Scott Picken, Wealth Migrate | Blockchain Unbound 2018
>> Announcer: Live from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's theCUBE, covering Block Chain Unbound, Brought to you by Blockchain Industries. >> Hello, everyone, welcome back to theCUBE's exclusive coverage in Puerto Rico for Block Chain Unbound. It's a global event, people from all around the world, from South Africa, Miami, Russia, San Francisco, New York, all around the world, talking about Blockchain cryptocurrency, the decentralized internet, and the future of Money, that's the killer app in Blockchain and cryptocurrency. I'm John Furrier, your host, my next guest is Scott Picken, who's the founder and CEO of Wealth Migrate Platform. Scott, thanks for coming on. >> Yeah, awesome John, thanks for having me. It's quite an exciting group of people here. >> We met last night, had a great conversation, I really liked some of the things that we were talking about, I wanted to bring you on because being in South Africa, where you're living and working, you have a unique perspective because you see the global landscape. So, I'm from Silicon Valley, we're here in Puerto Rico, America's got their view, the UK just announced a deal with Coinbase for essentially a license to convert funds into separate bank accounts through faster payment mechanisms, basically taking crypto and turning it into Fiat. Kind of a game changer. >> The one thing with the UK is they've been at the head of all of the different innovations over the last five to 10 years. They were right at the head in terms of crowdfunding and they're doing exactly the same in terms of now with the whole cryptospace. And it's actually quite interesting because when you take into account Brexit, they actually really need to do it because they want funds coming into the country, they want to be seen as the future of the banking market, et cetera, so it's actually really exciting. When you look around the world it's fascinating that I said this to you last night, that America really grew because Europe used to have all the controls. And so the capital basically left Europe and were in America and now it's happening 300 years later as America has all the controls and the capital's starting to go elsewhere. >> So America's turning into Europe. And so the potential is to bring, you don't have to say it, I'm an American and we're concerned about it. Americans are concerned that we don't want to be that old guard, like Europe was to America in the America days. So a new liberation's happening. UK's putting a stake in the ground, saying, "We want to get our mojo back," my words. >> Scott: sitting here in Puerto Rico. >> Yeah, they're in Puerto Rico. They're going to put a stake in the ground saying, "We're going to give you tax breaks 'til 2036." This is a money flow game right now. So you've been doing some pioneering work, what's your perspective, talk a little bit about some of the world dynamics that you see because, let's face it, this is the transfer of money, with crypto, it's happening at a massive scale, not just some underbelly boutique underground activities. This is front and center, mainstream, real money, real commerce. Your thoughts? >> I would take it a step back, actually. I think there's eight major macro trends that are all culminating at the same time. So the first one is in the education space, and the whole of education is changing, and it's really becoming gamification, and it's becoming learning while doing. So you don't learn and then go do something, you actually learn while you're doing it. The second one, for me, is the whole Blockchain. And what that's enabling people is getting democratization to wealth and access to assets, whether they're in their country or global assets, basically. The third thing that's really important is you've got the rise of the middle class. You know, a lot of people talk about the unbanked three billion, but what they don't realize is that 1.2 billion people joined the middle class. And they are primarily in the emerging world, they're in Africa, India, China. And what they want is, they want health, they want education, and they want access to wealth. Then you take into account what's happening in terms of collaborative investing. In the old days it was I do it on my own, you do it on your own, we sort of trust the financial industry. Now we're coming together, it's the power of the crowd. I could go on and on, that's just four of them, there's another four. They're all coming together and because this is happening is why we're seeing this metamorphosis and cryptocurrency is the catalyst on top of Blockchain that's allowing this to take place. >> Talk about some of the things that you've been advocating for, I know you were sharing a private story, maybe this may or may not be the right time to talk about it, but you put forth some pretty forthright concepts in memos and letters to folks, and no one will publish it. What are those views, because we've got the cameras rolling right now, share your vision. >> Again, I fundamentally believe that technology can solve grand challenges. And when you take our platform and what we're doing, we're effectively helping the 99% invest in commercial real estate like the top 1%. So what we were talking about last night was, I come from a country, South Africa, I was previously from Zimbabwe, and unfortunately for us