Just a few more minutes and we're going to start soon. So, just to start right on time. Please be patient a little bit more.
And in one, two minutes, we're gonna start. Thank you.
And yeah, we changed a little bit the time.
Usually we have these episodes at Wednesdays at five o'clock CET, Central European time zone.
But today we needed to change a little bit because our guests are from Australia.
So the time zones make us adapt a little bit, which is okay anyway.
And I'm happy that people are joining also.
So Powered by Remark, it's an episode that we try to highlight projects that use Remark tech.
And for the ones that are listening and don't know exactly what is Remark, Remark is a company that has developed the different standards for NFTs.
So to go beyond the ERC 721 and ERC 1155, the Remark vision is really to change the way that we use NFT.
So we develop different standards that allow for multi-assets, nestable, equippable, immutable on the NFTs.
And other ones that we are already using and so we are also inviting projects that already use this kind of NFT standards to come to these episodes.
So today we have D-Store and I would like to invite any of you, I don't know which one wants to be first, to just introduce yourself.
Not D-Store yet, but who you are.
Hey, it's Dustin Lee here, co-founder, CMO at D-Store.
Just to say the least, I bought two of my houses with Remark.
Hey, so thank you guys very much for being you guys.
Very early on, I followed Bruno.
You know, Bruno's been building in the space.
Very smart, intelligent man.
Thought he was doing really well.
And then, you know, I stumbled down the road to RMRK.
So, this is where I'm at.
Just, I'll be joining us soon.
He's, our time zones got a little conflicted on the, at times.
I think you set it up, like, three hours early.
So, there's a little, he was a little confused on time.
I can't speak for him, but I think, I think we're managing.
So, he'll be here in, like, ten minutes.
Yeah, thank you for your support, Dustin.
And thank you for being here already.
So, yeah, we wait a little bit for Zuzia.
But, meanwhile, we can start with you also, if that's okay for you.
I mean, man, I've been here, I've been here since the beginning.
Like, I've been here since Bruno was, he was, like, he was still with Ethereum, I think, when I was, I started to follow Bruno.
Wow, yeah, a long time ago.
And then he transitioned to more, like, parody, you know, Polkadot ecosystem.
And, yeah, I thought very highly of him, that he was, you know, he definitely knew who he was talking about.
You know, I felt like anything he got involved with, I was going to be involved with.
So, as soon as he started talking about RMRK, modular NFTs, multi-resource, like, these are very important aspects of NFTs in general.
Like, bar space has been kind of, like, this static image for a very long time with, you know, ERC-20s and, or not Eastern-20s, but ERC-721s and 1155s were pretty just basic.
Like, and then, you know, Bruno, he was, you know, coming up with some ideas and came up with the modularity aspect of RMRK.
And, like, you can build these NFTs in the Legos and add all these features and extra assortments of accessories and, you know, emojis on chain, you know.
Basically, the first, the first ordinals, I want to say, on Polkadot, like, I mean, that was amazing, you know.
And I still, to this day, like, you guys are the number one for protocols, like, hands down.
Well, I know some people don't notice because you guys are not, like, oh, we're, like, the best, whatever.
But, like, you guys are the best.
You guys have been the best for years.
And now that you guys are on EPM, yeah.
I really appreciate that.
And it's nice to listen to you talking because I'm also connecting a lot with it because I started as an artist.
Well, I'm also an artist still and I saw, like, my art and NFTs.
And when I came to the space, I joined the NFT space, like, in 2020, late 2020.
And immediately I was caught by this amazing technology and I was, like, but how come is it so amazing but it's so limited?
Because I only knew ERC721, you know.
And I was, like, I'm sure we can do more with this, you know.
And after a while I discovered also a remark that in that time it was just on Kusama.
And immediately I thought, okay, this is the way to go with the NFTs.
We need to go beyond the static ones.
And for the ones that are listening, just a big background.
Bruno, that Dustin is talking about, is the main founder of Remark.
He was the visionary that really saw about how to go forward with the NFTs and what to do after.
So, really appreciate all your words, Dustin.
But we are here also to talk about this tour.
So, could you introduce this tour in, like, a little bit of pitch?
Um, I guess just to go, like, full circle, just to say Remark as, you know, from the beginning, to DStore, um, to connect that together.
