Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Living on Blockchain. Today we are speaking to Justin from GameStar Exchange. GameStar is basically a P2P network for gift card exchange and it’s making waves in the NFT space.
They’re live with their testnet and their mainnet goes live within the next 30 days. This was a super interesting conversation because we touched upon certain trends in this space and what Justin really feels very strongly about. So I really can’t wait for you guys to hear this.
Let’s deep dive right in. Hi Justin, thank you so much for taking out the time to speak to us today. How are you doing? How’s it going Tarusha? Hopefully I’m saying your name well.
I’m doing well, thank you. Okay, thank you so much for taking out the time to speak to us. Can you tell us a little about your background and how you got into crypto? Yeah, it’s definitely got to be through media, you know, just multimedia, digital media.
There’s just so much to get into, you know, just being of the generation that I am. Naturally just being raised, born and raised essentially in the web, well, you know, pre-web one. But essentially getting into that and not just, you know, just doing, you know, simple things took a long time sometimes and it was quite linear, but it was a good experience though.
I think it really taught us a bridge to more digital virtual experiences. So it’s just a natural progression, I suppose. But I suppose what got me into things as intensely as they are now may have just been the application of NFTs.
Okay. So, you know, what is your background? Like you mentioned that, you know, you’ve been witnessing web one and web two and obviously that kind of really taught us where is the gap. And that is why, you know, we’re all in this space and web three.
But essentially, so you were always working in tech? I mean, I’ve always been into technology. I used to definitely take things apart in my home. So engineering, perhaps in some ways, I would take apart the fan, the toaster.
I would take apart part stereos. Wow. Your parents must not be big fans of you, right? No, I put them back together quite well.
All right, good. So I made sure that, you know, I would be safe. I played safe.
There were a few things I couldn’t actually unlock because I didn’t have the right tools at the time. But it was always fun to me to explore that type of stuff. And really the background, I suppose, as it applies would be more specifically sound design, things like that.
Music production. Wow. Okay.
The idea to have. Yeah. So having an avenue, having an outlet, a new outlet.
It’s just a new tool, right? It’s just a new tool. Yeah, that’s true. That’s a lovely way of putting it.
So, you know, you said that, you know, you kind of got into the space in a bigger fashion when you stumbled upon NFT. So could you tell us a little about what you’re building currently? Yeah. So we’re building an NFT marketplace.
Absolutely. For metaverse items, game. There are a lot of things happening.
I would definitely say probably check some of the links that are going to be supported with this release. But essentially, there’s a market of gift card traders in the world. Right.
So gift card trading is it’s a large market. So the platform is largely focused on gift cards and game items. Right.
So people want to trade their game items, centralized games, traditional games and decentralized game items. So digital assets. There are various games that people play on their PCs and mobile.
So can you go on GameStar and perhaps like, I don’t know, trade like your Pokemon cards or something like that? Is that possible? Virtual items, yes. Okay. Physical items, perhaps if the community really wants it, we could figure something out.
Because you mentioned traditional games. Right. And, you know, I am a 90s kid.
So I’m just thinking in terms of cards and, you know, the collectibles that we used to have. So is that like perhaps on the roadmap? Yeah. You know, I wanted to go back to that as well, actually, because the idea that NFTs can only represent digital items, perhaps on the blockchain, it’s not entirely correct in a sense, because you could definitely have an NFT that’s attached to a physical item.
Right. It could be a shirt. I’ve seen it.
It could be at home. We’ve seen it. You know, it’s any physical item.
So, yeah, if people want to create an NFT that represents the tokenization or certificate of ownership of a physical item, then absolutely go for it. You know, take one of the books in your collection, you know, take a T-shirt that you got from a Michael Jackson concert. Right.
You know, it’s up to you. It’s up to you guys to do. So, yes, absolutely.
That could be traded on our platform as long as people, you know, it’s up to the people to make the NFT. We’ll facilitate it. So, you know, we don’t, it’s a trustless platform.
It’s a permissionless platform. There’s no, you know, you can freely use the platform. We don’t need any identification of any sort.
You know, crypto, you know, so, yeah. Well, that’s that’s like really interesting. So basically, you know, if I want to perhaps create an NFT today on, say, my, you know, I don’t know, wrestling cards or like the collectibles that I have.
So I can easily do that. Like I can just go on your platform, sign up and, you know, sell it. Well, essentially, as we’ve launched so far, we’ve definitely gone full force, full steam into gift card trading and game items.
So the platform is just about to go live. It’s actually live right now on testnet. So people have been trading for, you know, I don’t, you know, let’s just say a month or so.
