VALA combines social media, content and crypto trading

0:01I am Ashton Addison from the cryptocoin show and today on blockchain interviews we have rert barkfield CEO of Vala on the show once again uh rert it is great to see you again thanks D thanks for having me and uh it's great to see you again yeah it's it's been uh over the past few years we've had a few videos uh on on various topics and we've been involved with

0:22everything in the industry from insurance building up the salana community uh and now I'm excited to dive into more more community Stu uh meme coins especially I feel like have gained a lot of legitimacy in in traction over the last year um not only retail communities coming into the space but more uh institutions ETFs uh validity of of the industry overall um but I feel

0:47like meme coins and Retail communities are still sort of underrated in what people you know there there's that saying that like uh once the community gets together and bands together with a common goal they're Unstoppable and I I feel like that's something that maybe you and your team at Vala have have noticed and and are helping build a platform uh to achieve some of those

1:08goals so um would love to dive into your latest project uh today and if we can just start off from a high level on you know what you and your team have been working on on Vala um and why it's a great time to be building a project like this right now sure so I mean like thanks again for having me back on the show um yeah if uh anybody watching wants to go back and

1:29look at somebody at the previous videos that we worked on you can see that uh you know way back when when we first connected I was working on the def Insurance space and working on a project called amulet which is heavily in the Salo ecosystem and at that stage you know defi was was pumping a lot it was going um is doing particularly well and I think in in certain sectors it's still

1:51doing uh very very well one of the the the big things that we've identified in the in the industry in general is that actually one of the biggest challenges we still fac today is getting people over that first hurdle how do we actually get more people into the industry like right now you know after we went through the kind of the AI boom of which I think we're still kind of

2:12going through u a lot of the focus has been taken away from the crypto industry uh and uh and blockchain and and web 3 and it's almost seen as a bit of a footnote uh in in uh in Tech almost but then whenever the numbers start to rise and and things start to Rally uh suddenly we have this bit massive inflow of of of people so how do we change that how do we change it from

2:36like a sudden inflow but like a consistent like knowledge sharing and a consistent opportunity to get more and more people into the industry and that's really where where Valor steps in and where we are wanting to try and make a a difference in the in the kind of partly the educational space partly the visibility space partly the uh the ease of use space and get as many people

3:02into the uh into the industry as possible so that's where we we we kind of we're stretching our legs as a as a team and um and kind of starting off but yeah I I suppose um actually if it's okay we you like to kind of look at that as a bit of a problem is that okay yeah no that sounds great and I think it's a great point that you mentioned about you know defi it has great value in the

3:26industry but it it can be very technical and very confusing and there's so many other things that you could start with to get new people involved so they don't feel over their head um and I feel like you're hitting the nail right right on the head uh where hey there there's other community things and visibility of like hey dip your toe in here or learn

3:46in a way that people are used to like you know they're used to uh retails like used to sort of looking at their social platform or scrolling how can we incorporate the principles of blockchain into that so yeah I would love to um hear more well that you hit the now right in the head um we've got the you know 80% of uh genz Millennials um even broader aspect than that g Financial ni

4:17advice there Financial knowledge it's actually coming from short form video and it either comes from YouTube it comes from Instagram it comes from uh Tik Tok you know depending on which kind of generation you sit in and and I I even put myself into this like uh I now live in uh Lisbon right and so in before coming and moving here I was exploring the tax systems and the opportunities

4:39that I could provide to myself and my family and I did that primarily through YouTube now of course I followed up with accountant and um you know other research on top of that but you know my main source was video uh because it's the easiest thing for me to digest and I'm not alone in this like everybody else is in that in that same Bo but when it comes to crypto you've got a couple

5:04of problems one crypto content on traditional social platforms is really dampened down like it's not prioritized amongst other content that's out there and look there's a lot of content and I can understand that but it's uh it's actively dampened and we know this from uh St the statistics around it uh and the other articles that have been published around the and then the other

