Unbanked (2025) A Heavily Biased Look At Bitcoin
Directors: David Kuhn, Lauren Sieckmann
With: Jack Dorsey, Ted Cruz, Brian Brooks, Michael Saylor
Cert: PG
Running time: 86 mins
Co-written and directed by David Kuhn and Lauren Sieckmann, this documentary explores the rise of Bitcoin and examines its usage across a broad spectrum of countries. However, though it purports to be presenting a balanced view, the overall tone is so relentlessly positive that it comes across as pure propaganda, loudly banging the drum for cryptocurrency in general and trying to convince us that Bitcoin is the future.
The opening scene gives a good flavour of the film. A man billed as “Mr G – Recycling Guy” drives a truck around Harlem for his recycling business. Whenever he meets anyone, he eulogises about Bitcoin and it’s clear he’s already won over several clients to the cause.
Subsequently, the film visits multiple different countries – including the UK, Argentina, Portugal and Nigeria – and finds several people who are only too happy to share their “Bitcoin is great” stories. This is the film’s central message, that Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are being embraced by relatable working class communities, and that everyone should get involved.
The film intersperses these down-to-earth pro-Bitcoin vignettes (a guy who runs a Bitcoin-only beach bar in Lagos, a man who has brought Bitcoin to Bedford Football Club in the UK) with to-camera interviews with a host of financial experts and commentators, as well as political figures like Senator Ted Cruz (boo, hiss, etc) and Brian Brooks, the former acting US Comptroller of the Currency. There is, it has to be said, very little negativity – very occasionally, someone will say that cryptocurrency might just be a bubble and it could easily burst, but that’s about as far as it goes.
Another problem is that although the stated intention of the directors was for the film to be a sort of primer on the whole system, it doesn’t do nearly as good a job of explaining it as it thinks it does. Accordingly, there are sections devoted to explaining what Bitcoin mining is, and how it works, and what the Blockchain is, and how that works, but this reviewer was none the wiser afterwards.
In addition, the film never really explains how Bitcoin is supposed to work when it comes to paying your actual bills. Sure, you can use it to buy things with vendors who accept Bitcoin, but what about paying your electricity bill? What if your landlord doesn’t accept Bitcoin? The film repeatedly shows people paying for things with cryptocurrency, but it’s always limited examples, like buying beer at the beach bar.
In terms of the benefits, the film is at its most convincing with the examples of Argentina and Nigeria, both of which have seen their currencies collapse. As a result, citizens of both countries have apparently embraced cryptocurrency as a way to protect their money from unscrupulous banks and rapacious governments. In addition, there’s a section describing how Bitcoin was useful in being able to get money to Ukrainians affected by the war, when they were unable to use the banks.
However, when it comes to tackling the acknowledged negatives of cryptocurrency – specifically the devastating ecological impact and fact that the system has been widely embraced by criminals – the film is almost laughably inadequate, briefly raising the issues and then just waving them away with a soundbite like, “Well, criminals have always been the first to make use of new technology” or “Actually, the environment will be fine once all the mining levels off”,
In short, as a documentary, this is so heavily biased that it might as well be a feature-length infomercial. The best part of the entire film – whether by accident or design – is the closing shot of a sign that reads “Beware of possible alligators”. Beware, indeed.
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