Um, basically, like, we seen, you know, early on capabilities of, uh, you know, on-chain extrinsics with, with the RMRK.
And we felt like that was, like, a really big push in, like, having these kind of modular NFTs attached to, like, real-world assets.
And so, the first beginning steps of DStore was MetaRock.
And so, with MetaRock, we used Substrate with the extrinsics with RMRK to create, you know, like, a digital twin that coincided with, like, the physical products.
So, like, Opals was the first idea.
So, we, um, Josiah owns a mine in Australia.
And he has been mining Opals.
But he wanted to find a way to expand his reach, you know, with, with blockchain.
And, you know, kind of find, like, a way to kind of connect both.
Um, and RMRK was, like, a really good way to add all these extra features, like, you know, video, um, you know, 3D schematics, you know, uh, you know, still, still images, static images.
But, also, like, you can add all these layers of functionality with these NFTs.
But that, it's beyond an NFT.
So, like, a digital twin in the traditional space is, like, you know, the, the dual counterpart of, excuse me, dual counterpart of the physical product.
And, which, we're, with RMRK, we're able to have that plus all these extra features.
But then, also, with attestation, too, we use verifiable assets to verify these assets also.
So, it's, like, it's beyond what a regular NFT would be.
And, we're, like, what we call digital or, like, hybrid NFT has all this extra metadata that is, like, it's a special feature, you know.
It's not just, like, oh, an NFT, this, this, and this.
It's, like, layers, you know.
Like, this nested NFT owns these fungible tokens, possibly, or, or whatever you want to do to it, really.
And, that's where D-Store kind of came to life, is that we want to sell real-world products.
Like, Opals was the first idea, but the second, the idea was, was the Kusama hooties, which are still to be released.
We do want to release those at some point.
The Paying Homage to Kusama, because that's where we all started from, really.
And, but then the iteration to now that we're creating these, what we call digital twin claim cards,
is kind of, like, an easy way to have a physical product attached to a digital version.
So, you can have a wearable or metaverse or whatnot, but you have to be able to claim it.
So, we've been doing it with clothing, right?
So, we did it with the, we did it with the hoodies, which, it's, you know, that's, I mean, they're pretty much almost completed.
And, we do have the rights from Kusama to use a branding, so, for legal purposes.
But, but the digital twin claim cards is a way to kind of reach the mass, kind of like, say, like Pokemon cards or something like that.
Like, something easy to distribute.
And, so, now we can just, you know, have these claimable cards, which we're building an app called Deer.
Decentralized, centralized, autonomous, no, hold on.
Centralized, augmented reality.
I always get messed up with the E, because it's like D, decentralized, okay.
No, so, it's decentralized augmented reality wallet.
So, basically, like, you can have, like, a regular digital wallet, say, you know, Talisman or Nova.
I mean, they're not, I mean, they're more advanced wallets, of course.
I mean, they're the most advanced Polkadot wallets around.
But, they don't have a scanning process, where you can scan and redeem certain products, such as ours.
So, we want to create the SDK first.
And then, you know, implement those to all the flavors of wallets that we have in our ecosystem.
But then, also, ours is, like, the augmented reality version, where it has all those features.
Just like, you know, Singular is able to display all the extra features, you know.
But, like, you can still have NFT somewhere else, you know.
You are already, you already, I'm going to interrupt you a little bit, because you're already sharing a lot.
I know that you are passionate about it.
It's what happens when we are passionate about our work.
We really want to say everything.
But let's go step by step.
So, you are also one of the co-founders of this store.
So, you were saying that it started because Josiah has got all the mining.
Yeah, let's bring that back.
So, that was your first need, to bring up powers in a different way for people.
That's why you thought about connecting them with NFTs, if I understand correctly.
Yeah, that was the first idea.
And how did you come together?
Did you already knew before each other?
So, we both worked with Darwinia.
So, we kind of come from a really technical background.
You know, we're not developers.
But, like, I'm very well understanding of how Polkadot works and, you know, consensus level, like, security.
Like, this is very important for me.
But also, beyond that, you know, like, you guys are on various chains now.
So, I mean, this is all relative, but, like, you know, beyond the scope, I guess, now.
But, yeah, so, basically, me and Josiah started as a business development team in Darwinia.
He decided to go and branch off and do his own project, which I'm early angel investor, you know, very early on.
