Zima Red

My guest today is Aleks Larsen, a senior associate at the $300m dollar venture fund, Blockchain Capital. Blockchain Capital is one of the oldest, most reputable and largest venture funds in the crypto space. It was a blast getting to speak with Aleks, thoughtful, eloquent and insatiably curious, Aleks and I touched upon all parts of the NFT ecosystem. I peppered him with questions ranging from his thoughts on the metaverse, the ethos of crypto, and what advice he would give a team pitching Blockchain Capital. Anyone who is looking to form a startup and raise venture capital, I highly suggest you listen to this insightful conversation. Please enjoy my conversation with Aleks. https://blockchain.capital/ https://twitter.com/_alekslarsen

My guests today are Nate and Carolin. They are the founders of the NFT minting platform, Mintbase. Mintbase allows anyone to set up a shop and start minting all types of NFTs, from tickets, to art, game items and now, even music! We discuss everything. Nate's tech background, Carolin’s experience working in the German parliament and of course we dive really deep into Mintbase. What I really loved about our conversion was Nate and Carolin’s sincerity. Just straight facts and without all the hype. Nate and Carolin are really building something special with a core focus on the users. Constant communication and user feedback acts as their north star and guides them on what gets built. They say the single goal of your startup should be to build a product users love and it looks like Mintbase is doing exactly that. Please enjoy my conversation with Nate and Carolin. https://mintbase.io/ https://twitter.com/nategeier https://twitter.com/CarolinWend

My guest today is John Egan. John is the CEO of the foresight company L’atelier. L’atelier, meaning “workshop” in French, is a subsidiary of the French banking giant, BNP Paribas. L’atelier’s job is to identify future market opportunities and conduct deep analysis of these emergent opportunities. And oh boy, do they deliver. The market opportunity that they have identified and decided to dive deepest on, is the virtual economy. They recently produced an incredible research report, which I am not afraid to say is some of the best in the world on this topic. John’s depth of knowledge is staggering. During our conversation, we touched upon almost everything metaverse. Virtual worlds, economics, artificial intelligence, bioaugmentation, and the pros and cons of our inevitable digital reality. Our conversation could have lasted days but alas we had to get back to the metaverse. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. John Twitter - https://twitter.com/iamjohnegan L’atelier - https://atelier.net/ Virtual Economy Report - https://atelier.net/virtual-economy/

My guest today is Jason Bailey. Jason is the founder of Artnome which started out as a database that tracks extremely high-value artworks but has since expanded into a multifaceted business, ranging from art curation, art consultation and even a thriving blog focused on the intersection of art and technology. Jason’s background is perfectly suited for our conversation which is centered around the convergence of art and tech that we are all currently experiencing. He went from a successful machine learning startup to launching Artnome and is now widely known within the traditional art world for his technological expertise. During our conversation, we discuss everything art and tech. Generative art, ai art, crypto art, how to value art, and much more. Jason has an incredible ability to explain difficult concepts even to art newbie like myself. I am so fortunate to be able to speak with Jason. Having someone of his caliber interested in the crypto art space is a signal to us all, that we are onto something big. Please enjoy my conversation with Jason. Jason Twitter - https://twitter.com/artnome Artnome - https://www.artnome.com/

My guest today is Edward Thomson. Edward has an incredibly interesting background that ranges from traditional finance, to crypto, to even being a Persian rug salesman. This diverse background helped him build multiple skill sets which come in handy for his current job, which is Grants Manager for the Web3 Foundation. The Web3 Foundation is best known for being the group behind the newly launched, Polkadot blockchain. Edwards's interests don't stop there, he has dived deep into decentralized gaming, going so far as to suggest different architectures that could facilitate fully on-chain games today. Falling further down the metaverse rabbit hole we look at esports DAOs and how they will eventually evolve into fully-fledged companies and how the line between what is reality and what is a game will soon become blurred. All in all, an awesome and wide-ranging conversation that I hope you will enjoy as much as I did. Edward Twitter - https://twitter.com/EAThomson Web3 Foundation - https://web3.foundation/ Edward Personal Website - https://edthomson.com/

