This week we had the opportunity to interview the creator of an upcoming Ethereum based application called The Rudimental. Troy Murray, a Los Angeles based producer, runs the production company Rudimental Media.

On January 29th of this year the world of crowdfunding changed. The SEC lifted laws that prevented crowdfunded investment deals, and now allows individuals to invest up to $100,000 into crowdfunded projects for an aggregate total of $1 million per project. Before this ruling, it was effectively impossible to get any equity returns from a crowdfunded investment. Media producers and artists seeking crowdfunding were mainly forced to appeal to the benevolence of a host of funders offering them only posters or other trinkets for compensation. Now, investors are finally capable of seeing returns on their investments, which should promote a healthier atmosphere for independent artists. Anticipating this SEC action, Murray is, “excited to be on the frontline of a brand new market just waiting for innovation,” creating The Rudimental using Ethereum as the foundation.

Murray has been involved in the bitcoin world for a few years. He has worked with the Bitcoin media group to make high quality videos for the community. As a filmmaker himself, Murray understands the difficulties of acquiring adequate funding for projects. After working in the film industry for a while Murray explains, “I was motivated to form The Rudimental after watching artists struggle with getting funding for their projects along with dealing with all the hurdles it takes to get anything made.” He expressed fears that without crowdfunding, the future nature of arts and media could be confined exclusively to large corporations and individuals with large amounts of money. The goal of The Rudimentary, in Murray’s words, is “to find a way to empower people to find and keep different livelihoods,”– referring to independent artists.

You may be reading and wondering, what is the difference between this and Kickstarter or Indiegogo? Besides taking advantage of the recent SEC rulings, the fundamental difference is that The Rudimental uses the Ethereum blockchain to secure these deals between artist and producer. Murray explains, “Ethereum is being used to facilitate these new features of crowdfunding because it’s extremely easy to show and keep record of equity and it can’t be faked, the system is self auditing so no corruption can occur.” In addition to being highly secure, the system has extremely low overhead as smart contracts and the nature of the blockchain will effectively eliminate a need for a middleman.

Murray informed us that The Rudimental is currently still developing the backend and is, “[hoping] to have the profile set up for artists, producers, and projects up and going by the end March if not sooner.” The Rudimental is already working on complying with SEC standards, and is currently undergoing the necessary steps to get further certification sometime next month.

The Rudimental is taking advantage of Ethereum’s potential by creating an ecosystem that has the potential to create amazing products and projects that would have otherwise never stood a chance. The service will bring media projects to a much larger audience of investors to support independent ventures such as anything from films to video games. Murray sees Ethereum as a revolutionary platform he believes will change the way we think about finance, investing, and crowdsourcing. He hopes The Rudimental will be an example of a business operating and conducting business in the Cryptocurrency economy, but having its footing in the physical world. In his view, “the future of [Ethereum] is very bright and could usher in a brave new world, one where the people own their reality in a more transparent and direct way.”

Be sure to follow them on twitter TheRudimental for updates!