Calaxy lets users send crypto through messenger

0:00I'm Ashen Addison from the cryptocoin show and today on blockchain interviews we have back with us solo CE the CEO of caxy solo welcome back to the show it is great to see you again thanks man it's always a pleasure likewise and I've been seeing a lot of you recently in the news all over social uh calax has been making some huge updates that have been taking

0:22the social media Word World by storm uh which is very exciting I'm going to dive into all the latest updates with you today uh but I'd love to kick it off from a high level uh for those who aren't familiar with caxy so far if you could explain a little bit about what caxy is how it's Reinventing social and the Creator economy and then we'll dive into all the latest details yeah

0:43absolutely um you know I've been on the show a few times now so it's gonna be really nice if someone can clip up my answer to that exact question uh throughout time because it's changed uh so much but in a in a great way but I think the best way to describe caxy nowadays is that it's a non-custodial wallet that actually does things um and we aim to tackle a number of Industry

1:04issues one of them being Creator monetization and so that's what we're most well known for um we allow content creators to easily take their non-custodial wallets and build a profile page build an ecosystem around that non-custodial wallet that ultimately becomes a business for them to be able to monetize their content creation whereas uh you know this week

1:23was super exciting because we actually did go on CNBC myself and Spencer and we were able to send usdc through our new feature send crypto through DMs and uh that will allow anybody on the platform that has a non-custodial wallet to send crypto assets very easily without the need for a public key you just send it through the DM messenger just like you

1:44might send a text or a photo um and so we aim to tackle um you know broad usage of of of web3 wallets uh non-custodial wallets um and really allowing onchain activity to actually happen um and incentivizing it to happen just because there's such a such a big opportunity in this asset class but the biggest problem is that there's a usability issue and

2:05that there's not a you know not too many different types of user Journeys that exist and so our job is to try and create a user Journey that scales well to the next one billion users um not necessarily catering just to the early adopters um because the wallets of yesterday will need to transform a little bit uh to to make sure that their wallets tomorrow wow that's a great

2:25intro solo and you're right the the the platform itself and the the crypto ecosystem continually is evolving uh and the Smart Companies are pivoting and they understand where uh where this is all going and to talk about the wallet obviously the the the social and the messenger part is crucial because what good is a wallet if it takes 47 clicks to actually send money and you got to go

2:50through intermediary Banks through Swift that takes a week um and so really in making that seamless transition where it's almost the difference between being in your wallet and being on the social platform is just like one click or just like a send DM absolutely and what I saw in in the recent video that that was on TV is like you're talking to your friend

3:13about about pizza and it's just like okay just send them the half money for the pizza yeah no absolutely and I think you know it really goes back to the to the philosophy behind you know our company I founded the company with Spencer dwy of the Brooklyn Net shout out Spencer um he was fantastic on CNBC but um you know our goal was always to make these

3:34Technologies easy to use and fun to use and so um you know for the longest time uh crypto products have been usable but you know useful but not really usable right like there's a difference between the two and I think we wanted to build a product that was not only usable but it was useful and it also you know was a pleasure to use and I think those things

3:53are really important and it's very hard to find both of those things in a product right now um and you know I think uh a lot of it really comes back to understanding what the market really wants you know at MVP we really LED with the the creative monetization angle that's what we've been best known for that's where we have a lot of interest from the content creators we work with

4:14um you know we have hundreds uh that have expressed interest and um you know signed with caxy to create their own accounts and start building their own shop experiences but um you know upon launching an MVP we saw an even greater need to revitalize people that are already in the world of crypto um but not really using it if you you know you I can ask you Ashton when was the last

4:33time you used crypto to pay a friend back for a pizza and it's probably way too long for considering you have a whole show called the cryptocoin show you're big into the space I think it's almost hypocritical for all of us to call ourselves experts but we yet to use this technology and I think the biggest reason why is that um you know to send Fiat it's disturbingly easy whereas

4:52crypto is disturbingly difficult and so I think for us caxy took a big step um in solving what is probably the largest uh us ility issue within the entire industry um and analoging it to something we're already comfortable with and I think that's going to be what really ultimately allows us um to onboard that next billion users and people that are interested in using the

