Filmmaker Eugene Jarecki is a technology entrepreneur Jack Dorsey took the stage on Wednesday to discuss A man of six billionJarecki documents on Julian Assangeand the work that the bitcoin community can do to reach the people – a discussion that began with the research and observation of Satoshi Nakamoto and the first principles of the Internet.
Dorsey joined the team at approx. The situation was dire: Jarecki told the crowd that the casino he was staying near had contacted a private security firm that spies on Assange while living inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London – a revelation that is at the heart of his investigative report.
Dorsey: Bitcoin has a gateless, open network
Jarecki said he went to Dorsey first to get the money. They needed help distributing a film that, although it premiered at Cannes and gained respect on the festival circuit, did not find an advertiser among the major advertising platforms. Dorsey changed the conversation.
Instead of writing a check, he told Jarecki that the bitcoin community represented something greater than a source of income — a constituency built on the same principles Assange had fought to protect.
“Bitcoin is an open source of money,” Dorsey said. “It goes around the gatekeepers – Visa, Mastercard, the banks.”
He explained that the community sees Assange as a hero, a man who stood for the idea that information should be free and open, which he traced back to the early days of the internet.
Dorsey pointed to 2011 as proof of concept. Financial institutions have been cut WikiLeaks from the supply chain forced by the US government, bitcoin entered as the only payment rail that cannot be blocked.
He called WikiLeaks’ adoption of bitcoin one of the most important in the history of the protocol – not because it was organized, but because it revealed real-time, real-world usage under government pressure.
He then drew a line between Assange and Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of bitcoin. Dorsey said the most important thing about bitcoin is that its founder is gone. He called that exit “unselfish” – which made the network ungrounded, thus combating the challenges that governments and organizations can use if one person stands in the middle of a project.
He put Assange and Edward Snowden in the same category: people who trusted the technology they used, risked their lives for a cause greater than themselves, and paid for it.
Jarecki said making the film had its risks. While shooting in Russia, he said that the crew felt that they were being followed and watched – the pressure that created the production from within. He also described the interaction between Assange and Snowden, two people who clearly understand each other’s work style, as one of the most fascinating documents.
One-pay-one party in less than 60 days
The distribution model of the film is the most unusual aspect of the project. Dorsey proposed an international party of individual payers as an alternative to the traditional way out. Buy tickets at thesixbilliondollarman.com take credit for the film itself, turning the audience into participants in the project rather than passive consumers.
Jarecki framed it as a test of whether a movement built around open funding could do what gatekeepers couldn’t — get a film about press freedom in front of the people who need to see it.
Dorsey said website and the visual interface provides a way to generate revenue and bring the community together for sharing.
At the panel, Jarecki showed never-before-seen footage – behind-the-scenes footage that gave audiences a first-hand look at things not seen in public.
Jarecki and Dorsey are betting that the bitcoin community, which took on the controversy in 2011 when it mattered most, will take the film where the advertising industry refused to go.
