We have launched the Beta of the Mogul platform. Thank you all for being early adopters and helping us to test, refine, and improve Mogul as we develop best-in-class blockchain technology to improve and support the independent film industry. The feedback thus far has been phenomenal and we encourage you all to continue reaching out on social media and within the platform as we gather feedback from you all and continue to make Mogul a digital space for all in the film industry.
What does this mean for you?
You can now: ✅Submit your film projects! Sign up as an industry user and unlock the ability to submit your film idea. Our team of professionals will review your project and evaluate it for potential financing ✅Build your profile and connect your social media channels for more exposure, including your IMDb profile! ✅Engage in the community! Make a post and create conversation, ask questions, or post film events you would like the Mogul community to be part of! ✅Send your ideas, project updates, and more. Tell other Moguls what you’re working on.
What is all this blockchain stuff?
Every user that signs up has their own blockchain smart wallet generated for them. You are the only one with access to this and it is encrypted with your password. We take care of the technicalities.
The Mogul Smart Wallet is the next generation of blockchain technology, no more worrying about complicated seed phrases or losing your password. This wallet is where you will store your rewards, fund your wallet, send & receive digital assets, and soon invest in the Mogul Film Fund.
What is next from here?
We’re currently working on taking in user feedback for a revamp of the platform. When we launch that revamp, we will have functionalities built-in where users can: ✨Contribute in movies featured in the ✨Mogul Showcase ✨Vote on movies you want Mogul to contribute in ✨Engage in enhanced community events directly on the platform
We encourage everyone to share all of their ideas. Internally we are taking all community members’ opinions into consideration on how we can build a platform that caters specifically to the film industry providing more transparency, accessibility, and community around investing in and producing independent films more successfully.
Together. We are Mogul!
Let’s celebrate this soft launch together.
Stay tuned for some community events our team will be organizing in the near future.
At Mogul, we are committed to the long term mission and vision of the company. Our mission is to democratize & drive innovation in the film industry through inclusion, better access for the community, and financing for creative projects chosen through the Mogul process. Our vision is to become the future of film by setting a gold standard for production financing, oversight and fan engagement. These are prominently displayed on our website.
Our team is dedicated to making this mission and vision happen for the company and for our
Community.
Leadership Changes and Advisory Team
We have been actively listening to our community. We have been reading every email, Telegram message, and direct inquiry. There are key themes that have been suggested as a next path forward. We’ve taken them extremely seriously and went through all of them in great detail with some of our advisors and legal team. The north star in decision-making has been that an engaged, loyal community helps drive the growth of the Mogul platform and mission to empower the crowd to make decisions on movies together. In times of decision-making, Mogul leans on its core values.
Mogul has recognized the need for better communication from our core team to our end users in order to build trust with our community. As a result, Mogul has made some organizational changes to help begin the next phase in our growth.
Lisa Sun will be taking over as interim CEO and in her first move to steer Mogul in it’s intended direction, she has brought on two senior strategic advisors with a wealth of experience in Film and Finance.
We are happy to announce that Gorav Seth and Paul Sparkes have agreed to join Mogul’s senior advisory team and help execute on the company’s vision of democratizing the film industry using blockchain technology.
Gorav brings a wealth of experience with several years of senior leadership experience working with and funding venture companies. Gorav has spent over 12 years working in capital markets at leading independent investment dealers in Canada and has worked on over $4 billion of transactions. Prior to his career in capital markets, Gorav spent over a decade working in the film and television industry working both as an entertainment manager with leading talent and as a financier for independent feature films.
Gorav Seth and Paul Sparkes will be working closely with Mogul’s team to provide oversight and help streamline the company’s processes and day-to-day operations in an effort to align the film side with the technology platform of Mogul. Gorav and Paul will play an important role in the execution of Mogul’s strategic objectives and help position the company for massive growth and awareness.
The STARS Utility Token
Our STARS token, as per our litepaper, is an in-app rewards, engagement, community governance and incentivization system that offers access to the Mogul platform. Mogul Access Passes, which were included in the purchase of STARS tokens on the Mogul platform, offer users enhanced Access within the Mogul ecosystem for the holders. Each are tools to promote engagement and community participation in the film industry, and every Mogul user is required to have STARS tokens for access and participation.
Access Passes open up further advanced features and access within the platform. STARS tokens are also the de facto payment vehicle within our platform, and value for them is derived from their utility within the Mogul ecosystem; not externally. Mogul has no hand in the secondary market perception of the token.
Purchasers in the Access Pass sale, as defined in our One-Pager, purchased STARS and an Access Pass NFT. The STARS were immediately distributed to users and the file representing the NFT was displayed in their Mogul profile, with instructions that the underlying token would be delivered to the user’s smart wallet when launched.
