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From YouTube: NEAR Town Hall February 2022 - NEAR Global Expansion, Pagoda, Education and MetaBUILD 2 Hackathon
Description
NEAR is going global. To celebrate, this Town Hall is an exploration of the people and places helping the NEAR ecosystem expand in the digital world, and also IRL.
NEAR Foundation CEO Marieke Flament kicks things off by sharing the Foundation’s progress towards bringing the world to Web3. This is followed by Pagoda’s Head of Operations, Julie Bissinger, who will provide a snapshot overview of its recent launch.
Another big part of this month’s Town Hall will focus on how we’re helping more people learn, build, and create. NEAR Education’s Sherif Abushadi will be showcasing new and improved ways for instructors and students to learn the art of developing on NEAR. He’ll also be sharing insights into NEAR’s global education strategy.
The second edition of NEAR’s MetaBUILD hackathon is underway – and we’ve had nearly 4,000 applicants. Between now and March 3rd, 2022, judges are reviewing submissions. The winners will be announced in March.
Read more on
The Unchain Fund, supporting Ukraine https://unchain.fund
NEAR Foundation’s education efforts at https://near.org/education
The NEAR community’s presence at Ethereum Denver: https://near.org/blog/near-at-ethdenver-2022-highlights/
NEAR Foundation’s partnership with Elliptic: https://near.org/blog/near-foundation-elliptic-partnership-security/
The NEAR MetaBUILD 2 Hackathon: https://near.org/metabuild
Pagoda Platform: https://pagoda.co & https://twitter.com/PagodaPlatform
The NEAR Foundation Grants Program: https://near.org/grants
Timestamps and Speakers
1:00 - Opening Remarks - Marieke Flament, CEO, NEAR Foundation https://twitter.com/mariekeflament
7:02 - Introduction to Pagoda Platform - Julie Bissinger, Head of Operations, Pagoda https://twitter.com/jbizz_
12:38 - Update on the NEAR Protocol - Bowen Wang, Engineer, NEAR Protocol https://twitter.com/BowenWang18
14:22 - Marketing Updates - Chris Ghent, Head of Marketing, NEAR Foundation https://twitter.com/ChrisGhent
20:05 - Looking back on Ethereum Denver - Yadira Blocker, Experiential Marketing Lead, NEAR Foundation https://twitter.com/YadiraBlocker
24:03 - NEAR Education - Sherif Abushadi, Head of Education, NEAR Foundation https://twitter.com/amgando
31:20 - NEAR Funding & Ecosystem Overview - Josh Daniels, Head of Funding, NEAR Foundation https://twitter.com/joshdaniels09
40:23 - Infrastructure partnerships - Marieke Flament, CEO, NEAR Foundation
41:38 - Regional Hubs Panel with Rune Bentien https://twitter.com/rbentien, Claudio Cossio https://twitter.com/ccossio and Marieke Flament
Follow the latest from NEAR Protocol on:
Website: https://near.org/
Discord: https://near.chat/
Blog: https://near.org/blog/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NEARProtocol
GitHub: https://github.com/near https://github.com/nearprotocol
#Blockchain #FutureIsNEAR #NEAR #nearprotocol
A
Hello,
we
originally
had
this
tunnel
scheduled
last
friday
for
for
those
of
you
who
attended.
You
will
know
that
we
decided
then
to
keep
it
very
brief
and
to
make
a
short
statement
on
the
events
in
ukraine.
Given
the
terrible
situation
as
described
last
friday,
our
immediate
focus
has
been
on
our
community
and
on
our
people.
We
have
taken
and
continued
to
take
a
number
of
measures
to
help
ensure
the
safety
of
our
community.
A
While
the
situation
has
sadly
only
worsened,
we
deeply
realize
how
important
the
work
that
we're
doing
is
and
how
important
it
is
to
keep
our
community
informed
with
the
latest
from
us
before
getting
into
what
we've
been
up
to.
We
wanted
to
share
with
you
an
initiative
that
we've
actually
been
starting
to.
If
you
want
to
actually
help
the
situation
of
what's
happening
in
ukraine,
this
is
called
unchained
fund.
It
has
been
started
by
great
ukrainian
crypto
entrepreneurs
among
switch
ilia.
