Speaker 1: So the big question is this, how do investors like
Speaker 1: us get access to the ideas, information, and most importantly,
Speaker 1: the right people that give us the tools and information
Speaker 1: we need to make informed and educated decisions to have success.
Speaker 1: That is the question, and this podcast will give us
Speaker 1: the answers. This is Mark Moss, your host. Let's get
Speaker 1: this started. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the
Speaker 1: Market Disruptors Podcast. Today, I am sitting down with Martin
Speaker 1: Floriani from rock Finn, and we get into platforms, social media,
Speaker 1: content creators, etcetera. We talked about this growing niche, this
Speaker 1: growing area of content creation, the growing demand. We talked
Speaker 1: about the problems that content creators um face regarding that,
Speaker 1: and then we talk about how there are solutions for
Speaker 1: that today using blockchain technology. We talk about his company,
Speaker 1: rock Fin what they're doing in this space. We get
Speaker 1: into lots of interests seen things including Facebook and Twitter,
Speaker 1: censoring what that means legally, and so many other good things.
Speaker 1: Is a really good conversation. Let's go ahead, just jump
Speaker 1: right into it, all right, guys, welcome to another episode
Speaker 1: of the Market Disruptors Podcast. Today. I'm joined by Martin
Speaker 1: Floriani from Rock Finn and Uh, he's in a really
Speaker 1: interesting space and working on some really big problems that
Speaker 1: that are plaguing the industry, especially the way things are
Speaker 1: changed changing right now in the world. And so anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to jump into this conversation. Martin, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining today, you bet. I love this. I love this
Speaker 1: kind of talk. All right, I love this kind of
Speaker 1: talk to you. I'm really looking forward to this. So Martin,
Speaker 1: for those that are listening, why don't you just give
Speaker 1: us a little background on on who you are, what
Speaker 1: you've been doing, and then how you ended up kind
Speaker 1: of in this blockchain space. Yeah, so I I think
Speaker 1: it would start about thirteen years ago. So thirteen years ago,
Speaker 1: I decided to create a digital media platform, UH called
Speaker 1: flow Sports. At the time, it's called flow Cast. We
Speaker 1: changed name, went to flow Sports. So co founded that,
Speaker 1: UH started that with CEO of that for about thirteen
Speaker 1: plus years, twelve, twelve and a half years, um and UM.
Speaker 1: And so essentially what we did is we saw a
Speaker 1: gap of right now. At that time, everything was linear,
Speaker 1: there was nothing digital. And what I noticed is that
Speaker 1: the big players, like the ESPN, the NBC S, they
Speaker 1: were a mile wide and inch deep across the whole
Speaker 1: school of sports. So they were just becoming thinner and
Speaker 1: thinner across all these many sports, and linear UM made
Speaker 1: it so that they really had to fragment their time.
Speaker 1: And so we I saw an opportunity. I saw an
Speaker 1: opportunity where saying, hey, let's let's actually be an inch
Speaker 1: wide and a mile deep within each sport, and let's
Speaker 1: go really let's try and go after all sorts of
Speaker 1: live right, let's go more in depth, in depth, authentic
Speaker 1: coverage of the sports as opposed to the surface level
Speaker 1: kind of It was basically bullshit, is what we saw.
Speaker 1: And so we decided to do that, and we called
Speaker 1: those those inch wide, mile deep verticals. And what we
Speaker 1: found out is that by aligning ourselves with people's passions,
Speaker 1: we were able to drive a much higher lifetime value
Speaker 1: per subscriber and UM and that made them home economic
Speaker 1: model work. And so we we we took that and
Speaker 1: ran with it. And in sports that you wouldn't think
Speaker 1: that there would be an economic model like RASCU, track
Speaker 1: and field, all kinds of like these third er sports,
Speaker 1: because we couldn't go after football, right, we didn't have
Speaker 1: any money. I was just we're just dudes, Right, we're
Speaker 1: just people trying to trying something and so um and
Speaker 1: so we just made it work and we grew the
Speaker 1: company from like zero to two fifty people. Um. They
Speaker 1: had really strong unit economics. We raised a couple of
Speaker 1: rounds of funding and uh, and so that was that
Speaker 1: was the start, And that's kind of a precursor to
Speaker 1: what rockfan Um is. So thirteen years ago, I mean,
Speaker 1: that was still kind of in the uh early days
Speaker 1: of the Internet when really like video streaming and all
Speaker 1: that kind of first started coming along. So you're basically
Speaker 1: taking all these it's down sports that weren't really publicly
Speaker 1: accessible or available and then kind of bringing them out
Speaker 1: and then finding users that were interested in those things. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's funny people think like inherently there's some sports
Speaker 1: that are better than others. But I wrestled in college.
