Cinezen: The world’s first blockchain VOD platform launches
David Farnor | On 16, Oct 2018
This month sees the groundbreaking world of online video take another technological step forward with the launch of the world’s first fully operational blockchain VOD platform.
CINEZEN is a streaming service where all transactions and rights verifications are based on blockchain and where films can be bought by end users using crypto-currency. It is a community-driven and decentralized film and content marketplace.
Now available in beta mode, it aims to prove that “BVOD” is not just a concept but an already working product generating profits. CINEZEN’s main mission is to facilitate immediate, direct and transparent payments between viewers, content owners and influencers.
“Billions are now lost by content owners every year because the payouts they receive are approximate and not verifiable,” say the founders of the site.
CINEZEN will also allow anyone to create their own video store on the platform – a feature that will enable users to receive a share of revenues for curating, sharing and promoting CINEZEN’s content to their friends and followers.
The beta version is based on Ethereum blockchain and uses Ethereum as a means of payment. CINEZEN’s own token and the possibility to use regular means of payments (credit cards, PayPal, etc) will be introduced by the end of the year.
CEO Sam Klebanov says: “Cryptocurrency is a great vehicle for direct value transfer between a viewer and a rights holder bypassing all intermediaries. It creates a possibility for every film to become available to the audience worldwide, including territories where no local distributors bought it. There is an enormous hidden value in the world’s film heritage and blockchain can unlock it.”
CINEZEN already has 100 films uploaded to the platform (availability in different territories may vary), which mainly consists of indie genre flicks. The plan is to upload 20-30 titles weekly including old classics, current festival prize-winners, commercial hits and high-profile documentaries. The works of Alfred Hitchcock, Roberto Rosselini, Luchino Visconti, Bernardo Bertolucci, Arturo Ripstein, Park Chan-wook, Otar Iosseliani and Kira Muratova are just some of the names that will be found on the platform soon.
More film licensing agreements will be signed in the coming weeks. Ruben Östlund, whose films will feature on the platform, has recently joined the Cinezen Advisory Board. CINEZEN is also offering to assist the rights holders with exchanging Ethereum/tokens to the currencies of their choice, while some of the world’s leading collection agencies have already expressed their interest in handling crypto incomes for their film industry clients.