5:12technology not because they care about it but because it actually provides utility and use to them in a way that's you know that hasn't been discovered in the traditional world yes there are things like Veno and zel that still exist um but when you get into Crow border Payments International payments and all those different things crypto is by far it's its best use case is

5:32peer-to-peer payments to date um that may change um and you could argue that here or there but I think if the wallet solution um were to make itself clear I think the the the that actual use would would find its way you know find its way through the through the S through the noise no it's a it's very exciting because I feel like PE people are all about communication and connecting to

5:57others and within caxy from what I see it there's a big focus on that it's not about you know checking checking your finances and just looking at your wallet like you're for example you're not going to hang out in your PayPal application there's no one else there to talk correct right but but on caxy you have the social feed you have memes there videos uh polls all that kind of stuff

6:20and your direct messenger and then just having the payments integrated into that is I think the user interface and the user experience that a lot of other web3 native companies have have lacked in yeah no absolutely we think that uh and I've talked a lot about this recently um but uh the we have an attention or like an attention issue nowadays right and I think if the world

6:47of tech it's just far more difficult to be successful uh in the world of tech than it was 10 years ago and I know I'm stting the obvious but I think um when you look at the mobile app development landscape uh the average person probably had about 30 to 40 applications on their phone in the early 2010s um that number is about twice that figure today and so

7:09because of that every single application that a user downloads onto their phone has to serve a level of convenience that has never been seen before like if you're going to be that 81st application on the phone um you have to create you know a utility that's undeniable like oh my God I can't do this anywhere or you know do multiple things and I think you

7:27know we're kind of trying to explore both those news there's currently no easy way to send crypto from one person to another until today um so we're super excited about that with caxy but then also the user experience has to um you know find something to to draw you back to and so that social component you talk about is so important because when you

7:45marry it to the power of a non-custodial wallet you've created a financial instrument that's worth coming back to each and every day but the problem is crypto wallets today don't have that same drawback to them and then when you talk about the next one billion users of people who don't care about crypto they legitimately need that in order for them to come into this environment and

8:07discover the powers of a non-custodial wallet and so for us um you know we see our our role as you know helping on board that next billion users our job is to make crypto not confusing and our job is to um you know find a market and I think our solve for that is the social wallet and you know there are plenty of wallets out there um we love the wallets

8:28that you know we've there you know wallets out there that we love and we use today um but there are wallets uh there is a huge gap in the market for a wallet that's doing doing the things that caxy does um to make it easy for for people to use and uh you know your grandma can now send crypto um you know within two minutes of creating an account um which is mindboggling fast

8:47comparatively to you know the crypto world we live in you know yesterday definitely and I would love to send my grandma some some money back on on caxy let's let's see if I can get her to sign up um and and you talk about the next billion users that don't necessarily they're not crypto first they just want to be on the latest social media and connect to their

9:06friends having the uh you know a self- custodial wallet and all the finance stuff in it it can be daunting for people that aren't tech-savvy or they don't want to focus on finances and investing they just want to use social and send money to their friends and so I'd love to dive a little bit deeper into how can you lower those barriers even further for people that are just

9:26using social and using Messenger you know there's there's different crypto currencies and some there's stable coins I'm guessing you're focusing on that there's also different coins that they're going up and down and there's trans different transaction costs for that H how do you break it down for people on the wallet to make it easy as possible to send money to not have to

9:44think about am I investing am my losing money winning money I just want to pay my friend back for dinner yeah yeah absolutely and so I think for us we've done a we tried to do a good job of of establishing normal Primitives that people can attach to and so stable coins are very helpful tools and educating um you know the next billion users on the power of crypto it's it is decentralized

10:05money but and it and it is stable it doesn't fluctuate like traditional cryptocurrencies do but it is traceable on chain um and I think educating people in steps is really important because now you can do things like create things like caxy where you can send effectively monies from the US to you know any Denmark or you know Australia or wherever it might be in around the world

10:27um you know that's the that's the benefit for it um and then to your question you know it's it's it's an interesting point you know we're early in our company's days you know we have high aspirations we want to you know have a billion users that'd be great but there's a ton of people in crypto every day that will see the trailer that we launched yesterday just like you did and