Speaker 1: I loved wrestling. Yeah, better, better, better, Right, What does
Speaker 1: that mean? Yeah? Exactly, It's like there's just more storytelling
Speaker 1: around football, so it means more in our life. And
Speaker 1: so as this larger context people are betting on it,
Speaker 1: there's there's more social components and so that's better. But
Speaker 1: when I saw there was this wrestling community. I was like,
Speaker 1: this is awesome, and like, this is the most exciting stuff.
Speaker 1: I'd rather watch this with the right context than football.
Speaker 1: So I said, you know, there's actually there's there's a
Speaker 1: lot of value with these rights. They just need the
Speaker 1: more of the storytelling with it. We need to package
Speaker 1: these rights in a way that that makes sense economically.
Speaker 1: And if we can do that, we can build this
Speaker 1: out and and start to actually grow this works that
Speaker 1: were in through this storytelling. And so that's that's I mean,
Speaker 1: people say niche, but I just want to It's not
Speaker 1: like one's inherently better, it's just that one has not
Speaker 1: been tapped. And so that's kind of what our our
Speaker 1: purview was. Well, I think, uh, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I I say actually quite a bit that I really
Speaker 1: think that the Internet is just now actually really starting
Speaker 1: to change the world. And part of that is because
Speaker 1: it's shifting our culture. And what the Internet is doing
Speaker 1: is allowing these niches to to to come out. Right
Speaker 1: now you can have all these little different specialties and
Speaker 1: there's like a corner of the world for everybody now
Speaker 1: and so I think that's a big feature. That's a
Speaker 1: big benefit, right, Yeah, benefit also probably a liability if
Speaker 1: you're thinking like, yeah, I mean, as you get more
Speaker 1: into politics, you hear a lot about uh you know,
Speaker 1: Ben Thompson talks a little bit about that. It's like
Speaker 1: you could find like the most perverse group and now
Speaker 1: they've got a community, right, So it's kind of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the niches are all over good and bad at right.
Speaker 1: And so that's it's a really interesting dynamic with with
Speaker 1: the internet kind of what how it how it frat
Speaker 1: how it's able to create these communities across the world
Speaker 1: and make people feel comfortable within their own community good
Speaker 1: and bad. Yeah, I want to talk more about that specifically,
Speaker 1: but we'll table that, So go ahead and finish and
Speaker 1: tell us how you get to where you are. So
Speaker 1: uh So, twelve and a half years at at flow Sports,
Speaker 1: huge success. Everyone's a big win from it. And and
Speaker 1: when I left flow Sports, I want to think about
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do next. It was I want
Speaker 1: to do something big, and I just as I was
Speaker 1: growing these networks, I was negotiating a lot with my friends,
Speaker 1: people I loved in the industry. And when you do that,
Speaker 1: I'm very uh I I really could feel the leverage
Speaker 1: I had in these negotiations, especially after you do it
Speaker 1: like three times you touched start just having this gut
Speaker 1: feeling of like, wow, I have a lot of leverage
Speaker 1: here I don't have leverage. And because I was doing
Speaker 1: it with other people, it made me really the people
Speaker 1: that were my friends and people are respected, it made
Speaker 1: me also kind of be empathetic to their side. More
Speaker 1: so I was naturally empathetic to who I was negotiating with.
Speaker 1: And so I started to realize is that it was
Speaker 1: as an interesting dynamic. As we had more and more
Speaker 1: power in our network grew bigger and bigger, I had
Speaker 1: more and more leverage over everyone I was negotiating with,
Speaker 1: and I could extract more from them even as I
Speaker 1: was getting more and even as our valuation was going
Speaker 1: through the roof, And I was thinking, that's really interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic that the very people that have helped me build
Speaker 1: these networks. And I didn't really even formulate these thoughts
Speaker 1: until I after I left, But as I started to
Speaker 1: think about them, I couldn't understood. I kind of felt
Speaker 1: like there's something here. But then as I was breaking
Speaker 1: them down and thinking about what I wanted to do next,
Speaker 1: I found that that it was a really interesting dynamic
Speaker 1: that this took place, that as there's exponential value in
Speaker 1: the network, that let the net work has more leverage
Speaker 1: over the people that have how building. And remember that
Speaker 1: network wouldn't even be there without those people their fundamental part.
Speaker 1: But they're getting locked out of the increased all this
Speaker 1: increased value, and you start to I picked my head
Speaker 1: up from my own experience, started to look across the landscape.
