 Hey, everyone, what's up? It's Rachel here. Thanks again for joining us for another AMA. Today, I'm here with Laurent Perello. He is a blockchain advisor for Trondau. Hey, Laurent, how's it going? Hello, Rachel. Nice, excited to be with you, all guys. And I'm in Berlin for a few days for NFT Berlin and excited, exciting events. I met a lot of NFT creators and the project is on the building and creating. Great, wonderful. Well, Laurent, we're excited to speak with you today. And I just want to remind the audience, please send us your questions in the chat. Laurent is here to answer them. And of course, subscribe to our YouTube channel as well. So let's get started. Laurent, first question. Tell us more about your role at Ape NFT. So to be clear, my role is an advisor to the Trondau, the third largest blockchain by TVL as of last week. This was mostly likely due to the adoption of USDD, the US Algorithmic Stablecoin, backed by TRX and the Trondau Reserve, which is made up of quite a few impressive institutional partners. That being said, just yesterday, Ape NFT also announced a partnership with the Legendary Exchange. It was the first one I used a few years ago. I mean Polynex to launch an NFT marketplace. So to be to say it simply, Polynex customer will now be able to trade Trond Bay's NFTs quickly and easily through the Polynex website and also the mobile app. This is still the beginning for sure of NFTs. And we are totally excited to see what the Trond community will continue to add to the growing ecosystem. Great, wonderful. That's really exciting news about Polynex. So thanks for mentioning that, Laurent. Any other developments? I know that we recently did an AMA with Ape NFT a few weeks ago. Are there any other developments that you can talk about since that AMA that we did with David? Yeah, there is actually the Vanity Fair auction, a project that offer NFT cover. It is excellent just in December 2022 NFT cover. We have a set of 1,000 limited edition price at 999 TRX. And for sure, there will be the Grand Accent Season 2 in which Ape NFT is particularly involved. And a few strategic announcements soon that I can't mention right now, but stay updated following Ape NFT org and Twitter and all social media. Awesome, great. Now, I'm sure maybe some audience members that are listening today, maybe they missed the last AMA with Ape NFT. So Laurent, if you're able to just kind of give an overview about Ape NFT and explain how it's unique and different from other NFT marketplaces, that would be great. So the obvious difference between Ape NFT and over a major marketplace is that it operates on TRON. But the real goal is to attract more artists and creators. And the reason why also I'm here in Berlin to engage creators, artists, project, NFT project to build on top of TRON and to cooperate with Ape NFT. What you have to know also is that Ape NFT is promoting 0% transaction fees as opposed to 2.55 or higher as seen on many competitor marketplace. The main technical difference yet or between Ape NFT and most of the blockchain is that Ape NFT operates on top of TRON blockchain. And as everybody know, TRON works simply, as I used to say. With no interruption, downtime, it's efficient, trustable, and mostly free to transact on TRON. And also, one major difference between Ape NFT and over marketplace is that Ape NFT, all assets stored on Ape NFTs are secure, but bit torrent file system, BTFS, as opposed to IPFS interplanetary file system. Also, Ape NFT collaborates with really big brands. And the first one I have announced is the Vanity Fair in Italy, but some big names will be announced soon to release Ape NFTs. As I said, the collaboration with Vanity Fair in Italy is a great start. It consists in two things. In fact, for a unique NFT scorer is an auction from the 23rd to the 30th May. Ape NFT offers token of access to VIP events and one year Vanity Fair subscription for a total value of over US $26,000. There is also a collection. It's LXE Excellency just in San 2022 NFT scorer, really amazing work with a set of 1,000 limited edition, as I said, priced at $900, sorry, $19.09 TRX. And what I can say also is that thanks to TRON's vibrant ecosystem and all the project built on top of TRON, all TRONIC's Ape NFT can have many internal partners to co-brand and co-promote, sorry, the big drop. For example, as I said, the support from Polonyx. Users who purchase any NFT scorer will receive Vanity Fair NFT scorer will receive future trial funds of $25 bonus from Polonyx exchange. This is one of the biggest advantage for Ape NFT compared to others. And finally, users can enjoy many of our benefits in addition to the ownership of NFTs. Yeah, so Laurent, that's really interesting because I wasn't aware of the Vanity Fair Italy NFT cover with Ape NFT. So just out of curiosity, what is that was the cover of the magazine made in NFT that the users can then go and bid on and own a piece of? Or how does that work exactly? Yeah, yeah, as I