Part of Mogul’s go-to-market growth strategy, as a DeFi and NFT platform for the film industry, was to launch a staking and growth farming program where users could stake their STARS tokens on the Mogul platform. The motivations for this program are clearly outlined in Mogul’s blog post introducing the program, and are still to grow the Mogul user base.
We encourage users to use their STARS tokens within the Mogul application for growth farming, voting, and more, which will allow our early supporters to earn many more tokens over time that can be spent within the Mogul application.
Upcoming and Future Events
Mogul will continue to run the business and platform in a manner that maintains the integrity of its long term vision. Supporters of Mogul understand the promise of the platform and appreciate that the value of the STARS platform within our ecosystem remains unchanged. STARS holders will continue to have a voice in greenlighting movies.
Our film team is working hard to short-list, independent feature films for the first-ever community-based vote on a film production. We will be announcing a new call for scripts to be put up in the showcase for the next round of funding very shortly.
Mogul will be commissioning Rob Prior, a prominent Marvel and D.C. Comics artist, to create an original piece of art that will be transformed into an NFT and sent to our Access Pass holders. This includes early supporters who, during the Access Pass sale, purchased from the Top Up tier, which is an option intended for users to top up their STARS tokens for in-app purchases. More details on this additional bonus for Access Pass holders will be announced by Monday.
This is part of our commitment to our fans as we add more utility to STARS, Access Passes, and the Mogul ecosystem beyond the current DeFi and NFT use cases of growth farming and purchasing NFTs in our marketplace and during auctions, and our traditional use cases of purchasing rewards and submitting projects to Mogul; all of which are currently available to holders.
At Mogul we appreciate your continued support, together we can make the vision of Mogul a reality. We are proud to have you on this journey with us.
With 5 days remaining to the Access Pass Sale, we have finally revealed the artwork for our Access Pass NFTs
March 19, 2021, Toronto, Canada
We have now revealed the artwork for our Access Pass NFTs. To view the NFTs, which have been given a watermark before the official sale starts on March 25th, visit the Mogul Platform.
These passes will be available for sale on March 25th. Only 2375 will be sold and the Sale will end when they are sold out. For the highest tier of the pass, the Red Carpet Pass, there is only 25 total available.
Users can now sign into their Mogul profile and join the waitlist for a pass. If you are on the waitlist prior to March 25th, you may be randomly selected to purchase a pass prior to the official sale. Being on the waitlist does not guarantee that there will be passes left on March 25th.
For full details on the passes and their pricing can be found in your Mogul Dashboard.
CAUTION: Any offers to get any Mogul tokens or passes to you before April 8th outside of Mogul’s Platform, including on Uniswap, are NOT genuine.
Mogul Productions, the decentralized film financing (DeFiFi) platform that gives everyone a voice in the creative process, launches its platform. Starting today, users can create an account to have the chance to be whitelisted for future access to STARS tokens and check-out the films in the Showcase that will be voted on with STARS when the platform is released on mainnet.
Gagan Grewal, CEO of Mogul Productions, expressed, “With all the major streaming platforms experiencing global viewership spikes in 2020 and predictions of the current $50.11 billion market growing 21.0% each year, it’s clear that there is a nearly insatiable demand for great content, and yet, it’s incredibly difficult for independent creators to get their stories financed and made into films. The exploding demand vs. insufficient supply is one of the most unbalanced markets across industries. At Mogul, we are giving filmmakers, fans, and film financiers a voice in the creative process, ensuring that more great films get made, and helping to right this asymmetrical market.”
In the current entertainment ecosystem, indie filmmakers have a hard time getting their ideas financed, fans have no say in the process, and financiers have very little transparency into what is happening with their investment. Mogul Productions will deploy blockchain technology to address these myriad issues, creating an entertainment ecosystem that works for everyone.
In the Mogul platform, creators gain opportunities for collaboration and the chance to get their films financed by the Mogul community. If their project is greenlit, creators also receive production oversight from the experienced Mogul team and a built-in fanbase to support the film’s success upon distribution.
Movie fans will be able to engage with the filmmakers and their favorite projects in deeper, more meaningful ways: from voting for which films will receive funding, to earning STARS that are redeemable for prizes like one-of-a-kind film posters, red carpet tickets, and invitations to exclusive events.
Mogul also plans to release a digital asset that will enable compliant participation in profit sharing from Mogul-produced movies. Financiers will also benefit from greater transparency into how film funds are being deployed during production as well as how profits are being distributed after release. Mogul’s team of experienced producers provide oversight to ensure productions stay in-budget and on-schedule.
Upon mainnet launch, users will be eligible to receive STARS, the platform’s in-app currency used to vote on which films receive funding. Mogul harnesses the power of the crowd in its decentralized quadratic voting system, which ensures users with more tokens do not have undue influence over the process. All votes are counted using a formula that makes each vote cast by the same user exponentially more expensive, preventing vote buying and restricting wealth dominance.
