0:05BChicago.
0:06AOkay. And what are you working on?
0:08BRight now I’m working at Mantle. We are an L2 built on Ethereum. We’re basically trying to be the distribution layer for traditional finance, trying to get them on-chain. And yeah.
0:18AOkay. And so what does that mean for people that don’t know crypto, don’t know blockchain?
0:22BThey don’t know anything. Let’s say you have a company like I don’t know, like a traditional finance company and they’re interested in coming on-chain. Basically, they partner with us and we help get them into like the right distribution systems, like help them with like all the legals and technicalities of coming on-chain. And then yeah, we’re built on Ethereum, we’re an L2. But yeah, we also have a partnered exchange with Bybit. So once we get them on-chain, we can kind of like give them distribution and everything like that. So we don’t like get them on-chain and they don’t know what to do.
0:53ASo yeah.
0:54BBasically, that’s it.
0:55AAnd what do you feel like most people outside the blockchain tech space don’t get about where crypto and blockchain are at right now?
1:03BWhat they don’t get? I think I would say usually, like, in like the old times, like maybe a couple of years ago, they just thought it was like straight up scams. You know, I think that they also think that it’s not regulated enough, so therefore it’s not safe. But I actually think that in like recent years, there actually has been a lot of regulation. And that’s why even Mantle, my company, we’re mostly like based in like we have a strong like population in Asia, but we’re trying to come into the United States and stuff like that just because I think like even recently the government and everything has shown that they’re ready to take care of the blockchain as well as it can be and protect the consumer more than it was before. So I think it’s -- if you’re trying to learn, I think it’s great to learn now compared to before, especially if you’re still scared about like what the blockchain is and stuff like that. But yeah, you don’t really have to be technical, to be honest. I mean, when I started off, I didn’t know anything. So Yeah, kind of a long answer.
1:55ANo, no, it’s perfect. It’s perfect, right? I don’t mind long answers. I was doing podcasts before this, so you’re all good. And then I’m curious, do you have a message for the builders?
2:04BFor the builders? I have a great message. If you want to build on-chain, Vancle has a hackathon right now. $100,000 up for grabs. If you’re building anything like AI, on-chain agents, anything, hit me up. Hit up @VancleOfficial on Twitter or @VancleIntern. And yeah, hit me up and we’ll see even get you started on the hackathon. Maybe you’ll win.
2:25AWho knows? Okay. What kinds of things should people be building?
2:29BLiterally anything you want on-chain, anything with agentics, stuff like that, like payments, blockchain infrastructure, anything you want that you think you can build, come on Mantle and we’ll help you do it right.
2:40AHell yeah. So we know, most people don’t know, but like OpenCLAW, Hermes, this whole space of, right, local LLMs is only 4 months old, 5 months old. I’m curious, how would you break that down for people? What does that even mean?
2:51BI think, I think AI is a heavy topic, especially for like normies, because they think that, you know, AI is like bad for the environment. It’s taking people’s jobs. I wouldn’t say that it’s not, but I also think that it’s going to be inevitable no matter what. And I think that if you don’t start to learn now, we’re already seeing that like job people, like requirements and stuff like that, it will hurt you in the long run if you don’t just get on board now. And I’m not saying like, unfortunately, that’s just what you have to do. It sucks, but Yeah, I mean, like when the internet came aboard, everyone was like, the internet’s a fad, you know, it’ll go away. But now, like, I would say like most people, if you’re earning real good money, you are working like online and you are working in some type of like environment where it wasn’t possible before the internet, but now it is. So I guess that makes sense.
3:38AThat makes a lot of sense and I appreciate it. And then last question, what is ETH?
3:42BWhat is ETH? It is a L1 blockchain that was -- I’m not sure if this is true. I actually learned this yesterday. It was derived from when the ETH creator wanted to do more on-chain, so he left the Bitcoin team and created Ethereum. Is that true? Because I don’t know if that’s true.
4:04AIn terms of like who? Vitalik.
4:07BLike, he was on the Bitcoin team and then he left and he founded Ethereum. So I would say it’s just like another L1 that specializes in I don’t know. I don’t see what -- I don’t know.
4:18AI do know that Vitalik was like writing about Bitcoin, and I think that he likely was aware of the limitations, right, of it just being like a reserve currency kind of vibe and was curious what would a more open source internet broadly settlement layer look like?
4:31BExactly.
4:32AYeah.
4:32BI don’t know. It’s hard to say what is ETH. I don’t know. Like, what is Solana? I don’t know. I can’t answer that question. It’s really hard. It’s just another blockchain. I don’t know. You should use --
4:42AYou answered it. Don’t worry. It’s the world computer, man.
4:45BI come from Solana and stuff, so it’s kind of hard. Yeah. So it’s like, I don’t know, Ethereum is always just a blockchain. It’s like the number 2. It’s always Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana. But I don’t know, when you actually break it down, even for me, it’s hard. I don’t know.
5:02ASo what had you come from Solana to Ethereum?
5:04BSee why? I don’t know. Honestly, I used to work in Solana, and then now I work here at Mantle. And yeah, it was just basically I always do have Ethereum. Obviously, I traded NFTs, I did meme coins and all that shit. So I don’t know, it was just a natural progression to go through all the blockchains.
