Speaker 1: So we've enabled the opportunity to.
Speaker 2: Build a side chain in a private environment or permission
Speaker 2: environment that allows enterprises and institutions to really set up
Speaker 2: the parameters that they want to set up. So if
Speaker 2: they want to have or it's required that they have
Speaker 2: their consensus mechanism within a particular jurisdiction, they can set
Speaker 2: it up that way.
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Speaker 3: the link in the description. Welcome into the Thinking Crypto Podcast.
Speaker 3: I'm your host, Tony Edward, and my guest today is
Speaker 3: Billy Siebel, who's the executive director at the XDC Foundation. Billy,
Speaker 3: great to have you on.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great to be here, Tony, thanks for having me, Billy.
Speaker 3: Lots of questions around XDC. I've often had people ask
Speaker 3: me why are you going to speak to someone from XDC,
Speaker 3: and you know, are you looking at this project and
Speaker 3: so forth. So it's a good time for us to
Speaker 3: chat and I can finally learn more as well. But
Speaker 3: before we get to all things XDC, tell us about yourself,
Speaker 3: where you're from and what's your professional background.
Speaker 1: Sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm originally from Boston and I had spent
Speaker 2: a large part of my career in manufacturing. I've launched
Speaker 2: some different businesses and consumer products, some clothing businesses, import
Speaker 2: export and consulting as well. You know, within the manufacturing space,
Speaker 2: and that was all prior to my time in crypto
Speaker 2: and getting into crypto. That's about twenty five plus years
Speaker 2: of time that I've spent kind of in total doing
Speaker 2: that other stuff.
Speaker 3: And what was your first encounter with bitcoin or crypto
Speaker 3: or blockchain and what was your AHA moment?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I guess really I've probably like a lot
Speaker 2: of people, I had looked at bitcoin probably pretty early
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen, in twenty fourteen and was like, oh, interesting,
Speaker 2: but you know, didn't really pay too much attention to it.
Speaker 2: And I guess after the run up in twenty seventeen
Speaker 2: just kind of a confluence of factors kind of like
Speaker 2: got me to start looking at you know, bitcoin in general.
Speaker 2: And so I got involved in early twenty eighteen. And
Speaker 2: so that's when I really got going.
Speaker 3: And how did you end up working at XDC?
Speaker 2: So it's you know, I kind of always call it
Speaker 2: it's like I had like a three year interview. I
Speaker 2: had gotten involved in early twenty eighteen in the community,
Speaker 2: and then sometime around November of twenty eighteen, I ended
Speaker 2: up meeting the founders back in They came to Boston
Speaker 2: actually in two eighteen, and they were doing a crypto
Speaker 2: event for blockchain Finance, so I decided to help out
Speaker 2: and try to join in on, you know, some of
Speaker 2: the stuff they were doing, and that's how.
Speaker 1: We got involved.
Speaker 2: And I was really from that point forward focused on
Speaker 2: working within the community just as a community member and
Speaker 2: really trying to build the community out. And I think
Speaker 2: that was something that, as I said as part of
Speaker 2: the three year interview, I think by the time twenty
Speaker 2: rolled around, there were some things that happened with the network,
Speaker 2: and the founders had asked for my help, and so
Speaker 2: in December that year, I got involved in trying to
Speaker 2: resolve actually a hack issue that happened with an ERC
Speaker 2: twenty version of our token, and then officially went to
Speaker 2: work in February of twenty twenty one was z infant
Speaker 2: and we ended up launching the actual foundation and I
Speaker 2: think officially in June of that year. June and twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one.
Speaker 3: Wow, and give an overview of XDC as a network
Speaker 3: and targeted use cases and so forth.
Speaker 1: What is XDC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so xCC we're an EVM compatible smart contracts Layer
Speaker 2: one platform, so we're protocol So I mean essentially, you know,
Speaker 2: we're as we said, we're like faster, cheaper than ethereum.
Speaker 2: And you know, the focus that we've really had has
Speaker 2: been around enterprises. So trade finance has really been kind
Speaker 2: of like the long tail narrative of really who we've
Speaker 2: been and that's really kind of led us to the
Speaker 2: point now where you know, we're actually launching our WA's
Speaker 2: on the chain and really starting to expand out that ecosystem.
Speaker 3: So it sounds to confirm you're mainly focused on enterprises
Speaker 3: and the use cases are tokenization, uh maybe payments as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so payments is something that is kind of i'd
Speaker 2: say roadmapped right now.
Speaker 1: It's one of those things.
Speaker 2: That we're really looking to expand out with some of
Speaker 2: the work we're doing around our WA's, But largely the
Speaker 2: r WA stuff has been really focused on trade finance
Speaker 2: and you know, really kind of being true to really
Speaker 2: who we've been to you know, really since the beginning,
Speaker 2: which is helping to fund small businesses sms across the globe.
