What's Next For MoonBoy Ventures? Interview Part 5

[00:00:00.000] - Dan Paulson

What is MoonBoy up to next? You'll find out in this last episode with Vandross. Be sure to check it out. Take a listen.

[00:00:06.240] - Vandross Idiake

What we're doing currently at Fast Track is because I'm building a startup, me and my team. We've already basically built out everything. Right now, we're looking for funding, and we're leveraging the blockchain in the logistics industry for documentation and storage. So in the logistics industry, you have the issue of when you go to customs and you're trying to sell whatever it is you're trying to sell or trying to ship it to the end destination. The problem is a lot of times there's a lot of paperwork and documentation maybe that's missing. Some of it ends up getting forged. People take a percentage of whatever it is that you have, and they sell it back in the black market, depending on what the item is. And also, when it's staying for too long and they're trying to get the documentation sorted, you need to then pay extra fees. And so what we've done is create a solution where you can encrypt all your documents in an in-house solution, one-stop shop, encrypt it on chain. So you can check it on chain that your documents are encrypted, and everyone can all look uniformly at one in-house solution to see all your documents in one solution.

[00:01:16.560] - Vandross Idiake

And so it streamlines the process for businesses. And that's another way in which the blockchain can be leveraged to as well, is the encryption aspect, right? So where your digital IDs, identifiers, and everything can't be corrupted. People can't forge the documents. And so that's another way in which blockchain can help society, in a streamlined process for businesses, too, as well.

[00:01:44.280] - Dan Paulson

Rich, you do quite a bit in logistics. I see you pondering there.

[00:01:49.960] - Rich Veltre

Yeah, I'm definitely considering that part of it. So I'm going to take this way back to a rudimentary level. But when the documents get put on the blockchain, you just need to have a reader. You need to have something that can read what's going on on that blockchain, right?

[00:02:13.650] - Vandross Idiake

Yeah. You have Explorer. Like a Google or something like this. You have an Explorer, and it has all of the data that's stored on-chain, block by block, every single second. So what ends up happening is there's a certain amount of data that can go in each block of, again, the sender, the receiver, whatever is happening within. You have smart contracts and stuff like this. All the data that is able to store, depending on how the blockchain was built. Some blockchains have a little bit bigger block size. Some have smaller. All the data gets put into the blockchain. Essentially, what happens is miners, anonymous around the world, in this case, it's more validators, but same thing. And they verify that that information is true. And they get then rewarded because that's the reason that they're online. It's a business. They get rewarded in that particular cryptocurrency. And that's basically essentially how it works. And it can never be changed. So there's no way in which it can be forged. And I think that's the cool thing of blockchain. And I think the solution can also be great for, again, people who don't have IDs, identification in rural areas around the world.

[00:03:24.900] - Vandross Idiake

If you talk about where I'm going to, I'm going to Africa now in a few days. Rwanda is probably not a good case study because it's pretty developed. But if you're talking about a Congo or a Uganda, they have a lot of areas that are very, very underdeveloped. But Rwanda is pretty developed, and it's pretty thriving. But the point is that this fact that you don't have to hold paperwork. Another issue, diplomas. People forge diplomas, right? And so if you could encrypt the diplomas on chain or grades on-chain, Or grades on-chain, right? This alleviates a lot of issues. And so the idea of encrypting things on chain and having them stored forever and they can forever be checked is a great solution, I think, to solve a lot of issues with documentation, storage, identity. There's a lot of solutions there that can be solved through blockchain technology.

[00:04:20.920] - Rich Veltre

Got you.

[00:04:24.180] - Dan Paulson

So let's shift it again slightly. When I talk with you on your podcast a little bit, or after your podcast, I think we're talking about this, we deal a lot with succession. So people, as you've pointed out, some of us are getting up there in years, and they're looking to sell their business. How might crypto or blockchain be a way to help leverage that sale or maybe guarantee some value?

[00:05:01.250] - Vandross Idiake

Yeah, I won't talk too much about the sell of the business, but what I would say is about how I think there's going to be a transformation in which the stock exchange is going to become the block exchange. And here is why I think that, right? Because when you look at the technology itself, right? And you look at all the processes it takes to go IPO into the stock market, it's quite a long journey, and it's quite expensive. Whereas if you launch your own token and run it as a stock, let's say you make it even to a dividend, right? And you have these incentives in place, you now have access to, again, global markets, right? And so that already is a huge advantage because not anyone around the world could buy your stock, but it's a tokenized stock, right? And there's already some companies that are thinking about doing it. One that I think could be one that could do it potentially is X, formerly Twitter. The reason is because I've been just looking at how Elon has been moving in these past few months. So he bought Twitter. He then rebranded it into X.

[00:06:22.370] - Vandross Idiake

He then went and applied for digital assets licenses for crypto. He Open source the code. And so I think, I could be wrong, but it's just my speculation that he's shifting more into Web3 because he sees that's where you could expand your use cases with tipping and all these different types of things. It's so much harder to do all this stuff if you only close it to the Swift banking system. But if you open it up-

[00:06:58.460] - Dan Paulson

Well, I know he's definitely trying to make X the end all be all. That's your source for everything. Yes, exactly. And that is what Meta is trying to do as well. I think they're all trying to become the, I always call it the Walmart of everything. So you go there for whatever you want.

[00:07:17.000] - Vandross Idiake

Exactly. Exactly. And a lot of companies are doing it. Even if you look at some of the exchanges and brokerages, they're starting to have an engagement tab, right? Because I And I think they're all uniformically starting to realize that you have to basically have everything as a one-stop shop service. Even Apple now has become like a finance company, right? I mean, they have Apple Pay. They have the what, 4 % high interest yield and stuff like this.