10:43be like oh wow I'm an expert in crypto and I don't use it um that translates to the entirety of crypto if we do that we'll be a very successful project um but I think when it comes to you know on mass adoption we've thought even further with you know like I said mentioning the stable coins but on top of that also integrating things like magic will be

11:02important for us to be able to get rid of seed phrasing entirely um and really create that instant you know easy sort of iPod Shuffle to the iPod type wallet right and you know we want to be the fun wallet the sexy wallet like if you think about uh you know the the landscape of wallets um you know we've kind of carved a niche out as that fun party wallet um

11:22if you will yeah party in the front business in the back or whatever it is business in the front party in the back we're that we're that wallet yeah that's sounds awesome and uh one other part to the wallet not just coins and currencies but also nfts and collectibles and things that might be more exciting to share on social is there an integration with that kind of crypto assets as

11:44well yeah absolutely you should be able to send crypto or crypto and nfts throughout the messenger as well um you can mint nfts live in the application as well and uh you know unlocking more utility for nfts and digital assets as a whole um is something that we'll be able to do within Galaxy and because we have a social feed and we have that robust feed ecosystem around the wallet um

12:06there's a lot of different ways you can actually unlock that utility because we have a you know a whole social experience attached to the wallet um in a way that a lot of people with nfts right now they just have their nfts sitting in their bank account like that's very difficult to do much with um and so I think one thing to to to Really summarize it is that there are you know

12:25two different types of wallets every wallet created up until now is a wallet that you take with yourself you take it wherever you go the beauty of CR web 3 is that you can take your assets with you and that's amazing but calax is the first web three wallet where you can do that and it's a wallet that might take you places right that's a difference from how you might think about caxy you

12:44might stumble upon the craziest thing in a rabbit hole of whatever in a sub community and then you might actually be like oh that's a cool nft I want to buy that and your wallet's with you right but you wouldn't have been able to discover that if you didn't have that robust social feed and experience wrapped around the power of a non-custodial wallet and so our job is

13:01to really showcase um you know what you can really do in such an environment very cool and one thing that I love about this messenger is that when you can send crypto over DM it opens the doors to realizing people can actually capitalize on their social media especially with now independent content creators more people realizing that they can make extra income or their main

13:24income from Social or uh just being an independent artist and I feel like being able to tip somebody for dinner on messenger is great but having that as your primary income or offering Services through social and being like hey you know this is the invoice but just send me it into your Galaxy wallet I feel like it opens the doors for just like an entire business as an independent

13:48person yeah no absolutely that's our goal our goal is to enable people in all different types of ways and the beauty of a peer-to-peer network is that it's the most efficient way to transfer value whatever that might mean between two different parties and Galaxy is an ex an extension of that um we want to be the easiest way for anybody to transmit value whether it's financially

14:08experientially socially whatever it might be um you know we're the peer-to-peer Network that's activated um you know and and and has personality and has flavor it's not just a crazy old blockchain anymore it's a blockchain that feels revitalized um and exciting and fun and fast and so for us you know our job is to try and create products that really get the people excited and

14:30uh you know obviously give people the tools to be able to do um you know what digital assets were made for which is obviously allowing them to to to to own um what it is that they you know partake in and as well as uh you know creating a much more free and liberal world or liberated World financially free and liberated world I don't know if I can control anything about geopolitics yet

14:52but you know our job is to try and make the world a more financially free and liberated world that's that's awesome and one nice thing about normally sending crypto is that there's less fees from other intermediaries so that you actually get more bang for your buck if I'm going to send you $20 and it's over PayPal then all of a sudden you're getting $15 or something less uh I'm

15:14guessing that not just from crypto but hopefully from the Galaxy system itself is efficient in sending tips to or money to friends yeah no absolutely it's the by far the best way to transmit value um and it allows you do a lot of things very quickly in a way that other people may not be able to just because um you know when you get into the traditional

15:35banking system it's a lot more bureaucratic there's a lot more license there's a lot of things that you have to do to be able to handle money um but the beauty of crypto is that we don't handle any money at all everything is non-custodial so when you have a non-custodial wallet you can do a lot of cool things out of the box oh that's great and so caxy you know

