Space Summary
The Twitter Space Degen x @Smartlayer – The Future of community Loyalty hosted by DegenDistillery. Exploring the future of community loyalty in the spirits industry, the Twitter Space 'Degen x @Smartlayer – The Future of community Loyalty ?' delved into the importance of collaboration, innovation, and risk-taking. Partnered with Brewdog & Google, the space highlighted the evolution of community-driven initiatives and the impact of global partnerships on building loyalty. By actively engaging diverse creators and participating in a strong global network, the industry aims to adapt and innovate, emphasizing sustainable community engagement.
For more spaces, visit the Lifestyle page.
Questions
Q: How important is collaboration with diverse creators for innovation?
A: Collaborating with diverse creators fuels innovation, fosters community engagement, and brings fresh perspectives to the industry.
Q: What role do partnerships with industry leaders play in building loyalty?
A: Partnerships with industry leaders like Brewdog & Google can significantly enhance community reach, credibility, and overall impact.
Q: Why are innovation and risk-taking crucial for shaping the future of community loyalty?
A: Innovation and risk-taking are key factors that drive industry evolution, differentiate brands, and capture consumer interest.
Q: How is the spirits industry adapting through community-driven initiatives?
A: The spirits industry is adapting by embracing community-driven initiatives and fostering cross-sector collaborations to meet evolving consumer demands.
Q: What benefits come from actively participating in a strong global network?
A: Actively participating in a strong global network can amplify brand exposure, create new opportunities for growth, and enhance industry influence.
Q: How can community engagement be sustained in the spirits industry?
A: Sustaining community engagement in the spirits industry requires consistent interaction, value delivery, and aligning with community interests and values.
Highlights
Time: 00:15:27
Innovation Through Collaboration Exploring how collaboration drives innovation in the spirits industry.
Time: 00:25:49
Impact of Global Partnerships Discussing the impact of global partnerships on building loyalty and community engagement.
Time: 00:35:12
Risk-Taking for Industry Transformation Delving into the role of risk-taking in shaping the future landscape of community loyalty.
Time: 00:45:04
Cross-Sector Collaboration for Growth Examining the benefits of cross-sector collaborations in driving growth and innovation.
Time: 00:55:33
The Evolution of Community Initiatives Tracking the evolution of community-driven initiatives in the spirits industry.
Key Takeaways
- Collaboration with diverse creators and partners fuels innovation and community engagement.
- Building loyalty in the spirits industry requires a strong global network and active participation.
- Partnerships with industry leaders like Brewdog & Google can amplify community reach and impact.
- Innovation and risk-taking are essential components for shaping the future of community loyalty.
- The spirits industry is evolving through community-driven initiatives and cross-sector collaboration.
Behind the Mic
Engaging Conversations and Reflections
So much better with everything nice and cold in my chair there's no comparison? I told you? Oh, I told you? I can't fast your head beyond your tears? People try not to find this thing you've always been? I told you? Oh, I told you? And pray your answers? You walk through life's life? When you pray you're answered? You want to? Life is like answered? If I had my way every day would be upgraded? And I never do your stuff so that you are my for you? Never. So proud of all that? You are. Moving? I will not stop? Cause I'm moving? I will not stop? Cause I pull the way? But I'm stop moving? I will not stop moving? I will not stop moving? I will not stop? One for you?
Welcome to the Twitter Space
All right, all right. Gm. Gm. Everybody. Welcome to our Twitter space with our brand new partners off the block in smart layer. How's everybody doing? Doing great, man. It's great to be here. You're calling from Australia, right? We've got swezy on the line. No, I'm in the States. We're based out of Australia, but I'm the lone guy over here on the. North American continent holding down the fort. Very nice, very nice. And on the dgen side, it's me, Jordan, director of partnerships and immersive, and I'm joined today by none other than the infamous fluke. How you doing, luke? Yo, yo. Doing good, man. Yeah, all good. Busy days always. But excited to be with smart layer and jump into exactly what we got being going on. We've been cooking on this for a little while and yeah, it's going to be an exciting conversation, I think so. Looking forward to it.
Partnerships and Future Directions
Absolutely. So we've obviously been announcing and working with our partners, Google and Brewdog, on both the web two and web three side, which has been an absolute dream and the first of many other web three. Well, I call them web three and web two partners, really, which is in no other than smart layer. So the title is the future of community loyalty, which I think is very buzzword bingo. But I'm excited to unpack just what that means for both of our mutual communities globally, both in a web three and onboarding sense. And community sense, but also in the web two space, which is really what we're doing at DeGeneres, looking at onboarding as many normies as possible. We've had 700,000 people in 15 events to date of in the UK alone. And that number will keep on ticking up over the next twelve months.
Introducing Sweezy and Insights into Smart Layer
And to make that possible, sweezy I thought we might go around the room and do a few rounds of introductions for those who haven't heard of the man, the myth, the legend that is sweazy and what you're up to at smart layer. And then obviously Luke and I will give a quick introduction. So just a bit about your background, what you're up to at Smartlayer, you know, what you're focusing on at the moment would be great. Yeah, perfect. So my name is Matthew Sweezy, everyone calls me Sweezy. Chief strategy officer over at Smartlayer, formally co ran and created the Salesforce web three studio where we created Salesforce's first enterprise, web three products. And that was really focused on doing exactly what we're doing here, helping brands really move into the web three space.
Developing Community and Loyalty Models
So working with Adidas, Sony, Unilever, Mercedes, all of the big brands, really kind of helping them figure out how do we reimagine this idea of loyalty, how do we reimagine this idea of community in a world where digital ownership can be that key defining piece of. That's what we've been doing here at smart Layer, really helping progress this world and making web three really a different idea. Really. We focus on a couple of big things, really connecting the web two and the web three world together. It's just really what we focus on. Amazing stuff. I came across smart layer many moons ago now, probably a year or two ago, a little bit about my background. Started my career as a normie in management consulting for a decade.