Speaker 1: I mean, there ain't no clear example than YouTube. Sure, YouTube, YouTube,
Speaker 1: some estmates. Hundred billion dollars of equity has been built
Speaker 1: in YouTube, right, but what gets paid out to the
Speaker 1: creators is a fraction of that, and they they opt
Speaker 1: to skate that. Like Google will never report on YouTube's
Speaker 1: YouTube stuff, on YouTube's earnings because they don't want to
Speaker 1: give that information out to people. Right. And so I
Speaker 1: think that advantage of network works, that's just a that's
Speaker 1: just a principle of life. Right. So for example, UM,
Speaker 1: I speak a lot about investing, and I say you
Speaker 1: should have multiple streams of income, right that way if
Speaker 1: one drops off the of others. But also in like business,
Speaker 1: like as a business, you wouldn't just want one customer.
Speaker 1: The more customers you have if the big one leads
Speaker 1: you're not as affected. Um, and so obviously YouTube is
Speaker 1: the same, right, Like that that beauty pie or whatever
Speaker 1: left and he was like the largest guy. But like,
Speaker 1: does YouTube really care because that was in the big
Speaker 1: scheme of things. It was a small piece, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I'd say I disagree. I don't think it's just
Speaker 1: like the other thing. So with digital networks, there's essentially
Speaker 1: you can quantify digital networks through something called metcast law, right,
Speaker 1: which says the value the network equals the number of
Speaker 1: nodes and the network squared, right, but value of each
Speaker 1: average value of each one of those notes. And so
Speaker 1: that's that's like the most powerful, the most powerful force
Speaker 1: in business. It's like it's like the next gen nuclear
Speaker 1: energy of all business models is uh model that leverages
Speaker 1: network effects, whereby a product or service becomes more valuable
Speaker 1: to its existing users the more people that use it.
Speaker 1: It's like if I had a T shirt business, right
Speaker 1: and selling T shirts, and I go out and sell
Speaker 1: T shirts, and every T shirt that I sell, all
Speaker 1: my existing T shirts that have already sold, get more comfortable,
Speaker 1: get a better like, get an update on the design, um, uh,
Speaker 1: have UH feel better? Just like that that would be
Speaker 1: the most profound thing in the world. Wait, wait, your
Speaker 1: your T shirt company would explode because every time everyone
Speaker 1: knows is hey, every time I get an update here,
Speaker 1: this gets better. That's what happens with digital networks. It
Speaker 1: isn't just like any other business. This is the most
Speaker 1: The companies that have had the biggest impact and the
Speaker 1: biggest success over the last twenty years have been companies
Speaker 1: that have leveraged digital network effects. Yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: the Metcalfs law for those that aren't familiar with it,
Speaker 1: Like you're saying that the network effect. And it's basically
Speaker 1: like if I had a telephone and I was the
Speaker 1: only person in the world with a telephone, it's not
Speaker 1: very useful. I can't call anybody. Once there's two telephones,
Speaker 1: it's more useful. And when everybody has a telephone, they're
Speaker 1: super useful, which is like with Facebook. Now that everyone's
Speaker 1: on Facebook, it's more useful, etcetera. Um. And and so anyway,
Speaker 1: for those that don't know, that's Metcashlon and you're absolutely right,
Speaker 1: uh it the network is no good if nobody's using it,
Speaker 1: and the more people that use it, the better it is, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so this is a new dynamic that humans have
Speaker 1: have encountered over the last fifty years. So it's really
Speaker 1: brand new for us. The power of it and how
Speaker 1: fast it moves. In the digital age, there's a different
Speaker 1: isn't just like what it was in nineteen eighty wasn't
Speaker 1: noways in nine This is a different force and the
Speaker 1: speed and power of it is completely unique. Now. It's
Speaker 1: interesting that the beneficiaries are the digital platforms and their stockholders.
Speaker 1: They get they get fucking rich, right, and then the
Speaker 1: content creator or the customers are happy because they get,
Speaker 1: you know, a new service. But in each one of
Speaker 1: these scenarios, the content creators are one getting commoditized, right.
