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Metallicus Marketing Office Hour
Recorded: March 28, 2024 Duration: 1:18:28Space Recording
Full Transcription
Piano music
So, how's it going, Alan?
Thanks for joining.
Can you hear me?
Okay, I can't hear you.
Okay.
Can you give me an emoji, Paul, if you can hear me?
Hello?
Hello?
Hello?
Okay.
Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Yeah.
Hey.
Hey.
I seem to be having some issues.
Can you hear me, James?
Yeah, loud and clear. How are you doing?
Oh, nice. I can hear you. Okay.
Interesting.
Can you see the thumbs up from people in the audience?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw some. They're very delayed, but some came through.
Are you up, Alan?
Yeah.
There we go. Nice.
How is it going?
Oh, good. Just working away on a few things.
Yeah? What time is it where you are?
I'd say half seven in the evening.
Grinding.
Is it a holiday tomorrow as well?
Yeah, it is. Yeah, a bank holiday tomorrow.
Very nice.
Yeah, so I'll get to work all day tomorrow.
I'm actually going to try and take tomorrow off.
Thanks for coming up to host this.
I kind of figured it would be good to have a couple of people to ask questions and, you know, everything that you've got going on in the space.
I'd love to, you know, you have the floor to talk a little bit about that as well.
So, I guess we've got a good amount of people here, so we might as well kick it off.
Yeah, so it's been, and feel free to jump in at any point if you have questions.
But it's been a very busy few months for us.
There's obviously a lot going on across.
I'm sure you saw that Marshall tweeted about the L2 launch mainnet yesterday, so we're gathering everything in line to officially announce that.
There's obviously a ton of really good stuff going on in the XPR network space as well.
Some very cool announcements I'm sure you saw around Metal Blockchain, which I think we're hoping to do a bit more of a detailed space in the next few weeks with Frank.
And I think he's going to pop up and come and speak a little bit about the Metal Blockchain strategy, which will be really, really good.
So, let's start with CoinMarketCap.
So, that has moved relatively slow from my perspective.
But Paul, myself, a couple of the members of the team from the Metallica side have been back and forth with CoinMarketCap.
I think there's one thing to note.
So, you know, the proposal is very much one side of the whole process, right?
So, actually cooking up the proposal, putting it out there and getting it live is one thing.
But I've seen a proposal went up about, I think, invoicing and documentation.
But a lot of these things, you know, even though they are voted by the DAO, Metallica takes on the responsibility of managing all these processes.
So, while there might not be public facing things that, you know, people see for obvious reasons and confidentiality, we do work with CoinMarketCap, CoinGecko, all of these companies to make sure that we have things in writing, right?
Because equally, we want to make sure that the XPR network and, you know, the community supporting these proposals aren't going to get left in the dark too, right?
So, CoinMarketCap has literally been a little bit back and forth from that perspective, just to make sure we can get everything in writing that we want, which, as we know, is Metal X listed on CMC, which is, in my opinion, and I think a lot of the team's opinion, is a very important part of the funnel, especially as we're seeing an influx of people interested in the ecosystem.
You know, and obviously with Metallicus being a big proponent of decentralization and not being susceptible to centralized exchanges and their downfalls, you know, it's really good that Metal X is front and center on what is the number one aggregator of crypto prices I get.
And probably from some perspective, one of the biggest cryptocurrency websites in the world as well.
So, pushing that through, Paul's prepared all of the documentation, API endpoints, a ton of stuff that I don't fully understand.
But that's all set, submitted, we're pushing them through to get that done.
And then I think once Metal X is actually listed, we should probably, you know, get back on a space or get in a forum where we could chat about the advertising deliverables that we've got with them as well.
So, I think there's $20,000 additional in display network advertising on CoinMarketCap and we've got a few different options of what we can use.
I think some of the formats were, you know, simply sponsored banners at the top of some exchange listings on the DeFi pages and so forth.
So, CoinMarketCap is very much moving.
That was a big one that we're looking forward to getting live.
So, any questions on that front or keep going?
So, when you say when it goes live, that will update basically all the standard information belonging to Metal Blockchain?
Well, no, that's one thing.
So, in the background, we're also working on a list of everything that we want updated across the entire ecosystem.
I know James has pinged me a few things.
So, Marlon's working on that at the minute because there is quite a lot of inaccurate information.
You know, we very much have gone through this CoinMarketCap priority service because it has been nigh on impossible.
Getting things fixed through the traditional channels, the free channels.
I spoke with the CoinMarketCap chief marketing officer.
I've tried to speak with the Binance CMO and have kind of all been pushed down to this CMC priority platform.
And as Paul and I have done more and more digging, it very much seems that most people, if they want to get things changed instantly, it's pretty much from there.
So, the plan was very much to, you know, get the exchange listed.
Obviously, there's a bit of gravitas in also, I think, giving some advertising spend.
And our plan is once we get introduced to the CMC priority team who have already got our tickets for the exchange listing,
we're then going to say, like, look, guys, we need all of this updated as well.
So, pushing and pushing everything down the road.
So, I'm hoping that's going to be done pretty soon.
I don't want to give any firm dates because we are literally on at them every day.
So, as soon as that happens, you know, I'll be probably the first to tweet about it and we'll get something out on the official channels as well.
So, on the topic of exchanges, next part, very different story with the CoinGecko team who have been absolutely phenomenal to work with.
Paul and I are in a big group chat on Telegram with most of their team.
And they have elaborated way beyond what they originally put in the governance proposal in terms of the deliverables that we've got.
So, one of the pieces is a big video piece.
And we've gone through the briefing form, working out what type of angle that we want to take on that.
And there are multiple deliverables.
I can talk about them all in a second.
But the first is obviously the video.
And we had the choice between, you know, a seven to ten minute long style video that you can find on CoinGecko's website, YouTube channel.
I'll share a link after this.
But we were really impressed with the style of creative that they can put together.
And I think Metal X is such a multifaceted product that, you know, it would be really good to have a bit of a longer form content piece explaining all of the features, the decentralization, you know, the interoperability with WebAuth and then eventually L2 support coming very soon and just really starting to paint a picture of the exchange.
