Quentin Tarantino is a crypto bro. The highest profile speaker at NFT.NYC by far (sorry, not sorry, Gary Vee) announced his entry into the NFT game on Tuesday. He will be auctioning off 7 unseen scenes from Pulp Fiction on OpenSea as non fungible tokens, secured to the Secret Network, a privacy-first blockchain. They will inevitably sell out in seconds for ungodly amounts of money, because the Venn diagram of crypto degens and guys who yell at you for not loving Pulp Fiction is a flat circle. 

The Secret Network is a relatively unsung blockchain ecosystem, claiming to be the first to offer encrypted smart contracts. In other words, the transparent ownership data that makes NFTs and blockchain transactions special is, on the Secret Network, not transparent at all. Thus, only the anonymous buyers of the scenes will ever see them, unless they decide differently.

This all feels a lot like Tarantino read our piece on the Wu-Tang album business model and decided he might as well be the one to profit from it. He’s an acclaimed and decisive director, and chances are these ‘uncut scenes’ were cut from the final cut for a reason. But nevertheless, there are about to be 7 more Tarantino-worthy MacGuffins released into the cultural consciousness — this time, the real deal. 

Tarantino’s entry into crypto was inevitable, but I’m not bullish on the manner he chose. The Secret Network might sound like a plot point from one of his mid career movies, but its ‘privacy’ features inherently contradict the appeal of the blockchain in the first place. Blockchain transactions are anonymous already, but the complete transparency of interactions between anons is what opens up practical applications far beyond merchandising media properties. Imagine if corporations and elected officials were forced to publicize their wallets, and all lobbying and donating was done in the light. Crypto use cases shouldn’t start and end with celebs making bank.

That said, it checks out that Tarantino would prefer the latter, and, from a business perspective, this is witty dialogue delivered by philosophically polar and perfectly cast hitmen — i.e. a match made in heaven. Following in David Lynch’s footsteps, we’re damn near to getting the Mount Rushmore of hipster bro faves on the NFT train. (Wes Anderson, wya?) So say ‘right click save’ one more time. I dare you. I double dare you motherfucker. Say ‘right click save’ one more goddamn time.