1:05Kamal HubbardSo I guess let’s talk about that. I mean, obviously, the legal systems in Canada and the United States, there’s -- some people would say there’s a big difference. Some people would say there is a little bit of a difference. Both generally come out of English common law. How do you see practicing entertainment law in Canada maybe a little bit different from how it is in the States, just from your perspective?
1:33Kenyah CoombsYeah, I mean, I think that the basic principles of law are quite common around the world. It’s the nuances that are a bit different, especially when it comes to common law. So, I mean, for those who don’t know, common law is based on precedents, which means that If a judge makes a ruling in one case, and of course it goes all the way to the Supreme Court, that ruling is binding and it’s treated just as strongly as legislation is in a country. And so when you’re looking at, you know, a particular case that you’re presently dealing with, you have to look at other cases with similar facts, similar issues to see how it was ruled previously to determine or get a sense of where you stand in your current case.
1:33Kenyah CoombsI find that that’s where you find the difference, those small nuances. What’s being considered important or how it’s weighed in terms of another issue, that’s where you see the difference between the different countries. That being said, just based on the proximity of Canada and the US, there are a lot more similarities in terms of law. Canada is close to, you know, England and the States, and the laws are generally not that different. And especially when you have new areas of law Particularly in tech, where we see a lot of growth and new ideas coming. You’ll look to different places such as the States and to see if a case has come across a judge’s, you know, plate and see, you know, what the decision was to kind of help formulate the decision here.
1:33Kenyah CoombsAnd so you don’t find it to be too different. But of course, there are nuances just given the fact there are different countries and different values are held a bit bit differently. In terms of entertainment specifically, I find that again the general principles are the same. So, you know, the different types of contracts that come across the plate, how projects go from an idea to an actual, you know, real thing, including funding, you know, finding talent and all that stuff are relatively the same process. But the opportunities I find are a lot more diverse in the States than they are in Canada.
4:21Kamal HubbardWhat are some of the projects that you’ve had an opportunity to work on that you really enjoyed most in Toronto or in Canada, I guess?
4:31Kenyah CoombsYeah, so, you know, some lawyers do -- I’m sorry, yeah, some lawyers do take a more niche approach. So they’ll be like music or art or film. I have quite a diverse set of clients in terms of what they do. I do find I enjoy the film projects the most, I will say. I just find that I get to participate a bit more in the full process from, you know, again, an idea to, you know, the full project. And then afterwards, you know, getting in project placement, you know, going to film festivals or, you know, trying to get it to a TV network or whatever the case is.
4:31Kenyah CoombsI just find that it’s a bit more fun and the project kind of has different checkpoints that I enjoy. And so, you know, film projects, whether it be independent or, you know, with a, you know, a known production company or distribution company. I do have, you know, artists. So, you know, music artists who are either joining a record label or I work for the record labels themselves. who are looking to do that, management companies as well. So it’s quite a diverse area, which is why I enjoy entertainment, because although the people are similar, the projects are different, which keeps me entertained and interested. But I definitely enjoy the film projects the most.
6:00Kamal HubbardWhen did you initially become exposed to blockchain technology and start seeing business coming your way from that tech sector?
6:15Kenyah CoombsYeah, I would say it was probably springtime last year is when I started to see a bit more of the technology side of things. I think that, you know, during COVID it was a -- it was an interesting time in many different ways, but one of the ways is that it got a lot of people thinking about what they wanted to do and what they really wanted to do. And I found that, you know, a lot of the conversations I’ve had with clients about projects or companies have kind of been birthed through that COVID time where, you know, the world kind of stopped and you’re left to be with yourself and your thoughts and get to really explore different things. And so You know, some of that took a bit of time to get that idea formulated, but that’s where it kind of birthed from. And I think that springtime, spring summertime last year is when those ideas got a bit more concrete for a lot of people. And that’s when I started to have more conversations about, you know, blockchain and, and different technology.