5:28uh problem you've got it's like when you learn about a piece of knowledge the steps in which to execute on that are huge so let's take a simple uh bit of knowledge let's say uh everybody's talking about GameStop and gme and we saw this happen things during Co right they're talking about it but how do you actually buy the asset you then have to learn and research you know

5:49Robin Hood free trade revolute whatever the the tool is that you you want to use to actually buy the asset then you're presented with a whole bunch of charts and like limit orders and Market orders and all this extra bits of stuff that you had to to learn on top and not only that you've also got kyc and other elements you have to step through in order to get to the actual point of

6:10buying now you compound that by 10 in crypto with wallets and pump do fun and all of these other tools in which we are expected to just go out and learn and of course do your own research because that's so easy you haven't got anybody conflicting views you know it's so complicated as a as a as a system to to to just get off the the the the steps and get into so what Valor is doing is

6:39we simplify the whole chain we provide you your information and the easy it to to buy sell stake tip do whatever you want to do with the uh with with the asset or for the Creator all in the one platform right there on the video so simply put if I'm watching a video about Bon and I like what Bon doing and perhaps I want to stake U Bonk and I have a little bit in my wallet there

7:05which we've helped you create and perhaps Buy in in a previous interaction with Valor you can just watch that video go yeah that's cool click done it's all done in the background everything is obstructed away and that is the core principle of everything that we're doing Simplicity is key user interaction to make it easy for people to learn and and and interact and then there are other

7:27stages beyond that of which they can get deeper into to the uh to the industry but that's the core of Val yeah no that's great uh intro rert and i' would love to know more and it I'm super excited for something like this because I feel like uh people are like addicted to short form video but and and and some people are also addicted to crypto um but if you can

7:50combine them um then that saves a lot of steps because yeah there's so much to learn as you said and there's so many processes as you said like you hear about uh gme but how do you go through the 10 steps of research just to actually be able to own it so could you walk me through how that would work on Vala so say I I go to the platform or I go to the app uh I start watching videos

8:12and then I'm able to interact in a financial sense with the video so yeah absolutely I mean look it actually really starts with a content creator uh and then we'll flip over to the to the user through that process but as a content creator I'm creating content for Tik Tok or or Twitter or or wherever um simply I create my account on Valor and I upload my content there and I I tag

8:38the assets that I'm talking about inside the uh the content and then I click share and I share it out to uh my Instagram to my uh uh my Tik Tok and and all the other platforms and from there users are able to easily see that that is valid content it's got a little Valor post roll on on the video it's got a little link back to the the content page on uh on Val

9:00and so as a user for the first time if I've never even touched uh Valor I seen my favorite content creator talking about um let's go back to the example Bonk right and that and they maybe they have been employed by Bonk to talk about them maybe they're just excited about what Bon's doing they're part of the community maybe they got a piece of information they want to share and they

9:21want to value and benefit of that but for whatever the reason is that they they're creating the uh the content they've decided to to upload app a Valor and share it and you've seen it you then just simply click on the link and you get get taken straight over to the uh Valor app now of course very first time you you interacted with the app if you have a web 3 wallet you can attach that

9:43and you can go through an anonymous um style fashion like we used to but if you haven't got a web3 well it's just your first interaction with with crypto you create an account a wallet is created in the background for you your C phrases all created in the background it's all uh stored locally on your phone it's secured away in the same way that all the other magic wallets are now uh kind

10:06of created on device and you see the content and you can load it with Apple pay or load it with Google pay you can uh put Fe it into your into your wallet and you can transact right then and there and what's critical about all of these things is everything whats in a decentralized manner obviously the onramp the actual fat to uh crypto exchange that has to

10:28happen through a central exchange method we don't actually control that it's third party we integrate in the system but that goes into your web three wallet decentralized non-custodial wallet and you're you're um you're completing your transaction you're swapping on a decentralized Exchange in a fully decentralized manner but everything just feels in a in a far more controlled far

