 Hi everyone, what's up? It's your girl Rachel here. Thanks again for joining us for another special AMA Today I am joined by David Yurnia. He's the director of blockchain strategy for Tron. Hi David. How's it going? Hi Rachel. It's going well. How are you? I'm doing well. Thanks. Thanks for joining us today I'm sure the audience is excited to ask you questions about Ape NFT. That's what we're talking about today Sure. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Yes, and so audience I just want to remind you guys before we get started with the AMA with Dave Drop us your questions in the chat Dave is here to answer those questions So Dave before we get started with the questions Can you maybe give us a little bit of an introduction about yourself and you know your role at Tron and what Ape NFT is? Yeah, glad to thank you So like we said, my name is Dave Yurnak. I'm the director of blockchain strategy at Tron. I joined Tron pretty recently just this past December really and it's been really a whirlwind ever since we have so much going on Really just getting out into the market as most of you might know or many of you might know the Tron really began in Asia And since 2018 we've developed a really significant presence through the APEC region and now we're really trying to take Take that across the world We're really becoming much more active in Europe and much more active in North America And that's really what I'm here to do is make us more visible throughout North America and really Bring new developers new projects onto the platform Got it. So Sure. Oh, yeah, it's Dave. I was gonna ask you. What is Ape NFT if you could go into some detail there? Sure. Yeah, Ape NFT is originally started out as the gallery of Tron it was the first effort of Tron to really have to bring traditional artists onto The platform and bring them on to blockchain as well as bring new digital native artists give them a place to Show their work. So now that's evolved into the Ape NFT marketplace which enables Buyers and sellers to connect Between, you know of a variety of collections and Right now the NFTs are primarily focused on art and some collectibles But eventually this is expanding to include not only art, but it will include music and include items that are created in Gamefi and really be a broad and encompassing marketplace For a variety of NFTs Right, and I mean it's interesting. So Ape NFT is the first NFT marketplace launched on Tron Which that's unique and Dave when was it launched again? It was just launched earlier this month in April, right? So that was fairly recently now with it being Tron's first NFT marketplace Can we talk a little bit about the technology behind that and you know what it enables? So it's built on Tron. It also leverages the BitTorrent file system. So what does that technology bring to Ape NFT? Yeah, well, I think when you talk about the technology, it's Really pretty interesting because you write it is built on Tron and does leverage BitTorrent as well. So and leverages BitTorrent in a couple different ways So first being built on Tron as you know Tron is already extremely low-cost For anyone to develop on and it's extremely Scalable with great speed and it's a very decentralized right particularly now that Tron has become a doubt. So there's there's those benefits and then In using the BitTorrent file system, it's really able to create a Significant level of safety for storing NFTs So as you buy something you can store it on within the BitTorrent file system And it becomes, you know, very secure BitTorrent has been around quite some time really a long history of Sharing files, storing files, online So we're extremely confident in that and then really another thing that's really unique about it And I think this is really what's going to Or at least one of the things that I think is really going to drive activity On from the creator side is that You could a person could come on there create their Projects on the BitTorrent chain and then have that be available on both Tron and Ethereum at the same time without creating new coins Right, so they wouldn't have to Redo that to create an ERC 20 or TRC 20 protocol it's really Or even 721 or 1155 or any of them. It's really provides access And really to some extent some optionality To the creators because they're on multiple networks, right as soon as they launch Right, right really I don't know of any other marketplace where that's possible Right, I mean, I think and correct me if I'm wrong This may be the first NFT marketplace that leverages BitTorrent file system, right? Yes, it is right and that's I mean that's definitely unique in itself, and I think really beneficial I mean you just mentioned one benefit, but I'm sure there are other benefits as well Yeah, I mean security is I think it's really security. It's that Access to be provided You know, it's extremely reliable, so you know, it's it really offers In terms of security speed reliability I think it's really Beginning to differentiate right now in terms of the projects On the marketplace on ape NFT What kind of NFTs, you know you've breached into the beginning the types of projects But could you maybe go into a little bit more detail there in terms of what NFT projects? We're seeing on the marketplace Yeah, sure. So right now we see Projects in two two areas really in collectibles and in art and the majority of the projects are in art so One of the most notable collections is called the Meta Zodiac collection That's on the market and this collection was created by a