CRYPTOLAND

In this episode of Cryptoland, Motherboard catches up with some of the earliest investors present at the Bitcoin 2013 conference and reckons with how the cryptocurrency industry has evolved over the past decade and looks at where it's going.

Follow Motherboard to West Texas, which is quickly becoming a global Bitcoin mining hotspot, followed by a panel discussion on whether Bitcoin lives up to the promises of its biggest supporters or reflects the fears of its strongest environmental critics.

In the beginning there was only Bitcoin, but today there exists a dizzying array of crypto projects promising eye-popping returns to investors. In this new Wild West, doge-themed memecoins and complex "decentralized finance" (DeFi) projects are making some people rich and ruining others due to scams, hacks, and plain old poor investing.

"Be your own bank" reflects the core libertarian ethos of Bitcoin. But what happens when it goes wrong? A shocking amount of Bitcoins have been lost by their owners either because they lost their passwords or lost their wallets. In this episode of Cryptoland, Motherboard follows a father-and-son duo who run a business unlocking Bitcoin wallets for investors who could be rich—if they can remember their passwords.

Crypto is often said to be a lifeline for people who are blocked from mainstream finance, and one community in particular has embraced its potential: sex workers. Sex workers routinely face discrmination from banks, credit card companies, and payment services, and so some performers—and startups—have turned to the blockchain. But is it a solution, or merely a Band-Aid? Motherboard visits the Spankchain hype house in Las Vegas to see what this world looks like in actions, and speaks to sex worker and author Liara Roux about how Bitcoin fits into sex work.

All over the world, criminals are locking up important computer systems and demanding crypto as a ransom. So-called ransomware is officially an epidemic, and cryptocurrencies sit at the nexus of the crisis. In this episode of Cryptoland, Motherboard sifts through the fallout of a ransomware attack at schools in Afton, Missouri, and our panelists discuss the history and current role of crypto in this booming type of cyber-crime.