How Ankr is helping developers build on Web3 with Microsoft Azure

0:00I'm Ashton Addison from Block West capital for investment pitch media and today on the cryptocoin show we have Kev silk the head of app chains at anchor Kev welcome to the show and thank you for taking the time absolutely thanks for having me Ashton pleasure to be here likewise excited to have anchor back for the third time uh in the past we've talked about the liquid staking and this

0:21time we're going to more focus on app chains and regulation as well which I feel is a very Hot Topic in cryptocurrency hopefully for the positive as well at this time but before we dive into anchor let's just start with a little bit on your background how you got involved into anchor and then we'll dive into all the details yeah absolutely so I've been with anger

0:41for about two years now uh before that I worked at a research firm called Gartner all sudden around blockchain but anchor was a big um it was probably my favorite token out of all the Holdings that I had and uh eventually I just got to a point where I didn't want to research blockchain I wanted to actually get involved and start building it so I got in touch with

1:05our head of product and our CEO and our CTO and then eventually found my way with anchor and I've been here ever since so it's been it's been two years felt like six in a good way but uh yeah so I got here that's amazing it's a great story to hear when it's one of your favorite tokens and you just reach out and it's like a dream job right it's not even a job because you enjoy what

1:28you're doing um and I've been following anchor for the past few years as well since you joined and I know that they're doing a lot of different things in the space for people that aren't familiar with anchor could you give a high level on sort of what is Anchor and its mission yeah absolutely so anchors have a blockchain infrastructure provider and the way that I like to describe us is

1:49essentially the first thing that developers need when they want to build in the blockchain space is a high quality endpoint and connection to the blockchain and that's where anchor comes in so we're one of the largest RPC node blockchain infrastructure providers around any given month will have about 50 million unique IPS utilizing our RPC endpoints and we support over 30 evm and

2:13non-evm genes so the anchor token serves as the means of payment for our mrpc customers but I guess super high level I like to look at anchor as almost like a like a developer Hub of tools that enable web3 to build out and expand really focusing on empowering developers to reach their full potential with high quality and distributed blockchain infrastructure

2:40incredible and I really feel that we need to emphasize the importance of the development ecosystem because there's so many developers in the world that are still working on web 2 have yet to dip their feet into web 3 and if there are different ways we can make it easier you know whether it's spinning up a blockchain node as you mentioned or just developing apps uh making Pathways to

3:03make it easier to do that is just going to accelerate the adoption of web3 quicker into the real world one thousand percent at the end of the day it all comes down to empowering developers to reach their full potential and it goes for that in any industry right it's like if we really want to build the best possible products the best possible Services whatever it may

3:23be you have to empower developers of any kind with the best infrastructure possible to really attract consumers to get there and that's where anchor comes in and that's part of the reason why anchor was my favorite token and why I wanted to be here because I wanted to be involved with the infrastructure layer right like I wanted to be involved with actually empowering developers building

3:45all types of projects whether it's you know D5 you know supply chain Insurance social media web3 gaming whatever it may be I wanted to be on the on the base layer the infrastructure layer and build out the infrastructure that's going to empower these developers to build high quality user experiences and decentralized applications and and that's really our mission at anchor

4:10and with decentralized applications the more decentralized applications uh the the better but they also need to be usable and easy to create and now I know you're the head of app chains at anchor and I'm curious on uh the details behind app chains versus apps and you finish can you just explain app chains to the viewers who aren't familiar yeah I think I should probably start

4:37with what an app chain is in general and then where anchors app chain product comes in essentially what napchain is is it's an application specific blockchain right it's a single blockchain that hosts one single application or business so when you look about like take a look at blockchain over the last 10 to 12 years most layer ones they started with

5:01building the protocol and infrastructure layer of their blockchain right so I started with the infrastructure and then from there they hoped that it would attract developers to build their applications on top of it now the trade-off with that is these developers they had predetermined governance predetermined specs predetermined programming languages

