Let's embark on a journey to discover the world of rare rum collection and the innovative concept of Proof of Barrels. Our special guests, Antonio Lopez de Haro and Luigi Rockets, Co-Founders at Rare Spirits Society, will guide us through the fascinating world of premium rum and the unique approach they bring to the industry.

In this episode, Antonio and Luigi share their passion for rum and their adventure in curating a collection of rare and exceptional spirits. They take us on a virtual tasting tour, exploring the diverse flavors, aromas, and histories behind these aged treasures.

Whether you're a rum connoisseur, an enthusiast of unique collectibles, or simply curious about innovative uses of blockchain technology you MUST listen this.

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Rare Spirits Society- Discovering Rare Rum Collection & Proof of Barrels

Participants:

• Nadja Bester (Co-founder of AdLunam)

• Antonio Lopez de Haro (Co-founder of Rare Spirit Society)

• Luigi Rockets (Co-founder and chief creative officer of Rare Spirit Society)

00:22

Nadja

Hey, web3 world. This is Nadja Bester from AdLunam and you are listening to the Future of NFTs, where every week we speak to fascinating guest speakers who are actually building the future of Web3. So on today, I have a very interesting topic lined up for you guys. So we are going to be talking with the two co-founders of Rare Spirits Society. So we have with us in the room today, we have Antonio Lopez de Haro he's, the co-founder of Rare Spirit Society, as well as Luigi Rockets, co-founder and chief creative officer. So a little bit of background about Antonio. So he comes from a distillery background. He's been the co-founder and director and CEO of a distillery in Cambodia for the past ten years or so. So he brings a lot of industry experience into Web3 industry, which definitely is something that we're going to get in day as these two worlds merge.

01:30

Nadja

And then Luigi creates a force with more than 15 years of experience advertising, art and blockchain technology, he has represented Web3, his art in different corners of the industry, including a gallery in Intraland. So very happy to have the two of you show with us today. Instead of me introducing Spirit Society, I'm going to very briefly just say that it's a society of Web3 spirit aficionados venturing on an exciting exploration of the world of rum to build and co-own the finest collection of rare rum barrels. So if that has piqued your interest, then definitely stay tuned for show because we will be hearing a lot more about what this is about. So, yeah, as I said guys, so happy to have you on us today. So I think maybe let's start just with a brief introduction, just really adding on to what I've already said about you.

02:36

Nadja

Where do you come from and what is the story of how this Rare Spirit Society idea all began?

02:46

Antonio

Definitely. Nadja, thank you very much. That was a nice intro and thanks a lot for inviting us here today. Super excited to share our project and a little bit about ourselves and hopefully everybody can learn something and us learn something from you guys, definitely. Well, first an intro about myself. I'm from Venezuela, but I lived all around, mainly in Asia. I was before living in Singapore and I went one day as a tourist to Cambodia and stayed for ten years. So that's how much Cambodia captivated me, right? And there being from Venezuela, we have a very big rum culture. And actually what I saw was that in Cambodia there's a lot of sugar cane when you're traveling around the provinces and every corner of every town, they make a fresh sugar cane juice. But there was no local rum, which for us makes no sense.

03:48

Antonio

So we actually built Cambodia's first rum distillery and rum brand from that right now, we're actually exporting to a few different countries, but Rare Spirit Society, it's a new project that is for the whole rum industry. So it's not attached to that specific project or a specific brand in Cambodia. This is more towards uniting and connecting with the whole rum industry worldwide.

04:20

Luigi

So, yeah, guys, I'm Luigi, and I’m an artist. I've been an artist for more than ten years. And that was actually my entrance to the blockchain world, or the Web3 world, because I started tokenizing my art. Basically, at the beginning, I thought NFTs were equal to digital art, and obviously I was really wrong. When I got to this technology and started learning and actually being part of other projects, I realized that this is just an amazing technology, such a fertile technology that basically every artist, every industry, every company will be using this technology to better their internal processes, but to also better their relationship with consumers. So more or less on that idea is how we are creating respiratory society. Because we want to bring the rum industry into the blockchain, we say that we're pouring rum all over the blockchain. So I think that could be my intro.

05:29

Nadja

Well, that's definitely a fun job description that not many people get to claim as pouring rum all over the blockchain. On that note, why rum? So you talk about rare rum barrels. Can you tell us about why that is relevant, how it's used as an investment vehicle? What is the story behind rum as an asset?

05:53

Antonio

06:56

Antonio

So, for example, UK, huge producer of whiskeys and consumers. But then actually two years ago was the first time in history that rum overtook whiskey sales in the UK. You can see a lot of people's perception about rum change as well. Because normally rum has this perception of being like pirates related or to be mixed with cola or something like that. But actually today you see a lot of the whiskey and cognac drinkers actually coming into the category of rum because they're realizing that premium rum is actually as high as quality as any good whiskey or cognac. So that's one of the reasons. But also, I don't know if people here are familiar with people investing in whiskey as an alternative asset. And then rum has actually the same characteristics of whiskey as an alternative asset, has the same characteristics of an investment asset. It goes up in value every year.

08:12

Antonio

It's a non-correlated asset. So the stock market crypto can be going down, but actually rums continue aging every year and they actually continue going up independent of other markets. So that's why we are from the rum industry. We are producers. Actually, a lot of people from our team have been in the industry for more than 15 years. So that's what we know. And we are actually bringing this category up to be known as a premium spirit and an asset to have.

08:53

Nadja

Yeah. So what I find really interesting about this is the idea that we are bringing into web3 real world assets from people who have been working and dealing with these real world assets for cumulatively many decades. So Luigi, as someone who came into the web3 space as an artist, what has your experience been like with building a respiratory society and merging the real world with tangible assets with this idea of web3 where everything is digital and everything is tokenized?

09:27

Luigi

Well, actually the way I started in the web3 as an artist was actually tokenizing my real life art. So my physical art, I would sell it as NFT. So it was intrinsic in me, let's say, because I'm a real life artist. And then when I saw that technology, it was like, okay, this is another great way to authenticate my real life art. So basically the first digital art that I sold was related to the physical. So if someone bought my NFT or digital art, let's say I would send them the physical piece. One funny thing that happened is that sometimes people will buy the NFTs and they didn't care about the physical, which was funny, but okay, I'll keep the physical, you take the NFT. But then it was sort of like a cool progression because while I was learning about the technology, also Antonio was learning about the technology.

10:29

Luigi

And we were meeting a lot thinking what can we do with it? And to me, what threw me over the bridge and what got me hooked on Rare Spirit society was that insight, because I love rum, I drink rum all my life. But Antonio once told me that basically, yeah, rum is such a great asset because it doesn't matter if the market is going down or sideways. Rum is always aging and therefore becoming more valuable. So to me was like, wow, that's such an amazing insight. We definitely have to build on this. And that's how Rare Spirits came to be. And we think of ourselves as explorers. We like to travel. So we are sort of combining all the aspects that we love in this society, which we think people love. People are already loving it because we already started selling our membership. We have over 70 members, so we have already minted like 140 sugar canes.

11:33

Luigi

That's how we call our memberships, obviously, because it's the beginning of Rum, it's also the beginning of our club. So, yeah, I think this is the way to do it. It's not about speculation or having just art. Well, obviously there's artists who make digital art, but I think that in the future, everyone will start using the technology to tie the physical with the digital, or how they call it, the digital. So I think this is the way to go and we're happy to be building at the sort of early stages.

12:08

Nadja

Yeah, I'd love to get a little more into exactly how Rare Spirit Society operates. But on this idea of technology being the central point, I think this is always something that people in web3, because we're so close to what is happening, there's a tendency to look more at the potential use cases than technology itself. But what is really interesting is people coming from other industries recognizing the technology specifically and applying it to the use cases that they are already dealing with in their industries and in their professions. So I'm curious, what are your thoughts on people always talk about mass adoption of web3 and it's such a nebulous concept because what does it even mean to reach mass adoption? In which aspect are we talking about? So, from the sounds of it, what you are doing with Rare Spirit Society is really onboarding people who have a passion for Rum into web3, as opposed to people with a passion for web3, which I think is often the mistake that is made.

13:07

Nadja

We are trying to get more users because they love the technology or because they love the use cases, but not necessarily because we're seeing it, as you say, just this idea of the physical world where you have your digital assets and you have your physical, real world assets. And we might move toward a future where the two blend into two sides of the same coin. So do you feel that with building Rare Spirit Society that you are creating user adoption into web3 in a way that is perhaps more geared towards success because people want the assets and the technology comes alongside it?

13:47

Luigi

Well, that's a really good question because we actually always thought of ourselves not as an NFT project. We are a company that buys and sells Rum and have this community to create and co-own the collection, but we don't even mention NFTs when we present our project. That's the technology that goes in the back. We actually are all about rare rums, the barrels and the rare mines. So we want to unite people who have passion for rum with the opportunity to collect and have access to these rums. We think that basically the technology, the mass adoption will come when people don't even have to hear blockchain or NFTs or Web3. So basically, we are a club of rare spirits aficionados, and we're actually using the technology because the blockchain is the best ledger to keep account of your assets, and basically that's why we're using it.

14:53

Luigi

But we could actually be doing this without the blockchain, but we know it's a better way to do it, and that's why we're doing it. So we think we're actually bringing rare spirits of tsunamis into the blockchain. And that's actually something that people are loving, because we are the bridge, basically, between these spirits of Tsunades, who are mostly Web2, and we are helping them open the MetaMask. We're guiding them, teaching them all about this world. And we know that in the future, that's something that our members are going to appreciate about rare spirits, having them taking them by the hand to the blockchain.

15:43

Nadja

Yeah. Antonia, I'd love to hear your thoughts. As someone who's very deep into a different industry and now is using the technology as an add on to what it is that you have already been using as something that you have been focusing on for a decade, there's this new technology that's been introduced. What are your thoughts on building it into the business?

