Calaxy Co-Founders on Empowering Creators, Future of Web3 in Sports

There's a new social marketplace on the block and it's called Galaxy. The platform hopes to empower content creators to build personal economies and interact directly with their fans. Joining us now to discuss is Galaxy Ceo and co-founder, Solo sis and co-founder and NBA Star Spencer. Witty. Good afternoon to you both or good morning. I don't know where everyone is. Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Good morning. All right. Uh Let's, let's talk about the launch of this. It's been in beta for a while. It's now officially launched on yesterday's show. We spoke about uh grimes coming out in the media and saying she actually made more money from her NFTS than her music career. Talk to us about the experience that creators can have on the app. Yeah. Absolutely. Spence. Do you wanna take that? Oh, I was gonna give it to you. But uh no, I have actually just called on one of you. So it's my fault. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah. No, you could have made it easy on us as a, as a moderator but uh all good. I've already failed. No, I never that never that it's too early to fail. They're just getting started. Um No, so, I mean, uh as we look at monetization of the individual holistically, I think you're gonna get uh some of those familiar features um that you see from like in only fans, et cetera, you know, people will be able to message uh video chat. Uh and then isn't uh very unique in the fact that they can create individual experiences, like um I have like a jump shot tutorial things of that nature. Um, but yes, it's all about, uh, mont of, of oneself. Um, also you can post your NFTS, et cetera. Um, we have, uh, web three wad in there, uh, running on hash graph obviously. But, er, sorry. But, um, yeah, I mean, it's, it's about monetization. So this one to you, um, this has been a long time coming for you guys, right? This project I think you've been working on for three years. Uh, talk to me about what it means to get this, uh, fully launched today and you know what you learned over that process of, uh, cobbling this thing together over those three years. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's been a crazy journey over the last couple of years. I, I think it's been, uh, actually almost closer to four at this point since Spencer came to me with the crazy idea of wanting to tokenize this contract. I'm sure you guys remember that. But, uh, it's a, it's a crazy journey. It's a super exciting time for us as a company. Um You know, it's been a quite difficult bear market for a lot of people. And so it's, uh you know, we count our blessings every day, getting able to, being able to have the opportunity to do what we do and we every day and service the creator economy. Um And for us, we really do feel like this was an opportunity that we uh took upon uh a journey rather that we took alongside with a lot of our other creators as well. And they're a part of this as well. And so we're hoping to really be that uh you know, next, that next iteration of what the crypto ecosystem can really look like and manifest in the way in which in larger audiences, uh galaxy is meant to be a highly consumer facing product. Uh You're gonna notice that it's not gonna feel and look like the crypto products that we've used in the past. And so for us, we think that today is a step in that right direction. Opening up the next chapter about what crypto products could really look like. Uh and really pushing paradigms and, and, and allowing these things to not only be usable but be useful. And so for us, uh you know, we've been, we've, we've definitely got our battle scars across the way doing this. But uh we are super excited to, to, to have finally made it to this finish line or I guess the beginning. Very cool. Congratulations Spencer. I'm throwing this one to you. I mean, yeah, uh Solo mentioned your, your attempts to tokenize your contract in the NBA, which was sort of a really a landmark step. I thought. So you've been an early adopter on crypto outside of just this app itself, right? So I really want to get your perspective on what that next chapter of, you know, the intersection of web three and sports, right? We saw a lot of excitement around this in the last cycle. Curious for your thoughts on what's gonna shape and drive that narrative going forward. Um I mean, I think if you're looking at the sports landscape right now, you're seeing uh kind of like so set a paradigm shift, right? We see what messages had with the TV rights. Uh We're trying to boost fan engagement in any way possible. We look at VR um I think that Cryptocurrency, Blockchain technology in general is, is going to uh play a big role in that. Um As we look at experiences, I think, um you know, a marketplace for athletes is going to uh show up at some point in time as long as the leagues kind of say it's Kosher, I think, um in terms of contract tokenization, I was a little bit ahead of my time just because obviously, people were fearful of it. Um at the time, I mean, I end up getting it cleared by the league, but overall it was a, a difficult journey with that, but it, it, it spawned obviously uh in general in terms of being uh or, or, or creating more utility, making it more palatable for, for the everyday user for, for every person on the planet really. Um But yeah, in sports, we're, we're gonna see everything, be a chip on the table, we're gonna see every shot, be able to be bet on monetized, et cetera. I mean, it's the only way to continue to enhance fan engagement and to push the the envelope further, right? Because uh as long as fans want to consume whatever piece of our leagues uh of our sports et cetera that, that are, that are out there, uh the more money they can make and you see is uh the cap is, is