Ethereum's Hollywood Moment | Camila Russo

Congratulations, you are hearing the genesis of Ethereum's Hollywood moment. We still have a couple more years before it hits mainstream. But you know, as soon as it does, as soon as that movie comes out, I don't think we can say we're early anymore.

Bankless Nation, welcome to another episode of State of the Nation. Guys, we gotta tell you some really cool news. Ethereum is going to Hollywood. We're getting a Hollywood treatment, David, and we've got Cami Russo, who is producing a movie with the team that produced Ridley Scott movies Aliens, Gladiator, stuff like this, Blade Runner, and they're now producing a movie about Ethereum. David, uh, what did we talk about today?

Oh God, we talked about all of the details around how this movie is getting made, who's funding it, because the answer could be you. Uh teaser on that later in the show. Uh, and also just where it's going to place Ethereum in global consciousness. This is not a documentary. Uh that there are plenty of documentaries about crypto of varying quality on things like Netflix and other sources. This is not that. This is something that is a drama. There are actual characters that are going to be cast, actual actors. Uh, this is going to be, uh, I'm pretty pretty sure many people are familiar with the social network for Facebook. This is gonna be like that. There's a lot of drama about Ethereum uh at the beginning of its whole uh genesis of the whole entire thing. Tons of drama. And so this movie is going to be covering that with that dramatized angle. And you know, a lot of people need an angle like this to really understand crypto. They're not gonna go down the rabbit holes, they're gonna wait for some movie to come onto Netflix to explain it to them uh in the best way that they can, which is with stories. Uh, and so we talk about all of these things. We talk about the NFTs that go with this movie and how you too can be a director of this movie as well, if you are so inclined. Uh, Cammy Russo, again, Chief S at the Defiant, has done just a bang up job uh getting the story of Ethereum first through her book and now through a movie out into mainstream consciousness. So uh we have brought her on to talk all about the Ethereum's Hollywood moment.

This is crazy. This is crazy. I remember watching the social network in theaters and hearing about like kind of the Facebook story and seeing all of that go go mainstream. And I think Ethereum could be slated for an event like that, right? Like people are actually, in the months to come, actually going to have to be making casting decisions on who plays Charles Hodgkinson. Okay. Who's going to play Vitalik in this movie? The script writers are going to have to decide what are the main themes of the Ethereum story and who do we cast as the heroes and the villains and where's the conflict. And God, I can't wait. It's so amazing.

I don't think they're gonna have any problem finding drama, Ryan. There's gonna be a lot of drama.

Absolutely, absolutely. So it's gonna be great, guys. Anyway, uh, really big before we get in though, want to talk about Opolus a little bit. So, this is for the self-sovereign worker, particularly if you're in the US. Look, the new freelancer that works for Web3 is probably working for a DAO, maybe many different DAOs, working for ownership, tokens potentially, rather than just pay and working for themselves. But where do they get their healthcare benefits? That is the question. And David, Opolus, I think, has the answer. Tell us a bit about Opolis. What do they do?

Yeah, yeah. If you are scared about leaving your your comfy salaried job in the world of Tradfire Web 2, but you are compelled by the Web 3 vision, but you have, I don't know, maybe you have your the family that you need to ensure, or just you like your stable income.

Opolis, which is a DAO, is helping people bridge the gap between working in the TradFi world, the Normy world, and working in your brand new spiffy job in Web3. They are making this transition easier for you. They give you your healthcare benefits because it is a collective. They also manage your payroll. And if you want to, you can get paid in crypto very regularly. And if you are ready to take the Opolus challenge, they will give you 1,000 work tokens, the tokens for Opolus, and 1,000 bank tokens as well. If you sign up with Opolus by May 25th, 2022, there is a link in the show notes to get started bankless.cc slash opulis op I S capital O at the start. And that will get you going in the world of Web3.

Highly recommended guys. Go go check it out if you need these services. Uh, David, gotta ask you the question I asked you before every state of the nation. What is the state of the nation today?

Ryan, the state of the nation is we are producing. We're gonna make a movie, and it's actually a Wii. If you feel like you have something to contribute to the movie, you have a path forward to do that. There is a part of the show. We we talk about all these details, tokens that you can mint, NFTs. They're available on OpenC, but they also give you utility access, like basically a backstage pass. Uh or perhaps uh you get to watch the movie be filmed. You get to go to the premiere if you get these particular NFTs. Uh and so we're all gonna make a movie together, Ryan. Uh, if you are an NFT owner. So there is uh waves, uh waves of minting. The first two has already happened, the third is coming. Uh again, all these details are about to be in the show, but we're gonna we're gonna make a movie together, Ryan. And I will have to say, as soon as this movie hits mainstream, as soon as this hitty uh movie hits like you know, premieres in 2024 ish, whenever it does come out.

I don't think we get to say that we're early anymore. I think that's the last moment where like you can't really say that we're early. Uh so guys, like congratulations. You are hearing the genesis of Ethereum's Hollywood moment. We still have a couple more years before it hits mainstream. But you know, as soon as it does, as soon as that movie comes out, I don't think we can say we're early anymore.

