Latest / SILVER / GOLD / $UFD: Surviving Global Economic Shifts | RONS BASEMENT / Keith Grossman of MoonPay Interview

Transcript

Keith Grossman of MoonPay Interview · SILVER / GOLD / $UFD: Surviving Global Economic Shifts | RONS BASEMENT

• 0:00
  Yeah, cool. All right.
• 0:02
  Hey, everybody, we are back. We do not give up in the
• 0:05
  basement. I have our friend Keith
• 0:08
  Grossman, president at Moon Pay on the line.
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  Keith, how you doing today? I'm so sorry.
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  I, I will say we have the world's best CISO running our
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  security and, and I, I can't log into your video feed because it
• 0:25
  violated the moon pay security protocols, but I'm glad we could
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  do this on phone because you know how I feel about you so.
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  How are you? I'm doing, I'm doing great, I'm
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  doing great and I of all people can maybe I need to talk to your
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  your CISO. He could give me some tips so I
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  can completely understand and thanks for coming on here with
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  us for a a few minutes. Obviously, moon pay has been a
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  huge part of my story. It was my on ramp into the
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  crypto world and you guys are graciously helping support my my
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  live streams and my channel. So First off, I just want to say
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  thank you on behalf of myself and even you know a lot of the
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  people in the Unicorn fart desk community.
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  You guys have been great to us well.
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  Well, first, I'm going to step back like in the next 20
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  minutes, you're chatting with our good friends at Ledger,
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  right? And like, they're an amazing
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  group and Moon pay and Ledger work very closely together, but
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  they're nobody better in security.
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  So like you have a great, great conversation there.
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  And then second, it's not, it's not you thanking us like a it's
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  actually the, the inverse, Ron, like, like the story was so
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  amazingly organic and natural in terms of how this community came
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  together and rallied around you and, and your experience.
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  Like it is something that like we could have never dreamed of.
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  And so it's amazing. And you know, for me, prior to
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  moon pay, I was always in the media side.
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  I was at time and I was at Bloomberg and I was at wired and
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  ours like it's almost when when I've been our CEO and Sean runs,
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  you know, our socials mentioned to me like you using moon pay
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  to, you know, get the Solana to launch, you know, Unicorn fart
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  dust and and the sponsors pulling out because they didn't
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  like you experimenting. It was it was like that
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  incredible. It was almost like a perfect
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  story, like how you resist and then the community, right?
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  Like, and what I will say, and this is super important from my
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  vantage point, because when I was at time and we launched
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  timepieces, we always tried to preach positivity.
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  The community that you have built, and that's a reflection
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  of you, an extension of who you are is so kind and nice and
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  supportive and uplifting. And, and by the way, you saw
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  that when you were hacked and you saw how many people jumped
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  to make donations, right? This is not, this is not buying
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  something. This is everyone being like,
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  here's this guy and he did so much just to to motivate me, me
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  to inspire me. I want to give back to him.
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  And so I run. This is it's a huge testament to
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  you. Yeah, well, wow, I'm, I'm, I'm
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  touched by you, by you saying that.
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  And yeah, you know, Keith, I mean, it was, it was an
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  experiment when I created Unicorn fart dust, right?
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  I, I deposited $100 through moon pay.
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  And really it was, I guess I'm here, I'm the conduit, but it
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  and it really is this community of people and it's, it's really
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  has, has given me, I don't know, just some, some great feelings
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  that there are so many good, nice people out there in the
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  world. And I think even more to come,
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  right? I think more, more and more
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  people are attracted to this idea that that that, that, that
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  it's a good thing to be honest and to have integrity.
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  And it feels like the community at UFD, despite what goes on in
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  the general markets, remains to be very positive and very
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  robust. Yeah.
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  I mean, look, what I would say is I think so everyone who knows
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  he's gonna laugh at this statement, right?
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  Which is I actually think that the overwhelming majority of
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  people on the planet are good people, right?
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  And the problem with new technologies and anything is a,
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  any technology can be used for both good and bad, right?
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  If you show me anything like, you know, Atomic Energy, you
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  know, you could say, well, it created the bomb.
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  And the flip side of it, you can say, well, it can create the
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  cleanest energy source to power the mass populations, right?
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  So like you can look at any technology and you can say
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  here's the good, here's the bad. You can look at any business,
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  not just crypto and say if there's money involved in the
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  business, there's going to be good actors and there's going to
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  be bad actors, right? Like that's just it, right, Like
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  people who like to say, oh, well, there's so many scams and
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  bad people in crypto. Like give me any industry you
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  want to go tell telecom, Well, look at MCI, you want to go
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  health, look at their and those you want to go traditional
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  banking. Well, that's why the crypto
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  industry was actually born out of right, all the fraud that was
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  in the traditional banking system.
