elrond Talks - Episode 1 - From Genesis to Infinity. And beyond! - Valid Blocks / Helios Staking

Welcome to the first episode of elrond Talks!

Casual conversations with Elrond partners and community members about the past, present and future of Elrond Network.

The first episode streamed LIVE on  April 26th on Youtube here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYBGdBJUwKY

Transcript

Eddie: 0:02

And we're live. Hello everybody. I'm Eddie from Valid Blocks and we're presenting you today with the first edition of Elrond Talks. What is Elrond Talks? Elrond talks is an open format podcast that the whole community can utilize to have episodes to present themselves to the community. And we want to have these talks with the other staking providers and also with the community members that are interested in having this. Just casual conversations where we prove that we're not, Au tobots t rying to take over the world and we're just normal people and we're here for the good of everyone. So, t oday I'm really excited to have Kevin from Helios Staking with us. So without further ado, let's welcome him to the conversation. Hello, Kevin.

Kevin: 0:54

Hi everyone. How's everyone doing out there today? Good I hope. Thanks for having me E ddie, for the first installment of, E lrond Talks, I'm really happy that we're doing this in an open format an d a nyone can use this forum from here on out. We just want to get the conversation going and get people educated and we're both really happy to be the pioneers of d oing this. So thanks a lot for that. And yeah, let's do this.

Eddie: 1:27

Okay. Hey, that's great. Right. So, um, I'd like to start, uh, with the title of this first installment it's called from, um, from Genesis to infinity and beyond. And I've known Kevin since early 2019. The first Testnet releases. I know he's been on board ever since. So, um, I would like to ask him to maybe describe how was his journey through Elrond from 2019 to the current date?

Kevin: 1:59

Okay. Well, how is my journey throughout Ron? Well, nothing but amazing, um, is probably the first thing I have to say. Um, it's been such an, such an incredible journey. Um, I found out Ron, um, after spending two years from 2017, 18, uh, even the parts of 19 looking for good projects, um, and looking for something that I did, I knew that I could maybe contribute in some way or at least have knowledge in. Um, and, and because of this, uh, I found, I found out Ron and found out that what they were doing, um, was something that no one else was doing and it was from the ground up. Um, and so it, it, it really excited me. Um, I started, I started looking into the telegram group and, and, uh, I saw I was really active, a lot of really helpful people. Uh, and so I got involved and I think it was the third release maybe is, is when I got involved and started with the first battle of the nodes, um, which I did quite well in just as myself. Uh, and then by the, after that, uh, I got a nice little message from, um, from, from one of the team members asking me if I'd be interested in, in moving forward with a potential staking agency, uh, I jumped all over that and then come the second battle of the nodes. Uh, I was more of a leader at that point, and it was just really, really great to, to be in that position, uh, and watch all these new people come in and people still to this day coming in, um, and just the energy of the team, the energy of the validator community, the, the, the helpfulness, the willing to improve the, the humility sometimes when, when you've made a mistake, is there people, people really have taken our on board and, and you can just feel it in the community at all times. So, um, creating Helio staking, uh, with, with my partner, mark and another partner, Michael, uh, was kind of just a no-brainer for us. And, and we're able to give back to the community now and, and provide that infrastructure and ability for everyone in the[inaudible] community, um, to stake their Eagle and become part of this revolutionary financial system and blockchain. Um, so yeah, it's, it's been nothing short of amazing, and I get excited almost daily on stuff that's going on, you know, so, so we're still here and we're not going anywhere. And, uh, yeah, it's amazing. So what, what about you, Eddie?

Eddie: 4:30

Thanks, Kevin. That's great. Well, uh, I've known the guys in the alone team for quite a while, and even before they started Aaron, you know, and I'm fortunate enough to live in the same city as them. And, um, I knew about the project, uh, I read the first white paper and back in 2017. Um, and I remember, uh, seeing the Benyamin elution at a conference, uh, together with the Zika guys discussing, uh, ways to, to approach the charting method, right. Because everybody was trying to tackle the scalability problem of, of Ethereum. So, um, it was really interesting to see the guys around the silica guys, you know, doc charting options, you know, that was back in 2018, I'm sorry. And, uh, see the project the way it went with the first, uh, the, the first wave of developments that didn't really go well. And then they rebuilt everything from scratch. And then again, and seeing the piece that the project, uh, used the team was just amazing for me. So, uh, also with some, uh, background in a cosmos validation, I discussed with the Lucian, uh, back in 2019 and decided to help with the community of validators. And just like you said, uh, people came along and the one thing I could probably pinpoint and say, I would love more. I love most about everyone is that, um, it helped all the little guys, you know, people that came in with, uh, their baggage of knowledge and there were different people with different backgrounds and it brought everybody together and it lifted everybody up to the, to the same level, right. Um, not only on the technical level, but also as a community. And it's as like a family, even, even in the battle of notes when he was supposed to be an adversary network, people were helping each other. So, um, I remember that, um, like you said, the first releases of, of errand where, um, a bit tricky to install and then the scripts came along and then, um, people that were learning how to do these things, we're helping others as well. So the community really grew as a family. So I have personally grown a lot with the outdoor network in these last three years. And, um, I have learned a lot about blockchain. I mean, I used to know blockchain, right. Uh, but not on the deep level, uh, technically as I have after being with the Aero community for so long. And, um, when the Maynard came, um, it was just the natural step to, to apply this, uh, technical knowledge and blockchain knowledge and together with my, uh, good friend RD who is lean of guru, you know, just set up valid blocks because we wanted all our blocks to be valid. And it seemed like a cool name. And that's how we did back to you, Kevin.

Kevin: 7:49

Yeah. That's awesome. Um, I didn't realize I, uh, hold on. I think might've just K there. Sorry. Um, so yeah, I, I didn't realize that, um, that, that you've actually been around since even 2018 and that sort of stuff. So you're kind of a, an old man in terms of, of L Ron, I guess. Right. Um, that's funny. Well, you, at least your hair is not going so great. Um, but, uh, yeah. So look, how, how do you think phase three went for you and valid blocks? Um, phase three,

Eddie: 8:22

Uh, was the really challenging, uh, point because, um, we ever, ever since we started on maintenance with our nodes, um, it was pretty easy to run the project because just a few nodes and, um, the updates are really streamlined with Aaron, you know, it's, uh, the creeps, the tooling is really awesome. And I've had this feedback from, uh, I mean, renown, uh, prefer state and people in the community like, um, uh, Sonny from, from cosmos. So, uh, they all praise the on tooling and the ease of use. And, um, we are getting ready for phase three, but maybe not building the community that, uh, we have right now. So, um, in the beginning of this year, uh, we decided to, um, step up and, uh, move to a major league and say, we're not going to be a company that has a website. Uh, then, you know, uh, you know, we can, we're going to invest in our identity. We're going to, uh, invest in our infrastructure, uh, in our image. And we're going to present ourselves, uh, as a valid option for people to stake their Eagles. So with this in mind, and with the fact that it's done through a smart contract, and the non-custodial part is really the interesting part here where we do not have access to people's money, we just help them earn their rewards and we charge a fee for it. So, uh, we started working with a really cool, um, company in Romania called Rafino. So they helped us rebuild the image first and then rebuild the website. So we launched pretty late, like March 13th, a new website. And, um, we started building our telecom community, we starting answering questions and, um, it kind of, um, it kind of, uh, what cup, um, this passion in me off helping educate people, like all the people that are in our community can really say, um, all the questions have been answered in, in, in the telegram. And I try to go beyond the questions and tried to explain and try to help people understand why a plus B equals C just not just give the answer and be done with it, try to help people understand why. And, um, I think that is what's missing from the crypto scene because lots of people are in for the short games, right. Get rich overnight thing. But once you understand blockchain and the beauty of it, right, the immutability of blockchain, you cannot help fall in love with it. I think at least that's how it was for me. So after that, uh, the rush on the March 26th, right. With everybody API down, um, everybody's hitting a, a five, the refresh because the wallet was also updated. So the wallets were not working well. So the first two hours, I think I lost three kilos that