Journey Through Blockchain and Sam Analysis
Came across blockchain 2016 when I was helping a large bank in Australia where I'm from integrate ripple, if you still remember XRP which is still pumping into. Their sort of financial XRP is rip these days, bro. It is mate, but that's off the record. Anyway, I got to understand the power of blockchain technology back when I was in consulting and then I actually left consulting and went to the AI space and startup space and was involved in a number of web three projects from Defi to nfts to esports and most recently worked at another company out of Berlin which is doing immersive experiences, which is another topic that's under my belt at degenerative distillery. And I came across smartlayer through our pal Diego Borgo, who I know you all know well, who's our director of brand here at DeGenere and he also worked with me in the previous organization I mentioned.
Exploring Loyalty and Future Initiatives
And then, you know, I've been looking at the loyalty space myself closely for a long time to just see what's been up to. You mentioned some great brands there, Adidas and others. You would have seen the Lufthansa and the Starbucks case studies on the web three side. So, yeah, I think we're lucky to have one of the best in the biz, in the loyalty space in smartlayer. So it's super awesome to have you here, sleazy, and thank you for joining us, Luke. For those who don't know, Luke, you've been living under a rock, but for those who don't, do you mind just giving us a quick hello, what you're up to at Djen distillery and the amazing kind of career that you've had so far?
Luke's Background and Entrepreneurial Spirit
Yeah, of course, I'll keep mine short and sweet so we can get into this, but, yeah, most people know the background I'm seeing in the room anyway, but been an entrepreneur since I was, I think, like 16 was when I pretty much started out with my first business. Had a couple of businesses throughout my twenties done pretty well out of them. Ended up moving to buy when I was 25. Was actually trading pretty much consistency after selling the first business into stocks and shares at the time and had some connections out in New York with million dollar listings. Ryan Sirhand ended up flying out to Dubai to do a bitcoin deal and ended up staying there for five years, building a trading floor out there, which were trading in gold and Dow Jones hedges at the time, which was doing really well up until Covid, which pretty much spooked the whole market, and we decided to move into crypto really heavily.
Introduction to Crypto and NFT Trends
I was originally in crypto from the back end of 2017, beginning of 2018, when I got bitcoin. And then, yeah, really it was the catalyst that spooked everything, which was the drive into nfts that have me really loving the space. So, yeah, been pretty much in business and an entrepreneur my whole life. And, yeah, crypto is just one of those spaces and, yeah, never wanted to get involved in any other crypto projects before in a professional sense, because we could always see where they were going. But, yeah, when Metsami almost 20 or almost two years ago now, it was a great marriage in web three and actual business, which is what we're building here at the Djen distillery. True web three business.
Driving Potential and Collaborative Ventures
So, yeah, it's been a long old journey and I'm excited of where this is going, man. DJ has so much potential and the team are absolutely grinding. You mentioned already some of the partners that we've already got in BrewDog and Google, which are amazing in most projects, will be able to dream about those partnerships after a few years, and we landed them after just a couple of weeks into the journey of pitching to them. So, yeah, we're cooking, ready to go, and bringing smart layer to the table now to build out what we want to do in web three is going to be a great addition to the team. So excited to get into it.
Setting Expectations and Future Partnerships
Amazing background and pedigree. Thanks, Luke, for sharing. Look, let's shift the gears a little bit to talk a bit about Djen and smart layer and really what we're trying to achieve, and then let's get into how we're going to achieve it, right? That's what we're all here for. From a DJM perspective, obviously, you all know our ambition is to become the world's largest and fastest growing lifestyle. Spirits brand. There's a mouthful for you. We'll work on the marketing tag there. But essentially to do that, we have to onboard normies, we have to get rwas out there, we have to look at drink token, we have to look at loyalty. There's so many moving parts to building out an ecosystem and a beautiful global community like we've already been doing so far.
Embarking on Community Loyalty Strategies
How does it look for smart layers? Wheazy, what's sort of your backstory and your big goal into this whole community loyalty onboarding space? I'd love to hear. Yes, we've always believed that web three really is a new type of technology, but it doesn't matter what the technology is. It really matters what we unlock for people. And what we have to unlock for people is really what is their core value that they want. And so when we look so many times a community and so many times at loyalty, it's people are really wanting to find. There's always the emotional, the intrinsic, but there's also a financial incentivization. I think that's the big thing that web three unlocks in this world.
Unlocking Web Three for the Masses
And one of the big things we've always been focused on is really helping unlock web three for the masses. So, you know, we created, we launched smart layer network. We built a community of about three and a half million people very quickly. And we did that by really allowing any normie to be able to enter the space very quickly and very easily and back. The same technology that we're bringing to Degen, which allows people to easily get into this world without the complexities of having to worry about web three. So it allows them to have the proof, the decentralization, the ownership, and then you can start to then open up and unlock all those other doors that web three allows.
Building a New Type of Business Model
And I think that's one of the brilliant things that Deejan's trying to do here, which is how do we leverage the core elements of web three to build a new type of business and where everybody can win? And it's a decentralized business model where we've got the ability for different types of referrals, different types of incentives, different types of loyalty, and I just think it's brilliant. So it really fits really well with what we've always believed is that what we need to do is we need to move past the DJ world and we need to be able to move into the regular world. It's the only way that web three PI grows bigger is by bringing more people in.
Creating Pathways for Web Two Involvement
And where are those people? Well, they're in web two, right? So we've got to go find ways to reach them and bring them in and then show them the ways that web three changes their lives through the incentivization models, through the collective models. And I think that's a really big, powerful thing. So, yes, we've been looking for this world to happen a long time and really excited about this partnership. Amazing. Well said. Yeah, I was chatting to Diego about this, who obviously was an advisor to Smartlayer and is also now a core team member at DJ and Distillery. And he sort of had two key problems that he expressed, which.
Addressing Key Challenges in Web Three
Which I really identified with. And I'm sure, Luke, you'll think the same sweezy is, you know, at the moment for a brand to adopt web three, which a lot of brands have been doing. And, you know, the three of us on the call have had the good pleasure of advising a number of these brands and doing so. There's two key problems that, you know, Diego and I were talking about. The first is ease of use, and the second is the experience. Right. The UX, if you want to call it that. Though in real life, there is no ux. Right. It's reality. I'd love to hear either Luke or Swezy about, you know, one, what you think about those two problems, and two, I guess from a swezy perspective, how smart layers tech allows for that of decentralized ownership and membership.
