EmpowermeEOS continues to receive immense support from members of the EOS blockchain and we are so grateful for the love and support. On the 21st June, Justin Giudici, of Infinitybloc.io and Telosfoundation.io, joined the elite list of our benevolent sponsors at the EmpowermeEOS community by donating a smartphone. Moments after his donation to EmpowermeEOS, I interviewed the awesome Justin Giudici to get a glimpse of his views on various issues ranging from his blockchain story, evolvement and involvement to the future of cryptocurrency, the advent of libra coin and its possible effect down to his thoughts about EmpowermeEOS. I had fun speaking with him and I hope you have fun reading this.
Hello Justin! Can you briefly tell us a few things about yourself?
Justin:
I am originally from Australia but now live in the San Francisco bay area. In the last year, I founded the block producer and EOSIO consultancy, infinitybloc. We run infrastructure on many eosio blockchains. We also support startups and companies create new applications and economies using EOSIO technology.
I got into blockchain when i realised how much of a huge impact it would make on the way we live and work. I think it was probably Steem that first opened up my eyes to how we may be able to provide and receive value for our contributions to multiple communities. That sort of realisation lead me to what we are now doing at infinitybloc.
I first bought crypto in 2013 (bitcoin specifically) but it wasn't really until I saw the communities that were forming that I really understood the possibilities.
Jeremy:
Having been into cryptocurrency and blockchain for a while now, you must have seen a lot of coins and projects come and go. What's been your favourite project so far?
Justin:
It's hard to pick a specific project to be my favourite but if I had to pick one it would be the EOSIO open source software itself. I don't like to pick specific chains because I value them all in their own unique way. To me EOSIO is amazing because it is enabling us to explore different governance and ownership models. It's enabling us to figure out a better future through experimentation. The technology itself is amazing. It enables almost instant transactions, zero fees for users, great user experience and multi sig capability that will eventually enable the perfect balance of user experience and security over our funds.
And this is just the start. Soon we will have yubi keys, eosio authenticator and many other advancements!
Jeremy:
What in particular about EOS caught you fancy and what attracted you to the EOS project in the first instance?
Justin:
I think it's definitely the practicalness in how the technology is designed. I have a UX/Product Management background so have a bias towards what will make attractive product to users. When I look at a technology like Ethereum, I see huge barriers to entry for users (i.e fees ) and I see the scalability as a huge concern. EOS and other EOSIO chains like Telos solve these major UX/Product issues with free and fast transactions where the network costs are handled by the apps themselves.
How can we onboard new users to try out our apps if we ask them first to do kyc, buy crypto on an exchange etc before they get to experience the product? Traditionally, its hard to get new users without such high barriers. Thus, it would be near impossible to get millions of users with such concerns. EOSIO chains, on the other hand, is affordable to handle all of these costs for the users.
Jeremy:
You mentioned Telos being among the chains which could solve the major UX/Product issues. Can you tell us about about the Telos project, if you have any affiliations with the project and if so, what do you do on the Telos project?
Justin:
Sure, I'll start by saying infinitybloc is a block producer on Telos and as an individual I'm one of the 12 elected Telos foundation board members. For the forseeable future, Telos offers 100% free accounts via a smart contract for Telos applications to take advantage of and provide to their users. This means signing up new users becomes quite seamless. Unfortunately, on EOS, we currently have to pay over a dollar per user which adds up quickly when trying to build the next facebook.
One of the roles i undertake on the TF board is assisting new applications to take advanage of such programs and help entrepeneurs globally understand the benefits of EOSIO and Telos to their business.
Telos also has a built-in arbitration system which can be utilised for users to regain access to their accounts if they are lost or stolen. It also will allow disputes to be resolved in a decentralized manner.
Jeremy:
What do you think could be done regarding the issue of have to pay over a dollar per account?
Justin:
Actually one of our partner projects ORE ID helps to solve this problem by pushing much of the account data to a new chain(ORE). By handing the accounts on ORE instead of EOS the costs are greatly reduced. Ore ID also lets users sign up with an O auth provider like Google or Facebook which makes the user experience more familiar to many. It is already being used by Everipedia and accounts for over half their users.
We also see a number of other light account solutions like Vaccounts in the works and expect these sorts of solutions and Ore ID to collectively resolve the problems going forward.
Jeremy:
This is brilliant
Justin:
Yep its pretty cool!
Jeremy:
You did mention building the next Facebook earlier. However, I'm sure you know the current Facebook is about to launch its own coin, libra and this has caused a real uproar in the crypto world, spurring various views and comment.
Some people have been pitting Libra against bitcoin or EOS. What's your take on this?
Are the comparisons even justified to start with? And in the longrun, how would Libra impact the future of cryptocurrency.
Justin:
I think Libra is quite a different beast entirely to Bitcoin or EOS. What it shares is the use of a cryptographically secured network but other than that its quite different with both positives and negatives. Libra will be backed by a basket of currencies at least initially and I think this will add a lot of friction and potential issues if governments take a disliking to the project. On the other hand EOS is backed by real utility(hosting apps/tokens/contracts) and network effects. Similarly bitcoin is backed by network effects and mining costs. In both cases these 2 networks would be incredibly hard to be stopped but Libra could be.
