Speaker 1: Hello story first community. Thank you for tuning into our live series in this broadcast. My colleague James and I joined crypto Boi from Bankless Dow to discuss our collaborative NFT drop. We discussed the origins of legends of cipher, as well as the breadth and the depth of our lore. Hope you enjoy.

Speaker 2: What I'd like to do is just start out with a quick intro, um, about story prima, which is kind of the, the, the Genesis of the way we're starting to promote our legends of cipher projects, cuz we think it's pretty interesting, um, concept as a, as a decentralized autonomous organization, uh, James Devon, also a Bankless Dow, um, uh, O OG, um, from last summer where we all met is hosting from the story prima account. Um, yeah. So I'll talk about story prima is, um, essentially it's an organization that we started as, um, an entity that will help shine a light on all the projects that are doing web three NFT, um, um, initiatives that are based on deep storytelling. Um, so when we launched legends of cipher, um, you know, it was deep, deep, deep building, um, and the type of storytelling we were doing really required a lot of tension from the audience.

Speaker 2: So, um, you know, we found that, um, promoting it, um, was a bit of a challenge. And so we've started story, Prema doubt to take all of our learnings and building this type of universe, um, and really, you know, helping community, um, through challenge, um, and, and similar learnings that we've had. So that's kind of the idea behind story prima and then what we've done is with our legends of cipher NFTs. Um, so when you buy the origin collection, um, eventually we will airdrop our prima token, which will be the, um, you know, the governance token for the story pre the do. Um, so that's kind of the origin there. Um, but what I really wanted to get into was just, you know, for, for, for us, what we're gonna do with this recording is launch a, a podcast on story prima. That'll be, um, a bit of an educational piece, um, as well. So I wanted to hear from, from the bank, the Dow team, you guys have been doing these, um, partner NFT drops for some time, but our audience won't necessarily know the origin of that. So I thought maybe you could kind of talk about, you know, what are these NFT partnership drops that you do? Why do you do them? What was the origin of them? And just tell us a little bit about it.

Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. So, um, so basically if you kind of like rewind all the way back to when the Dow was formed, um, I was a part of the initial airdrop and I believe CORs was as well. And really that was like a big kind of explosion of like, okay, cool. There's a bunch of people that, that have shown up to this discord now and everybody's super excited. Like what do we do? Um, because Bankless Dow is like a media Dow and, and there really aren't very many media Dows out there. A lot of people were just trying to figure out like, what is Bankless Dow and like, what are they gonna do? And so all these ideas were coming up and there's tons of different people doing different things. And I, at the time was like really interested in, in artwork, um, and really like becoming an artist and creating art.

Speaker 3: And so I just started just kind of creating random stuff that I, and I started sharing it inside of the Dow. And I started to see a lot of people in there, like resonating with my work, which was super cool. And one, one person like super in particular who resonated with it was chorus and chorus kind of instantly kind of became like one of my best collectors right away. And he started kind of picking up some pieces here and there and he was talking to me and he was like, Hey, would you want to do, uh, an NFT drop with Bankless Dow? And so at that time, like we didn't really, you know, we we'd never done anything like that. And so we didn't really even know where to start and I was like, sure, let's do it. And so me and cos basically, um, just kind of worked on kind of a piece together, what we thought would be kind of cool to present to the Dow.

Speaker 3: And then that's pretty much how the whole NFT showcase formed. Um, I was the first artist to drop a piece with Bankless Dow and, uh, me and chorus worked together on that. And then it kind of just continued from there. It was basically like, okay, cool, like that will and sold. And it did really well. And we were kind of like in the, in the very early beginnings of like the first NFT bull run and me and cos were super interested in just getting more into NFTs. I think at the time that, that we did that sale, I don't even think cos even owned any NFTs at that point, which is so funny. Um, but then long story show or we just kind of kept doing it. Like we, um, cos eventually approached the Dow with like a formal proposal that said like, Hey, we, we want to sell NFTs for the Dow. And like, here's how we want it to work. And then we put it up for a vote and it got voted in. And so we've kind of just been doing it every day since or every week since. And I don't think we've missed any Fridays, um, in the history of Bankless Dow, which is kind of interesting cause there's been a, there's been a couple times where me and chorus have said to each other, well, we should probably take a break at least one week and it just doesn't seem to work. So

Speaker 2: So the interest is the interest. Is there people keep coming back for more? What are some of your, what was, can you highlight some of your favorites? NFT drops?

