Note: This transcript was automatically generated by artificial intelligence (AI) and therefore typos may be present.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
Hey folks Rob McNealy here. And today I am talking to Nikko Hernandez. He is developer out of Columbia, South America, or Central America, wherever that is. And today we’re talking about their project, which is pretty cool. It’s called fantasy gold. So welcome to the show. Niko. How are you today?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Good. Good. Thank you very much for having me. doing very well. Thank you.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
Unlike most Americans, unlike go like most Americans, I’m geography independent, or geography illiterate man, I’m having a bad day today. So, where are you in Colombia?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
This is South America and Central America.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
You know, it’s like I’m having a long day.
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
It happens, it happens. So, we’re in those channels, about two hours outside of Bogota.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So when you think of crypto and tech hubs, you don’t normally think of South America. Am I right?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Correct. So although meta gene is becoming a really big tech hub actually met again is considered one of the most tech advanced cities in South America. There’s actually a couple of blockchain companies there exchanges and other other types of projects, no coins or tokens that I know of. But there are some some blockchain companies that are doing wallets and exchanges and things like that.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
That’s very cool. It’s interesting, because I go to a lot of conferences, and I talk to a lot of people. And it seems like South America and Africa are like the two regions, then you don’t hear a lot about crypto from yet. And I do think that there’s a lot of potential in those different markets. But before we kind of jump into all that, kind of tell me a little bit about who you are, how did you get into the space? What do you up to how did you first hear about crypto and what got you into doing a project?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Sure. So let them doing things on the internet since 96. So back when AOL was the thing, and it was just started trying to creep out and getting to the mainstream before DSL, and all of this other stuff. So I was doing network setup, server rooms and that sort of thing. And later on, I got into, you know, doing some purchasing and selling of source codes, you know, closed in source codes, like, maybe there was a, I would look for projects that were marketable, but maybe the developer had kind of lost the passion for the product, something that I might see a market for. So I started buying and selling source code to things like Facebook apps and you know, other websites and things like that. So then, later on, we also started a security company. So we started security company here in Columbia. I was running for quite a number of years, doing a lot of network and access security control for big corporations, government installations, that sort of thing. And then there we kind of decided to close that business. I started looking at, you know, I wanted to do a fun project. And one of the fun things that I learned to do in the States was actually fantasy sports. So I hired a team of guys and we took about a year year and a half to, to develop a fantasy sports platform. So if you think like fanduel or DraftKings, you know, we were modeled basically after those those sites and became a successful business in terms of white label actually had a lot of companies approached me and licensed software from me and they would throw on their front ends. Then use my back end. Later on, I decided I want to launch my software, the software that I that I had built, and I want to show it to people. And you know, at that time PayPal and the other traditional type of processors were really getting, you know, stringent on who they will allow in. So and they were even freezing some accounts. So I didn’t want to have to deal with that. And I had studied a little bit about blockchain already. At that point, I had already bought some Bitcoins. I had some masternodes from a few coins, like small coins. And so I was always already interested in it as an investment for myself. But then I thought and I said, Well, if I can’t use PayPal or one of the other mainstream, you know, credit card processors, you know, this is a perfect use for this. Then anybody can play this play on the site. You don’t have to have a PayPal account or credit card to play if you have some digital currency you can play and, and, you know, enter into contests and tournaments on the site. So that’s how we that’s how we kind of started it out. So we initially launched in July 2017. So we’re running out three years now on the blockchain.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So where do you see it? going? What is your ultimate kind of goal for this project?