And, you know, working out any type of bugs and essentially mainnet is going to be launching quite soon. Within the month, as a matter of fact, you know, based on the data, essentially within a month is our plan. So people, you know, all across the world are going to be able to trade over.
I mean, are currently trading gift cards and, you know, all across the world. It’s an interesting thing. That’s actually really cool.
I never really thought that, you know, the space, because this is essentially a niche, right? That you’re targeting. I never thought that, you know, this is like big enough market, like in terms of, you know, gift cards being exchanged. But this is really interesting that you guys have this and, you know, you’re kind of scaling it.
This must be crunch time for you considering, you know, you’re saying the testnet is live in a minute, goes live in a month time. Well, we’re just working, you know, everybody’s picking up anything that’s left on the ground. Just all working together, you know.
Right. Yeah. Okay.
So, you know, right now, you know, you’re obviously your next big milestone would be, you know, the mainnet going live. Then what after that? Like what is, are you exploring other niches? Because, you know, as I mentioned, asset-backed NFTs, they’ve become a sort of a thing. And I’m talking about it because right now there was a movie that had launched, you know, kind of gotten released in India.
And there is a company called Socials Fang. So what they essentially did was this movie was called 83 and basically depicted, you know, the 1983 World Cup win of India, which is a cricket. And they had kind of their own NFTs, which were backed by cricket paraphernalia.
So is that something that you’re looking to do? Cricket paraphernalia. Is that what you said? Okay. Yes.
Yeah, definitely. You know, I’ve been watching some cricket-based cryptos, you know, last year, 2021 and such. A couple of them caught my eye.
So I definitely watched those. Now, I’m not sure I got your entire question. I definitely did enjoy the barking.
That was nice. All the fun things that come with working from home. So, no, I think I got you though.
So, essentially, what we’re planning, you know, what’s on the roadmap is, of course, to add the various trading, accepted traded items. So, for now, we’re launching, we’ve got the game items, right? Pardon me, the gift cards. So the gift card market is leading the way, right? Game items.
So centralized game items. So we’re looking at, you know, again, if you use Steam and you play video games on Steam, for example, or other games and you want to trade your gold in some of your RPGs or something like that, you know, you could trade them on a platform for cryptos, right? Starting with BUSD and BTCB, right? So, you know, we’re planning to move to Polkadot. Wow, that’s a big ecosystem that you guys are going to tackle then.
Well, that’s right, because ultimately we want this to be something that can be as far reaching as possible to get into the hands of the people that actually need it. So that interoperability is really important. Absolutely.
So right now, you know, do you have plans to like be on Polkadot as well, considering a lot of, you know, the NFT bars and all these gaming platforms are coming up on Polkadot? Is that on the roadmap as well? Yeah, so we’re definitely looking at this, right? Again, you know, the Polkadot idea is something that’s really important to us. And we’re definitely internally speaking about, you know, different chains and just other platforms that we could use to expand what we’re doing. Right.
So and then, of course, continuing a little bit with the roadmap, right? It’s important to also know, like I said, the NFT, so that will be coming a little bit later. But we’re working on some, you know, we’re working on some new things, some new media ideas. We have, you know, blogs out.
And, you know, we’re working on essentially other ways to perhaps educate people on the market and, you know, on ways to trade and earn, right? Get paid. Find different ways to make money. Everybody’s home, right? It’s a virtual world.
A lot of stuff is happening. So, you know, there’s just, you know, expanding and expanding and providing more opportunities for that space. Right.
So Metaverse, of course, is a big talk of town. And maybe in, I suppose, in mainstream media, perhaps NFTs are the big talk of town. And NFT and the whole Metaverse idea may be kind of a controlled narrative, more to one side.
Mainstream media. But, you know, the blockchain is wide open. So that whole idea of giving access to people to trade peer to peer in a decentralized way, their game items, right? Their digital assets, their centralized game items, their mobile phone game items, you know, their gift cards.
Right. We’re definitely looking to that. So, you know, we’re looking to get to the NFT trading soon.
But I definitely would say we have some surprises coming up. I’ll just say that, you know. Yeah.
You’re being very mysterious, Justin. We usually get founders to like spill the beans here on my podcast. But I’m glad, you know, you kind of mentioned education, right? And how, you know, it’s important to sort of educate the end user around creating these NFTs.
And perhaps, you know, whenever you’re educating any user about any kind of value, you know, it’s kind of there is a learning curve involved. So is that something that, you know, you guys have faced as well? That, you know, just sort of making people understand that there is value to these NFTs? Because that is something, you know, I get asked a lot that, you know, with NFTs, people are not sure of the value being ascribed to them. And here, because, you know, you’re talking in a niche, is that a challenge that you face as well? And if you have, then how are you trying to perhaps, you know, manage to like sort of convince these people and get over this obstacle? I see.
