Has the allure of the Metaverse declined or is it the calm before the storm? Identifying value and new functions of NFTs in the metaverse while taking stock of the trends that have risen and fallen. join us as we talk to Ashok Balasubramanian Chief of Metaverse at NFTICALLY and explore what to expect and the new trends before they take shape in 2023.

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NFTICALLY

Participants:

• Nadja Bester (CEO & Co-founder of AdLunam)

• Ashok Balasubramanian (Assistant vice president and the chief of Metaverse for NFTICALLY)

00:23

Nadja

Hey, Web3 World, This is Nadja Bester co-founder of AdLunam, and you are listening to The Future of NFTs, where every single week we speak to amazing thought leaders, and pioneers in this incredible Web3 space that we all find ourselves in. Today is no different because today I am joined in the studio. It's cool because now we are not live on Twitter spaces anymore. I can actually say join in the studio. It's a digital remote studio, but still, by Ashok, I'm going to try and pronounce your name as correctly as I can, because I practiced your surname quite a few times, but I might still mess it up. But let's hear how it goes by, Ashok Balasubramanian? View Ashok Balasubramanian’s profile. I'm sorry, Ashok, your surname is very long. Even with all of my practice sessions, it still didn't go well. Ashok is the Assistant vice president and the chief of Metaverse for NFTICALLY and for come Earth.

01:29

Nadja

Again, I'm not 100% sure how to pronounce this. So, Ashok, I'm going to actually, once I finish introducing you, just ask you to maybe reintroduce the names of the companies. So Ashok is leading a challenging mission, and yes, I 100% agree, it's incredibly challenging to make Web3 accessible and affordable for brands, people, and communities worldwide. Anchoring the Web3 transition for some of the biggest brands in the world. Ashok is at the core of shaping the Metaverse and the NFT industry and guides the core team at NFTICALLY, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, building a unique e-commerce and social gamified metaverse. Very interesting to be speaking to Ashok today, because I think that definitely piques all of our interest to hear something like this. E-commerce and the metaverse is where a lot of people say things are going, but we haven't seen much. It's absolutely incredible to have someone on the show that is actually building and working on this.

02:37

Nadja

So with over 12,000 plus NFT projects hosted with NFTICALLY White label engine, Ashok and his team is inching closer towards making the metaverse a place for meaningful and experiential digital interaction between brands and consumers. So, Ashok, I think what we are talking about today is so pertinent in terms of what is going on in the industry at the moment. We are seeing very interesting movements in Web3, and I think if people are looking from the outside, if they are looking at what is happening in the industry, it might feel that there's not that much movement, because all we hear about is the bad things, the hacks, the scams, the market value that has been lost. And only if you work in Web3 do you hear about the positive growth and expansion that is taking place. So I always say, Web3 really depends on who you ask, what it means, the answer that you're going to get.

03:54

Nadja

The more that someone knows about it, the likelihood the answer is going to be positive. If you've only heard about it in passing, probably you're not going to have a very good definition. So please tell me, what is your definition of Web3? Please introduce yourself again so we can have the proper pronunciation.

04:17

Ashok

Absolutely. So good evening from India, and good morning to good afternoon to everyone who's listening to this amazing session from any part of the world. First of all, thank you for having me today. And trust me, Nadja, you've been doing an amazing job. I mean, people like you are going to be something very important for this space. Not just us, but people like you and your team who take this entire conversation to the global market, to people who are not aware of what's Web3, it's very important to educate everyone. Trust me, you're doing an amazing job. And let me introduce myself. My name is Ashok Balasubramanian. You can call me Ashok. And I'm the AVP and Chief of Metaverse for NFTICALLY. I have over a decade of experience in corporates, and I started working with corporates like Oracle. I was into business development and sales for more than six to seven years and then I moved on.

05:22

Ashok

I worked with almost the top 100 Fortune 500 companies, and I was working, leading the entire US operations, business operations, procurement, and intelligence for quite some time. And from there, I moved on. I had my own company, I jumped into entrepreneurship, and I was into a sports technology company. And that's when this everlasting love towards Web3 kicked off. Trust me, I heard about Web3 from some of my corporate friends. In terms of what's happening, the blockchain NFTs, it was pretty interesting. Forget about the foundation of fundamental, how this works, but that term in itself, it's pretty curious, gives a lot of curiosity for you to understand, to learn more about it. That was my first step to learning a lot about what's happening in this space. And that's how I ended up being in Web3. And now at NFTICALLY, we are one of the pioneers in bringing the SaaS atmosphere into Web3 space.

06:30

Ashok

07:44

Ashok

08:19

Nadja

09:29

Nadja

I mean, I'm sure you have family members and friends and people who absolutely have no clue what you do on a daily basis so how would you describe your service to someone who doesn't know anything? Because I think for me this is the biggest challenge that we are facing in this industry is even the fundamental foundational definitions that we use it's so much jargon. I also used to work in corporate. I worked in the pharma industry and in marketing. So you know I had the best or the worst of both worlds of Jargon because you use language that no one else understands and if you are used to speaking this way at the office and then you suddenly go home and you try to, you know, have those same conversations, which I'm sure we've all done. Or you meet friends and you almost instantly slip into this organ.

10:27

Nadja

So I feel like this is exactly what we are doing in web3. We have this bubble, right, where everyone that knows what's going on, can talk the talk and they can walk, but how do we onboard everyone else who has no clue? Please tell me how would you introduce what in fact anything whether it's the Metaverse or whether it's supporting brands coming into Metaverse. How do you tell your non-technical audience what you do as a company? Sure.

11:05

Ashok

12:12

Ashok

13:11

Ashok

I call it a second life. I mean, that's how I also start my conversation because that picks that curiosity from someone. What's that second life? People have more, they're done with one life. I mean, how would I do with two lives over there? So that's how I picked the conversation. And also when people talk about immersive in terms of the metaverse, how is that going to be affected? Will that be something going to be advantaged or it's going to be disadvantaged for people to start using the next generation of Internet? I tell them in one or the other form, we're already immersed in technology. If you look at everybody who's watching this, always listening to this, if you look at your mobile phones and see how much screen time you are actually using on your mobile phones, it's close to both 6 to 7 hours a day.

14:06

Ashok

I mean, precisely for someone who's into corporate or who's more digitally enabled person, they spend an average of 6 to 7 hours a day on mobile phones. We're already immersed into technology, into something like, you know, metaverse and now in the future, you know, instead of having a device, maybe you'll just feel just, being part of that different world. You need to have your own identity, you need to have your own avatar to go explore. Basically, Next Internet is all about learning and expressing who you are as an identity. That's the core focus. And brands are now still figuring out, I wouldn't say figure out probably the phase 2 of Facetious now learning in terms of how this new space is going to be built on. They're doing a lot of research on the next generation of consumers. The next generation of consumers is tricky. Trust me.

15:07

Ashok

You and I can correlate in terms of our journey toward what all we have seen, and what we have learned. But the next generation is tech savvies, the way they think, the way they buy things, the way they communicate with each other, their priorities, and what they have in their lives are completely different from the previous generation. Right now, brands are learning about the next generation of consumers.

15:40

Nadja

16:49

Nadja

Whether I believe in technology or not, it still is what makes the world tick. The way that money and power make the world tick. Well, technology is part of that package now. I really love what you said about we are not actually building this for the internet users of today. I think this is a very painful thing for a lot of people to think about and admit to themselves. Right? Because Jeff Bezos back when he started Amazon, he wasn't the guy that he is today. Elon Musk didn't start off I mean, if he had used Twitter in his early days, I don't think he would have had as many responses as he gets now, right? We look at these people at the height of it's debatable, whether it's fame or success or happiness or whatever you might call it, but we look at them much later in the endgame for them, and then we emulate or we want to have this life.

