Martin Koppelmann. He is the co-founder and CEO of Gnosis, the decentralized platform for prediction markets. He has been an entrepreneur and thought leader in the blockchain space for more than 4 years. He is closely related to prediction markets and has worked on decentralized, market-driven, governance mechanisms.

Famous Five:
Favorite Book? – Martin does not read books, but considers Reddit a good resource
What CEO do you follow? – some VCs, but no specific CEO
Favorite online tool? — Slack, Trello
How many hours of sleep do you get?— Less than 6
If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – He wished he looked earlier into game theory and economics

Time Stamped Show Notes:
01:07 – Nathan introduces Martin to the show
01:43 – Bitcoin was the reason Martin got into the crypto and blockchain space
01:58 – This was during the time the Euro was having problems
02:09 – Martin started to evaluate how he looked at money; he learned about bitcoin and the possibility of creating different forms of money
02:35 – Gnosis has evolved
03:04 – They are assuming that Gnosis will be a decentralized platform for prediction markets; for betting, auctions and insurances
04:32 – Martin says companies like eBay, Uber and AirBnB will be replaced by a decentralized platform
04:51 – They may replace companies that go into information aggregation
05:02 – Instead of having different analysts determine the revenue of a company, markets and forecasts will be aggregated to one number
05:15 – Gnosis has zero customers and zero in revenue, but they have a team and have raised capital thru selling GNO tokens; they raised $12.5 million
06:14 – The tokens were sold for 250,000 ether, a blockchain currency, and at the time the tokens were sold, the ether was worth $12.5 million
06:55 – The token has its own value and is currently trading at $240 a piece
07:04 – Gnosis collects ether and pays their employees with it
07:33 – To convert ether into real dollars, Martin uses Kraken, Coinbase and Poloniex
08:40 – The foundation of crypto is its big vision and the vision to create something as big as the internet; however, currently, it is still just speculation
09:31 – The token itself is almost always issued in Ethereum; the consumer creates the rules so the first set of rules they made involved organizing the token sales
10:03 – Martin did the token auction and was completely controlled by the blockchain
10:40 – Compared to Bitcoin, Ethereum was easier to use for developers
11:10 – If crypto becomes the currency of the future, Martin says he hopes that people will become equally rich. He is currently working on a project where each person can issue their own currency and others would agree to accept each other’s currencies
11:37 – They are trying to democratize money
12:27 – Nathan says there is a limited supply of ethereum in the blockchain
12:46 – Personally, Martin does not follow the bitcoin model
13:02 – Martin is thinking of a new world where people are part of a new economy; each one gets to issue their own tokens and the tokens have value
13:50 – Inflation can be used to finance a public good
14:11 – For example, let’s say you want to create a platform like Uber, Uber is made to serve the public
14:35 – The operating cost is not what made Uber expensive to build, it was the spend on marketing and buying everyone on the platform
14:57 – Martin says there can be a new model where people can create value by joining the same platform
15:13 – The value creation happens when people join the platform, this is where tokens are useful and can be used as incentives
15:58 – The early adopters get more and those who join later will have to pay fees
16:12 – Nathan says this sounds like a network marketing scheme
16:25 – Martin says this is how Uber found success – in the beginning someone paid $2 billion and in the end, it’s the users that pay; but, the curve can be much flatter
17:02 – Nathan asks Martin how values go up in crypto
17:42 – Martin says value creation is made when everyone agrees on something
18:15 – The thing about competing token issuances is that people need to find a way to combine their different tokens onto one platform
18:44 – Nathan says he can see the good intentions of the people who are in the crypto space, but he is trying to figure out who will win or lose when the crypto marketplace is more mature and established
19:28 – Martin says assuming there will be a winner and loser, the difference is found in people who have control over a platform
19:49 – For example, in Uber they can change rules and raise fees, but on a decentralized platform, you can structure it in a way that makes restrictions on yourself
20:16 – If you monopolize the platform, you can still get the fee but you have no control in changing it
21:02 – Martin says there is power in making your governance mechanism into something that does not allow you to change anything
23:31 – The Famous Five

3 Key Points:
Crypto and blockchain can be the currency of the future.
You create value when people agree to join a platform together.
A future where people can have their own currency may be the way to democratize our use of money.

Resources Mentioned:
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

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