Howdy, howdy, howdy, guys.
Two more minutes here for some more people to roll in.
Hey folks, how's it going?
Everything's moving and shaking.
Excited to hear what you guys have been up to and talk about some facts of the future.
Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year?
Have we passed the statute of limitations for that?
I don't think it's ever too late to wish someone a Happy New Year.
I mean, have you ever watched the show, Curb Your Enthusiasm?
There's a fantastic episode where Larry David, he's the writer of Seinfeld, it's like a
story about his life, basically.
He plays himself in the show.
And there's a great episode where Larry David, who's the writer of Seinfeld, plays himself
And it's a great episode where Larry David is the writer of the show.
Basically, he plays himself in the show.
And there's a great episode where he talks about someone wishes him a Happy New Year
like three weeks into the New Year.
And he's like, eh, I think it's a little too late for that.
I think the statute of limitations on wishing someone a Happy New Year is a week at most.
But in the grand scheme of time, I mean, it's basically still New Year's Day here.
Well, Nate, dude, I appreciate you jumping on here.
We're super excited about having this conversation and talking about what you
guys are up to and what we're up to and the intersection of those things.
So just if we want to kick off, we'd love for you to do a basic introduction on
Yeah, first of all, really excited as well to be here and to share what we're up to.
Really excited to be working with Collabland.
Joe, you and I have known each other for a while.
So I was really excited to hear about your new endeavors here and really looking forward
to using what you guys are working with.
But yeah, a little background on Ferrum.
We've been around for a while.
We're one of those projects that has kind of withstood the test of time, if you will.
We started back in 2018, raised a pretty insignificant amount of money at the time,
pretty grassroots company here.
I think we raised about 1.2 million from friends and family, really,
and have turned that into a business now with a market cap of around 20 million,
fully diluted valuation, I think somewhere around like 40 to 50.
And have weathered a couple bear markets now.
Not only survived two of these pretty grueling bear markets,
but actually thrived, been able to hire and not fire throughout those two bear markets,
been able to scale the team from about four employees when I came on
about three years ago to 35 plus employees right now.
A lot of that is just credit to our ability to create products
and services that people want, whether that's users, networks, projects,
you name it, a lot of different stakeholders throughout Web3 find what we build useful.
And so we've been able to form a few different verticals within the company
from B2B services to token utility.
And then also TDI, which is the incubator side of the platform,
or the company, if you will, that is responsible for incubating early stage projects.
So from products like our staking as a service, multi-swap,
our multi-chain DEX aggregator, crucible, our DeFi 2.0 product,
vesting portals, one called the iron vest that we white label for projects.
And then now we're building our main net.
We're building a multi-chain messaging engine.
We've secured a Kusama parachain, which will be migrating to Polkadot
once everything is thoroughly battle tested over on their Canary network, Kusama.
And that's going to be enabling developers to build
and deploy applications across networks.
So you can build an application using one language.
And perhaps you're building your application with Solidity,
but you can deploy it across different networks
that may use Rust languages or Golang or some of these other
widely used languages by different layer one networks.
So this is our vision of the future is true interoperability
and being able to not just move assets across networks,
but messaging and data and arbitrary information
and ultimately enable developers to build multi-chain smart contracts
and multi-chain the apps.
So that's the vision right now.
We've got a pretty hefty roadmap ahead of us for 2024.
A lot of things in the works, a lot of things lined up here.
And we just feel really confident with where we've positioned ourselves
throughout this pretty bearish last couple of years.
And we really think that we've positioned ourselves well
and they're going to see some success in this coming year.
And hopefully, as the market rebounds, that'll just be amplified.
It sounds like you guys have a lot going on.
What would you say then over time has been the main problem
that you have seeked to solve
and also which of all those different things
are you personally most excited about?
Yeah, well, you know, just kind of making a general blanket statement
and this is a pretty broad vision that we've adhered to since our inception
is reducing the barriers to entry for Web3.
And so what does that mean?
In our view, the biggest barrier to entry right now is interoperability.
We've got all these segregated communities,
segregated networks, segregated ecosystems
that exist independently of each other.
And in Web2, that's not really the case.
A company can use Stripe for its payment processing.
It can use MailChimp for its email-related services and things like that.
They can use all these different products to build a company, build a project.
That's not really the case in Web3.
You're kind of left to your own devices
as it pertains to which network you're operating in.
So that just kind of, there's a lot of opportunity with that,
but there's a lot that needs to be fixed if we want to see Web3 really kind of take off.
And until applications can exist across networks,
then I think we're still going to continue to see kind of like a limited user base
and really only Web3 native people using it.
So we want to really break down those layers of friction that exist
between users and networks and make a more seamless environment
where applications can exist across all these different networks.
