There really are few phrases in the English language more annoying than “This could be a Black Mirror episode!” But a popular television series which scathingly explores and satirizes the effects of technology on the human race releasing its own themed memecoin and accompanying Web3 platform? That bloody could. At the end, everyone responsible would be thrown in a volcano.
Meme-based crypto currencies were once the domain of tech bros looking to make a buck at the top of a pyramid who’d leave the worthless coins in the hands of suckers and move on to the next. Now, their reputation has somehow sunk even lower, with the likes of Donald Trump exploiting his acolytes with Trump Coin (currently worth a fifth of day-one peak, and almost a quarter of its launch price). So it’s just the perfect moment, years after anyone took them even half-seriously, for Black Mirror‘s production company to launch $MIRROR, a coin based on the show. Why? According to a GamesBeat article, “To reward Black Mirror fans for their loyalty.”
Banijay Rights is an arm of Banijay Entertainment, a mammoth television production company responsible for shows like Lego Masters, Big Brother, Survivor, and indeed Black Mirror. It partnered with Web3 company Pixelynx a while back, with the intention to create a coin and run a bunch of Web3 bullshit like NFTs. The latter sold out instantly, with all 7,000 being picked up at $40 a pop in under three hours. It was suggested then that this deal could even influence future episodes of the show, but given Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker doesn’t seem the sort to countenance any of this crap, that sounded like a reach at the time.
Today the memecoin launched, albeit so recently that it’s hard to discern any sort of reaction. It also doesn’t help that there’s apparently another $MIRROR coin, and oh god who cares? (Well, the 237,000 people following the X account, apparently.)
But it’s not just a coin! There’s a motherfucking UNIVERSE, too. “The $MIRROR token goes beyond gamified engagement,” we’re told. Phew! “It’s a cultural token at the core of an expanding digital world that merges interactive entertainment, communities, identity, and social standing.”
Coin owners will be able to vote on covers for a Black Mirror comic from Twisted Comics—and get this!—have the chance to put more money into more nonsense non-products by investing in “royalty streams from selected product launches.”
This is all apparently “inspired” by the Black Mirror episode “Nosedive.” The 2016 episode was about people’s ability to rate each other from one to five stars, in a society where your social status is constantly dependent upon how others have rated you. I rate everyone involved in this crypto bullshit 1 out of 5! I’m sure the episode’s writers Ras,hida Jones and Michael Schur, will be just delighted about all this.
God, there’s so much more rubbish around this, but you get the gist. That gist being: everything is awful and we should shut down society forever. It could be a Black Mirror episode!