is that in South Africa, they're talking now about taking away land without compensation. So land redistribution without compensation. Now, Einstein says that if you want to solve a problem, you can't solve it with the same reality that created the problem. And so I wrote a letter to the President, an open letter two weeks ago, and I said, listen. Why don't we do it differently? You're giving a person a piece of land in the middle of nowhere when they've never been a farmer will not help them get wealthy, I guarantee it. And if I'm wrong, let's go look at Zimbabwe. Which is a economic disaster. What about if we give them access to ownership of a good quality commercial asset that's earning a passive income? That is how you'll grow your wealth. And then add to that, Cape Town nearly became the first city, and it still could be the first city, that literally runs out of water. So why don't you go build a decent ionization plant in Cape Town with government money, allow people that you would give land to actually access to that asset and allow them to have the ownership? And that's sort of the concept, where you just think about it completely different. And you allow technology to actually give people what they want, which is wealth and prosperity for their family, and not just a farm in the middle of nowhere. >> And you're really addressing, I think, the incentive system combined with structural change. You talk about gamification earlier, this is kind of the dynamic. How important from an education standpoint, meaning educating stakeholders, old guard or existing governments, because you have this organic groundswell coming up of young people, people with vision that are older and more experienced like us, what's the formula, how do you get this ball rolling? >> So it's quite interesting, I get asked this question all the time and for us, in the first world, a lot of what we're talking about is it nice to have? It's sort of a bit of a game and if I can participate, but where I come from in the emerging world, it's a necessity. There are no other solutions. So if you live in South Africa or China or India and you want to get your money into a first world country like England, Australia, or America, it's very very difficult and virtually no one can do it. But it's a major problem, because you want world preservation, you want your Plan B, you want your children to be able to go to a first world university, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so to answer your question, I think the way it will get solved is in communities where it's not a nice to have, it's a necessity. In terms of educating the old guard, I believe that what happens is you get groundswell, like literally when people really need a solution solved, they persuade governments and regulators to change and it's interesting, coming back to how we started the conversation, that's why smaller countries are often the ones to adopt the regulated new change and, more importantly, countries in emerging markets, whereas first world countries are trying to protect what they have and, unfortunately, the new world is about capital. And its capital flows. >> It's a choice between playing offense or defense, really in my mind it's a sports metaphor, whatever sport you like you know. We love the sports analogies. But this is what UK's doing, they're playing offense. And I think you're seeing other countries wanting to restructure themselves as digital nations because that's what the young people are expecting. So with that in mind, you have a global fabric here at this event, and it's just a microcosm of what we're seeing, which is outside the US, call it the little US bubble that we're living in, Silicon Valley, that's one case I'm wary of, but the growth outside the United States and even in Asia and south of the border, if you will, south of the equator, there's a ton of global action. What is, in your opinion, the few global things that are going on, that people should know about when it comes to how money's flowing and what they can do to take advantage of the trend rather than trying to hold it back. What do we do, is it get into the current? Ride the wave? What should people understand about the new global dynamic? >> So the first thing I would say is, I always laugh at this, but people don't understand how much innovation's going on in China. Like, go and understand WeChat to start off with. It is phenomenal, what is happening. The second thing for me is the global capital flows. When you consider how much capital is moving from the emerging world into the first world, primarily in real estate at the moment. And that's just the top 1% of the top 1%, you know, that's the people with 10, a hundred million dollars. But I've already said to you, there's 1.2 billion people coming into the emerging markets. In the middle class, they're going to want the same things. And so those capital flows are going to be going cross border. I also believe, with time, capital flows will be going from the first world into the emerging world in a safe way but wanting higher returns. >> So then the emerging world, the US has a shrinking middle class, but yet the emerging world has a growing middle class. That's going to attract new entrants. >> Exactly. >> Okay. >> Well, take into account China. Has China had a big impact on the global economy in the last 20 years? Yes or