of ideas vs being nihilistic and flirting with idea that life is pointless

Maybe he dabbles into psychedelics, maybe he tries to become more like the cool crypto people around him. Tony could be the key investor of a project that will embody Ethereum but then he could end up falling for something like Luna. How epic would it be to see this in one character?

Would it be too much to see a traditional fund manager turning into somewhat of a hippie? In the process of transforming himself from a Wall Street fund manager, he becomes both; an extreme insider and an outsider. To make this story come to life it cannot be isolated in only a working/professional environment.

What’s his family life like? Who is Tony’s wife? That should definitely be part of the story.

But now back to business. The main connecting character between Tony the traditional Wall Street guy and the startup world of crypto is this guy; let’s call him Arthur. 

Arthur is someone who was on Wall Street but not for too long. He got liberated early (perhaps he traded at Goldman or Deutsche) by the magic that is early bitcoin investment. It could have similar father-son dynamics like Tony and Christopher in Sopranos but our Tony wishes he was like Arthur and was able to leave Wall Street sooner. The mentor and mentee roles will at times be reversed where the young will have more wisdom and will accompany our hero on this journey.

Arthur is starting a bitcoin derivative exchange (what a coincidence) with his crew, which could have the Wild Bunch aesthetics of Guy Ritchie’s Rocknrolla. Obviously these guys are not criminals. These guys are hustlers despite graduating from the best schools and having worked at top Wall Street firms. Also, our Arthur could be British. Why not? I’d cast Idris Elba if he was in his thirties.

Imagine Arthur as a stylish British gentleman wearing knitted polos. We need to bring class back to crypto and we will try through this perfect gentlemen yet bitcoin OG character.

I would love to see, likely in later seasons (end of 3rd), Arthur single-handedly saving the cryptomarket during Covid crash in March 2020, by pulling the plug on BitMEX liquidations before bidding hard, as the rumour says he did.

Arthur will introduce Tony to a character that will be an obvious play at Vitalik Buterin; idealistic, without an ego but certainly a quirky fella. This should not be a portrayal of a tech founder like the one of Richard from Silicon Valley - this is not a parody. This character will anchor the idealism of crypto into series but probably will fade with seasons (the same way idealism within crypto weakens with adoption and attention).

We need a proper antagonist who’s on the inside. Someone that we can love to hate. Imagine Vitalik had a co-founder. This co-founder would abandon the project (at the end of the first season) to start a competitor. 

This guy will represent the evil genius side of crypto - the bond villain type. The ruthless one, genius coder and founder, almost a Steve Jobs-like character but with an evil twist. This could be a (non)obvious play at Gavin Wood with A LOT of creative liberty. Let’s call him Garrett for now.

Garret will be the guy who does not trust the rich guys, the bankers, both; Tony and Arthur, around his project. Later as he attains unfathomable riches he becomes the epitome of a hedonist wealthy person; acquiring yachts and groupies along the way.

Imagine a story of a nerdy coder becoming a playboy. Imagine the charm that someone like Tom Hardy would bring to the character. Perhaps too much on the nose but I’d watch that.

Another somewhat plot antagonist, who’ll get later involved with Garret, will be our Silicon Valley VC portrayal - Zach (for some reason I imagine him as Zach Galifianakis so I’ll name it after him).

Zach is extremely smart, maybe has Asperger’s syndrome (or maybe he only wants to have it) because he is very well-spoken if needs it. He is a star VC, one of the most famous in the game. He is very competitive but at the same time he consults a guru to find inner peace. 

Zach will present a West Coast antagonist to our East Coast financier. He is fussy in a funny way and almost resembles Niles Crane at times. 

This requires a careful balancing act of caricaturing the nature of VC's mannerism while actually not undermining how smart they could be. Because some VCs are very smart (few). They may be taking part in different rituals but we should not underestimate and underrate how intelligent, thoughtful, and even street-smart some of them are (not me).

This will set the dynamics for Season 1 of our imaginary mini-series. Struggling hedge-fund manager funding a completely insane project: the struggle of creating Ethereum, the tension between founders, specifically between Tony and Garrett. Adding the blunder of VCs missing out on a project like Ethereum; the irony of West Coast VCs largely missing out on funding the original but racing to fund the copycats.

Going Through Seasons

The first season would have to introduce basic concepts of crypto and the philosphical underpinning. Maybe it could provide the contrast between the boring town of Zug that for a while became “The Cryptovalley” and Wall Street. This could also symbolize “the moving away from Silicon Valley” narrative.