Speaker 3: Yeah, I would say definitely perche. I mean, perche always, uh, it was really cool to see perche kind of progress. Like we, we got to see him progress from kind of just starting to just drop random comics in the Dow to like now where there's tons of people in the whole Dow sphere that know who perche is and they're not a part of Bankless Dow at all, which is super cool.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Um, and it was just cool because again, like we were right in the, in the Ft bowl run really. And like anytime we, we ever put anything up for sale for perche, it was just like, you could literally watch the transactions just come in. Like every couple seconds. It it's just really cool to see like that many people just resonate around, um, a piece of a piece of art in an artist. And what's super cool too, is perche is like super he's super microfocused into Dows and like this whole Dow sphere and all this stuff that we're going through. And there's not a lot of people doing that. So it's really special.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I mean, we, we certainly, um, for, for the legends of cipher drop that we did together, it's definitely both, there are sales, both of, both of the, um, NFT. We did a as ALAB, which we'll, we'll get into talking about in a minute and, and also our, our, or our, our original original UMO 36, which is, uh, a chemo in history of our, um, legends of Seur universe. So yeah, we've definitely seen the benefits of the enthusiasm about NFTs from your community. So huge. Thanks to you guys for partnering, collaborating with us on this.

Speaker 3: Yeah, well it's super cool. And I was, I was asking Chris about this, um, and maybe this is a good time to ask this. So was, was kind of this concept originally was this one of the original concepts that I saw inside of Bankless Dow? Cause I remember at one point in the very, very early days there was conversations about something very similar to this and some people got started on it and I think it was, yeah. Okay. And I, I remember James dev and he approached me at one point asking if I'd be interested in, in doing the, at least the mockup for the spaceship, like a long time. Yeah, I remember. Yeah. The, the original, the original spaceship. Yeah. Although this isn't, this isn't, this isn't Ash's um, so hash is our, is our protagonist and the legends of Seur universe and his, uh, his ship is the freeso.

Speaker 3: Um, now my original idea, um, in the beginning of, of, of Bankless style was that this ship was gonna be like, like the E symbol in 3d was gonna be like the turtles back, the turtles shell of the, of the ship, you know, and, uh, did that. Yeah. And, and it was such a cool idea. And I remember you, you did like this mockup and like, based on my, like, really, really awkward drawing of it, I spent hours trying to draw that shape, man. So, so, so awkward to do, but, um, yeah, so, um, that this isn't the same ship, uh, this, the Starship is, um, is predates, um, hashes. Uh freeso but yeah, it's the same, it's the same project. It's the same idea. It's, it's the same momentum. It's just a much, much bigger universe now. That's so cool. Yeah. Cause I remember, I remember mocking that up and that was even early when I was just learning, modeling and stuff. So like, it's just so cool to see that you guys have continued kind of pushing forward and it's cool to see like that you guys are actually doing something. Cause I remember I, I thought back to it not long ago and I was like, huh, I wonder if they ever did anything, but look, look at here. We're now

Speaker 2: I remember it was, we, we, you know, it was happening in a couple spaces, like, uh, a couple areas like James James was talking, um, with, uh, crayons who was kind of invented this character hash. And um, I remember getting involved cuz we, we got chatting about it there, there used to be a sub-channel under the marketing Guild called narrative. And um, you know, for me is kind of like one of the folks how helping prop up the marketing Guild, I was all keen on. Let's like, I don't wanna do marketing, like where I came from in web two. I wanna, I wanna do marketing with really cool storytelling. Um, and then, so I was really excited about what James and, and crayons and dev voice were all jamming on and the narrative channel. And then it just kind of got a little bit it bigger than, uh, a bigger than what it was.

