Moonbeam in Brazil

Recorded: July 17, 2024 Duration: 0:56:57
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I'd like to introduce Tiago. Welcome, Tiago.
Hey, everyone. It's a pleasure to be here. Can you guys hear me loud and clear?
Yeah, this is the first time I'm connecting to spaces through the computer.
Normally, there's a lot of hiccups, but I'm glad that it's working fine.
It's a pleasure to be here and to be with João, William, and Casta.
We're going to be talking about Brazil and Moonbeam in Brazil, right? Our initiative in Brazil. So I'm very excited to talk about it. There's a lot of things going on, a lot of moving pieces and surely very exciting ecosystem.
So first, I'd like to thank João and William and Casta for joining us today. Maybe we can start with a round of introductions. Tell us about yourself, about the background, how you come up into the blockchain world and a quick overview of your project.
Maybe we can start with William.
What Carbify does is we are an RWA. We bring trees on chain. We call them NF trees. We sell them. We plant them in the Amazon. We've planted three and a half million trees last year.
We do that in agroforestry systems to create a social impact. And the CO2 those trees are producing. We are selling to companies all over the world.
And one of them is, of course, we help Moonbeam with becoming carbon neutral. And this is why we are here. That's me.
Very exciting. And we surely going to talk more about, you know, all those initiatives.
João, maybe you can go next and talk about you and Picnic.
Hello, hello. Super happy to be here. My name is João. I'm Brazilian. Happy to be here talking about Brazil as well. A little bit about myself. My background is in data.
I have worked in finance. Then I moved to tech. I helped scale Uber Eats here in Brazil.
At some point, decided to take some time off, took a sabbatical, studied a bunch of things.
And the thing that really caught my eye was DeFi specifically. That was mid-2020.
I fell in love with the idea of creating computer programs that you don't really need to trust them.
They have their own life. They do their thing.
And I thought as that, that's like the future of the financial system.
That's a bit outdated to say now, but I really deeply believe that and trying to build this.
The main issue I found while using those products back then, it was super hard to use.
I saw a lot of promise, but too far away from the mainstream user.
So basically what we have built as tools and a wallet, a smart account wallet called Picnic,
which is a super easy and straightforward way to access DeFi.
So the thing we're really going after is emulating a centralized exchange experience
or making it very familiar for non-web3 native users to interact directly with DeFi.
I think that's what the future should look like.
And we're doing our best to build that.
Thank you so much.
As same as Carbify, Picnic is such an interesting project, you know,
really related to making meaningful and valuable changes, you know, to the world through blockchains.
That's very exciting.
Last but not least, Casta would love to learn, you know, your journey.
I guess, you know, everybody follows Casta at some point in time.
If you're a Brazilian, if you hold the CPF, which is the Brazilian Social Security,
you probably know Casta, right?
So, Casta, welcome and love to hear a little bit more about your time in blockchain.
So, hello.
It's a pleasure to be here, sharing this space with all of you.
As Tiago said, I am called Casta, but my name is Rafael Castaneda.
So, Casta is like a nickname.
Usually, I get this nickname.
I am a master, I have a master's thesis in computational science.
That's my background, an academic background.
So, I was a professor and researcher and also a software consultant for several years
before I dropped everything, all my career and jumped onto the blockchain space.
Nowadays, I act as a content producer here in Brazil.
I do a lot of educational and technical content rather than speculative content.
I'm also a community founder and a builder.
And I'm here today to talk about Moonvilla and Valocracy,
which is an innovation that we have been proposing in sort of an evolution for DAOs
and for a drop and incentive mechanisms.
So, it's also, it's like a kind of a new social economical framework
for on-chain human coordination.
So, I'm very excited to share this with you guys.
Yeah, I'm not sure if my computer has the bandwidth, you know,
to hold the amount of brain power we have in this call today.
Maybe we can go, like, in the main, the first question, right, that we have.
The focus of, you know, this panel is to talk about Brazil
and show the larger audience why Brazil is really relevant.
