GM GM How's it going Felix another damn paradise. Oh is good. Another damn paradise. Love to hear it. I want to try to bring up bring up forest. Here we go GMGF
How's it going? It's good. It's good. So yeah, we were sort of just talking this week, you know, do we have a, do we have a parliament without Kevin and Justin or not? And so we decided not to, but I kind of missed everybody. I kind of missed the community.
community. I wanted to just get everyone up here to hang out. See if you guys have any questions. You know the bosses are gone. The bosses are gone so we can maybe give you as well. Alpha. Maybe we can we can come vibe a little bit. I see Aaron here. Thank you so much for for sticking
around and staying up to come talk to us. One of the members in the community council was asking, you know, could we get a little breakdown of what happened with Ledger? Could our big brain, Aaron, explain a little bit more about what happened? You know,
feels like it kind of all the intensity of the day kind of came in once and now that the dust is settled, you know, is there something that we need to be mindful of? Is there something that we need to do to up our security? I want to hear a little bit more, you know, from Aaron's point of view on exactly what happened.
Aaron, GM. GM? Good night here.
Can you give me what time is it? Is it like 10? Yeah. It's only about 8. So it's about sunset here. Okay.
Not terrible not terrible. Yeah, so tell us a little bit if you know, you know what happened with Ledger. I don't want to keep you up too long, but I just want to kind of hear from your perspective, you know, what is it that happened yesterday and
What actually would you recommend that we take? So yesterday ledger announced, other thing was yesterday, it's been out for a little bit, it was leaked in a while ago that they were doing this a key recovery service. So effectively,
a backup service where they would, what's called sharding or splitting out the seed phrase effectively, split it into three different parts that would be that you can opt in to have them sent to three different
places and only if two of those were brought back together could they could it be recovered and rebuilt the seed phrase. That's a common thing that's done. There are well-known cryptographic ways of doing that and there's never really an issue there.
Why this has landed badly with the community is that it exposes something that a lot to not be true that a lot of people including myself have always thought was true. That it's impossible for the private key to see a seed phrase encodes what's called a private key.
The core of that private key it we always believed that it could never ever leave the device it was absolutely impossible but what this shows is that it It can actually leave in this case what they're doing is they're not it's not leaving in an unencrypted format what leaves
the device is, a user has to opt into it, a user has to actively do it, but it shows that it can actually leave the device. And what is leaving at the moment is not actually in a vulnerable state, but it's kind of
made people look twice and that's where the concerns are. I don't think ledger has been malicious. I don't think there is a, there's certainly no change in the security threat that people face if you don't opt in. That's something we can get to later.
But what I think this is done is it's just Left people feeling a little bit duped like hey, you always told us it was never possible for the keys to leave now you show us that it is and that's where things kind of just went really really badly for them. It's effectively a big communications issue and
I think they were never really outright saying things in the first place that were lies, but I do think they very conveniently didn't correct some misunderstandings that kind of allowed them to get better standing within the community.
I was joking yesterday with one of our co-workers and I was saying this is kind of their CCO moment. You know, I think we know that we can trust the team. We know that they've always met well, but it was a big, big decision that
I don't feel like they understood exactly how that would impact folks. I also feel like it was a slow news day and people just wanted to be a little irate. But I think there is something about this space that really, really values self-sovereign
and being in control of your assets and when it feels like that could potentially be threatened, a lot of people just have a very adverse reaction to it, right? So it was definitely an interesting case study to watch, but it was great how quickly they responded.
I think it be like, or AI? Yeah, I was going to say the communication or poll communication is something that in this market just gets crucified, like absolutely crucified. And then it's almost like I like to use this analogy throughout my career of like the trust bank.
It takes ages to build up a balance, but the withdrawals are generally in large quantities. I think they just took a really large withdrawal, whether it's right or wrong, it's a perception thing, and with security, perception, unfortunately, is a large part of the game. And there's quite a bit of damage
control to do on that behalf because people just read headlines and move on and suddenly you look at the sales and like lattice but the grid plus sales kind of went up off the back of that news as people just did their knee jerk rejection, knee jerk reaction thinking like they would
going to get drained or whatever. So it's really important to understand your audience. And I think their concept was like preparing for the masses, but the masses aren't that consumer right now. So they should have been very, very careful around the communication of this.
