hey guys Kriben Govender from the gut health gurus podcast i've got a background in food science and today i have a very interesting conversation we've got a guy an aussie guy his name is george he's got an amazing project called zen ape and i'm really fascinated to explore the the whole connection between the evolution of people moving more online and how it impacts mental health but also some other very interesting topics so george firstly welcome to the show thank you george what i'd like to do at the start of all my shows is to ask the question who is george who is george um i i am who am i i guess i guess i'm george but i'm not i'm i'm like nobody but i'm george i i don't i don't i guess in what aspect are you asking that question it's a very such a pro it is a broad question it's very open and it's really up to the uh the guests to tell the audience a bit about themselves so you can be as broad and esoteric as you like or you can be as specific as you like but firstly um you know what do you do what's your background what's uh what's the project all about that you're working on yeah so i mean i have a background in in real estate and i moved into stocks then i moved into crypto and then i moved into nfts um i think since maybe july 2021 so i mean when i first heard about nfts i was kind of like i thought it was a bit weird and it didn't make a lot of sense especially like you know the whole crypto punks selling for millions of dollars and the people um nft selling for like i don't know how many millions i'm like tens of millions and um i started with axi infinity and i learned a lot about it and then i started to realize the potential of nfts and that underlying technology and its potential um yeah and from actually i went into more nfts the first one i went into was cybercons and during that time incomes i learned a lot more about nfts in general uh made a lot of investments as well as a lot of speculative plays so made money there lost money there um all in all it's a good learning experience um yeah and then from then it was like okay we've learned so much about nfts and observed so much so you know let's let's just play around let's have some fun let's do some stuff right so you know that one thing led to another and that led to zen apes which is the project that i co-founded uh one of five co-founders and that happened rather spontaneously there was no um it wasn't exactly like planned out okay like hey let's make our own nft and mint it out blah blah it wasn't quite like that it was more like okay let's let's do something cool do something fun so once we did that then we needed to give we wanted to give it a reason for existence um you know as the french would say rise on detroit something like that uh so so what it is how we would define zx is a community focused brand and web 3.0 masternode so you know we want to welcome people in general you know we have a policy a philosophy of openness so for us it's about collaboration and not competition like for example when generally speaking we're not afraid to share our ideas um we're not concerned about being front run and stuff like that um but there's there's a lot of like um a lot of projects out there very very siloed like they keep everything to themselves it's very insular um we we try to take the more balanced approach of being you know just just open-minded and open to people in general open to to builders to innovators and to just like you know chills and people um i mean the motto of the project is wisdom virtue and mindfulness you can see that in the open seat description and hopefully that's also reflected by the behavior of or zen apes of the founders and of the mods and or all community members in general amazing so audience members they're probably perhaps confused with some of the technologies but we'll really dig into nfts what nft is what opencv is because the audience i'm sure this is going to blow a lot of minds because this information is very cutting edge in terms of where the technology is headed but what really fascinated in talking to fascinated me personally and talking to george is the whole impact of social media and just the last couple of years going through a pandemic and more and more people moving on to the social media space going online and what the impact on mental health is is it evolving is it something that's become you know more more prevalent you know certainly for myself going through the lockdown i had huge mental health challenges with the the isolation aspects but then it also adds to the complexity of people spending more time online so george what's your thoughts on this past couple of years and then what do you think from your own personal experiences being the impact on mental health for people across the world oh [ __ ] i think it's um i i think this whole cobra thing has been very much like a crucible like a furnace for people um you know some people have adapted well to it and others have not adapted very well from it to it and you can see that's very much reflected in in the overall psyche of of the collective of the human race in general um so when i say that i mean like you know some people get uh feel the isolation you know normally they'd be very outgoing for example you know drinks with friends and social events raves whatever right so and then all of a sudden it's like they're just trapped at home due to all of the enforced lockdowns and isolations and all of that so and they just get and you know humans do tend to be social creatures so they do get to get become like um sad and anxious and whatnot and that's completely to be expected um and and then you have people that that are like okay so obviously this is not a nice situation but you know when you get lemons you make lemonade from it so because you're isolated gives you a lot more time to i don't know to meditate to reflect think of new possibilities and to shut out a lot of the previous old noise and maybe learn a thing or two you know