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

00:00:02:29 – 00:00:31:18

Richard Carthon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of Crypto Current, your host here, Richard Carthon and today we have a repeat guest host. We have the man, the myth, the legend himself, who has created some amazing Cryptocurrency and Blockchain educational content that lives on our website and is also helping to put on the Miami Crypto Experience. We have Blockchain Wayne, Mr. Wayne Marcel. How are you doing today? 

00:00:33:01 – 00:00:40:15

Wayne Marcel: Hey, Richard, doing great man. Thanks for having me on today. Yeah, you’re right, repeat. I was trying to think is this number three or number four from over the years, right? 

00:00:40:26 – 00:01:13:26

Richard Carthon: Yeah, it’s number three on our show, but I’ve also been on your show once. So, looking forward to continuing this conversation. I was really excited when you were telling me about the conference that was coming up in Miami. First when this came out and I was like, man, first of all, I’m glad you’re making this happen, but it’s amazing what you’ve been able to help create from a lineup of both great and amazing speakers to workshops, to galleries. And I’m not going to steal your thunder, but, man, tell us a little bit about Miami Crypto Experience. 

00:01:14:14 – 00:02:05:15

Wayne Marcel: Yeah, man, thanks. First and foremost, I have a little fun with it because I tell everybody it’s not a conference. You think of a conference and it’s not as a bad word, I just like to distinguish, most of the fun and the impactful meetings at the conferences are usually in the hallway, in the networking at the vendor booths. So, we’re going to have some elements of it, so, you can technically, loosely call it a conference, but we’re calling it not just the conference. It’s an experience where people can come and experience, you know, Crypto culture, education, all merged into one. And that’s what we’ve put together and that was kind of the brainchild that I had when we first talked about doing an event was, Alright, we’re going to have a select few keynote speakers, but we’re also going to have breakout workshops where we’re going to have workshop facilitators because I mean, they really want to be speaking to the people that care about what they have to say. 

00:02:05:17 – 00:02:06:02

Richard Carthon: Right.

00:02:06:04 – 00:02:20:05

Wayne Marcel: If you’ve been to conferences, you’ve seen when maybe somebody is talking about a topic that doesn’t interest some people, they get up and go out in the lobby and talk, so, why not have these breakout workshops where you can pick and choose where you want to go? And we’ve got everything from beginner basics in English and Spanish. 

00:02:20:23 – 00:03:12:20

Wayne Marcel: We’re going to have workshops on DeFi, multiple different DeFi, multiple different levels of trading, so, you want to learn trading from scratch or you’ve been a trader and want to talk about maybe some mindset and strategies, we’ve got educators for that. DeFi, NFTs, you know my love for NFTs, non-fungible tokens, which we’re also going to be featuring the first night is like a networking night. It’s an NFT art gala. It’s going to be an auction, we’re going to have food, we’re going to have drinks. It’s going to be a networking event and we’ve got some top Crypto artists that are going to be auctioning off some of their work. We’ve even had a few things donated. Steve Wan with Digible is donating some silver bars, free ross bars, along with non-fungible tokens. All of those proceeds from that auction are going to go to the Free Ross campaign. 

00:03:12:27 – 00:03:23:28

Wayne Marcel: And there’s other elements that, you know, we’re looking to do. There’s going to be a night where we have, call it EDM, kind of like a rave type night where it’s just kind of a get together social.

00:03:24:00 – 00:03:24:15

Richard Carthon: Right.

00:03:24:17 – 00:04:19:09

Wayne Marcel: Another night where it’s going to be a live music concert. We’ve got a few people slated to perform. We haven’t released the names yet, but I can tell you you’re going to like one of them and when you listen to the music of the other two, you’re going to think it’s  really great. And then kind of have it open up, kind of like an open mic night, anybody else that’s there that has some talent and wants to sing, which won’t be me, by the way. That’s not me. We’re going to have that whole event designed as an experience because that’s what people really go for. I mean, a conference you can watch a virtual conference from the comfort of your office or a living room right now, but the reason to go to an event is to network, the people you meet. And I want to think back to those conferences where I was really impactful, is about the people I met, the meetings that we had outside of the event center and just just the one-on-one conversations and those outside experiences. So, we’re creating those into workshops.

00:04:19:11 – 00:05:03:16

Richard Carthon: For sure. I mean, there’s a lot to unpack there. But the first one that I just want to start with is, as everyone clearly knows, we are just coming out of a world of COVID and now, luckily people are starting to be vaccinated, we’re starting to see cases go down. Of course, there is going to be some protocols in place to help make sure that everyone is remaining safe at this in-person event. But it’s also just exciting to be around a bunch of people in Crypto during these extremely exciting, bullish times with an extreme hype around NFTs, around just learning more about the space, being in a place like Miami where the mayor is super pro Crypto and even letting people get paid in Bitcoin. It sounds just like the perfect synergy of like you said, an experience. 