Speaker 3: And has that side of the or has demand grown
Speaker 3: since the likes of black Rock and Franklin Templeton and
Speaker 3: all these big Wall Street institutions who are now starting
Speaker 3: to tokenize.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say it's it's an interesting, you know, view
Speaker 2: of the from the inside because a lot of those things,
Speaker 2: obviously we've been seeing develop over time, and I think,
Speaker 2: you know, a Biddle has really kind of broken things
Speaker 2: open in a way that you haven't really seen with
Speaker 2: you know, any other funds that are out there, and
Speaker 2: largely because they have the ability to really look at
Speaker 2: UH taking a full tokenization of UH of a product
Speaker 2: from the beginning. You know, for us, we've actually tokenized
Speaker 2: a US Treasury token and you know that's actually a
Speaker 2: black Rock etf fund and it's nothing to do specifically,
Speaker 2: you know, we're not doing anything specifically with black Rock,
Speaker 2: but you know, those funds, like anything else, are available
Speaker 2: for others to be able to tokenize, you know, in
Speaker 2: the space. And so I think a lot of what
Speaker 2: you're being what you're seeing right now are the different
Speaker 2: ways in which people are trying to bring liquidity to
Speaker 2: the market and also finding ways for people to be
Speaker 2: liquid within that market. And I think that's the biggest
Speaker 2: challenge that you're dealing with with tokenization. It's not the
Speaker 2: ability to tokenize anything really, it's more a matter of,
Speaker 2: you know, how do you bring the liquidity to it,
Speaker 2: and you know, where is the interests, you know, on
Speaker 2: the investment side to get involved with you know, these
Speaker 2: traditional assets on chain.
Speaker 3: Now to your point, we're seeing tokenization of funds and
Speaker 3: maybe that's phase one. What else, and this is a
Speaker 3: genuine question, what else? The do you foresee the tokenization
Speaker 3: of what might be in phase two? Do you think
Speaker 3: it's like real estate or what do you think it
Speaker 3: might be?
Speaker 1: It's a it's a good question.
Speaker 2: I mean I think that right now we're probably moving
Speaker 2: into a private credit phase. So it's like it's interesting.
Speaker 2: I mean I've seen you know, you had interviewed Carlos
Speaker 2: from Securitizing. You know, we we have been working with
Speaker 2: securitized that's what we launched our US the US Treasury
Speaker 2: token on or trade Tech, the company that did it,
Speaker 2: and a lot of like what we were seeing at
Speaker 2: that time was you know, these Treasury tokens starting to
Speaker 2: come on chain, and I think we were probably like
Speaker 2: the fifth or sixth or seventh chain to actually have
Speaker 2: a US Treasury token launched on it. And then you know,
Speaker 2: you're starting to see really kind of private credit coming
Speaker 2: on chain now in a way that you know, people
Speaker 2: are looking at how can the how can you offer
Speaker 2: more yield in a product in That's something that people
Speaker 2: are looking at. And obviously with rates changing, you know,
Speaker 2: those are things that will fluctuate down if rates continue
Speaker 2: to be cut with the Treasury.
Speaker 1: So I think that there's.
Speaker 2: More options that people are looking at it, and I
Speaker 2: think that there are also the types of things that
Speaker 2: can be offered are more simply put together. So I
Speaker 2: think real estate has different challenges to it that you
Speaker 2: don't see, you know from a private credit or even
Speaker 2: now maybe perhaps like a stock or a bond being offered.
Speaker 2: It's a pretty simple tokenization to do it. And those
Speaker 2: that are in the digital space, if they want to
Speaker 2: own a digital representation of saying Vidio, they can buy it.
Speaker 2: So you know, those are the kind of the here
Speaker 2: and the now type of things that are slowly developing.
Speaker 3: And to your point, that definitely makes sense. Something that's
Speaker 3: already in the digital landscape, so to speak, it's going
Speaker 3: to be easy to put on the blockchain versus a
Speaker 3: real role a building right in middle of Manhattan or
Speaker 3: whatever it is. There's so many other implications.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think like the idea of fractionalization
Speaker 2: of real estate is one of those things that it's
Speaker 2: it makes a lot of sense to people. I think
Speaker 2: the thing is is that you know, you have to
Speaker 2: bring together, you know, the supply side with the demand side,
Speaker 2: and I think that there's a lot of challenges to that.
Speaker 1: And also.
Speaker 2: You know where I think you're getting. Maybe first you
Speaker 2: would see real estate being sold and tokenized, as you know,
Speaker 2: any type of house is purchased or sold anywhere in
Speaker 2: the world, and then you probably see the opportunity for
Speaker 2: people to come in and try to, you know, fractionalize things.