when you take up a language uh learn about you tech stuff like that i mean and for me or like clearly and you know i played i played um quite a few video games during isolation but i also took the opportunity to to read a lot more and to do like you know meditation stuff like that and also learn a lot about nfts and underlying potential and technology and to meet a lot of people um online as well yeah absolutely george i think the the isolation aspect has forced people to really go introspectively and those who are natural introverts if you like for one of a better word would perhaps be more acclimatized to spending time in solitude but i feel for the people that really draw a lot of power from being around others and spending time with friends with family i think that would be more of a struggle me personally being an introvert it was still very tough but i feel for the people that really need to draw power from others and the impact that isolation has had on them now another interesting segue george is the the metaverse because i think we're starting to see that as people move more online so more people are spending more time on social media so you've got two a couple of different interesting buzz words if you like that we can explore and perhaps with your expertise i think let's start with some definitions so how about we define web3 we define metaverse and then we define nfts so with your expertise how would you define these three very important online developments well the metaverse is um let's start off with the better verse i think which i think is the most popular god's word so the metaverse is basically like a virtual reality it's basically a new layer of reality that's generated by by human technology so it's kind of like it's it's very much like the um like games that we used to play that i think people still play like i think called second life or world of warcraft games like that but now this time it's all kind of interlinked with each other so stuff like world of warcraft it's and all those different online mmorpgs they're they're siloed from each other and they're on their own centralized separate servers but in the metaverse it's like you have everything interconnected with each other into a web way of ownership as well so you can think of the metaverse as being a new layer of reality that's interlinked with each other in a vast web way comprised of you know ownership and new experiences people general yeah i think there's a better way of putting it but that's a good start i think yeah that sounds that sounds really apt i think it's a it's always for for the audience like if you've watched the the movie ready ready player one that's probably a good sort of example of people transitioning onto some sort of online life online identity and you know i i think it's gonna have huge implications on how humans interact but also opportunities for for development of these kind of almost online wellness retreats wellness worlds and this is what i see zen ape being a community of of people through an nft acquisition being part of a community that's really in encouraging mindfulness encouraging wellness you know all those sort of healthy elements of life but in an online space and i think just just to explain it's also discord that's really popular where the community actually interacts with these nfts and their utility so what what's the next one george what should we define next oh yeah web free let's go with that so i mean web free so i guess you could start with just going back so web one is kind of like read only so like a news website something like that information is uploaded you consume it you read it that's it it's not much interaction there web 2 is kind of like those big you know web 2 companies like uh instagram facebook you can like stuff you can upload stuff you can comment on things you can interact with things and it's all from these centralized databases that achieve these very powerful network effects web 3 on the other hand is a evolution in the direction of decentralization so the difference here it has all the elements of web 1 and web 2. but now the control the governance the stakeholders the share in revenue all of it is decentralized and split apart between many many people players or stakeholders i would say that is that to me is web3 yeah and we're moving towards more of a so people would have heard we're starting to hear about cryptocurrencies to hear about things like bitcoin that are becoming very popular and more mainstream so george how does the cryptocurrencies then dovetail into web three well cryptocurrencies are a use of web free technology um so everything like all of this nft um like cryptocurrency all these things are all backed by the underlying blockchain technology which can be used in many many different ways so it can be used for cryptocurrency it can be used for nfts and actually nfts um are basically cryptocurrency but this time it's non-fungible meaning that each nft is different but for cryptocurrencies or cryptocurrencies within a certain cryptocurrency are the same like one bitcoin is the same as another bitcoin but not for nfts like one nft is different for an another different from another nft and hence the term you know non-fungible so non-fungible means that they're different from each other you can't exchange one for another but bitcoin is fungible because you can't exchange one bitcoin for another bitcoin easy peasy no problem because they're all the same doesn't matter which bitcoin you have so actually like all nfts and all cryptocurrencies are tokens it's just that nfts are non-fungible and crypto currencies are fundable yeah right that's fascinating that's a really interesting simple way to define these very complex terminologies so how about we explore more about the the essence of zen ape so now he's in a your baby it's your project so how did you how did your your founders including yourself come up with this concept to take all these these