00:05:03:18 – 00:05:46:19

Richard Carthon: Like, I think people miss the experience, first of all, just being around other excited Crypto people, but then also to go there and get the value of being able to have such a line up of just different things that if it speaks to you, if it interests you, that you can learn more about because I know that you have different workshops on like trading, on learning about building an NFT, and being able to to sell it. Also, learning about the basics of Cryptocurrency or the basics of Bitcoin or all kinds of just different topics. You can pick and choose and participate, but then also at the end of day, go and have fun, network, meet some people, relax, act like it’s a social thing. And like, I think that is what I’m very excited about is the true experience side of this, while still learning some great things in Crypto. 

00:05:47:12 – 00:06:44:07

Wayne Marcel: We as humans are used to networking and connecting, and many of us have been disconnected for the last year. There hasn’t really been an in-person event. And just for anybody that may be worried about the concerns there, we have a very in-depth protocol that the city and state had already approved. One of our business partners down there, he already hosts events at this venue all the time in a different capacity with MMA, UFC fights. So, we’ve got protocols in place, we’re not just saying throw caution to the wind. You want to stay safe and still come, we’ve got that opportunity. There’s a limited capacity to the venue. This venue normally holds seven to 10,000 people total, but with COVID, you know, we’re kind of restricted to 2,500. And really we’re looking to sell around, a full sell out would be 1,200 tickets. So, and you’re not going to have everybody in one room at the same time either, so, there’s a lot of things going there. It’s going to be great. 

00:06:44:09 – 00:07:17:03

Wayne Marcel: You’re right, the city is very welcoming, you go down there and there’s so many different Crypto companies down there. We even have, there’s a real estate company down there that decided to be one of our sponsors because they’re dealing so much with Crypto companies, whether it’s the people from the companies that are coming down and buying houses in Miami or they’re setting up shop and getting offices or setting up a secondary location in Miami just because it’s becoming a new Crypto tech hub. I know the term is already taken somewhere else, but you think of Silicon Valley in California. 

00:07:17:26 – 00:07:57:07

Wayne Marcel: I think Miami is going to turn kind of into like a Blockchain valley or Blockchain beach, which both of those terms already coined elsewhere. So, they’re going to come up with another name, but that’s kind of where I, you know, see Miami is heading. And it’s also going to set the stage to show that when municipalities like Miami embrace tech and embrace Crypto and Blockchain and don’t try to be restrictive, they’re going to flourish. They’re going to bring so many jobs, they’re going to bring so much infrastructure, so many people are going to move there. It’s going to be beneficial for everybody that lives there, whether they’re involved in Crypto or not and I hope that’s going to set the stage because there’s two places where we’re starting to see that unfold, Miami and Dubai. 

00:07:57:25 – 00:08:25:17

Wayne Marcel: And outside of that, the world needs to take notice that if you’re restrictive, these companies are still going to operate, they’re going to move somewhere else where they can operate freely. So, Miami is definitely, it’s a perfect place. And who wouldn’t want to go? Sunshine. I mean, a lot of people up north are dealing with crazy cold weather, snow, everything else and I know April, everything’s starting to warm up anyway, but you better come down and experience the full Miami experience and learn about Crypto while you’re there too. 

00:08:25:27 – 00:08:43:13

Richard Carthon: Absolutely, man. And so, for people who are listening and they hear that and they’re like, Wow, this sounds really cool,  but let’s say I’m a newbie or let’s say, like, you know, I’ve been in Crypto for a long time, like, who’s this for? Like, what is the range of audience and what can they reasonably expect to take away by the time that they finish this Miami Crypto Experience? 

00:08:44:14 – 00:09:36:05

Wayne Marcel: Yeah, so that’s a great question because it’s really for everybody. We’ve got, current count right now and it could still be expanding, are 22 workshop facilitators. Now, each workshop is going to be given at least twice over the two day period that we’re doing the workshops to give people an option to choose, that way if the workshop’s only given once, you may have to choose between missing something else you may want to see. So, we’re going to have, when that agenda publishes, every workshop is going to be at least twice. So, you’re thinking 45 to 50 plus workshop opportunities to go and learn about the basics and we’ve got people from all different levels of knowledge, beginner basics, intermediary, even advanced. And even if you’re wondering how to incorporate Crypto into your business from an implementation standpoint and even from an accounting standpoint, we’ve got workshops for that. Maybe you want to learn about security, which is, you know, a huge thing. 