group called Meta Poly XM and What it does is show the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac and if it's expired or inspired By the Old Summer Palace bronze heads and within the Chinese culture. These are very valuable very highly respected You know symbols So that's that's one thing that's one collection that's on there and that collection is Seeing I think a great deal of activity, but then another Collection that's doing quite well is called Deplican's NFT very interesting pictures that everyone should go check out and then it's the Board a yacht club Tron and the masked a yacht club on Tron are also two Collections that are there, you know still very popular Still seeing a good deal of activity and then additionally the Tron bull club is having a good deal of activity You know another thing that we're doing in terms of security is We're validating and verifying Everything that comes on to the platform into the marketplace, so you know, it doesn't happen immediately but it goes through a process of Being validated as being unique and not being a copy or duplicate or you know something that Shouldn't necessarily be there and I think that's another thing that really helps to differentiate The a benefit marketplace Yeah, that's I mean, yeah, that's interesting. That's a really good point as well Dave now in terms of the projects So are we mainly seeing artwork and FT is right now as you mentioned or you know and yeah right now When you go to the site right now everything is primarily artwork and you know, I think a large To some extent that's driven by that's intentional at this point so we started a a Sprint in March to really incentivize builders. So this this was a two million dollar fund and it's ongoing so You know creators who put artwork who develop NFTs as artwork to go on to the platform can receive up to twenty thousand dollars For their project right and so this it's called the Grand Developer Sprint It launched on April 6th, and it's going to be ongoing And they're you know with that two million dollar total price pull You know, that's pretty significant, and I think we're going to see a lot of art at least initially But then after that I really expect you know, I would I expect to see music I Expect to see sports type NFTs Really a wide variety Right. Yeah, and I had no idea about the Grand Developer Sprint. So that's interesting basically you're allowing You know creators to come on to the platform and you're funding them to allow them to be a part of that Yeah, definitely You know we you know one thing about Tron is that because it is low-cost Right and high speed. It's actually the most accessible most inclusive blockchain in the world, right? So think if you think outside of the US to you know poor nations, you know Getting on get developing on a blockchain can be prohibitive Because of the costs right, but if you keep those costs as low as possible And still provide a high quality service as Tron does You you open it up to more people and that's that's really I think part of what we're trying to do a Tron overall and really with the marketplace We're definitely moving in that direction. So not only Do we fund? Oh, not all the developers or all the creators, but we fund many of the creators But there's zero transaction fees. We keep the Minimal gas fees or keep the gas fees very low You know, like I said, the initial launches are subsidized So it really You know, hopefully I'd like to see the NFTs expand beyond art and really get into Music or any emerging artist, you know, I think it makes sense to you know music artist really makes sense to try to get your Product out there. I'm sorry sometimes I see the questions coming in and it throws off my train of thought So if I For if I suddenly seem disjointed It's because I read something that I thought was interesting or or even not and I just got lost Right. Yeah, no worries. And yes audience, please keep your questions coming our way Dave is here to answer those But before we take some questions, Dave, I had another question for you Sure in terms of the charitable aspect behind this because right now We're seeing a lot of NFT for good use cases where a lot of the times the proceeds go to charitable charitable Organizations, is that something that is being done on the ape NFT marketplace as well? You know, that's a really great point We don't have anything planned right now, but you know, that's definitely something Going forward I could envision being as a possibility so right now really What we've done from a charitable sense is to have free exhibitions of art and these are in person so this would be You know displaying the art providing art education for at no admission open to everyone And really making it the art accessible to a much wider audience Then it might normally have right so we had a variety of these events playing throughout China and unfortunately because of You know because of COVID and the you know somewhat severe lockdowns within China. They've all been canceled But I could I would think that once everything kind of clears up We would we would move to make those possible again Right. Okay. I'm gonna take a question from the audience. Nicholas is asking. How do you apply? I assume that's referring to the fund that we were just speaking about Yes, go to forum dot trondow org and You'll you will be able to find The developer sprint page so when you go to forum go to The APNFT category Click on that and then you'll see the marketplace developer sprint click on that again and You should be