Kevin: 11:34

Day with all the stress,

Eddie: 11:36

But, uh, the delegation started coming in and, uh, we really appreciate that then with, we'd like to thank our community for pulling through for us. Um, you know, uh, we did explain that it was really important to be there on time to be there, to show up, uh, uh, was it 2 23 UTC? So people did show up and, um, we had to cap our, our delegation at, uh, I mean, I think it was two hours into it, but rather than that, everything was, was great. And, um, I can only say, uh, that the album team, again, delivered big time because having a rolling update like this from 2,169 violators to 3,200, it's a big thing. It's really huge. And phase three is a really immense milestone for the Ella project. So, uh, valid blocks as, um, as a staking provider, um, is here to stay and is here to help all the investors make the most of their Egle. How about you, Kevin? How did you, how did

Kevin: 12:52

You leave it? Well, you said, you said, you said a lot there in, uh, a lot of what I'd say, but, um, for us, uh, I guess, I guess we got kind of lucky because, uh, in battle in the first round of battle of the nodes I was running, uh, I think I ended up running 26 nodes at some point. So I was already pretty used to running a lot of nodes. So the whole, the whole infrastructure thing, wasn't that big of an issue for us. I was more kind of torn between how, how we wanted to actually strategize and how we actually wanted to do our, our, our growth. Um, uh, so I kind of sat back and, and, and with mark and Michael, and we said, Hey, what is it we want to do here? Um, and we, we looked at it from community first, uh, and from a decentralized approach, uh, and all, always keeping that in mind, uh, in the back of our minds and making sure that, that, that we achieve that, um, I was getting messages, you know, almost 2, 3, 4 weeks before launch people asking why we don't have an open telegram group and all that sort of stuff. And, and, um, we actually kind of made a point of it, of waiting till, you know, the last few days to open it, uh, strictly because we want to make sure that, you know, w he Helios was one of the first announced partners, one of the first four or five, and I kind of wanted to not go in and mop up, you know, 250 K eagled right away, which is our max cap. Um, and so I was kind of happy with moving a bit slower. Uh, in hindsight, a lot of our guys were my, our wallet users, and they weren't really quickly to respond to the, to the timeline. So a lot of our nodes didn't show up a lot of our coins, didn't start coming until, you know, about an hour and a half into it, um, which was kind of disappointing in a way. But, uh, when I look back on it, I'm really happy, happy that it happened way because now it gives us a nice big cushion, uh, for sustainability for our users. It allows our users to re delegate in, we have a lot of space to get to that two 50 and we can actually grow now sustainably and slowly together as a community. And I've got to know a lot of my community members, uh, from a one-to-one basis, answering all their questions, helping them, um, and, uh, you know, I gotta give a big shout out to all of them. Uh, and I'm really happy that I was able, I was able to, and mark was able to do more of a one-on-one one-on-one thing with, with people and actually get to know people a bit more. I don't think there's anything wrong with bigger communities either. I'm not trying to say, you know, the flip side is bad. I think just for our strategy, it kind of just went perfect. Um, we're growing nice at a nice, at a nice pace. We release a bit Eagle every day. Um, we have redelegation open now and we got tons of room to play with. So I'm happy for, for that. Um, in terms of phase three itself. Yeah. Like what a day that was you, you lost three kilos and I went totally gray. I, I, I might, I, I might've once had a color in my hair, you know? Um, but after phase three, definitely not. Um, we had to cap to, um, I initially was going to, I, I changed the cap twice on the fly, um, but I always had faith in the team and I, I always, I always knew that that, that the hour, the hour on that network and the team would see this demand, which is absolutely amazing by the way, every single person out there who staked with no matter who they staked. I won. I want to say personally, thank you. Um, for, for choosing our Ron and getting us to that 11 million stake now, I think was the last number I saw that was yesterday. Like, that's absolutely incredible guys and, and we got more room to go. Um, but I knew that over those, you know, those 3, 3, 3 day period, we had, you know, some calls we had, you know, the, the validator, the validators group was just constant. What are we going to do, do this, do that, do that. Everyone's kind of like getting really frustrated. And it was, it was a tough time, you know, like Sunday night, Monday night, we're on these long calls, but we had to be, and the team came, came with a solution that, that worked for everybody. And they, they, they, they, they were honest about it. They didn't say, well, we knew that was going to happen. They said, well, oops, it wasn't necessarily an oops, but it was kind of like, look, we, we admit, you know, maybe, but like, that's, that's, that's the important, the important thing about our run and that's why everyone is drawn to it is that there's no, it's all transparent. There's humility there. And, and, and it's, it's okay to admit when something has, has maybe been unforeseen. Uh, but like I, at the end of the day, all that, all that coin that we got and the demand exceeded what we ever thought it was going to be. So, you know, that's a massive win for, for all of us. Um, and, and now yeah, like that pain, that, that, that pain is gone now. So, so, so we're now in, in, in, in, into the future. So what's, what's, what's in the future for valid blocks.

Eddie: 18:04

Uh, good question. Uh, before I asked her that I would like to also touch on this, uh, that you mentioned, you know, the team at errand. Um, we're under a lot of stress. I mean, I know that we can was very long for all the team members and, um, I was amazed with how the solution came together again, they delivered beyond and what I, what I, what I expected. Right. So I honestly think it was the best solution, uh, and it helped the ecosystem a lot. So, um, next step for volume blocks, uh, we're working on some tooling, um, and, uh, we, uh, are working to integrate some big businesses with, uh, with the errand. We have some contacts in Spain, some big retailers that we want to take to, to enroll with, um, with the arrow network, because cheap transactions, uh, fast finality, um, top of the line network, you know, uh, scalability, we had 263,000 EPS in the battle of nodes at the end. I think that was it right.

Kevin: 19:15

200. Yeah, yeah. Before. Yeah. Yeah. We, we, we, we got, we got really, really high at one point and I think it lasted, I think it lasted for all of 15 to 30 minutes. I think it was a hundred thousand. And it's something that I think is what we actually got to, I, I can't remember. It was, it was, it was crazy fast, but then like, yeah, like we didn't have enough nodes. We didn't like whatever, but it was good to know that we could do that. So, yeah,

Eddie: 19:38

Yeah, yeah. Uh, the TBD part of adaptive state sharding is really great. The fact that the network can shrink or grow depending on the demand, you know, and, uh, the, the hybrid, uh, economic, uh, model that Elani is using, which is not based on QPS or inflation. It's a combination of these two. So if enough TPS, there's no need for inflation, this is just groundbreaking, I think. And, um, absolutely. I really, really, um, I really think in the end, there will not be only one pro projects. There will be, uh, but also there will not be 8,000 projects that exist right now. So I think there will be a handful of solid teams that, um, have worked, uh, constantly and have delivered. And LVN team is if not the hardest working team out there, which I personally think it is. It's one of the hardest working teams and the pace is, um, just mind blowing. So

Kevin: 20:41

Well, they're not only, they're not only the hardest working team. They have, they, they, they have, they have what's at heart best interest for the community. They like I've, I can just see it in them that they they're doing stuff to actually make a difference in the world and, and actually bring financial inclusion and actually, and actually change the way that the financial world and, and inclusion works. And like, that's just to me, the tech, the tech is number one, in my opinion, they're the hardest working team, but at the center of all of that, their foundation and the actual, the actual reasoning behind it all is more solid than any of that. They want to, they want to be able to help, help people enter into a system where they, where they can earn money back by just having, having coins, or they can interact easily and not have to go through, you know, all these third-party banks or all this sort of stuff. And that's, that, that to me is the strongest point. And, and you have our community out there. I think, no, this, we have, you know, all these different, you know, Twitter accounts popping up every day. You know, you have the eagled hold, you have the warriors, the partners, um, L Ron, you S you know, like, um, Eagle life, like theirs, and they're, they're, they're, they're showing up, they're showing up more and more every day, you know, there's Dr. L Ron, they're all out there and they're just, they're out there for this reason. And it's, it's, it's incredible.

