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Episode Summary

GFunk.eth aka Comicman joins us for an exclusive interview! Learn about the MetaHero Universe, PUNKS comic, and more!

Twitter follows!

GFunk: https://twitter.com/Gfunkera86

Pixel Vault: https://twitter.com/pixelvault_

PUNKS Comic: https://twitter.com/punkscomic

MetaHero Universe: https://twitter.com/MetaHero_

MetaHero Identities are a collection of heroes, villains, and mutants native to the MetaHero Universe. The Core Collection consists of 146 fully-matched MetaHero concept characters, including two special mints, collaboratively designed by project creatives Chris Wahl and Odious. Generative MetaHero Identities (max supply of 9,678) can be minted at any time by redeeming MintPass #1, the signature NFT reservation system developed by Pixel Vault.

https://opensea.io/collection/metahero-generative

https://punkscomic.com/

Hosts:

Chris Katje

Maz

https://bitclout.com/u/maz

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Disclaimer: All of the information, material, and/or content contained in this program is for informational purposes only. Investing in stocks, options, and futures is risky and not suitable for all investors. Please consult your own independent financial adviser before making any investment decisions.

Unedited Transcript:

What's up everyone. Welcome to the roadmap. Benzingers new NFT show. Last few episodes. We've had some great interviews, some great teams, the Vogue collective robotics, the dos pound owning force, crypto dads, dizzy dragons, suck doc, and more. We also did an NFT giveaway. Definitely stay tuned for more NFT giveaways in the future.

We've got a great show today. A great interview. Pixel vault, founder G funk. Joining us guys. This is the roadmap

All right, guys, you heard me say at Benzinga is new NFT show covering the latest news headlines and top interviews from top projects in the NFT world. If you're new here, we currently air Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 PM. Eastern time. We're working on getting more shows going. Uh, we we've got an exciting show coming up today.

Before I talk about that, I want to bring on my cohost mass, mass. What's going on, buddy. Chris, a exciting episode today. It feels like we haven't been here in a while. It's been a week since we did our last show, but today's episode is going to be amazing. I'm doing great. Yeah, we've got a great week planned.

And before, I mean, for those of you who follow Benzinga on Twitter or read the articles, you probably already heard who our interview guest is on Thursday. If not, we'll talk about that at the end of today's show, but we have two of the biggest NFT projects out there. Both joining us this week. I mean, one week to catch two of these big projects.

So if you're new here, go ahead. Smash that like subscribe to Benzinga his YouTube channel. That's where you're going to get notifications. When we're live. You're going to hear all about our great guests. So mass, uh, before we bring on our guests, let let's talk a little bit. Who do we have coming on the roadmap?

Yeah. So we have G funk AK the comic man joining us today. And you know, I've been in the space for a couple months and I hear his name all the time, nothing but good things, you know, love the pixel bolt, project, love what they're doing with the planets. And just, there's just so many things to talk about, which, you know, I'm excited for that.

And, uh, yeah. So yeah, I feel great. I mean, this is one of those projects where yeah. If you, if you're, you've been in the NFT space for a little while, if you're not completely new, you've likely heard of pixel vault, punks comics, Mehta hero. You've heard those names right. Well, today we're going to dive into the background, right?

How did those come to be? And what's ahead. I mean, you talk about NFT projects that could have lasting value and lasting pixel vault is building, I mean, an entire NFTE ecosystem. I am so, so excited to get into the, and for anyone, you know, here in the chat, we're going to be taking questions for G funk.

And if we have time at the end of the interview, one of the things we're doing on the show, right? Mass is asking questions right from the chat. So feel free, drop those questions in a me mass, and the producers will try to get to those, you know, at the end and pull up some of our favorite questions. So you never know what's going to get, but mass, I know there is a ton of people here excited and ready to hear from the man himself, chief funk.

But before we bring him on, we have this trailer that we made to get everyone hyped. So everyone out there mash the, like, sit back and get ready to hear about pixels. Let's go

all right. Hyped, right? It's time. I mean, hopefully everyone hyped up. We're ready to go. We we've got a great show. So without further ado, let me bring on to the roadmap. G funk, Hey, what's going on? What's up man. Loving the walk-in music. I appreciate that. We made you a hold for a whole trailer and everything.

I mean, that's how big this episode is. We appreciate you coming on. Um, again, as Matt said, you know, one of those names in the space that is very familiar, you know, to anyone who's been following NFTs for awhile. So we have respect for you and we are so excited to talk all things pixel vault today. So let's dive into some questions.

So I'm going to kick it off here, you know, G funk before we get in to pixel vault. Uh, let's hear a little bit about your experience in the NFT world before you created pixel. Yeah. So I've been in crypto since 2014. Um, I'm an entrepreneur in real life. And so a lot of those gains, uh, unfortunately were a bit muted.

I was, as I was, uh, taking profits on the way up. And I started to get exposure to the NFT space at the end of last year. Um, I got really into top shot, started to get into crypto punks, pretty similar, uh, pathway into the NFT world is I think a lot of our collectors have had, um, and I have a background in the entertainment space.

Um, so you know, very familiar with developing IP. And I saw this opportunity that, that, uh, was starting to become clear early this year that certain people on Twitter were starting to develop personalities. You know, whether they be beanie or G money guys like that, where they had these avatars and we're starting to kind of connect their personal brands to them.

But at that point in time, nobody had, had really started to develop IP in a traditional sense behind. And so that was the birth of pixel vault. Um, it's basically a business designed to, to drive intellectual property drive value, to NFTs, which are otherwise, obviously stagnant on chain. Um, so that was sort of the birth of the comic in the run.

Run-up there to that first Christie's auction, uh, very exciting time. Uh, and yeah, I mean, it it's crazy how much has happened in the last six months or so, but, uh, super happy to be here and see all the progress that has been made. And, uh, only up from here, I think that's right. And it's hard to believe it's only been, you know, sick like that.

And I mean, it seems like a lifetime, um, with all this stuff that has been created. So one of the things, when we talk about NFT projects, a lot is artwork, right? And. That you have Chris wall, a former, you know, Marvel, DC and other artists. Uh, how did that relationship come to be? And how involved is Chris wall on the current and future?

Yeah. So that's actually a really funny story. So, um, when I approached beanie with this idea, uh, for the punks comic, he actually just sent out a tweet saying like, basically money is no object. Like we want the best artists in the world. Uh, we're thinking of developing a project. I don't know if he mentioned, uh, that it was, uh, like a comic book based on crypto punks or not, but, um, yeah.

And Chris was one of the people that responded to that tweet and, uh, I just started talking to him and looking through his work. Um, obviously he's been a part of, a lot of great projects, but tank girl is sort of like what he's most notable for and very quickly and looking at his work, I just knew it was the perfect fit for, uh, what we were trying to create with the punks comic.

And yeah, he, he's the, he's the chief comic artists moving forward. Uh, we have issue two well underway. We have a large corporate partner that's, uh, As much as I love them slowing the process down a bit. So, uh, issue two is currently planned for sometime in November. We'll, we'll see how the dates change. Uh, but yeah, Chris is very much a big part of the future of pixel.

Awesome. Yeah. And we're going to show some of those images here throughout the interview. Love the artwork. I know there's a lot of big fans out there as well. W you mentioned that this, you know, six months, so it's when punk's comic first launched, it was not a fast sellout, um, you know, something we're seeing now in the NFT space.

So what was it like in the beginning? Was there always a belief, you know, that this project would sell out and find an audience? Yeah. So, I mean, you know, for sure I believed in the vision, right. And I think that time has, has really paid dividends to the people that understood the. But I think still today, you know, I mean, if you look at the planets, there's still supply available.

