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๐จFREENFT X ZIELCHAIN: AMA๐จ
Recorded: Dec. 27, 2023 Duration: 1:04:40Space Recording
Full Transcription
Let's get started.
Hello.
Can you guys hear me?
Hello, Igor.
Yes, we can hear you.
Awesome.
Hi, Ryan.
We've got Ryan, Tony, and we've got the Zeal Chain account.
So welcome, everyone.
Thank you for coming.
It's 11am.
It's 11am.
I'm in Japan actually right now.
So I'm pretty close to the Zeal Chain team at the moment.
So I'm glad this worked out.
We're very, very excited to have them here and have you guys listening.
So I have a little agenda.
So I'm going to check it out and just make sure I follow it and don't go off the rails.
But I think we're going to start with some introductions.
So maybe from the Zeal Chain side first, we'd love to hear who we've got on stage and a little
bit about each of you.
Sure.
Yeah.
So just a heads up.
So from the Zeal Chain account, we'll be one of the team members as well, Shiraisi-san.
But I'll start.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Final Ryan.
You can just call me Ryan.
I am the English AMA host for Zeal Chain.
I handle a lot of the English communications as well.
I've been involved in space, I would say, for a little bit over two years.
So what especially drew me to Zeal Chain was my previous love for anime, manga, video games,
obviously Final Fantasy, and all of Amano Sensei's work.
And yeah, through a set of interesting circumstances, including people on stage like Tony and one
of the project leads, Curry, I ended up helping out the Zeal Chain team, getting out the message
in English for them.
Yeah.
Nice to be here.
And thanks for having us.
Awesome.
Tony.
Great.
Yeah, sure.
Thank you, Igor.
So my name is Tony.
I've been in the NFT space for like well over two years.
And I got in through the Japanese side.
So, you know, I'm a big fan of the pop culture stuff and the anime and all that.
So it's a real honor to get to help here with translation.
That's what I'm going to be doing today, facilitating the Japanese-English-English-Japanese.
And, you know, it's been great to see Zeal Chain connecting with, you know, people in the
Web3 community, in the global community.
Great to see a Japanese project making those connections like with you, Igor.
So I'm happy to be here.
Again, I'll be doing mainly the translation, but maybe, you know, jumping in from time to
time.
But we've got the founder of Zeal Chain with us.
So I guess maybe we should go to him next.
Next.
I'm Geely Chain founder of Zeal Chain.
I've been working on Japanese television and movies
for Japanese Japanese content to the digital release of Japanese Japanese content.
I've been working for 10 years, Amura and I have been working for a long time.
I've been working on Geely Chain, and I've been working on the NFT project for this year.
Hi. So this is the founder, Mr. Shiraishi of Zeal Chain, and he's been working in the
in the Japanese TV channel, NTV Nippon TV, and this is the specific division that focuses on
the digital aspect, internet, and IP creation, all that. So he's been working with Yoshitaka Amano,
who is of course best known for his work on Final Fantasy, Vampire Hunter D, and tons of
other anime and games. But Mr. Shiraishi has been working with him for 10 years now, and he's happy
to be here and to be able to talk to you, Igor, and everybody here. Awesome. So thank you guys for
the introductions, and it's a real honor to be here. I've been a massive fan of, I've said this before,
when we do these AMAs with Japanese projects, I've been a massive fan of Japanese culture and IP
since I was very, very young. I think the first video game I ever got was Pokรฉmon FireRed when I
was maybe seven or eight years old. And so I've been kind of really engrossed in a lot of different
Japanese cultural artifacts since then, and IP. And Amano in particular, his work I've been familiar
with since I was very, very young too. So it's a real honor to be working with you guys on bringing
Zeal Chain and this incredible work to a broader audience. So my name is Igor. For the people who
don't know, I'm one of the co-founders of FreeNFT, and I now am at Limitbreak. We were acquired by them
in March of this year. And since then, we've just been building this really big and excited audience
around FreeNFT distributions and promoting really incredible projects to them through our website.
So we've had the chance to work with so many amazing, talented developers. And one of the big
focuses we've had this year is building our audience and community out in Japan. I'm actually here
right now in Tokyo in our office. And we've been meeting with a lot of teams out here and making
sure that we're facilitating more and more stuff like what you are about to listen to today. So yeah,
it's a real pleasure and honor. Thank you for doing this with us. And I'm looking forward to learning
more from you guys. And hopefully, the audience is going to walk away very, very excited about
ZealChain and our collaboration. Maybe, you know, and maybe we can move to talking a little bit
about the projects. And I'll leave you guys to do that. Kind of start with, you know, an introduction
of what ZealChain is and who's behind it, etc. So people can kind of get educated on those topics.
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Igor, again, thank you for giving us this platform. And it's also
fantastic that I think more of the international audience is getting to learn more about what's
happening specifically in Japan with NFT and Web3 in general. I think you're seeing it firsthand,
but there's a lot of very interesting things that go beyond kind of like the PFP culture that we're
familiar with. I think at a higher level, even legislatively and just culturally, it's a very,
you know, I'm just happy that more people are going to, you know, you know, through your platform
and, you know, through what ZealChain is doing, is getting more eyes on what's happening with Web3
and NFT and kind of get away from, you know, the discourse and meta that seems to be kind of
kind of dominated a lot of times what was happening in the West, specifically in the United States,
et cetera. So thanks again. Yeah. So we're going to kind of like bounce in between myself and Tony
and Mr. Shiraisi, just kind of to kind of help fill in the gaps via translation, et cetera.
