(Caribbean music) >> Narrator: Live, from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's theCUBE, covering Blockchain Unbound. Brought to you by Blockchain Industries. >> Hello, welcome back everyone. I'm John Furrier, co-host of theCUBE. Exclusive coverage here in Puerto Rico for Blockchain Unbound, it's a global conference where a lot of the leaders are coming together. It's our second day of wall-to-wall coverage. Talking to all the top people: government officials, entrepreneurs, investors, and tons of great action here. Our next guest is Marcus Levin who's the co-founder of XYO Network, xyo.network is the URL. Interesting opportunity really built from the ground up. No outside funding, although it does some interesting things with their community. Great IoT example, great use of the cloud, great example of how real entrepreneurs are working with crypto and blockchain to actually grow. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you, John. >> So, tell me a little bit about what you guys do. Take a minute to explain to the audience what XYO Network is, how did you get here, what is it all about? >> Yeah, sure. So, XYO Network is the world's first decentralized location oracle. "Oracle" means data input into smart contracts. Now you have the problem that a lot of data sources are centralized and hackable or spoofable. So, if you make a bet, for example, you need to look at the results of the bet at a website, the website could be hacked, it could collude with someone to provide wrong data. The same problem exists with GPS. GPS is easily spoofable and hackable, like during the Pokemon Go craze, for example, all the kids just downloaded GPS spoofing apps, they get all the rare Pokemons. Or, allegedly the Iranians took down an American drone a few years back sending up a wrong GPS signal. The drone just landed. So, because of that, you can't do transactions based on location data. Today, most applications for location, GPS location, are navigational but not transactional. We solve this by providing a decentralized location data or network. We do this though IoT devices, mobile phone apps, and other types of partnerships. We are around since 2012. Started as an IoT company which provided location beacons, we call it XY Findit. We have about a million of them out there, and they can recognize each other's location. It's like us two taking a selfie together, we print out two copies, put our signatures on there. When we leave each other, we can prove that were here together. And it's the same thing with those devices. Our own devices but also with partnerships we build this mobile app distributors and IoT companies. What can you do with this? You could, for example, do payment up and delivery for e-commerce. So, you could put a chip, a small chip like an RFID chip into Amazon packaging tape. Once the package arrives at your doorstep, or even in your house, the payment gets triggered. It works by the doorbell, your Tesla in the driveway, your neighbor's cell phone, any type of connected device recognizing that the package is there. The payment automatically gets triggered. One third of Americans experienced porch theft in 2016. You don't know if it was a UPS driver, for example, scanning the package but taking it, or your neighbor took the package, or someone random came by. This way, you can prevent porch theft, or you can discover it. Or you could make sure your kids arrived safely at school, they arrived there with their friends and they took the path you wanted them to take. Or hotel review sites, for example, have the problem that they lose their users because they don't believe that the reviews are real anymore. But if you could prove someone flew from San Diego, that's where we're based, to Puerto Rico, has stayed at this hotel for tonight, and then flew back and wrote the review about it, suddenly you have a location-verified review. So, that's all today, but in the world, in five to ten years, full of AI, robots, self-driving cars, drones, smart cities, you need transactional location data and nobody's providing that today and we want to be the center of the future. >> Awesome. So, that's super-exciting, I got to ask you about the IoT piece because, do you need physical devices out there? Are you going to be deploying sensors? Are you leveraging pre-existing infrastructure? I love that selfie example. I can imagine we do a selfie, share it, it's a location-based opportunity. The phone's got location base. How do you guys interface with this? How does it work? >> Right now the network builds on top of our own devices. We are around since 2012, as I said, so we have a large network already. We are an existing company, it's a little rare in the blockchain space. >> Yeah. >> And we build partnerships now with IoT companies like certain light bulb division company, or fridges, all connected devices, mobile app distributors. >> So, you're providing your customers the IoT device folks who are proliferating out there. >> Yeah, we put our code basically out there. We can-- >> Open source? >> Open source, yeah. >> Okay. >> And you can plug it as an SDK into, let's say, your mobile app. Or you can use it as a monetization tool as well, because you earn tokens as you verify location, and this data is part an answer, and so you could earn XYO tokens, as you become-- We call them "sentinels", location verification device in our network. >> So, how do you guys tie this together on the token side? So, you reward, what behavior do you reward with a token? >> There are four components in our network. There's the sentinel, as I spoke about, which are the IoT devices or mobile phones which verify the location. Then you have bridges which relay the data. They relay it into something we call the archivist, which is a distributed computer system, if you are familiar with storage here in this space, for example, or the old system, like