John Oliver’s main skill is that he’s usually pretty good at explaining complex and boring topics in short TV segments. And this week’s episode of Last Week Tonight is particularly relevant to the tech industry as Oliver tackled cryptocurrencies.
In just 25 minutes, the Last Week Tonight team put together a descent introduction to bitcoin, blockchain, ICOs and cryptocurrencies. If your neighbor keeps asking you questions about that digital currency he heard about, you can probably start with this video.
Of course, talking about cryptocurrencies on TV has some limits because you want everyone to follow along. “It’s everything you don’t understand about money combined with everything you don’t understand about computers,” Oliver said.
But he manages to talk about many of the crazy things that happened in cryptoland recently, from Long Island Ice Tea rebranding to Long Blockchain to boost shares, to Dogecoin reaching $2 billion in market cap at some point even though it started as a joke.
More interestingly, Oliver didn’t say bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were a bad idea and would never work. His stance was nuanced and it’s good to see a non-polarizing take.
Oliver also made fun of the members of the /r/bitcoin subreddit who keep saying “HODL” when there’s a crash. The segment ends with a recommendation: CRAEFUL.
Disclosure: I own small amounts of various cryptocurrencies.