Like, but my thoughts weren't to work with him, like, at that moment.
I was still, like, navigating through the space, you know, worked with Astar and stuff like that.
So, you know, me and him just kind of, you know, bumped the idea, you know, like, hey, you know, give him some advice, advisory kind of aspect.
And then, eventually, you know, I was, like, after working with Astar, I worked with, I joined the team.
And I didn't know what capacity I'd be in.
I mean, I've been helping build this the whole time, pretty much, but without really realizing it.
And then, yeah, I just was, like, okay, well, I should be part of the marketing team, right?
Like, this is my passion project, too, as well.
It just wasn't as, you know, involved.
And then the last, pretty much the last six months, I want to say, oh, six, eight months, about eight months, that's when we started, like, really grinding, you know, strategy meetings, like, every night, barely sleep, you know, just like, yes, no sleep ever.
Sleep is, like, non-existent.
And so, you know, after some time, balance and figured it out.
And now, you know, I'm like, well, you know, we're working with certain people in the space.
And they were like, well, if Dustin's not involved, then it's hard to see as a project.
And I'm like, well, fair.
I mean, I've been part of the ecosystem for a long time.
So does Josiah, but he's been kind of more on the back end, you know, building it out, like, business-wise, which is great.
He's been doing a lot of infrastructure.
I just have a lot of, you know, surface, you know, I've been a part of the ecosystem for a long time.
This is an attestation with me.
That's what makes a good team, right?
Everybody's got their different skills and background and context.
So you came together and you used it.
It was, like, it was very cohesive.
It wasn't, like, you know, oh, Dustin, you should have to do this.
And I'm like, no, like, we all just collectively, like, this is what we have been building for years.
So we might as well build it together better, you know, more fluid.
And things are coming along.
We're actually, like, really taking it super serious as, like, it's really serious.
Like, I never felt like that.
You know, I never assembled a team like this.
But, like, this is a team.
Like, it's different for me.
You know, working for different teams.
And I enjoyed, you know, the knowledge I learned from everybody was great.
But this time it's like, you know, if you don't show up, no one shows up kind of thing, you know.
Or if you stop working, everything falls apart.
Like, you just can't do that.
You have to be accountable.
And you have to be, you know, you have to have the same, similar passion.
And, like, you know, and we're all figuring it out together.
Yeah, that's the normal process.
I always like to listen to the backstories.
But meanwhile, we have Josiah already with us.
Please introduce yourself also.
And one thing that actually it already happened with me also and started more working for Remark to realize how people are also demanding because they expect 24-7 work, you know, and it's crazy.
Especially because also everybody's got different time zones and so the space doesn't stop.
There's only somebody awake doing something, you know.
And I really appreciate your flexibility also to be part of this space because as you were saying, it's almost 9.30 in the night there.
And for me, for example, it's 10.20 in the morning.
So I'm just starting the day and you're almost finishing.
So this adaptation is also needed.
But I also wanted to ask you because one of the things that also now bring you a lot of visibility, at least from my perspective, it was this discovery thing that you had this program on Discovery Channel about Opala mining.
And it was where you sold also the first digital NFT, you know, utilizing Remark.
So it was a combination of an Opala with a digital Opala that people could use in the metaverse, right?
Could you tell us a little bit more about this?
Yeah, I think so for a while, maybe his internet connection is not the best.
I don't know if you know, ah, he's back.
We lost you for the moment, Josiah, yeah.
that people can actually have this digital thing so are we expecting to see more opales and other
gems or metaverse or are you also working now with other products
and speaking on that i have a quote here from from i see your tweet um this star aims to be the go to
web3 shopify a hybrid nft combines real world assets with a blockchain based digital twin
as an ft providing three dimensions of utility so maybe dustin can you explain a little bit
what is this vision and what are these three dimensions of utility that you refer
um so yeah the ability to have multi-uses like you know you can have an nft like in traditional
space and it doesn't really do anything right um in in the idea that we're creating and also empowered by
rmrk is that we're able to have it as like say a wearable it could be physical clothing you know it
could be you know it could be a stagnant there's a dynamic or you know uh dynamic eminent nft but like
being able to have so many more uses than just the normal what like an nft would be so you can have it
in all places in all in all in in the same place if you want like you can have it as
an item in a in the metaverse you can have it as say ar functionality with like snapchat filter or tiktok shop
like you can be able to purchase this directly through retail means without even knowing it's an nft so that's
that's the beauty of having this like modularity with then with the products that we're creating
is that they might not even know that you're actually getting an nft that's the whole point
is like the onboarding experience shouldn't be so cumbersome that they use this like high-level
terminology like what is an nft and like people that don't do know nfts in the traditional space
might have a bad rap you know it might be something that they don't have value towards you know but
if they have a collectible digital you know like ultra rare collectible or like a t-shirt or something
they receive that t-shirt but then they have also a wearable in the metaverse so it's like
this could be a way to onboard you know the next billion people without even knowing that they're
actually using web3 that's the whole point it's like this technology is meant to be useful not cumbersome
yeah i agree because there's still a lot of uh blocks and challenges for people to join
even just using a wallet for example it's still complicated and there are so many scams and things
that we cannot do and need to learn fast so yeah definitely i agree with you that it needs to be
really simple and people need to use it in a way that they don't even understand that they are using
it and i believe that's the future of nfts one day it's going to be so usual that we use it even
without thinking about it like many of the products that nowadays we have like any mobile phone that we
have we use all the apps and we don't need to have so many intricate things to to discover and to learn
about it we just use the app because it's easy and i believe nfts and blockchain is going to be like that
but i also wanted to ask maybe just i you can ask answer this or both as you prefer uh because i i
understand that i think there's a very real use case and utility for this combination of physical
objects and nfts or digital assets but the new generations for example i'm saying kids and
youngsters they are more and more into digital they have collections of fortnight skins for example no
and other digital assets do you think they also going to have an interest on the physical combination
Appreciate all your support.
And in the beginning, Dustin was talking a lot about Bruno and how we met him since
the beginning and how visionary it is.
But I also, by listening to your words, I also see how visionary you are also.
Because you are not just, yeah, maybe things started like trying to sell Opalas in a different
But from what I listened to you, you already have a big vision, a long-term vision of how
to really change this space and bring together Web 2, Web 3, physical, digital.
It's really amazing to listen to all that.
And one thing that, if I'm not mistaken, you also had some, were part of some program with
If I'm not mistaken, can you tell us a little bit about that and how that's supported the
establishing this store, what it is today?
Yeah, yeah, I agree with you.
It is, and it's like you're saying, there's a bit of duality in this space.
In one side, we have the PFP hype that we had in 2021 with Bored Apes and a lot of different 10K collections.
Now we are seeing like the rise of meme coins, which is great.
And it's amazing playground.
And it's awesome that people can play with it and have fun and also trying different stuff.
But in parallel, we also have teams that are really trying to build different stuff to really push forward,
like you are doing also with Physical Digital, like Remark is doing with NFTs.
And I think there's actually a third faction, which is how to try to use the blockchain and crypto to control even further.
And yes, you are talking a little bit about BlackRock.
I think people also should be aware of what CBDC means and how governments want to start using this kind of currency, cryptocurrency.
But in fact, it's controlled.
Europe, for example, there's already a lot of talks with that, with the Mika program.
And people still don't realize how it's going to be easier for governments to control how much money you have and even how you can spend it or not.
And this is a bit scary in that sense, because once they launch this, then you don't...
Because crypto brought this freedom of transact with Bitcoin and you have your wallet, so you are your bank.
But as soon as the government starts using this kind of crypto that is controlled, then it's exactly the opposite.
They are bringing different sides of the ethos.
So, yeah, I think people also should learn about that.
And I agree with you that everybody that is working on Web3 need to be aware of it and try to work for a better future and to understand that, yeah, we are pioneers bringing something to the new generations.
As we are now part of this, the new generations, they're going to grow already with Web3 and with AR and AI and VR, you know.
So, the new generations are going to be really native to all these kind of seeds and it's going to be different for them.
So, we also need to have that in consideration.
But I'm also curious because, yeah, we all live in different areas and time zones and I'm very aware about the reality in Europe regarding this.
I'm curious about how do you perceive the crypto and NFT market in Australia?
Yeah, and I can ask for both, Dustin, you also live there, so you also have some opinions about it.
yeah and that's it that's exactly yeah that's exactly what i wanted to do in your personal
opinion and yeah i feel a little bit also similar in a different way europe but i would like now
also to listen so what do you feel it is going down in america well um i started out early on um
just because well i didn't i didn't get into bitcoin like i didn't like get any but like early
on i seen kind of like the power struggle of money and how inflation was becoming you know
way way before inflation you know like is what we see now um and i saw this kind of battle of like
what is money you know and that kind of like drew me into the idea of like okay this random asset
becomes so valuable at enough nowhere you know in my mind of course it was already like bitcoin was
out probably by two years three years but i was in the seattle area and seattle's really high high level
techie you know we got it was it was twelve dollars
i still i still look at the email yeah i still look at the email where i offered them a hundred
dollars for 10 bitcoins obviously i didn't get a response because they wanted to sell for 12
um kind of thing you know and i i still never understood what under one bitcoin was so until
somebody because i was in e-commerce and i was trying to you know i put an ad i'm like hey you
know maybe i'll trade a laptop not selling laptops for a bitcoin and they're like why would i give you
a whole bitcoin if i'm giving you four hundred dollars worth of you know a bitcoin like that
they said like 0.6 or something like that and i'm like no give me a whole bitcoin like i just didn't
understand and really actually what really drove it to me was nfts but um to to get to that point
um with the seattle area i met a lot of like early on like uh who was it um open c i met the
founders of uh hashgraph um coin star coin or coin me they have all the atms in the united states
pretty much at like specific grocers and they upgraded the the cash machine or it's like a coin
machine called coin star i'm sure people have different machines around the world but you
exchange coins basically just change for you know bills you know so you want you know full bills
well they made it so you can just trade it for crypto and so they kind of implemented across the
united states to buy like various or exchange for various different currencies like it was kind of
like a trojan horse um and us has been pretty open even though they have like these you know gray area
laws like it's still debatable but like accessibility has not been an issue like i used to buy it from people
like individually um early on um you know cryptocurrency was pretty prevalent but it wasn't like you know
mainstream you know how it is now but um but yeah going forward like nfts kind of really
that that was like my trojan horse where things really clicked like i own you know this nft um you know
people understood it more like kind of like a sim city like i played sim city as a kid um and i'm
really good at yeah and so you like the architecture and like the buildings and the you know there's taxes
and you have to balance things out like i understood that finite land and i this is how i actually ended
up buying land in real life was understanding digital property i was like whoa this is kind of
backwards for people but i'm kind of a backwards person like i don't follow most things and i'm like
questioning life and you know like how money works and all that so like yeah of course i'm in the crypto
you know like of course i'm in space you know i've never a great
yeah yeah you said you said in the beginning yeah that's amazing man that's that's that's the
the power that i literally bought yeah i bought houses and cars i i've like bruno really set the tone
for my life for the last like three years like for real like that's amazing yeah it's it's this kind
of story but you know at the same time it's it's amazing these kind of stories and i love it it really
means that yeah if you want to learn and to understand how crypto works yeah you can make money with it and
you can ride the wave but also at the same time this can also be for outside world a kind of casino
people think they're gonna come and they're gonna get rich fast and it's not true it's not really to
learn no yeah speaking of that but it's uh going drifting a little bit on this area uh because you
also talked about nfts that it was easy for people to to understand that nft yeah what do you think it's
going to be the future of nfts how do you see it wearables wearables like tangible like almost tangible
assets but in the metaverse like things you can just poured over it could be like a a sword in
one or shield somewhere else or it could be you know your avatar you know like these are these these
are what make us who we are as individuals like we want our identities and we want to be recognized
right we don't want to be plagiarized we don't want someone to act upon us as us we want us to be
individualized so like having these like wearables and recognizable aspects like just like real life
like if i dress up nice in the real world people recognize me oh that's dustin oh there's dustin you
know whatever there's josiah like hey you know like that's recognizable does josiah wearing a suit so
that same person could be in the metaverse this is very tangible spatial computing is right here right
in front of us it's becoming a standard so like we want our avatars in both physical and digital
spaces to be representative of who we are so like that's what i want to be i want someone that
recognizes me like that's dustin without a doubt in both physical and digital worlds i feel like
we're so close to this yeah and i think that's why there was this type of the pfp projects because
people wanted to create their identity uh with digital and become something that's like an alter
ego or something i would make the same question for josiah what what do you see for the future of nfts
and speaking as an artist that's what appealed to me when i came to nft is exactly that
that you are going to receive it's a proof that yeah you minted this artwork it's on blockchain
forever and sometimes people don't realize that that now as an artist for me this is the most
amazing thing to know that my art is going to live forever on blockchain you know no matter
how many years i'm going to live it's going to stay forever for many generations so maybe one
day in 100 years or 500 years people will go back and check my art you know and just this thought
about it's it's unbelievable and sometimes people just think about sales and yeah of course
everybody needs to to have money and to eat but there's there's much more behind that at least
what you are saying about the receipts it's exactly what made me also engage more with blockchain and
meeting my heart well it's been really a pleasure to talk with you two guys and i would stay here
for more hours for sure but trying to wrap up a little bit also because it's already late night
there and the day is starting here but i wanted to know just for finalizing so what are now the
next steps for this store what can we expect from you what products are coming what are the plans you
have besides of course we we want to collaborate with you and make more support from the market
and vice versa so tell us a little bit a bit of alpha what's coming up
So being that we are extrinsics on chain, so we can connect to any substrate based chain.
