The Crypto Conversation

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Ether Cards - Creating NFTs that have super powers Dec 01, 2021

Show notes

Andras Kristof is CEO and founder of Ether Cards - a platform that provides tools for gamifying and supercharging your NFTs. Ether Cards are advanced NFT cards that allow the community to use the platform and its features with increased benefits.

Why you should listen:

Ether Cards is a limited-edition collection of dynamic NFT cards that activate discounts, enable access, unlock features, connect to physical items, and grant upgrades. They can even trigger changes based on real-world events using Chainlink oracles and VRF.

The Ether Cards platform is a community-driven NFT framework. It enables every creator to maximize the value of their NFT asset or series by expanding the capability of any NFT Marketplace. It allows anyone to set up tickets, puzzles, bounties, and a dozen other different events for any NFT asset of their choice.

Supporting links:

Prime XBT

Ether Cards

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Hoverboards - Jadu is building the Mirrorverse, an AR layer for metaverse avatars Nov 25, 2021

Show notes

Jake Sally is the COO of Jadu, an AR platform and narrative layer for Web3 and the metaverse. Jadu is pioneering the functionality of digital assets in AR and the physical world by converting 3D NFTs into playable avatars and objects that can interact with each other in an ever-expanding AR game world. Jadu is minting 5555 hoverboard NFTs in December.

Why you should listen:

Jadu's vision is to build unparalleled 3D utility for NFTs, partnering with key players in the crypto community to deliver a virtually native future where creation of content is democratized, decentralized, and creator-owned in a world where players can mobilize in Web 3 and build valuable communities.

Jadu Hoverboards are NFTs that can be used to fly your avatars in the Metaverse and in Augmented Reality. Along with Jadu Jetpacks, they will also function as key transport mechanisms in Jadu's AR Mirroverse game next year.

Jadu's NFT Hoverboards will include collaborations with Lewis Hamilton; GRIMES; Snoop Dogg; Mimi Onuoha and NFT curator, Trippy. These artists will work with Jadu to design and release 5555 Jadu Hoverboard NFTs which go on sale December 12 for a cost of 0.222 ETH.

Supporting links:

Jadu

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Bitcoin Volcano bonds - A Crypto Market Sentiment Report Nov 24, 2021

Show notes

Bitcoin price action is subdued this week with Mt Gox jitters spooking the market. Blockstream has partnered with El Salvador to issue $1B in Volcano Bonds. It's this week's crypto market sentiment report.

Why you should listen:

Andy looks at the most important data points and narratives driving the crypto news cycle this week. The Mt Gox Trustee's pool of bitcoins (about 141,000 BTC) appears to be getting ready to be distributed. Blockstream has partnered with El Salvador to issue $1B in Volcano Bonds. Zhu Su says he has "abandoned" Ethereum due to the chain's failure to scale and is there a connection between Snow Crash author Neal Stephenson and Satoshi Nakamoto.

Supporting links:

Is Neal Stephenson Satoshi Nakamoto?

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Snow Crash - Crash Punks is inspired by sci-fi, anime & Neal Stephenson Nov 23, 2021

Show notes

Artist Grace Ng is about to launch Crash Punks - an NFT collection on Stacks/Bitcoin. Crash Punks is inspired by sci-fi, anime, and Snow Crash, the iconic 1992 novel by Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash has been an inspiration for the Stacks and Bitcoin communities and is considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time.

Why you should listen:

Grace Ng is a tech entrepreneur, angel investor, neuro-artist, co-founder of Lean Startup Machine, and VP at the Stacks Accelerator. Grace is the creative force behind Crash Punks, an NFT collection of 10,000 unique art profile pictures on Bitcoin/Stacks. Crash Punks is inspired by the 1992 cyberpunk novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

Neal Town Stephenson is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency, and the history of science.

"Computers rely on the one and the zero to represent all things. This distinction between something and nothing-this pivotal separation between being and nonbeing-is quite fundamental and underlies many Creation myths," Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

Supporting links:

Crash Punks

Stacks Accelerator

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Meet The Arties - An Open Art Source Movement Nov 19, 2021

Show notes

Cecil Pang and IIan Klein are co-founders at Open Art Source, a blockchain-supported marketplace where artists can sell their works. It provides the tools necessary for artists to showcase their works and for collectors to research their purchases. The Arties is an NFT collaboration between Open Art Source, Shaderverse, and NFT artist Spencer Terry. The project is funding the development of the Open Art Source platform, which brings a blockchain data layer to the physical art market.