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  What I what I find though, is with this space in particular,
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  because it's so new and it's still so young, it, it's almost
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  mismarketed itself on certain things.
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  So like it has these terms like D Gen. right?
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  Or you have a very serious community called Unicorn fart
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  dust, right? Like it's amazing.
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  Like it's almost like, like you can't say it and not smile.
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  The problem with the term D Gen. is it sounds like the person
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  who's a D Gen. is not intelligent.
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  And I would actually argue the complete opposite.
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  Some of the smartest people I've ever met are djets, right?
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  And the question is, is, are they using that intelligence for
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  good or are they using it for bad?
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  And so I just like, I like shining a light on the
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  communities that I think are pushing it for good.
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  But I think that it then also gives permission to other
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  communities, right? And the problem with the way the
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  way media covers things and social media covers things is
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  nobody cares about nobody cares about the story of Ron woke up,
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  went to get breakfast, had a great day and and went to sleep,
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  right? Everyone does care about the
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  story of Ron was hacked. You know, his wallet was drained
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  by X like it was terrible, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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  That gets me insane about nobody wants to cover the good in the
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  space, and you do a very good job with this community of
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  amplifying that good against the backdrop that's not programmed
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  for it. Yeah, that's an I I like that
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  perspective because it, it just feels like the people in my
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  community or our community. It's not my community really are
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  focused on good. And you know, I, I laughed when
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  you said that you thought that most people in the world are
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  good because anyone that knows me knows that I say that same
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  thing. I think like 99% of the people,
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  no matter where you go, any country, anywhere in the world,
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  I mean, anywhere that most people are good people and most
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  people just want to, you know, make sure that they're fed and
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  have good shelter and, and feel safe.
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  And, and, you know, I think I think also I'm going to get your
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  perspective on this when it comes to meme coins.
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  I read this recently that there's also like an epidemic of
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  isolation and loneliness in the world and that these meme coins
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  in these communities that are sprouting up.
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  And of course, I'm laser focused on UFUFD, but that they give
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  people kind of a place where they can go, where a place where
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  they can feel like they belong in a place where they can, you
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  know, kind of join in on a mission.
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  Are you, are you seeing that from from your perspective?
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  So, so, so yes and no, right. Like I think it brings up a
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  really good, you know, like one of the problems with crypto in
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  general is everyone likes to categorize it as a vertical,
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  right? And so they batch everything
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  together and, and it's actually quite it's, it's not a vertical,
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  it's a horizontal, right? So like when I was in media,
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  like the example I would give is, is television is a vertical,
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  right? You're either linear television
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  or you're not, right? You either come through cable,
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  you're not terrestrial radio is a vertical.
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  You're either beamed over the radio feeds or you're not.
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  Print is a vertical. You're either a magazine or
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  you're not Digital is a horizontal.
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  Anything that can be digitized will be digitized.
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  So then like all of a sudden within digital, there's no
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  digital experts because you can be digital from social, you can
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  be digital video we digital on audio, we digital on text, we
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  digital on programmatic, you can be digital on all these things.
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  It doesn't matter in crypto. Everyone likes to talk about
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  crypto like a vertical crypto is really horizontal, right?
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  And so like, Bitcoin is one thing, the ETFs is one thing,
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  stablecoins is one thing, D5 protocols is one thing, meme
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  coins one thing. And then even when you get into
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  something like meme coins, there's horizontals within mean
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  points. There's mean coins that have
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  communities, right, Such as yours.
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  Yeah. And then there's mean points
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  that are simply gambling, Right? Yeah.
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  And and like, those are some of the ones that you see come out
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  on a consistent basis. There's they all follow the same
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  trajectory. There's no sort of a centralized
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  rallying mission or vision that ties into, you know, why the
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  token exists and and it goes away, it disappears, right.
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  And so like, I don't think it's fair to say all meme points
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  bring community together. But I do think that what you
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  have done very well, and I think everyone would agree is you have
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  given you've humanized this token, which at the end of the
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  day, if you think about like what's really happening is
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  you're seeing a, a technology in blockchain technology enabling
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  people who are very comfortable with the idea of social media,
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  right? And attention and relevance to
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  monetize attention and relevance And your sheer presence, Ron
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  gives it the relevance for people to rally against every
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  day, if that makes sense. And so like in that regard,
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  you've done a masterful job of creating community.