15:54there's they're not the self- custodial part is that it's that it's your money and it's transfering to somebody else and you guys aren't uh banking intermediary you're just the social platform yep correct we're just a UI an interface amazing and what what else can you guys do to you know it's great to have this but I feel like there is still uh there there's people that want it and

16:23there's people that they don't know they want it yet and there's people that are still stuck in Facebook and Twitter and they don't really realize the potential of web3 social media and owning your own assets how do we make that Tipping Point happen so that people understand that the value that they're really getting and more people flood into future

16:42socials yeah I mean I think that's the the the goal of any MVP product is to get to a certain level of critical mass to to then therefore a launch off of I don't think we're quite there yet um early days for us but I think you know as you start to capture and and onboard more groups within the world of web 3 we're looking to add cross chain support so that we can add you know all of the

17:01amazing communities outside of you know even hadera um to the ecosystem so that they can enjoy the benefits of what caxy is offering and I think you know it's it's a slow burn but once you get to critical mass it's pretty easy to to grow because you have that consistent Fe user base that's coming back and they're bringing their friends on and so forth

17:19and they're able to sort of build off of that momentum and so um you know I I I do we've been building for quite some time um and so people do have uh some high standard for us and we hold even higher standards for ourselves um but I think the beauty of it is that we have a you know a hefty road map to get through we are you know just 30 40% deployed in

17:40terms of all the cool things that Galaxy could in theory do um and so you know our job is to continually get down that road map and continue to support different types of user Journeys and honestly just continue to solve more problems that's the most important thing is if you solve life problems people will come um and so there definitely is an awareness thing too so obviously you

17:58know time will work on that but um you know our job is we aim to be a project that is about substance um and really solving real world is issues um versus being a project that's just you know s focused purely on just gaining the most users possible just because those projects usually have a a harder time being sustainable over time yeah no I I agree quality over quantity and with

18:22these social platforms you know even Facebook and Twitter uh there there was a core group of the early users and uh they reaped the benefits later on uh but for a long time it was just you know college students and then all of a sudden there's this huge parabolic curve up uh that that that grows as the product gets flushed out so I'm I have been using the platform and as an early

18:45user I've secured a good username so I'm excited for that and I have a feeling based on this update that just came out uh today and this week about the crypto messenger that is like a groundbreaking update that no other social media platforms web two or three uh have perfected so I think that's going to be a huge amplification of uh value for the users on there so thank you guys for

19:11doing that yeah for sure now we appreciate it we got uh we got some more stuff over our sleeves but uh you know we appreciate it and we uh we love building products for the community so everything we do it's it's got to solve a a hardcore problem amazing and for the people who don't have a Galaxy account yet and they want to secure a username from what I understand it's not on the

19:33App Stores it is a web application correct yeah the easiest way to install caxy is just go to galaxy.com um we support both Android and iOS all you got to do is add it to your home screen you can follow the prompts at the bottom um and yeah um you know we're super excited this allows us to update instantaneously no user will ever be running a dated version of Galaxy on

19:56their phone it automatically is updated at all times because you're accessing a web page um it makes it easy for us to build quite easily across different platforms just because you're maintaining one codebase it's on web you don't have to build for Android you don't have to build for iOS um so it it really is an efficient way to ship an MVP a high quality MVP um and really

20:15iterate and get to that that that sort of product Market fit moment where you know you can then you know therefore go build out the applications or whatever it is that you need to build should you want to go down that rout um but for us in early days the MVP approach it made a lot of sense to do this web appro web approach so that uh as many users as

20:33possible could get their hands on it and we can get the biggest sample size of how to to to refine the product very cool well thank you so much for taking the time solo I will put the the link to the galaxy website and the app platform in the show notes below uh appreciate you releasing this new function of crypto through Messenger it is I think it's going to be revolutionary uh and

20:55we'll see what happens as social grows and and the wallets more become a seamless interaction with social it looks like calax is leading the way for that um so let's definitely follow up in the near future awesome thank you so much for having me