Society of the Hourglass and Its Kid-Friendly Cartoons

As firm after firm goes bust and even the strongest cryptocurrencies flounder, life goes on in a surprisingly resilient NFT market. The Society of the Hourglass is just not a median NFT mission, although, partly as a result of it’s not a mission that begins and ends with digital collectibles; it solely begins with them. A proposed ecosystem spanning publishing, tv, and merchandising, Society of the Hourglassis a media model—NFTs are merely the entryway to a wider world of hands-on improvement in its burgeoning IP panorama. Crypto Briefing spoke to the mission about balancing decentralization with conventional enterprise, the nuances of mental property distribution, and naturally, cartoons.

A Time to Construct

Because the crypto market continues to languish amid rising rates of interest, looming recession, high-profile bankruptcies, and rising regulatory scrutiny, NFTs have proven shocking resilience. It will seemingly come as no shock to those that noticed the potential within the expertise early on, however for everybody else, it’s gorgeous. If bear markets are the “time to construct,” you possibly can do worse than doing so within the NFT house.

One mission seizing on the disruptive potential of NFT expertise is Society of the Hourglass, a youngsters’ leisure media model incorporating NFTs into its neighborhood bootstrapping course of. Set to span books, video games, and tv, Society of the Hourglass is an early-stage mission onboarding customers to its writing room by minting NFTs. Right here, the neighborhood can collaborate with skilled screenwriters and animators to brainstorm concepts, pitch tales, and affect the present’s inventive course.

The place many NFT initiatives construct their “neighborhood” out of fandom, whether or not that’s round a specific mission (like Bored Ape Yacht Membership or Azuki) or an artist (like Tyler Hobbs or FEWOCiOUS), Society of the Hourglass has a extra bold purpose in thoughts. The NFT collection—a group of 8,888 historically-themed characters minted on Ethereum—is however the spine of a collection of bigger initiatives similar to books, merchandise, and an animated collection within the type of traditional Saturday morning cartoons.

The primary half of the gathering has already been made accessible for minting throughout two preliminary “chapters,” with the remaining set to be rolled out in two additional batches of two,222 NFTs every. A lot of the tokens characterize minor personalities throughout the Society of the Hourglass ecosystem, however just a few will characterize the present’s major characters, the eponymous Society of the Hourglass, a staff of historic do-gooders who journey by way of time, setting proper the wrongs of the previous. These historic figures—named Blackbeard, Sacajawea, Nikola Tesla, Joan of Arc, and Harriet Tubman—are additionally accessible as distinctive 1/1 NFTs, making them the 5 rarest items within the assortment.

Proudly owning a Society of the HourglassNFT grants participation rights to the present’s unique writers’ room on the mission’s Discord server, the place neighborhood members are invited to share concepts and brainstorm the story’s course. Finally, nevertheless, skilled writers with business expertise are charged with crafting the narratives. 

Crypto Briefing sat down with Joe Payne, CEO of the corporate behind Society of the Hourglass, and he mentioned the staff’s ambitions to create a fully-fledged media model in Web3. “Finally, what we’re attempting to do is construct a media model and leisure IP,” he stated. “We’re launching by way of NFTs; it’s a mixture of social experiment, but in addition a method of constructing a extremely engaged neighborhood that isn’t solely excited about what we’re doing, however has incentives aligned with what we’re doing the place we share business possession over the characters.”

Taking Care of Enterprise 

If all this makes Society of the Hourglass really feel extra like an easy enterprise enterprise than a community-led NFT mission, that’s as a result of it’s. Society of the Hourglass is a enterprise, and it’s run like one. Based by a bunch of skilled serial entrepreneurs, a lot of whom honed their enterprise acumen underneath the iron sway of native behemoth Walmart, Inc., Society of the Hourglass is led by Payne, who’s additionally the co-founder and accomplice at Gravity Flip Holdings. Payne, whose earlier expertise as a COO at an information expertise agency gave him a background in making issues occur, has introduced his creation to life methodically and punctiliously.