Speaker 2: But I think that look, that's it's kind of like
Speaker 2: anything that can be tokenized. At some point somebody is
Speaker 2: going to try and tokenize, whether it works or doesn't.
Speaker 2: And I think we're going to see.
Speaker 1: A lot of iterations of this happening over time. And
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 2: Have some that I think would be really exciting to see.
Speaker 2: I don't know how they play out, but I think
Speaker 2: that there's some pretty cool stuff that you can tokenize
Speaker 2: and and it you know, if you take the lessons
Speaker 2: of crypto in terms of community, it makes a lot
Speaker 2: of sense as to why they could work.
Speaker 3: And do you think this may be a tough question
Speaker 3: to answer. You know, as governments are still in the
Speaker 3: process of learning about this technology and embracing it, do
Speaker 3: you think eventually companies folks like you will go to
Speaker 3: the US government and say, hey, let's tokenize some bonds
Speaker 3: and things like that.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I think that.
Speaker 2: You know, you really, what you have is, you know,
Speaker 2: you have layer ones that are building the infrastructure in
Speaker 2: order to be able to do these types of things,
Speaker 2: and so the ecosystem is built to make it easy
Speaker 2: for businesses to come on and say, hey, this is
Speaker 2: something we want to tokenize. You know, right now you
Speaker 2: have like people like securitized or businesses like Securitize that
Speaker 2: probably straddle the most when it comes to what's happening
Speaker 2: on a regulatory perspective and you know, what can happen
Speaker 2: on a tokenization perspective. And so you know, there's not
Speaker 2: a lot of secondary markets on any of this stuff,
Speaker 2: but the institutions that they're working with and other institutions
Speaker 2: that are you know, large enterprises or banks, maybe hedge funds,
Speaker 2: anybody that's playing kind of within that financial space who's set.
Speaker 1: Up all the.
Speaker 2: You know, they've done all of the legal work in
Speaker 2: order to really kind of launch something. They're the ones
Speaker 2: who are really in the position to go to the
Speaker 2: government and say, hey, here's something that we can do.
Speaker 2: And I think that what you would find, and I
Speaker 2: think what people are finding is that, you know, the
Speaker 2: DLT piece is really playing out, which is that there
Speaker 2: are pretty significant savings for enterprises or institutions when it
Speaker 2: comes to doing stuff on DLT as opposed.
Speaker 1: To the existing systems. And so considering the.
Speaker 2: US government probably is not the most efficient of these
Speaker 2: areas either, I think they would probably benefit greatly out
Speaker 2: of you know, the tokenization of some of these assets.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure. Now, there was some a recent milestone
Speaker 3: that was achieved by XEC, and that is with trade
Speaker 3: flow capital converting traditional bills of lading if I'm saying
Speaker 3: that right into tokenized documents. Tell us about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So, I mean, essentially, you have.
Speaker 2: Some jurisdictions that are incorporating, you know, the ability to
Speaker 2: digitize documents in trade and therefore you're able to digitize
Speaker 2: those documents, create a digitalized system and then do the
Speaker 2: complete trade and finance the electronic bill of lading. So
Speaker 2: we had started with this, you know, with IMDA and
Speaker 2: Singapore and you know, and this is something it's limited
Speaker 2: really ultimately in scope because it's such a fragmented industry.
Speaker 2: You know, you can't just go and say, well, here's
Speaker 2: an industry solution to something that you're doing. But I
Speaker 2: think everything is about where you start and how you progress.
Speaker 2: And so with what we've been able to do there
Speaker 2: and effectuating actual trade, we've really started to work down
Speaker 2: a path where the corridors that really want to take
Speaker 2: this on and have the proper jurisdiction that they're able
Speaker 2: to really you know, build.
Speaker 1: This kind of trade by trade.
Speaker 2: And I think that that's a slow process. That's the
Speaker 2: reality of that particular, you know, type of trade. I
Speaker 2: think that you know, when we look at the ability
Speaker 2: to take a group of invoices for businesses and we're
Speaker 2: able to finance those, you know, we're kind of like
Speaker 2: leaving the shipping and all of that stuff out and
Speaker 2: those corridors are going to just be naturally dealt with
Speaker 2: as it normally would be in terms of you know,
Speaker 2: the vendors themselves and how they're moving product across the globe.
Speaker 2: In this case, you're kind of like encompassing a lot
Speaker 2: more stuff in terms of like the jurisdictions and how
Speaker 2: things flow.
Speaker 1: So I think that there's.