Speaker 1: And so like that beauty Pie example you gave, oh
Speaker 1: he left YouTube, Well he YouTube can say that because
Speaker 1: they got a million know their content creators on the
Speaker 1: platform because of digital network effects, and they can start
Speaker 1: to leverage network against these content creators to say, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, you really want to stay on here and
Speaker 1: do some of your videos on here, right, to stay
Speaker 1: connected to your fans, to be found by new fans,
Speaker 1: to be relevant, and you don't want to just flat
Speaker 1: out leave. And so these we call this the creators
Speaker 1: de limit because the creators want access to the network
Speaker 1: that they helped build, but at the same time they
Speaker 1: don't want to be leveraged by the network. And then
Speaker 1: the network will say, you know what, we're going to
Speaker 1: change the rules. We need change the rules. I just
Speaker 1: moved that, just did something new for this. You're changing
Speaker 1: the rules. Yeah, we're changing the rules. Why can we
Speaker 1: do that? Well, because we own the network. We own
Speaker 1: we we own the data, and so they can figure
Speaker 1: out what does that and they don't. The content creators
Speaker 1: are not are not part of that upside. They're not
Speaker 1: part of the great aspects of network effects. They're commoditized
Speaker 1: by and that's the problem. And that's what a lot
Speaker 1: of the tension that you're starting to see is around
Speaker 1: these digital networks is around these content creators and the
Speaker 1: fact that they're not necessarily getting compensated or they don't
Speaker 1: know if they're being compensated properly, and the rules can
Speaker 1: change on them and they have to follow these algorithms
Speaker 1: that are faceless, and they don't get it. They don't
Speaker 1: get us, they don't get any say in it. In
Speaker 1: the let's let's let's open this up a little bit.
Speaker 1: So content creators which is what we're talking about at
Speaker 1: this moment, which is kind of this space that you're in.
Speaker 1: So content creators are anyone that's that's producing content, right obviously,
Speaker 1: um And and it's growing rapidly. I mean it's a
Speaker 1: it's a huge growing space because of the Internet. Like
Speaker 1: I said, right now everybody can make something for different
Speaker 1: niches and uh, I think it's really changed the world
Speaker 1: in the way that everybody learns, right and uh, it's
Speaker 1: changing the education system, is changing everything. And um, I
Speaker 1: think it's been really cool where like you used to
Speaker 1: have to get on a bigger platform like be in
Speaker 1: a magazine or newspaper or on a network television. But
Speaker 1: now anybody could just start a channel and just start
Speaker 1: talking about basket weaving in Africa or whatever, right, or
Speaker 1: or large dogs in the Midwest. Right. So I could
Speaker 1: just create this this channel. I don't need a network
Speaker 1: to do that. That's the content creators. And it's a
Speaker 1: rapidly growing space and I think it's only going to
Speaker 1: continue to expand. Um And. So you're saying there's a
Speaker 1: there's obviously, like with anything, there's there's problems in that,
Speaker 1: um and. And one of those problems is that those
Speaker 1: content creators are kind of trapped or kind of at
Speaker 1: the mercy of these these platforms that could change on
Speaker 1: any given whim. Right, is that kind of framing it up? Um?
Speaker 1: One of the big one of the big things that
Speaker 1: I've been paying attention to in this space now, UM,
Speaker 1: is that we've seen the big platforms today where the
Speaker 1: content creators are, which is YouTube We've obviously mentioned, and
Speaker 1: also you know, Facebook, Twitter, etcetera. Um, there's really just
Speaker 1: in the last like six months or eight months, there's
Speaker 1: been this massive push to d platform right, We've had
Speaker 1: the big one was Alex Jones with info Wars, but
Speaker 1: then Facebook kicked off like eight hundred accounts and not
Speaker 1: just right wing but right and left wing like anybody
Speaker 1: not toewing the line. We've seen it with Twitter and
Speaker 1: so YouTube people get shut down, et cetera. And that's
Speaker 1: also what you're talking about, right where they just change
Speaker 1: the rules on you in any given time. Um, Is
Speaker 1: that is that something that you see as a problem.
Speaker 1: Is that something that you're trying to solve, Like I
Speaker 1: guess is that like the censoring we'd call that. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: so when you get you get into space that I'm
Speaker 1: in so I'm we leverage blockchain in a unique manner
Speaker 1: that I think is the one of the best use
Speaker 1: cases for actually using blockchain in a way that makes sense.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of projects out there now in that
Speaker 1: in that blockchain space, you get a lot of idealists
Speaker 1: who want to do everything decentralized and and create the
Speaker 1: perfect utopian product and and to me, it's just hard.
Speaker 1: So what we took approaches is we said, you know,
Speaker 1: ultimately rock fin is a centralized, delaware c core company.
Speaker 1: We can we can do a lot of that stuff.