17:48

Nadja

But the reality is that founders now, the ones that are working in Web3, probably are not going to have the immediate successes or even the medium-term successes that they would want. That's a really painful thing to swallow if you're the project. It's also painful to swallow if you are the investors who invested in the project. Because we say that we're in it for the long haul, but we're not really, because long is not very long in this day and age. For sure we are seeing a lot of movement around brands and how brands are coming in and dipping a toe into the water. And I think recently the Porsche NFT collection that was such a huge public relations almost scandal in web3 where everyone was like oh, can you believe? You and I have both worked for corporates. We know that probably it was like two people somewhere in a back office and they just had the resources to do it.

18:50

Nadja

And it wasn't even like a truly planned thing probably, because they are just testing it out right now. Probably because they are just testing it out right now. I am extremely curious because we see a lot of movement at the big brand level and they are what gets the press and the media and the attention. With a platform such as yours, I'm so interested in learning about who are those, let's say, audience or user types that most often use your platform. Is it just brands or are we also seeing movement in other areas in the professional and business world?

19:29

Ashok

Sure. So if we look at NFTICALLY, as I mentioned, we're more like a Shopify for Web3 where if anybody wants to kick off a project, we'd drop an NFT, right? There are platforms like OpenCar, as I mentioned, OpenSea, and Rare Bill, which is an open public marketplace, just like Amazon and Flipkart. What we have currently for the Web2 scenario. Nevertheless, any brand that is still displaying its products on Amazon still has its own website, they still have their own marketplace. So we NFTICALLY want to simplify the complexity not just in the process, but also from an investment point of view, from a time process point of view. We want brands to build their own, marketplace with not much investment into it. I mean, 70% of our clients have gone live with their own marketplace, their own branded custom marketplace within a couple of days, right? And almost 20% of them have gone live within a couple of hours too, with their own marketplace.

20:38

Ashok

21:35

Ashok

22:46

Ashok

That's a two different ball game, right? I mean, technology is technology. It's all about the people who are going to use the technology, right? Be it positive, be it negative. It's all about the people who are going to use it. From a blockchain technology perspective, it's extremely well-poised for the next generation of users. And I also tell this to everyone before, if somebody wants to understand the Web3 or blockchain in one line, I would tell them you might have owned something in the real world, maybe your properties, maybe your cars, maybe whatever that you have owned in the real world. Web3 is going to give you the opportunity to own something on the internet. So far we've not owned anything. We could create multiple duplicate copies of anything that we want. But when you want to own something on the internet, I mean, that's where web3 technology or blockchain technology is poised.

23:44

Ashok

Technology or blockchain technology is poised. Coming back to the question, brands build these marketplaces and brands communicate this to their audience or fans, or community. That's how our platform gains traction from different brands and different communities and different projects. I mean, everybody has a different set of plans or strategies for how to engage or build that community. We're not kind of a service company where we help with every brand in terms of how they build a community. In fact, we just give the technology to them and they use our engine to engage and drop NFTs and create collections. There are a lot more aspect functional features that we offer that openSee or other platforms third-party marketplaces aren't offering. That's something that is helping brands to build more interactions and engagements within the platform.

24:44

Nadja

Yeah, thank you. That clears it up. I think what really stood out for me is you are supporting so many creators in the creator economy by taking exactly the philosophy to the core of your business's, DNA. We have this legacy thinking of service. Not to say that there's not a place for service. There is and there always will be. I think in a lot of ways because so much of the technology has been specialized up until now. I mean, if you look at being an artist, anime artist, I mean, I'm using a random example, but up until now, you would have had to learn step by step painstakingly how to animate. Now suddenly, okay, maybe this is a different question or conversation, but now we have generative AI that's coming in and what do you do? Do you ignore that it exists or do you fear it or do you kind of move with it and use it to your advantage?

