My guest today is John Egan. John is the CEO of the foresight company L’atelier. L’atelier, meaning “workshop” in French, is a subsidiary of the French banking giant, BNP Paribas. L’atelier’s job is to identify future market opportunities and conduct deep analysis of these emergent opportunities. And oh boy, do they deliver. The market opportunity that they have identified and decided to dive deepest on, is the virtual economy. They recently produced an incredible research report, which I am not...
Jun 25, 2020•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 27
My guest today is Jason Bailey. Jason is the founder of Artnome which started out as a database that tracks extremely high-value artworks but has since expanded into a multifaceted business, ranging from art curation, art consultation and even a thriving blog focused on the intersection of art and technology. Jason’s background is perfectly suited for our conversation which is centered around the convergence of art and tech that we are all currently experiencing. He went from a successful machin...
Jun 23, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 26
My guest today is Edward Thomson. Edward has an incredibly interesting background that ranges from traditional finance, to crypto, to even being a Persian rug salesman. This diverse background helped him build multiple skill sets which come in handy for his current job, which is Grants Manager for the Web3 Foundation. The Web3 Foundation is best known for being the group behind the newly launched, Polkadot blockchain. Edwards's interests don't stop there, he has dived deep into decentralized gam...
Jun 18, 2020•1 hr 54 min•Season 1Ep. 25
My guest today is Brett Shear, or for those in the NFT community, BlockchainBrett. Brett is a co-founder and COO of Fleek, which is a platform for building websites and applications on IPFS. Our conversations starts with his introduction to crypto, which involves a random encounter with some classmates, his time at Ethereum incubator Consensys, the startup he was a part of while there and of course, Fleek. Along with building crypto products, Brett has an intense passion for the arts, specifical...
Jun 16, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 24
My guest today is Anorak. Anorak is an investor, user, and all-round believer in the metaverse. Although Anorak's passion is mainly focused on the Decentraland Metaverse he supports the entire NFT ecosystem and is an especially big fan of the game Axie Infinity. We discuss everything from virtual casinos and museums to even token economics and the sociable nature of NFTs. What I loved about our conversation is that Anorak is a true NFT and metaverse die hard, this is not simply a hobby for him b...
Jun 11, 2020•56 min•Season 1Ep. 23
My guest today is Max. Max is the founder of Cent which is an Ethereum-powered social network that enables users to earn income from their creativity. Talk about shattering the status quo. Max has that rare trait of philosophical vision mixed with technical expertise. He is able to think about what is wrong with the world and then go out and build a solution to fix it. We go deep on this one, discussing the banality of the modern job and the restructuring of society to allow people to do what th...
Jun 03, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Season 1Ep. 22
My guest today is Chris Bell. A real estate investor and virtual reality devotee who has dived deep into the NFT space. Chris and I discuss everything from physical and virtual real estate, to how to build wealth and even how virtual worlds are naturally evolving into social networks. Chris has a clear passion for the blockchain-based virtual world Somnium Space and I have to say it's quite infectious. His intense excitement for the metaverse is logical considering the incredible capabilities of...
May 31, 2020•57 min•Season 1Ep. 21
My guest today is Jake. Jake is a man of many talents, from art to tech he seems to be exercising both the creative and analytical sides of his brain with regularity. Jake is probably most well known for being the founder and managing partner of CoinFund, an investment firm focused on the blockchain sector. Having been involved with crypto since the early days Jake is exceptionally well versed in all things traditional crypto and he is extremely knowledgeable about the niche of non-fungible toke...
May 26, 2020•59 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Today I have a very special episode with the legend himself, Whaleshark. This episode is structured differently than most because instead of asking big picture questions about the metaverse or NFTs, I focus solely on asking hard questions about his specific project, the $whale social token. I am calling this the “Hotseat series.” and I am super thankful Whaleshark was willing to let me interrogate him. I hope to turn these types of “hotseat” episodes into an entire series where I can ask founder...