Granted, we, we intentionally designed it to, to make it available to anybody that wanted to join the community. But I think you're really seeing people focus on kind of this like lotto scratcher field. Right. Everybody wants those rarity traits and it's all PFPs and stuff that seemed to be selling out instantly.

Now, regardless of if the project is moving the community forward, you know, I think, unfortunately you're seeing like a lot of copy paste type stuff happening, but, uh, with that said, you know, with, with great risk comes great reward. So yeah, it took like five weeks for the comic to sell out. Um, but really sort of building on this idea of a quote unquote decentralized Disney is like this buzzword you'll hear, um, Giving the community, the opportunity to have fractional ownership in these underlying 16 crypto punks that we're actively developing story around.

Right. Um, as we succeed the community succeeds. And I think that just as sort of an overall theme for web three, that that's going to be very powerful and be a really disruptive force within traditional media. And, you know, as things have progressed over the last six months starting to approach these traditional media partners, um, you know, it's been, it's been interesting, the reception, and I think that a lot of them are fearful of being the next blockbuster, right.

Blockbuster didn't want to adapt to the Netflix model. So, um, there's actually been a pretty great willingness so far with, uh, major media partners to, to start exploring, developing this IP in the traditional sense. But yeah, I mean, yeah. Trying to blaze new frontiers. I think this is the way things are going.

And, um, you know, the people that have believed have been rewarded so far, but certainly some sleepless nights along the way. I totally love that, man. Um, can you walk us through the decision to make a burning mechanism for the comics? Yeah, so, um, at the time I don't, I don't think really anybody was doing this, but sort of a core proposition of pixel vault is this idea that when you're collecting the, the end result of your collection is very much going to be a result of your own decisions.

So trying to create as many 50, 50 toss up decisions as we can, you know, are you somebody that, uh, leans into risk? Are you risk averse? You know, do you love the comic? Do you like gaming? Um, all sorts of decisions that I think ultimately reflect the choices of the individual, the risks they want to take.

How they see their collection shaping how actively they want to be engaged in the community. Right? The game that we're building is very much going to be a community built project with all these Dows. So, you know, we, we like to introduce as many decisions as we can and, you know, some people love it. Some people hate it.

It's certainly, uh, a frequent complaint I hear about pixel vaults is that it's, it's too complicated. And so, you know, I take that, I take that criticism to heart and I'm going to try and find ways to make things more clear. Uh, but certainly, you know what, we've tried to do weekly spaces. We're trying to lay out everything very clearly on the website.

But, uh, I really liked this sort of like Willy Wonka nature of pixel hall. Um, I think it makes it a lot of fun and it's really built a very strong community, but you know, it's not going to be for everyone. You have to sort of be engaged with things of Walt to, to get and catch everything that. Exactly.

Yeah. You're building a whole universe around it, which is awesome. So speaking to that ma meta heroes, uh, how close to a game are we? Yeah, so, I mean, the game is going to take quite a bit of time, um, with that said we're looking to stagger it intelligently so that, you know, people aren't waiting two, three years to see any sort of game development.

Um, so sort of this first look and first, uh, action with characters, we're looking to hopefully be about a year out, but you know, it it's really too early to confirm any sort of timeline because we're, we're really actively engaged right now in the process of, of working with different game development studios.

So, um, myself and the virtual knot and a couple of other members of our team are taking, you know, a handful of meetings every week with, with different game dev shops. And, uh, there are a couple that stick out, uh, hopefully more news coming on this in the near future. You know, leveraging some of our own contacts and, uh, our team's experiencing game development.

And then also the relationship with WME, they're opening some doors that actually have a meeting with, um, our rep in, in gaming with WME tonight. So just continuing to look for potential partners. And, uh, certainly we're going to bring on a lot of experienced individuals in game dev. So it will not just be our, our team right now of 18, or we're either going to be hiring probably a team of 50 or working more likely with an experienced in dev shop.

So, um, still too early to commit to timelines, but, uh, you know, we have the resources that we need and the expertise right now on the team. And we'll be hiring a few other key individuals on the team, uh, to execute on this. So very exciting. Um, but still, definitely early days in that love that though. It's coming though.

Right. So that's awesome to hear for sure, for sure. In the beginning when you were launching punks comics, was this always the plan to create this, you know, world and game around the meta heroes? Yeah, so the, the games sort of developed over time, but there was always this idea to expand, uh, the universe of IP that tied in with the comic.

So if you look at like early days of DC and Marvel, right originally comics were just humans, right. And then with the introduction of Superman and then eventually Batman, et cetera. Now comics are pretty much synonymous with superheroes. So beginning in issue three, we're going to sort of merge the two worlds of punks comic and medic hero.

And there's the potential that there may be some offshoot comics as well. But, um, yeah, I, I think it's going to be really fun seeing the, those two worlds intertwined and, uh, in the interim, we're going to be releasing this project called origin stories, which will be, you know, every two to four weeks, we'll be sort of like.

Like a backstory on maybe a more minor character, uh, origin stories, being a nod to origin city, which is where the headquarters of the pixel vault is, uh, in crypto voxels. So, um, that's going to let us sort of interact with the community more frequently, really build the IP, um, in a serious way as we look to develop, you know, animated series and whatnot with traditional media partners.

So, um, I think that that's going to be a really beneficial thing as we build out the comic and the lore there. Uh, and you'll see a lot more backstory on the heroes and the pumps themselves love that. Can you share any details on how different heroes will be utilized in the game? Uh, specifically speaking of, you know, ones from different planets, uh, any advantages or disadvantages, disadvantages that the.

Yeah. So, uh, the virtue Mount has talked about this quite a bit. We don't want to create a situation where it's like a pay to win mechanic. We want to reward, uh, our early collectors in a way that it distinguishes the character in game and maybe provides like a very minor benefit. But, um, you know, there are also intelligent ways that, you know, maybe they earn at a, at a higher rate.

So with the, the play to earn mechanics that are becoming popular, that you see with ACCE and stuff, you know, maybe the identities and sidekicks, uh, are able to have, you know, a small advantage in that realm as well. But overall, you know, you can think of it as like a skin, like a very, um, high level notable skin, uh, being sort of, uh, at the, at the very forefront of developing this game.

Um, As part of that, right. We wanted to tie them to these planet tokens because for these original identity holders, it's not just about driving value to their identity and Ft. Right. They're also very much an owner developer participant in the game itself. So as the game succeeds, so to do these early NFT holders, so it was important for us to sort of tie those together so that it wasn't kind of like a diluted experience as we expanded the game verse and whatnot.

But, um, yeah, try trying to make it so that future entrance can, can still get into the game and have fun. We don't want to take the fun out of it, or it won't be a success. So, you know, there's a balancing act there, but I think having these early holders also have Dow tokens is a sort of an important aspect in, in balancing the reward system there.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, one thing we've noticed teas lately, and I'm sure you've seen this G funk is that the NFT space is moving so fast and people are, you know, looking for news updates on a daily cycle. They want, you know, the next big project they want the immediate reward. So what is it like, you know, to take the long route here building with one of the largest teams in NFT is when the NFT world is kind of moving more to the short term side of things.

Yeah. I mean, it's tough and I I've been tweeting a lot about this in the last couple of weeks. I mean, you're seeing like a lot of really prominent NFTE sort of personalities talking about being burned out in. You know, it's real. I mean, I feel the need to sort of like constantly be providing updates and, you know, people put a lot of time, effort and money into this project.

Right. So I take that extremely seriously, but you don't really want to be building, uh, a business worried about the floor price of an NFT. Right. So, um, you know, the people that bought punks comic right, as it sat there on the shelf for five weeks, ultimately it's, uh, you know, 50, a hundred X on, on their original, uh, purchase.

