Cole Enright on Applying for Hedera Hashgraph Grants from the HBAR Foundation (Episode 313)
Cole Enright joins us to discuss on Applying for Hedera Hashgraph Grants from the HBAR Foundation.
Cole Enright joins us to discuss applying for Hedera Hashgraph grants with the HBAR Foundation.
Director of analytics at the Hbar foundation, former Twitter product ops analyst, certified Salesforce developer
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The following transcript was created using artificial intelligence. There will be some grammatical errors below.
00:00:12:03 – 00:00:37:03
Richard Carthon: Well, everyone, welcome to another episode of Crypto Current, Your host here, Richard Carthon , on today. We have another special one for you. We are continuing to let you all know about the conference we have coming up. Acme us is going to make it happening friday, October 28th, its day. We have another special speaker that’s going to be at the event and sharing a lot of great insights. We have Cole Enright, who’s the director of analytics at the foundation. How are you doing today, Carl?
00:00:37:27 – 00:00:40:11
Cole Enright: Great, great. It’s a pleasure to be here. Super excited.
00:00:41:09 – 00:00:49:15
Richard Carthon: No doubt men will. Excited to learn more about what you got going on and what we’re going to be doing at Agami. But first, let’s learn a little bit more about you. Can you give us a little background on yourself?
00:00:49:28 – 00:01:01:22
Cole Enright: Sure. Absolutely. So I guess I started my crypto journey back in early 2014, 2013. I heard about this Bitcoin stuff, started sort of collecting a couple of them.
00:01:03:10 – 00:01:11:21
Cole Enright: That was I was a long time ago and then kind of forgot about it. Sold them all back in 2015. I felt like a genius at the time and
00:01:13:20 – 00:01:44:06
Cole Enright: spent a lot of time in the Web two world from there. And I guess I guess at the exact top of the market, I decided to make the jump from Web two to Web three full time. So think I’m not alone there. But before. So right now I’m director of analytics at the Age Bar Foundation, and my job there is to help us measure the success of our grants. We give out grants to organizations and developers building on the age bar and the age bar network on their hashgraph.
00:01:45:26 – 00:01:56:20
Cole Enright: And we need a way to determine how successful those grants have been, whether that be on chain or with the project updates. That’s the primary role of what I do now.
00:01:57:19 – 00:02:30:11
Richard Carthon: And that’s really cool. I mean, I think it’s amazing that there’s these people that can literally receive money to come and build on top of their hashgraph ecosystem. So for those who are builders in this space, especially during these bearish times and are looking for opportunities like this, have been looking for a way to kind of, you know, kickstart their entrepreneurial journey into building this space. And they think that hedera could be a great place to start. Walk us through the process of how they would be able to apply for a grant and what are some things that you look for when choosing someone?
00:02:30:25 – 00:03:01:01
Cole Enright: Yeah, absolutely. So to apply for grants, pretty simple. We just have a form on our website where we fill it out and then we go through a number of reviews and approval processes to. And due diligence, of course. And at the end of that process will distribute some funding, whether that be h.R. Tokens for some UCC US dollars as well depending on what’s needed. The types of companies we’re looking at, we’re looking for people with really realistically.
00:03:01:03 – 00:03:22:02
Cole Enright: We’re looking for people that already have a goal in mind for their products and already have something that is in development ready to go in progress or something that they’re trying to pick which chain to build on, how to decentralize. And, you know, we try to push them over the edge to come over to our network versus some of our competitors.
00:03:22:28 – 00:03:50:06
Richard Carthon: Gotcha. And I know back when we were first talking about you get involved in this, it was cool to see the various types of companies that are coming in, building from NFT plays to foundation plays to interoperability. Like there’s a lot of really cool projects. What are some of the ways and I know I just listed a couple, but what are some of the different like kind of verticals that you all recently have been, you know, giving some grants to if you’re able to to speak on it?
00:03:50:19 – 00:03:51:13
Cole Enright: Yeah, absolutely.
00:03:53:14 – 00:04:01:07
Cole Enright: So I guess so. We have a number of funds for specific industries. We have our Sustainability Fund, which focuses on
00:04:03:05 – 00:04:10:20
Cole Enright: sustainable projects, ESG type things, a lot of a lot of trust layer type applications there where
00:04:12:18 – 00:04:41:05
Cole Enright: like auditing how carbon credits are produced and then made liquid on certain markets. So sustainability is one of the biggest ones, I’d say for us. We also have a very large Metaverse fund where we’re trying to get people to build out their their worlds on our on our platform. And then we have some more boring funds like crypto economy and some infrastructure funds as well. So that’s kind of how we’re thinking about it from a developer enablement perspective and
00:04:42:27 – 00:04:47:01
Cole Enright: metaverse sustainability and then just sort of another fund after that.