Why you should listen:

The Arties is an NFT collaboration between Open Art Source, Shaderverse, and NFT artist Spencer Terry. Open Art Source and Shaderverse came together in the Stacks Accelerator. The Arties is the first 3D NFT project on Stacks, and they're attached to specific benefits on the Open Art Source platform. Shaderverse has developed AR 3D game-ready assets for each Artie in the collection, and these assets will be sent to Artie holders for Christmas/Chanukah.

Arties are minting now on STX.

Cecil Pang is an artist; a technologist, and a world-class computer scientist. With CS credentials from Stanford and Columbia and art credentials from Parsons School of Design, he's the perfect person to tackle the structural injustices of the art world.

Supporting links:

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SubQuery - Connecting the dots on Polkadot Nov 17, 2021

Show notes

Sam Zou and James Bayly head the team at SubQuery, a decentralized data aggregation, indexing, and querying layer between Layer-1 blockchains and decentralized applications. SubQuery is focused on the fast-growing Polkadot ecosystem.

Why you should listen:

The team had experienced first-hand the difficulties of testing, deploying, and managing blockchain infrastructure. The team founded OnFinality to solve key pain points around decentralized infrastructure management and automate the deployment of Polkadot/Substrate based networks to the cloud.

In 2020, while helping key Polkadot parachain teams, the team listened to requests for a data indexing service to help the teams better understand their chain data. Additionally, these teams wanted this in place to ease the barriers to entry for their future development communities.

After a period of research, the team formally established the SubQuery project at the end of 2020 through a Web3 Grant, delivered the first open source version in January, and announced the platform to the world in February 2021. It now has backing from Arrington Capital and Digital Currency Group.

Supporting links:

SubQuery

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Web3 on Bitcoin - How Stacks makes Bitcoin programmable Nov 15, 2021

Show notes

Stacks 2.0 (formerly Blockstack) is a layer-1 blockchain that connects to Bitcoin and brings smart contracts, DeFi, NFTs, and decentralized apps to Bitcoin. Smart contracts and apps developed on the Stacks platform are natively integrated with the security, stability, and economic power of Bitcoin.

Why you should listen:

Trevor Owens is the managing director at Stacks Accelerator. The Stacks Accelerator works with the Stacks Foundation's Grants program to deliver flexible, fair, and efficient funding options. It invests $50K at a no-valuation cap into teams solving real-world problems on Stacks. Stacks 2.0 implements a new mining mechanism called Proof of Transfer (PoX). PoX is a consensus algorithm between two blockchains. It uses an established blockchain (in this case Bitcoin) to secure a new blockchain (Stacks). PoX connects to Bitcoin with a 1:1 block ratio, meaning anything that happens on the Stacks blockchain can be verified on the Bitcoin Blockchain. Instead of burning electricity on proof of work, PoX reuses already minted bitcoins as "proof of computation" and miners represent their cost of mining in bitcoins directly. Clarity is a new language for smart contracts on the Stacks 2.0 blockchain. The Clarity smart contract language optimizes for predictability and security. Stacks 2.0 anchors clarity smart contracts to Bitcoin making it possible for smart contracts to operate based on actions seen on the bitcoin blockchain.

Crash Punks are a 10,000 collection of unique and generative art profile pictures as Bitcoin/Stacks NFTs, inspired by the novel Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's the first major collection by entrepreneur and crypto artist Grace Ng and will be the community dedicated to all of her future artistic work related to AR/VR, 3D, visual art, music, and neuro-feedback art.

Supporting links:

Stacks Accelerator

Crash Punks

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The ENS Airdrop - A public utility that belongs to the community Nov 11, 2021

Show notes

Nick, the lead developer at ENS, the Ethereum Naming Service joins Andy for a wide-ranging discussion on ENS, DAOs, Proof of Stake Vs Proof of Work, and why Cory Doctorow is wrong about NFTS.

Why you should listen:

ENS is a decentralized naming system for crypto addresses, wallets, websites, and more. ENS is moving towards decentralization and has passed ENS governance to the community through their new governance token, ENS. The token was distributed by an air drop to ENS users. Community members could apply to be ENS delegates and delegate their voting rights to others.

Supporting links:

ENS

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Crypto on the edge - Inflation Jitters, Evergrande Wobbles Nov 11, 2021

Show notes

Markets are on the edge, torn in opposite directions by two big news events. Inflation hit 6.2% hitting earners and shoppers in their wallets. In response, Bitcoin was poised to smash through $69,420 before Evergrande headlines spoiled the party.

Why you should listen:

Bitcoin got tantalizingly close to the mythical $69,420 level today as investors continue to seek exposure to Bitcoin to hedge against inflation. However, news that Evergrande may default on its next interest loan payments sent all global markets into a spin.

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