said, it's a collection created by Valuart and Vanity Fair. You have four unique 1,1 piece NFT cover, Vanity Fair cover. Amazing, amazing work. And I invite everybody to have a look at the Ape NFT marketplace and also special cover created with Justin Sun on the cover. It's really amazing art and 1,000 NFT with additional bonus advantage, as I said previously. Yeah, that's awesome. And with the cover, are those only digital or was there actually a physical cover of Vanity Fair Italy that also is represented by the digital NFTs? No, it's digital, but some can get one year subscription of the physical magazine for sure. Wow, that's amazing. That's a great use case. I haven't really heard too many use cases where a major magazine like Vanity Fair has a partnership like that with an NFT marketplace. Yeah, and as I said, it's really a beginning. There is a few strategic partnership engaged. I can't tell more right now, but stay tuned. You will see how Ape NFT will really act and improve what we can see actually on the market. Yeah, that's really exciting. Audience, just want to remind you, please send Laurent your questions. I mean, he has so much knowledge when it comes to the NFT space. He's really a great person to ask all questions NFT related. Laurent, I was wondering, because you mentioned the Vanity Fair use case, can you kind of discuss the other NFTs that we are seeing on Ape NFT marketplace? Are they all artwork NFTs? Are some of them different? Or is it just artwork? In fact, it's up to the community. It's a decentralized marketplace now. So everybody can use Ape NFT for music NFT, fashion NFT. I planned personally to publish my next novel as an NFT on Ape NFT. There is no limit to creativity. That's amazing. If you could elaborate a little bit, so you mentioned Ape NFT is a DAO, correct? Can you just explain the concept of how that works, how an NFT marketplace is a DAO? So with NFT governance token, all the holders will be able to vote and also to be involved in the evolution of Ape NFT. For sure, it's not a one day process. It's something that needs time to be built and implemented. It's the full goal of Ape NFT to be really decentralized and operate as a totally decentralized autonomous organization. The community will have a real and concrete role. More you want to be involved, more you can contribute to build this amazing NFT marketplace. Yeah, that's a great concept. So the coin behind the project, what is the name of the coin? NFT. OK, NFT. Same thing. Right. So Laurent, because you're a Trondau advisor, I want to get your thoughts just on the concept of having an NFT marketplace as a DAO. Do you think that that type of model is a lot better, I guess, than what we're seeing today? Do you think that NFT marketplaces should be community run and led? And are there any challenges that may arise? You know, I'm involved in blockchain decentralization, web-free, whatever the world we use at first, because I'm an idealist and a believer. One of the most interesting points in all this innovation, this ecosystem, it's the decentralization. So for sure, there is some well-known NFT marketplace. But as a collector and NFT amateur and, let's say, also creator, I will launch soon my first NFT collection. I prefer to use a decentralized, a really decentralized version. I'm a big believer in DAO. You know, I had the chance to talk about DAO and governance last week in Paris at Paris Blockchain Week. For me, it's implementing the world concept of liquid democracy. And without going in politics, I think if we can pick a few concepts and a few experimentation, what the DAOs are trying to implement, I'm totally sure we could easily solve a lot of social or, let's say, citizen problems. For me, it's the way we have to take care and follow when we think about decentralization, blockchain, crypto, DeFi, GemFi, and whatever. DAOs are the best way now, in my opinion, to launch a project. Right. Yeah, and we're seeing that DAO model applied to lots of industries, which is really interesting. I'm wondering if you can discuss the tokenomics behind APE and FT as well. It seems like that's kind of an important point to understand. Yeah, you know, NFT, the underlying blockchain is strong for sure, but now it's a multi-chain token also available on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain. What can I say? Maybe token allocation, 30% is dedicated to artists and artist partners, 90% to DeFi, AirDrop, and Mining, and I will give some additional details in the moment. 