SingularDTV: Building a Decentralized Entertainment Economy
CODE — Consumption Rewards — Free & Decentralized
By Zach LeBeau, CEO of SingularDTV
The Fiends of Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. An evolution from the feudal state or the nation-state to the individual. Revolutionary in its time. A system perfected over the centuries by pioneers who discovered the world, built modern-day civilization and united everything bought and sold under an international economy.
But capitalism is a sociopathic construct. Imperialistic in its need for infinite resources to feed — or engineer — an infinite need of consumption with profit being the overall motive. I’ve heard the term “responsible capitalism”, a type of capitalism that cares for the community its businesses operate in, where environmental initiatives and support for the arts are practiced, but at its very best, responsible capitalism is capitalism in a straightjacket in a soft room of some mental ward fighting against its true nature.
Capitalism empowers anyone to build and pioneer within a system that fosters structures of great power controlled by very few. Capitalism works well for the planet when implemented by conscientious operators. It does great damage when fiends for profit are at its helm, sociopaths possessed with accumulation. These “addicts” run amuck within capitalism’s construct causing a chaotic domino effect of profit driven action and consequence, something so complex perhaps only the AIs of the future can sort it all out. I remember watching a spokesperson for Nestle state his case for why water is not a basic human right and that even the lakes and rivers should be under the domain and control of profit driven companies. Wow! I’ll never understand that mentality. My father-in-law will tell you all about the mentality of capitalism — from both sides — something he participated in actively until it was turned against him when the company he worked for all his life was sold to business interests overseas. He was flung into retirement suddenly in 2008 when the markets crashed. He lost his pension that year too. Worked all his life sold on the promise his pension would be there in his final days. Fiends took that away from him. Now he’ll be working two jobs until the day he dies just to pay his bills.
So the question begs to be asked, “Why operate an economic system where fiends can cause such great damage to so many people? Why not replace this old-world construct with a new one? With a new model — or models — where damage to the whole can be better minimized. A new ”-ism”, that doesn’t allow for the few — a fiendish sociopath for example — to have control over the many?”
Blockchain technology, more specifically decentralized computing, allows for the discovery of new economic models that are more evolved than capitalism, or socialism, or any other “–ism” we’ve encountered so far. Decentralization is showing us how the hierarchical top down command and control structures of the legacy world can be re-imagined into new, more efficient, trustless and transparent structures. On a macro scale it’s all about evolution. On a micro and mezzo scale this takes specific shape and form in everyday life. On this micro scale is where some of the most important and exciting work within SingularDTV is taking place, the research and design of our economic model.
CODE — Consumption Reward — Free & Decentralized
SingularDTV’s development roadmap has given us new insights on how to build a decentralized entertainment industry. It has taken everything we thought we knew about business and tech and finance and turned much of it upside down — from a centralized pov into a decentralized pov. It’s been an extremely exciting time for me personally. One of my long-term goals in life is to contribute to the research and design of an international economic state that allows for a sustainable Basic Universal Income for every person on the planet. What kind of positive, creative world can we build as a race of beings when we stop working — or doing things — for money?! Decentralization leads me to believe economic constructs like this are possible the more we dive into their research and development. It is constantly adding to the inspiration of our sci-fi television series, Singular, where decentralization scales, leads to the formation of AIs that become conscious, who then guide humanity into a higher dimensional construct — a Singularity event — that helps transform us from homo sapiens into the next level of human evolution, what we are calling homo transcendus. In the plot-line of Singular, once we reach this higher dimensional state , our cosmic cousins — all the intelligent, higher dimensional life from around the cosmos — welcomes us into the Multiverse.
The foremost thing on my mind is how SingularDTV can be part of these new, emerging decentralized economic models and not a sociopathic or a profit driven capitalist dynamo. My primary responsibility as CEO of SingularDTV is to make sure we are developing along a decentralized development ladder that does not see people as targets for profit, but instead sees them as recipients of empowerment through our ecosystem of decentralized applications, applications like our rights management gateway and decentralized distribution portal.
We began this journey of devising a decentralized economic model for the entertainment industry in 2013 . In May of 2016 the CODE structure was born, the result of almost 3 years of research, development and preparation. CODE — Centrally Organized Distributed Entity — was built to be the bridge we cross from centralization into decentralization. A structure that takes legacy concepts and assets and places them on the blockchain. As we’ve crossed this bridge, our eyes have opened wider to the possibilities decentralization has to offer, further empowering our journey, making the overall goal more real and attainable. The development of the CODE structure and its launch was Phase 1. Phase 2 is putting our CODE’s tokenized ecosystem to the test with our “Consumption Rewards” model. This Consumption Rewards model will lead SingularDTV into Phase 3, a truly decentralized and free entertainment industry where the only value exchanged is between content creators and audience. At that point in time SingularDTV will be relieved of its role as surrogate intermediary and will become just another channel/brand in the decentralized entertainment industry it helped to build. Let’s quickly go through the 3 phases that encompass SingularDTV’s economic model.