A
Unchained
is
currently
raising
funds
in
year
to
distribute
and
many
other
cryptocurrencies
actually
to
distribute
to
humanitarian
purposes
within
ukraine.
The
near
daos
alone,
that
is
part
of
this
multi-sig,
has
raised
around
1
million
of
dollar
in
a
couple
of
days.
If
you
want
to
contribute
you're,
very
welcome
and
thank
you
in
advance
and
as
a
reminder,
if
you
need
us,
please
feel
free
to
reach
out
at
support
near
that
foundation.
We're
here
for
you
now
on
to
our
agenda.
A
Chris
and
yadira
will
share
an
overview
of
our
recent
awareness
activities
across
the
globe,
but
also
what
we've
been
up
to
at
east
denver
and
what
events
are
coming
up
next
sheriff
will
share
with
us,
what's
been
happening
in
the
world
of
education
last
but
not
least,
we'll
go
into
support
and
how
we
actually
are
working
together
to
help
support
the
community.
For
with
that
in
mind,
josh
will
provide
an
overview
of
our
funding
platform
and
what
we're
doing
for
the
ecosystem
and
I'll
share
with
you.
A
Now
getting
on
to
our
introduction
at
near,
as
you
know,
our
long-term
goal
is
to
create
an
inclusive,
healthy,
self-sustainable,
fully
decentralized
ecosystem,
with
billion
of
users,
a
world
where
a
billion
of
participants
can
own
their
data,
decide
how
and
on
what
they
vote
and
make
revenues
in
ways
that
filled
their
personal
ambition
and
purpose.
As
I
mentioned
in
the
introduction
more
than
ever,
we
feel
that
creating
the
open
web
world
for
trust
and
transparency
is
very
much
needed
as
a
foundation.
We
do
have
three
main
roles.
A
Number
one
is
actually
helping
raise
awareness
of
near
what
is
the
near
protocol.
How
can
we
actually
get
more
people
participating
and
joining
what
the
possibilities
of
an
open
web
are
giving
are
giving
and
are
providing
with
that
pillar?
We
actually
focus
a
lot
of
our
activities
on
awareness
and
education.
A
A
We
are
very
focused
on
attracting
and
helping
have
talent
via
programs
of
education,
which
you'll
hear
more
about
later
today
from
sheriff,
and
one
of
our
goal
is
actually,
how
can
we
have
half
a
million
qualified
students
who
come
and
learn
about
the
open
web,
but
also
the
possibilities
of
near
the
second
part?
Of
that
flywheel
is
assuming
that
you
can
attract
enough
talent.
A
So
having
active
users
to
create
a
world
where
we
can
have
billions
of
users
on
here
is
ultimately
where
we're
going
for
and
at
the
center
of
all
that,
as
I
mentioned
earlier,
we
do
have
governance
so
again
simpler
to
put
on
a
slide,
but
we
find
it
a
helpful
framework
for
for
all
of
us
and
across
the
community
to
help
things
through
how
we
are
working.
Two
things.
A
We've
put
here
a
couple
of
data
to
share
the
progress
that
have
been
made,
fair
enough
to
say
that
actually,
we've
made
great
progress
on
the
number
of
students
that
are
coming
to
our
program,
the
number
of
grants
and
grant
recipients
that
are
being
distributed,
the
number
of
dows
that
are
being
created
equally
and
every
day,
more
creative
ways
to
leverage
that
and
the
number
of
projects
that
are
being
built
on
on
there.
Now.
A
Developer
growth
is
something
that
was
mentioned
recently
in
electric
capital
report,
which
we
find
extremely
interesting
now
fair
to
say
that,
actually,
when
you
look
at
that
slide,
the
number
of
developers,
while
growing
extremely
rapidly
in
particular
for
the
new
ecosystem,
is
still
very
small.
Now.
What
gives
us
hope
is
the
fact
that
building
on
near
is
something
that
is
actually
made
to
be
simple.
The
usability
is
at
the
core
of
everything
we
do,
and
you
might
hear
more
of
that.
A
B
Hi
everyone,
I'm
julie,
head
of
operations
at
pagoda
and
I'm
super
stoked
to
share
what's
in
store
from
pagoda.
If
we
go
to
the
next
slide,
please
so
ilya
announced
this
actually
at
east
denver,
so
we're
building
the
next
generation
of
three
startups.
How
did
we
get
here
and
what
does
that
mean
I'll?
Get
into
that
right
now.
Can
we
go
to
the
next
slide?
B
So
if
you
recall
the
goal
from
day,
one
for
for
the
protocol
itself
was
to
build
a
blockchain
that
was
easy
to
build
on
and
easy
to
use
and
something
that
could
actually
support
internet
scale,
global
usage
and
so
for
the
first
years
of
near
inc,
which
is
now
pagoda.
You
could
consider
us
kind
of
og
near
these
were
the
the
devs
that
that
built
and
shipped
mainnet
back
in
2020,
and
we
needed
to
figure
out
okay.
We
just
solved
this
problem.
B
What's
another
problem
that
we
can
solve
to
keep
the
new
ecosystem
going,
and
so
we
put
our
heads
together
and
realized.
Well,
we
accomplished
part
of
our
mission
of
building
the
the
underlying
infrastructure,
but
now
we
realized
we
really
needed
to
double
down
on
really
enabling
a
more
seamless
experience
for
developers
and
entrepreneurs
to
launch
their
their
own
web
3
businesses.
B
B
It's
a
familiar
and
cohesive
development
experience
on
top
of
a
decentralized
tool
set
in
the
last
year
and
a
half
we've
built
an
amazing
global
community
of
projects
that
will
power
the
open
web
next
slide,
please,
and
so
to
be
clear,
pagoda,
isn't
building
everything
from
scratch.
While
we
are
building
a
lot,
we're
also
aggregating
existing
applications
and
platforms
across
the
new
ecosystem
into
a
single,
simple
experience.
B
However,
every
service
we
use
now
in
web
2
will
need
to
be
rebuilt
to
integrate
with
web
with
web3
to
support
wallets,
quick,
crypto
cryptographic
primitives
in
blockchain
data.
Among
many
other
things,
pagoda
is
a
place
that
as
a
developer
or
entrepreneur,
you
can
come
and
you
can
launch
your
startup
quickly.
B
It
gives
you
all
the
tools
you
need
to
launch
and
operate
your
startup.
What
does
that
mean?
Though?
It
means
you
have
the
blockchain
data,
that's
accessible.
You
have
analytics
for
your
application.
You
have
upgradability
for
your
contracts.
You
can
launch
a
dow.
You
can
start
managing
your
contracts
in
ideally
your
community
over
time.
It
also
means
you
can
start
launching
tokens
using
lockups.
All
of
the
nuances
that
operation
teams
like
mine,
spend
time
figuring
out
and
implementing
all
of
this
is
in
one
place
within
pagoda.
B
B
B
But
beyond
that
there
are
a
ton
of
necessary
services
and
tools
that
pagoda
brings
together.
For
example,
developers
are
using
rpcs,
there
are
data
needs
that
the
data
needs
to
be
fetched
from
the
blockchain
to
actually
understand.
What's
going
on,
there
needs
to
be
streams
of
data
to
react
on
the
front
end
we
need
analytics.
B
There
should
even
be
an
alert
system
to
pause
contracts
or
something
else.
If,
if
something
anomalous
happens,
and
then
we
can
figure
out
with
a
dao
what
to
do
next,
and
this
could
improve
security
with
wallet
services,
you
as
an
application,
have
a
responsibility
to
protect
your
users,
so
providing
them
tools
such
as
two-factor,
authentication,
authentication
and
other
ways
to
prevent
loss
of
funds
are
inherent
to
to
the
tool
set
that
we
provide.
B
B
There
are
a
ton
of
different
use
cases,
specifically
with
nfts
that
are
interesting
in
terms
of
really
bringing
to
scale
and
bringing
to
market
your
product,
and
it
helps
you
really
double
down
on
the
people
who
are
genuinely
interested
in
your
products
and
giving
them
a
bigger
voice
when
they're
sharing
user
feedback,
all
of
this
is
packed
is
packaged
into
pagoda
in
the
developer
console
for
the
first
time
ever
next
slide.
Please
so
check
out
pagoda.com
and
drop
your
email
address.
B
C
Hey
everyone,
I'm
bolin
from
pagoda,
and
today
I'd
like
to
provide
an
update
on
the
protocol
with
the
increase
of
usage
on
mainland
in
the
past
several
several
months.
