Ethereum's Hollywood Moment | Camila Russo

Camila Russo, founder of The Defiant, is bringing Ethereum to Hollywood with the feature film adaptation of her fantastic book "The Infinite Machine." This is the first project of its kind and is gaining speed, recently attaching Scott Free Productions (Ridley Scott's company) to produce. With these headwinds, The Infinite Machine movie is set to disrupt Hollywood in more ways than one. Reflecting on how she got to this point and the long road ahead, our biggest questions are... wen movie? Who's going to play Vitalik? And how can YOU get involved? ------ 📣 OPOLIS | Sign Up to Get 1000 $WORK and 1000 $BANK https://bankless.cc/Opolis ------ 🚀 SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/ 🎙️ SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST: http://podcast.banklesshq.com/ ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: ⚖️ ARBITRUM | SCALED ETHEREUM https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum ❎ ACROSS | BRIDGE TO LAYER 2 https://bankless.cc/Across 🏦 ALTO IRA | TAX-FREE CRYPTO https://bankless.cc/AltoIRA 👻 AAVE V3 | LEND & BORROW CRYPTO https://bankless.cc/aave ⚡️ MAKER DAO | THE DAI STABLECOIN https://bankless.cc/MakerDAO 🦁 BRAVE | THE BROWSER NATIVE WALLET https://bankless.cc/Brave ------ Topics Covered: 0:00 Intro 7:00 The Social Network of Crypto 12:42 From Book to Script 18:41 Scott Free Productions 21:55 The Roadmap 26:00 Bankless Picks the Actors 29:45 Funding with NFTs 35:22 The Artists and DAO 40:19 The Defiant & the Future 46:02 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Resources: Camila Russo: https://twitter.com/CamiRusso?s=20&t=7RSAv0_0myTciEikiAR7mw https://twitter.com/CamiRusso?s=20&t=7RSAv0_0myTciEikiAR7mw The Defiant: https://twitter.com/DefiantNews?s=20&t=7RSAv0_0myTciEikiAR7mw https://twitter.com/DefiantNews?s=20&t=7RSAv0_0myTciEikiAR7mw The Infinite Machine (book): https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-infinite-machine-camila-russo?variant=32123333836834 The Infinite Machine (movie): https://www.theinfinitemachinemovie.com/ ----- Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research. Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://newsletter.banklesshq.com/p/bankless-disclosures

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00David Hoffman?

  Congratulations, you are hearing the genesis of Ethereum's Hollywood moment. We still have a couple more years before it hits mainstream. But you know, as soon as it does, as soon as that movie comes out, I don't think we can say we're early anymore.

• 0:14Ryan Sean Adams?

  Bankless Nation, welcome to another episode of State of the Nation. Guys, we gotta tell you some really cool news. Ethereum is going to Hollywood. We're getting a Hollywood treatment, David. And we've got Cami Russo, who is producing a movie with the team that produced Ridley Scott movies, Aliens, Gladiator, stuff like this, Blade Runner. And they're now producing a movie about Ethereum. David, what did we talk about today?

• 0:38David Hoffman?

  Oh God, we talked about all of the details around how this movie is getting made. Who's funding it? Because the answer could be you. Teaser on that later in the show. And also just where it's going to place Ethereum in global consciousness. This is not a documentary. There are plenty of documentaries about crypto of varying quality on things like Netflix and other sources. This is not that. This is something that is a drama. There are actual characters that are going to be cast, actual actors. This is going to be, I'm pretty sure many people are familiar with the social network for Facebook. This is going to be like that. There's a lot of drama about Ethereum at the beginning of its whole genesis, of the whole entire thing, tons of drama. And so this movie is going to be covering that with that dramatized angle.

• 1:20David Hoffman?

  And you know, a lot of people need an angle like this to really understand crypto. They're not going to go down the rabbit holes. They're going to wait for some movie to come onto Netflix to explain it to them in the best way that they can, which is with stories. And so we talk about all of these things. We talk about the NFTs that go with this movie and how you too can be a director of this movie as well, if you are so inclined. Cami Russo, again, Chief S. at The Defiant, has done just a bang up job getting the story of Ethereum first through her book and now through a movie out into mainstream consciousness. So we have brought her on to talk all about Ethereum's Hollywood moment.

• 2:00Ryan Sean Adams?

  This is crazy. This is crazy. I remember watching the the social network in theaters and hearing about like kind of the Facebook story and seeing all of that go mainstream. And I think Ethereum could be slated for an event like that, right? Like, people are actually, in the months to come, actually going to have to be making casting decisions on who plays Charles Hodgkinson, okay? Who's gonna play Vitalik in this movie?

• 2:21David Hoffman?

  Right.

• 2:21Ryan Sean Adams?