Right. So, you know, if ultimately you try and sort of block out the noise and understand that there are going to be peaks and valleys in every cycle and try to just keep like a mid to long-term viewpoint on this. Um, you know, right now the floor is down, right. Uh, across most projects and, you know, I have people.

You know, messaging me all the time, sort of in a panic, but it's like, you know, if, if they knew the meetings I was taking every day, I'm sure they wouldn't be panicking. Right. But like, that's also not how you run a business. So, um, you know, just, just, I think patients will be rewarded. Uh, certainly the partners that we're working with are working at like a breakneck pace for these traditional corporations, but it's not like how NFTs work.

So trying to balance it, trying to give people sort of like a peek behind the curtain, as much as I can. Um, while remembering, you know, it's about the long game don't give into the FID, just like keep building, but it's hard. Uh, Yeah, definitely. Um, so, you know, you mentioned that people who bought comic, you know, saw a big return, right?

50 X, a hundred X. And with that said, it may have priced some people out of, you know, the pixel vault ecosystem. So there was the recent planet launch. Why was it important to offer access to people who maybe missed out on comics and pixel vault before, you know, the opportunity to buy into the planets at the lower tier?

Yeah. So I mean, as much as we love rewarding our existing community, and we've done that a bunch of times already, uh, you know, expanding into this game versus, I mean, ultimately there will need to be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in this game burst to be for it to be truly successful.

Yeah. I don't think you're, you're seeing, I think you need to connect meta mask to see like the updated numbers, but, um, Yeah. So, I mean, we wanted the price to be low enough for new people to join the community. Uh, obviously that was a very common question. I would get on Twitter discord, like, Hey, I'm interested.

But you know, I think at the, I think right now, like the comic has seven and a half feet or something. Right. Um, it's a ton of money. So, um, you know, pricing the lowest comic or the lowest planet at 0.5, either giving them the opportunity to get now two different planets, right. Whatever they meant. Plus Jupiter, if you follow it along with that story and lower that we developed there, uh, that was, that was kind of fun on Twitter.

Um, but yeah, two planets and ultimately two sidekicks, again, all of these original participants in the ecosystem, we wanted them to, to ultimately have a character that they could use engaging. You know, if you're taking the time resources, effort to build the game, like you should probably have a character.

So, um, yeah, I mean, for 0.5 east, you can participate in two different planetary Dows and have either two different sidekicks or an upgraded sidekick, uh, with the burn mechanism there, you know, ultimately companies need to grow. Uh, we can't always just sort of reinforce the existing community. So we tried to have like a huge supply again, to avoid gas wars, to let anybody that wanted to get in in, um, and then find like interesting ways to create a deflationary supply with that Jupiter mechanic.

And then ultimately whatever doesn't sell we'll, we'll be taken back to the uptown, which is sort of this like central governance mechanism for the game. And the community will decide when they want to sort of release future trenches for, for funding, the development of the game. Perfect. You mentioned side.

Is there, I want to talk a little bit about this. So, um, can you share any update on the timeline for when sidekicks will be released and talk a little bit about leveling we'll work, um, with being able to burn kicks? Yeah, so the sidekick mint pass will be coming soon. So that'll probably be the first couple of weeks of November.

So similar to what we did with the generative identities, you'll first get them in pass, um, to the community based on what you're holding. Uh, and then later you'll be able to burn that and then pass for your sidekicks. Um, so the sidekicks themselves, I would say are probably not until Q1 of next year. Um, given the larger supply of sidekicks, uh, it's going to take some time.

Uh, we, we do have like a fun way to interact with the community coming up in the development of these sites. Um, and then to your point, there's also going to be this fun sort of deflationary mechanic where you'll be able to level up your sidekick. So right now the concept is five different levels of sidekicks and we haven't finalized the total burn counts, but whether it be one to five minute passes or one to 20, um, there's a chance we, you sort of scale it, interestingly there, but, um, yeah, again, creating an environment where the community shapes the ultimate, uh, experience and ecosystem, uh, is, is really important to us.

So seeing, you know, how people want to play it, right. Do you want five low-level sidekicks or do you want one premium? So it'll be fun to see where the final numbers end up. I assume, um, you know, the, the maximum supply was something like 115,000. The way we're creating it was to try and get down to somewhere around a 50,000 number, but, you know, we plan and the community does what it will.

Uh, so it's, it should be interesting. Awesome. Uh, one thing that, you know, pixel vault, uh, become known for is adding surprise value to mentors. So, you know, we saw punks comic mentors get a mint pass for a, met a hero, met a hero, met pass holders, had the opportunity to win a free core hero. Um, you know, and now the planet mentors also getting a free Jupiter planet and sidekick.

Can you talk about, you know, why this is important and how it adds value to those early adapters? Yeah. So, I mean, from, from a price perspective, obviously every time we, we reward the community, obviously the price of everything reacts. Right. So, so that's awesome to the existing community, but from more of like a structural standpoint, right?

Like. As we release things into the community, who does it make the most sense to, to have those items go to, you know, ultimately a lot of them will sell in the secondary and take some profit along the way. And in turn that expands the community to those people that are picking it up on secondary. But you know, you really do want to reward those people that are actually helping you build the thing.

Um, again, turning back to those five weeks of sleepless nights where I was like, well, you know, did I make a mistake? Um, yeah, I was literally all in with everything I owned, uh, to launch this project. Uh, and then some honestly, so, you know, it it's, it's been a wild year, but like I take these people's support, like incredibly seriously and to heart.

So, you know, wanting to see the community sort of succeed alongside the project just makes sense, providing these reward metrics. And also, you know, it defeats kind of like the gas wars and the bonding and all of that. So finding interesting ways to here and there expand into a public sale, but for the most part, trying to reward existing community and we have some more stuff up our sleeve, but I'm going to leave people to speculate.

Nice. So G funk Dow is a term that we're hearing in NFTs a lot lately. Um, I'm curious to hear, can you tell us a little bit more about the Dow and the pixel vault, you know, like when will voting begin and, uh, you know, where are they being set up? Yeah. So, uh, so the, the founders dial, right, which is sort of our art Val, but really kind of like a, a core community of like long-term collectors.

I mean, I don't really know that any NFT project was, was interacting with a Dow in that way when we launched it. But certainly you're seeing them like everywhere now. And I mean, our, our game vers, you know, they're, they're 10 they're alone. So, um, I don't, I don't know if you've been following sort of the drama with the moon, the moon bird, but 17 people, uh, tried to interact directly with the contract, ended up burning their comics, just poof gone.

Uh, and that's like 30 K a pop. So, uh, that will be the first use case for, for voting for any of these Dows, uh, we're going to get the moon voting up and ultimately the community of token holders for the moon will decide, you know, if they want to make them whole with this supply, we've set aside of 17 moons.

Um, and you know, I have some opinions in that. You know, most of these people weren't flippers, right? They were just like sort of panicked that they were going to get locked out because the button wasn't working for a couple minutes, I was telling them like, just wait, it's fine. You'll be okay. But you know, people will do what they will.

FOMO is a hell of a drug. So, uh, we're going to get this vote probably initially using a mechanic, like snapshot. And then ultimately we're going to, to develop like a custom UI experience across all of our Dows and that's something the virtue not has spoken about a lot. Um, so that's something that's going to be built sort of in conjunction as, as we're building out the game verse, but probably initially, um, snapshot through our website and, uh, and then more of like a custom build over time.

But, uh, I would say that all of them should be up in the next few months. Um, they all have already been established. Uh, from a legal standpoint with R R from Fenwick and west who have done just like an awesome job given sort of the unique nature of these 10,000 interacting with one another. But from a, from the technical implementation standpoint, that's going to be, um, like a primary focus after we get staking out for, for the Medicare identities and the comic here in, I dunno, roughly the next two weeks.