Solving Problems with Smart Layer's Approach
Yeah, Luke, you want to start or you want me to start? Go ahead. You go take the flow. Yeah. So I think one of the reasons I joined Smart layer was because when I was working with all these major brands, those are the two biggest problems they faced, is number one of how do we make this easy for a regular consumer to adopt this technology and then two, how do we make it a positive experience that's additive to their experience. I think that's what we've been able to unlock with smart layer. That's why I moved over here and that's why we're excited about really unlocking these things. It's really quite simple. If we expect people to do things, we have to make the web three world just as easy as their existing world.
Simplifying the Adoption of Web Three
Which means that they have to find web three just as simply as they use any other application. It has to be simple to sign on. We have to abstract all the complexities and then really provide the real core value proposition, which isn't just that I have a wallet, it's really far beyond that is I can now take collective action, I can have decentralized interactions. And so that's when we start to unlock with smart layer. So, Luke, I'll toss it over to you with that. Yeah, honestly, for me, I think it's even more depth than that. I think the way that things are heading and Pucci penguins have been a catalyst for this, I think in terms of opening the eyes, I think some people are really understanding what they're doing and how onboarding should be, but it shouldnt be sitting around waiting for people to see price going up and then they jump in and then big brands start to jump in.
Navigating Market Trends and Consumer Connections
They take the top and then they leave the space, which has been pretty much what's happened the whole time through the last bull run and then into the kind of market weve been in for the last couple of years now. It's very much been right. Everyone's onboarding because the price has gone up and everyone's excited, and then they end up getting disheartened by it. And that's how crypto gets, you know, the bad press because the price goes down. We need to do this differently. Like onboarding needs to be done in a way where we're calling the normies, but just, you know, just general. People in life want to feel connection to things and they want to develop brands.
Community Lifestyle and Future Strategies
And I think that's becoming even more prevalent now with the way social media is. It's very much, people aren't interacting with brands anymore, they're interacting with people a lot more. And people just want that connection. I think it's lost. One of the things me and Sammy have been talking about a lot is how kind of Gen Z have been. You know, they've started to grow up on their phones. They don't go out, they don't go and have house parties anymore. They don't call their friends as soon as their parents go away on holiday, and they get everybody around and just have fun and go out. And it's not promoting the drinking element. Yes, we have a product which is vodka, but it's.
Building a Brand Around Community
It's building that lifestyle of community and fostering that around Degen distillery. The product is obviously there with the drink, but what happens is you kind of farm people around the brand, and I think that's how it needs to happen going on into the future. And pudgy penguins was that example, because they built that brand first, and then they onboarded through what the QR codes were and how that happened within buying the physical products. This is obviously what we've been discussing with you guys and what we want to build out there. We've onboarded, you know, we've had 700,000 people in two months be exposed to our brand, like, since we launched the Volcker on just June 7.
Starting Point and Vision
Right. So that's an indication of the start. When you look at the bigger picture of what we want to do at Djen in terms of our own events, tickets, everything, all of those things can be brought on chain and live on chain, and have a benefit for being on chain and track a person's interaction throughout a brand and build it that way. And I think it has to be built that way. It can't be done in the reverse order. We got the benefit that we're born in Web three, and that's really the power of what we want to do here in terms of onboarding. Really good perspective.
Technological Aspect
Sweezy and Luke. Thank you. The way that I see it, just to add on before we move to the next topic, is, obviously, there's a tech component here which has to be secondary. Right. And the one thing that I love about smart layer personally, which is why, you know, I'm really excited for this partnership and why I've been working with Swezy and Brent and the team and Diego and the team on our side, is there is some great tech there. There has to be the good tech. And the thing I really like is this ownership topic that you're mentioning right now. There's a whole thing around third party data. A lot of brands have to aggregate third party data with big tech companies to get a profile on you with cookies, et cetera. We're now moving towards the zero party data ownership system with web three and blockchain, which is really where I have my own digital wallet, which is my social passport, and I actually get to opt in and opt out and tell you about what I enjoyed.
Ownership and User Experience
So what brands do I engage with? What do I enjoy doing as a human being? I actually now have the ability to own that data and that sovereignty on my side. But from a smart layer perspective, there's some really easy and interesting tools which are not squeezy we'll get into a bit later. Even things like an apple wallet or a Google wallet, which a lot of people are using now. Smart layer has an interface with. So for me, that was a huge plus from a, I guess somewhat boring tech perspective, though, I love it all. And then I think more philosophically, just to end this topic before we move on, you know, I think what smartlayer and Degen have been doing and will continue to do with this partnership is essentially bring new types of community building, new types of brand building and new types of loyalty to the world.
Djen Distillery Club and Future Engagement
So, as you know, we've got our Djen distillery club, which is a great little start where we have our leaderboard and the ability to claim our drink tokens and some great events. But you can imagine a much richer experience moving forward. Something that is really, truly integrated with what I as an individual enjoy. And I think, Luke, you made a great point there around people engage with people and interests and their community more than brands now. So it really is a mindset shift that we're seeing enabled by through some of the tech and activities that we've been doing both at DJ industrially and smart layer. We might move on a little bit now and talk somewhat more around the topic, which is the title here, the future of community and loyalty.
Community Building and Technology Integration
I want to jump into how you guys have gone in building brand, building community, building loyalty, squeezy. What are you sort of bringing to market and how you're enabling this all, you know, with your ambassadors or your salespeople or your marketeers? Yeah, I mean, so we're an infrastructure place, so we're deep tech, you know, so our ambassadors, our infrastructure is really based around people that are really believing in the technology. So when we built our community, which really built off this idea of people really wanting to see what was next, the NFT was still, you know, were still in the middle of the NFT boom. And what our core technology kind of enables is a new way for people to start to think about technology and nfts and tokens.
Understanding NFTs
So really, if you kind of like boil this all down and not get too deep in tech and kind of what this all means, but for the longest time, nfts were just about. It was really just exclusivity to a club. And that was kind of where it ended. It unlocked, it was a key, and it could unlock one thing. What we really core enable is those tokens to have functionality like any other application. So just as a consumer is experiencing an app on their phone, there's the marketplace. We unlock those same feature functionality such as front ends buttons to enable those tokens and enable new types of relationships to happen.
