Vision
When it comes down to it, many industries can and will be improved by the integration of cryptocurrency. For many of us in the DeFi space, we recognize this inevitability. Fiat is slow and clunky, centralized, non-programmable, and non-transparent. In essence, fiat is antiquated. It’s no question then that many of the systems and organizations on it are just the same, ultimately riddled with measurable inefficiencies.
Enter us: Muse DAO, an on-chain, decentralized financing and production platform with a short to mid term focus on the film industry, and a long term focus of conglomerization into wider media including music and studio art. We recognize the need for DeFi in the real world, and we recognize the need for DeFi in a world we’re experienced and knowledgeable in. But most importantly, we know we’re not the only ones.
Problem
Hollywood executives’ artistic decision making is harming their bottom line.
It seems that every season we are bombarded with sequels, remakes, and otherwise, rehashed and repurposed intellectual property for the next big blockbuster. Meanwhile, scripts and projects like Squid Game - which has officially exceeded all metrics and is now the #1 most watched product Netflix has ever launched - take over ten years to land into hands that can make them a reality and whose authors, especially in this case, have to go through great lengths just to survive day-to-day life before being discovered.
Solution
As a DAO, the community and artists are closely intermingled. This means significantly shorter channels between what works and what doesn’t. This means that the artist with brilliant work, or even an idea, has a platform to be immediately heard by all members of the community. If we have our say, the production of original, highly saleable projects like Squid Game become the rule, not the exception.
Problem
Hollywood labor practices are further leading to bottom line inefficiencies.
Regardless of what your ethical belief is, 16 hour workdays per worker as a common occurrence means you’re hemorrhaging optimized work output at the cost of staggeringly high overtime wages. Couple this with a practice called “Fraturdays,” starting the day early Friday morning and going sometimes until 6 am on Saturday, sometimes totalling 25 working hours, and you can really see the detriment.
For the uninitiated: 8 hours is 1x pay. 8+ - 12 hours is 1.5x pay. 12 - 16 hours is 2x pay. 16+ hours is 3x pay, or in some unions is a full day’s pay per hour. In capital management we look for asymmetrical upside. In the case of Hollywood’s labor practices, they are engaging in asymmetrical risk simply because it is the power culture.
A well documented example of this culture is Production Assistants (PAs) not being allowed to sit down on set and being fired for being on their phones when there is downtime. Always what this leads to towards the end of production is egregious short-staffing leading to delayed shoots and schedules (which means more overtime), and even sometimes cutting scenes all together ultimately costing the studio to produce an inferior product with a measurable harm to the bottom line.
Solution
Fixing this is simple: Adhering to tighter work schedules while raising wages within appropriate margins (e.g., average the industry cost of wages including overtime and establish that as the base rate), as well as ensuring a healthy and mutually beneficial work culture, means you pull from the highest labor talent pools, optimizing work outputs without the downside risk of diminishing returns and overwhelming, overtime wage costs. This is what we promise with Muse DAO.
To add, we will be integrating labor sub-DAOs into our production model to ensure the representation, self-advocacy, safety, and satisfaction of all below the line laborers. When you build a loyal workforce, you build security into the bottom line.
Problem
Deceptive business practices amount to an industry rife with friction from byzantine actors.
Hollywood accounting comes in several forms, but they all generally amount to achieving the end result: defrauding partners out of royalties or profit sharing agreements, and avoiding paying taxes. In many cases, lawsuits have resulted, costing studios upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars. In other cases, studios get away with the practice, stealing money from artists, the talent, and producers. In most cases, these practices make business dealings strained and tumultuous.
Despite earning nearly $500 million against a budget of $32.5 million, according to Lucasfilm, Return of the Jedi has “never turned a profit.” In 2002, after grossing $800 million in revenue, the producers of Spider-Man claimed they never made a profit according to Stan Lee’s contract (granting him 10% net profits of anything based on his characters). When Stan Lee sued, he was awarded a meager sum of $10 million. In 2010, The Walt Disney Company lost $270 million in a lawsuit to Celador over Hollywood accounting practices.