So, we've filled out all of that briefing form.
That's with the CoinGecko team right now.
And then they're aiming to put this video together for what is going to be their anniversary page, which is going to have a ton of additional marketing around the halving.
So, they're running a huge campaign.
Metal X is going to be front and center and a part of that.
Sean and the team over at CoinGecko have been very, very helpful.
There are two additional articles that are going to sit on the CoinGecko website, too, both of which are fantastic.
Authority, backlinks, SEO, all of those good things.
And I think the plan, unless the community thinks differently, is that we'll have one of those articles dedicated to Metal X because, you know, I think first and foremost,
it's the prominent trading platform on the exchange and then the second is going to be dedicated to the XPR network.
And the XPR network, one, very focused on, you know, versatile coding languages, all of the great stats about the chain and what makes it a really good place to build blockchain-based solutions.
And then the last part of that campaign is that whole learn and earn section.
And we had a bit of back and forth, but we managed to get the CoinGecko team to agree to take some of the rewards that they want to use within this learn and earn mechanic,
which we haven't figured out yet.
So if you do have any ideas on what could work well for that, they have baked in the XPR rewards into that original cost that we got from the DAO.
So, yeah, CoinGecko is looking really good.
Paul and I have been working on that the last couple of days.
I think I saw something about the funds getting sent across being more than the original proposal.
That was simply the MSIG was signed two days beforehand when I think XPR obviously increased in price.
But, you know, the price is the price.
It's not no one's pocketing cash from that.
I've seen some quite a lot of, obviously, a lot of FUD recently, which hasn't been the best to deal with.
And I think there's certain things that can be addressed.
Other things aren't even worth talking about.
But very much so that agreement with CoinGecko is what was agreed on the dashboard and is what we'll be moving forwards with.
So any thoughts on CoinGecko?
Yeah, I think when just explaining how the proposal went up in price, I think that's quite good to hear for a lot of the community because some people obviously don't understand that.
And as you said, the FUD was quite wild.
But, yeah, some of us did understand it.
But, yeah, it is what it is.
You know, these things will always be said.
So you just kind of have to roll with it and get on with it.
But, yeah, that seems like a really good proposal there.
And, yeah, I think we'll gain a lot as a community from that because, as you said, the SEO and everything else, that will drag in people.
So, yeah, thanks for the work on that.
No, no problem.
CoinGecko have been really, really good to work with.
And, you know, have spoken to them about what it looks like beyond this, right?
Like, I think sometimes we get so caught up in our bubble of Metallicus that there's a huge industry out there with hundreds of thousands of tokens, projects, names.
And it's sometimes getting these relationships and getting our foot in the door with these team members is really good.
And, you know, one thing can lead to another.
Even with Milk Road, you know, that initial proposal.
Also, someone forwarded me something that said I took a cut from the Milk Road proposal.
And as someone who's wondering how I'm about to pay for my wedding, which is coming up in the next few months, I definitely did not get a cut.
But even with things like Milk Road, you know, there's long-term play in there as well.
And I'm still in contact with Johnny and there are podcast opportunities coming up.
All of our press releases now get sent directly to the team.
And there's obviously a lot of long-term relationship planning that goes into these things as well.
And the same stands for CoinMarketCap, for CoinGecko and beyond.
So I suppose one question I would have kind of in that regard, even to Milk Road, is could we, like, seeing, say, so seeing, like, numbers, so impressions and, yeah, just seeing some kind of data on what that has done would be beneficial at some point.
Yeah, for sure.
I think there are, you know, there are certain metrics that obviously we will share in terms of website growth, traffic.
There are obviously more intricate ones that are probably, you know, confidential from a perspective of when it comes down to advertising and all the way through to our end users and app growth and stuff like that,
which all will be published in, you know, our quarterly investor reports.
But I think I can definitely get some metrics from Milk Road.
They definitely exceeded the impressions that were set to be delivered in that front.
I think there are also some kind of non-quantifiable results as well.
I think I've mentioned a couple of times about Metal X's position on Google, you know, as soon as we had that article done with Milk Road, I think we bumped up from about 13th to 2nd.
So there's obviously backlinks, which are a big part of that.
But, you know, as we do move into more of these advertising campaigns, you know, it's very much my responsibility and the marketing team's responsibility that we are getting the most value for, you know, the money that we are bringing from the community.
And that, you know, even from the stance of like the X advertising budget, which is still we've still got budget remaining from that as well.
We very much want to make sure that we're continually optimizing our campaigns across the board.
And, you know, we are getting the best CPM, I think for X and specifically XPR Network, we had a cost of about 42 cents CPM, which is phenomenal.
So we know we've got great reach on X.
And now, you know, we're working as a team to look at how we can now get that to translate into wallet downloads, how we can drive awareness, drive more traffic through to the website and so forth.
So I guess that's a good segue into that.
We've obviously got a portion of that budget from the X advertising proposal was set for Metal X.
So this week we have been working on creative for Metal X to get that live.
And we're looking to launch that probably early next week.
And the creative looks super strong.
I've started sharing a few pieces organically on the Metal X channel, but really trying to work out the best way to position all of that messaging, right?
Like Metal X is, like I said, is so multifaceted and so many features.
And how do you bucket those into, you know, one concise message, which is going to attract the attention of, you know, Solana meme coin traders or, you know, people, Web3 natives that we want to come over and utilize our ecosystem.
So looking forward to getting that live early next week.
We've obviously been testing a lot of the vertical video formats as well.
And we've actually been learning that from our side on the Metal Pay front.
And again, they seem to be performing really well.
So I think the plan is that we've also got some budget remaining from the proposal that was put through for Eric.
And I'm still looking and back and forth with different creators to execute on those visuals.
So if anyone does have any recommendations, please send them through to us.
But I think what we wanted to do with the statics that Metallicus has worked on in-house is, you know, get some of that budget live for Metal X and start seeing how it converts and how, you know, Metal X as a product will perform on X.
Any questions?
Am I still with you?