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Well, my goal always has been to build a full ecosystem for anyone wanting to do fantasy sports eSports, any type of gaming because the way that I see things going is I feel like there’s going to be these small niche industries that have their own coins, right. So you don’t need it doesn’t have the same type of coin. You know, there’s there can only be one won you know Bitcoin or Bitcoin cash whatever camp you belong to there. You’ve got, you know, your aetherium, which has its its use case, of course, great model. And, you know, coins like dash and pivots. You know, I see those is like the umbrella type of currencies and then everything down below there should have some sort of ecosystem some reason to, to want to, to have that coin right, not just to buy it and oh, I hope it 10 X is next week or next month. You know, you’re going to buy a token and Okay, what can I do with this token? Now? Can I play a video game? Sure. Can I bet on fantasy sports? No problem. You know, can I do eSports? Absolutely. So, you know, we’re trying to make something that’s use case oriented, not just hype, and, you know, we’re gonna have this great stuff sometime in the future, you know, so That’s that’s kind of where I see us going. And hopefully, we’ll be able to track some additional developers since our chain supports smart, smart contracts and tokens. So we’re hoping to showcase some some good products and that we’ve made here in house. And hopefully that will inspire some other developers to say, Hey, you know what, maybe instead of Ethereum or Tron, maybe I should think about making a token on fantasy gold. Because, you know, that’s where, you know, maybe they have, you know, an audience that’s already going to appreciate what I have to offer, you know, the product or the app that I’m building.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
You done some innovative things compared to a lot of other smart contracts platforms, I think namely with interoperability with other block chains. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Sure. So So obviously, we have, you know, the important component there is going to be the Ethereum virtual machine, right so in our chain, there Also in a theory and vote virtual machine running on the network, which supports the contracts. And the we didn’t do anything to the protocol other than rename it for a naming convention on the chain from ERC 20 to FGC 20. So you can basically decide, well, I have a Tron token. But I also like to have a nfdc token, you can copy paste your, your your smart contract into the compiler, grab the byte code and paste it into your FGC wallet and submit the contract and now you have a token on on both chains.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So are those tokens and would they be a duplicate token on each chain? Or is that just meaning that your ERC 20 token is now completely compatible on the fantasy gold blockchain?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Yeah, it would be essentially two separate tokens. But for example, if you have a Tron token or an aetherium token and you’re worried about things like gas network times. You know, it might make sense for you to just say, Hey, you know what, instead of a theorem, I’ll just, I already have my code done, I can just copy paste and, and, you know, create my my token on the on the FGC chain.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So if I was gonna say swap from an ERC 22 and FGC 21, how easy is it for the exchanges to adopt that and then track that.
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
So basically with a swap for the exchanges to do that. If they support FGC chain, if that’s already listed on that exchange, all they have to do is add a single line to their configure file. And they’re able to support FTC 20 tokens, right? So it’s not a complicated thing for the exchanges to do. And the the address that in exchange gives you. So your typical FTC address that you generate, whether it’s in your wallet or on an exchange, that same address is also you can also be used for tokens to send and receive tokens. So for the exchange for an outside exchange, this should be a fairly straightforward process. And then we are also right now we’re in closed beta, and we are adding FTC 20 tokens to our own exchange. So if there was a swap, we would also you know, be willing to help to help people facilitate those swaps on the exchange.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
When is your exchange launching?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Well, like I said, right now we’re in closed beta, I have some UI issues that I’m not happy about, you know, I want things to to update in real time without refreshing. So we’ve got most of the market parameters doing that now. And so I think right now, we’re just looking at finishing up the CFTC 20 tokens, hoping that this week, we can finish that and start testing those. And hopefully we can also clean up the UI a little bit, and get it ready for the initial public launch. So hopefully, one to two weeks, we might be able to open up to public beta and start, start seeing some transactions going on there.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So is your project a centralized project or a decentralized project?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Decentralized, very decentralized. You know, we didn’t sell the big Ico and hold back a lot of coins. You know, team members, that current team now that’s holding coins, they own coins, because they purchased them, they weren’t giving anything in an Ico. And so there’s not, you know, a centralized control over those things, you know, 99% of the tokens that are in production now or out in the market now or owned by the community. So and we also So in 2018, we received the letter of opinion that we are a decentralized utility, not a not a currency, not a coin.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So is there a foundation or any kind of Corporation behind this? Or is it just completely on chain governance?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Just completely on chain governance. You know, at, at some points if we get some, some commercial success in some of our projects, you know, corporations will have to be set up, you know, to pay in any legal taxes required and, you know, whatever jurisdiction we’re operating in at that point.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So, how does your blockchain play with others in the sandbox?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
How do you mean?
