For much of traditional Hollywood, web3 and blockchain remain an enigma. But for those within the industry who became early adopters, the technology is simply the future.

One company hoping to carve a niche in the future tech creative landscape is LAMINA1, a platform and protocol for the next era of digital content, co-creation and distribution.

Founded by legendary author/futurist Neal Stephenson, crypto pioneer Peter Vessenes, and immersive entertainment executive Rebecca Barkin, LAMINA1 provides the tools and infrastructure for builders and creators to make, share, and monetize multi-media content––enabling fan participation in storyworlds and the ability to see their loyalty rewarded.

While still in its beta phase, the company recently launched its token airdrop to impressive numbers. Of the 32.5 million tokens set aside for community members, over 18 million – more than half – were claimed within the first 48 hours, co-founder and chief executive officer Barkin said to me in a recent interview.

“It’s really difficult to merge crypto and creative communities—that’s not an easy task,” Barkin said. “There’s definitely a lot of fear on the creative side that a crypto token crew will come in and wipe out the value of the community. I think we’ve done a really good job within our Discord community—about 60,000 strong at this point—of being able to bridge that. Our town halls are really well attended and about 70 percent of the L1 community is active on the Discord within the last 30 days, so we’re just getting started.”

A little help from Neal

The company says it has over 40,000 active user addresses, over 50 contracts deployed and around 8,500 daily active users while it’s still in its beta phase and hasn’t yet listed anywhere. 

Helping provide creatives with reassurance might be the fact LAMINA1 co-founder Stephenson is a fellow author himself.

“We’ve been able to do a lot because Neal is a really powerful signal to other creatives that he’s here and is using blockchain technology because it matters to him personally as a creative and as an IP holder,” Barkin said. “That’s a huge advantage for us.”

It’s an advantage Barkin believes has helped LAMINA1 kickstart projects without needing to commit piles of cash to get started.

“A big part of it is underestimating how much people care about having somebody who signals a mission and vision at a really authentic, deep level because you know that’s going to have long term value,” Barkin said. “You can’t underestimate the value of having someone at the helm who has been through it and is determined to change [entertainment] for themselves, too. That’s part of what makes us really unique.”

Another difference LAMINA1 hopes will incentivize users to join its community is how IP-holders can unlock low-effort, margin-rich user generated content (UGC) without compromising their creative—all part of the unique dynamic between fan, creator and the co-creation of worlds and storylines.

“The biggest challenge content platforms and protocols face is attracting top creators,” René Pinnel—co-founder of Artizen, a match-funding platform for breakthroughs in human creativity—said to me over email. “If you have amazing creators building on your platform or protocol, you can survive and grow. Without creators, you have nothing,” Pinnel said. “Attracting talented artists, scientists, coders, and creators is insanely difficult.”

A large portion of the LAMINA1 strategy is monetizing the relationship between artists and their fans to create a bridge that deepens the relationship in a way that wasn’t possible without blockchain tech.

“Digital content platforms, protocols and technology in general are allowing individual artists to control and own every aspect of the creative process as well as the business, distribution, marketing and all other jobs that used to take an entire studio to pull off,” Pinnell said. “We are headed into a new age where a single person can create what used to take thousands of people.”

Over the coming months, LAMINA1 plans to roll out features on its platform that demonstrate the value of a direct connection between IP holders and their fans—much like PIXELYNX and its collaboration on the Black Mirror franchise. The company also has tentative plans this fall to roll out staking and make the platform more accessible through listing.

“One of the things we’re really determined to do is to create a new framework and model for how to develop and worldbuild with an audience,” Barkin said. “You provide the framework but there still needs to be scaffolding for the narrative itself that keeps people engaged.”