6 Questions for…

6 Questions for Alex O’Donnell about financial journalism and the future of DeFi

Alex O’Donnell spoke to us about his career as a financial journalist — and how it led to his involvement in crypto and Umami DAO.

Umami Labs CEO Alex O’Donnell grew up on the outskirts of Philadelphia before attending Temple University to study literature and economics. That path led him to devote seven years of his life as a financial journalist at Reuters, where he specialized in M&As IPOs.

He said his academic focus created a “pretty natural synthesis” when it came ot financial journalism. However, he said he became “disenchanted” with his industry while he was cooped up at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. “There really was a three-way alliance between journalists, government officials and technology companies trying to control the flow of information,” O’Donnell said in an interview with Cointelegraph.

He began tinkering with cryptocurrency, which led to his introduction with Umami DAO and ultimately his creation of Umami Labs.

O’Donnell and his wife, Sanjana, are preparing for a “third, smaller person” to join their family next year. In the meantime, he said he’s also gearing up for another crypto-related venture. The details aren’t fully public yet, but he said he plans to release more information the months ahead.

1) How’d you make the transition from journalism to crypto?

I’d been a journalist for the better part of a decade primarily covering mergers and acquisitions. I always had an interest in finance and tech. But I started becoming a bit disenchanted with the mainstream media around the time of the pandemic. That was the first time I started becoming a bit more cynical about my own industry’s role in the information economy. So I started paying more attention to issues like privacy, censorship and other things I had not taken as much interest in before.

Alex O'Donnell at his wedding in 2023.
Alex O’Donnell at
his wedding in 2023. Photo credit: BR Studio’s Christian Garcia.

In 2020 I spent most of my time covering the Covid-19 pandemic. There really was a three-way alliance between journalists, government officials and technology companies trying to control the flow of information. It wasnt even that the official line was wrong. It was that dissent was being stifled in the first place. That really peaked my interest in decentralized platforms.

At that point, I started to become meaningfully interested in crypto. Given that I came from financial journalism, decentralized finance (DeFi) in particular caught my interest. I really started actively investing in different crypto protocols as a retail investor in 2021. I was getting more involved in DeFi communities, and one of them was the predecessor to Umami ZeroTwOhm.

2) How did that lead to you creating Umami Labs?

I got involved in ZeroTwOhm as a regular retail investor aping in as many people did. It was a pretty small community, so I was able to pretty quickly get in contact with the developers building the protocol.

But they didn’t really have a clear sense of direction about what they wanted to do next. They had bootstrapped several millions of dollars in capital that was largely just sitting there. It felt like somebody needed to step in, and the developers were, frankly, more than happy to hand responsibility off to someone else, which ended up being me.

3) What are you focused on now?

What I’m most interested in now is zeroing in on a problem that became very clear to me during my time at Umami. Essentially, as Umami Labs geared up to launch our first product in early 2023, I was meeting with a lot of crypto-focused hedge funds and large individual investors. There was this gaping need for some way to securely earn interest on USDC, USDT, and other stablecoins without having to just completely move off-chain.

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I already focused at Umami on developing another product that was designed to generate returns on stablecoins, but the real need is for something that is as secure and boring and reliable as a conventional savings account, but for people who were holding stablecoins on on-chain wallets. There have been forays into that area by other players, but I have yet to see a complete solution to that problem. It takes a combination of having the right regulated entities off-chain and seamless mechanisms for on- and off-ramping on-chain.

That is something I’m personally focused on now. Im collaborating with some others on developing something, and getting feedback from potential early users. We’ll have more details to share within the next couple of months. But for now, it’s still in the early stages.

In my personal opinion, I do think that the high point of the crypto market in 2021 really was the high-water market of this era of very DIY, unregulated, sort of community-run bootstrapped protocols. I think that going in subsequent years, including now, we’re going to see a pretty stark shift in which DeFi stops looking so much like a completely separate ecosystem. It will for all intents and purposes become a subset of TradFi.

Related: Coinbase launches regulated crypto futures services for US retail traders

I don’t think the DeFi versus TradFi distinction is going to last. Obviously, we’re seeing a number of ETFs undergoing the registration process. In the background, major players are obtaining licenses to engage in a wider array of financial activities in the U.S. Coinbase, for example has, registered as a Futures Commission Merchant and also as a Designated Contract Market with the CFTC. That authorizes them to operate an exchange and open accounts within the futures markets. Those will be focus, of course, on Bitcoin and Ether.

Coinbase and Circle are accumulating different components that will allow them to become deeply integrated operators within traditional finance. I think that is very interesting. In parallel to that, you have folks such as Fidelity and Franklin Templeton and BlackRock developing regulated crypto investment products. Franklin Templeton is developing its own tokenized Treasury Bill ETF. It’s pretty clear that will be a source of momentum for the industry over the next several years.

5) What’s the most interesting to you as an investment right now?

Really, the only thing in crypto that I’m interested in as a long-term investment is Ether and its staking and re-staking derivatives. I think we’re still at a point where the vast majority of potential investments in crypto are extremely speculative. The underlying value proposition of the tokens is still unclear. I think ETH is one of the few exceptions. So I do hold ETH, and I’m comfortable with it as a long-term investment.

I’m paying attention to the staking protocols like Lido and Eigen Layer. Eigen allows people to take ETH they’ve already staked and re-stake it to any number of related staking protocols. That very significantly expands the range of activities that can be done trustlessly. I expect to see, over time, a lot of building on top of Eigen and other similar protocols. I think we’ll see a proliferation of investment funds and ETFs that specialize in taking ETH and staking it and re-staking it.

6) What do you think is the main hurdle to mass adoption of blockchain technology?

There needs to be a complete fusion of protocols on the bleeding edge of blockchain, and more established companies that are integrated into the traditional financial sector and capable of operating compliantly from a regulatory perspective. We need to see established players integrating sophisticated smart contracts and taking full advantage of blockchain’s potential. Then well start to see blockchain becoming part of everyday financial transactions and activities.

6 Questions for Adelle Nazarian on crypto, journalism and the future of Bitcoin

Adelle Nazarian and the American Blockchain PAC are in Washington, D.C. fighting for your right to buy and HODL cryp.

Adelle Nazarian is the top staffer at the American Blockchain PAC, where she serves as its CEO. But she has a long story to tell about her life prior to her time in the crypto industry from her Persian roots to her career in journalism.

Nazarian, who worked as a freelance journalist after serving in positions with mainstream outlets that included Fox News and CNN, said her work contributed to her disillusionment with the media. “Working in journalism was really eye-opening for me because I witnessed how divisive and activist-oriented it’s become,” she said in an interview with Cointelegraph.

She said her desire to work in a role that contributed to people’s betterment was one of the driving factors that led her to the American Blockchain PAC in 2021, saying, “I saw Bitcoin as being one way of providing an opportunity to people everywhere in the world to pull themselves up in life.”