Yeah, I can still hear you, Will.
I have some questions, but on a different topic.
So I'll let you run the agenda and then maybe we can ask them towards the end.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
I'm trying to think what else I wanted to go over.
X advertising budget.
So, yeah, Metal X launching next week, which we're very excited about.
We're going to look into the next phase of XPR Network as well with, obviously, Eric's first video.
And then I think the plan now is to move into more of a developer-focused approach.
And then, obviously, the grants allocation as well to attract more developers and more projects on chain.
But, yeah, everything is still very much moving on that front.
Oh, I know what I wanted to say.
So there's a proposal that I wanted to see what you think about that.
I'm planning on putting in probably today or tomorrow.
But I have been invited to speak at a conference in Ottawa, which is obviously Ottawa is where most of the governmental houses are for Canada.
And a friend of mine has launched the digital ABC consortium, which is essentially a not-for-profit group within digital assets that are really lobbying to support the adoption in Canada.
And I think Canada as a country is a little bit further behind than some other countries, definitely behind where the U.S. is.
So he really wants to make a splash there.
And I'm speaking on a panel alongside the country director of Coinbase and a couple of other figureheads from the Canadian space.
Now, what we have suggested is that we want to integrate WebEarth into their website.
And you can go on to it.
It's digitalabc.ca, I think.
Let me check that.
Yeah, digitalabc.ca.
And they've agreed that we can integrate WebEarth in the XPR network.
And what they want to do for a proof of concept is people can join this consortium.
And by joining the consortium, they get access to certain documentation and research reports that digitalabc are working on.
And the first report that they are doing is actually with the CRA, which is the Canadian Revenue Agency.
And what they would like is that this first research report would be embedded into digitalabc.ca, but gated by an NFT.
So if you are a member of digitalabc, you will be issued an NFT at this conference.
And then with WebEarth login, you will be able to obviously access these gated documents.
So I think the proposal is $5,000.
I think $3,000 of that will go towards the development.
And then $2,000 will go towards the sponsorship of it.
So I think Coinbase is sponsoring it as well.
You can have a look on the site.
There's some big names in there.
Hut8 is one of the biggest mining companies in the U.S.
So really good circle for us to be in.
And I will be on stage speaking about XPR Network and specifically this integration.
So, yeah, I'm looking forward to getting that proposal live and seeing if people want to make it happen.
And Conor's actually already gone and started some of the work beforehand.
So we've got another integration that will come out with that.
I can't remember what it was off the top of my head, but it was definitely something that we needed for XPR Network.
All right.
Anything on that?
Thoughts?
I think we lost Alan, Will.
I mean, he's still showing his co-host, but he's messaged me to say he dropped down and needs inviting backup.
Oh, let me get him in.
It's a good old XPR playing its games again.
I know.
I said he can't be invited.
Let me get rid of him.
All right.
Go ahead, James.
We'll just freestyle it.
There's no real agenda.
Okay.
So, from a marketing perspective and like a marketing strategy perspective, I know we all understand the issues with the exchange landscape, right?
And that from a primary perspective, we're always going to want to drive adoption of Metal X.
But have there been any kind of consideration of kind of use in the pre-existing landscape as channels, awareness channels, and a way to improve accessibility?
Because some of these, you know, not even the most prominent exchanges where it is a pay-to-play system like a lot of things in the industry, you can, you know, $30,000, $40,000, you can get listed on here.
But then you can increase your reach to millions of users and have that continuous visibility because the asset is listed on these exchanges.
Has there been any kind of consideration about playing into that maybe as a short term with the intention of bringing people then back into Metal X?
And, of course, in an ideal world, we'd want most of the liquidity on our own native exchange, right?
I mean, any consideration around that?
You mean token listings on other exchanges?
Yeah, so even, you know, I'm not talking about Upbit, which has quite strict requirements, Coinbase and some of the others the same.
But some of these mid or smaller exchanges, just to improve accessibility and awareness on a more global scale, these exchanges are more pay-to-play.
But they do have a lot of users that are going there and using those exchanges maybe because they can use other ones.
So I'm just thinking from a short-term perspective as a way of using these as marketing channels rather than necessarily saying, okay, I know a lot of people are going to be, oh, let's get listed because of price and all of this.
So I'm thinking from a marketing awareness and accessibility standpoint.
For sure.
Yeah, I mean, not really in my realm of responsibility.
But I know that, you know, where applicable for us to do so and where we can from a compliance perspective and a broader strategy standpoint, applications have been filled.
But there's not really too much more, I can say beyond that.
You know, my job as an employee of Metallicus is to essentially bring as much liquidity to the Metal X exchange and kind of beyond my responsibility for Metallicus, actually.
Like everyone should be transacting on decentralized platforms, even from a safety and security standpoint.
But, you know, taking it a step back from that, I think things like CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko are good segways towards more awareness in that similar sort of realm.
There is obviously a lot that goes on with exchange listings and things like that.
But, you know, the core focus for us, having an exchange ourselves is obviously to get as many people using that as possible.
And obviously other platforms on chain as well, right?
Like people are welcome to build more trading solutions on XPR network.
I think even seeing like the increase of activity on Solana and even base and seeing the changing in gas, I think, you know, XPR network still stands as a superior trading and payments chain.
OK, so to continue on from that, then, if the understandably so, the strategy is really focused around Metal X, has there been any thought of just initializing kind of lower level liquidity pairs?
Maybe this is something that could be funded via a proposal whereby some of the more common assets in the top 50 or top 100 could be supported.
I'm talking ones not maybe not listed by the SEC or these assets supported by ring fenced from a geographic perspective.
So, for example, where there's a little more clarity, I know MICA legislation still has to be fleshed out and it's always going to evolve.
There's certain things that maybe citizens or residents of the EU could do.
But for now, at least, citizens and residents of the US couldn't.
Has there been any thought about that and just getting other people when they come in to kind of fill up these pools?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I guess when you started talking about that, my head went to something Arena says a lot is that, you know, Metallicus's compliance team makes up one of the biggest chunks of the entire team.