Speaker 2: And so we took the conversation offline and yeah, like we, I think we're like nine, almost 10 months in and all we've been doing is deepening the story. So the, the history, both depth and breadth is massive and super exciting. And, and um, so yeah, this, this, this ship, which, um, I love James to give a, a deeper intro to, um, you know, the, the, the ship is, um, an important piece in the, um, in the universe. And we, we created this scout ship as a way to kind of brand the Bankless piece because, you know, as a home much back to where our, or our origin story as being a team that came together, um, with diverse backgrounds in the backless Dow and, and got onto this idea. So, um, James, why don't you talk a little bit about kind of the ship and making it and, and all the pieces involved.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay. Um, so a bit of background about, about the ship is, um, it's called, it's called Luna. Um, it's, uh, um, it's a ship that sort of predates our are jumping off point within the story. Um, and it's actually like, um, it's like a Relic of, it's like a Relic of a pre-war period. Okay. So at the point that you guys see it, um, in the NFT, it's pretty much the only ship as well as its scout ship that is, um, that's, uh, still active in, in the cosmos. Um, the, the war period destroyed much of communication system. In fact, the, the whole communication system, um, of the cosmos, the kind of stitch the, uh, the society together, um, and the line somehow yet to be revealed, um, managed to maintain its, um, its integrity and, and, and maintain its energy supply. And so in the cause of MOS over, over the, the, the next, um, centuries and, and maybe even millennia, I don't quite remember the timeline.

Speaker 3: Um, it becomes something of a legend in the cosmos. So it travels around and, um, delivers aid and delivers information to planets, um, that are separated by, well, it does, it doesn't matter how many miles they're separated by. It might as well be at the other side of the cosmos because their technology is, is gone, their communication technology, their, their energy infrastructure, it's all gone and basically descends descends most of the cosmos back into a kind of dark age period. Um, so this LUAS gains this sort of legendary status, um, hovering above the, the atmosphere of the planets. The, uh, the, the scout ship comes down to the planet. That's why it kind of looks a little bit more beaten up it's. Um, and it's obviously my much smaller bits, really the one that goes down and, and, uh, meets the, meets the inhabitants of, of all the planets and delivers the aid to them.

Speaker 3: Um, and we thought a cool, um, we thought a cool kind of twist would be that sometimes, um, certain individuals from the planets want to join the, the Starship, you know, they sort of, they give up their, their homes and they leave their families and they know they'll probably never see their, their planet again, but they, they, they so much want to join and be a part of this legend that, that they actually do. And, and in some way, I sort of see that as symbolic to recruiting people into web three, like , you're just snatching them away from the real world and taking them, taking them up into a dial or something. So, yeah, you could say that you could say that, um, that the scout ship really does. Um, certainly for me represent bank cliff in the way that it kind of snatched me up out of the real world. And I, I told my girlfriend and my family, I said, I'm part of a di now. And, uh, I didn't, uh, I actually did leave my job like fulltime job to go into web three and don't regret it whatsoever, cuz now I'm building cool 3d ships. Um, so that's all this, that's all I've got in the history. I can't divulge too much because I'll, I'll give too much of the story away, but happy to take any questions if you guys have got any,

Speaker 2: I I'll build on that a little bit. I, you know, because one of the things, what, what we really like about this story and it kind of, um, you know, lines up with our origin story in the Bankless style, all meeting, there was, we were trying to think about a big part of what we wanted to talk about was, you know, the, the, the, the ideals of, um, centralization versus centralization and the idea that decentralization brings freedom and centralization as a form of control. And, you know, we felt that that was an important conversation as a way to kind of promote or propagate the Bankless mission to get, you know, one, 1 billion people Bankless, um, it is the idea that there is a better way to kind of be self sovereign at self agent. Um, so for us, when we thought about the universe of legends of cipher, what really got us excited about the narrative was the fact that, you know, we're, we're taking, um, a kind of a real world debate philosophy, this control versus freedom, centralization versus decentralization, you know, extracting it out into this, um, farfetched universe.

Speaker 2: Um, you know, that that is a science fiction story that carries some of the truths of today, but in a, in a way that, you know, you could have philosophical debates and discussions and even get into the politics and the history and, and archetypes all found, but it's in a science fiction story. So it's for us was less, less of a heated debate, but still a way to have the debate. So, you know, this science fiction universe we built is really constructed around the opportunity to have that philosophical discussion. And we often talk about, you know, so Cento is the, is a corporatocracy. So obviously it represents centralization. It controls the universe or the cosmos as, as we call the legends of SERE universe that controls the cosmos, but it does so with, um, with a tool called the metric and the metric is basically, you know, think, think social scoring, uh, um, um, you know, from web, from, from web 2.0 meets your credit score meets your, um, you know, citizen score meets, you know, all these ways that we kind of measure contribution or, or, or measure people, and then combine that with kind of corporate measurement and how do you align to the same goals and a objectives so that everyone prospers.