I was just going to acknowledge just the fact that Ian was quick to get on, you know, Rug Radio and the like. And I think one key point that was missed in the communication was just that this is an optional thing. Books can turn on. And like you said, Felix, I think that that
optional feature is meant for folks that are going to adopt ledger over the next couple years, not necessarily the folks that have been using them, you know, historically. But it was cool to see him hop on spaces in the light and clarify, but agree on the comms there.
Just to clarify, it's not so much the opt-in feature that people have been, at least in the techies side that people have been angry about. The opt-in feature, I personally, will not use. And I think the way they've done the recovery is questionable just because I don't get to choose the three
parties who receive the shards, which means they can take a hike as far as I'm concerned. I won't be using that. The issue that people are really getting angry at is if it is possible for the secret material to leave the device in this
effectively encrypted form is not encryption but effectively secret form. People start asking questions, is it technically possible for it to leave it in a completely plain text open to the world form? And while it would take a lot and it would be very nefarious, it shows
that it is actually possible. It always has been, but like most people, including myself, didn't, I did not appreciate that that was actually a thing. So we just defaulted to like, hey, ledges the, if you want complete control of your seed phrase, ledges the way to go. And so feeling a little bit duped there.
Yeah, that's a great clarification. I think two with the charting it almost sounded like it was more Sharding for like regionality and like backup than it was for you know splitting the phrase apart. I think they said like UK US and an APAC for the for the locales for that.
I think it's also a security thing. You need some minimal subset to come together to put it back. It's this tradeoff. If you have too many different shards that you require to build it back, you stand the chance of losing a
all of them. If you have too few, it's too easy to compromise. So that's actually just something that's always open and like and is based on your personal needs. But yeah, I think the shard, the geographic sharding that you're talking about is that ability to make sure that they're always going to have an ability to get them back.
I feel like, you know, one of the reasons why I wanted to ask and learn a little bit more about this is that like, I'm wondering if I need to do anything about it. And it says, you know, you just said that you were just not going to opt in. So I'm assuming that you're going to keep your ledger. I know that
Ledgers in general and hardware wallets have such a hard time Like just connecting to wallets. I feel like it's it's always kind of difficult But ledgers have always been like the easiest one so I really don't want to have to switch to a treasurer or any other like weird, you know alternate option. So do you think that we can
We can just hold on to our ledgers as long as we don't opt in. We'll probably be fine. That becomes a very like that becomes a personal question about your own risk tolerance. And what is best for each person? I we definitely going to be fine. There's always a risk in security.
nothing is perfect, nothing can ever be guaranteed. I will probably stay with my ledger for at least for the time being just because I don't see a better option for me as a power user right now. But what this does open the world up to is like, hey, this whole misnomer of like
It's a hot wallet sitting in security versus the cold wallet, not your keys, not your crypto type of thing. There are other options. So there's like multi-party computation is one way of doing it where you sign something, someone else sign something, and only if the two of them get signed and this isn't a multi-seag.
This is actually mathematically guaranteed cryptography. You need both of them to be to sign. So there's like another option, like a completely different paradigm that most people don't think of. You can have a look at like Zengo, there a wallet that provides this. And that's a really interesting way of doing it.
Because I need such programmatic access. It's not appropriate for what I do, but for a lot of people it may actually be. So I think a lot of these things are going to start coming to light and people are going to start thinking differently now. And sorry, I know I didn't answer the question because I don't think it's appropriate for me to say, "Hey, you should definitely use the ledger.
definitely shouldn't. It comes down to people's risk tolerance levels. I don't think the risk has necessarily increased. Anyone who is doing anything nefarious already knew this. They were digging into the details as far as not using this system is concerned.
All I heard was we should definitely just stick with ledger. That's what I heard. I don't know about you guys, but it's been kind of cutting off. I don't know. Just getting Aaron. I'm just kidding. I know you're being very serious here. And I really do appreciate you just kind of giving us all of the facts.