Speaker 1: But if we're gonna do it, it's gonna be painful,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be painful because the content creators know
Speaker 1: their true value to the system and all throughout the
Speaker 1: process through getting the value that their content generates from
Speaker 1: the network. And so one they have the information, there's
Speaker 1: no asymmetry of information. They actually know what what is
Speaker 1: going on in the platform, so they know their true
Speaker 1: worth and to UM they're getting the value that their
Speaker 1: content generate from the network and so UM so they
Speaker 1: have they have they have the piece of network. So
Speaker 1: if they move and leave, that will be more painful
Speaker 1: than what is the current UM. The current environment. So
Speaker 1: we're kind of set the stage. We can still do it,
Speaker 1: but it's just gonna be more painful. It's gonna be
Speaker 1: more visible the impact that it's going to have on
Speaker 1: what we're doing, and then that visibility gives other people
Speaker 1: atunities to compete with what we're doing as well. Right, So,
Speaker 1: so we don't I don't live in a utopian world
Speaker 1: where it's like, oh, we're never gonna do this, because
Speaker 1: you know, um I was. I was the CEO of
Speaker 1: Flow Sports for twelve plus two years. I wasn't there
Speaker 1: for infinite years. I was there for twelve plus years.
Speaker 1: A good day a right, but now there's not. Now
Speaker 1: there's someone else doing something, you might have different decision making, right,
Speaker 1: So that's gonna exist in everything. So our job is
Speaker 1: not to create utopian but just level the playing field,
Speaker 1: let it so that everyone can say, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: what's gonna happen. These are the these are the pain
Speaker 1: points that now the digital platform. We've introduced, pain points
Speaker 1: the digital platform is going to have if we don't,
Speaker 1: if we don't act properly. So that's what I would say.
Speaker 1: Our solution is, it's not like a full solution it's
Speaker 1: a half solution. We're just leveling the playing field, so
Speaker 1: to speak, with content and and playing level in the
Speaker 1: playing field in in a sense where you're sharing more
Speaker 1: of the revenue with the content creators, not revenue. So
Speaker 1: what we do is UM. So this is how we
Speaker 1: how we um, how we do block chain. So we
Speaker 1: give content. We're the first platform that gives content creators
Speaker 1: the full value that their content generates for the network
Speaker 1: and includes network effects. And so as when some customer
Speaker 1: comes down, they pay us nine dollars and cents to
Speaker 1: access all of the content creators. When that happens, in
Speaker 1: the background, we have, uh, we're connected to the Ray
Speaker 1: ecosystem and we have to burn, which for people who
Speaker 1: don't necessarily know what block you know blockchain vernacular, that
Speaker 1: means we have to destroy nine dollars and cents worth
Speaker 1: of rate tokens. And there's only a finite supply of RAY,
Speaker 1: so there'll only be thirty four million rate ever minted.
Speaker 1: And it comes out at a at a minting schedule
Speaker 1: that everybody can see and everybody can witness. So every
Speaker 1: customer that comes on, they pay us nine dollars with
Speaker 1: their credit card, nine dollars nine cents with their credit card.
Speaker 1: We go in the background, we burn nine dollars and
Speaker 1: cents worth of ray, and everybody can verify that we
Speaker 1: did that. Then what we do is is we look
Speaker 1: at the content that where and that's our way of
Speaker 1: transmitting value to the ray ecosystem and all the ray tokens.
Speaker 1: And so if you look at the full value of
Speaker 1: the network, it is all of the ray that is
Speaker 1: in the ecosystem multiplied by the ray price. And so
Speaker 1: what that creates that very that burn process creates an
Speaker 1: absolute necessity that we need to have ray to distribute
Speaker 1: these content creators uh content. So if we want to
Speaker 1: take in the next nine dollars and cents, we need ray.
Speaker 1: We need to have ray. And so what that creates
Speaker 1: is a demand. So we have this inherent demand and
Speaker 1: utility for this ray. And so as we get more customers,
Speaker 1: what do you think happens more demand? Hopefully we need
Speaker 1: we need more ray. We gotta burn more ray, right,
Speaker 1: and so that creates more demand on the system, and
Speaker 1: so we have to go out and get hey, we
Speaker 1: need more ray. If another digital platform wants to hook
Speaker 1: into the ray ecosystem, what happens to the demand for ray,
Speaker 1: it goes up right, And so this burning Mint system
Speaker 1: is the first of its kind that transmits the full
Speaker 1: value in an open, transparent, transparent way to content creators. Now,
Speaker 1: when there's about a day's worth of work. Um, so
Speaker 1: it happens about a day, and I don't want to
Speaker 1: get into all the specifics, but you could understand what there.
Speaker 1: You can go deep, dig deeper and understand the mechanics
Speaker 1: of of when the mints happened. But after day's worth
Speaker 1: of work, a mint happens, and a mint is introducing
Speaker 1: new ray into the ecosystem, and so that disdistributed to
Speaker 1: the content creators that helped acquire and retain the subscribers.
Speaker 1: And so then these content creators get this ray, and
Speaker 1: now they have an option. They can say, hey, I
Speaker 1: want to sell all my Ray, or they can say
Speaker 1: I want to sell half my ray, or they want
Speaker 1: to say I'm gonna keep my ray. Right, so now
Speaker 1: they have this option of saying, I have the stake
Speaker 1: in the network. I can dis liquidate it all for
Speaker 1: cash or I can keep it. And I say I
Speaker 1: want to I want to keep it going moving forward.
