Amir Kaltak, Lexit | Polycon 2018
(bubbly electronic music) >> Narrator: Live from Nassau in the Bahamas, it's theCUBE, covering Polycon 18. Brought to you by Polymath. >> Okay, welcome back everyone. We're live here in the Bahamas. This is theCUBE's exclusive coverage of the token economics world cryptocurrency blockchain, the new innovation that's changing the world. And of course, word on the ground floor, day two of coverage our next guest Amir Kaltak, CEO and founder of L-exit, L-exit, Lexit, called legalized exit, legit exit. He's automating the M&A process in a decentralized way. This is exactly the kind of value we see with cloud computing, and when you see automation and efficiencies, that's disruptive. Amir, congratulations on your awesome venture. Love your model. Let's get into details, because I think-- >> Thank you. >> You're demonstrating, in my opinion, where value is being created and then ultimately captured faster, more efficiently, because you're automating the M&A process. For people to get exit in a highly volatile, value creation, value capture world. Take a minute to explain your company. This is fantastic. Thank you for this kind intro. Hello, world. Lexit, in a nutshell, is M&A on blockchain, and I hope you guys will love it. What we do is we give you access to the world of M&A, which is currently a big boys club, and we want you guys to be all participating in it, from the small entrepreneur who just started out, who crashed his startup but created a great tac. He can sell it on it. The whole world's going to see it. Or to the seasoned entrepreneur, to the big entity, to the big enterprise, you can sell it on there too. You will be seen by all acquirers in the world, and at a penny of the cost, at multitudes of speed, you will be able to liquidize and asset your business. >> So we, Dave and I, predict that there's going to be a lot of liquidity going on at many levels, obviously. Token economics drives that, but in the startup world, you either make it or you sell it, or you put it out of business. In this world, as people start developing technology, the difference between a company and a feature might not be the same. So I might build the best app for social entrepreneurship, for solving world hunger or tracking the water supply through blockchain. And someone says, "Damn, I love that. I'm going to buy that." Now I got to go to a banker, I got to get legal fees. My choices are-- >> Yes, limited. >> Limited, hassle, costs cash. >> As a guy who just crashed a startup, let's take this example, because the majority does fail: over 90%, as matter of fact 96%. Now, you just failed, but you have this great technology you created, right? What are you going to do? You check your address book. Who might buy it? But it's limited too, because you just started out. You don't know nobody, so what you do is you go to a consultancy: M&A consultancy, the lawyers who are connected to this sphere. >> John: The gatekeepers. >> Yes, the gatekeepers. Big boys. >> John: And they take a big cut of it. >> They will tell you, it's an amazing technology. We'll help you sell it, but you make a down payment of $10,000 right now, and we'll look into it. But you don't have $10,000 right now, for instance. So what are you going to do? And even if you pay them, the likeability of them getting back to you is not that high, so what you do is on Lexit is, you get to Lexit, you open up your account, get KYC'd. We're very strict on that. It's fully legit platform, and you list it. You get assessed by our professional M&A network, given a value to it. It's not the value it will be sold for, but it's a value the professional assessor thinks you're worth, and why. He's going to say these reasons. Now, the buyers are going to see it, make the bids, and there you are. Access. >> So you guys automate that entire end-to-end process. >> Absolutely. So, Lexit is, from the listing, down to the final due diligence and drafting of agreements. Everything is in it. The final signature and the transfer of ownership. It's a full solution. >> Yes. The future of work, obviously, is about automation. I mentioned cloud computing, because we look at that market heavily. On the tech side, automation drives it, but managing processes, automating processes away is threatening to a lot of people. You're basically putting people out of business, potentially. >> Yes, I keep doing that. >> If you're successful, a cadre of ecosystem partners, service providers, traditionally go out of business, so I like that. >> Potentially. >> Well, they're going to have to adapt or change. I see this in global service integrators, like Accenture. These guys are getting eaten up by machine learning automated coding, because they can do it faster and better. >> You know my business better than I do! (both laugh) >> What we do at theCUBE, we know our stuff. So, this is disruptive, and at the end of