Next Creators

Blaze (Henry Tafolla) is creator of Cheddar, a loyalty token and Yield Farm for the NEAR ecosystem of dApps. Cheddar's goal is to help develop and foster dApps on NEAR while rewarding users for their use and loyalty to the NEAR ecosystem. In this episode Blaze talks with Sasha about: 

• Growing up in Kansas

• How developers can benefit from Cheddar

• The use cases for a loyalty network

• How he decides which idea to work on

• Why he decided to build on NEAR

• Best launch strategies

Episode links:

Cheddar: https://cheddar.farm

Blaze: https://twitter.com/Blaze0x1

Open Shards Alliance: https://openshards.io

Sasha Hudzilin: https://twitter.com/AliaksandrH

Kris Vaivods is CEO of Vorta Gaming, creators of the much talked about play-to-earn game Hash Rush. Hash Rush is an online sci-fi/fantasy RTS game set in the fictional Hermeian galaxy. In this episode Kris talks with Sasha about: 

• What exactly is play-to-earn?

• Keeping the bar high in blockchain gaming

• Getting the economics right in the game marketplace

• Gaming genres that do and don't work with the play-to-earn model

• Why he decided to work with NEAR Protocol

• Advice for aspiring game developers

Episode links:

Hash Rush: https://hashrush.com

Hash Rush Discord: https://discord.com/invite/4YMBHbw

Vorto Gaming: https://vortogaming.com

[Book] Virtual Economies: Design and Analysis: https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Economies-Design-Analysis-Information-ebook/dp/B08H1914CL

[VIDEO] Watch an early Hash Rush gameplay video: https://youtu.be/eBILikSWiVk

Mario Reder is creator of the upcoming play-to-earn web video game built with the NEAR protocol blockchain. In this episode he talks with Sasha about:

• Making the jump from software development to game development

• How he decided on building Shroom Kingdom versus other ideas he had

• Choosing to build for the browser instead of other specific platforms

• The tokenomics of Shroom Kingdom

• Building community for a play-to-earn game

• Single biggest challenge in building a play-to-earn game

Episode links:

Shroom Kingdom: https://shroomkingdom.net

SK discord: https://discord.gg/SPZsgSe

Shroom Kingdom white paper: https://whitepaper.shroomkingdom.net/

Mario Reder: https://twitter.com/marior_dev

Sasha Hudzilin: https://twitter.com/AliaksandrH

Lucio Tato & Claudio Cossio are co-founders of Meta Pool, the first liquid staking solution for NEAR protocol (a climate-neutral, high-speed, and low transaction fee Layer-1 Blockchain platform). In this episode they talk with Sasha about:

• What is liquid staking?
• How to meet other co-founders or collaborators in web3
• Specific use cases for liquid staking
• Increasing the Nakamoto coefficient of the NEAR ecosystem
• Advice for newcomers in the web3 space

Episode links:
MetaPool: https://metapool.app

MetaPool Discord: https://discord.gg/tG4XJzRtdQ

Open Shards Collective: https://openshards.io

Gabby Dizon is co-founder of Yield Guild Games, a play-to-earn gaming guild. They invest in yield producing NFTs in games and virtual worlds and organize a player community from around the world to earn an income from playing these games. Yield Guild Games recently raised 4.6 million dollar round from the highly competitive Andreessen Horowitz venture fund. In this episode Gabby talks with Sasha bout:

• How Axie Infinity has an unheard of 90% 30 day retention for players

• What drove Axie Infinity and Yield Guild Games' growth to go vertical in 2021

• Raising $4.6M from VC firm Andreessen Horowitz  

• What's unique about play-to-earn games

• Thinking about how to get to 5 or even 10 million Yield Guild Scholars

• Why having an open economy actually brings more value for players and the studio versus closed economies in Web2 games

• Advice and important resources for game developers

Episode links:

Gabby Dizon: https://twitter.com/gabusch

Yield Guild Games: https://yieldguild.io

[BLOG POST] YGG Raises $4.6M Led By a16z to Accelerate Play-to-Earn: https://medium.com/yield-guild-games/ygg-raises-4-6m-from-a16z-to-accelerate-play-to-earn-gaming-7f5cbccce657

Yield Guild Scholarships: https://medium.com/yield-guild-games/yield-guild-explains-play-to-earn-and-scholarships-bb1e097c2a61

Formula 1 Delta Game: https://www.f1deltatime.com

Sasha Hudzilin: https://twitter.com/AliaksandrH

Joel Lin is founding member of Citadao, a decentralized real estate platform creating an ecosystem of new DeFi primitives. In this episode he talks with Sasha about: 