Eddie: 22:11

Yeah. I think, like I said, the one point that is giving the edge for Elrond is division and, um, having a team like that, that can actually build rockets and also having the vision to, to see what's coming and actually build it. Uh, I think it's, it's a great advantage. Um, and I will also like to touch on the, on what's coming forward to the elder network, right? We have, uh, the Meyer exchange and the launch pad. These are two huge, huge, huge projects that are, that are launching very, very soon. And, uh, they will bring a lot of value to the whole ecosystem. But I think the project that I'm most excited about is the EFT, which is

Kevin: 22:58

Well, ESD T is going to change, change everything, like, so know we've gone this far, and we've built the foundations and, and building foundations is, is, has always been my, my personal motto and to see, to see L Ron making sure that, you know, they can walk before they can run is, is why this next, this next, when ESD T comes out, you know, defy, uh, the launch pad, when all that comes out, we already know everything else is rock solid because we spent the time and, and together making sure that that stuff was already working the way it's supposed to before we started adding other things in there's too many projects out there that just start throwing things, throwing things in when there's still problems with the other stuff. And that's, that's like, it's, it's the wrong way to do things in my opinion. So, so absolutely with ESD T coming, you know, who's going to create their own coin first, you know, who's who who's going to get all those cool names first it's it's. It's awesome. I can't wait to watch the chain.

Eddie: 24:01

I've I've, I've seen, um, a guy with no Hayes. Uh, he was building for straight up seven hours straight. He was building an acquaintance, you know, trying the STD DSET, um, platform. So, um, people are starting to, to come on board. And, um, I think after the 29th, when the, or 28 is when these are activated, um, we will see real projects take over the Eleanor network and we will see adoption. And, uh,

Kevin: 24:34

Well, how many super projects do you think are there? Right. Like there's, there's, there's probably a lot of projects that are already just are just waiting. They already have a lot of

Eddie: 24:42

Their stuff ready or already. So, um, exactly. I don't know all of them, but, um, I really think, uh, what Ellen is doing is growing exponentially, you know, I mean, we go step by step by step, and then the growth is not linear. It's exponential. And then when you get to a certain level, uh, and here I'm not about the price of the Eagle, right. I'm talking about, uh, the development around, around the dealer network. Once you reach a level, when you think, well, we reached a nice platform, right? No, no. From there, they, they take the next milestone exponentially and up the game again, and again and again, and this is just fantastic for me. Um,

Kevin: 25:28

When you think right, when you think there's nothing else that can do that, plateau just goes, boom, bust, right through, you know? Right. It's just like, there you go. You know, and like, it just surprises you every turn at every turn, you know, you might think there's nothing going on. And then all of a sudden you'll see, well, now I don't. But you know, in, in, in, in, in the beginning I was like, Hey, what's next, what's next? And you're always on the edge of your seat now. I mean, I already had 90% confidence now I have 110% confidence that whatever happens is going to just bring it to that next level. And it's just amazing to be a part of, you know, so do you believe we, I mean, every single person out there who will, who holds Eagle today, you should be really proud of be being part of this community. And if you're out there telling people about it and doing all that stuff, thank you so much. Like just we're, we're, we're all, we're, we're all one, you know, we're all, we're all the one ring, I guess you could call it, you know, so that's right.

Eddie: 26:27

And, um, just to recap, the yellow one, right network, what is, um, what does it mean being an Eagle holder? It means you were having a really strong asset to hold, right? Which is, um, very scarce, right? I think we're past 63%, uh, in staking right now, past 11 point something million. And, um, the fact that it can compound the rewards. Again, this is not a bank. Uh, these are not, this is not interest. It's a rewards that you get for securing the network and the fact that it can compound that and increase your returns is just fantastic. And with the projects that come with it, like max, like impact and the future ones, I mean, it's really a place you want to be in right now. And, uh, just take back your time as the Meyer commercial center.

Kevin: 27:17

Yeah, exactly. Um, well, we open up to some questions

Eddie: 27:22

We do that I would like to ask you mark. First share some

Kevin: 27:27

Sort of Kevin, why don't you call it the mark, just cause mark, mark, mark, mark. Mark. Daley's my business partner. And we've been, we've been trapped chatting as well, but it's okay. I'll call him Kevin. So sure. We'll S we'll swap names from now on. Right. So

Eddie: 27:41

Kevin, tell us something personal about you. What do you like to do something

Kevin: 27:46

Personal, personal, Hey, okay. Well, I guess a few things come to mind. One, one thing, a lot of people, uh, uh, don't know about me is I lived in four different countries. Um, I was fortunate enough to, uh, to be able to go down to the U S to, to, to play soccer, uh, for college. So I lived there, uh, Canada is where I was born, um, to Irish immigrants who had, who had moved to Canada. They were actually, um, uh, they moved there in the seventies and then had me in the eighties or something like that. Uh, and then in the late two thousands, or 2010, maybe, I don't know, I moved to Ireland, took up my citizenship, uh, and lived there for about six years, started a digital infrastructure business there for web development and hosting, uh, companies, websites. Um, and then, uh, after that, only about a year ago, I moved to the Netherlands, uh, and set up Helio staking here. Um, I have, uh, one of my best friends lives here. Uh, my cousin lives here and stuff, so, so yeah, that's four, four countries now. Uh, and what do I like to do? I like water sports. Uh, I surf, uh, well, I pretend to surf, um, I, I'm learning, uh, I'm, I'm learning how to kite surf at, at the moment, um, which is an extremely hard, but really, really fun and crazy and exhilarating. Uh, and, uh, yeah, I just listened to music and like to cook. That's pretty well. Me. Yeah. What about you quite a nice description? Well, yeah,

Eddie: 29:20

Uh, I come from a programming background. Uh, I started, uh, with, uh, the diff 19 working for a, an off shore company in Romania. And, uh, then I, uh, worked for the hardware and communication company for a couple of years. And then, uh, I moved to labeling company, which, uh, then, uh, started business with RFID products and RFID is one of my other passions, right. Uh, and then when I learned about blockchain, it just fit perfectly RFID and blockchain because, uh, being able to tag things on RFID and, uh, secure that date down a blockchain is just fantastic. And on a personal level, um, I like to sing, I like to play the guitar, the drums, the bass, uh, probably see something behind me.

Kevin: 30:09

Um, you'll have to sing, you'll have to make an hour on song. Now I'll run hour on sings. That's your next step? That's the next, the next step, the

Eddie: 30:17

Challenge. But after seeing the French guy do the rap, you know, I'm not sure if I can, I can race to that level, but maybe, uh, the 100 of Elvin talks after 9 98 more episodes, we'll be back in a different format and maybe you can play the ukulele, right?