Speaker 2: Probably a longer road to bringing that about, but I
Speaker 2: think it's pretty exciting when you can see that these
Speaker 2: things are actually really happening on blockchain now, and you
Speaker 2: know you're proving out those use cases.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. A question I had about tokenized assets, and with
Speaker 3: assets being tokenized on the blockchain, it opens the door
Speaker 3: for the market to truly be global because right now,
Speaker 3: in certain jurisdictions or countries, people can't access like the
Speaker 3: New York Stock Exchange or Tessa Stock or whatever it
Speaker 3: may be. But if you put it on the blockchain,
Speaker 3: almost anyone can access it. How do you feel the
Speaker 3: regulations will be around there, Will they open it up
Speaker 3: everywhere or we will still have these lines so to speak,
Speaker 3: that you know, access it in certain parts of the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I think that, uh, you're always going to have uh
Speaker 2: some lagging in different areas. I mean, I've talked about
Speaker 2: this quite a bit in terms.
Speaker 1: Of the US.
Speaker 2: I think then I've kind of harped on it where
Speaker 2: recently I think like Mark Cuban had said something about
Speaker 2: how you know, the way in which this has been
Speaker 2: handled punitively in the US has probably shaved you know,
Speaker 2: one point of GDP off of the US economy. And
Speaker 2: and I really, I really do believe that from the
Speaker 2: standpoint of uh, you know, where a burgeoning industry that's
Speaker 2: looking to bring technology to the forefront that can help
Speaker 2: other industries just across the globe and in the US,
Speaker 2: and something as simple as trying to tokenize an asset
Speaker 2: or even what somebody may normally do to to launch
Speaker 2: something within and within their own industry to increase or
Speaker 2: improve or disrupt what's going on. So they're trying to
Speaker 2: increase efficiencies and throughputs and decrease costs. This is really
Speaker 2: a challenge that businesses have to look at and say,
Speaker 2: you know, do I want to go down the path
Speaker 2: of it's already a competitive market. Now I have to
Speaker 2: deal with uncertainty around what's going on from a jurisdictional
Speaker 2: you know, like legal perspective, and so now I have
Speaker 2: two major things I have to deal with. And so
Speaker 2: you see a lot of talent, you know, leaving the
Speaker 2: US as a result of that and going elsewhere, and
Speaker 2: even just in the industry talking to people who are
Speaker 2: in Europe, they just have a much easier time doing things.
Speaker 1: Than we do.
Speaker 2: So I think there is going to be a leveling
Speaker 2: out because at some point the people who just kind
Speaker 2: of are showing hate for crypto are confusing that with
Speaker 2: you know, what they think they need to do to
Speaker 2: really kind of you know, they do it in the
Speaker 2: terms of protecting people, but in other I don't know whether.
Speaker 2: I don't really think that that's the case in terms
Speaker 2: of how it's played out. So I think that people
Speaker 2: are going to be coming in one way or another,
Speaker 2: as we know, with what's coming up in a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks. And I think that there's a loosening here
Speaker 2: in the US, and hopefully you see signs of what
Speaker 2: they're doing in other jurisdictions, you know, Mica or things
Speaker 2: like that in Europe where they're clarifying things. Whether you
Speaker 2: like it or not, it's these things are starting to
Speaker 2: make things easier in terms of clarity, and so you're
Speaker 2: going to have to move closer together. How that goes,
Speaker 2: how soon all that stuff, it's it's really really tough
Speaker 2: to tell, but a lot can happen in two years.
Speaker 1: So I'm hopeful, yeah, really hopeful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, And it seems like we're on the path.
Speaker 3: You know, at least we're on the path walking towards
Speaker 3: the destination of all these things converging together. And Congress
Speaker 3: here at least is starting to make some moves and
Speaker 3: you're seeing bipartisan efforts and maybe to your point, you know,
Speaker 3: the EU making that move with the MICA regulations. It's
Speaker 3: going to put pressure finally on the folks here like Okay,
Speaker 3: we got to wake up, we gotta get get to
Speaker 3: get going here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think that's that's probably the key, right,
Speaker 2: you know, all of those things coming together.
Speaker 3: M now XDC two point zero recent launch, tell us
Speaker 3: about this and what are the upgrades and the impact
Speaker 3: you think you will have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we recently upgraded from our original protocol to
Speaker 2: two point zero. We were a delegated proof of steak.
Speaker 2: This particular launch really geared more towards upgrading the protocol
Speaker 2: for in a couple of different areas. But it's now
Speaker 2: really a Byzantine fault tolerant consensus mechanism with a security
Speaker 2: layer that's been added in. Originally that's how it started,
Speaker 2: but we really have as it's kind of developed. I
Speaker 2: think one of the major features that we've really brought
Speaker 2: forward is a private subnet that's now able to be
Speaker 2: set up on the network, and so essentially it's a
Speaker 2: side chain. I think if you kind of look at
Speaker 2: what Avalanche has done with their subnets, it's probably most
Speaker 2: similar to what they've done there.
Speaker 1: So we've enabled the opportunity to.
Speaker 2: Build a side chain in a private environment or permission
Speaker 2: environment that allows and enterprises and institutions to really set
Speaker 2: up the parameters that they want to set up.