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So, you know, how do you deal with for instance, you know, with Bitcoin, I read somewhere, you guys have some, you know, functionality crossed chain that can work with the Bitcoin blockchain. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Sure, well, the coin is essentially Bitcoin using the unspent transaction, and it has the aetherium EBM sub module. So there’s a sub module in the chain in the code that handles all of the Ethereum type of virtual machine requirements in c++ so that it works with our Bitcoin Bitcoin based blockchain. So it’s basically Bitcoin but with an added instead of, you know, doing your typical proof of work mining, it’s proof of stake. So the nodes the the users out there who are staking coins, they’re they’re the ones that are processing and verifying transactions. And then, you know, the block reward is handed out to 10 people in the staking pool who’s ever staking out That time individually, you know, when a block is created, it gets sent out to 10 people for for the block reward.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So where are you in your roadmap outside? I know you said you’re in your beta right now closed beta for your exchange. Where are you at the blockchain in the crypto community piece of this? Or do you have any kind of integrations right now or any partnerships of note? That would be interesting to hear about?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Yeah, I don’t know which names I can mention. We are speaking with a, an Esports group that has a pretty, pretty large following. They have a token on another chain, and they, you know, they’re looking at switching over to us, we’ve been in talks with them quite a bit. I’ll actually help them put their token together, the way that they want it to be done, and they’re, they’re hopefully going to swap over from their token to an FTC 20 token here shortly. Where Have the partnership with FTC arena, which, you know, they’re getting some some things worked out on their end, both internally and with the site. But once they do that, you know, FTC arena will have its own token. And so other than that there are some partnerships with potential partnerships with, you know, other developers who are either thinking about or already have done something in blockchain and are are considering looking at us for for their chain to run their tokens on.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So in your ecosystem, I mean, it seems like you got a couple things going on and just help me understand. So you have your own crypto that is traded already on exchanges and things and you would like that to be used for say betting or in sports game, you know, in sports eSports you know, in game purchases and that kind of thing. But then you also have this separate, you know, smart contracts platform where other people can build the Their own tokens on the back of your network. Is that correct?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Kind of Yeah. So FTC, the base currency, as, as I guess I would call it the base currency, the base coin is FTC. And so if people would like to adopt FTC and use FTC on the website directly they can. So we’re trying to provide those tools, you know, the necessary JavaScript libraries and web three libraries to do all of that stuff. A lot of that stuff is in our GitHub already. But, you know, essentially, if they don’t want to use FGC, and they want to create their own token, then they have that option to do so they can very easily and very simply just, you know, make their own token and deploy it and use that instead of the, instead of the base token, it’s the base coin itself.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
Would you expect that people that are building tokens on your network would be like Largely also used in the esports arena? Or are you thinking that they’ll just be used for anything? I guess what I would think about is like, Is there a risk of cannibalization between your existing base currency and these other tokens if they’re both kind of focused on the same space?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Not really, because so for example, we have draft daily that was running successfully for quite some time, we were actually the first crypto that had an actual functioning and working daily fantasy sports sites. Even before the others while they were still in planning. We came out with the product first. That was actually working. So let’s say we decide okay, well, we’ve got a little bit of time too. And we have sports back Of course, we will need sports to come back. So if sports comes back and we relaunch draft daily, we’ve already have our draft dollars token on the chain for that site. If another fantasy site wants to come in and make their own token, that’s fine with us. Maybe they provide a different user experience. Maybe they provide a different way to play the game different rule sets that they like better different sports, you know, anything that they want. That’s different. The, the fact that there’s two coins, two tokens, they’re on the same space, trying to compete for kind of the same customers. not that big of a deal, because at the end of the day, just like a theorem, you, you have to pay a gas, right? So in our chain, if you’re doing transactions with tokens back and forth, you’re paying a gas, but in this case, the gases FGC and that gas that’s spent on those transactions, whether you know, you have Rob’s fantasy token and draft dollars token, if I’m doing transactions and playing on one or either of the sites. The user still have to have some FTC in their wallets to pay for those transactions. And those those fees, those transaction fees that are in FTC, actually hundred percent of that go back to the staking pool. So for example, our block reward is five FTC per block. Well, if you have some transactions mixed in with that block, that block could be seven or eight. And it’s going to go out be divided up to those 10 people that are up next for the staking reward. So you know, you’re creating an ecosystem that benefits everybody, the holders, the takers, and at the end of the day, the individual apps, it’s dependent on them to make the user experience that the users want to play with, you know.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So are your transaction speeds are they pretty fast? How fast is a confirmation on your blockchain?
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
So block time is approximately two minutes right now, but The transaction speed is very fast. It’s almost instantaneous. So, for example, in beta testing the exchange testing withdrawals was obviously very important. I would say, in less than five seconds from you clicking the Submit withdraw and it being, you know, allowed through the admin. You’re going to see it on your desktop wallet. Nice. Yeah. So it’s, it’s um, I mean, I don’t I don’t want to use words like instantaneous but it’s it’s pretty close to it.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So gas I we were with Tosca originally and eath token and then we built on blockchain. And in gas was a pain in the ass on a theory and in fact, gas is one of the main reasons we left a theorem. Have you done anything to differentiate how you guys treat gas then say aetherium is doing or is it the same kind of, you know, same kind of complications.
