Ep 199: Dumb B!tch Hour. Airbnb Overhaul, Special Guests Quasimatt and Duchess of Bushwick on #SaveEthereum, Ross Ulbricht Auction, Believe App & Nikita Bier, CryptoPunks new home, Tesla dancing, Spring Breakers Sequel, AI Baby Podcasters

[00:01] Dumb Shower is a weekly live chat on all things tech, crypto and pop culture news brought to you by Boys Club, a New York based media and creative studio. DBH is hosted by myself, Deena Burke and Natasha Hoskins. Hi. Co-founders, marketers and entrepreneurs that have built our careers in new tech and startups. We're also proudly the dumbest in the room and we love to learn in public. DBH is recorded live and best consumed as a video podcast. Here's this week's show. [00:31] you [00:34] This is DBH, which stands for dumb bitch hour. This is where the three of us yap about stuff that's going on on the Internet and specifically at the intersection of technology and culture. And we have some friends that come on sometimes to talk about a variety of topics. [00:55] This week, we will have a very unserious topic. [00:58] discussed which i'm looking forward to and we will also talk about some things that are uh [01:06] I don't know. [01:06] what we find interesting. So we hope you do too. How's it going? The share, the share. Oh, there we go. Great, great, great, great, great, great. This canva.com for those who celebrate. It's a bit, everybody. It is a bit. You can make a mycanvasite.com and it's funny. [01:26] It's funny. Okay. It's been really hot on the MyCanva on the site, I gotta say. Okay, let's just jump in here.

[01:34] quickly on agenda. [01:38] we're gonna chat about clone so if you haven't heard us if you haven't been to clone yet i don't know [01:42] What you're doing. It's our favorite new fun thing ever. We're going to talk a little bit about it. See what's on the homepage of clone at the moment. We are going to spend some time on Airbnb. There's a lot there to unpack. So we're going to chat about that. We have a [01:57] Some special guests, Quasimatt and the Duchess of Bushwick, which are going to come on and talk about the Save Ethereum dance and bit, I would say. So we're excited to chat with them. And a few, we're going to talk about Ross Ulbricht has a collection of stuff that he's auctioning off. And Nikita Beer's thing. [02:17] internet capital markets, that's happening. We'll chat about that. Yuga Labs and CryptoPunks. And then a bunch of quick hits here at the end, baby podcasts, McDonald's, [02:26] in Saudi Arabia, Polymarket, Question Marks, and Spring Breakers 2 cast. So a lot to get through here today. Before we do, huge love to... [02:39] Our partners, our sponsors, Polygon. If you've touched crypto in any way, chances are you've already used Polygon. It's the chain quietly powering a bunch of stuff that actually works, that people actually use, like Stripes, crypto payments, betting on Polymarkets, prediction markets, and a bunch more. We love them. Sandeep, one of the co-founders, posted this today, which is speaking to the Q1 growth that Polygon has been enjoying, experiencing.

[03:09] $550k, daily transactions are up. So just overall, [03:14] It's just really good stuff happening over there. I think stable coins is... [03:19] uh responsible for a great deal of this growth so happy for them love them as partners grateful [03:24] to have them on side. And also we're going to be doing, have we talked about what we're going to be doing at ACC? We're going to announce it. Oh, later, later this week. Later this week. Okay. So stay tuned for more there. Clone. Clone. Two things. One, if you are here, [03:41] Jump into the chat. [03:42] you can click in, you can write some things, you can say, Hey, we love to hear from you. And then two, [03:49] Clone? [03:51] Dina? [03:52] What is it? So we've been having so much fun with Clone. It's a Dirt Media and Boys Club collab, a joint production. And it's really just, let's bring it up. I think it's best showcased visually. It's basically a news aggregator. We're pulling in all the tabs that are open in our brains, which is what you said a couple days ago, which really lands for me. All the things that we're [04:18] the the dirt media uh wow it looks so pretty it looks so great and uh yeah we're updating it like as stuff comes in hourly more than hourly and uh we are just having a good time ton of people are visiting the site ton of people are writing about it and we're publishing a bunch of our favorite links on uh farcaster we're working with them on doing some experimentation on like okay how can

[04:47] thing and we're seeing if it works. So we're putting some stuff over there. We're putting a ton of stuff up on clone. So you should definitely follow along. And it's kind of a mix of tech and culture. [05:00] stuff. [05:01] It's a lot of fun. We are also doing a little launch party for it this Friday in Williamsburg. So if you're around, please RSVP. The link is... [05:14] somewhere on the internet. It exists. It exists. Okay. So I think we should jump into Airbnb because our guests will be joining us very soon here. And... [05:27] there's a lot to discuss. There's a lot to discuss, yeah. [05:33] Brian Chesky, who is the founder of one of the founders of Airbnb, famed entrepreneur, tweeted earlier this week that there was going to be a huge announcement coming for Airbnb for the next chapter of Airbnb, which spun out a lot of people talking shit on the Internet about what it possibly could be. Airbnb hotels, chapter 11 bankruptcy, et cetera, et cetera. And then they made their announcement. I believe it was yesterday, right? It was yesterday. [06:03] flashy, like, [06:05] Thank you. [06:06] Apple. Apple style keynote. Yeah. Apple style keynote. And they are the everything app now. Now you can Airbnb more than an Airbnb. So essentially what they're doing is they're rolling out a new app, a new website that has three main functionalities to it.