1) Your family fled from Iran before the Iranian Revolution, but you’ve never visited. Do you speak Farsi? Tell us more about your background.

My parents were both born in Tehran, Iran and emigrated to the United States when they were young. My father was 15 and my mother was 12. I was raised speaking Farsi and English. (I also speak Mandarin Chinese and French.) It is one of my dreams to visit Iran someday in the future. Id love to visit so many parts of the country and especially to visit Isfahan, which is where my maternal grandparents were born and raised. I am proud to come from such a rich, diverse and beautiful cultural background. 

My mom is a homemaker and also had a caviar business for several years and my father is an entrepreneur.

2) You used to work in journalism at Fox News, CNN and elsewhere. Why’d you make the transition into crypto?

Working in journalism was really eye-opening for me because I witnessed how divisive and activist-oriented it’s become. Reporting a story isn’t about the facts anymore for some journalists it’s about injecting their own ideas.

I really enjoyed doing investigative journalism, but I consider myself to be an entrepreneur and philanthropist at heart. I felt that, really, the blockchain space was a way to be able to have a platform to utilize my experience and work with diverse people from leaders of countries to everyday people and see how everyone’s experience is truly predicated on one underlying theme that connects them all.

Adelle Nazarian interviewing Mike Pence in 2016, before he became the vice president. Source: Adelle Nazarian
Adelle Nazarian interviewing Mike Pence in 2016, before he became the vice president. Source: Adelle Nazarian

That theme is the desire and ability to create a better life for themselves and those around them. It’s such a factor that determines your lot in life. I saw Bitcoin as being one way of providing an opportunity to people everywhere in the world to pull themselves up in life. It also provides governments with the opportunity to reduce their reliance on war as a way to increase wealth.

3) Tell us about the American Blockchain PAC.

The American Blockchain PAC was founded as a way to provide a space for everyone interested in seeing a sound regulatory framework to define what crypto is and what Bitcoin is, and in clearly defining and understanding them and how they’re classified in the United States.

Related: Crypto industry seeks to educate, influence US lawmakers as it faces increasing regulation

We boost candidates running for office who support blockchain technology. But I think a lot of political action committees try to only basically pick and support candidates who will win and we don’t just do that. We’re also trying to educate and inform people about crypto and the adoption of digital assets, and enable them to push back against legislation that could harm them at the end of the day.

4) What’s your favorite crypto?

Bitcoin because its different from other cryptocurrencies. I believe everyone is grateful that the SEC made it very clear that Bitcoin is not a security. I also like Cardano and Ethereum. Ethereum began with good intentions but may have steered away from its original vision. That said, I think there is a bright future for it and an opportunity for it to evolve. Bitcoin is a pioneer in the digital assets space. It started the revolution we are living through today.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of meme coins and altcoins have put a bad taste in people’s mouths when it comes to digital assets, and I think it strengthens the argument for Bitcoin greatly.

5) Does it matter if we ever figure out who Satoshi really is or was? Why, or why not?

There are two quotes I like: “No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot,” by Mark Twain and “The truth is a strange thing. You can try to suppress it but it will always find its way to the surface.”

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So of course there are people who are faking and pretending to be Satoshi. The “FakeToshi” hashtag is an indicator of that fact. But at the end of the day, the real Satoshi Nakamoto is alive, and he is not a Japanese man. I recently read Ivy McLemores book, Finding Satoshi, and it was intriguing.

Adelle Nazarian speaking on a panel in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2019). Source: Adelle Nazarian
Adelle Nazarian speaking on a panel in Dhaka, Bangladesh (2019). Source: Adelle Nazarian

Anyone who has actually done their due diligence and studied Bitcoin understands there must be some reason for Bitcoins origins. Satoshi did not want these so-called trusted third parties and banks running away with consumer cash, which is a persistent issue just look at what occurred with FTX. Its ironic that what hes stood against from Day 1 trusted third parties like FTX have actually become the main tools for buying and selling Bitcoin. This is not in line with his original vision.

As for whether it matters who Satoshi is, only the real Satoshi will pave the way for the next generation of Bitcoin and dozens of new and emerging industries that will benefit from the underlying blockchain technology. Satoshi created Bitcoin to be decentralized and peer-to-peer. He never sought to do any of this based on his own personal greed or agenda. He did this for the world. Technically, we are all Satoshi.

It’s the vision that matters, because even the most incredible technology without vision is a dormant tool. Bitcoin was created to elevate humanity in a truly unprecedented way in our collective history.

6) What do you do in your free time?

I’m a big foodie. I enjoy different cuisines. I can make recipes from all over the world. Being Persian, one of my favorites is khoresht gheymeh it’s a tomato-based stew made with beef, lentils and spices, served traditionally with rice and tahdig a crispy golden crust over fluffy rice. I also enjoy working out, reading, and traveling. I love to travel.

6 Questions for JW Verret — the blockchain professor who’s tracking the money

J.W. Verret is the “Blockchain Professor.” He may be tracking your money, but he’s advocating for crypto.

J.W. Verret is a Harvard-educated attorney who teaches corporate finance and accounting at George Mason University. His work has increasingly intersected with the cryptocurrency sector in recent years, as his legion of Twitter followers who know him as “BlockProf,” or the Blockchain Professor are poignantly aware.

Aside from his work at GMU, Verret has become known as a vocal advocate for crypto as the top honcho at Crypto Freedom Lab, a think tank fighting devoted to preserving “freedom and privacy for crypto developers and users.” He also serves as a professional legal witness for defendants accused wrongfully, Verret would argue of evading financial-tracking laws, and he’s authoring a related book on the subject, tentatively titled “Blockchain Privacy and Forensics.” In between, he finds time to serve as a regular columnist for Cointelegraph.

1) You’re very busy professionally  teaching at George Mason University, serving on committees with the Securities and Exchange Commission, going to trials as expert witness. How did life lead you to cryptocurrency?

I spent 15 years as a libertarian regulation/financial person, writing it, think-tanking it in Washington, D.C. For the first 10 years, I lost everything I fought for in the Dodd-Frank era.

The thing with crypto is that it’s been a freedom revolution in finance. It fixes, or aims to fix, problems in finance that government regulation only aims to fix. Regulation entrenches intermediaries where crypto fixes problems by eliminating the need for those intermediaries. And that was very interesting to me. 

2) You served on the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee, but youve also been very vocal in criticizing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. How was that experience?

It was good. I replaced Hester Peirce when she became an SEC commissioner. I wrote a lot of dissents as a committee member, so I hope I did Hester proud, but I do not think they’ll invite me back in the future under the current chairman. It seems like he’s been trying to just destroy this industry.