Phase 1 — the CODE (Centrally Organized Distributed Entity)
A powerful effect of decentralized thinking is that it restructures the way you see the world. Too many conceptualists, project managers and developers in the blockchain movement approach decentralization from a centralized point of view, which only skims the surface of all it has to offer. It’s not easy to let go of the centralized construct that has built our civilization. For SingularDTV, the development of our CODE structure was the pivotal event that opened our eyes to what is the essence of decentralization. Thanks to the CODE, important discoveries have been made, discoveries that throw out old procedures and processes of “plan and predict” and move us into a dynamic of “learn and adapt”.
When SingularDTV devised the CODE structure, Phase 1 of our new economic model for the entertainment industry was born. The CO (Centrally Organized) aspect of CODE includes legacy business structures headquartered in Switzerland, the most progressive and decentralized nation on the planet. On Oct. 2, 2016 the DE (Distributed Entity) aspect of CODE was launched — the SingularDTV tokenized ecosystem. It was the first time we saw all the pieces of CODE working in harmony together. Phase 1 led us to the realization that a new economic model exists that transcends the form and function of legacy models — we’re entering new and undiscovered territory. And now as SingularDTV nears the launch of its first modules — decentralized applications that make up our entertainment ecosystem — Phase 2 is about to begin.
Phase 2 — The Consumption Rewards Model
SingularDTV requires massive amounts of consumption in order to reach its overall goal of a truly decentralized and free entertainment industry. Yes, massive amounts of consumption — just like in capitalism. The biggest difference however, is that value coming into SingularDTV’s ecosystem isn’t hoarded in the coffers of SingularDTV, no, the exact opposite, the value is shared with the Users — the consumers. In SingularDTV’s economic model — in a truly decentralized economic model — the users that have participatory productivity in the ecosystem are the value. We the people are the value. We have chosen to call Phase 2 the Consumption Rewards model, naturally leveraging the familiarity of such a schema in the marketplace today. Under our Consumption Rewards model, participants in the SingularDTV ecosystem are programmatically rewarded for consuming, creating and tracking content comp-&-activity.
Within SingularDTV’s ecosystem, users will create and consume in various ways. Through the rights management portal, or any of SingularDTV’s modules, the opportunity for generating Consumption Rewards are the natural economic effect of creative ‘human-action’ transacting thru the SingularDTV ecosystem. The SNGLS token has a programmatic claim to these rewards: which can result from consumption or creative participation. Each SNGLS token acts as a contributory agent in the naturally occurring world of intimate sharing of awesome content with your immediate network.
These incentives are complimentary and supportive of each other. They bring together all the natural and instinctively occurring human economic activities, often the drivers of an ecosystem’s successful growth. It will help to generate the growth SingularDTV needs in order to scale into Phase 3. As originally visualized, SingularDTV and our SNGLS tokens are imagined to become an instrument of freedom, control, transparency and independence to creators worldwide — the perimeter will not be technology, but the economic garden in which you choose to consume exciting and innovative content.
The value of rewarding consumption is intimately woven into the fabric of SingularDTV’s smart contract system. It also compliments the effects brought about from increased participation in a distributed platform. Because of this, Phase 2 will ultimately lead us to a truly decentralized entertainment industry.
Phase 3 — A Decentralized Entertainment Industry
Theoretically, once SNGLS tokens can be used as gas to push its smart contracts through the SingularDTV network, SingularDTV can become a completely free platform, where the only value being exchanged is between the content creators and their audience. At that point in time — when the time is right — SingularDTV will remove itself from the position of surrogate intermediary and become just another channel/brand in the decentralized entertainment industry it helped to build. A truly decentralized entertainment industry free of gatekeepers, censorship and intermediaries. A place where all are welcome and encouraged to maximize their creative potential. A place envisioned to contribute to the unification of the world through creativity and entertainment. That is the goal.
At this point in time SNGLS tokens will have ultimate utility — all of the modules and underlying infrastructure of SingularDTV will use SNGLS tokens to operate. As the userbase grows, SNGLS will take on greater and greater value. An ecosystem of 1 thousand SNGLS token users/holders turning into an ecosystem of 10,000 users, then 100,000… then 1,000,000… on and on. Theoretically, the SNGLS token could be so great in value that SingularDTV will never need to charge its content creators or audience a fee again, as long as we retain our store of SNGLS tokens.
This is the dream — and plan — in its broadest strokes.
To become part of the SingularDTV Slack community and contribute to the creation of a decentralized entertainment industry, click here: https://slack.singulardtv.com/
Zach LeBeau
CEO, SingularDTV