Speaker 1: So if they want to.
Speaker 2: Have or it's required that they have their consensus mechanism
Speaker 2: within a particular uristiction, they can set it up that way.
Speaker 2: And so we have a sub subject manager that allows
Speaker 2: for easy set up. And I think, you know, to me,
Speaker 2: one of the game changes around this is that what
Speaker 2: you're now from an institutional perspective, you know, people were
Speaker 2: looking at, well, I don't want to be on a
Speaker 2: public blockchain. Although that's changed a little bit in terms of,
Speaker 2: you know, having some of the benefits of public blockchain,
Speaker 2: there's still a lot of institutions that are saying, or
Speaker 2: businesses are saying, we're going to build our own network.
Speaker 2: We're not going to do anything with any of these
Speaker 2: public networks. And now you know, this is really kind of,
Speaker 2: I guess, another way of bringing blockchain closer to a
Speaker 2: lot of these businesses where they can set up what
Speaker 2: they intended to set up, but it's already really built,
Speaker 2: and so you know, the manager's there the ability to
Speaker 2: if they want to create a token, whatever application they
Speaker 2: want to build on it, whatever information they want to
Speaker 2: relay to the public network, they can do so they
Speaker 2: can have you know, the great the best benefits of
Speaker 2: cryptography from a public perspective with the benefits of you know,
Speaker 2: a private, permissioned environment. And that's one of the directions
Speaker 2: or like that part of the feedback in which we've
Speaker 2: gotten over the years from institutions, and so it's something
Speaker 2: that's been in.
Speaker 1: The works for quite a long time.
Speaker 2: And the other part of the security piece is you
Speaker 2: know that we have a judiciary really now that's been
Speaker 2: set up. So the judiciary itself, it's all within a
Speaker 2: dashboard that is, you know, from a code perspective, is
Speaker 2: overseeing what's going on with these nodes, and so if
Speaker 2: there's any nefarious activity by a particular node, it's immediately.
Speaker 1: Slashed and pulled out of the population.
Speaker 2: So it's not able to really do anything in terms
Speaker 2: of you know, pulling other nodes you know, towards it
Speaker 2: and creating some type of you know, security concern on
Speaker 2: the network. So obviously trade finance and the things we're doing,
Speaker 2: you know, we're we're working to try to create the
Speaker 2: most secure and reliable network you can have.
Speaker 3: That's really great. And you know, going back to the
Speaker 3: topic of privacy with those subnets and things like that,
Speaker 3: that's such a big solution because to your point, many
Speaker 3: of these companies are like, yeah, I don't want to
Speaker 3: be in a public blockchain. I don't want my information
Speaker 3: to be out there. But it's great that folks like
Speaker 3: yourself and so forth have found that solution to create
Speaker 3: the privacy subnet, if you want to call it that,
Speaker 3: and it allows them to operate on a public blockchain
Speaker 3: but still maintain privacy. And I think that's so important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think, you know, it's funny because I
Speaker 2: always look at this, you know, saying I was from manufacturing,
Speaker 2: and I always looked at a lot of manufacturers. We're
Speaker 2: really behind the times in terms of technology with system Usually,
Speaker 2: you know, when it comes to upgrading any system in
Speaker 2: a business, it's a lot of work.
Speaker 1: It takes a lot of work.
Speaker 2: And so you know, when I got involved with blockchain
Speaker 2: and started looking at it with institutions, you know, you
Speaker 2: would think, oh, these banks and institutions, they've got the
Speaker 2: technology behind them, But the truth is they don't.
Speaker 1: They have old technology. They use a lot of spreadsheets. Still.
Speaker 2: You know, the idea that you can have a private
Speaker 2: sub net and build something on there now creates opportunities
Speaker 2: that they didn't have before. So so it's really I
Speaker 2: think a great opportunity at this point, both for the
Speaker 2: network and for institutions that are looking to really upgrade
Speaker 2: what they're doing.
Speaker 3: How are you attracting developers and helping them? Are there
Speaker 3: accelerator programs and things like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've gone through you know, some different I
Speaker 2: guess waves of development progress in terms of how we're
Speaker 2: looking at bringing people to the network. And you know,
Speaker 2: we've done a lot of things around hakathons over time.
Speaker 2: Uh in the last couple of years. UH more recently,
Speaker 2: we've really looked at uh accelerator programs that we could
Speaker 2: uh start to actually uh hone and direct a little
Speaker 2: bit more of of the teams and the types of
Speaker 2: processes that are in place to start developing those teams
Speaker 2: and UH.
Speaker 1: And so now we've got a number of about.
Speaker 2: A half a dozen different UH programs that are going
Speaker 2: on currently across UH in different regions of the globe
Speaker 2: UH for accelerator programs, and they're all a little bit
Speaker 2: different and and they're you know, led by different.