Concrete Examples of Technology in Action
Let me just illustrate this really quickly. We just worked with, if you guys are familiar with gas hero, the game over on Polygon that's created by the FSL team, and there's a marketplace called more. So we just partnered with them to create and launch a new project for them. And it's really a mind to earn game, and it's this ability for us to be able to launch a token. The token is playable inside the marketplace, and people are earning the sut token just for kind of clarity on what's happened. We've got about 40,000 transactions a day happening through this token. It's the number two game right now on Polygon. By total transaction volume, the sut token is the hottest meme coin right now on Polygon.
Innovation in Tokens
It's got over $30 million. FDV just launched two weeks ago. So you've got a whole new way that we can start to think about what is a token? How do we engage communities around these things? How do we build experiences and brands? And it's not just about I have an image, and an image is a PFP that represents something I am. It's really extremely immersive, just as any other application would be for a consumer. And so that's really how we start to think about brand, and that's what people get excited about. That's why people evangelize for us and bring us into projects like Deejin.
Explaining Smart Layer to Laymen
Yeah, really cool. And I actually struggled, I'm gonna be honest. When I first came across your token as an app concept, even though I'm in the space, I actually kind of struggled to get my head around it. But it all sort of clicked for me when I saw a couple of the case studies you mentioned. For those on the call who haven't heard of the smart layer token as an app concept, do you mind giving them the kind of elevator pitch like you're talking to your grandma or your dog so that we can make it clear? Sure.
Simple Analogies
Just don't stop balking, man. That's it. So super hard for my grandma. But it's quite simple. If anybody understands a token is just a piece of technology. What we enable is that piece of technology to really carry executable script to be anything that we can imagine and program it to be. So if you really want to make a simple analogy, there was a phone and then there was a smartphone, there was a token, and then there was a tap. And the tap is really that next evolution of a token that unlocks any type of feature functionality to exist inside of that piece of technology, just as apps on a smartphone turn that smartphone into a smart object.
Degen and Community Values
Love it. My grandma understood. That's awesome. My dog's looking confused at me, but that's standard. Luke, I'd love to get your take on the same question. Right. What's been special about Degen and how we've been building brand, community and loyalty? And then obviously, sweezy, you can add colours to some of the plans that we've been having around making drink as a tap, which is some pretty exciting alpha that we're dropping here and also the other plans that we have from a longer term perspective. But Luke, I'd love for you to give us the quick pitch on what's so special about Degen and how we've been building brand, community and loyalty.
Brand and Community Focus
If you know. If you know, you just know. If you know. That's my crop, bro. That's it. Done. See you guys in a bit. No, man, but it's super important. I think brand is going to be a huge thing for us and one of the core focuses of what we want to be developing pretty soon. And there's going to be some really cool things coming out of what we've been doing recently. So, yeah, everyone's got to stay tuned for that. And brand is going to be the core pillar of everything that we're doing in a space that's just becoming so boring.
Community Formulation Strategies
So it's going to be, yeah, it's going to be fun, obviously in terms of community. We started building community before we even had like the disc. The discord started with just a few of us playing poker each week for quite a few weeks and it was literally about, I think, ten of us in that server, like literally from the ground up giving updates of what we've been doing and really starting from the beginning and, you know, the community members that are with us now are just going above and beyond. Like the community is everything for DJ and it really fires us up in terms of, you know, putting everything together and focusing on what it is that we're building and why we're doing it.
Importance of Engagement
It's the core pillar of really what this brand is going to be about and accepting, you know, the tone of voice and what it means to be creative and different in the space and rewarding that is the key to the whole thing. Like the people that are creating memes or liking posts, no matter how small it is at this point in time, are the ones that are going to get the benefit of doing so and being here early while we're building this stuff out. But the plans that we've got moving forward and how big we actually want to drive this company to be, those are the people that are going to be most rewarded for the time and effort and being here on the journey.
Attracting Talent and Creativity
And I think that's why we're getting so many creative people wanting to join Djen, like, obviously head of creative here at Djen. And the amount of inflow that I'm actually getting bombarded with now in terms of people wanting to join it and join the team and actually be on this journey with us is amazing. So to be able to reward that to the people in the community that are just showing up every day creating stuff and yeah, most of the time trolling Sammy, which is absolutely amazing. yeah, it's super key. And then it comes down to even further afield.
Long-Term Engagement Strategies
Right when the products out there, more events, more activations around the world, bars around the world, we gotta tap into that community and bring them really on board to the life of Djen. So it's super, super important. Well said. Preach. Yep, I'm bullish. similar to me, you know, you're head of, director of creative and web three. As the director of partnerships and immersive, the quality and quantity of partners I've had inbound reaching out to us at degend, and I'm talking big brands, celebrities, musicians, actors, philanthropic groups, event providers.
Growth and Partnership Opportunities
I mean, it's really been something I've never experienced before in my career is, you know, we are getting a lot of inbound, which is often, you know, a dream from a partnership or a sales guy like me. But at the same time, you know, thinking about the brand, thinking about the community first and about how we're intentionally building the future and co creating together has been a really special thing. And we've got a lot of great announcements coming in the coming weeks around that space as we head up to TGE.
Looking Ahead with Smart Layer
So, Matt, Mister Swezy, I'd love to change a little bit of topics now and talk a bit more into kind of what's next. For smartlayer. So what are you working on now? What are some of the big announcements you've got coming up? And then obviously we'll finish the space today. Got about half an hour left. We'll finish the space today. Talking about some specifics, but what's been happening over at smart layer and what are some of the things that you're working on that you're really proud of? And without dropping too much alpha, what can we expect?
Anticipating Future Developments
I'll drop lots of alpha. So I think some of the things we can expect are one of the things that we watched was blinks really did really well in Solana. And one of the big learnings from there is allowing on chain actions to happen anywhere. And that's one of the things that we're bringing to EVM, really allowing any on chain action to happen inside of Farcaster, Telegram, Twitter discord. And that's really one of the big focuses we have. So it's the taps concept and then allowing those taps to be interactive.
