 Live from San Juan, Puerto Rico, it's theCUBE. Covering Blockchain Unbound. Brought to you by Blockchain Industries. Hello everyone, welcome back to our exclusive coverage in Puerto Rico for Blockchain Unbound. This is the industry conference from people around the world, from Silicon Valley, New York, and around the globe. Coming to Puerto Rico, talk about Blockchain, decentralized internet, cryptocurrency, and really the future of society and global economic value creation. Of course, our continuing coverage is focusing on us here. If it's 2018, our next guest is Mark Jeffery, CEO and co-founder of a company called Guardian Circle. Welcome. Thank you, thanks for having me. So you guys are doing something really interesting. So we, first of all, we like to geek out as Fred say we're alpha geeks, but we love IoT, cloud computing. You're doing something really interesting right now with Blockchain and this new decentralized internet around something of a critical infrastructure nature. Take a minute to talk about Guardian Circle's products, the coin, token that you're doing, and what it all means. So, Guardian is the token. The company's called Guardian Circle. Together they comprise global, decentralized, emergency response. So, six billion people on earth have no 911. There's just, there's no magic number you can call, right? So hold that in your mind for a second. The other one billion of us, we do have 911, but it's not very good. It hasn't been really updated since the 60s. If you call 911, if you're lucky enough to not get a busy signal, they have no idea where you are. Your location information is not transmitted, which Uber can find you more easily than 911. Which is just insane, but that is the way it is. So never mind, so throw all that out. So 911 is broken. If you have it, it's broken and most people don't have it. So throw the whole thing out the window, let's start over, what would we build today? The way the world should work is whenever you're in trouble, no matter where you are on the globe, all you should have to do is press a button. That button sends an alert up to the cloud, the cloud looks down and sees what people and resources are already nearby. And then activates, coordinates, pushes all that, helps you as quickly as possible. So 10 people in three minutes. That's what we're, that's our- So there's a couple things going on. So to me, when you say, what should we start from scratch? But in my little operating system design, network solutions hat on, all kind of rolled into one is a stable, fault tolerant, resilient, robust, always on network. Yes. Database that is fully interoperable and updated in real time. Yes. Of every number, every location, every person's capability to understand the discovery and resolution of a number. Yeah. So that sounds like the internet. That's- That sounds like the internet. Well, that's a little bit probably further than we're going right now, but yes. But the idea would be- Ultimately, you're correct. That would be the ultimate. So no legacy baggage, 1960s telco. We're talking about in mobile, in Africa, for instance, there's more mobile penetration than anything else. That's what they got. So every country has their own sovereign kind of architecture. Yes. Are you guys looking at it from a global perspective or a regional? Global. So we think that, I mean, this is, this thing should be mobile native, location aware, and the alert should go out to multiple parties. And the phone number is your identifier in this system, but it's effectively an IP based system, really. So you're right. We have to balance that against privacy, so you get to decide who is on your alert grid, right? So you have to emphatically say, yes, my friends, family, neighbors, and these subscription services, and if available, these official services. So blockchain can solve the immutability privacy issue. Yes. The decentralized nature of network effect is a dynamic that people look for in good deals or good architecture. That's in place. People have a social graph, interest graphs, connections. So the analog world is going digital. I mean, the old days was, is there a doctor in the house, but you were limited by how far you can yell? Right. So here you're saying, literally, if you connect properly, the users in charge of their data, they can dictate what they want to connect to or does that kind of how it works? Is it peer to peer? Yeah, it's sort of peer to peer. I mean, a lot of people miss hearing me a little bit and think that when you press that button, the alert goes out to everybody that's nearby, right? So total strangers that may or may not be trustworthy are suddenly coming. That's not what I'm saying. That is not what we're doing because we don't want to accidentally summon Jack the Ripper. Like that's, you don't want to make a bad situation worse, right? Yeah. So you explicitly invite people into your protection grid. We call them guardians since Guardian Circle. That would be your Guardian Circle. And you can have an unlimited number of them. So six, 6,000, you know, however many friends you have. Then we will also feature paid subscription services where you'll be able to subscribe to like your local EMT collective or your local license and bonded armed security. Or if you're in a remote corner of the world, you could subscribe to the guy with the truck who can run you