Kevin: 30:36

Yeah. I do have a ukulele.

Eddie: 30:39

We can play a song for the audience so we can take some questions now. Uh, I'll take the first one from Adam Sanders. How can we as a community help? That is a fabulous question. And, uh, I think, uh, what we as a community can do and by we, I mean myself as well, because I'm also just a member of the community. We can educate the people around us and by educate, I don't mean, Hey, by some eagled. I mean, Hey, look at this project, look at what they've done. Look at what blockchain is. Look at what, um, um, what a private, uh, public key is. Um, look at how easy it is to create a wallet, uh, and educate them on, uh, creating their first minor wallet. Maybe help them with a 0.001. Uh, Egle just to, to give a touch on, on, on blockchain, on the first interaction with blockchain. And I think it's very, very important when you educate somebody about blockchain to explain the importance of, uh, keeping their seat phrase safe. Because many times I've seen people come to me and say, okay, so here's my, my, our address send me some Eagle, you know? And, uh, I say, I ask, did you, uh, backup your, your seed phrase? And they go, oh, well, what's that? So people want to interact with this, but the proper way is to really help them know that, uh, this is a secure system and you have to be the manager of your own keys. So you have to make sure your keys are safe. And you have to know that you can not share that seed phrase with anybody. Regardless if it's, Benyamin, Minko asking you in a chat or I've seen people share their keys on, uh, when it means off, uh, elder community or whatever, all these fake accountant's cameras are trying to get their hands on your precious Eagles. So

Kevin: 32:50

It is you're touching on there. What you're touching on there is basically education. So like the community as, as a community member, you, you should be out there educating, making sure people know things like the seed phrase. I think the first thing you should ever teach anybody is the seed phrase stuff. And then test them, even though it tests, even though they get tested, even though they get tested, you should test them as well. But, but I think as, as community members go out there set up a Twitter account, if you don't have one and start engaging, start engaging on, on telegram and just start educating people have that conversation at, at a dinner table or, you know, talk to people. Um, Jose from Palm tree network has a ton of really good stuff out there to help you teach, to teach people about Meyer. You know, like he's, he's, he he's really championed that education piece and trying to help community members. Uh, so yeah, I think as community members, you, don't just thump that L Ron drum and talk to talk to people about it and, and, and help, you know, make a video. L L Ron talks is going to be open for anybody to, to, to take part in, you know, so just, just start talking more and, and, and giving people the knowledge, you know, no question is a bad question. If, if you don't know, if you don't know the answer to something that's okay, because we were all there at some point. And like, as, as we were saying earlier, the whole, the whole thing about L Ron is it's no, no person left behind. And, and I went, when I came in, I was feverously messaging. Um, uh, I'll venue is a, uh, uh, he is a validator and a really, really strong educator. I was like, what do I do here? What do I do here? You know? And, and, and coming from more of a, uh, I'm not really from a Linux background with hosting. Uh, so it was more, more Microsoft hosting and, and, and Sento S few, few random things. And so, so Linux Lin, Linux to me, I was just kind of had to brush up on and, and I got help from the communities. And, and, and just when you see someone who needs help, help them, like, that's the easiest thing you can do. That's great.

Eddie: 34:58

That's great. And just to enforce that interaction in the social media, right? If you don't have a Twitter account, make one. And when you see out on the tweets, interact with them, maybe a, like maybe a share, retweet, whatever. Uh, this Matt might not see much from one person, but if the whole community engages with this, then we help spread out the world about Aaron and the people really got a chance to participate on this. And, uh, we're not selling anything. This is not, uh, uh, trying to get people in the Ponzi scheme. Right. We're just trying to have people jump in this ship as soon as possible, because we really think Ellen is part of the future. So, um, helping

Kevin: 35:49

Plant, plant, plant your seeds and watch them grow and plant as many seeds as you. Can we move on to the next question? Sure.

Eddie: 35:58

Uh, what happens if 17.5 million, the state can take that one?

Kevin: 36:03

What happens is 17.5 million in state? Well, it's 17.5 million is staked. Uh, that'd be amazing, but not really likely. Um, uh, the, the, the thing, th the, the way, the way people's minds work and psychologies work, uh, uh, of an economy, you're never going to see every single coin staked. It's just not going to happen. Um, what would happen if every, every coin was, was staked, I guess there'd be no buy or sell orders anywhere. So the price would just stay as it is. And, and, and yeah, that would be weird, but like, I just, that's a very, that's a very, very, very unlikely, very, very unlikely situation. I mean, if, if, if you have the teller, the LRR the L Ron delegation bot, uh, set up, you'll see that people are leaving the contracts and you see free, free gold coming up from people leaving Lea, leaving their delegation contracts already. Like people, people, people are in it to support the network, but there's also people in it for money. And, uh, you, you can't change greed. You can't change the way the markets move. So I think there's only, I think 80%, I think the, one of the biggest change has 80% locked up. It's that cosmos? I think I want to say they they've reached 80%. Yeah. And like, that's, that's a lot. And like, I, I really think we'll get there, but every single coin in existence in staking is just pretty well straight up impossible. So if that happens,

Eddie: 37:38

There's also something called a gradient point where the top-up rewards get, um, less, less your, so after 3 million, uh, there's a function that defines the rewards daily for, um, for the top on the network, right? Because 300, 3,200 nodes means 8 million Eagle. And we're way past that. So right now the top rewards are still growing, but once they reached 3 million, the line, uh, goes cotangent with the 3 million. So the rewards, the incentives will not be as high as they are right now. So this is a self healing mechanism. So if it's too much stake theme, the incentive will decrease. And if the state decreases, the incentives will increase. So you're incentivized to stake if there's not enough stake in the network. And if there's a bunch of stake in that, I thought maybe too much, then the incentives decreased. So the network balances itself out.

Kevin: 38:40

Yeah. And it's, it's, it's, it's a fluid network. It's, it's built to be that way. I mean, financial inclusion doesn't mean you lock your money up forever either, right? Like, I mean, it's just the way it is. So it's, it's, it's just a fluid fluid network. And as you said, it incentivizes people and this de-incentivize is kind of in a way at a certain point or just reaches a plateau. Um, which is great. Right.

Eddie: 39:06

Next question from Chris, Pam, can you guys tell a story about working with the LRN team and how that compares with other products? I can take that if you want.

Kevin: 39:16

Um,

Eddie: 39:17

Uh, I've worked with the various projects. Uh, the first project I worked with was cosmos in 2018. And, um, uh, Aaron, if you compare it with the other projects, is, uh, th the biggest difference is that it helped the validators grow. You know, the cosmos, uh, uh, project was older. It was like, I think it was launched in 2017, uh, within an ICO of, of sorts. And, um, they already had a validator set, waiting for the releases to come. And, you know, he was a first BOS, the first strong, uh, prefer state project to, to be released. So it generated some hype. Uh, everyone didn't have that. Um, there were a team from Romania that, um, was going to disrupt the blockchain space, but nobody knew it at that time. Right. Um, and the validators community had to be built from scratch. So, uh, uh, the experience of working with the element team is that they helped everybody grow. Um, and by everybody, I mean, myself included, you know, you've entered you, you enter it up one point and then, um, you know, you're given some tools and you're helped to apply them and work with them everyday. And then the, the tools get to getting better and better. And then, uh, with the, nobody gets left behind mentality, you know, all the validators, uh, a case comes to mind. I'm not going to say his name here, but there's a guy from UK who I remember was there from the beginning. And he was, he really wanted to run a node. And he started running on old on his windows, uh, computer at the beginning, because in the beginning, windows was also supportive.

