The following transcript was created using artificial intelligence. There will be some grammatical errors below. 

00:00:00:21 – 00:00:24:14

Richard Carthon: What’s up, everyone, your host here, Richard Carthon, here at the Miami Crypto Experience, and after a long and amazing day, we got an amazing person right here. We have Adrian with Ethernity. We just left his session, dropped a ton of great knowledge. Man, you’re are working on an amazing project, Ethernity Chain. You know, how has it been just one, being able to come to an in-person live event here at the Miami Crypto Experience?

00:00:24:21 – 00:00:44:10

Adrian Baschuk: Yeah. I’m from Miami, from Miami Beach specifically and we’ve kind of been first to open. We had, you know, high vaccination rates, that’s for sure. So, it’s just exciting to be back in person and the conference circuit, starting back up. And then we have more conferences lined up, I’m sure, you know, just in six weeks from now as well.

00:00:44:25 – 00:01:11:18

Richard Carthon: Yeah, man. it’s enjoyable to be able to be back in person, meet people and to network. You know, I think one of the biggest elements that’s been missing through everything in the Crypto, Blockchain is space we’ve been really remote and being able to come back in person, I feel like there’s a lot more synergies that happen a lot faster. And not just that, to be able to have that true connection, like in person like, and to really see the the excitement in people’s eyes when you like, talk about your various projects.

00:01:11:20 – 00:01:24:27

Richard Carthon: You know, you’ve been obviously talking a lot about the NFT space, have been on various panels and all that with it, but what has been some of the feedback that you’ve received about just the overall like, excitement and wanting to know more about NFTs?

00:01:25:19 – 00:01:57:27

Adrian Baschuk: Well, you know, I think to counter your point, I think the bear market from 2018 to 2020 had, you know, a lot of builders’ heads down building and there were conferences and yes, there was the in-person interaction, but I think COVID actually enabled a lot of building to happen on an accelerated pace as well. So, I think you see more diverse, DeFi projects and obviously NFT projects and then with the next wave is being built that’s been happening in the last year. And that’s why you see this huge wave of A, excitement but B, innovation.

00:01:58:03 – 00:02:22:03

Adrian Baschuk: So, I think some of that was actually good. The in-person stuff is absolutely great now and we’re connecting after building, but this whole last year enabled a lot of building to be done and the fruition coming to that. And on the NFT front, it’s the exact indication because, you know, our devs weren’t able to really, really fully build until starting last March, March of 2020. And here we are now.

00:02:22:18 – 00:02:47:07

Richard Carthon: Right. And even on that note, I remember you were talking, and you were saying most of your team actually is fully remote. And so, even having an opportunity to be able to come in an in-place event where we have the NFT Gala and people being able to showcase some of their work and having the Porsche out there and other things like that. You know, what are some of those different elements of NFTs that you think Ethernity Chain is going to be able to bring to events like this and into the world?

00:02:47:17 – 00:03:40:06

Adrian Baschuk: Yeah. I think artists were the first movers in culture, and so that’s why you saw the NFT space explode with the rise of digital artists and using the Blockchain to prove provenance and authenticity. I think at Ethernity we’re going to be trying to do a lot of collectible front and you’re going to see a bridge to real world assets. You know, I say with the NFT space, it’s taking a nonfungible token, which literally can be anything. It can be a piece of art, a line of music, a line of code, a physical asset. We’re doing a bat for the Fernando Tatis drop on Monday. And so, it’s taking any of those assets, bridging them across Blockchain, paying with Crypto down to the end user. It can be a content play, which is where the NFT space I think is kind of moving. So, we’re here now finally transacting on both digital and physical fronts, just over Blockchain, proving authenticity.

00:03:40:17 – 00:04:10:18

Richard Carthon: And the belief is there. I mean, right now there’s the wave and you actually referred to it during your conversation, basically, as we have this gigantic wave of all these people coming in. Unfortunately, on other platforms, you had people that just released a ton of stuff without a ton of value, now, when people try to go resell it’s at a significant loss from where it was, how is Ethernity Chain positioned to kind of help alleviate some of that? Those challenges and also make sure that when you have these new drops that you can keep providing like really good value to the people who are doing those?