Sentient home from Berkeley, it works like that. So, the data's on people's personal computers. And then we have something we call the diviner algorithm, which provides the answers. It works like mining. So, you might want to ask, "Where's my package right now?" And the question gets sent to the network, a bunch of diviners, which works like mining, Ethereum, transactional things. A bunch of diviners will take the data from the archivist, the distributed computer system, and try to find the best answer and try to find as close as possible the consensus as they can. >> What about spoofing? I mean, people might want to spoof the location. >> Yes. >> How do you prevent spoofing? >> Yeah, that's a good question. So, we two could collude pretty easily. But if this entire room of people is who you usually don't know, it's very difficult to collude. So, one of them is scale. Then we build reputation over time. So, as your answers are probable, you build reputation. For example, if all us say we are here at this hotel right now, but you say, "No, we are in Shanghai," your answer is improbable and your reputation goes down. In addition to that, we disincentivize lying-- >> You're very data-driven. >> Extremely. >> This is big time analytics. >> Extremely data-driven. >> So, what are you guys doing for analytics and what chain are you using? 'Cause performance becomes an issue. >> Yep. >> How's the plumbing work? What's the analytics look like? Take a minute to explain that. >> Yeah, it's very beautiful. We have our own chain: the XYO main chain. So, we are an oracle which plugs into any type of smart contract. You know, you have Ethereum and about 19 other coins which have smart contracts. So, we build on our chain to lower the transaction costs, transaction times, and build a more reliable network for ourselves and then it plugs into all other smart contracts. >> So, you have your own chain to manage this? >> Yes. >> So, that's one of the reasons why you, from an operational standpoint, you want to lock that down. >> Yes. >> So you can control performance. >> Exactly. >> Latency, timestamps, security, whatnot. >> Exactly, that's right. >> The openness is for the smart contracts. Is that what you're saying? >> Yeah. >> I can do any smart contract I want. >> This is basically for old site developers it's like an API, you can plug into it-- >> Got it. >> We connect the real world with the blockchain. So, right now you have very limited applications for blockchain in a lot of cases because you can't take offline things and connect them to the chain. What we allow to do is, we call it the API to the real world, where you take location data, put it into the chain and make it transactional. >> So, I got to ask you a question. This is interesting, I love this, I want to get into more of the token sale and what you guys are doing raising money. In the IoT world, certainly with cloud computing, the big debate is, do you move compute to the edge where the data is, or do you move the data back to the centralized cloud? Here, since you're decentralized with the IoT device, is the data coming back to your central network, or-- >> No, it's not. >> Where is the processing at? At the edge? What's the edge equation? Explain that. >> So, everything is decentralized. We believe that our company doesn't need to necessarily exist in a few years and the network will live on and grow as we grow the community, so the community is very important to us. The devices are decentralized, you own your cell phone. The data storage is decentralized. So, you can define, like, 3% of my personal computing power goes to this, for example, you earn XYO tokens. The mining is decentralized like any mining is decentralized today, so us as a company, once people start to build on the platform, we don't need to exist, which makes it beautiful, right? This is what blockchain is all about. Decentralizing and building this platform layer where people can build on top of. >> So, there's a ton of Bluetooth and GPS out there. >> Yep. >> Talk about where you guys have got your traction. I want you to take a minute to explain. We kind of went off on a tangent on some IoT rant, there, I was interested in. But I want to take it back to mainstream. >> Okay. >> There's GPS out there, you've got Bluetooth, everyone's got Bluetooth devices. So, it's not like this is massive new, it's a requirement. >> Yeah. >> You guys did some interesting things how you funded your first token sale. >> Right. >> You have customers. You've been around for how long? >> 2012. >> 2012. You've been successful. No outside capital. >> Yeah. >> So, you bootstrapped. You made things happen. Had some revenue come in. How'd you do it? Take us through that progression. >> Yeah, so we co-founders worked in various ventures together previously and one of our co-founders, the main founder I would say, Arie Trouw, he started this company in 2012, and we bootstrapped it with seven million dollars of our own cash and one and a half million in venture debt. We really believe in what we do. >> You guys put up a lot of capital. >> Yes. >> Congratulations. >> We believe in what we do. We believe in our capabilities to attract the right teams, we have an amazing team. >> That's skin in the game. >> It's skin in the game and it's actually a low-risk investment for me because I know what we are capable of. >> You are underwriting your own competence. >> Exactly, exactly. >> Okay, so, you had seven million of your own cash. Did you pass the hat around, you all kind of contributed money in, or? >> It was mostly from Arie, actually. (laughs) But we all have skin in the game there. >> So, you have a community, then you launch your idea, what happened next? >> Exactly. So, then the VCs started to come. We did some outreach, VCs started to come, they're interested in our idea, you know, they love what we do. Platform is right, quite sexy right