Remember way back yesterday when I wrote that the WSJ guys’ book probably wouldn’t get picked up by HBO? Well, it turns out that Brian Eha’s might.

Eha, a former editor at Entrepreneur Magazine and contributor for the New Yorker, has been working intensely for the past thirteen months on a Bitcoin book that will be published by Penguin Random House later this year. It is a deeply reported, character-driven narrative about the global phenomenon of Bitcoin and the visionary entrepreneurs who are working on the frontier of finance.

Today, Eha shared with me that he signed an option deal with Entertainment One to possibly adapt the book into a TV drama series or miniseries either for a major broadcast network (ABC, CBS, NBC), for prestige cable (HBO, Showtime, AMC), or for Netflix or Amazon. And he finally got the go-ahead from his agency to talk about it.

While he can’t say yet in which direction a series would go — it’s generally the fate of an author whose work is adapted for the screen to lose control over how his material is presented — in his mind the key touchstones are Mad Men, Breaking Bad, and the newer AMC drama, Halt and Catch Fire, which portrays a small group of startup visionaries with big personalities striving to beat IBM and Apple — the big boys, in other words — in the 1980s PC arms race. [Here’s hoping this series is better scripted than the absolutely terrible-but-it-had-so-much-potential Halt and Catch Fire.]

Imagine a cast of characters that include caricatures of the real-life caricatures of characters that make up this industry. Get Sorkin on this shit.

Referencing bitcoin’s volatile price, ecosystem and personalities, Eha explained that viewers would be treated not only to business successes and flameouts but also the office politics, legal battles, personal struggles, tech breakthroughs and philosophical debates that have marked the world of Bitcoin for better and worse.

An option deal isn’t a guarantee that a TV show will be made, but it is the first step. Bitcoin has already been mentioned or used as a plot point in a number of hit TV shows, including The Good Wife, Justified, The Simpsons, and The Blacklist, but this would be the first time that the world of Bitcoin is actually dramatized onscreen. If the show is made, Eha will have a consulting producer credit and should have some say in how the adaptation is done.

All I know is that my TBI character better be typecast as a squirrelly, basement dwelling intrepid reporter or I’m going to be pissed.

Follow Brian Patrick Eha at @brianeha.

***

Speaking of “typecast”, a friend asked me last night what it was like to be back in VC, and I tried not to throw up in my mouth a little, as I’ve always thought it was more fun to be on the other side of the table. Don’t get me wrong, working with / brainstorming with bitcoin startups all day is amazing, but we’re a) trying to do much more than just seed-stage “VC” investments under the DCG umbrella, b) not investing from a fund with limited partners (as real VCs do), and c) not charging management fees or carry. Minor details.

It did get me to thinking, though…if I ever got back into VC, it would still be indirectly; I’d try to coax a few other young rockstars from the industry to go out and raise money for a SPAC/ETF-like vehicle whose mandate was to invest as a limited partner in all of the top venture funds. I thought about this a lot in light of the (now-aborted) plans reddit made to share a portion of its equity with users.

Think about it:

-Demand would be there from Millennials, who are getting fleeced by Sarbanes-Oxley & the JOBS Act and not benefiting in the public markets from the growth of all of these recent tech unicorns that went public after most of their upside had been realized.

-Demand would be there from top VCs, who might open up their funds to the vehicle because they like the democratic pitch that makes venture returns more accessible to the very demographic they tend to back.

-Demand should be there from bankers / lawyers to set the whole thing up because it’s complex, straightforward and makes a ton of sense. So tons of fees.

-The blended VC portfolio ROI across many different firms would dwarf the S&P’s over the long-term — even net of management fees and carry. (You might even get the structure down to the point where you can defer taxes on the capital gains realized by the SPAC / ETF.)

Why hasn’t this happened? Is this illegal?

***

Bonus! In the event we raised money for the aforementioned vehicle and the current tech / VC bubble popped and the economy collapsed before we invested in funds, we could just pivot and call the vehicle “NextCrash Capital” or something and wait until asset prices cratered 50% like in 2009. Since we’d have the cash on hand, we wouldn’t be hamstrung by illiquid LPs begging for halts to capital calls and would be able to make a ton of Buffettesque bargain steals.

/mini-rant

For Entrepreneurs

The MIT E-Lab is a well established (20+ year) program that helps startups by matching them with MIT & Harvard business school students for a semester. The E-Lab is now looking for cryptocurrency related startups at various stages, so apply if you think this could help your efforts. (You don’t need to be local, but a c-level exec has to be in Cambridge frequently.) To apply, or for more info on E-Lab visit http://elab.mit.edu/.