We
realized
that
it
is
extremely
important
for
us
to
optimize
for
stability
and
performance.
To
that
end,
we
are
working
on
two
major
initiatives.
One
is
to
make
aurora
the
most
widely
used
contract
on
here
to
run
faster.
C
C
In
parallel
to
the
efforts
on
optimization
for
stability
and
performance,
we
also
want
to
increase
community
involvement
in
the
protocol
development
processing
channel.
To
that
end,
we're
currently
working
on
two
things.
One
is
that
we
will
schedule
regular
public
meetings
for
community
participation
and
discussion
of
protocol.
I
would
like
to
gather
more
feedbacks,
as
well
as
ideas
from
communities
on
how
we
move
forward
with
the
protocol.
C
D
If
we
jump
to
the
next
slide,
you
guys
have
very
likely
seen
us
in
the
news
and
around
the
u.s,
but
also
around
the
globe,
where
we've
been
doing
a
little
bit
of
test
and
learn
when
it
comes
to
marketing
go
to
market,
but
also
how
we
can
leverage
things
from
the
web
2
world
to
help
advance
the
the
conversation
around
web3.
So
if
you
saw
us
in
miami,
you
likely
saw
us
in
context
of
nfts
with
ease
and
dead
mouse,
which
was
a
project
run
by
the
mint
based
team.
D
The
aim
there
really
was
to
make
nfts
and
music
nfts
accessible
to
the
masses
and
be
able
to
get
people
in
and
start
collecting
and
start
a
conversation
around.
You
know
how
do
you
actually
recognize
music
and
music-based
nfts
is
something
that
should
be
accounted
for
when
an
artist
is
going
platinum,
so
think
about
artists
as
folks
that
are
driving
the
conversation
around
change
and
adoption
of
new
technology
with
partners
like
the
mousetrap
team
and
dead
mouse
from
there
we
actually
jumped
to
new
york
and
san
francisco
in
new
york.
D
Now
we're
actually
offset
with
our
partner
south
pole.
So
while
you
see
these
buses
and
your
first
thoughts,
probably
are
these
buses
dirty,
they
absolutely
are,
and
so
what
we're
doing
is
making
sure
that
when
we
even
look
at
our
footprint
of
our
go
to
markets
that
we're
accounting
for
that
as
we
go
around
the
world
and
on
the
right
there,
you
see
a
little
bit
of
mass
reach.
D
So
thinking
about
building
in
san
francisco,
the
focus
really
was
on
meta
build,
which
is
the
large
hackathon
that
has
just
closed
actually
and
we'll
talk
a
little
bit
more
about
in
a
few
minutes.
But
we
brought
in
cross
chain
partners.
So
you
see
the
bridge
in
the
background
there
we're
trying
to
build
bridges,
which
is
something
that
you've
heard
from
us
and
twitter
and
in
the
conversation
for
quite
a
bit.
D
D
So,
let's
get
down
to
the
numbers.
So,
since
the
beginning
of
the
year
across
reddit
twitter,
coindesk
brave,
we've
had
over
340
million
global
impressions
that
has
led
to
a
little
under
four
million
engagements,
so
that
actually
is
clicks
to
to
come
into
the
space
and
into
the
site
and
to
start
learning
about
near
and
we've
actually
seen
exponential
growth
on
twitter.
D
As
over
60
000
new
followers
on
twitter,
from
the
activity
that
we've
been
driving
now
reddit,
we
actually
did
for
the
beginning
of
the
year
a
little
bit
of
conversation
around
this
being
the
year
of
near.
We
actually
saw
our
reddit
following
double
in
the
last
month
and
a
half
and
with
that
really
starting
to
drive
a
conversation
and
start
to
actually
hear
from
the
community
about
what
do
people
care
about
most?
D
What
do
they
need
from
tooling
to
concerns
about
environmental
impact
so
starting
to
give
us
more
signals
about
what
end
users
are
actually
looking
for,
and
so
thinking
about
what
people
are
looking
for?
They're?
Actually,
looking
for
information,
so
87
000
views
on
youtube,
with
almost
10
percent
of
that
being
our
town
hall.
