The first Chinese blockchain movie is coming, would you like to see it?

Movies are often a way for humans to explain their imaginations for the future. Before artificial intelligence became popular words, many movies have predicted the good and bad of artificial intelligence. After reading "Terminator", I thought of killing machines and read "There is a movie." Ants 2: The Hornets appear to be curious about the progress of insect robots, so now it makes no sense to talk about blockchains.

From Hollywood to Asia, the film industry moves into the blockchain

Before the blockchain trend entered the Asian film circle, Europe and the United States probably played for 2-3 years, including filming blockchain or cryptocurrency as the core story, supporting cryptocurrency payment network viewing, or using blockchain. The node transmission to prevent the release of piracy, the No Postage Necessary love comedy film released in the United States in July this year, the story of the actor is a hacker involved in the FBI investigation of the stolen bitcoin case, although the plot has not been too big Praise, but the film still writes a record: the world's first film released using blockchain (Qtum Quantum Chain) technology, and can be paid through cryptocurrency. Other film chains related to the filming are BitCoin and the Chinese film The Sage Thief.

Figure | No Postage Necessary describes the actor as a hacker involved in the FBI investigating the theft of bitcoin, and the film is the first in the world to be released using blockchain (Qtum Quantum Chain) technology and can be paid in cryptocurrency. the film.

Why the film industry is interested in the blockchain, the reason is very simple, like other industries such as finance and manufacturing, I hope to solve the existing problems in the industry or jump out of the 窠臼, DT Jun analysis, the film industry has three major incentives to turn into the blockchain, Let's talk about the first two: financing and distribution, two key points for film product lifecycle management.

CANNES NEXT, held at the Cannes International Film Festival in France, is a conference on how to use the technological innovation in the film industry. This year's CANNES NEXT conference focuses on blockchains in addition to the immersive experience of virtual reality (VR). Jérme Paillard, executive director of the Cannes Film Festival, said: “The blockchain is a new, transparent and reliable way to identify and track transactions across the value chain of the film industry. I believe it will play an important role in the coming years. Promote the financing and distribution of films."

In the Internet age, the entertainment industry has become more democratic than in the past. The video platform from YouTube to Vibrato gives the generals a place to create their own content. It can be more red than the artist Andy Warhol said. "In the future, everyone can become famous. 15 minutes" is still a long time. However, the production cost of the movie is too expensive. Many scripts are produced every day. It is possible to get the funds to start shooting and be watched by the public. Fundraising has become a key link.

When the film is completed, it needs to be released and distributed. In addition to the physical theater, there are also online audio and video platforms such as iQiyi, Netflix, Amazon, or DVD. From fundraising, pre-production, post-production, content distribution, and profit splitting, this long series of film life cycle processes is too opaque, controlled or monopolized by some intermediaries, or takes most of the profits.

The decentralization of the blockchain and the elimination of many "middleman" characteristics are seen by many film and television practitioners as an opportunity to change the rules of the game. Zach Lebeau, who is both a screenwriter and a director, has created SingularDTV, which is currently the most The representative company, which is referred to as "Netflix on Ethereum", also found Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin as CTO.

Figure | SingularDTV, known as "Ethernet Netflix," allows artists to issue tokens for themselves, or for their own movies or music projects.

SingularDTV emphasizes project ownership, project copyright management, and P2P on-demand through smart contracts, giving authors copyright and control. The company has two core products. One is the blockchain multi-intelligent contract Tokit, which allows artists to issue tokens for themselves or their own movies or music projects, and to raise capital, benefits, and benefits. The copyright is embedded in the programmable token, and the other is the decentralized exchange SingularX, which specializes in serving artists.

In addition to the European and American markets, SingularDTV entered China and Hong Kong last year. It has announced that the two Chinese projects are cooperating with young directors Wei Shuzhen and Zeng Yuting to carry out coin-raising for their respective films, "The Mustang Branch" and the character "Night Rainbow". .

Other blockchain movie entertainment companies include MovieCoin, and founder Christopher Woodrow is also a veteran of the film industry. Their slogan is "Hollywood 2.0", which is locked in content production and financing, and the income of each project. All expenditures are transparent, allowing investors, creators, producers, etc. to clearly grasp the financial trends. They also release Moviecoin tokens that consumers can use to pay for movies and entertainment.

All along, the film industry hopes to have more interaction with the audience. In the era when the physical cinema is popular, the film audience will leave, and the film production team will not be able to get feedback from the audience. Only the box office numbers can be referenced. Later, Online platforms such as Netflix emerged, emphasizing the analysis of each viewer's preferences through big data, using algorithms to recommend videos, and increasing the interaction with the audience. However, the film industry still keeps a distance from each viewer, and the movie is finished. Linkage often ends, and most of them remain in the memory of the audience. At most, you are a Disney fan, Marvel or DC fan. After watching the movie, you can buy a character doll to go home to collect, or go to a movie scene. How to make the film still have the connection with the audience after the end, is a question of the film industry, and the blockchain has the opportunity to do so, so the third incentive is sustainability.