Speaker 1: And and yeah, so they have that option, and so
Speaker 1: that is there some incentive for them to keep it,
Speaker 1: there is a stake or something like that. No, So
Speaker 1: a key component of what we do is we keep
Speaker 1: it simple, keep it simple, We strimple, We try and
Speaker 1: strip away a lot of complexities and lect the model
Speaker 1: work for itself. And so their only incentive is this
Speaker 1: networks doing more. We don't create a vesting period. We
Speaker 1: don't do anything. We try to model. We also didn't
Speaker 1: we didn't do an I c oh, we didn't we
Speaker 1: we started with zero tokens, and we didn't give a
Speaker 1: founder's reward. We didn't do any of that. All we
Speaker 1: do is that mint and we everyone's got to earn
Speaker 1: their take, everyone's gotta earn their their key. And we
Speaker 1: mint um ten thousand a day and then there's a
Speaker 1: half life of that. After four and a half years,
Speaker 1: that goes down to five thousand a day. And so
Speaker 1: what that does, that minting schedule does is it rewards
Speaker 1: the early adopters who come in early improb and help
Speaker 1: bootstrap the network. So they have an option to they
Speaker 1: get essentially opportunity to earn um more ray because there's
Speaker 1: less people on the network. If that makes them. So
Speaker 1: you had said, um, like with with the old company, UM,
Speaker 1: you felt that, um, with your position, you had this
Speaker 1: unfair advantage negotiating and you felt that with your friends
Speaker 1: and family and whatnot, and UM that that these content
Speaker 1: creators don't have this fair advantage because of this network
Speaker 1: effect that the company has, and you know that the
Speaker 1: company can then change terms and that the content creators
Speaker 1: kind of stuck. Right, So, UM, you're I guess you're
Speaker 1: you're trying to solve that problem. And so how does
Speaker 1: this do that exactly? How does this give a more
Speaker 1: fair advantage back to the content creator just because they're
Speaker 1: earning more revenue or how do you see that? Uh,
Speaker 1: it gives them a more fair So in game theory,
Speaker 1: there's a cooperative game theory problem right where if there's
Speaker 1: ten people in the room, and if they all work together,
Speaker 1: they'll they'll get way more by working together than working
Speaker 1: against each other. And so what happened, But there are
Speaker 1: a lot of these people are competitive, So sometimes these
Speaker 1: people don't like each other, they hate each other, but
Speaker 1: it's in their best interests if they work together in
Speaker 1: a certain manner, they would all benefit. And so in
Speaker 1: the past, what's happening is is there's this trust the
Speaker 1: third party that comes along and says, hey, you don't
Speaker 1: have to work with this guy, you just work with me.
Speaker 1: You work with me, you work with me. They can
Speaker 1: create a consolidated offering, right which then um which which
Speaker 1: more people are are it's proven more people will then
Speaker 1: come subscribe to it. Then if you're just on an island.
Speaker 1: But then what happens is that all these people are
Speaker 1: going through trust that their party, this trust that third
Speaker 1: party has this incredible power, right because then they know
Speaker 1: all the data, they know the ins and ounces, and
Speaker 1: they know the different aspects of each particular deal. They
Speaker 1: know where they're weak, they know where they're strong, and
Speaker 1: they know where everyone else is construct and they so
Speaker 1: they have this this really incredible advantage, and so they
Speaker 1: are able to extract more and more of the network, right,
Speaker 1: and they don't give any and ultimately what it comes
Speaker 1: down to is they don't give any of the network
Speaker 1: effects to the to the other players in the room,
Speaker 1: even though that's the whole network is based off of.
