Your Stage : Blockchain and our Medium by Gus Klein

Do a little clicking and you'll find I'm new to this site. I'm new to a lot of sites. Reason being I'm seeking, if not establishing- new ways to tip my/our -selves into all things production by being found unconventionally. And, I’m kind of in a hurry.

In short my formal background is our industry. SNAFU's on behalf of college encouraged me to start, of all things- a candle business. Separate conversation I. Sold that off and moved into interior design. Separate conversation II. Mentally broke down from that, leaning into the only thing I could do in the moment which was writing and cooking. Separate conversation III.

Along that journey I started learning about cryptocurrency, then on to discover the real movement behind which is blockchain. This is a tender and confusing conversation for many, one which I'm comfortable holding. Separate conversation IV. But in short, blockchain is the new railroad tracks to basically anything digital. A far more organized version of what you might perceive as the internet.

Separate Conversation V, this one, is a novella I have written and pushing towards production. But I can't get much traction in the conventional ways. Publishers, even editors have certain courting-hoops to have us jump through. Financiers? We’re not keen on a former interior design manager who had a meltdown then joined central casting! Self publishing? Give us 30% of your money! Vanity publishing? Give us 90%!

Indeed we need collaborators, but I've jumped through enough hoops in my time I can't wait for more hoops to be presented. Sorry not sorry.

So, during "separate conversation IV" I vaguely connected some dots and began online searching a combination of blockchain, publishing, content streaming, and, ultimately getting the credit for such potential works.

So, I'm going to give you the shortened version of a scenario. Then I'll post some sites that help get us there, because we just don't have that presence yet.

We'll use my example:

I wrote a novella, because I wanted it to (well, help heal me) become a program or film. Thinking if I had published first, I could retain more control over the project. This lead to blockchains who will host to publish your content, giving you the control others don't.

Enter a "Smart Contract". This enables us to make the terms of our project. My project is a mental health journey. My smart contract could appropriate a percentage of publishing sales to a charity of my choice (assuming they have, or get them to establish, a WALLET) to receive the proceeds. The smart contract sends the general retail income to my wallet. And we can order this smart contract to give us a royalty if the digital novella is resold! Incidentally, smart contracts are a whole division needing the collaboration of coders and financ(iers?), but don’t stress, sites below are already looking at this for us.

Next up, I decide to go into cinematic production. Hire conventionally, shoot conventionally, done. Distribution? Traditional means will stick around, but if you’re going at it relatively alone, or want to speak as one of the first few producers in this medium, keep reading.

The sites below are in order of getting you in the right direction.

Coinbase. Metamask.

Browser and App Wallets.

Basically like setting up a checking account, except you’re in charge of the long string of numbers like at the bottom of your personal checks. They are usually correlated to cryptocurrencies- again don’t fret, just momentarily think of it as having a checking account you can pay out of in pesos, dollars, rubles, euros, etc— strictly to help you connect the dots.

By the way, sooner or later you will NEED a wallet. Most of the sites below require you to “Log in with your wallet”. For now, think of it as showing your ID to the bouncer at a club. If he’s feeling spiffy he might send a drink coupon to your wallet. To an extent it’s a great safety feature preventing you being hacked remotely. See it’s not all heresy.

Securitize. Bright ID. Apps.

You’re going to have to prove yourself establishing online accounts/wallets. These are some hard core safety feature driven ways to do so.

Decrypt App.

For practice, download their app, read the stories, collect their rewards simply for reading, then cash them in later. This is a simple way to wrap your brain around how the reward system is being turned on its head and how we’ll make money.

Brave browser.

Get used to this too. You essentially earn “fiat” (BAT) for using their browser. Watch things. Read things. Wait a minute, I’m gonna have to PAY people to watch my content?! Well, vaguely. Think of it as tipping a viewer in micro-amounts to perhaps watch your ad, portfolio, NFT, reel then click thru purchase at Apple+ or Peacock, etc. In other words, you just blew past the ad agency.

Kapwing.

Great example of first having to connect your new wallet. Then logging in to their basic and extremely robust editing tools. This is where you could full on edit, or place your final product then get it automatically coded for blockchain distribution. Then, it will place it on a site for you. In my case, I defer to my Telemetry NFT on Rarible. My NFT is basically a specialized 30 second video. The wallet is important because if you want deeper features you’ll have to pay for them, presuming you have now funded said wallet.

NFT Storage.

Imagine you’ve put up whatever for sale on Ebay. It vanishes. Not even bought. Ebay didn’t pay their bills! Rude. If this happens NFT Storage guarantees your whatever will be saved. Archiving sounded too simple. But apparently, blockchains have vanished.

Rarible. Open Sea. Foundation.

These are NFT sites. Stay calm. Think of it this way- NFT’s are the baseball cards of the 1940’s. Sure you think it’s a waste in our generation, but there was a war going on back then and people were trading these things when they should have been buying potatoes and vaccines. Same difference. Only think of it as said modern day Ebay, and your “baseball cards” are talkies. They are categorized to an extent, like sports, etc. Again, they need our category suggestions or our content will be sidelined for some time to come. If you visit my NFT at Rarible and search “Telemetry” you’ll see what I mean.

SingularDTV. Film Clout.

A site promoting production and financing from the blockchain perspective. I found it independently, but later saw their logo on the opening credits of the film Prospect. Great call. Film Clout seems in development.

Livepeer.

Something more along the lines of YouTube for us makers, and how we financially benefit from it, basically turning us into a version of tomorrow’s independently paid influencer.

Noise Cash. Read Cash. MirrorXYZ.

These sites apply more to us writers. You can monetize your chapters, novel, essays, and earn tips on what you publish. I’m trying to monetize it as a place to raise money for my final draft editing, even hoping to get occasional feedback. In effect, testing the market. MirrorXYZ is more membership driven. Decrypt is a site great for blockchain articles, and so far even they hadn’t gotten accepted. It’s a thoughtful popularity contest to some extent. At Noise.Cash, I’m kind of just another voice but I got in. Private school vs public school. Meh.

Podminer.

I’ve laid out audio tracks for my novella. I’m working to get paid for the audiobook version here. Far less fees than other sites. Terrible security but shiny and new. The money goes directly to me and my wallet.

DeepDream Generator.

Two words. Twin Peaks. Barely related to this topic but leave it to your potential use. Just know it’s not a filter. It’s a decision.

Instagram.

Basically my home plate for all this. It’s where Prius driving planet saving Casting Directors should double check talent, and keep 80 mufflers off the road before inviting them to a 6 minute casting call. What I meant was, this is where I’m sharing these experiences online, for the traction I get from google- because searching me is highest with IG, well, and IMDB. Stage 32. OK OK you get my meaning, I swear I didn’t mean to go on this long.

I have not been endorsed by any of these brands or sites, yes it’s taken years for them to develop, and just as many for me to find them. This approach has been my own, I have a hard time pulling collaboration, and I’m not happy with the conventional terms. I’m too Montessori. If you choose to explore these sites and establish your own presence, we start reconfiguring the search parameters on our favorite browsers, further tipping the attention our way.