Token2049 Singapore Has Been INSANE! (Vlog Part 2)

So this year the venue is just twice as big. They actually literally split multiple floors. Before I just remember as it's just down on a basement floor, but like level 4, level 5, more stages. So I think Token 2049, they are making a lot of money because these booths are not cheap. And yeah, so let's go check it out. Let's check out the first booth over here. Let's go. And you can see it's still crowded. This is like 4 o'clock. Usually people start leaving. But you can just check by the vibe, check the people here. It's like very varied people. Exchange people, DGens, everything. So very, very big variety. Let's go for a gauntlet run. Let's check out what's fun. This is the sixth year we've been to Token. So we're the third generation now. It's been three generations of Token. We've been around for that long. Before there was the ICO wave, there's DeFi wave, then there's the Web3, NFT wave. And then like now we're in 2024 where it's like the crazy, maybe we call it the ETF wave, right? So it's different. It's very interesting to see everything grow. And initially, I'll be honest with you. I'll say maybe I'm too old for this. Maybe I don't want to see this. But actually, here's my pitch for seeing Token 2049. It's really about matching faces to people. And I think that's a big difference. Because when you're online, you can see what people like. Maybe like their meme coins. This is especially true for meme coin traders. Meme coin traders, you can see what they kind of like, but you don't know them. By knowing them, you know what they will like in the future, which is much more valuable if you think about it. Because if you want to find the next meme coin that's going to do 100x, then you want to see, okay, this is how these people think. Right? You got to study them. So I'm almost coming here and then like just watching this, like this is a discovery channel. You know, I'm like watching these like guys and I just like learning a little bit. I mean, this makes me sound super old, but I feel like this is what, if you're here for Token, that's what you should be doing. Just like figuring out what different groups of people are and what they like. And I really want to provide that for you guys as well. So we're going to interview some people and check out the vibes. All right. So we just bumped into Seth. How's it going, man? Hey, it's going great. It's going great. Yeah. How have you been finding the event so far? So far it's phenomenal. It's not quite what I was expecting. Really? I was at Token 24-29 in Dubai and it was amazing there, of course, right? The organizers just do phenomenal work. I wasn't quite prepared for how much bigger, more expensive this was, right? I mean, I came here with a sea of people, which is great. I'm here for the networking, here for the people. And so this is everything I expected. But more. Exactly. Way more. Exactly. I was so overwhelmed. Like, this is like, I came here, I expected to, you know, walk around, but like, it's five and I still haven't walked around yet. So, you know. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So for me, it was a pleasant surprise. I ran into this guy, you know him, but like, and I recognize your face. I thought, I need to talk to this guy about what he thinks is good. Some people have a sense for, you know, how to ferret out some of the white noise, how to like cut out some of the white noise to get to the signal, you know? More, more signal than noise. There's no way to store a signal to noise here. There is no way. Why are you going to do this? I was really hoping you'd be the guy, but like, yeah. No, man. It's just like, it's crazy. There's just so many people, so many site events. You just make the best out of it. Enjoy the experience, I guess. You know, absolutely. What I'm liking though about this trade show so far, I've never seen so many market making services, which tells me that there's a shift in the market right now. It's a huge shift in the capital side of our industry because I'm seeing market makers come from nowhere. Yes. And not reveal what their AUM is, but just tell me what their volume is. So I'm thinking, okay, this is good and bad, right? Like, we're going to see more projects succeed, but we're not going to know why. Right? Like, but I think you know, you know why. I mean, even meme coins see market makers these days. So, you know, that's the crazy part, right? Yeah. There's a different vibe for everyone. I think like, yeah, it's just different. Yeah, I know completely, but I'm here for it. I love it. The amount of people I've been able to talk to who are either specialists or who get it or who are just beginning to build. Like there's more opportunity, I think, than what I saw in Dubai. So that's kind of the one other trend that I'm seeing. But on the other side, I think it's encouraging to see that there are