Mogul’s non-custodial Smart Wallet, which will be live upon mainnet launch, is designed to make it easy for anyone, regardless of crypto knowledge, to hold and use STARS. The automated password reset flow gives users the ability to reset their passwords in a way that is familiar based on other web experiences without ever giving Mogul access to their private keys.
The Mogul Continuous Organization is another unique invention of the Mogul team. By deploying Mogul Continuous Organization Technology, it automatically delegates cash flow management to a community governed organization to ensure constant liquidity for financiers.
To submit a film project to be considered by the Mogul community for financing, sign up for an account on the platform at my.mogulproductions.com, build-out your profile, and connect with fellow creatives.
For media inquiries, please contact Leila Wolf at (310) 260–7901 or Leila(at)MelrosePR(dot)com.
About Mogul Productions (Mogul)
Mogul Productions is a decentralized film financing (DeFiFi) platform that connects creators, movie fans, & film financiers in one space to ensure the best films get made by giving everyone a voice. Leveraging blockchain technology and a tokenized model, Mogul incentivizes participation and engagement. Using the Mogul in-app currency and utility token (STARS), users can vote for their favorite films to be greenlit and participate in key decision-making aspects of production. STARS holders are key governing bodies of the Mogul platform, including the profit-sharing pool of capital accruing from Mogul-funded movies. Mogul’s production team and advisors are award-winning Hollywood veterans who have written, directed, acted in, and produced diverse slates of films and TV shows.
This post will summarize Mogul’s Production AMA, which took place on Wednesday, July 14th, on the BSC daily Telegram channel. Lisa Sun was Present for this event.
Moderator Questions
Question 1: What is Mogul Productions all about? Give us a little summary
Answer: Mogul is a DeFi and NFT platform for movies & STARS powers our ecosystem
Our team has collectively made over 100 films in Hollywood and identified that there is a problem with opaque financing of independent films and lack of fan participation in the movie-making process. Bringing blockchain-based financing and NFTs to the movie industry, we provide fans the ability to share in the success (50% of the profits) and be part of the movie-making process.
Our platform launched in February and we already have 50k users, 30+ strategic partners, and more than 100k followers across our community channels. We have been featured in Variety News, NASDAQ, Forbes, Cointelegraph, and other global publications.
To date, we’ve sold more than $10M in NFTs through direct sales and auctions and are incredibly excited for what’s in store over the next 3–6 months for our product.
This week is particularly exciting, as we have 3 brand new partnerships PLUS tomorrow we have some extra special news 🙂
Question 2: Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your team? What are your past experiences?
Answer: Of course. I have been investing in independent films and blockchain projects since 2015 and I saw a gap in the marketplace as an investor to bridge the antiquated world of film financing with blockchain technology. I was an early adopter of projects like Ethereum and Cardano.
We’ve spent the last 2 years assembling what we feel is one of the strongest teams in blockchain with respect to the amount of expertise we have in the indsutry we’re enterting.
Our film team has made over 100 feature films throughout their career and been awarded Golden Globes, Oscars, Peoples’ Choice Awards, and more.
New additions to our film financing arm of the business have raised 100s of millions of dollars for public companies in their careers, and our legal team has been papering deals in Hollywood for years.
This is a team that knows how to execute in Hollywood and we can’t wait to launch our first ever movie vote in the next 2 weeks. It will definitely make some noise!
Question 3: Why did you and your team decide to build Mogul Productions?
Answer: that’s a great question!
The Mogul story begins with our team hearing the story of Deadpool in 2016 when we originally wrote the first Mogul whitepaper. Then we started development in 2018. Validation for the idea (after hearing about the Deadpool story) came about because our founding team had invested in movie scripts before and often found that the experience of investing in a sscript wasn’t very good… There is a major lack of transparency in the accounting and investing process. Projects that could be profitable aren’t because of these ‘martian’ accounting practices and bloated budgets. But, one project we invested in at a script level stood out as special — they provided monthly updates, behind-the scenes photos and details of cast members under consideration. They also talked business development and asked for access to specific people in our networks. It was a really immersive experience where we got all of this “insider” information and felt part of the process. By doing this they created a dedicated community with the common goal of making the movie successful. We want to emulate this, at scale.
Hearing the Deadpool story was the initial “wow” moment for us that sparked the idea for Mogul back in 2016. Deadpool owes its success to the combined passion of actor, director and comic book fans for bringing the much-loved comic strip to life. Deadpool has become the highest grossing R-rated franchise in movie history; but it wouldn’t have been made without comic fans loving a ‘proof of concept’ trailer leaked by actor Ryan Reynolds. Fans demanded the studio make it! And Mogul’s platform aims to give film fans a voice in the script-to-screen process too.
