The WLD Show

As the show’s listenership has grown, WLD has begun getting inbound interest to be guests on the pod - John is the first guest we have decided to bring on.

In this episode, John describes his crypto journey from being a self-described OG game forum lurker way back in the early 2010’s, to how he lead blockchain initiatives both internally and externally at Google, to how his obsession with pokemon kickstarted his foray into play to earn NFTs and laid the foundation for SZNs.

Learn more about John Lee and SZNs:

• John’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/@jl2fa
• SZNS’ Website: https://szns.io
• SZNS’ Twitter: @sznsnft
• SZNS’ Discord: http://discord.gg/szns
• SZNS’ Litepaper
• Article John wrote back in 2015 on Ethereum

Episode notes and links:

• How John initially got into crypto through Team Liquid’s gaming forum
• Why John’s formative years crafted his Libertarian leanings at a young age
  • Growing up poor, distrusting of centralized institutional power
• Johns journey into tech and crypto
  • Learned programming in college, joined Oracle as sales engineer
  • First exposed to Ethereum in 2015 through a crypto meetup, wrote an article on ETH mining on Bitcoinist (link below)
  • How do we build trustless systems
  • DApps and verifying truth through code
• Joining Google in 2017 and working on crypto initiatives
  • Hosting and growing internal blockchain events
  • How John facilitated engagement with Block.one and eventually leading to a partnership where Google joined as a EOS block producer
• John’s investment history in crypto
  • How John initially pooled money from friends and family, began as a private investment club that achieved 70x returns
  • Starting Novak Capital in 2017
    • Looking to deploy majority in venture, some in liquid markets
• How John got started in collecting and investing in NFTs
  • Always loved collectibles, started from collecting pokemon figures from the late 90’s
  • Being ranked 130 on Blur leaderboard
  • Why John is bullish on the Azuki project
    • Buying a special Azuki for 2 ETH, and getting offers for over 200 ETH
• What is John’s strategy and approach in investing in NFTs?
  • Sweeping the floor and unloading at the right time
  • Price action similarities to ICOs back in the day
  • Real investing vs riding wave of crypto in general
• How did John start SZNS?
  • Working with friends from Google that wanted to do something together
  • Creating a platform for Axie trading - borrow for free, earnings profit sharing
  • Pivoting and joining AllianceDAO when Axie created Ronin chain
• What is SZNS? Why launch your DAO on SZNS?
  • Piloting a trustless way to manage your NFTs and protection against malicious proposals
  • How is SZNS different from Syndicate.io or other platforms?
    • How SZNS streamlined their voting mechanism
    • Allowing for arbitration periods where ppl can contest by bonding and staking their ETH via Reality.ETH module
    • How SZNS will initially monitor and oversee malicious proposals, eventually will transition to DAO governance
  • Private beta right now, public launch June 30th
  • What is the vision of the platform?
    • Not being bullish on fractionalization
    • Believing that the methodology of collections/albums with a token mechanism is a better way to decentralize ownership
    • Not being a platform for NFT flipping - quick buy/sell still an issue
• What happened in Beanstalk hack?
  • Flash loan to buy majority of governance tokens, edited smarted contract to steal assets
  • John sold some pods the same night as the hack exploit!
• Benevolent dictatorship vs fully decentralized checks and balances
  • Oliver Wendall Holmes - "If my fellow citizens want to go to Hell I will help them. It's my job."
• John’s book recommendation - “The ascent of Money”
  • The right of sovereignty and ownership of your own assets that have monetary value
• SZNS’ year end goal is to be number one Google search above SZNS KPOP group!

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Will brings on Evan Lai to chat about what we learned in Web3 this week. We discuss the Bored Ape Otherside minting mess, a16z's centralized metaverse, Will’s NFT blue chip scorecard, and building an NFT house of cards.