market makers that are being born now in this market, which tells me, fingers crossed, knock on wood, don't quote anybody, not financial advice, whatever, whatever disclaimer you need. I feel like this might signal our recovery. This might signal our move back up. I think so. And also like, I think before there was always this paranoia, like, is this going to be an industry for like, a lot of people come here, it's maybe the first time they think, okay, is this a good industry for me to go into, set my career on? But now that no one asked that right now, it's like, which, which aspect of this industry do you go into? I think that's a big difference. Yes, absolutely. I totally agree. Where I think I'm seeing some opportunities. So first, I saw the market makers, which is kind of oddball, you don't normally expect to see this many at a trade show, which tells me again, I think we might be seeing a recovery soon, which hints to me that we're going to see building in a new category that we maybe can't predict so easily, right? So meme coins have had a lot of fun. It's very speculative, very degenerate, right? It's just what people are looking for right now, who maybe are financially strapped a little bit. But I think we might see something that's different, right? Maybe it's a synthesis between memes and something else very soon. I don't know what though. Okay, there's not an interview now we're discussing, but I actually don't think so. I party with some of the meme coin people yesterday. And they're like, it's very clear that they don't give a rat's ass about, you know, value, technology, you know, they don't, they don't care about hodl. Their finger is right on the sell button. They care about the next party and when to get rich. So I feel like we're not going to be rid of that. That's a new Gen Z. That's a new generation coming in. I think, I think like, I just felt like I felt out of place there. I'm like, I'm like, you know, a value guy. I'm like, I'm a fight till Bitcoin till the end. But like, that's boomerish. So we're the boomers. Okay, boomer, move along. That's because you had a background actually figuring out how to do this thing called proof of work. Nobody knows what that is anymore. Right, Scott? There's no proof of work. Proof of fun. Proof of fun. Proof of DJing, right? Proof of DJing. But I really want to know the vibes here. I want to see what people are into and predict what they want to buy. And that's how you make your 100x. So, okay, well, you heard this guy. 100x, let me know what you find. DM me and I'm in right behind you. Let's do this. Let's do this, man. Thank you so much, man. Okay, we're on the fifth floor now. That's how insane this place is. It's just like booths, expo everywhere. Like rooms everywhere. It's nuts. Like I feel like I've been here a whole day. I feel like I haven't been here at all. But anyways, I feel like the change in crypto, the biggest change I would say is back in the day, you know, Charlie Lee of Litecoin said, you can know everything about Bitcoin and crypto in just one afternoon. Just read the forums and you're pretty much caught up to date. But now with, you know, the scale of how big everything is now, that's not enough. You know, I don't think that two days is enough to really see what's happening at token. We can only give you really guys, give you a brief overview and feel what it's like. But I definitely was invigorating in many ways because I feel like it's bigger and more exciting than everything. So if you just view crypto from like the Internet, let's just say from your desk, right, you're not going to see how vibrant and how big the community is and how fast it's growing. But there's just a lot of life here and there's a lot to do. I think this is why it's inspiring. My good friend, Justin Wu. How's it going, Justin? Hey, good. Happy to be here. Another massive token 2049. Massive. It's like twice as big as last year. It's overwhelming, actually, to be honest. And I don't know if crypto continues to blow up. I think I don't know if I can handle this size of crowd anymore. I can't really have a conversation here. It's just overwhelming. There's so many that I guess they didn't even like organize it by like GameFi or like Deepin or AI. Like it was pretty all over the place. But also, too, I feel like it's getting like these events are getting a little bit too commercialized. It's just shilling every corner. And at that point, like we're not even paying attention to. I guess it was always like this in a way, but it was never so diverse, I think. It's just so many different ways of shilling. I guess before we saw booth babes, that's like pretty common. But now it's like double as many. And like, you know, it's like what's a little bit different, I guess, is everybody has like a little character mascot. Now they're trying to be like a pay pay or they're trying to be more meme-ish, I guess. That's