these ideas of nfts of of web 3 of metaverse of other elements of these emerging technologies and then create this zen ape project um yeah so zen apps um happen rather spontaneously you know it just kind of like just naturally happened and yeah i mean i mean we all know each other in real life we're good friends in real life um five co-founders and we're based in sydney and canberra and yeah we we uh we played around with nfts we've learned a lot about nfts and it's like yeah okay let's do some nft art and eventually that evolved into you know a full-on 5k collection and then it evolved into giving it's a a meaning and a reason for existence and you know if we're going to do something uh if we're going to do something cool we may as well you know go big or go home right just enlarge the scope of it and do something innovative and fun and at the same time there's any particular reason that you chose the mindfulness genre or the wellness genre is that something personal between the founders or was that just an opportunity that you guys wanted to explore in the marketplace um yeah i think i think um the mindfulness and the zen factor was kind of like a reflection of a lot of lessons we learned from trading in stocks in crypto and in nfts right so it's very easy to get caught up in in the frenzy in emotions right whether it be um buying into euphoria like in a bull market or selling into pessimism in a bear market you know things like that because you're being governed by emotions you're being controlled by your emotions and not the other way around and that is usually uh for most investors the number one mistake and the number one cause of value destruction any investors portfolio so i think the whole mindfulness and zen factor is like you know i think we should embody that and be more zen and be more mindful and just kind of like be mindful of our emotions our state and we will better make optimal decisions you know not just for nfts or crypto or or stocks but for anything life having said that it's uh it's much he's much more easier said than done so it's it's always uh it's a journey so yeah that's an interesting little rabbit hole to jump into how about say for yourself you completely resonate what you're saying with things like any sort of investing in stocks trading requires a lot of emotional uh control fortitude so are there any practices that you apply in your own life to foster this this zen-like mindset um i think it's discipline i think the i think for me it's like just discipline it's very easy to get like stuck into something and just be completely obsessed over it and just sit in front of a screen for like 16 hours a day and and develop this kind of like tunnel vision like myopic vision and just get caught up in all the emotions the roiling emotions of of markets and market sentiment but if one can develop you know just a little simple thing like a schedule and say you know at this time i'll do this at this time i go to um the gym at this time i meditate at this time i have an ice bath like whatever like whatever it is at this time i go hiking and you know schedule you know and for this time i'll be making investment decisions right um i think this is a much much more optimal outcome than you know being on a 16-hour grind 100 hours a week and going to bed at 4 a.m stuff like that and i think this is also much more sustainable as well
yeah i mean sure there are lots of people that have gotten results as in made a lot of money from doing this kind of crazy grind set but i don't believe it's sustainable long term most people and also uh you you can you can be a lot more happy you can allow yourself to be a lot more happy by having a more balanced life yeah completely and what would be your say your top three lifestyle hacks or practices to foster this zen-like state or or feeling of discipline or control however you want to describe it oh that's that's a lot of things but i'm trying to condense it as much as possible into just a few broad principles which guide um guide the overall habits and i would say it's kind of like um i think one of the first ones would be i think how you react like how you perceive things is very important like perception like how you react to news how you react to uh what people say people write um how you react to people's emotions stuff like that uh it's very important like framing from at the personal level how you see reality is very important um as it's said right perception is very important uh perception is like so important that i think that it's almost as if if you control perception then you can contribute that up excuse me if you can control perception you can control reality itself absolutely absolutely and i think for for an older bloke like me you know spending more time on on social media i find that a lot of it i think it's easier for younger people like yourself but for me it's so easy to lose almost the translation of what someone is typing in a social media context because you know these days people tend to shorthand a lot in in social media so when i look at some of these discord groups or twitter the the messaging is really short and sharp in the way the conversation is framed so it's so easy for people to take offense and and be upset about something that's said on social media because often there is no context there is no face-to-face interaction it's just a word a word salad on the screen so i completely resonate with what you're saying is that perception mindset and to foster a mindset where we can err on the side of positivity so rather than jump into an assumption of saying or thinking negatively oh this person has ill intent what is the best way we can frame that to to have a positive mindset and and almost choose positive rather than negative because i find myself getting very easily irritated and upset about these short these short styles of conversation without context without the face to face without the body language and this is just something