00:04:48:02 – 00:05:20:11
Richard Carthon: Yeah. And I mean, I know that a lot of people are fired up in a lot of those categories, especially as it relates to the metaverse. But you recently just came from a conference yourself and was able to go and meet and network and meet some pretty cool people like and leading up to AG me, you know, there’s been several conferences that, you know, I’ve been to this year. I know that we both met as NFT emcee this year, and there’s some others that you’ve gone to, you know. Why do you think it’s important for people to continue to go to in-person events like this during these various times?
00:05:21:02 – 00:05:35:02
Cole Enright: Right. I think it starts with the people for sure, getting to see the people in person. The technology’s great. We we love the technology for sure, but the people that are building the technology and making those connections, I think there’s there’s something more to that.
00:05:36:18 – 00:06:02:27
Cole Enright: So, for example, I got to meet to meet the guy that’s running the brave team on the Brave Wallet in the brave browser. And now, now we’re buddies. So and now I have a lot of extra level of trust. You know, we talk about trust later all the time. There’s that extra level of trust now that I’ve met these guys. So I think that’s absolutely critical to be able to know who’s behind the project, who’s those who are the leaders and the builders behind the product.
00:06:04:19 – 00:06:24:27
Cole Enright: Because you can see you can read a pitch deck and can look really good. But if the people behind the product are not, you know, they’re they’re not not the kind of people you want to be partnered with or something like that, and the pitch isn’t worth anything. So I think continuing to make those connections, making friends in person throughout the community is critical.
00:06:25:25 – 00:06:58:20
Richard Carthon: Definitely. And it’s really get that face time. And to build that rapport I think is essential in like once you have that kind of report somebody, it’s easier for you to then go and meet more people and get more access to resources for something you’re either building or want to learn more about and are curious about. And, you know, that’s that’s one of the main reasons why we’re doing Aggie, why we are putting this conference together so that people can come together who are building in the Web. The community right now seeing some of the local talent that is in Austin. And you are going to be featured on a panel that is focused on interoperability.
00:06:58:29 – 00:07:07:27
Richard Carthon: So what are some of the ways that a there a hashgraph foundation are taking active steps towards interoperability in that future?
00:07:08:13 – 00:07:22:28
Cole Enright: Yeah, So this is a big focus for me. So as you can imagine, we we you know, I look across a lot of different grants. We have a lot of different have a lot of visibility across the who’s building it. And I’m starting to see some patterns emerge in
00:07:24:14 – 00:08:01:07
Cole Enright: the data connectivity piece, how different applications are getting on chain data, interacting with it in their applications. So everyone’s kind of going about this in a similar architecture, but slightly different execution, and the architecture would be so the data lives on chain. So kind of it’s one how do we get connect to the chain data, how do we get the data? So everyone’s got their own way to do that. There’s usually an API or something like that, and then comes the aggregation piece. How do you aggregate that data, the raw data coming out of the chain into normalized tables that you can read out of a spreadsheet?
00:08:02:22 – 00:08:12:14
Cole Enright: And then how do you turn those raw tables into an application, turn that into a front end website where you can actually interact with your wallet and make web3 calls.
00:08:14:05 – 00:08:49:24
Cole Enright: So those are the three steps that I’ve seen that I’m seeing a number of different organizations work on and the aggregation layer taking the raw data from the chain and compiling it into a meaningful database. That’s the big challenge I’m seeing right now in the industry. And some extremely talented data engineers are working on that, some of the brightest in the world. Um, I was just at the Missouri conference, and their engineers are saying we we see everyone doing the same process and are following the same process here to aggregate that data.
00:08:49:26 – 00:08:57:13
Cole Enright: And some people are doing it better than others. I think over the next few months, we’re going to see some more leaders emerge and sort of that
00:08:59:09 – 00:09:11:17
Cole Enright: I don’t want to call it layer two zero, because it’s not a layer zero type protocol, but it will serve some of the same functions, aggregating lots of data from lots of different chains together, making it available for business analysts and data scientists to consume easily.
00:09:13:04 – 00:09:23:03
Cole Enright: We’re not there yet, and I think some tools like doing analytics, are getting there. Some chains, I don’t want to name any names, are a little bit further along in that data science path than others.
00:09:25:02 – 00:09:39:02
Cole Enright: But yeah, that’s the that’s the way the industry is going. I think we’re still going through that infrastructure phase where we’re trying to get all the data, compile it and then make it shareable at scale. The scale piece I think is is a little bit more challenging with the blockchain data
00:09:40:25 – 00:09:48:18
Cole Enright: as opposed to the traditional Web two database where, you know, scale is not an issue. We can just run as many programs as we need to.