Well, we definitely, like I mentioned, do put out blogs where there’s content there. There’s also we just recently started recording some other media, some podcasts. Right.
So we’re getting into that side of things as well. Some of it happens to be educational content. And I think just by nature, speaking about technologies, educational to many.
Yeah. Right. So I think just, you know, by virtue of us being in the space, we are educating people.
Right. So as long as we continue to expand our reach with our media and the inclusion of various digital assets and just assets in general, we are essentially opening a way for knowledge to just continually be poured out and shared. OK, so do you feel like this lack of awareness around perhaps NFTs or perhaps some preconceived notions that people might have that, you know, this seems like a bubble, which was called a bubble a few months, until a few months back.
Is that somewhat of a challenge for you to get like your initial sort of clientele or initial users? Has it been a challenge? Yeah, I would say absolutely. You know, however, you know, with the long term goal, if you really do look at it as a bubble, it doesn’t have to continue to inflate until it pops. Right.
We can let a little air out and have some rhythm with it. And, you know, it expands and, you know, it has to take a break. People, you know, sell off and pay their, you know, pay to live and do different things, you know, to enrich their lives.
And then when they feel comfortable, you know, there’s so much happening in finance all over the world. So, you know, it is a challenge in a way, but at the same time, it’s if there wasn’t a challenge, then what would we be doing it for? Right. It’s a long term plan.
It’s a long term project. It’s something that has the ability to touch and benefit so many people around the world. Absolutely.
I think, you know, NFTs and, you know, this entire metaverse has kind of opened up so many opportunities for all of these people who were like, if you just talk about gaming per se, you know, you can actually get paid for just playing games on certain networks. And that in itself, I think, is amazing because earlier these people who are like usually the gamers, they were ridiculed for spending a lot of time online and in this virtual environment. But slowly we are all moving into the metaverse.
Yeah, it’s ultimately, ultimately it’s inevitable. I mean, we are here right now. Yeah.
Just, you know, imagine if we just, you know, controlled a character and walked into the meeting room and then, you know, here we are. So it’s really not that far fetched. Employment in the metaverse is really not that far fetched.
Pardon me. It’s really just it’s kind of, dare I say, obvious, at least to me. It seems that it would be an obvious thing because there’s such an opportunity.
And it’s so apparent and it’s being marketed slowly by in the mainstream media, by major companies, and it’s kind of obvious. But yeah, you know, I think there’s a lot of promise for interesting things and productive things in the space. So what I mean is it’s it’s so inclusive in the sense that everybody can use it.
They can wash their hands in it. They can do whatever they want in it. Right.
You can empower in it. There’s it’s it’s fine. You know, it’s just like it’s really just, you know, a further extension of the web, you know, the Internet.
Yeah, I truly concur here. I think it’s just a natural progression that, you know, we are all moving towards this virtual world and this metaverse that people keep talking about. You know, I was asked recently, who is a part of the metaverse? And, you know, I said, if you know, you’re looking if your screen time is as high as usually is for, you know, the average Joe, then you’re already in the metaverse.
You’re already, you know, interacting. We are more interacting and socializing on a virtual level than physically. And obviously, COVID has kind of accelerated that.
Well, like I said, you know, there have been a lot of opportunities lately. Yeah. Right.
So one thing that’s important to me, though, is security. Right. Really understanding how to be secure in Web3.
Right. Web3 is going to be today. And this is what we’re calling it.
This is how we have deemed it. This evolution here. Cool.
Now, people need to understand how to be secure and more secure. They need a better understanding of security than they did, you know, in previous generations, let’s say, because now ideally and theoretically, perhaps it is your information and you should be maintaining and controlling it and, you know, in some way protecting it. Yeah, absolutely.
So, you know, Web3, I think in its entirety, it gives you a lot more freedom. But obviously that freedom comes at the cost that, you know, you have to take on more responsibility. You know what you mentioned that, you know, we need to be more responsible about our own information.
It’s like a part of us that is there. And, you know, again, this goes for everything. It goes not just for the metaverse.
It goes for even, you know, the transactions that you’re doing on this decentralized space. We are creating essentially a parallel economy. Yeah, that’s right.
So what is your take on like, you know, companies that have been in the Web2 space? So, for example, like the biggest example here is Facebook. Now, you know, it’s kind of renamed itself as Meta. What is your take on these companies getting in this space? Like, do you have an opinion on this? Because some people really have very strong opinions about their company like Facebook getting in this space.