the day, the other thing I want to get your reaction to is open-source. A lot of people in the ethos of the mission based open-source world is, I wrote coding as an open-source. If my company fails, and my VC's make it proprietary, it's like an owned asset in bankruptcy, or whatever, dying, you can't put it back, but with open-source code, there's always going to be value there, to some level. It might not be great. So, I might say "Hey, you had a failed venture, I'll buy your code." >> Exactly. >> Transfer your GitHub over. Done. >> That's how it works. >> So this is kind of like the dynamic that... Do you see that? >> This is the direction that we're heading to. We want to connect the dots, because we started Lexit out of a community approach. We figured out two years ago, when we started it... So we're two years into that right now, that this is direly needed. We don't have access, but if I got this problem right now as a startupper, so do many. And out of this thinking, we claim ourselves to be the startups for startups and empower the community. I believe that in terms of leadership, for instance, you're only a good leader if you empower everyone around you to become a good leader, based on respect and mutual purpose. >> So I got to ask you a question. >> Please. >> Cause everyone's going to ask this question of all startups. You got to know where you are. Are you a startup? Are you a growing company? Where's the product? How far along are you? When is it going to be released? Talk about the momentum of the offering that you have. Is it available in Beta? What's the status of the product itself? Because I'm sure it'll be used a lot. >> As I said, we started two years ago. The first year we didn't even write a single line of code. It was just like how do you put this huge M&A process into a usable yet powerful but simple to use platform. How do you do that? Just scalable from the small, small asset you want to sell, a line of code, an algorithm up to a large enterprise. The first year was finding out a process. What is necessary? How do we cover all aspects on different jurisdictions, and all this stuff, right? How to make it work on the legal side too. And we figured it out, and then we started doing it. And right now I can tell you guys we are scheduling the launch of Lexit, this year, in June. So we'll not just-- >> The product will be ready for production, shipping product. >> Absolutely. Available worldwide, completely worldwide ready to operate. Ready to make your deals, to put your listings, to make your bids, to get the best technology out there, but not just technology. Letters M&A, it means any kind of of business from a pizza chain, to a high tech company, to a biotech company, to food, supplies you can sell. >> Usually when I do legal documents, you see an exhibits in there, and say oh, exhibit A is all the IP, or whatever the seller's selling and the buyer's buying. When you deal with decentralized asset creation and capture, use that blockchain involved, how much is the tech involved in your process? Obviously, the legal stuff, I can really see automating away. That's like check one. But when you start dealing with assets that are either code or something durable, like property, that's maybe stored in blockchain, how do you guys look at that? Is that part of the automation? Is that a factor? Where does that impact? Is that an exhibit? Do I just say "Here's my key"? How do you deal with that? >> Alright, let's put it this way. We do want to connect existing M&A space to Lexit. The exits, they're huge structures. We do want to disrupt them, that's true, but to do that you can't just create entirely everything new. You have to kind of find a way for the big boys old club, the big banks, and all those folks around there to participate, right? To give them a familiar way to work. What we did is the token model economics in a way that people get rewarded, people pay for stuff inside of it, and such, right? Everything is triggered with smart contracts, obviously, to know did you do the down payment, did the signature happen. The smart contracts are automating the whole thing down to the final transaction. When the final transaction happens we get our commissions paid out from the Astro we have. The Lexit Crypto Astro. Everything is transferred and secure. Everybody involved into a deal knows exactly what's happening. >> John: And they have a shared incentive too. >> Absolutely >> They're tokenizing the process so there's a reward element. Right? >> Yes. >> Am I getting this right? >> Yes, the access. There are three parties in Lexit. Buyer, seller, obviously and the assessors. Professional M&A guys. They get rewarded in tokens, and that greatly. Pretty much in the magnitude of what they do in billables at the Big Four, PWC and so on. There's a high incentive there to do this in this assessment, and they get rewarded from the community pool which gets feed with all those listing fees, unlocking futures and everything that's happening within Lexit itself. The kicker is that we at Lexit believe that much in token that the commission you have to pay us is between 8 and 2%. 