The SNGLS token for SingularDTV, an Ethereum-based entertainment production and distribution platform that raised $7.5 million in its October 2016 token launch
Historical Significance
SingularDTV was one of the earliest projects to attempt to use Ethereum token economics for media and entertainment — a sector that had not previously intersected with blockchain technology. Its token launch in October 2016 was one of the larger crowdsales of that year, and it represented an early ConsenSys portfolio company. The project's smart contract architecture, authored by Stefan George (who would later co-found Gnosis), demonstrated sophisticated tokenomics including automated revenue reinvestment via smart contracts — concepts that were novel at the time.
Context
October 2016 was a pivotal period for Ethereum. The network had recently survived The DAO hack (June 2016) and the resulting hard fork (July 2016), which split the community. Despite this turmoil, projects like SingularDTV continued to launch, demonstrating resilience in the ecosystem. The ICO model was gaining momentum — Iconomi had raised $10.5 million in September 2016, and FirstBlood and Golem were also preparing their sales. SingularDTV's launch coincided with Devcon2 in Shanghai (September 2016), where the Ethereum community gathered to showcase the platform's growing capabilities. The project was notable for being one of the first to explicitly target the entertainment industry, an approach that would later be echoed by projects like Livepeer and Audius.
Token Information
Key Facts
Description
SingularDTV was an ambitious Ethereum-based entertainment production and distribution platform that aimed to disintermediate the traditional media industry using decentralization principles. The SNGLS token, an ERC-20 token deployed on October 2, 2016, represented a pro rata claim on the project's intellectual property and a share of revenue generated by its film, television, and software products.
The total supply was set at 1 billion SNGLS tokens. 500 million were offered to the public at an ETH equivalent of 1.5 cents per token, targeting a raise of $7.5 million. The remaining 500 million were allocated between founders (400 million) and seed/development investors (100 million). Notably, the 400 million founder tokens had their revenue locked in a "Vault" managed by a Smart Contract System (SCS), with proceeds automatically reinvested into the SingularDTV ecosystem — founders could only access these tokens in the event of a future exit.
The project was built at ConsenSys and the smart contract was authored by Stefan George (stefan.george@consensys.net), compiled with Solidity v0.3.5. SingularDTV's stated goals included: (1) launching a documentary film division focused on educating the world about Ethereum and decentralization, (2) producing a sci-fi television series called 'Singular' about humanity's journey into a technological Singularity, (3) building a rights, revenue, and royalty management platform, and (4) creating a transaction video-on-demand portal.
The deployer address was 0x0860df0aeb7fdd29c6da4dbc7aaed0da59325ddd. SingularDTV later rebranded to Breaker in 2019 before eventually winding down operations.
Source Verified
Heuristic Analysis
The following characteristics were detected through bytecode analysis and may not be accurate.
DAO Fork Era
The controversial fork to recover funds from The DAO hack.
Bytecode Overview
Verified Source Available
Source verified on Etherscan.
Show source code (Solidity)
/// Implements ERC 20 Token standard: https://github.com/ethereum/EIPs/issues/20
/// @title Abstract token contract - Functions to be implemented by token contracts.
/// @author Stefan George - <stefan.george@consensys.net>
contract Token {
// This is not an abstract function, because solc won't recognize generated getter functions for public variables as functions
function totalSupply() constant returns (uint256 supply) {}
function balanceOf(address owner) constant returns (uint256 balance);
function transfer(address to, uint256 value) returns (bool success);
function transferFrom(address from, address to, uint256 value) returns (bool success);
function approve(address spender, uint256 value) returns (bool success);
function allowance(address owner, address spender) constant returns (uint256 remaining);
event Transfer(address indexed from, address indexed to, uint256 value);
event Approval(address indexed owner, address indexed spender, uint256 value);
}
contract StandardToken is Token {
/*
* Data structures
*/
mapping (address => uint256) balances;
mapping (address => mapping (address => uint256)) allowed;
uint256 public totalSupply;
/*
* Read and write storage functions
*/
/// @dev Transfers sender's tokens to a given address. Returns success.
/// @param _to Address of token receiver.