and allowing us to make that decision ourselves. You know, I think that this is sort of a larger scenario, like a larger, interesting situation here that we will, I think, be facing for a while now in this sort of battle between
creating tools and options for the folks who are incredibly crypto native and then doing things that hopefully will help the adoption of people who are just here for convenience. And so I think we're probably going to be seeing a lot more of these
sort of pain points with different teams trying to do things that hopefully will help grow their business and then people may be freaking out if it's not really within this very OG crypto, very narrow scope of what this crypto
like space is all about right and so I think it was just an interesting case study for sure just to watch it all play out and I hope you know I hope for the best it feels like probably the easiest thing would have been to just like introduce a completely different model or a way to opt in today
you know, without it affecting every single model, but you know, that's that's on them. That's I don't know how how they sort of deal with their own products and stuff, but super super interesting. Thank you so much, Aaron, for coming along. If you have any questions, anybody in the crowd, feel free to
question come up and talk more about that. But like I said, I do think that a lot of the drama has kind of moved on to some other, you know, random news of the day, but really wanted to get you up here, get your takes, and wanted to feel a little bit safer. And I do. So thank you.
pleasure. Yeah, I have an answer questions if anyone has any. So thank you so much. But yeah, this is this is just a chill vibe space. Like I said, this is our you know, alt space, you know, the bosses are around. I know Aaron's our VP of engineering, but you know, he's not as
much of a boss. But we've got a boss. How are you? How are you supposed to be all nervous? Where's the boss? We all know that. Yeah, we do. We do. We've got forest here, our director of collector experience. We get a couple semi bosses here on the stage and then we've got Felix, our new director of operations.
I know a lot of you guys have been seeing Felix on the timeline a lot more recently. He's pretty active though. He's been here from day one, day one mentor of the Prudecollective and obviously Birdholder. He got two birds on the men's but then he's bought some on secondary.
You've just been here through all of the ups and downs of launching this project and here you are now on the team. I just wanted to give you a little platform to introduce yourself and give us a little breakdown of what these last two weeks have been. How are you feeling about everything?
Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I did a little post amounting to the top, but I'm sure most people in this audience probably saw it, but I made the comment that almost everyone in this space is investing east or dollars into Web 3, and there's a home
I think historically I probably spent like 5% of my effort in the space because I had a very busy personal life and we had a growing family and as it became more and more inevitable
I was fluttering in the idea of taking the leap and trying to figure out where I would land. And ultimately, this opportunity kind of started to present itself. And I took it a couple weeks ago. I would say the last couple of weeks, so it was two weeks and three and a half weeks.
days in, who's counting? I'd say I've been drinking from a fire hose. In my role I get to touch a lot of facets and with that using that analogy, drinking from a fire hose but it tastes good. It's very exciting and I am more excited about the
than when I was on the outside, so to speak. I've been connecting with Ian from Ledger. He and I caught up, had some beers and really kicked it off, talking from back in his days when he was running beats and like win-amp days, met with A16Z, Coinbase,
like a bunch of moves and shakers out of bright moments on Tuesday, you know, overpriced JPEGs, that with the D-Gods team, like just connecting and having this level of talent and enthusiasm around you really solidified that this was the right decision, my straight
out the gate. And if you were to objectively look at where a lot of the talent in the tech space is, it's in Web 3 and AI. And I just feel privileged to be able to successfully pull off the pivot into this space. And yeah, very, very excited for the future holdings.
I love it. I love it. Yeah, definitely drinking from her fire hose is a really great way to put it. I've been here for a year and still feels that way sometimes.
after like you know a week like last week or these last couple of weeks and it's super exciting it's hard for sure especially with us
soon, Aaron, you know, we'll have young kids at home. It's not easy, but it's definitely worth it. Looks like my condition is losing. So let me know if I'm rugged.
We lost you there for a sec, but I think we heard that we heard the heart part.
All right, we got I see corporate trash in the stage. I kind of want to bring you up because I kind of want to hear what's going on at Vcon. I you've been like such a big Vcon
maxi for so long and I want to know like what what did they do there? Um, well you're gonna come up. If anybody else wants to come up, please do. Come hang. We're just hanging out.
Yeah, and if you have questions either come up or just drop them in the little chat bottom right open book within reason Corporate trash. She can't she can't come up. I'm assuming is probably intense somewhere wherever you are
But yeah, it's gonna be a it's gonna be kind of a slow weekend. I know because everyone's at the corner and I feel that I Feel that FOMO for sure It sucks to not be part of like a big NFT thing, but I'm sure it's I'm sure it'll be a really great time
It's just some really great people in the audience though. We got phrase, we got galo v. So I met you last week. That was a lot of fun. Jam. I love you, Jam. We got Super Bullish. She was one of our new awesome, very, very bullish little baby whales in the community. I know
So he's looking to increase some more soon. So that's awesome. Thank you so much for coming. Hang it out. See you smoke. So smoke. High color block. You are one of our community council members. Do you want to come up? I'd love to hear, you know, it's really, really interesting to hear people who have just sort of joined the
team and one way or the other. I would definitely consider a council to be, you know, another group of people who are really been super, super instrumental in some of our comms recently, some of our decisions. They've just been such a good group of people and a lot of them have been around since day one.
