Jeff Garzik, lead developer of the Linux operating system and Bitcoin Core project, announced the launch of NextCypher Productions on Tuesday. The independent entertainment company aims to leverage Web3 tools to produce independent sci-fi entertainment.
“Back in 2010, I was the third most prolific developer of the original blockchain, Bitcoin,” Garzik told Decrypt in an interview. “So I worked directly with Satoshi [Nakamoto] and his number two Gavin [Andresen] — that was my opportunity to get into crypto.”
Garzik is also known for co-founding Bloq, Spacechain, and Vesper Finance.
Garzik says NextCypher revived his passion for science fiction, which he says led to his love of crypto in the first place.
Garzik says the roots of Web3 can be found in the pages of cyberpunk fiction. The genre includes seminal games like William Gibson's Neuromancer and Neil Stephenson's Avalanche, as well as RPGs like Shadowrun and Cyberpunk.
But unlike Stephenson — who announced in June the launch of his “metaverse” project Lamina1 alongside fellow bitcoin pioneer Peter Vessenes — Garzik’s vision is in film and television.
While a background primarily in software engineering and cryptocurrency isn't exactly a good fit for a career in Hollywood, Garzik said he found people like Mark Altman and Thomas Vitale who already had experience in the type of production he envisioned.
"We hired a producer-showrunner combo who were not only experienced in film and television in general, but also knew how to create something within a budget and schedule," Garzik said.
To get the project off the ground, Garzik told Decrypt that he had invested $1 million himself to fund NextCypher, intending to launch the first TV projects, Deathlands (based on the Jack Adrian novel, produced by Altman and Vitale) and Look Glass, based on Garzik's Original concept, launch in 2023.
Looking Glass, the story of a young woman who has lost her memory who falls in love with a group of "grid runners" and continues to find her true identity, premieres as a graphic novel by NextCypher subsidiary Next Cypher Words+Art , at San Diego Comic-Con last month.
The "runner" character is a familiar archetype in cyberpunk, from Cyberpunk 2077's Edgerunners to Shadowrun's eponymous Shadowrunners.
In addition to Garzik's NextCypher, other sci-fi/cyberpunk-themed titles in Web3 are currently in development. In May, Bryan Unkeless, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Bryce Anderson, and Blaise Hemingway, co-creators of the Web3 multimedia sci-fi project "Runner," discussed their project with Decrypt.
"While our core story focuses on a few characters, it was a natural extension to think of PFP as a way to really start to create a specific identity in our world," Unkeless said at the time.
Like Unkeless' project, Garzik is looking to leverage Web3 technologies such as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. These unique tokens are associated with digital (and sometimes physical) content, providing proof of ownership.
In addition to NFTs, the project aims to use social media to connect with a global audience, giving supporters and fans access to opportunities such as exclusive marketplaces and exclusive previews and experiences, including opportunities to interact with stars and creative teams and gain access to the creative process.
"This is called an alpha pass," Garzik said. "You pay nothing. You show up within the time window and claim a copy."
As Garzik explained, the NFT will be the gateway to the NextCypher Hollywood-plus experience.
"We try to come up with all the fun, surprising, engaging ways that fans want to be a part of the process from the literal idea stage, all the way through to post-production and streaming on Amazon or Netflix."
Using NFTs to engage with fans and create a buzz is nothing new. Earlier this year, famed indie director Quentin Tarantino launched a series of NFTs based on his iconic film Pulp Fiction, despite a lawsuit from Miramax Films, which owns the film's intellectual property. In May, legendary filmmaker Spike Lee announced a series of Ethereum NFTs based on his role as Mars Blackmon in "She's Gotta Have It" to help fund young filmmakers and make NFTs Holders vote on which items to make.
"We're still pursuing traditional production financing," Garzik said. "NFT revenue is used for new project development, community activities and other additional experiences for fans."
Garzik said the team is still working out which blockchain the NFT will be minted on, but noted that the idea is to avoid the high fees currently associated with ethereum.
"We're currently looking for the best housing for this," Garzik said. “So the default answer is to connect to a sidechain on ethereum, like Polygon or Avalanche. We’re still negotiating between projects to see where we’re going to land.”