  The script writers are going to have to decide what are the main themes of the Ethereum story and who do we cast as the heroes and the villains and where's the conflict? And, God, I can't wait. It's so amazing.

• 2:32David Hoffman?

  I don't think they're gonna have any problem finding drama, Ryan. There's gonna be a lot of drama.

• 2:36Ryan Sean Adams?

  Absolutely, absolutely. So it's gonna be great, guys. Anyway, really big, before we get in, though, wanna talk about Opus a little bit. So this is for the self-sovereign worker, particularly if you're in the US. Look, the new freelancer that works for Web3 is probably working for a DAO, maybe many different DAOs, working for ownership tokens potentially, rather than just pay and working for themselves. But where do they get their healthcare benefits? That is the question. And David, Opus, I think, has the answer. Tell us a bit about Opus. What do they do?

• 3:08David Hoffman?

  Yeah, if you are scared about leaving your comfy, salaried job in the world of TradFi or Web2, but you are compelled by the Web3 vision, but you have, I don't know, maybe you have the family that you need to insure, or just you like your stable income, Opus, which is a DAO, is helping people bridge the gap between working in the TradFi world, the normie world, and working in your brand-new, spiffy job in Web3. They are making this transition easier for you. They give you your healthcare benefits, because it is a collective. They also manage your payroll, and if you want to, you can get paid in crypto very regularly. And if you are ready to take the Opus challenge, they will give you 1,000 work tokens, the

• 3:50David Hoffman?

  tokens for Opus, and 1,000 bank tokens as well, if you sign up with Opus by May 25, 2022. There is a link in the show notes to get started, bankless.cc/opolis, O-P-O-L-I-S, capital O at the start, and that will get you going in the world of Web3.

• 4:07Ryan Sean Adams?

  Highly recommended, guys. Go, go check it out if you need these services. David, gotta ask you the question I ask you before every State of the Nation. What is the State of the Nation today?

• 4:16David Hoffman?

  Ryan, the State of the Nation is we are producing. We're gonna make a movie, and it's actually a we. If you feel like you have something to contribute to the movie, you have a path forward to do that. There is a part of the show, we talk about all these details, tokens that you can mint, NFTs. They're available on OpenSea, but they also give you utility access, like basically a backstage pass. Or perhaps you get to watch the movie be filmed. You get to go to the premiere if you get these particular NFTs. And so we're all gonna make a movie together, Ryan, if you are an NFT owner. So there is waves, waves of minting. The first two has already happened, the third is coming. Again, all of these details are about to be in the show, but we're gonna, we're gonna make a movie together, Ryan. And I will have to say, as soon as this movie hits mainstream,

• 5:01David Hoffman?

  as soon as this movie hits, like, you know, premieres in 2024-ish, whenever it does come out, I don't think we get to say that we're early anymore. I think that's the last moment where like, you can't really say that we're early. So guys, like, congratulations. You are hearing the genesis of Ethereum's Hollywood moment. We still have a couple more years before it hits mainstream. But, you know, as soon as it does, as soon as that movie comes out, I don't think we can say we're early anymore.

• 5:26Ryan Sean Adams?

  Absolutely, especially if this is a smash hit, if it has a mainstream moment the way The Social Network does, and if the team behind Ridley Scott is putting together, someone from the Ethereum community knows the story, like Cami Rousseau is putting it together, and we're like, the community's funding it. I think we got a real good shot. So it is still early right now, but it won't be when this movie comes out. I, I think there might be some alpha opportunity on some of these NFTs. Have no idea, you know, price, performance, but like, what's the value of a backstage pass to an incredible, like Hollywood-produced mainstream movie? I don't know, but I guess we'll find out in the months to come. So stay tuned for more details on that.

• 6:04David Hoffman?

  Yeah, one last tip of the hat to Cami before we get into the show. She has done a great job making sure this movie gets produced in a way that aligns with Ethereum ethos, aligns with the ethos of the industry. So thank you, Cami, for, for helping do that and leading the charge for Ethereum into the mainstream. And so let's go ahead and get right into it, our conversation with Cami Rousseau of The Defiant, of The Infinite Machine book, and now... The Infinite Machine, the movie, right after we get to some of these fantastic sponsors that make the show possible. Arbitrum is an Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution that's going to completely change how we use DeFi and NFTs. Over 300 projects have already deployed to Arbitrum, and the DeFi and NFT ecosystems are growing rapidly. Some of the coolest and newest NFT collections have chosen Arbitrum as their home, all the while DeFi protocols continue to see increased usage and liquidity.

• 6:48David Hoffman?

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• 7:31David Hoffman?

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• 8:17David Hoffman?

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• 9:00David Hoffman?

  All right, Bankless Nation, I am so happy to introduce Kami Russo. You all know her as the Chief S of The Defiant, the author of the Infinite Machine book, but now also the Executive Director to Infinite Machine: The Movie. Kami, welcome to Bankless.