7:23Kamal HubbardYeah. So you mentioned COVID and there was, I guess, Something interesting that did take place during the pandemic in Canada with the truckers movement against Trudeau. Yeah, you know, once again, being an American, I don’t know the ins and outs of that case, but I know that there was a recent ruling on it. Can you just maybe discuss the factual background? You don’t need to weigh in opinion-wise on it, of course, but maybe give people who are listening a better understanding of what led up to that case, what caused it, and the recent outcome?
8:03Kenyah CoombsYeah, absolutely. I mean, it’s still an ongoing case in different levels of the court system currently, and so it is still developing, but it sparked from the vaccination requirements, particularly for truck drivers being able to move about and to essentially do their job. They either were required to have the vaccine, so 2 shots, that was the minimum. Of course, there’s boosters now, but they weren’t required at the time then, or they were -- they had to agree to some form of testing requirements. The details of that, I’m not quite sure, but generally just, you know, having to do regular testings at different checkpoints to ensure that they weren’t positive for COVID.
8:03Kenyah CoombsAnd the -- I’ll call them truckers just to -- that’s the common term being used for them. They didn’t agree with it from my understanding, and I don’t know if this was quite well described in the media, but there were, you know, people with general concerns about vaccination requirements and what that meant. And then there are, of course, the extremists who took it as an opportunity to share their ideologies that are not quite popular in today’s society. I’ll put it that way. And so it was a convoy of truckers who went to Ottawa, which is our capital, which is where our parliament is. And for the, you know, the US listeners, essentially where the White House is.
8:03Kenyah CoombsAnd they went there to have their concerns heard. That being said, Ottawa is not just, you know, where the Parliament is. People live in that city, you know, work in that city, all of that. And so it was quite disruptive in that sense. And so it started off, you know, quite peacefully, and, you know, as a protest. But as it kind of went on, there were a lot of, you know, noise complaints, and there were a lot of things like, you know, looting and just, you know, the normal things that happen when a protest gets a bit out of hand and when actors who are using the protests again for their own ideologies kind of take it and paint it a little bit.
8:03Kenyah CoombsAnd so we have what’s called an Emergency Act, which essentially means that the government, if it’s, if, you know, it is put into place, the government can kind of bypass certain rights It’s our -- we call them Charter rights, but in the US it’s constitutional rights. And be able to kind of disregard them for a period of time in order to, you know, get things back to where they were. And so the government enacted the Emergency Act in order to do that. And essentially the people who were protesting were asked to leave or they were arrested. And there was a lot of things that kind of happened throughout that process.
8:03Kenyah CoombsIt was a very contentious time. And I think that that kind of was an accumulation of, you know, frustrations and concerns during the pandemic in general, kind of acting out on a grander scale. And so now currently, that’s being reviewed, especially the use of the Emergency Act, because it does essentially infringe on Charter or constitutional rights. the use of it needs to be quite justified. And if it’s not justified, then, you know, there are other things that are in play. So right now it’s at the courts to be considered whether or not it is -- or sorry, it was justified to be used. And in addition to that, you know, there are inquiries going on in terms of how the government handled the situation.
8:03Kenyah CoombsBut there’s also criminal trials and civil trials against the people who are protesting. So it’s a little bit of a mess. But it’s interesting to see what we, you know, what happens out of that. I really don’t wish that a pandemic happens again. That being said, it was a new time for a lot of people, and I don’t know if we had the guidelines in place to really deal with it in an effective way that protected as much as we can of everybody’s rights, but also really address that public issue in terms of, you know, keeping people safe and ending the pandemic. So I hope that, you know, whatever, whatever the outcome is, that we do have those good guidelines in place should this happen again.
13:00Kamal HubbardYeah, absolutely. I don’t think anyone wants to see another pandemic anytime soon. I mean, well, yeah, I, I could say a few things, but I’m not. And I think that There was a Bitcoin angle to this, if I’m not mistaken. Some of these truckers and protesters were getting funded through Bitcoin transactions. And so through the Emergency Act there, or at least Trudeau’s administration was looking to freeze some of those transactions.
13:40Kenyah CoombsYes.
13:41Kamal HubbardCan you go into that a little bit more too?