no? >> Yes. >> How many people are in the middle class in China? Plus or minus? >> Don't know. >> I've heard different reports from 200 million to 400 million, but whether it's 200 or 400-- >> It's more than it was 10 years ago. >> I know, but think about the impact that's had on the global economy. I'm not saying that this is 1.2 billion in the next 10 years, it's either a factor of five to eight, depending on which way you want to look at it. >> How much money, in your guesstimation, if you had to throw a dart at the board, order of magnitude, is flowing out of China with crypto into other assets? >> In the crypto space that's fascinating, because a lot of it is hard to tell, actually. In real estate last year alone, it was just short of 30 billion dollars went into commercial real estate from China. Now what's interesting is that a lot of that money is sort of gray, like no one actually knows where it's coming from, which is why China tightened it up so much. It's also why they tightened up the crypto side of things. Because a lot of people want to get their money out of the country and into first world economies, and that's why, in the emerging world, cryptocurrencies have been embraced more, actually, than in the first world. >> John: It's a faster way to move that money. >> Coming back to necessity. So in South Africa, in Zimbabwe, in China you pay more for Bitcoin than you do in America or Europe. I don't know if you know that. >> John: No, I don't know that. >> And by quite a lot. Like in Zimbabwe you pay nearly double. So a lot of people are making money by overcharging coins. They buy them in Europe, they sell them in South Africa, they sell them in Zimbabwe, they sell them in Nigeria. >> So the demand to move the money out of country is very high. >> Well, because they've got capital controls. So they have currency controls. So you're only allowed to move a certain amount of capital out of the country legally. So what happens now, you buy cryptocurrency and you can effectively invest in assets around the world. And you literally started off this conversation, right in the beginning, there's a democratization in terms of capital flows and what's happening, and people are going to put their capital where they want to. And governments, I believe, are not going to be able to control it by putting up controls, they're going to have to make their countries attractive so that the capital's flowing into the country, not out of the country. >> So what's your take on big multinational corporations that have capital structures, have equity positions, and it could be also growing venture-backed or private equity-based companies, they have capital structures, they have equity investors, in some case public, and privates, and unicorn valleys or whatnot, now moving to look at utility tokens as a way to get to a global gamification. So you have multiple securities, a utility, and in some cases a security token a real security. That seems to be a dynamic, are you seeing that on a global scale, are you seeing any activity there, we're seeing a little bit of movement around big companies trying to figure out how to play in crypto. >> From my experience, not a huge amount. I think that most people, they have a board, it's all around reputation, they got to meet the lawyers, the lawyers tell them, you're going to get crucified. And so from my experience, not a huge amount, it tends to be the small to medium enterprises that are prepared to go out and look at it. However, I will say from our personal business perspective, we built our entire company on a community. We've got shareholders all over the world and so for me, when it came to the crypto and the ICO market, that was just doing that more aggressively, effectively, and community-based companies are the future. So whether you're a Fortune 500 company or a start up, it's all about building the community, and I believe that whether it's utility token or security or a combination of the two, it provides an incredible vehicle to ultimately be the catalyst to a community. And if you're the catalyst to a community adding value, then you're going to build a company of value. >> And capture that value. So, Scott, I got to ask you about Wealth Migrate. Talk about your platform. First of all, thank you for sharing your perspective here on theCUBE. It's been fantastic to get that data out. What's your company about? Take a minute to explain what you guys are doing, your value proposition, state of the company, are you doing an ICO, have you had an ICO, what's the status of the company? >> So from Wealth Migrate's perspective, the platform went live in October, 2013, so we're a little over four years in now. We've effectively got members from 111 countries around the world and we've raised just short of 70 million dollars. All though the platform, all on Blockchain. We've facilitated real estate deals of over 485 million dollars and what I'm proudest of, actually, is that we've got a higher than 70% reinvestment rate. What we're doing is we're allowing the 99% to invest like the 1%, our minimum investment at the moment is $1,000, we're beta testing $100, and my dream is to get it to $1. You asked a little bit about the ICO. We built our platform on Blockchain not because of an ICO. Our number one challenge was trust. And ultimately Blockchain enabled us to solve the trust problem. The second thing