Nice. Do you see the discord community for the Dows, uh, being able to expand to more channels for more complex coordination and projects in the future? Sure. Yeah. So we just recently opened up a planetary channels. Uh, so we had only ever had two channels, sort of the main, uh, non gated channel. And then the things about founder's Dow channel, which you had to have the founders token to get in.

Uh, and now you can get into these gated, uh, you know, earth Pluto. Um, so, you know, we see a lot of interaction happening there. Um, but ultimately, you know, we would like it all to be built into sort of like a cohesive voting experience. I mean, with what you see with snapshot, I mean, there are, there are ways for the community to interact there, but it's, it's all a bit limited.

Right. Um, Erin and we're early days. I, I actually think what Snapchat has is really great, but finding ways to make it a more social experience I think is going to be really important for Dows moving forward. Um, so, you know, we're going to try our hand at that. I am sure there will be, uh, more products and services that come along on the way, but, uh, trying to find ways to allow the community, to like really interact in the decision-making is going to be hugely important in the development of the game among other things, uh, We're going to try our hand at that, but at the outset here, there'll be snapshot.

Right. Um, there's a lot of game theory around picks of all products, you know? So how do we explain the punks comic, the fund, the founder's Dow, uh, you know, a Metta here on the planets to someone that is just joining the NFT world. Like what's the best way. Yeah. I mean the rabbit hole is deep here, so this could take a second, but, uh, I would say that it's, it's a project based around IP, right at its very core.

What picks of all aims to do is develop IP in the web three environment in a way that not only will the company succeed, but so will the community. And along that journey, um, your faced with choices for how you want your collection to, to be tilted. Do you want to have exposure to this very unique collection?

And participate more broadly along with, you know, 5,000 of your closest friends and really everything takes them all. That's the founders. Now that was the choice to burn the comic for the founders now, or, you know, do you want to have more of a direct control over some Lords as it relates to the IP in the punks tokens, right?

These factionalized 16 crypto things. Well, that would be staking the comic and some of the people in that route, it wasn't even so much that they wanted the punks tokens, but they really wanted this physical. So there's the physical comic that will be shipped. Uh, and the fulfillment for that is going to start probably in early.

Um, so if you can state the comic, you can collect your physical and, you know, we hope that to be like a really cool collector's item. So I'd say staking and, you know, ownership over, uh, really everything as it pertains reward wise is, is directly going to you. Uh, that would be the comic route. Then you also recently had this opportunity to burn for the moon Dow.

And the moon Dow is, is sort of the same concept as the founders now, but applied to the game verse, right? So this is again, this like really loyal community of supporters who had to make this choice to burn a seven and a half east comic that they also were probably holding for quite some time. So we see the moon functioning in kind of like a similar.

Not necessarily governance because they're all equal, but kind of like, uh, having a really long-term perspective for the overall benefit of the game and the universe, um, that was the choice to burn the comic for the moon. And then each of these planetary Dow tokens, you know, you have direct exposure into the ultimate success of a gaming platform that we're trying to build together.

So, you know, you see products like sandbox, right? Uh, you see a lot of teasers. I, I think they're releasing soon, you know, not convoluted hopefully, but, um, ultimately all of those rewards flow back to sandbox and in a mocha, right. Um, here, what we're building together will actually flow back to the community.

So I think it's a really cool sort of technological and sociological experiment for the power of what web three can do, uh, Dow. Um, three NFTs, really trying to leverage all of these technologies in a way that I think is pretty clearly the direction for the future, but just doing it at kind of like this early stage in their development.

And then the medic heroes obviously are a really awesome way to actually be able to play in that game, but also participate in kind of like the comic ecosystem, given everything that we're doing there to, to develop the IP with, you know, traditional media partners, whether it be like a Netflix or a universal or, or whomever, we ended up deciding to partner with, um, you know, trying to get like an animated series.

That's, that's distributed more broadly to bring, you know, hopefully new people, not only into NFTs, but into the technology. Um, building value behind that IP. Uh, so that's kind of like the happy medium, I would say is the Medicare regenerative identities, because you get to participate in both the game, but also kind of the traditional IP path of the punks chronic well said, man.

And the game theory is what makes NMT so fun. So I'd love to hear how, you know, there's so much game theory here. Um, let's kind of switch a little bit, so, you know, let's talk a little bit about, you know, if you've been in the NFC space for a while, you've most likely heard of beanie, you know, so is anybody watching, how did your relationship with the beanie start and how's your relationship currently?

I know he is now an advisor to picks the vault. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, none of this would have been possible without him. I mean, I I've talked pretty publicly that I in crypto as of last November, so less than a year ago, I had 20. Right. Uh, and, and now we have like this very successful business. So I'm like really grateful that, that he saw the vision of what this could be.

Um, he put up something like $3 million in assets to make the founders now and all that collection of punks possible, which was really kind of the core of what the comic was. Right. We needed these fractionalized punks in order to sort of build this story, this decentralized Disney kind of project, um, and how we met, I mean, uh, in kind of like, I think he had just made a trade with prank C uh, on Twitter.

Like he had only like a hundred, 200 followers. Uh, and I messaged him the, the original interaction didn't go very well. Uh, you know, he was kind of a Dick and, but I stuck at it. Like, I thought that he knew some things and I was trying to learn at that point in time. Uh, and, you know, we sort of built a friendship, um, and then sports cheetah, Preston, another one of our original partners.

Um, he and I had had, uh, started to buy some NFTs together early this year. We had a crypto punk together. Uh, and then we decided we wanted to buy this, uh, this oiler beats. Oh, gee, I don't know if any of you are familiar with oiler beats, but um, really cool economic model. Uh, and you know, it's popped up here and there, we're actually planning to use some of that model, uh, with issue two and some of our collectible covers, but it was like this, this huge project that was kind of like the hot project of the moment.

Um, each of these OGs generated a royalty, right. And I think the first four days before they announced. Series two of enigma. Uh, we made like Tenny 70, 75, 8 in royalties, just off holding this NFT in, in four days. Um, so, uh, Preston and I decided that we wanted to buy this OJI from beanie beanie was selling it for a hundred eighth because he wanted to buy the LP one.

And, uh, it was my anniversary with my now fiance, then my girlfriend. And, um, we, so we're at dinner and beanie has decided, okay, like, he'll, he'll do this deal with Preston and I for a hundred eighth. Um, and like Preston's on a zoom with beanie I'm at dinner. Uh, for my anniversary, I have the email that I need to send to beanie my phone dies.

Uh, I'm like up at the, uh, Like the, the front desk, trying to get them to charge my phone and, and Preston and beanie are just like, you know, chatting on, on zoom. Uh, obviously trying to keep the deal alive because, you know, beanies, uh, beanie is a pretty tough negotiator at times. So he was like, all right, well, like if you can't do the deal, then like it's off, it's off.

Um, and so Preston was like keeping it alive and, uh, we ended up making the deal with him. Ultimately, I don't really know how, how that's turned out. At one point in time, we got an offer on that, whether it be for like 368th or something, we still hold it right now. But, uh, that was the start of the relationship really between, uh, Preston beanie and myself.

And it was during kind of those conversations that we, we started talking about this idea of building IP behind these crypto punks and, and that's how really we got his investment into the project. And the rest is this. Love it. That's always wild times. Yeah. Yeah. Love them or hate them. You know, Beanie's an awesome person to keep an eye on.

I always loved his thoughts. His tweets always keep me entertained and speaking. It's never boring. That's for sure. Speaking of tweets, he tweeted something earlier today, which we'll pull up on the screen right now. Uh, and that's going to lead me to my next question. Is your BGL D thing? Yes, exactly. So, well, yeah, so I, I had not spoken with him prior to him tweeting this.