He could’ve reached out to the industry to try to make things work, but he has no interest in that, and he’s sued some of the best actors in crypto Coinbase and Kraken while ignoring the worst.

3) You’re a vocal proponent of Zcash. Explain your interest there.

Zcash is like Bitcoin, but private. It’a a great invention. Whoever the developers were  deserve a Nobel Prize.

I own a lot of Bitcoin. I think it’s a tremendous innovation. But for day-to-day payments, I think we need some privacy, and it’s hard to get that with Bitcoin. I’m also a fan of Monero. which has some pretty good privacy technology. But they’re both pretty good projects t’s possible to like both the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

Also read: The Supreme Court could stop the SECs war on crypto

There are no other privacy tokens that are in the same ballpark. There are some that are really neat innovations, but they’re not at the level you need to have the same privacy. Other projects I’m very excited about are Samourai Wallet and Sparrow Wallet, which offer a bit of privacy for BItcoin transactions.

4) On that note, how do you think the future of crypto is going to be defined? Is it going to be defined as a way to achieve greater privacy in transaction? Will it be defined by efficiency in the sense that its easier to use than traditional finance instruments? Will it be defined by crime? Or will it be some mixture of these?

That’s an interesting question. I think it will be some combination of all those things. Crime is often a testing ground for new technology. It certainly was for the internet. In the 1990s, a lot of criminals used the internet. I think the strongest forces in determining what cryptos survive will be some mixture of efficiency and scale, but I think privacy will be a part of it. As governments and big corporations fight back against trustless, disintermediated property transfers, the only way to protect yourself will be through the use of privacy coins and privacy protocols.

5) Youre also serving as a professional witness in U.S. v. Sterlingov, where the U.S. government is charging 33-year-old Roman Sterlingov with developing Bitcoin Fog a crypto mixer. The FBI arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in 2021, and they’re accusing him [Bitcoin Fog] of laundering $336 million. Tell me about that.

I spend a lot of time as a forensic accountant, but I’m also into privacy. Some people think that’s a conflict: How can you be privacy while also following the money? But I dont see that as a conflict at all. Some of the people most into privacy who I know are forensic investigators. I’m a believer in public information. People should learn what it takes to be private. The worst people tend not to be smart anyway they make mistakes, and they dont use privacy tools optimally.

Also read: CipherTrace expert says Chainalysis data contributed to wrongful arrest of alleged Bitcoin Fog founder

In terms of U.S. v. Sterlingov, Im providing some expert help in forensic accounting and money laundering. It’s been helpful to merge my legal and accounting perspectives to aid the legal team.  I also do some work helping customers of large crypto exchanges when their crypto is frozen, and we ultimately resolve it when we figure out that the customer did nothing wrong but were falsely flagged by crypto tracing tools.

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False positives in crypto tracing can have a real cost and that is one thing that concerns me about the dominance of some of the tracing firms. TRM and Ciphertrace seem like they try to get things right and don’t overclaim their tracing capabilities but that’s not true of every firm in this industry.

6) I hear you have opinions about UFOs. Can you tell us what you know?

I’m really into podcasts about the history of investigations into UFOs. Some good ones are “Strange Arrivals” and “High Strange.” Id also recommend reading J. Allen Hyneks “The Hynek UFO Report,” which is about the Project BLUE BOOK Report.  He was a physics professor at a little school [Ohio State] and the Air Force asked him to look into it one day. I think they thought he’d be a front man and he was, but then he changed.

The government knows no more now than it did 50 years ago. They may know more than they’ve shared, but I don’t think they understand it. The Navy pilot revelations are pretty amazing. So I think they do exist. I think they’re probably probes of some kind that are unmanned nothing armageddon or conspiracy. I just think they want to see what we’re up to.

6 Questions for Kei Oda: From Goldman Sachs to cryptocurrency

Kei Oda spent 16 years trading bonds for Goldman Sachs — a life that eventually bored him. That was when he turned to cryptocurrency.

Kei Oda is the head of Japan and the Asia-Pacific region for Quantstamp, a Web3 security firm that audits smart contracts and develops blockchain security solutions.

Kei spent 16 years trading bonds at Goldman Sachs before stumbling into cryptocurrencies out of boredom. He tells Magazine he was induced by the ability to trade Bitcoin and other assets around the clock.

He has since fallen down the rabbit hole, even finding a job in the industry.

1. How did you get involved in crypto?

So, I was actually a bond trader for 16 years before joining crypto. 

You know, we used to talk about Bitcoin when I was still trading bonds. I didnt really understand it or believe in it, to be honest, but when I left my job in 2016 and tried to get into the startup space, what dawned on me once I left was that, having been a trader, you do have a long-term focus, but you also are very, very short-term in terms of how you trade, what you do day to day, minute to minute, and what ended up happening was, I would get bored very easily.

Essentially, my attention span became like a goldfish, and that was what working in finance kind of did to me. And so, I started trading Bitcoin.

Initially, it was simply to pass the time. And then, once I started researching Bitcoin, obviously, I thought the value proposition was extremely compelling.

And as part of that journey, I of course fell down the rabbit hole and started looking at crypto in general and specific assets like Ethereum, and it just sounded like a crazy, crazy proposition. You know, if it succeeds, obviously were talking about something that could be game-changing.

Kei Oda speaking

2. What do you think of the current Japanese crypto ecosystem?

I think that Japan has a pretty vibrant ecosystem, especially right now. Its taken a while, but if you look at the trajectory of what Japan has gone through as a whole (the Mt.Gox and CoinCheck hacks, etc.), it has become very progressive.

In one sense, you know, allowing Bitcoin to be kind of used as currency, not obviously as an official currency or government currency, but it is an accepted payment method, and its actually legal to use it.

I think another kind of sector that seems to be quite exciting, at least for Japanese financial firms, is security tokens. I think thats something that people are looking at. Security tokens globally I dont really hear that much about, [but] there are quite a few companies looking at them here in Japan.

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It almost feels like the Japanese crypto blockchain ecosystem has broken off a little bit from the rest of the world, or at least the cycles seem to be a little bit displaced in the sense that were starting to see very good interest and decent activity from big companies in Japan. Whereas I think that that probably happened a little bit earlier in other markets and has now kind of subsided.

3. What has held the Japanese crypto scene back?

I think at the bottom of it all is taxation. Taxation is still not very friendly here in Japan.

What the old regulation used to be is that if your Japanese startup issued a token here in Japan and you sold half of it to Japanese investors or the Japanese community, then you would have to pay tax on the revenue that you realized by selling tokens. But you would also have to pay tax on the 50% that you hadnt sold.

Related: An overview of the cryptocurrency regulations in Japan

Its even worse for personal taxes. In Japan, profits on crypto trading are taxed as extra-ordinary income, which can be as much as 55%. Its not super friendly.

