Anatomy of SingularDTV’s CODE(Centrally Organized Distributed Entity)
A Decentralization Generator for the Tokenized Ecosystem
Looking back on the incredible journey SingularDTV has taken with the #BestofSingularDTV Series. This article was published on August 8th, 2016
Written by Zach LeBeau
DECENTRALIZATION-ism
The most interesting thing to me about blockchain technology is that it brings about a new “-ism” — decentralization-ism. Capitalism and socialism have ruled the past few hundred years of societal evolution but now a change is coming and it’s very apparent to people working on Ethereum.
Decentralization will increase our understanding of how to live on this planet together by revealing how to build societal systems that are more balanced and harmonious. It’s just a sliver of the never ending evolutionary cycle we as a human race have been born into, but it’s the most important sliver because we are living through it at this very moment — right now. In the future, when decentralization scales and after it’s had its moment in time, we’ll find ourselves pioneering the next “-ism”. It’s centralization’s turn to be disintermediated now, one day it will be decentralization’s turn, on and on. I imagine this could happen a number of times before we reach the singularity.
Currently, we human beings are ruled by numerous unconnected centralized systems. These unaware systems — often unwittingly — aid in disenfranchising large numbers of people from participating in what should ideally be a fair and balanced construct. The result is oppressive demands and pressures placed on the participants of society. Through decentralization, blockchain technology will help the societal organism achieve greater awareness, which in turn will create more complex systems that generate a higher potential for the human race — less wasted resources equals less suffering. The future is an optimistic one, where conscientious people are equipped with the knowledge and means to make the world a better place. Imagine the ways future resource management systems will change the world… we’re talking about the eradication of poverty and hunger.
I live in New York City where a large number of homeless reside, many suffering from mental illness. One of my favorite plazas is across the street from the Federal Reserve. I sit there and sometimes contemplate how it will one day become a museum or something else more useful to society. A few days ago an unfortunate homeless woman was having an excruciatingly difficult time there. With the Federal Reserve as the backdrop of her drug induced meltdown, I couldn’t help but think that the unaware, inadequate societal systems we have in place are partially to blame for her hardships. I wonder who that woman would be if she was born 20 years from now, when decentralization is scaling. Would her insanity come to the surface as easily?
Perhaps it’s unfair to place such high expectations on decentralization, but it’s my personal hope that it will realize a world that utilizes the greatest potential of every person. I think a lot of potential is wasted nowadays — less than probably any other time in history — but still a lot of untapped creative energy is wasted on the practicalities that living in a centralized paradigm foster… again, a paradigm that is unaware of itself due to its separateness.
Ideally, SingularDTV’s mission is to create a fair and balanced entertainment industry that can one day enable anyone to express themselves in a meaningful and prosperous way. But in order to do this, in order to create a decentralized world, we need to build business structures that can take centralized assets, decentralize them and place them on the blockchain.
CODE is SingularDTV’s structure to decentralize itself — all its Intellectual Property (IP) in the form of film, television and software projects, represented on the blockchain as SNGLS tokens.
The below illustration visualizes the CODE structure.
CO + DE = Decentralization Generator
CODE stands for Centrally Organized Distributed Entity.
The CO — Centrally Organized component — can be represented by a number of different company structures in various jurisdictions around the world. Because MME — the Swiss legal architects of the Ethereum Foundation — were integral in the formation of the CODE structure, SingularDTV’s CO resides in Zug, Switzerland. The DE — Distributed Entity — is the component existing on Ethereum’s blockchain. Together, the CO and the DE build a bridge between the centralized legacy paradigm and the decentralized Ethereum paradigm.
The engine of SingularDTV’s CODE is its Smart Contract System (SCS). The SCS decentralizes legacy assets and places them on the blockchain. The SCS also directs the flow of decentralized assets for the purpose of funding, building, maintaining and growing real world projects. Value resulting from these real world projects are routed through the SCS and placed back onto the blockchain via SingularDTV’s tokens, SNGLS.
