The Mediocre Wife

Alicia (Julianna Margulies) faces off against the pencil-neck
Treasury department attorney in "Bitcoin for Dummies."

CBS tonight (Sun., Jan. 15th) aired an episode of the legal drama series "The Good Wife" that centered around the search (by the Treasury department, as well as the law firm) to identify the inventor of Bitcoin.

The show itself was rather mediocre, as far as legal dramas go, in terms of the writing - the legal arguments offered up in the courtroom scenes seemed rather silly and unconvincing, as were the various portrayals of cryptographers/hackers doing their thing (at one point a malformed "IP address" was quoted).  But on the positive side, the episode's dialogue mentioned Bitcoin about a hundred times (referring continually to its anonymous inventor as "Mr. Bitcoin" instead of his self-chosen pseudonym, "Satoshi Nakamoto"), and occasionally portraying the Bitcoin concept in a positive light ("this is the future").  At one point, the lawyer's kids even showed her (and the viewers) an informational video explaining the basics.

So, the airing of this show might be a positive thing for the growth of the currency.  Certainly, exposing the concept to the show's ~10 million or so weekly viewers can't hurt.  The market seems to agree - even just the anticipation of this episode may have played a significant role in the recovery of the BTC price, over the last month or so, from below US$3 to over $7.

It will be an interesting thing to see if a bolus of new users wanders into Mt. Gox over the next several days, bringing their U.S. dollars (via Dwolla or what-not) to bear in the market.  We'll see where we stand in a week or so.  I know one thing:  I've thrown a few of my own chips into the pot.