Kevin: 41:08

I started on windows and,

Eddie: 41:11

And after that, um, he learned and learned and learned, and he got to running his own node in the main end, you know, and that is just a fabulous case of how anybody with enough, um, we'll, you know, we'll find a way to do it. And, um,

Kevin: 41:30

They really set a new standard. They really set a new standard, right. Uh, and, and, and sent messages, private messages to, to validators and said, what can we do to help you? And, and, and, and they put a lot of effort and energy and time and resources towards just building this validator community. Um, and for, for me, in terms of comparing to other projects, um, I've, I've been working with other projects that are partnered with Elron and, and I see those, I see those techniques being used, um, injective for, for example, injective protocol, um, is, is one. And we, I, I see the same thing. There's a group there everyone's helping each other, and it's, it's it's, but it's based on after you see what, what our run has done. They just set the bar higher and said, no, we're not going to just pick a random 10 validators. And, and just, and, and, uh, and not work with them. Uh, instead what we're going to do is we're going to, we're going to pick our validators, uh, to, to our partner validators, but we're going to work with every single person who wants to be a validator at the base level and make sure that people understand it. It's, it's, it's an new industry standard, as far as I'm concerned and it's being, and it's being used in, in, in other chains. Um, so it's, it's great.

Eddie: 42:48

Great. Next question. Martin Doyle, could the network be utilized as general payment net or given the scaling capabilities, decentralized visa with settlement in six seconds? Sounds promising.

Kevin: 43:02

Cool. Well, that's, that's the goal. I think, I mean, th th th we've we've always said, do we have visa level transactions? Do we have MasterCard level transactions? Do we have internet level transactions? Right. And that's, that's that, that that's always been the golden light Meyer as an app is, is, is, is working its way towards that already. There's a shop down in Spain that accepts it. There's there's now, now payments is accepting it as a payment provider. Uh, you can, you can use eagled. Um, and I think over time, we're going to see some really cool things built on top with, especially with ESD T uh, coming live, um, what's going to happen is we're going to see those sort of things being built. The, the, the, the thing about outrun is we have these a level capability. We have MasterCard loadable capability. Now it's just a matter of who's going to build it. And, and Meyer's already is, is, is, is already way ahead of the game. But with ESD T you might have someone come in, big player, come in and say, great. Now we can use, use you use outrun to, to settle to settle. Um, I think I read, uh, like JP Morgan, a long, they, they have their own little private chain and they're settling, they're settling via, via, via blockchain, uh, on some of their stuff and trialing it. So there's already people out there doing it, and the need is there. And now that, that scalability is there. And that, that, that new token is, is, is the, the ability to build your own token and build that is coming. I think, you know, two, three years, maybe even, even shorter than that, we could see, we could see, you know, a big scale payments, uh, option and people running their stuff through, through to railroad, even though it's already happening, uh, in my opinion, right.

Eddie: 44:44

Also, uh, as, uh, it's been a secret that not a secret anymore. Uh, there's a card coming soon, so exactly a payment method that will be available. Um, next question, Adam, I'm not sure if it's a question from Anna Sanders, why is Alon still the best kept secret? Well, um, I think all these big projects that are, um, uh, shield and there are popular to say, to say like that, uh, a lot of them are based in the U S and it's really important to have a footstep over there in the U S uh, and, uh, it's the next logical step for the LN team. Uh, you guys have seen the interviews with the Miami mayor, uh, which is pro crypto has been encrypted for awhile. So, um, people can only, uh, ignore you for so long, you know, once you become inevitable, just like, um, uh, Tony stark in the Avengers, right. Uh, then people will just not be able to ignore you. So, uh, the tech is there, the team is there, the vision is there. So the future is really bright for the orange team. So,

Kevin: 46:04

Yeah, I, I challenged that question in a way too. I don't know if it's the best kept secret out there. I don't think we're a secret anymore to be fair. Um, the, the, the, the thing that, that, that I, that, that I always appreciated about, uh, about DRL network is it ankle full board, marketing and hype until they had a product, you know, you get all these other chains and I won't name any names, but they, they go out there and they just hype, hype, hype, hype, hype, and how much downtime have those chains have, how many times has, how have they failed? You know, how many times has, has that run? Does anyone take a wild guess zero? And you want to know why that is, is because they spent the time, not hyping in marketing, and they spent the time to build something and that's, that's, what's so much more important. And that's why this, this constant steam ball, uh, of avalanche and, you know, the numbers are growing and growing and growing, and, and that's, that's, what's going to happen. And I think once, once we get past ESD, T R R D fi R M pad and all that stuff, you're going to see more marketing, and you're going to see Benjamin out there doing more, do, do, doing more stuff. Like he's already been on CNN, alongside a Bitcoin doc. He's been on ruder. Like he's been, he's been out there. So there's, there's, we're, we, we are in terms of, you know, top, top 20, top 50, maybe, uh, like maybe a best kept secret quote unquote, but we're by no means not known. Um, and we're only a few days away from that next big, massive change that's then going to bring so many more projects to us, and they have no reason not to come to L Ron, the incentivize the incentives are there. So it's just, it's a waiting game and it's, it's, it's a good waiting game. So let me just be happy exactly. And be happy, you know, about it now. And, and, and go back to that community question, you know, if we are best kept secret, why aren't you telling everybody about it?

Eddie: 48:02

That's right. A little while. Next question. Um, is Solana in any way superior to, well, everyone, or is it foolish to compare both projects? Uh, Salama is definitely an interesting project because they attack, uh, scalability, uh, using a different mindset. They don't go to sharding. I've seen some talks, uh, with Anatoly, the head guy from Solana, you know, and he just doesn't want the sharding problems to, to solve. And I've also talked to, uh, Zacky from cosmos and discussing about their beginnings with, uh, uh, with Cosmo. And they said that they had the same mentality. Uh, we don't want to have more problems to solve, so we don't do sharding. So, um, the fact that that's charting, uh, is a really tough program to solve. Doesn't mean it's not solvable. Um, and the way that everyone solved is this brilliant. But I think, uh, in terms of a network, you cannot really compare the two, maybe just the throughput. Um, Alvin does 55,000 transactions with a shard. And right now we have three shards, plus the metal chain writes or 15 touch thousand transactions, but the scalability option is on the table. I think. So I asked 50,000 transactions. Um, but the both projects have different mentalities, different ways of, of solving this blockchain trilemma. You know, you have, uh, scalability, you have decentralization and you have security. And it has been said that you cannot have all three of them. You have to sacrifice one to have the other two. So I think it's really beautiful. However, I'm solved the Australia, Emma, we have security. I mean, state of the art security, we have scalability, craziest capability, and we are on the road to decentralization. Right? Well, we

Kevin: 50:04

Have infinite scalability, right? So like, that's, that's what charting provides adaptive state starting provides infinite scalability. I don't think there's any chain out there that can actually say that they have infinite scalability, um, and can actually stand by that. Whereas I know for a fact that L Ron can, because that's, that's, that's, that's what that's, what was done. So you can't, you can't compare a Solana and an Eagle because there are two entirely different strategies. And like, I know which side I've picked. I have nothing against Solana to be honest. Um, but yeah, it's just, just two different strategies and it's just not right. So that's all, I guess, is it foolish to compare apples to oranges? Absolutely.