And I think when we've seen the demise of different exchanges over time, while it might seem advantageous to add certain assets, obviously, we want to make sure that we are building, you know, the most compliant ecosystem in this space.
So I'm not really positioned to talk on the listing of assets on the exchange.
But, you know, what I can say is that these are all discussions that we will very much have internally as a team.
And, you know, we are constantly looking for ways to continue to grow the exchange and increase liquidity, but very much within the parameters that position us as the, you know, the leading compliant blockchain company in the industry.
So, you know, we push and we want these things and we do listen to everything that the community says, but, you know, we'll always make the correct decision for the broader macro success of the industry.
Okay, thanks for your answer. I mean, that's understandable, right? The current landscape is like playing Minesweeper.
Yeah.
I mean, that's fair enough. And it's just something I thought maybe within those compliant parameters, these basic pools could be initialized and then the onus could be put on us as a community to reach out to others and bring that liquidity.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I shared something with the team yesterday was DYDX have quite a cool feature where you can suggest new markets and things like that.
So, yeah, we're on point with kind of all of the innovation that's happening in the space.
And I think there's a lot that eventually, you know, once there's clarity that we will do and we will move forward.
But, you know, my focus now, especially from a messaging point of view, and I think we've got a cracking set of assets listed on Metal X.
And I think it's how do, you know, how do we position that? There's a lot of trading of Bitcoin that goes on, right?
And if you want to do that in a decentralized environment, you can't really do it on Bitcoin mainnet, right?
Because it's slow and it's just not feasible. And obviously there's a lot of price fluctuations.
So then you kind of have the option of centralized exchanges. But as we've seen, those options are becoming very, very limited.
So, you know, how do we take that messaging and kind of say like, hey, you know, institutional Bitcoin trader,
if you want to trade Bitcoin on the hour candle, then come to Metal X where you can do it.
Your assets remain in your wallet and on the exchange at exactly the same time.
So, yeah, I think Marshall's also teased the addition of the L2 to Metal X as well,
which I think will be a phenomenal, phenomenal thing for the exchange.
There's been discussion as well just about the general UI and improving that across the board,
you know, bringing some real seamless integration between the lending and borrowing platform and the trading interface
from being able to mint XMD natively within, you know, a small widget on the exchange to the side
and just general user interface improvements is absolutely on the roadmap.
And I think I'm kind of gunning towards when we do bring that L2 integration,
that that really gives us a catalyst to, you know, hit on this L2 narrative and hit into the base crowd and so forth.
I think, you know, you always want those stories in the industry.
Like it's, as I've said, it's a very, very crowded space.
And I think the opportunity to reposition, relaunch and showcase the product,
especially with the L2 integration is going to be great.
Well, on a kind of separate topic entirely, we just recently saw an evolution in the identity of Metal Blockchain,
which is kind of, you know, incorporated more of the blue.
And there's a lot of meaning around that color in terms of, you know, building trust and everything around that.
We've seen an evolution in the logo.
Are we likely in the near future to see an evolution in the brand identity of Metallicus itself?
In line with the kind of target audience, the banks, credit unions and everything, you know, really playing into that?
Is that something on the table?
No, I don't think so.
I think Metallicus is pretty much set in stone.
Obviously, Metallicus was a registered business.
And we had the domain name, but no visual identity.
And that was one of the first things that we launched when I joined.
But I think it's Metallicus brand has kind of informed everything that we've done across the board.
And, you know, all the way from all of those colors, from the progress, you know,
I think in the brand manifesto talking about the progression of the purple all the way through to the green,
it's kind of dictating what the rest of the branded house looks like.
Yeah, probably not.
I do know that Ivan's working on some stuff, not top priority,
but you'll see a lot of synergy between the Metal blockchain logo, Metal L2, Metal Pay was ever so slightly elevated.
And I think probably with Metal X, there might be some slight tweaks to that front.
But I'm over the moon with the Metal blockchain brand.
I think it's very, very powerful.
I think it hits on all of the narratives that we need to, you know, bring confidence with the people that we are working with
and the people that we would like to see adopt blockchain based solutions.
I think you've really got to take that into account.
And we did when we were developing the brand and the visuals for the website.
I'd agree on my end.
I'll be honest, when you announced initially there's going to be a change on the space,
I was like, oh, you know, I'm too sure.
Because I really liked, maybe got too attached to the old one.
Yeah.
So this one's really grown on me.
Good.
And the slight evolution in the logo and everything, I think it's a massive step in the right direction.
So just that kind of subtle uplift, I think, has really made a difference.
Yeah.
It's funny.
The devs work, obviously, so fast.
And we generally will play catch up.
And I remember it was like, oh, you know, we've got metal blockchains ready to go.
And we didn't have a website.
And I think we were in L.A. at the time at that NFT conference.
And I remember we cooked up the first version of the website and launched it from a sushi restaurant in L.A.
And it was probably like 11 p.m.
And then I think slowly, you know, it's elevated.
But a big part of what we do with the brand work, right, is that we don't want to make huge changes.
We always want to keep that original DNA.
And I think that's what's so beautiful about what Ivan and the team have done is that, you know, metal and Metallicus and Metal Pay has been such a strong brand since the get go that we've, you know, we've kind of brought it into 2024, but we've kept all of that originality.
And I think, you know, anything that we do moving forwards is always going to have that playfulness, that excitement that Marshall and the team wanted for cryptocurrency, right?
Like we, as much as it's incredible moving into this world of, you know, blockchain based finance and banking and beyond, you know, crypto is always meant to be fun and memes are always going to be there and communities are always going to be there.
And that's, that's what makes it interesting, right?
That's why we're here.
I don't think you'd have 40 people jumping on a HSBC space to discuss the migration to RBC.
So it's, yeah, there's not too, not too much brand stuff going on now, not too much website stuff.
I know Paul's definitely making some changes.
We've got Alan, we've got a testimonial from Alan going on to the website as well for all of the great work that he's been doing.
So I think it's just telling more of that developer story, telling more of that, you know, integration piece, and then also just kind of communicating the interoperability with the rest of the landscape as well.