Now, if you compare that to Singapore, the basic tax rate is much, much lower at around 20% or something. Hong Kong, I think, is something similar. Dubai obviously has zero income tax. So, youre talking about a pretty big difference financially for startup founders and entrepreneurs.

4. Do you think more companies will start setting up in Japan instead of opting for other Asian hubs?

The Japanese government is trying to be very progressive and forward-thinking about Web3.

Theyre trying to be very active in getting talent to stay in Japan and also to come to Japan.

For example, the government is planning digital nomad visas. And I think that is going to be great for people who earn in other currencies and come to Japan, just because the yen has become so much more attractive (weakening against the United States dollar).

Japan is also attractive because there is a big market here, and there is a big market size that startups can capture here.

5. Have you made any moves to foster a crypto community here?

The Japanese crypto scene is quite active. However, what I find is that, when you go to a Japanese meet-up, there is a long presentation that you have to sit through. And at the end, they give you five to 10 minutes to try and network.

But you know excuse my language its kind of a shitshow.

So, what I did was help to create an event [Tokyo Blockchain Night] where theres no presentation no ones trying to sell anything.

Its simply like-minded people being able to have a drink and talk about crypto and look for investors, engineers, etc., or just make friends.

I think its something that helps people and goes along with the whole kind of ethos we have at Quantstamp, which is that we help people and pay it forward, and hopefully, something comes back to us.

Kei Oda

6. How did contagion from collapses like FTX impact the Japanese market?

The way FTX essentially blew up is kind of interesting in that FTX had a Japanese subsidiary; they bought a Japanese exchange called Liquid.

And because the regulations around asset custody in Japan were much stricter, FTX Japan wasnt able to commingle funds or anything like that. So, actually, the Japanese entity was fully liquid and solvent. To the point where, if you were a Japanese customer of FTX, you essentially either have or will get all of your money back.

Whereas if youre a client of FTX International, I dont know what the update is there, but its not looking that promising.

I think the Japanese regulations that came in after the CoinCheck hack were probably much more strict than other jurisdictions; however, as a result of that, were now seeing an uptick in Japanese activity, to the point where the MUFG, the worlds biggest banking conglomerate in Japan, is going to launch stablecoins.

6 Questions for Leila Ismailova: Digital fashion and life after Artisant

Leila Ismailova left Belarus — and an epic TV career — behind when she moved to America. Today, she’s at the forefront of digital fashion.

Leila Ismailova began her professional career at the age of 15 as a broadcasting star in Belarus, the Russian-neighboring Eastern European country that plays home to 9.3 million citizens. She continued in the role for 10 years, she says, before reaching what she felt was a professional ceiling and beginning a journey that led to Web3.

I remember my audacity as a child, just sneaking into the buildings with newspapers and magazines it was called the House of Press, Ismailova recalls in an interview with Cointelegraph. I would handwrite my stories and sneak into the building because I didnt have a pass  by making up stories that I was someones granddaughter, or by just going in when someone else entered. And I would find the doors that said editor or editor-in-chief, and I would just walk in and give them my articles. People smiled, and Im sure they felt I was naive, but I felt they also had some respect for me doing this work.

Her renegade news career led to television in a matter of years. She joined the countrys First National Channel at the age of 15, where she started on a show that covered news and culture for younger viewers.

My first audition went horribly, Ismailova says. I turned purple. I was thinking really fast, but they still wanted me to come for the second round.

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Ismailova moved to the United States in 2016, setting off what she calls a season of migration for her family, including her brother, Bahram, and sister, Esmira. Bahram is a serial tech entrepreneur whose inventions include Peech App and Yope, among many others, while Esmira is an author whose published works include On the Shores of Bosphorus. (You wont find it in English yet, so dont spend too much time scouring Amazon.)

Leila Ismailova with co-host Denis Kuryan in 2014.
Leila Ismailova hosting the International Music Festival Slavic Bazaar in Vitebsk, Belarus, 2014. Source: Screenshot

Ismailovas and her siblings success came despite hardship. Their father died when they were children (Bahram was just 1), fighting for Azerbaijan in the countrys war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

It happened very abruptly, Ismailova says. Of course, no one planned for it, so we went very fast from being a well-off family living in the capital of Baku to being a very scared family. We were pretty much on our own in a country that was going through the war with Armenia and, on top of that, separating from the Soviet Union. It was a very harsh time for everybody.

Ismailova says that experience inspired her to launch a charity during her broadcast career that offered mentoring for orphans, an activity she would like to resume in the future.

It seemed like these girls, even though the government provided very simple basics for them to start life, didnt have parental guidance, Ismailova recalls. It seemed like a lot of orphan girls were insecure because no one told them they were beautiful. Our goal was to create that guidance and to give them a confidence boost. […] For me, it was very important to do, and I was so lucky that I had a chance and a bit of influence. Right now, I miss it very much.

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Today, shes a Web3 veteran after spending three years at Artisant, a digital fashion brand she co-founded inspired, in part, by her career in journalism. As a child, I didnt have access to a lot of beautiful dresses, Ismailova says. But I always appreciated the elegant and beautiful part of fashion, and when I watched TV, I always saw TV hosts and red carpets. It always looked stunning.

Ismailova left Artisant in July to launch a new chapter of her career as a consultant for digital-savvy fashion brands. Im sort of coming back to reality, Ismailova explains. Artisant was a digital fashion brand, but there was no physical product.

1. You moved from Belarus, where you were a TV journalist, to the United States. Whats the story behind that?

Im the only one from my family who moved, at first. I opened the season of migration for my family, as right after I moved, my sister moved, and then my brother. He didnt just move he ran away in August 2020, right after the Belarusian presidential election, when they started hunting people down. He had to run. His two co-founders were arrested.

Leila Ismailova with co-host Denis Kuryan in 2014.
Leila Ismailova with co-host Denis Kuryan in 2014. Source: Screenshot

My personal story is that I was a pretty successful TV host back home, I started when I was 15. I wanted to be a TV host because I wanted to wear beautiful dresses. I was very happy. It was my dream job! I started working early, and I think I was very hungry for success. I got all the national awards I dreamed of at a very young age, hosted all the shows I wanted to, and reached the professional ceiling back home.

2. What got you into crypto?

Well, my first stop in the United States was Californiathis was before I moved to Miami. I got into graduate school for a masters program at USC Annenberg. Ive always been a nerd, and school seemed like a safe environment to connect to people. I started studying Kabbalah, and I started learning about entrepreneurship during the first wave of crypto in 2017. Then I invested in my first crypto and lost it. I bought Litecoin at $250. But I started working in crypto only in 2020.