90% to NFT team, 2% to dedicated to initial exchange listing, and you can have a look on CoinGecko or CoinMarket, and you will see that the top leading exchange already supports NFT, and 20%, it's also something we have to notice, 20% is dedicated to NFT work purchase, creating an amazing collection with some people on the wall and so on, well-known, really well-known artists, and finally 10% dedicated to partnership. Regarding the business model of NFT, as I said, it's a governance token, so NFT order will be entitled to vote for the handling of NFT artwork in the app NFT DAO ecosystem. They will be able to decide on the future of NFT artworks, take part of NFT activities at different levels based on the armament, and for sure, this ecosystem is still to be built, the app NFT has been launched in May 2021, so it's just one year, and everything is still on the way. Regarding, I just want to add a few details about the reward and mechanism of NFT token, there is regularly DeFi airdrop and mining rewards, for example, a monthly airdrop to all those of Tron family tokens, TRX, BTT, Win, GST, and the participant on Tron DeFi mining. It's something really interesting also, something that totally distinguish an NFT from over marketplace with this kind of airdrop to really involve the Tron ecosystem and Tron family. Yeah, yeah, and that is a unique feature for sure. Laurent, I'm also wondering if you could kind of discuss, I mean, the tokenomics behind the project is extremely interesting, but let's say there's an artist who wants to create an NFT, can you talk about the benefits specifically for an artist, aside from the tokenomics, because there are benefits there, as to why they would want to use APE NFT? Are there other incentives or the ease of use of the platform that you can kind of discuss? I'm knowing that you will receive a monthly airdrop, it's already a great advantage. They will be also a government reward, while you vote you will get NFT activity rewards, and the dedicated program will be for sure implemented in the next few months. And holding NFT also, you benefit from NFT airdrop and mining. Got it, wonderful. Audience, just a reminder, please send Laurent your questions. This is such an interesting project, Laurent. Now, you also mentioned there's an upcoming hackathon. Is this the second hackathon that's being conducted? In fact, it's the season one of season two, sorry, of the Grand Hackathon. But before talking about the season two, that started just 10 days ago, I would like to talk a bit quickly about the season one. We have seen four winners, and I would like to talk about this winner, if I can quickly. In Web Free Track, we have a D-Cloud developing the next chain of decentralized cloud storage with an iOS and Android mobile app, and using BitRent file system in GameFi, an amazing project from Ninja Arcade, an amazing old-school Arcade game, and a really committed creative team. I met them several times. In the NFT track, one of the most innovative projects I have seen since a long time, VersaBrick Squad. I was in Hungary, Budapest, to meet there and to see their project because it's related to real estate. And buying an NFT, you can own a part of a flat and generate monthly income because the flat will be rent, and each flat will be managed by a dedicated DAO. Finally, in DeFi Track, just money. It's much more than a DAX. It's a multi-chain DAX, and certainly the one who support the most chain right now. They support Tron, BitTorrent chain, BinanceMap chain, Polygon, Zenit chain, and I'm sure they will extend this soon. And since a few weeks, it's also a multi-chain bridge so you can easily swap tokens between several Tron, BitTorrent chain, BinanceMap chain, and Polygon. And for all DAB developers, they offer an easy way to integrate this innovation with a simple widget that you can integrate in your DAB. Regarding Season 2, we are really impressed about how things are going because I told you it started, the application started on May 16th, and we have already surpassed the submission we had for the whole Season 1 by a large margin. I think Laurent might be experiencing something. Oh, hi Laurent, you're back. I think it froze for a minute. So you were talking about Season 2 and how you've surpassed the... Yeah, already more than 600 submissions as of yesterday in less than 10 days. So it's really exciting to see how all these projects are really engaged to deliver the best of Web3, NFT, GameFi, DeFi on top of Tron and BitTorrent chain. What can I add? We will also see that well-known projects I can name Human Protocol, Katana, SAT, some long, long, existing projects that we know since years will join this grand hackathon. And the level will be really, really high and for sure highly innovative this season. Yeah, that's exciting. Are people still submitting submissions for the hackathon Season 2? Yeah, they can submit their project until July 25th. And you have to know that it's one million dollars total price. And we have several five winners in each track category, NFT, DeFi, GameFi and Web3. And also several bonus, community bonus, runner bonus and so on. I invite everybody to have a look on Tron.dow.org. You will find all details. And you can apply both on Tron.devpost.com and on Tron.forum because there is a two price pool on each website, Tron.devpost.com and also on Tron.dow.forum. Yeah, that's exciting. And audience, if you guys have any questions about