10:52more manageable um opportunity and that actually this kind of leads me on to a to a a a point slightly um off the off the chat we're talking here but I actually talked about this well well before we started Val I did a speech at salana breakpoint at the end of last year and it was in a point where I was in a bit of transition I was doing some work to salana Foundation but I

11:17transitioned out of amulet my previous D5 company and I didn't quite know what the subject was that we should talk about and I talked in the end about the trillion dollar opportunity the trillion dollar opportunity inside crypto is to own the whole chain to take responsibility of users to take the element of do your own research slightly out of it but to allow people to to have

11:45an environment which they can do their their research from a a group of uh of content creators that are able to uh provide information and then you're able to make your own decision and also able to uh transact right then there and I do really truly believe that this is the onramp into the crypto this is the onramp into defi this is the onramp into web 3 gaming and and Beyond and

12:10even actually on that note of Beyond I do believe that this is a way for Content creators in general to truly find a a true social value to to uh be able to make significantly uh larger amount of income than they would normally on traditional platforms wow that's great uh I'm looking forward to to checking it out and I've seen some some pictures um and you mentioned a

12:38little bit about your history working with salana Foundation at what point did you actually start building Vala and maybe sort of give a picture of where it's at right now because I know this is something that's that's huge and and could be built over over decades so uh we started building back in March of this year it was actually an idea that my co-founder had uh uh back

13:01in uh October the the year before and um he started working his technical cound he started building out the the cross chain exchange that powers in the background of of of Valor and um when we met up in kind of February time trying to kind of take that to Market we recognized that actually the world doesn't need another exchange you know the um there is there's plenty of

13:25exchanges out there centralized decentralized you know cross chain not single chain know there is a lot going on what people need access to is how to even get to those in the first place how how to learn about them how what they are you know Valor is as much a a product for um binance and and uh uh Unis Swap all the exchanges have just gone out my brain uh Unis swap or um uh

13:53any of the others that are out there um to explain about their product as it is for um you know a user to learn about these opportunities and and to take those extra steps into the into the ecosystem so yeah so we started in um in March announced down this line in terms of understanding the the consumer part and the problem that we wanted to fix um we were joined by an incredible third

14:20co-founder Rebecca kaider has this amazing background in consumer marketing and Krypto combined and then we built out the the team from experts from binance from um Tik Tok from uh okx um coinbase um Amazon others we've got about 12 in the team now working on the on the project fulltime around 50% of those are developers and so the the actual product itself is due to be

14:48released in close beta in September time um and uh right now we are yes so next week we go towards a uh depending on when this video comes comes out might be in the next couple of days we're on um swissborg Alpha pad with our kind of our first kind of coming out of the of the uh the background rise so really excited about that that's amazing um and yeah I

15:14would love to dive into that a little bit more on on the swissborg but uh I wanted to touch again on the experience that you talked about with your team you know I obviously having a technical co-founder I think is very important um but also when you're building a social app you know you can't be too technical because you need to have that that virality factor you need to understand

15:37the non-technical users so of course most of the users are going to be people that probably have hopefully new entrance know not a lot of idea about the intricacies of of of crypto never mind Defi and more advanced stuff but how can you make it so that they don't get confused like the problem that you mentioned in the beginning about okay and I have to go through these 10 steps

16:00to figure out how to buy this asset well the developers of the platform need to understand that mindset make it E as easy as possible for onboarding and for retaining people on the platform so they want to come back and and check out new information every day yeah I mean look I think ux and UI has a huge part to to to play in that yeah and I really put this down to we've

16:26got an incredible um head of product uh at Val Whitney uh uh she has this incredible background in consumer products and has been able to really drive home at the Simplicity of the uh of the of the ux in order to do that um yeah that is uh the first step in in terms of of this um actually probably that's the second step actually I'm

16:53being honest about it I I think the first step is is telling people about it getting people to to find out about it and that's where we're we're joined by you know uh incredible advisors that link us out into ad industry um but also the um uh the The Wider influencer uh background so we we really straddle that world between web 3 and web 2 like we're