So they know us really well, they know, you know, we just know how to kind of communicate with them and connect with them and it's been amazing. It's been amazing. If you want to go ahead and come up, but it's fine if you don't. Let's see, Felix, do you want to, is there any, is there any alpha on like, you know, what are the
things that you are focused on right now. What are some of the things that you'll be sort of tackling in this first couple of months? We'll just call it life alpha because it doesn't just apply to proof, but one of the things that I'm personally striving to do
is help the company shift into more of a proactive culture versus reactive, which is always a struggle with a startup. And especially the boomerang that this proof started in, it's so hard to be proactive because the market is shifting and moving so quickly that you
I'm an analogy kind of person. I use this one where it's like a Kevin and co-built a ship and it was in a storm and it was sailing quickly and it was going left and right and the direction may have been law uncertain at times because of the elements and now the storms passed.
We're in calm waters and we're looking around there's a bunch of ships. We're all the other Web 3 projects. Some of them are sinking, some of them are calling for help, some of them are sitting off in their direction now that the storm's passed. Part of this is true North and that's the phrase that gets a bit of
criticism, but you know the idea is that it's a direction not a destination and I think that that's being figured out, well I don't think I know it's being figured out, and part of getting as far as long as we can in that direction is not being proactive versus reactive. So
with that being said, you know, Mythics is the next significant thing coming down the pipeline and then having a very proactive approach on that is paramount and then off the back of the diamond nest raffle there was some for those
that were paying attention, some of the art pieces that were picked up out of Grail's artists or proof artists, correlated to some backgrounds. So expanding on that with the Moonbirds based on what's in your wallet so you can start to play with that and also, you know, some people can flex not many people using it for that
as a as a pfp, but so you can start to play around with your you know your online visual identity and that's probably all I can say for now. Yeah that's that's that's probably where I'll leave it from an alpha perspective.
So we're not going to get any alpha this is Felix is not the new K-Row guys because he's not going to tell you anything. It's two. It's two. Oh, yeah, we haven't been drinking. One one beer. It is two early. Kevin. All right, come back. Come back for happy hour and we'll see what we pull out of you.
Um, but yeah, no, I think there is one thing I'll add. One thing I'll add. And that's, and again, it's probably not alpha, but it might reassure some of the community to some degree is, um, as a holder from day one, like I'm into the proof pass, and I've been active, um, for the last 16 months.
proof actually the discord open to the same day my son was born so it's easy to remember how how old proof is it's you know in my position I get to sit in a lot of meetings and strategic discussions and you know product discussions where I think as a
community member first because I was one for so long and my goal is to not lose sight of that and bring that perspective. You know, it can be difficult for a Kevin or a Justin or you know, an Aaron or or even Stevie, like, you know, being on one side of the fence.
You just get accustomed to, you know, you spent most of your experience on that side of the fence, your building, your how to work, head down, you know, meanwhile I've spent, you know, the last 16 months head up, like wondering and speculating and suggestions and doing bits of pieces and engaging the community. So bringing that perspective
to the table, I think is invaluable. And I just want to give kudos to the team for recognizing the value in that. I think hiring from within your community, no different to promoting within your company in a traditional sense, is, you know, it's a luxury. It's not always possible because you've got to match skill sets.
and leads etc. But if you can do it, I think it pays off in dividends. So I'll give credit to the team for recognizing it. And for those that are holders in the audience, just like I said, I'm a holder at first because I have been for the last 16 months. So I'm wired that way.