So, you know, when, when blue had come out, um, you know, I, I think it's like a very fun community, right? Uh, there's a lot of like really positive people in the blue community and the BGL D thing. There was like a conversation that beanie and I had had about, okay. You know, maybe if, if blue holders or BGL D hold.

They had started to like come into the pixel vaults ecosystem and, you know, they were contributing a lot. So I thought, okay, you know, like let's find a way that maybe we can welcome them into the ecosystem and you'll see my tweet there. Um, and then the BGL D dev rubbed. Right. Uh, and that, that had nothing to do with beanie.

And I know he takes, he takes a lot of, uh SMACtalk. I don't know if this is a PG channel. Uh, but yeah. I mean, people talk a lot of trash to him on Twitter about BGL. And I know that he had nothing to do with that. Rugging, I mean, he still has like, I know 5 million tokens or something, but, uh, I don't know if we'll ever do anything with BGL GLD, you know, frankly, I don't really want to associate with BGL D because of that rug.

Um, but the bloop community, I, I liked, uh, I think there's good people in the blue community. So, you know, I would like to find a way for us to do something nice for them since I, you know, at that point in time when I said it, you know, I mean it, and I'm a man of my word. So, uh, I would like to find a way for us to do something for them since a lot of them have now become like really long time supporters of the project that I interact with a lot in discord and on Twitter.

So, you know, if we can find a way to do that in a way that's like true to pixel vault, you know, we're not going to be doing any sort of like weird blue type text, uh, stuff, but something true to rip, uh, where. We can somehow reward them and, and welcome them into the community. I'm all for it. But, you know, the thing would be GLD is, is unfortunate because I know a lot of people thought when it was high and then that dev rubbed like, like the entire, the entire reserve of Eve.

So, you know, it's, it's kind of a tough spot because I know he, he really cares about the people that sort of like followed his advice and, you know, granted, he says it's worthless, but you know, I, I know he really cares about the perception of the project and I know he wants to see it succeed. So, you know, if we can do something to, to, you know, work with that community in a way that's true to pixel vault, you know, I'm, I'm happy to do it, but I doubt it'll be through BGLB.

It would more likely be just like something in partnership with glutes. Um, But it would be something like that's like actually just like a pixel wall project that maybe we can reward blue folders with. Got it. Nice. So, yeah, we'll definitely keep our eyes on that. Um, you know, speaking of, you know, following, uh, how do you manage to discord?

You know, there's such a big following for the pixel community. Uh, you know, how often are you in the discord as well? Yeah, so, uh, I would say I'm pretty active in the discord granted, like the last few weeks, I, I haven't been able to interact a ton. Um, but I do, anytime people tag me, I do try to answer, but, uh, Podemus is, is our community manager.

He he's like a Saint he's in there all the time fighting the good fight, uh, dealing with the fighters. Um, So, you know, he leads a team of like really amazing, uh, community mods. We have too many to name right now, but I love you all. Uh, and yeah, I mean, I think that the, that the discord is like an amazing resource because the project is so complex and we do have so many different things happening at a given time that if you're not in the discord, I can see how people get lost, you know, so finding ways to improve our communication, you know, these weekly spaces, um, I was thinking of maybe having something on the website where it's kind of just like a running list of updates, because I mean, if some of these things, if you tweet it, I've seen beanie do it before.

And it was like 25 tweets long or something trying to explain what was happening. So I don't really think that's the way, but, you know, finding ways to have a running update on our website and through Twitter is important and, you know, definitely. Head into the discord. I mean, if you can get a founder's doubt token, I know the price is down right now.

I mean, I'm biased, but seems like a really good deal to me, the alpha and just that channel pays for itself. I mean, we have people that started with like one Ethan now have bought board apes and punks and stuff just off the basis of the different projects that they're flipping in, in the founders now channel.

So it's a really vibrant community and there, uh, love those people. I, I highly suggest getting in that channel if you can afford it. I agree. Love it. So one of the things we we've talked about, you know, in reference several times during this interview was a deal that pixel vault signed with w M E so that's something we're seeing more and more now in the NFT space we saw, uh, you know, crypto punk's parent company signed with UTA.

So I guess my first question here is, you know, uh, how soon will we see announcements on the TV and film side of things for monetization? You mentioned that things, you know, are you, you know, you're constantly talking, is that something that's going to be communicated, you know, through the founders discourt first?

Or will it be, you know, public information through press releases with these potential media partners? Yeah. So, um, I would say that that's really my primary focus right now is finding us a game development partner and a partner for developing the IP. Um, For example today I met with like a really amazing, uh, former top level executive at universal and Dreamworks.

And he's interested in coming on and sort of leading a team to, to actually develop the IP into an animated series, feature film, et cetera. So, you know, we're speaking with, uh, the who's who of, of Hollywood trying to develop a team, my personal background, I've worked in the entertainment space, but more of like support services, so communications, uh, financial tools, et cetera.

So I very much know what I don't know. And if we're going to be successful in developing this IP, I think we really need a seasoned, uh, production, executive producer type person. Um, so I'm actively taking meetings in that regard. And then shortly thereafter we'll be working with, um, I would be working with that person to try and find us, uh, a seasoned television or.

Uh, which has obviously different than a comic writer, but, um, you know, they're all going to need to be very much intertwined together. Right. So, uh, actively building out the creative team and, uh, yeah, I mean, I I'm, I couldn't be more thrilled with the conversations that are going on behind the scenes and, uh, you know, to all the flutters, like good luck, uh, cause I'm building.

So, uh, you know, I'll be here, rain or shine, uh, bear market bull market. Uh, it takes a while it's not going anywhere. So, uh, really, really excited for what the future is going to have love it. So, uh, you know, you mentioned your media background, so I'm guessing that w M E was not the only, uh, rap considered here.

What did that process look like? And maybe, you know, why was w M E picked over some of these other talent agencies for pixel. Yeah. So, uh, we took meetings with just about everyone. Um, uh, well I guess all of the large players, uh, in the agency space, we didn't speak to UTA, uh, who represent larval labs just because, you know, ultimately we're going to be developing kind of like a similar IP.

I really don't know what they're planning, but, um, we spoke with all the other major players and I wanted to get a sense for sort of their vision for the space. And, um, you know, I was also really impressed with CAA. I know they're doing a lot to, to build out kind of like an NFT division, but ultimately what really sort of differentiated WME for me.

Um, so Chris Jackman, he, he's kind of like, um, a leader in strategy for WME. Um, and first off to have like a CSO. Your call, your first meeting shows like some of the degree of, um, you know, seriousness with which they're taking your project. So, you know, having senior level executives on all of our initial calls was, was really impressive to me that they, they take the time and effort to do so.

And he's actually stayed like very highly engaged. So it's not just like a lip service that they're paying you off the bat, uh, too with WME. Um, you're not really just dealing with one agent you're dealing with subject matter expertise, uh, across a variety of verticals, right? So we have someone who is in like legacy publishing, whether that be comics, books, et cetera.

We have someone whose sole responsibility is television. We have film, we have, uh, like digital media. We have a gaming agent. You really have like a team of people that are going out and developing business for you. And, uh, while our team is now 18 people strong. I mean, having all of these people whose whose sole incentive is to develop business for you.

I mean, that's the only way they make money. They don't collect a check from us otherwise, uh, is really powerful. Right? So I think having subject matter experts makes a difference, but really sort of the key, uh, and touching again on this conversation with Chris, uh, in strategy for them, they don't look at pixel vaults as an NFT business, which I think pretty much everyone else.