5:24consensus mechanisms right now the app chain thesis takes a little bit of a different approach right so rather than start with the infrastructure layer of the protocol we start with the application and then we build the infrastructure around what that application or business needs to be successful so it's dedicated infrastructure that allows them to create and allows them to

5:48build grow and scale which allows them to attract more consumers increase their user experience increase their revenue and it's really just catered to their specific needs now where anchors app chain product comes in is we actually build that specific infrastructure for the developer right so they don't have to focus on building block explorers building RPC nodes validator nodes test

6:15Nets faucets right that's where we come in and we build that infrastructure for them so that they can just focus on building their application building their their business and attracting consumers because at the end of the day that's that's what it should be they should be focused on the project rather than the infrastructure that's great that there's that Suite of

6:35products that have already been built beforehand to like make it easy for the developers to just start working on an app chain and what I saw in the in the recent news was that there was also a partnership uh with you know app chains and the Microsoft Azure sort of more web 2 development uh infrastructure so with that that I feel like that would open up

6:58the doors to Millions probably of web 2 developers can you talk about that partnership and what that means for for app chains and web3 yeah it's something that we're very excited about and see your point it's something that's going to open the doors for a top developer talent to move into web3 because essentially what's occurring here is that we're putting

7:17anchors blockchain infrastructure at you know front and center of Microsoft's Azure Marketplace which is now going to be available to the millions of developer customers that they have um and it's an interesting story how it started and um you know it was exciting when it occurred because basically Microsoft told us you know their their web 2 customers their their web TV developers

7:40they were eager to start building and exploring the web 3 space so you know we realized the market and the demand was there Azure has all this you know incredible Talent using their Marketplace so the opportunity to work with Microsoft and together onboard developers to web3 it it fit like a glove and I mean we're not we're not dependent on cloud right but by

8:05partnering with with Cloud organized stations like Microsoft where we're really how I view it is we're increasing the blockchain adoption rate because when you attract that top developer Talent you're you're empowering them to build high quality user experiences in the web 3 space which ultimately increases the adoption of web3 consumerism which over time will

8:27decrease the amount of volatility in cryptocurrency prices and increase the usability of the of the projects and for the developers that are using the Azure Marketplace already and just for other web 2 developers who aren't using the Microsoft product but they're interested in getting into web3 could you explain the process or how easy it is once it's on that Azure store to

8:51start building an app chain it's it's a lot more simple and easy now than it was a couple years ago when we started um when you look at the the evolution of anger's app chain product It ultimately started with developer developers going to our sales team and saying hey you know we want to build on you know this L1 or this L2 and then our sales team would go and figure out okay what

9:17infrastructure do they need right dependent depending upon you know what mother chain they were building on whether it was a binance side chain or a polygon supernet or an avalanche subnet then my team and I would come in and we begin building it we'd begin building the block explorers the RPC knows the validator nodes and we'd update them on the entire process excuse me typically

9:39it would take around you know two to three weeks to build the test net and then from there maybe two to three weeks to build the mainnet to deploy it but now it's as simple as you know going to Microsoft is your Marketplace or anchor.com and you're staying on the U lie the entire time you don't necessarily have to speak to anyone you basically plug in the information about

10:00your business or your application that you're building then if you're on Microsoft Azure you have three different package offerings that we have on there um that goes by specific infrastructure based on the size of the organization and then if you're if you're on Microsoft azero you can pay with credit card or through as your credits and then if you're on anchor.com we have the app

10:22chain configurator which ultimately allows the developer to customize what specific infrastructure they need within their app chain regardless about mother chain they're building on and then we start building it for them and they can pay in Anchor tokens or in credit cards so ultimately it's a very efficient process and that's something that we are continuously trying to improve as well

10:47to hear that there's so many different options not just in the way they build it the way that they pay as well I feel like their art of even developers that are they're sort of skeptical on on the currency side or the volatility of it and they need to get in in traditional means and then once they get familiar with it or once they build their first app chain then they all sudden it clicks