May 09, 2020•44 min•Season 1Ep. 20
My guest today is Brian Flynn. Formerly at Dapper Labs Brian is now focusing his attention on building his own product for the crypto ecosystem. Brian has an interesting background that involves professional Esports, a startup that incentives real-world activity with reward points, and a newsletter, called NFTY News. We hit a ton of topics during our conversation, like Brian's journey through crypto and how he got his job at Dapper Labs, the issues with the NFT ecosystem, using crypto to evolve ...
May 05, 2020•56 min•Season 1Ep. 20
My guest today is Avaer. Avaer is working on bleeding edge technology called the Webaverse. The Webaverse is essentially infrastructure that enables the metaverse to be experienced everywhere online and using any technology. Think of it like - how you can access websites from your desktop or phone and still have a similar experience. Our conversation is heavily focused on the metaverse but we also discuss different funding methods, from DAOs to venture capital, launching a metaverse technology w...
Apr 30, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 18
My guest today is Donnie, a co-founder of Bitski. Bitski is creating a developer-focused wallet that does all the heavy lifting. It allows devs to focus on building and not have to worry about any of the “crypto” stuff. I, admittedly, often overlook the infrastructure that powers the NFT ecosystem and really enables all of this to happen but after speaking with Donnie I quickly understood the power and potential of Bitski. In order to get the next million users we not only need better user exper...
Apr 28, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 17
My guest today is ToxSam, the founder of Polygonal Mind. Polygonal Mind is a creative development studio that focuses on designing structures in virtual worlds. Although his firm has made creations for all types of games from mobile to VR, his passion lies in the metaverse. He is a fierce proponent of the metaverse and his team takes every opportunity they can to build in virtual worlds like Decentraland. We discussed NFTs, design, and creativity. We also dived into how a chance meeting led him ...
Apr 21, 2020•54 min•Season 1Ep. 16
My guests today are brothers, Duncan and Griffin, the co-founders of Nifty Gateway. Nifty Gateway is the world's first centralized NFT exchange that allows people to buy nifties using fiat currency. Started in 2018 and acquired by the Winklevoss twins crypto exchange, Gemini, it's safe to say that Duncan and Griffin are onto something big. They are trying to reduce the barriers to entry so the next million and, eventually billion, people can get onboarded into the nifty ecosystem. It was great s...
Apr 15, 2020•57 min•Season 1Ep. 15
My guest today is n0shot, co-founder of Async Art. n0shot and his other co-founders are transforming the art world by enabling artists to create programmable artwork. The artwork launched on their platform can change in real-time and actually react to outside events. Talk about the next evolution of the art game. Speaking with n0shot I got the sense that he is the perfect person to help lead this endeavor. Programmable art requires both analytical and creative skills working in unison and he see...
Apr 06, 2020•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 14
My guest today is Joel, co-founder of Metalith and NIFTEX. Joel is building products that are expanding the economic capabilities of NFTs. By focusing on foundational financial infrastructure, Joel intends to set up the NFT market to be larger than the traditional crypto market. Speaking with Joel reminds me a lot of reading Fred Ehrsam’s early blogs. For those who don't know, Fred is the former co-founder of Coinbase. Fred’s blogs from 2016 and 2017 were so far ahead of their time, reading them...
Mar 24, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 13
My guests today are Sebastien and Nathan. They are building the blockchain-based metaverse called The Sandbox. The approach that they are taking towards constructing a fun and fair metaverse is exceptionally well thought out. They are not only focused on today but thinking years down the line, everything from how the users will move around the world to creating free design software for easy content creation. Each step meant to create the best experience for a well-functioning metaverse. With Seb...
Mar 23, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 1Ep. 12
My guest today is Trilist. Trilist is so deeply involved with the NFT space I don't think a one-line description does him justice. Trislit is like a dictionary on all things non-fungible token. Not only is he one of the kindest and wholesome characters in our ecosystem, he seemingly knows everyone and everything happening within our ever-evolving space. Which as you know, is no easy task. Besides having immense knowledge of the NFTs he is also filled to the absolute gills with different ideas on...