Speaker 1: People as well in different regions.
Speaker 2: But I think that the UH way we're approaching it
Speaker 2: right now is UH it's really the greatest opportunity when
Speaker 2: you think about how you can go through a process
Speaker 2: and kind of hand pick and develop these particular you know,
Speaker 2: projects or teams to build on your network. And it's
Speaker 2: not just a matter of what it is that they're doing,
Speaker 2: but how are they operating and you know, do they
Speaker 2: have the business processes in place as well as the
Speaker 2: development chops. It's not just a developer says oh I
Speaker 2: put together this particular application. You know, you have to
Speaker 2: be able to have a plan as to how you're
Speaker 2: going to execute and build your community. And so I
Speaker 2: think there's a lot of great opportunity what we're doing
Speaker 2: around that, and that's been that's really kind of the
Speaker 2: roadmap as we're moving forward into twenty twenty five got it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's really great. There's some questions that came from
Speaker 3: the community. For example, folks wanted to know if there
Speaker 3: are any upcoming exchange list things and things along those lines.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know this is always a hotbed question for
Speaker 2: people within the community. I think that everybody always wants
Speaker 2: to know, like me, like being from originally the community,
Speaker 2: this was the thing what years ago when we were.
Speaker 1: Like, well, when's this or when's that?
Speaker 2: But but look, I think you know, the thing I
Speaker 2: could say about it, which is really not too much,
Speaker 2: is that, you know, the idea behind what you know exchanges.
Speaker 1: Have to offer these types of integrations is.
Speaker 2: You know, access for you know users to come onto
Speaker 2: the network. And you know, our focus has always really
Speaker 2: been about what are the things that we can do
Speaker 2: to create and develop more access for retail users to
Speaker 2: really operate on the network, you know, use the utilities
Speaker 2: in which you know, we're putting on there.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 2: With this kind of understanding this, I mean, we've worked,
Speaker 2: you know, as a network very hard to bring about
Speaker 2: all of the different types of integrations that are going
Speaker 2: to bring about you know, greater use and so you know,
Speaker 2: we're continuing to do this as we move forward, and
Speaker 2: you know that's not going to change, uh, you know,
Speaker 2: until we really accomplish having the entire ecosystem built out
Speaker 2: the way we want to.
Speaker 3: M There's also another question around R three. Any updates
Speaker 3: around R three and XDC, and I know there's been
Speaker 3: talks of R three potentially looking to be sold and
Speaker 3: how that would impact XDC.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we've always had a very good relationship
Speaker 2: with our three and uh, you know, I can't really
Speaker 2: speak to what those rumors are. You know, what I
Speaker 2: would say is that, you know, we developed a bridge
Speaker 2: to Quorta. I mean, Quorda itself is really really in
Speaker 2: many ways independent of our three. You know, they are
Speaker 2: three built it so that anybody could come on and
Speaker 2: integrate with it. And so you know, we built the
Speaker 2: bridge with the idea that institutions and others were interested in,
Speaker 2: you know, really trying to do transactions on Quarta. And
Speaker 2: also it allowed us a bit of a private public
Speaker 2: network opportunity there, kind of similar to what we're doing
Speaker 2: right now with subnets. And so one of the things
Speaker 2: that ultimately kind of I think, you know, we've always
Speaker 2: looked at is we try to build on as many developing,
Speaker 2: you know, opportunities, development opportunities as we can. And now
Speaker 2: this is a space that's like constantly changing, so you know,
Speaker 2: you have Layer ones that are deciding to become a
Speaker 2: Layer two and moving to another chain. You know, there's
Speaker 2: going to be all sorts of things that happen as
Speaker 2: we move forward, and so we're really just trying to
Speaker 2: create the most opportunity that's out there. So if somebody
Speaker 2: comes to us and says, here's what we'd like to do,
Speaker 2: and we want to build on Quorda, you know, then
Speaker 2: that's something that you know we're able to do. And
Speaker 2: we don't know how anything is going to turn out,
Speaker 2: but we're going to continue to do what we're doing.
Speaker 2: And I think you know, you've seen that with SBI
Speaker 2: VC in Japan, who's more recently done some stuff with Quorda.
Speaker 2: There isn't any intention to change the direction of what
Speaker 2: we're doing, and you know, I think until something changes,
Speaker 2: that's really where we stand with it.