11:08for them and they're like oh yeah I understand the benefit of both the apps and the currency inside of it as well exactly I think some of it is psychological right we're moving into a new era of payments we're going to a new era of building we're going to a new era of uh utilizing applications on the internet so it's not only a learning curve for the consumers it's a learning

11:29curve for the developers and our goal is to make it as simple as possible and when there is a continued influx of new web3 developers creating new decentralized applications what do you foresee in potential crypto regulations around and that might affect the uh the the adoption of these apps you know rapidly or if there's a currencies involved and whatnot I feel

11:57like the regulation is a Hot Topic right now and more so on the token side but on the web 3 app side I feel like there could be Inhibitors to massive adoption yeah I think that uh regulation is probably one of the the Hot Topics around our industry it's been that way for a long time now I it's it's very dependent on you know which country you're living in in the types of you

12:23know entities that are you know governing this industry I I think it can be pretty subjective but my personal opinion is that once we get to the point where you know that those who are regulating this industry can migrate their thinking from okay every single coin or token is a security to you know some of these are securities some of these are Commodities and at least in

12:47the US I believe that the ascc shouldn't be the ones regulating crypto I actually think it makes a lot more sense for the cftc um because it's a new technology class and it needs more of an open framework in the cftc they follow a principles-based regulatory framework rather than the rules-based framework of the SEC right like a like a a rules-based framework you could look at

13:11it like regulation by enforcement it's basically you know the S the SEC says you know this is what you can do and this is what you can't do whereas a principles-based regulation the cftc is it's much more flexible you know there's a there's a high level principles that companies have to follow and it gives these companies the freedom to build and create without being you know afraid of

13:34getting unjustly sued right and it benefits everyone because the company's benefit they can build grow and scale with a with a blueprint to follow without fear of just being sued out of the blue it it benefits the consumer right because now that these companies can innovate freely it allows the consumer to actually get attracted and use high quality

13:58blockchained apps and and learn the technology through experience and that's key and then lastly it benefits the economies of these countries that regulate crypto fairly right it increases liquidity it increases jobs new revenue streams which ultimately increases GDP so I think at the end of the day it's important to regulate but regulate fairly and I think the right

14:22entities need to be the ones regulating it that's a great Point Kev in bringing up the cftc in Commodities and it just seems like you know the de facto uh regulator just happened to be the SEC but who said you know they're the ones they just sort of took us in and started throwing the hammer down on different companies and sort of spreading fear of things that hadn't really been decided

14:46yet you know until a court case actually determined it and what we saw in the recent news with xrp uh it looks like you know xrp actually won on that side and said you know we're not a security and this is one of those uh top cryptocurrencies that has been under the radar for for many years now uh under this you know regulatory battle and I feel like that might set a precedent for

15:09a lot of the other coins that are similar and and uh smaller and and ones that are doing more Innovation you know these smaller cap coins and web3 developers that are working on building the next financial infrastructure right now yeah and I think it it benefits the the industry as a whole like whether you're a massive fan of xrp or you're not a fan

15:31I think that that win definitely helps our industry um collectively right and it takes a lot of Courage for xrp to go through this almost two and two and a half year long lawsuit right to battle the SEC who has a has a pretty impressive record prior to uh this last defeat that they suffered so I definitely hope that the U.S can um you know adopt some Fair crypto

15:56regulation there's a lot of other countries out there that are starting to do so so I hope that they take notice and that's something that occurs in the future definitely and it seems like in in a similar way that some of these emerging economies sort of skipped a few levels when they you know they didn't have the traditional Financial infrastructure

16:16that's sort of against Innovation they're able to adopt new technology faster I feel like with how quickly web3 is growing and digital assets some of these countries that regulate fairly or are more open to Innovation will probably benefit more do you have any insights into you know how will these countries and the citizens that are living in them benefit from being open