down the mountain, right? When you're having medical problems. So it's going to vary depending on where you are in the world, right? We're also working with the Women's Safety X Prize. We're a partner. We're the back end of that prize, which is an IoT device contest to make a panic button device, right? So when you push the panic button, what happens? Goes into Guardian Circle. So how does a token economics fit into this? So I'm getting why it's tokenizable. How does it work mechanically? Do I buy tokens for safety? Is it like, I mean, take us through some of the use cases. Yeah, sure. So there's five different ways in which we use a token. The first one is obviously to create the emergency, to buy emergency response subscriptions. Now we're going to allow you or provide a way for you to, as a consumer, just swipe your credit card in the app. And in the background, you'll be purchasing Guardian tokens, right? And it'll re-up every month if you don't have enough in. It'll be that sort of thing. So you might not even really be conscious of the fact that you're using cryptocurrency. If you are, there's a wallet that will allow you to just use the cryptocurrency manually the way you do any right now, right? And so there's that. Okay, so continue. Yep. The second thing we're going to do, we think that giving will be a big behavior in our universe. So you're going to be able to send Guardian directly to a beneficiary in the developing world. And what's cool about that is it doesn't go through a government's bank or an organization. So remember Red Cross and Haiti can't happen here. And we're going to go even further than that. Down the road, you're going to be able to track every dollar that you donated as easily as a FedEx package. So you are creating a direct relationship between people who might want to help people and then a direct access for resources for the user. Correct. And so that's the primary, kind of a two major flywheels going on. Just like people sponsor a child, safety is one of the biggest problems in the world. In fact, some people say, it's got to Greg Hahn who says it's the number one problem in the world that all other problems flow from the fact that people in the developing world aren't safe. Why don't they have water? Because they're not safe. Why don't they have education? Because they're not safe. Lawlessness has to be solved first. Trust is a huge part of this too. So how do I set this up? Where are you guys in the system? Is there a product up and running? How do people get involved with your project? Take a minute to share that. Sure. So we have apps released today and they're distributed worldwide on iOS, Android and Alexa. We also have an open API that lets anyone plug any alert device into our grid. Obviously we have to, we want to know who you are first. But basically everyone's welcome. And so, and then our token sales site is at guardium.co. G, guard, I, U, M. Guardium. Guardium. And then guardian circle. Correct. Guardium with the M at the end of the token. What's the plans? How much have you raised? What's the story? Yeah. So we're selling $10 million worth of tokens which represents 30% overall, 33% overall. And we have 100 million tokens in the, that's it, we'll ever be distributed. It's on the Neo blockchain. So we are, we are, we're sort of different from a lot of other folks. Yeah, yeah. We're one of the very first Western, we're not the first. Neo has a good reputation of high performance. Yes. Is that one of the considerations you had for them? Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, we deal on emergencies. So our, you know, our tolerance for things like crypto-kitties swapping the network is very low. So yeah, so we liked what Neo had to say in a lot of ways because of that. I interviewed the crypto-kitties at Polycon. Interesting story. Pokemon moment for the, for the, for the internet's there. Well, congratulations, Mark. What's next for you guys? We'll get through the sale. How's the team makeup look? What's going on with the company? Yeah, get through. I mean, definitely get through the sale is the biggest thing right now. We're a small team of like about five people plus some contractors. The next big thing that we have on our agenda is we're going out to India in four weeks to actually test the XPRIZE IoT panic button devices on the streets of Mumbai. So it's gonna be, you know, so Guardian Circle plus the vice. A lot of dense environment, a lot of people there. Yeah. So let's talk about you. What is your background and that got you here? Is there wasn't an issue with scratching? Why this time? Obviously the wave attracts a lot of alpha entrepreneurs. This is a disruptive time, but why Mark, Jeffries, why now? Why Guardian Circle? What's the passion behind it? So, well, I started life as an engineer and I won't worry with all my adventures up until this moment, but in 2013 I became very interested in Bitcoin. Wrote a book called Bitcoin Explained Simply. Got the bug, had the little crazy thoughts in my head. You're an author, speaker, same thing. Distinguished influencer. So that's how that side began. In 2014, basically my girlfriend at the time had a stroke. She's fine, but at the time she was all alone and she was on the floor of her garage and I took her to hospital, brought her back and afterwards I realized she was alone for about half an