If you were to call an Uber on your iPhone,
someone with an Android can pick it up, right?
So applications in Web2 are able to exist across different operating systems.
And if that wasn't the case, it would, you know,
life as we know it would be far more difficult, right?
So we need to make things as easy in Web3 as they are in Web2.
And to us, interoperability is the biggest barrier to achieving that.
So that's what I would say is like the biggest problem that we aim to solve.
Is solving the problem of interoperability.
It's something that we're calling Interoperability 2.0.
And as I mentioned earlier, that's not just the ability to move assets across networks.
That's Interoperability 1.0.
Interoperability 2.0 is being able to move information, data,
and messaging across networks.
So that's the problem we're solving.
I love the analogy with the Uber, iPhone, Android.
And that definitely is the future, without a doubt.
So in terms of what the token is used for,
what would you say is the utility of Ferrum Token?
Oh, man, there's so many. It's kind of wild, actually.
So Ferrum FRM serves as a governance token, one.
So depending on your holdings, you can have a weighted vote
in different DAO proposals that we propose.
Or that anyone in the community that meets the threshold of token holdings
It's used as a fee token in our soon-to-be-released
multi-chain DEX aggregator called MultiSwap.
So people can pay the fees at a discounted rate using FRM.
It's used to access pre-sales.
So by staking in our DeFi 2.0 product called Crucible,
you have access to early-stage investment opportunities
from projects raising, whether that's seed, private A, private B,
We've done a few public rounds, but typically we allow our investors
earlier access than public rounds through TDI.
So that's a tremendous utility.
Crucible also has transaction fees associated with it.
It's sort of like a reflection token that any time somebody
sells this kind of like mirrored version of FRM,
you can call it kind of like a wrapped version, if you will,
there's transaction fees associated to that that then get
distributed back to the stakers.
So these fees are generated through the existing circulating
supply as opposed to inflating supply with newly minted tokens
or newly released tokens.
So it's a deflationary staking mechanism that doesn't add any
inflation to the circulating supply.
Man, there's also, well, obviously, I'm missing the biggest one.
With our main net, FRM is going to be used as the gas token,
So like Ethereum, ETH is used to pay gas.
Solana, Sol is used, like all these different networks,
the native token of the network is used to pay for gas.
So that's going to be a very significant utility once our
But in the meantime, we're allowing people to stake FRM
on the network to validate transactions.
This is going to be firstly done on our quantum portal network,
which is sort of like kind of the stepping stone to our main
And so people will be able to stake FRM on the network and
receive not only transaction fees but also the way that our
token is distributed from the reserves is going to be to
those stakers and also to our treasury.
So that's something we're calling our monetary policy.
So we have these sort of they're called expansion periods
where every seven days a fixed amount of the supply gets
released to stakers on the network.
So staking FRM is going to be another massive utility.
So yeah, gas token, multi-swap fees, TDI access, being able
to be used for staking, then we've got our DeFi staking.
So there's all sorts of utilities.
I'm probably even missing some, to be honest.
There's so many utilities to FRM.
I got to say, man, there's not a lot of people could give
an answer that is that detailed.
And in terms of most of the tokens in Web 3, you got
governance tokens, maybe you've got gas tokens.
But that's pretty impressive how many different utilities.
We've been around for a minute, right?
And we haven't really retired too many things.
I mean, there's been things that haven't worked out that
But I would say the majority of what we've pushed to the
market has kind of withstood the test of time.
And so given our longevity, we've really been able to
just kind of like build on top of what we've already built
and just continue to offer new ways to utilize the token.
So yeah, I appreciate that though, man.
I'm not telling anybody to buy anything, but that does
sound like, yeah, definitely the most utility other than
a blue chip asset that I've ever heard.
So that is very impressive.
In terms of when did you say that mainnet is going
So we are going to be enabling the ability to run nodes
on the Quantum Portal Network, which, like I said,
If you think of like what Moon River is to Moonbeam
or what Karura is to Akala or what Shiden is to a star,
you can kind of think about what Quantum Portal Network
is going to be to Ferrum Network.
The difference is we're not going to have two separate
tokens, like, you know, for example, Mover with Moonbeam
That just kind of segregates the ability for people
to decide where they want to invest their money.
And so we wanted to keep a single token economy,
but still kind of follow that roadmap of, you know,
testing things out on the Canary Network with Kusama
and then migrating things over to Polkadot when it's ready.
So to answer your question, we'll be starting with
the ability to run nodes on Quantum Portal Network,
onboarding developers to kind of, you know,
test things out as far as our multi-chain messaging
engine goes over there, also building some of our own
interoperable products, migrating multi-swap,
which is our multi-chain text aggregator,
to live on top of the Quantum Portal Network
and then ultimately on top of the mainnet.
