Background
Vuulr executed an IEO (Initial Exchange Offering on Liquid) in 2018 and as part of that published our whitepaper detailing the business problem we were planning to address and the roadmap .
As documented in our Whitepaper, our roadmap was to first establish a successful marketplace for content, which would allow Film Studios and Broadcasters to transact digitally, and to get the fastest possible adoption this would allow them to transact using Fiat Currency, which they are familiar and comfortable with as organizations. Once the marketplace is established, and has momentum, we will use the success of the fiat based business to provide the engine of growth for the token economy, to address some additional industry problems.
Update
We are pleased to share that we fully launched the Vuulr marketplace in Jan 2020, and although what it enables is new for the industry (licencing content via a platform) it is growing successfully and gaining traction within the industry.
Here is a screenshot of the Buyer’s view of the marketplace, here is a video walkthrough.
We are happy to say that against the key metrics for the industry such as number of hours of content listed, number of users registered, number & value of transactions completed (in fiat currency), we are now the largest in the industry.
We are on track with the plan, as laid out in the Whitepaper, of creating a successful content marketplace.
R&D Progress
Vuulr’s Content Industry Supply Chain Protocol (CISP)
Vuulr won Singapore’s first Blockchain Challenge by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA). With IMDA’s support, in 2018, Vuulr built a fully functional prototype of our Content Industry Supply Chain Protocol (C.I.S.P) as described in our Whitepaper, using the ERC721 Non Fungible Token.
Our approach for C.I.S.P. is use where possible to “Hollywood Supported” industry-accepted standards by EIDR, Digital EMA and MovieLabs, and designed to support the management of Digital Video IP Assets, with Unique Asset Identifiers, Contractual Avails, and the MetaData essential for the digital transformation of the industry.
Later that year (2018) , Vuulr took the prototype out to studios and broadcasters in the industry to test for product-market fit.
The feedback from the industry was that this was a little too far ahead from their current thinking and willingness to adopt the DLT technology. It is after all a technically conservative industry. In building the working prototype we also realised that, as at 2018, the technology stack also needed to mature and the DLT ecosystem and infrastructure needed to be built out.
We are watching keenly as the technology stack matures, infrastructure players bring solutions (e.g. custody & identity) to market and general industry acceptance of DLT based solutions increases, we will be ready to introduce our solution. We are heartened to see the emergence of the current interest for NFTs, which is serving well to introduce and educate the industry with respect to the use of blockchain technology for managing rights to Intellectual Property, with lots of discussion in mainstream media news and being discussed at well-respected industry events today. This signals that the industry is moving in the right direction and we believe the right time for our technology will not be long.