Eddie: 50:48

Well, um, I, on a, on a personal level, I tried to not be a maximalist and say, um, uh, this is it. And there's nothing else. So I think in the end, there will be a handful of projects that are, that will make it through. And I think, uh, for sure, Aaron is one of them. And I think that it's really possible that Solano is one of them as well. They have different approaches and the market is so huge. I mean, we have not even deep turf. Our fingers are our toes in the water of adoption that that is coming. So the, there is really a need of, uh, multiple blockchains talking to each other. So, um,

Kevin: 51:27

Yeah, there's room for everybody. And like what, like, like, like what, what, what Solana are doing and, and, and what's been happening with them over the past little while is amazing. They've, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're adopting people and people are getting to understand a bit more about the, the, the, the, the importance of TPS and, and th the importance of that sort of stuff. And, and, and what you're finding is people from, from Solana are now bleeding into our group a bit more, uh, I, I see a lot more Solana providers or Solanas pro um, supporters, uh, coming, coming into our more and more. So, you know, that's great. Like, if, if, if, if that's how, that's, how you get to Iran then great, awesome. Like, they're not a bad project. Right. So,

Eddie: 52:13

Right. Next question. Have you heard more about Miami project? Um, we've heard some, uh, but there's not a lot we can share right now. So, um, we're going to the next part. Yeah. I just say no to that value blocks and Helios have a income Ming project that will run in a blockchain. No, we don't. We are working on some projects, uh, to like, like I said, in the beginning, this is one of the targets that we have set. We're trying to get adoption for the, for the blockchain. And with some context we have in Spain, doctor, some be retailers. So there's nothing ready on that side yet, but as soon as we have something, I'm sure everybody will. Yeah.

Kevin: 53:02

Our, our, our angle. Um, now that phase three is kind of over and you can kind of see more videos and stuff happening. Think our angle is, is to create a knowledge base and start doing more education, uh, and actually focusing more on the education side of things. Um, we do have some ideas for some apps and stuff, and I have a react, react developer that I've been trying out and that sort of stuff. And, and, and, you know, we're just starting to get to that point. Uh, he, he, he Leos and just the way my mindset works is one step at a time, build my foundation, uh, our foundation, and, and then move forward to the next thing. There's a big gap for education out there and, and, and the need for some kind of knowledge base and, and, and that sort of stuff. So our focus is going to be around that. Um, we support the warriors a little bit as well. We're working on, uh, uh, getting a merchant merchandising store out there for them, um, with my, my web development hat on, uh, and that sort of stuff. And then, yeah, I mean, eventually I, I have some ideas, um, in the future, um, potential coat collaterized lending and borrowing and stuff through Helios and that sort of thing. But as, as of right now, we're just going to take that next step, uh, towards, towards, um, education, uh, helping the community a bit more, uh, and starting to find developers to onboard. They're, they're tough to find nowadays and ones, ones that can actually do what we need them to do. So it's it's, and, and when, and when, when one is found, um, everyone tries to jump on them and you could lose them just as fast as you got them. So it's, it's, it's, it's, uh, a bit tough on that side, but look, we'll, we'll all get there in the end. I think

Eddie: 54:45

That's right. We are also really focused on education. And what we're trying to do is help people understand why things are the way they are. Uh, and, uh, I think this is really the answer, you know, once people get the beauty of this and, uh, understand things and not just look for the quick fix, quick answer, and really try to invest some time into reading about things like, you know, when the, uh, uh, impact announcement came up, people are starting to ask questions the second. I mean, the minute they saw the announcement, and I'm sure that didn't even have time to go through the blog post. So it's really important to when there's announced an announcement of some sort like, like that. It's really important to go through it and try to understand all the facets of that announcement and try to make sense of it yourself. And only then answer the, ask the question. It will help you, and it will help the others as well, which right. Uh, another questions from TJ, uh, what do you think about the policy, uh, the public policy hurdles for mass adoption countries restricted in Meijer app, for example, or regulation? What are the strategies? Well, uh, what I've, uh, known from the team is that they're working a full speed ahead, uh, in all the countries, uh, with, to comply with the regulations. And, um, I know there are different countries with different regulations and different issues, policies, and, uh, the LN team is really dedicated time to do all of these. I know you, the us has been a really tough market. And, uh, I also know a lot of effort is spent there trying to, uh, get the minor up, working there and stuff like that. And, uh, if not something that, okay, we'll do some time in the future. I personally know that the urban team is investing a lot of time and money into this. So, uh, it's not like, uh, we might have a solution this way. No, they're working on all fronts and full speed ahead, the same way we've been, uh, just to get from the elder team.

Kevin: 56:49

And it's a tough, it's a tough egg to crack, right? Because every single chain out there is having this issue, even traditional traditional stuff like Revolut or those, those kind of guys are having the same, same things. And it comes down to just money laundering, know your customers. There's a lot of, there's a little, there's a lot of countries where people don't even have IDs. So how, how are you going to give someone an app when, when, you know, KYC is such a huge, huge thing, like Mike Meyer doesn't have that, right? So like, that's, that's, that's the beauty of it, but at the same time governments and stuff, you know, it's just, it's, it's just something that, that's, that's a pretty tough egg to crack, but like Eddie said, you know, it's being worked on as a priority and I've all the faith in the world that our on we'll, we'll we'll provide that.

Eddie: 57:38

Well. Um, next one from taco, uh, what's the story with so many users only owning one ELD and the wealth of the top big, these capacities, this discrepancies among the top Pathfinder key holders. Uh, I think there's no story that really, uh, there are some, um, uh, myths about, uh, big Wells that the whole, most of the Eng GLD. And, uh, there was a video from some guy that did the review and the research she did was really terrible. You know, I mean, he was, uh, pointing at exchange wallets, uh, Binance wallets, you know, and saying that these are Wells, uh, the distribution of EGL D is really good. Um, and, um, if you look at the, there's an image going on and telegram from, from the from one of the admins on your community showing what each of those addresses are. Um, the foundation reserved the state smart contracts with, which is the biggest one, right? And then the exchanges, while it's the exchanges, wallets are not even the exchanges fund because people, when they deposit funds into an exchange into a centralized exchange, those funds are automatically moved to some of the hot wallets they use. So, um, when you deposit something on violence, right, those funds are moved to one of the Binus wallets and that's where the, a lot of ELD accumulate. And, um, that doesn't mean, um, the money, uh, is split into just a few big Wells. Hence, and there's,

Kevin: 59:18

There's, there's a, there's another really important thing here, here to point out is, is there was no delegation contract when validators started. And when w w when, when I personally, and this is a personal for me, personally, is, is, is I went around looking for people who wanted to set up validators. I have an Irish partner, we have mark friends and family, and, and we have a lot of people who contributed to our, our Genesis validators. It's not just one guy or one person it's we, we, we, we have, we have that spread across a lot of people. And, you know, we have scripts that, that send them, send them their rewards and that sort of thing. But those wallets have, you know, a lot in them and it, but it's not all one person. And, and a lot of validators did that, you know, and that's, that's just the way it is. Um, so yeah, those wallets might have big numbers, but they they're actually probably owned by a lot of people. A lot of validators. I know me personally, and I know almost every single one has at least, yeah, at least have four or 5, 6, 7, 8. I think we have 15 or 17 different investors. And so people are people who just bought coins and, and, and delegated them, um, outside, before delegation contrast it existed. So you got to keep that in mind, too,

Eddie: 1:00:35

This was custody, staking, right. Where people would give you the money actually, and then they would trust you to return their words. But now with smart contracts in place, we can do non-custodial staking, which is brilliant. Exactly. Okay. Ben's Barcelona invite others taking provider, or maybe from the team and some from the community. Maybe these Ellen talks are really amazing heart. Thank you. Actually, this is, um, strategy that we kind of have is K Y S P no, you're sticking provider. So, uh, this is the idea actually, to have this casual talks with, uh, all the other staking providers and also members of the community that want to join. And of course we're going to have, sometime in the future, some team members, um, everything is on the table. Uh, the idea is to have this open and transparent conversations so that, uh, people can really see who are the persons behind each seeking provider. So even though the trust is not involved in here, because, um, the delegation is done through a non-custodial, uh, in a non-custodial way through a smart contract, right. And everybody has full control over their funds. Uh, I, as a delegator would like to know who's handling those funds, right? And what's his exposure to the blockchain. Is, is it, is he a, somebody that just arrived and is trying to figure things out, or I would like to do my own research, and I would like to know why the people behind it. So that's the point of Ellen talks, and it's not only going to be about body data. It's going to be also by the community members. We have some asks community members that really invest a lot of time and energy in spreading the word. So we'd like to thank them as well.