D
So
with
that,
you
know
we're
seeing
activity,
we're
seeing
numbers
push
forward,
we're
seeing
exposure
and
we're
getting
the
near
protocol
out
to
the
world
so
jumping
to
the
next
slide.
We
will
talk
a
little
bit
about
meta,
build
it's
like.
I
said
this
is
the
largest
hackathon,
that's
been
run,
and
if
we
jump
to
the
next
slide
again
by
the
numbers,
we
had
nearly
4
000
participants,
which
is
pretty
amazing.
D
But
seeing
313
submissions
is
pretty
awesome
for
the
start
of
the
year.
The
next
hackathon
will
start
in
august.
We
will
share
out
the
updates
from
the
the
latest
one
just
so
you
can
see
who
who
won,
who
built,
what?
What
are
people
most
interested
in
the
space,
but
there
are
additional
events
in
the
pipeline
and,
if
you're
thinking
about
running
a
community
event
or
a
hackathon,
definitely
let
us
know
reach
out
to
maria
at
the
the
pagoda
team
or
email
us
there
on
the
right
hand,
side
and
you
know,
keep
building
within
the
community.
E
Thank
you,
chris
hello.
Everyone
today
we're
going
to
be
talking
about
youth
denver,
which
some
folks
have
touched
on
and
we'll
dive
into
upcoming
events.
So,
let's
get
into
it
next
slide.
Please
all
right!
So
two
weeks
ago,
near
activated
during
east
denver
with
the
angle
of
building
a
multi-chain
open
web
future,
our
approach
was
broken
down
into
two
parts:
the
first
comprising
of
the
near
beatle
week,
lounge
and
followed
by
the
eve
denver
hackathon.
E
E
E
So
here
you
can
see
just
some
of
the
snapshot
highlights
of
some
of
the
momentum
and
accolades
that
we're
receiving
online
next
slide
and
just
a
roundup
of
youth
denver
by
the
numbers
we
had
close
to
a
thousand
contacts
captured
in
our
space.
We
had
about
250
people
at
peak.
These
sessions
were
not
live,
streamed
youtube,
but
we
did
play
with
twitter
spaces
and
on
day
one
we
had
a
total
of
3
000
views.
E
E
There
excited
to
see
all
of
the
submissions
that
we're
near
will
receive
so
we'll
circle
back
again,
most
likely
in
april,
with
some
of
the
news
there
next
slide
and
finally,
on
upcoming
events
near
will
have
a
presence
during
paris
blockchain
week
summit.
So,
while
I
can't
reveal
too
much
information
there,
there
will
be
more
news
to
come
and
always
be
sure
to
check
out
near.events
where
you
can
see
all
of
the
events
happening
from
near's
pipeline
which
linear
foundation
organizes
or
other
submissions
from
the
community.
So
any
questions
that
is
always
the
best
resource.
E
F
Hey
everybody,
my
name
is
sharif.
I
work
on
education
with
near
foundation.
It's
a
pleasure
to
be
here.
Thank
you
so
much
for
your
attention.
Just
before
I
dig
into
the
details,
I
want
to
remind
everybody
that
for
the
education
team
we
have
a
vision
of
a
world
where
millions
of
makers
use
near
recognizing
it
as
the
best
place
to
build
the
open
web,
starting
with
about
half
a
million
activated
makers
at
the
end
of
2022.
It's
a
very
ambitious
goal.
F
To
that
end,
we
are
holding
a
few
guiding
principles
in
mind.
You
may
have
heard
these
before
coming
from
different
people
around
the
ecosystem.
Number
one
users
don't
realize
that
they're
working
with
blockchain
technology
at
all
number
two
participants
of
the
ecosystem
have
a
smooth
journey
to
their
goals.
Number
three
makers
are
able
to
engage
self-directed
learning
experiences
from
zero
to
hero
number
four
educators.
Teachers
perceive
teaching
web3
and
using
near
as
an
attractive
professional
opportunity
actually
and
finally,
of
course,
the
materials
and
systems
that
we
have
are
continuously
improving.
F
F
We
also
engaged
about
300
universities,
with
active
ambassadors
on
their
campuses.
Incredibly
excited
about
that
initiative
and
30
companies
are
now
actively
engaged
in
recruiting
near
certified
developers
through
jobs.nir.university
check
it
out.