00:09:36:12 – 00:10:15:12

Wayne Marcel: So many people in the world today are very lax when it comes to their own security. I’m not just talking about Crypto, I’m just talking about in general, people who use the same email address and password for every single account out there. There’s other practices you can take to protect yourself to be secure. So, we’ve got something for everybody from beginner basics to advanced. Everybody’s going to get something out of there. You know, we realize that a lot of what people are coming for is for that interactive experience, to meet people and network, so, that’s going to be there. But when you are sitting down or in a room listening to somebody talk, you’re actually doing something, you’re learning something. 

00:10:15:14 – 00:10:30:03

Wayne Marcel: If you’re new, you’re going to leave that workshop with a wallet set up. You’re going to leave, no matter what workshop you’re going to go to, you’re going to leave with something. We’ve even got some great vendor giveaways. I don’t know if you want to talk about that here, or maybe we can, you know, touch on it, you know, in a few minutes. 

00:10:30:11 – 00:10:54:20

Richard Carthon: Yeah. Well, I mean, I just want to stay there for a second. I mean, especially when it comes to the workshops. So, for everyone listening, if you do attend one of the workshops that will be happening, Crypto Current will actually be giving one and more news to come out on what it’s going to be covering, but that’d be something to check out. Also know that Mr. Blockchain Wayne is also going to be giving his own workshop. Wayne, do you want to expand on that a little bit? Are you still figuring out how you want to position your workshop? 

00:10:54:27 – 00:11:53:04

Wayne Marcel: Well, I will give you a little bit because mine is still evolving. But I’ll tell you, it’s going to be something that’s going to be good for either beginner or intermediary, maybe even advanced, but it’s going to be dealing with Crypto based, Crypto principles. Why Crypto? Why should you even learn about Crypto? What’s important? I think some people who have been in Crypto a while and it’s really for them, it’s all about making money. And there’s nothing wrong with making money in the space, but when you understand all the true implications of what this technology can do to bring inclusion, to bring freedom to people, there’s so many different things. But I also teach people about the mindset of it all because in any market, even in stock markets, commodity markets, the weak hands and the weak minds, the people who aren’t really solid in their belief or in their structure get shaken out. And you see that happens when markets crash and people panic sell. And what happens to the ultra successful people? That’s when they’re buying, that’s when they’re getting in. 

00:11:53:06 – 00:12:44:11

Wayne Marcel: So, there is a mentality and mindset you need to have going into if you’re getting into Cryptocurrency. Yes, it’s volatile, but that’s the beauty of it. Learn to embrace it. And also having a strategy allows you not to panic and do something you shouldn’t have whenever you have a clear cut strategy. So, that’s kind of where I’m going to be focusing on, because when people have a strategy to act better where if they just buy something blindly and don’t really understand it, whenever something happens, they can shake it out and they sell. And I saw that with unfortunately, you know, I had some friends that in 2018, 2019, panic sold Bitcoin around three or $4,000 just to get out because they thought that it was going to keep going down and they were going to lose all their money. And, you know, realized in teaching people this is a long term game and your strategy needs to match your action. I’ll just give that little tidbit for anybody watching. 

00:12:44:17 – 00:13:11:16

Wayne Marcel: If you’re not day trading the market, quit hitting refresh every hour to see what the price is. It doesn’t matter because you’re not playing the short game. If you’re playing the long game, you know, check it each day and even then, don’t worry about it. You know, if you miss a chance to sell before the market dips, you’ve got two options, you either hold it or you buy more if you believe in it. You shouldn’t sell unless you feel it’s going to zero. I probably said a little too much there. But I can talk. 

00:13:11:22 – 00:13:12:07

Richard Carthon: No, that’s good. I mean. 

00:13:12:09 – 00:13:14:08

Wayne Marcel: I can talk for hours on this. 

00:13:14:25 – 00:13:35:22

Richard Cathon: Yeah. And honestly, that’s why I wanted you to kind of speak on it a little bit. As everyone’s listening, again, if you have gone on our website, you know that Blockchain Wayne has a ton of educational videos that he’s produced, so, you know that he’s very knowledgeable, very eloquent and can do some really great things to break things down step by step. So, if you are going to be there, definitely a workshop that I would recommend you go and check out. 

00:13:35:24 – 00:13:59:15

Richard Carthon: But to get to something you were teasing a little bit earlier, I want to get back to that. Man, you have some, I mean, you talk about the value of someone coming and getting this experience. Yes, for any conference you go to or any experience that you go to, it is an investment, but what are some of the immediate’s of, Wow, I’m already going to see some ROI come back to me if I am to go and go to this experience. 