This was power of the crowd, decentralization, peer to peer community building and rallying behind a cause. There was a centralized entity (the studio) that was stopping the production of a film because they didn’t think an R-rated Marvel movie would work, but the fans pushed it forward. The people told the studio what they wanted to see and how they wanted to see it.
Blockchain is very good for security, building die-hard communities and financial transparency, efficiency, and automation in payments. Blockchain communities can will the success of a project, just like Deadpool fans. And we are building the platform with Ethereum, because of Ethereum’s network effect.
Imagine the Deadpool effect, but now with Mogul, where STARS holders can share in the success of 50% of Mogul movie profits! This has never been done before, especially with the quality of movies you’ll see on our platform
Question 4: Let’s dive into your tokens $STARS. Can you share with us your tokenomics? And what are some of $STARS use cases?
Answer: Of course. There are 400m total STARS tokens, but approximately 3m have already been burned. It’s a burning token, where each time STARS are used within our platform (purchasing NFTs, buying rewards, etc.) a portion of STARS are burnt. Approximately 75% of our tokens are in supply already.
STARS tokens are used within the Mogul ecosystem to:
– Share in 50% of Mogul movie profits (governance) – Purchase NFTs – Bid for NFTs in auctions – Buy rewards related to our films – Vote for which movies you want made (and receive STARS for voting) – Governance – As an in-app currency
The STARS token has a lot of use cases within our system and the plan is to make STARS the defacto currency where movies meet blockchain. Our business development team is teaching Hollywood about them every day!
Question 5: And does $STARS get audited?
Answer: Yes, we have audited all of our contracts with well known auditing companies, Hacken and Zokyo. Security is top priority for us and we make sure that each contract we put out is manually and automatically tested in audits, and then our audits are published for the public to view.
Answer: As of tomorrow, you’ll be able to purchase BEP20 STARS on ApeSwap. If you want to purchase today before the big announcement, you can find STARS on Uniswap or Bitmart. Those are the best two options! There will be MANY more places in the future 😄 … as soon as the next 15 days
Question 7: What can we expect in the next 3 months and in 2021 as a whole?
Answer: The next 3–6 months will be a “coming of age” for Mogul. The product launches we have coming up are incredible.
1. Voting: users, as of the next few weeks, will be able to vote on the movies they want financed through our Showcase and earn STARS yield in doing so 2. NFT Marketplace: we will be the defacto place where movies meet NFTs and the STARS token is the currency that will be used. 3. Smart Wallet: gas-less, layer 2 wallet for direct use of the blockchain for new entrants in the space (product aimed to target masses from the film industry to participate in Mogul and STARS)
Here is how our Showcase works (I blurred out the psoters so people don’t see which movies will be in the vote 😉 )
I know our community would have gone crazy seeing the films!
Question 8: And where can we find out more about Mogul Productions on social media?
Answer: The two best places to find us are on Twitter and Telegram:
Question 1: How do you make it possible for Fans to have red carpet tickets and invitations to exclusive events, how do you get them?
Answer 1: When we make / finance a movie, part of the legal negotiation with the project is to include rewards for our users.
These rewards will be represented as NFTs in our NFT marketplace. There will be a fixed number available for various prices and we will market it like an NFT drop, where certain users (who hold exclusive NFTs) will have access to purchase rewards that are of higher value.
For example, there may be only 1 “Executive Producer Credit” available so we would offer that to our most exclusive users. But there may be many opportunities to purchase other, more common rewards, such as a Facetime with the cast or something like that 🙂
Question 2: Who are your target customers? Southeast Asia best for crypto adoption? Do you have an ambassador program and can they have a program?
Answer 2: We do have an ambassador program where ambassadors share over $5000 per month and we’d love to have applicants come from South East asia to grow our community on that side of the world!
Question 3: Is your platform suitable for Crypto beginners? Or does it only appeal to professional users?
Answer 3: The goal of our product is to make it easy to use for every level of crypto users, including first time users.
By building our product in this manner, we aim to attract hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of users in the future 🙂
Question 4: My first question is about the #voting_mechanism to choose a movie. Is it like “anyone with any amount of tokens holding have one vote” or “the voting is weighted based on how much token anyone hold”? From what I understand both of these has their own upsides and downsides, may you explain how you’re going to manage this issue?
Another question I have is about Mogul’s involvement in the movies. – Are you going to make movies or distribute them or both? – What platform do you have in mind to distribute Mogul funded movies for early stages of the project, streaming services or big screen?
Answer 4: For the voting, your votes are calcuated as the square root the amount of tokens you have and then rounded down. This allows small token holders to still have a great impact on the vote.
So if you have 10 tokens, you get 3 votes.