So there's a, you know, pretty tactical roadmap,
I would say, to releasing mainnet,
starting with Quantum Portal Network,
and then throughout the subsequent quarters,
you know, hoping by end of the year we should have
some form of Ferrum mainnet up and running.
So, but for sure, like, within the first two quarters
of this year, like, Quantum Portal will be in a place
where people can build, right?
Right now, it's producing blocks, right?
So the network is essentially live,
our, you know, incentivized testnet, if you will, right?
That's already live, but we're, you know,
enabling, you know, smart contract capabilities
so that builders can build apps, multi-chain dApps,
and people can run nodes to validate transactions, right?
So, you know, step by step, but those are kind of like,
that's kind of the order of events that's going to take place,
ability to run nodes, ability to build apps
on Quantum Portal Network,
and then eventually this migration towards the Ferrum Network.
But this year, you know, a lot of big things happening
And the thing, you know, about,
that's wonderful about the Datsama ecosystem
is that, like, when your testnet is essentially live,
it's not just, like, kind of testnet tokens,
like fake money being thrown around,
like you see on a lot of testnets.
Like, this is going to be, you know, real, you know,
FRM that's being used in this Kusama environment.
So in a way, you can say that, like,
this first iteration of the Ferrum Network,
the Portal Network, is a mainnet in and of itself.
So, but, yeah, like, our, you know,
enterprise-grade solution,
hoping to have ready by end of year.
Perfection takes time, right?
We've been at it for a while now, so tell me about it.
So I've told you very, very little
about what we're up to over at Collabland,
but based on what I've told you,
what are your thoughts so far,
and how do you think it's going to change the space?
So, like, look, we do a lot of brainstorming
on how we're going to achieve, like,
virality with our products and within the community
and really getting the word out there.
And, you know, the ability to kind of be an ambassador,
and receive compensation for that
is something that there's not a lot of infrastructure
in Web3 built out to enable, right?
So having these trading links that, you know,
influencers or anyone, for that matter,
if they want to share it with their family and friends,
right, can use and receive, you know,
a portion of that trade deposited to their wallet,
I think is, like, a brilliant way to achieve that virality
that I'm talking about, right?
Like, we want everyone to be telling, like,
everyone and their mom about multi-swap, right?
But we want to be able to incentivize people
without having to build out the infrastructure
ourselves to do so, which is where partners like yourselves
And I think, you know, you've kind of tackled
a very niche part of the market
that hasn't really been focused on too much,
and it's kind of a no-brainer to go with you guys
So I think Collabland is a fantastic,
has a fantastic vision, and, like,
I'm really excited to use these trading links
for our own marketing purposes,
and I'm sure our senior marketing strategist,
Tom, who's listening in from the Ferrum account,
would definitely agree with that.
You know, it's always nice to find ways
to get our products in front of more people,
and this just seems kind of like a cheat code.
So we're stoked about it.
Well put, man. Yeah, we are, too.
One thing we've learned is that you ought to build in public,
and so that's one thing that we're really emphasizing here
is understanding from projects and traders and investors
and chains what is it that excites you the most about this
and how can we tailor this to everyone's needs, right?
Because at the end of the day, links are inherently sketchy,
and but there's also a 10x opportunity
for improvement and communication
and just making this whole concept of DeFi
how do you think you guys would want to enable your community,
whether that's your actual community itself,
the KOLs and the ambassadors and admins that you guys have?
Is this something that you guys,
and please don't just say yes because you're in public
and we're friends, but is that something
that you guys would want to use
and be comfortable using with a trusted brand like Collabland?
Like, I wouldn't, beyond this Twitter spaces,
I wouldn't have like, you know, obviously,
you know, Joe, you and I go back
and like I was going to take the meeting regardless
of what you were working on,
but when you told me what you guys were all about,
it was a no-brainer because like I said,
like we have these conversations all the time
on our marketing standups of like,
all right, like when multi-swap hits production,
like what are our strategies for onboarding new users?
And like, yeah, we've got other strategies as well,
but like when this came across our desk,
I mean, we were about to like build out
our own affiliate program, you know,
I love products that allow you to focus
on your core roadmap instead of having to go build
all these like, our like,
what's the word I'm looking for?
I don't know, I can't remember the exact word,
but like additional products that like you otherwise
wouldn't have had to build, right?
Like that was the original kind of like MO of Ferrum, right?
When we were building these white label products,
these solutions that people could utilize
so that they could build out their core products.
So we built staking as a service,
we built vesting portals and what that ultimately does
is it enables the projects that are purchasing
these products not to have to focus
on building them out themselves
and focus on their core vision, right?
So it doesn't distract them from what it is
that they set out to build.
