So today John is here to hang out and just answer our questions as they may appear. But as always, we'll recap the week, go over what's happened over the last seven days. So we’ll start from Monday and work our way through.

In terms of just the overall week, nothing too major has happened because I know the team are ultimately building up and planning for the router upgrade and upcoming cross-chains that everyone's looking forward to.

Before we move on to any updates related to that we ended last week with John finishing off with South by Southwest. So how was it? How did you feel the event went and what did you take away from it?

John Karony:

Well, I had a really good time at South by Southwest. Kicked it off doing a podcast with some of the worst jetlag I've ever had. So hopefully I sounded coherent. Apparently I did, but I was running on autopilot at that point. Got some caffeine in me and then continued out the first day. I met some amazing, wonderful people from a variety of different industries. A lot of them are revolving around crypto and tokenization, DAOs and NFTS, etc., but I met some really amazing people. And just for clarification, Grit Daily House - South by Southwest was a kind of a thrown-together Austin-style event for the longest time and then they morphed into this larger thing.

Grit Daily House is definitely more of the retro vibe but it is a very serious publication and there was a lot of big-name people there that I got to meet and talk with and exchange ideas with so it was a fantastic day. Then on the second day was SafeMoon Saturday. We sponsored that event and it went really well. I did more panels on that day, I think it was four or five back to back, getting either grilled with questions or interviews or just talking about some things that SafeMoon is working on and how it kind of feeds into the rest of these different industries. So, it went really well. I had a really good time.

CatsRus:

Perfect. So that's the main thing, it was a success. It was not just an event, but it was also what we may not realize, it was networking. A lot of it was the networking side and you've met a lot of new people, and hopefully, those people become more than just acquaintances.

So we finished off last week with South by Southwest and then we moved on to the first thing at the beginning of every week, which is SafeMoon Labs. SafeMoon Labs is Gandalf's baby, so to speak. So every Monday, he runs a Twitter space, anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour depending on the topic that he [chooses.] Gandalf, this week you did a Space on?

Gandalf:

Liquidity and liquidity in DeFi, especially liquidity pools. It fits the theme because we're talking about everything on liquidity and how liquidity pools work and how all this router stuff works.

I talked about all of this and it's already uploaded on the SafeMoon Education YouTube channel. For next week, I have a different topic because we have the SafeMoon birthday month and I want to cover one of the oldest spaces, which was way before we had SafeMoon Labs, "Diversification of Your Crypto Portfolio and Why This is Important," especially because we have the Swap with all these partners on board now. I think this is a perfect idea to bring up, especially for newer people who are looking into diversifying their portfolio.

CatsRus:

Perfect, so at what time again?

Gandalf:

This is an older space so it would be uploaded on Friday. It's not a live presentation.

CatsRus:

That's coming up this Friday on the YouTube channel. So anyone watching YouTube right now, you can subscribe and you'll get a notification for that this coming Friday. So keep an eye out for that.

Mr. Adult:

I think you covered it when you recorded the original one but just to check, it's not a financial piece of advice. It's just what might possibly be the pros and cons of diversification.

Gandalf:

Exactly. To give you a little sneak peek, it is talking about why diversification of a portfolio is important and why you shouldn't put everything into one source. A lot of people are saying that they're all in on one kind of crypto, for example maybe SafeMoon. I'm also talking about the effect of having a portfolio like a stock portfolio on the back and a lot of people who are new to crypto don't know that it is actually important to diversify their money, whether it's in normal investments or in liquidation or in any kind of stacking possibilities.

Mr. Adult:

But it's not financial advice, just to be very clear.

Gandalf:

Absolutely.

CatsRus:

Big red warning at the beginning. Speaking of Gandalf's Twitter Space that he did this week for SafeMoon Labs. He actually did it on liquidity which is an important reminder to those that still have LP within the SafeMoon LP Providing System that is on the SafeMoon Swap. So if you have provided LP, you need to go ahead and remove that before the 22nd. So you've got two days left to do that before your investment is at risk, essentially. We can't confirm what will happen after that, because ultimately the contracts that are storing your funds will become unsupported. If you are providing any LP to any of the pools, go ahead to the SafeMoon Swap and remove them. There was an update to the SafeMoon Wallet which now fixes any issues that were holding people back. So go ahead and do that before the 22nd because we don't want you to lose your funds.