Links

• Cobie: Apecoin new blockchain suggestion
• Yuga Labs response on minting mess
• CPG Grey: Rules for Rulers Youtube Video
• Bored Ape Yacht Club Owner Yuga Labs Raises $450M Led by A16z
• Music, sports, and entertainment VIPs invest $87 million in MoonPay
• OpenSea: Why Andreessen Horowitz is betting big on NFTs
• Improbable raises $150m from Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank
• Bored Ape Yacht Club Creators Yuga Labs Sign Representation Deal With Madonna, U2 Manager Guy Oseary
• Will's Blue Chip NFT Scorecard
• Rehito Hatoyama (Sanrio, Bathing Ape, Line Friends) new Azuki advisor
• Billboard President Julian Holguin new Doodle CEO
• Dead Brands Attempt Resurrection With Crypto

Correction: a16z did not invest in Moonpay. Only Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures did.

Tell us what you think by DM'ing @wiiichang. If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Continuing our series of exploration of Crypto Coven’s extraordinary community, we bring on Kagami, Crypto Coven Head Librarian.

In this episode, Kagami dishes on how Crypo Coven’s exceptional creative lore and unique community kickstarted his journey into Web3. We learn how Kagami initiated and volunteered to craft Crypto Coven’s open source informational library, how he sees the library evolving as an intellectual hub, and how he would choose between bread, rice, and noodles.

Learn more about Kagami and CryptoCoven:

• Kagami’s Twitter: @kagami_nft
• Crypto Coven Twitter: @crypto_coven
• Crypto Coven Website: https://www.cryptocoven.xyz
• CovenCats Twitter: @coven_cats
• Coven Librarians Twitter: @covenlibrarians
• Find the Librarians in Crypto Coven Discord: https://discord.com/invite/cryptocoven
• Crypto Coven Library

Episode notes and links:

• How Kagami initially got involved with CryptoCoven
• What is the Library? What is the role and responsibility of the Head Librarian?
  • What does a day in the life of the Head Librarian look like?
  • How Kagami’s own pain points in web3 onboarding inspired him to help create and build out the Library
  • How Kagami’s experience in content creation helped him in crafting the Library
• The most common question that is asked - “Where is the library??”
• What are things that people can learn?
  • Web3, NFT’s, Wallet security, Discord security
• What differentiates good onboarding?
  • Accessibility for all levels of knowledge of experience
  • Classification via tagging
  • “Choosing your own adventure”
• How did they recruit over 50 Librarians?
• Weekly summarizing tweets that recap everything that has happened each week
• New projects that have since spawned from the Library/Librarians
  • Librarian Talks - how the Libarians built out an amazing series of fireside chats
  • Engaging chats hosted on Discord with Nyx, Penguin Wizard, and more
  • Web3 job postings and opportunity sharing
• What advice Kagami would give someone looking to set up a library
  • Setting the right foundation by defining initial principles and values up front
  • How to facilitate genuine conversations within the community and create the confidence to start building - organic creation conversations since web3 folks are already creators
  • Staying true to community values, and attracting new members that buy into the ethos
• What is a chaos circle? When is the next chaos circle?
  • When a conversation becomes chaotic..
  • Kagami answers “If you have to give up one thing for the rest of your life, would it be rice, bread, or noodles?
• Does Kagami identify more with being a Mage or an Occultist?
  • Head librarian during the day
  • Occultist at night
• How CovenCats became a ecosystem inspired project
• CryptoCoven as a talent and idea incubator and accelerator
  • The diversity of talent and expertise within the Crypto Coven community
• Kagami’s thoughts around non-invasive anonymity and pseudonymity online
  • Respecting people’s privacy vs credibility and accountability
• What is the future of the Library as an intellectual hub?
  • Helping and supporting new ideas and initiatives that the community are interested in
  • How strong community culture and rules and regulation become self-perpetuating
• The characteristics of the broader Web3 community that make it so unique
• What resources Kagami utilize to learn about and engage with Web3
  • Podcasts such as Bankless and WLD Show!
  • Twitter, Discord and following interesting projects

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Will brings on Evan Lai to chat about what we learned in Web3 this week. We discuss how Bored Ape Otherside mint will work, Moonbirds COO Ryan Carson stepping down, Azuki Beans reveal disappointment, and Balaji's article on Elondrop.