And so, you know, for us, like,
we want to focus all our energy on interoperability,
not building out affiliate programs
So having a trusted partner, like allow land
to take care of that, I mean,
that's truly what partnerships are about, right?
Like you see a lot of partnerships in the space
where it's just kind of like fluff and like,
okay, what does this really mean?
Like, so-and-so announces partnership with so-and-so,
okay, what does that entail?
It's like this, there's an obvious path here
and there's an obvious value add
that we in the company and, you know,
our community will be able to see immediately.
And it saves us a ton of time, you know,
aside from the marketing value that it adds,
like time is money too, right?
So it's like not having to pay debts to go out
and build something like this
and instead having them focus on something
that's like a part of our actual roadmap is,
So, yeah, man, like, of course,
I think this is an absolutely fantastic product
and we can't wait to get in the hands of our ambassadors
and our community in general.
One plus one equals three.
Yeah, no, you're absolutely spot on
and that's been a theme that we've seen in the space forever
is you've got all these vanity partnerships
that don't really make any sense,
but when you can provide infrastructure
that takes care of problems
and really gives you that n plus one effect
when everyone else can just focus on vision,
that's just, it's really gonna unlock a lot
and we're super excited about it,
especially once, and we're very, very fresh here,
as you can probably tell by my line of questioning,
but we're really excited about this
and, yeah, I'm curious how,
what's the next step in terms of making sure
that you guys can fully arm the Ferrum Army with this?
Yeah, I mean, like, I think, you know,
to a certain degree, the ball is in our court, right?
Like, we've got to get multi-swap across the finish line here,
we're right on the precipice
of getting this push to production,
and so, you know, we want to give people something
And like, we want people to be able to promote
what we've been talking about,
not something that, you know,
has been in existence for a while,
so we want this to be centered
around our flagship product, multi-swap,
and then eventually, you know,
we'll use it to promote our mainnet as well,
but multi-swap just makes the most sense for us right now,
and so, like I said, the ball's kind of in our court,
and as soon as we get this across the finish line
and we're able to get the product in the hands of our,
you know, the broader community,
then this is something that needs to be released
in parallel, in my opinion.
Like, we need, like, as soon as this is ready,
we need to have these links ready to go,
and so I'm sure this is a discussion
that you and I will be having within the next week or two
when the product is ready to go to production,
that, like, the links are already there,
and, like, it can be part of that initial marketing push,
as opposed to, like, pushing the product out,
letting the hype die out about it,
and then, you know, hitting them with the links
like a few weeks later, right?
Like, we want this to be, like, a one-two punch,
like, release the product,
put the links in the hands of our ambassadors.
Every, you know, community member gets a link
and, like, boom, we're off to the races,
so in terms of next steps,
get the product to market, and that's it,
and, like, you know, I got to connect so we can get these links ready
I would even say that a big part of the crypto space
is this idea of speculation,
so if you tell me that Multiswap is coming very soon,
also, this utility token you can buy right now with one click,
that's going to be able to be used,
and here's the incentives and here's why you'd want this,
I think that's even more powerful than if you tell me,
there's this thing called Multiswap, it's live,
there's this utility token.
I think that latency period, that's the hype,
that's what crypto's all about, is the alpha,
so there's definitely something to be said about that.
You're absolutely right, Jim.
People buy on rumors and sell on news,
so let's have this meeting tomorrow.
For real, for real, like, that made so much sense,
so let's get people these links before the product's even out.
That's a one call close, ladies and gentlemen.
Do you see how we did that, guys?
Oh, no, I'm just playing, dude.
If there's not anything else that you wanted to show
while we're here, then we'd love to wrap it up there
and see how we can get this going ASAP, guys.
Everybody here, check out FRM token.
And, of course, do your own research,
but look out soon here for a copy trade link
to make it super easy to buy with one click.
I see why you brought me here, Joe.
As soon as you closed it, you're out.
That's it, dude. It's that easy.
Like, well, nothing else to talk about.
We got them. See you, folks.
I mean, we could even have this meeting right now, Nick.
We don't have to wait until tomorrow.
I'm free, man. That's so funny.
No, but, yeah, thank you to everybody who came on
and listened. If you don't know about FRM
and what we discussed was of any interest to you guys
solving the problem of interoperability,
We'd love to see some new faces in the community.
And if you guys have any questions,
feel free to DM me any time on Telegram.
I'll never DM you first, but my Telegram is at Cryptodeo.
You can DM me on Twitter, too.
So we'd love to answer any of your questions about FRM
and what we're up to any time.
And, yeah, I hope to see some of you guys around.
And, Joe, thanks so much for hosting this.
And we'll talk soon about these links
and get the ball rolling.
Thank you, everybody, for being here,
and especially you, Nick.
Appreciate the time and super excited about this.
Likewise, man. Thanks so much.