25:52

Nadja

So I think what is going to happen with Web3 and is definitely something that I can very clearly see unfolding because I saw the same thing with the Internet when everything suddenly went online. I say suddenly because it wasn't actually suddenly, it was sudden to me keeping my ear to the ground. I saw the unfolding because I was part of it, I was working in that industry. To other people, it wasn't sudden at all. It took a long time. I think it's really interesting that as a company you take this approach of look, people want to create and they want to create simply, and easily. I mean, I think the proliferation that we are seeing of no-code platforms, it's so timely because now is the time when people go, I don't want to wait until I reach this level or until I have these resources.

26:52

Nadja

27:55

Nadja

28:54

Nadja

29:23

Ashok

30:31

Ashok

I'm not saying that we're going to have a graph that is going to be completely inclined toward an extreme height. But when I say up, it's a progressive growth where more people try to understand what this is all. About and especially the foundation of blockchain from a capacity point of view as the founders, as part of the stakeholder, where we build or shape this industry, we could figure out what all blockchain could do, right? It will take some time for the new users to understand, and learn, right? There will be users who are going to be sticking to this technology. There will be users who are not fast learners or quick learners who will drop out and will start saying that this is not going to work for them. For example, let's talk about wallets. I mean, there are people who have got used to a simple process of signing up, using your email, you know, signing up to your phone numbers or whatnot.

31:36

Ashok

32:36

Ashok

33:28

Ashok

We still don't know. We know what blockchain could deliver. We don't know what they could serve for the next generation of community using the blockchain. That's why we're coming up with e-commerce social gamified. Because the next generation of consumers, if you look at the 15 years or 22 years of internet users, they are more inclined toward the gaming culture. I mean, I've not seen one who has not played a single game, you know, over the last eight to ten Years. This segment of the audience becomes a major consumer market over the next five to six years, the way they expect brands to communicate or convey things to them needs to be more gamified, more in an immersive environment. That's where we see a lot of developments happening in the metaverse. That's where all these big brands are creating separate teams to first research about this generation, understand what they want, understand what they like, and then slowly start building that in the digital world or the virtual world.

34:30

Ashok

35:06

Nadja

I want to just extract from this whole conversation the beauty of education because I'm sitting here thinking to myself, I can't believe it's my job to talk to people about this stuff because it feels like I should be paying to do this. It's such an incredibly rich environment where you are talking to other people who are actively engaged with what the future is going to hold. I think this for me is so much of what you said boils down to we are running the race and we are way over there. When we look back, we don't understand, but why is the crowd not cheering for me? Because I just won. The crowd doesn't even see her because the crowd is watching the rest of the race, and it's much slower than the little sprint that you did. I think this is what I've understood over I mean, I don't know.

36:07

Nadja

37:08

Nadja

I can't comprehend that. Even if I try to understand what it must be like, I have no idea because I had a life before all of this. In the same sense, it's so incredibly important. I loved how you said it's not for everybody right now. It's for those people who are going to take the opportunity that's here now and they are going to apply it or run with it in whichever capacity they want, whether they are a startup founder and they create a new company or whether they are a big brand or just someone who loves technology and after a few years realizes, oh my God. I can actually change my life with this. It's not about the chart and what the price is at now. And that's one conversation of many. Tell me, you say that it's a year of progress and I 100% agree.

38:06

Nadja

Where do you think is going to be the key areas of progress? We've seen a lot of movement with brands. I'm personally seeing a lot of movement with Web 2.5. Rather than kind of jumping into this term that no one even knows what it is, okay, but how am I going to run this race and not be the only one at the finish line? Where do you think the key areas are going to be that will be noticeable? The people at the end of the year will go, wow, these were the defining moments or defining sort of periods or events in Web3's timeline.