Events

Inside Bitcoins Conference and Expo — Singapore (Jan. 27–28), Berlin (Mar. 3–4), and New York (Apr. 15–17)

Inside Bitcoins is the largest bitcoin and blockchain technology focused event series worldwide. At each event you’ll hear about the latest challenges, trends, and opportunities in the industry from experts including Steve Beauregard of GoCoin.com, Marco Santori of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Brian Kelly of CNBC’s Fast Money, Barry Silbert of Digital Currency Group, Marco Santori of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and more. Plus, TBI Daily readers get 10% off theSingapore, Berlin, and New York events with code TBIDAILY.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Bitnet, San Francisco, Belfast, London (VC-backed)

-Leading digital commerce platform & former Visa team.

-Open positions: Engineering (Customer Success, Lead UI, Product, DevOps), Sales Director (EMEA), Sales Engineer (San Francisco)

-Check out Bitnet (https://bitnet.io/careers.html) and email jobs@bitnet.io

Coinbase, San Francisco (VC-backed)

-Largest “universal services” bitcoin company.

-Open positions: Security Engineer, Software Engineer (2–3 years mobile product development), Regulatory Compliance Investigator, (1 year conducting SAR investigations)

-Check out Coinbase (https://www.coinbase.com/careers/)

BitGo, Palo Alto (VC-backed)

-The leading Bitcoin multi-sig security company

-Open positions: Back-end / Front-End / iOS / Security Engineers, UX Designer

-Check out BitGo (www.bitgoinc.com/jobs) and email jobs@bitgo.com

Bolt, San Francisco (VC-backed)

-Stealth startup focused on consumer applications of Bitcoin.

-Open positions: Security Engineer, Ruby Engineer, UI/UX Designer, Executive Assistant.

-Check out Bolt (bolt.com) and email jobs@bolt.com.

Elliptic, London (VC-backed)

-Vault and enterprise digital currency services.

-Open positions: Data Scientists and Front-end developers.

-Learn more and apply at elliptic.workable.com

Today’s Tid Bits

NeuCoin Raises $2.5M to be a Headache-Free Take on Bitcoin

http://venturebeat.com/2015/02/03/neucoin-raises-2-5m-to-be-a-headache-free-take-on-bitcoin/

NeuCoin, a new alternative digital currency, has announced a $2.5m raise in investor funding to help the company build its consumer-aimed cryptocurrency. NeuCoin, which is designed to be really easy to obtain, spend, and hold, will immediately have a presence on media website Mongo and music streaming service Jango. Similar to the idea of ChangeTip, users will be able to top musicians and Mondo’s media authors. The funding comes from 20 individual investors, including King co-founder Patrik Stymne, Uber SVP Emil Michael and Hotwire president Henrik Kjellberg.

Bitcoin Mining Company KnCMiner Gets $15 Million Amid Lawsuits

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2015/02/03/bitcoin-mining-company-kncminer-gets-15-million-amid-lawsuits/

KnCMiner, a bitcoin mining company, has raised $15 million in a Series B round led by Accel Partners. Despite several lawsuits filed against KncMiners by its customers the firm continues to receive venture capital support. Originally, the company sold mining equipment to customers now it largely mines bitcoin itself. They’re 15 individual cases of customers against KnCMiner.

Microsoft Accepting Bitcoin in UK, Reportedly

http://newsbtc.com/2015/02/03/microsoft-accepting-bitcoin-uk-reportedly/

According to unconfirmed reports, Microsoft has started accepting bitcoin payments at its UK-based online store. A leak was reported on Reddit’s bitcoin forum where a user posted screenshots of Microsoft’s ‘Payment and Billing’ section. However, Microsoft’s UK store has made no formal mention of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Trading Volume Increased From $15 Billion to $23 Billion Last Year

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitcoin-trading-volume-increased-15-billion-23-billion-last-year/

2014 saw a 57% increase in trading from volume from 2013, from $15 billion to $23 billion. While the amount of active wallets have increased to 7.95 million. BitPay created a nice infographic titled the “Bitcoin Year in Review,” with several other bitcoin related facts, which can be found in the link above.

Bitcoin Book ‘The Age of Cryptocurrency’ Permanently Recorded on Blockchain

http://www.coindesk.com/age-of-cryptocurrency-bitcoin-blockchain/

Paul Vigna and Michael J Casey’s book The Age of CryptoCurrency has been permanently recorded on bitcoin’s public ledger, the blockchain. The book was time-stamped digest recorded in the blockchain, by being coped into Block 341705 using the Digital Currency Council’s Blockchain Recordation Toolbox.

Have a tip or feedback? Email me! (2bitidiot@gmail.com)