[06:36] And the third is services. So this first stage of the launch, which is a $200 million renovation of the app, will have over 10,000 vendors with 260 cities in 30 countries. And then 22,000 experiences in over 650 cities. So that's what the announcement is. [06:59] They're [07:00] The announcement video itself, very flashy, does the thing that Brian Chesky and team love to do, tell the backstory of Airbnb, pull up heartstrings. Then he sort of announces this new thing, and it's a little bit of a Jeb Bush, please clap vibe in the audience. [07:19] That was the vibe for me. And there's a lot written about it. There's a lot of like what it means for the future of Airbnb. I think you can see this and be like, oh, new feature launch. [07:30] really it's a move towards who they could be competitive with if this works and if they continue pushing down this path. And there is a great Wired article about it that really like digs into this evolution of Airbnb, how it started. And there's a lot that I could say, but I'm going to just [07:49] pause there. The internet had takes, we personally have takes. There's some great pull quotes that I'd love to read out, but I'll pause there, Dina. Give us some thoughts. [08:00] So, okay. Well, when I first [08:04] understood what was happening. I thought services meant...

[08:09] services, [08:12] Fiverr. You were imagining Fiverr? [08:15] I was like, I could book my lawn to get mowed here. [08:20] which i was like great i mean i think that's what they're working towards okay that that's not the vibe that's in the app right now it's or even i think kind of what he spoke to he was like okay [08:32] He was basically like in this keynote was like, "Well, we're thinking like, what do you get in a hotel that you don't get in an Airbnb?" And he was like, "Well, you can order a quesadilla in bed and you can go and get your nails done." [08:45] I was initially like services anywhere, but then... [08:49] as i was watching this i was like oh no they are keeping it in the lane of vacation still and i [08:56] what you can do on vacation. But maybe that's not true. If they are doing like a full bundling of other services, then that can delete 20 apps that I have in my phone between [09:06] babysitting and [09:08] booking a yoga class. That's a huge business, but that's not really the vibe that I got from him. My understanding is that they're starting with 10. They're starting with these 10 services that you would ordinarily get at a hotel. So gym, beauty, massage, room service, [09:26] in a whatever. And then [09:29] like expanding out it seems so one of the pull quotes from the wired article uh said [09:36] um [09:37] . [09:39] But that's somewhere in the future, speaking to like how big the vision is. In the realm of products that actually exist in the world, Chesky will have to face competitors from dozens of domain leaders. Yelp, Instacart, DoorDash, Ticketmaster, Hotel, Tinder, OpenTable, Craigslist, et cetera, et cetera. And probably add Apple, Meta, Microsoft and Craigslist to name a few. Because a big part of vision is like universal credentials and basically expanding this into like a social network.

[10:09] team at Airbnb did not want to say social network. Everybody talking about it outside of them is saying social network. So it's interesting. Like, I think. [10:20] it would have been a lot stronger [10:23] for the message to be what you're saying. Cause like I read that, I read this announcement and I thought, okay, I, I, this many people wanting to have a photographer on vacation is mind boggling to me. I do not understand people like do not net would literally never, but there are other things like I would love to have language classes. Like I would love to go to a place and be able to book somebody to help me learn. In New York though. [10:52] while you're home or on vacation. That's on vacation. At home, I actually think like, okay, glam squad come through. Yeah. I'll do that. Yeah. I do a blowout in my apartment. That's cool. So [11:06] I don't know. I'm sort of like a Brian Chesky apologist. [11:10] And I think that that might be upsetting to some. I love this about you. I'm just like, don't sleep on... [11:15] someone who built an application that 2 billion people [11:19] are using. Like, that's [11:21] one fourth of the entire population of the world. Yeah, I respect that. I think here's the one thing that I will say about this. [11:30] is that the reason that I'm not staying in an Airbnb, I stay at Airbnbs in certain situations when I need to, but the reason that it's 100% not my preference, and I don't think it's yours, I hate Airbnbs, is because it's not because I want to order a quesadilla in bed and I can't.

[11:46] it's because there's quality issues and it's inconsistent and I'm not sure that I'm going to be sleeping on clean sheets. And like, I just like, [11:54] I'm old enough now that I'm just not going to deal with that. And so I think that this new feature set does not solve for... [12:03] my decision between using Airbnb and going to stay at a hotel. In fact, it just expands the surface area for things to be bad quality. And then for me to transport that onto the Airbnb brand and being like, oh, everything's kind of weird quality and inconsistent on Airbnb. I'm not going to use [12:18] like I'm going to get a weird massage. [12:20] Totally. One of the viral tweets was Airbnb massage question mark exclamation point. Yeah, I totally agree. I don't I don't stay at Airbnbs. I don't enjoy Airbnbs. I'm it's more like my. [12:31] affinity for this brand comes entirely from Brian Chesky. And the reputation that he has amongst many people in Silicon Valley of being a very kind, very generous, very brilliant entrepreneur. Kara Swisher had nothing nice to say about anybody in her burn book, except for Brian Chesky. And so [13:01] I don't know if it's going to work, but I'm watching with bated breath. Okay. That's the update there. We'll keep you posted if we book anything on Airbnb services. We should move on. Our guests are here. Let's pull them up on stage. We're pulling you guys up here. And hi. Hello. Hello.

[13:23] Wow. [13:24] So happy to have you guys here. [13:27] We're so happy to be here. This is so exciting. OK, so I feel that you must introduce yourselves, and then we're going to talk a little bit about your work, the work you've been doing recently. [13:41] Well, Quasi, do you want to kick it off? Yeah, sure. So I'm Quasi Matt. I may be like an artist and intellectual that just kind of like hangs around kind of an unemployed meat most of the time. I'll let you talk about the work because I don't really know what that would be. [13:56] And I'm Kayla, the Duchess of Bushwick. I'm like Quasi, I'm more of like a cultural anthropologist, and we just like to complement each other's traits and skill sets. But yeah, the work is more so art [14:11] is your collective project, is that right? - Yes. [14:13] Yeah, that's right. It's our it's our media project. We're kind of reheating Boys Clubs nachos with this one. [14:27] I was invited to participate in something that I support wholeheartedly. I love a commitment to the bit. [14:34] That being said, I have a personal [14:36] religious stance about dancing on video. So that's why I haven't participated, but I support you guys wholeheartedly. So tell me about your Save Ethereum, [14:47] Dance, I guess is the best way to describe it. Well, this is more of like a seance that we're using to summon the charts. And I think it's been working so far. It's working.

