A consumer-friendly token to support independent performances, premium content, and creative communities

Version 1.0
Author: Winston Tsao
Date: July 30, 2020

Disclaimer

This white paper is for information purposes only and may be subject to change. This

whitepaper does not constitute an offer or solicitation to sell crypto tokens. Any such offer or

solicitation will be made only by means that are in compliance with applicable laws. No information or opinion presented herein is intended to form the basis for any purchase decision, and no specific recommendations are intended.

Participants are advised to read this document carefully in full and perform due diligence. CEEN Token is a Utility Token, designed as a user-friendly and cost-effective way to access premium content, and for independent artists and performers to get paid. It is not intended to be a regulated financial product of any kind. Participants comprehend and fully accept the fact that CEEN Tokens are not securities under any circumstance hence the CEEN Tokens are not to be considered an investment or financial product of any kind.

The sale of CEEN Tokens may not be available in all jurisdictions and to all purchasers.

The token’s utility and usage may evolve over time to changing consumer tastes and trends.

Summary

Users use CEEN tokens to pay creators and artists directly for entertaining, valuable, informative content.  The CEEN token is designed to reward quality content, not number of views.  Creators and Artist can then collect and exchange tokens into crypto currency or currency of their choice on the open market.

Introduction

Musicians, artists, designers, writers, many are not able to make a living not because the lack of talent, but because a few large players control the process of discovery, facilitate consumption, and process value exchange.

For example, YouTube makes money by insert commercials before and during video viewings. but commercials are not only annoying, often not relevant to what your audience are looking for.  Ads interrupt viewing experiences.  Google also takes 32% to 49% revenues from advertisers, but many valuable and entertaining content did not attract advertisers. To make a living, creators often had to go to other platform such as Patreon to charge for membership.  Each platform takes a cut of what creators could get. Each online payment processors also wanted a cut of the revenue, each charge a per transaction fee plus a percentage of the revenue from 2.9% to 4.6%.   

Take another example, a traditional Pay-Per-View concert offered by your local cable company, while most musicians make most of their money from live concerts, but cable company companies like Comcast were taking 50%, and payment processors takes 10%, the concert producer takes 40%.  The musicians often get a flat fee. 

All these revenue sources might be delivered online, but the systems benefit famous, well known performers, leave many smaller performers and artist struggling.

For consumers, pay something online require many steps, you have to register, verify your email, enter your credit card numbers, add an item to your shopping cart, then checkout. Sometimes it was just so much trouble, so the content providers wanted to sell you subscriptions, whether you wanted or have time to consume every single content on their platform or not. 

Because there are so much frictions to make purchases, consumers gravitate toward a few large companies such as Amazon, Google, Apple, and Netflix. Again, leave very little room for smaller artists, musicians, or content providers.

There has to be a better way to pay for individual content, tip artists with a simple, easy interface that is both effortless to implement and cheap for small transactions.

CEEN Token Business Case

Many artists, singers, movie makers, writers don’t make enough money to make ends meet.  Often it is not because lack of talent, but because there are gatekeepers that chooses winners and losers.  It was not fair.

Large studios and its executives often make the bulk of the money, then everyone takes a cut:  the distributors, the agents, brokers, and executives take a huge chunk of it, the unions take a cut. Then the cable companies, the movie theaters, the malls, the credit card companies, the bank, each take a cut.  But nothing to do with the actual work.

Similarly, Google as the gate keeper, decides (using its algorithms) if your video is worthy of pairing with advertisers.  Even if your video was deemed worthy, Google takes a big chunk from sponsored brands and only give creators a small chunk of the revenue.

I want to reward quality content, discourage click baits and low-quality content.  My intention is spread adoption of crypto with easy, simple to implement and use paywalls that can support independent creators.

CEEN Token Model

Crypto currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum were revolutionary.  But so many projects with lofty goals and complex concepts that may not promote rapid adaptation or hard to implement by individuals or small companies.  The goal for CEEN token is simple, let consumers pay for small, premium content online seamlessly:  use CEEN tokens to tip a performer, pay for premium content behind a paywall, vote for the musicians in a contest, or help determine which project moves forward.

Each CEEN token is designed to be small enough to give out without hesitation, yet substantial to make an impact for the creators or projects.   Compared to hard currencies such as the US dollar, a CEEN token will be cheaper to process, frictionless for small transactions, and can be implemented more universally across the world.  Credit Cards were popular in developed economies but has relative high costs to process small transactions.  For example, cost of paying for a premium video or an article is lower than a typical credit card companies charge for each transaction.

The proceeds for the ICO are for following:

1, as a form of early ticket sales to gauge interests for this form of transactions. 

2, to secure popular performers and artists that require upfront payments for commitments.

3, sign-up creators who were looking for new ways to monetize their content.

4, develop first iteration of the CEEN token paywall.

Team

Winston Tsao
I’m currently the only team member, I have over 30 years of app development and management experiences, worked closely with a diverse industries and technologies.  With my experience, this project has a higher chance of success than with technologists with little or no practical experiences developing or building teams.

Road map

Actual priority and list of features may evolve based on user feedback, competitive landscape, and market conditions.

  • Web based paywall widget
  • Paywall API for website and app developers
  • Token wallet for paying premium content
  • Token subscriptions
  • Content directory of compatible premium content
  • API for third-party curators