A new episode of “The Simpsons” dug into the cryptocurrency world, breaking the subject down in a way anyone can understand in under two minutes.
The episode, titled “Frinkcoin,” was listed on Fox on February 24, and features “The Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parson talking about the cryptocurrency world, calling it the “really cool subject of distributed consensus-based cryptocurrency.”
Parsons initially explains that cryptocurrencies work by recording every transaction that occurs, and that these are recorded in what’s called a distributed ledger. An animated ledger book enters the scene to start singing, saying:
“I’m a consensus of shared and synchronized digital data
spread across multiple platforms from Shanghai to Grenada.
Each day I’m closer to being cash of the future.
Not in your wallet, I’m in your computer.”
Parsons added that when a ledger books gets filled up it’s added to a chain of other books, forming the blockchain. The episode itself sees Professor Frink develop a cryptocurrency called “Frinkcoin” that sees him become the richest man in Springfield.
The show’s creators also addressed the environmental cost of producing cryptocurrencies, and poked fun at the mystery behind the identity of Bitcoin’s creator Satoshi Nakamoto, writing “also, we know who Satoshi is, but we’re not telling.”