Southward Park, the animated Tv series that oft tackles topical issues with a comedic twist, showed Bitcoin being used as a mainstream means of payment in the not too afar futurity.

In the "Post COVID" episode of its 24th season which aired Thursday, South Park depicted one of the evidence'southward protagonists, Stan Marsh, paying for a stay in a cheap motel using Bitcoin (BTC) roughly 40 years from at present, when the pandemic is jokingly about to end for good. The fictional Super 12 Motel Plus — in a future where nearly all brand names take "plus" and "maxx" included — only accepts "Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency," with the prove having Marsh pay using a plastic carte with the BTC logo and a QR code.

"Information technology'south the future — we've all decided centralized banking is rigged then we trust more in fly-by-nighttime Ponzi schemes," said the motel clerk.

Many in the crypto space know South Park for its criticism of the U.s.a. government's and banks' response following the 2008 financial crisis, popularized past the meme "aaaand... it's gone" — referring to Marsh losing money immediately after depositing it in a banking concern. Amongst the other future predictions in the recent episode are autonomous vehicles, holographic digital assistants and stand-upwards comedy condign a shadow of itself among "woke" culture.

Though referencing cryptocurrency and blockchain in mainstream media is somewhat commonplace now, this wasn't ever the case. The outset TV series to feature BTC was The Practiced Wife in Jan 2022, just others have gone on to utilise the emerging technology and fiscal tool for both one-act and drama. This year, James Spader's grapheme in The Blacklist claimed to know the true identity of Satoshi, and The Simpsons showed the BTC toll moving to infinity on an animated stock ticker feed.

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Bitcoin'south appearance on the popular blithe series comes as the cost of the crypto nugget has stayed mostly under $sixty,000 for more than a week. According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, the BTC price is $59,237 at the time of publication, having fallen more than fourteen% since reaching an all-time high of $69,000 on November. 10.