Rachel Wolfson has been covering the cryptocurrency, blockchain and Web3 sector since 2017. She has written for Forbes and Cointelegraph and is the host and founder of Web3 Deep Dive podcast.
Hollywood, the world’s oldest national film industry worth billions, faces new challenges as film makers struggle to remain in control of their data, IP rights and financial earnings.
At the same time, moviegoers that once visited theatres to watch films have begun streaming movies at home.
The issues facing the film industry have resulted in declining revenue, along with data being controlled by major corporations rather than content creators.
Fortunately, blockchain technology can solve many of these problems. For instance, movies can now be tokenized as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and data can be recorded across tamper-proof, transparent networks.
Creator-Led Onchain Platform Aims To Transform Hollywood
While these use cases are still early, it’s notable that Golden Globe winner and multiple Emmy nominee Ron Perlman recently launched a creator-led financing and content development platform for film and television.
Known as “Watrfall,” the onchain platform allows film and TV projects to be financed, greenlit, and monetized in a transparent, participatory way.
According to Perlman, creators often lose ownership and control of their projects in today’s Hollywood system. He told Cryptonews that backend deals were traditionally a way for creatives to share in a project’s success, yet these have disappeared in the era of streaming.
“Watrfall fixes this by ensuring creators retain creative control and are provided with more direct access to funding,” Perlman said.
Perlman further explained that Watrfall allows fans to become investors, while getting the unprecedented opportunity to vote for the content which they wish to see greenlit. Additionally, IP ownership opportunities allow fans to participate in the upside of the content developed by the platform.
Creators Retain Ownership, Fans Stay Engaged
Meyenehi Iduwe, CTO of Watrfall, elaborated on this, telling Cryptonews that the platform enables creators to retain ownership and creative control of all film deals. He added that all transactions and revenue splits are recorded on the blockchain, thereby creating an equitable, transparent environment.
“Creators also receive unprecedented access to funding via fan investment on the platform, which fosters a closer fan-creator engagement. Everyone from fans to the cast and crew also get tokenized equity stakes, ensuring everyone involved shares the upside,” Iduwe said.
While this may sound complex, Iduwe explained that Watrfall uses a three-layer data system built on the Polygon blockchain, designed to balance transparency and security. “This includes all the critical information about who funded which project, how much was raised, community votes, and how royalties get paid out.”
Polygon’s decentralized and tamper-proof nature also means that anyone can verify information, which Iduwe remarked is critical for solving the old “Hollywood accounting” problem.
Regarding creative film assets, Iduwe mentioned that elements like scripts, footage, movie trailers, and contracts are all stored on Walrus Protocol, a decentralized storage system built on Sui.
“Instead of sitting on a single company’s server, these files are encrypted, distributed, and permanent, so the work funded by the community can’t be lost or censored,” he said.
While this information remains onchain, personal user data like emails, Know Your Customer information, and metadata stay off-chain on encrypted Watrfall servers.
“By splitting data across these three layers – onchain for trust, decentralized storage for permanence, and private servers for sensitive information – the Waterfall ecosystem is one creators and audiences can actually rely on and trust,” Iduwe pointed out.
Currently, Watrfall is able to host entire TV shows onchain, with Walrus and Sui providing the scalability necessary for a large-scale streaming.
Crypto’s Role in Hollywood
While blockchain is the main driver behind Watrfall, there are plans to launch a native utility token built on Polygon.
According to Iduwe, the token is designed to provide incentives for fans and content consumers, including the ability to vote and greenlight content. Future plans involve the incorporation of a decentralized streaming layer, where tokens may be used for subscriptions and additional rewards.
Zach Ingrasci, director and co-founder of film production studio Optimist, told Cryptonews that using cryptocurrency can indeed help shift the power dynamic back to content creators.
For instance, Ingrasci explained that NFTs and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) allow filmmaker communities to directly support projects. In addition, releasing films onchain can remove traditional distributors, allowing filmmakers to keep more proceeds while maintaining creative control.
“We saw this with our own film, ‘Vitalik: An Ethereum Story.’ In July of 2021, we launched a crowdfund on the platform Mirror. The project raised 1,035.96 ETH in under 72 hours, directly from the community,” Ingrasci said.
Supporters of the film also received access to a private Discord server with behind the scenes updates and early movie access.
In addition, crypto played a large role in the distribution of Vitalik: An Ethereum Story. Ingrasci and his co-founder, Chris Temple, used the decentralized protocols Zora and Base to release the film’s trailer.
“The trailer alone received 95,000 mints, generating revenue that would typically be impossible with a traditional release,” Ingrasci shared.
Helping Mainstream Moviegoers Understand Blockchain
Yet while these concepts are innovative, it remains challenging to bring this to the mainstream.
“We recognize that moviegoers may find blockchain and crypto intimidating,” Iduwe remarked.
To address this, he mentioned that Watrfall is applying a “user-friendly, Web2-first experience,” that features fiat payments, dashboards and optional crypto wallets.
“The platform is designed so that users with minimal knowledge of Web3 technologies are still able to engage with the platform and participate in voting and investment opportunities,” Iduwe explained.
Perlman added that although Watrfall is not designed as a typical Hollywood movie studio, it will employ a production office and utilize physical resources in line with the development of a traditional studio project.
While this may prove to be successful, Ingrasci pointed out that the tools for applying blockchain within the film industry are still in their infancy.
“For filmmakers who aren’t already immersed in the crypto space, they can feel overwhelmed and inaccessible,” he said. “But as streaming platforms continue to consolidate under a handful of tech giants, it’s more important than ever for filmmakers to find and nurture their own grassroots audiences.”