Mar 11, 2020•58 min•Season 1Ep. 11
My guest today is James, a multi-district leader in Decentraland. James is intensely focused on bringing the metaverse to life by leading the festival, university and vegas districts in the virtual world of Decentraland. We dive into different metaverse-native business models and why blockchain-based virtual worlds are more akin to platforms than games. James is filled with different ideas on how to accelerate the emergence of the metaverse and he has the technical chops to back it up. We even d...
Feb 26, 2020•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 10
My guest today is Baus, the founder of Decentral Games. Baus is building The Flamingos, a casino in the virtual world of Decentraland, but if you think that is cool, it gets better. Not only is he creating a revenue-generating business within the Decentraland metaverse, but while on his mission to create the best user experience for those in his casino, he is actually streamlining interactions with the blockchain so they become almost effortless. The technologies and techniques that he is develo...
Feb 11, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 9
My guest today is Artur, the founder of Somnium Space. Artur is building a virtual reality enabled metaverse with Ethereum-based asset ownership. I loved our conversation because Instead of NFTs, we mainly focused on what our virtual future will look like. Artur is a metaverse maximalist that believes that our society and the entire world will be radically transformed by virtual reality and its associated environments. And that is why he is so focused on building Somnium Space. Like most guests ...
Feb 06, 2020•55 min•Season 1Ep. 8
My guest today is Dan, a co-founder of Nonfungible.com. Dan is building a platform that focuses on the data surrounding the NFT ecosystem but has plans to turn it into much much more. What I loved about our conversation was Dan's focus on the core fundamental values of the crypto ecosystem: Transparency, security, and self-sovereignty. For Dan, this is not just another industry he wants to be apart of because of its massive growth potential, this is not even an industry at all for him. This is a...
Feb 03, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 7
My guest today is Devil. An Artist, creative and community builder., A leading authority on all things NFT, Devil is a jack of all trades. If you need an incredible structure built in the metaverse, a beautiful piece of voxel art or someone to shepherd your growing NFT community, Devil is your guy. What I loved about our conversation was the focus on how the NFT space fosters an amazing community of creatives. It seems everywhere we look, new experiments are happening with passionate people who ...
Jan 22, 2020•43 min•Season 1Ep. 6
My guest today is Jiho. The co-founder and head of growth at Axie Infinity. Not one to follow the well-trodden path, Jiho blazes his own trail. Whether he's creating a successful NFT project or integrating DeFi into gameplay mechanics, Jiho sets a furious pace of constant innovation. We covered a multitude of topics during our conversation but the recurring theme was to focus on the fundamentals: Listen to the community, always innovate and create a great experience for the users. Please enjoy m...
Jan 22, 2020•46 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Subscribe to Zima Red for info on NFTs, Virtual Worlds and Blockchain Games. My guest today is Conlan. Conlan is a man of action. Whether he is building tools for the non-fungible token ecosystem or entire neighborhoods in the metaverse, Conlan doesn't dream of the future, he builds it. Our conversation covered a multitude of NFT-related topics but we kept coming back to the Metaverse. His thoughts surrounding its emergence are extremely interesting and inspiring. After speaking with him I know ...
Jan 06, 2020•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 3
Subscribe to Zima Red for more info on all things NFTs, virtual worlds, and blockchain games. My guest today is GoWest. A crypto OG, NFT connoisseur and founder of the newsletter NFTY report. GoWest has been involved with crypto since the very, very early days and was one of the first people to get involved with CryptoKitties. He brings a value investor mindset to the world of nonfungibles and explains how he looks for assets with true longevity. It was an honor speaking with GoWest and he gave ...
Dec 22, 2019•55 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Subscribe to Zima Red for info on NFTs, Virtual Worlds and Blockchain Games. My guest today is Jim, you might know him from the CryptoKitties, Cheeze Wizards or a whole host of other NFT discords. Jim takes us through his distinguished professional career and tells us about his journey to crypto and then to the NFT space. We get deep into conversation on all things NFTs but we keep coming back to what makes the core essence of on-fungible tokens, particularly the art and metadata. What I love ab...
Dec 19, 2019•1 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 1