But yeah. So ZealChain is an NFT project based on the art and concepts from the world-renowned artist
Yoshitaka Amano. Like we previously mentioned before, you might be familiar with his work as a character
designer for the Final Fantasy series. He's worked on a whole number of IPs and different mediums.
So, you know, anime such as Vampire Hunter D. He recently had a series on Netflix called Exception.
He's also worked with Western artists, IPs such as Batman, Sandman, even recently worked with Naughty Dog
with the collaboration for The Last of Us. And yeah, it's being jointly produced with Nippon Television,
specifically MTV Wands, which is Mr. Shiraisi's division. And for, you know, for the audience who
might not necessarily kind of understand what Nippon Television is, it's the oldest commercial television
station in Japan and in all of Asia. And it's, you know, their kind of grasp on IP goes far beyond
anime. But, you know, series like Ghost in the Shell, Hunter x Hunter, the list goes on. And yeah. So part of
how this happened, this genesis of ZealChain, so Amano Sensei and Shiraisi-san, they already have a
longstanding relationship. And Amano Sensei recently turned 70 years old. And actually,
this is not his first foray into Web3 and NFTs. He did have a previous collection called Candy Girl.
However, that was on the Japanese blockchain, ASTAR. I'm not sure you're familiar with that, Igor.
But yeah, it's like Soto Watanabe is doing some really incredible work in terms of kind of advancing
kind of like the Web3 ethos specifically.
in Japan. And yeah. So while Candy Girl is kind of based on a previous IP that he worked on,
I believe in the early 80s, late 70s, ZealChain is a completely original concept. And, you know,
part of what we're trying to do with ZealChain is really kind of incorporate the creation process and
his art with the ethos of Web3, right? So if you look at the name ZealChain, Zeal already is, I believe,
the German word for soul. And chain kind of has a lot of different meanings as well. You know,
you can look at the blockchain, but also chain as a way to connect people. And so yeah, so ZealChain is a way
in some senses to connect Amano-sensei to his international audience.
Amazing. Amazing. So maybe we could hear a little bit about Mr. Amano and some of the work he's done,
if that would be okay. Sure. Sure. So do you want to get it from the perspective of Mr.
Shiraisi? Sure. Yeah, that'd be fantastic. Yeah. Okay. So is this kind of in general or
specifically to like how he's been working within ZealChain? Maybe we just do like a kind of history
for Mr. Amano's work leading into ZealChain. Sure, sure. Okay. I think it'll be exciting.
Shiraisi-san, just Amano-sensei'a-no-ma-ha-nash-to-kik-i-dai-mita-e,
just that ZealChain, well,
All right.
Carrier is starting to start, and all of you know, Final Fantasy, or the game of the world,
character design, or logo design.
I always say that I have a new challenge, but I have a new challenge,
and I have a new challenge, and I have a new challenge.
But this time, NFT, and we also have VR, XR, and the new technology that we're going to do with the project.
Let's start with this.
Okay, so as we were discussing, Mr. Amano, he's a legend in the industry.
He started at the age of 15 working at Tatsunoko Productions, which is a well-known name, I think, anime otaku, they've heard that before.
But he started working in the industry at 15, and when it came time to, when video games like the Nintendo, the original Nintendo and all that really started coming into their own,
that's when he got into that side of things, and of course he got involved with Final Fantasy and other games,
he's been working just throughout, like we said, 70 years old, he's been just constantly working.
And in more recent times, he's been working with Mr. Shidaishi on things like technology-wise, like AR, VR, that kind of stuff as well.
And this Zeal chain is kind of the latest evolution, the latest iteration of something in his legacy career.
Fantastic. So it sounds like he's always been kind of right at the forefront of the industry and pushing things forward.
Absolutely. And Mr. Shidaishi, definitely, he said he likes to challenge himself and take on these new challenges as well.
So this is, you know, the latest challenge for him.
Amazing. So what can you tell us about the NFT collection itself?
And I know there's some stuff you guys haven't announced yet, so, you know, obviously keep the cards close to your chest where you want to.
But what can you tell us about the NFTs?
Sure. Yeah. So, you know, I think primarily, you know, we're going to make a couple other announcements related to the artwork of Zeal Chain.
But for our intents and purposes, you know, we're planning on launching a Genesis PFP collection, which is going to be 3,500 pieces.
And it's going to be releasing, we're hoping, we're aiming now for February 2024 is kind of the launch date that we're hoping for.
And mint price has not been decided at this time.
However, for, you know, I think a lot of your listeners might be interested as well.
There are still opportunities to get a allow list or as we call them in the Zeal Chain world, soul list.
And yeah, so, you know, the PFP collection is based on the artwork of Amano Sensei.
And as part of the kind of the co-creation process, which has been kind of one of the foundations of what we're building at Zeal Chain, you know, we've given the community a lot of different opportunities to, one, get engaged with the Zeal Chain team, but also, you know, allow them to kind of be rewarded for participating.
Participating, even if you didn't win necessarily, even if you, you know, if you participated in voting, shared your opinions on the artwork, that sort of thing.
Because we understand a lot of times, you know, we talk a lot about, you know, exceptional art in Web3, and I do believe there's a lot of talented people in this space.