I love that. I love to hear it. Yeah. Danny is another one of our team members that we just hired and she's from the community from day one and she's been incredible within the subparliament community and just as an active participant in web3 and it's been amazing to see her jump in. Obviously,
Benny was a holder before he got hired as well. So as Alex, it is really really cool that we have so many folks and Sadeek as well, I think, too, and Will. So it's just really cool to see how many people we actually have hired from within our community.
community or just folks who've been just super plugged in super bullish on us whether or not they were super active in our community, you know, in the beginning, you know, they always had that faith and trust in the team. I would have loved to have been a holder before it before I got hired. I just didn't win the I didn't win the raffle.
but I definitely tried to just because I saw everything that Kevin was building and wanted to jump in. So it's been really cool to be on this side but very, very helpful to see your point of view and what you think is important
important for us to sort of focus on. That's been really great. I'm really curious to hear, you know, especially as you're mentioning about the proof collective, you know, what do you want to see in these next couple of years? I guess we have about a year and a half left. Is anyone, if anyone doesn't know the proof collective?
is a three year pass always has been you know it launched in 2012 2022 sorry and it uh no wait 2021 when did it launch January 2022 right last year it it it launched just before Christmas
of 21 of the Discworld went live January 1st, 22. It was Christmas. Yeah. We were at a Christmas dinner. Harry Breaker put in excitement. Yeah, man. It's actually really, really wild that the proof collective is only about
four months older than Moonbirds, yet it feels like they've been around for so much longer. The space moves incredibly fast and slow at the same time. A lot of the things that we always wanted to make sure, and I don't know, man, it just feels like even a lot of the things that we had thought about this
space when it was launched in January versus when the moonbirds was launched in April. I think the space already changed incredibly in those four months. So it's wild. But so the past minted around December of 2022 and it's
2021 and it's going to go until January of 2025. After that, they will become Moonbird Elders. Right now, you know, the art and what in that style and what it looks like, even the name is really to up to the community
to also kind of help kind of help shape that. But there's going to be this interesting sort of limbo area of about a year and a half before they become elders. How do you feel like
You kind of want to see the proof collective grow in shape until it becomes elders. I know that's a hard question, but as a holder, somebody with that experience, as somebody who speaks to the people in the community, what would your sort of ideal outcome look like?
So I think from the proof perspective, I gave you a hard question. I'm sorry. I gotta be careful in my words. What I think would be beneficial is to have more connection.
So whether that's intimate events with smaller groups, whether it's networking, whether it's FaceTime, VoiceTime with Kevin or Justin or the team, we're going to get the art happening.
Everyone's aware of that. They know the frequency of the drops. Everyone's familiar with the quality of the drops. So that is going to happen. And I think, you know, I'm just hoping not fair to say that it's priced in because I think there's a lot of opportunity there, but outside of that, what is tangible and what's valued, you know, besides surprise things.
Redacted can't talk about would be the the connections and you know one of the things that I really missed From the early days of proof was like we just did a casual happy hour on voice chat thing was every second Friday and we'd have Kevin in there having a couple of drinks and you'd get 30 or 40 people to you and you just shoot the shit there was no
agenda for this topic, but just had a chance for a bunch of very interesting people to connect. And there's a proof collective member, Kenton, who has set up these rotating one-on-one chats. So you opt in, and he set up a little algorithm, and it matches you with someone else, and you have to schedule
You basically, you know, friend of them, you're in discord and then you set up a one-on-one zoom or a voice chat or phone call or whatever the method is. And I've been doing that somewhere or just for the last two months and you learn so much more about a person when you commit an hour to just talking and the connections that come out of that alone.
It's hard to put a price tag on. Like that is where I think the alpha is in the space. It's connecting with people and it's hard to do it over Twitter. It's hard to do it in a discord. On the phone call, it's much more effective if you can meet in person much better. But once you've sewn that seed, the
The fruits of that labor are endless really. And the most interesting part of this industry is the diverse background of members. So, you know, the traditional circles that you mix with pre-web-three generally were people that
You knew growing up people that either you went to school or college or you studied a trade with all their work colleagues or maybe you got together around a social club, you know, a country club, a football club, Criter Club, baseball, whatever it is and that was kind of it. You know, maybe there was an interest where people
people like you know, render cars or some hobby, but it was pretty closed off. And the diverse backgrounds weren't as prevalent. A lot of common interests thrown through here, you have all sorts of walks of life, different age groups, different locations, like it's as diverse as it really gets.
has managed to attract a very or cost of very wide net to the people that are in detect, the people that are in the fashion, the people that are just, you know, we're looking for community during, you know, COVID, it was like this perfect storm when it really got traction. And as a result, really connecting with
fellow community members, especially in these more intimate collections like proof, I think that's what I really want to see kind of blow up and project supporting initiatives around that I think is really important. Yeah absolutely, you hit the nail on the head there, you know I think the biggest, the biggest
The best value proposition or the best sort of ROI that you can get from the proof collective really is the exclusive relationships that you can have with people. The people and the holders are one of the most successful, nicest, smartest people I've ever met.