Like we've got 10 incredible network bridges with many other chains in the ecosystem.
So making people aware of that, and slowly but surely, and I think sustainably is a big word too, is that we gradually grow things over time.
Because once you're here and you get it, you get it, right?
Like, it doesn't take, well, it kind of does take a little bit.
But when you see all of the different pillars of what we've built from, you know, the infrastructure of the layer one, all the way to layer zero, now L2, with the exchange, you know, web authentication is literally the leading wallet technology as well.
And we're very much ahead of the time.
So it's, how do we now sustainably grow that, right?
Like, we probably don't want a ton of people coming in to capitalize and, you know, not really see the broader vision of what we're trying to do as a company.
We want people to come in and understand and practice safe trading and practice good, you know, security of your private keys and so forth.
Thanks, Fieran.
I see Alan's back now and I know you guys wanted to touch on the gaming topic and everything he's doing.
So thanks a lot and over to you and Alan.
I saw a question here from Tony.
I've emailed Tim Pool, so hopefully we'll hear back from his team eventually.
I can probably follow up and send something again.
Nick has a question on advertising, but there is no question.
I think Nick's question was, where was it?
So does the Metal 2 bring XMD and Metal to ETH?
Probably not a question for me.
Yeah, I thought so.
I have one question.
So what's the next quarter looking like for the marketing team?
What are you going to be up to in Q2 of 2024?
Oh, great.
We've got a big bout of PR coming over the next couple of weeks.
I was actually hoping some of it was going to drop this week.
But we have been doing quite a bit on the Metal blockchain front from all of the announcements that we've had.
So really just trying to meet with some tier one titles that, you know, haven't typically reported on blockchain as much as, say, some of the Web3 native titles.
So that's been a big part of that.
But we've got some really cool podcasts lined up as well, and we're going to branch out as well.
Obviously, we do a lot of C-suite PR with Marshall and Arena, but we're now going to see Don step into more things as well, because he's obviously got a great perspective from the banking world, which is going to be really cool.
And then I think there are probably not, I can't talk directly on it, but Frank has got some good plans for some digital slash video slash meetup work that will happen in the next few months, which I think will be good.
And just really trying to bring that elevated corporate agenda around Metal blockchain and how it can integrate into existing financial systems.
And just a big part of it, right, is really how do we talk to the target audience?
And I think sometimes talking about layer twos and delegated proof of stake, people will run a mile.
But actually, if you start talking about the narratives of how documentation can be secured more or, you know, we can send secure transfers on weekends without the risk of, you know, delays or things from that front is big.
So we've got a lot in the works on that.
There is quite a bit on the paid advertising and growth front.
Obviously, we've got campaigns running out for MetalPay right now.
You might have seen that we're continually updating these campaigns and updating the creative.
I think we just dropped our cost per install by, I want to say, about 20 percent on MetalPay just through working through different creatives, different psychological messaging.
And then we're also testing out some new creative for MetalPay too, focused very much on the on-ramp and onboarding new users into Web3 and kind of the interoperability with different ecosystems in the space.
Because I think really there aren't too many on-ramp and obviously we're one of the core ones and actually one of the most affordable in the industry too with 24-7 human support is something we keep shouting from the rooftops now.
So shout out to the customer client services team.
And then I think really there's actually quite a lot of work that we need to do to deliver on these community proposals.
Like I said, it's one thing kind of getting it passed and getting funds released.
But behind the scenes, there's a lot of work that has to go on and getting these things live.
So we've obviously got quite a bit more to do with CoinGecko, pulling together that content.
And then I think in general, just continual development of our sites from an SEO perspective.
We want more documentation.
You know, we want to be able to feature dedicated pages right on the work that you're doing, Alan, or what other developers are doing within the ecosystem.
So that can have a network effect to invite more people and essentially allow the ecosystem to grow.
What else?
As I mentioned, hopefully we'll move into some UI and product work, which is, you know, always happening.
We've made some updates to MetalPay, which is going to, I think, give on-demand price notifications, which is, you know, a big thing.
Probably seems as a small piece of work, but actually in the back end takes quite a bit to do.
So we're excited to see that come live.
And then I think really just exploring innovative ways of customer acquisition and growth.
And I think, you know, we are very much a company that likes to make sure we're very efficient with, you know, the efforts that we do put in.
I think there are many companies that will go out there and spend, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars.
But actually, it's always good to test the waters and find good models for growth and scaling and then really being able to do that in an efficient way.
So, you know, any campaign ideas that people have, please put them forward.
We'll always take them on board.
And then I think as well, a big one is I'm constantly looking for governance proposals that, you know, can benefit the ecosystem.
So even this digital ABC piece I've been working on a little bit in the background, an integration with a company like that can lead to the next thing and the next thing and so forth.
So, yeah, lots going on, more video content, Paul's ripping it up on video now, which is pretty cool to see.
Yeah.
Thanks.
I think we kind of had a discussion about maybe trying to get some advertisement onto some of the podcasts.
So, like, we use an example of, like, where Joe Rogan kind of talks about products at the start of his podcast.
So maybe not his, but some kind of smaller podcast that we could approach to kind of get some advertising going on those.
Absolutely.
It's very much, you know, I see Crypto Cyclops here.
He introduced us to Eleanor and anything that the community can help with or have suggestions for.
I know Tony wants me to get in touch with Tim Pool, which I'm working on for sure.
But, yeah, send them through.
We've got, I think, there's a podcast.
I'm not going to say the title, but a tier one media title, which we've pretty much got locked in.
That'll be coming soon.
And then, yeah, I think, look, we'll get these spaces happening more frequently.
I got a question from Makata8 asking about, are there any marketing updates planned on the AI feature for Metal?
They're not marketing updates.
I know that it's very much being worked on in the background.
It's one of the most exciting products, I think, that Metallicus has low-key developed.
I remember it was like out of nowhere one day, Saeed and Marshall were like, yeah, so we've built this LLM, which uses blockchain to pay for credits for.
One was like, whoa, this is insane.