Kevin: 1:02:28

Okay. Our on talks, taxes for everybody,

Eddie: 1:02:29

That's right. Jonesville from what we, from what you know, and your ideas, how do you see Ellen in five years, which are your hopes and scenarios? This is a good one. I don't

Kevin: 1:02:41

Take that, I guess. Um, where do I see L in, in five years, 10 years, I, I see it everywhere. Um, I mean, I already see it everywhere because it's every day of my life, but, um, I think we're where our Ron's going is, is into the hands of the next billion people. Um, and, and, you know, is that going to take five years? Is it going to take two years? It can take three years, 10 years. I don't know, but I know it's going to happen. And, and I know with the people that are involved in our Ron and the vision and all of us community members and out there, I know that L Ron eventually is going to be an house, a household name. And not just because of Lord of the rings, people, people are going to know of, of, of outrun because, because they use it in their everyday lives. And I truly believe that that's going to happen. Um, one step at a time, uh, I adoption is, is, is, is, is, is already happening. Like, look, just, look, look how it's going now. You know, so yeah, that's, that's where I see it. I'm sure Eddie has something to add to that. It's a really good question, by the way. Thank you for asking that.

Eddie: 1:03:53

Yeah. I mean, um, personally, I, I have just recently thought about this question and I thought about what I was thinking in the beginning and what I was thinking in the first few weeks, few months, and then how my, how the things in the mentality has changed, because I had a vision of what Albert could be and then, uh, element went all the way. And then, um, uh, it blew my mind. He went way beyond that. So once we, once we got to that point, uh, where I was like, wow, we are here already. So, um, I was trying to adjust my expectations, but then again, out on the road again, and we went even beyond that. So it's really difficult to define and say, Hmm, where will everyone be? Uh, I w with the capabilities of, uh, on the tech side, right? It's like a highway for, uh, for blockchain, the transactions, uh, the scalability that offers that offers is really amazing. And I think it will bring a lot of, um, a lot of fraud just to be, to build on our own. And, um, with EFCT that is like, uh, the ERC 20 on steroids, like the cool part, uh, from the LLN is that, um, they were able to think out of the box, right? No limitations, um, the Ethereum people, right. They, they have this platform and VRC 20 and the blockchain, and when they tried to, um, improve it, uh, I would like to quote Jose again on this one, he said, he's like, uh, putting, um, uh, uh, trying to make a rocket out of, out of a car, right. What you can do is try to, uh, attach a new engine, but it's still going to be a car. So the fact that Aaron was built without of the box mentality, not bound by the limitations of the previous iterations of blockchain, uh, gave it a huge advantage. So, uh, the ERC token, the sorry, the EFCT tokens are going to be, uh, transmittable at protocol level. That means there's no smart contract call when you transfer. And he has the T talk on from one wallet to another, and this is something mind blowing when you look at the Panorama of blockchain today. So, um, what is Allen going to be in five years? I have no idea, but given the exponential, uh, growth it's had so far, I think it's only fair to see to the moon. You know, I don't know if Kevin, you have anything to add here.

Kevin: 1:06:45

Why, why, why are we shooting for the moon when Elan's going to Mars

Eddie: 1:06:50

To Mars and yeah,

Kevin: 1:06:51

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure.

Eddie: 1:06:56

Okay. Um, there's a question. When is Mexico going to be claimable? I think I'm going to quote several on that and, uh, I'm going to say soon TM trademark, uh, just follow the channels and, uh, you'll get that information, uh, probably very soon. You'll get it. Uh, is there any additional information that can be provided for an on-ramp for Americans with Meyer to buy through the app? I have so much interest from friends and family, but the one to simple process, I have a friend in the U S that has bought using Voyager, I think. Um, and, um, they're not even ready with my, but it's an option if, if there is interest. Uh, but I, I, like I said before, I know for a fact that the team is working full on for, uh, U S integration. And, uh, it's, if it's not there yet, it's not pending because of the LRN team. Uh, it's pending because of the U S side. So

Kevin: 1:07:57

There's Binance to us to, you can, you can buy from there and then transfer it in. I mean, there's, there's, there's ways around it, but yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Eddie: 1:08:08

Next question is from two-door. What makes Aaron step out of the blockchain proud area? Sorry, what makes Aaron step out of blockchain crowd? Very, are there are a few projects trying to do that with what Aaron does. Ah, okay. Got it. So why does launch send out, uh, income in comparison with the other projects that are trying to do what Ellen does? Uh, I think, um, the, the great thing about Aaron is that it has the team and it has the vision. It's not just the tech. We, we see, I'm not going to name these projects, but I do have a project very clear in mind where the text is good, but there's no vision behind it. And there's no, there's no leader, there's no path set for them. So, um, the fact that, uh, the founders were able to put together a team like they did is just, mind-blowing, it's amazing. I mean, I've talked to these guys, right? Uh, the, the developers said the, the core developers at alone and staying in the same offices with them for a whole day and discussing with them, the humility with which they reply to your questions, and they try to help it's mind blowing. And these guys are gods amongst blockchain developers, right? And they take the time to sit down with you and discuss and, and, and, and explain, and, and it's like their baby, right? The, the, the ELAM project and these having a team like this, combined with the vision and leadership from, from Benny is just a stellar combination. And I think it's very, it's a very rare thing to find in the blockchain space, the team with the tech and the vision

Kevin: 1:09:58

And community community is my answer. Always. I, I, I love the community and that's what makes it stand out. The, like, there is no real bad, bad blood out there. You don't see too much negativity, and it's always people helping. And, you know, and like with all the CR uh, everything you said as well, like these guys could be building rockets and, and they're choosing to do something that's never been done before from scratch. And, and that's, that's amazing. And behind all that is the community. And, and, and it's just, it's just an incredible space to be in.

Eddie: 1:10:34

That's cool. Um, there's another lot from taco is not a question. Is it a question? Uh, taco says I'm pretty confident in our own, but with the powerhouse, everyone has this market cap is hilariously not funny. So I'm thinking the price could be manipulated. I'm not sure I get that question.