38:53

Ashok

39:57

Ashok

41:05

Ashok

42:00

Ashok

42:56

Ashok

They assume this could work, but the point is they also have a plan by saying maybe this might not work, but we are okay to innovate, we are okay to learn from whatever that we're building. I mean, what do we want, what is our community expecting? Nobody knows unless you bring in your community to play within a space, and get them to engage with whatever you're trying to build over there, then you will know about what they want and then you start tweaking how you want to serve the community maybe in the later stages. So that's how brands are moving towards. I mean, they are building amazing strategies, they are building amazing experiences. More importantly, people use Metaverse not just to sell, but also to communicate their brand stories. I mean, something which you can't do in the real world. Brands are trying to do that in the metaverse and in a more unrealistic way because we're always inclined towards these wow factors every consumer over there, I mean, whenever we see something very pleasing, we will walk down across the street.

44:01

Ashok

Out of 20 shops, if there are one or two shops that have built an amazing exterior, we say wow, this shop looks interesting. It's because of where you position yourself in front of your consumer's eyes. Similarly, when you want to build something on Metaverse, brands are coming up with something really unrealistic. The innovation, the thought process, and the ideas are unlimited. You can build whatever you want to build. Unlike in the real world, there are a lot of restrictions to build, what you want to build. But in the metaverse, people are brands are building some interesting concepts, especially, you know, if I have to talk about certain brands where they don't see, there is a survey that 90% of the customers, they have not dropped into the real world stores or complexes over the last three, four years. They are buying the product somehow, right? They have not seen, they've not stepped in.

44:58

Ashok

For example, there's a tire company that we are working with, it's one of the world's largest tire brands. What they've seen is they're not able to communicate or engage with the audience in the real world because I don't see when I last stepped into a tire store and understood the types of tires and bought a tire, right? And now they are building in Metaverse, they're building an amazing experience center where they're all talking about they are showcasing how tires are being built, what is the entire supply chain, they educate, how to choose best tires, these things. You cannot do this in the real world. Whatever marketing campaign you do, you won't be able to get that communication done with the community you want to target. So that's how brands are building. I mean, there are a lot of things I can talk about.

45:50

Ashok

I don't know if I can give you a lot more information because those are IPS of different brands, but I can give you a holistic view of how brands are seeing this.

46:02

Nadja

47:07

Nadja

For sure there are other people already building and using the same technologies and many more will come in. Because you are an existing company and you don't necessarily need to raise funds to start the company or you don't need to raise funds to grow the company, I think that really leaves them open to balancing the Hype and the utility, because, yes, they should be Hype. Because Hype is just, in some sense, a synonym for attention. The problem is that we forget that it's two sides of the same coin. We only want the Hype, but what do we do with the Hype after we have it? I mean, it's like I go outside my door and I see a bunch of street animals and I have held up a big bag of food and I say, come get it, come eat. As soon as they are there, I close the door because I don't know what to do with them because I don't actually have any food in the back.

48:04

Nadja

So, I mean, in the same sense, this is what we've seen in web3, but now brands, as much as people don't want the regulation, people don't want the commercialization, the capitalization of this industry, but at the same time, it's really bringing a very healthy balance that I can especially see as you've been expanding on this idea that utility is always there. Because if there's no utility, then why are you even doing this? The interesting thing is that this is how the audience, the everyday user, is going to demand utility, right? Because the only reason they are there right now I mean, why would I go to the metaverse of a tire company? I agree with you. I can't remember when last I was at a tire company, but I'm thinking I don't want to go to a metaverse of a tire company.

48:58

Nadja

49:57

Ashok

51:03

Ashok

51:55

Ashok

52:47

Nadja

You touched on something so important. If we remove the web3 aspect from the equation, how many people would randomly just invest in anything if it's a traditional stock market? I know it's very different because web3 is very experimental but how easily do people part with their money even at a traditional stock, in traditional stock when they know the growth is maybe not incredible but they trust in these brands, they've been around for decades, even in some cases for hundreds of years. So you put a lot of thought into it but then you come into web3 and suddenly well I mean did you know you could 60 x or 100 x and suddenly you throw your money at it without even understanding what it is? I think this is another aspect of education that really has to be strengthened and lifted up almost. Because if you think about it like a table, I mean, one leg might be the gains that you are going to make, but there are other legs.