Sure, I do. You know, I think they’ve been definitely working at it for some time. So they’re definitely tech leaders without question.
Right. So I wouldn’t want to discredit them and perhaps point the finger and say that they’re jumping on a bandwagon per se. However, they did make a strong step that, you know, somebody pointed out, one of my students pointed out to me that, wow, it’s funny that nobody did this.
Nobody just named their company that, you know. So but it was it was bold and it’s bold. It was bold.
Yeah. And I think it goes back to the security idea. That is the front running, you know, this that’s the main concern to me.
That is an example. Pardon me. Right.
Of my main one of my main concerns is the security aspect. So, you know, the centralization of things has worked for few people for a long time. Right.
So as we decentralize, which is still, you know, still a part of being centralized, you know, it’s right there. It’s just it’s less centralized. Right.
I think it’s just a good opportunity for everybody to educate, you know, on so much as personal independent finance. Right. It’s such an interesting time.
It is. It’s a very interesting time to be alive in this space and working in this space. More importantly, I think.
But, you know, you keep talking a lot about security. So in terms of security and in terms of your platform, who has kind of perhaps done the auditing or is that still in progress? Right. So that report will be shared.
Still in progress as well. So, you know, one thing about security on the platform is we use the Taurus protocol, which essentially it allows if somebody is going to trade less. OK, so when you’re trading on the platform, if you happen to want to trade a one hundred dollar gift card, you’ve got to first put up one hundred dollars.
Right. To a smart contract, you put it there. You know, we cannot take people’s funds.
We cannot freeze people’s funds or assets. That’s one thing about the platform. However, if somebody does have an issue of any sort and they do wish to have some type of arbitration.
Right. We do have a Taurus protocol where essentially the case would be sent to a handful of node operators. Right.
So people have to stake GMS tokens in order to be, you know, to operate, to be a judge, essentially. Right. Yeah.
So that’s the decentralized element there. Right. And then essentially there’s a window right now we’re working with 24 hours to have some type of judgment be made, a decision there, the appeals.
And, you know, based on the voting, if, you know, node operators are essentially rewarded for voting in the right direction. Now, of course, there’s still trust. We have to build a community of trust.
I think this is something that goes with all blockchains, all decentralized financial applications. Absolutely. Right.
So, you know, there’s a doubt aspect in a way to it, I suppose. Right. So, OK, it’s just the idea that you vote.
And if, you know, five node operators get it and four vote one way and one votes the other way. You know, it’s you get you’re going to get a bonus in some way for voting in the right direction. So that’s why the decentralization aspect is so important to this platform.
Right. Yeah. And that’s only if there’s an appeal.
Otherwise, you do have the ability to chat directly, you know, encrypted chat between you and the party, you know, the merchant and the customer. Right. So you can all sort things out.
But if you’re depositing money on the platform and you’re trading that same amount, that’s the only way you can trade. So if you scam somebody, you’re going to lose the money that you deposited anyway. So it would kind of be it wouldn’t it wouldn’t really make sense to do that.
Yeah, exactly. Right. That doesn’t make sense.
But, you know, you mentioned that, OK, there is a bonus for people or, you know, for the nodes that are voting in the right direction. So who decides what is right? That is really the people. OK, that is that is the node operator.
So I definitely would encourage people to check it out. You know, start looking at GMS. Right.
You know, the token’s there. It’s available. And consider the idea if you want to be a part of the community to make this thing sustainable and a positive experience for everybody.
Wow. OK. So you’re really, really going decentralized with this.
But, you know, it’s actually ultimately the onus of the people to decide in which direction to sort of take that particular repeat. That’s right. Wow.
That’s that’s great. That’s wonderful. I can’t wait to test it out.
I would actually love to get access to the testnet. Yeah, it’s it’s live. You know, if you if you check out our socials, essentially, you could find a link that will take you directly to the testnet.
So you would have to do a BSC testnet. Right. Yeah.
That’s what we’re, you know, so make it simple for everybody to engage with. Right. It’s pretty simple.
So if anybody really doesn’t know how to add the Binance Smart the Binance Smart Chain to their to their wallet, you know, we definitely would have a tutorial there. So just check us out perhaps on YouTube. OK, that’s lovely.
I’m going to check this out right after the recording. I’d love to test out what you guys have been building. It sounds really interesting.