• 9:16Speaker 02

  Thank you so much for having me, guys. Very excited.

• 9:18David Hoffman?

  Kami, this is really, really exciting. Is Ethereum about to get its like social network moment? Everyone knows the social network movie that really put a bunch of drama behind the story of Facebook. Is that what's about to happen to Ethereum?

• 9:31Speaker 02

  I really hope so. Like, the way that me and the other producers have been thinking about the movie of the Infinite Machine from the start is that we're trying to make it to be the social network of crypto. So the first kind of mainstream Hollywood film about crypto. I mean, that would be kind of my ultimate goal and dream. Fingers crossed that it happens, but at least we're assembling kind of a great team to make that a reality.

• 10:02David Hoffman?

  So this is a lot of firsts, as far as I know. We've had, there are movies out there on Netflix that are like documentaries of the crypto industry. There's like the Bitcoin, the gold, I can't remember the name, but there's one about Bitcoin. Charlie Shrem and Eric Voorhees were in it. But we haven't had a drama yet, and we haven't had anything about Ethereum. And so with the Infinite Machine movie, we're getting both a drama with like, you know, actual actors rather than just a documentary, and then also it's about Ethereum. And so Ethereum's getting its first like Hollywood moment. And it's all going to be based on your book, is that correct?

• 10:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's right. So The Infinite Machine was the first book about Ethereum. And when I wrote it, my main goal with it was to make it very approachable to a mainstream audience. So I made sure to break every kind of complicated concept down so that, you know, anyone could pick it up and just read an entertaining story that was about people and that was relatable. You know, it's a group of people with a big vision, big ideals, kind of following this dream, facing challenges, overcoming these challenges. So beyond kind of the tech and blockchain and all of that, it's a story about the humans behind the

• 11:20Speaker 02

  tech. So I hope that can translate into a great film. And that's the idea also of dramatizing it, you know, making it more approachable to the mainstream. That, you know, that's something that maybe documentaries have a harder time doing because they're more, you know, they're appealing more to the kind of rational side of things, of like, of a watching experience. But a dramatized film has a greater chance of just like appealing to the emotional side of things. And I think, you know, for many of us, that's what's exciting

• 12:02Speaker 02

  about crypto. You know, it's not so much kind of the rationality of it and like how exactly blockchains work, but it's more kind of the ideals of it, like decentralization, openness, permissionlessness. And yeah, hopefully this movie can really capture that.

• 12:19Ryan Sean Adams?

  It's the ideals of it, and this comes at a perfect time. I think like crypto in general comes at a perfect time, right, to start addressing these ideals into wider society. And you mentioned like the drama of the thing, because there are these real people with these really interesting stories. There's a lot of characters in The Infinite Machine and in the Ethereum story. And Kami, I have your fantastic book on my bookshelf right behind me. Like, it's great. It's a fantastic book. I'm curious what that looks like to actually convert this and turn it into a script. Because we've just been talking about drama. Like, do you have to inject a little bit of additional drama into the script in order to

• 13:03Ryan Sean Adams?

  turn it into something that's ready for the big screen? What does that look like? How much does it deviate from the actual book? And what does the script writing process look like?

• 13:14Speaker 02

  That's a great question. And it's something that I'm kind of dying to find out the answer to myself. Like, this is a first for me. Like, I've never, this is the first book I've written. I've never produced a movie before. I haven't been involved in like, writing a movie script. So we'll see. Like, we're going to be working with the team at Scott Free in writing the script. They have a writer picked out who will work on this. And yeah, I'm excited to work with him and see kind of what his thoughts are. Because honestly, like, I imagine the book will have to be distilled,

• 13:58Speaker 02

  you know, to just like the core kind of couple of storylines. I know that from kind of initial conversations with the other producers. The most important thing is to have like a hero and a villain. Obviously, the hero will be Vitalik. So the villain, probably Charles Hoskinson. And maybe there's two villains. Maybe it's like Gavin and Charles, I'd imagine.

• 14:24David Hoffman?

  I think to answer your question around, no, there will not need to be any new drama injected into the movie.

• 14:29Speaker 02

  There's enough drama, yeah.

• 14:31Ryan Sean Adams?

  There's enough drama in the story. I just, I guess I'm wondering if you're going to double down on those things in like, a hero and villain for any story? Like, The Social Network had that, right? So famously, you've got Mark Zuckerberg cast as the hero in that movie. And ironically, the Winklevoss twins are like part of the villain cadre. And now the Winklevoss twins are like hugely supportive of crypto. And they'll tell you that like, that The Social Network wasn't entirely true and all sorts of things. But like, that's what made that movie so good. And I guess we get to do a similar thing for the treatment of Ethereum story.