54:00

Nadja

When you are investing, you should be so mindful of what you are trying to get out of it. Because I think, as you rightly say, it's all about identity. If I'm investing in something and this is not the traditional stock market, I definitely would not invest in certain companies in the traditional stock market because what they do is completely against my values and my ethics. So I wouldn't do it in web3 either but I'm not a speculative investor. Now there is a place for those people but I think unfortunately the conversation has become so centered around that is what web3 is. It's a bunch of people desperately trying to get rich and they just throw money at projects that run away with it. Really what I'm getting from this conversation is just how important it is. And I get this from every conversation because this is the basics of the business world, is an NFT project is no different from a business and a Metaverse project is no different from a business in the real world, we still have to have value statements and mission and we still have to have certain fundamentals that we build on.

55:18

Nadja

One of these is if I get someone's attention once, how do I sustain that attention? That is the same question that every single business owner in every industry with any technological era has ever asked because that's the key question, right? Tell me, we have covered so many different aspects in terms of the metaverse and NFTs and the industry but how is the metaverse going to change the lives and NFTs as part of that of the average person, the average consumer who doesn't know anything about what we are talking about right now.

56:11

Ashok

Firstly, thank you for asking this question because this is the most important question for this session is what I would say, right? In terms of how this going to be changing the lives of common people. I mean, what people are going to be utilizing Metaverse in the future. So if fundamentally what I see is web3, the metaverse is going to be something, it's going to change your lifestyle in the future. It's a change of lifestyle, not just a change of technology, right? I mean, it's a change of lifestyle. When you wake up, you ended up reading your phone or looking at your phone. I mean, that's how we all do these days. Our lifestyles have changed without a phone, I'm pretty sure not more than a day that we can survive, especially technology-enabled persons like us. Trust me, we won't be able to serve on a day.

57:10

Ashok

Similarly, Metaverse is going to be kind of a lifestyle change where people are going to be exploring different worlds, and different experiences built by brands that are using it on a regular real-world basis. I mean, you use a lot of branded items in your regular real-world scenario. Maybe a watch, maybe a cooler, maybe your T-shirts, shoes, whatever that you use, maybe a cosmetic or a personal product that you've been using. All these brands are going to be coming into Metaverse and giving you a lot more experiential or immersive way of communicating what they're going to launch in the next future. I mean, trust me, all projects are going to be first Metaverse products and then they'll come to the real world for the simple fact that Metaverse will have a selective, loyal community who gives direct feedback in terms of how that new project is all about.

58:13

Ashok

From there they'll start to plan to launch in the real world. For the common people, when they want to explore Metaverse, the first thing they'll get into is a wallet and then it's going to be every asset that you wear or you exposed to becomes an NFT. It's not that NFT is something where you invest and you wait for that project to grow and then gain the return from that. The initial set of web3 growth we have seen in the future. If you have to step into Metaverse, like how we step out of a house, you need to wear a nice t-shirt, nice pants, nice shoes, nice coolers, and hats. However you want to express yourself in the real world, the similar set of things you will start expressing in the virtual world too. All those assets we call Glass is an asset, a t-shirt is an asset, and all these assets are also NFTs, right?

59:19

Ashok

The common man, when he wants to be part of a community in the Metaverse, which will have a lot of value that you won't get in the real world, maybe a t-shirt. What I'm wearing right now costs me, say, $100. Maybe in the metaverse, that could cost me way less than $100, which nobody would want to miss out. It's just a matter of signing in and just claiming those tokens or NFTs, whatever that brand is launching in the metaverse. When you go there, you step into a different world. You want to explore a lot of things. Not about just buying. I mean, they're going to be live concerts. There are going to be a lot of things happening in that world. Everything becomes NFT for a common man, getting into the metaverse, whatever that you want to express in that world becomes an NFT, becomes an asset.