00:14:00:06 – 00:14:41:14

Wayne Marcel: Yeah. So, first and foremost, we’ve got Three Commas is doing a giveaway. Now Three Commas has an awesome trading platform to help you really integrate if you’re going to be doing any kind of trading, looking at markets. They have a premium membership on their platform. They’ve been around for a while. It’s $100 a month and if you’re trading, it’s very well worth it. But they’re going to give a free one month premium membership to everybody that attends. And anybody that goes to the workshop is going to get an additional two months. So, that’s a $300 value, that’s more than what the ticket, you know, the general mission ticket is going for. On top of that, we will have Emrit there. And if you haven’t seen Richard, you’ve interviewed Peter from Emrit, right? 

00:14:41:16 – 00:14:42:01

Richard Carthon: Absolutely. 

00:14:42:03 – 00:14:53:01

Wayne Marcel: So, look up the interview for Peter Saddington. Emrit has, they give away these cool spots, little mini miners that mine helium tokens, which, how are helium tokens doing, Richard?

00:14:53:05 – 00:15:04:19

Richard Carthon: Helium’s all the way up to between nine and $10. When we first got in and Emit first came out, HNT was around $1. That’s right, it has almost 10x in three months. It’s insane. 

00:15:05:17 – 00:15:54:05

Wayne Marcel: So, they’re going to be giving away these devices for anyone that wants them. And they’re small, I mean, you can fit it in your suitcase, but they’ll ship it to you if you want them to ship it to you. So, we’ve got those, couple of promos we’ve got as well. One of the vendors is launching a token, a DeFi token on the Cardano Network. And we’ve been in talks about a potential airdrop to attendees, non-fungible tokens to grab some air drops, some non-fungible tokens to everybody that attends, some limited edition, you’ve got to be there to get it type thing. I’m probably going to forget something with all the things we’ve got going on. We’re also, one of the companies is giving away, we have a drawing where everybody who attends who buys a ticket is going to be entered to win a drawing for free trip for a week to either Belize or Panama. 

00:15:55:27 – 00:15:56:12

Richard Carthon: Wow.

00:15:56:14 – 00:16:27:03

Wayne Marcel: So, I’m sure there’s going to be more to come on there. I’m in talks right now, I can’t really say officially, but Adam Barlam with Chain Games, so we’re looking to host some kind of game tournament there and give away a pool of chain tokens. Speaking of 10x and more, you know, Chain Games when it first came out, initially went from a penny all the way up to 12 cents and it floated back around and went down to a penny forever. And I think today it hit about 74 or 75 cents. 

00:16:27:10 – 00:16:27:25

Richard Carthon: Wow, geez. 

00:16:28:22 – 00:16:57:09

Wayne Marcel: Yeah. So, but he’s built some great stuff. If you ever play Uno, it’s kind of addictive, it’s called Chain-O. You can play online, you can play for free, or you can play for tokens. I think I lost about 30 bucks today. In between, you know when I took a break from the hard work and started to play, but it’s really fun. He’s also incorporated Call of Duty and some other things to where someone who plays on Xbox or PlayStation, they can link their account and potentially earn some tokens while they’re playing. It’s a cool concept for Blockchain, so we’re going to have them there. 

00:16:57:29 – 00:17:27:20

Wayne Marcel: You know, we’re probably going to have some other giveaways to give as we get closer. Obviously you’re going to get some swag. Some vendors are going to be giving away shirts, giving away hats. Personally, I’ve got an order for News Crypto, they’re going to be giving out hats as well. So, you’re going to get a lot of value when you come from not just what you hear, but also what you receive and what you could potentially get from the vendors who are looking to spread the word about what they have to offer really to the Crypto community. 

00:17:28:09 – 00:17:59:28

Richard Carthon: For sure, man. Well, I mean, you dropped a lot of great nuggets on us. There’s a lot to be excited about, there’s a lot to definitely want to come and check out. Of course, for everyone listening, when you go to check out and you get your ticket, you can use the discount code Crypto Current and you’ll get a nice little discount at checkout. But Wayne, because you’re on the show, I still have to ask you my two fun questions. One being, if you could take all the knowledge that you have right now and impart that wisdom to yourself when you first got into Crypto, what would you tell yourself? 