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
No, it’s um, well in aetherium, you know, you have aetherium, which is the base coin, you have your token, and you have your gas. So they’ve introduced this third thing into the equation. So we in our system, get FCC is the gas. So there’s no, there’s no third piece to the puzzle. Which, which helps things quite a bit makes things a little bit more leaner and, and a little, a lot less complicated. So you don’t have to have a theory of mind gas and your token you have just your token and your FGC.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
Well, that’s how it is on a theory. I mean, you just a theory is the gas on the Ethereum blockchain. So..
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Right but on a theorem, can you also collect gas separately? You can separate your gas now Okay, then now it’s a
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
Yeah, so yeah, it’s a theorem is the gas that It’s interesting. gas is really complicated. Like if you go like, like that. I mean, it really is, you wouldn’t believe how many developers don’t understand gas. And I’m not a developer, but I understand gas. It’s like pretty funny. To me. And that was one of the reasons I don’t like a lot of smart contra. I’ll be honest and nothing. I haven’t even looked at your stuff yet. So as far as your blockchain, but I think that’s one of the things I think from a usability standpoint about smart contracts platforms is you need a separate gas. And or, you know, you have to use this underlying base currency to run tokens around. I think there’s a usability issue. And I don’t know what the solution to that is. You know, I always thought it makes more sense to me if the tokens could be moved across the blockchain in their own currencies so that users and users don’t need to buy two kryptos to move the one token, for instance. So if that, to me, I think there’s a huge barrier to adoption out there with smartphones and this is not just a theory It’s most of the smart contract platforms either have the same issue, right. But we thought that it would be a lot better if the gas was built into the native token. And that somehow, then the token could settle out with the base blockchain for paying for the transactions. So that end users didn’t need to buy the additional coin to run the grass. I don’t know the solution to that. But it just that was one of the problems we hated about a theorem. And even our own developers. It’s amazing when you get into the people that are developers don’t understand how a Ethereum gas works.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
Yeah, timeout transactions and things like that, especially with when you’re building the app. So we built two D apps. When we were a token, one to distribute our tokens and one to swap our tokens on a blockchain and the gas was a big hang up for most people like trying to deal with that piece of it and setting it and make sure you have enough gas and but making sure you’re not spending too much gas and Things like that. So I don’t know, I don’t know what the solution is for that.
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
But well, when the difference, then between us and Ethereum would be the cost of the coin and the gas fee. So we try to keep the gas fee pretty low. It’s actually 40 SATs is I think it’s well, we have it out right now. And in the gas fee itself for for these transactions. So 40 SATs in aetherium versus 40 SATs and fantasy gold, you’re looking at quite a price differential there in a fixed fee. Yeah, no, you know, it can be adjusted. So for example, part of the decentralized governments of the chain is we can actually change things like gas fees without having to do any sort of soft fork or any any sort of major upgrade.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
That would that’s I think that’s I think that’s a smart move personally, because the value of the token goes up, you’re gonna want to keep that fee low.
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Right? And you can in within the wallet itself, while you’re while you’re sending tokens, you can change the gas fee, you know, you can pay a little bit more, you can pay the absolute minimum, you know, all depending on, you know, what the user needs to do or accomplish for that transaction.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
So, how many tokens have moved over? So far from say, a theorem to fantasy gold,
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
So far, zero? So right now, we’re just in talks with a few people. You know, the last 12 months for blockchain, of course, has been pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty brutal for some people. So I think right now, we’re just kind of regrouping after that. After that, that that 12 month period that a lot of us have gone through, and we’re starting to get the name out there again, you know, We didn’t since we didn’t have a huge marketing budget or Ico for marketing. You know, we don’t have a huge amount of followers like, like some other coins. So, hope hopefully once that starts to take off and more and you know, through things like this great podcast here. You know, we can attract some more developers that will that will consider using it.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
Well, I hope that that works out. So Nikko where can people find out more about fantasy gold.
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
So we have our main website, which is fantasy gold.io. And that website, just off the bat is actually in the process of being completely reworked. We have some things that we want to add to the roadmap update the roadmap and the overall design, away from fantasy sports specific genre over to a more generalized fantasy sports eSports gaming, that sort of thing. And from there, you know, our discord kind of great community right now, the mods, they’re very nice and pretty nice tip bot going on going around. So anybody that wants to join our discord, you’ll find the link on the website. And, you know, just come in, hang out and you might get some free FGC from people throwing around rain tips.
Rob McNealy – RobMcNealy.com
Wonderful. Niko, thank you so much for coming on the show today, folks, we’ll have all those links listed up at Rob McNealy calm. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. As always, it’s been great talking with you and thanks so much.
Nicolas Hernandez – FantasyGold.io
Okay, thank you, Rob.