My guest today is Brett Shear, or for those in the NFT community, BlockchainBrett. Brett is a co-founder and COO of Fleek, which is a platform for building websites and applications on IPFS. Our conversations starts with his introduction to crypto, which involves a random encounter with some classmates, his time at Ethereum incubator Consensys, the startup he was a part of while there and of course, Fleek. Along with building crypto products, Brett has an intense passion for the arts, specifically crypto kind of art. Although a huge fan of the artist Coldie, he collects all types of work and NFTs. I love Brett's views on the crypto and NFT ecosystem and I also love that he is not just an enthusiast admiring from the sidelines but he is heads down, busy building a product to further the goals of decentralization. Please enjoy my conversation with Brett. Fleek - https://fleek.co/ Brett Twitter - https://twitter.com/web3brett Fleek Twitter - https://twitter.com/fleekhq

My guest today is Anorak. Anorak is an investor, user, and all-round believer in the metaverse. Although Anorak's passion is mainly focused on the Decentraland Metaverse he supports the entire NFT ecosystem and is an especially big fan of the game Axie Infinity. We discuss everything from virtual casinos and museums to even token economics and the sociable nature of NFTs. What I loved about our conversation is that Anorak is a true NFT and metaverse die hard, this is not simply a hobby for him but a passion that he looks forward to every day. Be sure to keep watch on Anorak because he is making moves and will continue to be a force for good in the metaverse. Please enjoy my conversation with Anorak. Twitter - https://twitter.com/DCLanorak YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdF_33xiYgZidnvZdwpphBg/featured

My guest today is Max. Max is the founder of Cent which is an Ethereum-powered social network that enables users to earn income from their creativity. Talk about shattering the status quo. Max has that rare trait of philosophical vision mixed with technical expertise. He is able to think about what is wrong with the world and then go out and build a solution to fix it. We go deep on this one, discussing the banality of the modern job and the restructuring of society to allow people to do what they do best: create. I also really loved Max’s way of thinking, from taking me through the amazing amount of detail that goes into a seemingly simple design decision, to his idea that you really are not saying anything if nobody disagrees with you. Overall an amazing conversation that I hope will inspire listeners to take action and go out and build. Please enjoy my conversation with Max https://beta.cent.co/max https://twitter.com/maxbrody

My guest today is Chris Bell. A real estate investor and virtual reality devotee who has dived deep into the NFT space. Chris and I discuss everything from physical and virtual real estate, to how to build wealth and even how virtual worlds are naturally evolving into social networks. Chris has a clear passion for the blockchain-based virtual world Somnium Space and I have to say it's quite infectious. His intense excitement for the metaverse is logical considering the incredible capabilities of these platforms today. If we are already on a level where you can easily socialize, trade with them and even do things like watch a virtual sunrise, well then I can't wait for the future potential of these platforms. Please enjoy my conversation with Chris. Chris Bell Twitter - https://twitter.com/chrisbelltoken

My guest today is Jake. Jake is a man of many talents, from art to tech he seems to be exercising both the creative and analytical sides of his brain with regularity. Jake is probably most well known for being the founder and managing partner of CoinFund, an investment firm focused on the blockchain sector. Having been involved with crypto since the early days Jake is exceptionally well versed in all things traditional crypto and he is extremely knowledgeable about the niche of non-fungible tokens. This expertise allows our conversation to dive deep into mainstream crypto-specific subjects and then into the more esoteric NFTs topics. We also talk about Jake’s keen interest in crypto art and how it's democratizing access to both artists and collectors. And of course we chat about the metaverse and how blockchain provides the value, identity, and data layer for the future virtual worlds we will inhabit. It was really great speaking with Jake and I can't wait to see his continued involvement within the NFT space. Please enjoy my conversation with Jake. https://firstedition.xyz/ https://firsteditionxyz.substack.com/ https://twitter.com/jbrukh