[14:57] So I was like, how do I... [15:01] bring together a list of all these movements like i was really inspired by like stop coney um [15:06] Like there was a lot of different movements. I'm trying to think what else happened. Like Cut for Bieber for me was like a big one when we were in the ideation session. [15:13] We were talking about that one. [15:15] And I think like [15:17] When we came up-- so actually, people don't know the backstory of this. So Kayla and I had a meeting where we were coming up with [15:21] a bunch of ideas and we made like a list of over 100 ideas. [15:24] for like kind of viral moments that we could create. [15:27] and we rank them from worst to best. [15:30] And then we're executing them in that order. [15:32] So this was just like the first one kind of idea that we're doing first. And so we were like ramping up. [15:38] from here. Okay. So this is save Ethereum dance was 100 [15:42] 100 best idea. [15:44] Yeah, well, it was like around 100. Yeah, something like that. But yeah, we have over 100 more [15:49] coming up. But yeah, I think Kayla was the originator of [15:52] save ethereum dance like one day she i don't know how exactly this happened but she was just like hey we should do a dance to save ethereum and i was like exactly well actually yeah i was gonna say i got the idea while i was at hollow one night and i was just getting all these downloads and started writing notes and this was one of them and in elementary school i was actually one of the people who brought this soldier boy dance to my elementary school like i taught the entire school incredible lore so i went that's crazy okay yeah so i was like well what can i do to [16:22] some sort of skill set or some sort of [16:24] you know, [16:26] Like I said, it's kind of like a seance, like people want to dance and move their bodies. And I think the Save A Theory movement just fit in perfectly with that. Like I thought that could definitely pump the charts.

[16:34] get people moving, get people excited again. And so I think it worked. What I really love about it is the idea that you all are doing God's work by going out into the field, doing field work, going to events, going to parties, going to talks, lectures, pulling in the devs. [16:54] to learn a TikTok dance. And it's [16:58] -Unprecedented. [16:59] in my opinion, what I've been seeing on the timeline. Yeah, I think it's kind of... [17:05] refreshing to some people because oftentimes in these environments that are kind of like industry core people are really serious and like you you pull up to a happy hour and it's like why are we drinking alcohol because we're not even like doing anything fun yeah so what's the point of all this you know right so it's like let's do something that kind of like lowers people's guard a little bit like is a fun vibe [17:26] like brings people together. So that's like the whole goal. Like ultimately at the end of the day, I think [17:30] For me and Kayla, we really want to just queen out. [17:33] Like that's the whole thing and we want people to queen out with us. And so like that's kind of the impetus. You created a platform for for mutual queening out. OK, so I have to say the vibes. [17:44] in and around Ethereum have been atrocious, absolutely atrocious over the past. I don't know how many months we've been a while now in a dark place. We've been in a really dark place. It's been really bad. And I'd love for you guys to talk about [17:59] What you've been feeling and why Ethereum needs to get saved? Where are we at? What's going to happen?

[18:08] Okay. [18:10] Well, I mean, the vibes have been bad. We're doing our best to do what we can. You know what I mean? Like work is work. We're here to work. And if you need us to do something, we're going to get the job done. So we've just been, we've been called upon from any market makers to see if we can move the ticker and move the dial. [18:40] and get a little bit into the cultural part of it. I definitely have identified the deterioration and vibes in the ecosystem. And I think it's just from losing mind share, right? People just kind of are disappointed that [18:52] He's kind of lost... [18:54] the retail market to Solana largely over the last cycle and like [18:58] that just leads people to be depressed. But I think like, [19:01] it's a it's like self-reinforcing right because as soon as you start thinking negatively about your community it becomes unattractive and people don't want to be there and so like to me the escape when when you don't know if you should be positive or negative the the escape is kind of like to be both at the same time like do a joke do a bit because that allows you to kind of like capture the nuance of being like hopeful and [19:21] disappointed at the same time. And so that's kind of like the, I think the emotional collision of those two things is what leads to a moment like. I love it. Do you feel like people get the bit or do you feel like there's [19:33] Thank you. [19:34] in earnest read on it. I mean, that's not our business at the end of the day. Yeah, I think it's funny because we're trying to have fun, but we're also being serious. When we did the Save Ethereum dance, we were like, no, we're going to raise the price of Ethereum. And we did.

[19:50] So like there's like the way that we're approaching things is kind of like bit like, and there's this like air of fancy that that accompanies everything we do, but we're not like, [19:58] I don't know if we're being ironic or just being like whimsical. Yeah, I think you might. And something that you said is really hit home for me around. [20:07] Like, I think what happens in every sort of cultural phenomenon or community is like, okay, there's this bad vibe around Ethereum. And then that becomes like the language and the rhetoric and everybody starts talking about it. And then it's almost like what you do to... [20:27] connect with people like, oh, how are you feeling? Well, the market sucks. And like, I don't know, how do you, whatever. And that becomes like the thing that you can talk to anybody in this industry about. And then it like just continues to perpetuate this like really bad environment. And what I like about a bit and what is so powerful about a bit is like what you're saying. It's like, [20:47] It is... [20:49] partially a joke [20:50] But... [20:51] It brings... [20:52] a new thing for people to like [20:54] connect on and [20:56] brings the atmosphere up. And I feel like it's really actually quite hard to find a thing that like people can then latch on to and find a way to feel like they're participating and kind of like still poking fun at the thing, but in a way that reads much more positive. So great work, you guys. Who's done the best Save Ethereum dance so far? I have a personal favorite, which is Parker's, but I'm curious if you guys have a favorite.