So, yeah, you know, things are very much in development mode, but as and when they're ready to be marketed, of course, absolutely.
Yeah.
Go ahead, James.
You got a question?
Yeah, so one thing I've seen that worked, so I think with the multiple moving paths in our ecosystem, so you've got the layer two now, you've got XPR network, you've got Metal blockchain.
One of the things that a lot of people have kind of difficulty with coming in, and as you said earlier, there is that initial step to overcome, is kind of understanding how the different pieces of the puzzle come together.
And, you know, maybe in the case of developers, why they would choose one solution over another.
Something I've seen within another ecosystem, they've had an academy, and like a video series, where they explain kind of the concept of subnets, they talk about cross-chain messaging, why that's of benefit over a bridge-based architecture.
I think some kind of educational series, which is like very digestible video content, would be beneficial for this ecosystem.
And then if there was some kind of, I don't know, certificate of completion at the end, so it could start maybe with Metal blockchain as the layer zero, explaining, you know, a bit about Metal blockchain, the fact that it's got its four chains, then do a deep dive into kind of what those four chains are, and their purpose, then touch on XPR network, et cetera, et cetera.
I think this would be really beneficial, and is also something that could potentially be material that you share with banks and credit unions to say, you know, well, maybe other people in the rest of your organization kind of understand the IT side of things.
If they want an understanding, you push this out to your engineers, so they understand a bit about architecture and the tech trade-offs, that could be something that could be material that could double up the benefits on the, let's say, our side of things, as well as the institutional side of things.
For sure.
For sure.
I mean, a lot of this comes down to kind of like resource, obviously, we're a relatively light team, but one thing that pops to mind straight away is that decrypt proposal, and that kind of was exactly what you've just described.
I know it doesn't come with the wallet integration, but they are still keen to submit it, so keen to know of your thoughts on that.
Did you, I think I shared the Google Doc, right?
Did you see that?
I think so, yeah.
Let me put it on.
Yeah, go ahead.
No, go ahead.
No, I was going to say I can share with you the material from the other ecosystem, so you can take a look into it and have a bit more of an understanding of kind of the lines I'm thinking along.
For sure.
I think there's an X problem again, is it, James?
You can't hear me.
You went to say something and got cut off.
Oh, I heard him loud and clear.
Yeah, so it's just me.
X is not your friend today, Alan.
It's not your friend.
But yeah, I'll share that with you, Wilhelm.
Yeah, please.
Would love that.
Yeah, I mean, a lot of stuff, right, we kind of will work through.
And as we box certain jobs off, we'll put our focuses into, you know, more content writing, more documentation.
I know there's quite a bit of work that we want to do, we had some good docs from the older metal blockchain website that we need redesigned and dropped onto the new site for setting up nodes and so forth.
But I think you're, I think you're right.
I know a lot of the, a lot of the work that Frank does with the people that he works with is all around, you know, use case opportunities and stuff.
And I think as and when more of that can be public, obviously it becomes sales material.
It becomes educational material.
So while they might not be public right now, there are definitely things being worked on behind the scenes.
I'm constantly messaging him like, can we ship this yet?
Can we make it public?
He's like, no.
But as soon as things can go out, we, we of course can.
Well, Wil, I think we need a Kanye style approach to start leaking things.
No, I'm just kidding.
That can work.
Um, no, that's, that's, uh, understandable.
I know that a lot of stuff has to be, you know, kept under wraps until the right time and it can go public.
So fair enough.
Sure.
Yeah.
I mean, there's, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of things that I see out there that I'd love to address.
And, you know, sometimes there's so much food and just things that are completely inaccurate, but it's like, you know, how much time do you spend debunking these things?
Versus like just continuing to build and staying focused on the mission at hand.
And that is very much the ethos of, of the team.
And I know, honestly, even from my personal opinion, like it can be quite draining some, some of this stuff, but the team absolutely is, is focused on, you know, building the world's most customer centric digital asset banking network.
Um, try to just ingrain that into everything that we do and some of the tweets that we put out and the content across the board.
But yeah, I think Metallicus just continues to build a phenomenal ecosystem.
Um, it's getting recognized more and more amongst, you know, key opinion leaders in the space and especially, you know, I'm a big supporter of, of organic PR.
And apart from Milk Road, which in my opinion was not exactly, exactly promoted content, because I think it was one of the first instances of a DAO raising money to, you know, draw awareness to, um, an ecosystem.
You know, our, our, our organic and non-sponsored PR speaks for itself.
And there are a couple of really cool titles that are due to hopefully write content about us in, in the coming months.
And, you know, we're constantly pitching stories, um, you know, across the board.
I'd also be, you know, if you ever have media titles that you'd like us to, to work with, or you'd like us to be included in, please drop those as well.
Um, yeah.
Well, so we, one of the criticisms, and I'm gonna just put it out there, because I'm sure you're aware, is the fact that a lot of proposals goes in, you know, goes in from Metallicus, right?
What would your message be to the community?
Because I see this as kind of a two-sided thing.
It's, well, someone has to drive, you know, drive the ship, right?
Drive it forward.
Um, and I see, you know, you could look at it on two sides.
One, okay, a lot of stuff's going in from Metallicus.
Or the other side of the coin is not a lot of stuff, or there could be more stuff, to put it in a better way, more stuff going in from the community side.
So what can the community do, um, in terms of mobilizing itself?
Um, what would you like to see, what would be your message, you know, as the marketing director, um, at Metallicus, what would be your message to the community to, to get a bit more active participation and involvement to, to support what you guys are doing?
Um, for sure.
I think, you know, to answer the first, um, I'm just starting Alan here.
Yeah, he's back.
I think, you know, to answer the first piece, I get it.
But there's a lot of work that has to go on behind the scenes once these proposals are done.
And actually, you know, when you think about it, the CoinGecko proposal, all of those funds go directly towards CoinGecko.
But then there's still a mountain of work that has to be done, not only from a documentation standpoint, from a messaging standpoint, from a relationship piece, we, you know, we will put proposals in that we think are beneficial for this ecosystem to succeed.