that, definitely send them our way. Now is the time because that is really, really exciting news. I'm going to take some questions from the audience. ImmortalSan is asking, what's the future that you see for Ape NFT in the coming years? You know, I don't use a crystal ball, but I'm sure that we have to consider two main points in my vision. First is how the world Tron ecosystem is growing fast and engaging more and more projects. The combination between BitTorrent Chain and Tron offer now a simple way to port your smart contract or your debt from Ethereum to BSE to Tron, BitTorrent Chain and ECO and soon much more blockchain. That's the first thing. The more the ecosystem will grow, the more it will benefit also to Ape NFT. And as I said previously, Ape NFT support Tron, BSE, Ethereum and I'm sure will support our token soon. And it's really a long-term vision offering a way to really be engaged, involved and contribute and also suggest new futures or cooperation as a member of the DAO is a real long-term advantage. Tron is also helping a lot to engage an institutional partner to support Ape NFT. And I can tell you, I have discussed this last two days with a lot of artists and creatives and a lot of these people are thinking about and are working on joining the Tron and Ape NFT ecosystem and I'm sure the future will be really brilliant. Yeah. Well, I hope so. And it sounds like definitely there's exciting things for us to look forward to with Ape NFT. But Laurent, I wanted to ask you, has it been challenging to launch an NFT marketplace given the current crypto market conditions? I mean, a lot of people who have bought NFTs, the price of NFTs are not so high at the moment. Some people may say we're in a bear market. I mean, I'm staying positive about it, but I want to get your thoughts on that, like if it is challenging given the current market conditions. Honestly, I don't know what it means challenging. As I used to say, let's keep building bear markets for the people who built it. It doesn't matter. In fact, for people who were there since the years, we had to face the previous bear markets, but it was the best moment to be focused on building, on delivering a high quality project, including now high quality art. It's not only a collection. It can be one one art piece of art. We see music, NFT emerging videos, one governance, one fashion. There is a lot of new use case. And even if the price is low, as you said, in fact, we don't care. You don't clench. Even if it's it's a scam project, you don't clench an NFT collection. You don't create NFT art just for the initial price. The mechanism is that you will also earn some money with on the long run on the second market. So for me, it's the best moment to create a project built to community, being focused on positive attitude and being really highly creative. A lot of low level project will disappear. It's also a part of the game. Yeah. I mean, you make really good points. And I mean, obviously, you know, because you've been in this space since 2015, so you've been through these periods that we've seen in the crypto space. And I completely agree with everything you said. A lot of the best innovation from the blockchain space happens during these times. And I think that you make another really good point is that it's not all about price. It's about innovation as well. And just as you mentioned with the second hackathon that we're seeing, the submissions have already surpassed the first season hackathon. And that just goes to show people are more focused right now on building versus the price of NFTs. And so your response was kind of exactly what I wanted to hear and what I think a lot of the audience needs to hear. Yeah. And if I can add a word, it's not any more a question of promise. You know, it's also delivering. And no, if you want to survive in such market condition, you have to prove you are trustable, you are sustainable, engage and that you deliver whatever is the project can be NFT collection, or it can be a DAP, whatever. And it's the best moment to make the difference, in fact. Yeah, I agree. Laurent, just based on that, and you know, the fact that we are now is a time to innovate. Can you kind of discuss the best use cases in your opinion for NFTs specifically with Ape NFT marketplace? What are the best use cases that you're seeing now? Honestly, I don't think there is one best use case. I still think we haven't seen the biggest part of what the market will be. We are still experimenting. And when I say we, it's all people involved. It can be just buying NFT. It can be creating NFT. As I said, I'm also a kind of artist. I create what I call a degenerative art. I will launch my first collection. I'm proud about it on Ape NFT. And you know, I have published my first novel in the traditional way. The second one, I will experiment to publish it as an NFT. I have met few people who are combining not only a piece of art, but also governance, DeFi. As I told you