16:06

Antonio

Definitely the idea to create Rare Spirit Society. There's a problem or a barriers that we have in the industry, right, in the rum industry, which is that people, let's say common people who are not into the rum industry do not have access to the rare rum barrels. Right. So if somebody wants to just buy a rare rum barrel because they want to collect it or whatever, it's literally impossible. If you go to Distilleries, they will not sell barrels to individuals. If you go to even brokers, the intermediaries, they will actually have a barrel that weights 400 kilos and has 200 liters. And then they'll ask you, where do you want me to send you this barrel? Right? And then what do you do with that barrel? In your living room or something, right. So it's really tough. So what we did is thinking when we’re meeting and learning about this technology, we're like, Wait, there's actually a lot of solutions.

17:06

Antonio

We can actually bring down the barriers that people have for access to rare rum barrels, and we can give this access to them because sometimes when you want to collect a barrel, let's say, or invest in a barrel, you don't necessarily want the physical with you. Right. So by tokenization of barrels or real life assets, you have that capacity to own, to have the title of ownership of an asset. But that asset, the way we're doing is that they are staying at the distillery. So when we buy, let's say, 20 barrels from Jamaica, 20 barrels from Martinique, 20 barrels from Venezuela and Cambodia, actually, those barrels stay at the distillery. They stay at origin in those countries. Also, for the aging process, that's the best way, because you want environments affect temperature, humidity, the whole environment affects how the rums are aged, and you want most of them to be aged at origin.

18:09

Antonio

Actually, yeah. Adapting this technology now lets us, as Rare Spirit Society, own barrels all over the world without the need to be transferring the physical barrel. Right. And that's what actually brought Rare Spirit Society to what it is today. And given the capacity for people to have access to this asset, and honestly, this is something that we see that can affect different industries. I was reading yesterday about tokenization of Patek Philippe watches, right, and how suddenly you're using a watch title of ownership as an NFT, and you can actually use it as collateral to get loans, for example. And then you're thinking like, but wait, if rare rum barrels are going up in value every year throughout the aging process, right? And imagine barrels that are 10, 15, 20 years, they're actually more valuable than barrels that are two years. So by owning this asset and being tokenized and then having those technologies where you can use that title of ownership for a collateral of a loan or anything else, the possibilities are huge.

19:36

Antonio

Right? So actually, we're just beginning, but every time we're working on this project, so many new ideas and opportunities actually come up that are quite impressive, in my opinion.

19:50

Nadja

I think one of the most interesting things about the merging of these two worlds is web3 investors are given the opportunity to invest in asset classes that they would not even have considered otherwise. So would you say that broad speaking in web3, we have such a focus on hype and speculation and the highs, very lows. If someone is a web3 investor and is used to how things function in this very volatile sense, what considerations would they be taking if they were considering to invest in rum, for example?

20:34

Antonio

Well, something that we have noticed, which were not really expecting, is that there has been also a barrier for web3 people to actually see this to the value that it has. Because of what Luigi was mentioning before, that when he came into this world, he thought that NFTs was equal to digital art. And, for example, our 500 sugar cane membership passes. They use a single piece of art. Right. But the thing is that NFT of the membership represents co ownership of a whole portfolio of rare rum barrels, right? So that means you have real live assets backing the memberships. But then because all the memberships, they have the same visual at the moment, this is that the membership passes, right? They will eventually will have new ones. Web3 people have been like, okay, but they all look the same, right? Where is the art, where is the artist behind this?

21:43

Antonio

And for us that was really strange because we thought that they will actually really understand that actually there's a real life asset behind it. And actually barriers we experience both sides towards the web3 people. Seeing this and knowing that there's real life assets in the back, but also rum people onboarding them into web3 has been also definitely extremely tough. But we have actually working really hard to onboard these web2 people. We have been creating our own tutorials, video tutorials, as simple as how to open a MetaMask or how to Mint or what is Mint, right? It's been really interesting, but it's been a very big learning process for sure. Also, I guess that being on a bear market may not help. Also web3 people to go into these kind of innovative projects, especially when we're doing it very tight community, let's say, right?

23:01

Antonio

So, for example, we do not have a public Mint, right? It's 100% under an Allow list. So we're normally having one on one zoom calls with all the potential members and then from there is that we put their wallets in our smart contract to be able to Mint. So we're doing like a process to kind of curate really who are these rare human minds that we want in our society, right? Which is normally spirits aficionados. It's also web3 people. But definitely we are creating this process of Allow list and a long process of curation, let's say. So we can also not have, let's say, Degens or people who are coming into flipping NFTs, let's say, because Rum at the end of the day, it's a long term project, right? Like Rum is normally aged for three, four, six years. So this is definitely a project that we're here for the long term.

24:20

Antonio

We're here for many years, decades. So we're building very strong foundations to be able to create a very strong foundations of a company to grow in the coming years.

