00:00Consensus is being used as the technology behind this new venture from SWIFT to build a blockchain-based ledger.
00:06You're working on the prototype right now. What will that first prototype be focused on?
00:11So I have to be careful about what I say. It is a SWIFT project. We're building it out.
00:19There will be technologists on their side and lots on our side.
00:23And I'm glad that you called it a prototype because that's what it is.
00:27And it will most definitely implement messaging, financial messaging, using ISO 20022.
00:40And I noticed the word settlement in the press release of coming from SWIFT.
00:46And so I think they're careful to stay in their lane and focus on the messaging part.
00:53But there has been apparently some banks that are interested in potentially diving down into settlement layers.
01:01A lot of big names involved in this, J.P. Morgan among them.
01:05Given it is just the prototype, do you have an idea of what sort of timeline you're working with?
01:08I do have an idea of what sort of timeline, and I can't say too much about it.
01:14We're defining what we believe will be the end state, and we're backing that out.
01:19And so I don't know if SWIFT will be comfortable releasing the timeline at this point.
01:25I understand you want to be careful with this.
01:27So just kind of zooming it out in this idea of large enterprise blockchain projects, because consensus has worked on them in the past.
01:33What gives you the confidence that you can nail that this time, that it can be sticky and really widely implemented?
01:40So we know we can nail the technology because we built the technology and we can adapt the technology to this use case.
01:47And we were in Frankfurt.
01:50A bunch of us were in Frankfurt for the announcement of SWIFT Ledger.
01:55And sentiment has changed significantly.
01:58So since the start of Ethereum, we had to stay on our own DeFi rail.
02:05TradFi had to stay on its DeFi rail.
02:08And never should the two touch or cross or there be dragons.
02:13So horrible things would happen.
02:16The vibe in Frankfurt at Cybos was very different.
02:20And the feedback that we've heard from banks and that SWIFT leadership has heard from banks is very positive.
02:27It's basically about time for TradFi to merge or make use of DeFi.
02:33You're a very busy man.
02:35I mentioned you are also the chair of Sharp Blink, a digital asset based back treasury, mostly investing in Ethereum.
02:43Over so far this year, there have been hundreds of companies that have adopted this model.
02:47They go from Japanese salons to small other companies, ones that overnight have really changed strategy.
02:53Just given the amount of companies that are doing this, and I know it's a strategy you like, but do you worry at all about oversaturation of DATs?
03:01So I don't worry about it because I'm focused on the Ethereum DAT hours and some of our competitor collaborator DATs in the Ethereum ecosystem.
03:14And for Ethereum, it's a no-brainer.
03:18We were the first major one out of the gate.
03:21It lit a fire under the Ethereum ecosystem.
03:24Price has done positive things since then.
03:27And we're just happy to see more companies buy this productive asset.
03:35It's a yielding asset, unlike Bitcoin.
03:39And so there is very good reason to believe that we'll be able to do things that are non-dilutive
03:45and we'll be able to grow the share price while growing the concentration of Ether per fully diluted share.
03:54And we're in this phase of raising money, accumulating Ether.
04:00We're building out our strategy to get the best risk-adjusted yield.
04:06And long term, we think of this as essentially civilization building,
04:10similar to a Berkshire Hathaway-like company where you have a giant pile of capital.
04:14In this case, it's highest-powered capital, uncensorable Ether.
04:21We can borrow against that.
04:22We can use it to stake in protocols.
04:24We can find the best Ethereum-aligned protocols to invest in.
04:29This is after we bought all the Ether that we're going to buy and we stopped doing that.
04:34And so we can build out the Ethereum ecosystem and the progressively decentralizing world with this giant pile of Ether.
04:41Does it potentially, though, add a new layer of volatility if the DATs that are buying Ethereum,
04:47that are buying Ether, if they become weak or decide not to buy or something happens with the company?
04:53Does it introduce a new level of risk maybe for the overall ecosystem that you're working on?
04:58I think it significantly reduces risk.
05:00So we will accumulate Ether at the right time.
05:04There may be times where we use our U.S. dollar capital to purchase shares,
05:08which is still doing the things that our shareholders want us to do.
05:14There may be some ill-formed companies in the Ethereum DAT space.
05:19If they get below net asset value, then those are ripe for assimilation into some of the bigger companies.
05:30So I really think it's a dampener on volatility while enabling the Ethereum ecosystem to get built out better and faster.
05:38There may be some ill-formed companies in the Ethereum ecosystem to get built into some of the Ethereum ecosystem to get built into some of the Ethereum ecosystem.
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