2% of about 35 million dollars in volume, and it gets a bit higher down to the lower ones. We take this commission only in our own token. I don't want dollars, not even Bitcoin. >> So you have your own token? >> Yes. >> Utility token or security token? >> It's a utility token strictly, and it's called LXT. >> LXT. Great. And is it available now, or are you going to launch it in June? >> Right now we are in the private pre-sale. I'll put through, and it looks like we'll keep it in the presale. It looks like the page was selling out LXT right now to the private backers. It's that high that we think in two weeks from now on, speaking mid-March, it's sold out >> What's the numbers? Hard cap, soft cap? Do you have the numbers? >> I told my team "Listen, everybody tells me: 'you're doing M&A on blockchain, you can raise hundreds of millions,'" and everybody will say "That's okay." I said "We don't need that money." I just want to raise what we do need to finalize the last mile of the dev and launch it this year. The hard cap is 10,000 ETH. 10K ETH only, roughly $9 million right now, and that's it. >> And you're going to reserve the other tokens for the community to do the work and be part of this new future of work equation? >> 50% of the total supply, which is 18 million, it's zero, goes to sale, to the market. Just 10% to us founders. You don't need more. >> So you're not greedy? >> No. >> You guys are playing it right to create-- >> I want the community to be empowered, this whole-- >> You need the community. You need the community. >> I need the community. >> So that is a different dynamic... Well, not different. That is the dynamic that everyone is agreeing on in the community in the ecosystem here, is that if you have bogarting or hoarding coins, or people taking down allocations, you miss the dynamic of the human capital, which is what the future of work is doing. You are an example-- >> Free promotion, you know what I mean? >> You're engaging. The future of work requires human capital. So if one institutional buyer buys the token out, there's no people. >> I interrupted you. You said "We are an example for what"? >> The future of work. >> I love that. >> You are executing, potentially, disruptive M&A, but you're not going after the banks directly. They can play, too. >> Right. >> So you guys are a service. You're like an Amazon.com website cloud service for... >> You could say that. >> M&A. Well, not like, but automated. Automating away things is the way to go. Do you see other examples that are like you guys, that are emerging in use cases? Obviously you're taking a known process, M&A, automating it away, making it tokenized. What other things do you see out there that's ripe for disruption? >> I do think that if somebody out there... Lexit, what we do, let's put it aside for a moment. I think supply, the supply chains of the world are ripe for disruption. I think they're inefficient. I think even food production, down to the basic needs of a human being, this is ripe for disruption. >> When I got my MBA back in the 90s, after I got my Computer Science degree in the 80s, I remember the word that always stick in my head from the books that they teach you is the "Value Chain." >> Value Chain. >> The Value Chain is a concept of anything, of value creation. This notion of chaining, blockchain, you see it... Anything that has value creation process. >> Let's take food production for a moment. Rice, okay? Rice. So now there is this farmer, somewhere in Asia, or in elsewhere, and he's producing, and he's selling it to somebody, who's picking it up, and he sells to the next distributor. He sells to an international distributor. He sold it for probably... I don't know, maybe 20 cents a pound tops? Probably just five. I don't know the prices. What happens if we could chain that supply chain, that we have a decentralized nature of how all these people can directly feed into the system and just jump those middlemen entirely. So this is what I'm speaking about. It's going to disrupt everything. Somebody's going to figure out that one. >> So you guys have a good formula, just to recap. You're automating the M&A process, you're creating a huge supply of tokens available to the community, that will help you change the game on M&A, which is also part of the process of your value chain, now tokenized, and you're taking a small cut that's a tiered commission, if you will, on the M&A transaction. >> It's like six times cheaper. >> Higher for the lower numbers and as you go higher, which you want more deals, you take a smaller cut, so it's not greedy, you're not taking a grotesque-- >> Nope. We go even beyond. Around Lexit we