13:44Kenyah CoombsYeah, and that one kind of has like a bigger implication. That’s an ongoing conversation as well. So yeah, a lot of it was being funded by Bitcoin, and the reason for that was because regular transactions, so, you know, depositing money in someone’s account or wiring money, that was being regulated and stopped. And so it was the, the Bitcoin was kind of a loophole to that. Because there’s not a lot of regulations in regards to Bitcoin, a lot of conversations about that. Different people on different ends of the spectrum don’t know how much you want to get into that. But essentially, you know, there are calls for regulation, and I do agree that there needs to be at least a conversation about it because, as you know, as new as Bitcoin is, there are people who are using it in not the best way.
13:44Kenyah CoombsAnd not the most, the safest way and, and adding to, you know, different causes that, you know, society in general hurt from. And so I don’t, I won’t say that, you know, the, the situation with the, you know, the convoy was one of them, but it, it definitely was a loophole to that funding, which I think adds to that conversation of, you know, what, what regulations do need to go with Bitcoin and what don’t. And so, yeah, there was a lot of funding being done that way. And so part of the Emergency Act, the enactment of it and trying to get it to be used in this situation was to deal with that because the regular regulations weren’t, they essentially weren’t, they weren’t, what’s the word I’m thinking of?
13:44Kenyah CoombsThey, they weren’t designed to deal with Bitcoin. And that’s an ongoing conversation that we’re, we’re having as society, I think across the world, because Bitcoin is quite And cryptocurrency in general is just, you know, it’s not geographically constrained. There’s no limitation geographically that way. And so it’s just kind of what, what can we as, as a world do about it? Because again, you know, people who are using it and, you know, the innocent way with people who are not, and it’s how do we protect against those who are not using it in that way?
15:59Kamal HubbardYeah, absolutely. And I also see similarities between the truckers’ protests and situation and, you know, how Bitcoin kind of was used with January 6th. Yeah. You know, Bitcoin was used heavily in funding January 6th, but the difference is here a lot of people just didn’t know about that.
16:29Kenyah CoombsYeah.
16:30Kamal HubbardAnd I found that interesting, especially given the sums of money. I mean, I think one of the largest single some donations or transactions sent was over $500,000 in Bitcoin, which, yeah, um, you know, that’s pretty astonishing and pretty, uh, eyebrow-raising in my opinion. But, uh, when I went to DC in my recent trip, I talked to people at the Capitol and said, hey, did you guys know that, you know, January 6th was partially funded by Bitcoin? And people are like, oh, I didn’t even know that. I talked to you know, some security staff as well as, uh, some staffers there. And they’re like, uh, I mean, obviously they have other stuff going on now, but --
17:14Kenyah CoombsYeah.
17:15Kamal HubbardAt the time. So, um, it -- I saw that similarity once again. And, um, I found that to be interesting. And, you know, maybe it’s something to keep an eye on. And especially when it comes to, you know, funding protests, Absolutely. Not to say, because there are some people who say January 6th was a quote unquote protest, not my view necessarily, but since both of these can be deemed as protests by varying groups, seeing how Bitcoin was used, like I said, there’s those similarities that I find interesting. But I wanted to talk about your work with NetraScale.
17:59Kenyah CoombsYeah.
18:00Kamal HubbardAnd if you could tell me a little bit about the company and some of the things that you’re doing with it.
18:05Kenyah CoombsYeah. So NetraScale is a company that’s looking to shift digital operation resilience and compliance. And so really looking at how AI can support in the, the cause against cybersecurity attacks. Particularly, you know, we’re looking at banks who see a lot of cybersecurity attacks. And, you know, we want to make sure banks are, are secure and safe just as general because, you know, if they fall, you know, I, I, you know, it’ll be a little bit of anarchy. And so, you know, going back to the pandemic, I think that I don’t think anyone can really deny this, but there’s been a lot of change in how we operate, whether that’s work or personal.