Speaker 3: Oh for sure, And you mentioned SBI, Are you guys
Speaker 3: doing anything with them in particular?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we've been from the time in which SBI
Speaker 2: first started looking into the network. You know, we've had
Speaker 2: touch points. You know, with them, a lot of what
Speaker 2: now is kind of like SBI v C, which is
Speaker 2: an XDC combined into a you know, into its own entity,
Speaker 2: is really looking at you know how you know, in
Speaker 2: the Japanese market, they're able to really you know, bring
Speaker 2: XDC as a network to the forefront, and so they're
Speaker 2: continuing to work on different initiatives, not anything I can
Speaker 2: specifically discuss, and you know, internally, you know, there's not
Speaker 2: a lot of I mean, they're their own entity, you know,
Speaker 2: on the SBI side, so you know, whatever their plans
Speaker 2: are and how they're going about what they're doing is
Speaker 2: really kind of something they would need to speak to.
Speaker 2: But I think we expect to see more development over there,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's definitely an exciting part of what
Speaker 2: we've been trying to do to to grow the ecosystem
Speaker 2: for sure.
Speaker 3: But Billy, you know, a lot lots of things are
Speaker 3: happening in the crypto industry. Wall streets here, you have
Speaker 3: ETFs that have been launched, big institutions we were just
Speaker 3: talking about tokenizing. You got possible crypto legislation right around
Speaker 3: the corner. There was some movements this year with a
Speaker 3: bill out of the house. You know, are you anticipating
Speaker 3: further adoption and growth as we head into twenty twenty
Speaker 3: five with all these things in mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think that.
Speaker 2: I think if you've been in crypto for any time,
Speaker 2: I mean, really the people are kind of looking at
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five as being a year of shift right
Speaker 2: from where we've been. I think, from obviously the building perspective,
Speaker 2: a lot has gone on. I think sentiment wise, you know,
Speaker 2: that's probably where most of that shift is going to
Speaker 2: be happening. You know, with Blackrock coming in and the
Speaker 2: bitcoinytfs and all of these you know kind of I
Speaker 2: guess trend setters with it and the financial markets. I
Speaker 2: think you're really beginning to see that people are taking uh,
Speaker 2: you know, crypto more seriously around you know, what the
Speaker 2: benefits really are, and you know, I think that you
Speaker 2: know probably less about like regulation regulation or regulatory stuff.
Speaker 2: I think more like right now, I think most of
Speaker 2: the conversations I have going on because the election is
Speaker 2: regardless of what side you're on, is such a toss
Speaker 2: up and nobody really knows what's going to happen. I
Speaker 2: think there's this huge weight and see like everything is
Speaker 2: going to be about, well, once we have some kind
Speaker 2: of clarity the you know, the industry or the market.
Speaker 1: Or this will happen or that will happen.
Speaker 2: And so I think people are really first and foremost
Speaker 2: waiting for that. I do think that whoever win is
Speaker 2: going to be doing something very different than what has happened.
Speaker 2: And you know, when you consider there's fifty million crypto owners.
Speaker 1: You know, in the US, it's a huge voting block
Speaker 1: of people.
Speaker 2: And I think with the economy being what it is
Speaker 2: and people looking at what's happening with are they better off.
Speaker 1: Today than they were a year ago.
Speaker 2: Financially and what's happened with inflation, I think people are
Speaker 2: always looking at, you know, what's happening with the in
Speaker 2: the industry to how it can personally benefit them. So,
Speaker 2: you know, I think that there is a lot of factors.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's like less macro and it's more just kind
Speaker 2: of all of these different things that are occurring in geopolitically, you.
Speaker 1: Know, the types of things that are happening within the market.
Speaker 2: So I'm very bullish on that overall because I feel
Speaker 2: like having been here and been building through some of
Speaker 2: the more difficult times in this industry, it feels like
Speaker 2: there's a lot that's really coming together and that people
Speaker 2: are you know, they're they're kind of ready for what's next.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. I see just a lot of things converging,
Speaker 3: and like, for example, like the stable coin market has
Speaker 3: been heating up significantly, and now there's talks of you know,
Speaker 3: a proper stable coin in the US can help maintain
Speaker 3: the US dollar reserve status and all these things. So
Speaker 3: it's just the alignment of tradi fi politics and much more.
Speaker 3: And there's just a sense in the air of like
Speaker 3: optimism and building and we've kind of crossed the chasm
Speaker 3: to like mainstream adoption and things like that. So it's
Speaker 3: pretty exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I definitely.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, one hundred and seventy plus billion and
Speaker 2: stable coins within the market, and when you consider money supply,
Speaker 2: it's tiny compared.
Speaker 1: To what is, but it's huge compared to what.
Speaker 2: Has been So I think that I've always looked at
Speaker 2: the one thing about whether you know, it's blockchain crypto
Speaker 2: or a combination of the two, the technology, and or
Speaker 2: whether it's bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, or whether it's you know,
Speaker 2: traditional instruments coming on chain the Ultimately, the bottom line
Speaker 2: is there's a solution somewhere to the debt issues, and
Speaker 2: there are solutions to what's happening across the globe from
Speaker 2: a financial perspective in these technologies.
Speaker 1: I don't know what those are.
