Ryan Taylor. He’s currently the CEO of the Dash Core Team. Dash is an innovative digital currency that offers a number of improvements over bitcoin. Ryan is an expert in the payments industry with over 15 years of experience in financial services and technology.

Famous Five:

Favorite Book? – Mastering Bitcoin
What CEO do you follow? – Jack Welch
Favorite online tool? — BitInfoCharts
How many hours of sleep do you get?— 5
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – “Don’t worry about what everyone else has to say, follow what you really want to do”

Time Stamped Show Notes:

01:41 – Nathan introduces Ryan to the show
02:21 – Dash is based on the bitcoin code base and operates with the same level of security
02:28 – Dash has improved in 3 areas:
- 02:31 – First is governance that allows people to vote on changes
- 02:49 – Second area is that it’s self-funded
  - 03:14 – Dash has incentives for people to contribute to the network
  - 03:25 – Dash received its own funding from the network itself to operate
  - 03:44 – There are masternode owners in Dash
- 05:48 – Team size is 50
  - 05:55 – Dash currently has 15 open positions
- 06:44 – Dash has a more sophisticated economic system than the early coins
- 07:00 – Getting donations for funds is what is primarily happening in the bitcoin world
  - 07:46 – Alot of them are ICOs that don’t have an ongoing source of revenue to sustain themselves
- 08:15 – Ryan’s opinion on Civic’s model
- 09:00 – Dash currently has 4500-4600 masternodes, which is a marketplace
- 09:39 – An owner can own more than 1 masternode
  - 09:52 – There’s no way to know the number of masternode owners
- 11:22 – The outcome of a vote
  - 11:30 – There are people who don’t vote, but there’s a minimum threshold
- 12:30 – Utility-wise, Dash is aiming to create a world-class payment system
  - 12:39 – Some tokens are focused on smart contracts while Dash focuses on the payment
  - 13:05 – Dash is launching their landmark product next year called Evolution
  - 13:42 – Dash is aiming to make payments as convenient and secure as possible
- 14:31 – The treasury is where they allocate transaction fees and block rewards that all cryptocurrency collect
  - 14:55 – With Dash, 45% goes to miners, 45% to infrastructure or masternode owners and 10% is set aside to the treasury
  - 15:33 – The treasury pot currently has $1.2M and the network is extremely well-funded
  - 16:20 – Dash incentivises each component of the network for it to remain functional
- 16:44 – Dash has integrations that they’ve funded
  - 17:00 – Charlie Shrem just gave them a proposal to create a US debit card
  - 17:14 – Dash has worked with Alt36
  - 17:36 – Dash has funded cards
- 18:00 – Dash’s miner plus masternode combo allows things to be done instantly
- 19:42 – Ryan left his job at a multi-million dollar hedge fund to start Dash
  - 19:50 – Ryan believes that there’s monetary and non-monetary rewards at stake with Dash
  - 20:10 – Dash has the potential to bring cryptocurrency to a whole new audience
  - 20:30 – Most of those involved have put their own stake into the network
- 21:29 – “My incentives are perfectly aligned with the network, the way it should be”
- 22:18 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:

A blockchain company that uses its own network to fund itself remains self-sustaining and self-functioning.
Most ICOs rely on donations for funds, which can be unstable.
Ignore the noise—do what YOU want to do.

Resources Mentioned:

Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost.
The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences
GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more
Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE
Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience
Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible
Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books
Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

816: Crypto: With $1b+ Cap, DASH Wants to be a Better Venmo

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders