# We tried crypto instead of public funding. It worked, without the money.

# We tried crypto instead of public funding. It worked, without the money.

![image](https://i.imgur.com/bDee6gn.jpeg)

## Now we want to see what happens with it.

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## Before you read: watch these two movies.

They are the fastest way to understand what we are building and why.

![description](https://i.imgur.com/lLoGgkN.png)

**🎬 Movie 1 — The Nouning (2 min)**

👉 https://youtube.com/shorts/h5cvlkVQHGo

*The one where it all started*

![description](https://i.imgur.com/w2Cnt36.png)

**🎬 Movie 2 — Apocalypse Now What? (2 min)**

👉 https://youtube.com/shorts/k1oZuBqcg-o

*366 Days, 4 Hours and 17 Seconds later. And Nouns? Will he...*

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## What happened after Movie 1

![description](https://i.imgur.com/Tylss6l.jpeg)

We are **2Lång**, an independent satirical theatre in Gothenburg, Sweden. 20,000+ visitors a year. 13 years of productions. **Zero public funding.**

We brought our first proposal to Nouns last year. We didn't get the votes.

But the story of a theatre turning to crypto instead of the state became national news in Sweden.

![Aftonbladet_Article](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/rJ9QKj0TZe.png)

Aftonbladet, 3.5 million daily readers

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![3 theathres looking for funding elsewhere_photo](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/BJI9tsAT-l.png)

Göteborgs-Posten, 500,000 daily readers. Front page of the Saturday edition

We sparked a national debate about who controls culture, who gets funded, and whether decentralized alternatives can fill the gap left by a system that hasn't changed in decades.

We did all of that **without actually receiving funding.**

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## The system we're up against

Sweden's cultural grants are decided by a small committee. The rules are unwritten but consistent:

*"Those who have once received operational support will continue to receive it year after year. Then there is no room for any new ones."*

That's what the cultural administration told us directly, after we were rejected three years in a row despite being told we "do everything right."

This year, the City of Gothenburg distributed SEK 52 million to 82 venues. All but six had received support before. We were not one of them.

To survive, we opened a bar and expanded the venue in 2025. We're now **double the size, with 150 seats per show.** One co-owner runs the kitchen. He's the only one who draws a salary.

> *"That's where our cultural support is. When you buy a beer, you help us keep going."*

Beer sales are our cultural policy.

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## The idea

**The Complete Works of Molière — Nouns Edition**

Molière spent his career mocking the French elite, exposing hypocrisy, and getting banned for it — until the King decided he was too funny to silence. Sound familiar?

The play works on three layers at once:

**Layer 1 . The history:** A comedic portrait of Molière, master of satire, enemy of gatekeepers.

**Layer 2.  Our story:** A theatre denied funding for 13 years, saved by a decentralized community of strangers on the internet.

**Layer 3. The meta:** Somewhere in Act 2, the audience realizes this isn't fiction. This is happening right now. The theatre they're sitting in is the theatre in the story. The funding came from a DAO they've never heard of.

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## We heard your feedback, here's exactly how Nouns is integrated

Last time, the strongest criticism was simple: the idea is great, but the proposal didn't specify how Nouns would actually appear in the production.

A voter who abstained put it plainly: the pitches made them "extremely bullish" but the written proposal didn't capture it. They asked us to come back with specifics.

Here they are, as commitments not possibilities.

**The characters:**

| Character | Role |

|---|---|

| **The Noun ⌐◨-◨** | The hero. A central character representing the Nouns community, wearing noggles on stage. Developed collaboratively with the community during production. |

| **The Theatre Director** | A passionate artist trying to save his theatre. Based on our real story. |

| **The State** | The villain. Bureaucracy personified. Never loses (until now). |

| **Molière** | A ghost from the 17th century who appears to find that nothing has really changed. |

**The ending:** The theatre is saved. Molière and the Director are "nounified", noggles on.

**Our commitments:**

- ⌐◨-◨ **Noggles featured on stage** and on all production posters

- The **Noun is a central role**, not a cameo

- **Script open** for community input during development

- Nouns and the **funding story named explicitly**, not implicitly

- **Crypto payments at the venue** introduced at premiere, earmarked toward an NFT

- **Nouns merch collaboration**, relaunching our webshop with community art. Merch also available at venue.

- **Script released CC0**, any theatre anywhere can perform it in any language, consistent with Nouns' own open-source ethos

That last point matters. Nouns funds a production that can replicate itself.

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## This is already working

![description](https://i.imgur.com/vhZenpm.png)

*Our Shakespeare production. Seen by 8,000+ people and still touring Sweden*

Most proposals ask: will this work? We already ran the experiment.

✅ Front page of Sweden's biggest regional newspaper, without funding

✅ Coverage reaching 4M+ readers nationally,  without funding

✅ A national political debate on cultural funding, without funding

✅ Shakespeare production reached 8,000+ people and is still on tour

✅ Doubled our venue capacity, without funding

![description](https://i.imgur.com/w588EA0.jpeg)

"We're leaving the Swedish Culture System." 100 likes in 24 hours. Our community didn't hesitate.

They are already watching. When voting opens, we'll follow it live on Instagram, bringing our 10,000 followers along for every update.

This proposal is about scaling what already works.

We're publishing this on **May 1st**, Sweden's Workers' Day, historically tied to challenging unfair systems. That's intentional.

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## What Nouns makes possible

| Without Nouns | With Nouns |

|---|---|

| We told the story | We *become* the story |

| Media covered us once | Media follows a 3-year production |

| We sparked a debate | We stage the debate, literally |

| People heard about Nouns | People *experience* Nouns |

As one supportive voter put it last time: Nouns could be the A24 of arts funding — building a reputation for backing things that matter, without needing to shout the brand. We think this production is both: genuinely great art and explicitly Nounish. That combination is rare.

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## The numbers, honestly

We've dropped the Discord conversion estimates from the last proposal. They were based on a misunderstanding of how Nouns is structured and some figures were simply wrong. We'd rather be straight with you.

| Channel | Reach |

|---|---|

| Live performances (150 seats, 3 years) | 7,000+ people |

| Own social media (10,000 followers + organic) | 15,000+ people |

| Media coverage — already proven, will continue | 4M+ in first cycle alone |

We will track and share ticket sales, QR code scans, social engagement, and press coverage. We report these KPIs openly to the community throughout the production.

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## The press didn't stop at the news story

![Article_Snart ar inte ens krypto ett alternativ](https://hackmd.io/_uploads/H1f8jsATZl.png)

The culture editor of Göteborgs-Posten followed the news with a full opinion column. He ended it with this:

> *"If things continue at this pace, the physical spaces where we can still look each other in the eye may soon be gone. And then not even crypto will be an alternative."*

He's right that the stakes are high. He's wrong that crypto can't be the answer.

Full articles:

- [Göteborgs-Posten: Kvartersscenen 2lång får inget kulturstöd – försöker med krypto](https://www.gp.se/kultur/kvartersscenen-2lang-far-inget-kulturstod-forsoker-med-krypto.05de6ae8-7b95-4f90-b4b4-8d513ecce4d9)

- [Göteborgs-Posten: Johan Hilton opinion](https://www.gp.se/kultur/kommentar/snart-ar-inte-ens-krypto-ett-alternativ-for-kulturen.bfa5d749-9e79-4105-ba26-5ab80de61919)

- [Göteborgs-Posten: Tre Göteborgsscener som går back](https://www.gp.se/kultur/tre-goteborgsscener-som-gar-back-har-ar-deras-jakt-pa-pengar.16309b1e-3f57-474c-ae0b-44d559097b54)

- [Aftonbladet](https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/16o2mQ/teatern-i-goteborg-kan-raddas-av-krypto)

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## The ask, team and timeline

**$40,000** — covers scriptwriting, production and staging, cast and crew salaries, marketing and media activation. Everything beyond this is covered by the theatre.

**Kerstin · Magnus · Tobias · Maja · Johan**,  same team and cast as our Shakespeare production, seen by 8,000+ people nationally and still on tour.

&nbsp;

| Period | What's happening |

|---|---|

| **2026** | Script development with community input, media activation, premiere |

| **2026–2027** | Performances at our venue (150 seats) |

| **2027–2028** | National tour and continued media engagement |

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## Vote yes. Let's make the play that shouldn't exist and make it impossible to ignore.

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2Lång · Gothenburg, Sweden · www.2lang.se · instagram.com/2langteater

Covered by Göteborgs-Posten and Aftonbladet, April 2026

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Outcome: DEFEATED