User Interaction and Engagement
So think about if you were wanting to create a token and you want that token to be bought inside of telegram, we can enable that to happen. If you want to create a mini game and you want that mini game to go inside of telegram and be played inside of Telegram and then connect back to a chain. So it's a lot of these different aspects of really, where can we experience on chain? And it's really on chain anywhere. So that's really kind of what their big focus is moving forward.
Embracing On-Chain Transactions
Super cool. Okay, on chain anywhere. I like that. That's should put a trademark on that one. Luke, what's your thoughts about the future of the Degen club and the loyalty space that we're working on? Obviously with a lot of these web three partnerships coming up to TGE, we're going to be announcing a few more of those. One of them will be announced tomorrow, some alpha along with smart layer. But what's your kind of thoughts on the lay of the land and how things are progressing on the dgen side?
Long-term Visions
For me, it's a longer term plan. It always has been. Like, I think one of the biggest things in the space is a very short outlook, particularly in web three. Like everything, meta changes very quickly, and we've been waiting on meta changes for quite a while now in terms of what's been going on, and the markets felt pretty flat for me. Longer term, it's the merging of what you would see a traditional company be like.
Integration of OTT and Blockchain
But we've got so many things that we can actually tap into whether it's the spirits industry that's archaic, that we want to mix up, whether it's web three that's not onboarding the right way, but when we see it different to how everybody else does, I think at the moment, which is why I think we're on to really something in terms of how we're building. I don't want to say too much in terms of any specifics because, yeah, we want to keep these community guessing like we always do. Probably some Easter eggs coming soon.
Onboarding and User-Friendly Technology
But yeah, for me, it's super important, like I said previously, to start rewarding and using on chain. Myself, obviously use crypto all of the time. And if I could day to day use crypto for everything that I do, I would, because I had to buy a new MacBook recently, and if it was in Solana, I would feel much better about myself than giving away the fiat. So for me, I think it's understanding the tech.
Seamless Integration for Users
Obviously been in the space for a long time, speak on spaces now daily about everything that's happened in the space for like 18 months now. So I've seen the pitfalls with the other projects I've tried and not successfully really followed through with, and there's gaps that we really want to fill in that. And the key is when I think my mom and dad can interact with Degen in a way that they don't know they're using on chain, but have a lot of assets that count within an ecosystem, and they really feel they can dip in on what is a part of like a huge community and network with those people.
Future of Djen and Tap Protocol
Not only that, but obviously we're enabling tap as well, which is our token affiliate protocol, which will enable distribution around the world through people within the community. There's so many elements that I think it's bringing that on chain in a way that's really understood and adoption. And I think that's what the key for me is, that I want to build it so simple that my family can interact with this and get benefit from it without a long, intensive crash course on how to set up a metamask wallet and all the rest of it that comes with it.
Seamless User Experience
When you try to onboard someone, then you have to explain gas and everything else. I think it's making it seamless and enjoyable for everybody to feel a part of something, which is what blockchain really enables, that ownership element and yeah, proving you're a part of something for the longer time. So, yeah, for me, it's a much longer term vision to really reward and bring as many people as possible on chin.
Engagement and Adoption
I love that. I love the analogy used of your parents. My parents are in their seventies, and they live in Australia. Spend the rest of their days on the beach, and they're sort of wondering what I'm up to. They're like, oh, yeah, vodka. I get that. Music. I get that. What's this crypto thing? Right? So when my parents are able to, you know, engage with a brand like Degen, you know, enjoy the benefits, they love a drink.
Community Engagement
My folks being australian, you can imagine that's the case. But where they have the ability to engage with their, I would say, medium level of tech savviness, I think we've, you know, we've really done a great job both at Djen and at smart layer sweezy. I wanted to pass to you and let you ask some of the questions. Now, I've sort of been interrogating you both for the last, sort of half an hour, but I wondered if you had any questions that you had around community loyalty or around some of the topics we talked about now.
Addressing Urgent Matters
Yeah, I've got a lot of questions I do hate. I had a plumbing emergency, so I've got to drop and go meet a plumber to kind of fix a pretty wild situation in my basement this morning. So I've got another, like, two minutes. But I think the big question I've got is, you know, when you look at what Degen has been able to do, it's pretty phenomenal.
Introduction to Loyalty Concepts
And that's why we're so excited to work with you guys is to really kind of help bring this idea forward. And so when you think about what's next and when you think about the future of loyalty, I've worked with the future of loyalty for many, many big programs, many big organizations, and it really always comes back to some very boring things that people really can't move beyond and really see what's next. I would love for you guys to talk a little bit more about kind of what this concept of loyalty means and kind of how you see this decentralized world creating a new era of loyalty for deejay.
Emergency Situation and Appreciation
Amazing, man. Thank you. Well, on that note, I'm going to let you drop if you need to, on the plumbing emergency. I hope there's no feces flying or anything like that, but thank you. Thank you for joining us. No worries, guys. I'll chat with you all later. Cheers, brother. Appreciate it, man. Thanks for joining.
Discussion on Loyalty Programs
Well, great question on the loyalty front. I mean, look, I know you and I can wax lyrical about this, as could Diego and Sammy and others, but Luke, if you want to take a first pass, I can join next. Yeah, I think it's multifaceted and depends pretty much which angle you kind of look at it from. Obviously, I'm just going to go probably from the vodka angle first, which is probably the easiest to kind of understand. Obviously, that's a product that's going to be distributed around the world. It's going to be consumed on sites in pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, beach clubs, whatever it might be around the world as well.
Consumer Experience and Community Engagement
And at the moment, products are just consumed and then that's it. Nobody's getting any other benefit from any spirits brand anywhere in the world than literally just going to the back bar, they select a drink, they probably don't even say the brand name, they probably just say something. And this mixer, that's what's been happening for the longest time. And it happens with products around the world. What we really want to do is enable community, no matter where they are, whether they're consuming at a bar, then this is long term picture. We've got a lot of short term stuff, but it's hinting at where we're going here to be able to bring them on into the community and have more experiences at those tables, in the bars and clubs and be with the brand, not just consuming an alcoholic drink, which for the one part is great and the exposure is there.