24:37

Nadja

Yeah, so I want to jump onto this idea of a curated community because I think this is something that we've seen in the NFT space, irrespective of what the utility is of the particular NFT, that, I mean, web3 in general is very community focused, NFTs more so. But I think this idea of creating a curated community is certainly something that is becoming much more popular in every industry where people know that the other members of the community are people who, depending on the topic of the community, are curated and have share the same interests or whatever the case may be. So, Luigi, in building the community for Rare Spirits Society because obviously you are having to blend two very different worlds. The Web3 community, which I love the anecdote about people complaining that it's the same art piece for every NFT, because it definitely highlights how many gaps we have even within the Web3 industry, for people to understand the many varied implications and use cases, applications of the technology.

25:44

Nadja

But you're having to build a community within Web3 with their own values and outlooks and then Web2 community which are of course already people passionate about rum but now having to onboard into this brave new world. So what approach are you taking to community building? Especially as you mentioned Antonio, in a bear market. Just getting it through the bear market, no matter how by the skin of your teeth it ends up being, is already a brave feat, but it's certainly not the easiest time to create a community. But in your case also quite a unique challenge, which is something that many Web3 companies face as they try and onboard Web2 users. But what has been your approach to merging these two worlds in creating a community for Race Spirit Society?

26:38

Luigi

Well, thankfully, we have been in the Web3 industry for a while, so we've been to Paris, we've been to Barcelona, we've been to conferences in Lisbon, so we've had time to actually get to know the Web3 people in real life, obviously. On the other side, Antonio has more than ten years of experience in the Rum world, which the Web3 world in the Rum world I think are kind of similar, not that many people. So all of the people sort of know each other. That's been great because Antonio gets to go to the Rum Industry Conference and then we both go to the Web3 conference and we started that way with the people we knew, obviously, but then we obviously have to expand and grow more and the way we do it is through zoom calls basically, or live interviews. So everyone basically comes recommended in a way from ourselves and from other members and we just have a conversation and see what they're interested, if they're interested in what we're doing.

27:53

Luigi

A lot of people, for example, in rum industry are interested in bulk in having the most amount of rum, for example, we're actually interested in having the finest rare rum collection. So basically we just talk to them and see if they are a good fit and obviously if they're interested then we proceed to add them to the allow list. And it's been a great experience because we've met so many people through these interviews and mostly all of them are amazing people, so they are allowed to come in. That's the way we do it. We don't have advertising in Twitter or anywhere in the social media. We want the way we advertise ourselves is with a conversation and like we did with you, Nadja, we present the project and in that way you can understand more what we want to do. Because like Antonio said, this is long term project, this is a lifelong project, and we want people that are involved with us to actually know what we're doing and enjoy the society.

29:09

Nadja

So, Antonio, I have a question. We've been talking around the idea know NFTs are viewed as the digital art aspect, only that some people see it as so. Coming from a Web2 world and dealing with real world assets and with people might not necessarily understand anything about Web3 technologies. Or have you experienced that people express skepticism about? Why even use NFTs? We understand that, as you mentioned earlier, it's actually technology that best serves your needs as a community. But so do you address and respond to these? If you do experience skepticism or critique, how do you often respond to it in a way makes people understand why this is the best tool for the job?

30:03

Antonio

Definitely. So skepticism is definitely there. We have had a lot of experience where we are actually presenting to someone, and as soon as we mention Web3 or blockchain, you can see that there's a block in the communication. But funny enough, sometimes within the same presentation or sometimes within two days that they have the time to kind of digest all this information and actually start seeing what the benefits could be. People come back to us and say, hey, thanks for the last time and I had time to digest this information. And it's an awesome idea. And we think that it improves a lot the processes in the industry. Right? So one of the things that we always like to talk about is about transparency, traceability and liquidity, right? Because that's definitely something that it's lacking in the rum industry, right? So, for example, transparency, if nowadays, let's say you want to source a barrel, you want to buy a barrel from any distillery or broker, the information out there is very limited, right.

31:21

Antonio

Because the rum industry is also super secretive in the sense that a lot of these distilleries are family owned. They have been run by generations of their family. And so, of course, they have this kind of secrecy thing of like, okay, this is our company, and they have recipes for whatever products they may have or techniques of aging and all these things. They don't really keep it transparent. But then by using tokenization, let's say, of real life assets, in this case of rare rum barrels, we are looking at actual transparency, being able tokenize a barrel and to include in the metadata all the information about the history of that barrel. But then as barrels go on to age from could be as low as one year to up to 25 years, the idea is that how do you keep this transparency and this traceability, right?

32:20

Antonio

Especially when some barrels, you have to change from a type of barrel, let's say from an ex bourbon barrel, you change it a few years to Pedro Jimenez, an ex-Sherry barrel, right? And that information is normally lost, or you have just to trust someone that says, oh, yeah, this was aged in such and such barrel. But documentation is really limited. So what we're trying to do with tokenization of barrels is to keep that traceability, especially when barrels are changing either locations or are changing woods, different type of woods, but also when you actually bottle those barrels, because from one barrel, let's say you can get 220 bottles, right? Then also we are developing that technology where you can tokenize the bottles, but then that token is attached to the barrel token, right? So eventually, when you have an actual bottle in your hand, you can get that information on the blockchain of the traceability of where it is coming from and liquidity.