for us is that my dream is to get it to $1 per person per investment. I want to solve the wealth gap. And I truly believe we can do it when we can allow anyone anywhere to invest in good quality assets. I can't do it with the current system, there's too many friction costs. With crypto and volume I can. >> Whether it's semantics, or education and/or hurdle rate on dollars, it's an interesting concept. You want to make the 99% invest like the 1%. Explain what that means, take a minute to explain that concept. I mean, some people are like, "Okay, I know what "the 1% is, there was a movement about that." So now you're talking about something pretty radical and interesting. What does that actually mean? I mean, empowering people to make more money? Unpack that concept. >> So let me ask you a question. Do you personally own a medical building? >> Do I own what? >> A medical building. >> No. >> Like a hospital, medical building. >> No. >> So it's 2009, I'm in Bondi Beach, Sydney and I meet two US dollar billionaires. I had helped about two and a half thousand people buy houses and apartments in England, Australia, America, and South Africa. And I sat with them and I said, "What are you investing in?" And they said, "Medical buildings." I said, "Why medical buildings?" And they said, "Well think about it. "No matter what happens in the global economy, "people need doctors." I was like, that makes sense. Secondly, they said, "Doctors never move." I was like, that makes sense. Thirdly, doctors are very good at being doctors, but they're not accountants. And so they sign long term, good, favorable leases. Now from a property perspective, real estate perspective, that's a no brainer. And I said to them, "How do I participate?" And they said it's really simple. It's for friends and family, there's eight people only, it's five million Australian dollars each. I was like, now there's the problem. That company today is over 700 million dollars, it's on the Australian Stock Exchange, and it's what I call financial exclusion. You and me don't own medical buildings. Since October 2013, we've enabled people to invest in medical buildings from $1,000. So the top 1% get wealthy by investing in better assets than the 99%. >> John: Because they have access. >> Because they've got access. >> John: And the cash. >> And the cash. But we've dropped the barriers to entry. Because you and I can participate now from $1,000 and I will get it to $1. >> So it's a combination of leveraging the asset based securitization with that opportunity by using a crowdsourcing kind of model, is that what you're thinking? >> So, effectively, and I'd suggest-- >> John: I'm oversimplifying it. >> No, no, 100%, I'd suggest everyone goes and looks up the term collaborative investing which is ultimately, it's a thing that's been going on for decades by very wealthy people on how to successfully invest. We've taken that but we've added a smart component. And why that's important is because in the past you needed 10, 50 million dollars to do collaborative investing, now you can do collaborative investing with $1,000. >> Yeah and what's beautiful is that you understand potentially whose reputation you're working with, you can move in herds, network effect kicks in, that's awesome. >> What gives me the greatest pleasure, I mean, children, my son is six years old, he's already investing. You know, most kids are playing Monopoly, he's playing real Monopoly, and so are adults. And what gives me the most pleasure and pride ever, and what I'm grateful for, is that we're changing people's lives. >> People talk about how to solve the welfare system, all kinds of things, you make people own something, or try to own something or trade, whether they make money or lose money, you learn from it, you're better for it. Here, you're providing a great service by opening the door, lowering the barriers to entry, to potentially wealth creation. >> Dude, I call it freedom. At the end of the day, if you're where you want to live, where you want to send your kids to school, how you want to retire, whether you want to donate to the church or whatever, I don't really care what you want, but I want you to have the freedom to be able to do it. And wealthy people get that freedom by investing in quality assets. And we're just allowing them to do that now. >> And the democratization is multiful, in this case you're creating a new economy model so the whole freedom, democracy aspect is in play. >> Well, I mean if you think about it, when you get into $1 per person, $1 will not change your life. But if you change your habits, you'll change your financial destiny. And so my philosophy is get it to $1, so that every single person can participate. And once you start to learn good habits around money and wealth, the rest just, it's a formula. >> It's a flywheel. Kickstand. Scott Picken, who's the founder and CEO of Wealth Migrate Platform from South Africa, formerly of Zimbabwe we learned today, great sharing the global perspective. Thanks for coming on theCUBE. Exclusive coverage from Puerto Rico, this is theCUBE, I'm John Furrier getting the signal here out of all the noise in the market, this is what we do, this is theCUBE's mission, to bring you the best content, best story from the best people, more coverage here in Puerto Rico. Day one of two days of coverage. After this short break, thanks for watching.
