Introducing Truth Arts Inc.

Many of you will be deeply familiar with Truth Labs, the company behind Goblintown and IlluminatiNFT. Many of you will also know Upstream, the DAO infrastructure company. Today I am elated to share the news that we have taken the best from both companies and merged into one, to be known henceforth as Truth Arts Inc., to pursue the billion dollar opportunity in gaming and entertainment.

This change brings together a powerhouse of talent: 

• Jason Forest (aka Process Grey) becomes Chief Creative Officer of Truth Arts; previously, co-founder of Truth Labs 
• Michael Schonfeld becomes Chief Technology Officer of Truth Arts; previously co-founder of Upstream
• Cesar Kuriyama becomes Creative Advisor of Truth Arts; previously co-founder of Truth Labs
• Alex Taub (myself) becomes CEO of Truth Arts; previously co-founder of both Upstream and Truth Labs

In addition, the six full-time creative team members of Truth Labs will come together with the technology and product talent at Upstream team to form a dynamic entertainment and technology company. 

We’re also excited to announce a unique opportunity for Truth NFT holders (including Goblintown, Illuminati, Grumpl, and McGoblin Burger holders, among others) to burn their NFTs for future equity rights in the combined company, Truth Arts Inc. This 30-day opportunity to burn your NFTs is called Operation Resurrection and there’s a lot more about this below. 

After many months of discussion, the transaction to merge the two companies under a single roof closed in January. This update will give a deep-dive into what’s launching in the next few months from Truth Arts Inc. It’s a long update so we’ve highlighted the most important points below.  

Over the next few weeks, we will be releasing deep-dives into each developing project on our blog here. 

TLDR: 

• Upstream and Truth Labs merged into an entertainment and technology company called Truth Arts Inc. that is building games, technology, and creative content around the Truth universe.
• Today we are launching Operation Resurrection, enabling Truth Labs NFT holders to burn their NFTs for prospective future equity in the new Truth Arts Inc. This offering on Republic presents a unique opportunity for Truth Labs NFT holders. You can learn more by going to TruthArts.com and by reading the deep dive blog post here. 
• Operation Resurrection has two phases. Phase I launches today. Phase II will focus on enabling community ownership in the IP of the Truth Universe and its characters. 
• The Burned Collection is being announced today. Anyone who burns their NFTs in Operation Resurrection (Phase I or II) will receive their art back in a soul-bound NFT using Coinbase’s BASE that is non-transferable. This can continue to be used for any future token-gated experiences (along with existing collections).
• The Upstream DAO infrastructure is becoming proprietary technology for the Truth Universe, meaning non-Truth related DAOs will be offboarded from the platform. 
• Release of new The187 Collection characters starts today, with future drops for the remaining 156 characters left to be revealed. You can see them at The187.xyz 
• This barely scratches the surface on what’s to come:
  • Three video games are in development
  • A short-form entertainment content series on TikTok will be released soon
  • The first issue of our graphic novel series will kick off our publishing division
  • New merch is available on a shiny new site
  • The long-awaited Truth Raffle returns

If you want the deep-dive on how the merger came to be, what the combined company will focus on, and why I’m so excited for this next chapter, read on. 

If you want to read about Operation Resurrection, you can go straight there here.

Why Combine Upstream and Truth Labs? 

In short, it’s a matter of 1+1=5. Combining the creative teams of Truth Labs with the tech and product teams at Upstream created an unstoppable force. My only regret is that I didn’t think of it sooner. The idea became glaringly obvious towards the end of last summer when we realized that the opportunity to use the Truth IP to build simple and enjoyable games was a sleeping giant on our hands.

At that point Truth Labs had hit a bunch of home runs in terms of brand/community fit between Goblintown/BiG iNC and IlluminatiNFT, and across the broader Truth Universe. The company had generated 90,000+ ETH in primary and secondary sales across its portfolio of projects (including Goblintown, Illuminati, The 187, BiG iNC, and Grumpls) in the first 18 months. This was all great, but then something happened that made us realize we were missing out on a huge opportunity: gaming. 

Some of you may recall a simple video game called Only Up that became a sensation. As luck would have it, I came across the game when it had about 500 downloads. I worked out a partnership with the creator where he put Goblintown IP into the game and in return, we marketed it to our community. By the end of June, the game exploded with the help of the Goblintown distribution, becoming the top-streamed indie game on Twitch with over 300,000 downloads. 

