Hello! Today we went public with a project I’ve been working on with a brilliant team over the last few months: The Eye. It’s a first of its kind… an interactive on-chain media reader that hosts curated fantasy stories, along with an open-sourced publishing system for writers. We can push global updates to it to serialize stories. We crossed $100k in sales in less than 12 hours. All the data is public if you know where to look. We might reskin this model for other story-driven studios, communities, and projects. Hit me up.
Most of the proceeds will be going to writers; let me know if you or your clients or friends would be interested in writing some fantasy stories with us. We’ll be cutting grants that’ll likely be more sizable than what most writers/reps are accustomed to. Have a scroll through the Librarium and you’ll see a short or two that I whipped up for it. We believe The Eye is a symbol, a representation, of the on-chain media movement.
A collectible, that marks this moment in time… which I will give to you dear reader, see below**
We hope it speaks to the key features (permanent, secure, open, etc) of the blockchain, especially provenance. But what are the fail safes if the power grid goes out? Well if that happens we’ll have much bigger problems on our hands. There’s much to discuss and deliberate around these concepts. Let’s save that for another day.
Fortuitous timing. If you’re producing commissioned content for a studio or streamer, there’s a chance they’ll shelve your work and it’ll never see the light of day again. Thanks to residual and guild obligations. This happened just last week (Variety). With time, most content just turns to numbers on a spreadsheet. Programmable hours. Costs. Performance. Depreciable assets. Yay, beancounters. Get stuffed.
Let it be remixed, revised, remastered… set it free!
Praise the lord of the license, in only select territories. Here are some titles Netflix began with, now they’re all on some other streamer, or collecting dust. Who knows. Preservation and permanence is contained to the Library of Congress — hard format is now not the only immutable object. We have the keys.
I find this dumpster fire of WBD especially rich because so many in the arts and culture industry are obsessed with their legacy… their filmography (and their net worth) being on their Wikipedia page… that strangers in timbuktu can update. I love the entries that are obviously written by the person themselves. I might have to do that as joke.
To get back on track, I was writing about CC0 and open source stories earlier this year. I found the project Loot especially intriguing because it was an invitation to dream a fantasy world together — a canvas for creativity. We launched The Eye on its one-year anniversary. It might have appealed to the financially-motivated people in its early days, but the creatives & technologists stuck around to build. Here are recent pieces by Bethany Crystal (Tech:NYC), Casey Newton (Verge), and Andrew Hayward (Decrypt). All written in the last month.
I also put together this lil open research doc around CC0 stories that was making the rounds a few months ago, it may or may not have informed a16z’s CC0 piece that was published at the beginning of this month by a Harvard Biz School professor and an influential anon. Neat.
**I plan to give away a few of The Eyes to you, to those willfully read this — these are currently going for a few hundred bucks a pop. If there’s a market, it dictates price (up or down). This is a no lose deal for you. All you need to do is write me back directly or send a note to my “professional” email at dhd@wavemagnetventures.com — it all goes to the same person: me. Please include your hexadecimal wallet address, this starts with “0x” and is like your social media name.
If you don’t have a wallet, here’s how to get one:
Coinbase is most people’s on and off ramp to the crypto world, but you get KYC’d (i.e. personally identified [taxes]). Metamask is what most people default to for their web browser. And Rainbow is a super simple mobile app (Mom, you could use this one!!). To note, never share your private seed phrase — this is akin to your password, keep it safe. Do not keep it in your “Passwords” section on your Notes app — oh god please don’t have that either…
Any who, let me know if you have any questions. I know the onboarding process can be intimidating and counterintuitive, but you can do it! Always feel free to ping me. And maybe I’ll do a quick crypto 101 Zoom session for those curious — write me if you’d be interested in attending. Happy to hold your hand every step of the way.
Motivation levels are at record highs. It feels like the tides are finally turning. Some of my other projects are starting to gain real momentum too. Can’t wait to share more. Some of which will also be industry firsts :)
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. Redistribution(s). See ya next week.