Society of the Hourglass has a four-stage rollout course of, with every stage constructing on the earlier one. The primary is the NFT minting, which is able to happen in 4 chapters all year long and can grant holders unique entry to the IP’s inventive course of. The staff is at the moment storyboarding its first e book (the following stage within the rollout), a The place’s Waldo-style iteration that includes the mission’s multitudinous characters and distinctive artwork. Thirdly, Society of the Hourglassis hiring writers and dealing with Jumpcut Studios on the flagship product, the tv collection. Payne says the collection is prone to be launched throughout the subsequent yr, however as with many Web3 initiatives, nothing is about in stone.

And naturally, that’s partially as a result of there are logistical points to hammer out. Though Society of the Hourglass values neighborhood enter and permits it to steer the inventive course of the mission, it’s nonetheless a centralized entity (on this case, a restricted legal responsibility firm) that reserves the suitable to make remaining selections on, effectively, every part.

That is partly because of the necessity of defending the mission from imploding on itself due to unexpected exterior components. For instance, the character of the mission’s IP raises attention-grabbing authorized points, and moderately than taking the “transfer quick and break issues” method, Payne and his staff are opting to “transfer slowly and watch out.” When requested about if any rewards mechanisms for lively holders had been sketched out, his reply mirrored that of somebody who’d spent his skilled life round attorneys. He stated: 

“We’re very aware of and cautious of something that may even flirt with securities regulation. And the very last thing we need to do is create a situation the place not solely can we get, you already know, some type of hand slap or repercussions, however the neighborhood doubtlessly experiences that. That’s why we went with the shared IP possession over the characters.”

The “shared IP” Payne refers to an association through which each events— the corporate and the NFT holder—declare the suitable to make use of the picture of that character for private or business functions while not having the opposite’s permission. A holder of a Society of the Hourglass NFT, for instance, might use that character’s likeness for their very own “spinoff” collection utilizing that character’s persona in the event that they so desired. 

Nevertheless—and this can be a huge “nevertheless”—they may not use the trademarked title of the collection with out permission, nor might they market underneath the Society of the Hourglass model with out an approval course of that includes placing it to the neighborhood first. In different phrases, holders can do no matter they like with their NFTs’ likenesses, however they can not merely declare affiliation with the general mission with out the corporate’s say-so.

The explanations for this must be clear: distributing the IP rights of a youngsters’ model might result in exploitation in darker corners of the Web, and sure veto powers are applicable for shielding younger Web3 customers. And Payne thinks that’s price defending on condition that it’s uncommon to see such a consciously kid-friendly mission emerge within the NFT house. A far cry from the crass scatology of goblintown.wtf or the ironic bile-spewing of God Hates NFTees, Society of the Hourglass is a family-friendly mission with a audience of youngsters aged between 5 and 12. Degens these youngsters should not—but—however they’re a market nonetheless, and one which’s virtually completely missed in Web3 right this moment.

The Manner of the Future?

Some Web3 natives could also be discomforted to be taught {that a} staff is utilizing decentralized expertise for unabashedly centralized enterprise pursuits, however to see it that method could be to overlook the forest for the timber. It was all the time going to be the case that mass adoption would look extra just like the business tradition we’re used to than any revolutionary motion. 

It’s for that purpose that Society of the Hourglass is perhaps a mission price keeping track of. It demonstrates what mainstream NFT adoption might seem like: an incremental enchancment on an outdated method of doing issues. If profitable, it could be a successful proof-of-concept for a novel, Web3-enabled twist on the screenwriting course of. It’s not making an attempt to revolutionize something; it makes few summary guarantees and tracks its progress in deliverables. 

Lastly, it takes mental property legal guidelines very critically, and will very presumably set requirements for a way IP is divvied up on the blockchain going ahead. NFTholders shouldn’t count on any token rewards or monetary curiosity within the mission—to try this could be begging to go earlier than a decide, which can but be the destiny of many initiatives that determined to “transfer quick and break issues.”

To achieve success, Society of the Hourglass should do one factor above all else—it needs to be good. A lot has been fabricated from the “radical potential” of decentralization within the inventive course of utilizing Web3 expertise, nevertheless it stays to be seen if that’s an efficient method of writing. It could be laborious to think about 12 authors attempting to write down the identical novel and really getting wherever, so will probably be attention-grabbing to observe Society of the Hourglass’ progress with an eye fixed towards how fruitful decentralized writing seems to be.

Disclosure: On the time of writing, the creator of this function owned ETH and several other different cryptocurrencies.