[21:21] Parker did have a great interpretation of the dance. And we'd love to see all interpretations, to be honest with you. We have to do a very special shout-out to Maddie, who just really got on there. Got on stage. He was the first, I think. Yeah. Yeah. [21:33] Yeah. We have her own iteration. C-Note also deserves-- C-Note was my favorite. A special shout out, too. He got a ton of engagement. He's been a really big support of the Save A Theory movement. [21:43] But we also have some people lined up who are coming to do the dance. So just stay tuned. We may have a new competition, you know? We're queued up. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I really thought Parker's had like a real sensual read on it. I was like, oh, okay. Yeah. She really reinterpreted it. And like she did it to a different song too, which I think is just like, I never would have thought. It was brilliant. It was really brilliant. You can use all different types of vibes to save Ethereum. It doesn't have to be Cardi B. Yeah. [22:13] I really love it. Thank you for your dedication to the community. Thank you for doing the work. Incredible stuff. [22:19] Keep saving Ethereum, please. We've got some work. We will. And you should, too. I'm looking forward to your dance videos. Yeah, we can't wait to see them on the timeline. I'm going to do the Soulja Boy. [22:30] Perfect. You just need to reference aetherium somewhere. It just says save aetherium. Yeah. Okay. Bye guys. See you later. [22:38] Peace. [22:39] Okay. [22:42] Great stuff. Really fun stuff. I really, I need it to work. [22:48] No, that's part of why I'm supportive is because that number needs to go up. It needs to go up. Oh, my gosh. I saw such an incredible tweet the other day. Do you know that famous video of like those girls? Like they're like in college at like a college party and they're like dancing on a picnic table. And one of them is like crying. And it was like when Ethereum hits like a whatever, like quarter high or something of 2300. But you bought it. Oh, man. And I was like, she is me.

[23:18] i am her there you are there you are yeah i was trying to uh calculate my average entry price on ethereum don't do it don't do it well you might be able to share a screen yeah bring up my spreadsheet uh okay let's move on here uh from ethereum to bitcoin so we're gonna talk a little about uh ross albrecht here and what he is up to so ross albrecht is the famous infamous founder [23:48] He spent many years in jail and received a pardon from Donald Trump earlier this year [23:56] Early this year. Yeah. Early this year on a life sentence, like double life sentence or something like that. And so he's out of jail. And he is, yes. For those who don't know, Silk Road was essentially like a black market Craigslist. A black market Craigslist, yeah, that did lots of stuff and used crypto to do all those things. And he was held accountable for all of the things that happened on that platform, essentially. [24:26] Yes, exactly. And in many people's minds, mine included, was wrongfully held accountable for the stuff that was happening on the platform. It would be like Jack Dorsey being held accountable for all the pornography on Twitter. Exactly, exactly. And Ross is very much like a cult hero figure in the Bitcoin community, really.

[24:56] It was like, [24:57] free Ross everywhere. And that was before he was pardoned and before Donald Trump was elected president. And it was very much like a rallying, he's a rallying figure that the Bitcoin community loves to use. Anyway, he's out of jail now, which is great. And we're really happy for him. He put up this auction yesterday or a couple days ago. And his tweet about it was basically like, "Hey, [25:21] I've been in Arizona, which I think is where he was jailed. And he's like, I'm moving out of Arizona. I'm downsizing. And he needs some cash is the feeling that I got from the tweet, which I know. I was kind of like his Depop era. Yeah. Ross Albrecht is in his Depop era. Exactly. Exactly. And he's the stuff that he's selling and what it's going for currently is a real mixed bag. So I really do not like this. Can I just say that? I really do not like it. [25:51] I respect that. Do you agree? I don't. I think. [25:55] Well, I want to get into like the Bitcoin and his money. Okay. Okay. Okay. Because I think that's the biggest question mark for me is why [26:02] Why does he have to do this? But yeah, it's a little, it reads a little bit desperate. And also a lot of people were like, man, just like drop a wallet address. I think a lot of people would donate to you instead of needing to sell your wares. But I think his hope is that these would go for some sort of outsized purchase. [26:20] that they are historical remnants so that they would go for a lot of money. That's currently not really what's happening. And that's what makes it kind of sad. So the, um,

[26:29] He has a couple of paintings that he did in [26:32] Prison, I'm not an art person. I don't know. These are good or bad. Who am I to say? But they're currently going for $1,000 roughly. [26:42] He has his pre-arrest sleeping bag and backpack, which are going for about $100 each currently. I also don't know, like maybe this auction platform, like there's like a eBay thing where like it rallies the price at the end. But that's what they're sitting at right now, which is like kind of sad to see. The famous photo, which is I love, which is him coming out of prison. He's selling the clothes that he wore in that photo. [27:12] about $360 each. [27:16] Yeah, it's, [27:17] I put that meme on the next slide that breaks it, breaks the steel has looked down, but I'm like, where's the plant? Yeah. The plant would have gone hard. I think he should have just done the plant. Wait, can you go back? Can you go back? What's the banjo? No, the djembe drum. I don't know. There must be some lore about it, but it's, [27:35] It's his drum that he's selling. I think it's worth a couple hundred bucks. [27:39] I have many, many thoughts. Uh-huh. Go ahead. First of all, I feel as though your response to this being so low-key is incredibly... I just think it makes me sad. Like, I'm sad. I know. But, like, you not coming in with some judgment when you absolutely roast me for taking my clothes to...