Speaker 2: So Cento really has a, a humanity sort of mission in and of itself, and that it stands for human progress, human growth, human development, but as a group, as a collective, and it uses the metric to make sure the individual is aligned to the collective's common goals around growth and prosperity on the other side is hash. And the IANS who believe there is a choice to be made because they believe that people hooked on the metric are not fully conscious of just how little freedom they have, as much as the metric provides clarity and rewards for aligning to them, to the common goals of the cent opoly. It is also robbing people of freedom of thought and so hash and the siphon are creating a way to sort of unhook raise a ible wealth consciousness from the human, uh, for the human relative to their, their, their kind of following the metric sort of blindly.

Speaker 2: And so this idea comes to life. And when we look at those two, you know, Cento versus siphon, it's not an easy choice because there's a lot of comfort and progress, and there's certainly, um, a collective agreement on how humanity should evolve with the cent monopoly. And it looks beautiful and it's prosperous and, and rewarding. Whereas the siphon are sort of like, yeah, but there's a different way to look at freedom and it might be harder, but it's important to be self sovereign and really have true freedom and choice. So, you know, for us, it was fun. It's a lot of fun to tell our story with that sort of, kind of debate at the center of the narrative.

Speaker 3: That's really cool. So basically, like not, not only are you guys like leveraging web three for, um, like the distribution of this story, but you're also kind of using web three and like your journey and, and kind of like this Dow philosophy as like a, a guide for, for the story creation. Is, is that, is that correct?

Speaker 2: Yeah. You could definitely say it that way. It's certainly guides. Um, the way we tell the story and the way we think of, um, the, the, the two tensions between the, uh, Cento,

Speaker 3: That's cool. And so I guess if that's the case, like, do you guys know how this story ends yet? Or are you really just kind of, uh, writing it as you go and, and kind of using, like, what happens cuz obviously like crypto's taken a big hold recently, right. But no one really knows if that's, if that's even gonna stay. Right. So I guess, are you guys, are you guys kind of gonna shape, um, the story around kind of how crypto kind of progresses and how some of this Dow philosophy progresses over the next couple years or what's your, what's your kind of intention?

Speaker 3: You know, one of the most interest parts of being in the story is not knowing which side you stand on from day to day, right? Because like legitimately there, like within our store universe, there are equal good and bad points to the protagonist and antagonist, you know, and the same could be said about the world that we live in. There are, you know, like for example, telling a story, try telling a story in a decentralized fashion it's really difficult to do, try telling it with four, four guys sitting around at a able it's much, much easier to do. So there are, there are these pros and cons that are constantly pulling and pushing on each other. And, um, it's like it, the, the, the, the way that, the way that humanity is probably gonna go is like right down the main, okay. Like in the gray area, in between, in the kind of boring, no man's land, not either one of these polls where it's completely decentralized or completely centralized, um, most of the conversation and most of the, the, the, the discussion and the agreement is gonna be in the middle, but we just thought that what fits this archetypal battle of good and evil better at this moment in time than the struggle between centralization and decentralization, the struggle between control and freedom, you know, um, to answer your question directly.

Speaker 3: Yeah. We've, we've got an ending, like we know how at we, this season of the story ends, um, and of, of course, like it has to be, it has to be satisfying, it's it, it's, it's a story, essentially, even if it does have philosophical undertones and, and, uh, expose some weakness of the system and encourage debate, but it is a story. So it has to, it has to have like a nice cadence has to have a nice conclusion, um, but where it goes from there and how our community engaged with the side stories and, um, how it, how it becomes built, how in a decentralized fashion, one of the ways that we, that we want to engage our community, that we don't have a, uh, an idea of, of, of what will happen. That's, that's where, um, that's where we're, uh, looking to sort of adventure and explore into with no particular direction.