Of
course,
you're
welcome
to
join
us
near.university
certified
check
out
the
link
at
the
bottom
of
the
slide.
Let's
move
on
to
the
next
slide,
please
in
terms
of
fellowships
and
grants
our
ways
of
earning
out
of
180
amazing,
fellowship
applications.
F
Over
the
last
150
days,
47
grantees
spread
among
15
countries
around
the
world,
have
received
just
under
2
million
usd
worth
of
near
tokens,
and
their
activities
are
ranging
from
integration
with
learning
management
systems
to
art
projects
that
we
hope
you'll
get
to
enjoy
with
us
over
the
coming
weeks
and
months
as
we
release
those
to
the
world
next
slide.
Please
I'd
like
to
spotlight
a
couple
of
individuals
and
groups
that
are
doing
particularly
well
in
the
way
that
they're
engaging
with
these
opportunities,
so
hibba,
for
example,
has
been
bringing
near
to
the
middle
east.
F
She
is
aside
from
being
a
mother
to
a
four-year-old
and
a
phd
candidate
in
urban
planning.
She
joined
the
ncd
program
after
a
90
90
day
coding,
bootcamp
and
talk
about
productive.
She
has
since
then
conceived
and
led
the
development
of
near
in
minutes
with
the
help
of
several
other
entity
project
graduates.
F
She
recently
launched
near
in
arabic
with
the
help
of
two
other
near
university
fellows
who
are
bringing
near
into
the
the
arabic
speaking
world,
so
that
people
can
learn
and
earn
and
get
connected
with
others
without
having
to
cross
the
very
difficult
and
challenging
barrier
of
learning
english.
First.
If
anybody
is
familiar
with
that
and
so
moving
on
to
the
next
slide,
please,
if
we
look
into
the
fellowship
programs
a
number
of
exciting
developments
there,
I'd
like
to
highlight
gotham
padilla
in
particular
who's
bringing
near
to
campuses.
F
He
is
a
machine
single-handedly
having
launched
multiple
initiatives
which
are
engaging
students
with
near
so
in
this
three-month
fellowship.
He
ran
a
pilot
for
the
campus
ambassador
program,
which
brought
over
100
ambassadors
and
then
in
january
he
doubled
down
on
that
effort
and
that
model
and
received
a
grant
to
scale
the
program
which
is
now
reaching
close
to
300
campuses
and
engaging
tens
of
thousands,
almost
100
000
students
around
328
campus
ambassadors,
so
lots
and
lots
of
people
engaging
here
and
he
continues
to
innovate.
F
F
Near
hispano
has
been
bringing
near
to
latin
america,
and
this
is
a
small
group
of
very
dedicated
and
focused
and
capable
entrepreneurs
and
engineers
that
have
been.
You
know
growing
nearest
presence
in
central
and
south
america
over
the
last
six
to
eight
months
and
have
capably
not
only
completed
all
of
our
certification
programs
near
certified
developer
and
your
certified
instructor,
but
then
gone
on
to
translate
these
programs
into
spanish
and
successfully
delivered
to
hundreds
of
other
developers
and
entrepreneurs
near
certified
developer
and
are
now
launching
near
certified
instructor
in
spanish.
F
So,
finally,
near
hispano
has
also
been
working
in
close
cooperation
with
the
education
team
to
bring
on
over
20
developers
and
residents
as
part
of
their
initiative,
to
adopt
the
fellowship
program
and
they
are
working
with
those
developers
to
ship
apps
directly
to
mainnet.
I
think
now
we're
at
three
applications
on
mainnet,
with
more
coming
lots
of
exciting
work
there
for
the
spanish
speaking
community,
so
hopefully,
today
what
you've
heard
is
that
we
are
working
with
people
all
around
the
world
to
engage
them
in
their
native
language
to
innovate.
F
G
One
is
around
supporting
that
creative
triangle,
which
marik
and
others
have
talked
about
a
bit
earlier,
the
town
hall
around
basically
supporting
and
activating
communities
and
projects
that
need
support.
The
next
is
providing
access
so
making
sure
that
individuals
and
projects
and
teams
and
areas
wouldn't
necessarily
receive
support
and
funding,
are
ultimately
able
to
gain
access
again
efficiently
and
clearly
via
the
foundation's
funding
platform.