And however, you know, as participants, a lot of us maybe aren't the best at producing fan art, which we get a lot of incredible pieces for Zeal Chain.
But we kind of expanded the idea of co-creation, not necessarily of just giving us fan art, but helping us produce lore for the characters, you know, such as their names, the history behind it.
And yeah, people have won not only allowless spots that way, but even Amano Sensei himself has participated in a lot of the judging and reviewing of these entries.
And some people, very lucky and fortunate people in our community have already received some original artwork from Amano Sensei.
Yeah, and there's been opportunities to talk to him, you guys have been doing spaces where, you know, the people that have participated in these, you know, community events, they've gotten to, you know, ask questions and learn from Amano Sensei as well.
So that's been just like, for me, as a person who grew up on this kind of stuff, that's been amazing to see, and I've gotten to translate for him.
So I've been just excited to be a part of this.
Amazing. So what about some of the plans you guys have for the project?
I know there's a little bit of a roadmap, but I think the audience would love to hear about that too.
Yeah, so, you know, again, I think here what we're trying to do is, you know, we kind of identified early on, because a lot of us on the team are Web3 participants, right?
And, you know, when we talk, we throw the word community around a lot in this space, and, you know, I think it means different things to different people.
But one thing that we talk a lot about in the Zeal Chain kind of discussions is, you know, what a community looks like before a project is released and minted looks completely different afterwards, right?
And, you know, before the mint, you know, we have a lot of questions about, you know, what's the plans, like, we've gotten the whole gamut, right?
Like, are you guys building a metaverse? Are you guys building a video game? Are you building, you know, creating anime, manga?
And what I will say is, so, you know, first and foremost, right, the Genesis Collection, you know, we've already given the community opportunities to kind of more directly interact with Amano-sensei.
However, one thing we are planning is going to be an exclusive Zeal Chain event in Tokyo that is holder exclusive, that it does include sessions with participation of Yoshitaka Amano.
But more broadly, you know, I think the idea for Zeal Chain is to continue to build the world together, right?
And I think what we can do, how we can do that, we're thinking of some very kind of interesting ways, you know, to kind of, you know, for lack of a better term, reward the, you know, the true believers of Zeal Chain.
And, you know, whether that's going to kind of include expanding the story of Zeal Chain and the characters as they explore this world.
And I think that part of that will include, you know, the project that we're working on with Igor and FreeNFT is the collection, the FreeNFT Zeal Chain collection as well.
Amazing. I think, in particular, people are going to be very excited about getting the chance to, you know, be so close to Amano himself.
Yeah, and again, I think it's kind of hard to overstate or, you know, like how kind of amazing to have this opportunity to kind of, you know, have someone like Amano Sensei, you know, interact with his community.
And again, I think that's part of what, that's part of the beauty of what we're doing here in Web3.
And again, you know, because I think when you have an established artist like Yochi Taka Amano come into this space and, you know, we've seen this in the past as well, where, you know, people who are prominent in their fields before coming to Web3 come into the space, you know, for good reason.
And sometimes are met with some suspicion as to why they're in the space, right?
Like, what are your goals here?
But I think one thing we're really trying to kind of emphasize here is that, you know, he is 70 years old, but he is continuing to create.
He's continuing to kind of explore new ways to express his art, you know, and we see that, right?
Because, you know, again, like when I was growing up, it was the Nintendo and Super Nintendo that introduced me to kind of his artwork and how it was interpreted back then looks completely to the way it's interpreted these days.
And, you know, one thing, kind of an interesting tidbit that I like to share, too, is, you know, throughout all these years, Amano-sensei really kind of has always worked primarily like hand drawing and illustrations.
And that's why you'll see all of his, you know, when you see his handwritten and drawings and illustrations, you know right away that it's like an Amano-sensei piece.
But it was only really, like, I believe this year or last year that he finally got awake on tablet and started kind of experimenting with, like, digital illustrations.
So, yeah, I think, you know, we have a lot of kind of interesting ideas that we're working with Chiraisi-san and Amano-sensei's team.
And, you know, to, you know, I think at the very least, just simply being able to be a holder of a Genesis piece is kind of a cool part of history for Amano-sensei as its first work on Ethereum.
And, yeah, I think, you know, we're going to look at ways to kind of, you know, make it, we want to bring fun back to NFTs and Web3.
I know that that might sound a little bit cheesy, but I think a lot of, I think what you're seeing a lot now, especially in the bear market, right?
And, you know, collecting, whether it's physical items or digital items, people are, you're starting to really see people kind of join, like, find their clans.
And, you know, like, shout outs to a lot of the, like, Miho in the audience.
He's a good friend of mine.
Like, you know, he's been a DJ for a while, but he's kind of reignited my interest in, like, Pokemon cards, for example, or Larkana Disney, right?
So I think what we're trying to do is kind of encourage really the enjoyment of collecting in this space.
Awesome.
Thank you for sharing.
And I know you guys also had some questions about Limit Break and FreeNFT, so maybe I could hand it off to you guys.
If you guys, you know, I'm sure you have some people from your community in the audience who might not be as familiar with us.
Yeah, actually, you know, I kind of wanted to, you know, because you did mention, you know, you're in Japan right now.
And I know that if anyone goes to the FreeNFT website, you'll see that, you know, the team is working with other kind of Japanese projects.