• 15:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's so funny. You're totally right. How it's funny how roles changed for Mark Zuckerberg and the Winklevils with Bitcoin billionaires. Like, that was completely reversed. Like, they were the heroes and Mark Zuckerberg was kind of the villain there. But yeah, I think we'll see that treatment. Of course, like, you know, I came, you know, my approach to this book was very much from a journalistic standpoint, just like making sure everything was 100% accurate, very well researched. I just made sure that, you know, everything was kind of airtight. And

• 15:49Speaker 02

  I'll make sure that the movie follows those same guidelines. Because, you know, I would hate for this to fall into kind of lean too heavily on like dramatizing and playing on those tensions, that it starts to kind of, you know. The thing is, like, I'll make sure that it's still accurate, even if we need to kind of lean on those like, like more like tension and drama.

• 16:22David Hoffman?

  At Bankless, we love to use the metaphor going into the frontier. And that's not just with crypto economics, that's not just with code. But now with you, Cami, you're journeying into the frontier of making movies. And so while no one, I think, in the crypto industry has really made a movie before, crypto does have the ability to kind of redo everything without having to take prior knowledge about how this should be done. So, Cami, I'm really excited to see what movie producer Cami can get done with the movie industry, and especially for Ethereum. And just to kind of tie off the context setting for the movie, when will it start? Like, will it start in like 2014? Like, do you know how the movie starts and like what timeframes it will cover?

• 17:04Speaker 02

  No, again, like, the script is just starting to take shape. So, you know, the book starts way, like, I don't know. It gets back to Vitalik's childhood. But the action itself starts around 2012, when Vitalik is first learning about Bitcoin. I'd love for the movie to get into that context as well. So I think it's just necessary to understand where the idea of Ethereum came from. You know, the fact that Vitalik was very much into the Bitcoin community and Bitcoin 2.0. So hopefully, that'll get portrayed there as well.

• 17:45Speaker 02

  Kind of Vitalik going on this world tour of Bitcoin projects. So if that gets folded in, then yeah, it should be around 2013 era. But my book does cover a lot of ground. Like, it does start in 2012, and it really goes to 2018. I think maybe I even got a bit of 2019. No, I don't think so. No, 2018 in there. But definitely was able to get DeFi into the final chapters, NFTs. So I don't know. I really hope to jam all that stuff in there somehow. I don't know how that'll work, but I don't know. We'll see.

• 18:28David Hoffman?

  I think if you left a room for a sequel, I think the Ethereum community would love this movie. And then we also want the next one, too, right after it.

• 18:36Ryan Sean Adams?

  The Merge. Ethereum 2, The Merge.

• 18:41David Hoffman?

  So a part of how big this story is, is related to the production company, Scott Free Productions. Can you talk about why that production company is such a big deal? And what other movies they made? And how that relationship between you and Scott Free Productions was established?

• 18:57Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I'm like still a little bit kind of pinching myself that this is happening. So a little bit of kind of the backstory is that, so my book was published in 2020. And then soon after that, I was approached by a couple of production studios to buy the rights of my book to make a movie. One of them was Versus Entertainment, which is a production company based in Spain. And I decided to go with them because they were the most committed to actually making the movie happen.

• 19:37Speaker 02

  Like, my agent at the time told me, a lot of production companies kind of buy the option just to like have the option, but actually, you know, never end up making these movies. But Versus was like really kind of committed and they read the book like, I don't know, a bunch of times. And they were like, actually, like, one of the producers has a crypto hedge fund, so they're like really into it. And I said, okay, they're gonna be, with them I'll have the best chance of actually seeing this movie. And Alejandro Miranda, the head of Versus Entertainment, he had this relationship with Scott Free.

• 20:20Speaker 02

  And so, you know, like I said, like, our goal from the start was to make this into a big Hollywood mainstream film. And to do that, we knew we needed a Hollywood production company to co-produce a movie with us. So, yeah, that's why he's, you know, in the last few months, he was like out in L.A., just like taking meetings, pitching the movie. And, yeah, and Scott Free kind of loved it. I, you know, we were lucky that one of the producers there had read my book, loved it. And she was like, she was like the one who was like pushing for the project to get done. And, yeah, we signed the agreement a couple of weeks ago.

• 21:03Speaker 02

  And so the big deal behind this is that Scott Free is the production company of Ridley Scott.

• 21:11Speaker 02

  And Sir Ridley Scott, he has this kind of grand title, and has produced like one, like some of the most successful movies out there. Like he and produced Gladiator, he produced Blade Runner, Alien, like recently, House of Gucci. Just like, you can go down the list and it's like blockbuster after blockbuster. It's insane. And it's just like the type of movie, you know, like Blade Runner, you know, kind of like sci fi, Alien, you know. I just think it's such a good fit for the infinite machine, so extremely excited about that.