So that's the first piece.
The second is anything that you read about malpractice or misplay is just completely false.
And while even things might not get addressed, that's just one because of probably time.
There's endless amounts of food in most communities that you have, right?
Like people will chat shit about Apple.
You don't have Tim Cook coming out to defend himself.
So there's also like, you know, the balance of effort versus reward.
But any proposal that we, we will put through is to benefit the ecosystem and truly believe that.
And, you know, even from my perspective, the Decrypt one, we had multiple calls with them and just said, look, like, we really want integrations now.
Like advertising is one thing, but we would like, I really want us to have a blockchain-based paywall, right?
A big media company that has gated content that you log in with a wallet to see.
Forbes have just done it, Forbes Web3.
And I thought that Decrypt was going to be the opportunity to do that.
Unfortunately, they backed out of the wallet integration at that point.
So, you know, even from that, it's like, do we think the funds are worth it without the wallet integration?
I think since we've discussed now, yes, we do.
I think there's good benefit.
So I'll get Decrypt to put that in.
It's a cool media title and so what.
But, yeah, I think, you know, we put a lot through because we're also experts in what we do, I think.
And we are willing to execute and follow through because there's a lot of work that has to be done behind the scenes to make those happen.
I think from a community standpoint, you know, I very much like the proposal that you put through for the Discord integration.
I think anything that has kind of a bigger macro look at kind of tech implementation and how it can benefit the ecosystem, we should definitely put through.
I would say from an advertising perspective, we've probably exhausted that front.
And I think we've got Reddit coming up, which is going to be phenomenal.
And actually, I wouldn't book it what Paul's doing with Reddit under advertising because I know he's potentially working on a script which will sort of bring in that interactivity with the chain, which will be really cool.
But, yeah, I think now we should be looking at how do we bring more developers?
How do we bring more integrations?
And, you know, I think just good, healthy discussion, too.
And, you know, as figureheads of the community, everyone listening on this space, I would say, you know, if you read something and it doesn't seem in a positive light, that always second guess it.
Because, you know, I can hand on heart say that this team is only working to do great things within the space.
Okay, thanks for your answer.
Yeah, I mean, I didn't want to put it across as it being all one way because it's not right.
Everything's give and take.
And I think there's obviously a lot more we.
Like, I know you shouldn't compare.
But, I mean, if you look at a lot of the stuff that ETH guys are doing, a big part of why a huge amount of the value captures there is the community is really kind of taking ownership as well and not just waiting on the Ethereum foundation.
So, for me, it'd just be great if we could, you know, on an ongoing basis from yourself and others at Metallica say, guys, here's the things that you can do to branch off what we're doing.
We're doing the core stuff.
But this is a decentralized setup.
This is not stock market where, okay, you might vote for the board every now and then and then just hope to profit off everyone else.
There's a part that we all individually and collectively have to play in this.
So, anything that you can tell us what we can do to help marketing-wise, development-wise, please let us know.
Yeah, for sure.
I mean, the thing is, right, is that I think we can, we're always going to support anything that helps the network.
And I think it's funny because we put these proposals in and maybe someone doesn't have positive things to say.
But we genuinely are doing it because we do think that we could build.
But I would love to see people put forward proposals for things that we can build and come to Metallica and say, like, hey, we need support on development or who can we connect to build this thing?
I think these are the more interesting conversations that we can have, for sure.
I mean, the paywall content thing, I think, is a phenomenal idea.
The issue is, is that, you know, building a media company from the ground up is going to be difficult, right?
Especially in such a saturated digital landscape.
But could we be trying to build relationships with existing players in the space?
Do you know someone, you know, are there out-of-the-box ideas that we have?
You know, I think some people are sat on connections with companies and brands that maybe they don't see the opportunity with.
Whereas, you know, if we knew about these names, I've had a few people, I think one guy knows like someone at Birkenstock.
So I'm waiting to speak to him about, you know, potentially doing something with Birkenstock.
But it really only takes that one sort of global brand to do something with, to really let things take off.
The guys at Yas Marina Circuit are pretty busy at the minute, but they are always front of mind.
And I'm constantly speaking to them because, you know, I think you can even look at what happened with Polygon and Starbucks Odyssey, right?
Like, it seems that that was maybe more of a marketing ploy than a real-world implementation of using blockchain to create something that works well.
So, you know, even if you have connections and you don't know what to do or you know someone from a big brand, please introduce us because we are always willing to speak to them.
Even Ironman, you know, like we've got Ironman ready to submit a proposal to build out an idea that I pitched to them about all medals being on chain and race results and stuff.
But we think that the cost of what they're asking is too much, right?
And we haven't got the biggest community pot of funds, right?
So, we could go and put this through, but is it worth it in the long run or is it the right timing for now?
So, you know, a lot of things are at play.
I think network is everything.
I think brand introductions, if you know someone or, you know, a mid-level executive at a company that you might not think could benefit from blockchain, every company can benefit from blockchain.
There's a small golfing brand called Malbon Golf that I'd love to work with that I keep tweeting at.
But it could be anyone.
So, yeah, keep it going.
I think keep the healthy discussions online.
I think it's good to hold each other accountable.
But, you know, as always, as I sign these things off, like I think it's also the community's responsibility to, you know, support Metallicus as the core developer because we are absolutely grinding to make this whole thing a success.
And it will be inevitably in time.
So, I'm probably going to have to cut it shortly.
I don't know if you've got one more question maybe before I head off.
I'll leave it to Alan.
But thanks a lot, Will.
I appreciate the openness and honesty, especially on the last topics.
And I'll just say, you know, more conversations like this, if we could have something every couple of weeks or just on a more frequent basis, I think this will go.
So, this will be a giant step in bringing kind of, I would say, Metallicus and the community even closer together.
And we can brainstorm and we can do a lot in terms of helping one another take this ecosystem to, you know, we all have our viewpoints.
And sometimes we maybe not put them across in the most constructive manner.
But I do think a lot of people do care and want the ecosystem to grow in their right way.
So, thanks a lot for putting this together.
No, no problem at all.