what's a little bit different. Yeah, that's true. So are you bullish or bearish? I mean, rate cuts are starting tomorrow. So either that's a sign of recession or pump. Recession could also mean a pump as well. I'm still bullish long term. I think the bull run's not here yet. So just trying to find the latest meme coins. I see. And you're deep into meme coins, right? And I guess meme culture is really different because I was shocked by matching the faces to people who play meme coins. It's very different. Like, were you shocked, you know, when you saw that or is that part of the game now, you know? Yeah, I mean, meeting a lot of the crypto anon Twitters, doxing them in person is a little bit funny because, you know, they're online. Their Twitter fingers are always a huge egos. When you meet them, they might be totally different than what you think, right? Like, you already know that. And it's easy because they can always hide behind a PFP or a thing. So, but it's interesting because, like, the meme coin generation is kind of that younger generation of crypto. They don't really understand about the tech, nor do they care. They don't care. They don't care. I mean, that's fundamentally different. I was so surprised. They don't care. Yeah, but to me, it's not surprising because I met these type of, like, NFT bros back in the previous cycle as well. So they gave the same vibe. I think so. And I think it's like a millennial thing. Like, I'm compulsive about finding value, you know, and then, like, not just finding value, but once you find value, you'll defend that value. Like, it's Bitcoin. You know, we huddle till we die. And now they're like, you know, they just want to party with the leader. And then when the leader says dump, you just dump, you know, that's the way to go. Yeah, it's a very Jeet culture now because of Solana and everything that's been going on. But that's Jeet plus PvP. It's a very PvP game. And I guess that's why I guess there's a lot of insecurity. That's what I saw at a party yesterday. There's a lot of people who really want to get in. Like, I saw them all just, like, bopping to the music, but they're offbeat. Yeah, you could say that. But what I'll say is that I guess the meme community is still super bullish just because they're still printing games, obviously, from a lot of alpha or inner circles. That's true. That's true. So they made the money. They made the cash. Yeah. But if you ask, like, the more normal person walking around here in Togo 2049, unless they're a builder, they probably will, they feel kind of buried. Like, they're like, this is a bear market. What happened? Like, because they, everybody else that loves utility just said no to meme coins, right? There's no substance behind it. So they just decided to not participate in meme coins. Right. And that's the divide, right? The community and the Gen Z audience, they like the meme. They like the fun, the culture. Yeah. And then the value players, you know, they can't find extra liquidity anymore. Yeah, they can't find extra liquidity anymore. And now they're just stuck with, like, these boomer coins, like they call it now. Boomer, like, Bitcoin's a boomer coin to them. So to everybody else. Same with, like, all the layer ones. That's a great way to put it. And if you want to find more about Justin, he's got an amazing, you got an Instagram group, you got a Twitter group. Which one's the best right now? Twitter and Instagram. You can find me, Justin Wu, or at Hackapreneur as well. Just always just sharing meme coin. Yeah, meme coin alpha. Nice. Awesome. See you around, man. Peace. All right. We're here with Spencer, the core contributor. One of the core contributors is Fractal. How's it going, man? It's good. Thank you for chatting with me today. Yeah. And how do you find the vibes so far? I feel like the vibes at this event is just kind of accelerating. There's just so many people around, people from all kinds of different ecosystems. And of course, I'm very biased. I want people to know more about Bitcoin. Right. But yeah, it's been exciting. Okay. Bringing on to Bitcoin, Fractal, what's a core aspect that makes this the super most exciting project for you? Yeah. I mean, I just find it super exciting because like the community support is really good. I think there's like over 200,000, you know, like, you know, active addresses, you know, like, you know, interacting with Fractal these days. And it's all like the Bitcoin active users, right? They're doing all kinds of transactions. They're mining, they're transacting, they're minting. Why Bitcoin? Why Bitcoin ecosystem? Yeah, I think Bitcoin is the oldest asset, right? And I think being the oldest asset, it almost feels like it's boring instead. But it's not, right? Bitcoin is also like finding its fun again. And, you know, people are like, you know, putting all kinds of interesting art, putting all kinds of interesting