Bitcoin Monkey

2022
Prismacolor Pencil on Strathmore Paper
12×9 inches

I have always been greatly enamored of fairy tales as allegory to life in reality, and “The Wizard of Oz” is one of my favorites. “Bitcoin Monkey” depicts a flying monkey, a member of the Wicked Witch of the West’s evil army, gazing in wonder at a physical depiction of a bitcoin. In 1990, Hugh Rockoff theorized that the novel was an allegory about the demonetization of silver in 1873, whereby “the cyclone that carried Dorothy to the Land of Oz represents economic and political upheaval, the yellow brick road stands for the gold standard, and the silver shoes Dorothy inherits from the Wicked Witch of the East represents the pro-silver movement.” It is doubtful that author Frank L. Baum intended this, but the allegory yet holds true. It is more probable that he intended the Wicked Witch of the West to represent the actual West, and the flying monkeys to represent the troublesome Native American population in those days of Western expansion.

We are entering a new economic era where two factions are in a push-pull battle between the legacy financial and governmental entities. Both desires to remain in complete control of a financial and governmental centralized system, with the most extreme members driving towards a One World centralized governing body. Opposing them are those looking to move swiftly and completely away from this realm into one that is completely decentralized and democratically driven. The flying monkey represents the chaos, conflict and upheaval embodied in today’s global economy.