/// @param _value Number of tokens to transfer.
function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) returns (bool success) {
if (balances[msg.sender] >= _value && _value > 0) {
balances[msg.sender] -= _value;
balances[_to] += _value;
Transfer(msg.sender, _to, _value);
return true;
}
else {
return false;
}
}
/// @dev Allows allowed third party to transfer tokens from one address to another. Returns success.
/// @param _from Address from where tokens are withdrawn.
/// @param _to Address to where tokens are sent.
/// @param _value Number of tokens to transfer.
function transferFrom(address _from, address _to, uint256 _value) returns (bool success) {
if (balances[_from] >= _value && allowed[_from][msg.sender] >= _value && _value > 0) {
balances[_to] += _value;
balances[_from] -= _value;
allowed[_from][msg.sender] -= _value;
Transfer(_from, _to, _value);
return true;
}
else {
return false;
}
}
/// @dev Returns number of tokens owned by given address.
/// @param _owner Address of token owner.
function balanceOf(address _owner) constant returns (uint256 balance) {
return balances[_owner];
}
/// @dev Sets approved amount of tokens for spender. Returns success.
/// @param _spender Address of allowed account.
/// @param _value Number of approved tokens.
function approve(address _spender, uint256 _value) returns (bool success) {
allowed[msg.sender][_spender] = _value;
Approval(msg.sender, _spender, _value);
return true;
}
/*
* Read storage functions
*/
/// @dev Returns number of allowed tokens for given address.
/// @param _owner Address of token owner.
/// @param _spender Address of token spender.
function allowance(address _owner, address _spender) constant returns (uint256 remaining) {
return allowed[_owner][_spender];
}
}
contract SingularDTVFund {
function workshop() returns (address);
function softWithdrawRevenueFor(address forAddress) returns (uint);
}
contract SingularDTVCrowdfunding {
function twoYearsPassed() returns (bool);
function startDate() returns (uint);
function CROWDFUNDING_PERIOD() returns (uint);
function TOKEN_TARGET() returns (uint);
function valuePerShare() returns (uint);
function fundBalance() returns (uint);
function campaignEndedSuccessfully() returns (bool);
}
/// @title Token contract - Implements token issuance.
/// @author Stefan George - <stefan.george@consensys.net>
contract SingularDTVToken is StandardToken {
/*
* External contracts
*/
SingularDTVFund constant singularDTVFund = SingularDTVFund(0xe736091fc36f1ad476f5e4e03e4425940822d3ba);
SingularDTVCrowdfunding constant singularDTVCrowdfunding = SingularDTVCrowdfunding(0xbdf5c4f1c1a9d7335a6a68d9aa011d5f40cf5520);
/*
* Token meta data
*/
string constant public name = "SingularDTV";
string constant public symbol = "SNGLS";
uint8 constant public decimals = 0;
/*
* Modifiers
*/
modifier noEther() {
if (msg.value > 0) {
throw;
}
_
}
modifier workshopWaitedTwoYears() {
// Workshop can only transfer tokens after a two years period.
if (msg.sender == singularDTVFund.workshop() && !singularDTVCrowdfunding.twoYearsPassed()) {
throw;
}
_
}
modifier isCrowdfundingContract () {
// Only crowdfunding contract is allowed to proceed.
if (msg.sender != address(singularDTVCrowdfunding)) {
throw;
}
_
}
/*
* Contract functions
*/
/// @dev Crowdfunding contract issues new tokens for address. Returns success.
/// @param _for Address of receiver.
/// @param tokenCount Number of tokens to issue.
function issueTokens(address _for, uint tokenCount)
external
isCrowdfundingContract
returns (bool)
{
if (tokenCount == 0) {
return false;
}
balances[_for] += tokenCount;
totalSupply += tokenCount;
return true;
}
/// @dev Transfers sender's tokens to a given address. Returns success.
/// @param to Address of token receiver.
/// @param value Number of tokens to transfer.
function transfer(address to, uint256 value)
noEther
workshopWaitedTwoYears
returns (bool)
{
// Both parties withdraw their revenue first
singularDTVFund.softWithdrawRevenueFor(msg.sender);
singularDTVFund.softWithdrawRevenueFor(to);
return super.transfer(to, value);
}
/// @dev Allows allowed third party to transfer tokens from one address to another. Returns success.