able to figure it out from there. I assume you're pretty bright Great, and then you said Dave the applications are through May No, I don't think there's there's a they started April 6th, but they're ongoing with no no end date set awesome Yeah So there's a question about Binance chain, you know the I Don't have any details on that but BNB chain is something we're integrated with Already in other areas I would expect it soon to be coming to the marketplace as well So yeah, I would I would watch out for that Yeah, that's I was just about to ask that question from the audience because you know You mentioned multi-chain, and I think that that's a really important aspect because there are so many benefits to that Yeah, so that's that's a great question to point out Let's see here. Mono Haran is asking how the entire ecosystem works without transaction fees Yeah fair question. I think it's a logical question, but it's not You know Tron is a very broad very diverse ecosystem We have an incredibly significant market share of the stablecoin trading business We have we do a variety of things elsewhere as well across DeFi across cross chain and everything and It's not that it's no fees. It's that the fees are low Right, so that's why we have such high volumes when you look at you know when you look at the market cap of Tron versus Let's say the market cap of Ethereum in terms of stablecoins Tron actually has Trons obviously small far smaller than the Ethereum however We actually have a much not much larger, but a fairly significant Larger share of the stablecoin business than anything on Ethereum and that's because of The attributes that we bring in terms of cost and speed and security And that's really what drives Or part of what drives the entire ecosystem and again, it's about being Accessible and inclusive to the to the broader community So and by the way Tron is a not not for profit Dow, right? So it's not necessarily our endgame to is to make as much money as possible That's not why we're here. It's not necessarily You know our mission now that we're a Dow and we're a not-for-profit Really about decentralizing the web and making it inclusive and accessible to as many people around the world as possible So I hope that answers your question Yeah, I think that's definitely a great answer Dave. It's also interesting. So Tron is now a Dow And you know, we're seeing a lot of businesses move towards that Dow model Maybe you could go into a little bit of detail there as to what you know What exactly that means and what has changed from you know, the Tron network to now the Tron Dow Yeah, well to be honest, I wasn't around in the Tron network days So like I said, I just started in January. So I really only know Tron in the Dow form So, you know and just working with that I think we're you know to be honest There's a lot of things we're still learning but a lot of things that were That we have already worked out and that we're you know trying to Just work with and deal with So some of the things, you know, there's some operational things within being with being a Dow that are a little difficult or challenging to work out and that's You know just just you're signing a contract you know, you have to have a legal entity to sign a contract and You know because the Dow really Doesn't sign contracts as right now because that legal framework isn't in place. So Dow's are really fairly far ahead of you know regulation and Laws so, you know, you have to kind of play within the structure that's there And other than that, you know, I really haven't seen much differences, you know I've worked in a variety of Traditional companies my entire career But I really haven't seen too many significant differences at this point You know, I think more will emerge as we go forward But for my day-to-day work, it's not terribly different than working anywhere else Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's that's good to know and I think you know now We're also seeing NFT communities kind of form their own DOWs as well Do you think with APNFT? You know, it's a new it's the new marketplace on Tron Do you think that we're gonna start seeing some of these NFT projects have DOWs associated with them? Yeah, I think anything is possible in the world of crypto. I would say never say never So, yeah, I think it's Entirely possible if it makes sense you could see it happening I mean, there's a there's you know, not every just like not every situation is appropriate for blockchain I'm sure not every situation is appropriate for a DOW as well But if it can be worked out to make sense then yeah, I can I would certainly envision that right now in terms of user safety because The NFT space, you know, we've seen rug pulls. We've seen scams How is APNFT ensuring user safety, you know, maybe there's an education aspect there Where, you know, the marketplace has content that's educational, you know What what is being done to keep users safe on the marketplace? Yeah, definitely. That's something that has been a concern Even back when it was just the gallery, you know, and Those things are prevalent in the NFT community and I think when, you know, you look at the recent reports That was done in the US and the specific regulatory agency escapes me. It might have been the FBI when looking at Money laundering and how that might occur through NFTs You know, those things are all concerned and I think with with the APNFT gallery, what we're doing is, you know, providing Verification that A piece of art is legitimate. It's not a rug pull It's