Tech
Inworld, AI-driven game characters, raised $50m TC
Limit Break, free to own blockchain game, raised $50m VB
Ready Player me, metaverse avatars, raised $56m VB
Uplift, mocap for athletes, raised $2.5m SBJ
Qeepsake, journaling app for families, raised $2m TC
DimX, metaverse creator platform, raised $600k Cis
Thirdweb, web3 dev kit, raised $26m TC
Qlloo, AI rec API that scrapes socials, raised $15m TC
Headroom, AI in video calls, raised $9m TC
Tilt Five making an AR Settlers of Catan game Verge
Unethical deepfakes to continue to rise TC
Quivr, DID and verification platform, raised $3.5m CJ
AI that tracks movement and expressions TC
Internet Game, web3 mini games, raised $7m IGtwtr
9count, consumer app incubator, raised $29m TC
Avium, web3 media startup, raised $2m TIA
Scalenuts, AI copywriter with search, raised $3m TC
Alongside, helps students with mental health, raised $5.5m GW
Prysm, helps athletes (tennis) monetize, raised $27m Bberg
eBay acq trading card marketplace TCGplayer for $300m TC
Animoca Brands Japan raised $45m from Animoca brands (lol, capital allocation all the way down) TC
Happy Ring, mental health wearable thing, raised $60m (not wedding bands) TC
Sequel, virtual events platform, raised $8m (is this 2020?) BI
Mural, helps DAOs deploy treasuries, raised $5.6m TC
Solsten, wellness digital experiences, raised $22m SC
Floating Rock, NZ game studio raised pre-seed Var
Media
House of Dragon sets HBO record, 10m viewers Axios
Monumental to acq NBC Sports Washington SBJ
Playstation the dominant console GL
Twitter adding pods TC
Storycel plans intl expansions Books
Sony buys game studios, Savage Games Reut
Kyncl leaving Youtube WSJ
Amzn, DirecTV Thurs night football deal at 300k venues THR
iHeart plans Fortnite concert THR
NBC cutting back on prime time hours WSJ
Volv is new trending news app summary Forbes
Capital Records severs ties with “AI” rapper (oh heavens) THr
Wall Street braces for new streaming reality Axios
Sports streaming makes us all loser (that’s just streaming honey) Atlantic
Entertainment
Avatar re-release coming next month THR
A24 making The Front Room w Brandy (yes ZVS!) Var
Francis Lawrence to direct BioShock (took long enough) THR
Cohen Media acq HanWay films THR
Bron to be restructured (broke in my tracking board a month ago) IW
Roadside gets a Hulu output deal IW
Halloween Ends day/date on Peacock Var
House of Dragon renewed IW
UTA starts web3 division (just call me) THR
Apple first look w 60Forty Films Var
Nflx greenlights Korean series Parasyte THR
Matt Reeves overall tv deal Warner Bros THR
Nflx orders limited series Perfect Couple Var
MTV VMA winners THR
One Van Films trying ot DAO a film (haven’t heard of any of this, run) Dead
Collaborative
Profile on Litquidity, meme king of wall street Fastco
The sound of a black hole, of space Vice
Cult of A24 (someone buy me a towel pls) Vulture
Spreadsheet of crypto film projects Sheets
The Inspection trailer (go Elegance!) YT
Polarity of critic/fan reviews Bberg
Future of AI powered influencers like FN Meta Musicx
On pretending to read books (that’s what coverage is for) Critic
Empire of Light teaser YT
Incognito mode in the metaverse (lol) Input
Serena and a Meghan Markle podcast on Spotify THR
Dive into internet-native orgs FF
Whistleblowing is broken (honestly, what isn’t?) Atlantic
Rise of niche micro-celebrities (don’t @ me Lorenz) Washpo
Behind Kate Bush’s syncing deal w/ Stranger Things THR
Reggie James on universals and luxuries; nomenclature HCRss
Yellowstone s5 teaser YT
Profile on Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX WSJ
Owen Dennis on WBD and Infinite Train being taken down ODtwtr
Interview w David Holz, Midjourney founder (watch this space) Verge
White Noise trailer, Delilo and Baumbach (where’s The Corrections?!) YT
Tar teaser trailer YT
Vince Gilligan wants to write a nice guy Newyorker
Giide makes interactive audio guides, adventure at Vail Giide
Paul Allen’s art collection NYT
The creator economy winter Med
Growing rice in the ocean Neo
Dogs produce tears when reunited with owner Guard
Rollerdrome trailer YT
Sharing DNA, your doppelgänger is out there NYT
Listen: The philosophy of game w/ Ezra Klein Pod
Read: John Carpenter profile (watch this space) NewYorker
Watch: Curt Skeleton AI on TikTok