Kevin: 1:10:55

Yeah. I don't think we really want to touch on price. So like basically, what, what, what, what taco's saying is, is the current, the current Mar market cap doesn't reflect the actual, the actual product. Um, I would agree with that. And, and, and yeah, I mean, yeah. In principle. Yeah. Obviously I agree as well. I just don't like, I don't like touching on that. You got to remember, you have to remember, we, we were, we've done what in a year, a hundred, 200 X maybe. Right. So, so where we came from to where we are now, we've already had insane growth and there's only so much money going around in, in, in, in, in the alternative cap market. Right. And that money bounces from project to project and, and some of it sticks and what you can actually see with L Ron, if you look at zoom out, it just does this, it goes up. And then it gives us a nice, a nice new floor, a nice new low, and it just keeps going and sustainably grows, and we're going to get there. And yeah, it's, it's, it's definitely not reflective of where, where, where it should be. Um, I agree with that, but we're also growing sustainably. We do, we, we do grow a bit higher and then we find an, uh, a nice new floor. And that's what the guys want. If you actually look at the stock to flow model and their economics model, it's built for this reason, so that we S we grow sustainably and, and don't have big wild price swings, like do, do, do you really want a coin? That's going to go, you know, five, 600 X or 600%, and then dip right back down 70%, you know, a few days later, I don't want that. So I, I think, I think we'll get there and every little bit helps. And it's, it's just a matter of time. Um, and just remember where we were a year, year ago to where we are now, we're one of the fastest growing projects. I think, I think of 2000, I think we're one of the top projects actually, in terms of percentages, um, of, of where we were and where we are now. So we are growing very, very quickly. Um, so that'd

Eddie: 1:12:59

Be a big, a big thing I would like to focus you on is when, in doubt, zoom out, I mean, zoom out, you take a step back and you see the whole picture and you see where Ella has been in the path that it led Ellen to where it is right now is just unbelievable, you know? And when you zoom out these little twitches of, you know, highest lows, you know, they even out and you see the constant flow growth, and that's tremendous, and I'm not talking about price. I'm talking about adoption about number of wallets and, um, people in the communities and everything, you know, is just amazing. And, and we're going to get, hyper-growth where a kid and we're getting there, like I said,

Kevin: 1:13:41

And we are going to get there. Like, it's, it's, it's, it's an, it's an inevitability. And, and, and, and we're doing it the right way. So, um, and you know, who knows what the future holds, but I definitely know that it will reflect properly. Um, so just hold the line, be patient and, and hold on for dear life. Yeah,

Eddie: 1:14:04

That's right. Uh, we're coming up on over one hour on a half hour and 15 minutes. And, uh, are there any questions left? Uh, there's one from pseudo log. What are you guys doing with the fees you're earning from the delegators? Are you selling once in awhile to pay salaries, or are you holding for future, or how are we managing this? I think every, every second provider has his own, his own way of dealing with this. But, uh, if you, if you know, uh, what Aaron has in store, and I don't think you really want to, uh, to sell your ELD, of course, uh, you have to sustain the servers and the salaries and the, these are not cheap. And, um, you want to be able to reinvest. Uh, so there's, uh, there's this, uh, striking a balance in there. So, but I think this is a personal decision for each second provider. I don't think there's a answer that can be validly, uh, universally valid.

Kevin: 1:15:09

So I can be honest about like, what, what we do. Um, so like, we're, we're running about 95 euros to a hundred euros per node. Um, and then with, with, with backups, you know, that's somewhere in the general area of 80 to 100 nodes. I think we have 110 or something with observers running. Um, so, you know, right there, that's a pretty big expense. So we, we, we, we look to, we, we actually have diversifications to where we're liquidity providers for a few other chains. Um, we're a validator for injective. Um, so we have income from other places. Our, our, our, our, our basics, our basic strategy is to hold as much ego as possible for as long as possible. Um, we're not staking it in any of our extra Eagles anymore to allow room for others. Uh, we just leave that out, um, uh, in general. Uh, and yeah, we, we, we, we do, we, we do at times have to have to sell a little bit, but we're not selling, we're not putting up big cell walls. We're not going. And, and to, to, to anyone out there who thinks that we're there with enough coins to put a cell wall, to suppress the price, I challenge you to maybe do a little bit of math and find out how many coins we're actually making, because we're not making that much. We can't suppress the price at all. Um, and if we do sell, we sell in times of high volume when, when, when, when there's a lot of volume and it's, it's, it's going up at a parabolic rate. We look at the, we, we, we look at, we look at what's in the buyer orders, and we just, we just help the buy orders fill. We don't go looking for a greedy, higher price. We actually sell into the buy orders, helping the price increase. So we have no reason to suppress at all. Cause I think that's, that's something that's out there at the moment, um, that I've read. Um, and so I just want it to be very clear that we are no other staking providers trying to suppress the price, and if they do sell, they're doing so in volume spikes. And they're probably selling into the buy order books and giving people with lower bids, a chance to buy their coin. Cause I know that's what we're doing. So that's, uh, that's the answer and we don't sell, we don't really sell Eagle at all. Anyways, we'd sell a very small amount of it, um, to cover just maybe servers and, and use some of our other liquidity pools as well. So it is what it is. We're a business at the end of the day. And in order to provide infrastructure for you, um, and to help the, the, the, the ecosystem grow. I mean, we, we have to pay it. You know, we have, we have the odd OTC over the counter. If, if I personally have extra funds, I'll buy the Eagle off of Helios, uh, in euros. So that doesn't even hit that doesn't even hit the exchanges. You know, Michael does the same, mark will do the same. So, um, we're trying our best not to have that hit, hit, hit, hit the exchanges.

Eddie: 1:18:03

That's good. I mean, even if I'm apart of the vehicle, here's the exchange, you know, liquidity is also important, so it's all good. Yeah. Uh, I think we can close with, to those questions, right? We're asking, can you explain the phase four option consensus on the nod? Um, H four is going to be a mind,

Kevin: 1:18:30

But there is no, there is no information on phase four released yet. So we don't know. We,

Eddie: 1:18:35

We, you know, is going to be mind blowing. Exactly. That's, that's all we know. We, we are expected, uh, we are expecting Ellen to keep delivering the way that they have in the past. And, um, there will be a presentation in this new time and community. I'm sure it will have a weight, uh, possibly to have their say saying this. So it's really not an issue we're focusing on right now, but, um, something big is in store for us. So just enjoy the ride.

Kevin: 1:19:09

Yeah. Phase four is coming, but it's going to be a little while and we have no clue what we, we we're, we're all talking about what it could be and that feedback's being taken on, uh, taken on board, but in terms of what exactly phase four is, we just know it's going to change the game and it is, so we just got to wait.

Eddie: 1:19:29

That's great. Okay. Uh, maybe some closing comments from you, Kevin.

Kevin: 1:19:34

Yeah, sure. Um, I just want to say thank you, Eddie, uh, for, for setting this up and getting the first installment of our Ron talks. Uh, I want to say thank you to every single person who's been out there watching. Uh, normally I scroll through and thank every single person, uh, but, uh, I don't have the access to do that. So I just wanted to thank everyone who's there. Uh, welcome everybody. I hope, I hope you come and see more hour on talks. Uh, and, and yeah, I really look forward to, uh, to the future with every, every single one of you.

Eddie: 1:20:07

Thanks, Kevin, it's been great having you with us, um, from our side, uh, I would like to say, um, thanks everybody. That's been watching for your patience with us. And, um, this is just the first episode. We are not, uh, live YouTubers for life professional YouTubers. We're just, uh, some guys that are validators for the yellow network and we're doing our best to, to support the communities and support the ELAM project. So I think, um, this format will move forward and, uh, we will see some new episodes with different staking providers. We will provide this, uh, template to, to them in order to help with the streaming and everything. So, uh, thank you again for, um, being here without Sandy. If you have any questions, you can find us that, uh, you know, in our telegram channels, uh, valid blocks and here you're staking. Um, and, um, I think that's it. Thank you guys. Thanks for being here with us and have a great evening.[inaudible].