31 – Crypto Adoption Continues VIA Spotify, Robinhood & Australia Zoo! What Crypto Did

Tracey: [00:00:19] Welcome to the Crypto Curious podcast designed to help you navigate the dynamic world of cryptocurrency. We are here for anyone who is interested in crypto at all. Maybe you've already dipped your toe in the water, or maybe you don't know anything about it. And this is the very beginning. But we recommend heading back to the early episodes to get your footing. However, if you think you're ready to dive in headfirst, then let's do it. My name is Tracey and I'm here with my mates, Blake and Craig from the Bamboo App. Hi, guys. How are you going today? 

Blake: [00:00:48] Good. Tracey. Yeah. Apologies in advance for any construction happening behind me, but it is what it is. 

Tracey: [00:00:55] Craig how You going there with the nice cityscape in the background? 

Craig: [00:00:58] Not too bad, Tracey. 

Tracey: [00:01:00] Look, another week has passed in crypto. We catch our breath a little as the market hasn't moved too much after what was a violent shakeout that saw Top ten coin Luna crash over 95% in true headline grabbing fashion. Though we are still feeling the effects from the past month, which has seen 30% taken off the big guy Bitcoin, he hovers at the time of recording valued at 30,000 USD. Now I feel like we want to take this opportunity to somewhat defend the crypto space as it's made out that this recent drop, coupled with the lunar debacle, is one big disaster. Bitcoin to zero is being cried out again when in actual fact crypto is the one weathering a storm a lot better than your average tech stocks right now. In fact, a lot better. Boy, did you know that we've actually lost around $25 trillion across all markets from all time highs of last year. So 2021. And now that's a massive loss. And I'm going to give you a few names here from a few big market portfolio staples that are not looking so healthy right now. So we've got metal, which is down 48%, GameStop 72%, DocuSign 74%, Netflix 73%, and Zoom 83%. And that's just naming a few. Now I point this out because with the lunar blowing up and crypto markets dumping like they did, it's easy to paint a not so pretty picture of the crypto markets. But in reality, this crash is affecting all markets at the same time and Bitcoin itself is actually only down 57% from its all time high last year. So it's actually performed better in this downturn than many of those tech stocks that I mentioned. Yet it's still deemed as risky. So, you know, I'm interested to get your thoughts, boys. Could this pattern potentially be changing now? What do you think? 

Blake: [00:02:59] Yeah, I think bitcoin not going all the way. 9% down yet shows a good sign. But I actually did say the other day that the amount of people with at least one bitcoin in their wallet has actually hit all time high. So that's that sort of tells me that there is conviction this time around and I think I can probably talk to the previous crashes a bit more. But I think, you know, in a general sense of the investment world, Bitcoin is still sort of holding up. 

Tracey: [00:03:29] So that means people are holding. 

Craig: [00:03:31] I think that it's a really good point because as the price of Bitcoin lowers, it gives people more buying capacity to then, you know, achieve and and afford one bitcoin. It's still very expensive to buy one Bitcoin, but it obviously opens up the market for a lot of people compared to it being 60,000 USD. 

Tracey: [00:03:52] So again, what you're saying is that it's a bit of an opportunity right now for people who haven't previously been able to get into the market, to get into the market at a lower cost. 

Craig: [00:04:00] Yeah, potentially. It certainly increases buying capacity for people looking to invest. But just to address the other point there, Tracey, that, you know, we are seeing you're diminishing volatility in the crypto market as it moves towards maturity. Now, when the market capitalisation or the overall value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies was much lower, it would move a lot more drastically, either up or down. Whereas now I think what we're seeing is the, you know, there's more people participating in the in the ecosystem is that you're we're not going to see the volatility that we used to see, which is good in some ways, because it's going to be a lot less scary for people to enter the market. But at the same time, it means that we're not going to see, you know, the ten or 100 X growth like we would have seen five or six years ago. 

Tracey: [00:04:57] Mm hmm. And a lot of times, it just me guys. It doesn't. I feel like there has been as much panic in this drop. It is because that the people on dealing with and talking to like you guys and others, we've been through it before. Or is there still just as much panic out there?

Blake: [00:05:10] Well, I just you know, I love the Fear and greed index. Well, it's actually the all time low right now. It's at I think it hit eight and seven me that lowest. That tells me that people are still panicking. 

Craig: [00:05:21] What is the fear and greed index, Craig?

Blake: [00:05:23] I've covered this before, but it pretty much measures social price, measures activity, and it just tells you if the if they think the market is greedy or if it's fearful and they say, you know. 