3. What brought you to Miami?

I felt very limited in Los Angeles with the COVID-19 restrictions, and very isolated. I couldnt even walk my dog because they closed the parks. So, I got into digital fashion. It got me very curious about how something that didnt exist could make someone feel so good. That was when I met my Artisant co-founder, Regina [Turbina], in 2020. We were talking, and I started helping with little things. In 2021, I joined Artisant full-time.

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Things were flowing, so I quit my job and took a leap of faith  which brought me to Miami. And since I joined crypto, never have I met so many bright, prominent people with open minds. Everyone has been very welcoming, even though I knew far less in the beginning than I know now. People were willing to spend hours on the phone with me, sharing knowledge. I think the welcoming environment encouraged me to stay.

4. How do you see digital fashion evolving over the next five years?

Looking at the last bull run, I think it was awesome, but its over. We have this romantic notion that were all moving to the metaverse, and our avatars will all need clothes someday. I want to see technology become a tool that makes people more well-rounded, sustainable wholesome.

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We have this vicious circle in the Western world of buying goods we dont need. Brands manipulate us into buying things. Consequently, we need to produce more goods, and we have this vicious circle of overproduction and overconsumption. We have a situation where fashion, the most beautiful business in the world, is responsible for 10% of carbon emissions.

We have a huge problem at hand, and I see digital fashion and technology as a possible solution. Were moving from the notion of building digital clothes for the metaverse to looking at how digital fashion can be useful right now. Look at Dior and their B33 sneaker collection with NFC chips built into the sole. Its an amazing technology that allows you to link them to digital assets. So it’s a very good way for brands to solve the problem of counterfeit products. Another example is LVHM, which is partnering with Epic Games to create things like virtual fitting rooms, immersive fashion, dynamic 360-degree product displays and more.

To me, we’ve reached a point of no return. Even with the bear market and many Web3 projects going into hibernation, we still see news about digital fashion every week. There won’t be a single fashion house that isn’t using digital fashion in five years.

5. You recently left Artisant. Where are you going next?

Leila Ismailova with co-host Denis Kuryan in 2014.
Leila Ismailova wearing a digital suit designed by ARTISANT. Source: David Dinetz

Seeing Artisant grow not just in numbers but in real people who defined Artisant as their community meant the whole world to me. But I came to a point where I gave everything I could to the project. Technology has a huge mission in reforming the world of fashion, and I want to contribute. While I am still pondering my next big professional adventure, I know it will be fun and will serve humanity.

6. Whats your life like outside of crypto?

I love having a balanced life. I have a dog named Rocco. I play chess. To me, chess is a very important game that helps me a lot in business and in analyzing situations by sharpening my analytical skills.

I also like sports. Its very important, for me, to keep moving. Yoga has been part of my life for quite some time. Since I live in Miami, I do things like paddleboarding and kite surfing. And I take dance classes. That was one of my first dreams, actually to become a dancer.

6 Questions for Simon Davis of Mighty Bear Games

Mighty Bear Games CEO Simon Davis — AKA “Papa Bear” — gave us a look inside his Web3 gaming studio, and his thoughts on the future of gaming.

Simon Davis is the co-founder and CEO of Mighty Bear Games, a multiplatform game developer in Southeast Asia creating accessible multiplayer experiences in Web3.

Davis has spent almost two decades working in the gaming industry, but he never planned to actually work in this field.

Before crypto, he was a professional guitarist who made ends meet by playing in metal bands and cover bands and by teaching guitar. But after his money dried up one summer, he scored a six-week gig as a professional game tester and he’s never looked back.

Mighty Bear Games' Simon Davis' guitar collection
Davis ever-growing guitar collection. (Simon Davis)

During his time in the gaming industry, Davis has held management and product lead positions at gaming companies including King Digital Entertainment, Ubisoft, Bigpoint, AKQA, Empire Interactive, and Laughing Jackal. 

In 2017, Davis teamed up with some friends and fellow industry veterans to launch Mighty Bear Games in Singapore, where they intended to focus on creating traditional games before pivoting to blockchain in 2022. And in 2023, the firm launched an open beta for Mighty Action Heroes, its first Web3 gaming title.

Davis, who also goes by “Papa Bear,” said every Mighty Bear employee receives a “bear title.” Some of Papa Bear’s employees include “Arty Bear,” “Bear-Abel,” “Excel Bear,” and “Bear McNumbers.”

Why the pivot to blockchain gaming?

I was lucky enough to kind of get into Bitcoin by accident in 2015, so Ive been in the space for a few years. In 2021, I started playing with NFTs, and Im lucky enough to be also based in Southeast Asia, so I could see firsthand what was happening with Axie [Infinity]. I think, for me, as someone who lived through the transition to free-to-play, it felt very much like a moment, kind of like when Farmville came out on Facebook. 

I think that for live service titles [games like Fortnite, League of Legends and Apex Legends], a dominant business model is going to emerge to revolve around player-owned and operated economies. Because I dont believe you can have virtual worlds without digital property rights, essentially.

And I think that does enable a lot of new things that were really starting to scratch the surface on. So, I think that really was the pull factor.

What format do you think serves as the best way to attract users to blockchain gaming?

The Mighty Bear Games team
The Mighty Bear Games team. (Simon Davis)

I think mobile gaming is going to be the dominant platform because of geography. You see this if you look at the charts for the countries that have a great slope of interest in crypto or Web3. They tend to be countries where existing payment rails are not super developed.

People are largely unbanked in places like Indonesia and Brazil. These markets are mobile-first. Like, people in the Philippines and India are not necessarily using high-end PCs. 

So, you need to go where the users are. And this is a bit of a spicy take, but this is why Im very bearish on people making super HD high-end Web3 games because its just not where the markets are today. So, you see a lot of these teams raising, like, mega bucks to make console-quality titles, but if no one can play them, then they arent going to do very much.

What do you think the current hurdles are for large-scale blockchain gaming adoption?

A lot of people talk about it in terms of silver bullets, right? Like, Oh, we need one good game, or like, We need to solve the wallet problem. I dont think its any one of those things. I actually think it is just a lot of lead bullets, a lot of small things that need to happen. 

What Ive experienced today is still pretty terrible, and scary, like social recovery. And its starting to become a thing, but that needs to become a lot easier.

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I just think, in general, it needs to be as easy and as brainless to use as a Web2 experience. And so I think there is an inherent conflict today with how people think about Web3, you know. They say things like, Oh, you need to educate the users, or, Train people to hold their private keys.

But you know, my mom doesnt want to hold her own private keys. She does all her trading on Crypto.com. We need to make it essentially idiot-proof so anyone can do it.

I think were still quite a long way away, but I am seeing meaningful improvements, actually. Im seeing products that are going to go to market next year which are going to help a lot. 