17:20really focused on web 3 right now we know that this is in the up we're in the bull market again thank god um and we've got this opportunity especially around the mean culture to really stretch our legs to show what the platform can do but we're also cognizant of the fact that you know and we talked about this earlier that we're on this roller coaster like you know as

17:40soon as um you know the roller coaster starts to pitch down in in um in crypto world how do we ensure that we still are able to deliver for our promise of bringing more people into into the industry and that comes from web 2 web 2 happens all all the time you know our indust seems to be like every two years like we we decide whether or not we're getting out of bed um but the

18:06um you know Web Two World you we've got this yeah consistent access to users and consistent access to content and it's about the type of content we start putting through or pushing on the platform so we we kind of see content verticals is like stages in our growth so we're starting witht web 3 is our first uh opportunity in first stage and we're probably going to migrate into

18:32gaming as our next uh stage and vertical and growth and then there will be you know more tertiary and and more homebased opportunities and and generational wealth uh creation and that sort of stuff that is a an opportunity cross yeah no I think that's a great strategy because although I feel like this type of application is poised for the masses hopefully to to wake them up

18:57and to get a better sense of of iial literacy and get involved in potential opportunities to to further themselves uh it of course is going to start with the people that are already here sort of assisting in that you know the me the memco communities um and and people that are already in crypto I think it's a great starting point um but uh um would be great to break out of that cycle

19:21where yeah um you know there's there's always volatility in the markets and if it's down people are discouraged but this mainstream social applications where people are communicating and also uh trying to get ahead you know that that's always happening so uh I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out uh rert and we we see it is is that there there is always going to be a um

19:46um an undercurrent or a a there is an element of our platform that's always going to be people are trying to sell a token right and they're trying to push this token or or one another and and look content creators share in the exchange uh on the on the platform so it's in their best interest to get make sure that people are transacting through the platform but there's alternative

20:08ways to transact through the the platform I was talking with the content creator just before coming here about his coaching business and how we will be able to in the future be able to schedule meetings with him or he will be able to sell his digital content directly uh through videos and this is the wider pool this is the wider opportunity that we have well we on uh

20:30crypto because there's a lot of these people that are quite happy to transact with crypto we actually met through a Bitcoin group U but he is a coach in the um uh in a totally different uh industry and um yeah he wants to have the opportunity of talking to a community or talking to a new community in a totally different way and so that is what Valor

20:51provides for people like that too yeah I think that's very important with the amount of independent content creators right now not just the fact that when they create content on traditional platforms like YouTube you know the amount of earnings over the past years is keeps dwindling down and and the platform keeps taking a bigger cut and you're creating the same amount

21:13of content but you're getting less value out of the same type of content even when your audience is growing um not only that but what you mentioned there about yeah the coach say he's doing something uh on Instagram or Tik Tok you always have to send it to a third party and add all these extra steps in to actually do the transaction you know how can we simplify that where it's like you

21:36see the video and then like it's like Amazon level you click it and all of a sudden you've scheduled the call and paid for it within 10 seconds I I wish we could come up with something like that and I'm hoping your team can build something that makes it that easy yeah well look it's it's not a straight pass these things but I do believe that we're building the right

21:56team in order to execute on that um you know like you said the the disciplines with inside the team we have to be strong and Technical we have to be super strong on marketing um I have to pull everybody together and and and you know help us lead Forge a way through this and and also you have to B back all the uh the kind of naysayers that are out there you know there there is you

22:19know significant amounts of people who who are you very much at the stage that you know social and app layer is the future in crypto right now but for as many people that are for it there as many people are against it and uh you have to really battle through that but it's that's the same in every single startup that I've ever been a part of you know you know and and touch word

22:43they've all been successful to different levels and um you know I'm still forging away through uh through through the nose and the and the dislikes MH definitely so I know that there would be a lot of people that are interested in and and trying it out and you mentioned there about part of the next steps is with the swissborg launch can you tell me about