And I kind of wanted to see what's your perspective on how you kind of came across Japanese Web3 slash NFTs and how you had this opportunity.
Like, how did you come create this opportunity to kind of help spread the gospel of Japanese NFTs?
Well, so, you know, I mentioned in the beginning, like, I've always had a real interest and love for Japanese IP.
And it's actually the reason that we've gotten so into Japan and Japanese Web3 culture at FreeNFT is really because of Gabe and Limit Break.
Like, you know, even before the acquisition, if you look at Limit Break's collection, Digidaigaku, you know, it's really done in the anime style.
And, you know, Gabe's reasoning for that is that, you know, he also has a real love for Japan.
Like, he'll tell you Tokyo is his favorite place in the world.
And with Digi, we've just seen, you know, this massive explosion of Japanese IP in the West and a real amazing kind of global interest in Japanese IP.
So we wanted to tap into that and do something that we felt was kind of authentically in the style and, you know, of a really, really high quality.
And so it kind of starts there with Digi.
And obviously Digi was, you know, very, very successful.
A lot of people love it.
There's people in the audience with Digi PFPs.
I can see Love Angel, for example, who's been a fanatic Holt fan for over a year now.
And so it kind of starts there.
But Gabe would also tell you that one of his goals has always been to build a really big IP and game in Japan.
So we've just been very, very focused from the beginning through him on success in Japan.
First with Digi and then now with free NFT, it means becoming a very, very big community and platform for Japanese projects to promote.
And, you know, we've done quite a few great projects.
You know, now you guys are certainly one of the best projects we've had.
And now in Japan, I think we're starting to get that kind of critical mass of the brand where it's taking off on its own in Japan, completely separately from the global community, which we're really, really excited about.
And you guys will see next year, we're going to have some unbelievable projects.
Like we've been working on some partnerships in Japan for well over seven, eight months now.
Things, you know, seem to move a little slower in the bigger companies in Japan than in the U.S.
Things progress a little bit slower.
Partnerships take more time.
But you'll see next year, I think a lot of these come to fruition on free NFT and in the Web3 market in general.
There's so many incredible developers.
We were actually out here in July for IBS Kyoto and NFT Tokyo.
And what was so amazing to see was that the biggest gaming studios in Japan are basically all in on Web3.
You know, most of them are still using newer IP, like not their most famous IP.
Like, for example, Sega's doing a Web3 game, but they're not doing a Sonic game yet.
Konami has a Web3 game, but they're not doing Yu-Gi-Oh! yet.
But they're all kind of getting into Web3.
So they're very, very much ahead of the U.S. in that aspect.
You don't really have any big U.S. studios besides Ubisoft who have kind of started positioning themselves in Web3.
So, you know, we're obviously very excited to support that development of the industry in Japan and big, big fans of the IP.
So that's kind of been our interest.
It also happens that Japan is the biggest digital items market in the world.
So it's basically the best place to make a video game.
But it's been extremely hard for people who are, you know, non-Japanese companies to succeed here.
So, you know, we're making a really big effort to be one of the first.
That's fantastic.
Yeah.
And I, you know, I think just from personal experience and from my observations as well.
So, yeah, I think kind of working with kind of like larger entities, especially in Japan, especially as Westerners, could pose some challenges.
But nonetheless, I think, again, you know, I think it's great that we're kind of, we're both, I think, collectively, you know, people in this space, in this particular Twitter space,
we're trying to shine a light on kind of like what's growing and developing in Japan specifically.
And, you know, with that being said, I kind of wanted to ask Shiraisi-san if he can kind of go into a little bit about, you know,
what brought us here today in this partnership with 3NFT and the Zeal Chain Potion NFTs.
So, Tony, could you?
Sure.
Yeah.
Got it.
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ใฏใใ
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็ใซๆธใใฆใใใฃใใ
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ใในใๅใใฟใใใชใ
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ใฏใใ
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well,
there's a little bit of an explanation so that you understand,
you know,
how the free NFT,
you know,
works within this that they're doing today.
So Zealchain,
of course,
like we said,
3,500 items,
PFPs in the Genesis collection,
and there will be a gamification aspect to this,
and it'll be like an RPG sort of thing,
right?
So this is a fantasy world being created by,
of course,
Yoshi Taka Amano and the community.
And you'll be able to put together parties and there will be like these raid boss battles, these bosses that are created by Yoshitaka Amano and then you'll use your party to battle these bosses and there will be support items and you'll be able to equip these items to your characters in your party to battle the boss within this gamification system.
And in the collection that we're talking about today for the free NFT, there will be potions.
So these potions will have some role within this boss battle, raid boss battle system.
And it may change from time to time, whatever, those are all details that will be coming.
But there will be these various support items like you might find in a classic Japanese RPG.
Maybe it's a weapon, maybe it's an armor.
This time, what we're talking about specifically for this collection are potions, like, you know, the potions that you take to refill your HP or your MP or whatever it is.
Amazing. And are the bosses that you fight NFTs too?
Yeah, that's exactly right now.
Right.
Alright, let's go.
Boss is NFT?
Boss is not going to drop it.
First of all, the first thing I'm going to do is to put it in the description.
Free NFT is not going to be different, but I don't know how many projects are going to collaborate with it.