18:05Kenyah CoombsYou know, we’re relying on and using more technology-based products to do what we do. You know, this podcast being one of them. But definitely how I work has changed since the pandemic has happened. And it’s also the the reception of it. You know, when we thought about remote work pre-pandemic, it was different reception to it than I think that you, you would see it now. And just, you know, how, how it gets into the, you know, every day of our lives and, and how we rely on it a little more heavily now than we did pre-pandemic. And with the, the reliance on technology more to live, do our lives, work personal, all, you know, all the good stuff.
18:05Kenyah CoombsYou know, that comes with a, a higher risk of cyberattacks because we’re, we’re using more, whether it be cloud-based products or just technology in general. And I think that there is an opportunity to have a bit more of a knowledge when it comes to technology in this way. As you said, a lot of people didn’t know that cryptocurrency was being used to fund the January 6th We’ll quote unquote call it protests, nor the truckers convoy. And people don’t even understand. I won’t say people, but there’s a group of people in society who don’t really understand how cryptocurrency works, how blockchains work, and similar technology, which adds to the need to have protections against these cyberattacks because partly why they’re able to, you know, use cybersecurity attacks to to do what they do is because people don’t necessarily understand how they work.
18:05Kenyah CoombsAnd, you know, the, the pros and cons and what to look for and all that stuff. And so at NetraScale, we’re trying to create an opportunity to really put protections against these cyberattacks, to really think about how we are using these technology-based products in our everyday life and how we can protect ourselves against the bad apples in society. And so primarily using AI technology to do so. But of course, we’re open to learn and grow as the technology learns and grows as well.
21:30Kamal HubbardYeah. And I also saw that NetraScale, you know, obviously, like you said, relies primarily on artificial intelligence. But there is also this convergence of blockchain that’s also being leveraged. How do those 2 converge to create a solution for NetraScale’s clients?
21:56Kenyah CoombsYeah, I mean, there’s different ways that AI can be used to combat cyber attacks, you know, fighting against spam and phishing, protecting against DNS, which is Domain Name System data. identifying, you know, advanced malware, authentic -- authenticity protection, and, you know, breach risk protection. And really thinking about those different areas and how we can provide a product that does so. I am not on the technical side, and I realize I didn’t answer your question about what I do at NetraScale. So let me backtrack there. I am a legal counsel and corporate secretary for the board. At NetraScale. And so I’m looking at with my counterpart how we can really make sure that we are compliant, how we are looking at our risk legally for liability purposes, and how we can build this product, help as many people as we can while also making sure that our Ps and Qs are adhered to.
21:56Kenyah CoombsAnd so sometimes I’m the bad, bad guy saying, okay, well, we’re gonna -- we have to stop here and think about these things first before we can get going. Or, you know, sometimes I am pushing the wheel along, recognizing that there are opportunities to where we are trying to go, and that, of course, you know, we have to look at it in a legal lens to make sure that we are protected. But at the end of the day, I also want to see the company grow. And so I do have to move between having a legal hat on and having a business advisory hat on, as all in-house counsel have to.
21:56Kenyah CoombsBut, you know, sometimes legal -- the legal counsel is looked at as the bad guy because we make people stop and think about what could go wrong, and everything could go wrong, and really having to think through all those different possibilities. And so I’m not on the technical side of things. In terms of how the technology actually works and what the, the model that we’re building, how that runs. But I do know that we’re really looking at trying to address these, these cybersecurity concerns in a way that is automated, innovative, and learns and grows as the technology or as, you know, the risk grows. I hope that answered your question.
24:29Kamal HubbardYeah, no, that’s fine. And so the, what would be essentially if someone from the Web3 or blockchain space came to NetraScale, what kind of general solutions would the company be able to provide?
24:50Kenyah CoombsYeah. So we’re currently -- we have our Risk Act, which is an AI-powered app helping financial insurance clients identify, track, and quantify these cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities. And I think that that’s where we, we are really going to help. with our clients and really get them thinking about what’s on the other side of the battle. A lot of these financial services and insurance spaces are facing these sophisticated cyberattacks. We see that with, and I’ll speak on the Canadian side, but I don’t know if it’s similar or the same on the US side. But for example, you know, There are people who think they’re investing in cryptocurrency, but really it is a platform that is set up to be simulated to look like you’re making money.