created a partner program. This partner program is fueling directly deals onto Lexit, and we give them 50% off the commission. People tell me "You're crazy." No I'm not. You need to incentify. So if you get thousands of these partners one day... Think of that. 50% is still a lot. I believe in sharing everything except my girlfriend. Everything is fine, so we share. You can have my beer, that's fine. (both laugh) Speaking of that, I believe in this-- >> Well, the Network Effect, too. Sharing is an ethos of distribution, so distribution is sharing. Sharing is also a social thing, but social gamification really is about distribution. You're essentially creating a network effect, and this is the fundamental pattern in token economics, is the networks. >> Totally true. >> You see that? >> That's how it happens. >> What's your situation now? You've got a deal going on. Are you with Polymath? >> That's amazing, I-- >> Talk about that. You're announcing it on stage in about an hour. >> It's true, yeah. The stage is about to come. Trevor and his team do a great job. Boarding startups with the tokens to become a security token. I believe there is a huge business for them in the future. And now we want to work with them together, so we partner up, and what we do is... One of the models is that we will help their clients to liquidize these tokens, then, over Lexit. So this is one of the thoughts we have. We're just figuring out a few things, but we're very excited. >> John: And it's all API-based, I'm assuming, right? >> All API-based. It's been highly automated, of course. Automation. It's all about automation. You have to lower the cost to make it efficient, to make it cheap for everybody involved, so you have to automate everything you can, and smart contracts are, per se, an automation tool. >> Well, Amir, good luck with your venture, Lexit. I love the idea, I love what you're doing. I think this is what we look for in theCUBE, this kind of innovation. We think it's awesome. Good luck on your team. Product's almost pre-launch. >> And the pre-sale is almost through, so if you guys want in before ETH (mumbles), let me just drop that one in two weeks. It's closing and we distro in between four to six weeks, we're going to distro the token. So it's everything happening right now, and soon after that the exchanges are waiting, and you'll be surprised. They're going to be the good ones. >> This is innovations theCUBE are covering: the blockchain, the cryptocurrency. We're at Polycon 18. Polymath is the folks putting on the event with Grit Capital, a Canadian contingency, but they know their cryptography. If you know Canada, you know what the deal is there. It's theCUBE covering it live. We'll be back with more live coverage after this short break. >> Thank you. (reverb-heavy electronic music) (moody ambient electronic) (moody ambient electronic) >> Hi, I'm John Furrier, the co-founder of SiliconANGLE Media and co-host of theCUBE. I've been in the tech business since I was 19, first programming on minicomputers in a large enterprise, and then worked at IBM and Hewlett Packard, a total of nine years in the enterprise. Various jobs from programming, training, consulting and, ultimately as an executive salesperson, and then started my first company, it was in 1997, and moved to Silicon Valley in 1999. I've been here ever since. I've always loved technology, and I love covering emerging technology. I was trained as a software developer, and loved business. I loved the impact of software technology to business. To me, creating technology that starts a company and creates value and jobs is probably one of the most rewarding things I've ever been involved in. And I bring that energy to theCUBE because theCUBE is where all the ideas are and where the experts are, where the people are and I think what's most exciting about theCUBE is that we get to talk to people who are making things happen. Entrepreneurs, CEO of companies, Venture Capitalists. People who are really, on a day in and day out basis, building great companies. In the technology business, there's just not a lot of real-time live TV coverage, and theCUBE is a non-linear TV operation. We do everything that the TV guys on cable don't do. We do longer interviews. We ask tougher questions. We ask sometimes some light questions. We talk about the person and what they feel about. It's not prompted and scripted. It's a conversation. It's authentic. And for shows that have theCUBE coverage, it makes the show buzz, it creates excitement, and more importantly, it creates great content, great digital assets that can be shared instantaneously to the world. Over 31 million people have viewed theCUBE and that is the result of great content, great conversations, and I'm so proud to be part of theCUBE, a great team. Hi, I'm John Furrier. Thanks for watching theCUBE. (emotive electronic music) >> Narrator: Robert Herjavec!