Absolutely. Especially if this is a smash hit, if it has a mainstream moment the way the social network does. And if the team behind Ridley Scott is putting it together, someone from the Ethereum community knows the story, like Cammy Rousseau is putting it together, and we're like the community's funding it, I think we got a real good shot. So it is still early right now, but it won't be when this movie comes out. I uh I think there might be some alpha opportunity on some of these NFTs. Uh have no idea what you know, price performance, but like what's the value of a backstage pass to uh an incredible, like Hollywood produced uh mainstream movie? I don't know, but I guess we'll find out in the months to come. So stay tuned for more details on that.

Yeah, one last tip of the hat to Cammy before we get into the show. She has done a great job making sure this movie gets produced in a way that aligns with Ethereum ethos, aligns with the ethos of the industry. So thank you, Cami, for helping do that and leading the charge for Ethereum into the mainstream. And so let's go ahead and get right into it. Our conversation with Cammy Russo of the Defiant of the Infinite Machine book and now the Infinite Machine, the movie, right after we get to some of these fantastic sponsors that make the show possible.

All right, Bankless Nation. I am so happy to introduce Cammy Russo. You all know her as the chiefess of the Defiant, the author of the Infinite Machine book, but now also the executive director to Infinite Machine the Movie. Cammy, welcome to Bankless.

Thank you so much for having me, guys. Very excited.

Kami, this is really, really exciting. Is Ethereum about to get its like social network moment? Everyone knows the social network movie that really put a bunch of uh drama behind the story of Facebook. Uh is that what's about to happen to Ethereum?

I I really hope so. Like the the way that uh me and the other uh producers have been thinking about the movie of the infided machine from the start is that we're trying to um make it to be

The social network of crypto. So we're the first kind of mainstream Hollywood film about crypto. I mean, that would be kind of my ultimate goal and dream. Fingers crossed that it it happens, but at least we're assembling kind of a great team to make that

a reality.

So this uh is a lot of firsts as far as I know. We've had there are movies out there on Netflix that are like documentaries of the crypto industry. Uh there's like the Bitcoin, uh the gold, the gold, I can't remember the name, but it's one about Bitcoin, Charlie Schramm and Eric Voorhees were in it. But we haven't had a drama yet, and we haven't had anything about Ethereum. Uh and so with the the the Infinite Machine movie, we're getting both a drama with like, you know, actual actors rather than just a documentary. Uh and then also it's about Ethereum. Uh and so Ethereum is getting its first like Hollywood moment. Uh and it's all going to be based on your book. Is that correct?

Yeah, that's right. So um so The Infinite Machine was the first book uh about Ethereum. And when I wrote it, my main goal with it was to make it very approachable to a mainstream audience. So I made sure to

Break every kind of complicated concept down so that you know anyone could pick it up and just read an entertaining story that was about people and uh and that was relatable. You know, it's a group of people uh with uh a big vision, um big ideals, kind of following this dream, facing challenges, overcoming these challenges. So beyond kind of the tech and blockchain and all that, uh, it's a story about the humans uh behind the tech. Um so I I hope that kind of can translate into a great film. And that's the idea also of uh of dramatizing it, you know, making it more approachable to the mainstream. Um that, you know, that's something that maybe documentaries have a harder time doing because they're more.

You know, they're they're appealing more to the kind of rational side of uh of things, of of like of a watching experience. Uh, but a dramatized uh film has a greater chance of just like appealing to the emotional side of things. Um and I think you know, for many of us,

that's what's exciting about crypto. You know, it's not so much kind of the rationality of it and like how exactly blockchains work, but it's more kind of the um the ideals of it, like decentralization, openness, permissionlessness. Um, and yeah, hopefully this movie can really capture that.

It's it's it's the ideals of it, and this comes at a perfect time. I think like crypto in general comes at a perfect time, right? To start addressing these these ideal ideals into wider society. Uh and you mentioned like the the drama of the thing, because there are uh these real people with with these really interesting stories. There's a lot of characters in the infinite machine and in the uh the Ethereum story. Uh and Cammy, I have your your fantastic book on my bookshelf right behind me. Like it's great, it's a fantastic book, and I'm curious what that looks like to actually convert this and turn it into a script because we've we've just been talking about drama. Like, do you have to inject a little bit of additional drama into the script in order to uh turn it into something that's that's ready for the for for the big screen? What does that look like? How much does it deviate from the actual book and what does the script writing process look like?

That's that's a great question. And it's something that I'm kind of dying to find out the answer to myself. Like this is a first for me. Like I've never

This is the first book I've written. I've never produced a movie before. Um I haven't been involved in like writing a like a movie script. Um so so we'll see. Like we're uh we're going to be working with the team uh at Scot Free and in writing the script. Um they have uh a writer picked out who will uh work on this. And um yeah, I'm excited to work uh with him and um and see kind of what his thoughts are because uh

Honestly, like I imagine the book will have to be distilled, you know, to just like the core kind of couple of storylines. Um, I know that uh from kind of initial conversations with uh the other producers, uh, the most important thing is to have like a hero and a villain. Obviously, the hero will be Vitalik. Uh so the villain, probably um Charles Hoskinson, and maybe there's two villains, maybe it's like Gavin and Charles, I'd imagine. Uh

I think to answer your question, Ron, no, there will not need to be any new drama injected into the

There's there's enough drama, yeah.