For your second question, we finance and produce the movies, and as part of the production team, we help get the movie distributed in places like Netflix and Amazon Prime
Question 5: Do you plan to burn or redeem any tokens from the market in the future? Or burn Mogul’s token itself?
Answer 5: STARS is a burning token. When it’s used in our platform, a portion of tokens are burnt. For example, when we sold our Rob Prior “Wolf of Wall Street” NFT for 5.5 million STARS (nearly 200k USD) we burnt nearly 100k worth of STARS tokens
Question 6: As we know Mogul are partnered with some of the best companies in blockchain, including Chainlink, Polygon, and more. Do you have any plans to partner with the film industry?
Answer 6: We have some really big partnerships coming up that are just waiting on legal agreements. I cant wait to share them!
Question 7: Today Netflix is one of the best platforms in the world of cinematography, so I ask: Is Mogul associated with Nexflix or does he have it planned for the future?
Answer 7: All I can say about this is to stay tuned to the announcements regarding the movies we will be putting in the Showcase
Best place to find out about an announcement a Mogul movie working with Netflix would be to join our announcement channel, where we will also be doing a series of $100 giveaways….
Question 8: How much control does MOGUL have in the final result of each production, how do they guarantee the success and profitability of the projects they support?
Answer 8: Well we have a rigorous due diligence process with our accountants, legal team, and film team when we grade the projects submitted to us and we have criteria (such as the film needing 50% financing in place and A-List talent) to even showcase the film on our platform.
Our team has a kee eye for commercial viability. Part of the agreement for the movies we put in the showcase is that they must have what’s called a Bond (and we are partnered with one called FIlm Finances). A Bond is like an insurance agent who guarantees on-time and on-budget delivery of the movie to a distributor (such as Netflix).
so this gives us a lot of confidence that the project will do well. And the Mogul team acts as producers on the project to make sure all spending is prudent
Question 9: I am one of the first members to join your community. And now when I look at it, I see that your community members are growing more. That makes me happy. Are you planning new events for your community supporters in 2021?
Answer 9: Just yesterday, in annopuncing our partnership with ApeSwap (which launches tomorrow), it was announced that our Access Pass Holders will receive $10,000 worth of $BANANA token 😄
Question 10: The ease with which the largest holders can ‘swing’ a vote can lead to voter apathy too, So what about Mogul Quadratic Voting? Did this happen?
Answer 10: Quadratic voting is used to directly combat that large holders influence the vote!
Voter apathy is solved with two main theories:
1. Rewards: voters are rewarded with STARS tokens for lending their voice 2. Quadratic voting: small token holders are given a higher proportional vote than large ones
Question 11: Mogul Productions curates content to avoid violent, controversial or sexual content? or is it totally free?
Answer 11: We focus on full-length, English language films right now with strict submission criteria.
Moderator Question
Question 9: Time for wrapping up, any last words you would like to say to our community? @lisaamogul
Answer: Yes! If you like to earn rewards and want to follow along with Mogul, we have weekly chances to earn rewards in our telegram channel and I hope to see you all there!
Tomorrow will be a particularly big day with our launch on ApeSwap!
Thank you for having me!!
About Mogul Productions
Mogul is a decentralized film financing platform that brings creators, fans, and film financiers together; allowing everyone to play a part in the next big blockbuster.
Mogul to leverage Polygon’s scaling infrastructure for Ethereum-compatible platform and becomes network validator
Mogul Productions, the decentralized film financing (DeFiFi) platform, has partnered with Polygon (formerly Matic Network), to provide an enhanced user experience for Mogul users with near-instant transaction finality.
Mogul’s vision is to be an innovative and progressive film financier and production company by leveraging blockchain technology for voting, film financing, rewards, and distribution. With its proprietary platform, Mogul will engage audiences and financiers throughout the script-to-screen process, with the mission to promote transparency in independent film financing.
Filmmakers, financiers and fans will come together on Mogul’s platform for the first time as Mogul leverages the power of the crowd to help more great films get made and offers fans the chance to lend their voices to the creative process.
To ensure a better user experience for all, Mogul has partnered with Polygon to replace the old style of overcomplicated interfaces that long-suffering early blockchain adopters have been forced to use. Mogul can now offer an easy-to-use interface that retains all the security and privacy attributes enabled by blockchain technology while improving transaction processing and block verification speeds.
The partnership with Polygon will allow Mogul’s platform users to benefit from seamless, secure and instant transactions, free of fees. Mogul will cover all platform gas fees to ensure the best possible Web3 user experience.
“Working with Polygon allows Mogul’s DeFiFi platform to deliver a friction-less blockchain-based user experience for the film industry, while still benefiting from the security and network effects associated with using Ethereum’s mainnet” says Gagan Grewal, CEO of Mogul Productions.“This partnership opens the door for our technology team to add more benefits to our users from script submission to financing, and distribution utilizing blockchain technologies.”