And you know, even again in those four months before the moonbirds launched, you all got super super close. It was really really a wonderful place to be just to see that. And we're starting to see a little bit more of that in the in the proof collective even now. It's an interesting time
right now because we're also starting to see a lot of moonbirds jump up to the proof collective now that it's a little bit more reasonable price and you know it's an interesting sort of like identity now especially as we know we're moving over to to elders I think a lot more the people in the community
have started to also really identify with also being moonbirds. So I think that the biggest thing then is that sort of like exclusive VIP level of touch and care when it comes to exclusive events or touch points with the community team or with the team in general.
And then, and then like actual relationships that you can build. And so I think that when a lot of people ask us, you know, why what is it about the proof collective that kind of makes things so different. I think it's really about the relationships, especially if you're here to network. I do think that it's a really great place, even though it's not really what the
you know, the immediate reason why we created the community is, you know, I've seen so many people connect with each other and collaborate with each other and build something amazing just because it's a tighter group of people. And so I really, really love that. And so I think that, you know, my answer is that
As we get closer towards elders and then even after elders launches, you know, this is just an opportunity for you to be in a thousand-member, tighter community. If that sort of thing is interesting to you, if you wanted a little bit more of, yeah, just closer
relationships with people as well as you know closer and more intimate opportunities for connections with artists or other builders and the people that we know I think it's it's a really really great place for that you know we have grills coming up that's the other thing that's that's happening here at Group we have
So, I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's a lot of fun. I think that's#
I think we lost you that for a second.
I'm sorry. Yeah, you back now. Sorry about that. I was just saying there are some redacted things that we can't talk about that we're working on for the proof collective that I'm super excited about, but again bottom bottom line.
amazing relationships, super exclusive opportunities, and a pretty cool looking, hopefully, you mean bird elders. Justin and I were talking, he was giving me some of his ideas about what he was hoping that the elders of local
like and uh uh let's uh oh we'll see I'm excited um but it's also kind of scary I don't know I don't know if he was kidding I still have no idea if he was kidding or not um but uh I have to tell you offline because it's pretty silly
I'm down for that. The other thing I'll touch on and this doesn't get talked a lot about in this space and I saw that Luca from our fellow bird family
project has really been hit non-at-hard, which is revenue streams and actual business models and whatnot. And being a startup in a space where people are pivoting left, right and whatnot
As someone who was a holder a few weeks ago and now is joined the team and has insight to a lot of that, there's a lot of exciting aspects and avenues and different approaches that are absolutely tangible and real and the creativity around that is just second to none. The talent
that's in this team. It's a team of 30 plus people is far and all so on this. And that's something that this next six to 12 months. I'm also going to be really passionate about because that's business minded me.
I won't say any details, but I just want to stress that that's front of mind. I know I've had a few people reach out and ask me about that. Without oversharing, it's something that I was questioning a few weeks ago, and now I'm really starting to play with. It's just something that I think is worth acknowledging.
Yeah, I'm actually glad you mentioned that. I think when I find a great journey to the team. I'm really very, very exciting conversations recently about the future of proof. And I'm just excited to see it all work out. I think working on a team as dedicated
As I was saying, I'm really looking forward to seeing us explain a little bit more, said a little bit more light on to what's coming
up after Diamond, I think there's going to be this sort of new wave of what it means to be a mean bird. I'm really excited as we're doing all the, like, sort of modeling for Talons and we're thinking about all the different offerings that we can have with that token.
and where we could go with it, I think is super exciting. So yeah, I'm really happy to have you on board, especially as, you know, that community point of view, as well as our community council as well, like they've been super helpful on that end too. So yeah, I'm pumped for the summer.