SUMMARY :
Brought to you by Polymath. This is exactly the kind of value to the big enterprise, you can sell it on there too. So I might build the best app for social entrepreneurship, You don't know nobody, so what you do is Yes, the gatekeepers. of them getting back to you is not that high, The final signature and the transfer of ownership. is threatening to a lot of people. a cadre of ecosystem partners, service providers, Well, they're going to have to adapt or change. A lot of people in the ethos of the mission based Transfer your GitHub over. Do you see that? This is the direction that we're heading to. Talk about the momentum of the offering that you have. Just scalable from the small, small asset you want to sell, The product will be ready for production, to a biotech company, to food, supplies you can sell. Is that part of the automation? to know did you do the down payment, so there's a reward element. and it gets a bit higher down to the lower ones. and it's called LXT. And is it available now, or are you going to launch it in June? It looks like the page was selling you can raise hundreds of millions,'" 50% of the total supply, which is 18 million, You need the community. is agreeing on in the community So if one institutional buyer buys the token out, I interrupted you. You are executing, potentially, disruptive M&A, So you guys are a service. Do you see other examples that are like you guys, down to the basic needs of a human being, from the books that they teach you is the "Value Chain." This notion of chaining, blockchain, you see it... I don't know the prices. to the community, that will help you change the game on M&A, So if you get thousands of these partners one day... Well, the Network Effect, too. Are you with Polymath? You're announcing it on stage in about an hour. One of the models is that we will help their clients so you have to automate everything you can, I love the idea, I love what you're doing. and soon after that the exchanges are waiting, Polymath is the folks putting on the event Thank you. I loved the impact of software technology to business.
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Trevor Koverko & Amir Kaltak | Polycon 2018
>> Narrator: Live from Nassau in the Bahamas. It's The Cube. Covering Polycon 18, brought to you by Polymath. >> Welcome back, everyone, this is The Cube exclusive coverage at Polycon 18, put on by Grid Capital and Polymath, of course The Cube is independent publishing, digital TV and research. Of course we're covering all the action this year in the crypto-space blockchain, crypto-currency token economics. Big news here with Polymath is announcing a partnership. We've got Trevor Koverko is the CEO of Polymath Amir Kaltak, CEO at Lexit. You guys just came off stage and announced a partnership. Your ecosystem is growing, you guys are enabling platform. Talk about the relationship. >> You want to start? >> Please, I insist. >> Alright, fine. So awhile ago we just realized that what Trevor and his team are doing is just fitting right in what we do. We, the marketplace for M&A, helping to liquidize assets, and a security token, in its purest form, is an asset. So we want to help, we want to work together and create an ecosystem in the future between Polymath and Lexit, that is basically the thing that we want to figure out and how to do it. >> Yeah, no, we're big fans of the project, and more importantly the team behind the project. That's always what we look for when it comes to any investment, or purchase, or partnership. We're really excited. >> This is really a great sign for you guys. Congratulations, Polymath and Lexit, you guys are growing companies. This is the magic of platforms, right? You guys have collaboration, ecosystem partners really become instrumental for you guys, so it's a good sign. You get the leverage, the platform, you get some time to market faster, time to value, this is what it's all about, right? >> I believe that security tokens are going to be a big part of our future revenue on Lexit itself, and I can't miss out on that one, and I'm happy that we meet at that early stage, so to say, where everything happens. Where we set the path into the future. So let's see what happens. >> Amir I want to ask you, as someone who's partnered (inaudible), why Polymath? What was compelling for you? What was the reason? Obviously they have a secure token, so it's a platform, and it's a trend that's your friend right now. So why Polymath? >> There are multiple ones. Trend isn't that right, but the thing is, I'm old school, right? If somebody I know and trust tells me this is a great person I need to talk to, this is a great project, then I do it. So, Tim Frost of Taurus Solutions was the guy who connected us in New York on a brief meeting, and now more and more, and so this is how we started. And I go with my gut feeling. If I see a sincere man, I see a sincere man, and I would like to work with him. >> Great. Platform-wise, API's, how's it going to work? You guys, can you share any details? I missed the announcement because we were doing Cube interviews. What was announced on stage? >> For me, this is kind of what I've been echoing all week. It's all about building the components of this