now. In blockchain we are a platform and you can build a lot on top of it. We pushed off the VCs and we said we want to take community money first. The reason is, we believe in building this strong community of evangelists, people who believe in us, who want to code with us. We went to all the developer conferences, not to, like, investor conferences, or something like that. And, so, we marketed to about 2,300 people, our token sale and a little under 500 people put some Ethereum into our token sale and 95% were under 5 ETH. That was a very global community. >> Was that a utility token sale? >> Yes. >> Outside the US, 'cause there's credited investors involved, or what was the-- >> It's clearly a utility token, because you can build on top of it. Last weekend, the city of San Diego and 120 hackers, a IoT company, were in our office to build on top of our chain, traffic flow and parking solutions for the city of San Diego. So, it's clearly a utility token but because of the uncertain regulatory environment we are actually running it like it's a security, so, we have a Reg A, Reg D, Reg S, whatever, we have 115 different jurisdictions we look at, I spoke during the whole process, I'm not lying, it's-- >> That's a lot of work. >> Yeah. 23 lawyers I spoke with. It's a lot of hours with lawyers on the phone. The most aggressive on of them, she suggested to me a structure with no taxes but 20% prison potential, I think. (laughs) On the other side-- >> It's a good cause. You're doing it right. So you spent a lot of money to make sure that your community was involved. >> Yes. And they weren't throwing a lot of money, like they're millionaires, they're like, let's throw a thousand dollars? >> Yep. >> That kind of numbers. >> Yes, exactly. >> So, it's not like you're breaking the bank but they feel ownership. >> Absolutely. If you look at our telegram channel-- >> And you've raised, what, a million, two million, three million, from that? >> One point seven. >> From the community? >> Only community, those 400 people. We had it open for five to six days. We closed it down. We didn't take any money anymore. And since yesterday, I started talking with institutionals again and now we are a sexy story so now they come again, right? (laughs) >> Platforms are sexy. >> Exactly. >> We know, we have one, too. >> (laughs) That's awesome. Love your project. >> Well, the thing about platforms is that, as you know, we talked about last night, is that the platform wars and the platform entrepreneurial thinking has radically changed. In the old days, it was, I've got a platform and I'm going to monetize my platform for my application. Look at Facebook. >> Right. >> They monetize their platform data for advertisers, not users. I am a Google search engine, I need to make the best search result so I can get better advertising. And search results, thats a part. But the new order is the platform value goes to the users or customers. >> Right, right. That's right. >> So not... >> We are not rent-seeking. >> This is an open model with platforming. >> 100% open. There is a lot of the platforms are rent-seeking, where a certain percent of each transaction goes to the company or to some founders or something. We don't have that at all. So, what we do, for every token we sell, we allocate one to the company and after the token sale there is not going to be ever more XYO tokens ever again. And we use our portion to build this network but we don't take any fees or anything there. >> How do you make money? >> Building partnerships with companies, helping them to build on top of the chain, building the community. >> At some point you need to take a small cut of something, right? >> Yeah, if we own half the tokens, hopefully there is some value. >> They could be-- okay, so you'll get the token opportunity? >> Yes. >> So, on the security token, do the investors, the community and now token holders, is that an equity security token, so they own the company through the tokens, right? Non-dilutive, non-voting equity, is that what you're thinking? >> Yeah, it's not an equity token. It's still in our mind a utility token but we do something very interesting. During the token sale event, we are going to launch an equity sale at the same time. So, you can decide if you are comfortable in the blockchain space, you know, all you want to be an equity investor. The disadvantage is you have less liquidity there but you have all the protections an equity gives you. We are a California-based company. It was audited financial since 2012. SEC-qualified and regulated, so equity in our case is a kind of sexy kind of thing. >> Yeah, and they have the long game. They're betting on acquisition or something else. >> Basically. >> Oh, well, they've got to get some revenue going. Well, what's next? What are you guys doing? Token sale done, is it working? What, is it going on now, let me just check it out. You've completed it? >> No, it's going to start on March 20th. It's going to run for two months until May 20th and so now it's a lot of travel, speaking with people, engaging. >> (laughs) >> Yeah, that's next. >> Well, congratulations. >> Thank you. >> So glad that Carrie on Facebook notified me of you guys. Super-impressed with what you're doing and we had a great conversation last night at the monetize roof party. Great to know you guys. I think IoT really needs this kind of model because there's a lot of real critical challenges around the role of data, the role of immutability. There's all kind of sensor devices out there, cameras, you can't go anywhere, digital cities are coming, smart cities. >> Right. >> Self-driving cars. It's going to be wired up, big time, so I think you guys got a good opportunity. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. This is John Furrier here in Puerto Rico for exclusive coverage of Blockchain Unbound. More after this short break. (electronic beats)