Sandeep Nailwal, Co-Founder and COO of Polygon said of the partnership, “Mogul Productions has built an immersive platform for the future of DeFi in the film industry and their community will now benefit from low fee and high speed transactions. What sets Mogul apart is their commitment to onboarding the next wave of blockchain users from the film industry in a friction-less manner ,and we’re excited to work together!”
As part of the partnership, Mogul will assist in running the Polygon network, operating as a validator, by helping verify transactions on the blockchain through running both Heimdall validator and Bor block producer nodes.
This partnership with Polygon, an industry-leading scaling solution, furthers Mogul’s quest to bring DeFi to the film industry, along with previously announced partnership with Chainlink.
About Mogul Productions (Mogul)
Mogul Productions is a decentralized film financing (DeFiFi) platform that connects creators, movie fans, and film financiers in one space to ensure the best films get made by giving everyone a voice. By leveraging blockchain technology and a tokenized system, Mogul incentivizes participation and rewards engagement. Using the Mogul in-app payment and utility token (STARS), users can vote on, greenlight and participate in key decision-making aspects of production. Mogul’s continuous financing ensures constant liquidity, allowing financiers to redeem their stake at any time. Mogul’s production team and advisors are award-winning Hollywood veterans who have written, directed, acted in, and produced a wide range of films and TV shows.
About Polygon (Formerly Matic)
Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its core component is Polygon SDK, a modular, flexible framework that supports building and connecting Secured Chains like Plasma, Optimistic Rollups, zkRollups, Validium etc and Standalone Chains like Matic POS, designed for flexibility and independence. Polygon’s Layer 2 Chains have seen widespread adoption with 90+ Dapps, ~7M txns and ~200K unique users.
If you’re an Ethereum Developer, you’re already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon’s fast and secure txns for your Dapp, get started here.
How Quadratic Voting Fairly Ensures Mogul Funds Movies That Everyone Wants to See on the Big Screen
Mogul is blazing a trail for the new way to finance and greenlight Hollywood movies – by putting the fans into the director’s chair to choose which movies make it to the big screen (or the streaming service!)
Mogul has built the first ever, consumer-ready, blockchain voting system that uses quadratic votes. This gives Mogul users and STARS holders the fair ability to influence and lend their voice to which movies will get made! You can check out the current showcase, which features Terminal Station, Devilreaux, and MR9 here.
To understand how quadratic voting gives movie fans and the whole Mogul community a voice in choosing the next film it wants to see in production, it’s important to understand what quadratic voting is and why it’s so valuable in preventing skewed voting and wealth domination within a decentralized, token-based system like Mogul.
What Is Quadratic Voting?
A quadratic voting system is an alternative to a plurality voting system. A plurality voting system is one that we are all familiar with. Every voter gets one vote, all votes are equally weighted, and the candidate that ends up with the most votes wins. That’s it!
Quadratic voting uses a quadratic equation to weigh votes differently. With this system, STARS token holders are assigned a certain number of votes per token they own. For every token that a holder has, they get fewer and fewer voting credits, so large token holders with millions of coins are unable to skew the vote. This promotes active participation in voting from all of the STARS token holders, regardless of their size, because each holder has a voice in the process. Small holders actually have a proportionally large voice; which in turn allows Mogul to gauge the sentiment across our entire community and not just a few large holders!
Why Mogul Uses Blockchain Technology for the Voting Process
As far as voting goes, there’s long been a distrust amongst voters as to whether or not their vote actually counts – or is even being counted – due to lack of transparency. The most recent US Presidential election is the most recent example of this distrust in how current voting methodology is lacking.
With blockchain technology, all actions and activities are auditable and public. A blockchain is, simply put, a distributed ledger of immutable data that everyone can see. And because data is not hosted on a centralized server, it cannot be tampered with, edited, or manipulated in any way.
This makes blockchain the perfect landing spot for fair, Internet-based voting and makes it so that movies can be voted by the crowd in a tamper-proof manner.
Why Quadratic Voting Keeps Things Fair
The number of voting credits you get at Mogul depends on how many STARS tokens you own. This is one reason for the implementation of a quadratic voting system. Mogul doesn’t have a “one person, one vote” system. STARS tokens can be earned through on-platform activities, contests, or purchased, so the number of tokens an individual person owns varies a lot!
An early adopter or large purchaser of STARS tokens has many more tokens to vote with than somebody who owns just a few tokens, but quadratic voting makes it less likely for a user with more tokens to skew the voting, because purchasing enough voting credits to do so would be VERY VERY expensive…
There is also a secondary (and equally important) benefit to the quadratic voting system. It prevents voters from buying votes or registering fake Mogul accounts to try and skew the voting of a particular showcase round to unfairly pump up the odds of certain movies going into production.