00:04:11:00 – 00:05:05:08

Adrian Baschuk: You know, our team at Ethernity are just as authentic as can be. So, we took half Crypto natives and then half representatives and advisors and partners from arts, media, sports, entertainment, collectibles, licensing and put us all in one. And we took that big Crypto native community and built this big community because we’re based on licensed, authenticated NFTs with real world value. It’s not just random art by random artists about random things, but we’re taking notable figures, historical figures first to then create collectibles and art and real-world collectibles in a way that kind of hasn’t been done before in a scarce way. Also, we’re not just releasing stuff every single day, it’s going to be two drops a weak, highly curated and create value on that collectible front for the long term.

00:05:05:10 – 00:05:10:15

Richard Carthon: And I think that’s a really valuable like, marketing strategy and even how you’re going about it and you know.

00:05:10:17 – 00:05:48:09

Adrian Baschuk: Well, I’ll stop you there. It’s not marketing, it’s creating a life cycle for these NFTs. It’s just getting started. Like I said, artists were the first mover advantages, so, yes, these digital artists paved the way, but we’re in this kind of super cycle of innovation and adoption and experimentation. So, these digital artists paved the way and now it’s playing in the space. And what can you do with an NFT collection when we are going to release something with Tatis next week, Muhammad Ali the weekend after, Tony Hawk on May 12? I mean, he’s doing an NFT moment of his last 540 as a trick, so it’s a moment.

00:05:48:23 – 00:05:49:08

Richard Carthon: Yeah.

00:05:49:10 – 00:06:15:23

Adrian Baschuk: Watch what we do with history when you can own and partake in a moment in history and the creator and the subject is both credited and received compensation and royalties on the resale of that. We want to make good on what the Internet kind of promised in terms of one-to-one creation interaction and value add. And that’s what I think NFTs can really create. But the sky’s the limit. It’s going to be limitless with what you can do and experiment with.

00:06:15:25 – 00:06:31:13

Richard Carthon: Absolutely. There’re two things that you just brought up that I want to go back to really quickly that I think was amazing. Something that blew my mind that I hadn’t really considered, which was history on Blockchain and being able to capture that and then also being able to make sure that as things kind of progressed over time to have your stamp on that and to be collecting over time, right?

00:06:31:21 – 00:07:15:03

Richard Carthon: But the other part of it, too, is so this is kind of a two-part question, because I do want you to expand on that, but i also want you to go and expand more on the like, concept of all of these artists that are coming for these like exclusive drops, like capturing these moments in time and being able to purpose it. So, like, one was one of your first drops was this is the Internet and I remember you brought up that example and I was like, Oh, my gosh, I’ve seen this everywhere. And I had no idea that this artist really didn’t get all of the stuff. The way he was breaking it down, saying, you know, if you’ve seen a shirt that looks like this, this is one of one, the fact that it was on Fallon and all these other places where there’s an apron and there’s a mug and all this stuff, like, it really goes to show like, how from a licensing standpoint, a lot of these artists really get messed over.

00:07:15:09 – 00:07:42:19

Adrian Baschuk: Yeah. I think for some context, our first drop, we kind of wanted to do this stealth unhype drop for AR community would be as a statement piece to the space. We didn’t want to launch with the biggest, you know, notable figure out there and and cash in on the on the cachet of them nor the platform. We want to make a statement piece about what this is all about, whereas this welcome to the Internet meme of the unicorn and cat meme was around since 2012.

00:07:42:21 – 00:07:43:06

Richard Carthon: Right.

00:07:43:08 – 00:08:20:16

Adrian Baschuk: Microsoft used it in a campaign, didn’t credit it or didn’t compensate them. He sued and that all got worked out, fine. But again, it’s making good on that promise of what the Internet enabled the individual, individual creator and the individual buyer, collector, consumer engager, whatever you may call it. So, it was a narrative that, you know, a statement of what we’re trying to do, an experiment within the space, because it’s going to surprise a lot of people what we’re going to be able to do. And then looking at future technologies animate, you know, with AR stuff and virtual world integration and marketplaces, there’s a lot of exciting stuff.

00:08:20:25 – 00:08:27:12

Richard Carthon: Yeah. And just to go back to the history one really quick, like you showed us an example.

