Hello everyone welcome let's probably just give two minutes for everyone to
I can see a lot of people still joining
Okay, I think we we can start. Hello Cortoches welcome to another Cordao AMA.
Today we have Rich, an initial contributor at CORE joining the AMA to talk about the most recent events.
Now that one year has passed since the launch of CORE mainnet, we will revisit some of the highlights
and yeah let's go for it! Hi Rich!
Hey Diego, excited to chat here today.
Awesome, how are you? All good?
Things are good. Yeah, it's a bright sunshiny day outside so no complaints here, excited to talk with the Cortoches community.
Awesome, all right let's start with the questions. So one year ago, did you think that CORE will be at the stage that it is now?
It's so hard to go back that far. It feels like it was forever ago in some ways but then in other ways it was like five minutes ago.
But yeah, it was really to kind of flash back into late 2022, early 2023.
It was the whole pre-mainnet phase and then the pre-airdrop phase, all that sort of stuff and the expectations were certainly very high.
But it was one of those really difficult tasks to kind of fully get it over the line and the team had been working on the engineering behind it for three plus years prior.
There really was very high expectations but also a big sigh of relief when the network went out as well and it's been 100% uptime for over a year, hundreds of millions of transactions etc.
So I think by all accounts it's been amazing to watch what's happened in the network and our expectations in some ways are vastly exceeded.
And I'd say in other ways there's still some work to be done. There's this very important Bitcoin narrative for the chain and we really have to execute as an entire community in 2024.
To fully realize the vision of core but it's an amazing start so far.
Yeah, I can relate to that. In some ways it feels like 10 years have passed in others 10 days. So I think that's the beauty of Web3 Red.
What is the first highlight that comes to your minds about the year that has passed?
It's really tough to narrow down to one highlight. I think if I have to pick one, it's probably the airdrop where the kortoshis became the holders for the first time and started to stake and all that sort of thing.
I think that was really big that the community is really the strength of any Web3 project and it was really awesome for that to occur and again for the participation and consensus and beyond.
But I think if I had to narrow it down to just one, that would probably be the one moment.
Awesome. Yeah, I think a lot of kortoshis also relate to that.
One year after mainnet and there are already lots of partnerships and integrations with very well known names in the industry.
So what's your take on this? Like what were you expecting? Was it a goal? How do you approach it?
Yes, I think it's important to take a step back and to think about what are some of the very, very high level goals of core and fundamentally core wants to be the most utilized chain, most users, most activity.
And that's really the driving force of building a real Web3 platform.
And as part of that goal, core wants to unlock the 800 billion to a trillion dollars of trapped liquidity in Bitcoin today and be the most Bitcoin aligned chain.
And those are really the two kind of like shining stars of where the network is headed and at least currently headed, I would say.
And as part of that, you need to get as many as possible best of breed partners to help you scale and help you open yourself up to other builders, other community members.
So it really does take an army. And core is an open access to centralized network where anyone can come and build and anyone can come launch whatever infra provider, service provider on top of it.
So it's been awesome to see the early wave of folks come on board and I expect to see many more will come on board in 2024 and beyond.
All right. And looking back, what was the biggest challenge during the whole year?
The biggest challenge, that one's also pretty tricky to narrow down.
If I was to, and this is, of course, just like my voice versus the voice of the DAO itself.
But I think it's really challenging to take anything from zero to one from an ecosystem.
As we just got to a second ago, we talked about all the different infra providers and that sort of thing.
There's a lot of chains that have launched prior to us that have a lot of these other ecosystem components already there.
And we had to play a little bit of catch up as a community to help get more and more folks on board and more providers integrated, et cetera.
And I think that's a challenge for any new chain, let alone core.
But because core was 100% self-funded and community owned, there wasn't this existing layer of providers and that sort of thing at launch.
So it really was like a boots on the ground effort to help get various folks integrated into the network to help add value back to the community.
So going from zero to one with any Web 3 or Web 2 business is really hard.
But I'd say it's doubly hard in crypto where everything is so decentralized.
But with that, there were many lessons learned and there's kind of a well-oiled machine from the community all the way through different contributors that are executing really well on these efforts.
And well, if you don't look back and you look forward, where would you like to see core one year from now?
I know you touched a bit on this, but any guesses or any, like, what's your take?
Yeah, so one year from now, so I would love to see core execute on its 2024 Bitcoin roadmap.
You know, 100% that that's a lofty goal.
But I would love to see that there's a whole bunch of other pieces that will get added to that.
