bitcoin:
Video: Crowdfunded with Bitcoins, Screw Banks Released
A video promoting Bitcoin with the title similar to the domain where it is hosted, ScrewBanks.net, has been released.
The video started out as a project on Max Keiser (@MaxKeiser)’s Pirate My Film (PMF) (@PirateMyFilm) crowdfunding platform. Pledges at $5 and up were made by the Bitcoin community, and once the project was fully funded, the only way to send funds was with bitcoins.
Fundraising for the project started in started in November, 2011 with the goal of raising $1,500 USD but the project was oversubscribed by the end of January and after funds were collected from all 114 “shareholders” the project took in an extra 15%. Though PMF does offer equity-based projects and each $5 contribution is referred to as a “share”, this particular project was not pitched as a revenue-generating film so there will be no dividends given to contributors (which the site labels as “shareholders”). Screw Banks was the first project on PMF in which Bitcoins were accepted for payment.
Producer of Screw Banks is Anthony Gallippi of Bit-Pay, a U.S.-based Bitcoin payment processor. ”It’s a great video targeted towards people upset with the banking system, for one reason or another” wrote Gallippi on the forum post announcing the release.
The project’s page on PMF shows the writers were StacyHerbert (@StacyHerbert) and Erik Voorhees (@ErikVoorhees), though the inclusion of a Columbian hooker in the video’s storyline means the writers made edits due to the story to reference recent developments. Other characters in the video, as shown in the Screw Banks - Credits page include Vampire Squid, Jon Corzyne, Bought Congress, PayPay and The Ben Bernank Printer.
This is the second video to be crowdfunded and paid for by the Bitcoin community. The What Is Bitcoin video on WeUseCoins.com was initially a bounty project which yielded 8,511 bitcoins (now worth more than $43K USD though that bounty was open back when Bitcoins were worth a fraction of their current value).