Overall, not too much has happened this week, other than the nice little birthday present, was it yesterday or the day before? It's the KYC screenshot that SafeMoon was hinting at and what that all alludes to and means. The mind went wild with what this could be? So is there anything that we can share on that John?

John Karony:

So that is an actual screenshot from the UI design that they right now are coding in for the SafeMoon centralized exchange. And just so you know, we have a decentralized exchange or a DEX, which has been existing since last year. We have a centralized exchange, which requires more regulatory items and other processes that have to be put into place. There has been a lot of back end work going into this. A lot of boring stuff that a lot of you guys don't really see. But we're really excited about moving forward with this and yes, that is from the SafeMoon Exchange.

CatsRus:

Perfect. So from the SafeMoon Exchange, and obviously the regulations side point of view, have we kind of nailed a majority of those things? Are we now in ‘build mode’ for that kind of thing? We're not being held back?

Mr. Adult:

Yeah. Yes, we are in build mode is the short answer to that. We have a very interesting birthday month and we're not turning the exchange on this month to make that very clear, but there's definitely going to be more to see before the month is out.

John Karony:

Yeah, it's going to be a good one. And yes, the SafeMoon Exchange is underway. The actual tech aspect of it. We got the regulatory compliance side to a certain point in which we can continue forward and we'll talk about it here shortly.

Mr. Adult:

And the really exciting bit of it as well is that there are three distinct aspects that take place with this. One is planning about what you want it to be as a product. The other is about planning how it has to be built from a code perspective. And then the piece that I guess people sometimes roll their eyes at is the regulatory and compliance piece.

But it is really hard to understate not just how important that is, but what difference that will make for the future scope of such a platform. Making sure that that isn't ‘just right’ to get going, but that it has the maneuvering room for where it needs to go. And so it is frustrating when we're all sitting here kind of having to take the slightly slower approach, but long term that pays off. And that's the bit that we are starting to get really excited about because we will then be in a position where we can actually kind of break down why it took the time. We can go, "This is why. This is what we got. This is what's in place." All those dots, all those kinds of pennies are gonna fall from the sky. As people wonder which way the coin toss was gonna land and they can connect those dots and understand why it had to be taken that way.

That's the bit that kind of keeps driving us but we understand that externally, you don't get that visibility. You're not in those daily meetings and those conversations and these kinds of weekly catch ups with tech teams and regulation teams. And there's other pieces that go with this as well, which is crucially important, such as customer service. Like it's all very well to turn something on, but you need to be able to support it.

So there's a lot of other things that are starting to be finalized now. And making sure those are all in play means that we're gonna release something great and support it brilliantly and make sure it grows.

Rather than just get something out to be as 'quick as possible'. I kind of covered this in the video at the beginning of the month, but it's easy to do something. It's not so easy to do the right thing. And it unfortunately takes a bit longer, but the fortune comes later. From the kind of, you can be happy about the product, you can be happy about how it works, happy about who gets to enjoy that product and as many kinds of destinations as possible. And you've got to think about the fact that regulation and compliance isn't some kind of global tick box. It happens per country, per state, per county. There's these multiple layers to it.

So there's an awful lot that goes on. It's not just filling in a form and saying 'thanks for that'. There's a lot more than just forms as well, but we're really fortunate that we have an amazing team that works really hard to go beyond the basics in terms of what we need on that front so that we have the flexibility to then evolve the product to all the dreams that we have. So it's an exciting time ahead of us.

CatsRus:

At least that now clarifies anyone's mysteries of what people are thinking from Connect, [the SafeMoon] card and everything else that's associated with a KYC. So that was the main thing to kind of simmer people down a little bit and let their minds not run as wild as they may have been running.