ecosystem. We're trying to, literally, re-imagine Wall Street, and to do that it requires new forms of structure formation of capital. So we have private equity, we have mergers and acquisitions, we have venture capital, and with Polymath we're just trying to be the base layer that other exciting projects like Lexit can build on top of. >> What are some of the most important things in the platform, Amir, that you like? Just get under the hood a little bit. What's, what about Polymath is going to be a good deal for you guys? What's the key? Is it saving time, is it the certain things on the platform? What specifically about these guys- >> Free t-shirts? >> Free t-shirts definitely. And after that, the free t-shirt contest. What contest? I'm kidding. No, to me it's like, look, you want to have a security token, right? And then there are multiple jurisdictions, and there's a lot of legal compliance. It's a mountain of work in front of you. Those guys figured out how to do this simple and reliable for all of us. >> Kind of like what you're doing on the M&A side, except they do it for the security token. >> Sort of. >> Always breaking down barriers, that's the name of the game. That's the definition of an entrepreneur. >> Removing the blockers in front of you is the key, and not to waste time on management cycles, on things that someone else's doing. That, to me, it good partnership. Sounds like that's what you guys are offering, right? >> Absolutely. >> Absolutely. >> Alright, guys, well thank you for sharing the news. A final word, >> John, thank you. >> What do you see as the outlook, partnerships, you guys going to make some money together, you've got to build the product out first? How's the sequence, the order of operations of the partnership? Share the quick overview, then we'll end the segment. >> So we have a lot of work ahead of us. And right now it's about getting Polymath, the demo is out, the alpha is out, it's live, you can use it. And my biggest party right now is getting the application layer to the market, and that simply means a user interface, drag and drop, point and click, and that is my life right now. So once we get that out the door, these guys are ready. >> The thing is we are launching globally, full developed, since two years away in develop, in June. And soon after that, we will hopefully be ready for their platform. But, speaking of that, it's public now, but we will work closely right away to figure out how to optimize everything in between our systems. So it's going to be an ongoing process where we to be careful with resources, of course, but it's going to happen during this year, I hope. >> Amen. >> Well congratulations on the building blocks of success, you've got to start with the core. This is The Cube bringing a live coverage from the Bahamas. Big news here on the partnerships of the two companies, Polymath and Lexit. Look for more coverage. We'll be right back with more coverage after this short break. (techno music)
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Narrator: Live from Nassau in the Bahamas. We've got Trevor Koverko is the CEO of Polymath and create an ecosystem in the future and more importantly the team behind the project. This is the magic of platforms, right? and I can't miss out on that one, and I'm happy and it's a trend that's your friend right now. and so this is how we started. I missed the announcement because we were doing Cube It's all about building the components of this ecosystem. in the platform, Amir, that you like? the free t-shirt contest. Kind of like what you're doing on the M&A side, barriers, that's the name of the game. Removing the blockers in front of you is the key, Alright, guys, well thank you for sharing the news. How's the sequence, the order of operations the application layer to the market, So it's going to be an ongoing process Big news here on the partnerships of the two companies,
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Shawn Owen, Salt Lending Holdings | Polycon 2018
>> Announcer: Live from Nassau. (electronic music) Live from Nassau in The Bahamas, it's The Cube, covering Polygon '18, brought to you by Polymath. >> Welcome back, everyone. It's The Cube's exclusive coverage live in The Bahamas for Polycon '18. This is where all the action is, cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, blockchain, you name it, token economics, a paradigm shift of epic proportions. This is a decentralized internet. It's impacting the world. Missions, technology, applications, and all sectors. Our next guest, Shawn Owen, CEO of SALT Lending, serial entrepreneur, killer idea, so simple, so stupid simple. No one's doing it, he's doing it, lending cash for Bitcoin and currency. Welcome to The Cube. >> Thank you, it's good to be here. >> You know, there's two things that I love, the crazy ideas that everyone says is the dumbest idea on the planet that becomes billion-dollar opportunities, then something that's so simple and obvious that no one does because either a bag at your dogma or other interests. You're in kind of both. You got the simple idea, lending. Take a minute to talk about SALT Lending and your innovation that you guys do on the business side. >> Yeah, you got it. Everybody