At one point, before streaming dominated the film industry, Blockbuster Video was the apex of renting movies. The video store chain managed to take over most of the smaller mom & pop video stores of the 80’s and 90’s, placing itself at the top of the food chain. It seemed unlikely that anyone else could ever top it. But once streaming platform Netflix and digital technology caught on, Blockbuster was soon made a relic of the past. In fact, only one Blockbuster store still remains – a location in Bend, Oregon. But it seems that one crypto group has their own plans for the brand – with the intention to turn Blockbuster into a streaming service.
The group, which calls itself Blockbuster DAO, is eagerly trying to raise $5 million in an effort to buy the intellectual property rights to Blockbuster. Many of the decisions for the company would be automated and run on the blockchain made by DAO aka Decentralized Autonomous Organization.
Interestingly, this would allow viewers more power in deciding what they watch on the service. This news comes via FX Empire.
“the first-ever DeFilm (decentralized) streaming platform and a mainstay of both the Web3 brands and products.” They also aspire to turn the platform into “the powerhouse in the future of the film industry.”
They currently hope to raise $5 million to buy the rights to the Blockbuster name, as well as launch a PR campaign to interest Dish in selling Blockbuster in the first place. As such, it’ll be interesting to see where the project goes from here. It’s definitely an ambitious one to say the least. Here’s how they intend to raise the funds:
“BlockbusterDAO plans to raise the $5m or more by way of BlockbusterDAO NFT mints priced at 0.13E each.”
If successful, this Blockbuster streaming app could be rather revolutionary for the entertainment industry. So while it was long suspected that Blockbuster was essentially dead after the rise of streaming, it could very well have the potential to launch an unexpected comeback. So expect more details as we have them.