There's enough drama in the story. I just I guess I'm wondering if you're gonna double down on those things and like a hero and villain for any story. Like the social network had that, right? So um famously, you've got Mark Zuckerberg cast as the hero in that movie. And ironically, the Winkelvoss twins are like part of the villain cadre. And now the Winkelvoss twins are like hugely supportive of crypto, and they'll tell you that like um that the social network wasn't entirely true and all sorts of things, but like uh that's what made that movie so good. And I I guess we get to do a similar thing for the treatment of Ethereum story.

Yeah, it's it's so funny. You're totally right. How it's it's um

it's funny how roles changed for uh for Mark Zuckerberg and the Winkleby uh with Bitcoin billionaires. Like that was completely reverse. Like they were the heroes and yeah, and Mark Zuckerberg was kind of the villain there. So

Um but yeah I think uh we'll we'll see that uh treatment. Of course, like

you know, I came um

You know, my my approach to this book uh was very much from a journalistic standpoint, just like making sure everything was 100% accurate, uh very well researched. Um I I just made sure that you know everything was kind of airtight and I'll make sure that uh that the movie uh follows those same guidelines because

you know I I would hate for

this to fall into kind of uh lean too heavily on like dramatizing and uh and and playing on on those tensions that it starts to kind of uh uh you know.

The thing is like I'm I'll make sure that it's it's still accurate, even if we we need to kind of lean on those like

like more like tension and and drama.

At Bankless, we love to use the metaphor going into the frontier. And that's not just with crypto economics. That's not just with code. But now with you with you, Cammy, you're journeying into the frontier of making movies. And so while no one, I think, in the crypto industry has really made a movie before, crypto does have the ability to kind of redo everything without having to take prior knowledge about how this should be done. So, Cammy, I'm really excited to see uh what movie producer Cami can get done with the movie industry and especially for Ethereum. And just to kind of uh tie off the context setting for for the movie, when will it start? Like, will it start in like 2014? Like, how do you know how the movie starts and like what time frames it will cover?

No, I again like the script like is just uh starting to take shape. Um so you know

the the book starts like way like I don't know

I don't it gets back to like Vitalik's childhood so but like the the action itself starts like around 2012 when Vitalik like is first kind of learning about Bitcoin. Um I'd love for the movie to get into that uh context as well.

So I I think it's just necessary to understand where kind of the idea of Ethereum uh came from. You know, the fact that Vitalik was like very much into the Bitcoin community and like Bitcoin 2.0. So hopefully kind of that that'll get uh portrayed there as well. Kind of Vitalik going on on this kind of world tour of Bitcoin projects. Um so if if that kind of gets folded in, then yeah, it should be around kind of 2013 era. Um but you know my book does cover a lot of ground, like it does start in kind of 2012 and it it really goes to like 2018. I think maybe I I even got a bit of 2019. No, I don't think so. No, 2018 in there. But like definitely was able to get like DeFi into the final chapters, like NFTs.

So I don't know, like I I really hope to like.

Jam all that stuff in there some somehow. I don't know how how that'll work, but I don't know.

We'll see.

Well, I think if you uh left a room for a sequel, I think the Ethereum community would would love all we'd love this movie, and then we also want the next one too, right after Ethereum.

to the merge.

Uh so a part of the the how big this uh story is is uh related to the production company, Scott Free Productions. Can you talk about uh why that uh production company is such a big deal and and what other movies they made and how that relationship between you and Scott Free Productions uh was established?

Yeah, so I'm I'm like still a little bit kind of pinching myself uh that this is happening. Um so a little bit of kind of the the backstory is that

So my book was published in 2020.

And then soon after that, I was approached by a couple of um production studios to uh buy the rights of my book to make a movie. Uh, one of them was Versus Entertainment, which is a production company based in Spain.

And I decided to go with them because they were.

The the most kind of uh committed to actually making the movie happen. Like my my agent at the time told me a lot of production companies kind of

buy the option just to like have the option, but

actually you know never end up making these these uh movies. Um But Versus was like really kind of committed, and they'd read the book like I don't know, a bunch of times, and they they were like actually like uh one of the producers.

Um has a crypto hedge fund, so they're like really into it. And he said, okay, they they're gonna be with them, we'll have the best chance of actually seeing this movie. And um and Alejandro Miranda of the head of Versus Entertainment, he had this relationship uh with Scott Free. And so uh, you know, like I said, like our goal from the start was to make this into a big Hollywood mainstream film. Um, and to do that, we knew we needed a um a Hollywood uh production company uh to co-produce the movie with us. So yeah, that's why he's you know, in the last few months, he was like out in LA, just like taking meetings, pitching the movie. Um and and yeah, and Scott Free kind of loved it. Um I, you know, we were lucky that one of the producers there had read my book, loved it, and she was like, she was like the one who um

Who's like pushing for for their project uh to get done.