When functioning at its potential, the CODE acts as a decentralization generator that perpetually places centralized assets onto the blockchain, growing the Ethereum ecosystem. In the coming years, when trillions of dollars of assets are placed on the blockchain, it’s structures like the CODE that will have helped make it possible
The Age of Tokenized Ecosystems
SingularDTV is a tokenized ecosystem. Blockchain technology allows for the consolidation of mechanisms and functions under one roof — or interface — that centralized legacy companies not using the blockchain would find costly or cumbersome to the point of making it impractical.
As a tokenized ecosystem within the CODE structure, SingularDTV will be able to operate as a blockchain entertainment studio that is a producer, acquirer and distributor of content. Its universal and non-regionalized rights, revenue and royalty platform is laying the foundation for a decentralized entertainment industry. Within the SingularDTV interface, participants will not only be able to watch content, but ultimately upload their own content and participate in SingularDTV’s decentralized distribution network. Within the SingularDTV interface will reside all the tools participants will need in order to have a connected and meaningful interaction with the decentralized world; from access to their wallets, identities and reputations, to utilization of the rights management system and so much more.
CODE vs. DAO
The CODE functions similarly to a DAO in terms of project funding and revenue sharing. SNGLS tokens represent the film, TV and software IP developed and deployed by SingularDTV. The tokens and SCS are programmed with the terms and conditions of it’s mission as outlined in the Summary Overview located on www.singulardtv.com. Tokens will not hold any voting properties. Not only does this hybrid CODE structure provide a simplified governance system for specialized industries, in which a certain degree of knowledge and experience is necessary to move the company in the right direction, but it also removes the security flaws associated with “The DAO’s” model, such as voting and splitting functions.
An extra security layer is provided by elements of MME and ConsenSys through a security mechanism called The Guard. The Guard is a two-tier auditing process composed of a human stress test element and code failsafe functions.
CODE LEXICON
For the purpose of understanding the CODE and its various parts, the following lexicon is necessary.
LEGACY: The centralized paradigm. The world not encompassing Ethereum or decentralization. The paradigm opposite of decentralization.
ETHEREUM: The decentralized paradigm. The world encompassing all that resides in and on Ethereum and it’s blockchain — at the protocol and application level. The paradigm opposite of centralization.
CO — Centrally Organized component: The Zug, Swiss GmbH existing in the centralized legacy world is the CO. It is here where the Workshop originates. The DE (Distributed Entity) contracts all services — from governance to administration of funds — to the Workshop.
DE — Distributed Entity: Existing on Ethereum’s blockchain, the DE is where the Smart Contract System (SCS) and all SingularDTV IP reside. It is the place where token holders generate SNGLS via the SCS. SNGLS are the decentralized representation of SingularDTV IP. All IP revenue is distributed through SNGLS here.
SCS — Smart Contract System: The SCS receives and directs the flow of ETH into the Vault and Workshop, distributes SNGLS and IP revenue, houses the technical Guard function and administrates/monitors the DE. The SCS can have a real world jurisdiction that interfaces with the DE. Presently, Alderney of the Channel Islands acts as this interface for SingularDTV.
VAULT: The place where SingularDTV SNGLS are held in perpetuity. The SCS directs revenue received from these SNGLS into the Workshop to be re-invested into the S-DTV ecosystem as film/TV/software projects. The Vault is owned by the Workshop and run by the SCS.
WORKSHOP: The Workshop performs all services contracted to it by the DE. It is here where ETH is spent or transformed into fiat to build projects — film/TV software. The Workshop also collects fiat/crypto revenue and sends it to the Vault and SCS.
PROJECTS: Film/TV/software projects that are built by the Workshop and have infrastructural representations in both the Legacy and Ethereum paradigms (see illustration above). This is so because Projects will be processing both fiat/ETH in some form/manner and/or have executional infrastructures of varying capacities in both paradigms. Eventually, a scenario could emerge where the Legacy state of certain Projects will cease to exist, having become fully represented and sustainable on the Ethereum blockchain.
It cannot be expressed enough how we all need to participate in the building of a decentralized world. One day we will look back on these times and realize there are a whole set of crimes being perpetrated on us now by centralized structures — mostly unwittingly — that we are not presently aware of. Perhaps the closer we come to the singularity the more we’ll start to recognize these injustices. One day we may even call them — ‘Soul Crimes’ — or something of the sort… a new categorization of assaults on our person that keep us from exercising our will and/or realizing our true potential.
@singularDTV
