Bitcoin, Boobs, and 'Wet T-Shirt Girls': The Creepiest Promotion Ever

Bitcoin attracts some strange bedfellows. Take, for example, the "wet t-shirt girls," two otherwise nameless middle-aged women living somewhere in Southeast Asia, and their masked partner "Mr. Anonymous." The three of them attempt to promote Bitcoin by creating YouTube videos featuring, well, girls in wet T-shirts.

The group's videos have titles like "SEXY WATER Surprise for two Cute Girls - Promoting Bitcoin Micropayments," and often veer into depraved and hallucinogenic territory, like someone took too much speed and cough syrup and then browsed Bitcoin forums all night. The aforementioned video depicts the two women gardening to the tune of a lilting country ballad and getting a bucket of water dumped on them in slow-mo as Mr. Anonymous cackles maniacally in a disturbing, pitched-down howl.

The videos are also a way for them to collect Bitcoin donations, and so far, they've raised a grand total of $20 in their quest to make the "ultimate" Bitcoin promotion video. Their last video upload was eight months ago, due to a lack of funds.

I talked to the trio on Skype, and the situation was about as weird and sketchy as you'd expect. Mr. Anonymous sat in the middle wearing a black baseball cap and a Guy Fawkes mask as the two women stood on either side, their faces exposed. He opened our interview with a monologue about truth, good deeds, and "man's destiny" to "evolve with technology" as the two girls occasionally rested their hands gently on his shoulders. I was not allowed to speak to the girls.

For your benefit, dear reader, the following interview skips the sermon and gets right to our conversation.

Motherboard: How did you all meet, and why did you decide to promote Bitcoin with wet T-shirts?
Mr. Anonymous: I tried to make it clear in the email. Without being a truncheon-horse, we must admit that ladies in high heels and short shorts get more attention than anything else, and we like to have fun. We, as artists, ended up with this as a kind of weird alternative to anything else. There's no answer to your question.

Did you all know each other before this project?
Yes, we've been together since the mid-90s.

How did you become the spokesperson for the group?
Well, that's just the way it is [leans back, the wet T-shirt girls rest their hands on his shoulders in near-unison].

Your rhetoric is all about freedom, destiny, etcetera. What do you earnestly see as Bitcoin's promise?
Just an opportunity. An opportunity for mankind to do good deeds. There's a lot of opportunity with Bitcoin, and we just want to get the message out there in a fun way. We're learning, as we go along, ourselves, and hopefully inspiring people to get their message out there, too. Get involved. Get an opinion.

You mentioned in your email that you want to create the "ultimate video." What do you want to do with your donations?
We want to do an HD video, possibly shooting machine guns, shooting dollar bills, and doing some wet T-shirt action in the jungle, or in a river. We have lots of ideas. People love explosions, people love nice ladies. We have a lot of friends that could join us, too. Loads. It's really up to the people. We must admit that $20 is not going to finance a lot of video [laughs]. But let me tell you what, that $20 feels like a million bucks because of the way it happened. No verification, no need to know who's supporting you. I think it's amazing that it can be done. It's exciting, right? It's very exciting. People can show their support without verification. That's an important point to make, because people want to support something, but don't want to show their identity for that purpose. They might want to support an artist with 50 cents or a dollar.

Watch more from Motherboard: Life Inside a Chinese Bitcoin Mine

Do you all have jobs outside of this?
We are freelance web developers and artists, currently looking for work, as always. We've done it for many years, being freelance and self-employed for more than 15 years. That's just how it is.

Why do you feel it's necessary to wear a mask, while the two women next to you expose their faces?
We do not want any focus on who is behind this, as a person, as someone who's from a country, as someone who has an opinion. People tend to look for flaws in other people, right? As you follow someone, you find other issues that you may not like. Maybe you're an Apple guy, and I'm an Android guy. Maybe you don't like people from a certain country or something like that. We don't want that mixed up with our message, simple as that. This is a message for humanity, this isn't about where we're from. We're human beings, and we could be anybody.

Can I ask a question of one of the women standing behind you?
We have decided, for the purpose of this conversation, that I am the spokesperson. If you want to talk to the wet T-shirt girls, you can write them an email. We would like to express ourselves through our videos.

A criticism of your videos might be that they marginalize women, many of whom are struggling to be accepted in the male-dominated tech world.
We invite anyone who wishes to have fun to come join us. Of course, we're open to discussing these issues. There's nothing demeaning about our videos, we just want to have fun. There's a lot of angry women out there. Come join us. Have some fun.

Would you ever appear in a video?
Sure, anything can happen. We're just making it up as we go along. Do you have any advice?

I don't think I could possibly advise you.
We are perpetual travelers. We have done what everybody is talking about doing.

And what's that?
That is putting actions behind our words. We are not going to support something that we don't believe in. We are not scared of borders and other people, other opinions.

Speaking of borders, where are you in Southeast Asia?
We don't see how that's important for this purpose.

Can I ask you about your accent? British or South African?
No, you're way off. You'll never guess it. I have many accents, actually.

Are you putting on an accent right now?
It's just which one to pick.

So what's next for this? Are you waiting for more donations? Do you have any idea of what you're going to do?
There's so much going on right now, right? We haven't done much lately, but it's been a great encouragement for you to hook up with us like this. We believe the world is black and white. A lot of people in the West are scared of anything black. They think you can make a world of everything white. You cannot. The world is both black and white.

What is black and what is white?
We have to be aware of what you could call good and evil. I don't believe that it's like we want to solve every problem. What do we know? We're learning as we go along, and we're very excited about technology and Bitcoin, but there's something wrong at every level. It's looking like it could infect everything. I am asking myself, and we are asking ourselves, can humanity be lost? Can we lose humanity? I see Bitcoin, and we see Bitcoin, as hope for humanity. It might not be. It might be the mark of the beast, whatever. But I believe if we have enough humanity, we can use it as proof of good deeds, and proof of honest startups. Do you get that point?

Yes, and thanks for your time.
It's been awesome, Jordan.