Speaker 3: Although I imagine in this, in the second season, we will have a, we will have a main through line, but our community will be free to, um, engage and explore, uh, some of the side stories in a, in a decent size fashion. So, so talk about that a little bit. So, so how, how do you imagine that working, um, like, are the, are the Dow members gonna to like help participate in kind of choosing different parts of the story or, or what are you guys envisioning? Well, um, everyone's familiar with, you know, the, um, everyone's familiar with St uh, star wars, right. And the fan culture that surrounds it. So if you imagine that, um, that the, uh, that the studios that produced star wars were actively engaging with the fans all on a day to day and week to week basis. And they were encouraging fans to, to develop stories out and even, you know, perhaps incubating some of these stories, um, and giving them, and giving them guidance on how to bring it a, up to a level where it's, um, easier to, to sell to as a product and easier to consume by, by those that, that want to, um, read or watch the story.

Speaker 3: Right. Um, then that's one of the models that, that we're thinking of right. Is to allow fan fiction to flourish, but then the stuff that's really coming through and gaining traction, we say, oh, yeah, that's great. Like, let's build that up. Like, let's, we'll, we'll help you build that out. And so that process, we're calling it lower to legend, uh, and it really is, uh, you know, it really is a case of like reading the story that we have so far letting your imagination run, like just being inspired by a character or, or a scene, and then, and thinking, you know, well, what happens next there? Like what happens once the, once the narrative changes change scene goes in a different direction. What happens in that part of the universe, because it still exists. Um, so it could be, you know, for example, let's say that Luna comes by this planet and the scout ship comes down and it picks up, um, it, it picks someone up that wants to go well, tell the story of their family, right.

Speaker 3: The story of, of, of, of those people that, that person left behind, like that could turn in that could go from lower in, into legend. And maybe later on some way down the line in the, in the main, through line of the story, we circle back to that and, and we, we integrate it, you know, um, but in terms of the main through line, we have to, we have to control that, um, pretty much between the four of us at the moment, in order to make sure that we progress at a steady pace and deliver assets that are of that retain an, a, a kind of high quality, you know, cause as I said before, it's difficult to do that when there's too many people, um, kind of putting their, putting their inputs in. Yeah. I completely understand that. That's super cool. It, it does like kind of flip the script of like the traditional world where you have a lot of these content creators or these, these companies that create these massive franchises and like their whole model is to like hold their cards as close to their chest as possible. And, and you said like almost make these decisions without kind of talking to the fans and asking them what they want. And so you're kind of flipping that model upside down and saying like, Hey, like we want to encourage people to come and participate and create stuff. And, and if it's, if it's super cool and it, and it's something that is, is really great, then it might be even be like included and, and built upon, which isn't really seen much in the traditional world. Is it?

Speaker 2: Yeah. And the cool part about the, the, the lore to legend process that James describing is, uh, it's community driven, right? So, you know, we, we lay the foundation as best we can with the, in infrastructure of the universe that describes the legends cipher cosmos and the key, the key elements of it. And then the, the, the community is free to free to create on top of that. And then the community can vote to determine which of their community fellows, um, art or creative or stories can make up to legend. And then we have this idea of using kind of our own, um, what we're building is, you know, a critical mass for creating high quality, uh, art for our graphic novels and our short films, et cetera. And that, wouldn't it be great if something gets voted up to legend and then we can, um, put our Polish on it and then produce it as potentially a, a story in line or an NFT or something like that.

Speaker 2: And then that's partly why we have the story prima, um, uh, Dow as a way to create a token omic system that allows us to incentivize, um, participation in a way that makes it a little more exciting and worthwhile for your time, um, that you get the governance token, uh, for pre, so it's all kind of coming together in the typical sort of web three decentralized autonomous, um, organizational models, but really based around, uh, this universe and what we want, like what we envision in our discord on a day to day basis goes back to, we want to have, we wanna see the community engaging with us in this philosophical debate between centralization versus decentralization and kind of the pitfalls and pros and cons of each.