Libra's biggest strength will be the over 2 billion active users across facebook, whatsapp and the various partner applications. As long as the program doesn't get shut down by governments, it will potentially bring in millions of new users and opportunites for a truly global economy to take place. This should hopefully in turn onboard millions to the crypto we love, the crypto not backed by thin air and government promises but by real utility and support from the people(Crypto like EOS and BTC).
I think longer term, projects like EOSDT will provide the most scalable stable coin solutions that can not be shut down. I think the future stable coins will be backed by crypto assets like EOS, TLOS and 1000s of digital assets. When you think about it, eventually all real estate and companies will be fully tokenized. The scalability to back stable currency with crypto is going to be endless. These stable coins will be far more trustworthy than crypto backed by government money.
Jeremy:
Interesting! What else do you think about the future of cryptocurrency? Any speculations?
Justin:
Haha, so much speculation I don't know where to start. I think we will see a lot more use of coins that would be considered a security. I think lots of projects go out of their way to produce token models that avoid securities law. But the way stocks work are tried and tested and is a sound model. It makes sense to use it.
The premise of owning a piece of a project makes so much sense. Giving out stake to customers, partners, active users creating value. Having them be able to receive dividends and vote on important issues. It would be taking the current model that works but providing more flexibility, engagement and liquidity.
I think projects that run this way will grow faster than companies ever could because interests will be aligned and you can avoid the extremely inefficient hiring process.
A simple example might be if I opened a cool new restaurant. The products great and all the customers love it but Imagine how fast the word will spread if I give early customers the opportunity to earn a stake in the restaurant for referring their friends. Any individual that has a stake in this restaurant, if they see someone not not being served, might jump in to help out or alert staff. The world is a better place when we share the wealth and align incentives.
Jeremy:
So, the future is total decentralisation?
Justin:
Actually, I don't think so. I think the future is total flexibility and freedom. Someone might want to hold 90% of their company/project and give away just 10% or less. So, not fully decentralized.
The future I see is that no one has a monopoly on what is currency and how something should/shouldn't work. There will be lots of experimentation, lots of different work/lifestyle balances and people will be able to wear many hats or just one.
I think ultimately, the most successful projects will engage the most people, be the most open, collaborative and generous.
Jeremy:
This is true!
Justin:
It will be possible for people to create tremendous wealth via one great contribution. However they will have so much freedom to do what they want next that they wont stop there.
Different types of work will be fun, gamified even. There will be some type of work for everyone and going through a interview process will be far less common than it is now.
Jeremy:
Well, i look forward to that future and I'm sure a lot of people do too!
But let's talk about EmpowermeEos now.
Recently, you made a donation to the EmpowermeEos program? How did you get to know about EmpowermeEos and what led you to believe in and support the program?
Justin:
I think I saw it on twitter, there was a video of one of the students who received a phone! We have been looking for a way to engage more with projects in developing countries as we feel that the greatest benefits can be recognised soonest there. Reading through the goals and vision for EmpowermeEOS, it was a no brainer and we wanted to make a contribution immediately. There looks to be a lot of transparency around how funds are used and the community is engaged, it made sense for us to help out.
We are looking forward to finding out more about the challenges in Nigeria so we can help out even more.
Certainly the freedoms we are seeking around finding work we feel will have a huge impact there.
As well as the far easier access to transmit and receive value. It can be frustrating and expensive sending money to Australia, we can't imagine how annoying it would be trying to send money to a developing country where the banking infrastructure may not be there or as accessible as it should be.
Jeremy:
So, with a lot of our students (including me) looking up to you as a role model in the cryptocurrency world now, what words of advice do you have for EmpowermeEos students and other budding crypto enthusiasts out there?
Justin:
Get involved early, try out every EOSIO app you can get your hands on. There is definitely a place for everyone to add value and earn real income no matter what their skill set or strength is. I cant even think of a industry or skill set that wont be deeply effected by this technology. Its very exciting!
Jeremy:
Before we wrap this up, how about one final question just for fun?
Justin:
Sure
Jeremy:
What do you predict would be the price of EOS by 31st December, 2019?
Justin:
This, I'm afraid is impossible to predict! I hope it will be $20+ though 馃槉
Jeremy:
Thanks for your time. It means a lot that you're supporting us.
Justin:
Awesome! any time 馃槉
JOIN US
We are glad to have yet another sponsor in our community and you can help us reach even more people.
You can partner with this initiative by sponsoring a student.
You can make donations to the following EOS account: empowermeeos.
$160 can sponsor a smartphone and internet subscription (for three months) for an EmpowermeEOS Student.
Remember that if you sponsor a student you are not sponsoring one person as your seed would be replicated.
Our students are mandated to buy a smartphone and subscription for someone else at the end of their study.
There would be a chain reaction because as your beneficiary graduates from the program, he is mandated to sponsor someone else.
Our students are acquainted with their sponsors and the student's educational progress can be tracked via the EOS blockchain.
Our target is to empower 1000 teenagers/youths with this initiative before the end of 2020.
We also hope to accumulate 10 million Karma tokens so that we can effectively give incentives to our students and EmpowermeEOS volunteers/mentors in the form of upvotes.
You can learn more about EmpowermeEOS, how to partner with us or become a student, via the following mediums:
