Podcast

Mark Shekleton is the Co-Founder & CEO of Smart Seal . Founded by aerospace engineers (and recently shipping the first physical NFT sold on Amazon), Smart Seal is delivering blockchain provenance for physical products (via merging encrypted near field communication hardware infrastructure with NFTs secured by 1:1 links) – tackling the massive counterfeiting challenges endemic to companies large and small across the world. In this episode we talk about the benefits to a world with fewer counterfeit products (hint: less funding for other criminal activities and enterprises), surprises and obstacles while engaging their earliest customers, his thoughts about the growth to come in the “phygital” space, and much more.

Benny Giang is the Co-Founder & Partner @ Future Primitive. Future Primitive is a venture studio that builds startups, projects, and technologies for decentralized communities—including projects like token bound accounts (ERC 6551), a new primitive that will give every NFT its own account/wallet address. In this episode we chat through his work as a founding member of CryptoKitties and Dapper Labs, how he determines which projects to back as an angel investor or advisor, the genesis and possibilities of token bound accounts, how to think about learning about your community, his view on the near-term future of crypto, & much more.

David Amor is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Playmint. Backed by Bitkraft, 1KX, Cherry Ventures, & more, Playmint is composed of games industry veterans building fully on-chain games (currently working on Downstream, a fully on-chain MMO). In this episode we chat about creating a game world that lives forever and emphasizes digital ownership and composability, early challenges and future possibilities, where games on the blockchain are headed, state-of-the-union thoughts on gaming and Web3, best advice for gaming founders, & much more.

Aniket Jindal is the Co-Founder at Biconomy. Backed by Binance, Coinbase Ventures, NFX, Bain Capital Ventures, & more, Biconomy is creating an Account Abstraction toolkit to enable the simplest UX on your dapp or wallet. In this episode we talk about Aniket’s journey from starting the first weekly crypto podcast in the Middle-East to launching Biconomy in 2019, what happens to crypto if UX improves 10x, exciting trajectories for the future of Biconomy, how to think about this current moment in crypto, & much more.

Zac Townsend is the Co-Founder & CEO at Meanwhile. Backed by Sam Altman, Lachy Groom, 6th Man Ventures, Gradient Ventures, & more, Meanwhile is creating the first and only life insurance company denominated in Bitcoin. Before building Meanwhile, Zac was an Associate Partner at McKinsey, Chief Data Officer of the State of California, Co-Founder & Head of Product at Standard Treasury, & CTO of the City of Newark. In this episode we discuss his path to conviction for launching Meanwhile, the various archetypes of who’s attracted to what they’re building, why they’re presently focused on Bitcoin, how they think about eventual differentiation as a first-mover, the interesting trajectories Meanwhile could take, & much more.