Ashok

Right. You don't have to really worry about the investment that you do, or the gain that you're going to get. Those things are going to be slowly going away. Those are still going to be there. But predominantly we will see people investing in assets that give them a better look or gives them a better feeling of expressing themselves in that world where they don't care about the returns on the investment, what they've made on the asset, as an NFT.

Nadja

Yeah, we have some exciting times up ahead. I think for me, what really stands out about this whole evolution of web3 is the immersiveness of it. We are creatures. We are a species that love to escape somewhere else. There are healthy ways of doing this. I went hiking yesterday. It was amazing. I forgot about the world. I was out in the mountains. You can do this via drugs and alcohol, which is definitely not advised. You can do this via music or looking at art. Very soon you'll be able to enter other people's minds in a way that you couldn't before because as you said, so many of these brands are so innovative and out there. And I mean, if you up until now have only had the experience of playing a game, I don't know, the web2 way, and suddenly I know gaming is something that there's going to be a lot of changes in the future that we won't necessarily see now already.

Nadja

Whether you are using an NFT for any of the 200,000 purposes that are going to be out there that you can use the technology for or being in a metaverse for whatever reason, I think what always stands out for me is coming back to this idea of definitions. If my definition of a metaverse is X and you tell me, oh, but the metaverse is so great, I don't quite agree with you and I might even change my opinion of you because what do you mean the metaverse is great? I mean, that's not the definition for everybody, what it is for me. I think a lot of conversation needs to happen over the next few years, especially things like we are doing now, people need to have these conversations. They need to understand. They might not need to understand everything, but they need to understand things in bite-sized chunks and related to where they are.

Nadja

It's amazing to hear about all of the brand movements that are happening because I think they are going to pioneer the space. I don't want to say shape because I think there's so much room for everybody to come in. And this is really, for me, the most democratizing thing about Web3 is literally the technology is there and anyone can use it. You don't need to be a big brand, especially with platforms like yours. It's so easy to use this technology so anyone can come in and help shape and people are helping and they will still. The big brands are definitely going to pioneer a lot of other possibilities, That's not just investments I think. As you say, we will slowly be seeing a phasing out of all of this. Because when the average person starts onboarding, I mean, we have examples like Reddit that doesn't call it NFTs, we have Starbucks with their loyalty program.

Nadja

And these companies are really successful at getting users onto these Web3 platforms, but they are not really making the focus on Web3, they are just making the focus on I mean, if you join, this is what you get. And yeah, it's exciting times. I think that we are going to see a lot of very interesting things happen this year and over the next 5,10, and 20 years. Probably by the time we are old and gray and we are watching this video because we want to reminisce about the distant past, we won't be able to believe what level of conversation this was because the world will look completely different. Ashok, thank you so much for your time to think. Just incredible insights and a very great landscape check of what is happening. So any last thoughts before we close? Also please let us know where would be the best place for people to follow you or the company or both.

Ashok

Sure. My last closing sentence would be for both the brands as well as for the common people. I mean, we all know that there was a time when we were finding it difficult to use a mobile phone, right? I mean, nobody wanted to have a mobile phone, but now it's inevitable. I mean, you can't just be without accessing a device like a mobile phone or a technology like the Internet, right? Sooner or later, the world is going to be changing, right? I mean, we already see a lot of surveys saying that in the next, three or four years, 60% of the world population will be Gen Z or the millennials. I mean, when I say world population, the population who are using the internet, the new Internet, right? So if you don't want to be left behind I mean, it's the right time.I'm not asking you to invest, any resources or money into it.

Ashok

Invest your time, invest your mind in terms of learning, and understand what this technology is all about. If you have acquired every information about this and then step into this again to learn, I mean, nobody can actually step into this after. If you think that I need to know everything, all A-Z about blockchain A to Z, about Metaverse and NFTs, and then I want to step in and understand what's all about, trust me, you will not even learn the tip of the iceberg, right? The best way to learn is to get into it, right? I mean, nothing better than sitting outside the shore and seeing how big is the ocean. Step into the ocean. So you'll know a lot more about how beautiful that ocean is all about. Similarly, That's what blockchain and methods are all about. Step into this, learn a lot and just gear up yourself for the next Internet that is going to be coming up really very soon.