Let ordinary people feel that the blockchain will land

Say a story, one day a well-known filmmaker sent a message in a WeChat group: blockchain movies, are you interested?

Looking at the network of the movie's big brother and the hot blockchain, many investors and theater owners are willing to see a young man. The famous filmmaker is Hong Kong Star Zeng Zhiwei, the young man named Xu Jiakai, the director of the first Chinese blockchain movie "Sage Thieves".

Xu Jiakai, a post-90s new generation director, shoots a net drama. Because of the "real" face of capitalism and vested interests, he is loved by the younger generation. He also opens a bar. Because the net drama is finished, he will take the film. The bar scene is left open for business. His reason is simple: just like watching Disney animation, you can go to Disneyland to play, and “participate” to create an immersive entertainment, a kind of sustainability.

“I am a belief in the blockchain! The value of our time: diversity, deep participation, and the film has to go to this.” Xu Jiakai said the first sentence when he accepted the interview with DT Jun.

It is very common to make movies and contact with technology. When you see artificial intelligence can write poems and write horror stories, he studies the use of AI to create scripts, but because "AI can compose three dramas, but can't write one body and be worthy of human worth. The script was suspended. He learned about Bitcoin from the story of Silk Road and Darknet, and was deeply attracted by the decentralized spirit of the blockchain. "The essence of money is the value of record work and transfer work. But it has become unbalanced. The more people work harder, the bigger the gap with the capital class. We don’t know if the blockchain is likely to reverse this, but at least the right to control digital assets in the chain has returned to ourselves,” he said. .

Therefore, he decided to shoot movies related to the blockchain, talk about humanity, social class, freedom dreams, and talk about light and darkness.

Zhuangzi's essay: "The saint is not dead, the thief is not limited." Some people say that "Sage Thief" is a film that combines "Infernal Affairs" and "Wall Street", but in addition to the story related to the blockchain, through the block The chain is a real-world goal of the SELF team that shoots the "Sage Thief" by creating a movie-based card game and a virtual combination of virtual ecosystems.

Technical team members from the three sides of the Taiwan Strait, SELF co-founder Ge Ruzhen, Taiwan's emerging technology KOL, is Taiwan's first student admitted by Singularity University (Singularity University) jointly organized by Google and NASA, now Taipei Technology Assistant Professor, Department of Interactive Design, University.

Tang Feihu, director of the SELF smart contract development team, graduated from Harbin Institute of Technology, is the winner of the 2015 Microsoft Programming Beauty Competition. Recently, she produced and assisted in the release of the Chinese blockchain games “Ether King”, “Ether Water” and “Ming”. Wait for 7 smart contract games.

In addition, SELF Dapp co-developers Hu Yaojie and Li Tingting are high-level students from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Hu Yaojie was the runner-up of the Hong Kong Microsoft Imagine Cup runner-up and AI Cup, and the Uber elevator champion. He is the founder of Turing Refining Technology and the important part of SELF DApp. Developer. Li Tingting is notorious in the currency circle and chain. She was the representative of the Hong Kong blockchain at the ETHWaterloo event in Canada. She is now the researcher of artificial intelligence in Microsoft Asia Pacific and the director of blockchain in Turing.

The concept is novel and the team lineup attracts investment from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the United States. Zeng Zhiwei not only invests in the film "Sage Thieves" but also invests in SELF. In addition, Taiwan’s electronics industry and the chairman of the Central Group are obviously the main investors. .

Figure | SELF Founder & Film "Sage Thief" Director Xu Jiakai (left), SELF co-founder Ge Ruzhen (right)

The first step is to issue an entertainment encryption ticket.

First of all, the team issued a non-homogenized Token based on Ethereum's ERC 721 - SELF "Entertainment Encryption Ticket", which is expected to be launched to the public by the end of this year. You can use SELF to watch movies in a physical cinema or online. It is used to consume in bars and restaurants. It is worth mentioning that the cinema consumption adopts a “bottom” design, so that the permanent value of SELF will not become zero.