Speaker 1: And so what happens with our systems, with our our
Speaker 1: our rock fin and the Ray ecosystem is that everybody's
Speaker 1: on the level playing field. Everyone knows the true value
Speaker 1: that they're bringing to the table. They know what everyone
Speaker 1: else as a whole is bringing to the table and
Speaker 1: where they sit in that ecosystem. And so based on
Speaker 1: and UM there's open and transparent distribution of the rewards
Speaker 1: for themselves and other people as well, and so that
Speaker 1: changes the whole game. And our goal is used to
Speaker 1: be an efficient network. Our goal is to be and
Speaker 1: if we can be the most efficient network out there,
Speaker 1: and efficiency I would define as wording people for the
Speaker 1: full value they bring to the network. Our network will
Speaker 1: if our network will grow and explode. And because of
Speaker 1: the way metcast law works and network effects works, there's
Speaker 1: so much value to be had there by all parties,
Speaker 1: including the digital platform. So it's just a better way
Speaker 1: to operate. And it's all about transparency that solves for
Speaker 1: this problem. And so by introducing that transparency and everyone
Speaker 1: knows the rules are and halfway through we can't change
Speaker 1: the rules because everything is embedded in a smart contract
Speaker 1: that allows people to buy into it easier. They go, oh,
Speaker 1: that's really interesting, I'm gonna I'm gonna buy into it
Speaker 1: because I know that these guys can't control it. They
Speaker 1: can't change it behind the scenes without me knowing it
Speaker 1: and know why they're doing it or this. Then the
Speaker 1: other it would just be you can't do it with
Speaker 1: with with the blockchain, because once you set those smart
Speaker 1: contracts in place, those are there and everyone gets to
Speaker 1: see what goes on. And that's the beauty of what
Speaker 1: blocks introduced. I don't know if that made any sense
Speaker 1: or if you have Definitely I think, um, I think
Speaker 1: I think it makes a lot of sense. Like I said,
Speaker 1: you know this, this the Internet has opened up this
Speaker 1: avenue where we have all these different niches and now
Speaker 1: we have everybody that wants to create content for these niches.
Speaker 1: So as I said, right, it's a really fast growing space.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm here producing content right, So it's a
Speaker 1: really fast growing space. And um, I think that's going
Speaker 1: to continue to grow. And so giving those people an
Speaker 1: opportunity to earn more, I mean a lot of people
Speaker 1: can now start to earn a good living, maybe a
Speaker 1: full time living, off of creating content. So m anything
Speaker 1: that can return more money back to the content creator
Speaker 1: I think is a really good thing. Definitely, one of
Speaker 1: the big problems to solve. Um, there's other problems that
Speaker 1: I think plague the industry as well. I'm curious about Um,
Speaker 1: we've I I kind of touched on like the d
Speaker 1: platform and and um, I want to I want to know,
Speaker 1: like with platforms like YouTube for example, or Facebook. UM,
Speaker 1: I believe they you know, I believe there's a difference
Speaker 1: in how the platform is set up. And I'm curious
Speaker 1: how you navigate this. So, um, if they're just a
Speaker 1: platform that allows people to post content, then they're not
Speaker 1: liable for things that may happen on that platform. However,
Speaker 1: once they start to censor that, now all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: they can start assuming liability for content. Um, I believe
Speaker 1: that's right. Is that how you understand that? And how
Speaker 1: is Rock Finn going to be a fit inside of that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna, uh, we're gonna fall really stripped, Like
Speaker 1: we don't want to get into the mess. I think
Speaker 1: YouTube and these other players have stepped in and I
Speaker 1: don't know, we're neutral or you'll be Yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be more neutral. We're we're well, obviously we're gonna protect
Speaker 1: people so that they don't you know, they're if they're
Speaker 1: threats made against them, that's not appropriate. Or if you're
Speaker 1: you're caught, you know, you're you're inciting violence against someone.
Speaker 1: So we're gonna we're gonna be really thoughtful about those
Speaker 1: different components. And if we're not, and we're not gonna
Speaker 1: have no time, we're gonna have zero powers for that, frankly,
Speaker 1: and we want people's safety to be protected. But you
Speaker 1: know the cover of hate speech, right, it's like hate speech,
Speaker 1: it's um, I think it's uh, what what is hate speech? Right?
Speaker 1: That goes back to your comment earlier about good and bad.
Speaker 1: I mean something good to me is something bad to you? Right?
Speaker 1: Like where do you draw that line? Yeah, so I
Speaker 1: mean that's what they you know, they use it to
Speaker 1: try and um invoke this um this reaction towards it,
Speaker 1: and and anything like that can be can be turned
Speaker 1: on people. Right. So yeah, we can all agree on
Speaker 1: what this is and that's bad. But you know we're um,
Speaker 1: we're very much along the lines of free speech and
Speaker 1: free speeches about you know, being being an adult. Now
Speaker 1: we know there is there is there something legally though,
Speaker 1: Like I said, I was reading about Facebook and YouTube
Speaker 1: where um, if they allow it to be more open,
Speaker 1: they're just a platform. They're not liable. But once they
Speaker 1: start censoring, they take on some legal liability and they
Speaker 1: could be sued for content. Do you know anything about that?
