The Game Souk

Angela and Evan speak with Philip Rosedale, creator of long-standing metaverse Second Life, on how Second Life has existed as a truly authentic metaverse for two decades, how virtual worlds must balance user freedoms, and how addressing the senses deepens digital experiences.

Philip Rosedale is the Founder of Linden Lab, parent company of Second Life, an open-ended, Internet-connected virtual world and pioneering metaverse. Following Second Life, he worked on several projects related to distributed work and computing. Excited by innovations in these areas and the proliferation of new VR-enabling devices, he re-entered the virtual worlds space in 2013, co-founding High Fidelity, a company devoted to exploring the future of next-generation shared virtual reality. Philip rejoined Second Life in 2022, as Strategic Advisor, focused on helping to shape and build a better metaverse.Prior to Linden Lab, Philip created an innovative Internet video conferencing product ("FreeVue"), which was later acquired by RealNetworks, where he went on to become Vice President and CTO.

Philip’s LinkedIn

Philip’s Twitter

Second Life:

Second Life is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world.

Signum Growth

Signum Growth Capital is a registered broker-dealer member of FINRA, headquartered in New York. The firm provides M&A advisory services and engages in placements of both private and public company securities.

Focused on mass market applications underpinned by Bitcoin & other blockchain protocols, video gaming, tokenized digital art, and social networks, Signum Growth Capital strives to be at the forefront of the emerging technologies and digital economies in the metaverse.

Please reach out to us at [email protected]

Signum Growth's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/SignumGrowth⁠⁠⁠

Angela's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/daltonan⁠⁠⁠⁠

Signum Growth's Newsletter: ⁠⁠Bits of Signum⁠⁠ 

Angela and Evan talk with seasoned entrepreneur and metaverse enthusiast, Yon Raz-Fridman, on why the real TAM of the metaverse is 100 *billion* people, exiting the Web2/traditional world of Zero Sum Games, and whether NFTs and blockchain generally are required to enable the ultimate form Yon envisions for the metaverse.

Yon Raz-Fridman

Yonatan Raz-Fridman (he/him) is an award-winning entrepreneur and executive with global recognition in educational technology, design, and consumer electronics. He’s on a mission to democratize access to learning, creation and self-expression through technology.

Yon is the Founder & CEO of Supersocial, a venture-backed company that builds virtual worlds with insanely engaging games and experiences for the metaverse, starting with Roblox. He was formerly the Co-Founder and former CEO of Kano, a global computer company, recently selected by Fast Company magazine as the world's 2nd most innovative company in consumer electronics and a TIME Magazine best invention. He built Kano from an idea into category-defining and market-leading company, raising nearly $50M in funding from world-class investors like Jim Breyer, Marc Benioff, and Jim O'Neill to name a few.

For his work with Kano, Yonatan was named ‘One To Watch’ by Sir Martin Sorrell (Founder of WPP) and Wired magazine, has been a speaker at leading conferences among them TED, Quartz, Wired, Surge, and his work has been featured in renowned publications among them The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and USA Today.

Yonatan is also the founder of Sosu, a Brooklyn-based product incubator; co-founder of Kodo Interactive, a Sao Paulo-based company that equips young people with the skills of the future through immersive learning; and co-founder of Feles Bio, which unlocks the power of biology with an affordable desktop biolab. He also tasted big corporate work while serving as the Chief of Staff to the President of Keter Group, a global leader in DIY consumer market, with over $1B in annual revenue.

Yon's LinkedIn

Yon's Twitter

Signum Growth

Signum Growth Capital is a registered broker-dealer member of FINRA, headquartered in New York. The firm provides M&A advisory services and engages in placements of both private and public company securities.

Focused on mass market applications underpinned by Bitcoin & other blockchain protocols, video gaming, tokenized digital art, and social networks, Signum Growth Capital strives to be at the forefront of the emerging technologies and digital economies in the metaverse.

Please reach out to us at [email protected]

Signum Growth's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/SignumGrowth⁠⁠⁠

Angela's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/daltonan⁠⁠⁠⁠

Signum Growth's Newsletter: ⁠⁠Bits of Signum⁠⁠ 

Angela and Evan speak with Jeff Davis, generative artist and ArtBlocks CCO, on his discovery of NFT and experience working with artists and algorithms at ArtBlocks. While ArtBlocks focuses on the intersection of generative algorithms and art, the conversation explores how algorithms can be applied to event ticketing, fashion, and in-game individuality.

Jeff Davis creates abstract artwork using algorithmic processes. Using custom code to randomly determine compositional elements within specified parameters, his art explores geometric structure and color arrangement through computation and iteration. His work was recently featured at Art Dubai, and in the shows Natively Digital at Sotheby's and The Digital for Miami Art Week.

In addition to his creative endeavors, Jeff serves as Chief Creative Officer at Art Blocks and is the founder of Davis Editions. He acts as the Chair of the Arts and Culture Commission for the city of Tempe and is also the author of two textbooks, Foundations of Design and Foundations of Color.

Jeff’s Twitter

https://www.jeffgdavis.com/ 

Signum Growth

Signum Growth Capital is a registered broker-dealer member of FINRA, headquartered in New York. The firm provides M&A advisory services and engages in placements of both private and public company securities.

Focused on mass market applications underpinned by Bitcoin & other blockchain protocols, video gaming, tokenized digital art, and social networks, Signum Growth Capital strives to be at the forefront of the emerging technologies and digital economies in the metaverse.