these two days in NFT, Berlin was really amazing because a lot of new use case are actually built. People are really pushing the border so far away from what we used to see actually. And I don't know, we can't predict the future, but I'm sure it will be for sure totally amazing and surprising. Combining metaverse and art and music and governance and DeFi, GemFi, whatever, it will be a mix of everything, in fact. Right. Yeah. I mean, you were talking about the new use cases that you're seeing in Berlin. I recently wrote an article about Gene NFTs where a genomics company is taking that data and turning it into an NFT and the holders of that can actually own their data and receive incentives when third parties want to utilize their data. So I mean, it's not just the typical use cases that we're thinking about today. I mean, this is impacting every industry from art to healthcare. I don't know if you're seeing that in Berlin, but yeah. Yeah. Here it's mostly dedicated to focus on art, but as I mentioned previously, real estate data and co-ownership of a car or whatever. I think there is no limit to experiment what could be NFTs. What is really stimulating, exciting, and also inspiring in this web-free blockchain industry is that someone one day appears with an idea totally crazy, but is able to deliver it. So the only limit we can face, it's the limit of our imagination. For sure, a lot of new use cases will appear on every domain, absolutely every domain. Why? Because we have to experiment to be sure it can last, it can be sustainable on a long-term perspective. Before trying, we don't know. It's just a concept. Right. Exactly. I just want to remind the audience, send us your questions. We still have a few minutes left for the AMA, so definitely send us your questions before we end. Laurent, I was also wondering, because we've talked a lot about innovation and use cases and the tokenomics behind APNFT. I think one big point in terms of mainstream adoption with NFTs is safety and security. So I wanted to ask you about what that looks like on APNFT marketplace, how the marketplace ensures the safety and security of NFTs. You know, it's something I'm really concerned about it. And I used to say, have you seen one hack occurred on Tron? And on BitTorrent, as of now? No. We use, APNFT use, as I said, the BitTorrent 5 system. It's now a trustable, well-known, and long-run solution that's proved that it's really trustable and secure. And we are really focused on, in the whole Tron ecosystem, we are focused on the security. And just give me an example of hack. And I will say, yes, I'm wrong, but as of now, it's one of the most secure blockchain existing. And all the project built on the top of Tron are really focused on this and appreciate particularly our securities. And so are really focused also to deliver a product that's totally secure. Got it. Wonderful. Now, we have a few minutes left, Laurent. So I just wanted to ask you, if you wanted to add any additional comments that the audience or I may have not already have asked you that you think is important to mention. That APNFT will have a particular role in the ground hackathon season two, at first supporting the NFT winners with a dedicated program. And that big announcement will be made soon for strategic reason I can't reveal today. But just follow APNFT on social media, stay up to date and stay tuned. And you will see that APNFT will make a huge difference the next few weeks and next few months in comparison with some, let's say, traditional marketplace. Great. Wonderful. And if the audience wanted to get in touch with you, Laurent, how would they do that? And I know right now you're at NFT Berlin. What other conferences will you be at in case somebody wanted to ask you a question in person? Yeah, I will be in Paris, mid-June, but for a private conference. Then I will be at the end of June in Barcelona. Then I will be in early July in Vosso. Then I will be for three weeks. There is three big events during three weeks in Paris. The biggest one is the ETHCC week. For the moment, that's all. And in September I will be in Valencian, Spain too. But you can find me in LinkedIn, Twitter, easily, my name. First, last name. And I show my face, I show my name. You can find me easily. And it's my pleasure to help every creator to launch their collection on the app NFT and every project we want to build on top of Tron or Bitron chain or to join the Grand Nacaton. I will be there to help. Wonderful. Thanks so much, Laurent. And thank you to the audience. Thank you again for those who sent us your questions. Thanks for joining us. Just remember to please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Join us for our next AMA. And Laurent, a big thank you to you. Thank you for joining us and shedding your side. Nice to meet you. And I hope we will have the pleasure to meet in real life. I hope so. Thank you, Laurent. Thanks everyone. Have a great day or good evening. Bye. Thanks.