Speaker 1: So that's um, I believe that's part of the d
Speaker 1: m C, a Digital Millennium Copyright Act that was uh
Speaker 1: um introduced maybe or two you know of twenty years ago,
Speaker 1: let's just say years ago, which essentially gave these platforms. Um. Uh,
Speaker 1: they gave them they said, hey, you know, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna hold you liable in these certain circumstances, and so
Speaker 1: they gave them immunity in those certain certaintances. There's a
Speaker 1: process that they have to go through to eliminate into
Speaker 1: reduces contrary content that might have copyright, and they have
Speaker 1: to follow these certain protocols. Um. But they're not they're
Speaker 1: not held liable to it. But now they're now they're
Speaker 1: coming in more like media companies right where they're coming
Speaker 1: in and saying this is what you can say, this
Speaker 1: is what you can't say. And um, there's a political
Speaker 1: reaction to it because uh, well most frankly, most of
Speaker 1: it's happening on the right. You said there's someone on
Speaker 1: the loft. Yeah, there's something a lot a lot of
Speaker 1: it's happening on the right, and so what you're you're
Speaker 1: certainty have happened is that Frankly, the Republicans in the
Speaker 1: government are saying, this is this bullshit. You've got immunity here,
Speaker 1: but you're not allowing certain spaces because you're just you know,
Speaker 1: you're saying that, well, that's fine, you can do that
Speaker 1: private company, but you don't get that immunity yet. And
Speaker 1: so that's kind of what they're hanging over their head
Speaker 1: and they're certain to see some pushback back and forth
Speaker 1: on it. Said, Okay, this immunity doesn't apply to you
Speaker 1: if you want to affect this, so let's let's let's
Speaker 1: let's retract that immunity, or we say this immunity is
Speaker 1: based on the condition that you actually have free speech.
Speaker 1: So that's kind of like the chess game going on
Speaker 1: right now in d C of where that's exactly that's
Speaker 1: exactly what I was talking about. So rock Fan is
Speaker 1: going to stay on the more neutral side where you
Speaker 1: fit within that and not trying to get to the
Speaker 1: censorship side. Hopefully. Yeah. I mean, well here's the thing.
Speaker 1: You know, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, they didn't dare do this
Speaker 1: when they're when they're bootstrapping their network. Of course, going
Speaker 1: their network as big and powerful as they can. They
Speaker 1: created zero friction, right, there's zero friction around around um
Speaker 1: these problems right because they didn't introduce some Why because
Speaker 1: their goal is to get the next person on the
Speaker 1: platform to get those network effects, because there's consponential value
Speaker 1: when you can add, and then once your network is
Speaker 1: as powerful as it is, then you can turn, then
Speaker 1: you can switch and so and that's when they've changed
Speaker 1: the rules, is when they've when their network has grown
Speaker 1: so big they can say, Okay, now we're gonna switch rules,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna go do this. And then somebody spent
Speaker 1: five years building a platform to a million people and
Speaker 1: then they just switched the rules. You're like, exactly exactly,
Speaker 1: and so now they now they've got all your customers on.
Speaker 1: Now they've got leveraged, right, And so that's the dynamic.
Speaker 1: You know, if Facebook and Google or Facebook and YouTube
Speaker 1: and these platforms they did it from the get go,
Speaker 1: I don't think you'd get that reaction because people know
Speaker 1: what they're getting the fact that they switched the rules,
Speaker 1: um halfway through that is upsetting people from what from
Speaker 1: what I gather Yeah, cool, good conversation. Now I to
Speaker 1: wrap this up unfortunately running a little bit long here,
Speaker 1: but I'm just curious. Um, you know, we talk about
Speaker 1: these different platforms. Are you like a video content platform
Speaker 1: rock fan or is what kind of content is there
Speaker 1: on the platform. So we actually just introduced written. We're
Speaker 1: content agnostic. Um, Like I said, customers can come on,
Speaker 1: they pay nine dollars cents, they get the access all
Speaker 1: of the content. And um, we we take creators that
Speaker 1: are written, podcasts or video. Okay, good, all right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: interesting project. I think, like I said, this content, uh,
Speaker 1: the content creator space is going to be rapidly growing.
Speaker 1: I think it's just barely getting started. So it's a
Speaker 1: it's a great space to be in for you and um,
Speaker 1: definitely solving some real problems. So it's definitely something I'll
Speaker 1: be keeping an eye on. Where would people be able
Speaker 1: to follow to keep to keep an eye on it
Speaker 1: as well. Um, So you come to rock fan dot
Speaker 1: com are okay f I n dot com? Um, if
Speaker 1: you're a creator, you want to apply, you can apply
Speaker 1: at creators at rock Fan dot com. Um. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we think what we're doing is transformed and so we're
Speaker 1: excited about the future. Yeah, awesome, all right, good talk.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for taking the time as uh is
Speaker 1: great learning more about that, and we'll be keep an
Speaker 1: eye sounds good. Hey, if you like this episode of
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