Tracey: [00:05:35] A little gauge. 

Blake: [00:05:36] In the fearful times you should be buying, in the greedy times you should be selling. And right now, out of 100, it's eight, which is extreme fear.

Tracey: [00:05:44] So it's extreme fear, which means you should be buying. But everyone. So it's so hard is the opposite. Is that.

Blake: [00:05:49] What do you think about this market? Crazy what you think about Bitcoin in particular? 

Tracey: [00:05:52] Well, look, you know, Bitcoin's Bitcoin. I think the fundamentals haven't changed. And that leads me into the next story, which is about adoption of Bitcoin. And let's look at what's going on right now in El Salvador. Delegates from 44 countries are about to meet in El Salvador to talk all about Bitcoin. El Salvador was the first country to actually accept Bitcoin as legal tender and it's all thanks to their president. Nayib bukele. And he loves bitcoin. If you follow his Twitter account, you'd know this. He's always going on about Bitcoin, and some of the countries invited to me include Paraguay, Egypt, Nigeria, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Ghana and Madagascar. Now, when researching this earlier in the week, I found out that Madagascar has a population of over 28 million people, which is awesome. I did not know that. I told Craig that yesterday he really knew that fact. Apparently he pulled it out when he's on dates with the ladies. So that is massive. 28 million. So true story, folks. So again, on researching these countries, I came across a similar story that took place in July 1944, where, again, delegates from 44 countries met together, but this time they were there for the Bretton Woods conference. So back in 1944, they talked about international economic cooperation. And after this, they would go on to create the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, and then the World Bank. Boys, is this history repeating itself? I mean, we won't see a new World Bank coming from this made up. But, Blake, is this one step closer to getting more countries to adopt Bitcoin? 

Craig: [00:07:31] Yeah, and it's pretty interesting that they're all meeting and certainly the president of El Salvador is going to be promoting Bitcoin. And, you know, there's another Nigeria in particular has massive crypto adoption. And, you know, many of these other countries I've heard have been looking at it as well. So I think it's going to be really interesting to kind of hear what comes out of that. And, you know, if any of these other countries start moving in that direction and following suit, the same as El Salvador. 

Tracey: [00:08:02] We chatted about El Salvador this week and you were telling me a few things that didn't really go as planned for the adoption. Do you want to catch everyone else up to speed on that?

Blake: [00:08:10] As we know, the El Salvadorian president loves Bitcoin. He's been buying it throughout a like about a year now. He's been buying it for the country, I guess, and he wanted to, you know, get the El Salvadorian citizens onto Bitcoin. And, you know, he gave everyone the $30 incentive to start using Chivo, I think it's called which is Chivo, which is the national crypto wallet. And what happened was he said to everyone, you know, start using Chivo, we'll give you $30 when you sign up. And what actually happened was 61% of the citizens just withdrew it straight away. 

Tracey: [00:08:45] So he's and didn't continue to use it. 

Blake: [00:08:48] You know, he's giving away free money, essentially. And on top of that, to compound his bad timing and bad marketing, he's actually also down $30 million on his position, which is not ideal. But, you know, I do see him pop up on Twitter and he's like, you know, El Salvador just bought the dip. I'm like, how many dips are we buying here? Like, he's a saint is I just see him buying every single dip. But I guess that's, you know, he's getting into Bitcoin, you know, relatively early in the grand scheme of things. So it being a first movers, these things can happen. But what are your thoughts on it? Chase Yeah. 

Tracey: [00:09:25] He's such a fanboy. I think he was meant to be the headline speaker from memory at that Miami conference, but he didn't get there in the end. But he was he was meant to be the headline speaker. Look, I absolutely agree with that. And I think it's tough being an early adopter for this kind of technology, especially with something like crypto. And it's no surprise to see that his best laid plans maybe haven't exactly worked out the way he wanted, but they're still good signs, however, because we've already seen the Central African Republic join the club this year, and with 44 countries meeting this week all chatting about bitcoin, I won't be surprised if we see a few more join. Soon and that'd be some good news. Time for an ad break now. But when we get back, let's discuss a couple of the big name apps getting into the crypto web3 space this week. And a hint you might be listening to this podcast on one of those apps right now. This week, Robin Hood has announced that he's planning to launch a user controlled crypto wallet similar to Metamask by the end of the year. According to the company, the incoming wallet will let users trade and swap crypto with no network fees. I think this is really big news and I'll tell you why. But Craig, can you give us a rundown on who Robinhood is? 

