Recent events have profoundly reminded us of the instability of traditional global financial markets. The pandemic rocked the stock market, essentially initiating a freefall-then-rally playbook for a week or two, before beginning to restabilize.
This is not the first time financial markets have taken an enormous hit as a result of national or global events. The value of any market, and the value of the money in that market, is always dependent on factors that are completely out of the control of investors.
Compounding the insecurity of traditional investments is the lack of corporate transparency. Trading is so heavily regulated that it becomes a roadblock to many companies going public. Information is often obfuscated, there is a lack of trust and intermediary fees are outrageous.
Blockchain provides a solution to the problem of transparency. It speeds up archival processes, facilitates settlements that take minutes or hours instead of days and eliminates the need for middlemen. Companies across all industries are starting to realize the value of using blockchain in their applications, and startups are choosing to raise funds through initial coin offerings before going fully public.
Filmio is one such blockchain platform on the rise. They are currently in a private token sale stage of fundraising, using cryptocurrency transactions to support their growth. An ICO is predictably in their future, and they offer one of the most unique investment opportunities on the market today.
Filmio’s blockchain platform is built to support the entertainment industry as it shifts from relying on in-person business relations to digital applications that make investments safer and more secure. Instead of using middlemen, regulations and paperwork to protect properties and money, Filmio makes it possible for the industry to thrive again by reinforcing trust and using a token economy to establish value.
How have investors struggled in the past and why are they struggling now?
With traditional investing, one global or national event (or a natural disaster) can destroy the value of an investor’s stocks and dollars. When settlements take days to complete, an investment could be worthless by the time it goes through. Companies can creatively recategorize numbers to appear more valuable than they are, making it nearly impossible to be truly informed about any investment decisions.
Investing in the entertainment industry is even more complicated, with its long history of trust issues. Intellectual property is stolen, artists don’t receive payment and investors stand the chance of losing millions when distributors bury profits under post-production and handling fees. This has led to an incredibly prohibitive black-boxing tradition in the industry. No one gets hired or gets financing if they don’t already know someone who can vouch for them. Investors have no way in unless they are prepared to put up the kinds of sums big studios are looking for.
Add COVID-19 to the blockade, and the entertainment industry has come to an impasse. Social distancing requires that we find more creative ways of making movies. Doing every deal and pitch in person is just not feasible. The big studio system, employing hundreds of people on one project, crowding them together to make a movie, congregating for meals, using tons of extras to create large crowds, is tentatively over.
This does not mean, however, that the entertainment industry is done. Businesses like Amazon and Zoom are thriving right now, and companies that can provide an infrastructure supporting the adjustments necessary to keep film production alive will also flourish during this time. Filmio is creating new opportunities for creators, fans and investors to explore the possibilities for what’s next.
How does Filmio’s Blockchain support investors?
Blockchain in general provides a frictionless framework to make secure millions of micro-transactions that are transparent and immutable. Filmio has created a blockchain platform specifically for the entertainment industry that makes investing in filmmaking possible again. It supports the new entertainment environment that is required in order to move forward, creating and producing despite the complications of an ongoing pandemic.
The opportunities established by the Filmio Decentralized Platform (FDP) extend beyond the big studio model, opening the doors to independent creatives and investors who may not be connected to big Hollywood names.
Creators can be confident that their intellectual property will be supported, because it is stored in its own timestamped block of data, tied to every block of data that came before it (hence, blockchain). The creator’s unique identification code is also connected to that data block, and the only way it changes is when authorized by the creator and verified across a majority of the network nodes. Artists in the music industry have been using blockchain to protect their IP successfully, and courts are starting to recognize its legitimacy.
Investors have plenty of protections as well. Similar to other blockchain platforms built for investing, they can connect directly with creators who are working in their genre of interest. All transactions are peer to peer, with no middlemen or fees. Smart contracts ensure that currency is only ever exchanged when a condition is fulfilled, and investors have access to the entire spectrum of behavioral metrics related to the project they are interested in funding.
Though Hollywood filmmaking has been a shot in the dark for nearly a century, Filmio is shedding light on the metrics for success, making it possible to invest with confidence even when a project is seemingly unique.
Investing in the Future of Entertainment
With the stock market’s unpredictability and cumbersome exchange processes, blockchain is fast becoming a mainstream part of trading. Capitalists are frustrated with the costs and the delays in making transactions, and blockchain removes the friction.
Filmio’s use of blockchain revolutionizes the way the world invests in entertainment. It takes filmmaking out of the black box and makes it accessible to everyone who wants to participate. Investing in FIlmio is investing in the collaborative future of the industry.