that is going to be evolving as we move more and more into online interactions so it's so refreshing to talk to younger people like yourself because i think you're almost growing up with this whereas for older people like myself i mean we're used to a certain way of of communication and now we're having to adapt to this new world like discord is like completely new to me i'm just learning as i'm going and it's it's very very different to other forms of communication so what's what's your advice because our audience will be on that older older sort of spectrum so what's your advice george for all the people coming into this online space into the social media space as we move on to web3 and metaverse what is your advice to help us all these navigate this very challenging path ahead um i'd say the first thing is kind of i know it's very like you know as a so-called younger person myself it's it's kind of like oh but yeah it's kind of like weird for me to say this but it's just lose the perception that you're old uh that yeah like not you but i mean in general like i say like just lose that obsession and because like ultimately it's not about the age like young or it doesn't matter it's just the only thing that matters much much more than those things is willingness to learn and to adapt to new tech and stuff like that so it's kind of like age is completely irrelevant discord um yeah so and i guess like yeah you're right even for me personally i much prefer um face-to-face contact like meeting people in person um compared to using discord in chat especially when it comes to discussing complex and sensitive topics like it's just like i really don't like writing long-winded texts like i try to keep my messages short and snappy uh that's it and yeah because when it comes to sensitive topics it's so easy to offend people even if you're not intending it you can come off sounding either sarcastic or blunt excessively blunt or brood when you're not fully not intending to do so and yeah that's why there's just like they said right i think like 90 plus percent of what human communication is on verbal or in this case uh non-text it's not really even the words it's it's the eye contact it's the body language and stuff like that right and all of that gets lost in text so you gotta have to adapt to that and i guess the one of the biggest advice i would say is just don't like don't be reactive don't get offended by anything um it's the the internet is full of douchebags because everyone is anonymous and they feel like they can get away with anything and they just like shoot from the hip and say what they feel like and oftentimes it can be very hurtful or feel very hurtful um but uh just reframe it and that like ultimately nobody can hurt you especially not with words or texts it's you allowing people to hurt you yeah that's such amazing advice george i think it's certainly something we haven't explored on the podcast before and i think it's just so important as we move more and more towards this this online world fostering that mindset of being almost thick skinned if you like one of a better word and almost behaving my advice would be i always i'm always i'm i'm always you can see me i've got i'm fully doxed i've got my profile picture you know exactly who you're talking to this is me i've got an online presence so people know who they're talking to they can look me up and they know exactly who i am so i think it's it's having that etiquette on how we communicate to almost communicate in a sense like we're talking to someone in face-to-face terms because it's really difficult to be mean to someone when you're right in front of them but i think in in the online space when it's anonymous you don't know who you're talking to there's trolls there's bots there's all sorts of complexities i think your advice is just spot on to be really thick-skinned if you like don't take anything to heart be non-reactive you know these are all these principles of stoicism and zen which is really going to set us up well when we interact in this online space because it is a minefield you know not only for older people but also for young people you know with online bullying and you know god forbid suicides things like that when people get into these really tough situations online so you know it's it's a new frontier it's almost the wild west that we're moving into and i think we just need to be careful and just be good human beings and how we interact online but of course i can contr i can't control or george you can't control how others behave so the best thing is to just you know even at times just switch off take a break get get off get off the online platforms and just go back to nature you know things like that so is that something that resonates with you when it comes to you know absolutely absolutely absolutely like a lot of the times you see something someone replies something to you or writes something that you instantly have a reaction and and now you just got to like even not have those reactions control your perception learn to let go of those reactions don't be reactive and it normally is the best thing to do is literally just to walk away do something else and then later on you'll think like why the heck was i even like why did i even have an emotional reaction to that thing in the first place it's ridiculous right but if you get strapped into it if you get like bogged down in this nonsense then it can drag you down yeah a really good example that i can think of in my own sort of corporate experience is you know the corporate the corporate lifestyle can be really stressful you know it can burn you out it's very political at times and a good example is when you have an interaction with a work colleague and it's it's heated and sometimes with emails as well so it's a good way to think about it how do you send replies to emails so at times you know you can be really irate and someone can write an email and that could be a career