not a rug pull or some other type of trick to get your money So that's really I think one of the things we're doing right now Additionally, you know, Tron is And I don't think this gets talked about enough but Tron is a very secure blockchain There hasn't been any congestion on it. Certainly, you know, not through DeFi summer Not through the winter when other chains were seeing a great deal of congestion And it really It's it hasn't been hacked So it's you know, the block height is About 40 million We have over 87 million accounts It's a very secure. It's a very high quality chain So, you know, I think it will continue to to be high quality and continue to be very secure Right. Yeah, good to know I'm going to take another question from the audience Julian is asking do you think the minimum number of APNFT tokens required to propose governance votes Is so high that only exchanges hold enough And how do APNFT holders without millions hold APNFT accountable? Yeah, and julian when I saw those numbers too, I was sure I had to write them down because I They're not numbers. I'm used to dealing with they're quite large So I Completely understand your question, but it's not it's and I think it's I want to say five trillion. I don't know Might as well say five gajillion, but what have the the price right now of the NFT coin? It's also in a neighborhood I know there's five zeros after the decimal point before the the actual numbers So it's so while the number is large the overall cost isn't going to be And I haven't done the math. So I don't know but the overall cost shouldn't be Too much for someone to really become a holder and that's mostly for I think what you're referring to is to be a super representative on the network So, you know, I actually play to work that out later today, but it's not Overwhelming and we certainly don't want this to be something that's only for Institutions But yeah, I That that first number is shocking. So I completely understand your question Right Now Dave in terms of purchasing the NFTs on a NFT marketplace. So Um, do people purchase that with TRX? The NFTs, uh, yeah, most of the most of the items are priced in TRX. So just get a Tron link wallet, um, you know Load it up and you're you're ready to go Got it wonderful um, so Let's see eight net NF eight NFT is intriguing because it's also a part of tron's next hackathon Can you explain what that means? Sure Yeah, the hackathon is A really exciting event. Um here at tron and it's really when we say hackathon. It's really a series of three hackathons Um, the first one was in the winter. We have another one launching kind of spring summertime frame And then the third will be in the fall And there's four tracks within the hackathon um, so defi Gamefi web 3 and of course NFTs and any NFT project is free to enter or can't enter so Uh, and really what's really great is there was, um significant amount of interest in the first one and going forward the price money has doubled So the first prize was $50,000. It's now $100,000 and the top five um Projects in each category receive prize money So it's uh, you know It's definitely monetary incentives to go do that and to you know, put your project up for You know for review and then additionally, you know, we're going to help you to get that launched Help you with your milestones Um, you know, we want this to be successful. We want your projects to be successful Um, just like you do and we're going to help you to do that So, yeah, it's an exciting event. Um NFTs are a big part of that And just like I was saying before Uh NFTs are so there's so many use cases. There's about a dozen industries right now That have applicable NFT use cases Um within each of those there's a variety um of NFT use cases and I think The NFT space is really, um Going to be one of the most rapid evolving Um over the next few years of Any area they'll be involved NFTs will be part of game 5 d5 um A huge part of web 3, you know, wherever you see blockchain. It's conceivable that there will be NFTs so it's so art is only kind of Uh, probably I would say I would call it the low hanging fruit of the NFT world and as it evolves NFTs are going to You know blossom like a like a you know, like a giant firework exploding and just be everywhere Yeah, I agree for sure. And so that's why I think it's really interesting With ape and ft to see how the marketplace evolves because right now, you know, this is The beginning this is the start it was just launched and we're seeing artwork in ft But but as you said davie eventually we'll start seeing music and film and other types of projects on the marketplace Yeah, definitely and I think I think that gets back to the web 3 you know, um having creators own their Information and own their creation and being able to benefit from it um for the life of the project or for the life of the Whatever they create versus, you know having Someone else having more middlemen in charge Or in place tape that are always taking a fee Right, and that's really what that's really gets back to decentralizing the web Exactly exactly Um, and thank you audience for your questions. Keep them coming They've been great so far. Dave. I'm going to take another question from the audience julian is asking What is the difference between ifps and btfs? Yeah btfs is the bit torrent file system Which is specific to tron and specific to bit torrent whereas ifps is I believe it's called for international I really don't know exactly might be called interplanetary file system Um Yeah, but the technical details. I