00:08:27:22 – 00:08:49:11

Adrian Baschuk: Yeah. I mean, in terms of history, we’re partnering with some big-name licensors that we can’t really reveal yet, but taking moments in history with both a creator, but just the moment in and of itself, animating it, bringing it to life, and people can engage in it. And it’s Blockchain provenance that’s proven, so you can’t just go ahead and, you know, use it for a YouTube spoof video.

00:08:49:13 – 00:08:49:28

Richard Carthon: Right.

00:08:50:00 – 00:08:56:25

Adrian Baschuk: Or you can’t just, you know, use it for a greeting card or you can’t just, you know, use it on a social post.

00:08:56:27 – 00:08:57:12

Richard Carthon: Right.

00:08:57:14 – 00:09:00:25

Adrian Baschuk: But there’s value accrued to that, which is important.

00:09:00:27 – 00:09:29:04

Richard Carthon: For sure. And thanks for the sneak peek of that. It’s going to look really great; it’s going to be amazing. Sorry I almost spilled the beans, but aye, it’s going to be incredible. But, you know, something else I want to bring up is just like, we are still very early in the NFT space. So, yes, it’s been around for a while and yes, we’re, you know, on this hype train right now in a lot of ways. But like, this is going to be around, this is the future. Where do you see kind of the roadmap as we, like go into the rest of this year? And then where do you see us like, just futuristic, like where do you see things in like, the next three to five years as well?

00:09:30:09 – 00:10:01:03

Adrian Baschuk: You know, the founders at Bancor, have a lot of respect for, we were at the Bretton Woods summit two years ago, 75th anniversary and a guy from Bancor said that the whole world will be tokenized. And this is an iteration of that and that’s from individual to individual. I mean, we used to be on a barter system, you know, dating back centuries and eons and there’s a little bit of that happening where it’s person-to-person. And it’s not just, you know, government or economies of scale down to large masse, so, I think that’s an iteration of it.

00:10:01:06 – 00:10:26:11

Adrian Baschuk: I’ve long been in media, I helped do the CNBC Crypto Trader Show script with Ran. I was a creator before that and did a lot of branded content. And, you know, you saw this kind of move where corporations would, you know, mass market things. But this is now the ability for, like I said, individual creators and consumers to engage one-on-one and the possibilities are limitless.

00:10:26:13 – 00:10:52:13

Adrian Baschuk: Like I said, it’s the artists that paved the way, now, notable figures are getting into it. But we’re going to bring in a lot more consumers at lower price points to participate and be able to transact with these assets. Or it’s not going to be cost prohibitive and it’s not a cash grab, but it’s more so inclusionary. We’re going to be releasing these packs and so, collectors are going to be able to engage with some of these notable figures and embedded in them are going to be high valued entities that are. Super scarce, but we’re going to give them to the community.

Richard Carthon: Yeah. I was going to say when you were bringing that up, that was super cool to me. Like, just like you said from an inclusive standpoint and that’s what we’re all about at Crypto Current, is to, you know, provide that way to bring access to everyone. And the fact that you can go buy a pack and then like, you know, maybe you strike gold and now you have this really super rare, valuable thing. Like, it’s really cool that y’all are coming up with these different ways to provide access. That’s really cool.

Adrian Baschuk: And that could be across any sort of asset. I urge other NFT platforms. We think a rising tide lifts all boats. Other NFT platforms focusing on other different streams of content absolutely make some things highly exclusive and highly valued and have other assets that are high numbers that are bringing people in. I think the more you can get consumers transacting across the Blockchain, it’s just good for the entire industry and for who we’re bringing into the fold.

Richard Carthon: Awesome man. Well, I got three more quick questions for you. So just overall, with the Miami Experience, right. How has it been coming to this conference and just being a part of this conference?

Adrian Baschuk: You know, our team is widely distributed. We’re a team of 41 from Miami to L.A., Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Turkey, India, Australia, all over the place. We were in L.A. last week and then flew in, took the redeye yesterday right back here to Miami where part of our team is. And the contrast is stark. You know, the governor here. And like I said, vaccination rates are pretty high, so, taking a stab at it and people are in person. It’s a special moment that people are really embracing in a special way that I wasn’t prepared for.