But really, to knock that out of the park would be very, very important because as core wants to be the most utilized chain,
there's this need to bring on so many best-of-breed partners, so many best-of-breed builders, so many users,
and all of that has this focus on building this really robust platform.
And if core can execute on these different technical, community, business, marketing, et cetera, initiatives,
I think the chain can be far beyond where it is today on all of these different measures.
But it really comes down to execution.
And I think what I would love as a goal for the end of 2024 is to have executed on that
and to be, you know, undoubtedly the most Bitcoin-aligned chain.
Obviously, that's a community consensus-type thing.
There's no direct measure of what that would be.
But I think executing on this roadmap is a great start.
Looking good and promising. Nice.
All right. So how did you feel during this year that the Korotoshi's community evolved?
So the Korotoshi's community has always been extremely open and welcoming to new folks.
And I think that's why it's one of the strongest and largest communities in all of crypto.
And I expect to see that continue, you know, over the coming years.
And I think there was this evolution of a lot of existing community members
getting more and more involved in the chain,
starting to interact with different core dApps,
continuing to stake and participate in governance.
So I think it was awesome to watch that from kind of the early community
and like the pre-launch community.
But I also think there's been a wave of new community members
who might have come in from other sources or from other projects
and then part of these other communities who are also, you know,
bringing their experience and their contributions to the core ecosystem.
And I expect we'll continue to see more and more, like,
external folks joining the Korotoshi community over the coming years.
But it's an amazingly strong community,
and watching that grow and evolve has been awesome.
Just so many amazing folks around the world.
Yes, definitely. I'm always blown away by this community.
And it's definitely one of... It's unique.
All right, so what was for you during the first year of Core Mainnet
the key event for the entire Web3 space?
Key event for the entire Web3 space.
So watching Bitcoin get exciting again with ordinals, BRC20s,
just inscriptions generally, I think that was a major turning point last year.
Bitcoin is, you know, the biggest crypto asset.
It's the oldest crypto asset.
And it really does, you know, have this immense, like,
kind of shadow in a positive way that it casts over the whole space.
And I think watching people get excited about building up Bitcoin,
the Bitcoin ETF, like, there were several different catalysts here
that made it a very exciting time to be in Web3 again
and to get more interest, you know, from front of the broader global community
versus just the Web3 community.
And I think that's kind of kicked off a lot of excitement,
a lot of new builders joining the space again,
and it's been awesome to watch that.
Yeah, you touched a very good point.
So the Bitcoin ETF approval, how did, like,
first of all, maybe let's talk about what is an ETF
for the quarter who are here and don't know.
Would you like to touch on that?
Yeah, so it's essentially a basket of assets that trades
more or less like a normal stock,
but it has open access, which is the most important piece.
Like, it trades in the largest financial markets in the world,
and for a large portion of the community,
they maybe aren't ready yet for self-custody.
Maybe they want to invest in a retirement account
or through a financial advisor.
There is a whole large group of people out there
that would prefer to use their kind of tried-and-true,
trad-fied methods with which to participate in Web3,
or in this case, in Bitcoin specifically.
And I think even though maybe it's not the purest form
of self-custody and that sort of thing,
which if you can self-custody,
being a crypto person, I do recommend it.
But of course, if you could maintain the safety, security,
your keys, and all that sort of thing, caveat emptor.
But with that, I think for so many of these people,
this is the first access opportunity they've had
to participate in the crypto economy,
and I think it's a huge sign of legitimacy.
And that's something that the crypto community
has been craving for 15 years now.
And watching the Bitcoin ETF take place,
it's a real stepping stone for the industry
and to show everyone that digital assets are here to stay.
And I think this is the first crossover, if you will,
but probably not the last.
So when you found that the ETFs were approved,
Well, I actually fell for the fakeout,
like a couple days in advance.
So I definitely, you know, I was pretty excited
if that shows my excitement.
When it really got announced, you know,
I measured twice, cut once on that,
just to ensure that it wasn't going to happen again.
But in general, super excited.
I mean, I've been in crypto since, you know, 2012, 2013,
and this was something where I remember the original
I think it was back in early 2013,
and I thought it was really going to happen in 2018.
So I was off by, you know, five, six years.
But super excited because, again, it's for so long,
there's been so much fun against crypto,
whether it's from Tradfire, mainstream media,
and that sort of thing, because folks are just viewing,
you know, the worst actors in the space.
They're not viewing any of the positive pieces of crypto.
And I've, you know, mentioned it, I think,
It's one of the most important, if not the most important
innovation of the entire 21st century,
or 22nd century, I guess.
It's so incredible to watch the separation of money
in state, potentially, in all of what that unlocks.