How Showcase Voting and STARS Tokens Work Together to Finance Movies at Mogul
Mogul’s movie showcase puts 2-5 movies up for voting on behalf of the Mogul community. The movies are chosen by a selection committee filled with industry experts to determine which projects are the most commercially viable. The curation process ensures that STARS token holders are only voting on quality films with high-level actors and a commitment to completing the project.
Each movie works with the Mogul team to curate and design materials for the voters to take a look at to have a more informed vote on which movie they want financed. For example, voters during this voting round can read the script, view the poster (which exists as a 1 of 1 NFT!), project highlights, confirmed cast and crew, and view a rip-o-matic about the movie.
STARS Tokens and Voting Credits
STARS token holders are assigned voting credits based on the square root (rounded down) of the number of tokens they hold.
Mogul then considers all of the votes using the quadratic voting system which exponentially increases the number of credits a voter has to spend in order to count multiple votes for the same movie. To calculate how much extra votes cost, the number of voting credits used to vote for a specific movie more than once is squared.
This means if you vote for a particular movie once, you only use one voting credit. But if you vote for that same movie three times, it actually “costs” you nine tokens. All tokens are returned at the end of the voting period to the user who voted, but tokens must be staked on the movie you want to vote for at the end of the voting round to count toward the final results. The longer your votes are casted, the more rewards you will accrue for giving your vote. Rewards are issued in STARS tokens proportionally, every Ethereum block, according to how many votes you have cast.
For the first showcase round, which begins on August 5th, there are 1 million STARS tokens that are being rewarded to voters, which is over $20,000! Every Ethereum block, which happens every 10 to 20 seconds, there are just over 11 STARS tokens that are proportionally gifted to voters. So, the longer you keep your vote in the system, the more votes you will accrue. No matter which movie you vote for, you will receive the same number of rewards during the voting period. The reasons for this are as follows:
Voters are encouraged to place their votes early and not wait until the last minute
All STARS holders are encouraged to vote to earn rewards (reduces voter apathy and increases the likelihood that we will get input from more community members!)
Voters are not incentivized to vote on a particular movie based on the number of votes that it already has, since they get the rewards just for casting a vote
The chart below illustrates how quickly it becomes more and more expensive to vote for the same movie multiple times and shows how quadratic voting helps make the vote more fair:
How You Can Get in on the Voting Action
As long as you hold STARS tokens, you get voting credits. It’s as simple as that. The more tokens you earn, the more voting credits you’re granted.
Your Mogul account features a Showcase button in the left-hand menu as soon as you log in. You can click there and see which movies the Mogul community is currently showcasing at any given time.
Mogul will notify you when a voting period opens and closes, and you’ll be able to cast your votes at that time. To reward voters and encourage voting, voters will be given free STARS tokens for casting their vote and lending their voice to the Mogul process.
Now that you understand how the quadratic voting system works and how it ensures that films are selected by the entire Mogul community and not just the wealthiest voters, you can decide how many of your voting credits should go towards movies you want to see on the big screen.
We are excited to announce our partnership with Reelworld Film Festival, a 20 year old, Canadian, independent film festival with year round programming dedicated to supporting and showcasing Canadian BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) filmmakers and screen media artists. We plan to work together, to amplify each other’s initiatives and innovate new ways to support and nurture diverse talent in the film and other screen-based industries.
Partnering with the Reelworld Film Festival aligns with Mogul’s mission of making filmmaking more inclusive and accessible to everyone around the world. We are accomplishing this goal by building a first-of-its-kind technology platform for accessible investing and participation in the financing and production of feature film projects.
“We applaud the work Mogul is doing in creating more inclusion and diversity in the entertainment industry and look forward to our media artists harnessing this new platform to present their unique perspectives and significant voices to the world” said award-winning actress Tonya Williams, who is the Founder and Executive Director of Reelworld.
Through our partnership with Reelworld, Mogul will be introduced to BIPOC creators participating in Reelworld’s annual E20 (emerging twenty), incubation program, offering an additional avenue for financing their projects and cultivating closer relationships with distributors and sales agents within the Mogul community. We will also be encouraging the Canadian BIPOC creators within our community to consider applying for the E20 program and submitting their completed films for consideration to screen at the festival.
In response to the partnership, Mogul advisor and award-winning actor Lyriq Bent added:
“I am very excited to be part of this collaboration, especially given the current social landscape. This helps Mogul’s aim of providing an environment of trust and transparency in the creative process.”
In light of recent events in the United States of America, Mogul issued the following statement:
“Mogul stands with the black community and people of color and recognizes that until they can truly live without fear, silence is simply not an option. […]
Mogul continues to remain committed to create more transparency, inclusion and diversity in storytelling!”