SUMMARY :
Brought to you by Blockchain Industries. and the future of Money, that's the killer app It's quite an exciting group of people here. I really liked some of the things that we were it's fascinating that I said this to you last night, And so the potential is to bring, about some of the world dynamics that you see So the first one is in the education space, the right time to talk about it, And that's sort of the concept, the incentive system combined with structural change. I believe that what happens is you get groundswell, and even in Asia and south of the border, if you will, And that's just the top 1% of the top 1%, you know, the US has a shrinking middle class, in the last 20 years? in the next 10 years, out of the country I don't know if you know that. Like in Zimbabwe you pay nearly double. So the demand to move the money so that the capital's flowing into the country, That seems to be a dynamic, are you seeing that be the catalyst to a community. Take a minute to explain what you guys are doing, and my dream is to get it to $1. I mean, empowering people to make more money? So let me ask you a question. And I said to them, "How do I participate?" And the cash. in the past you needed 10, 50 million dollars you understand potentially whose reputation What gives me the greatest pleasure, I mean, children, lowering the barriers to entry, I don't really care what you want, And the democratization is multiful, And so my philosophy is get it to $1, to bring you the best content,
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS :
ENTITIES
Entity | Category | Confidence |
---|---|---|
Scott | PERSON | 0.99+ |
John | PERSON | 0.99+ |
Europe | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Scott Picken | PERSON | 0.99+ |
October, 2013 | DATE | 0.99+ |
America | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Nigeria | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
$1 | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
England | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Zimbabwe | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
China | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
$1,000 | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
India | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Miami | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Puerto Rico | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
John Furrier | PERSON | 0.99+ |
Australia | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
99% | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
five million | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Silicon Valley | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
South Africa | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
$100 | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
1.2 billion | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
San Francisco | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Coinbase | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
Bondi Beach | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Asia | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Africa | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
2009 | DATE | 0.99+ |
Cape Town | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
United States | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Einstein | PERSON | 0.99+ |
two days | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Russia | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
200 | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Australian Stock Exchange | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
30 billion dollars | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
last year | DATE | 0.99+ |
70 million dollars | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
100% | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
New York | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
400 | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
two | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
200 million | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Fiat | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
second one | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Monopoly | TITLE | 0.99+ |
October 2013 | DATE | 0.99+ |
111 countries | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
over 485 million dollars | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
second thing | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
four | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Wealth Migrate Platform | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
10, 50 million dollars | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Scott Mize, Network Society Lab | Blockchain Unbound 2018