here at these conferences, or hopefully, people that are watching, have some interest in cryptocurrencies or blockchain, and probably accumulate some value in that currency, or the asset class. Once you do, then you have options, that you can either continue to hold that, or you can sell it. We're opening up a new market for the ability to see that as property and borrow against it. In fact, the technology makes a perfect form of collateral. We have all this ability to program in smart contracts. You can write in the rules. You can make it highly secure, yet nobody is doing it, so it's one of these simple things that, as this market emerges, became kind of obvious as a pain point, which is, I go to the bank, and I show them my personal financial statement, and they look at Bitcoin, and scratch their head. Somebody's got to bridge that gap, so we're building technology that ultimately should be used by banks or financial institutions to bring this together to where you have that ability like you would with any other type of property. If you look at any other type of property, you can lend against it, somebody's figured out how to, whether it's minerals, whether it's land, whether it's cars. Really now, we're doing that for cryptocurrency. SALT Lending stands for secured automated lending technology, so it's very much a technology-driven company, yet it's foundational in lending. It's just very simple to understand because it's the oldest business known to man. >> We covered cloud computing from day one. It's interesting, automation wins the day. We're seeing a lot of things where automating M&A process, we talked to those guys at LEXIT. You're doing something here with lending. You're just so simple. Here's the question, if I have Bitcoin, and there's a lot of whales walking around here, people, billionaires, millionaires, a lot of people have made money over the past couple of years. Certainly, if you were in it 2011 after, you're a whale. They got value. I put it up, and I get cash? Is that how it works? >> That's right. Everybody has assets that they want to hold onto, that are precious to them, whether it be gold, heirlooms, art, Bitcoin. Then they have currencies that are things that they want to spend quickly and/or just don't even think twice about it, I'll pay for a cup of coffee, a bottle of water, whatever. As the world moves into the blockchain era, as all value can be recorded on distributed ledgers in blockchains, you have this new way of thinking about everything. You can imagine a wallet where you have all the things you really care about, and you can dynamically decide what your currency is based off where you're traveling, where you want to spend, what you think is happening with inflation, depending on what your interest is. Maybe it's video game points you want to spend in the future. However, having that scale, and saying, at any point in time, I want to hold onto this, and I want to spend more of that, there's a partnership, right? A really easy way to think about that is, how can I leverage what I have, which is portfolio lending, or any type of lending, into more of the currencies I need, whether it's, I need to go buy a house, I need to buy a car, I want to buy more investments? We see it as a very powerful tool, and almost a necessity, but then, on top of that, just extremely cool in how you could imagine the future of finance in this world. >> Yeah, it's a total game-changer. I love what you're doing. I think, getting the fiat conversion really gets immediate liquidity in a currency that people can spend. If someone says, "Hey, I don't want Bitcoin," great, I want to buy a boat, or start a business, I need to get some fiat, I pledge up my coin. >> That's right. >> Now, you go valuation issues, so I'm assuming you have math behind this that says, "Hmm, but if Bitcoin drops..." >> Yep, that's the thing. We really solve a couple fundamental pieces of the blockchain that, at its core, are difficult for people to do well. One is security, and the other is user interface. When you wrap that into a product, and you build out the user interface and the security, suddenly, it becomes a lot easier. When it comes to the risk mitigation, it's simply over-collatoralized. We're going to pitch you as a borrower, and say, "You're already probably storing all this "somewhere anyway, in a wallet. "Why not put it in a secure wallet, "drive the loan to value ratio way down "so you're only borrowing what you need "when you need it, you don't bring out "these giant loans for no good reason, "you just borrow what you need, "the interest rate becomes a lot lower, "and then you have extra collateral for the volatility?" Ideally, that's the scenario. If, in a world where it's very volatile, and you're at a higher loan value rate, then that's where we give you options. We say, "Hey, would you like to sell some of this, "or would you like to add more? "Would you like to prepay your loan if not?" There's always the option for somebody to correct the loan instrument, but that's the other really cool part about a smart contract, or a smart written language around the instrument itself, is that you can get a little more creative. Instead of just having legal paperwork, you