You know, essentially, my problem with a lot of dApps coming up, you know, probably in the past few months has been that because the market is doing well, I think a lot of capital was flowing. So what these guys were building, they were calling it decentralized, but there was some centralized element to certain apps. And that kind of really sort of triggers me, because if you’re going to say that, OK, it’s decentralized, then, you know, it should be decentralized through and through.
But then perhaps, you know, it should not trigger me because, you know, the ecosystem is not that mature right now. What do you think about this? Well, I mean, you know, with us, essentially, as decentralized as it can get is to just give the two traders their space to do it. If they absolutely want our help, we’ll call on however many random node operators.
Right. Right. So if there’s collusion, it’s it’s it’s so hard for there to be collusion.
It’s possible, I suppose. Right. But the more people that join the platform, you know, the more decentralized it is.
Yep. Absolutely. Yeah.
Yeah. But then then, you know, obviously the chance of, you know, any kind of collusion happening would decrease, you know, as more and more people are becoming a part of the network. Right.
Because the trust in the space of peer to peer trading is in gift cards and game items and things like this that we’re exploring. It’s tough. It’s not sometimes people just don’t want to use it.
There are so many DeFi apps. It’s it’s there’s so many apps to connect your wallet to. Do you want to connect to all of them? Yeah.
So many. So I think that whole idea of trust and the decentralization with the Taurus protocol will really give people a sense of confidence, really. If anything, just somebody there’s a there’s another option if this doesn’t go well with this one person, there are five or more people that have my back.
Right. Potentially, you know, to look at the situation and give me a second chance. Right.
Yeah. And that is, I think, you know, very, very important. So ultimately, you know, people get a lot of like they have a lot of criticisms for criticism for the Web3 space in the sense that, OK, you know, this is too much.
Perhaps owners on the people themselves, as you know, when you talk about security there. And my take has been very diametrically opposite on this. I feel like policymakers, they tend to mollycoddle the end user.
And, you know, they take away a lot of in order to sort of facilitate the entire mollycoddling. They kind of take away a lot of your own prerogative, like of the, you know, retail user. And that we see that with banks, et cetera, that, you know, they put in all kind of prerequisites and they put in all kinds of rules as to what they’re doing with your money.
And that I find very aggravating. So there is there is obviously there is beauty in decentralization. And that’s why both of us are here.
But, you know, the way you guys are kind of doing it, it’s actually commendable that, you know, as I mentioned earlier, that, you know, you’re doing it in a niche space. And this is very interesting that there are, you know, there are people like you who are thinking about how to expand this niche on the decentralized space. Yeah, I think it’s great.
You know, you look at, you know, you mentioned banks. I think that’s quite interesting because you look at what’s happening at least today with high interest lending platforms or high interest platforms like, let’s say, Celsius. Yeah.
Or BlockFi, you know, some other ones, you know, they’re having issues, you know, they’re facing issues right now. Their rates are thousands of, you know, anyway, it’s just the multiple. It’s incredible how much more just as percent, speaking wise, you know, in that way these platforms give compared to a bank, even a high interest, you know, like a TFSA or something.
You know, the average person might have that much and they may be making 1%, maybe up to 2% or maybe 3%, you know? Yeah. And in the blockchain, you know, 30% is not impossible. 20%, 15%, even 5% is a pretty good number.
Yeah. It’s very interesting. It’s super, super interesting.
I just think there’s a good opportunity for people to learn right now, great educational opportunity to potentially change your future. Right. Yeah.
I think, you know, you also pretty much sound like me when I’m talking about Web3. And, you know, I usually say that I sound like a cult leader trying to get people to join me. But I just want people to look at this opportunity and look at this space, at least give it a chance, because this is, it’s going to change the world.
And, you know, we are very early right now, but more people need to be looking at it because they’re not even aware that this is another option. Well, you know what, you know, if you’re a leader, that’s good. Just leave some breadcrumbs, like, you know, feed the people that need to be fed.
You know, I think it’s important if you’re putting out quality, that’s it. That’s really what’s important, essentially. Right.
If you’re delivering it, if you’re aspiring to that, or, you know, if you’re just seeking good information and you just happen to even have a conversation about it, like I said, you know, it’s really, it can be empowering to somebody who’s just, just figuring it out. Now, I think ultimately people will get into it anyway, or the other way, whichever way, because it’s inevitable. You know, you can watch mainstream media and see, like I said, you know, things like these non-fungible tokens becoming more common than being used by the rich and the famous.
Right. It feels out of reach, perhaps still to many people. Yeah.