collectibles, memes and on chain, right? And you're also able to do like really techie stuff, right? For example, DAX, you know, trading, automated market makers for the, you know, people out there who really wants to know, you know, like DeFi applications. It's here, right? So for the longest time, there was a lot of these things were not possible. It's only possible on Ethereum or Solana, many other ecosystems. But now it's all happening on Bitcoin. So, okay. So everything's happening on Bitcoin. Okay. But what made it explode? Because, I mean, we've always had Bitcoin. Yeah. Right? What's the spark that united? Because I've actually talked to another person, Melody, actually, from Spartan. She's like, there's almost like a 10 times growth in the Bitcoin ecosystem right now. What's the push behind that? Yeah. I think there's a couple of factors. And I think if you ask me to just pinpoint one or two, I would say one is the community. The community in a Bitcoin ecosystem just really found their, you know, like their little, like belonging. You know, like they were like talking, like you can see like, you know, on Twitter spaces, some of the most active Twitter spaces are about talking about Bitcoin, right? 500 people, 1,000 people. And, you know, this is like unprecedented almost, right? So there's a lot of people and there's a lot of rich people. I would say so. I would say so. I'm not that rich. I'm not sure about you. But, you know, like we are able to go to Bitcoin. The Bitcoin community is, okay. So lots of people, lots of rich people. Okay. So let's talk about Fractal, okay? So what's the core tech that enables you to scale Bitcoin with Bitcoin? Yeah. The core tech is that, you know, the Bitcoin core software. So let's not forget the Bitcoin core software has been built for the last 10, you know, plus years. And, you know, people really find that this is stable and good, right? So that's the basis of what we built Fractal on. And we made a couple of improvements on that that is still core to Bitcoin. But we adjusted certain things like, for example, transactions per second. We adjusted certain things like the mining mechanism. And we adjusted, you know, with the community feedback, we actually added in the OPCAD opcode as well, which is also something that the Bitcoiners on the Bitcoin network are looking to enable. So in some ways, we are like a little bit slightly ahead of Bitcoin, but not that far ahead. Right. Now, what are you most excited for for Bitcoin network? There's ordinals. There's, like, new art. What makes you most excited about this whole ecosystem right now? Yeah. I think what makes me most excited right now is that we're so early in a sense that there's so much things that hasn't been built yet, right? On many of the other ecosystems, you know, like, for example, I was at an Ethereum talk yesterday by Vitalik. And he was talking about, you know, L2, smart wallets and stuff, which is, and privacy, which is, like, honestly quite ahead, right, of some of the conversations we're having in the Bitcoin ecosystem. But because, you know, in the Bitcoin ecosystem, we have a very unique canvas that is very different. We have, you know, the ability to move a little bit slower. So as a result, we can move more deliberately. And in some ways, it's honestly like the tortoise and the hare kind of, like, you know, analogy, right? We're a little bit like a tortoise, right? Right. Not as fast as a hare. But, you know, hopefully we can reach the finish line earlier of, like, making, you know, crypto assets widely adopted by everyone. But the tortoise is carrying a lot of Bitcoin on its back. So it's okay. It's worth a little bit more than the Ethereum. The Ethereum is a little bit lighter. That's why the hare can jump a bit. That is true. That is true. Hopefully that's the analogy, right? Okay. So we talked about Fractal. You guys are building this network. So what is kind of your next new milestone? Yeah. So, like, some of the things we've been doing is really around stability. So our theme was stability for the past couple of weeks. I think we're really trying to grow the ecosystem. I think one of the questions I keep getting asked is, how do I build on Bitcoin? Right? I hope by next year when we have this conversation, maybe a token. Yeah. We don't ask that question anymore. Hopefully. Okay. Yeah. I know how to do it. Exactly. It's like, yep. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So I think maybe that just summarizes my view. Like, in the next year, I really want to make it as a team and as an ecosystem easier. And just like most similar to build on Bitcoin. Build on Bitcoin. Build on Bitcoin. Build on Bitcoin. Build on Fractal. Cool. All right. Spencer, thank you so much. Thanks for your time. Thank you so much. Dima, how has it been, man? I'm tired. I'm tired. We are. It's a really big event. I mean, I think it's the way this place is designed. It's because of Sands Casino. So they design it so you don't know what time of day it is, right? Absolutely. You keep on gambling. People don't want to leave this place. No. Not at all. I want to pitch and pitch and pitch and pitch. Yes. Yes. Pitch and pitch and pitch and pitch and pitch. So, okay. So you've been doing a lot recently. You know, Hacking's grown tremendously since the last time, like, you know, we've seen you. What have you been up to? What's exciting? I have boring stuff. It's working tightly with regulators, with European Union, Abu Dhabi, Turkey. Do you think people are more excited now? Are more regulators excited or need to learn more about what's happening to security and penetration? Is that more exciting? Regulators want to make money. Okay. And regulators are our tools. We are builders of this industry. Right. And we need to educate regulators to set proper tools so to make hackers, fraudsters, and scammers life more difficult. But this is our responsibility. Okay. Right. Right. And regulators are friends, tools, and we should not be afraid of them. So it's just to make the general atmosphere and place better. And you're working a lot. So do you have a lot of meetings where regulators regularly are now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot. And is this very different from, like, three, four years ago where they don't care? Is there a difference? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So now I think, like, now I think regulators, like, define that, okay, we are not going to ban this industry. We want to earn from this industry. So, and it takes time for them to explain that, okay, this IML KYC, it will not work. It doesn't cover the risk. You will not make money here. Here, how you can make money. Ah. Here, where the risks are and how you should, like, what rules you should implement. So, so this is our job now. And I think it's just a difference, right? Because back in the day, regulators, they regulate people because people were the ones who controlled the flow of money. But now it's actually software, right? And I think that's a big mental shift. Like, this is the code and the code needs to be good. So I think maybe, maybe they don't understand that yet, right? Um, they, but they learn. They, they try. They try. Like, the portrait of regulator is the guy who was dealing with Data Protection Act, IML, for the last 20 years. And, you know, and for him it's very hard to switch. Right, right, right. But they're trying. Nice, nice. And you say you're working on prediction market as well. What are you doing? Yes, this is the most exciting thing that I'm very, that's, I like to pitch. Ah, ah, ah, ah. Yeah, so, we thought how we can improve the quality of our audits and to engage community. Right. So, we are taking 10% of our audit fees and we are putting them into reward pool. Uh-huh. And we propose our community to stake money and basically bet money to get this reward pool, which is from 80 to 120% annual. Uh-huh. Um, and bet on the quality of our audit. Ah. So. Right. So, they stake into the quality of a particular audit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, they take this, uh, um, uh, this stake pool that is created. Like, this is a bug bounty, uh, budget for the ethical hackers. So, they start to look at the code for the 30 days. And if they found the critical mistake, then, uh, basically this money goes to them. Right. If they don't, then everything's fine and the, uh, guys receive pretty decent API. So, basically increase the quality of the contracts, have a bounty, and then also, it's basically hackerify. Hackerify, nice. Nice. So, I would say, yeah, we improve the quality. We save, uh, uh, client deposit money because they don't need to freeze the money for the, uh, bug bounty. Yeah. Uh, we engage the community. So, community get, like, basically distribution of our revenue. Uh-huh. And they also study our client's project because they- Oh, right, right, right. They need to know where they, uh, where the- Right. Uh, and, uh, and it's also a good community absorption element as, uh, instrument as well. So, the client's community, they also know about this API and they think, like, okay, uh, I made some money right now. Maybe it's a good, uh, token, high token. Yeah. So, it's token utility, actual hackerify. Yeah. Yeah. And then, uh, use case, community building. That's amazing. Thank you. Really excited for that. So, check, guys, check that out, guys. Thank you. Cool, cool. Uh, hope to see you around more. Thank you. And then, let's punch some face. Thank you. All right. So, it's actually really late now and we're here with Terrence from Humanity. How are you, bro? Very, very good. Very good. Thanks for, uh, thanks for dropping by. I guess for audiences that are new, they haven't seen Humanity before, what's your overall arching goal? For us, what we're trying to do is leverage