Keanu Reeves, the star of “John Wick,” has developed into something of a cryptocurrency enthusiast, calling them “amazing tools for exchanges and distribution of resources.”
I think the idea of an independent currency is amazing, Reeves said in a recent interview with Wired to promote his new movie “John Wick 4,” adding that “To pooh-pooh crypto, or the volatility of cryptocurrency, it’s only going to make it better in terms of how it’s safeguarded.”
The cyberpunk classic “The Matrix,” in which Keanu Reeves played the lead character Neo, was released in 1999. It foresaw many current emerging tech trends, such as artificial intelligence and the metaverse. It is therefore not surprising that Reeves’ opinions on cryptocurrency and related technologies like NFTs have long piqued the interest of Web3 fans.
As he notes, “People are growing up with these tools: We’re already listening to music that was made by AI in the style of Nirvana, there’s NFT digital art.” Reeves is particularly interested in the implications of digital art technologies like AI and NFTs.
“It’s cool, like, look what the cute machines can make,” he said, adding, “!
Reeves continued, “I’m worried about the corporatocracy that’s looking to control those things.
In “The Matrix,” Neo is “fighting for what was real,” according to Reeves, who recalled trying to explain this to a teenager who responded, “Who cares if it’s real? ”
The actor predicted that “culturally and socially, we’ll be confronted by the value of real, or the nonvalue.” “And what will then be forced upon us? What will be displayed to us? ”
The actor has been getting more and more involved in the NFT world recently. After calling NFT art “easily reproduced” in a promotional interview for “The Matrix Resurrections,” he has since joined the advisory board of the nonprofit organization The Futureverse Foundation, which supports artists trying to break into the NFT world.
According to Reeves’ partner and fellow Futurevese Foundation adviser Alexandra Grant, the charity, supported by NFT projects Non-Fungible Labs and Fluf World, seeks to “make the metaverse accessible to more people, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
According to Reeves, “I’m kind of riding her coattails.” “I participated in launch setup. We want to give artists with various viewpoints opportunities using this technology that people are interested in.
When asked if organizations like Meta have sufficiently widened access to the metaverse, Reeves responded, “It’s like they’ve added more land. More land is offered for sale. Wealth can be created, and there are opportunities.
But he still has some reservations about the metaverse. “This sensorium, that is. It’s a show,” he said. And it’s a system of manipulation and control. We can’t see behind us because we are on our knees, looking at the cave walls and the projections. or off to one side.
He jokingly said in a previous interview, “Can we just not have Facebook invent the metaverse? The idea of the metaverse is way older than that.”
Reeves has maintained a certain level of distance from the cryptocurrency community. He once claimed to have “a little HODL” that “a friend of mine bought some for me awhile back,” but that he hasn’t done anything with it because “I haven’t had to.”
However, he has occasionally come into contact with cryptocurrencies.
In 2015, Reeves served as the voiceover talent for the Alex Winter-directed documentary “Deep Web,” which told the tale of Ross Ulbricht, the man behind the Silk Road dark web marketplace.
Over 170,000 Bitcoin, worth more than $3.7 billion at today’s prices, were taken by the authorities when the Silk Road was shut down.
In 2015, Ulbricht was found guilty of conspiracy to launder money, hacking computers, trafficking in narcotics, and operating a criminal enterprise. He was given two life sentences plus 40 years.