Ashok

I'm not going to say how soon that is, but that's very soon that you're going to see that huge change in how you see the Internet from using it right now. Absolutely.

Nadja

Absolutely Agreed. So where do you prefer to be contacted or followed? I think this is probably the most important question at this strange juncture that we have right now in the world. What is your favorite Web2 social media platform?

Ashok

You can follow me on Twitter at ashy_Web3. And you could also follow me on LinkedIn, Ashok Balasubramanian you can follow our company page NFTICALLY and also Come Earth. There are a lot of amazing initiatives we are launching in the next couple of weeks for you to get into our world and experience a lot of different things in our world. In our world, we have eight continents and we're going to launch just one continent in the first phase and then launch multiple continents later on in every continent is built with 80% of topography, which means 80% of oceans, rocks, and mountains. As you see in the real world, maybe 15% are with land parcels, with brands or communities, or with celebrities. Artists take up those land parcels and engage every regular week or day with the community. There are a lot of initiatives, a lot of prizes, a lot of exciting stuff going on.

Ashok

Not just from Comets, but also from the brands associated with Comet, and the communities associated with comets. I mean, all 12,000 marketplace owners who we are covering are going to be stepping into our world in the next coming months or coming years. That's the beauty of us launching metaverse because we already are serving a huge community and there are going to be a lot of things that are going to be given away for the new users to learn more about the community and more learn more about the products, learn more about the brands. So follow come earth, Follow NFTICALLY on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We are available everywhere. We also have Discord, we also have Twitter. Please follow us and be prepared in terms of facing the next Internet.

Nadja

I think that sounds very exciting. So, speaking of asking the community what it wants, now that we have moved over to a video recording rather than with the spaces that we used to have, I no longer have a signature hello, and I no longer have a signature sign-off. I almost feel like I don't quite know how to close the episode. So if you have any suggestions, if you're listening to this, please contact us at AdLunam and tell us what you prefer. Ashok, Thank you so much. This was absolutely amazing to be spending this time with you today. I think, as always, it just gives me so much hope for what is being built behind the scenes. I think we are going to see some amazing changes happening all over in the next few years, definitely, but even in the next few months, way closer to where we are now, so definitely agreed.

Nadja

Keep eyes peeled and ears open, because everyone is doing I mean, everyone, as in probably still it's 0.1% of the world population, but everyone who is doing something is doing something. So this is a really exciting time. I know that I missed the early generation wave of the Internet, and I've always felt like I really missed out. If you're listening to this, you don't need to be a brand. You don't need to be anything else than an ordinary human being who is curious and wants to learn more. That's exactly what's going to put you in the right place because not everyone likes to learn, and not everyone likes to know what tomorrow is going to bring. A lot of people, for some reason, like to be surprised. Unfortunately, if you're surprised, it's very often an unpleasant surprise. So, yeah, be proactive and listen to conversations like these and definitely follow Ashok.

Nadja

We'll have all of this in the show notes as well. So, yeah, Ashok, thank you so much. It was an absolute pleasure, and I look forward to seeing what you guys are going to build. In fact, I actually want to speak to you a little bit more about this because I'm writing a book this year that's very much focused on looking at the practicalities of Web3, how people can apply Web3 technologies in their lives, in their businesses now already. I would love to speak to you more about some of the insights of what you guys are seeing. Let's connect for a future chat and would also be very nice to be able to bring that to the community and showcase what you are seeing from this unique vantage point. Because I think that's really the key, as you say, is you see a lot of things that are being built that people don't have access to and so your insights are so invaluable in the sense.

Nadja

So, yeah, we're looking forward to having you on again. With that, speak to you in the audience next week on The Future of NFTs. Cheers.