• What he learned working in real estate

• How he first encountered crypto

• The user problems that lead him to focus on Citadao

• The metrics he's looking at to grow

• Putting new assets on-chain

Episode links:

Citadao: https://citadao.io

Citadao Discord: https://discord.gg/JjmDe2QdbJ

[BLOG POST] How Citadao Works: A User’s Perspective: https://citadao.medium.com/how-citadao-works-a-users-perspective-a20458cdda0d

Miguel Piedrafita recently made the switch to web3 as a developer at Showtime, an NFT social network. In this episode he talks with Sasha about: 

• Why he made his first project open-source

• How NFTs are a new primitive for the internet

• Finding a community to grow with

• New ways to monetize projects on the web

• Advice for others who are thinking of making the switch to web3

Episode links:

Miguel Piedrafita: https://twitter.com/m1guelpf

Showtime: https://tryshowtime.com

[Miguel's Blog Post] How to Learn (Crypto): https://m1guelpf.blog/p_PQRfysu4i1RWoIoqGxAiqYXLxnahr3YzV8KPQIzR0

OrgManager: https://miguelpiedrafita.com/orgmanager

Auralite: https://auralite.vercel.app

Dm.link: https://dm.link

Connie Digital is a content creator in the Web3 space. He's written for Cointelegraph, was one of the first to experiment with social tokens with his own token $HUE, and is a musician and artist. In this episode he talks with Sasha about: 

• Being a writer and a musician in the web3 space

• What caused the explosion of NFTs

• Being one of the first to experiment with social tokens

• Why Cryptovoxels and Decentraland are like the evolutions of personal websites

• His three ideas on what's missing in the space

Episode links: 

Connie Digital: https://twitter.com/ConnieDigital

Connie Digital's Website: https://danky.art

Seed Club social token incubator: https://seedclub.xyz

Sotheby’s Virtual Gallery in Decentraland: https://www.coindesk.com/sothebys-opens-virtual-replica-london-galleries-decentraland

Catalog Works, a music NFT platform: https://beta.catalog.works

Conlan Rios is founder and CEO of Async Art - a company that allows anyone to create and collect programmable media enabling you to split digital paintings and music into "layers" which let you affect the overall work. In this episode he talks with Sasha about:

• Why web3 is the most exciting technology opportunity creators and founders have had in 20 years

• His transition from game development to starting Async Art

• Leaving school at 17 and cold calling startups 

• What was behind the explosion of NFTs

• Why the Neuromancer and Ready Player One worlds are only possible with blockchain

Episode links:

Conlan Rios: https://twitter.com/conlan

Async Art: https://async.art

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda on Async Art: https://async.art/music/master/0xb6dae651468e9593e4581705a09c10a76ac1e0c8-1745

Unchained Podcast: https://unchainedpodcast.com

[BOOK] The Internet of Money by Andreas M. Antonopoulos: https://aantonop.com/books/

Justin Aversano is a photographer and curator working within the New York City and Los Angeles art scene. Recently Justin had one of his NFT series selected for Sotheby's auction with total Twin Flames  exceeded $1 million in total resales. Justin is the co-founder and creative director of SaveArtSpace, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing community art to public spaces. In this episode he talks with Sasha about:

• Discovering NFTs 

• His Twin Flames photo series, a collection of 100 Twin Portraits

• Using new technology tools to achieve his creative goals

• Save Art Space, a nonprofit pursuit to bring more art to public spaces ‣ 

• Books he'd recommend for creators

Episode links:

Justin Aversano: https://twitter.com/justinaversano

Twin Flames NFT Series: https://opensea.io/collection/twinflames

Twin-lens reflex camera: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin-lens_reflex_camera

Crypto Punks in #Miami: https://decrypt.co/64019/cryptopunks-nft-miami-pixelated

[BOOK] The Four Agreements: https://www.amazon.com/Four-Agreements-Practical-Personal-Freedom/dp/1878424319

Sasha Hudzilin: https://twitter.com/AliaksandrH

New episodes every Tuesday. Listen and subscribe below:

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/next-creators/id1518717692

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6dmrfNGdJEYSOaIL7uxyPH?si=Iq9-zmuuSAWtWzOt7Qv1kA&dl_branch=1

Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9xRm54clo3UA

This podcast is part of the Human Guild. Learn more at: https://humanguild.io

Join the Human Guild Discord: https://discord.gg/bUu2hcdzxW