can say, "Let's put this into the code." It becomes very dynamic in the ability for it to cure, the instrument itself, to stay course. >> Software money, I love this. Let's go down, talk about the token that you have, SALT Token, and that's for the borrower, or the lender? >> It's, right now, the borrower, although it will expand into all uses. It's effectively, as people say, it's powering the network, or it's the gasoline behind it. It's our internal currency. It acts as a store value in the regards of how you would think about a serial number. If I have Microsoft Office, and you buy a serial number, that's the key that lets you in, and it tells you how much of the product you have. If you have 20 or 30 of them, you can give them to your employees, or you could redeem it for some other value. We just think that tokens actually do a better job of that recording 'cause it's now put on a permanent ledger. You have the permanent auditability of it, than just a serial number in a private database. >> I think you got a great solution because the alternative to not having it is essentially, get a liquid on an exchange, which some people might not want to do. Then also, where do you do it, right? There's all kinds of dynamics on the exchange side. Here, I'm saying, I'm long on Bitcoin, but I need to get some working capital for whatever the project is, so you're there. Is there any competition? Is anyone else doing this? >> There's no competition yet. There's definitely some people that are out there saying that they are, and I would be careful. Some of them may be legitimate. We've seen a few that are scams, so always be protected, and be wary. >> John: Give an example of what a scam would look like for the people. >> A scam would be somebody who says, "Hey, we're doing an ICO," and you start looking at it, and it looks exactly like what we've built, except for they're, maybe, in Russia, and you can't actually contact the people, and they don't have any banks behind them, or any kind of regulatory framework. >> They're spoofing your brand. >> Yeah, we've seen a lot of that. We've had a lot of phishing attempts, and people trying to spoof the idea or the site, and that's a little worrisome, but there probably will be competitors. It's a big market. >> Yeah, that's going to happen more and more, more of those spear phishing attacks too. Great, and outlook for you guys. Where are you guys at with the company? Talk about what your needs are. You hiring? What's going on with the operation? >> Yeah, we're constantly hiring, looking for anybody who's got great financial background and wants to be in the blockchain space, and/or developers, constantly looking for blockchain-focused developers, people that either want to learn the space, or already know the space, either way is fine. We'd love to talk to you. We've issued $30 million in loans in the states we're approved. We're rapidly expanding that genre of where we can lend. We're working to partner with banks, so if you're a bank, or you're a financial institution, there's a lot of capital money at this conference, we'd love to talk to all you guys because there's an opportunity for us to give you an indirect exposure into the market. >> It's good for the big whales who have a lot of currency, a lot of value, to pay it forward in the mission, in the community. They could be lenders too, right? >> Very much so, yes. >> Wow, so what states aren't you in? 30 million, that's a good number. What's your top list? >> The next on the list that we're working towards, we're really close to Texas, we're really close to California, really close to New York, really close to Utah. Those are some big ones. Lots of interest in Puerto Rico, so we're heavily focused on getting there, and it's just a road map, a heat map. There's a lot of interest in Europe, so we're going over into Europe, lots in Canada. >> Shawn, thanks for coming on, sharing the project, your success. Love your idea, again. Disruption continues. The stampede is coming behind us at Polycon. That's their logo. Polymath is the company behind this event. Of course, we're The Cube, we're independent, we're bringing you all the action here at Polycon '18. More live coverage after this short break. (electronic music)
SUMMARY :
brought to you by Polymath. cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, blockchain, you name it, is the dumbest idea on the planet that you can either continue to hold that, Certainly, if you were in it 2011 after, you're a whale. and you can dynamically decide I need to get some fiat, so I'm assuming you have math behind this that says, We're going to pitch you as a borrower, and say, that you have, SALT Token, how much of the product you have. There's all kinds of dynamics on the exchange side. There's definitely some people that are out there John: Give an example of what and you can't actually contact the people, and that's a little worrisome, Great, and outlook for you guys. to give you an indirect exposure into the market. It's good for the big whales Wow, so what states aren't you in? The next on the list that we're working towards, we're bringing you all the action here at Polycon '18.
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