>> Narrator: Live from San Juan, Puerto Rico. It's theCUBE. Covering Blockchain Unbound. Brought to you by Blockchain Industries. >> Hello and welcome back to theCUBE's exclusive coverage in Puerto Rico for Blockchain Unbound. This is where global event from Silicon Valley, New York, all around the world, investors, entrepreneurs, all coming together to build this industry. A lot of great conversations, a lot of conversations around Puerto Rico as a place to domicile all these great investments and companies. Obviously post-hurricane, lot of action here, lot of interest. Blockchain for good, crypto for good, also for money making. Our next guest is Scott Mize, who's with Network Society Labs. Welcome to theCUBE. >> Scott: Thank you. >> John: Good to see you again. >> You, too. >> You have a knack for being in real inflection-point markets. When we first met, almost 15 years ago in Silicon Valley, nanotech was a field that was a great track, it's doing great work, has great impact. We see each other around. Hey birds of a feather flock together. You're doing crypto, doing some work. Take a minute to talk about what you're doing Scott. What's the work? Network Society Lab, what's that about? >> Right. I guess we're both living on the bleeding edge. I'm the C.E.O. of Network Society Lab, and we're a venture development firm, so we provide the same services as an incubator or accelerator, but primarily for the portfolio companies of Network Society Ventures, which is another company that's in the Network Society keiretsu, which is headed by David Orban, who's speaking here today. >> Is that a investment group? Or is that more of an advisory service? >> The fund is a seed stage venture capital fund. >> John: The deploy capital. >> Yeah, that focuses on exponential technologies in decentralized networks, companies that are driven by that. We work with those companies to help them be successful. >> Great, so two different groups. >> Scott: Two different-- >> The lab team is get down and dirty help advisory, accelerate the mission? >> Right. And in that same keiretsu there's also Network Society Research, which is a think tank, and Network Society Media, which is a media company. >> All right so what are the things you're working on? Give us a taste of the kind of ventures and projects you're working on right now. Most of the work we're doing right now is what we call token sale management, and that's basically taking responsibility for executing a token sale from beginning to end, all of the activities, and bringing together service providers that are world-class in each one of the responsibilities that you need to be executed, in order to have a successful token event. We manage them the same way a general contractor in a construction environment manages subcontractors. >> Is that because there's too many moving parts? There's a lot of lawyerly going on, you got tax advice. Is that the reason? Or-- >> Why we structure it that way? >> Well we want to keep a lean internal staff, so we don't want to have a huge head count, and also this allows us to work with world-class people, like for instance, on two of the projects we're doing now, Michael Turpin's the P.R. guy, so that automatically means that among the team, there's over 50 ICO's under the belt, and it's the same for every service provider. They've done some significant number of these, and the combined experience, the combined capability, is really the best team you could get together in the world. >> So talk about the global impact of this, cause we were talking last night, we were saying, "Hey, you know, killer app is money." And that's what Blockchain, cryptocurrency, essentially decentralized apps are all going to have flowing through them. >> Scott: Right. >> Value creation, value capture with money is the killer app. What kind of projects you working on that go outside the U.S? And is it a global phenomenon? And what's your take on that? >> I'll give you a specific example, one example, which is called Wealth Migrate, and they have a coin called the WealthE coin, wealth with a capital E on the end, and what they are is a fractional real estate ownership company. So if you're someone who's in the emerging developing world, and you want to begin to build wealth, and you'd like to own a piece of first-world real estate in the U.S. or Australia or UK, you can go to this website, and today the minimum is about $1,000, but by implementing the Blockchain further, they want to eventually get down to $1, you can buy a piece of real estate and enjoy the returns on that. So this is closing the wealth gap, it's giving people who are just getting into the middle class the ability to own real estate and build wealth. >> What's going on in Puerto Rico here? If folks couldn't make it here, what's the dynamic here? Obviously the hurricane pretty much crushed the island. It's well documented, but the entrepreneurial culture here is coming together with outside ecosystem communities. What are you seeing here in Puerto Rico? What's your observation? >> Well it's actually a pretty fascinating experiment. Michael Turpin of the Transform Group has been living in Puerto Rico for quite some time, and he was kind of the Pied Piper, evangelizing this place, and saying, "Hey, this is a great place to come live, it's got a favorable tax structure, etcetera." And I think it's fantastic that the crypto community is essentially adopting Puerto Rico, and also moving here. All this activity is really going to give a shot in the arm to the Puerto Rican economy, and people are doing that very intentionally, as a way to give back and help to rebuild the island. >> So what do you say to the folks out there that say, "Well it's not just Puerto Rico, there's other domicile digital nations out there." I mean today the U.K. announced, or yesterday announced, that they are going to convert to Fiat currency, with a faster payment system, with Coinbase. It's a significant, radical move. So can Puerto Rico maintain a position, and countries like Bahrain which