Speaker 3: That's really cool. And so I guess with this, I'm looking at the legends of site for website. And so I see on here, you guys have the, I don't know if I'm gonna say this correct, but the Maro 36 Destiny's fall, is that part of the same storyline as this, as this other NFT that you guys released recently? Um, yeah, that's, that's really closely linked. Um, at the, the battle of Maru is like the, the apex of this, um, nine decade conflict, um, that happens around, you know, basically the discussion of central centralization versus decentralization. Um, and after the, after the battle, that's when the, um, the infrastructure goes down and that's, uh, that's basically the, the, uh, the point where, um, the Starship we elastic, um, becomes kinda like this, this, this Voyager, um, that travels around the, the known cosmos, um, delivering information and, and, and aids to, to, uh, isolated, um, civilizations.

Speaker 2: Yeah, it's actually, it's really cool because, uh, de voice, um, wrote the, the original historical document that kind of outlines the phases of human evolution that take us to this. So what happens is the great diaspora is the era where humankind is leaving planet earth, and it's a bit of a play on today's growing dependence on artificial intelligence and machine learning. So what happens is in order for, uh, man humankind to propagate this cosmos effectively, um, we're almost entirely leaning on communication systems and, and technology that is powered by artificial. And so what happens is humankind realizes that the dependence on AI is getting to the point that we are really losing our humanity. We, we lean on it so much that, um, a civil war breaks out, um, where, uh, a, a group of, uh, humankind says, no, we, we need to, to cut away from the dependence on AI.

Speaker 2: And it essentially unleashes this massive, you know, nine decade wars James mentioned, um, that culminates in this battle of R 36, where the AI that is essentially running, everything is ultimately destroyed. And so we almost enter of dark ages, which is why the ship is so critical, cuz it's, it's one of the remaining ships that travels around providing aid and support to all of those humans that have been, um, sort of less left in the dark ages from the war. And then that's such a, I mentioned that as a critical point in the history, because what that opens up, it opens up to the, the opportunity for the corporate Photocracy to form the cent opoly and the metric to kind of bring humankind back together and create interconnectivity and rebuild commerce, et cetera, et cetera. So that's sort of how we, um, that moment in time really opens up, um, the, the opportunity for this SYOP to take control, which is brings us to our current through line, which is the tension between SIFI and, and SPO.

Speaker 3: It's just been a, a cycle of bad luck for this, for this cosmos. And , um, you know, when, when hash comes through, it's like, it's, it's another glimer of hope, you know, but, um, yeah, you guys will have to read on to see if, if it all works out for him and decentralization prevails, it it's super impressive because it, you know, you got can tell that you guys have put a lot of thought into this stuff, because the way you guys talk about it with such realness, like, like it just kind of just rolls off, like these kind of like deep, philosophical thoughts on these things where you guys obviously have had like tons of conversations about this stuff, and it's so natural to you. And it's just so cool to, to see that. Yeah, we do. Um, what do we do now dev in about eight hours a week of discussion, um, plus probably, you know, 12 to 15 hours of writing each per week.

Speaker 3: I think, um, I mean that's, yeah, that's a, that's a parttime job between, it's a part-time job for four guys to do, um, to do what we've done so far. And I think we we're, we've just barely scratched the surface. Exactly. And so, you know, obviously obviously you guys wouldn't be putting this much time and effort into it. If you didn't have some sort of, uh, like end game or, or some sort of, uh, situation that you wanna see happen. So, so really like, what's your, what's your kind of 10,000 foot overview with where you wanna take this, this project and also, um, Prema out like what it, what's the, uh, what's the Disney world vision with that?

Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's, I always, I always say a team, you know, wouldn't it be great if we're the first decentralized autonomous organization accepting an academy award for best picture? That's, that's definitely my end game for legends of cipher. I think, you know, we're all massive sci-fi fans, um, you know, tech technology, enthusiastic, uh, stick practitioners. Um, and you know, so we believe in this story so much that we, we think it's got legs to be one of the greatest stories of all time. So that's certainly the end game for legends of cipher. I see no end to the upside with the way the universe is coming together in the types of stories. Um, we're writing to be told in, in different formats, you know, um, graphic, novel being our main through line, but, you know, you'll see in another six weeks or so, uh, quite an epic short film.