Solution
With the transparency of cryptocurrency, Hollywood accounting is impossible. With Muse DAO leading the way, there is a future where all of film production is transparent, ensuring an industry of smooth business, free of byzantine behavior. No more scamming. No more lawsuits. It’s simple game theory: What is best for the individual is what is best for all. That is the Muse DAO ethos.
-- Short-Term Outlook --
Short-term we’re employing a number of launch strategies to reward early adopters, fund the treasury, and immediately translate value into the project from both bottom line and top line perspectives. From the ground up, with you, we are looking to eat our cake and have it too.
LGE: Launch will commence with a Liquidity Generation Event (LGE). This ensures liquidity through incentivization from which the treasury will take a small cut of at no upfront cost, nor risk, to the “buyer.” Lease your $ETH to us, and we will reward you with $MDAO.
Staking: Following the LGE, $MDAO staking vaults roll and will include both native LP/ETH pair vaults and single assets. We want to further ensure liquidity, provide fair opportunities to obtain the token at minimal risk, and continue to expand the treasury for operations and partnerships for a nominal fee.
Coupled with this is our tax structure outlined below to further ensure liquidity over time, expansion of the treasury, and rewards to our holders.
-- Long-Term Outlook --
Following initial launch and token distribution, we will initiate towards the DAO process and our longer-term revenue generation methods.
IP: Pre-launch, we’re teaming up with an international film production company to engage in development, production, and distribution of MDAO exclusive Intellectual Property. Our IP and subsequent revenues will serve as the foundation for further deliverables including NFTs, Behind The Scenes (BTS) exclusives, merchandise, and more.
NFTs: Decentralized streaming access (planned Theta integration), stills, VR movie theater experience, profile pictures, posters, shootings scripts, movie posters, graphic novels, Lore. We’ve thought long and hard and we can’t wait to show you what’s in the pipeline.
Governance/Rebasing Vaults: With larger revenues to the treasury, we will commence market buybacks and redistribution as rewards for those engaging in our rebasing on-chain governance vaults.
Once initial staking contracts have depleted, our rebasing vaults roll out and will work as follows:
- Deposit $MDAO into the vault and receive $sMDAO back
- Buybacks from treasury revenues are deposited into the vault and tax revenues are automatically streamed into the vault.
- As the $MDAO in the vault grows, your $sMDAO grows in its value of tokens redeemable.
E.g., a total of 100 $MDAO is deposited into the vaults. 100 $sMDAO is minted and issued to depositors. Ratio is 1:1.
Over the course of a week via buybacks and tax, 100 more $MDAO is deposited into the vaults via the treasury and the new total is 200 $MDAO but $sMDAO remains unchanged. Ratio is now 2:1 and for every 1 $sMDAO redeemed, 2 $MDAO are given back.
Max Supply
1,000,000,000
Governance
As a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, token holders have a voice and a weighted vote. Further, once byzantine (bad faith actors) protection measures are in place, certain token holders will also be able to propose legislation for the DAO to be voted on by other holders.
Tax Structure
Built in tokenomic modulation starting at 1.5% tax on all transactions.
- .5% to liquidity
- .5% to treasury
- .5% to rebasing governance vaults
Tax rates can be adjusted by DAO vote.
Roadmap
2021
Q4:
- White Paper complete on launch
- Merchandising/clothing
- Staking/liquidity contracts rolling
- Incorporate in the state of Wyoming as a DAO, LLC.
- In-house studio prospect assessment
- MDAO NFTs
- Lore (Black Crown) NFTs
- Snapshot voting initiatives
2022
Q1:
- Roadmap Review
- In house studio check-in (development)
- Staking contracts deplete (EOQ)
- Story and Script development
- Governance/Rebasing vaults rolling
- MDAO hangouts
Q2:
- Roadmap review
- Story and script development
- In-house studio development
- Metaverse real estate investigated
Q3:
- Roadmap review
- Pre-production
- Music Branch exploration/discussion
Q4:
- Roadmap review
- Production
- NFTs
- On-set tours/hangouts
- MDAO holders opportunities to extra