33:24

Antonio

Because what we mentioned before, that you can actually sell the ownership of a barrel or eventually a bottle, but the actual physical doesn't have to you don't have to move it. Right? So you can actually nowadays, to sell a collectible bottle of barrel could take you around six months. It could take you to sell or buy a barrel. With tokenization, you can actually and the transparency, it could take you a few minutes of researching what kind of barrels you want, and you could buy the ownership of that barrel instantly on a 24/7 market against six months, which takes today. So when Web2, people understand that, it actually opens their eyes because they take it. That's how the industry works, right? So, yes, they have skepticism. They hear NFTs and blockchain and they freak out. Sometimes people even ask us every week, which is surprising, like, what is sorry, what is Web3?

34:31

Antonio

I don't know what you're talking about. Or what is blockchain? That happens a little bit less than Web3, but it's still happening every week. But once they understand these benefits, it actually opens their minds and their eyes, because it's definitely a solution that if it's implemented industry wide, it can literally bring the industry revolutionize it to different levels.

35:00

Nadja

Luigi, what are your thoughts on the way that we approach things in Web3? Because I always say we are so in love with these acronyms that we want to I mean, even Web3, it doesn't mean anything to anyone outside of Web3. Same with NFTs and DeFi and with all of these different terms that really just serve to confuse people and to almost chase them away. Because I think, as Antonio said, when you speak to someone and you start using the terminology, you can almost visibly see how there's a cloud coming in front of their brain and they don't understand a single other word you're saying because their brain is stuck on they have no idea what. You're talking about. So what are your thoughts on the way that we are approaching things in the industry? Are we focusing too much on the terminology instead of really, as Antonio was highlighting, demonstrating to people really how the pain points that they either already know that they're experiencing or that they would want to support a solution to if they did know that this problem could be solved.

36:04

Nadja

How do you think what is the best way to approach the onboarding into Web3?

36:11

Luigi

I would say the best way is to show them real use cases. Like not talk about like we said in our conversations with people, we don't mention NFTs, we mention blockchain maybe once because that's not what matters. What matters is, for example, we are creating a club. And if you go to a club in real life, you don't know how they handle the payments or how they handle their memberships. You just pay for the membership and you can come into the club. So that's what we hope we get to be a real use case on how people, community can have access to a rare collection and actually build together that rare collection and drink it and enjoy it. So you're doing real life things. So I think that as more big brands try to create a real life experience through this technology because at the end it's just the evolution of the Internet and we're giving it so many names.

37:18

Luigi

I don't know, I don't remember that when were in Web2 with the social apps that people talk about, I don't know, the intricacies or the back end of that, people just sign on and start posting and start liking. I think that's the way that Web3 should be done. Obviously this is a different thing, but I think the terms and basically all the companies that are called NFT something, I think that they're not utilizing the technology in a good way because they just should be, I don't know, like say respiratory society. We don't mention the technology because we're basically a club. And that's how I think it should be pointed. It's just real use cases.

38:15

Nadja

Absolutely agreed. I mean, this idea of it being the evolution of the Internet, I think we spoke about this previously about the Netflix documentary that I'm producing. And I find this often when I speak to people about this is when I mention Web3, they have no idea. But when I say it's the future of the Internet, they very much understand what I'm talking about because that is the natural evolution of things we understand technology is going to come in, it's going to create changes, and those changes are going to have implications for the way we do things. But Antonio, I'm curious because you have this foot in both worlds. You have the realm, the digital realm within the business, the Web3 NFT aspect, but then you also of course have the physical assets. So how do you ensure the quality of the rum barrels being represented as NFTs?

39:08

Nadja

Are there specific criteria or a vetting process? How do you go about ensuring quality? And I guess this also touches on the larger question of risk management.

39:20

Antonio

Definitely good question, because that's a common question for members when they're coming in to kind of be sure that how do we are sure that we really have those assets under our owners ship and then there are rare rum barrels, right? So I think one way to say it is that being from the rum industry and having two other co-founders as well that have been all the life in the rum industry, we pretty much know every rum distiller or rum distillery owner and we are only looking to work with premium quality distilleries, right? So at the end of the day, most of them are brands that are known and that we have worked together in the past. So in this industry, like in many, there is a lot of reputation. At the end of the day, this distillery, they also have their own brand and we are working with them that they are not really looking for risks to kind of taint their brand because they have very valuable brands.

40:30

Antonio

But at the same time, we have created so we already have a rare rum committee of people who are it's ten of us who are actually all from the rum industry and some of us have already traveled and been at these distilleries in person, right? And we know in all these distilleries, we know the owners personally. So one thing is actually knowing the distilleries, having been there, taste testing the liquids. We also have a chemical engineer in the team who will be helping with actually doing laboratory test and making sure that the liquid is of optimum quality. And it's a fine liquid, but also at the same time, one of the benefits of being a member of Rare Spirit Society is that we have a lot of experiences as well, and one of them being travel to the Rum countries that we're working with. For example, we are doing our first trip of the Rare Spirit Society to Cambodia at the end of October and the idea is that members can come with us.