Please reach out to us at [email protected]

Signum Growth's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/SignumGrowth⁠⁠⁠⁠

Angela's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/daltonan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Signum Growth's Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Bits of Signum⁠⁠⁠ 

Angela and Evan discuss with William Entriken, lead author of the ERC-721 standard, William’s three stages of NFT adoption. While the first stage of million dollar apes and TV spots may be over, the next stages will introduce true utility – gaming, supply chains, and IP management across all industries.

William Entriken runs and co-owns an online nursing certification firm. In the world of NFTs, he’s a guru, better known as the lead author of ERC-721, the programming standard for trading virtual assets on digital ledgers, a.k.a. blockchains. His passion project lit a fuse under the NFT moon rocket in 2018 and has made Entriken a cool $1 million selling pixels on Su Squares, a digital billboard he minted as a demo.

William’s Website

William’s Twitter

Signum Growth⁠

Signum Growth is a registered broker-dealer member of FINRA, headquartered in New York. The firm provides M&A advisory services and engages in placements of both private and public company securities.  Focused on mass market applications underpinned by Bitcoin & other blockchain protocols, video gaming, tokenized digital art, and social networks, Signum Growth strives to be at the forefront of the emerging technologies and digital economies in the metaverse. Please reach out to us at [email protected].

Signum Growth's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/SignumGrowth⁠⁠⁠⁠

Angela's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/daltonan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Signum Growth's Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Bits of Signum⁠⁠⁠ 

Angela and Evan bring on Mythical Games CEO, John Linden, to discuss how he has approached using blockchain in games and how traditional publishers have approached the space. How can publishers find the right balance of user ownership and publisher control? What are the differences between game development cycles and crypto cycles? John also brings up an important, yet largely untapped relationship between fashion and gaming.

John Linden is the CEO of Mythical, a next-generation game technology studio creating universal economies driven by player ownership of NFTs with utility. The studio’s first game is Blankos Block Party, a colorful play-and-earn multiplayer world with a focus on unique minigames, styled like a giant block party for collectible digital vinyl toys. Prior to Mythical, John was the President of Seismic Games (acquired by Niantic Labs), developer of Marvel Strike Force and Magic the Gathering: Valor’s Reach. Prior to Seismic Games, he was a Studio Head at Activision Blizzard on the Call of Duty and Skylanders franchises. Before entering the games industry, John was the Co-Founder / CTO at Adknowledge and at OpenX and built his own startups, Planet Alumni (acquired by Reunion.com) and Litmus Media (acquired by Think Partnership). John is passionate about video games, the future of playable NFTs and blockchain technologies, and bringing emerging technologies to the mass market.

John’s LinkedIn

John’s Twitter

Mythical Games

Mythical Games is a gaming technology studio developing games intended to bring players, creators, brands, and game developers together through personalized experiences and content. The company's studio provides a decentralized gaming application that uses blockchain technology to build games where players can own their assets.

Signum Growth⁠

Signum Growth is a registered broker-dealer member of FINRA, headquartered in New York. The firm provides M&A advisory services and engages in placements of both private and public company securities.  Focused on mass market applications underpinned by Bitcoin & other blockchain protocols, video gaming, tokenized digital art, and social networks, Signum Growth strives to be at the forefront of the emerging technologies and digital economies in the metaverse. Please reach out to us at [email protected].

Signum Growth's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/SignumGrowth⁠⁠⁠⁠

Angela's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/daltonan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Signum Growth's Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Bits of Signum⁠⁠⁠ 

For the first episode of Culture Meets Crypto, Angela and Evan speak with Josie Bellini - renowned crypto artist, bitcoin OG, and good friend of Angela’s. The three cover how Josie first entered the crypto scene and what led her to make “crypto art,” as well as how she is building a community with her new project, CyberBrokers.

Josie is a pioneering artist and designer who has been creating cryptoart since 2017. She has a background in finance and creates art that tells the story of the crypto ecosystem. Not only does Josie utilize canvas and paint in her work, but she also releases digital art and augmented reality scenes to fully immerse her viewers. Josie has exhibited in virtual worlds and at major blockchain conferences like Consensus, NFT NYC, and Satoshi Roundtable.

Josie’s Website & Josie’s Twitter

CyberBrokers

CyberBrokers is a first-of-its-kind art collectibles ecosystem centered around 10,001 unique and fully on-chain CyberBrokers NFTs. Each NFT is a membership to pass to various metaversal experiences including MirroWare, Josie’s metaverse-native fashion brand, as well as a personal avatar in the CyberBrokers universe. Like blockchain and crypto launched us into a Blade Runneresque universe, the spirit and history of crypto is deeply ingrained in apocalyptic-futurism of CyberBrokers, evident in the Chapters which can be read on the CyberBrokers Substack or listened to on Spotify.

Signum Growth⁠

Signum Growth is a registered broker-dealer member of FINRA, headquartered in New York. The firm provides M&A advisory services and engages in placements of both private and public company securities.  Focused on mass market applications underpinned by Bitcoin & other blockchain protocols, video gaming, tokenized digital art, and social networks, Signum Growth strives to be at the forefront of the emerging technologies and digital economies in the metaverse. Please reach out to us at [email protected].

Signum Growth's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/SignumGrowth⁠⁠⁠⁠

Angela's Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/daltonan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Signum Growth's Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠Bits of Signum⁠⁠⁠