hour. If this had been a real stroke, this could have been very serious. She could have died, she could have been paralyzed and she was drowning in health. There were about seven people who were either driving by or nearby while this was going on, within a thousand yards. And she had no way to get to them. Yeah, yeah. And, and I also- A personal example of what you're doing. And I also realized the other component was all the help, I didn't know six, you know, there's five of the other six people. I just, they're her friends, they're not mine. But during her emergency, all of us need to be sharing location and in communication with each other immediately. And the importance of that just cannot be overstated in emergencies. Seconds count. And so putting us in instant communication so that we can coordinate a response was the second half of the problem. I initially did not intend to build an app. I went looking for this app. And what I discovered was there were a ton of panic button apps, but all of them neglected solving the second half of the problem, which is organizing the response. And getting people on in the same- Mobilizing resources. Yeah, getting everyone into a war room without requiring them to know each other ahead of time. That was the big thing. No one had thought of that. So- It's like, it's like rolling up services when you need it. Instantly, it's like a- Yeah, it's hot-hoc services. Compile everything in time assembly. Real-time assembly. Yeah, it's exactly great. It's actually a really good way to put it. No, but this is also pretty important. So it's a great personal example. Thanks for sharing that personal story, but there was avalanches with your skier. It's people who go rock climbing. There's all kinds of use cases where a mountain biker is missing and all kinds of- Yeah, remote locations are really- I'm scuba diving. Where are people? Where are they? Where do they last? So a lot of these things are location-based, and no one knows what the situation is. So the alerting is only one step to the value chain. It is. But I think- Sorry, you have a question. No, no, I was going to ask you- It is. How do you go from there? Well, I think there are a lot of, I think safety check-ins. I think there's other things that we can do. But the one thing that, the one lesson that I've seen again and again and again and again is that the companies that fail invariably, oh, the companies that don't focus always fail. So you got to pick one thing and be the best in the world at that one thing. And the emergency situation is our one thing. And that's big enough. Well, I think you had a great opportunity and we'll squint through the, is the evolution of this market grows. It's kind of a moving train, but the value proposition is legit. I was talking to Fred Kruger, your friend and colleague in the business. It's a marketplace of these days. So it's money and marketplaces. In your case, it's safety marketplace. I could envision a day with your services where I publish and subscribe to services that in the catalog. Yes. Hey, I know my risks. Everyone knows what they do in vanity or risk factors, whether you're jumping out of an airplane or double black diamond skier. I would love to go to Lake Tahoe or a mountain or a place like this and saying, I'm going to take some chances. Here's what I'm going to subscribe to. Why? You're going to have to subscribe to some extra services while you're down. Yeah, I would use Guardium. Like it could be a market. I'm just bracing them, thinking out loud. But I mean, that's the kind of web services framework you could bring. It's exactly right. Is that the way you guys are thinking about it? I do, I do. I'm so focused on the sort of food and shelter stage of our life right now. Yeah, get an ICO done. Yeah, we've got tons of all those ideas written down, but we're not just, we're not quite there yet. But when we get there, great ideas. Absolutely. Well, the use cases are changing because people's expectations are changing and now technology can meet these cases. So, I'm seeing a lot of social entrepreneurship being done that are coming in through the funding vehicles that never would have got funded on venture capital funding. Ever. Totally correct. Whether it's battered women applications, human trafficking, safety apps, stuff that can make money. Not be like a zillion billion dollar business, but really change society and makeup. You've hit the nail on the head. There are a lot of blockchain companies or ICO companies. This stuff, the venture guys would never fund it because their model doesn't allow for it. All of these things have to be Facebook potentially or if they just have no tolerance for it. And the philanthropy world is not incentive on economics and also when the project loses its grant or funding, the stack just gets thrown away. So this allows for sustainability for mission based investing and developing. So I see societal entrepreneurship categorically going to boom from this wave across the board. The world will become a better place. We'll have better companies. Mark, Jeffrey, Guardian, Circle, co-founder and CEO. This is theCUBE's exclusive coverage here on the ground in Puerto Rico for Blockchain Unbound. A lot of great stuff here. A lot of great startups, investors. Of course theCUBE 2018 will be covering all the shows. I'm John Furrier, thanks for watching.