In that sense, I think we should be able to provide the utility of the game, or reward, so I think we should be able to continue to keep it as an improvement as an IP.
So, in terms of the boss specifically, what is decided is that Amano-sensei would be designing the bosses, but it hasn't been decided if they'll be turned into an NFT or not yet.
That's maybe announced at some later point.
But in terms of the items, they'll be more coming to expand the IP as well, but also this will be a way to collab with other projects.
For example, this potion project, they've already collabed with a lot of other projects, but other items could be other opportunities to collaborate with other IPs and other projects.
As we said, Nippon Television is not only a Web3 thing.
Basically, I think they're part of the second biggest media group in Japan, so they've got the connections to make other things happen.
And so those are things that could happen with future of these support items and other possibilities like that.
Fantastic.
So, did you guys have other questions about free NFT? I see a couple here. Or limit break?
Actually, I just kind of wanted to expand a little bit on what Tony was saying before that.
Yeah. So, as we kind of continue to build up the mechanics and the ideas around the gamification, again, this is something that we definitely welcome kind of the input of the community that we've built at Seal Chain so far.
You know, they've been extremely kind of enthusiastic about sharing their ideas and what they think would be fun or would work or not work.
Yeah. So, you know, again, like we're not, we ask people to participate, but again, we always, that's also an opportunity for us to kind of reward people with great ideas, too.
So, I did have a question about, you know, what you're working on, Igor. I think that's a fascinating thing. Absolutely wonderful. My focus has been so much on the Japanese NFT market and to see people, you know, such as yourself and Gabe take such a serious approach to this.
I think that's a wonderful thing and a great way to build those connections between Japan and the world in the Web3 space.
Has it been overwhelmingly positive? Like the people that you talk to, the companies that you're working with, what has their reaction been to seeing people from the Web3 space as well known as you guys come over and approach them to do things like this?
Well, the Japanese are extremely respectful, so I'm not even sure I would know if they didn't like me, but I think I'm popular in Japan.
Certainly, when we come here, you know, there's a lot of really enthusiastic people in the industry who want to meet with us and some amazing hosts who, you know, put on events for us and things like that just to help us meet more people and get to know people in the industry out here.
So, no, certainly the response has been very, very positive. But what I would say is that free NFT generally is kind of an extremely easy product to market, right?
Basically, everyone would like a free NFT and that's kind of the core of why this product works.
It's really like so, so easy. It's basically just offering people free stuff, right? So it's not very difficult to market and I think the Japanese audience feels the same way as everyone else does.
You know, they want to get access to these amazing developers in their communities.
So, yeah, it's been very, very positive. I love coming here because I think the Japanese Web3 community and industry is a lot friendlier than the West in a lot of ways.
The West is very, very hostile. People generally are a little bit tougher to bring on side when you have a new idea.
You know, we've been fighting so many different battles in the West for Web3, like creator royalties. The free NFT movement in and of itself was pretty controversial.
You know, when we were trying to push people to do these kind of distributions to market their projects.
So the Japanese, on the other hand, have just been very, very warm and receptive.
So it's almost kind of like we've run away to Japan a little bit. But yeah, it's very, very nice to be here.
We have so many great friends now out here.
Yeah, Igor. You know, I just can't. Sorry, Tony. I just wanted to say something real quick.
Yeah. You know, again, I think I think what's been interesting kind of working with Zeal Chain and kind of getting a different perspective on on just culturally.
Right. And in terms of when it comes to like Web3 and NFTs, like to kind of like step back a little bit. Right.
So because you kind of mentioned Digi Daigaku. Right. And so, you know, I remember when Azuki came out. Right. And Azuki was I mean, to this day, I think it's still one of the premier kind of like anime style projects.
But that that was kind of that's it. Right. The key word is anime style.
And I remember, you know, again, because I grew up consuming a lot of this stuff. You know, I've had the opportunity as well to, you know, I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to visit Japan multiple times, too.
And when I looked into Azuki and, you know, it's it's a fantastic project, they they're a really well run team, but they weren't Japanese like I and that there's not no no issue with that.
But I thought that was very interesting where a lot of people kind of called them to premiere anime style project, but they weren't kind of coming from the place where I assume, you know, like where I in my head anime comes from.
But that's what forced me to kind of, you know, do my own research and explore kind of like Twitter and discords, use Google Translate. My Japanese is horrible.
And yeah, I mean, that's how I ended up kind of just like meeting Tony, because Tony, you know, he's he's you know, he's he's he's he's bilingual.
Him and one of the Zeal chain team leads, Cryptosan, they would run these spaces where they would kind of in both English and Japanese would, you know, kind of break down what was happening currently in Japan and with Web3 and NFTs.
And it it really opened up my mind. And it really kind of, you know, because I live I live in I live in the East Coast of the United States.
And again, I think I think just for better or worse, a lot of times what I see on my feed is just kind of like it's it's just kind of influenced by what I what's going on in that part of the world.
And, you know, meeting people like that and like, you know, Tony and Curry and now Shiraisi-san and Amano-sensei, who are kind of very passionate about the possibilities here.
You know, every time I see someone say something that, you know, may not necessarily I agree with, but but, you know, it's the cliche that we're so early.
But that's the that's the fact. And, you know, to Igor, to your point, the the fact that these that these entities, these companies in Japan, I mean, Nippon Television, it's really hard to kind of overstate like how big of a company that is.