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  The one thing I would say is when I was in media, I used to
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  always say there's a huge difference between audience and
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  community. Like an audience is just
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  somebody who shows up one day and leaves and never thinks
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  twice about it. Community is there for you
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  through the ups and downs, through the good times and the
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  bad times. The, you had in my mind, I, I
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  believed you had a community right when we were talking about
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  this and I was observing sort of, you know, your group and,
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  and, and the, the dusters and, and everyone, right.
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  Like I believed you had a community where I really saw it
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  was a community where you've done something really special,
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  something really spectacular was when you were hacked.
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  Because the week before the, the few days before I was actually
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  in Istanbul for Jupiter's event Cat stand ball.
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  And I was talking to Gigi and she had mentioned that like, you
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  know, like so many people have benefited monetarily from, you
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  know, UFD sort of taking off and having the success it's had, but
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  not a lot of people have given back.
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  And, you know, like, and, and it was as a frustrating thing in
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  that regard because you've been so sort of kind in terms of how
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  you've managed, you know, your allocation of these tokens and
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  you've been so transparent about it, but just so important.
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  When the hack occurred, I thought, and I, and I don't know
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  if I told you the story, but like, I thought that I was going
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  to have like 30 minutes of just relaxation where nobody was
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  bothering me. And I like, this is how like I'm
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  going to give you like the most humanistic sort of story.
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  I literally went to the, like, nails salon that's like three
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  blocks from my house. And I was sitting there, like,
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  getting like, a, like a massage, like, for like 30 minutes,
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  right? Like in one of those chairs.
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  And I was looking at e-mail and the first thing that comes
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  through is like 25 text messages from Sean.
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  Like, Keith, did you see, like Ron was hacked?
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  This is terrible. Yeah.
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  It's like I'm sitting there. I'm like unbelievable F sake.
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  Like like I can't even get 30 minutes and the first thing I'm
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  doing about texting Sean and Gigi, I'm like, guys, we have to
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  do something. We have to get this going.
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  And it was so funny. I was like and like, like, it
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  was like so wrong. Like damn you, but one moment.
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  Yeah, yeah, right. Because.
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  This is so you take these Ledger folks very seriously, but like
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  that is just just to finalize like the thing that was a
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  testament to your community. Think about how many people
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  donated, right? Like I know and it is a
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  unbelievable sort of sort. And for you, like I hope you're
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  proud of. That I am.
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  I am. The history of my career at Ron
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  has been every time I've pushed the boundaries in media or
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  whatever, I've thought everyone is like sort of abandoned me or
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  criticized me until they saw that there was some sort of
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  inclination of success. In which case they were like,
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  oh, hello. Like I love this right?
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  When, when, when the gold and silver sort of partners that you
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  had like pulled back on you and they're like, stop doing this.
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  It's like, stop doing what? Stop being curious, stop being
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  interested in new technology. Stop, stop.
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  Like, like everyone, like by the way, gold can exist and crypto
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  can exist. Like they coexist together,
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  right? Like it's not like one comes at
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  the expense of the other. And so it's like, it's not 0
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  sum. And so it's so funny to see your
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  journey and it's so, it's so awesome.
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  And I hope you can hear it in my excitement.
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  And when you texted me why I was like, of course, I'll hop on the
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  phone with you. I love this community that
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  you've built. Yeah, well, they love you too, I
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  can tell you that. And boy, I feel like I owe you a
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  a gift certificate for a for a nail salon or a massage.
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  So. You will be nothing OK and like
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  like my only my only ask would be like like just just keep
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  doing what you're doing OK, and like what you're going to find.
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  And I saw this with time. You know, when we did this is,
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  you know, there's going to be moments where people are going
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  to throw the price of the token in your face and like what you
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  have to do is this, you have to just build for the vision that
• 14:44
  you want to build for and not towards token price, right?
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  And and like you have to make sure that you are like this is
• 14:52
  what you know, like you're not going to play any short term
• 14:55
  games to change things. People are going to throw bad.
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  It's like just build the community that you want to
• 15:01
  build. And by the way, the token is
• 15:03
  there and like if it's, if it's 400 million market cap on one
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  day and it goes to 90 million market cap, it doesn't mean that
• 15:12
  you're 1/4 as great as you were the day before.
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  It's the irrationality of the market.
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  Just keep building and over time, if you think about it
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  right, like what you you're in is an attention relevance sort
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  of arena. Over time, if you just keep
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  building on the attention and the relevance of the community
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  that you had, that's what will create sort of the
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  sustainability of everything there.
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  And like, I just think you're doing, you're doing a masterful
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  job. I, I really appreciate you
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  saying that because that, that is my focus.
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  I was speaking with oh guy, what's his name, Kyle Chassy the
• 15:49
  other day. And I told him, I said if, if,
• 15:51
  if somebody magically appeared to me, you know, Keith, if you
• 15:56
  right now, said Ron, I can do one of two things for you.