destroying email you know it could be something really terrible so a good analogy is to really you know you're upset you heat it up so rather than communicating in that very moment when you're heated you're sort of you're more yes your sympathetic fight or flight response is really kicking off you really want to get back at the person or you really want to you know get revenge or however you want to take it so taking a step back sometimes it's even you know getting a cup of coffee relaxing sometimes even sleeping on it not responding to that email not responding to that interaction obviously in a work context you have to respond so taking a step back and then responding the next day when you're calm you're clearer you're more relaxed you're more logical when you're thinking non-emotional then you respond so in a corporate sense this is some of the techniques that i used to use but again the simple thing is maybe not respond at all in some of these online interactions so you know in my own experience as well we get a lot of trolls you know on social media then sometimes it's like it's just not giving them the air you know not feeding the troll sometimes it could be just not responding because you're never going to get everyone to see on the same page as you in every single issue there's always always going to be contention there's always going to be disagreement there's always going to be conflict between people that has been since day one that's not going to change some people are just not going to get along it's just human nature so at times what i think is just not responding what's your thoughts on that yeah um not responding is a good option um and i think also you know just taking a step back and just like you said just sleep on a and a lot of the times like even like when you forget about it and your mind is more than just more chill and in a healthier spot like something like a more effective reply can spontaneously pop up right in your head and then you know how to deal with that person in a much more calibrated and optimized way yeah it's kind of like it's kind of like shower falls when like your best ideas come when you're not when you're not actually doing that thing like when you're on a hike you're walking on a beach or something like that it's no different from that yeah absolutely and these are the the states of consciousness that you achieve you know you're in a hot shower when you're completely relaxed when you're in the middle of a uh a very deep meditative practice or you're out in the forest and you're not stressed out and this is the the place that you want to come from when you're responding to some of these high stakes or emails or very important conversations involving conflict george this has been such an important conversation we haven't touched on these mental health implications of social media before so i really hope that the the audience really gets some good tools and techniques that we've provided here today so george how about we as we start to wrap up this episode how about we talk a little bit about your pr your project because just to give the audience a heads up i'm also part of georgia's community the zen apes and we're also part of another community called the cyber cons and they're they're also a another amazing nft community as well so how about we we talk a little bit about your project z8 so i think so the audience if they're interested they can come and explore you know some of these uh these ideas with you in your community the zenith community which is all about your sort of your wellness your your meditation your zen practices and adding other utilities on top of it so how about we talk about your project and give that a bit of air time yeah sure i mean i guess the first place to learn more about zen apes would be the website uh it's a very simple website zen ape dot io is where you can learn more so coming from me you can oh yes and for people who don't necessarily know yet open c is the main nft uh marketplace that's currently used yeah openc dot io and from there you'll also find zen apes as well um so basically what zen apes is right let actually let's take a step back and discuss about what nfts are about or one of their main use cases right it's about building communities so for example uh in cyber kongs or in zen apes right if i'm a cyber kong or i'm a zenith and crippen is a cyber kong or zenit or she is a cyber kong or a zenith like we instantly have a connection with each other right it's like we already know each other almost and becoming you know further friends is much much more easier um as an example right some of the best friends i've made have been in cyber comms or xenx i'm just talking to them online mostly text chat sometimes voice chat as well and i just learn just over time just learn more and more about them and they learn more about me and about our interests uh mutual interests and eventually you know you even meet up like um there was a gentleman that i met in in cybercons who's also in sydney and i was like yeah do you want to hang out like yeah okay all good and we went to this uh uh this great place in smithfield and it was like great like when we met it was like we were already friends like we already had a connection there but i mean imagine if you were to do this in in the in the traditional world like it's weird like nobody does that you don't like randomly meet someone online and go oh hey do you want to get lunch now like no it's it's weird right but like nft communities are kind of like a way pre-vetting people to know that these people are like you know legit people that you have a lot in common with um simply by nature for example you know if you were both drawn to cyber cons or zx then you probably share uh many similar characteristics in your persona that would have led you to those nft projects in the first place right yeah so and now it's like you know i know cyber constants and apes from across the world i know them in uh