A movie about an ex-computer hacker and some stolen bitcoin is set to become the first feature film released on a blockchain. Meanwhile, some are suggesting that this could signal a potential end to piracy within the industry.
Hackers? Stolen bitcoin?
Don’t get too excited. Aside from the bitcoin, the basic premise of the film seems like fairly standard rom-com material. An ex-hacker is posing as a postman to steal mail.
He opens a letter from a young war-widow, which steals his heart, and yadda yadda yadda. An FBI agent looking for some stolen bitcoin is the hurdle he must overcome in order to achieve redemption and find true love.
Okay, so blockchain distribution?
‘No Postage Necessary‘ will get a simultaneous release in select US theaters and on the video sharing app Vevue. Vevue is a peer-to-peer video network app running on the Qtum blockchain.
David Culver, who wrote, directed and produced the movie, hopes that use of the blockchain can help the movie go viral. To encourage this, moviegoers who review the film will receive a reward of Vevue tokens.
Culver said in a press release:
There are many advantages to blockchain distribution, including immutable proof of intellectual property rights, transparent royalty payments, and, since all data on the blockchain is resistant to duplication, we can now envision a world where films are no longer pirated.
Resistant to duplication?
That’s what he said, although others (myself included) are not so sure. As pop culture writer, Amy Roberts, points out:
…media or other data, even if referenced on a blockchain, can always be duplicated. A blockchain is simply a database.
So the jury’s out on whether blockchain distribution of films provides any protection against piracy. Although Culver seems to believe that Vevue is the “platform which supports [his] vision.”
And the future?
Scheduled for future release through the platform are Sci-Fi anthology ‘New Horizons’, and ‘Decentralized,’ which features a skeptical economics professor learning about (one assumes) decentralized technologies.
So far, so geeky, although any platform promoting blockchain technologies and furthering mass adoption should be rightly applauded. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens in the future.
Interested in watching blockchain-based movies and receiving tokens for it? Let us know below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, trebuchet-magazine.com