Blake: [00:10:38] Yes, a Robinhood a lock and investment super app. In the US they give their users options to trade crypto ETFs, stocks and options, which is pretty crazy. They are super popular with the younger generation, new investors. They were actually caught up a lot in the GameStop Reddit saga last year where a bunch of Reddit traders jumped on Robinhood, pumped the price of GameStop, and then Robinhood actually paused trading, which caused a whole news piece about Robinhood. But either way, the huge they've got over 22 million users. So this is really interesting from them. 

Tracey: [00:11:18] Yeah. So a lot of those users bought crypto on Robinhood when it became available during the all time highs last year in the hype and they realised they couldn't actually move the coins off the Robinhood app. So Robinhood tried to fix this with a crypto wallet that they released earlier this year. However, there were only seven coins that you could transfer out and there was a daily cap on the transfers as well. So this now what Robinhood is doing is trying to produce a wallet that has some real functionality to it. It claims to let the users have control over their own keys, earn yield and trade or swap crypto on other exchanges. It will also buy and hold nfts. So all of that with no network fees, which all sounds pretty good. 

Craig: [00:12:03] I don't know how they're going to be covering the network fees because sometimes the fees costs, you know, just as much as the trade. So yeah, it's going to be interesting how they do that if they're using a layer two or some other mechanism. Sounds like it's going to be cost a lot of money. 

Tracey: [00:12:19] Well, I was going to say, Blake, you across all this kind of thing, it doesn't sound too good to be true. Like, aside from the network fees, you know, you're the only one of us over in the US right now. Would you use it? Does. What else can you say that may not work here? 

Craig: [00:12:33] And I'm not really sure how they'd be doing it, you know, unless they're aggregating it somehow on the back end of making their own markets, which is entirely possible. But yeah, I haven't looked into it to be honest. 

Tracey: [00:12:46] I just I was trying to work out the logistics of it. Like, would you, would you log in and then you'd be able to jump into open seas or would you be able to log into sushi swap within their app? 

Craig: [00:12:55] I suspect that they would have their own market and then they would have their off chain ledger that would, you know, mitigate the need to do on chain transactions. And therefore, you know, there would be no network fees. So that's one way that they could do it. But I'm not really sure. But what's really interesting is Sam, the founder of FCX, has invested into them in the last week. Did you hear about that? 

Tracey: [00:13:22] Yeah, I did. I saw that news also. Did you see that, Craig?

Blake: [00:13:26] Yeah, I did say that. I mean, judging by what you've said, Tracey, in the research that I've done, it seems like it's going to be a competitor to Metamask where they'll have this Robinhood wallet, non-custodial wallet that people are able just to load up and use across sushi opensea with no real ties to the Robinhood account. So I think it's it's really interesting.

Tracey: [00:13:49] It's actually worth touching a bit more on that story from I think it was last week or the week before with FDX and Sam Blake. 

Craig: [00:13:55] Yeah, for sure. So he's acquired a nine or 10% stake in Robinhood, which I'm sure would have cost hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to to do, which is really interesting. And it just makes me think that Robinhood would be sourcing liquidity from FDX. So basically it's a customer acquisition play to 22 million potential new users. So yeah, really interesting to see how that's going to play out. 

Tracey: [00:14:22] Well, let's keep an eye on that one as it happens. So if you are listening to this podcast on Spotify, you might be interested in this next piece of news. They've just rolled out testing for some users on Android in the US. That currently includes NFT previews for artists like Steve Aoki and UK band The Wombats. In a statement this week, a Spotify spokesperson said Spotify is running a test in which it will help a small group of artists promote their existing third party NFT offerings via their artist profiles. So according to this release, Bonafide won't actually collect a commission for any NFT sales made through the app and is just testing the integration here. Is this Spotify keeping up with the times and trying to get their share of a commission split because they'll inevitably jump in this market anyway? What are your thoughts, Craig? 

Blake: [00:15:13] Yeah, sounds like another company trying to get amongst the. Of tea craze that's happening right now. But I've actually done some more research, Tracey, and it's just that artists have the ability just to, like, show off their collection. So, for example, of Steve Aoki, you go on his artist page on Spotify, we probably can't see in Australia, but maybe in the US you can see it. You go into his artist page and you can actually see the collections that he has. And then when you click on one of the nfts, you get taken to open, say, to buy. So I guess they try to appeal to artists that. 

Tracey: [00:15:48] I guess eventually though, it could be written into the contract that if it's come through Spotify, they're going to get their share of the revenue.

Craig: [00:15:53] Yeah, yeah. I would say it's just a proof of concept for them to test the integration, and I would look at how they would commercialise it thereafter once they can see, you know, how easy it is to extend across their broader platforms. 