Links

• Cobie: ApeCoin & the death of staking
• Otherside: Dutch auctions are actually bullshit
• Moonbird COO Ryan Carson on leaving Moonbird
• What Happened to Treehouse? CEO Ryan Carson's track record  as a leader.
• Avidya.eth on Azuki BEANZ as an Asian market play
• Balaji: The Elon Drop

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Jason Yeh and Brian Cho are the cofounders and general partners of Patron. Patron is an early-stage venture firm investing in the convergence of games, consumer, and Web3. Patron calls it the Spectrum of Play.

Jason began his VC career in 2007 as a founding investor at FirstMark, where he led due diligence for the Series A of Riot Games - the company behind League of Legends.

Brian Cho has been investing in gaming and consumer startups since 2012, where he was a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz and worked on investments including Oculus, Lyft, and Slack. Since 2014, he built and led the investment arm at Riot Games.

Learn more about Jason, Brian, and Patron:

• Jason Yeh Twitter: @jasonoliver
• Brian Cho Twitter: @brianjcho
• Patron Website: https://patron.xyz

In this episode, we discuss:

• What Jason and Brian saw in Riot Games
• How and why League of Legends changed gaming
• Why Jason and Brian left and started Patron
• Patron’s Spectrum of Play investment thesis
• Why Web3 introduces gaming mechanics to everything
• What does Patron typically look for in an investment
• Why are portfolio companies choosing Patron to lead their rounds?
• Why are gamers currently against Web3?
• What Web3 games are Jason and Brian currently into?

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Will brings on Evan Lai to chat about what we learned in Web3 this week. We discuss Punk6529's OM project, Beanstalk and Ronin hacks, Tristan Eaton GEMMA NFT burn, VBA game NFT card reveals, and more.

Links

• Punk6529 tweet thread introducing OM
• Beanstalk hack explained
• Ronin hack explained
• Tristan Eaton GEMMA NFT
• VBA Game

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Phil Huang is the founder of DeFiCon. DeFiCon is a nonprofit conference with a mission to elevate the ethos of peer-to-peer crypto. Speakers from DeFiCon 2021 include NFT journalist Andrew Wang, Bored Ape Yacht Club artist All Seeing Seneca, Congress Legislative Director Conor Carney, and Axie Infinity Esports Program Lead Zyori.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Phil became a board member of Karate Combat
• How Phil put together DeFiCon
• How he got All Seeing Seneca to do the art for DeFiCon’s NFT tickets
• How did they get such A-list guest speakers?
• What kind of goals are priority for DeFiCon 2022?
• What Phil is excited about in crypto and DeFi right now

Learn more about Phil and DeFiCon:

• Phil’s Twitter: @TheHuangWay
• DeFiCon Twitter: @DeFi_Conference
• DeFiCon: https://deficon.nyc
• Karate Combat: https://www.karate.com
• Karate Combat is hiring Product, Devs, and Community builders!  https://www.karate.com/jobs

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Astrea is Crypto Coven’s Coven Cultivator (Community Manager). We discuss how Astrea helped cultivate such a strong community unlike any other NFT project.

A big theme we’ve heard from all of our Web3 guests is that community is the key to success. Crypto Coven, one of the top NFT collections, has a community that I believe is unparalleled in the space. This episode is hopefully the beginning of a series of episodes where we learn about different aspects of what makes the Crypto Coven community so strong.