I dont know how old you are, but Ive just turned 40 this year. I remember in the 90s setting up a home internet connection on dial-up. It took me two days of calling technical support and someone telling me like configs. I was having to go in and change manually and stuff. And now, you know, we solved that, right? And then, the internet became a mass market, and then people could just put a CD in their computer, and it just worked. I think we need to get to that stage.

Mighty Action Heroes. (Game website)

Do you think the bad rap blockchain/NFT gaming gets is a big issue? 

Its funny because gaming got a pretty bad rap in the 90s. You know, everyone was talking about how games were making children violent. There was a big moral panic, just like there was in music a few years before.

But I think that when you start to get these things in peoples hands and experience them, perceptions change. I do think a lot of the reputation that we have in crypto and Web3 is deserved. There are a lot of bad actors exploiting the lack of regulation, but the things that excite me: Ive seen some games, for example, that allow players to earn small amounts of Bitcoin, And this sort of things retention numbers are very strong, like the initial metrics are very promising. And I think thats a really nice use case.

Reddit is also a great example, right? They put NFTs in the hands of huge numbers of people. A lot of people didnt even realize they were interacting with NFTs. So then they had their first taste, and yeah there are some stats that have come up, and not a huge amount of them have transacted on-chain.

But I actually dont think thats such a bad thing. If people are not dumping the assets on day one, I dont see that as a negative. So, I think onboarding through stealth is pretty good.

What kind of adoption metrics are you looking for with your games?

So, people talk about installs and sign-ups its just a vanity metric. For me, Im interested in how many people are coming in every day, how regularly theyre coming back, and what the growth curve of that looks like initially.

And then once we do the mobile launch [of Mighty Action Heroes], which will be around August/September, how well are we doing on attracting non-crypto-native people into the game as well? That will be very interesting, and to see how they play together. Its a different angle, but its one that Im pretty bullish on.

What are some ideas or tech upgrades that could help blockchain gaming?

ERC-6551 tokens. 

Essentially, they give a smart contract account or a smart contract wallet to a 721 [token]. So, you know, a traditional NFT would be a JPG with some metadata attached. But essentially, the JPG or the asset, whatever that is, is then bound to a smart contract. 

And this is pretty cool because it means that assets can communicate directly with each other. So NFT to NFT, without using MetaMask. And it could also be compatible with other smart contract wallets. 

I think the really cool thing is that, essentially, your asset becomes a wallet and can have its own logic as well. So you could have a base character in a game as the 6551 token, and then all the clothes or the items or everything that that character has, the kind of sub-assets, can change within, each with its own logic.

As a game developer, you start thinking of how your characters could evolve and how you can attach new assets without updating the core.

Then as a dev, I think its really good for reputation management as well. Like, if you did a soulbound version, you could have achievements, proof-of-work, proof-of-play, social identity. I think its pretty cool. […] Its more secure because its not just an asset within a wallet like it is on smart contracts with its own private key.

6 Questions for Thiago Cesar of Transfero

Transfero’s Thiago Cesar says when he started buying Bitcoin in 2012 he knew it had amazing potential for “internationalizing money.”

Thiago Cesar is the 34-year-old co-founder of Transfero, a company helping to make crypto more accessible for Brazilians with BRZ, the first stablecoin pegged to the Brazilian real. 

Cesar grew up in southern Brazils Pindamonhangaba municipality before making the 90-mile trek to Sao Paulo for college. He graduated from Fundao Armando Alvares Penteado, and it wasnt long, Cesar says, before he became infatuated with Bitcoin as a graduate student at the University of London.

By 2014, Id been convinced that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in general, were going to be a big thing, Cesar says, leading him to author his graduate thesis on the competitive and comparative advantages that Bitcoin could bring to a business.

In 2015, Transfero was born.

Crypto became a hit in subsequent years: A 2022 Chainalysis report gave Brazil the top rank of any country in South America on its annual crypto index and No. 7 globally. Cryptos surging popularity is one reason why Rio de Janeiro announced in October it would begin accepting crypto for tax payments, with Transfero facilitating settlements.

What inspired you to start Transfero?

Transfero was a joint dream between me and my four Brazilian co-founders. We met in Rio de Janeiro just after I returned from the University of London in 2015, where coincidentally, I wrote my masters thesis about Bitcoin.

Thiago
Cointelegraphs Rudy Takala, Transferos Thiago Cesar and Tezos co-founder Kathleen Breitman. (Thiago Cesar)

One of my co-founders Marlyson Silva had previous experience in the payments industry and developed a payment gateway that could also process Bitcoin transactions. The system immediately converted Bitcoin into reais, so merchants didnt have to worry about price fluctuations.

Being a crypto-native group, our idea was to leverage everything that a borderless and permissionless asset class could provide. Brazil and other neighboring countries were always financially limited in some way: be it due to inflation-inducing economic policy like in Argentina or a rigid FX market with some degree of capital controls like in Brazil.

Crypto can fill multiple gaps for citizens coming from emerging markets. Asset protection, international remittance rails, portfolio diversification and so on. Transfero builds on top of legacy financial technologies in LATAM such as PIX in Brazil and combines the abovementioned crypto elements to deliver products and services that solve real-world pains that are common in emerging markets.

What are the biggest things Transfero is doing?

Transfero is one of the largest fiat ramps in Brazil and Argentina. Multiple international businesses crypto and non-crypto related use Transfero to receive deposits and perform payments within the Brazilian and Argentine banking systems. 

Also read: Bitcoin is on a collision course with Net Zero promises

Transfero is also the issuer of BRZ, a stablecoin for BRL. Thats the basis for our stablecoin settlements for flows between the United States, Europe, Asia and Latin America. It is a synthetic representation of BRZ, as the actual BRL currency is non-deliverable. That means international companies cant carry it unless they have bank accounts in Brazil.

You also started the Transfero Academy. Whats its goal?

Transfero Academy is an educational program for Brazilians from vulnerable neighborhoods. We offer a full-time blockchain technical course, which prepares students for a career in crypto. We have a 95% employment rate for students who have graduated.

Transfero Academy changed the lives of hundreds of students; now were partnering up with governmental and private educational groups throughout the country.

Cryptocurrency has a higher adoption rate in Brazil than any other country in Latin America. Why are Brazilians so interested in crypto?

Crypto opened up the international financial world to Brazilians. Not a lot of people know, but in Brazil, you can only have bank accounts denominated in BRL, and retail traders can only trade stocks on a local exchange called B3.

When Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins arrived, Brazilians could finally access international platforms and open up their financial horizons. Crypto is not only a different asset class but also an international financial rail for Brazilians.

What brought you to crypto?

Back in 2012, when I was working for a South Korean company, a friend told me about some type of internet money called Bitcoin that was used for deep web transactions. I became interested in the subject and started my own research.