41:40

Antonio

So for this one is the first one. So we have already around five members confirmed, but we expect from ten to 15 members in this first trip. So the idea is that we go to the rum countries, we go to the distilleries with members and we are actually bringing filming crew with us to document the whole trip. And this trip is not only about the rum and the distillery, but it's also about cultural immersion and entrepreneurial aspect, because we will meet local entrepreneurs, we will do workshops, mini conference and all this. But members will actually be inside the distillery and we will spend around two days, two full days at the distillery, looking at Master classes about production, tasting all the different barrels that they have and actually bottling by hand ourselves. And the idea is that members are coming with us. They're seeing the actual production facility, they're tasting it together with our experts.

42:41

Antonio

43:52

Antonio

So that's why we're designing it ourselves. We're coding. We have a team helping us create this. So that means with the Oracles and members being able to have access to our dashboard, we can actually see where are these barrels located, temperature and humidity, which is very important for the aging process. And plus the trips that we go and check, let's say, every year to each distillery, that's a few layers of security and risk management. And at the same time, well, other risk management, for example, is insurance, right? So we are insuring each of the barrels that we have. If you have any other ideas of how to actually reduce more risk and improve our processes, we're always looking for new solutions and learning to be able to improve.

44:54

Nadja

I think this is what makes this technology at this time such a flourishing place to because it offers solutions to potential well existing and also potential problems that might arise in future. Although I think with the Use case that we've been talking about today, it sounds like there has been a real need for something like this in the rum industry for a while now. And I wanted to just add, even though I'm not a rum drinker, but all of those travel plans sound amazing. So I think this might be the best way to experience those countries is on a tour like this. So this is always my least favorite question for exactly the opposite reason as what I just said. It's the opposite of innovation, but the aspect of regulations and just the ambiguous regulatory situation that we generally have around cryptocurrencies, NFTs, et cetera.

45:50

Nadja

What are your considerations around these regularities, both what is in place now and also what you see foresee in future might become an issue.

46:06

Luigi

You go ahead, Antonio.

46:09

Antonio

Yeah, that's a very good question because it's a very tough one as well. So we do have some legal advice. Of course. We are also looking at least for the membership part and how do we manage a rare rum portfolio? We are looking eventually at creating a DAO that we're looking at a few different options. Probably like something like Marshall Islands or someplace where they have already implemented some Dow regulations. And in Marshall Islands, for example, they have for profit DAOs as well, where you can actually give out dividends and you can call it dividends, which is normally not like that's a definite no. Normally in this industry, you call it utilities or rewards or airdrops. But being able to actually go and again, as we are going towards a project that is long term and it's years of aging and we're dealing with a real life asset, then there's definitely that need to be compliant.

47:18

Antonio

And that's why we're looking at all these solutions. Although we're already a registered company, we already have trademarks and everything, so it's fine. But also the interesting thing about using this technology of Tokenization is that tokenization is in our case, it's the title of ownership of that specific barrel, right? But the barrels are actually staying at the distilleries, which is also there's the regulation part of the crypto part, let's say, and there's the regulation part of alcohol, right, because alcohol is also a regulated product, right? But then we're keeping it at the distillery. So that means when it doesn't leave the distillery, there's what you call the bonded warehouses, right? So it's not leaving the country, it's not leaving changing hands. So we are able to kind of do that in a very easy way. But something we of course recommend is legal advice. But honestly, we have talked to dozens of lawyers specializing crypto and we have never heard a common ground as to what to do.

48:34

Antonio

So it's actually quite funny because you are looking for advice because you really want someone who pretty much tell you what we should do. But actually it's reminding me of when I set up the Samai Distillery in Cambodia. So, as mentioned before, Samai is Cambodia's first rum distillery, right? So I remember when went to the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Handicraft and asking for do we need a license to produce alcohol? And people in the industry, sorry, in the ministries, they would look at us like, what are you guys talking? Like they didn't know what distillation even meant, right? And we started distilling. We started producing alcohol. And it was only like three years later that they came to us and say, hey guys, you actually need a license to do this. And we're like, sure, but went to your ministries and you had no idea.

49:36

Antonio

And they're like, fine, just get it, pay a couple of, suddenly you have a license. Right? So actually this reminded me because we're trying to do this and there's never been like a proper answer, like, okay, guys, you should do this, and this is what you need. So we're still struggling with that, but in a good way because we're learning a lot and we're preparing. But yeah, it's a tough waters to navigate for sure.

50:09

Nadja

I think we are dealing with this even at the level of the SCC and base, we are seeing exactly the same thing. So it's definitely an international problem in terms of no idea what the regulations even are until already operational and have been asking them on how to comply. Luigi, did you want to add anything to the answer?