[28:01] beacon's closet. You're always like, how broke are you that you're taking your clothes into beacon's closet? You think that's worth anything? I'm just like, excuse me, ma'am. You have to hold the same standard here. I do. I do. It's inconsistent. It is inconsistent, but it's like, it's, it's sad to me. Okay. This is what I don't understand. Okay. I understand that probably all of his assets were seized and liquidated when he went to jail. I can understand that. Having said that, [28:28] Mm-hmm. There's... [28:30] I can't imagine a world where this man didn't have an anonymous wallet somewhere with Bitcoin in it. [28:35] Totally. So that is really what I was mostly thinking about when I was researching the story is like, where's his money? What's going on with his money? And here's what I learned. [28:46] Well, first of all, there's a lot of speculation to your point, which is that secret wallet, hidden wallet, move some Bitcoin here and there before he's getting... [28:57] before he gets around. I don't know. There's a ton of opportunities, even while he was doing Sick World, to squirrel some stuff away in a secret hiding spot. So I think- [29:07] That is the speculation. Also, he could be doing this and also have that money like this. Right. This could be some like optics for him to for the for the government not to look too closely at like some of these other wallets. I see. OK. But I'm not sure. This seems like I don't know. [29:26] I don't know that you would do that, but but just a bit on the on what was seized. So there was 100K in Bitcoin seized in 2013. 100K Bitcoin, 100,000 Bitcoin. Oh, my God. OK, I was like the US government. Wow. Auctioned them off. No. What? Auctioned them off in 2014 for $334 each.

[29:49] oh i know i know i know i cannot i can't yourselves who are you and then [29:57] There's another like lot of Bitcoin that was seized from a hacker that was like on or using Silk Road that was $6.5 billion that was sold in 2020. That was the price was that was a different market. But in 2014, $334 each, the Bitcoin that was seized from Silk Road. [30:16] crazy stuff. Crazy, crazy stuff. Even if he, he has to, he has to, he has to have an optics play. This is, I don't know. This is, I don't know what this is, but it's, it's not okay. It's not good. It's bad. It's not. [30:31] It's not. If you'd like to come on and talk about it, we'd love to have you. Yeah, Ross, you should come on. Okay, let's jump to Nikita Beer. Okay, so we're talking about Believe and Nikita Beer. So Nikita Beer is a part of this project somehow, but I'm just going to talk a little bit about Believe and then we can go from there. So Believe is going crazy on crypto Twitter right now. It is the same team behind Clout. [31:01] which was essentially like a social FI app where you could buy tokens of specific, [31:06] specific people, which was sort of a dupe of, um, [31:11] We've seen this so many times. Yeah, we've seen it so many times. So it was [31:15] Like, you know, the... [31:17] Meme where someone's hitting the different dominoes.

[31:20] You could start like Frientech and then Clout and now we're at Belief. Their tagline is Believe in Something and the idea is like internet capital markets. So essentially what you can do, how I'm thinking about it is Kickstarter meets tokens. [31:39] That's how you can think about it. Another Kickstarter. Let's go. It's kind of a Kickstarter-esque thing. Triggered. Triggered. Absolutely triggered. I think that, okay, for those who don't know, Dina and I met at Indiegogo, which was like a secondhand... It was the She-N of... It was the She-N of Kickstarter. [32:00] And we... I actually, as I was researching this and thinking a lot about it, I was like, man, Dina, you and I working in crowdfunding actually... [32:08] Makes so much sense and is very beneficial to this industry because I'm just like, I watch these things happen and I'm just like, I have seen this. I have read this book and like, I know what's going to happen here. Anyway, I'm [32:23] i i guess i'm like not that bullish on it but the idea is essentially that it's not meme coins [32:30] It's tokens that are associated with specific projects. So basically what you can do is you can post a video or like an ad or whatever on Twitter about your product, the thing you're working on, your startup. And then if you tag... [32:46] at [32:47] launch a coin. [32:48] plus the name. [32:50] it turns it into a token on belief.

[32:53] And then people can buy the token. And then, you know, it has, it basically has to get to $100,000 market cap, and then it will graduate to an actual token similar to Pumped Up Fund. So, yeah, belief, you can launch token, enough buyers, graduate, and then the project plus the platform collect fees. And those fees are what you can use to start building the actual product. [33:23] for [33:23] So the prime example, they're doing it for their startups. It's Kickstarter. They're doing it for their... Okay. Yeah. So the main... [33:32] project is the token that they launched in association with belief. So you might be seeing launch coin a lot on your timeline. That is the token that's associated with belief. Okay. And, um, it's currently sitting at a $200 million market cap that token. Um, so that's, what's going on. The Nikita beer of it all is he's a part of the team somehow, or working on it somehow it's [34:02] Like I'm a co-founder or anything like that, but he's tweeting about it. And for those who don't know, he's sort of this like figure on Twitter who is has launched many apps very successfully and sort of an expert in like flywheel growth hacking of new products. [34:19] products and startups. And so he's had some think pieces on and