Speaker 2: I think that you know, there's smarter people in that
Speaker 2: area than me, and you know, ultimately, hopefully we.
Speaker 1: Figure that stuff out.
Speaker 2: But I think even today, I just read that in
Speaker 2: Florida they're looking to have bitcoin b part of their reserve,
Speaker 2: and you know that's that would be obviously the first
Speaker 2: state in.
Speaker 1: The Union to do something like that.
Speaker 2: We've only seen that out of certain countries, and you know,
Speaker 2: I guess you can argue whether it's worked for them
Speaker 2: or not, but I think so far, I think today
Speaker 2: you'd probably argue that was a good decision on the
Speaker 2: part of anybody that decided to use it as part
Speaker 2: of their reserve, especially if they're an economy that is,
Speaker 2: you know, they're not as stable.
Speaker 3: Right, So yeah, it's exciting times. I'm curious. On that note,
Speaker 3: you know, a twenty twenty five we are going to
Speaker 3: get these major announcements like states and even more countries
Speaker 3: adding big one as a reserve asset, and then we
Speaker 3: know in the presidential campaign with Donald Trump and Cynthia
Speaker 3: Lummis proposed those things, and in addition, more companies adding
Speaker 3: bigcoin to their balance sheet as a hedge as a reserve.
Speaker 3: So I'm kind of anxiously anticipating that where it's like
Speaker 3: I want to I'm curious, who's going to be the
Speaker 3: next domino to fall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, it's always like you know, as it relates
Speaker 2: to banks and like what we've been dealing with for
Speaker 2: so many years, it's always like you talk to banks
Speaker 2: and they're always like, maybe they're interested in something, or
Speaker 2: somebody is interested at the bank, but the traditionalists who
Speaker 2: have been there are not or we're not at all
Speaker 2: interested whatsoever in anything to do with crypto. And then
Speaker 2: you start to see that slow change, but they're saying,
Speaker 2: usually by action, that well, we'll let the non bank
Speaker 2: originators and others get involved in this first, and we'll
Speaker 2: see if it works for them, and.
Speaker 1: If it does, then we'll get involved.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's anything different than what's going on
Speaker 2: in private business. So once you start to see major
Speaker 2: fortune five hundred companies adding bitcoin to their balance sheet,
Speaker 2: and I'm talking.
Speaker 1: Other than micro strategy. Who has made it their strategy
Speaker 1: to do that? You know, I think that you're going
Speaker 1: to see a Domino's fall pretty quickly.
Speaker 3: For sure, Billy. I got some wrap up questions here
Speaker 3: for you. The first is if you could create your
Speaker 3: own metaverse, what would the theme be?
Speaker 1: Yeah, while the Coyote and Roadrunner.
Speaker 3: That would be a fun one. Rapid fire questions.
Speaker 1: Favorite food, favorite food ice cream?
Speaker 3: Favorite musician or band, Grateful Dead, favorite movie Ferris Bueller's
Speaker 3: Day Off, great one? Favorite book?
Speaker 1: Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell.
Speaker 3: We're not working at XDC. What are you doing for fun?
Speaker 1: Uh? Yeah, I like to play guitar, me too, if.
Speaker 3: You don't mind me asking out what genre do you play?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: Mostly rock and roll, so but yeah, Grateful Dead, a
Speaker 2: lot of and uh I know Bruce Springsteen or uh
Speaker 2: but yeah, I'm definitely Uh, I'm a little long in
Speaker 2: the tooth, so I tend to be in terms of uh,
Speaker 2: classic rock is really kind of you know where I
Speaker 2: where I kind of play.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm the same. I love classic rock, although I
Speaker 3: play a variety of genres. I'll play funk, jazz, whatever
Speaker 3: it is, blues. I've learned a lot of my guitar
Speaker 3: skills through playing a c D C LEDs up playing
Speaker 3: and you know, learning learning those rifts and so forth.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a lot of fun, I mean, and for me,
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm I'm really into playing acoustic, like playing
Speaker 2: and singing, so trying to put together a set of
Speaker 2: some different tunes and you know, really trying to see
Speaker 2: whether you know, it's something that you could actually get
Speaker 2: out and just play out for fun. So so there
Speaker 2: there is I I do. I have expanded a bit
Speaker 2: into maybe a little bit more modern stuff, but it's
Speaker 2: uh yeah, even just playing. Getting in the headspace of
Speaker 2: playing on away from all of the day to day
Speaker 2: is just is very freeing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly how I feel. That's my escape. I
Speaker 3: go pick up my guitar and then I forget about
Speaker 3: everything else.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love it.
Speaker 3: So excellent, Billy pleasure chatting with you. Really excited for
Speaker 3: the future. Updates are on XDC. Thank you so much
Speaker 3: for joining me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. It's
Speaker 1: been a great time.