really can't go into Got it Now dave we've been chatting a lot about nfts and the artwork featured on apen ft marketplace Now, I know we had a quick video that we were going to show earlier I'm just wondering if we can show that clip Now because um, you know it'd be interesting to see some of the you know what that clip what that clip shows So, um, are we able to kind of just glance at that clip real quick? Welcome to the apen ft marketplace Where everyone has easy access to nft trade We believe nfts are not a luxury for the view any nft can be traded here without limitation We apply zero transaction fees at the initial stage of the marketplace As a creator you can earn extra royalties upon each trade of your work Isn't it amazing? Ape nft marketplace has launched the one and only tron 101 program The 100 most popular nft projects will receive funding from our tron 101 program So, what are you waiting for? Great wonderful. So so dave that video i'm assuming that featured some of the artwork that's on the apen ft marketplace, correct Yes, yeah, I believe so. I thought it looked good And importantly the 101 program is different from the developer sprint. So that's a separate pool of money Okay, what can you explain what that is because I wasn't aware of that either um Program I honestly can't give you too many details about it at this point. Okay Okay, well, i'm sure No, no worries. I mean i'm excited to hear about you know How it develops and what's to come but it seems like The marketplace is doing a lot to encourage creators to Produce their projects by funding them which is which is a really great and sure because we don't see that A lot of the times on some of the larger marketplaces Yeah, I think so and I think that goes back to You know, we wanted to be inclusive and Yeah, many people in the world don't have the funding to do these types of things that Um, you know might be considered extra. Um, because they're too busy Just trying to get food on their table Um, and when we think of this this is not just, you know, us or even asia-based. This is global Um, and that's what we want Um to really make happen Is you know provide a global forum For everyone to participate and be that inclusive accessible watching Right, definitely Um, so i'm going to take another question from the audience. Javier is asking How does ape and ft compare to nifty gateway mintable or coinbase in ft? Yeah, um, well, you know going back to BitTorrent file system I think all of those to my knowledge are primarily ethereum based whereas You know, you've when you build on bitTorrent You can automatically be not only on ethereum, but then also on tron At the same time and likely I would expect there's more chains coming. So why My question would be why would you limit yourself to? Um being on one chain even if it's ethereum, which is quite large When you could open yourself up to a much broader audience by being on multiple chains, right? So That to me is something that really You know if i'm Really you're selling something right and if you're a vendor you want to And thinking of artists as vendors they want to sell their piece of art You want to have as big of an addressable market as possible And in doing that and to do that you have to be on multiple chains And I really think you know we're Part of what we're doing at tron part of what we believe is that um Yeah Multiple it's going to be a multiple chain world, but all those chains need to be connected, right? And that's that's what we're trying to work towards is developing that interoperability among the chains so eventually You know You can interact with anyone regardless of of what they originally developed them, right? So right you wouldn't I don't know what your personal email account is, but you wouldn't want to be able to Email only people that use the same email as you right you want to email anyone Very same very same concept applies with blockchain Right You make a really good point dave in terms of you know just things that we need to see moving forward in the nft space as a whole interoperability Is one of those things is there anything else that comes to mind as well that we need to kind of solve in order for the nft space To continue to gain mainstream adoption Yeah, I think there is um and it's I would say There's so many different aspects of nfts, but um because they can be resold and the creator gets compensated every time it is resold um I think steps need to be taken And I don't know what they would be but to ensure that it's not related parties Trading the same nft back and forth or among a small group In order to drive the price higher waiting for you know that Kind of the buyer outside of their group to come in and And purchase it right I think that Is an issue that that does need to be addressed and I think You know, I I don't know the answer to that. Um, not right now, but um It's something that I think as a community um We need to be aware of and we need to take steps. Um, because if we if the community doesn't do that Um, I would expect there to be you know potentially severe regulation coming in um To potentially solve it Right Yeah, it will be interesting to see how the nft space unfolds. Um Especially in terms of regulations um Now ding Yeah um, I'm just curious to know What's in store next for ape nft? What can we expect to see? You know, you obviously mentioned different types of nft projects on the marketplace But in terms of you know other developments What can we expect to see moving forward from ape nft? Yeah, I would