Building Unique Experiences through Loyalty
It's more than that we want to build here. And I think being able to do that through a loyalty or reward or onboarding to the community in a completely different way, that no brands, I think, can even compete with us without using web three. And because were born here and we're all degens and we all know what it means to use the blockchain and what the future of this technology looks like. I think it's huge. So from the vodka specific point of view, that's one thing. I think on another level, there's obviously the potential for people to do very good things financially out of this. And obviously we have to be careful on what we say.
Community Growth and Financial Opportunities
There's both protocol in terms of the RWA aspect of what we're doing, and community being able to go out there and just have conversations with local bar owners or whatever it might be, and get Djen and grow the business themselves with a direct correlation back to the drink token itself in terms of the more we sell through that as well, we burn more tokens and more goes into the liquidity. There's just so many angles that we can play on. It's hard to kind of define it, but there's so many things that people are going to get benefit to and exposure to, but not just in terms of intangible things like, you know, discounts that everybody does, but experiences that you can only get with Djen, like once in a lifetime money can't buy.
Fostering Partnerships and Experiences
Experiences that we want to foster and build with the partners and the partnerships that we're currently talking with and access to things that you can only be a part of those things if you're part of the community and a part of DGen and you are degenerating live and feel brand, which is why we want to start collecting that as early on as possible. Like we have done with points with the Oregon, with the mint, and as drink Tolkien grows, we're going to have a lot of holders there as well. And then obviously, distribution around the world is going to bolster that even further. So it's difficult to coin in one thing, but I think from that you can kind of extrapolate where.
Future Directions and Innovations
Where the thinking is and where we're going with this. Yeah, well said to bring it back to reality as well. I mean, I'm happy to share. I was recently in Ibiza for both Degen and for my music record label, which I run. And just looking at the experiences that I went to there, some great parties, some great events, some amazing clubs, some beach parties. It's exactly what you said, right? You go to the bar, you say, can I have something? And something. You get your drink and you head off. And even if you don't drink alcohol. Right? Can I have whatever, kombucha, a water, whatever it might be. And so I think there is a massive opportunity here with a.
Partnerships and Future Developments
With tap, with the technology that smart labourings, with swezy, dealing with his plumbing issue right now. And obviously all these other partners like Google and Brewdog, we've been bringing on board. So the future is bright, let's just say that. And we've been working very hard on cooking globally on some things across the UK, Europe, the US, and further afield into 2025. So you can hold on to your hats if you're part of the DDN community, because there's a lot of good stuff coming. Yeah. And I think a bit of alpha on that as well.
Changes in Brand Messaging and Future Content
Like the brand messaging for people, I think is going to change massively, very, very soon. And there's going to be a lot more coming out of DJ and distillery, both in content and a huge change in things. Content really runs everything and I didn't think we'd be getting into this today, but I'm going to spill some. I'm going to spill some stuff. We're now free on a space for maybe 20 minutes, so let's see where we go with this. But yeah, I mean, we've obviously, people have seen the new videos that have started coming out, particularly with Sammy with his pants down and certain things happening in swimming pools, but we want to have the gloves off.
Community Engagement and Excitement for Events
Like, we're free to do whatever the hell we want. And that's where it's about being a DJ and being yourselves and living and feeling the brand and enjoying it and anyone that's in the audience that I can see quite a few that have been to our events and might be coming on the 14th as well. There's going to be a lot more of that. We're very in the touch and feel phase right now where we're finding out what hits and where the brand is going and we're getting really to a very good place.
Development and Future Visions
It's been about two months of development going on behind the scenes, both with Jody Diego and external services, both in creative and in tone of voice and the overall brand. And I think people are really going to start to see what we see. Like we obviously internally say as much as we can on spaces and tweets and things like that, but we want to keep you guys on your tours. But I think I. The bigger picture, if people were sat as a fly on the wall daily in the office here, they would get a much bigger picture.
Future Aspirations and Strategies
And if you're even more bullish about, you know, what it is that we're actually trying to create, disrupt and put into fruition here. Like, it's more than web three, it's more than just, you know, building this out. It's actually bringing experiences and a brand that you can actually build with and be proud of when we actually hit that top spot, which is exactly what we want to do and achieve here at DJ. And so, yeah, there's a lot coming, man, there's a lot coming, a lot being put together and obviously we've hinted TG as soon.
Upcoming Events and Community Engagement
I know everyone's been waiting a while, but yeah, it's just a case of things that we got to do and put in place, but after that out the way, really things are going to really start to heat up and change like Sammy hinted at in one of the videos as well, that I know community have seen now as well. There's so much conversation going on, so many things that were sandbagging that we've got yet to announce that are coming together. Yeah, it's gonna get. It's gonna get real very quickly.
Headlines and Disruption
And we want to push the boundaries as much as we can. So, yeah, we want those headlines. We want to break out of this space. We want to be the ones that start bringing eyeballs into web three in a completely different way. Preach. Preach, brother. I love it. In terms of things we have announced that we can talk about without getting in trouble.
Upcoming House Party Event
Obviously, there's Emmy in the audience who's been our amazing ops manager, leading a lot of the events side of things. We have the house party on the 14th, which is on the Djing club, which we're gonna be releasing more information about. Do you want to talk a little bit more about that? It's gonna be fucking sick. Yeah. Yeah. This has been a conversation we've been having to do for quite some time.
House Party Planning and Details
We've explored some other avenues and sacked it off and thought we can do this better ourselves. And the conversation started, actually at Goodwood after the first event at Goodwood to. To get this show on the road with this. And it timed obviously, with the british summer ending. Hopefully we don't we get some good weather on the day because the venue of the house is at the garden is unbelievable.
Event Logistics and Partnerships
Like, it's. It's really good. Brewdog is showing up there as well. They're going to be providing us with the alcohol, like the beers and stuff throughout the day as well. Because I know people might not want to go hard on vocal all day, which might end up some people just flat out asleep on a lilo, who knows? But yeah, we're going to be. There's going to be artists there. DJ's there all day as well at the top deck, which is going to look insane overlooking the whole of basically Brighton and the sea, which is.
Community-Focused Atmosphere
Yeah, I mean, incredible. And really why we wanted to do a house party was again, bringing back those vibes, having fun, hopefully catch the last of the summer and, you know, not a big event like we've done where community, obviously enjoy those big events with huge artists, but really have, you know, people coming together. It's a different vibe and house party. You can just, Charlie, you can try and get alpha out of people while we're there.