When we think about Brazil economy, size-wise, how rich Brazil is
with regards to commodity, with regards like, just like, you know,
natural resources and being able to build.
We have a lot of opportunities in the country, right?
As an underdeveloped country, there's also the opportunity to leverage blockchain,
right, which is something, you know, we have several, let's say,
issues for accessibility and, you know, and I think blockchain is coming
to resolve some of those things.
I think the best way to talk about it would be from, to hear from João, right?
You're building, you know, like, picnic and you're definitely aware
of the relevance and the size of the opportunity that we have in Brazil now.
Could you talk more about your, you know, your perspective over the Brazil
and how, you know, your vision in general?
Yeah, sure.
I think giving, like, high-level stats is a good way to start,
but it's a huge country, took more than 200 million people,
a lot of digital usage.
So if you check how much time people spend on cell phones,
Brazil is always ranking up on the top.
Crypto adoption is pretty high as well.
It's, like, top 10 countries.
And people are generally open to technologies.
And we have a pretty fast-moving central bank.
We have amazing instant payments that everyone in the country can use.
So there's a lot of innovation, especially, I think, in finance
over the last 15 years.
We have the largest fintech, I believe, in the world.
It used to be, which is Nubank.
It was worth, I think, $70 billion, something like that, at its height.
Not sure how much is today, but it's huge.
They have, like, 100 million users in a country of, like, 200 million.
So the guys executed crazy well and built a huge, huge company
that's mostly focused just here.
And one thing I think might help to give a sense on, like,
why building in Brazil and why focusing in Brazil might be a good idea,
so it's a little bit of what we did in Pecnic and our thought process.
But we used to be very, not focused in any particular geography.
It was, like, very focused in DeFi native users.
But at some point in time, we saw the opportunity to go for a less native public,
to go after normies and ordinary, regular people.
So that was basically a conjunction of a few things.
There was a counter-straction getting out there,
and there's, like, more mature piece of infra elsewhere.
And we decided to take a stab, oh, let's build this experience
that is basically a centralized exchange experience,
but running on-chain.
And we decided we wanted to focus in a particular geography
that's usually easier to distribute.
A lot of the content that people consume about blockchain,
especially when you're not talking about Web3 natives,
tends to be localized.
So the majority of my friends that don't work with crypto here in Brazil,
they're not really listening to, like, Bankless
or whatever English-speaking podcast.
They are listening to Casta and other local guys.
So we saw that opportunity in segmenting users
and really focusing in the Brazilian market,
both in terms of, like, distribution, but also in terms of product.
And one key piece of infrastructure we were looking after,
and we did research pretty much looking after every major relevant country
in the world is, like, how do people can go from fiat,
from money in their bank accounts, to crypto?
And here in Brazil, we had an amazing project, which is BRLA.
Mateus, who's the founder, is listening to this spaces right now.
And it's such an amazing on-and-off-ramp experience.
It's literally the best I have ever seen for any kind of on-and-off-ramp.
You go from money in your bank account to stablecoins, on-chain.
You go in, like, one minute or something like that.
Every bank accepts that, and it's free.
So it's a really optimal experience.
I think it's up to, like, at least as good as you get in anywhere else,
in any fintech, in any centralized exchange, and you go directly on-chain.
So that was super helpful to have that kind of infrastructure
to build the kind of product we wanted.
And Brazilian Central Bank super helped on that
because they enabled the banking system to work like this.
But it is a mature financial ecosystem that works super well
with on-chain applications.
So, yeah, I think we're seeing a bit of the future, how it will look like.
And that's very insightful, right?
We think about size-wise, when we think about the opportunity, right?
We think about the size of the opportunity, the accessibility, right?
And Brazilians are very open, you know, to new techs, like you said,
and a good environment, right?
Which is, like, a very efficient way, you know, in this payment season
that we have with, you know, with PICs and other type of payments.
So this is pretty cool.