And we will.
I've already started floating it internally about me potentially being the host and getting different team members on to chat with you.
So, yeah, we'll keep them more frequently.
Anything, Alan, before I dip off, anything you want to share with the community, a quick update on what you're working on?
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
So, I think if we talk about the plug-in mainly, because that's kind of the first item on the list that's going to come true.
Yesterday, we managed to integrate the network interface into Unreal Engine.
And the dev sent me a demo of, like, some real-time interactions between the engine and the network.
So, I kind of showed it to a few people.
But it's a bit buggy.
So, he's going to produce a video for us when he has it set up properly.
But it was, yeah, it was quite amazing to see the game where he was picking up the coin in the game.
And it was appearing in a wallet instantly.
So, yeah, we're kind of just working away on the demo for that.
And then in the background, I'm kind of talking to people like the Thrust Network.
And they have kind of a decentralized platform for a lot of chains where they connect in their APIs and they all have their games and their leaderboards and it's multi-chain.
So, in the background, I'm kind of networking with all these people outside of our ecosystem to show them the power of what is available.
So, for me, the plug-in, yes, it's gaming, but it's very much, again, as we discussed yesterday, we could move to industries like the construction industry or, say, Zwift.
We were looking at Zwift yesterday and imagining what we could do with them and the plug-in and Unreal Engine and the network in terms of, like, skins on bikes.
You know yourself, Zwift.
You've seen Zwift, haven't you?
Of course.
Yeah, so I was, like, talking about how we could, like, you can set up trading bikes with people and parts of bikes with people.
Yeah, all sorts of different innovations that will come along once the plug-in is built.
So, the plug-in, yes, and this is the thing, as you said, people don't understand.
They're like, oh, you're just building a stupid game.
It's like, not really.
It's a link into a digital landscape, and that's kind of, that's the future, I see, for what we can do here.
I'm, honestly, I'm so surprised at how, if you're listening, Zwift, or ever listening, we do want to work with you, but so surprised at how little innovation they've done to that game.
It is, like, it is one of the, in my opinion, the coolest merge of real world and digital world interaction.
And I think the fact that it's connected to fitness as well is crazy.
Yeah, because everything is becoming gamified.
Like, even my job is so gamified right now.
So, yeah, I think this is kind of the beginning of using the plug-in to build a future digital landscape.
And I think as the network fits perfectly with that, because there's literally no impedance between the network and the engine.
Whereas a lot of, a lot of chains out there, like, I've had discussions, there's a couple that have zero gas and can interact with the chain, but they're not scalable.
You know, there's sort of, the kind of makeup of the network is just perfect for, as we keep saying, customer-centric applications.
I'm literally connecting with everyone at Zwift now on LinkedIn.
Yeah, so, yeah, okay, and then things like I'm talking to people like, which is only a new relationship, but like Nakamoto Games, which they're quite big.
So, I'm in a group with them, and I don't think they quite understand what the capability is, because they keep saying, oh, we can't wait to see your endless runner.
And kind of, that's why I pivoted to a first-person shooter demo now, because I want to show being able to kind of pick up the gun in-game, and it appears in your wallet instantly.
And that will kind of, as you said earlier on, sometimes we speak in this jargon that people are kind of, they don't really understand, and they just say, oh, yeah, cool game.
Whereas, I want to kind of create a demo to show that as soon as you pick that gun up, that is in your wallet, and you can swap that with somebody, or somebody can kind of steal that off you, or, you know, loads and loads of different innovation I see coming forward with the plugin.
Amazing, man.
I'm really setting the standard of what can be done, and I think, you know, kind of out of nowhere as well.
You're working quietly in the background, and now, you know, front and centre, so keep going.
Yeah, I've been sitting in the background kind of learning for the last two years, so I hopefully know what I've learned I can kind of bring to the forefront.
And I think the plugin, maybe around 11 weeks' time, it was meant to be six weeks, but the dev said, I gave him a sample of another plugin, I said, look, this is what I kind of want from you.
And he said, I'm going to need a bit more time, because there was a team on building the plugin.
I said, no problem.
I said, I don't want any technical debt with this, I want clean code, so if you need another six weeks, then that's fine.
So, yeah, the team that I have, I think we've around five people now in the team, so there's the plugin, the character artist, the environment artist, and then there's kind of the website team that's building the website for the Fenix project.
They've just kind of released their art for it, so there's a team building that, and once they finish building the website,
then they're going to start moving on to the marketplace.
So, yeah, a lot going on.
Great stuff, man.
There's one thing that I realised I didn't cover.
Harvard University Behavioural Strategy Group proposal.
So, we've met with them bi-weekly for the last few weeks, a lot longer lead time on this.
They are obviously in school, so they're quite busy, but also the level of work that they're doing is quite long form and takes a while,
but they have now reached the stage of they've done their interviews where they've reached out to a sample size.
They've got a whole list of questions that they're working through kind of on like the broader adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain,
but they also now need a sample size from our community.
So, I've asked them to draft something up for, I think they're going to publish on their LinkedIn page.
They haven't got a Twitter account, and I think there's certain parameters of, you know,
creating a Twitter account for a university.
They've got to get permissions and so forth or whatever,
but they've drafted something up that we'll publish,
but we're looking for about 12 to 15 people from the XPR network community
and then also users of MetalPay too.
And that will be to be invited for a 15 to 20 minute interview on video.
So, you can in fact see that they are real people
and have an interview with these guys and they've got this set of predetermined questions
for their research paper.
And they're also going to plan on putting out a little bit of an update of what they've done from their work.
But we're really excited to get our hands on the work that they've done.
It's a deep research piece.
It's going to give us some really rich data on audience segmentation, demographics,
and will hopefully, you know, help us refine these digital campaigns
that we're running out at the minute across the board.
So, that one is also very much moving forward.
So, yeah, cool.
Well, I think we've been going for about an hour and a half now,
and I've got a meeting shortly.
So, appreciate everyone's time.
Have a wonderful Easter weekend.
And otherwise, see you on X.
Take care.
All right. See you. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