Season 1 would probably end with the DAO hack-like event and Garrett leaving the project because of conflicts with Tony and Vitalik-like-character. He found his own project, which ironically gets funded by our VC character Zach (who missed out initially). In no way this must and will reflect how things truly unfolded. Season 1 would also talk about the founding of Arthur’s exchange.

Tony would transform himself from an elite hedge fund manager into a psychedelic-enjoying crypto entrepreneur. This will obviously cause problems in his private life. As he once used to imitate his Wall Street peers, he’ll now try to become a hip techie, indulging in everything that requires.

All of the main character storylines would separate, sometimes briefly connecting, mainly Tony and Arthur, but we’d get more of an independent observation from Arthur and financier struggle from Tony who wants to once more fund the next big thing. Our Vitalik-like-character will fade and devote himself more to theory while Garret will struggle in becoming super-rich.

To portray crypto in a way that it could be consumed by the masses, yet maintain the integrity of the message, we should take a lot of creative liberties. We’ll portray characters that will be a collection of various real-life personas. This is not a documentary. This is a mini-series that should captivate everyone.

Throughout the seasons we will introduce new main characters. Their stories will intermittently cross our original heroes’ paths. For later seasons there will be new anchor characters. Some of the original main characters will fade. Some of the new anchor characters will include:

A character who is our representation of “SBF meets CZ”. He will rise to fame in season 3 but would be introduced at the end of Season 2. This will be a wizkid crypto-exchange owner that’s funding another competitor to Ethereum (would have to name it something else) and Garret’s project.

The origin of the recent spicy stuff; the rise and fall of an unnamed crypto hedge-fund connected to Luna, would probably be introduced in Season 3. These new characters should not be the villains of our story because I do not believe these people actually are villains. Much of the crypto stories are about victims of their own success.

Naturally, people need scapegoats, especially in crypto, and the scapegoating mechanism would transpire in Season 4 during “Peak Mania” but probably will resonate through as we move between cycles.

There are so many other people we would like to meet in The Supercycle that may not play a major role but should be included and could be important for certain events that will transpire. The great challenge would be to capture the “anon culture” that started with DeFi summer.

The Aesthetics

Although not exactly according to the real events, I have chosen to begin telling the story in 2015 to capture the zeitgeist even at the cost of postponing the real founding of Ethereum.

The story begins right before Trump announcing his candidature. The goal is to capture the vibe of the post-peak American Empire. We want to relive the madness that today has become normalized.

Our story will happen with the increasingly polarized western society, isolation of Covid, inflation and the alienation in the background. From 2015 onwards we are witnessing the world becoming a simulation because of the cartoonish nature of events that have unfolded. 

We can frame crypto as a direct consequence of the 2008 financial crisis but also a response to ever-increased centralization that digital surveillance enables. The crisis of individualism in the era of mimetic social media. 

We would witness speculation eating the world. West Coast and East Coast financiers fighting for the future of finance. Techies and anons become like those that they tried to overthrow; the foes become more and more alike as they continue fighting. 

We should make it clear that the conflict arises when people want the same thing and when they’re dangerously similar. Imagine scenes describing peak mimetism just like the one in American Psycho.

We could not omit the underlying pattern of ever-repeating conflict and contrasts between gambling and idealism of “advancing society through technology:. And amidst of it all - humans being humans.

This series would have to master the fluency of telling the story across locations. New York, London, Zug, Berlin, Miami, Bay Area, Singapore, and Hong Kong while capturing that a lot of interaction happens in “The Cloud” of the Cryptotwitter, Discord and so on.

The Supercycle is mostly about people and human nature. In the world of social media when everything is exaggerated it is good to go the other way not to shoot for shock value. Not everything has to cater to the cartoonish nature of today's world right from the get go. We have to layer these things carefully, episode by episode.

At the end of the series the audience should be asking the words of Diana Vreeland: “I know it’s a lot but is it enough?” It takes a while to build up to it.

We should keep in mind that people tend to exaggerate the importance of what they do. We in crypto think we’re a part of a movement that is changing the world while outsiders think we’re just nuts. 

We have to portray the world the way we see it from the inside: crypto is the most important force shaping the future. The non-crypto folks should be indoctrinated slowly, without even noticing. 

Patience is required though. Before we get to see Lambos, we should witness the humble beginnings.

Welcome to The Supercycle.