What is the bottom? Ge Ruzhen explained that the cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, is a big ups and downs, which is the main reason why many people dare not step into the cryptocurrency world. The challenge and opportunity that the blockchain is now facing is the interaction with the real world. Regardless of how the price changes after the SELF exchange, there is at least one scenario to ensure that the value is always present and fixed, that is, 100 SELFs can be exchanged for a movie ticket, which guarantees that the consumer's SELF value will not be lost. The current cinema partners are Weixiu Studios, a subsidiary of the Central Group, and other mainstream theaters in Taiwan and Hong Kong, such as the National Cinema and AMC Cinema. In addition, through Zeng Zhiwei's match, it will also cooperate with China's top five cinema group.

Figure | "Sage Thief" film won by Zeng Zhiwei investment

The world of virtual and real integration: real life + card games

Instead of using SELF to pay for movies and restaurant consumption, they would like to build an immersive entertainment ecosystem that uses the blockchain character card game SELFER GAME to smash real life and virtual life.

The team will participate in the early crowdfunding supporter a free encryption card that binds the user's digital asset wallet and accumulates points based on the consumption record to increase the card's color rating. On the other hand, for film companies, creators, and catering companies, users can be given different gifts based on the consumption records on the blockchain to improve interaction and adhesion with users.

Hollywood's blockbuster movie "Top Player" is hailed as a masterpiece of the idea of ​​the center of the blockchain. There is a virtual reality game world "Oasis OASIS". In the OASIS world, all players are separated. Xu Jiakai believes that "actually we Not far from such a world", the self-image created by modern people on Facebook and Instagram is not necessarily consistent with the real world, and movies are entertainment and art, and there is an important element - social behavior, SELF blockchain card A card game allows the player to have his or her own virtual character. This identity is projected into the character in the movie, and the character's growth and evolution is based on the player's behavior in real life.

The Non Fungible Token based on the ERC721 rule in Ethereum allows each token to be unique. Like the most representative CryptoKitties, each cat is unique, but there is no way to rely on time or owner. The behavior has changed, so Hu Yaojie and Li Tingting developed the first ERC860 specification in the team, hoping that virtual identity can generate different evolution results based on different behaviors.

Hu Yaojie and Li Tingting co-published a paper entitled "Hierarchical interactions between Ethereum smart contracts across Testnets", which won the best award at CryBlock 2018, a workshop on cryptocurrency and blockchain in the ACM MobiSys 2018 International Conference in June this year.

They propose a two-tier architecture consisting of two types of smart contracts: custodian and client. A custodian contract can deploy on a demanding client contract, take its data, and invoke its methods to perform specific updates. In addition, they have developed a framework that allows client contracts to share common variables with all or part of the community.

Players get different SELF SCOREs based on different values, like the color attributes in a role-playing (RPG) game plus the overall function of experience values.

For example, one player's record on the SELF Chain is to watch a lot of movies, his virtual character may become an entrepreneur, and another player who often goes to the bar to consume, his virtual character may evolve into An investor, each character can get different rights, such as an entrepreneur can publish DApp tasks, or investors can use the exclusive VIP box of a physical restaurant or bar.

“This immersive entertainment ecosystem can develop a virtual town and virtual world,” Xu Jiakai said. “This world is not going to cover the entire real world, just use our things to be more fun.”

Figure | Launch of the SELFER GAME blockchain card game linking the St. Thief movie to the physical world

Is it not possible to have a blockchain?

Most people may think: This model is like the existing flight mileage accumulation, or the bonus point model, is it necessary to use the blockchain? The answer is that this is necessary because it is very difficult to connect IT systems in different sectors.

The user's consumption record is often in the hands of the payment provider, such as Alipay, WeChat payment, Apple Pay, LINE Pay or credit card industry, physical theater or catering business wants to obtain data, first of all, must cooperate with these giants, "but It is very difficult to achieve customs clearance, and even if these giants are willing to cooperate, the serial connection of the back-end IT systems of various industries is extremely complicated.

However, in the field of blockchain, consumption records, point calculations, and reward calculations can all be automated by smart contracts. “Anyone or business can connect without being excluded by the ecosystem.” In addition, the blockchain can record the nature of the behavior, reward the behavior of the eco-participants, and to build an ecosystem is more important is the sense of trust, a spirit of the blockchain lies in the consensus trust mechanism, will not be a single company Take power.

Figure | "Sage Thief" stills

Major Cineplex, Thailand's largest chain studio, recently announced that it has begun accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to buy movie tickets and popcorn, which means that not only movie creators and artists are interested in blockchain, but have been streamed by streaming media. Traditional theaters that grab business on the platform are also embracing this new technology.

The team comes from SELF in the three places, and hopes to solve the problem of opaque and uneven accounts at the box office with blockchain, and let the film's supporters and audiences become participants, and a group of creators and extended pan-entertainers. The reality and virtual linkage of the immersive entertainment ecosystem, the goal is very ambitious, whether it can be successfully seen.