What the Badfluence series uncovers
The documentary Badfluence, a joint production by Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) and Podme, turns the spotlight on World of Alidia, a Swedish NFT project launched with grand promises in 2022 and dissolved a little over a year later. Through interviews, annual reports, invoices, and internal documents, the project’s arc is laid bare from boosterish optimism to the sobering realities of execution, funding, and accountability.
The numbers behind the hype
A central moment in the series occurs in late 2022 when the founders share what they call the World of Alidia budget — revenues, costs, and results. The reaction from technical journalist Elin Häggberg is blunt: “The money was really burned. It was spent.” While the documentary notes the difficulty of assembling a complete financial picture from scattered records, two conclusions emerge with clarity. First, the founders Vanja Wikström and Niklas Malmqvist managed to raise just under 3 million kronor, roughly a tenth of the hoped-for total. Second, the single largest cost item was payroll, with more than one million kronor paid to the duo themselves. Wikström’s salary hovered around 44,000 kronor per month, just below the threshold that would push her into a higher tax bracket in Sweden.
Was this a justifiable priority?
In the documentary, Malmqvist defends the payroll choice as a survival strategy: “I don’t think many would say you should work for free or for significantly less, especially in Stockholm when supporting a family.” Wikström adds that their condition was to keep earning their familiar income to push the project forward. Häggberg counters that, for a community-driven crowdfunding effort, a large slice of funds going to the leaders’ salaries raises serious questions about priorities and governance.
From dream to detour: the timeline
World of Alidia was pitched in the summer of 2022 as a next-generation digital art project with a lifestyle around exclusive access, meetups, and premium perks. The momentum built quickly, not only from the visuals of mermaids and elves but from a narrative that placed followers at the center of a shared future. As the series progresses, the promised physical office is put on hold, while other signs of stress emerge — a shift in focus, questions on the sustainability of the business model, and the scrutiny of the online community. The project even earned a sustainability award at one point, illustrating how the line between hype and tangible outcomes can blur in influencer-led ventures.
A trilogy of questions: trust, transparency and accountability
The Badfluence episodes — “Dream,” “Crash,” and “The Accusations” — reconstruct a narrative arc that many in tech and art crowdfunding recognize: ambitious visions meet the friction of real-world costs and governance. The third installment puts the spotlight on allegations and the lingering question of how much responsibility the founders bear for the trust placed in them by followers and investors. The program acknowledges the difficulty of drawing a clean line between marketing bravado and verifiable progress, raising broader debates about influencer-driven funding models in the NFT space and the protection of community resources when projects derail.
Why this story remains relevant
Even years after the first announcements, Badfluence continues to spark debate about why communities invest in digital art, what constitutes fair compensation in small teams, and how accountability is measured when the line between a “dream project” and a failed venture becomes blurry. It serves as a case study for anyone considering crowdfunding or following high-profile influencers into ambitious tech-art experiments. The documentary invites viewers to weigh the allure of innovation against the realities of budgeting, governance, and long-term value creation in the volatile NFT landscape.