You know, and however simple it is to do, it’s, it’s out of reach because, you know, It seems a little intimidating? Yeah, I think people are intimidated, surely, I definitely do. So, you know, do you think that the UI aspect is something that, you know, we as Web3, you know, founders and builders have not really cracked as of yet? Could you repeat the question, sorry? Yeah, so I was talking about like the UI aspect. So, because, you know, we talked about how this technology can seem intimidating to people who are perhaps just fearing it, they feel that this is, it’s a little difficult for them to navigate.
So would you, you know, have the same opinion, perhaps that, you know, the UI and UX aspect is not something that we as Web3 builders have cracked as of yet? I see. Well, I think it’s quite, it’s quite simple. I think it’s the wallets that make it more of a hurdle, right? But it’s not really that difficult when you have search engines and, you know, copy and paste.
It’s not that difficult. It really isn’t that difficult. I think all of us at this time are well versed in just the web, right? So, and using, you know, mobile devices, computers, it’s quite simple.
At least, you know, from the youngest, pretty much to the oldest these days, right? So, I think there’s a bit of a hurdle with that. But also, I think it’s more than this, more than, it starts in the mind, you know, and sometimes you have to, and also you just have to see something, right? And I think it’s the utility that is being explored. It’s being presented.
And people are now figuring out that there’s, like, what’s the use? Because there, you know, once upon a time, maybe just yesterday, as of this recording, somebody said, I could just screenshot the NFT and I have the NFT, you know, or somebody felt that they could just right click and download an NFT image and say, boom, I got it. It’s the utility, the application that is just being conveyed, I suppose, to the audience. Yeah, you know, this is something that, you know, I’ve heard a lot as well.
And it’s ultimately, with this entire NFT boom, I think it does come down to how the utility is being presented to the end user. And there is utility here. Like, you know, we talked about asset-backed NFTs and whatnot.
And that is where, essentially, I think we, you know, we kind of moving. I see a world where, you know, essentially your house would be an NFT or your car would be an NFT. And it’ll be a simple transaction that you do.
And it’ll be quick and, you know, not tedious. I mean, we’re living in that world right now, just on a smaller scale, right? Because people are definitely trading items, purchasing items in the real world, physical items with NFTs as large as homes, right? That’s happening right now. So it’s just, you know, if you’re in the front, you just have to leave some hints, leave some tips.
You don’t have to pull anybody. You could leave some breadcrumbs as you progress. Right.
And, you know, which guides them, you know, guides them the right way, ideally. Yeah. I think that, you know, you kind of, again, summed it up in a very nice manner.
Okay. So now moving to perhaps, you know, trends in this space. What is your, you know, take about on the Ape NFTs and, you know, the other NFTs that usually, like basically artwork NFTs that a lot of people have a hard time wrapping their head around? We talked about intrinsic value, and that is something that, you know, usually people have a hard time wrapping their head around.
What is your take on that? I think there’s just so much value. It’s incredible. I can’t look at anything less than that at this point.
Yeah. Yeah, that’s true. Right? Because there’s no way for me to prove any type of ownership of a digital item.
I mean, there wasn’t, perhaps, there is now, right? Yeah. So it’s just, it’s just an interesting time. Like, again, the use, the utility of it is just being explored.
It’s being explored. It’s, you know, it’s being applied and it’s being delivered and people are slowly, it’s trickling down. It’s going to happen slowly, slowly, slowly.
It’s going to take time. Yeah, it’ll be like gradually and then all at once, perhaps. That’s what I hope.
You know, just be there. Yeah, I do think that that is, that’s where we are heading. Okay.
So, you know, you’ve been in this space for some time now. Who are like the thought leaders or influencers that, you know, you would recommend to our listeners if they are just getting into the perhaps the NFT space? It really depends on how, you know, if we’re looking at it more for education, if you’re media, like watching videos to learn stuff, perhaps. But just like name, perhaps the ones that, you know, you, you really think are doing a fab job and getting, you know, the education aspect out of the way.
I see. You’re asking a very personal question. I’ve got to say, you know, it’s an odd thing to say it like this.
No, but definitely. No, it’s not at all odd. It’s not at all odd.
Yeah, I get your point. No, it’s, it’s a, it touches home very deeply. I’ll just put it like that.
And so, but, but I’ll go this way. Definitely check out some, you know, Andre Crony. Definitely check out Fundamental Secrets.
You know, definitely check out GameStar Exchange. Well, definitely, because, you know, we’re starting our podcast series, we’ve been, you know, and we’ve got lots of blogs, you know, people can read a lot about just the crypto space, learn, you can, of course, learn about our platform. But we also have content that’s just about things, you know, happening in development in the blockchain space and user, you know, application of these tools, essentially.