Like, I mean, they're huge. And for them to to have to take resources and and invest in an experiment in Web3 and NFTs, I think is a win for everyone for the space in general, you know, beyond the borders of Japan and, you know, for the world, because it means that there's there's there's more there's more moving parts to make this, you know, quote unquote, a legitimized space.
You know, for us, we believe in it. That's why we're continuing to participate and build here.
But, you know, you know, you're seeing it with with Toei, right, with with Indecadent and you're going to and so forth and so forth. Square Enix with Symbiogenesis, like it's it's these little steps, but like it adds to the momentum that we're, you know, pretty soon, like you said, Igor, you know, like it's a Japan is a kind of a market already where digital digital items, digital collectibles kind of already exist.
You know, like the mobile mobile gaming industry is huge there with the microtransactions and it's we're going to get to a point where it's not even about calling it Web3 and NFTs.
People are going to be using these products and enjoying them without even under like knowing the underlying technology.
technology. And I think we're going to get there sooner the more these companies become interested in working with the technology.
Yeah. Yeah. As someone who's working in the industry, Mr. Shidaishi, I don't know. Do we want to get his perspective on this?
Yeah, absolutely. I always love because he's on the, he's, I mean, he's our guy in the beast.
Yeah, he's in again, like the second biggest media company in Japan, essentially, like, I mean, it's part of that.
So let's see what he has to say and how that connects to Zeal Chain.
I think it's important.
Okay.
I don't know.
So I think that the UGOL is going to be able to get the NFT,
but this is the way that the UGOL is going to be able to get the NFT,
and the way that we're going to get the NFT,
and yet the Web3 NFT is not a good thing.
It's a good thing to say that the UGOL is not a good thing.
So there is a problem with the UGOL is not a good thing,
So, of course, you know, anime and this general, you know, IP coming from Japan has reached this global level. But Mr. Shiraishi is of the opinion that there's still so much to grow. Like, you know, he's been working in this field for many years now, and he's got the inside perspective on this, and he thinks there's still so much room for expansion on that.
And then in terms of Zeal Chain and Web3, you know, Web3 is the opportunity to reach directly the global audience, right? So, you know, the Web2 thing is, you know, in Japan, then you have to find the distributor and this and that.
But with the Web3, the blockchain allows you to reach directly a global perspective, a global audience. And that's something that they're doing with Zeal Chain.
Unfortunately, you know, there's still a lot of barriers for entry for people to enter the Web3 space. And, for example, with Free NFT, you guys do make it easier for people to participate and to, you know, get their foot in the door in this space.
And, you know, that's something that's going to keep evolving as we move forward. There will be more and more of this change towards, like, anime fans will be coming in to, you know, get their NFT to participate because they're a fan of the IP.
But in order to get there, you know, the barriers have to come down little by little. And, you know, we're all doing, you know, Nippon Televi and what they're doing here with Zeal Chain, you know, participating with free NFT.
That's one thing. And, you know, moving forward, again, Nippon Televi has that, the resources to help with that as well.
Yeah. And if I could add to that, you know, one thing we've done with you guys in a lot of projects recently is utilize our inventory products, which is essentially a, you know, a way that our users can collect NFTs that are attached to their account completely free, gaslessly, with no wallet.
You can just sign up with a Google account or an email and you can start collecting these sticker NFTs in your inventory.
And we were very lucky to get to do a bunch of amazing, really cool Zeal Chain stickers for this project.
And you can see some people have actually been replying to the Spaces thread with their stickers, too.
People love these things. And it's a really, you know, low lift way that someone can get into NFTs.
And that's been our goal since the beginning is we want to make this, you know, a one click process to getting your first NFT.
And now people can do that. You can click sign up with Google and you immediately get your sign up sticker from free NFT.
And now, you know, when you register for projects, you've got these really cute, chibi stickers that are kind of in the style of the different projects that we work with.
So, yeah, we absolutely see it the same way. It's been like our real focus is kind of removing all these barriers and building a product that is kind of globally marketable and easy for people to use.
And we're getting there. It's really, really, really getting there now. So, absolutely.
Absolutely. So, one thing I wanted to mention is ZeoChain has also very generously given us an allocation of the Genesis PFP itself to give away in this.
So, it's not just the potion. There is also some Genesis PFPs that we haven't announced yet.
And I don't think we're not going to today exactly how many, but there is going to be some Genesis PFPs given out.
So, we're very, very grateful to Amano and to NTV for providing those.
And we're glad that some of the free NFT audience is going to get to join the community straight away when stuff comes out.
I wanted to maybe move now, unless you guys have any other questions that you want to go over,
I wanted to maybe move to some of the AMA section.
There's some questions in my replies that I could go over.
And maybe if anyone wants to raise their hand.
But I'll check, you know, Ryan, Tony, if there's anything else you'd like to do first.
No, I think we can move to those questions.
Yeah, we're good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Awesome.
Okay, let me just pull that up.
All right, so I have a question that is, hello, Eagle Lenserman.
Recently, there has been a lot of projects that are doing well, which are backed by VC.
Do you guys actively seek funds from VCs?
Or how do you plan on getting funds other than mint royalties since Zeal Chain is free mint?
Hope you noticed me.
I'm super interested in Zeal Chain.
So, I'll kind of answer a piece of this and then maybe pass it to you guys.