say the biggest thing you're going to see coming from The marketplace at this point will be Growth, I think there'll be rapid growth across the categories of nfts at least the categories um right now right so um I think it's going game five is going to play a huge role in nfts And I think that eventually within a couple years it's possible. That would be the most active category within the marketplace Because that you know, there's going to be so much going on I believe within game five nfts that don't they need to be they need to have a market to trade on secondly, I think You know just overall in the nft world I think you're going to see transaction costs really trend toward where trons are and You know the differentiator is going to be Differentiators among marketplaces really are going to be security storage speed cost Even those cost becomes more common And then I think eventually You know as those all work out Because tron is so far ahead Tron one one of being a leader in nft trading and exchanges in my view Yeah, and then in tron has been around for a very very long time um Yeah, the blockchain world perhaps, but really it went live in 2018 which so I mean it's A little over three years old which is you know in the terms of a company It's not that old the growth has been amazing during that time um But yeah, it's it's really not That old of a company right right Um, but it's not as new as some of the other companies that we're seeing now that are just you know Because of the nft boom. So it's a it's an established network Now, you know, we're getting questions coming in from the audience, which is great We have a few more minutes. So I'm going to take those actually this one's a really great question, Dave So um an audience member is asking well nft is minted On tron will those be so able to be sold on open sea and other nft marketplaces? You know, that's a really good question. Um I would have to say yes because That's the whole purpose of big multi-chain Right, so if you could and if that's wrong, no one would be mad at me But you know, I think so if you mint it on tron um And then you could potentially list it on open sea As I think about that I don't know if it's possible because it wouldn't be able to be I don't believe you could have the same thing listed in two places Just the way nfts work um, right so But if it if you mint it on tron and don't list it on The marketplace could you move it to an open sea? I think that might be possible Yeah, honestly, I I don't know the the exact answer to that Yeah, it's a good question. And I mean, I think I I think the audience is really curious just about that functionality I mean Javier is asking with ape nft Can that be can you can use one of those nfts to sell to a different eith wallet? So I think there I think, you know, if you want to answer that question as well, but it seems like there's kind of, you know, a lot of Yeah, topic. Yeah, I think all those things are possible because that's the I mean, that's the whole point of being multi-chain is that you have access to this variety of um, you know your your wallets and other exchanges um So it's certainly possible Right, and I don't answer all the questions. I don't know the answer solid questions. I'm sorry I'll answer the ones I do though Yeah, and I mean definitely and it seems like, you know, there's still a lot of development I mean the network ape nft was launched just This month, right Dave? Yes, April. Yes, so it seems like there's still a lot of development But um, you know, it's exciting because the audience does want to know more about the network Which, you know, I'm sure as those details come and you can reveal And answer these questions will know more, but I think just part of this is that it's such a new development Yeah, and it's launched and you know, uh, at least to me, I'm still learning um Not only about tron but about everything that's going on with the marketplace um So, right You know the I'm sure there'll be a lot to changes over the next few months um But I think uh, we're definitely on our way Definitely wonderful. Well, Dave. It's been a real pleasure. Um, I know we're basically out of time So I just want to say thank you again for joining us today for the AMA. It's been wonderful Um, I also want to say thank you to the audience for being so interactive and for sending us so many questions Um, and I also want to remind everybody to please subscribe to point telegraph youtube channel We do AMAs like this quite frequently Um, Dave before we sign off I'm sure the audience would love to know how to get in touch with you or if they had more questions about Ape and ft. So can you kind of tell them how to do that if they wanted to Of course Yeah, you could find me on linkedin pretty easily Or just email me at dave at tron dot network. Um, I'm always willing and I'm glad to engage with everyone in the community Um, so, you know, just give me a shout my email address is pretty simple Um, and that's dave dave at tron dot network Right wonderful. And then dave in terms of ape and ft marketplace If people wanted to learn more are there any resources, you know, besides the website That they should go to Uh, I would go to forum Dot trial dot org and there's a lot of information about the nft site there um including The developer sprint Wonderful as well as the uh hackathon Great wonderful. Well, thanks again dave. Thanks to the audience. You guys have been great and we'll see you next time All right. Thank you rachel. Thanks for having me. Thank you. Goodbye. Bye You