Yes, NFTs are sort of the, the core of our business and what will allow us to differentiate ourselves from traditional media players. But ultimately we're an IP business leveraging kind of next generation technologies, right? We're still approaching IP in a way that is very similar to what these legacy institutions are doing, but we're doing it in a way that actually benefits the broader community, develops the IP for the benefit of all, uh, and sort of this collective mind, uh, of our community, all working together to develop this IP, I think is going to be tremendously disruptive to, to sort of like legacy institutions.

Um, I mean, you've seen, uh, Amazon and Netflix already disrupt what the traditional studios were doing. And I think this is the next logical progression of where that's going. And, uh, I, I touched on this a bit earlier. The, the opinions are different now, even in these legacy institutions, like nobody wants to be blockbuster, you know, they don't want to be disrupted again by the Netflix and Amazon of the world.

So people are taking our conversations very seriously. I think there's a lack of, of new IP. I mean, you know, the, the Harry potters and, um, you know, game of Thrones of the world have really been few and far between, uh, over the last, I'd say decade or two. I mean, Harry Potter now came out, I don't know, 25 years ago.

So you're seeing, um, a lot of, sort of repeat. You know, fast and the furious one to eight, 10, right? Exactly. I mean, they're cool. Like they're fun movies and $300 million movie is nothing to scoff at, but, um, there's a, there's a shortage of IP. And I think that you're going to see these traditional media players starting to look at the NFT space as kind of like these niche, but very strong and loyal communities where actual new IP is being developed, whether it be us or dates, et cetera.

Um, cool cats, you know, some of the other leaders in the space. I think, I think all of us are going to be successful in, in one way or another in developing and disrupting some of these traditional business. Awesome. You know, so one of the things we always try to do on here, we already got a ton of information from you.

Some updates on the timeline, you know, you're talking about taking meetings and all that different stuff, but I always try. So my question is, can you give the Benzinga audience one sneak peek detail about the Metta hero universe that hasn't been revealed anywhere yet?

Well, I mean, I would say that that was like a pretty big, uh, hint that I just dropped a minute ago. Right. Uh, bringing on, uh, an executive to, to develop this, this Medicare IP. It, uh, obviously it's going to tie to the pumps because it all works together, but you know, someone. Uh, sort of grew up under Steven Spielberg in the very early days of Dreamworks and his led like multi a hundred million dollar projects being interested in, in leading our IP.

I mean, if that's not bullish for our project and the space more broadly, I don't know what it is, but people see the value in what's being created here. And, uh, you know, this, this was the first, the first like big meeting, uh, bringing someone in house. But, uh, uh, I mean, I, I couldn't have been more impressed with that, with that call.

And I think it's really indicative of the direction that, um, you know, these conversations are going to go with WME. Making introductions across a variety of verticals tonight, I'm meeting with their gaming department. So, uh, yeah, really excited. But I think that if, if, if that meeting that I just spoke about is any indication of sort of the other people that we're talking to in, in traditional media to develop the project.

Like, you know, there, there are, are big household names that are, that are looking at, uh, developing the medical IP. So very, very bullish on the future. Perfect. We, we love the hints here. I love that. And the way you painted that too, you know, I just, you know, it's, it's so clear. I can see it in my head. Now we've seen a lot of, you know, YouTube and influencers take on movie roles to get more viewers.

I can totally see that happening with NFTs where, you know, the IP is going to be so important for, you know, to drive such a large audience. So, dude, I'm so excited for. Yeah. I mean, you know, as the IP succeeds in the broader media, obviously that returns value to the NFTs, but also we're definitely going to be finding creative ways to give exclusive content to NFTE holders, uh, you know, participation in events.

Uh, you know, there there's a whole host of different ways, but, uh, you know, focusing on, uh, driving kind of like the mainstream attention. While, uh, you know, making sure to reward that kind of like initial community of builders will be our focus moving love that. Uh, so between punks comic Mehta heroes and the planet sales, uh, pixel vault has done over 48,000 Ethereum in volume, top 12, all time on open seat with about over four with about over 5,000 unique holders.

Um, so what advice? Yeah. Secondary, what advice would you have for new projects launching today? Right. So in a market that's, you know, getting oversaturated, it's such a fast moving market, uh, what advice would you give to someone that wants to, you know, join that FTE community as a creator? Yeah, so, I mean, I first off, I think, you know, hearing those secondary numbers, I mean, I, I'm sure that stood out to groups like WME, right?

If you're in a legacy business and you're seeing how much more effectively things can be monetized in a web three environment, I mean, you'd be stupid not to pay attention in terms of. Uh, new projects, new collectors. I mean, I think everyone that, that has found the most success has brought something unique to the table, right.

While yeah, you can probably make like $3 million doing like a copy paste project that, you know, fades into oblivion in a few days, if you're doing something unique and actually dedicated and involved with your community and, and, you know, looking at things from like a long-term mindset, right. Again, I'll point to the cool cats and board apes.

Like I, I know for sure that those are teams of founders that like take the longterm success of their projects seriously. Uh, just like we do. So, you know, I think it's pretty clear, uh, when, when evaluating these projects, what, what people's intentions are. I mean, even if it's not a rug or something, even if the people like.

You know, well-intentioned and the founders are in chat. If really all they're doing is another, just like random PFP, you know what what's going to differentiate that long-term like, why is the market going to appreciate that project in one year, five years, 10 years. Right. So I think focusing on creators that are bringing something new and unique to the table, whether that be tech or, you know, vision for what can be done with the IP, uh, or even just have like a really unique community of supporters.

Um, I think that's sort of like the key, the key when evaluating new projects and what will, what will make successful teams moving into the future? Love that. So we've seen a picks of all cool cats, bore. Dave's a lot of these projects that started a couple months ago, you know, they've become blue chip. Do you have any projects that you like right now that are on their way there, or that are fairly new or that you've seen so far in the last couple weeks?

I don't mint a lot of projects these days. Um, I'm just like way, way too busy to even follow the mania. Um, but like, I've been following a handful of, uh, like photography projects. Um, so, uh, obviously twin planes was really awesome and now, you know, uh, Justin's kind of like blue chip, uh, Dave, uh Krogman I always mess up his last name would drive.

I mean, he, he, I didn't know it at the time, but he talked about how pixel vault and punks comic and like the weird mechanics were sort of inspiration for some of the things he was doing there. And then, uh, like where my vans go or whatever that guy that is just like taking pictures at like insane Heights and stuff.

Um, yeah. That's, I mean, those, those pictures make me nervous. So I think that you're going to see. A new crop of, oh, a cat simmered. I want to say her last name is, uh, with like sort of the outdoor landscape things. And she did like a really cool project. I don't know, a couple months ago where the winner would get to do some sort of like cool outdoor excursion with her.

So I, I think photography is going to be a thing that you're, you're seeing, uh, gain a lot of traction here. Um, you know, hopefully it's not just PFPs into oblivion, but I mean, again, it doing new things that inserts risk, right? Like if you could just do a copy paste PFP and make $3 million, like, like why do a comic that's going to sit there and nobody is going to get for five weeks, right?

Yeah. You have to have the vision. So again, you know, find founders that really believe in what they're doing and are doing something unique. I mean, yeah. Look at these photos. It's so. Uh, I, I was looking, I mean, it's already really expensive, so I kind of missed the boat. Um, but yeah, I heard, I heard some of his backstory, I think he's like former special ops or something.

Um, yeah, so he, and he's just climbing these things with, with like no harnesses, nothing. So, you know, more power to this guy. I, I hope, I hope he stays safe, but pretty cool collection of photos. I love that. Awesome. Well, G funk that did it for questions from myself and mass and some of our Benzing a team.