So the only other really big thing that happened this week was an additional partner, which comes close to my heart. At least when it comes to working with animals, is Pawthereum. Another great partner. I had caught a conversation with Hayden that he is aiming for more of the products or partners that are going to do well in terms of giving back. We'll be doing research and investigations on them (future Swap partners) to see what they're about with an actual goal in mind, of an actual objective, then just starting a token.

Anyone can start a token. Anyone can copy and paste some code and launch a token within five minutes, but it's about the actual real progression of the project. Pawthereum, and many of the other partners that we have on the Swap at the minute (and in the future), will be about an objective and what they're trying to achieve. The team's been doing a phenomenal job with some of the partners [so far.]

Some of them people may not have heard of, and that's fine. It's about learning who's out there and how big the DeFi space and crypto space is. And it's not just always about Bitcoin Ethereum and the big boys that are at the top. It's about the smaller projects that may be doing a phenomenal job. Great to see that more partners are being added.

Speaking about the sales team, we've got Jonas heading to Ninja Warrior. So please tell me if we get some photos of that.

Mr. Adult:

I saw that he tweeted that he was off to some TV thing, but I didn't know it was Ninja Warrior. I thought that was just a hilarious guess.

John Karony:

Well, Jonas is actually about the size of Charles except more muscle. So we're like Charles V2, you know, kind of thing. So we're very excited for him to go do that. And I told him, you best bring home the win.

John Karony:

Oh, Mr. Adult, didn't I film something that we said was going to be released eventually?

Mr. Adult:

There's probably at least two things like that. Yeah.

CatsRus:

Is that a Christmas present?

John Karony:

No. Christmas? A summer present. It was a big deal and we did it but they're like "yeah, it'll be released." And I'm like, "when?" "Ah, you'll find out." Okay, great. We'll find out when we find out.

Mr. Adult:

The dice aren't always in our hands on a lot of these things, which can also bring frustration. In fact, this is a good opportunity to acknowledge the fact that we've got a long list of stuff that we'd planned for March. That list still exists, it's just moved by about a week or so. There was a bit of a gap because part of it is always about making sure we've got all the boxes ticked. Because we can't just throw stuff over the wall, but it's still coming. So we're gearing ourselves up to focus on the fireworks at the end of the month, which we talked about.

So there's still plenty to look forward to and appreciate. It's been a little bit quieter than originally planned. That said we have things like south by south west come up, we've got the router upgrade. We've had the MoonPay zero fees. What else have we got?

John Karony:

Oh, the DEX upgrade is a big thing. I used the products, too. I was like, we need to have bridging capabilities, but let's take it a step further and just have cross-chain where, if I have Ethereum and I want to go to BNB or I have BNB and I want to go to Ethereum, you can do that with SafeMoon being the middleware for that. So I'm really excited for the DEX upgrade. It's going to be good.

Mr. Adult:

Yeah. It's not going to be just good. It's a real foundational step forward. The team and Ryan, they've been working so hard on maturing the feature set, is probably the best way to phrase it, in a way that really does look many steps out from where we're trying to be right now.

And I think that's really the message that tends to come from us for the whole community. I think it's really easy for you to stay like you've got your nose pressed against the screen, right? Not just not, not a chart, but like the screen of crypto is an hour every minute, right? We're just kind of living and breathing it.

And especially with the SafeMoon army, it's a 24-hour amazing extravaganza of people just enjoying each other's company and having thoughts about what might be possible and looking at us what's going on in the world and the news and events. And so it can be really hard to just kind of take that kind of zen breath and just step back a little bit and go, what is the real big picture? What's the bigger play here?

It is very easy to feel impatient and we have a bit of that. We even know what's coming and we're still impatient, because we want everyone to be enjoying what's going on and what's gonna happen. And it's really easy to say that as well as I say this, I can almost hear people going, "Yeah. But we've heard this loads." Yeah, you have, but we're nearly there.

I'm reasonably confident that as we get towards the end of this month, even if everything isn't necessarily in your hands (and there will be some stuff by the way), but even if everything isn't it will be more tangible. It will be less "hey, we're on the way with it," and more "here's what we're on the way with." And I think that will help a lot. And even just this screenshot that we posted recently with the KYC. Immediately, people could start to feel that things were more real and that's really where we're getting to now.