Amazon works with, you got Armenia, you got China, you got all these, Estonia. You have people who are jockeying for similar positions. Is it going to be a new digital nation sovereignty structure? >> I think Puerto Rico has a particular advantage in this part of the United States, so if you're a U.S. citizen, then this is the only place where you can go and stay in the U.S. and get this special treatment. So I think it's always going to have a little bit of a niche there, but this is truly a competitive environment. It's global, it's very competitive. There are certain nations that are very anti-crypto, like the United States for instance, and there are certain nations that embrace it. The one that we like best, and we're doing a couple of token sale events or ICO's, is Malta. And Malta has a history of creating a regulatory environment that's very favorable to things like financial services and iGaming, so doing digital currency is something that's a natural for them, and the government and the regulatory agencies are all in. So they're a competitor, and there are many others as you said, but I think that's all good because competition will bring down prices, spur innovation, etcetera, and that's fantastic. >> John: But regulatory posture and policy will be the gating factor for competitiveness for nations. >> Yeah, that's one of the major factors, It wouldn't be the only one, but absolutely. When you've got a situation where the regulators are saying, "Our mission in life is to have a light touch. We want it to be regulated, we don't want a lot of fraud going on, but we want to make it easy for you guys to be doing these things." It makes a huge difference. >> So what do you say to the folks out there that would say, "Okay you know, Michael Turpin, he's got so many ICO's, he's just pumping and dumping these things, he's got so many ICO's." He's a promoter, basically. He's not really-- >> Yeah I mean he started out as a P.R. firm. >> Yes. >> John: He's a P.R. firm. You got a P.R. firm as a leader in the industry. Some people will say, "Hey, I want to see Goldman Sachs come in. I want to see real players come in, I want to see more validation." The P.R. messaging is not going well, look at Brock Pierce, he got taken down by John Oliver. New York Times wrapped it up-- >> Scott: Bad timing. >> So you have a lot of kind of thud out there. >> Yeah, yes. >> So what do you say to that? What do people say to that? I have my own opinion, but I'll share it after you share yours. >> I mean just one observation is, you can tell a lot about a person's personality type by what their initial reaction is to cryptocurrency. It's almost like a Meyers-Briggs, right? >> Explain that. >> Well just in my experience, I've introduced the idea of crypto, or now that I'm in the field, a lot of people have approached me, friends. >> John: Who want to learn. >> Who want to learn but they come into it with certain biases, and for some reason, crypto really pokes at people's biases, and some people can't get over the fact that well, "Why does it have any value?" And I go, "Well, why does the United States dollar have any value?" I mean you've got full faith in credit of the government that's in debt by 20 trillion dollars, is that a good idea? But they don't understand-- >> What are some of the reactions you get? across the board what's the spectrum of reactions? You've got the one end which is fraud, it's bad-- >> Scott: It's got to be a scam. >> John: The next revolution is here. >> It's the entire spectrum. Again like I said, it has a lot to do with what people's personalities, If people are very conservative and skeptical, they're going to be conservative and skeptical about it, and look for the negative. If they're very innovative and cutting-edge and open to new ideas, they're going to think it's cool and interesting, and is an agent for change. >> Well a lot of people I talk to, and here's my opinion, I personally believe that you can't P.R. your way to industry momentum. That's the old way, so I'm down on the whole press release model, just pump and dump, and you're seeing a lot of that, and it's not just the Transform Group, it's just P.R. in general. There's also people misrepresentation. So to me that's a communication vehicle, not primary. The key is value creation. Which companies are creating value? Which one's communities are endorsing? Who has real communities? Who doesn't? So I think as investors come in, the thing that I'm hearing is, smart money saying, "I want quality deals, and I got to peel away the promotional layer, and look at the core data." >> Scott: Right. >> That seems to be a flight-to-quality right now in this market. >> There's a major flight-to-quality. We're probably in the third or fourth era of ICO's, and there is a flight-to-quality because people realize, what I call these deals are vaporware or field of dreams. These are the ones where there's really nothing there and it's, "give me $30 million, and I'll build this, I'll boil the ocean for you." That's why we like to work with companies like Wealth Migrate, because what they've done is, on relatively small capital, proven a business model and started a business, and now what they need is money to scale that model, and those are the ones that we prefer, and that's when people can look and say, "I can see that this business model's working, and that's where a lot of the risk is factored out, and