The Genesis Thought

Hello World

We are proud to finally reveal the Cellarius Universe. To read our Universe Guide, and apply for our Alpha please head over to https://cellarius.network

“Inquiry regarding a potential project” was the subject line of the initial batch of cold-call emails our team sent out on May 7, 2017. Our early collaborators were skeptical, but the fact that the outbound email address was associated with an @consensys.net domain sparked curiosity, despite the vague subject line. These initial connections would form the basis for an idea that has gained momentum over the past nine months and is emerging as a global effort to tell a new kind of science fiction story.

Cross section of the Cellarius Research Facility by Sean Andrew Murray

Today we are revealing the Cellarius Universe (CX) — an original, transmedia cyberpunk franchise that leverages blockchain technology and user-generated assets to create a collaborative, fan-curated story.

That’s a bit of a mouthful, so it might be useful to break down exactly what we mean:

Original: We created the Cellarius Universe from scratch. Our narrative begins in the near future and asks whether humankind is prepared for the consequences of our insatiable desire to push the limits of technology. The activation of the first artificial superintelligence is the core event that shapes the future of our civilization. While many other stories tell of human subjugation by robots or AI, ours has a different bent: an AI whose motives are unknown: both destructive and giving in turn.

Transmedia: A common set of questions we hear when we first introduce Cellarius is: “…so is it a video game? A movie? A book?” Our answer, happily, is “yes!” We want CX to extend beyond just one format and allow the story to permeate through whichever media are the most fitting for the narrative. As the project grows, we want to explore as many types of media as we can.

Cyberpunk: A genre that is near and dear to our hearts. As members of the Decentralized Renaissance, we are constantly asking ourselves how civilization will evolve in our modern context. In time, CX will come to define its own inimitable brand of cyberpunk.

Chemics by Aluisio Cervelle Santos

Blockchain technology: ConsenSys is the largest blockchain company in the world and a thought leader in bringing Web 3.0 to the mainstream. Unlike legacy media franchises, CX embraces an ethos of sharing and openness that will empower the community to explore new ways to experience media and culture. Our team intends to use the technology to facilitate fan curation, immutable lore, provenance, and asset management, as well as digital object permanence.

User-Generated Story: Our goal is to make Cellarius a community-first project. We want to work with our fandom from the outset to grow a global and diverse set of collaborators. In time, we hope that the project can become self-sustaining and give back to the users who help create the story.