Uh, if you've got a couple minutes, we could try to rattle through some chat questions real quick. Um, I know we're already past three here, so only if you have time, um, we'll try to go fast here. So we had a question from Teresa. She said, well, the opportunity to win a core ever come up again, outside of the mint pack.

Oh, okay. No, uh, ever come up again. Yes. In November, the core giveaways will start again. Um, but no, you will need a med pass to get those cores. However, we do have kind of like a, another sort of core, like project coming up, that's tied to the planets. So, uh, you know, that's going to be something that the community can speculate about, but, uh, ODS and Chris are, are very much in the weeds there.

So that's going to be really cool and tied to the lore of the planets. There won't be as many, but a really cool set of characters. So yeah, finding new ways to reward collectors, but know that that original set of 146 cores is only going to be going to the mid pass holders, which I think there's like, I dunno, 4,000 or so.

Awesome. And then you, you mentioned snapshots before we did get a question from yogis in the chat. When will this, uh, pixel vault set snapshots be taken? So just any comment on maybe the timeline or how that will be communicated to everyone. Yeah. So we're going to be taking the planet snapshots for the sidekicks, uh, like the first week of November in terms of the sets.

So the, the sort of Genesis set being tied to the giveaway of the earth tokens. So again, that'll be like first week or so of November, and then kind of that, that like longer term sort of dangling carrot for the sets with the ultimate conversion, to a doubt, a public Dow for pixel vault itself. Uh, I mean, that's gonna take some time, you know, couldn't take a year, but the plan is for next year to formerly convert, to adapt.

And similar to what Sr did, where, you know, existing holders, people that have participated in the community to work, to reward those people. The PV Dao token will not be sold anywhere. So it's just going to go back to our original collectors and they'll have a stake in how the business is run. So, uh, really excited for, for that ultimate future.

Um, and that's sort of like the long-term benefit of these sets. Awesome. And then we have power the game currency. Uh, the question from Ben is will that be public or only available in the pixel vault ecosystem? Well, so, I mean, ultimately you'll be able to trade it like on, on sushi or whatnot. Um, but it's not a token that will ever be sold.

So, uh, it's, it's going to have a specific allocation to the identities. It will, there will be an allocation to the sidekicks, which will be also good, but not as good as the identities. Um, and then. Uh, the remaining tokens are going to flow to the uptown, which is sort of the governance mechanism for the gaming platform.

And that will decide, uh, based on a vote of the planets, um, how, and when they want to distribute the rest of those tokens, there will ultimately be a billion pound tokens. Um, and we'll be releasing more information here pretty soon, uh, because state game for, for the identities is going to start probably in the next two weeks.

Nice. So we have a question from Scott here who, uh, he's asking, you've mentioned, you know, the burnout being real and then another T world, uh, do you take personal days off? And if you do, how do you keep your mental health strong, you know, throughout these crazy times and then if T space? Yeah. Uh, unfortunately I, I, I mean, I've basically taken no days off.

I don't, I don't think there's ever been a day since this started, that I've unplugged. Uh, even, even the trip where I got engaged. I mean, I was like working that morning, so, you know, I try and find, uh, bits and pieces here and there where I can unplug for a few hours. I know beanie gives me, uh, a lot of grief over, you know, tweeting about sports, but, you know, even if I'm working right, if I'm watching sports, it gives me kind of like a little bit of a way to unplug.

And so I, I find that to be kind of like a useful mechanism to unplug, you know, get out, hit a bucket of golf balls, um, you know, exercise, you know, do you gotta do things to unplug, even if you're not going to unplug for extended periods of time, but that's it. I, I totally get that. You know, some people need to step away for, for more time than that.

And certainly I'm a. It feels like I've aged like 50 years in the last six months. But, um, yeah. I mean, finding some time in your day to unplug, I think is important, but I mean, with, with how fast this is growing, I, I really can't step away even for a day, so yeah, it's crazy. But they're trying to push through.

Yeah, no, I completely get it. Uh, definitely want to just get some movement and stuff. Some balance is always healthy, but yeah. Another question from Scott here. Yeah, exactly. Another question from Scott here is, uh, he's curious to know, has any of the team met in real life? Uh, you know, given that NFT communities largely exist on Twitter and discord?

Yeah. So. Preston, who again was, uh, was one of the founders of punks comic. Uh, he and I met on Twitter about, uh, 10 years ago. Uh, but then have since become like in real life friends, um, I have met some, like other members of the community in LA. We had like a meetup. I met, uh, Justin Arsano hunter, um, you know, Jacob, uh, the NFT attorney, like a big group of people, uh, in LA there's, there's actually like a pretty tight knit group of people there.

But for my, my pixel vault team, unfortunately we haven't had the opportunity to, to meet yet in person. Uh, I do have a ticket for NFT NYC and the virtual, not he, I got him a ticket as well. I don't have a flight or a place to stay yet, and I'm not a hundred percent sure I'm going to make it. But, uh, that would be, I guess, the first opportunity for me to meet anybody else.

The pixel wall team. I've had a lot of video chats with everybody on the team, but not, not face to face yet. Right. Uh, last question here from the chat. So if you had one choice, uh, you know, if you, if you had one comic, would you burn it for a moon Dow or hold the comic as a collector? That's really tough.

One comic. Um, I mean, I love the moon. I think it's an amazing token, but if I had just one comic, I would keep the one comic that's like,

yeah, we come with the hard getting questions here. So yeah, I mean, I think the moon Dal is going to be like immensely valuable for the development of the game. So if I had to, I would definitely burn one of them for the moon Dow, but since like ultimately everything in the ecosystem. All was kind of like birthed by that original punks comic.

I mean, I told you like my whole life was on the line, uh, with that comic. So it holds a special place in my heart. And, uh, I'm glad it worked out to say the least, gee Frank, before we let you go. Um, some of the discord was following along and we had to share this comment, uh, when G funk smiles, it makes me smile too.

You've got a lot of loyal fans out there. We also had a great comment in our chat here. Um, you know, as someone who talks about stocks, a lot, myself writing for Benzinga, we all know the name, Elan Musk, well, and someone compared you to the Elon Musk of NFTs. And I love that comparison. You know, I, I know you use the Willy Wonka one a lot, but I love the NFT.

Elon Musk being G funks. Yeah. I mean, I, I certainly have, uh, my, my hands in, in many different baskets like Ilum does, but I'm not going to pump those. So that's what that's, that's where the line is drawn. The line is drawn. No dope, no shit coins here. So, uh, awesome. Well, G funk, uh, we kept you longer than, you know, what we probably told you originally.

So we appreciate you going the extra time with us. We got through all our questions and then some, you know, as someone who again has been following the NFC community and you know, is fully invested and loves it. This was a great interview. We look up to you. Um, so we appreciate your time and we'd love to have you back on, you know, whenever there is new news and we get some more of that pixel vault, uh, ecosystem news pumping later this year, Any opportunity to come back out to that, that theme music I'm here.

Uh, maybe, maybe we'll make a new one. We'll have to, well, every time you come, we'll just have to add another song. So. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining us on the roadmap and we look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you. Awesome. Well, mass, I mean, we're, we're starting to run out of time here. We got the next show coming up at three 20.

So we have about seven minutes left. What do you think? Should we run through some news real quick? I mean, there's a lot to unpack from that interview too. I mean, uh, I loved it. I mean, G funk again is such a big voice in the NFT community. And this is someone whose you heard him say, right? Put everything in.

He pours his heart and soul into this project. And you know, that, that question we had about, you know, so many people looking for a short term NFT, right? They want immediate wins. When's my next mint. When's my next airdrop. What am I getting for immediate value? Pixel vault has delivered, but they have a long-term plan.