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As with most people, I didnt understand much at the time, even after reading the white paper. But when I started buying Bitcoin at the end of 2012, I was amazed by the potential it had for internationalizing money. Coming from Brazil, the idea that I could carry a United States dollar-priced asset that could move or be sent anywhere was groundbreaking for me.

By 2014, Id been convinced that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, in general, were going to be a big thing. That led me to focus on crypto for my masters thesis at the University of London.

What are your hopes or goals for Transfero on a five to 10 year time horizon?

Transfero is expanding throughout LATAM. Right now, we provide services in Brazil and Argentina, but our main goal is to be the main issuer of stablecoins and fiat ramp for the region, operating a settlement network between emerging markets.

6 Questions for Tongtong Bee of Panony

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!


 

This week, our 6 Questions go to Tongtong Bee, co-founder of Panony an incubator, investor and adviser for blockchain and Web3 business.

Im Tongtong Bee, the co-founder of Panony and founder and editor-in-chief of PANews. I started my professional journey as a journalist at Chinas traditional news outlets, including China News Service, Jiemian and Cailian Media Group. Since 2015, Ive been covering blockchain and fintech news as one of the few journalists in China to focus on these sectors at the time.

My focus on economic issues and emerging technologies led to me being selected to report on the Two Sessions (NPC and CPPCC) in 2018. And thats the year my business partner Alyssa and I started PANews. Weve published over 20,000 articles with an average of over 5 million page views per month, became a frequently cited source in crypto and blockchain journalism, including Forbes, Caixin, CCN, and were an official news source of Tencent News.


1 Looking at the top 100 projects in crypto by market cap, which ones stand out to you and for what reason?

I have to say Bitcoin. Being a journalist keen on economic research, I got blown away when knowing about its concept for the first time.

Bitcoin is designed to be a substantial step forward in making money more secure, as well as a significant deterrent to many types of financial crime. It is the first decentralized peer-to-peer payment network driven by its users with no central authority. Bitcoin now has changed the world and will continue revolutionizing the financial systems in many countries. It remains the creative outcome in all of its present and limitless future uses.

 

2 What is the single most innovative use case for blockchain youve ever seen? It may not be the one likeliest to succeed!

Being part of Panony and PANews, we always feel excited to meet and work with hundreds of brilliant, innovative projects worldwide. For example, Im personally intrigued with what theyre doing at Cudos, a decentralized cloud computing platform. We know that the cloud is pricey and centralized. In addition, up to 50% of the time, the hardware is inactive or switched off, resulting in low return on investment for enterprises and an enormous carbon footprint. Thus, the current development trajectory is unsustainable for the planet.

The Cudos network, using its cloud-based distributed computing approach that includes blockchain support, allows organizations to save up to 10 times more than centralized hyper-scale cloud platforms and hardware owners to offset (and potentially profit from) the cost of their hardware by renting out their computational power to the network.

The blockchain industry can be exuberant. Im glad there are plenty of talents out there building a better future together.

 

3 What does decentralization mean to you, and why is it important?

Good question. The decentralized web is the unstoppable future of the internet.

In the current version of the web, also known as Web2, people cant overlook the results of big corporations controlling what happens online: personal data being tracked and sold without our permission, loss of power for our contents, being dominated by ads Most of the web is centralized. Web3, which seeks to drastically reimagine how we design and interact with apps from the ground up, will fix many of these issues. There are a few fundamental differences between Web2 and Web3, but decentralization is at the heart.

The Ethereum network is currently the largest decentralized network, with access to thousands of decentralized applications. With a focus on digital ownership, the earning potential for content creators and the inventions of new ways to invest has increased. And in a decentralized web, individuals can control their data, not some mega corporate or anybody else.

 

4 List your favorite sports teams, and choose the single most memorable moment from watching them. If you arent a sports fan, choose a few movies and a moment!

As a winter game enthusiast myself, my memories of the Beijing 2022 Olympics are still fresh! Eileen Gu winning two gold medals and one silver at a single game is surely a free ski sensation. Not just watching her beautiful moves is jaw-dropping; I also admire her constant efforts to inspire girls. Im also honored to have made the Forbes China 30 Under 30 in 2020 with her (different list)!

As a female entrepreneur, I admire her spirit of sticking to goals, challenging the status quo, pursuing dreams with passion and constant hard work. It gave me strength when my business partner Alyssa and I started our business together.

 

5 If you didnt need sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

I really wish I dont need to sleep so I can do more things that interest me. I would probably read more books because I always find it fascinating to get to know something new. During the two-month lockdown in Shanghai, I grew out of a habit of indoor badminton exercise and will keep on doing that, doing it properly outdoors.

Im super grateful that my husband and I share many hobbies, and one of them is to write a book together on advertising in Shanghai. Were also quite interested in making documentaries for Chinese folk artists and hope the world could see them one day.

 

6 Whats the future of social media?

We envision the future of social media is owned by content creators, communities not certain platforms that control the narratives. This is what Web3 brings us. Decentralization could be the blueprint for the future of social media: Users could have direct access to the decentralized platform; no centralized authority can dictate the rules of engagement and monetization; social media will become a freer space while also granting content creators full ownership of their assets.

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO) are a novel way for online social organization that will have far-reaching implications. Properties of DAOs are likely to have an enormous impact on the business of social media. Blockchain tokens have the potential to change that arrangement by allowing creators to monetize their fans using many of the same methods that DAOs use to reward their members for contributions.

We have seen pleas from users that Twitter could have the potential to shift the power balance and to be transformed into a Web3 platform. Were also grateful to see some of the projects, including Only 1 and Rally, are committed to reshaping social platforms and rebuilding the social and creator economy.

 

A wish for the young, ambitious blockchain community:

Our community needs more builders who have a warm heart and a cool brain. Less FOMO, more patience. And confusion is good: It makes people think of themselves.

6 Questions for Kim Hamilton Duffy of Centre

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!


 

This week, our 6 Questions go to Kim Hamilton Duffy, director of identity and standards at Centre Consortium an open-source technology project designed to create a more inclusive global economy.

Kim is a leader in the emerging decentralized identity field and has architected successful open-source projects such as Verite, Blockcerts and the Digital Credential Consortium toolkit.


1 Which countries are doing the most to support blockchain, and which ones will be left behind?

Rather than assessing this through the narrow lens of whether certain crypto transactions are taxed, I think about whether countries are supporting innovation in blockchain and, more broadly, decentralized architectures in a collaborative, responsible, sustainable way that can benefit individuals and businesses.

A repeated theme: Regulatory clarity is key for individuals and businesses to build and innovate confidently. But this must be based on nuanced, balanced approaches that pull in a range of stakeholders technologists, regulators and privacy experts and must be sufficiently future-proofed to accommodate emerging technology. Anti-patterns that is, examples of approaches that are uneven, overly restrictive or reactive include banning specific implementations or types of mining.