16:40to regulating fairly yeah I think that's a it's a loaded question I think we can dive into I mean I I like to look at it from a macroeconomic perspective right because that's really what will will relate to people the most excuse me there's there's things to consider right like what types of countries will regulate crypto fairly and why they'll do so

17:05um and I personally think it's those emerging countries that you had mentioned right the countries that are on the rise they'll be the ones who benefit um and that actually reminds me there's a book by Ray dalio I think it's his latest book called The Changing World Order and he talks about the different phases that countries go through over time and he goes through their rise

17:25which is really those emerging countries right now goes through their top and then their Decline and he talks about it's he he almost gives like a ranking system and he evaluates these countries in those three phases on you know things like leadership capabilities and and education levels and then a key one which was openness to Global thinking and that's really openness to Innovation

17:51and it's the countries that are on the rise at least according to the dalio in that book they're the ones you know they're open to Global thinking and that's important because that's where blockchain and crypto come into play right like being open to Global thinking includes being open to technology and new inventions and the countries that do that I think you know short-term

18:12benefits they'll attract the top developer talent because these developers they'll see a fair and just framework to build where Innovation won't be hindered and then when you go into like overall benefits of that you know those developers they'll build the best applications and it'll increase the number of jobs in the country it'll increase the share of World Trade

18:33they'll they'll diversify their revenue which increases their liquidity and boosts their economy their GDP Rises and then their consumers will begin truly utilizing cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks through experiencing them and that's key and then you can look at it from a long-term perspective right as the citizens of these countries their their education on blockchain is

18:56through experiencing them eventually they'll grow up with blockchain just like we did with the internet and it's the countries who regulate this fairly um will allow their citizens to grow up using the technology and those citizens will be the ones who eventually make it even better and innovate it even further right like just like you know Zuckerberg

19:15and Dorsey and musk they innovated the internet that they grew up in right that is the opportunity opportunity that's uh that's on the table for these countries it's a great Insight Kev and the ray dalius part about you know Global viewpoints and Global perspectives I think is super important and from the recent interview with uh the CEO of BlackRock Larry Fink he said it best and

19:41it was quite a bullish statement saying the the demand for these digital assets will be like nothing we've ever seen before because of the global demand and it's just uh an asset that's transcending all borders and looking at these countries that are not regulating in a fairly way in a fair way they might be left in the in the dust when the other countries sort of move forward and

20:07and I think that the US is sort of on the top of that list um depending on how much they continue to fight back against the innovation of web3 yeah I mean I hope I hope it doesn't stay that way um but it it's something that I think the industry is is considering and there's going to be ramifications for those countries that uh that aren't open to Global thinking because when they're

20:32not open to Global thinking they're not open to crypto and and regulating this this technology fairly it's basically like they're being offered a a world of new possibilities a world of new economic activity increased GDP and they're looking at it and they're saying nope no thanks we're all set so what happens with that well you lose out on that uh top talent they won't move to

20:57your jurisdiction eventually it'll be a lack of innovation a lack of competitiveness in the global market it's a missed opportunity to diversify their revenue and it'll be a decrease in Global World Trade as well and then a missed opportunity uh to Foster the next generation of of blockchain inventors as I had mentioned before so the ramifica locations are pretty large and

21:20um I mean I think that countries notice that and I do hold on hope that the states will you know take a look at other other places like Hong Kong or Japan or um even the UK they're they're slowly starting to you know realize that this technology isn't going anywhere and there's massive benefits for it so I hope that the U.S follows suit mm-hmm definitely me too and I'm curious

21:45on uh well first actually I wanted to say that you know since 2020 uh and the the amount of people working remote has just increased significantly and I feel like with blockchain companies especially it doesn't really matter uh what country they're in for the most part A lot of these countries or a lot of these companies are working with workers in different countries and they