Speaker 2: That's an introduction to the, to the current, um, current state and tension between hash and, uh, one of the leading officers in the Cento malaria. Um, it's an epic short film and you'll start to see our art and our vision come to life. Um, and it, you know, that the graphic novel, short films, um, you know, just, we see no end to the type of mediums we want to produce the stories in. And then when we bring the community involved, our vision is that the community is producing as much. Um, and as good equality as art in the future as we are so that we really have, you know, the fan art, being a part of the story in a way that makes sense and has continuity. And then for story predo, the, the end game there is that, you know, why can't story predo be, you know, the Marvel studio of web three.

Speaker 2: So bringing on new projects, incubating them, helping them with their storytelling, helping them with their marketing, helping them with their, um, you know, web development and other activities, all the things we've learned in building and launching the different components of legends of cipher. We wanna pay that forward through story prima so that we can help other projects and be, be a large enough force that other decentralized projects can be stood up on their own, get incubated through funding, um, and learning community of practice through story prima so that, you know, you know, web three, um, becomes the best way to tell stories. Cause we believe that, you know, much like, um, everything with cryptos that the kind of all centralized models, closed doors decisions made in board rooms, highly biased focus groups, yada yada yada market research.dot.is not the way to tell the best stories. And we wanna, we want to empower community storytelling, um, to the highest quality so that, you know, communities compete with big studios and tell, you know, maybe one day big studios don't play quite the same power, what they do today.

Speaker 3: That's really cool. That's really great. And it sounds like, I mean, a, you guys sound like you're super passionate and that's usually the most important thing. And then also I agree with you a hundred percent, what web three is, is probably just gonna consume everything in some fashion. And, um, it sounds like you guys already have a pretty, a good head start against most of the other traditional companies. So that's really cool. And then also I'm, I'm super interested to see this, uh, this cinematic short. That sounds really interesting. Um, so when, when were you guys releasing that?

Speaker 2: Uh, I, I believe it's probably about four to six weeks, um, that it's ready. Um, you know, we might be able to give a teaser to some of our community. We've got a few other assets we're building around it for launch, but the actual cinematic piece would, would be completed in about four to six weeks. Um, but so, you know, our biggest challenge is what we want to be able to do when we launch the, this, um, this full universe. Cause it's, we're, we're gonna time the, the prima token drop at the same time. Um, so we want to have that kind of token omics infrastructure staff as well. Um, but we wanna be able to launch this cinematic, um, short film, which is kind of like a trailer to the through line comic, um, with a, with a series of anthologies that really bring the universe to life. Um, so yeah, four to six weeks for the cinematic trailer, but the actual launch to the public, um, uh, outside of our kind of internal community might be a little, a little later, but I do hope that we can like give a sneak peek at least to the, to the folks that have, you know, purchased, um, the NFTs and from the origin collection. Uh, we want them to see it first.

Speaker 3: Yeah, that sounds great. I'm looking forward to seeing that from my myself as well. I, I know that, uh, putting together animations and, and stuff like that takes a lot of effort and it takes a lot of thought and it also takes a lot of skills. So I'm super, super intrigued to see what you guys come up with. I'm already super impressed with everything that you guys have put together. It's like, it's very professional. You can't, it doesn't seem like just four guys put this together. It seems like a whole team put it together. So that's super cool.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Behind us, we do, we do have some really great artists. We're really blessed to have James being our artistic director on all of the assets because he, like, he's got this eye for quality that, you know, really holds us all accountable to the best. So, um, maybe James, you talk about some of your, um, some of the team behind some of the great art and work we're doing.

Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely. It's um, uh, the whole process just gave me an insight into how important a strong team is, you know? Um, so what I contribute as one member of the origin group, you know, behind me is like six or eight guys, um, that are churning out 3d artworks and sketches and, um, you know, uh, research, search pages and para images. Um, and I bring them to the team and the, the team give me opinions and I give them, um, I give them information on, on what to look at and, and kind of, I guess, as, uh, I've been a professional artist for, um, over 15 years. So I, I, what I really wanted to bring to the origin group was the ability to judge artwork in a way that maintains the highest standard. Um, so when I'm, you know, when I bring, uh, some sketches or, or some, uh, even partly developed work to the team, I'll kind of point out what they should be looking at so that they start to get the eye.

