Jae Kwon. After graduating from Cornell in 2005 with a BS degree in Computer Science, he worked as a developer at Alexa and Yelp and has co-founded iDonethis, a productivity service. He since worked on open-source projects including a CoffeeScript compiler and interpreter written in Javascript, an end-to-end encrypted email system called Scramble.io, and a cryptocurrency exchange. He invented and refined The Tendermint Consensus Algorithm with the aim of liberating the blockchain from the costs and drawbacks of proof-of-work mining. His mission is to make the technology more accessible in order to accelerate the adoption of decentralized ledger technology.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Snow Crash
• What CEO do you follow? – N/A
• Favorite online tool? — GitHub and Chat
• How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8
• If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – "Find the problem and solve it"

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:37 – Nathan introduces Jae to the show
• 02:46 – Bitcoin is something that you want to be small and accessible
  • 03:10 – Blockchain is not owned by any entity but is still secure
• 03:24 – Tendermint is one of the engines that enable the creation of blockchain
• 04:05 – Tendermint's partner in Europe is Ponton
• 04:46 – Tendermint was initially self-funded by Jae
• 05:03 – Jae saw the need to build Tendermint
  • 05:08 – People were struggling with bitcoin fork
• 05:51 – Proof of work is how bitcoin secures itself, which is like a lottery system
• 06:40 – The transaction fee for block reward in bitcoin is much smaller
• 07:55 – Proof of work in the blockchain has its drawbacks
• 08:30 – The validators are the users of Tendermint—they validate the block and sign off and vote on what the next block should be
• 09:20 – Jae's opinion on Dash's masternode
• 09:50 – Cosmos is the internet of blockchain
• 10:18 – Jae has all in his money in Tendermint
• 10:31 – Team size is 20
• 10:40 – Tendermint was funded through a fundraiser
  • 11:00 – "We avoid the term ICO because we don't want to be associated with a security offering"
• 11:13 – Tendermint released their own token and they'll create the cosmos hub
  • 11:30 – The tokens will allow you to vote on the blockchain
• 12:10 – Tendermint had a cap of $17M
  • 12:32 – They were accepting bitcoin and ether in exchange of an atom
• 13:00 – Part of the liquidation went to the Cosmos software and development
• 14:00 – Out of the $17M, less than $3M has been liquidated so far
• 15:47 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

1. The block reward in the blockchain allows people to not just earn tokens, but contribute as well.
2. Keep your liquidation conservative and focus on the development of your product.
3. If you see a problem and you think you can create the solution, DO IT.

Resources Mentioned:

• Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
• The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
• GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
• Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
• Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you're doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
• Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
• Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives