Hello World :)

We are Luda, a diverse team of optimistic misfits from technology and entertainment. For the past year we’ve been quietly building “create-to-own” projects and protocols that put people at the center of emerging entertainment. We’re excited to share a bit more about why we’re here, what we’re doing, and who we are.

Why? People, Not IPs, At The Center

Let’s start with traditional entertainment (TradEnt?). TradEnt puts intellectual properties (IPs) like Marvel and Minecraft at the center and the fans, players, creators who define their success on the outside. Even the term “IP” and its legalistic roots expresses an “us vs. you” posture, which for any one lone individual really means “you lose”.

The more you think about it the more backwards it feels. Don’t the communities who are the lifeblood of blockbuster entertainment – from cinematic universes to sandbox games to social platforms – deserve to be at the center of these projects, on all levels?

• Economic ownership: capture more value from the $T in industry value they create
• Creative participation: contribute to and shape the future of projects they love
• Broad representation: see themselves in the worlds, characters, stories, games

It’s obvious why fans, players, and creators deserve to capture more of the economic value they create. What’s less obvious, is that they also deserve more license, if not incentives, to participate in and contribute to the creative development of projects they love. Maybe least obvious, but most profound, is that the only way we will create entertainment for humankind is if its richness and diversity represented at the core.

Imagine you, lifelong fan of Harry Potter. You’ve collected the books, worn the merch, attended the premiers, lost friends because you wouldn’t shut up about how much you love this character or hate that storyline. You put in all this time and money for incredible content and memories, but have no further stake in the franchise’s upside or voice in its future. And when you create a subversive character relationship or controversial alternate ending that raises the bar on the franchise, you’re thanked with a takedown notice and a side of litigation.

Once you see traditional media and entertainment through this lens, you can’t unsee it.

What? UGC → UOC

The good news is that power in the entertainment industry has already been shifting into the hands of fans and players over decades. At the macro level, we see this in the dominance of interactive entertainment (gaming) over all other categories of non-interactive entertainment combined. At the micro level, we see this in the progression from “read-only” entertainment IPs like Marvel and Pokemon to “read-write” UGC platforms like Minecraft and Roblox.

All this sets the stage for the next transformation of entertainment: from read-write to read-write-own entertainment; from UGC (user-generated content) to UOC (user-owned content) entertainment; from TradEnt to DeEnt (decentralized entertainment).

Yes, we just dropped three new buzzwords for the “future of entertainment” to figure out which one memes hardest. But they all point to the same tantalizing possibility: that people don’t just get to consume great content and contribute with creative tools, but that they also get to own the content they create and have a voice in the future of the franchises and platforms they help grow.

The next Marvel or Roblox will be co-created, owned, and governed by its community.

How? Create-To-Own (C2O)

To make this happen, we’re introducing a framework we call Create-To-Own (C2O) that composes building blocks like deep learning for creative tools, WebGL for immersive apps, blockchain assets for ownership, and DAOs for coordination. And we’re using this framework to build new kinds of projects and protocols that are only now possible.

Our first project is Neo Fairies, a fantasy-punk shared world designed from the ground up to be co-created, owned, and governed by a creator-led DAO. The Neo Fairies DAO launches soon (hint, hint) so to learn more follow @neofairies or join our Discord.

Neo Fairies, in turn, is the first decentralized entertainment franchise powered by Wonder Protocol, a platform to power C2O projects and entertainment IP-based DAOs. If you’re a creator or developer who wants to learn more, follow @wonderprotocol.

These efforts are only our first baby steps. It’s day one (maybe even day zero?) in the $T transformation of media and entertainment, and we’re just getting started.

Who? Meet Luda

We proudly describe ourselves as a diverse team of optimistic misfits, with experience spanning Silicon Valley deep tech (Google, Meta, Niantic, Anki) to Hollywood entertainment (PlayStation, Paramount, Disney). We’ve had a chance to start generational gaming franchises like God of War, launch entertainment platforms like Disney+, and invent state of the art technologies at institutions like Google AI. And we’ve founded game studios, fashion brands, and technology startups, many that crashed and burned and a few that made it to the moon. When we started Luda last year, we left the worlds we know to create the world we want, and haven’t looked back.