[00:07:46.920] - Dan Paulson

Actually, I read something on X that the Apple card is going away. They've shortened their... It was supposed to last through 2029, and I heard within 12 to 15 months, they're getting rid of it because the banking broker that's essentially handling the credit card is losing a lot of money doing it. So Apple hasn't got quite figured out yet.

[00:08:09.890] - Vandross Idiake

Okay. Damn.

[00:08:14.130] - Dan Paulson

Just heard it last night. I'll have to verify, but that was going through the chain last night.

[00:08:18.150] - Vandross Idiake

Yeah. But no, to go back to your question, in regards to the acquisition of businesses, for me, I think it's always going to be a challenge in regards to tokenizing. But in terms of initiating a business, I think that will be where I actually think that's where a lot of businesses are going to start looking into more because of that global liquidity access and the ease to be able to launch a token as a as opposed to, and also the different stuff you can streamline through tokens, even dividends, paying people dividends that can be done way faster through smart contracts. So there's a more ease in which the technology can help in regards to the stock exchange. And also the fact that, again, the stock exchange, I just think this idea of closing down shop, I think that's going to be dead. I just don't see if you can have access to a market that's always open versus a market. It's like the States, right? This is one thing I miss about the States. You have stores and businesses that are always open all the time. And that's what gives it a strategic advantage in terms to extracting more value, extracting more capacity to earn more, more earning potential.

[00:09:29.380] - Vandross Idiake

And So I think the idea of a 24/7 market, I think, is where everything is going to eventually shift to. And I think that eventually, people are going to start doing that. Instead of just launching their business as an actual business on Web2, we just launch it in Web3. And then also, it's easier to bootstrap. That's another thing, too, that you guys don't really know is it's easier to fundraise in Web3 because of the idea of communities. So when you launch on an actual layer one network, which is like an Ethereum, like a Cardano, like these layer one networks where... The best way to describe it, so I don't lose you guys. It's like Google, Safari, Internet Explorer, and then people are building websites on top of them. And that's how I describe the layer one protocols. They're like the Googles, the safaris, the Internet explorers. And then people are building decentralized applications on top of them to create that network effect of value accrual. And the cool thing about doing that is that they have different models where, for instance, you can do different marketing things like, hey, we airdrop, let's say, 10 % of our supply to all the people who hold Ethereum.

[00:10:44.410] - Vandross Idiake

So that way it gets people buzzing, gets people like, hey, what project is this? What project is that? And they go to your website. And so you can leverage people's communities to bootstrap your business model. And so I think that's another cool thing, too, as well that I haven't seen in the Web2 space. So where you already have the clientele base because of the fact that you're building on the network. And the people that support the network are going to then be more prone to support you.

[00:11:11.250] - Dan Paulson

Got it. Rich, thoughts on your end?

[00:11:18.250] - Rich Veltre

No, I think it all makes sense. I think it's the scary thought in the room, just because you don't know what you don't know, and you're trying to figure it all out. But it is all still It's still theoretical and still being built. So I think there's always going to be more and more questions coming up until it becomes more mainstream.

[00:11:40.400] - Dan Paulson

Well, and that's the reason why we wanted to have you on, Vandros, because a lot of us are still in, I would call it traditional market. So this whole digital currency idea and blockchain, I know we've been talking about for a number of years. I have other clients that have brought it up, but it's still something that a lot of us are trying to wrap our heads And I think you did a pretty good job of explaining. I'm sure we could sit here and talk for hours on end, but I know you have things to do. I know we have things to do. So to wrap it up, I guess, first of all, you never really did clarify why Moonboy. Why the name Moonboy? What's the significance of that?

[00:12:20.180] - Vandross Idiake

Yeah, I always think that people should always want more. And so why aim for the stars when you can get to the moon? There you go. That's the inspiration. Yeah.

[00:12:30.070] - Dan Paulson

Got it. All right. Thank you. How can they get a hold of you? Because they're going to have more questions about this than I will. So what are the best ways to get a hold of you right now?

[00:12:40.130] - Vandross Idiake

Linkedin is the best way. You can also schedule an appointment at Moonboycapitaladventures.com. But LinkedIn, if you just follow me on LinkedIn and just reach out to me, Vandross Idiake. I do consulting, been doing it for quite some time now. I have now a new role I just took on to as well for the Stanford AI and Web3 research labs, too, as well. So trying to help projects, nurture projects, get them ready to get their go to market strategies and all these types of things ready. So, yeah, I enjoy this space a lot. I'm passionate about it. I have a podcast, too, as well. You guys can check out the Mooncast. So, yeah, I love it, man. Dan, thank you so much for having me on.

[00:13:22.950] - Dan Paulson

Happy to have you on. And congratulations on the Stanford thing. That's pretty cool. Rich, how do they get a hold of you?

[00:13:30.000] - Rich Veltre

Best way is just, well, I have a LinkedIn also, but you can definitely send me an email at rveltre@veltregroup.com.

[00:13:39.370] - Dan Paulson

Excellent. And you can always get a hold of me at danpaulsonletsgo.com. Thank you again for joining us on Books in the Biz. If you want to find other episodes of Books in the Biz, please go to booksnbiz.com. That's B-O-O-K-S, letter N-B-I-Z. Com. And we look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Vandross, we're going to have to have you come on again, maybe another six months to a year, and share how things have changed for you. And this is very interesting. I mean, like I said, we could probably go on for hours about this, and you've done a really good job of explaining it. So I appreciate it.

[00:14:16.470] - Vandross Idiake

Thank you. Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate you.

[00:14:18.610] - Dan Paulson

You bet.