Because Zeal Chain, as far as I know, is not VC-backed.
And also, there is a paid component to that mint.
So, I'm imagining that some of the project funding is going to come from that too.
But I'll pass to you guys to elaborate.
Yeah, so like you said, Igor, definitely there is a, you know, the mint for the Genesis collection is not going to be free.
Right, so that is definitely part of where we're going to kind of see some of our funding for, you know, to kind of continue to build the world of Zeal Chain.
But, Tony, I wanted to see if we can get a little bit more insight because we do get this question a lot as well, you know, kind of because, you know, we tout NTV Wands as an important partner for Zeal Chain.
But, yeah, the VC component isn't something that's involved in this process.
But, Tony, if we could ask, did I see sounds kind of big.
Sure.
Sure.
Well, Shiraisi-san,่ณชๅใใใฃใฆใใใฎ่ณชๅใฏใ Zeal Chainใฎ่ณ้่ชฟ้ใซใคใใฆใใใณใใฃใผไผๆฅญใๅ
ฅใฃใฆใใใจใใใใใใใฎ้ๅถใไฝฟใ่ณ้ใฏใฉใใใๆฅใใจใใใใใใๆใใงใใญใ
OKใใพใใไปๆฅใฎใปใใทใงใณใใใฎAMNใฎไธญใงใ่ฉฑใใฆใใใจใใใๅใใกใฏใใใพใงใใขใใกใ ใฃใใใใฎไปใณใณใใณใใใธใฃใใใผใบIPใไฝใใใจใซๅฏพใใฆใฏใ
่ช็คพใฎ่ณ้ใๆใใฆใณใณใใณใไฝใใใใฆใใฆใใฆใใใใใฆใผใถใผใฎ็ใใใซๅฑใใฆใใใ
ใใใใใใใใชใฐใใบใ ใฃใใใจใใใฒใผใ ใ ใฃใใใจใใฃใฆใใใจใใใใใใใธใในใฎๅ็ใไธใใใจใใใขใใซใใใใใใใฃใจใใฃใฆใใฆใใพใใ
ไปๅใฏใใฎไธญใงใNFTใฎ่ฒฉๅฃฒใจใใใฎใๆๅใฎใใชใฌใผใซใชใใจใใใจใใใใไปใพใงใจ้ใ้จๅใงใใใชใใจๆใฃใฆใใใฎใงใ
ๅบๆฌ็ใชIPไฝใใซ้ขใใฆใฏใไปใพใงใจใใ่ชๅทฑ่ณ้ใใใผในใซIPใไฝใฃใฆใใใจใใใใจใใใผในใซใชใฃใฆใใพใใจใใๅ็ญใฎใใชใจๆใใพใใ
OKใงใใ
So as we've been discussing, so this project is being done by Nippon Television, right?
So basically their job, you know, one of their areas of what the company does is develop IP, monetize that IP, create contents for consumers,
and then do things like create merchandise and things that they can monetize based on that IP.
So in terms of the large, the big picture for Zeal Chain, that is, you know, nothing new.
That will just be a normal part of what they've always done, and Zeal Chain will just be, you know, like this Web3 component,
but they'll be developing the IP in order to, you know, find other ways to monetize as well.
The only difference is that there will be funding from the initial sale of the Genesis that we've been talking about.
So there will be funding from there, but aside from that, it's company funds, and that's just a normal part of their business model.
There's nothing new to that side.
That's what they do.
That's kind of their specialty.
Fantastic.
I think that's certainly answered the question for me.
So here's a question for you guys.
What are you most excited about when it comes to post-development of Zeal Chain content and initiatives after the mint?
Ooh, Tony, do you want to go first?
Because I have some thoughts on this.
Yeah.
All right.
So, I mean, I'd love to go join that event coming up in Tokyo.
You know, it doesn't take much of an excuse to get me to go to Japan.
But aside from that, like, it's just been fun seeing Amano-sensei, like, continue to produce art and create these characters with the community and seeing where the story goes.
Like, we have this kind of initial point where the story starts.
We have this mysterious tower, and the characters have to go on this mission.
And, you know, it'll just be fun to see, you know, what happens and the boss monsters that are going to come out and all this stuff.
So, yeah, it's like you're getting to experience this kind of Final Fantasy-ish, you know, experience.
But now in Web3 and coming from the same person that basically brought you those experiences.
So I'm just having fun seeing, like, all the stuff that they're coming out with.
Yeah, for myself, yeah, it's, like, one, I think it's incredibly encouraging seeing an artist like Amano-sensei, like, actively participate and try to learn more.
You know, like, I think we're all kind of still learning in this space.
And, again, for someone as established as him, continuing to kind of create and kind of explore new possibilities, you know, that's what I'm excited about.
And, too, I think, you know, again, just kind of looking at, you know, the history of Nippon television and TV Wands and Amano-sensei, I mean, they're all very prolific, right?
So, and this isn't necessarily Alpha.
This is just kind of, like, my hopes and aspirations for the project is we'll definitely, like, I would love to see kind of Zeal Chain IP and characters kind of interact in other environments.
And maybe, like, you know, like, you talked about, Igor, like, the stickers, right?
Like, I would love to see, like, Zeal Chain stickers on a messaging app like Lime or even have them show up, like, as guest characters in a game like Grand Blue or something like that, right?
So, again, this isn't Alpha.