Food, Drink, and Surprises
It's going to be good. There's plenty of things going on as well that we got planned. Food obviously provided, drink obviously completely free. You just got to show up if you are accepted to come and yeah, a couple of surprises are going to be happening there as well. Well, don't threaten me with a good time. That sounds pretty awesome. Obviously we'll have a bit more information coming through the official channels and through the club, but Emmy's been working really hard on that as of you and Sammy and the whole team, so I'm super.
Event Acceptance and Logistics
Yeah. If you've. If you've applied through the club as well, just go back and check. Most have been accepted now in terms of tickets and everything. Emails will be going out. For those that have obviously provided emails and everything there as well, they'll be going out, I think, tomorrow, mid morning. We'll update you that in the discord. But they're ready to go out just with more information.
Control and Accessibility for the Event
We were initially going to give out the key card, but we're looking at, obviously, we've got quite some traction on this and we're going to be controlling that door so we'll give out the location closer to the time so everyone can get there. A lot of questions were being asked in terms of the running order of the day and where it is to book hotels and everything else. It is very close to Brighton. It's literally the case of a train journey.
Travel Considerations for Attendees
And we say train just because it's a lot easier than the car, because Brighton is like 20 miles an hour every hour and painful to get anywhere. So we will be. If anyone does want to stay, I'll be, obviously myself, Sammy and the rest of the team will be coming back to Brighton. We'll be getting the train back, most likely with everybody else. We'll be putting on the taxis as a shuttle, basically that everyone can just jump in and get the shuttle back to the train station, which will take them back to Brighton as well.
End of the Event and Community Engagement
So probably advisable to book your hotels in Brighton. There's no plans for an after party at the moment, although we'll see where the night takes us and where we go when we get back. It will end at 1030. I'm just racking this off. I'm just racking. We'll get more information out of it. To interrupt the smart layer community and team who are listening as well. Slide into those DM's.
Final Wrap-Up and Next Steps
Let's get you there. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And if obviously people have got plus ones as well, please let us know. I think most people are taken care of and they're on the list. But yeah, we'll be wrapping up about 1030. It is a residential area, obviously, so we don't want to be too disruptive to the neighbors and have our amazing host be the most unpopular person on that street.
Conclusion
So, yeah, 1030. We'll be back to the train station, then back to Brighton. We'll open the doors at 01:30 p.m. like I said in the video as well. If there's any more questions, obviously just open tickets in the discord. We'll be providing a lot more information very soon, though. And yeah, Brighton is the place to kind of get your hotel and everything sorted. I don't think there was any more kind of questions asked off the top of my head to answer or I'm probably going to check my telegram and make sure Mikey's not pinging me with anything we've got.
Community Engagement and Inquiries
I don't think he has. What we might do in the last 15 minutes, Luke, if it's cool with you, is hand this a little bit over to the community. So if you guys are listening, if you've got questions about smart layer, if you want to know more about some of the exciting things that Luke's been talking about around the house party, or obviously one thing I'm going to mention just in passing, not necessarily the topic of this conversation, though it does touch on community and loyalty, is we also have been quietly announcing our ape fest Lisbon after party plans with novel labs and the Mutant cartel.
Future Announcements and Questions
That's another topic on the 19 October, which is a little bit after the house party that we'll be releasing a bit more on later, so look out for that. But anyway, in the last few minutes, if you do have a question, hit the request to speak button. Type us in the chat in discord in Telegram. Mikey's here, I'm here. We're monitoring. But yeah, let's just leave it open the last few minutes for any questions from the community.
Community Engagement and Feedback
Yeah, I'm feeling leaky if anyone wants to get up. We have actually been going through quite a few things in terms of engagement on the account and I can see trappy there as well, ranked very highly as a kol, it would seem, against the Djen account. So, yeah, community have been absolutely killing it in terms of engaging and stuff. And yeah, feel free to request up. I'm feeling a little bit leaky today and a bit loose.
Invitation to the Community
So, yeah, feel free for anyone who wants to jump up and just ask any questions on what's going on. But yeah, touch on a couple of other things that was obviously mentioned there as well. Lisbon, we'll be opening those tickets. We've got allocation for community there, obviously, as well, to be able to go and be involved in the after party for April fest.
Focus on Getting Sorted
We're focused at the moment to getting that sorted. Absolutely. All right. I'm just having a look at anyone who's requesting to speak, having a look at the chat with any questions, see what we got. Not seeing any. Everyone's got all the information they needed with Zeem. I must be doing a good job then. Yeah, we must be doing all right. But, yeah, I'm to give even updates on the rest of it. I think there's a lot going on that will lead up to TG and a lot of the questions that are currently being answered, or being asked, more like, will be answered very soon in just the general running of how we're seeing the strategy pan out. So any questions that people do have probably is going to be answered fairly soon.
Upcoming Interaction with Mala
We got Mala coming up. GM or GM? GM or Gm, whatever it is right now. But how are you doing, Mala? Hello. I'm just driving. Sorry, I couldn't type anything, but I want to know. I just want to know when my one one gets revealed soon. All I can say is thank you. That's make sure the dev goes. I will let the devs know that it is soon, but, yeah, it is very soon. I don't want to give it away, but soon. Yeah. I felt, like leaky, but that's one thing I kind of can't, so. Yeah. Yeah. And you said you're one of one who knows who it is yet, man. I don't think. I haven't got that bribe yet.
Community Engagement and Upcoming Trivia
Florida man. How are you, sir? Hey. Hey. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night. How's everybody doing? Doing good, man. Good to hear from you again. How's things? Awesome. Awesome, awesome. Yeah. I'm going to actually reach out to the smart layer community here on this one, and I've got a question regarding that. So as part of their tap or token, as an app protocol, and the integration of drink, some of the smart layers that's going to be involved into it could lead into telegram integration, discord integration, website integration, adding to the utility of that smart layer use case. How would DJ distillery be able to merge that use case and that flexibility that token as an app offers into something that leads into that onboarding of normies we discussed earlier.