So that’s why I say that, because it’s genuine, right? Yeah. Like I said, you asked a very personal question. No, it’s a good thing.
It is definitely 100% very personal, because it’ll give us an insight into how, you know, you are thinking or you are approaching this space. But I do believe that, you know, it is, it’s interesting that you said, you know, that your blogs and the content that you guys are creating, it’s not just about the platform itself, it’s about the space on a macro level. And that is very important, because there’s so much noise out there, right? It’s very easy to get swayed.
If you’re following, perhaps somebody who is not giving 100% right information. Look, you know, scamming, it’s the word is terrible. I don’t even like uttering it.
It’s a terrible word. And it’s, it’s prevalent, it can, it’s it look, you know, we’ve been scammed. It’s different when you’re, you know, depending on the country you’re in the nation you’re in, you know, you may tap, you may swipe, you may exchange, you know, bills, it just really depends.
The more digital things are, it seems that there’s a potential and the more centralized things are as well, as long as that central authority has, you know, good, you know, scrupulous and they have a good sense for security, right? Then I think it’s okay in the sense that you will feel that that security when you do, you know, tap your card or swipe your card, insert your card, whichever way you feel that the interaction there is secure, right? Yeah, the whole aspect of security is so to me, it’s so important. And it kind of, dare I say, I don’t want to say it always goes back to that. But it really does, because, you know, you could win it all and lose it all.
Yeah. You know, it’s like, that’s the one thing that we didn’t really learn much of, we didn’t have the ability to even apply any knowledge of it because we didn’t have any private keys, we didn’t have any seed phrase of any sort, you know, you’re opening a bank account, and you might not even be able to see what the teller’s entering for you, you know, that agent that’s helping you. Yeah.
We can’t even see the screen sometimes, you know, depending on the angle. It’s like, what, this is my account, right? Yeah. But it’s just, you know, that’s what we came up with.
So it’s just a great opportunity. Again, education, I don’t want me to go back to that so much, but it’s really, it’s a very, dare I say, awesome time to learn something new. All right.
Okay. So what is next for you on a personal level? So you’re talking about your platform, you talked about your defense a little bit and re-touched upon, but what is next for you on a personal level? How, what do you, what do you want to like make next or build next? In the crypto space, on blockchains? Yes. I would say, you know, definitely NFTs, utility driven NFTs for personal creations, you know, that is one thing that really drives me, you know, more content as well, more personal, perhaps videos, things like that.
Movie, there’s so many aspects, so many elements, it takes time, you know, you’re only one person, there’s only so much time in the day, right? Yeah. But I really want to make sure that GameStar Exchange works, the platform’s functioning, and people are running it, right? Yeah. So, you’re right, so that is important to me to make sure that there’s that stability.
So, but at the same time, I’m definitely kind of paving the way for myself and other people as well, to have an outlet, to have another option to share your media of any sort. Right? So that’s important to me. So any of the platforms, including GameStar Exchange that I make now or in the future, I’m definitely thinking of how I would like to use it.
Right. So, right, so we’ll definitely be using, doing some NFTs on our platform as well. So definitely people, if you’re interested, you know, in collecting NFTs and to have utility, right, that’s what we’re looking to do.
So, you know, that drop will be coming at some point in time, you know, I don’t really know the dates on that specifically yet. But again, just, you know, that utility aspect. So for me, yeah, anything that incorporates NFTs in utility, I definitely have an interest in, you know, some type of token as well.
However, I think ultimately, it’s more of a blockchain than anything that I’m interested in. Right. Or sidechain, you know, something of that nature.
Because, you know, I suppose for me, I’m just looking at the biggest picture possible, right, in a way. Yeah. So, you know, I think all of us in the Web3 space are, you know, we are very passionate about blockchains and, you know, the L2 solutions that are coming up.
And it’s obviously a very dynamic, exciting space to be, but probably, you know, the way I see it, the way you two are going and, you know, the fact that you’re so passionately about giving other people a medium or another option. I think that’s a beautiful cause to be associated with, like cause not in a derogatory manner, but cause because, you know, you feel so strongly about it. I’m sure that, you know, you guys will do wonders in this space with GameStar itself integrated.
So really more power to you guys. Now, this is something that, you know, I kind of ask everybody that comes on the show, that what would be your two cents for somebody who is peering in perhaps from the outside and what would be your suggestions for them to start living on blockchain? That’s interesting. I think one thing I’d say is probably, in all honesty, disregard mainstream media on the subject.
Yeah. Right. And I wouldn’t go as far as to say do the opposite.
