TL;DR

1. A growing number of NFT creators are providing NFT owners with IP utilization rights. Therefore, NFT owners are free to develop and monetize NFT-based media properties. The most notable example is Jenkins the Valet (originally BAYC #1798);
2. Problem: Owners ≠ Builders → NFT owners are sitting on millions of dollars worth of underutilized assets;
3. NFT owners should be afforded the same opportunity as authors and playwrights who regularly work with dedicated creative teams to adapt their works into other media. That way, NFT owners are able to receive royalty payments and increase market demand for the NFTs they own;
4. We shall release 1,000 Legislature NFTs (ERC721). Holding one empowers you to be a decision-maker within Mecenia’s Legislature DAO and manage Mecenia’s Treasury. Together we select which ideas should be made into world-changing films and video games;
5. Our Executive Team consists of a BAFTA-winning filmmaker, an artist who worked on Black Widow and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the maker of Guitar Hero, an ex-Disney urban designer and more;
6. Follow us on Twitter - @mecenia_xyz for more updates.

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Our collective imagination is sacred and worth cultivating.

Our commonwealth comes from the stories we inherit and the tales we pass on.

We make art. We code and create. We finance new endeavors.

We are building a world arising not from land or sea, but from the ether.

We design networks that spark the right connections at the right time.

Every one of us will embark on our own journey within Mecenia, but together we swear by a mission: To grow a healthy economy for generations of creators to come.

We don't ask wen.

We ask how.

We shut up and build.

We build.

That's what Mecenians do.

Shall we start the next Renaissance together?

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We must reset the expectations of media creators and consumers

1. Web2 has instigated a pandemic of loneliness. Despite its promises of bringing the world together through the co-creation of stories and sharing of worlds, Internet users report feeling greater isolation while spending more time online than ever before. Where is the human connection?
2. Web2 has unleashed digital creators, but still fails to let them own the social capital they earn. Individuals could make content, grow audiences, and become globally influential brands by the strength of their YouTube subscribers or Instagram followers. But can they make enduring art with the communities they build?
3. Web2 has promised democratisation of decision-making: the inclusion of more voices, broad participation by the masses. Yet, due to contradictory market incentives, open platforms regularly degenerate into polarised arguments, uncontrolled spam, and pits of misinformation. Why has civic community, built atop collaboration, gone missing?

In essence, Web2 lacks the social bonds, the reliable professional networks, and the collective artistry needed to consistently produce great stories — stories that grace our screens, appeal to diverse audiences and reward the creators who make them. Historically, there were few, if any, ways for interested supporters to participate in the value chain of such creative endeavors, until Web3 came along.

Mecenia: A Creative Republic in the Metaverse

Mecenia’s main economic activities revolve around the production and exportation of media properties. We offer a Web3-native media ecosystem to source IPs, organise creators, rally supporters, and deliver creative works such as films and video games. It is a vehicle to mobilise funding for promising projects, while rewarding all parties for holding a stake in this community.

The Internet once promised human connection, equal opportunity and democratic participation. Mecenia restores hope to this vision. By connecting creative stakeholders through Web3 protocols, we empower all who join to collectively fund, decide, and make.

We must reassemble the stakeholders of our media ecosystem

To get from good ideas to “media that change the world”, Mecenia will pull together all these stakeholders into a new equilibrium:

1. Creators care about their craft. With Mecenia’s support, creators everywhere stand a chance at turning creative concepts into a broader media property with extended appeal;
2. Supporters want to go beyond passively consuming content to contributing to its creative direction. Mecenia gives them a vehicle to invest in the content they care about—and in return, they help to guide and accelerate its creation. Ultimately, by participating in this creative process, a larger community is formed around the media IP, the characters, and the stories they live in;
3. A Decision-Making Platform is needed to structure choices about where to allocate resources and which projects to fund, and ultimately to put it to a binding vote. Mecenia addresses this through the Legislature, a DAO where decisions are queried and set by the collective. The Legislature then needs the support of a dedicated Executive Team. We keep the Legislators informed, organise the decisions put in front of them, and execute those decisions once they are made. This converts decisions from “sentiments” into “actions” in the real world;
4. Distribution Channels. Once projects are completed, we need channels that distribute these works to a wider audience. As Mecenia exports its creative outputs beyond the Metaverse, the new and old Internet can productively interface. Content from our Web3 ecosystem can still leverage existing Web2 social media, as well as streaming and app store platforms to propagate and grow.

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Let us unite in creativity

Media properties—whether a great film, a viral mobile game or new creations within the Metaverse—are never made by a single person alone.

Creativity is a team sport.

By reimagining this media ecosystem, Mecenia effectively acts as a Creative Republic, where new and established Creators can pitch projects, obtain funding from Supporters, and then work with trusted producers and teams to deliver creative outputs. As a vehicle for mobilising capital and artistry, Mecenia enables the scaling of promising ideas into successful, innovative and beloved media properties. These properties can manifest as artworks, films, comics, games, consumer products, and more—and all are linked back to the investments made by our Creative Republic.

The civic groups that make up Mecenia reflect the diversity of human stories in the real world—bringing together talented creators ready to sketch, storyboard, animate, and chronicle these narratives, with supporters eager to accompany them on that journey.

Everyone has a part to play in forging our Creative Republic. Each inhabitant of Mecenia helps make real the projects that live in our hearts. With our hands, our votes, and our words—all coming together in Mecenia, in ways great and small—we ignite a more wondrous and creative world.