[34:24] tweet form around like the virality of the growth flywheel of a token and discoverability and incentives built in for like indie panors or bootstrap founders marketing their product through tokens here is my issue with this these tokens [34:47] like do not represent like in on their website. [34:51] These tokens do not represent equity in these companies. It does not imply ownership in these companies. You do not get income or yield. You are not profit sharing. There's no dividends. [35:02] Coins should not be marketed as investments. Your coins function as digital merchandise. [35:09] I'm sorry, what? I'm sorry, what? It's like when Kickstarter was like, you don't get anything but a movie poster. You're like, cool. No, literally, it is... [35:20] I don't know. It's just for speculation and trading. It's not a sustainable... [35:25] model for people to be incentivized into a project like okay i have a clarifying question maybe you or might or might not know the answer to this but is the token then used in the product [35:38] It doesn't appear that way. [35:40] It's just a bolted on external... [35:44] I, uh, I'm trying to think of the projects I saw. It doesn't really seem like it's used in the product. It might, that would be smart. That would be like, okay, there's something here. It's a utility within the product that you are actually playing around with. And honestly, I don't want to be negative about it, but I am totally being so negative about it, but like, I would love to see this type of thing work, but like, I just have so much scar tissue from

[36:14] And feeling like that didn't work. And then this is even like another degree removed where it's, [36:21] these tokens are not representative of actual equity in these businesses. And so [36:27] people will fatigue, the price will go down, they'll sell everything. And like, I don't know, maybe if you're designing for that behavior, it will work and you like optimize for the fees at the initial start. And that just gives you some initial capital to start your business. That, that is a way to approach it. But I just think, [36:45] You... [36:47] Never underestimate. [36:49] how angry and entitled [36:53] individual people feel to a thing that they put any money in. [36:58] any money at all even if they don't understand what's happening or just anyway [37:03] Anything. Yeah. Like I just, so I, [37:06] Someone responded and said, hey, I think it was Shlom actually, like there's a ton of coin launchers happening right now. Like why should anybody care about this? Like why do you feel like it's working? And Nikita responded and basically said like hard to say, but these are the three reasons that... [37:21] Launch a coin is easier to remember than BankerBot. So like it's like marketing brand, I guess. No pure memes, all indie devs and venture backed companies. So no pure memes like, oh, they're not you're not launching. It's not like a it's the opposite of this other side of the coin of Zora where Zora is all meme. [37:41] essentially and this is actual he said indie devs and venture backed companies okay so i didn't see any just pure memes happening on there so different from like clinker as well yeah okay

[37:53] Yeah, totally. Well, actually, I think there is some approval process. I think there might be an approval process. And it's an app. [37:59] First, it's not, there's no web. [38:01] It's just app based. Okay, which is a differentiator, which I feel as though meme coins are a big screen task for me. It's a big computer job, not a small computer job that might differ for a lot of other people but so that's what's going on. [38:17] I am interested to see what will happen. So do you believe in this idea is the question. I think Natasha's a no. I really want like internet capital markets. Like that sounds cool. I really want tokens to like work. I want all of it to work. I just like... [38:35] I'm feeling very bearish on the idea that [38:38] If you're not, if you're giving people the idea that, [38:42] of skin in the game but not actual skin in the game it that does not bad bad over time yeah there's the the canonical example of the kickstarter campaign that [38:54] um trying to think it was like a vr set or something that [38:59] a bunch of people funded like early beta versions [39:03] And they built this incredible community of supporters and people on Kickstarter who were buying their V1 of their... [39:09] thing, which sucks also when you're buying the early stuff on these Kickstarter campaigns. They're always like, they take nine months to arrive. And then when you get it, you're like, oh, this doesn't really work. But you're part of the process and you're part of the journey. And that's the fun of it for a certain type of early adopter person.

[39:27] Right. And then you're like in and you're in, you feel like you're really in. And then I can't remember what company it was, but they went on to like raise a, [39:34] huge round of venture funding and like exploded out of the little nestle of Kickstarter Indiegogo into the real world and started becoming like a hugely profitable thing. And everyone in that early initial community was like, what the fuck? Like, what do you mean? We were here and now like, and I think it, [39:55] does come down to like the messaging around it. Like if they're really explicit that this is, you're just, you're, you're not even writing an angel talk. You're just writing, you're just [40:10] giving a donation to an idea. Yeah. [40:13] Yeah. [40:14] then fine. [40:15] But I think that what you're pointing to exactly, Natasha, is the issue is where that is, where it feels like people aren't reading the fine print if it is in the fine print. [40:26] because they certainly won't, and they... [40:29] Yeah, I think it's more [40:31] Yeah. And I would love to be like wrong if people are like you're misunderstanding a nuance here. Great. I would love that. But I read the fine print on their website and it could not have been more clear around representation. It was not these tokens are not representation of any sort of ownership. Um, [40:48] So that's what's going on there. Curious to see how it plays out over the next few years. I mean, I think a lot of it is like the success of Launcher Token or whatever. What did you call it? Launch a coin. Yeah.

[41:00] Oh, launch token. I think it's called launch, launch coin, launch coin. Yeah. Very successful. I mean, $200 million market cap. [41:09] that's the market cap of some other... Lord, I've seen what you've done for others. [41:15] But yeah, that's the market cap of some very [41:18] established companies currently yeah yeah it's pretty crazy um okay quickly on yuga labs uh [41:26] and what's happening with CryptoPunks here. So CryptoPunks IP has been sold [41:33] acquired by a nonprofit called Node Foundation. It was acquired from Yugo Labs. So Yugo Labs famously for many years, um, [41:44] was acquiring a lot of different IP from across NFG projects, including CryptoPunks. And Ugalabs owns Borde [41:54] Yacht Club, Bored Ape Yacht Club. [41:58] And... [41:59] made it so much money doing that it's crazy and all of the other derivative projects around board [42:09] um metaverse land and all their other stuff that they did apecoin and yuga labs [42:15] was at one point like very much like a juggernaut in the industry where they were acquiring all this ip and they had board ape and they had crypto punks they also raised like 400 million dollars from a lot of money a lot of money um anyway they've now just sold crypto punks and crypto punks has been acquired by this thing called node crypto punks is the definitely the most