22:06never really meet up physically so it could be beneficial to have these developer hubs in some of these countries that are that are regulating fairly and they're open to Innovation now I'm curious with anchors infrastructure uh is the the platform set up to help top talent in all of these different countries and these emerging countries that we're talking

22:27about yeah good question so first off absolutely you know where we set up our infrastructure a little bit differently than other infrastructure providers um you know most infra providers or at least in web3 they use cloud services uh we took a little bit of a different approach for for years we've been deploying bare metal servers in distributed locations all over the world

22:51and just recently we started moving to the cloud space to really diversify that infrastructure but when you take a look at you know bare metal this means that our nodes are are closer to our developer customers and our consumers all over the world you know we're across six continents and over 25 countries so what this allows us to do is offer super trustworthy fast uh and reliable

23:16connections to these blockchains over 30 of them which offers Fast Response times and lower latency to our to our developer customers than a result they're they're able to offer the same thing to their consumers right it allows them to build High quality applications that will attract those consumers it's the same approach we're taking with empowering developers to reach their

23:37full potential and that's what we're doing you know we care about having you know high quality and very distributed infrastructure all across the world it's amazing to hear and looking forward towards the rest of 2023 and into next year what else is in the road map and the plans for growing anchor and bringing more assets for developers to work with

24:02yeah it's a good question I mean from a technology perspective we're continuously innovating adding new types of developer tools to our Tech stack there's not a whole lot I can say there outside of just be on the lookout over the next three to four months I know that our community is eagerly waiting for a few announcements that are coming very soon but outside of that it's just

24:22continuing to to grow the anchor business right we're going to continue to partner with some other major Cloud providers that will be uh will be public sometime in the near future and then it's just extending our distribution right like we have the high quality and speed within our infrastructure now it's just continuously Distributing it all across

24:43the world that's key for us so it's just continuing to build grow and scale the business and continue to you know provide developers with the best building experience amazing and I feel like there's a lot of other places in web 2 marketplaces and developer hubs that from traditional developers that have learned code over the last 30 years that are still haven't

25:08touched web3 there's many more Avenues to open to bring them into the next evolution of the internet one thousand percent there is a boatload of developer and talent out there and we just need to you know help make it easier for them to join the web 3 space that's what we're doing with Microsoft and that's what we'll continue to do amazing and is there any uh other uh

25:31Last Words um or information that you want to provide to the listeners and the readers no I would say uh for the developers out there they can go to anchor.com or is your Marketplace uh to reach our developer Tech stack of tools and then to um to the consumers I would say that you know we're dedicated to you know empower the developers who are building

25:52your projects to be able to do so in the most efficient way so continue to utilize blockchain networks continue to utilize uh cryptocurrencies in a way that you know you're learning through experience and then over time this industry won't be so Niche you know it will become even more mainstream in fact actually I um I went to go see Mission Impossible last night uh the the new one

26:17and no spoiler alerts but there's a couple of cryptocurrency and blockchain preferences I thought that was pretty cool to see um I I think they could have done a little bit better job of describing you know where the cryptocurrency was or like what blockchain they were tapping into but nevertheless it was cool to see just our our industry getting mentioned

26:37in a high profile movie like that so Mass adoption is coming it's just we have to stay strong and continue to innovate amazing thank you so much for all the insights Kev and for helping out the developers in the traditional world the tens of millions of developers that are one click away from creating an app chain and utilizing the blockchain and then that's one step away from tens of

26:59millions or hundreds of millions of people starting to use web3 apps and they won't even know it and they won't even have to know about the underlying infrastructure they'll just be using the technology uh to to benefit them in a way that web 2 could not before so I'm really looking forward to it I will leave the links to to Anchor and the Azure Marketplace as you mentioned in

27:18the description box below as as well as some of the socials that people can check out anchors information all the best with all the updates moving forward on anchor and let's follow up in the near future absolutely thanks for having me Ashton thank you