• 21:56David Hoffman?

  So Kami, let's talk about the timeline for this. So like, how does, how long does it take to make a movie?

• 22:03Speaker 02

  Extremely long, unfortunately. We'll have to be very patient. But yeah, it takes about two years. So we'll probably see this, I know, right? Yeah, 2024. So yeah, we'll have to be very patient. I think time, though, flies in crypto, like so much is happening that, you know, it'll be around in no time. We'll be like, oh my god, yeah, it's already, you know, streaming.

• 22:30David Hoffman?

  Are you guys gonna like time this for like the next bull run? The next major bit? Like, is that even, it's probably gotta be a factor somewhere.

• 22:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think so. Well, I mean, I think like it'll just, you know, happen to work out, maybe? Like if this was anything like the last kind of bear on the bull market, maybe it like all works out. But no, I like, I can't imagine just like how things, I've seen how things kind of work in Hollywood land. And everything is super kind of bureaucratic and slow. And yeah, it's like another kind of timeline than crypto. So yeah, I can't imagine timing in anything because like they all work and move at their own pace.

• 23:16David Hoffman?

  So I get that there's a lot left to be done with the actual production of this movie. But would you know, like, when this movie is released, how we would watch it? Is this gonna be something that we all like go grab our popcorn and go to the movie theater to actually watch this? Or is this coming out on like HBO or Netflix? Any details around that?

• 23:33Speaker 02

  So like, distribution deals are still kind of being worked out.

• 23:38David Hoffman?

  Okay.

• 23:39Speaker 02

  Um, but I think the, the goal is to have this be out on like, actual kind of live, um, like movie theaters and also have like a streaming partner with it. So still TBD on, on what that is. Um, this is like, not, not my kind of area, but I, I understand that Scott Free has like its previous kind of agreement with specific, uh, streaming companies. So yeah, I mean, hopefully it'll be both. Like you'll, you'll be able to stream it somewhere and go watch it in the movie theater.

• 24:11David Hoffman?

  So part of the very unique aspect of this particular movie, of this particular story, of course, when crypto gets into anything, it starts to change things up. And the way that this movie is getting funded is a little bit different than movies previously. So we want to talk about that in a second. And also we put together just a fun little tweet thread about, uh, casting. If, if we had, uh, the, the ability to cast the movie, uh, we, Bankless put a little bit of tweet threads together about comparing some celebrity doppelgangers with some core Ethereum characters. We want to show that a little bit. And all of that is coming up in the second half of the show, right after we get to some of these fantastic sponsors that make this show possible. Grow and preserve your crypto wealth. Optimizing your taxes is just as lucrative as trying to find the next hidden gem. Alto IRA can help you invest in crypto in tax-advantaged

• 24:55David Hoffman?

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• 25:36David Hoffman?

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• 26:20David Hoffman?

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• 27:18Ryan Sean Adams?

  Hey, guys. We are back with Kami Rousseau. We are talking all about the Infinite Machine. It's coming to a theater near you. It'll take a couple of years. But when it comes, it's gonna mean big things. I think this is gonna be a major narrative. Maybe this is Ethereum breaking into the mainstream in a way it hasn't previously. And Kami, we wanted to help you out a little bit, because I know you're gonna have a lot of decisions to make with respect to the heroes, the villains, who plays what role. I don't know if you've considered some of the cast of characters and who could play what, but we have put together a little thread on Bankless with some propositions of our own. And I think the community is having a lot of fun with this.

• 27:59Ryan Sean Adams?

  This is the first one. So I, okay, so first of all, Hudson Jameson, he's a Ethereum, former Ethereum core developer. I don't actually know if he's in the Infinite Machine, but maybe he makes a cameo in the movie. We don't know.

• 28:10Speaker 03

  Why not?

• 28:10Ryan Sean Adams?

  And our pick for Hudson Jameson was Haley Joel Osment.

• 28:15David Hoffman?

  He's the kid from Sixth Sense.

• 28:18Ryan Sean Adams?

  I can't believe that's the kid from Sixth Sense, by the way.

• 28:21Speaker 03

  How did he get so grown up already? It's insane.

• 28:25Ryan Sean Adams?

  Yeah, we have some others too. This for a.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  So good.

• 28:30David Hoffman?

  Alex Vandisand, yeah.

• 28:31Ryan Sean Adams?

  Alex Vandisand for a young, as a young Steve Buscemi. I don't know if we're gonna. Yeah, Buscemi, sorry, yeah.

• 28:39David Hoffman?

  That also might not be right.

• 28:40Ryan Sean Adams?

  Be able to turn him back in time, but what other ones we have, David?

• 28:43David Hoffman?