Learn more about Astrea and CryptoCoven:

• Astrea’s Twitter: @astrea_eth
• Crypto Coven Twitter: @crypto_coven
• Crypto Coven Website: https://www.cryptocoven.xyz
• Xuannu: Inking a Smart Contract

Episode notes and links:

• How Astrea got involved with Crypto Coven
• What is a full moon ceremony?
• What did the early days look like when cultivating the community
• What type of “cultivator” experience Astrea had and how she translated it to Crypto Coven
• Reasons why humans gather together and form in communities
  • Looking to connect with others
  • Coming together over shared interests
  • Share values with another
• Event planning: whether IRL or Digital - it’s about creating a container
• How high growth and an influx of people spurred the quick set up of community guidelines
• Had to create a set of community guidelines: backbone to enforce rules of engagement
• How do some of the rules differ?
  • Lore not floor - Don’t tolerate people coming to a discord to sell
• How Astrea has worked with hard conversations
• Pact Keepers: Discord moderators
• How Astrea manages her own mental health
• Community Managers of Crypto Coven:
  • Pact keepers: Setting the container
  • Librarians - building out Web3 educational resources and brewing new ideas around panels
• Lessons from enforcing the CryptoCoven guidelines
• What is community?
• How to build community
  • Guidelines
  • People to teach and nudge and guide - the guidelines
  • Provide art for inspiration
  • Cultivating a space for support and idea sharing
  • Cultivating enabling people to be exuberant and themselves
• Thinking more about:
  • How culture is what begets community
  • Culture often centers around really great art
  • The witches have charmed us all into gathering here in a community
  • How society has historically had very rigid standards for what makes great art
  • Book by School of Life: What is culture for?
    • Art redeems us
    • How we find companionship
    • How we genuinely engage in it
• Tangible action of how to build a strong community:
  • Keeping an ear to the ground on what kind of events to put on
  • Big picture thinking
  • Adapting the inspiration to the medium to make it feel meaningful to attendees
  • Throwing events to create experiences so witches feel heard, seen, and can learn from each other.
• Who gets to throw the events and how do they happen?
• How to be a community curator:
  1. Set guidelines and provide inspiration
  2. Nudge and teach people to adhere to culture
  3. Help people navigate and learn from the community
  4. See the community, listen to the community, notice what they need, provide inspiration, encourage people to be themselves and help
  5. Recognize who has expertise, connect people to gaps, help these folks share their expertise, patch their holes to they will be successful helping the community.
• Why has CryptoCoven been so successful?
• Some of Astrea’s favorite community moments
• What the process was like to get a custom witch?
• Have you seen any unhealthy signals that you now monitor?
• Astrea likes to “Underpromise and over-deliver”
• Astrea is thinking about “Converging the physical and digital spaces”

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Will brings on Evan Lai to chat about what we learned in Web3 this week. We discuss where NFT value comes from. We use Bored Apes, Azuki, Doodles, and Crypto Covens as examples. We also talk about the difference between EthDenver and Bitcoin Miami.

Will's Twitter thread on where NFT value comes from: https://twitter.com/wiiichang/status/1510825521008951299

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!

Ed Chang is Head of Gaming of Ava Labs. Ava Labs is the team behind Avalanche. An L1 that is the fastest smart contract platform in the blockchain industry.

Prior to Ava Labs, Ed was the Senior Director of Partnerships at the gaming company Electronic Arts. Prior to EA Games, he was the Entrepreneur in Residence at The Chernin Group, a media company that invests in, owns, and operates other media companies. where he primarily focused on e-sports and gaming opportunities. Ed was also the founder of Basikz Agency. A gaming influencer agency and consultancy.

In this episode, we discuss how Ed is helping Avalanche build out its gaming ecosystem.

Learn more about Ed Chang and Ava Labs:

• Ed Chang’s Twitter: @EdC
• Ed Chang’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/etchang
• Ava Labs - https://www.avalabs.org
• Ava Labs’ Twitter: @avalabsofficial

In this episode we discuss:

• What convinced Ed to jump into Web3
• What Ed was doing prior to Ava Labs
• Why Ed chose Avalanche
• How does Avalanche compared to other protocols
• Ed’s goals for Avalanche: Become the “Netflix of web3 games”
• What’s the pitch for games coming onto the platform?
• What it was like for Ed to drink from the Web3 fire hose.
• What’s the difference between Web3 and Web2 games?
• What are the programs that help new developers build on AVAX
• What makes new games stand out?
• What trends is Ed seeing in Web3 gaming?

If you liked this episode, you can find more episodes at wld.show!