Kasta, maybe you can give, you know, your vision,
which is a little bit more community-based
or just, like, a little bit of the philosophy side of, like,
how Brazilians think and if you're thinking we're in the right direction here.
Well, sure.
The Brazilian community is really engaged.
People not only are here for, like, speculating coins,
but we are also a very social people.
So for the ones who are, like, familiar with the social media phenomenon,
and Brazilians really dominated the previous Orkut social network.
Brazilians are prevalent in Facebook.
And we are also, I think, the third or fourth major user in MetaMask.
But we like to interact.
We like to exchange on community.
So whenever you do something in Brazil,
if you do, like, the correct socioeconomic incentives,
people are really prone to engage and they have a lot of fidelity
for the projects that they like.
So it's a very nice country to build.
We have a lot of not only crypto-friendly users,
but crypto-native users,
people willing to learn about MetaMask,
to learn about on-chain transactions,
people willing to do the crypto-native onboarding.
So for me, it's, like, very good.
I have a fairly large audience here in Brazil,
and I get to talk and chat with a lot of people.
And it's very crazy because I'm also the founder of a community,
and I know the people in our community,
and we have, like, a guy that is a car washer during the day,
and he's talking about some new coin
with a guy that is a multimillionaire,
and they are both, like, talking to each other,
and they have the slightest idea
that they are interacting on the same environment.
So this is something that crypto is bringing together
it's bridging social gaps,
it's bridging economical gaps,
and bringing people together
that are craving for something new.
And for me, it's very exciting,
not only to be in Brazil,
but to be able to build here,
and I'm fairly happy now
that we can exchange some of this experience
with the broader international audience.
It's a different way to unlock opportunities, right?
This is what I take out of it.
It's more about than just capitalism
and just, like, empowering the individual.
It's about making connections
and building communities through a decentralized way.
Really powerful, really powerful message.
I'd love to hear from Will.
You know, it's a European team,
but heavily involved with Brazil in general,
and I'm sure, like, Will is a very good...
I've already tried several Caipurians in his life,
so I'd love to hear your opinion and perspective in Brazil.
Yeah, there's several.
It was only one last year,
but so I need some more,
I guess, next week when I'm in Brazil.
But we choose Brazil for a different aspect.
We wanted to plant our trees
where we could create an impact for local communities.
And what better biome than the Amazon biome,
where we all know it's the lungs of the earth
and it's under heavy threat.
So we said, okay, hey, we want to plant
and make an impact in a country where it's most needed.
And we thought, okay,
or we still think that it's Brazil
where we can make that impact
for reference.
We planted 3.5 million trees last year,
and they are already generating
40 million kilos of food
for local communities in Brazil.
And we don't take a cut of that
because that's for the Brazilians.
It's to give back to the communities
that need it most.
It's not about...
It's about giving everybody access
to what they deserve,
both socially, economical,
but also education.
We plant trees at communities
where they've never seen a phone in their life
and now they need to geotech our trees.
So we are also educating them on that part.
And by coincidence,
I got to Brazil two years ago
at Blockchain Rio.
It was 2022.
And there I got in contact
with some people that told me
about how it's going in Brazil
and what kind of impact we could create.
And it was immediately
a very trustworthy relationship.
I feel that if you meet
with the right people in Brazil,
that you have connections
for the rest of your life.
And I get the same feeling
if I'm talking with the Moonbeam team,
for example,
it just feels all off and all natural.
And that is what triggers us
to keep on doing our impact in Brazil.
So we choose it
from both the ecological side
and social side in Brazil.
And we haven't even really
started promoting our project anywhere
because we are Dutch.
So we are more builders than hypers.
But we are now ready
with the Moonbeam coming up
to let the world know
that we are here
and that we are making an impact
and that we can use
everybody's help with that.
Yeah, such a powerful word as well.
You know, this is one
very curious thing
about Brazilians.
It's funny how friendship occurs
and how you make friends.
It's definitely
this belief of a new beginning
of like a lifetime partnership, right?
Very, very close.
And it's amazing
to see the numbers
that you guys have.
