Hot Docs: U.S. Producers Crowdfund Bitcoin for Internet Cash Documentary

"The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin" is being shopped this week at the Canadian festival as it includes the controversial robo-money in its production budget.

VANCOUVER – The Internet cash documentary The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin is using the controversial robo-money to complete production.

Bitcoin crowdfunding has been used by U.S. co-producers Daronimax Media and 44th Floor Productions to finance the feature documentary from director Nicholas Mross, being shopped this week at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto by sales agent Ballinran Entertainment.

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As the documentary about a computer programmer obsessed by Bitcoin is shot in North America and Japan, part of the film's budget has been crowd-funded through the crypto-currency and Paypal.

The donations tab on the film’s crowdfunding web site accepts investment from the Bitcoin community, which is then converted into American dollars using a Bitcoin trading exchange.

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin chronicles the rise of Internet currency minted by computers that central banks are struggling to control and national governments are looking to tax.

“We’ve witnessed the power of social networking and its ability to influence change,” Mross, a graduate of the Toronto Film School, explains.

The documentary, scheduled for release in early 2014, follows the evolution of Bitcoin through the story of a 35-year-old computer programmer from Pittsburgh and other entrepreneurs and start-ups.