now it's just about making that a bigger business." >> The thing I tell people is when you look at selecting service providers or partners, whether it's P.R., strategy, advisory, it's not so much the function. I'm against a P.R. angle, but let's take Transform Group, They have a great social network, so the signaling is, if they are involved, so it's about the network you're choosing, right? So to me it's not so much the functional P.R., or the functional advisory, it's really who's bringing the network effect, investors to the table, partners to the table? >> And that's good and bad actually, because you're talking about hype. There's no more fertile hype environment than social media. One of the things I find to be really scary, is that a proxy for the quality of the ICO is how many telegram followers does the chat group have, which I think is just insane. >> John: You can game that. >> Yeah. >> Well Scott, what are you working on now? What's next for you? What's some of the things that you see happening in the next year? >> Well we're just staying heads down, executing several of these token sales or ICO's, and that's what we're going to do. We're also going to get back to the original knitting, which was our mission, which is expand our venture-development services, so have a full palette of things that the startups from Network Society Ventures can choose from, so that we can help them make successful. >> Token economics is a critical decision every company has to make, >> Scott: Yes. >> And having advisory help is great. Thanks for sharing your opinion here on theCUBE. I'm John Furrier. Puerto Rico, for theCUBE's exclusive coverage of BlockChain Unbound. Back with more coverage after the short break. Thanks for watching. (upbeat music)
SUMMARY :
Brought to you by Blockchain Industries. all around the world, What's the work? but primarily for the portfolio companies The fund is a seed to help them be successful. and Network Society Media, Most of the work we're doing Is that the reason? and it's the same for So talk about the that go outside the U.S? and enjoy the returns on that. but the entrepreneurial shot in the arm to the that they are going to and the government and the be the gating factor for that's one of the major factors, So what do you say to the Yeah I mean he started leader in the industry. So you have a lot of So what do you say to that? reaction is to cryptocurrency. or now that I'm in the field, and look for the negative. and it's not just the Transform Group, That seems to be a These are the ones where there's it's not so much the function. is that a proxy for the quality of the ICO the startups from Network after the short break.
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS :
ENTITIES
Entity | Category | Confidence |
---|---|---|
Scott | PERSON | 0.99+ |
David Orban | PERSON | 0.99+ |
Michael Turpin | PERSON | 0.99+ |
Network Society Lab | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
John | PERSON | 0.99+ |
two | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Amazon | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
John Oliver | PERSON | 0.99+ |
Network Society Ventures | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
UK | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
John Furrier | PERSON | 0.99+ |
Puerto Rico | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
$30 million | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Australia | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Network Society Labs | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
U.S. | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Silicon Valley | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Scott Mize | PERSON | 0.99+ |
$1 | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
Goldman Sachs | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
yesterday | DATE | 0.99+ |
Puerto Rico | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
Coinbase | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
Network Society Research | ORGANIZATION | 0.99+ |
today | DATE | 0.99+ |
United States | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
U.S | LOCATION | 0.99+ |
20 trillion dollars | QUANTITY | 0.99+ |
next year | DATE | 0.99+ |
both | QUANTITY | 0.98+ |
Transform Group | ORGANIZATION | 0.98+ |
one example | QUANTITY | 0.98+ |
third | QUANTITY | 0.98+ |
two different groups | QUANTITY | 0.98+ |
theCUBE | ORGANIZATION | 0.98+ |
Network Society Media | ORGANIZATION | 0.98+ |
San Juan, Puerto Rico | LOCATION | 0.98+ |
one observation | QUANTITY | 0.98+ |
one | QUANTITY | 0.98+ |
about $1,000 | QUANTITY | 0.98+ |
last night | DATE | 0.97+ |
Fiat | ORGANIZATION | 0.97+ |
New York Times | ORGANIZATION | 0.97+ |
Network Society Ventures | ORGANIZATION | 0.97+ |
Wealth Migrate | ORGANIZATION | 0.96+ |
One | QUANTITY | 0.96+ |
first | QUANTITY | 0.96+ |
keiretsu | ORGANIZATION | 0.96+ |
each one | QUANTITY | 0.95+ |
Network Society keiretsu | ORGANIZATION | 0.95+ |
New York | LOCATION | 0.93+ |
Blockchain Industries | ORGANIZATION | 0.92+ |
over 50 ICO's | QUANTITY | 0.91+ |
U.K. | ORGANIZATION | 0.9+ |
2018 | DATE | 0.9+ |
Silicon Valley, | LOCATION | 0.83+ |
almost 15 years ago | DATE | 0.81+ |
Meyers-Briggs | ORGANIZATION | 0.8+ |
iGaming | ORGANIZATION | 0.79+ |
United States | LOCATION | 0.79+ |
Brock Pierce | PERSON | 0.77+ |
fourth era | QUANTITY | 0.77+ |
Wealth Migrate | OTHER | 0.75+ |