united states a lot of them there you know east coast west coast the south the north northwest in europe and germany poland uh in korea in hong kong um in india in india and even in the middle east as well and you know i talk to these people i know they're legit people they're like real g's and they're like hey if you're ever here then hit me up right we'll hang out and likewise i tell them if you ever come to sydney australia like hit me up right we're bros or sisters right because you're either a kong or a zenith right so yeah i mean this kind of level of what you would call brotherhood or sisterhood it's it's quite unprecedented i don't think i've ever seen anything quite like it and it's something you see across like many communities as well especially the more well-known ones like light cones uh black zen apes or like you know boarded yacht club for example so so yeah i mean there's this very strong um potential for establishing human connection uh using web3 technology and utilizing the power of community so what's happening in in your world in terms of the the utility of the zenith is there anything that you can share with the audience that you guys are working on that's not confidential or sure absolutely so we minted in december right early december that minted means um we sold out the nft and we saw it out in like a few minutes literally which was nice of course it was very cool and from that time we've been building you know furiously uh according to our roadmap so basically what we have planned to release and also in that time we also built zentask dot xyz right the zentask.xyz um that's the url that's website zentas.xyz but we'll just call it zentask what that is it's a social slash business networking decentralized application based around trust networks so what that seeks to solve is that in this space it's very challenging to effectively find work or to find people to work for you because currently it's like you ask your friends you ask your friend or friends hey do you know anybody he's an artist or who's a developer or do you know anybody that needs an artist from a developer and you look around in discords searching for talent it's very very like backwards like old school 16th century stuff so with xantas we aim to solve that issue and also it allows us to create value on a much larger scale by activating those network effects which are so prevalent in in web 2 like you know facebook and instagram millions and millions of users but in web 3 like typical nft collection has maybe 5k users or something like that 5k members 10k members uh it's very challenging to to activate network effects simply from the thousands so webzen tasks uh adhering to our principle of openness and bringing people together will be able to combine all those different nft communities together into almost like a zen task confederation and from there also branch out into the wider cryptosphere as well so it's very important sorry yeah yeah and of course there's the vx breeding that we're doing as well so we're doing a 10k vx collection that can be created from your zen apes so if you own two zen apes uh once you accumulate enough tokens you'll be able to breed a zen a vx so that's you know it's like a sculpture it's it's art it's it's games gamification and i think for a lot of viewers that second utility that i talked about it's going to sound weird but but yes hopefully hopefully um yeah more will understand soon yes sure absolutely i i just wanted to say so the zen task almost sounds like a web 3 linkedin sort of platform yes it has been described as such and we sometimes call it that as well um it shares many many similar characteristics with linkedin um but it's yeah you could call it that but then again it's like i'd say it's it's um it's different enough um to be something of its own uh of its own unique value proposition um i think where it differs from linkedin is that linkedin is about um like flashy photos of people in suits and and their corporate smiles and all of that and like oh here's my resume of one year and six months here and this and that but zentas caters much more to pseudonymous identities so in this space a lot of people choose to be anonymous right for whatever reason it doesn't mean that they're you know that they're bad people or anything like some people just like it right like many of the most well-known people well-known names uh in web3 are actually anonymous like on twitter they've got tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of followers but we don't know who they are but they're real legit people that are trustworthy and do create a lot of value whether they're coders or artists so zentas will enable you know people like that to create profiles and to build their own trust networks without having to reveal without having to fully dox themselves with like a photo and a full name uh like all of those identification stuff right completely and that i can completely understand with why some people would choose to want to keep their privacy you know as we see some of these more mature web 2 platforms evolve it creates a whole lot of issues around privacy so some people i completely respect that so i appreciate that you've actually developed a platform that can build a trust network but still maintain a level of privacy as well so you can still build your credibility build your brand but remain completely anonymous so that that's amazing so this is this has been a very unique episode compared to some of our other episodes so hopefully the audience can understand where i'm coming from because i really do believe that web 3 nfts are going to be a huge part of our lives it's probably really early days in terms of the wild west where we're at in terms of this technology but just like facebook was you know 10 or 15 years ago at some point it's going to hit the masses and become more and more prevalent in our lives we can already see a lot of big brands going into this space already