And I really liked that approach. And I think, you know, as we talk about NFTs, maybe not lasting forever, this is one where you look at and you say, this has got staying power. Absolutely. Well, first of all, shout out to G funk and a PV community. This has been probably one of my favorite interviews so far, uh, so much good info.

I'm probably, I'm probably going to replay it back and listen to it a couple more times. Uh, but yeah, exciting times, you know, so, uh, you know, seeing him just, you know, double down on the long-term growth of the project, it makes me bullish on entities. You know, they're not looking for short, you know, quick pump.

And I love seeing that. Yeah. And I mean that community, right. We saw it show up in the chat we had discords following along, watching this interview. I'd love that, you know, there, there is a lot of loyal fans out there and that's something, again, we talked about on our very first episode of the roadmap, right?

What do you look for in an NFT? You know, when you're looking to mint it or buy in you, Y you know, a project that has demand, but you also want a project that has that community, right? Because without the community, what happened. Yeah, it may take off, you know, pre reveal or post reveal, but then we see, you know, the floor drops out.

People leave the discord, they, you know, the interest goes away. I'd much rather be in one, you know, where maybe the floor isn't as high as it's been today, but it's got that lasting power in that community behind it. So I love, I love pixelated. And you want a great team running it. Right. So one thing I've realized is I'm not a big fan of anonymous teams so far as of late, just because of all the quick pump and dumps.

I do love seeing, you know, how G funk came out here. He showed himself, uh, you know, that makes me even more bullish on projects when people do that. Yeah. And talent representation matters. I mean, we talked about that with, you know, board apes, right. And, uh, crypto punks, both getting deals. Right. And now we have pixel vault, you know, signing a deal with w M E N S G funk said, he's got a media background.

So, I mean, it's not like he's new to media and getting into film and TV, but he was able to take these meetings with multiple talent agencies kind of pick, you know, Hey, and I love that comment about how, you know, w M E saw pixel ball, you know, maybe not as an NFT company, but as an IP company in an IP opportunity.

That's what, you know, he tried to build from the start and it shows now what that talent. Exactly. Absolutely. Chris, um, should we run through headlines? So we have time for that or, I mean, we can try real fast. We're probably not going to get to them all, but I mean, again, this interview was just so exciting.

So mass it's Tuesday. So last week's top 10. We always like to talk about the top 10 a little bit. Um, Axion infinity. I mean, uh, uh, you know, stop me if you've heard this one before Axion infinity was number one on crypto slam $120.8 million in sales volume, makeovers number two, cashew Kings three, crypto punks, mutant Katz, art blocks board eight yacht club NBA top shot came in eighth place.

That's the one I want to. $13.9 million in sales volume, up 135%. I mean, you heard G funk mentioned top shot, right? And we had the blue team on right. Hunter, Dylan Tropo. They all talked about how top shot was kind of, you know, one of the first projects that they got in. So they launched the, run it back 2005, 2006 pack series on Friday packs were $169 each.

I didn't get one because I didn't have a good enough spot in LA. But Dwayne Wade's Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Alan Iverson, Chris Paul. Those were some of the names available for the first time in these, you know, vintage packs, hard to believe that 2005 is considered vintage.

Um, but I mean the, the moment, I mean, Alan Iverson moments are going for $2,700, Dwayne Wade's for 2000. So again, if you are able to get one of those packs, I mean, you, you had a chance that a good profit and NBA season starts, uh, you know, this week. And, uh, I think, yeah, tonight, right. Top shot, I think is peaking again at the right time.

I mean, we saw that momentum fade in February, uh, or after February, but now it's starting to come back. Uh, what do you think exciting? You know, it's interesting to see how many people join the NFT community because of top shop, you know, like you said, any most guests we have on, we asked them, how did they get started?

It's through top shot, which is pretty cool. Awesome. Well, we talked about Coinbase the other day. What can you tell me about Coinbase NFTs mass? Yeah, so we'll probably be our last headline here at Coinbase now has over 2 million signed up. Uh, you know, so that's huge. We have the VP product of Coinbase. He tweeted out something here, which we'll pull up in a second, which he said, you know, it's open for all creators.

Uh, you know, creators and creativity can manifest from any place in the world. Uh, they're building an open marketplace where any creator will be able to join, create their profile, build the community and sell their NFCS. So they're really tackling that social aspect, right? Every NFT will be minted on chain.

Uh, from day one, you can take your NFT anywhere you want sell any NFT. If you already have your NFP minted someplace else, you can easily list them on Coinbase. I have T marketplace. If you prefer, you can also easily mint on Coinbase NFT. You can take then take those NFTs to any other marketplace of your choice and sell.

So if you prefer, there's no lock-in, which is cool. Uh, collectors will be able to buy an NFT using their preferred self custody wallet, you know, metal, bass, Coinbase, whatever, uh, or simply by signing where the custodian Combet Coinbase account, which is huge because then you just have your Coinbase account already there.

Uh, and then money will work too. So you can probably use, you know, fi up. So we'll see how that works. Uh, one interface for cross chain NFTs, we will start with the theorem chain and then our vision is to build single interface that allows collectors to buy any NFT from any chain that is big right there.

Yeah. There's a lot to unpack from that tweet, right? I mean this thread, I think the biggest points for me are, um, you know, that you can use your existing Coinbase account. Maybe rather than having a wallet also fee. And then the talk about the different coins. That's something I brought up when we first talked about this, you know, obviously we talk a lot about a theory based NFTs, but there's also, you know, Solana and other projects.

And I think, you know, if Coinbase integrates those, we may see those become more popular, um, down the road. Well, what do you take away from this Coinbase discussion mass? This is a big step towards mainstream adoption of NFTs. Yeah. Seeing how easy it's going to be for people that already have a Coinbase account, seeing how easy it's going to be for people that already have an open seat, you know, portfolio to transfer back and forth.

Uh, you know, just making it easy, I think is a key. And they're doing a great job at that, from what it seems. So I'm excited for that. Yeah. I mean, Coinbase is going to bring a ton of people to market. I mean, w we just talked about it mass, right? NBA, top shop brought a lot of people to market. And one of the things that top shot did right, was they used flow.

So you didn't have to worry about gas wars and also you could use your credit card. To purchase those packs. If Coinbase can do a similar approach, you're going to see new people, right. Get in. Cause you don't have to worry about wallets, a theory of gas, war, stuff like that. So maybe, you know, I mean, we're, we're still early, right?

We are going to make it. Coinbase is going to be a big event guys. We are out of time before we leave though mass, as I said at the start for anyone who doesn't follow Benzinga on Twitter, didn't see our posts. Hasn't read my article about this week's guest. Who do we have coming on? Thursday's show this week.

There's this episode's going to be one of my favorite. So far, we have the founder of our block, snow fro joining us. Uh, you know, this is going to be one of my favorite episodes. I'm a big art blogs fan. I have so many questions already. I want to ask. So make sure you guys tune in for that. It's going to be pretty good.

Yeah. I mean, talk about a big week, right? Pixel all an art block, same week. We've had some huge interviews before mass. I don't think we've ever had to as big in the same week though. Um, so if you're new out there, I mean, this, this is just the beginning, right? Make sure you come back to the roadmap on Thursday.

I mean, look at that squiggle there. Benzinga art, black squiggle there on the screen, but we're out of time, but coming up next, guys, we have at the close. So you're going to have Spencer and Joel talking about the top moving stocks of the day. If you are interested in stocks and then I'm excited mass at four o'clock.

We have earnings coming out from nest slugs. So we've got a big week right. Of earnings. So they're going to be breaking down all the latest earnings. So stay tuned, guys. Don't go anywhere at the close in that earnings recap coming up next and as all. We'll see you next time on the roadmap.

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