50:32

Luigi

Well, what I would add it will be just study the blockchain, study this technology. Because I think that basically, once you learn about this amazingly rich technology is so fertile that if you have any idea in your life that you had in your head for a few years, once you study the technology, you'll find amazing ways to bring that idea to life. That will be my last comment about this because I think that's what happened to us, me as an artist and with Antonio, with rums, and every day, or let's say every week, we are surprised that a new idea comes in and makes the whole project better. So basically, if you have any idea, please study this technology because you will actually know how to bring it to life.

51:31

Nadja

Cannot, cannot agree more. So I'm going to remind the audience, if you want to ask a question of Antonio and Luigi, please message the question to the AdLunam Twitter handle and the team will get it over to me. So in the meantime, while you send in those questions, I think I'm quite curious. So I know very little about rum in general. Of course, I know the pirate aspect to it and I've had my fair share of rum in my life. In terms of this rare rum collection, can you give us some examples how they vary in terms of value or rarity or give us a little taste into this world of rum and rum collection specifically?

52:17

Antonio

Well, rare rums, we're looking at super premium rums from the best distilleries around the world right now. What we are accessing as Race Spirit Society is we are buying a few barrels from Puerto Rico, from Jamaica, Venezuela, Mexico, Cambodia, Australia, et cetera. Right. And the interesting thing is that every country, and this is the interesting thing about the rum industry and the rum category is that there are so many different countries producing rum. That actually is a very versatile category. And it's very interesting because every country has their own kind of local rules and regulations, which is amazing because that means that you have so many different rums to choose from when you compare it to very regulated industries, like Scotch whiskey, for example, right? Scotch whiskey, they have so many regulations that they have to stay within line. But in rum, you have white rums, you have dark aged rum, single cask, you have spiced rums, and you can use whatever spice you want.

53:28

Antonio

Fruits, I mean, it's versatile. But for us, we are looking at age rums and we're looking at many different factors, right? So you have the location. Where is this rum coming from? So the provenance, right, as mentioned before, we have all these different countries, like Puerto Rico, Mexico, whatever. Then each country will produce different types of liquids. So you have different liquids. For example, is it coming from Molasses, which is a byproduct of sugar cane, or is it coming from sugarcane juice, which is before you make the molasses, right? And these two will make completely different liquids, right? So, for example, you can have the agriculture rum, which is from sugar cane juice, French style, or you can have from Molasses age Insolera, which could be the Latin style, right? Or Spanish, some people call it. You can have from Jamaica, which is English style, but then you can have some heavy, what they call heavy or high esters rums, which are very funky and completely different from the counterparts, right?

54:41

Antonio

Then if you talk about the actual aging barrel, because when we're talking about rare rum barrels, it's an oak barrel with the liquid inside. But actually, the oak barrel itself, you have hundreds of different barrels. Like, for example, the most common ones are the ex-bourbon, right? So the bourbon industry, by law, they can only use the barrels once. So that means that every time they use it, they cannot use them for the second time, so they actually sell it to the rum industry and the Scotch whiskey industry. So that's the most common barrel. But then you can play around with American oak. Is there French oak? Has it aged mescal in the past? Or a Pedro Jimenez, which is this sweet wine from Spain, and it could it be wines from France or Riojas or whatever. So at the end of the day, the amount of different aging barrels that you can find, and depending on what they were used before, they add the notes to the rum.

55:44

Antonio

So that means you can get hundreds of different profiles of rum depending on the barrel you use. And then finally, there's the aging environment. So imagine this example. You have the same rum from Venezuela, right? It's the same liquid. Let's say it's from column steel, and you age it in the same barrel, which is a French oak. But you have two of those barrels, right? But they're exactly the same. Venezuela column. Steel. French oak. But one of them you age in the Caribbean, in Venezuela, and one of them you age in continental Europe, let's say France. Well, these two barrels, they will come completely different animals. Because even though it's the same liquid, same wood, same provenance, but the aging location, environment will make them completely different animals, different rums. So there you go. So you can imagine with all these factors, you can have thousands of different profiles of rum, which in our case, that's what we are kind of curating the barrels and the liquids to be able to create this, what we call gems, right?

56:54

Antonio

Because, again, we're not interested in the largest collection of rum in the world. That's not our interest. It's more about the finest collection of rare rum barrels. That means finding these gems, finding these different factors, different combinations that can create a rare rum barrel that will be eventually a collectible and that will add value to the members of the Rare Spirit Society, because all the members, at the end of the day, co-own the whole portfolio of rum of Rare Spirit Society. So the owners are actually the members. And eventually, when we bottle these barrels, it's the members who own this bottle. So members will get access to these collectible rare bottles that no other brand or no other has ever produced. And that's where we also give value back to our members.

57:47

Nadja

I really hope that you are also going at some point create a Masterclass for rum, because I would definitely take that has been incredibly educational and also highly interesting. Thank you so much, Antonio and Luigi. I'm taking a look at the questions. And also, this seems to be a very loaded question because we have some team members from Venezuela who are already giving their answers. So there's a question here from Salman. According to your taste buds, which place has the best rum? One place we must try rum at. So, yeah, it seems like the conversation has wet some appetites in the audience and then also want touch on the second question. So maybe you can take that together. Do you see NFTs for whiskey, vodka, et cetera? Also catching on. You guys are doing a fantastic job. Cheers.

