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The buzz surrounding blockchain technology and its potential to improve, disrupt or transform the film business has reached a near fever pitch in Cannes, with new companies swamping the Croisette, some promising nothing less than a revolution.

Understanding the technology is hard enough — blockchain is a coding system that can be used to create digital ledgers to record and verify transactions of various kinds on a secure, encrypted and decentralized platform — but what’s really tricky is separating the hype, and the various business models, from the impact they are likely to have on the indie film industry. THR spoke to some of the biggest names in this rapidly developing field to sort through the buzz and the babble, and look at five ways blockchain might (or might not) change everything.