Yesterday on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver, had a segment on cryptocurrency and blockchain ranging from Bitcoin to ICOs and the speculative nature of space. Last Week Tonight has a large audience, John Oliver’s YouTube videos normally get 3~7 million views per video.

John starts the video talking about how technology videos age poorly and he wants to be careful with the segment. Since he has a large audience base he also started with the basics of Bitcoin and Blockchain and does a good job keeping it informative and funny. The segment starts with what is bitcoin and how it works. He touches on how Blockchain technology can be a game changer in sending money around the world. John does not go into other application of blockchain other than sending money to people around the world. He talks about a decentralized ledger and the advantages to a decentralized network than a centralized server with a database.

I am surprised that there was no mentions on Ethereum and smart contracts in the video since he talks about EOS and dogecoin. The video is neither bullish or bearish on the tech. It seems as an informative piece of the general public. Hopefully the video will help educate new people to come in the space who are not in it for just getting rich quick and want to build game changing technology. John does a good job pointing out scams in the space from Pump & dump Telegram groups to Bitconnect pyramid schemes.

When media normally covers crypto, if you follow the space closely, the media misses a lot of important details and spin the story to match an agenda. John and the team does a great job hitting a majority of the talking points in the space and even does a good job with the cultural references on the space. The video seems to be wanting to get across that investing in cryptocurrencies is risking and should be considered gambling not investing. Investors need to be careful in the space.

Here are some of the major talking points in the video.

FOMO – Fear of Missing out

Bitcoin Millionaires

What is bitcoin?

Bitcoin Fever

Companies changing their name to add Blockchain – Long Blockchain Company

Online Culture – ICOs, Youtubers, Subreddit

Pump & Dump Telegram Channels

Bitconnect – Carlos “Hey, Hey, Hey!”

EOS raised over 1 Billion dollars on their ICO which is an insane amount of money for a company that doesn’t have a working product yet.