When you think about
blockchain impact
all over the place,
it seems that people
tend to underestimate
the amount of value
that the industry
are going to deliver.
And I guess,
those numbers
are really,
really impressive.
and Moonbeam really shares
the same sentiment
about Brazil,
about this excitement,
this opportunity
that we have
for all sides,
from the community sides,
from the economical side,
to reduce the asymmetries
that we have,
the inequalities
that we have
through you guys,
of course,
through the project
that we have.
And we're definitely
here to support you.
But I would love to,
to understand
from your perspective,
how do you see
is actually helping
your project?
what is the main advantage,
of being added to Moonbeam?
Maybe we can start
with Kasta.
Well, sure.
Right now,
Moonbeam is one
of the main supporters
of our approach
to the evolution
and social incentives.
a grant from Moonbeam
that is enabling us
and to leverage
a community in Moonbeam
to foster engagement
in the blockchain.
It's called Moonvilla.
It will start in Brazil,
but it's, like,
just a first step.
We are going to experiment
with new ways
of engaging people
on the blockchain.
And we are also
very fond of Moonbeam
and all of their initiatives.
Moonbeam seems to be,
right now,
one of the blockchains
that are really focused
on engaging community.
And right now,
we are living
on the fever
money printing airdrops.
And it seems to me
that in this cycle,
we have really not learned
some important lessons
from the last cycle.
And we are just reiterating
on magic tokens
that are printed
in order to speculate on.
And I'm really glad
to be joining Moonbeam
on this effort
and to be a board
on something
that is not, like,
doing the worst kind
of incentives
that we see right now
in crypto.
It's just engage people,
promise nothing,
deliver sort of
far less for someone,
privilege whales,
and in the end,
dump a lot of tokens.
So, for me,
it's really gratified
and really thankful
for being able
to be part of that.
I'm really enjoying
the rebranding of Moonbeam
and this new approach
that Moonbeam is doing
to leverage communities
and to pay attention
to some things
that are new
instead of just repeating
the mistakes of yesterday.
That's a great word,
your thoughts?
so we choose Moonbeam
for a few reasons.
Let's start
with the best one
and that is,
a year and a half ago
we started looking
at grants.
We were deploying
Carbify on Polygon
and we applied
for, I think,
I don't know,
50, 100 grants
and we were in talks
with Moonbeam Foundation
and the grant committee
and I don't know what,
I don't know,
I can't remember
what the reason was
but we decided
to not continue
but since a year
and a half ago
we kept on contact
with, well,
with you, Tiago,
so you get the credits
and it was just,
it was never pushy,
it was always
how are you guys doing
and what's going on,
what have you been doing,
what are you up to
and never pushing us
to go to Moonbeam.
that was one
of the main reasons
that when we
a few months ago
again started looking
at these kinds
of partnerships
that we reached out
to you and said,
okay, now we are ready
and we want to talk
and we got,
and I don't want
to exaggerate,
but I think we got
like 20 offers
from other blockchains
to go there
and we chose Moonbeam
because, well,
this was the main reason.
Second reason is,
of course,
technical implementation
that you guys offer
with us able
to use Moonbeam
as a tree hub
for all the trees
that we have
and they can talk
with each other
and we only need
to update it once.
But I think
that is why
those two reasons
were the main drivers
about us working
with Moonbeam
and that we want
to continue
with you guys.
I can't have more,
I don't have enough words
to talk about
how excited I am
with seeing Carbify
on Moonbeam
and seeing all the things
we can build together.
It's really aligned
with our Brazilian focus,
with our vision.
We share the same sentiment
and this is very,
very fortunate
to have you guys
here as well.
And João,
I'd love to hear
your thoughts too.
Just to give
some context,
like the way
we're thinking
about Technic
is really about
being an alternative
to a centralized exchange.
So the amazing value
I see in Moonbeam
is to be able
to offer assets
that people
won't be able
via centralized exchange.