Richard Carthon: Right. I mean, I agree. The fact that people can come here and be able to interact and, you know, of course, you still have, you know, social distancing, you still have people wearing masks and all of that, but to still be able to have that in person like, that intimate, like discussion and like have this, again. Like, I’ve enjoyed this and still just being able to go like, to even going to different booths and like, being able to talk to different people, different projects all at once, have it all be in one area. Like, I really miss that, like, conference aspect of like building community.

Adrian Baschuk: And they definitely limited number. A, again, people who had any symptoms whatsoever encouraged to completely stay away. I’ve usually been masked, vaccinated, etc., and most people were encouraged to do so. So, all the risk mitigation levels were taken, so, that’s why we’re happy to be here.

Richard Carthon: No doubt. And so, two more little fun questions. One, with all the knowledge that you have right now and if you could take, let’s say, all of that wisdom and go back to yourself when you first got started in the Crypto, Blockchain space, what are two to three things you would let yourself know or advice that you would give yourself?

Adrian Baschuk: Hold more Bitcoin, dollar cost averaging in as much as you can and get involved. I think that’s number two, just get involved in any sort of way. If you’re a builder, a coder or just an average investor, support community, become a community admin.

Adrian Baschuk: Get involved as much as you can, because that’s the sort of magical thing about Blockchain and Crypto, so many of us have worked in other industries, media, finance, sports, you name it. And you come into Blockchain, no one’s a complete Crypto native. I mean, we’re a 12-year-old industry since 2009, so that means 12-year olds would be the only Crypto natives that we’ve ever had. And they’re not over 18, so, they’re not, you know, technically, you know, running corporate companies. So, it’s this amalgamation of people from all different fields collaborating. So, get involved and collaborate.

Richard Carthon: No doubt. I definitely cosign both of those and especially the involvement piece. It’s one thing to gain the knowledge, it’s another thing to go and act on it.

Adrian Baschuk: Yeah. I mean, myself, I was on the media front for so long, I always wanted to build, but it was prohibitive because let’s say starting a network or starting a big media company, I mean, you see corporations cannibalize when the valuations get so high and the networks come in and then you dilute the creative. I think that’s when NFTs do enable because it is peer-to-peer and it’s Crypto centric, we’re finally able to kind of like take a risk and take a plunge and build and see what happens.

Richard Carthon: Absolutely, man. And you know. As all of this kind of keeps coming together, the big question I have that comes up is obviously you have a lot of competitors in this space as NFT platforms are coming to fruition because it’s a hot space. Why would creators and creatives and even agencies potentially forego the other ones and come to Ethernity Chain?

Adrian Baschuk: I think we embody that Crypto narrative and the Crypto native in us who forms our core team that, you know, we’re not coming from the outside in. Our founder, Nick Rose has been in Bitcoin since 2011, half our team of Crypto natives who help other projects and help again, lift the the tide for a number of other projects. So, we’re not just coming in this last minute. You know, Nick iterated this with Marcelo, our CTO, about a year and a half ago. Six months, really, really brought together the team, so we’re not a, you know, a famous football player or a big media company just trying to catch on in the space. It’s real.

Richard Carthon: Yeah. It’s very real. And I definitely appreciate that y’all are putting in the time, y’all are doing all the right steps and you’re not trying to rush it. The fact that you’ve taken your time even to launch your mainnet, I think speaks volumes.

Adrian Baschuk: And we have DeFi, so we’re huge believers in the ethos and just the philosophy behind what DeFi can empower. I think that’s like, the second vision of Satoshi, where DeFi, you can earn. It’s an interest bearing asset off your assets.

Richard Carthon: Right.

Adrian Baschuk: So, you can stake your earn, you can you can provide LP liquidity to the network, you can become part of this network on a huge scale and then you can also farm your stones for exclusive community NFTs. So, we’re community first and empowering the individual, either the collector, the consumer or the engage in a new novel way across DeFi.

Richard Carthon: Absolutely man. Well, Adrian, I really do appreciate you spending some time with us. What are ways people can connect with you and learn more about Ethernity Chain?

Adrian Baschuk: Join our Telegram, for sure at Eternity Chain and on Twitter @EternityChain. It’s a big community from all over the world and definitely interact.

Richard Carthon: Absolutely. Well, thank you for spending some time with us, thank you for being at the Miami Crypto Expo. And for everyone listening, Stay Crypto Current.