you know there's a whole lot of rumors around disney getting involved in the nft space there is major companies like walmart like jp morgan big banks that are getting involved in the space big fashion brands so i think it's really here to stay and i think the utility of nfts are going to play a huge part of our lives sometimes even without even knowing about it it's going to be this technology that's going to be used because the underlying technology behind the nft is the smart contract so how about just as we're closing you just give us a quick rundown on what the smart contract is and what implication it has for the everyday person as we progress in this technology so yeah you're absolutely correct in saying that nfts are going to be a huge part of our lives uh sometimes without us even knowing about it just like the internet right so now you've got the internet freaking everywhere you know internet of things internet there everything's connected um to something one way or another or even your car your washing machine um and yeah the nfts are going to be the same thing the potential for use cases or nfts are endless and you know it can be from anything from from real estate to physical merchandise to you know to tracking of of food sources for example um now underlying all of that as you mentioned is the smart contract right so as an example when people buy like pay millions of dollars for a crypto punk like and that and people like kind of mock it and say oh you just paid millions of dollars for like a pixel pixel character for a pixel figure like it's just completely bizarre right i don't get it well actually what they're really paying for yes it's technically the picture but actually more so they're also paying for the underlying code so of that crypto pump for example like crypto punk uh number 200 right we'll set we'll say that right so underlying that is a smart contract for the entire collection of crypto punks and that exists on the blockchain so all the records of ownership and transactions of where that crypto punk went and came to and who bought it and who sold it it's there forever as long as that blockchain exists as long as the ethereum blockchain exists like when you buy a zenith for example it's like not only are you buying the art but you're also buying the code the underlying code you know as it's popularly said you know the art is in the code and the code is an art right so the smart contracts define everything in in cryptocurrency in web3 in nfts they define how a cryptocurrency works they define its tokenomics they define how an nft works um you know what the nfts can do what its utilities are you know for example yeah so you know some nfts can unlock access to certain things unlock access to websites and that's all in the underlying code the smart contract hence the term smart contract and so for my perspective as well to to add on top of that it's always it's almost the way of of trustless transactions it's like it's almost like when you buy a house you sign a contract and then you pass over ownership but in future buying assets buying houses buying cars could be a matter of just pulling out your smartphone and interacting with an app and then the the record of that purchase is then automatically transferred to the purchaser without having to sign anything to read contracts as long as there's a system as a process it just makes it much more seamless so it's i i see a future in that vein it's almost like now when we're pulling out phones for qr codes you know as we're checking into places and whatnot so in future it could be when you buy these assets rather than having or something like a house where you've got a title a deed reams and rooms of paperwork to sign lots of trees being consumed in the process as well it could be a very simple interaction of dealing with with the the seller or the bank or the buyer whatever it is and just pulling out your phone instantly transferring the asset to yourself in a way that's completely trusted by both parties completely seamless yeah absolutely and that's um that's another um aspect of major aspect of smart contracts is that it effectively removes the middlemen and allows for much more seamless much less friction transactions between different parties right so now if i buy ourselves something new whether it's an nft art or real estate backed by nft technology it's just a matter of us both signing the transaction done that's it so you know imagine a future like in like in sydney uh i'm i go to opening inspection and i'm like hey this is a nice house all right deal let's do it and just get your phone out and sign a transaction done sold within 20 minutes assuming you have the if for it when they start selling houses undoubtedly there'll be some form of cryptocurrency in our ethos ecosystem at some some time in in the near future for sure i think that's where the future is headed whether it's a cbdc or a central bank a version of a crypto or some of these other decentralized ones but let's see what the future holds exactly absolutely george i really appreciate your time if people are fascinated by this almost it's going to be very uh very new for a lot of the audience but if they want to reach out to you how can people find you um yeah if anybody that wants to contact they can find me um via the zenei email you know uh contact xen8 dot io yeah and just ask for george awesome easy and i always like to close my podcast with asking this final question so if there's one thing that you can do for your zen today what would it be one thing that i could do for my zen today what would it be hmm that's a good question one thing that i could do to my zen today what could be i would say read more yeah that's it just read more awesome yeah get educated i'm a huge advocate of educating ourselves learning having that learner mindset growth mindset fantastic advice george thank you so much i really appreciate your time yeah thank you cribben see ya bye
2022-04-09