 

2 What is the main hurdle in the way of mass adoption of blockchain technology?

Its split among interoperability, usability and trust.

Fortunately, were moving beyond the discussion of which blockchain will win, understanding that different blockchain characteristics may be best suited to different use cases. But this underscores the importance of interoperability and for this, open standards and protocols are key.

The other aspect is the need for improved usability and trust, which are interwoven. Despite the transparency enabled by blockchain-based technologies, the technical barriers to entry and overwhelming amount of information to absorb make those benefits unrealizable to many. Determining how to prioritize the user experience to convey trust (as an analogy, you can think of the browser lock icon signifying a secure connection) will be critical to success.

 

3 Have you ever bought a nonfungible token? What was it? And if not, what do you think will be your first?

Yes! The first NFT I minted/bought was a Crypto Coven and then I ended up minting and buying a few more. I fell in love with the aesthetics and thoughtfulness of the project. It was clearly a labor of love so much care went into generating the design elements, attributes and mythology that formed each individual witch. Even the contract code was beautifully written.

Also, its Discord is an incredibly positive, supportive place, with some of the best Web3/Ethereum technical discussions as well.

 

4 Whats the unlikeliest-to-happen thing on your bucket list?

Being swarmed and tackled by a grumble of 100-plus pugs is probably near the top. A more modest goal is getting a pie in the face, a la 1970s slapstick comedy. Yet somehow, this hasnt happened yet.

 

5 If you didnt need sleep, what would you do with the extra time?

Id spend extra time writing. Decentralized identity standards and technologies are new, and its hard for people to get access to information through an objective, not commercial or vendor, lens. While the technical specifications are available, these are not accessible to broader audiences. More critically, these dont provide context and tribal knowledge from the many years of deliberations that went into design decisions.

The risk in rolling out transformative technologies understood by a select few is that they cannot be adapted and refined with other experts (privacy, regulatory, etc.) whose input is essential to adoption. Ive spent a lot of time thinking about the boundary between technical solutions and whats required for real-world adoption, and Id like to make more time to write about this.

On a more personal side, Id spend at least four hours a day practicing the Bach Cello Suites.

 

6 Whats the future of social media?

I feel confident that were on a path toward more decentralized underpinnings of social media networks, where your data, connections, reputation and experience are increasingly under your control not under the control of a company thats incentivized to treat you as the product.

Christine Lemmer-Webber, a leader in decentralized identity (especially integrating capability-based approaches), has also been a pioneer of decentralized social media efforts, including Mastodon and ActivityPub. This work is continuing and thriving through efforts like BlueSky.

The challenge, of course, will be identifying sustainable models to support such networks. This introduces an exciting opportunity to develop new approaches that do not rely on aggregating huge data silos instead, ones that respect privacy and informed consent.

6 Questions for Pat Duffy of The Giving Block

We ask the buidlers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector for their thoughts on the industry… and throw in a few random zingers to keep them on their toes!


 

This week, our 6 Questions go to Pat Duffy, co-founder of The Giving Block a crypto donation solution that provides an ecosystem for nonprofits and charities to fundraise Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

 

Pat is co-founder of The Giving Block, and has raised over $100,000,000 in crypto for nonprofits in the last year. From 2020 to 2022, Pat and his co-founder Alex Wilson grew The Giving Block from a four-person team into one of the fastest growing companies in the nonprofit sector, with thousands of nonprofit clients and the worlds largest crypto donor community.


1 What is the main hurdle to mass adoption of blockchain technology?

People say education, and I think thats wrong. When people say education, I think that leads to people getting up on stages and explaining blockchain to people who dont even understand how their microwaves work. It feels very puritanical to me and its been stunting progress on adoption. I think people are too addicted to decentralizing everything, including crypto adoption, which leads to a lot of people creating educational content instead of building intermediary companies and encouraging beginner-level crypto ownership that doesnt require staking yams. Id love to see people stop trying to explain how the pistons fire in the engine block so we can focus more energy on creating a level of crypto access that requires zero technical understanding.

 

2 What has been the toughest challenge youve faced in our industry so far?

Teaching young crypto owners about the tax incentive to donate crypto. Its so hard to explain to a group of people who hodl at all costs that they actually end up with larger crypto positions when they donate crypto versus donating cash (they donate the crypto, then use the dollars they would have donated to buy crypto at todays cost-basis. Voila they owe no tax on the appreciated crypto they gave to a charity, and the new crypto they bought today resets their tax liability). Thats been a real uphill battle, since these folks havent been educated on this like older folks who donate stocks every year for the same reason.

 

3 Does it matter if we ever figure out who Satoshi really is or was? Why, or why not?

I couldnt care less, but a lot of people seem hell-bent on figuring it out. I dont see the utility of it, and think it just opens folks up to getting tricked into investing or not investing based on the moral pros and cons of the individual. The ideas arent any more true or false regardless of who developed them. I would fear the same thing will happen that we see in politics, where people support ideas based on the person whos saying it rather than the merit of the idea itself.

 

4 What do the people closest to you tell you off for? Feel free to offer more than one answer.

This is a wild question, but I dig it. Id say the main thing I hear is Thats not funny when I take a risk with a crazy joke. Which of course makes it more funny. Ive never done heroin, but I imagine that the closest Ive come to experiencing an opiate high would be telling jokes that make my mom a little mad while everyone else laughs.

 

5 What makes you angry, and what happens when you get mad?

Id say the main driver of seething rage these days would be seeing people I care about having heated discussions about things they arent actively working on (and never will actively work on). Seeing friends and family get upset about political situations or cultural changes that theyre not trying to impact personally is a bizarre self-harming obsession that every now and then gets me to blow up at the dinner table. Anytime someone is complaining about something, I like to ask them What are you going to do about it? If the answer is that theres nothing they can or will do about it, I think we all have an obligation to beg them to stop reading about it.

There is much less time in the day than people think there is. All the time people spend staying informed directly takes away from time theyre spending bettering their life or the lives of the people they care about. Would love to see more people obsessively learning about subjects that they actually leverage to make things work better.

 

6 Whats the silliest conspiracy theory out there, and which one makes you pause for a moment?

The Flat Earth theory is the funniest one right now. Right at that perfect intersection where just enough people are bought in to make you think the end of the world is near. Birds Arent Real would be my favorite if there were some NBA players who were pumped on that. Ones that make me pause arent all that outside the box generally its suicides or assassinations where theres a great deal at stake. When there are obvious reasons certain folks might want you dead, then it doesn’t take a leap of faith for you to start thinking there might be more to the story.

 

A wish for the young, ambitious blockchain community:

I hope you all leverage what youre learning to improve the lives of the people you care about. That can be by making transformative money, by solving important problems, building important companies or making important connections. Whatever it might be, youre in a position to do something important, so make the opportunity count.