  Yeah, Paul Giamatti, gosh, I'm gonna show my characters as not being from Hollywood. But again, viewers are, viewers on YouTube will recognize him as one of the co-founders, Taylor Garing. We got Nicholas Braun, who I don't know who that actor is, as Tim Bako, but that's.

• 28:59Ryan Sean Adams?

  This is great.

• 28:59David Hoffman?

  Yeah.

• 29:00Ryan Sean Adams?

  Just right on.

• 29:01David Hoffman?

  Yeah. And then Martin Starr as Vlad Zampier. Vlad was really hard to find someone for this, but, but the Martin Starr works out very, very well. And then, of course, if we can go all the way down to Vitalik, perfectly cast as Jason Momoa. I think that's quite appropriate.

• 29:19Ryan Sean Adams?

  The Vitalik one's gonna be the hardest to find, Cammy.

• 29:22Speaker 03

  I know.

• 29:22Ryan Sean Adams?

  I don't, I don't envy the, you know, the group that's making those decisions.

• 29:27Speaker 03

  People keep saying The Rock. I agree. I think that'd be hilarious.

• 29:32David Hoffman?

  The Rock for Vitalik?

• 29:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:36Speaker 03

  Somebody, I mean, Tom Brady is another good, good one for Vitalik. We're already kind of like Twitter buddies, so.

• 29:45David Hoffman?

  Okay, Cami, let's get into how this movie is getting funded. Because there's a cool story about the bottom-up funding of this whole program, which is actually a way if somebody, I don't know, is in the Web3 world and they really love Ethereum and they're perhaps also just have experience in this world, they can get involved with these whole NFTs. Can you explain the NFT aspect of this movie and how it's helped fund the production of this movie?

• 30:11Speaker 02

  Yeah. Okay, so the NFT aspect is pretty key in the whole kind of production. So, okay, so one of the reasons I went with Versus is because they offered me an executive production role. And so that meant that I was able to have a say in how the movie is made and funded. And so when we were having initial discussions on, you know, like, okay, how do we fundraise for this? I thought, you know, like, this is a movie, this is the first movie about Ethereum. It should be funded with the Ethereum community using Ethereum technology. Like, what kind of film would it be if it's just about Ethereum,

• 30:53Speaker 02

  but like funded in completely kind of traditional way? So that's why we started thinking about, okay, like, what would an NFT project about the Infinite Machine look like? And yeah, so we decided to create an NFT collection for the Infinite Machine and use that as a vehicle to fundraise as much of the budget of the film as we could. And so, so far, we've sold 40% of the collection. Collection is 10,499 NFTs commemorating the block number for EAP1559.

• 31:37Speaker 02

  And so we have 60% of the collection still left to sell in a third mint, and the date is TBD, but soon, hopefully.

• 31:51Speaker 02

  And yeah, so far, we've raised over a million, about like 50K in secondary trading volume. But I think like the initial two sales were really about... Rewarding our like core initial community that were kind of like the first to come on board and kind of believe in the project and be excited about the project even before the Ridley Scott announcement was made. And then like this third mint will be really focused about kind of, okay, like fundraising and going for that 16 to even like 20 million

• 32:28Speaker 02

  goal is kind of what they're aiming for. So, so, so yeah, if this kind of works out, I really hope we can fund all of it with NFTs on the Ethereum community. That would definitely be a first, kind of the first Hollywood film funded with NFTs. And I really do believe the Ethereum community can can make it happen to take Ethereum to the mainstream. Yeah.

• 32:56Ryan Sean Adams?

  Cameron, do you think there's any opportunities for like any utility on top of these NFTs as well? Like, so if you buy an NFT, like maybe there's an opportunity for like an advanced showing or like, you know, I'm not asking you to make any promises, but it'd be really cool to meet Jason Momoa if I had an NFT. That's all I'm saying.

• 33:13Speaker 02

  Well, actually, I love that you asked that because that's exactly the utility these NFTs have. So, so the the NFTs, besides being these like really beautiful works of art celebrating Ethereum, they do have utility. Part of their utility is they they have these kind of Easter eggs attached to them, which will be revealed after the third mint. And around 60% of NFTs have these like awards. And they include being an extra in the film. So, you know, if you get kind of an NFT with an extra ticket, you can really make a cameo

• 33:58Speaker 02

  in the Infinite Machine movie. Other rewards include having your name appear in the credits, being invited to the movie premiere, and visiting one of the shooting locations. So, you know, I really kind of like to call these NFTs like a backstage pass into production because they really kind of give you a chance of Being a part of the movie itself. And that's kind of one, one side of things. And then the other, the other utility to this is that we want these NFT holders to, in kind of in the coming months, to control a DAO.