G
So
over
this
last
year,
we've
had
a
lot
of
growth
as
we've
looked
at
sort
of
funding
again
as
a
sort
of
core
vision
and
focus
for
us
at
the
foundation.
Here
are
some
of
the
big
highlights
a
couple
that
I'll
call
out
here
that
I
think
are
really
exciting,
for
us
is
the
deployment
of
grants
so,
where
we've
sort
of
deployed
direct
grants
to
projects
to
support
them
with
over
270,
which
is
really
exciting.
G
G
So
you
can
see
here
that
close
to
80
million
dollars
was
raised
by
a
multitude
of
projects
in
the
ecosystem
that
we're
looking
to
drive
again
continued
growth
and
engagement
as
they
build
and
develop,
and
then
the
other
one
that's
really
exciting
here-
has
been
looking
at
deployment
across
guilds
and
community
driven
projects.
So
this
is
something
that
is
going
to
be
a
priority
for
us.
As
we
move
into
2022,
I'm
really
sort
of
continuing
to
focus
here
and
identify
projects
and
teams
that
are
really
working
at
community
level.
Development.
G
And
so
quickly,
we
want
to
pause
here
to
kind
of,
let
folks
know
how,
if
you
are
building
and
engaging
and
developing,
how
can
you
get
more
involved?
So
the
first
way
here
on
the
left
is
to
really
engage
our
funding
team,
which
I
lead.
We
have
both
non-equity
equity
funding
and
then
regional,
based
funding
and
so
over.
G
Here
are
the
places
where
you
can
reach
out,
but
ultimately,
our
view
here
is
to
really
be
sort
of
creative
and
supportive
for
all
projects
that
are
looking
to
develop
and
figuring
out
what
works
best
for
them.
Next
is
we've
launched
several
grant
pools
in
collaboration
with
several
other
projects
and
teams
within
the
ecosystem.
G
Here
you
can
see
a
selection
of
them
and
ultimately
these
are
focused
on
really
supporting
projects,
whether
they
be
in
the
decentralized
finance
space,
whether
they
be
looking
to
integrate
via
a
layer
layer
to
aurora
or
whether
they
are
gaming
on
the
human
guild
side,
and
then,
obviously,
you
heard
a
bit
about
near
university
from
sharif
a
little
earlier.
Next,
you
can
see
our
backers
network.
G
So
quickly
on
the
ecosystem
front
wanted
to
really
take
a
step
back
and
focus
on
two
areas,
but
we've
seen
a
really
significant
amount
of
growth
and
development
over
the
last
four
or
five
months.
The
first
is
on
the
nft
side,
so
over
the
last
three
or
four
months,
we've
seen
a
lot
of
interesting
projects
develop
here.
This
includes
net
new
primary
launches
of
nfts
that
have
been
growing.
We've
also
seen
launch
pads
developing.
You
can
see
a
few
here
that
are
noted
according
to
your
knot,
astro
and
utopia.
G
Our
secondary
market
has
also
been
really
flourishing
over
the
last
several
months
as
well.
For
us,
which
is
one
of
our
largest
secondary
markets
right
now,
based
in
southeast
asia,
has
spent
a
lot
of
time
developing
their
ecosystem,
and
so
they've
actually
seen
this
last
month
over
seven
million
dollars
worth
of
secondary
volume,
sort
of
trading
that's
gone
on
on
their
platform,
which
has
been
really
exciting
to
see.
G
We've
also
had
some
net
new
projects
come
on
that
are
providing
analytics
and
information
support
in
the
nft
ecosystem,
so
near
tracker.io
is
one
of
those
where
you're
able
to
see
all
the
existing
products
that
exist
some
of
the
top
performers,
as
well
as
some
of
the
net
new
projects
that
are
coming
to
market.
So
there's
a
lot
of
excitement
here
that
we're
seeing
and
we're
very
excited
to
support
and
welcome
all
projects
who
are
looking
to
engage
in
that
space.
Next
slide.
G
Area
that
we've
seen
a
lot
of
really
great
interests,
and
especially
on
the
grants
side
to
see
dozens
of
applications
and
projects
looking
to
either
build
natively
or
develop
or
integrate
via
other
chains,
has
been
in
the
gaming
side.