23:06that more and and how I could get involved with it sure so we go uh live which is next Wednesday and forgive me while I just check my my diary for the actual date on uh on what actually next Wednesday is given that this video I'm not sure when it's going out next Wednesday the 4th uh of uh September um and I think it goes live at 2 p.m. uh uh Central uh European Standard to and

23:33um uh that uh launches obviously a raise that we're we're doing on swissborg and uh we can I can give you a link Ash the show not so people can connect through onto uh onto that one if they want to um we're obviously happy to do a special offer for anybody who comes through this video so I'll give you a a special link for uh for that one to give a a little

23:55thumbs up to everybody watches and and comes through but the um uh the key thing about this this swissborg alphad uh is that we're launching it to a close community of uh you know swissborg users which is great uh everybody's kyc through there everybody uh and they've got a very strong dedicated uh Community about over 100,000 active monthly uh users out of

24:21that 850,000 uh user base so it's really strong really active and that's really exciting but what that does for us is it builds out our initial group of be testers now along with that we've been launching our questing campaign so a little Valor next to me if anybody wants to become a valinor by all means go to uh our Discord or our Twitter uh join the uh community and and complete some

24:47of those questing campaigns you'll be earning fuel points there and fuel points convert into valim as well so we are doing the you know what a lot of uh companies do but importantly for us what valut are for us more than anything else is the opportunity to test the app and tell us what's wrong tell us what you don't like about it and what should be better so that we can create something

25:09in a very closed uh community that is significantly better before we get out there into the uh into into the open community so that's that's really what our focus is and uh with the with the growth of this and uh yeah getting us to our next stage as a business that's amazing U I'm looking forward to it and yeah I can leave a link to that to to the viewers and I'm personally

25:32interested in in seeing the next stages and I want to try it out as early as possible you know as a content creator I love it and um whatever we can make it easier for the end user to interact or get that knowledge across uh short form video and interaction in in in less steps uh I'm all for yeah I mean you know with you is it's a great example actually so if

25:56you're talking with mean communities or you're talking with um uh you know live tokens you know this is another way that you're able to actually get your content out there and actually benefit from the from the value obviously you know as a YouTube Creator like you're not really getting a huge amount from your subscription you already talked about the dwindling uh amounts on that and for

26:18you as a you know I know you're always out there trying to find Alpha and trying to find other projects and trying to uh you know help you know benefit your life and your generation your wealth and so we're providing that to content creators as a as a platform but we're also providing it to the users that watch that uh that content and and believe in it and believe what that

26:36content creator is is saying so you know it's it's it's a real win-win platform for everybody definitely and with those Valena that you mentioned that that astronaut super cute there by the way um behind you for those that are watching on the video uh is that the main Community that's on Discord or what are the main social communities in where people can go and chat to learn

27:00more yeah Twitter and discords are our main uh communities uh connect to either obviously you're welcome to fire me a message directly as well on Twitter um I'm I try to be as active as possible if I can't get back to you then Discord and the crew back there are really the most connected and plugged in you know I I try and uh get in there once a day at

27:22least but the um yeah Community is everything yeah that's that's really important to everything that we do sounds great rer well thank you so much uh I I'm super excited to see the next stages of Vala I can leave a link to the socials that you mentioned in the show notes as well as as the swissborg launch all the best for the upcoming launch and I know that this is just the beginning

27:42for the platform um and and I hope something like this can can get as big as Tik Tok and Instagram and provide more fair and just ways for Content creators and for any users to get involved interact more directly uh in a more decentralized way so um all the best and let's definitely follow up in the near future well thanks very much Ashton and just to round off on on that with uh

28:07Facebook taking up about two billion of the uh of the world's population in terms of connected users into that if Val was able to obtain you know 1% one of a%c of that that would be a significant size platform and it would make a significant shift the amount of users that are inside uh crypto so I like you I'm very bullish and very hopeful of uh attaining to any of those

28:33sorts of uh numbers you know what you got to be in it to win it and that's exactly what we're building and that's what we're we're swinging for the uh for the fences with so uh thanks very much for having me on I really appreciate it