• 34:44Speaker 02

  Like a movie DAO or like a content creation DAO. So right now, around 10% of all sales are going to a community treasury. And NFT holders will be able to control this treasury and then decide, you know, what they want to use these funds for. Hopefully to support other kind of content productions that are helping bring Ethereum, build, bring decentralization and, you know, crypto to the mainstream, just like the Infinite Machine movie is.

• 35:22David Hoffman?

  And so who are some of the artists behind the art of, because there's so many different like versions of the Ethereum logo and they're all spliced together. Who were the artists that created the, some of these NFTs? And what's their role in this whole story?

• 35:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I love the, the, kind of the story of the artists behind the Infinite Machine collection. So how, how this happened was that when we were thinking about, okay, like what this, what these NFTs would be. I said, you know, like this is about Ethereum. It should be the Ethereum logo. And I decided to reach out to one of the, the guys who was involved in creating the original Ethereum logo. And I said, oh, it'd be cool if he was the one to design these NFTs. But it turned out that, that Yanni

• 36:13Speaker 02

  was leading this kind of Cuban artist community. And so speaking with him, I was like, wait, like, what if instead of you designing the logos, why don't we bring these Cuban artists into the mix and have them design it? And then we just like opened it up to just like any.

• 36:34Speaker 02

  Artists from hopefully just like mainly emerging countries where NFTs and crypto are really having a life-changing impact. Because I think, you know, like, a lot of the headlines and the attention in the NFT space goes to artists who are already kind of in, you know, in main kind of tech hubs, you know, they're in Europe or they're in the US. And maybe, yeah, like, NFTs have given them like a platform and helped them kind of monetize their work.

• 37:16Speaker 02

  But for someone in Cuba and Venezuela, like, this is like, just like life-changing money. And speaking with Jenny and with Gladys, who helped curate these artists, like, she's the curator for this collection. She's a professor at the University of Havana, like, she's in Cuba. And it's just amazing, speaking with her, is just like the how huge an impact, just like the NFT space has had on these artists. So I wanted to kind of make, give all these artists a platform with the Infinite Machine collection.

• 38:01Speaker 02

  And so that's what we did. And Gladys helped curate 36 different artists from Cuba, Venezuela, like Bolivia, there's artists from India. And they're the ones kind of behind all of these different logos.

• 38:17David Hoffman?

  And this is just a great way to showcase to the world what Ethereum can do, not just with helping produce a movie, but also with the funding and the community effort. So it seems to be this, the first major Ethereum Hollywood movie is also built with Ethereum just ethos and vibes. So Kami, thank you for making sure that that is a part of the whole story of the production of this thing. I'm also seeing from the website that the NFTs have a role in this movie, this content creation DAO, I think you were referring to, and the DAO itself is actually an executive producer in the movie. Is that right? And can you go into the details behind that? Is there like a legal structure here? Or is this just more of a social layer commitment where the DAO is an executive director to the movie?

• 39:01Speaker 02

  I mean, we'll have to potentially have like a legal framework behind it at some point. That isn't in place at the moment, like the DAO hasn't formally been created, but it's kind of the intention and part of the roadmap that, you know, like the community treasury is already there. So that'll be kind of, that's the seed of this DAO that's being formed. And yeah, like the plan is to give this DAO an executive producer role in the movie, which means that NFT holders will be represented as the movie is made.

• 39:44Speaker 02

  And so it's still kind of, we still need to define how exactly, you know, those decisions are made. I, you know, we were, we were talking about maybe using a structure similar to what Bitcoin does, where there are delegates who can maybe represent NFT holders in kind of the DAO. So that's, that's still kind of being, being worked on, but the plan is definitely to give NFT holders a direct say on how the movie gets made.

• 40:18David Hoffman?

  Amazing, amazing. Cami, just one meta question for you and at the Defiant. What does this moment represent for the Defiant? Because Defiant is a fantastic news source in the world of crypto and DeFi, but now also being very related to Ethereum's first Hollywood production movie. How does this change what you think the Defiant is? And how do you think it'll change the Defiant going forward into the future?

• 40:42Speaker 02

  That's a good question. Um, I don't know that this changes the Defiant directly. So, so yeah, like I'm of course like at the, the, the lead of both of these projects.

• 41:00Speaker 02

  But well, well, kind of I'm yeah, at the center of the Infinite Machine movie and collection and kind of leading the Defiant. Beyond that, like, I don't see them influencing each other very much. Like, we've, we've done things where, like, in, in the past, Mint, the Defiant subscribers get kind of special, kind of whitelist spots, or, you know, we give kind of the Defiant community, you know, like perks related to the Infinite Machine movie. So that's a way to kind of feed into each other's communities. And of course, like, at the Defiant, we cover very much, very closely what happens with the Infinite Machine movie.