Many people thought it was a Truth Labs game, so much so that seed investors started reaching out to Truth about a potential raise. More so, it wasn’t a secret that the Truth co-founders had full-time jobs and while Truth Labs began as a fun side project (everyone had their own reasons, mine was initially to get Upstream a big NFT project on our DAO platform), we knew it was a disservice to not give it the full attention it deserved. This was the moment we needed to decide if we were going to go all-in on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build the next global entertainment franchise. 

So we did. 

What was incredibly helpful was that Upstream (having raised $16.5M in April 2022) had a killer engineering, design, and product team. Despite building a great DAO product, we (and the greater DAO tooling industry) had not found product market fit. The DAO industry had not taken off as people expected and Upstream was relegated to taking shots on goal to get DAOs to “take off.” Upstream was looking to transform and it was a perfect opportunity to combine the two teams into a powerhouse company that was greater than the sum of its parts. 

Through rigorous discussion and exploration with our board, we agreed that this was the best path forward. It took a few months, but as of mid-January we are one company. There is no more Upstream. There is no more Truth Labs. Now we are Truth Arts.

What is the mission of Truth Arts? 

Truth Arts is an entertainment and technology company that builds immersive worlds around the Goblintown and Truth Universe. The name is an homage to LucasArts (started in ‘82 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company), though I imagine most people will still call us Truth. We’re excited to unveil our new website, but we will continue to use @truth on Twitter. 

Jason Forest, Chief Creative Officer of Truth Arts says it best: 

In an age of rapid misinformation, social media glamor, and soulless highlight reels, where social connections are often reduced to mere text, it's easy to feel alone, outcast, or depressed — as though life is uninteresting, or we're somehow living it all wrong. Goblintown offers a sanctuary from these pressures. It's a place where the weird thrive, a community without falsehoods. Goblintown celebrates the now, affirming the quirky and unique aspects that make each individual, and their existence, valid and meaningful. This isn't a franchise built on superheroes, muscles, and six-pack abs. There are no invulnerable characters here; everyone is deeply flawed, so much so that these flaws are embraced and celebrated. Each goblin is part of the horde, and the horde does not discriminate. Goblintown is a place for everyone.

Truth Arts is creating a modern IP franchise that pays homage to the fantasy and sci-fi of the past while speaking to today's stresses and anxieties. The first lens through which we enter our world is Goblintown, a place of irreverence and resilience. Through the happy, odd, and vibrant characters of Goblintown, we expand into a broad spectrum of stories that develops into a completely unique universe. Our goal is to become an evergreen and ubiquitous IP that creates its mark with conviction, aspiring to be a brand that will grow and mature with our children and their children.

—An excerpt from the internal Truth Arts Manifesto

Operation Resurrection

Operation Resurrection is a two phase initiative by Truth Arts Inc. to give Truth NFT holders the opportunity to burn their NFTs for either future equity rights in the company, or ownership in the Truth Arts IP. Phase I, the initiative to burn for future equity rights, launches today. 

Made possible via an offering on investment platform Republic, the burn window for Phase I of Operation Resurrection is open for 30 days. It would be a disservice to try to stick all the details of the program into this already long post so you can read in greater detail here. We have also written an explainer / FAQ for today's launch and offering on Republic that can be found here.

Operation Resurrection Phase II will begin development after Phase I has completed. The goal of Phase II is to develop a way for Truth Labs NFT holders to be able to burn their NFTs for ownership in character IP of Truth Arts. Phase II is still in development regarding timing, mechanics, and other details. The shared goal of both phases is to ensure that our community can have ownership in the future success of Truth and the characters we build.

Future

With three video games in development, a content series, graphic novels, an exciting software product that we’re obsessed with, and more on the way, we are firing on all cylinders. There is more to dig into across the Burned Collection, The 187 releases, the Truth raffle and more, but we’ll release more specifics in separate blog posts to give each initiative the detail they deserve.  

My final note is that I’m really proud of the team we have put together. After working with everyone for the past few months as we worked towards the merger and since our first full-team offsite retreat in December, I can unequivocally say that with the team we have it is not a matter of IF but WHEN. The talent across each department and function is extraordinary and I know we will do amazing things. 

In short, we couldn’t be more excited about the path forward. It is, in many ways, what everything has been building towards.