John McManus

Fiction writer. Building the commission board for creative work. Author of 5 books, most recently Famous Children (Sarabande 2027).

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Thanks to everyone who submitted to the Future of Money AI Film Contest, and to @bitcoinfilmfest and @MoneroKon for making it happen. The films are in and I can't wait to watch them.

Bitcoin FilmFest opens in Warsaw in three days, with winners announced onstage Sunday. If you'll be there, come find me.

I couldn't enter my own contest, but here's what the prompt inspired: a short film about Hesse's Glass Bead Game, Satoshi, and @ordainart.

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

@JakeFleshner Reverse patronage

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

https://t.co/sTGL9kVygR

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Thanks to everyone who submitted to the Future of Money AI Film Contest, and to @bitcoinfilmfest and @MoneroKon for making it happen. The films are in and I can't wait to watch them.

Bitcoin FilmFest opens in Warsaw in three days, with winners announced onstage Sunday. If you'll be there, come find me.

I couldn't enter my own contest, but here's what the prompt inspired: a short film about Hesse's Glass Bead Game, Satoshi, and @ordainart.

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

https://t.co/7QMYfhKb82

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Gallery of selected films for the Bitcoin FilmFest/Monerokon Future of Money AI Film Contest is now live on Ordain.

Come watch! Winners to be announced Sunday at Kinoteka. Link in replies.

@bitcoinfilmfest @MoneroKon @ordainart

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

I think Satoshi was playing Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game.

In the novel, mastery is synthesis: setting a Bach fugue, a proof, and a ritual turning around one another. Satoshi did that with cryptography, Austrian economics, and game theory.

Short film on where this all leads.

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

If you can build a protocol for monetary consensus, can you build one for artistic consensus?

The @ordainart thesis says yes.

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

https://t.co/rAqesUtLAa

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Make a short film for @ordainart about the future of money; win 1.5M sats ($1000) onstage at @bitcoinfilmfest.

Imagine the future of money in a bold, thoughtful, strange, cinematic film about how humans may exchange value in the future.

Co-sponsored by @MoneroKon. Link below

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

https://t.co/rAqesUtLAa

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Make a short film for @ordainart about converting dirty energy into Bitcoin; win 765,000 sats onstage at @bitcoinfilmfest.

Show captured landfill methane combusted into electricity, powering ASIC miners hashing to win a Bitcoin block.

Commissioned by @ProofOfMoney. Link below.

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

https://t.co/rAqesUtLAa

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Make a short film for @ordainart about the future of state; win 300,000 sats ($210) onstage at @bitcoinfilmfest.

Who holds power, and why? How are rules made, broken, and remade? Imagine government not as it is, but as it could be.

Co-sponsored by @BTCDistrict. Link below

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Autonomy is the power to commission.

Angkor Wat
Commissioned by Suryavarman II

@ordainart

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Autonomy is the power to commission.

Parthenon
Commissioned by Pericles

@ordainart

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Autonomy is the power to commission.

Taj Mahal
Commissioned by Shah Jahan

@ordainart

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Autonomy is the power to commission.

Sistine Chapel ceiling
Commissioned by Julius II

@ordainart

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

@sadpisces92 The Shards

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

I’ll be at Bitcoin FilmFest in Warsaw June 4-7 with @ordainart for the Future of Momey AI Film Contest—

—which it’s not too late to submit to! Make a short film, win $1K. The tools are getting too good not to try your hand at this.

[Bitcoin FilmFest 🎞️ 🐇 @bitcoinfilmfest]

Bitcoin FilmFest 2026 continues to explore how stories are written, funded, and brought to life. 🔥

We’re proud to welcome @johnpmcmanus, who is a fiction writer, screenwriter, and a professor at Old Dominion University. 🫂

As founder of Ordain, he’s building new ways for creative work to be commissioned and valued, connecting storytelling with emerging creative economies. 🔥

🌐 https://t.co/UC13W6v13b

#BFF26 #BitcoinFilmFest

[John McManus @johnpmcmanus]

Yes exactly

[Matteo Pellegrini @matteopelleg]

once upon a time the greatest painters spent months or years creating the most accurate portraits and landscapes possible

then photography arrived

and suddenly there was no longer much need for paintings to perfectly capture reality

so painters evolved, they became more creative, more abstract, more expressive

art didn’t die, it became more human

the same process is about to happen with AI, at scale

AI will free humans from repetitive & menial jobs, giving us more time to create, imagine, explore, and connect

the future is going to be more human than ever before