Partnering with Reelworld, who is celebrating their 20th anniversary, allows us to take a step in the right direction, providing equitable opportunity for any and all people across the world who seek to participate in Hollywood filmmaking.
Each year, the Reelworld E20 program curates an unparalleled networking and mentorship opportunity for BIPOC filmmakers and creators. Reelworld handpicks a group of 20 emerging BIPOC media artists with gender parity out of hundreds of applicants. The selected filmmakers attend three days of workshops and receive mentorship from industry professionals interested in supporting independent work by BIPOC artists.
You can find more information about Reelworld and join their community on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.
Stay tuned for more announcements on what Mogul and Reelworld will do together.
I Am Mogul. We Are Mogul.
ABOUT MOGUL PRODUCTIONS (MOGUL) Mogul Productions, established 2019, is a blockchain-based film financier and production company with a presence in Canada, the United States of America and Europe.
The Mogul platform connects contributors, film industry professionals and fans through technology that allows all users to engage and participate with each project throughout theirs entire lifecycle, from financing through to production and distribution.
Zokyo, a market-leading blockchain venture studio and private investment vehicle, has had its blockchain security team conduct a security audit of Mogul’s smart contracts. We have successfully passed their manual and automated auditing procedures ahead of our Access Pass Sale.
We’re proud to be working with Hartej Sawney and his team at Zokyo as a long term partner to help secure our platform. They have helped build and secure several leading DeFi projects whose smart contracts have collectively transacted billions of dollars worth of value, such as Bridge Mutual, Yearn Finance, Badger, Bondly, and Shyft Network.
As one of the most respected blockchain security engineering teams in the world, Zokyo is incredibly busy auditing some of the most identifiable DeFi projects in the world. We are appreciative that they have made time to work with Mogul. We will continue working with their team to ensure the Mogul platform and smart contracts are safe for our community and users.
Read the open source repository for details on the smart contracts audited here.
About Mogul Productions (Mogul)
Mogul Productions is a decentralized film financing (DeFiFi) and NFT platform that connects creators, movie fans, and film financiers in one space to ensure the best films get made by giving everyone a voice. By leveraging blockchain technology and a tokenized system, Mogul incentivizes participation and rewards engagement. Using the Mogul in-app payment and utility token (STARS), users can vote on, greenlight and participate in key decision-making aspects of production. Mogul’s production team and advisors are award-winning Hollywood veterans who have written, directed, acted in, and produced a wide range of films and TV shows.
Mogul partners with NFTY Labs to curate exclusive communities for Access Pass holders
Mogul Productions, the decentralized film financing (DeFiFi) and movie-based NFT platform, has partnered with NFTY Labs, an NFT technology and infrastructure company, to increase the utility of Mogul NFTs and provide curated, token-gated communities for NFT holders with exclusive access.
Mogul will be leveraging NFTY Labs’ flagship product, NFTY Connect, to gate exclusive communities that only specific NFT holders can access. For Mogul community members, this will be exclusively for Access Pass holders of all levels.
Crypto-based communities are difficult to scale due to spam, anonymity, and lack of verified loyalty to the project. By using an NFT as a proxy to access a community, Mogul can promote positive discussion with authenticated users; creating a more welcoming, immersive, and intimate environment to bring bespoke experiences and conversations to Access Pass holders. These conversations will be directly with the Mogul team in a more intimate manner and with Mogul partners, filmmakers, and talent.
This is made possible through NFT authentication. Exclusively-accessed communities will recognize if Mogul users hold the necessary NFT to access the room. This allows Mogul to provide gated content that only Access Pass holders can access.
“We’re ecstatic to be working with Mogul” says Ty Blackard, Co-Founder and COO at NFTY Labs. “Their Access Passes are a natural fit for our technology; helping them use NFTs functionally within their ecosystem.”
“Both of our companies are passionate about NFT utility, which makes this partnership a natural progression while we grow Mogul and give more utility to our Access Pass holders.” says Lisa Sun, Founder & President of Mogul Productions. “NFT-based authentication will help us provide even more bespoke experiences to our users and Access Pass holders.”
About Mogul Productions (Mogul)
Mogul Productions is a decentralized film financing (DeFiFi) platform that connects creators, movie fans, and film financiers in one space to ensure the best films get made by giving everyone a voice. By leveraging blockchain technology, NFTs and a tokenized system, Mogul incentivizes participation and rewards engagement. Using the Mogul in-app payment and utility token (STARS), users can vote on, greenlight and participate in key decision-making aspects of production.
NFTY Labs is a foundation focusing on the growth of NFT ecosystems by building open-sourced, community-based tools that will unlock inherent utility and value within NFTs. NFTY Lab’s goal is to create new applications that offer new utilities for NFTs, and we aim to do this by utilizing a core feature of all NFTs: ownership.
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