This is just me talking as, like, a fan and, like, a fanboy, you know, like, I think.
But, you know, I say that, I say all that to say, but with people like Amano-sensei and Nippon television, like, and you guys are listening and, like, you know, putting the energy out there, maybe it's something we could see in the future.
And that's not an unrealistic thing, right?
Like, I mean, you know, I'm a project founder, too, and all that.
I can't promise something like that, like, people aren't going to believe me, but if they wanted to, they could do something like that.
And, again, I don't have the behind-the-scenes scoop, but it's just a reality.
Like, we're talking, you know, one of the biggest companies in Japan, so that's how it is.
Awesome.
So, I know we're running a little short on time.
There's a couple of people requesting, but if you guys could maybe forward or reply with your questions and myself or the Zeal Chain team can address them after the AMA.
We're also giving out a few whitelist spots to listeners, so you guys will receive messages, maybe on the Twitter feed or in DM from the free NFT account if you want.
We'll handle that also after the space.
Any kind of closing remarks, guys, before we wrap up?
Should we have Shirai-shi-san?
Yeah, yeah, please.
Shirai-shi-san, so-so-so็ตใใใใงใใใฉ,
ๆๅพใซใกใใปใผใธใไฝใใพใ ่จใฃใฆใชใใใจใจใใใใใใไฝใใใใพใใ?
Shirai-shi-ใพใใฏใไปๆฅใใคใณใใซใใ่ใใฆใใใ ใใ็ใใใใๆ้ใใใใจใใใใใพใใใ
ไปๆฅใฎใใฎใปใใทใงใณใฎไธญใงใ่ฉฑใใฆใใใใจใงใใใ
ๅใใฎใธใงใซใใงใผใณใฏใใใธใฟใซใชไปฎๆณไธ็ใจใใ่จญๅฎใๆใฃใฆใ
ใใฎในใใผใชใผใใฟใใชใงIPใๅคงใใใใใใใซใฉใใใใใใใใจใใในใใผใชใผใ็ซถไบใใใจใใ้จๅใจใ
ใใใใชใขใซใช็พๅฎใฎไธ็ใงใ
ใใใไพใใฐใขใใฌใซใไฝใใใจใใใคใใณใใใใใใจใใ
ใจใใใตใใชใใจใใใใใพใงๆใ
ใๅนใฃใฆใใใชใฝใผในใ ใฃใใใจใใ
ใใฆใใฆใใใจใซใ้ๅถใๅฎ็พใใใใใซๅใใฆใใใใใจๆใฃใฆใใพใใ
ใใใใใใจใงใIPใณใณใใณใไฝใใใๅๅ ใใ
ใใฎใขใฆใใใใใ่ชๅใใกใง้ฒใใฆใใใใจใใ
ใใIPใๅฅฝใใซใชใฃใฆใใใ ใใใใใซๆ็ใ ใจๆใฃใฆใใพใใใ
ใใใใพใๅคใใฎไบบใซๅบใใฃใฆใใใจใใใใจใใ
ใใฎใใญใธใงใฏใใๅฎ็พใใใใจๆใฃใฆใใพใใ
ใใฎไธๆญฉใจใใฆใไปๅใฎใคใดใผใซใปใใชใผใปNFTใจใฎใณใฉใใจใใใจใใใซใคใชใใฃใฆใใใฎใงใ
ใใฒ็ใใใซ่งฆใฃใฆใใใ ใใใใชใจๆใใพใใ
ใจใใใฎใๆๅพใซใไผใใใใ ใใใฐใจๆใใพใใ
ใ่ฆ่ดใใใใจใใใใใพใใใ
ใ่ฆ่ดใใใใจใใใใใพใใใ
ใใฃใณใใซ็ป้ฒใใ้กใใใใใพใใ
ใใฃใณใใซ็ป้ฒใใ้กใใใใใพใใ
ใใฃใณใใซ็ป้ฒใใฆใใใณใใ่ฆ่ดใใใใจใใใใใพใใใ
ใใฃใณใใซ็ป้ฒใใ้กใใใใใพใใ
ใใใฆ้ๅธธใฎใใะฝะธะบะธไธใฎใใณใใใ้กใใใใใพใใ
ใใกใใฎใคใ dividendsใ dejarใฉใใใใชใฃใใใฎใลกe์์ต๋๋คใ
of like pokemon whatever you know like that that is what gets people interested and uh you know i
think we're all on the same page there so i'm eager to see you know what where you guys go
and and how deal chain develops moving forward so just happy to have been here and thank you for the
opportunity fantastic well everyone thank you so much for coming to the space uh we have a this
was a pretty popular one got a lot of people coming in and out um we ran for about an hour so
uh we're going to wrap up here but you know if you have any questions for me for the zeal chain
team please leave them in the replies to this space or message us or throw them in discord maybe um
again thank you for being here we really appreciate it you guys are what make this whole thing run it
would not be possible without the community so we appreciate it so so much here some green hearts
send some hearts audience please hearts for zeal chain hearts for a mano hearts for everyone on
stage yeah thank you uh i hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day or nights depending on
where you are a real pleasure to see you all and the familiar faces in the audience we've got love angel of
course always here we've got uh zero x kiosuke always here pleasure to see you guys uh crypto kaiju
always here pleasure to see you and i hope you guys have such a great day and we'll talk very very soon bye