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The DAO shall have 1,000 seats

Together we are the Legislature - the collective that guides Mecenia through the noise and distraction.

Together we select which ideas should be made into world-changing films and video games.

Together we share the fruits of our labor.

We shall release 1,000 Legislature NFTs (ERC721)

Each Legislature NFT represents a parliamentary seat in Mecenia.

Holding a Legislature NFT empowers you to:

• Manage Mecenia’s Treasury;
• Vote on projects presented to Mecenia;
• Gain WL/AL opportunities for projects from Mecenia’s ecosystem;
• Enjoy priority consideration for your NFTs to be adapted by our creators;
• Access our private Discord - 'The Parliament' for high-quality research on NFT projects and IP potential;
• Participate in our virtual and IRL events, masterclasses, art drops and other exclusive collaborations with our creators.

By tapping into our collective from the outset, we will craft stories that rival exceed those we see today.

By involving our collective from Day 1, we can draw on a broader stream of humankind’s cultural legacy, therefore creating a more equitable creative economy.

By respecting our collective, we will rewire the operating system of the most important industry in the future - storytelling.

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Fuelled by raw NFT IPs, we can redesign the metagame forever

We face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rewrite the rules of the creative economy.

Opportunity: NFTs = Seeds of Future Media Properties

NFT trading grew 210-fold between 2020 and 2021, hitting $17.6 billion. The sudden explosion of interest made ‘NFT’ Collins Dictionary's word of the year for 2021.

Art represented by NFTs, or NFT art, is exported to mainstream media via memes (eg. Doge) and avatars (eg. Bored Ape). While the mass propagation of NFT art sui generis drives up market demand, capturing such an appreciation in value requires NFT owners to sell their NFTs at a higher price than when they first obtain them. As such, the current modus operandi is to promote the future value of one’s NFT until the event of a sale. Keep shillin’, as they say.

However, a growing number of NFT creators are providing NFT owners with specific rights to IP utilization. As a direct result, NFT owners are now free to develop IP products and monetize a media property based on the NFT art. The most notable example is Jenkins the Valet, slated to be featured in a book.

When such an arrangement is in place, NFTs are first-stage proof-of-concept IP products. Given sufficient initial traction, this could lead to the buildout of revenue-generating media properties.

Problem: Owners ≠ Builders

Due to the lack of skills, experience and coordination, few are able to realise, on their own, the full productive capacity of their NFT art. This is capital that could, in the right hands and on the right terms, be adapted into memorable characters and stories.

In short, NFT owners are sitting on millions of dollars worth of underutilized assets.

What if we could treat NFT art as source material to be transformed into media properties?

Authors and playwrights do collaborate with film producers and dedicated creative teams to adapt their works for cinema and TV, and thus receive royalty payments and increased sales revenue of source material.

Why can’t NFT owners be afforded the same opportunity?

Our Mecenian economy will be powered by partnerships with NFT projects and blue-chip holders. This is our window of opportunity to change the paradigm for media creators and consumers, for generations to come.

That being said, our current slate of NFT IP projects await the Legislature DAO’s review.

1. Have you imagined the Doge going on a Studio Ghibli-like adventure?

2. A new kind of anime, powered by the community from Day 1

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Rebels who build change the world

It’s not enough to critique the old system; we need to build a viable alternative.

As a team, we have created and scaled organisations, products and services across a multitude of creative industries, in Asia, America and Europe.

When it’s time to reveal ourselves, we will.

Here’s our collective CV:

1. Winning a BAFTA Award (Singapore’s first) and an Annie Award (Also Singapore’s first);
2. Credits on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Black Widow (2021), The Midnight Sky (2020), Wonder Woman (2017), Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014) and Godzilla (2014);
3. Listing the first ever VR company on Singapore Exchange (SGX), before ‘Metaverse’ was even in common parlance;
4. Participating in mm2 Asia Ltd’s $160 million acquisition of Cathay Cineplexes, Singapore’s 2nd largest cinema chain;
5. Building Sendjoy with creators who have a combined social media following of 40 million across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram;
6. Building video game Guitar Hero and selling it to Activision;
7. Building and selling consumer product company Orbit Baby;
8. Building fintech and marketplace products in Paris, San Francisco, Dubai and Singapore for more than 14 years;
9. Ex-Disney;
10. Professional proficiency in English, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish, Indonesian/Malay, Cantonese and more.

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We the People

Did you know the first three words in the Constitution of the Internet proclaim that the Internet draws its power not from an individual or a company, but from the people themselves? Power to the people is and will be the bedrock on which the whole Internet depends.

But that hasn’t been true, has it?

We the People of the Internet, do not own the property we create on the Internet.

We the People of the Internet, do not profit directly from the labor we perform on the Internet.

We cannot let this continue.

Make no mistake - The Internet will only overflow with more talent and tools from here on out.

Most of our children’s fortune and legacy will be the result of what they own and what they do on the Internet.

Shall we start the next Renaissance together?

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Build the Creative Republic of Mecenia with us:

1. Follow us on Twitter - @mecenia_xyz;
2. We will survey our Twitter followers one by one to identify those ready to take one of the 1,000 seats in Mecenia’s Legislature;
3. Those committed of stewarding our Creative Republic will be invited to mint a Legislature NFT and join our DAO.

Official Links

Website

Twitter

Mecenia’s NFT IP Database (Last Updated: 30 April 2022)