I think Forest was trying to jump in there as well. I think it was a quick talking every time. So I think you're going to get a
Oh no, it's good. I didn't know if I got rugged or not, but no, I was just going to just jump in there and say, I feel like so. I think when we all heard you were joining the team, I think one thing that I got most excited about. I just want to say how to NB, you know, NB you are somebody that I, I love listening.
to you because you are in these like absolute de-dense bases and then you're like, "Can we talk about art?" and everyone's like, "No one wants to talk about art." I'm telling you, come on over, come on over to the birds. We love to talk about art.
was I talking over you I apologize oh no no worries I just want to make sure that you could hear us and all the other folks here but no I was just saying quickly if you can hear me that excited to have Felix on board and there's there's always been no shortage of ideas here and I think it's just going to be so great to have some
somebody bringing some extra operational rigor to the team and helping to make sure that we're all organized to achieve some of those great things we have planned. So yeah, just stoked to have someone on board that can really help conduct all of the things that we're trying to accomplish. So excited.
I can't hear a damn thing. I was just saying you're incredible, you're a Stevie.
Yeah, I can hear everyone. Yeah, I see forest is unmuted. So I'm assuming he's talking, but I can't hear you. So at forest, it might it might be easier if you just like hop on. He looks muted to me. I don't know. What's up, Don? What's up?
Let me guess go vote. Wow, not just that I I've known Felix for a very long time and We're very close. He is a fantastic hire on proofs part So congratulations
to both parties, Felix and Proof. You guys are a match made in heaven if you will. You know, he's been pretty much since the day I walked into the door I proved and I'm on birds and
You know, it was really somebody that basically, you know, he's a guy that a lot of people are a traitley. He demands attraction, if you will. And, you know, he just gives out so much positive energy and positive energy.
that it's just almost impossible to deny. He's just a fantastic person, a hard worker, you know, everything that he puts out there in terms of, you know, content or helping people out in the
community, everything is just tap-natch. I've seen a person, a lot of the deep dives that he's done, and just really digging into the weeds and putting his feet in and just staying positive throughout the ride that we've had.
I just wanted to say congratulations to Felix and also to Proof as well. It's really a great hire. I appreciate that. I like to say that the last couple of years has been dating or even
floating and then we're all left aside to get married. So there's not many opportunities, well not many chances where you get to play around with a new career in your spare time and then have the opportunity to actually pursue it and you know I look back
I think a lot of the things that happened in my life have like set me up for this moment. So I'm feeling very grateful and I'm hoping to obviously contribute and make the people proud that A.I. had me and B that I'm now serving which is the community.
Love to hear it, man. You know what's kind of cool is in a very early nation like space as as crypto and as web 3 you have people coming from such different backgrounds and it's so cool to see how we've all ended up here and and and how
have done for a lot of us, this is like the first real, real crypto job that we've had. We're learning just like with everybody else here. It's really, really hard to hire people. So you, I think, have to look at their core soul, the things that they can
to a team, how kind of competent they are, how hardworking they are, how passionate they are, and every single one of us is just incredibly passionate about the work that we're doing here and trying to really make an impact. And I think that that's all you really need to be, well, you need a little bit more, but that's one
of the things that you really need to be successful here in the space. I think I'll add to that and say, "Look, it's not hard to hire. It's hard to hire well." There's a lot of people that will take a job in the space because it's the shiny object syndrome. They want to try something new, but if they're going to actually stick it out and when you invest
in people and you're building a brand, a company, a business, etc. like having tenure and limited turnover is imperative, especially in a startup culture where the enthusiasm is contagious.
and you need that positivity. So being selective is really difficult, making sure that you're hiring strategically. And we've seen it with other projects where people hire and they're there for a bit and they leave and they bounce around. So I think hiring from within the community and Stevie was listening
I think it's important because like the analogy I use, it's like dating, right? You're figuring out if it's a good fit, you're starting to communicate with the team members and then assuming there's a skill set in a need, it can be a match made in heaven. It's not for the faint heart of the team.
though. It's one of those spaces where it doesn't sleep and there's obviously an element of building in public but then there's an element of building in public with instantaneous feedback which can be difficult but it can also be a strength and it's a
about using the community to test things, especially if you're going to scale them beyond that, whether that's testing physical products or market testing large scale processes or drops or whatever mechanics, it's really interesting.
this next, it's probably going to take 12 to 24 months to really define in this space what the community's role is because the price go up to the right is not everyone's goal. It's nice, but no one joins a country club because they think their memberships they can exit out of profit.
there's obviously a tangible value there and that's just one analogy here. Like I said, price up to the right, everyone's at myself included, but it's a lot deeper than that and I think this bear that we're in is really going to solidify what that is and it's going to separate great projects from good projects.
totally agree, totally agree. For us, I'd love to hear a little bit more about how you came on the team. Tell us a little bit about where you used to come from and how do we find you? Yeah, I can absolutely share. Apologies you might see. You might hear a little bit of a thunder rumbling in the distance.
since there's a storm brewing here. But, yeah, so Forest Anderson, director of Collector Experience here at Proof, been here a year just as of a couple days ago. Joined back in May, got to work early on with Stevie and the rest of the community team here as I joined.
a little bit about my background, so prior to proof, I spent about a decade working for a B2B software company called Zendesk, where I essentially ran a team and operated like a mini-consultancy within the company where we advised some of the top companies at the time and top companies still on their customer experience.