And there's still a lot left to do on the original Bitcoin vision,
but I think it's been just so amazing.
And to watch it finally cross over into mainstream acceptance
is just a huge milestone for the industry.
Yeah, that was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions,
those two days of the approval.
You touched on a very good point.
So how do you see that the Bitcoin spot ETF
will help the Web3 space?
So I think it will help the Web3 space,
like at the highest level,
with getting more interest from non-Web3 folks today.
And I think the ultimate goal of crypto
is mainstream adoption, right?
And a big piece of mainstream adoption
is understanding and recognition.
And I think it just takes,
people have historically referred to it
as the crypto rabbit hole moment,
And I don't think the ETF will do that in and of itself,
but I think some of that interest
will spur some percentage of people to go look deeper.
And I think that looking deeper
is how more and more people will become participants
And then I think there'll be more interest
to experiment with additional crypto tokens
or additional crypto applications.
And with some of those applications,
if the pieces are abstracted correctly,
if it feels Web2 native enough,
I think there is that possibility
that somewhere in this cycle or next cycle,
mainstream adoption really does occur.
And I think that mainstream adoption
is just going to be so powerful
because the underlying value prop of crypto,
this unseasonable, uncensorable money,
and then these digital platforms
with which on top of it you can build
and freedom-preserving technology.
So I think this is a great catalyst
to hopefully accelerate that path.
And do you think that an Ethereum ETF will come next?
I think the Ethereum ETF will happen,
I wish I could predict the future on that,
but I think there's a very different view
from different regulatory bodies throughout the world
on Bitcoin versus Ethereum.
I'm not one to opine on that,
but I think this is already
in a big change of position, right,
to see Bitcoin coming forward and having its ETF.
My guess is governments and regulatory bodies
will probably move a little bit slower.
We'll watch to see what happens.
And then from there, you know,
maybe then the floodgates start to open.
But I do think it's a little bit
of a wait and see right now.
Let's see what happens, right?
No one knows for sure, but yeah.
I mean, I'm looking forward to see
what happens in that direction.
Core has definitely this focus
what still needs to be done
to make it even more aligned?
You're hitting me with all
the hardest questions here, Diogo.
So I think a good first step
is executing on the Bitcoin roadmap.
what is Core's 24 Bitcoin roadmap
that's been announced thus far?
So one is the non-custodial staking offering.
And the non-custodial staking offering
is going to allow Bitcoin
to become a yield-producing asset,
a productive asset for the first time.
And anyone that's been around the space
what that did for the Ethereum ecosystem
in terms of the different use cases
and products it unlocked, it was momentous.
And I think that's great for a variety of reasons,
but one of which is your most
conservative Bitcoin audience
that doesn't want to engage
in full Bitcoin DeFi or BTC-Fi
can remain fully on the Bitcoin chain
where you can start to earn passive yield.
And that's great for many folks out there.
I think for folks that want to engage
they can then start to either go with
the wrapping approach that will come out here
or with the swapping approach
to be able to get their assets from Bitcoin
And that's going to unlock
a variety of new use cases
because you're going to be able to use
full Bitcoin DeFi on top of core.
And I think those are really exciting
because that serves to address
the more intermediate to advanced Bitcoin audience
that wants to start to lend out their Bitcoin
or they want to start to trade their Bitcoin
in decentralized fashion on top of core.
So there's a whole bunch of interesting use cases.
And then that is also because core and EVM compatible,
So you can start to use these
in pretty complex and sophisticated ways.
Of course, you need to always do your own research
before you engage in any of these different protocols
But the fact that that is open
is very, very interesting.
And then I think finally,
if we look a little bit more forward-looking,
I think core hopefully will continue
with additional hash power coming online,
with some interesting fee market work
to try to make things more cheap and predictable.
But the idea is to really help unlock
a lot of the original use case of Bitcoin,
which was beyond just digital gold,
but was also Bitcoin as more of a money.
And core has a unique opportunity
to be able to really fulfill some of that vision.
And there'll be more things to come on that.
Pretty excited for that one as well.
Okay, so I think these were all the questions
Anything you want to add?
Just one quick sign off is just
thanks, everybody, for joining.
the Kortoshi community is, again,
one of the strongest communities
And the support that the Kortoshi community brings
to core is so, so valuable.
So thanks so much for participating.
We love hearing from your questions
So please do continue to participate
and to be part of the ecosystem.
Thank you very much, Rich, for your time
and for answering all of these questions.
thank you very much for joining.
And have a really nice day
and see you on the next Korto AMA.