I’ve heard that before. You know, I may have even said that before, just to be, you know, to be funny, I suppose. No, but it’s the truth, right? Like, you know, the mainstream media is just catching up.
Well, they’re also going to play with it, right? So, you know, you can’t give the full story in one go. You have to ask a question, right? You’ve got to keep asking questions. Is it safe? Is it okay? Is it good? Is it bad? And all the while people are accumulating.
Yeah. So, you know, your two cents would be don’t listen to the mainstream media and do the exact opposite of what they’re saying. D-Y-O-R.
Right. Always do your own research. Okay.
So that’s a very good way to wrap this up before we do. Do you have any last thoughts, Justin? No, honestly, thanks. As a matter of fact, tell me something about Unifarm.
Let’s hear a little bit more. Thank you. Sure.
Okay. So Unifarm is the way we envision it is basically going to be the go to place for all projects that are raising money via tokens and not through the traditional equity way. So currently on the product, we have a group farming and staking mechanism.
So essentially, we bring together projects and we create like a farm and obviously call a cohort. And once that cohort goes live, the retail user like you and me, we can stake any one token, which is a part of that particular cohort and diversify our returns by getting like the rest of the five or six project tokens as well. So it’s like, you know, the best place for holders to be maximizing their returns.
And I do not say that lightly because, you know, we don’t have any impermanent loss on the platform. So your principle is always the same. And essentially you are getting like, you know, by staking one token or coin, which you’re already holding, you’re essentially, you know, making sure that, you know, you’re becoming a part of four or five more projects that are doing extremely well or are perhaps in the same thing.
So that is essentially what Unifarm does. Yeah, that’s great. Yeah.
So of course, you know, the GMS token was part of one of the cohorts. So, you know, when I was reading about it, I had not actually heard about it directly from you put so eloquently, you know, it makes even more sense. I got it, you know, because the impermanent loss factor is really important.
You know, you’re putting up all these unstable variable assets into this pool, random people, right? So that’s very interesting. Yeah, it’s single sided at the same time, right? Yeah, absolutely. You can just come there and easily stake.
And yeah, as I said, we feel that, you know, it’s a win win proposition for projects as well as for users. Projects get more space for their token to grow because essentially these tokens can be locked on the farm or at least, you know, create some buy pressure for your token. And for the retail user, this is just a no brainer.
Like instead of leaving it in your wallet, why not trade it for like better APY? And then, you know, you get your principal as well as your interest or the yield. So we feel that it’s quite a win win proposition that we have. I think so, too.
You know, I think the idea just generally speaking, it’s going back to the security idea. And it’s also the trust idea, because can we, you know, can we trust the platform? Am I looking for the long term as well? Am I scared? Should I take this out as soon as it triples or doubles or whatever it may do, 80%? Let me take all my money out because I’m scared of what’s going to happen. Is the bear market going to come and, you know, start gobbling up everything? You know, hoarding, you know, it’s hard to tell.
And that security aspect is, like I said so many times again, it’s so important. It’s so, you know, there’s got to be that level of trust and security has to be there, you know, as to whether I should use this platform. You know, it’s really interesting.
I think I actually thought it was a brilliant idea, you know, when I was first introduced to Unifarm. Thank you so much. Yeah.
So, you know, security is something we take very seriously. And, you know, we basically get ourselves audited regularly. So Zocu is actually one of our investors as well.
So we try to make sure that, you know, the smart contracts that we’re putting out, I think that is something that people really care about, that we wanted the principal to be completely safe. And, you know, this is Unifarm at its very best that you get like, you know, other tokens, your principal is safe. I felt like it was absolutely a no brainer.
Yeah. All right. Thank you so much, Justin.
Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to talk about Unifarm. And it’s been really lovely chatting with you. And, you know, do you have anything else to add before we wrap this up? No, everybody, you know, just thanks for checking this out.
I enjoyed the time. All the best to you all. Of course, I definitely recommend, you know, learning something.
This is a good time to learn because inevitably it’s going to be in your lives. Yeah, you might as well, you know, hop on the train right now. Yeah, you might as well learn how to board the train, how to buy a ticket, how to read the map, all of that.
It’s really up to you to find yourself if you truly want to be autonomous. And that is so important in this day and age. OK, on that note, we wrap it up.
Thank you so much, Justin, for taking out the time to talk to me again. This has been a lovely conversation. All the best for your mainnet launch.
And it goes without saying, if there is any kind of help that you need before the mainnet launch for any sort of connects, please do drop me a line. No worries, Tarusha. Thank you very much for having me here and all the best to you and the Unifarm team.
Thank you so much. All right. Goodbye.