58:39

Antonio

Thank you.

58:42

Luigi

I would say Jamaica, that's my favorite part.

58:47

Nadja

That's the unpopular decision. No, you have to say Venezuela, because there's many people in my chat right now waiting for that answer. So Jamaica it is because of Antonio.

58:58

Luigi

Obviously, most of the rums that I've had in my life were Venezuelan, and I'm really used to it. But because of Antonio, he's been teaching me a lot. And we've tried rums from all over the world, and I would say Jamaica would be my favorite part. And I also want to go to Jamaica to do this trip. Hopefully next year, instead of Cambodia, we can go to Jamaica. And also, to your second question, of course, we're actually called Rare Spirit Society and not Rare Rum Society because we're thinking really big for the whole spirits industry. And as we talked about with whiskey that has the same characteristics as rum. We definitely see the potential there. But since we are rum experts, we want to build our company first with what we know, and then we hopefully can branch out into collaborations with people who actually know the whiskey industry, because that's the cornerstone of doing something, is you have to know the inside out.

Luigi

Inside out, the industry.

Nadja

Antonio, sir, give us your answer, please.

Antonio

Yeah, I mean, being from Venezuela, of course, that's where we grew up with. But as Luigi is saying, it's like when you actually go out and start trying different rums from around the world and all these different profiles and whatever, you get amazed and your jaw really drops. So besides Venezuela, let's say what I would say is one of my favorites. Well, Jamaica, I mean, you get these funky liquids, which are amazing, and it blows your mind. But then I will also say, for example, Martinique, right? So it's a French island. They produce rum from sugar cane juice, not from molasses. And so that means that you get this very herbal and this ground soil and herbs and very floral rums. And actually it literally blows your mind because that's not what you really expect when you grow up in a country like Venezuela. But those rums right now, normally they have been unaged, but now they're aging it and you can find some amazing aged Martinique rums, French style.

Antonio

They call it agricult. I think that's definitely something to add to your bar.

Nadja

So I think if you had a question about where to get the best rum, just get in touch with Spirit Society and they are going to open up a whole new world of knowledge to you and travel plans, it seems. Antonio, Luigi, thank you so much for your time today. It's just been absolutely informative and educational. Some parting thoughts from the both of you, as well as where the audience can reach you?

Luigi

On our website, we have all the links, but if you want to reach us more directly, there's also a link on the website to get acquainted with us and you can schedule a call so we can go over the project. We have a presentation that we share with potential members. So if you're interested in becoming one, yeah, just hit that link on our website. Our website is called rarespirits.io, and in there you'll find all the links, all the information, and if you want to book a call, just book it with a link. Get acquainted with us and just book a call.

Nadja

So, Antonio, if the audience takes nothing else away from this conversation, what is one thing they should remember about what we discussed today?

Antonio

Only one thing. Wow. One thing that I think it's important. It's about at the end, we live in a real world, right? So real world assets is something that it's there. It's something that we live with and there's nothing that will replace real life assets in our society. Whatever. If you use web3, web4 or web5, I believe we will still be in this physical world. And there's nothing better than, let's say, enjoying a glass of a rare rum. When it touches your lip, you actually smile automatically and the senses that you get because drinking rare rum is really something that takes all your senses, right? It's on the nose, it's on the palate, and it’s on the eye. What color is it? It's like emotions. It's like goosebumps sometimes. So I would say that, yes, we're talking about technology. Yes, technology is improving our way of life and it's improving access to real life assets or to investment opportunities and to everything.

Antonio

Now, it could be faster spending less time, more efficient, whatever. But touch grass? Like touch grass or drink or sip rum. I think that's what I would say.

Nadja

Well, I don't know if we've had a better invitation to a closing on the show before. Go touch grass or go have a glass of rum, you decide whatever you're into, but do one of those two things. Awesome advice. So with that, guys, we've come to the end of another show. But I think, as you can agree with me, today has been absolutely fascinating as we continue to explore just the many different implications that this technology has for the future. So thank you very much for joining with us today. And of course, AdLunam is building the industry's first Engage to Earn investment platform with a Proof of Attention allocation mechanism and dynamic NFT investor profiles. So I will catch you again next week for another episode of The Future of NFTs. In the meantime, if a web3 project is looking to connect to investors, do look out on our website for our web three pitch arena where on a monthly basis, we connect projects with our investor network as well as our ecosystem partners.

Nadja

So I will see you again next week. Luigi and Antonio, thank you so much. This has been absolutely amazing. I think you might have converted me to at least becoming very curious about rum. So I definitely leave this episode with a new, I don't want to say on my to do list, but on my bucket list. So you'll be definitely observing from the side to see how Race Spirit Society grows into just a brave new world for the spirits industry. Thank you so much, guys. Have a lovely day wherever in the world you are and I will see you next week. Cheers.

Antonio

Thank you.