The video at the beginning of this month, where it talks about moving into the delivery phase, that is where we are at now. You know, we've been through a lot of the planning, we've been through a lot of the growth, and now we're getting into the delivery. And that's the best way we can evidence what we're up to is actually getting things into people's hands.

And don't get me wrong, we've got amazing stuff already out there: the wallet and the swap being two key pieces of all of that. And as the ecosystem has the next pieces fall into place, I think it's gonna be a lot for everyone to start, not just getting excited about, but starting to dream about or understand what's next.

And those bigger picture pieces are the bits we really want to get on with. It's kind of like how Apple does a lot of what they do. They put technology into things like their phones, which are destined for other devices, whether that's like the Apple Watch, for instance. All these different sensors and pieces of technology are kind of roading in other places.

And people don't necessarily notice or understand that's why they're there first. And then they get to draw on that learning and the technology and the ideas that they've built, and put them into the real destination. And that's kind of where we are at; we've put a lot of things in play, but we haven't necessarily put them where they're meant to be just yet.

CatsRus:

So could SafeMoon's development, with the technologies that they're bringing to life, be something that could be considered a mainstream part of global daily use?

Mr. Adult:

I don't know if I would dare speak on such things. It can be kind of egotistical to assume that's where it's gonna head, but there's definitely ambition. The Apple Watch, if we want to kind of run that example a bit further, the sensors and technology they've got in there, from the motion to the computing power, a lot of those things are actually destined for the kind of Apple Glasses, the VR and AR things they've got coming out. And that's been maybe eight years in progress. And it's that kind of long term view about you test bed something in one place which is destined for another, because you're almost waiting for technology to catch up.

That was a big thing with the iPhone and the iPod. The technology hadn't caught up for that or the iPad, so Steve jobs kept kind of just dismissing it saying no, it's, it's not, it's not what it needs to be yet. The responsiveness of being able to swipe across a screen and have the icons be under your finger, not lagging behind was a huge piece of where it needed to get to. And I think there's a famous thing where he threw the iPod into a fish tank and bubbles came out and they went well "that's how you can make it smaller."

So there's all these little details which go on, which no one else really pays any attention to and honestly I can understand why most people wouldn't care, but it's the culmination of all those pieces in the final thing that you get to experience that actually makes the difference. You know, you can spin up a website in a day, doesn't mean it's the right website. The thought process that goes into it and the assembly and the detail and it's the sum of those parts.

You know, sky cycling was a great example of that. Rather than trying to come up with the one way they could do better, they said, "how can we make everything we do 1% better? How can we make 1% better oil on our chains, 1% better chain tension, 1% better tires," and all of those things added up and then they went on to be a massively successful team. That's that kind of position where you could be focused on one thing of, "well, what's the point of having a slightly better chain?" You have to zoom out and look at the whole bike and understand all the "one-percents" that are being added. And I think crypto technology software, the kind of tech that we're looking to develop. There's a lot of similarities in play there and that's why we keep mentioning an ecosystem. It's the sum of the parts that will pay off in the longer term.

CatsRus:

Talking about the upgrade itself, what I want to ask in relation to what actually comes with the upgrade (than just what I consider it to be the operating system). Instead of just upgrading that, what comes with that? What software is installed on the operating software? So I think Ryan's mentioned some things like obviously we got the cross chain. pSafeMoon, does that come with the upgrade?

John Karony:

Yeah. So there's, there's a lot of different pieces coming together all in one. There's a lot of backend stuff that we did. That's kinda like the boring stuff, but makes it more efficient. And then the cross chain is the big one. That's coming. And for us, that was one of the most important features for [it] because a lot of times you have to attach to or approve transactions on dApps, which does open up some security issues there. But with this system, you won't actually have to go to any other application. You can just stay within the SafeMoon Wallet. So we're really excited about that, but yes, there is gonna be a brief period of time where we're gonna have to take it down so we can do the full migration over.

