MEET THE BITCOINS: KNOW THE ANIMATED SERIES ON A FAMILY OF CRYPTOCURRENCIES.

Meet the bitcoins is an animated series in development inspired by the television programs "The Simpsons" and "South Park" that aims to educate the general public about blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.

The series will present the adventures of a family called The Bitcoins through everyday situations, in a world completely designed to illustrate the operation of the blockchain. For its realization they sought the collaboration of musicians, composers, writers, directors and members of the Bitcoin community, as well as average citizens with a very limited knowledge of what Bitcoin is about.

CriptoNoticias spoke exclusively with Seymour, the Brazilian illustrator who is in charge of the project, who refers to Meet the Bitcoins as "a project to promote education and adoption of Bitcoin, in an entertaining way".

Seymour describes himself as a "veteran 3D animator". His work in this industry began in 1997 and since then he has been dedicated to illustration, animation and writing. Regarding the premiere of Meet the Bitcoins, the illustrator told us the following:

Our first animated preview is scheduled for the second quarter of 2018, but the art, the animation tests, the music clips and the ideas of the last plans will arrive before, in progressive terms. The website meetthebitcoins.com is intended to be a daily activity diary of the project in which the community can follow, comment, vote and even influence the route of the project.
Seymour - Illustrator, Meet the Bitcoins

THE HISTORY

In "The Pair of Dice Papers" is where the history of Cryptoville is encrypted.

Currently the project is quite developed and already have the sketches of most of the characters. The website of the series shows us what the story is about: this is based on a document called "The Pair of Dice Papers" whose name is a play on words that refers (as it reads in English) to "The Papers of Paradise ", although its literal translation is" The Papers of the Pair of Craps. "

The document is cryptographically censored, but in its readable parts can be seen the story of Cryptoville, a small city founded in 2009 by Nakamoto. The latter is recognized as the former director and founder of "The Blockchain", who suddenly disappeared and his energy only manifests itself before a few.

The story is full of allegories about the blockchain world and the general culture. The bitcoin family has the same number of members as "The Simpsons". The father, the mother and three children. Bob Bitcoin is the head of the family and has two occupations, day salesman and superhero defender of the city of "financial crimes" at night.

In the "Promotion of the sofa" we are asked if we have checked our sofa in search of bitcoins.

Betty "Milli" Bitcoin is the wife of Mr. Bitcoin. She is his right hand and writes for the city newspaper. His son Mike, aka "Fila", is rebellious and charismatic. Penny "Bit" Bitcoin is the middle daughter and aspires to work in "The Blockchain", the government of Cryptoville. The youngest son is called Satoshi Baby and has a very special gift: he can see Nakamoto if he is near.

Among the secondary characters in the story are the millionaire McAfee, Aunt Ether and Aunt Lite, Uncle Sam and Jamie "Blood" Diamond, the equivalent of "Mr. Burns "of The Simpsons. Dogey, the dog of the family, is another type of currency and does not have the characteristic eyes of Bitcoin.

Seymour told us that he intends to include other characters by referring to other cryptocurrencies gradually and "related to pop funding, similar to the way South Park brilliantly works pop culture in its plots."

In history there is also a constant tension between Cryptoville and Fiatópolis, an old, polluted and dirty city; a clear reference to the conflict between cryptocurrencies and fiduciary money:

The relationship between Cryptoville and Fiatopolis is very important. Symbolically, one is "old, rigid and inflexible" and the other is the new "egalitarian and equitable" form. Being the antagonist, Fiatopolis has deeply established political and financial motives for which they are so prejudiced against Bitcoin, ranging from open jealousy and fear to outright corruption. Like "The Incredibles", Bitcoin parents occasionally become superheroes on missions to fight "financial crimes" and discover the ultimate mystery: "what happened to Satoshi Nakamoto?"
Seymour - Illustrator, Meet the bitcoins

By the way, Seymour translated one of his illustrations called "Milli Bitcoin attends the day of the minority investor" especially for CriptoNoticias. In this image you can see how one of the spokesmen of Fiatópolis qualifies Bitcoin as a scam to buy them cheaper, as happened on one occasion with Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan.

Seymour also talks about the fact that bitcoin will no longer be mined when the 21 million units of this cryptocurrency are finally reached. In the series reference is made to "the old mining days" (a time that constantly reminds Mr. Bitcoin) and ASIC devices are presented as mining insects that are responsible for unearthing the bitcoins:

The "old mining days" of which Mr. Bitcoin speaks are a symbolic reference of when Bitcoin could be extracted in common computers or even in GPU. Nowadays this is virtually impossible without specialized ASIC hardware, and yet it is a difficult and crowded proposition. In the plot of the story, which unfolds in a more modern time frame (unlike the distant future), Bob often dreams of reliving those days of mining Cryptonium, and take it further to be the first Cryptonium miner in the moon, as a tribute to the memes "to the moon".
Seymour - Illustrator, Meet the Bitcoin

STYLE

The logo of the series shows "the strength, the value and the shortage of bitcoin"

The team has two versions of the Meet the Bitcoins logo, one in two dimensions and one in three. The first has flashes on the left and letters in orange, while the second is seen from below and has dark colors.

In relation to the title of the series, you can read on its website that this logo is "simple and robust" in order to project to the public "the strength, the value and the shortage of bitcoin." The design of said logo is He was influenced by feature films such as Meet The Parents and Meet The Robinsons.

The style of graphic design was influenced by logos of films like Ben-Hur and National Lampoon's Vacation, although in Meet The Bitcoins the logo is a little more metallic and tidy. Regarding the illustration of the series, although Seymour has a style that evokes The Simpsons and South Park, he believes that the main jury will be the public, to whom he will continue to offer proof of content:

The style is not completely configured, but it will definitely be rendered in 3D and animated. There may be an interesting intersection of styles, such as a certain aspect in Cryptoville, with another look at Fiatopolis. I'm also considering a shader style "Pixar shaded" more realistic for the scenes with The Super Bitcoins, in front of a flatter cell style for everyday family scenes. The public is our most important critic, so we will do some style tests and we will share. Our target audience is families of all ages.
Seymour - Illustrator, Meet the Bitcoins

SCOPE

A number of details show the influence of The Simpsons and South Park in the series.

Seymour estimates that children should be educated about blockchain technology since they are kids, because for him, Bitcoin is here to stay and "we must all prepare and educate our children for this brilliant new world." This is why Meet the Bitcoins has been developed to be seen by the whole family. For him, at this moment it is "exciting" to watch the development of the cryptocurrency and hopes to reflect his enthusiasm in the series.

The Brazilian illustrator told CriptoNoticias his experience when he saw how a 4-year-old girl, after looking at what had been previously in the series and an explanatory bitcoin video, made it feel particularly good. The favorite character of the little one was Dogey and she was impatient to go digging in the earth to extract bitcoins.

Undoubtedly, the arrival of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology has made many preconceptions about finance and the technological world look from another perspective. That is why the developer of this series is confident that his project will help to question the status quo:

*** Instead of forcing specific ideas and principles, Meet The Bitcoins is designed to help people "turn on a light switch" through education and humor, and realize that there are other options besides status What can be more beneficial? Hopefully, viewers will be able to make better informed decisions after watching the show; and maybe one of the viewers will be inspired to invent the next big thing that will change the world ... Bitcoin 2.0, maybe!
Seymour - Illustrator, Meet the Bitcoins ***