Blake: [00:16:08] And we've spoken about music and NFT before, so I feel like if Spotify get on the bleeding edge of artists being able to NFT, whether it's concert tickets or experiences all through their app, then they're going to be like the best place for new artists to release music. 

Craig: [00:16:24] Well, it's this raise that this raises an interesting point. And, you know, one of the use cases for Nfts is for there to be peer to peer settlement of value. But if if you're doing it on Spotify, what's the point of it kind of diminishes the use of blockchain technology because you're using a third party. It's like it's like storing crypto with your bank, you know, storing bitcoin with your bank where it's good in some use cases, but you know, it kind of diminishes its whole use case. 

Blake: [00:16:57] But I guess Spotify wouldn't necessarily be facilitating the transactions. I mean, you could probably do P2P, but Spotify would just help promote it because if Spotify was going to be the place that people listen to music. Wouldn't it make sense if that was the place? Yeah. The artists could market the NFT collections just like you would just like you would market on Google.

Craig: [00:17:16] I don't think they're going to be they're going to be letting letting artists promote, you know, selling third party products on their platform. They're going to want a piece of the pie and to be involved in, you know, every facet of it. 

Blake: [00:17:29] But that's what this is. BLACK When you when you see Steve Aoki's collection, you got to opensea. 

Craig: [00:17:33] Yeah, they're going to want to internalise it. 

Tracey: [00:17:36] Maybe will make that to a crypto curious debate coming soon to a capital city near you, Craig versus Blake. But someone else pointed out too that all these big companies are getting into the NFT web3, you know, crypto craze at the moment. But it's obvious it's coming because apparently Spotify and Instagram the same had just had jobs up on Seagen LinkedIn a year ago, advertising for the exact same thing. So we can tell these companies that are coming up, you know, they're all placing these jobs up for these specific needs. But look, one last piece of Home-Grown news to finish up on, boys, if I may. The world famous Australian Zoo is creating a unique Australian themed NFT collection. The collection is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Queensland based zoo. The Wildlife Warriors and all the primary proceeds will be donated to the Australian Zoo and its associated conservation organisations. So the project itself will be built upon a carbon neutral algorand blockchain. So I'm looking forward to this one. And if anyone's not been to the Australian Zoo, it's awesome. It's one of the best zoos, I think, not just in Australia but in the world. So I'm really excited about this little project. Craig You can actually get yourself a real live monkey NFT instead of a cartoon one. What do you think? 

Blake: [00:18:49] I think it's another example of a company using NFT to raise money, whether it's for charitable causes or just to build a fan base. But yeah, Australia Zoo being creative and yeah, good on them for trying to get amongst the NFT craze. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. I'm sure environmental wildlife lovers will get onto this, but I don't know how many people are going to jump on that algorand. I don't even know how to use Algorand, let alone Australia Zoo. 

Tracey: [00:19:18] Well, you know what, the thing with this and like you might agree is that when, when companies like these guys do that, education comes into play. If they're going to make a play and do this and they want to do this well, they're going to have to educate people on how to do this. So this is where, you know, I love I love this because it means that there's just more education out there. Blake, are you going to get yourself a nice little fluffy koala or something?

Craig: [00:19:38] Yeah, I would definitely check them out. It would be interesting to see where the proceeds go and what they're going to be used for. And certainly if it goes towards conservation of your endangered species or you're saying that you could adopt an animal in the zoo for for your particular purpose, that'd be, you know, pretty interesting to check out. 

Tracey: [00:19:59] Yeah, it's cool. It's cool. I can I think we'll leave it there to you guys. And look, we love hearing from you, our listeners and finding out what you want to know about crypto and especially when it comes to news stories. If you heard something this week that you think that we need to talk about, then please send us an email. It's podcast at Get Bamboo. Audio or follow us on social media.

Blake: [00:20:18] And guys, we have now opened up a Facebook group. So it's called Crypto Curious Community Group on Facebook. So give that to search myself, Blake and trace your org in that group. So we'll be answering questions and episodes and I just want to build a group of crypto curious people to chat about crypto so you can join join that when you get a chance. 

Tracey: [00:20:40] And if you are enjoying the episodes and please make sure that you hit the follow button when you're listening to us like right now. So that way that you will get notified every time we release a new episode so you won't miss one. We'd also love you to share this podcast with your friends and family because we know there are a lot of crypto curious people out there, so please send them our way and don't forget to write and review us in your podcast app. Thanks again for listening and we hope you'll join us next week. Bye for now. 

Craig: [00:21:06] Thanks, guys.