[42:36] and [42:38] way more refined i would say than board ape it's like considered art and because it was one of the first like generative art generative nft projects so before we got into the monkeys and the [42:53] bullshit penguins and the yeah all that all of all the things that i bought that went to zero not those but all these other ones um this was like [43:04] It's like a canon moment around like... [43:10] generative digital projects. Exactly. And that's very much like what Node is [43:15] hoping to looking to do with CryptoPunks is bring them even more into like the established art museum world and to elevate them to that type of level and release them from sort of this corporate. [43:33] profit-oriented business, which is... [43:37] no fault of Hugo Labs, it's just how they're set up and to bring it into this foundation that is about the art of it and to have it be displayed in a way that is museum quality and and to have it be like at the level that that this [43:50] foundation node foundation thinks that it deserves and so i think that's a really cool move and um is any did it have any um like action on the floor prices of crypto punks like oh great question i can't tell you i do think that um yes i think that it had over i think that there had been like some rumors and there has been some action on on the crypto punks floor price but um for day no yeah

[44:20] incredible tweet this week i wish i had saved it and we could have added it here but so on in williamsburg on roebling and grand there is this building that for some reason has all of these nft murals like crypto punks and board apes and all of like the big nft projects and every time i pass it i'm just like [44:44] I cringe, full body cringe. I'm just like, this is so upsetting to me to see this. And someone was like, if I... [44:52] It was something like if I win the lottery or one of those, like if I hit it big or, you know, like some if I become a billionaire, like, um, [45:00] I won't tell you, but there will be signs. You know, that meme format. And it was a picture of it with all the murals. And then it was a picture of it painted. [45:08] as like a brick building again. And I was like, truly would be me like a hundred percent would be me. Um, okay. Let's look here. Uh, okay. Yeah. So it has, it's gone up. Um, it's so funny. I was, I, [45:22] put this chart in the newsletter for the apes and it looks the opposite way so oh interesting that is interesting can you go to the seven day collector stats seven day over here on the right i just want to see [45:35] Okay, yeah. Yeah, some serious... [45:39] Some action there. Okay. Interesting. I read this and I'm like... [45:45] sell if you got one sell the news um okay so just one more thing on node here um

[45:52] I, I, [45:53] uh, [45:55] Well, actually, before we do that, I just published a newsletter and I was not very positive towards Ugalabs, I must say. And then someone sent me this, which is a comment from the Ugalabs co-founder, which is like making the case for why it's not super bearish from Ugalabs to sell it. You could read this as like a fire sale where Ugalabs is like – Right. That's what I saw. Totally. [46:25] um, [46:26] we need some cash is like how you could read it that way. And that's kind of how our position in the newsletter. And then this, uh, comment from the co-founder, uh, I mean, he would comment this to paint a better picture, but, uh, it basically is saying that like, um, [46:45] Selling the IP to another for-profit entity, even if it meant more money in the short term for Yuga, would have been a disaster both for the community and long-term value of punks. [46:57] Basically speaking to like... [47:00] the community feels [47:03] a lot of ownership over how the punks are used and like wouldn't have, [47:08] wanted to see what would happen to the punks if they were in a, in a for-profit container. Like if they failed, it would ultimately mean risking seeing punks on happy meal toys or worse in some private equity firm. And. Wait, did they say or worse? Cause punk happy meal toys would slap.

[47:26] Kate loves that one. Like that's the only punk I'd buy. Respect. And then the other thing that they say in here, which I think is interesting, is you think punks are valuable. Great. There's now only one way to invest in that thesis. Buy Crypto Punk NFTs. If you don't get why that's bullish for Yuga, you're forgetting that we own more than anybody. So maybe they're fine. [47:48] Okay, so they sold the IP, but they still hold the punks. Yeah. [47:54] Okay, interesting. Yeah. [47:57] Um, and then really quickly here, just a quick, quick, deep dive. [48:02] Um, I was like, okay, what's node foundation? What's this, what's happening here? Where, where, where's this money coming from? It would like, it was a new entity that's just been formed and they were like, we're going to put it in our museum in Palo Alto. And it's just like reeked of money. And I was like, whose money is what's money? What's the money here? And, uh, so node [48:27] So very wealthy guy and money from Coinbase IPOs. And basically he and his wife, as I understand it, put $25 million into Node Foundation and are creating this like. [48:41] digital art. [48:42] uh foundation foundation and that's who it is and that's where the money comes from and always interesting to follow the money in my opinion um funny that wendy's founder has the same name as your i was gonna say that let's not talk okay let's go to the next slide let's go to the next slide um okay okay take it away take it away um after all that um very smart talk we have some

[49:12] they one thing that i want to say about this for the listener um it's a tesla robot dancing [49:42] Along to that house music. [49:46] I... [49:46] I just, anyway, what are your thoughts? It's giving, I hate to say this, but you know, like the solo dancers at a crypto event. [49:57] Oh, I do. I do know those people. Okay, here's what I will say in defense. It's a demo of the robot's ability to be able to move. So I think that dance videos are very popular on the internet. I wouldn't have, of course, it's not cool, but like, I do think that it is exhibiting some pretty, it's pretty deft. [50:19] Yeah, slow down ballet stuff. You're like, oh, the precision is there. It's getting there. I the first thing that came to mind to me when I was watching it is there is a recent interview with FK Twigs and she says technology is starting to give me the ick. [50:36] And I was like, that's how I have the, unfortunately. I could see her dancing with this robot, though, in like a weird way. I could, too. In an arty way, yeah. She's like in like some sort of like fabric that's not quite on. Maybe the next thing for the Teslas are like the pole dancing. Because I know she's into that. She is into that. What's this Katy Perry energy? It's just like same energy, you know? The dancing of the robot. And then she did that thing on stage where she kind of was like, show this to all your friends.