You know journey mapping and customer experience strategy overall. So got a lot of experience working with startups and companies on the programs like we're developing here proof today. Although it was a different industry of course, but through my work there got to to participate in something we called the outside opportunity.
I think it's kind of like what Felix mentioned about dating and kind of getting a taste of what you might want to do before you dive all the way in. As part of working at Zendesk, I got to consult some companies and advise outside of my role there, which led me to some great opportunities working with Kevin on some of the initiatives that he
work on between his time at Google Ventures and Houdinkie and the like. So when the Moonbirds meant happened and things kind of blew up quickly, we knew that there was an opportunity to jump in and kind of start putting some operational stuff and processes in place to help scale.
customer experience and collector experience here at Proof. So, so heard from Kevin and you know I joined a small company in between my time as in desk and coming here and it was just an opportunity that I couldn't turn down you know both that opportunity to work with such a brilliant team as well as just a community that seemed extremely passionate about what we're here to do.
and obviously growing up in a family where art was a big deal. My mom was an art teacher. My whole life was an obvious choice to join a company where I could merge my love of tech and customer experience as well as art together. So that's a little summary of how I got here.
Hopefully my mic was working there. We got you loud and clear. Perfect. Oh, I can't hear you at all. He just wrapped up. It was spectacular. I'll have to give you the run by run. There were a lot of incredible jokes in there, Steve. I couldn't hear you, but I'm sure you told everyone
your amazing story and coming in here and coming into this space has just been such a great like it's just been so great to have you do. I'm happy you're here. He was telling everyone how he just shaved his beard off but he kept the flavor save up and then he was six foot eight flavor saver.
really say flavor saver I hope so this is not something that forced with ever so it's in my it's in my regular now it's flavor saver or lip warmer there's so many things I'm learning from Felix I can't hear you for so I don't know if you're he's gonna be speaking Australian slang before we know absolutely
And for those for those playing at home, I'm gonna blow at least I think two people's mind in the audience slaying is short for short is the the shortened version of shortened language slang Wow, you did well. I might I had no idea
That's so cool. Well, I'm happy that everyone got to hear a little bit of everyone's sort of origin story. Mine is fairly easy. I think a lot of people know about it, but former local governments drone worked in local government. My whole sort of
career post college was very, very passionate about working for just working for the public and helping change and shape policy. That was like my biggest thing, I have a Masters in Public Policy and really wanted to
have an impact especially on the things that happen to folks every single day. So I worked in local government, in city government here in Los Angeles, and was here on maternity leave, got really into crypto and found an FTs.
You know, was close friends with Eli before working a group and he told me about the mod job and in a way to sort of rebel against going back to work post COVID I decided to take it on and say if I could maybe trade and mod at the same time
And my role has just, you know, really sort of blossomed over time. So again, we all kind of come from all these very, very different places, but have a lot in common with the roles that we have here at EPROOF. And I do think that our points of views have been incredibly valuable.
They're very valuable and obviously very professional on all of those other things. But I do think also this sort of combination of really involving our community, listening to our community and also just participating in the space can teach you so much more
than anything that you could learn in another industry. So I do think that combination of those two incredibly powerful aspects to building a good project are key. And so I'm really looking forward to this new phase. I have to hop off.
a meeting here in four minutes. But it was so great to kind of hang out with you. I kind of like these, you know, if we ever cancel parliament, you know, why can't we all just hang out and have a little community touchpoint. So I'm down to do this more often. Thank you so much Felix and for us for joining me.
Applause. Look forward to the next one. Let's go. Likewise, thanks for setting this up, Stevie. All right, y'all. For sending your talking, I cut you off. I apologize.
Let's get off of here because I can't handle being this rude and cutting you off like this. Thank you all so much for hanging so fun. We'll see you soon. Bye guys.