• 41:44Speaker 02

  But, you know, I think having this, this experience of, of building a kind of NFT community that will become a DAO, like, having these experience with these kind of tokens, it, it, just like, it helps me understand a different, a different type of community building. And, and that'll, you know, that'll help me kind of with the Defiant as well. But it'll be a more kind of, I think, indirect influence.

• 42:20Ryan Sean Adams?

  All right, Kami, thanks so much for spending some time with us. Just one last question before we close. So let's fast forward. It's 2024, and the movie is premiering. And what would be, I guess, sort of a premiere of this movie and impact of this movie that you'd be really excited about? So like, what's, what's sort of a thing, metric, that you think of in your mind as, wow, if we hit this, it would be beyond successful, beyond my wildest dreams? Let's talk about like, the ultimate success criteria for the Infinite Machine movie. How big could this go? And what are you, what are you looking for?

• 43:04Speaker 02

  Oh, my God, that's, that's so tough.

• 43:10Speaker 02

  I think broadly, like, I would really want this to just be a mainstream film, you know, that, you know, anyone, that people outside of crypto, of our kind of usual like bubble is watching and enjoying. So, um, obviously like a, an incredible dream would be like, is some, like, having the movie win like an award or something. But like more, more like every day, kind of like, like seeing, like getting on a plane and like seeing somebody else like watching the Infinity Machine next to me, you know, just like having it be kind

• 43:49Speaker 02

  of seeping into just like mainstream. Um, and, and hopefully just like having like,

• 43:58Speaker 02

  contributing to people actually, uh, using this technology, you know, like if, if people who are watching, uh, this, this movie, uh, then like go and, and, and Google Ethereum and download their MetaMask, um, you know, create a non-custodial wallet, uh, that would, I think that, that to me would be kind of the ultimate kind of sign of success. So before, beyond like, uh, making a, uh, an entertaining blockbuster film, that would be amazing. Uh, but ultimate success would be influencing people's behavior in, uh, checking this out, exploring and actually starting to use this tech.

• 44:42Ryan Sean Adams?

  That would be amazing as well. And Kami, thanks for all your work in putting it into both the book and, and now the movie and bringing Ethereum, the Ethereum story to, to more people. I think those who've spent some time in crypto, like looking at Ethereum, were all blown away by how incredible, uh, the ecosystem is. And even like individuals like Vitalik, like, uh, to me, he is sort of a once in a generation type of person. And not enough people know who he is. Of course, everyone in crypto knows who he is, but like no one outside of crypto. And this is, um, you know, to me, anyway, one of the defining people, um, in our, in our generation. And of our time, and I think his story should be propagated far and wide. So I could absolutely succeed.

• 45:26Ryan Sean Adams?

  See this being a blockbuster success when it comes out. I know you've got a lot of work between now and then to to go through. So we'd love to have you back on Bankless to give us updates along the way, and particularly after you're done casting. We want to see where that ends.

• 45:40Speaker 02

  Awesome. I would love that. No, and you know what? I think you're absolutely right. Like, I think Vitalik should be that Mark Zuckerberg kind of a character or personality. Everyone should know about him. He's, you know.

• 45:54Ryan Sean Adams?

  Minus the evil side.

• 45:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, but like in the like level of like recognition, you know?

• 46:01Ryan Sean Adams?

  Totally.

• 46:01Speaker 02

  So, yeah.

• 46:03Ryan Sean Adams?

  And we just started seeing that, like the Time Magazine, him on the cover of Time was like, you know, a milestone. You know, a movie, there's lots of things, so it's gonna be great. Cammy, thanks for stopping by. We appreciate it.

• 46:14Speaker 02

  Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.

• 46:18Ryan Sean Adams?

  Of course, Bankless Nation, we will keep you updated along the way as the Infinite Machine movie gets built. And I don't even think I have to say the financial disclosures, but I'll say them anyway, just out of habit. ETH is risky. Bitcoin is risky. None of this has been financial advice. You could definitely lose what you put in, but we're headed west. This is the frontier. It's not for everyone, but we're glad you're with us on the Bankless journey. Thanks a lot.

• 46:41David Hoffman?

  Hey, we hope you enjoyed the video. If you did, head over to Bankless HQ right now to develop your crypto investing skills and learn how to free yourself from banks and gain your financial independence. We recommend joining our daily newsletter, podcast, and community as a Bankless premium subscriber to get the most out of your Bankless experience. You'll get access to our market analysis, our alpha leaks, and exclusive content, and even the Bankless token for airdrops, raffles, and unlocks. If you're interested in crypto, the Bankless community is where you want to be. Click the link in the description to become a Bankless premium subscriber today. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the channel for in-depth interviews with industry leaders, Ask Me Anythings, and weekly rollups,

• 47:24David Hoffman?

  where we summarize the week in crypto and other fantastic content. Thanks, everyone, for watching and being on the journey as we build out the Bankless Nation.