[51:06] fun of me and how I dance and it's bad, but self-aware. I guess here's my invitation. How would we have done a video? Like, how would you do it if you needed to demonstrate the robot's ability to move in a, in like, how would you do better? Like, that's just the invitation. Oh, I don't think the video is bad. I, I don't, I actually don't necessarily find it cringe because they just literally filmed it. They just filmed the video. Uh, they're like, it's truly a demo. [51:36] might give me the egg I don't know um [51:39] But, [51:40] I make it do save Ethereum dance. [51:44] You know, that's what I want to see. Oh my gosh. Okay. Next up here, Kate, this is your beat. Take it away. [51:52] Um, I don't know the like depth of it. I just know that like Saudi be getting that McDonald's for Trump. [52:01] And I posted, I was like, hey, I'd take it. So basically, Saudi Arabia... [52:10] has hosted Donald Trump. It's a, like, an iconic, that sounds good, that's not a good statement, trip. They flew him out there on this jet. Also Sam Ullman and Jensen Wang. Oh, really? Yeah, like, a lot of tech people, there was, like, I guess call it an event. [52:29] Call it an event. Call it that. And then they hosted a bunch of big, big names. KOLs, maybe. A KOL trip to Saudi Arabia. And greeting them was a McDonald's, a satellite McDonald's.

[52:43] essentially in saudi arabia so [52:46] That's what we're looking at here. [52:49] Dream. I would love to just travel. This would be my tour bus. [52:55] It pulled up outside of Kate's house in Bushwick. That is my house. [53:01] Okay. Spring Breakers do. [53:03] I believe this first spring breakers was 2013. [53:07] And they're announcing the second one now. So I forgot to look at release date. I don't know if it's 2025 or 2026, but the casting for it, I'm sure, is what everybody's interested in. Because, you know, how can iconic movie about spring break in Florida? [53:26] hilarity and craziness ensues that's the tldr and selena gomez famously one of them which is just like doesn't really yeah selena gomez uh two other girls i don't know their names that fell off yeah sorry uh and then the next slide shows the casting which is kind of funny to me that they got two disney channel stars [53:49] for this. [53:50] so bella thorne famously forrest whitaker's daughter yep wow oh that's who she hasn't done much if you look at her imdb she's done some like [53:59] Nepo baby. Yeah, it's just Nepo baby. And then we have Chrissy wake up from Stranger Things. [54:08] Okay. I don't know. I don't know any of these women, which makes me feel old. The only one I know sort of is Belle Thorne, but like not really even what I don't even know. I know her name, but I don't know what she's done. She did Disney channel and then had like

[54:21] an existential crisis. Didn't she, yeah, take a turn. Channel star and kind of went down a path. [54:27] similar like you know when that happens and then came back and we're all happy for her and i guess she's getting new roles so we love you know what i would you know who i would have loved to see cast here that would have been a surprising role i don't know her name but she is dina you know who i'm talking about she is insufferable and she has a famous video where she's like extremely coked out on the red carpet and she's like i met with the head of disney and i was like we're gonna make [54:57] And she's just like so, so I have to find it and send it. The so Disney Channel girl? Yes. Yeah, I know who you're talking about. The one that's like. [55:07] Yes, yes, yes, yes. Ryan, wait. She's like, she's like, I just came from Malibu and came straight to this red carpet. And it's like the most cringe video you could possibly ever watch. But that would have been a funny ad here to this four top. Yeah, Debbie Ryan. Debbie Ryan. Okay. Recession indicator beat. What do we have here? [55:29] We have Hillary Duff back in the studio. And what I think is so funny about this tweet that Pop Crave tweeted is that [55:38] It says, Hillary Duff is officially returning to music after 10 years, comma. Her husband, Matthew, comma, confirms, period. And I don't know if you know this lore about Hillary Duff, but like her husband is kind of [55:50] controversial online and like argues with people online on her behalf oh really really funny that he's inserted himself kind of in this okay announcement i guess okay is he a musician

[56:03] I don't know. Okay. What I know about her previous ex was he's a hockey player, but I don't know anything about her. Okay. Okay. [56:12] Well, Hilary Duff, close enough. Welcome back. Hilary Duff. [56:17] One other thing on recession indicators, everybody going blonde. [56:23] Getting blonder is a recession. Should we all do it? [56:25] Thank you. [56:26] I can at the moment. We'll do it live. [56:29] Okay, last one here. [56:31] is the AI baby podcasters that are taking over the timeline. Everyone's just pulling famous podcasters, but making them babies. [56:42] And it just reminds me of the E-Trade baby commercials from the early 2000s that a lot of boomers love. And I know boomers love the baby podcaster stuff. [56:52] It's crazy. It's like, it's, [56:56] Thank you. [56:57] a content generation machine. It's taking all the viral clips and making them, putting it on steroids and making them even more viral by putting a baby talking, saying it like, it's crazy. [57:12] the people that figured this out are making so much money at stupid amount of money on the stupidest thing possible. And they have an endless, [57:19] well of stuff content from now this is a call to action we need somebody to take this exact live stream make us babies please don't please don't or i don't know maybe do and then we do a rep share situation that'll be our thing if i'm the yovan someone's making so much money off of my bit

[57:38] His IP. [57:39] yeah yeah so yeah that's fair um i love that well there it is guys that's dumb bitch hour um thank you to our guests quasi matt and the duchess of bushwick for coming on and talking about uh their bit which um we love to see and thank you for listening save ethereum save ethereum [58:01] Okay, that was DBH. Join us live on Twitter every Wednesday at noon. Or here, I guess.