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  You know, like the genie from the lamp.
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  I can either double the token price or double the size of your
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  community. On a sustain, on a sustainable
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  level, there's no question what I would pick.
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  I I would, yeah. The latter, I mean, and, and I
• 16:13
  and I, you did a great job of, of explaining kind of my vision
• 16:19
  for what I need to do. And that is just little by
• 16:22
  little by little. And there will be exciting days
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  and there will be difficult days, but keep showing up every
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  day for the community, like slowly and steadily building the
• 16:33
  community. And it builds up and builds up
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  more and more people who are what we call diamond hooved, you
• 16:39
  know, dusters who are are going to hold.
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  And eventually, excuse me, because there are only 999
• 16:46
  million of these coins period, we win, right?
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  I mean, it's not all just about the money, but eventually the
• 16:52
  community gets of of strong handed people that are engaged
• 16:56
  in getting something out of the community grows to a point where
• 16:59
  I think that that we do very, very well.
• 17:02
  So I appreciate you saying that. I appreciate you coming on.
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  I do get to go talk to Ledger next.
• 17:08
  And Keith, we'll get it figured out next time.
• 17:11
  I'd like to have you on on a somewhat regular basis because
• 17:14
  the community loves you. Well, listen.
• 17:17
  I love this community. If I can, I would say thank you,
• 17:20
  Ron. I would say thank you to all the
• 17:21
  community members. One of the things that I, I, I,
• 17:26
  I, I would be remiss if I didn't mention is every time, like,
• 17:31
  like the community members are like, oh, we used Moon Pay and
• 17:34
  like they send the screenshot. Like, yeah, I, I send it
• 17:37
  internally. And it's like, and it's such a
• 17:39
  point of pride to like everyone at Moon Pay, like, like Moon
• 17:41
  pay's about 300 employees and like, they're all working around
• 17:45
  the clock to make sure that like, we just make this the most
• 17:48
  seamless onboarding experience for the masses.
• 17:51
  And so, like, I can't tell you and your community how much we
• 17:54
  appreciate sort of just even your response.
• 17:57
  It was amazing. And for your Ledger
• 18:00
  conversation, you know, I will say this is Loon Pay is an
• 18:04
  investor and Ledger, we love this company like Ariel and I
• 18:09
  don't know who's going to be in your spaces, but if Ariel or Ian
• 18:12
  or in your spaces like they are like 2 amazing, amazing,
• 18:15
  amazing, amazing human beings. Like I really like the team.
• 18:19
  I saw Cab was going to be in the space.
• 18:21
  I was with Cab earlier this week.
• 18:24
  He is a great individual that I couldn't speak more highly of
• 18:28
  and and you know, I have maybe there's something fun coming
• 18:32
  around cab in a few weeks that like people will see and will be
• 18:35
  excited about. So there's a little health up
• 18:36
  for your community. All right, but but Ron, have a
• 18:40
  wonderful one. OK, you know, I hope you have
• 18:42
  fun with the Ledger folks and take the security stuff
• 18:44
  seriously. Please, but I, I, I, I, I, I
• 18:48
  will assure you that I, I will and I am and, and thanks, Keith.
• 18:53
  Thanks for everything. You know, again, on behalf of
• 18:56
  all of our listeners, we've got a couple 1000 people who joined
• 18:59
  us here at the at the spur of a moment of yeah.
• 19:03
  And well, I'm sure we'll get lots of views later on.
• 19:06
  Just thank you for everything. Thanks for what you're doing
• 19:08
  with Moon Pay and the support you're giving us.
• 19:11
  And I hope you have a great day too.
• 19:13
  You too have. A good one.
• 19:15
  Ron. All right.
• 19:15
  Thanks, Keith. Bye.
• 19:16
  Bye. All right, guys, That's Keith
• 19:21
  from Moon Pay. I felt like the live stream
• 19:23
  ended, but it didn't. Well, man, what a great guy,
• 19:26
  what a supportive person. Like he said, I'm going to be
• 19:29
  hopping on to a spaces event now with Ledger.
• 19:33
  You can go to their Twitter profile and check that out.
• 19:35
  Thanks for joining in here at the last minute.
• 19:37
  Look, we make things work. We got Keith Grossman on.
• 19:41
  What a great guy and it sounds like he loves our community as
• 19:45
  well. All right, hey, we love each
• 19:47
  other. Be nice to yourself.
• 19:49
  Have a great day. Go hop on the the Ledger Spaces
• 19:52
  and I'll see you guys soon. Bye bye.