CatsRus:

So just to clarify with that. Because they're taking everything down, all trading on the SafeMoon SWaP will stop. So technically SafeMoon is the only one that you shouldn't be able to trade, from a blockchain point of view. Now you can still use exchanges if you want to go use exchanges and all the partners, if they're used on any other swaps, you can go and use them. So you're not completely locked out. It's just a Swap itself as being essentially frozen. So don't panic if nothing's going through and you're trying to do it because there will be notifications everywhere to let you know.

John Karony:

Like any other software, exchange, or any DEX that you use, when it goes through an upgrade, there's gonna be quick downtime and we're aiming to make that as seamless as possible. So we're very excited for this upgrade. It's going to add a lot more additional features and usability to the existing SafeMoon wallet.

CatsRus:

So sticking to all the cross chain upgrades train but staying away from dates because we don't like dates, do you know which change you're looking to add next to the cross-chain [swap]?

John Karony:

So right now I'm looking at Avalanche and Polygon for the next ones. But then again, we're always open to hearing other ideas and hearing what the community wants. But what I've been hearing is Avalanche and Polygon. Well. Polygon then Avalanche is what I'm hearing right now in terms of chains.

CatsRus:

Okay. So that'll definitely give us another entry to NFTs at least with Polygon. That's pretty cool.

Well, I think that's covered the week overall in terms of everything that's happened. Like I said, it's been a quiet week, but those big things are happening in the background.

John Karony:

Well, it's been a quiet week for others. It's been a very, very busy week for us. Quite the opposite of quiet. You can probably hear some exhaustion in my voice, but we're excited.

CatsRus:

So let's jump into some questions. Got one or two questions here, and then we're gonna open the floor as normal.

John, you mentioned something about ROI and to any normal, average trader, they would know that that is essentially Return on Investment, but you meant it to be somewhat different. So could we clarify what you meant by ROI?

John Karony: Yeah. I spoke about this at South by Southwest and you can find the recording, but it means Return on Impact. It's a paradigm and focus shift from the monetary return to an impact return. Meaning "did we have the effect we set out to have?"

The example that I used was wind turbines because some people there were not blockchain-focused and so that's a pretty easy metric or a measurement for them to understand. So I used the wind turbines when it came to ROI, as it's easier to understand, then try to explain some complex blockchain mechanics and tokenization mechanics, but basically it's return on impact.

By installing the system that the turbines support, did we have the effect we set out? Did people receive the benefits that we wanted them to have, versus did we receive an x-amount kind of return over the next quarter? So it's more of a paradigm shift and a focus on the impact return and not the monetary return.

CatsRus: And you are doing that with everything that you do, so if something doesn't work and it doesn't come out to be the way they planned we can always go back to the drawing board and try something new. So nothing is ever out of the question.

Mr. Adult: There's a marketing book that talks about about "hypothesize, test and pivot," and it's that kind of cyclical nature of looking at things and understanding what's going on, but making sure you change something that's critical. Rather than just sticking your heels in and going "no, that's what we do. And that's the way we do it."

It can seem really shortsighted, but it's actually quite easy for a majority of businesses to get stuck in that because they see enough success that they go "well, that's now the way we do things." And I'm sure most people will have heard "well, that's how we've always done it" in certain circumstances as well. And we're not necessarily looking for whether it's the perfect impact or 'not great' impact. It's "what impact is it? And now how can we do more of it?"

It's always about, and I think John was mentioned in this as well, about the 10-year future of SafeMoon. That's the competition. And so if we just stopped and went, "yep, that looks good enough," then we're not gonna move anywhere and we'll never catch up with our future selves. And really you should never catch up with your future selves. That's kind of the beauty of it.

MoonCast (March 20th, 2022)

CatsRus (SafeMoon Senior Scholar and Head of SafeMoon.Education), Mr. Adult (Global Community Manager), Gandalf (SafeMoon Scholar) and Veno (Discord Community Manager)

Table of Contents

The Week in Review

Community Questions

Transcript

John, you mentioned something about ROI and to any normal, average trader, they would know that that is essentially Return on Investment, but you meant it to be somewhat different. So could we clarify what you meant by ROI?