I know Polkadot is really gun-ho about substrate only being in the Polkadot ecosystem, but if you guys, well, if people are following the technology, people are using substrate as a base, not in the Polkadot ecosystem.
So Cardano has a midnight, which is their chain that they're building using substrate framework.
Um, uh, a whole country called Liberland, they're using substrate for governance for their country.
Um, and there's other various projects like fire chain.
Um, Polygon has, um, you know, a substrate based chain as well.
Like, so like, there's various projects that we're like, have our sites in talks and or possibility releasing products on.
Um, is, is, is very viable being that substrate is pretty wide casted.
Um, so that's really cool.
And then also to add is, um, I guess I didn't even tell Josiah, but we got added to the Dow staking.
So we're actually part of in March as well.
I forgot to let you know it as earlier today.
So we just got onboarded.
So that's another way for us to generate some revenue as well for, for our application being
Um, you know, so yeah, I mean, we're not, you know, we're in the polka dot ecosystem.
That's like, obviously where we started, but that doesn't mean that's the end all.
And if you can see that with our market, just to let everybody know, like, you know, we all are trying to find out our product market fit.
And like, we're all pivoting, but we're all still building from the core values that we are building from.
Um, so like nothing has changed.
If anything, it's more enhanced, but like, we're also expanding our scope on not just the polka dot ecosystem because the technology is so useful in our market.
I know you guys know, like, I can't speak for you guys, but from what I see is like, you guys have so much value to add to the world really.
And these standards are kind of fractionalized, like we able, we're able to connect with everyone.
And that's the idea is that we don't need to be blockchain specific.
We need to be agnostic in the terminology of blockchain is not necessarily to be the word to use is that we're using software.
We're utilizing it and we're making it at a station.
So those digital receipts are proven that you own this and that's what really matters.
And this was a beautiful way also to end our spaces.
Uh, people don't realize that their remarks started with cause salmon pocket dot.
And once, once we launched to EVM, the first network, the first chain that we included in our marketplace was moonbeam because it's still pocket dot, but it's already EVM.
So there's also this transition natural transition and we are all evolving and it's, it's natural that, yeah, we try to seek other chains.
As you said, we are also chain agnostic because I really believe the future is also cross chain and not just being dependent on the only one chain.
Well, it was really such a pleasure this talk.
I would, I would talk more with you.
I hope one day we're going to meet also in real life and in any event or whatever it is.
And I'm sure we're going to have a very nice chat.
Hope one day also to go to America and to Australia and meet you there and be also barefoot surfing with you.
Zosaya and getting to know Seattle.
It's, it's, and I'm curious to see this double personality of you because there's this photo of you now with the suit and then, you know, Australia barefoot, just enjoying life with the beer.
We, we need, we are multifaceted people, you know, we, we, we are not just one thing.
And that's why also digital identity.
We also try to show something else.
And, and, and it's amazing to have those, this multitude inside ourselves.
And really, it was really a pleasure this talk.
Thank you so much for joining and let's keep collaborating.
Let's keep chatting also on telegram and anything you need from remark, you know, you can come with us and thank you everybody that was listening also.
So, uh, you should say wishes of success for this tour and eager to see what else you're going to do.
And we are here to starting the day.
It's very early morning for me.