24:50Kenyah CoombsAnd when you invest the money, when you send the money to the other side, they don’t -- they keep it. They don’t give it back to you. And so, for example, I’ll kind of do a step-by-step. So I come across this platform that says that I can I can invest in cryptocurrency. And so I invest, let’s say, $10,000 to this cryptocurrency platform. I then get a, what looks like a login and password to view this platform and watch my investment grow. And so it’s simulated so that, you know, within the first, let’s say, week or 2, I’m seeing my money really grow and I’m like, oh, I’m making money.
24:50Kenyah CoombsSo I want to invest more. And so let’s say I send over another $10,000 to invest more. The simulation is updated and I’m seeing this money grow. And so I see it grow to a point that I’m happy and I want to cash out. So I try to cash out and I am told that I need to pay taxes before it can be sent to me. And so I have to send another $5,000 or whatever the case may be in order to get the money out. And if I send that additional $5,000, they usually just disappear. And that’s when it becomes obvious to me that I’ve been scammed.
24:50Kenyah CoombsWhat happens sometimes is that these same people will get an email from a party that says that they specialize in these investigations and that they can get my money back for an additional fee of, let’s say, $5,000. And so that’s kind of just the, the revictimization of these individuals who think that this, this company is legitimate, that they’re going to get their money back. But it’s just another scam. And I’ve personally seen in my, my professional capacity, you know, almost $3 million of, of clients who’ve thought they were investing in these cryptocurrency scams. And they were, were obvious -- obviously scams, and they just kept getting re-victimized.
24:50Kenyah CoombsAnd they looked at things like, you know, litigation to see if they can get this money back. But it’s quite difficult for reasons as in India, there is a new legislation that says that the server only needs to be kept for 30 days. And after that, it can be wiped. And so a lot of these individuals are going through. They’re bouncing to India, then to, you know, North America in order to reach these individuals, so that by the time, you know, you get the court orders and all that stuff, the information is gone. And so there’s really not much you can do as a lawyer and as an individual who’s been scammed to get these monies back.
24:50Kenyah CoombsAnd so that’s just kind of one of the scams that we’re seeing that Can be protected against, you know, using AI technology that we’re looking to address with RISC.
28:54Kamal HubbardThat’s awesome. I really like to hear that, you know, one, not just the cybersecurity solution that Metascale provides, but there’s also a fraud-fighting capability in all this. And especially, I mean, it’s something that’s needed in crypto because the legislation and the regulations just can’t keep up with the technology. So when there’s a countervailing technological force out there that’s for consumer protection, I think that’s a great thing to hear about.
29:30Kenyah CoombsAwesome.
29:31Kamal HubbardAnd, you know, I think you guys are doing great work there. And thank you so much for telling us a little bit more about yourself and what you do, Kenyah. With that, I’ll let you have the last word.
29:42Kenyah CoombsYeah, thank you. I do agree. As much as I love and breathe the law, I do recognize that it is -- it moves slowly. And that’s because there’s a lot of considerations to take into place. There’s a balance of different rights and different issues to be had, which really you want to take your time to understand and to do. The con to that is that these, you know, cybersecurity attacks grow and move a lot quicker than the law does. And there’s a bit of a gap there that I would love to see, you know, be addressed and to really have closed because it leaves a lot of people vulnerable that may not know better or may not recognize the signs until it happens to them and then it’s too late.
29:42Kenyah CoombsSo yeah, it’s definitely something that I’m passionate about and love that NetraScale is trying to combat and love that I can be a part of it. And I hope that this conversation shines light to that and keeps the conversation going. I think the more we talk about it, the more we can recognize the signs, the more we can work together. It’s when we don’t address it or we don’t talk about it where we get a lot more vulnerable about it. So thank you for having me.
30:56Kamal HubbardAll right. With that said, if you are a company that might be in need of some of these services, be sure to check out NetraScale. Protect your your clients, and, uh, your corporate assets. So don’t just make it a good day, make it a great day with crypto. Crypto with Kamal. Have a great day. Stay safe.