So the long tail
of assets,
being able
to offer things
that you need
to be in DeFi
and that usually
takes quite a bit
of education
and hardship
to get there.
we make that thing
and we take
those assets
spectrum of users.
So I'm quite excited
about seeing content
being made
about Moonbeam
and Picnic.
Specifically for Brazil,
I think it will be,
I'm pretty sure,
the easiest way
to get money
into Moonbeam,
into a few
of the assets
in the ecosystem
So I'm super excited
to beat that bridge
between Brazil
and Moonbeam
and hopefully
two more countries
in the future
That's so cool.
Thank you so much,
Thank you so much
for this answer.
I would love
to talk more
maybe we can talk
about the concept
real-world assets,
There's a lot of,
tokenized assets
on the blockchain
that can be used
for several
different reasons.
One thing that I
would love to hear
and maybe we can start,
I don't know,
maybe we can start
with Joao.
When we talk
about this trend,
which is not a trend
it's something
that happens,
And I think
each one of you
different perspectives.
Maybe from
Joao's perspective,
could you enlighten us
how do you see
the mindset
new investors,
you're onboarding
Web2 users
and we are
talking about
unlocking and
unleashing new
for them to
participate.
How do you see
this behavior?
do you see
the acceptance?
What are your
feelings about it?
I'll try to share
like a general
experience and
feel free to
follow up with
any specific
questions,
but it has
to some extent
been a surprise
the education
like you get
into crypto
for a while
and you get
what's a wallet,
what's a Cphrase,
have a hard
time grasping
the difference
between like
Binance and
the wallet,
for example.
So it's like
small things
usually need
users about
for them to
interact with
though like
working super
hard to make
those things
so for example
any token,
we abstract
that away,
but there's
still that
message like
oh you have
blockchain costs.
small frictions
continuing
make everything
as possible.
example now
we're having
discussions
stablecoins
the Brazilian
real stablecoins
dollars we
have USDC,
saying that
have Brazilian
have BRLA,
friction for
quite a few
Like if you
not crypto
person like
onboarding
comfortable
responsibility
investment
intermediate
challenging
difference
highlighting
difficulties
successful
understand
difficulties
underappreciated
I wouldn't say
underappreciated
like people
real world
tokenization
recognition
everybody's
blockchain
blockchain
technology
blockchain
limitations
geolocation
traditional
limitations
transactions
it's still
was talking
real estate
for example
it's still
blockchain
blockchain
technology
limitations
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blockchain
opportunities
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difficulties
that never
meaningful
mitigating
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talk about
convincing
talking to
and making
blockchain
consideration
potentially
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consideration
and people
philosophy
you believe
understand
mainstream
blockchain
scalability
experience
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developing
blockchain
technology
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educational
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blockchain
understand
onboarding
inevitable
technology
infrastructure
aggravating
geopolitical
coordination
economical
alternative
financially
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coordination
everything
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revolution
speculation
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blockchain
insightful
discussion
perspectives
mainstream
management
discussion
onboarding
management
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passionate
backgrounds
backgrounds
grandparents
grandchildren
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husbands and
explaining
the project
traditional
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interacting
opportunity
but at the end
of the day
crypto space
successful
talk about
philosophy
understanding
that solves
touch base
passionate
meaningful
connections
management
in general
decentralization
communities
engagement
mechanisms
coordinate
blockchain
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governance
decentralized
governance
translates
traditional
representation
tokenizing
innovating
tokenization
innovating
incentives
traditional
conclusion
technology
technology
principles
governance
economical
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experiment
blockchains
blockchains
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technic.com
appreciate
the invitation
Blockchain
announcement
Moonbeamies
Moonbeamies
and interact
more people
that share
like-minded
so thank you
I appreciate
we're very
very excited
to the next
to Blockchain
Blockchain
we're gonna
conversations
in Blockchain
but without
further ado
can access
gotas.social
we can have
let me type
here in the
chat as well
to gotas.social
S of course
it's Brazil
in Portuguese
is with an
over there
a tremendous
this crowd
definitely
more often
have a lot