/// @param from Address from where tokens are withdrawn.
/// @param to Address to where tokens are sent.
/// @param value Number of tokens to transfer.
function transferFrom(address from, address to, uint256 value)
noEther
workshopWaitedTwoYears
returns (bool)
{
// Both parties withdraw their revenue first
singularDTVFund.softWithdrawRevenueFor(from);
singularDTVFund.softWithdrawRevenueFor(to);
return super.transferFrom(from, to, value);
}
/// @dev Contract constructor function sets initial token balances.
function SingularDTVToken() noEther {
// Set token creation for workshop
balances[singularDTVFund.workshop()] = 400000000; // ~400M
// Set token creation for core
balances[0x0196b712a0459cbee711e7c1d34d2c85a9910379] = 5000000;
balances[0x0f94dc84ce0f5fa2a8cc8d27a6969e25b5a39273] = 200000;
balances[0x122b7eb5f629d806c8adb0baa0560266abb3ec80] = 450000;
balances[0x13870d30fcdb7d7ae875668f2a1219225295d57c] = 50000;
balances[0x26640e826547bc700b8c7a9cc2c1c39a4ab3cbb3] = 900000;
balances[0x26bbfc6b23bc36e84447f061c6804f3a8b1a3698] = 250000;
balances[0x2d37383a45b5122a27efade69f7180eee4d965da] = 1270000;
balances[0x2e79b81121193d55c4934c0f32ad3d0474ca7b9c] = 4200000;
balances[0x3114844fc0e3de03963bbd1d983ba17ca89ad010] = 5000000;
balances[0x378e6582e4e3723f7076c7769eef6febf51258e1] = 680000;
balances[0x3e18530a4ee49a0357ffc8e74c08bfdee3915482] = 2490000;
balances[0x43fed1208d25ca0ef5681a5c17180af50c19f826] = 100000;
balances[0x4f183b18302c0ac5804b8c455018efc51af15a56] = 10000;
balances[0x55a886834658ccb6f26c39d5fdf6d833df3a276a] = 100000;
balances[0x5faa1624422db662c654ab35ce57bf3242888937] = 5000000;
balances[0x6407b662b306e2353b627488da952337a5a0bbaa] = 5000000;
balances[0x66c334fff8c8b8224b480d8da658ca3b032fe625] = 10000000;
balances[0x6c24991c6a40cd5ad6fab78388651fb324b35458] = 250000;
balances[0x781ba492f786b2be48c2884b733874639f50022c] = 500000;
balances[0x79b48f6f1ac373648c509b74a2c04a3281066457] = 2000000;
balances[0x835898804ed30e20aa29f2fe35c9f225175b049f] = 100000;
balances[0x93c56ea8848150389e0917de868b0a23c87cf7b1] = 2790000;
balances[0x93f959df3df3c6ee01ee9748327b881b2137bf2a] = 450000;
balances[0x9adc0215372e4ffd8c89621a6bd9cfddf230349f] = 550000;
balances[0xae4dbd3dae66722315541d66fe9457b342ac76d9] = 500000;
balances[0xbae02fe006f115e45b372f2ddc053eedca2d6fff] = 1800000;
balances[0xcc835821f643e090d8157de05451b416cd1202c4] = 300000;
balances[0xce75342b92a7d0b1a2c6e9835b6b85787e12e585] = 670000;
balances[0xd2b388467d9d0c30bab0a68070c6f49c473583a0] = 990000;
balances[0xdca0724ddde95bbace1b557cab4375d9a813da49] = 3500000;
balances[0xe3ef62165b60cac0fcbe9c2dc6a03aab4c5c8462] = 150000;
balances[0xe4f7d5083baeea7810b6d816581bb0ee7cd4b6f4] = 10560000;
balances[0xef08eb55d3482973c178b02bd4d5f2cea420325f] = 80000;
balances[0xfdecc9f2ee374cedc94f72ab4da2de896ce58c19] = 5000000;
balances[0xe5ff71dc1dea8cd2552eec59e9a5e8813da9bb01] = 29110000;
totalSupply = 500000000; // 500M
}
}