Discussion on Smart Layer Integrations
Awesome question, man, I love it so much. You've done your research. Always good to have somebody on the ball up here. The best way to answer that is to have a look at some of the existing case studies of what smart layer has been up to. So if you guys are familiar with Opensea, brokenc or some of the other kind of web three and NFT kind of platforms out there, blur, rarible, whatever you like to use, you'll see some collections that smart layer has worked with previously. Now some of these are very degenerate nature and kind of web three collections. Some of them are much more brand affiliated collections. Have a look at some of the stuff smart layer has done to date. There's actually a really cool feature that they have. When you click on an NFT on the top left of the digital asset, there's actually a little smart layer token.
Concluding Insights on User Experience
And if you click on that token, it shows you all sorts of utility, all sorts of extra information as a token, as an app that can be applied to any digital currency or any digital asset. And that is sort of the main steer I have to answer your question is to have a look at some of the projects they've done to date. And then you can imagine with all the awesome stuff that we've been describing with Luke and myself and swezy today, it really doesn't take too much of a stretch of the imagination to imagine how that fits into the DJ and club, how that fits into drink tokenization, how that fits into all the plans for world domination that we've been talking about today. That was like answer of a question without leaking the alpha. I've got Emmy in capital letters saying. Don'T you dare, Lee, you know me. Yeah, absolutely trappy.
Final Thoughts
We'll go over to you, hopefully be nugs. We answered your question and I will be dropping my tag soon and we'll get on Call of Duty, which the community have been on about for a little while. So I'll figure out how to get on there. Probably going to be carrying both of you, even though I'm shit, because I've seen some of these in there as well. But yeah, I'm all for degenering with some degens on call of duty whenever I get started with a headset and stuff, which I think I've found at home. But trappy, over to you, man. How's it going? How's things? Yeah, it's going good, mate. It's going good, thanks. I see you're all still smashing it. Very intellectual question there from bnogsminds mine. Well, I feel like I've already been shown up and I've not even asked.
Request for Future Insight
I just wanted to know can we get some. Some alpha for next Saturday? Can you just. Little nugget, just a little bit gone? You know you want to. Yes. Trappy. Ugg and fingered in the. Oh, my days I. I was with Sammy when he recorded that line and even I was like, really? He was like, yeah, fucking let's. Yeah. And I was like, all right. Made the edit. Cool. The b roll is even more funny. Maybe we'll leak that soon. I think you just got to be there, Trappie. I think you just got to make it there and be there.
Community Gathering for Upcoming Event
I think that's the best thing. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a really good day throughout regardless. Hopefully the weather stays really good, which is what we're praying for. So DJ and gods hopefully are shining down on us that day and give us the best of the last british weather. Give us a little bit of an indian summer to end off the year because we've had pretty good summer down here so far. But yeah, I mean, just be there, man. It's going to be a good day all round. Yeah. That's all I can say really. There's things happening though. Probably answers some of the questions we've already had, so. Yeah. Was there anything else, Trappy? I know it didn't help much though.
Looking Forward to Next Gathering
No, not right now. We'll wait till next Saturday until you've. You've had a few beers and then we'll ask some more questions. That's all the community do now. They just wait for me to be on the drink and then they start getting me on the. On the chat and on my twitter. So yeah, I'm. I'm down for it. Yeah, let's. Let's see. There's a lot cooking so I'm sure we'll be able to not put it officially in an official channel. Maybe do some talk about some things. Let's see, let's see. Love it.
Wrap Up and Acknowledgments
Guys, we have just five minutes left in the space. I'm going to let any other final questions come through. Otherwise I think we will call this an hour of power as it has been. And thank you all very much for joining us on your afternoon, morning, evening, wherever you are in the world. But let's just have a look. Luke, Mikey, Emmy, any other questions coming through? Otherwise, let's rug it. Yeah, absolutely. I think our Binoc's hands went up, so Binog is over to you. I've got one last thing. We're going to go right back over to that smart layer to kind of keep the space on track with what it's about.
Final Remarks and Reflections
It's going to be real simple. Yes or no, if I'm on the right track. Thinking about this here. So when you mentioned hitting that top right icon, when these NFT projects that are already previously affiliated with smart layer and went back to onboarding normies, is it too safe to say, and like I said, it's going to be as close to yes or no or possible, would it be safe to say that even though the token is launching on base and it's an l two from ethereum, all this can happen in the background without somebody to have to go in and figure out how to add base, add metamask, add this, add that, transfer it. Bridget, pay gas for that seamless, smooth, idealistic transaction that anybody on any other web two website is already accustomed to.
Concluding Thoughts on Usability
Man, I love it. The brain the size of a planet. What a good question. Look, Luke, I have answer, but I'll let you go first. I just said tap, because that's all really. It's going to be. But, yeah, I think obviously, for the genesis, that's a little bit different because it will be linked to tap, our tap affiliate protocol. So that's going to be really native people. And obviously, to be able to get into that, it's going to be a little bit different, but going forward, it's going to be, yeah.
Reflections on Accessibility and Reach
Very easy and simplified, which is what the aim is. Yeah, I'll just echo that sentiment. Right. With the aspirations of both Degen and Smartlate, as well as other partners that we have not yet revealed. That is really the aim of the game, is as simple as possible. We talked about our grandmas, our dogs, our parents. That's really where this is heading. Chain agnostic, you know, multi accessibility, point focused and really keeping things in the real world, keep it as high level as that. I think all that's left to say is bullish. Both projects, great partnership, seems like a wonderful integration, mutual respect.
Closing Statements
Absolutely wonderful. Bullish, bullish. Let's go. All right, we are at time. We've got three minutes. Left. We're going to give you time back into your busy days. But last words from me is just thank you to the community who's joined, thanks to Swezy with his plumbing problem, for still showing up and telling us about the great work they've been doing at smart layer. And all I'll say is, watch this space. There's a lot more coming from this long term partnership with smart layer.
Final Words and Goodbyes
Luke, any final closing words from you? Any final closing words from me? I don't know. We got Sammy here. I think he might have some closing words. He's a bit nervous. I've never seen him like this before. He doesn't know what I say, doesn't know the context of it. I have no idea what's going on. At the moment, but all I have to say is let's fucking drink and don't get caught with your pants down. Words to leave by. And on that note, I'm gonna play some music. We're gonna rug it. Peace.