00:18:02:09 – 00:18:53:23

Wayne Marcel: Don’t chase what you think is the easy money. I’ve lost some money by not doing my due diligence, not really doing what I should and not sticking to some of the core principles of Crypto, you know, so that was really the biggest thing for me. I’ve lost some money from investing in bad projects to even, you know, my first experience was a scam, but it got me into, you know, it’s kind of like my tuition, that’s what I paid to get started, because that opened up my eyes to this whole thing of Crypto and how it’s more than just making money. But I would just say early, you know, don’t chase the money, do your research, educate yourself and when you make those decisions, the money is going to come when you do the right things versus you try to chase that easy money that looks like it’s going to be, you know, take you to the moon, so. 

00:18:53:25 – 00:18:56:14

Richard Carthon: Definitely great advice. 

00:18:57:11 – 00:18:58:09

Wayne Marcel: Don’t be greedy.

00:18:58:11 – 00:19:05:11

Richard Carthon: Yeah. Don’t be don’t be greedy. But Wayne, thank you so much for dropping this knowledge on us about the Crypto experience. What is a final thought that you want to leave with everyone here today? 

00:19:06:13 – 00:19:37:05

Wayne Marcel: A final thought, so is to everybody out of here. Now, I hear this all the time, even with, so I help build educational courses, I’ve done some, Richard and I are partnering, and we made some content for Crypto Current. I do that for other companies as well and some of it’s free knowledge and some of it it’s paid because it’s the way it’s organized and put together for everybody. And some people will say, “Why should I pay when I can get it for free?” And it doesn’t matter, just make sure you’re getting the right information from the right people and take the time to educate yourself. 

00:19:37:25 – 00:20:12:10

Wayne Marcel: I saw a tweet this past week, I can’t remember who said it, but it was like, If you don’t understand Crypto, don’t buy Crypto, take the time to understand it, and then you’ll have no choice. Because when you sit down and truly understand the implications of what this brings, it’s really important that you learn about it. This is our future and if you have kids or you plan on having kids or grandkids, it’s the world they’re going to grow up in, so it’s important that you understand where we’re going. This is more than just creating a token and trying to sell it and having it go 10x. Yeah, we love it when that happens, right Richard? 

00:20:13:08 – 00:20:13:28

Richard Carthon: Absolutely, 100 percent. 

00:20:14:00 – 00:20:49:12

Wayne Marcel: More importantly, it’s the freedom, it’s the openness, it’s the borderless, it’s the ability to include everybody. We’ve got seven billion plus people in the world and five plus billion of them are excluded from financial markets right now. Cryptocurrency fixes that, it solves that. So, while we live in a country where maybe we’re privileged with what we have, the more we move towards adoption, the more it’s going to benefit everyone in the world, because it gives a little bit of freedom to your everyday person and it takes a little bit of power away from, you know, the corrupt that may have corrupted systems in the past.

00:20:49:21 – 00:21:05:17

Richard Carthon: That is an amazing final thought. Continue to educate yourself and again, get your education from the right places. A great way to get some education coming up in April is going to be at the Miami Crypto Experience. Wayne, where can people find more information about that and find more information about you as well? 

00:21:05:27 – 00:22:13:27

Wayne Marcel: Yeah, absolutely. So, you go to EXPCrypto.io, that’s our event website where you can see the packages, the list of workshops and speakers. And when you see all that, in the next few days, we’re going to have it added with workshop details and agendas. But you can also find us, we’re on Facebook, Miami Crypto Experience, on Instagram, we’re EXP Crypto is our plug and then Miami Experience on Twitter as well at Miami Crypto Experience. And you can find more about me, just go to BlockchainWayne.com. I’ve got a link to all my socials. Still building out that site, figuring out what I want it to be, because most of the work I’ve done has been behind the scenes creating content for other companies. But I have a link to my socials, link to the companies I’m partnering with like Crypto Current, News Crypto and some others to where you can get more information from reputable, legitimate sources versus, you know, people go to Google, they go to YouTube and look up something and they come across scam ads that they get suckered into. So, that would be advice. I’ll go back to that advice again. 

00:22:13:29 – 00:22:39:15

Wayne Marcel: And you can see I’m passionate about this because when people learn the right way they realize the big implications of Crypto, when people don’t learn the right way and they send money to like maybe a scam site or something, then they get a bitter taste in their mouth and it’s going to be that much harder for adoption to take place if that happens too much. So, you know, make sure you go there. So, BlockchainWayne.com, EXPCrypto.io, make sure you have both of those sites and see what we have to offer. 

00:22:39:28 – 00:22:48:12

Richard Carthon: Absolutely. We’ll make sure to put all this information in the show notes as well. But again, Wayne, thank you so much for joining us. And of course, for everyone listening, Stay Crypto Current.