Speaker 3: Right. Um, and now, I mean, honestly, like, I think they're just, as, I think they're all just as good at, at, at picking out, um, points as, as I am. In fact, sometimes I've even been sometimes I've even been questioned on what I'm bringing to the table, um, which is just really refreshing. Like we, we keep each other on our toes. You, we, we keep each other kinda working hard. Um, it's just like, it's such a good group to be a part of for learning and for development. Um, and yeah, I mean, the artwork that we're delivering right now, it's kinda, um, it's on, it's on a budget, it's on a shoestring budget, right? Like EV all of this stuff, we've had no funding, all this stuff has been bootstrapped. Um, so we're doing the best we can with the budget that we have.

Speaker 3: Um, so I can, I can, I, I can only imagine what's gonna happen, you know, once we start getting some track, um, once we start making some sales and we get some, you know, some, some more cash in the treasury, I think the artwork is just going to like really escalate and already like the, the art team that we have behind us. They're just so enthusiastic. Like, they're all wrapped up in the narrative as well. And every time we, we, we ship something off, um, the, the, the, the final output is always kind of pushed back at the, at the team that have worked on it individually. You know, they they've all had steps along the way, not no one's ever done the whole thing. Um, and they're all just blown away by, by what's by the output, you know? So, um, it would just be great to, to step that up another level.

Speaker 3: And, um, I just can't wait unless I can't wait. That's, that's the exciting thing too. Like, like, you know, I'm, I'm super into like 3d now, and I'm still learning. Like, I'm still such a novice when I look at other stuff out there, and what's amazing is like, this, this stuff, like not just 3d, but just like art creation tools in general are getting so good. And like, so easy to where, like, I'm following some teenagers on, on Instagram who are like making almost studio know quality animations and stuff from like their bedroom. And they're like, not even old enough to drive a car yet. And so I think in the next, like 10, 20 years, it's gonna be amazing to see like what these small little studios kinda like yourself right now. Like what they can actually put out into the world comparable to like what we see now, um, like these huge budgets and these like massive teams put together. It's, it's just super cool.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Great point. Yeah. The technology is enabling a whole new level of creative production and yeah, I think we're, we're definitely kind of leaning in, and that's partly what store story prima will seek to do is bring community to practice together so that we can all learn together and just echo what James said. You know, that's certainly what we found in real time is, you know, when, when we approach the work of production as one, and we start teaching each other, our own skills and competencies relative to the, to the pieces that we're doing, and we're all growing together. And I think that's a big, you know, cheesy, let's all hug benefit, but it's true of kind of the way web three and decentralized organizations come together. People come with a spirit to learn. I know, that's what I would really loved about the Bankless Dow original days was, you know, we didn't really know how to make it work.

Speaker 2: You know, like you guys mentioned when you started off, it's like, Hey, what can we try? What can we do? Let's learn together. And then all of a sudden, you're every Friday doing a partnership NFT up and, and making your own community money, making, um, colleagues and partners, money and producing great art and getting people excited. And, you know, so for us, that's what it's, uh, largely about. And so, yeah, hopefully one day we can, if sooner than later we can get some of these kids into our community and start producing, um, artwork with us.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, it's kinda like, it's kinda like what Elon Musk did with the space industry. You know, he, he came in and he's like, wait a second. We're spending how much on rockets and like billions of dollars. He's like, okay, let me see. You need, like, he's like, oh, I think we can make 'em for like a hundred grand, or I think they're even less now, which is insane. Yeah. But I think the same things gonna happen to the entertainment industry. Like you're gonna see less and less of like, you're not gonna need like a $20 million budget anymore to put together like a movie, because you'll be able to CGI like most of it, um, and all this other stuff. It's really interesting. And then it's gonna open the door for teams like yourselves to really like, compete with kind of like the big dogs.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Super interesting time. It's uh, it's, it's a very exciting time. And I agree at one point, you guys said that you left your jobs to like pursue full-time. Do I think one of you said that, and I'm the same way. I think there's just so much opportunity in this space. It's just, it's hard to ignore it, even if you can't see it like right. This and it, sometimes it's sometimes you do see it and then sometimes it kind of goes away and you're like, oh, what am I doing? But there's just so much opportunity here. More than, more than anywhere.