booming. I mean, you know, you're seeing $100 million contracts in the NBA every day now it's, it's nothing uh special anymore, right? Five years ago, 100 million meant you were a max player and now it means, you know, you're, you're a solid starter. So, um that, that, that envelope is gonna continue to be pushed and, and the fans are at the crux of that. So I follow up here for you. I clicked on Amazon Prime yesterday and Destination NBA popped up, started watching that and you popped up there for a second. So I was just thinking about like in your interaction with these like new G league players or anyone who's coming to the league? I mean, they're like 17, 18 years old. These are like web three natives and way, right where they might have NFTS and might be interested in crypto when you're interacting with these players who are now coming to the league and getting these big paychecks but also have maybe like purchase Bitcoin. Are you seeing like any discussions there that you're not seeing with some of the veterans in the league before that? Perhaps, you know, they missed that boat already. Yeah, I mean, I, I won't say, uh, miss the boat necessarily because obviously I think, uh, one of the cool things about the NBA is you have, uh, even in the age gap that, that we do have, let's say 35 18 to 35 roughly, um, a lot of the older guys are still looking to invest, make money, et cetera. So, you know, they're gonna be a little bit more well versed on Cryptocurrency than, than maybe the, the average, uh, elder statesman in society. Um, and again, it's kind of a misnomer because the five isn't necessarily old. Um, I'm 30 years old but, uh, yeah, I, I think, uh, with people that are more familiar with FTS Web three, it's just a more seamless conversation. It's like anything else. Um, like if, if you have a little bit of a knowledge base, it's easier to talk to about it. Um, and then just looking at the evolution over the last, uh, let's call it six years, right. Since about 2017. Um, I'm not crazy anymore, you know? I mean, uh, it's, it's not a, a, no, I mean, that, that's real. Right. And, and, and the, and the not crazy, I mean, maybe, um, kind of on a, like a AAA tree branch to a degree, maybe a little bit off of the uh the, the, the normal path, but I'm no longer like the insane crypto guy. So that's, uh that's always fun. Spence. I gotta ask, you're, you're with the Brooklyn Nets. Now you're with the Mavericks previously. Any collaborations with Mark Cuban or did you guys nerd out over crypto ever? Um Yeah, we had a couple conversations honestly and, uh you know, I still keep in contact with them uh to this day. Uh Obviously he's the owner. So it's not a, a situation where necessarily we're, we're trading in investment tips or anything, but we did have a couple of crypto conversations and obviously he's a brilliant human being and, and it was a pleasure for me to get to play on this team for, for the year that I did. So I want to get you on the board here real quick. Um I always think that there's an interesting sort of base layer conversation, right? All these apps are built on these, you know, Blockchain foundations, hash graph, I guess it's not all the way a Blockchain. So I will add, add that one little note. It's a little bit different sort of mechanically. So I wanted to ask you specifically why you chose to build there as opposed to on other platforms. Uh What, what can do for you that, you know, say polygon can't in this instance. Yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, uh I gotta, I gotta give my uh I gotta give my respects to, to Spencer. He, he taught me a lot of what I know about crypto, at least, at least the to, to start, he had introduced it to me. So choosing Hadera was actually something that had been introduced to me uh by Spencer introduced us. But uh if you think about the value proposition, Hera really seemed to be the most practical uh technology for us to build galaxy. And if you really look at anything that we've put out in terms of galaxy promotion materials, it's not meant to be overly degen facing, it's not meant to be overly technical, it's meant to really, uh you know, obstruct away the complexities of Blockchain and crypto and really surface those benefits to the end user. Um And so for us using technology made that really easy out of the box because when you think about crypto technology at the moment or blockchains in general layer ones right now, a lot of them might have varying issues, you kind of have to, you know, in a world of, of having to make trade-offs, Hadera allowed us to make none. Um which was super exciting. It was practically decentralized to the use of the governing council. You have reputable companies and brands behind the chain. Um They have great corporate partnerships going on so that we're excited about the future uh opportunities to partner with those council members. In addition to the fact that it's asynchronous Byzantine, fault tolerant, um you know, super high throughput and scalable, uh essentially out of the box. This is a very web two experience or playground uh for us to be able to build an application that behaves more like what people are used to versus, you know, having to, you know, sign in with mema fund your account with gas, you know, uh fund your account for gas with E et cetera because the fees are so low and equitable within the ecosystem on we can very easily, you know, cover those fees and we do on at least for this time being, um which makes it really seamless and easy for somebody to come in there. Uh You know, and, and, and really enjoy the platform for what it's meant to be. Got you. Well, thank you guys so much for both joining us. Those are Galaxy co-founders, Silos and Spencer. Ditty congrats on the launch guys and thanks for chatting. Thanks for having us. We have one of these?