biometrics to prove that you're a human being. I think, uh, in the past when we were in Dubai, we, we sort of did a quick demo on the software side. Yeah. Over the last couple of months, we've been hard at work. So, now we actually have our proprietary hardware. It actually scans both your palm print as well as the blood vessels, the veins underneath your palm. And using that, we can recognize who you are or in certain use cases, even without caring who you are, at the very least, recognize that you're a unique person. And so, I can just quickly show you, because we don't have that much time, uh, maybe not go through sort of the onboarding and enrollment process, but at least there is sort of a verification process that can happen where you can see, um, just by scanning my palm, it can actually recognize that hi underscore TK is my DID. This is my address, uh, that is bound to this, uh, to this wallet. Um, and then obviously here in Singapore, if you come join the test net, you get a small gift, um, through a spinning wheel. So, you know, it's super exciting. We had hundreds of people come by and do this already on our first day. Um, in a couple of weeks, we're actually gonna launch, uh, two things. One is we're gonna actually start shipping these devices to different early partners so that you can enroll physically, as well as, you know, uh, launching an app so that you can also do the pre-enrollment directly with your own smartphone. Got it. So, so what makes it special? So, why do you have dedicated hardware as opposed to just a simple smartphone to just know who I am? Um, because I, I, you know, when you tried out the software piece, uh, it's already super accurate. Um, so for verifying or for recognizing who you are, it's actually pretty useful. The challenge is that, uh, if we want to use it for use cases like fair drops or making sure that you are not creating many symbols, um, a software based solution is not good enough because ultimately you could spoof it. You could try in different lighting settings. You could try many different times, draw on your hand, really, you know, scratch it to try to pretend to be a new person. Right. And if, if the goal is just, you know, air dropping to any unique person, then people will have a financial incentive to do that. Right. So we do need the hardware piece because the vein actually, the vein camera actually checks underneath your skin and you can't fake it. Um, and we can ensure that you're definitely, uh, unique. That one person. That's actually quite insane because this has like a huge amount of applications, right? So I feel like this is a really big next step for like this, a verification of a person, identifying them. It's, it's actually quite groundbreaking. It's very relevant. And I think for a lot of blockchains, you know, obviously a lot of people talk about how blockchain has not been used by as many applications by people for three reasons. Number one is bad user experience. Number two is, you know, expensive, uh, gas fees. And the third is, uh, you know, transaction speed, right? Like most blockchains are too slow. The way I think about it is that, you know, we're creating a very simple user experience for people to onboard with their wallet, create, uh, become part of humanity protocol. But more importantly, I think down the road, if, uh, other blockchains or applications don't have some sort of proof of humanity, uh, component, um, everything's just going to get bought it to shits. You know what I'm saying? We're already seeing that with, you know, airdrops where people are farming. And so, you know, it's, it's, it's not very, it's, it's not fair at all, but more importantly, it's a waste of money for, uh, for projects to be airdropping to farmers who are controlling tens of thousands, if not millions of accounts, it's not real people. Right. And then you have the problem with Twitter across a lot of social media platforms, everything, anything that can be gained will be gained. If there is financial incentives and there is some sort of economic value will be gained. Right. So whether it's web three or web two, we think this is super important. Got it. And I guess I was a low line through for adoption. Like who are the first users of this kind of hardware? Who do you think, who, who spying them? Like what's, what's happening there? So we're, we're actually starting to work starting from sort of the blockchain space. I think the idea is that we want to enroll as many people as possible. So that whether it's a crypto community for airdrops, for GameFi, for Deepin, uh, it becomes an important thing. Um, and then potentially move down to the web two space to, to the wider population. So that's why, you know, right now on the physical side, the very first enrollment spot is here in token 2049 in Singapore. Nice. Thank you guys so much. And, uh, we'll see you soon. Thanks a lot, Michael. Peace.