00:09:50:17 – 00:10:07:13
Cole Enright: Yes, some of these APIs for these different chains are a little bit more restrictive because of the architecture and the the way the data works. So I think we have some progress to make on on those few pieces of the architecture in terms of aggregation, getting the data and then sharing it.
00:10:08:12 – 00:10:41:24
Richard Carthon: Right. And I was having a conversation with someone about this the other day of like just how nascent Web three is compared to, you know, Web two and how a lot of foundation is being built right now. But we’re as more foundations being built. The faster we can move that, the easier it will be for these aggregators to take data, be able to use it in a constructive way, and then move faster onto the to the next target thing that they’re trying to solve. So I’m excited for it. I’m looking forward to to that particular conversation. But, you know, as you look towards Acme, what’s something that you’re looking for at the conference?
00:10:42:27 – 00:11:15:23
Cole Enright: Definitely meeting people, connecting and discussing what other people are saying in the interoperability space as as a data person. That’s kind of where my passion really is. And like the data science, things, analytics and then being able to work with and being able to work so closely with the data on the cutting edge of this of this technology industry, it’s it’s a true privilege to us because there’s so much that needs to be built and so much that needs to be done from the data perspective.
00:11:15:25 – 00:11:30:00
Cole Enright: So I’m really curious to see what other people are doing. Learning more about, you know, what other products are up to and how they’re handling some of the same problems that all of my grantees are saying that I’m seeing. So I can’t wait to just get other people’s perspectives.
00:11:30:27 – 00:11:50:09
Richard Carthon: Definitely. And I think that’s going to be a good group of people that not only are focused on that, but also have a ton of other verticals that, you know, they’re pretty in-depth. And so I know I’m for it. Looking forward to seeing you there, listening in. And, you know, as as we kind of wrap up here, man, what’s the final thought that you want to leave with everyone listening today?
00:11:51:10 – 00:12:14:08
Cole Enright: Oh, keep building. I think it’s it’s time to build and get your products ready. And if you’re scared to take a jump into, like, starting a product, go ahead and do it. I think now is the time when when the next bull market comes back around, I think it’ll be quick, it’ll be sudden and some products will be ready and some will not be.
00:12:15:24 – 00:12:24:14
Cole Enright: So I think the people that have their products ready to go are going to be in a much better position to take full advantage of when the market flips over the next couple of years.
00:12:26:12 – 00:12:57:21
Cole Enright: Yeah. So again, I think the. The other piece I’d like to finish with is, is the hammer back on an architecture piece? That is what’s holding this industry back, in my opinion, from the developer’s perspective, being able to get the data and do whatever you need to do with it quickly at high volume. There’s not many chains that can really do that right now. So, you know, like I said, some are better than others, but that scale piece, that volume piece, we’re not there yet.
00:12:57:23 – 00:13:28:22
Cole Enright: So definitely keep an eye on some of those other data companies that are bringing all of the chain data together from all different, different blockchains and projects. I think we have a long way to go in terms of enabling developers across the whole industry. So I can’t wait to see once we unlock that piece, once we get the data volume unlocked across the whole industry, what do we build from there? Where does the industry go from there? I think we’re at the very, very beginning of all that.
00:13:29:19 – 00:14:03:02
Richard Carthon: Which goes back to your original final thought of builders need to build right now and get ready because, you know, we get past this other side. There’s this who whoever is prepared and ready are going to prosper and fly and in others may not. But as we get closer to getting this architecture figured out, that’s going to help this industry continue to grow faster, hopefully get us a little bit closer to mass adoption and help this web3 ecosystem continue to thrive. So cool. Really appreciate you spend some time with us today. What are ways that people can connect with you and learn more about what’s going on at the Bar Foundation?
00:14:03:21 – 00:14:14:04
Cole Enright: Yeah, you can. You can follow me on Twitter at Colon, right? You can connect with me on LinkedIn just in right on LinkedIn. Those are probably the best ways to get a hold of me right now.
00:14:15:25 – 00:14:24:05
Cole Enright: And if you’re interested in a grant or you have an idea that you would like to build on Hedera, feel free to over Beach Park Foundation dot org and apply for a grant.
00:14:25:09 – 00:14:31:27
Richard Carthon: Sounds perfect. Well, definitely appreciate your time, everyone listening to make sure you go check out coal. And as always, stay cryptocurrency.
00:14:33:23 – 00:14:57:09
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