And
so
here
we're
going
to
show
you
a
video
from
our
team
human
guild,
which
I
highlighted
a
bit
earlier,
which
shows
some
of
the
really
game
gaming
projects
that
they
have
been
working
with
and
have
really
done
great
things
over
the
last
second
half
of
the
year
in
2021.
G
E
G
G
A
Before
we
get
into
actually
our
regional
panel,
one
thing
we
wanted
to
highlight
is
partnerships
and,
in
particular,
infrastructure
partnership.
How
we
think
about
that?
I
think
you're
starting
to
hear
us
talk
a
lot
about
building
bridges
and
a
multi-chain
world,
and
that's
indeed
what
we
believe
in
and
with
that
in
mind,
we
are
working
a
lot
on
making
sure
we
can
have
the
right
infrastructure
partnerships
so
that
the
ecosystem
can
thrive.
A
The
first
partnership,
which
I'd
like
to
highlight,
is
actually
elliptic.
You
may
have
read
about
that
on
our
blog
on
our
blog
elliptic
is
now
available
for
near
native,
and
what
that
means
is
actually
it's
very
exciting
for,
in
particular
having
enhanced
on-chain
security
and
access
to
data
and,
in
particular,
being
able
to
build
strong
fin
crime
solution.
A
The
second
partnership
that
I
wanted
to
mention
here
is
actually
old
bridge
again
back
on
the
theme
of
actually
building
bridges,
we
have
been
working
with
albridge,
which
is
the
first
bridge
to
connect
near
protocol
to
terra
solana
and
cellular
ecosystems
more
to
come
on
more
bridges.
But
again,
these
two
things,
we
believe
are
quite
important
for
all
of
you
in
the
ecosystem
to
be
able
to
build
bridges
and
build
strong
solutions
that
are
not
only
built
on
the
near
ecosystem,
but
also
relating
and
being
linked
to
other
ecosystems.
A
And
now
we're
going
to
go
into
the
last
part
of
our
town
hall
and
we're
going
to
talk
actually
about
regions
and
have
with
that
original
panel.
So
I
have
here
with
me
today
rooney
who
will
talk
about
what's
going
on,
in
particular
the
uk
and
europe,
and
I
have
here
with
me
also
claudio
who
will
talk
about
latin
america
before
doing
that.
Just
a
brief
introduction
on
what
we
mean
by
regions
and
why
regions
matter
in
a
near
ecosystem.
A
You've
heard
actually
sharif
mentioned
that
education
is
in
particular
important
for
us
in
particular
having
like
local
material
that
enables
people
to
really
grasp
the
meaning
of
what's
being
discussed
and
what's
being
taught
well,
that's
why
we
are
actually
expanding
by
original
hubs,
because
we
believe
that
actually
to
be
a
global
company
and
actually
to
be
a
global
protocol,
we
need
to
have
a
local,
very
regional
footprint.
So
regional
helps
help.
All
of
us
expand
the
near
platform
and
really
get
to
the
billion
of
users.
A
A
So
when
we
look
at
regional
hubs
where
we're
at
and
what
that
means
and
how
we
approach
that,
so,
on
the
left
hand,
side
you'll
see
our
general
approach,
which
usually
we
start
with
local
events
meetups,
and
then
we
go
into
education,
empowering
the
community
having
grassroots
go
to
market
product
labs,
which
can
become
startup,
incubation,
developer
relation
and
ultimately
get
into
what
we
call
ecosystem
funds
on
the
map.
You
can
see
lots
of
different
locations
if
you,
by
the
way,
have
ideas
of
places
where
we're
not
and
you'd
like
to
be
involved
or
participate.
A
Now,
let's
get
into
our
panel,
so
claudio
is
here
with
us
today
to
talk
about
latin
america
and
roone
is
here
also
with
us
to
talk
about
uk
and,
more
broadly
also,
europe
and
I'll
be
moderating
the
panel
claudio
roon.
Thank
you
so
much
for
being
here.
Thank
you
guys.
So
look
I
mean,
I
think,
let's
start
with
a
little
bit
of
background.
I'm
sure
people
want
to
know
your
stories
and
and
why
why
near?
Actually,
why
does
near
matter
to
you?
Should
we
start
with
you
claudio.
H
H
A
Amazing-
and
I
think
the
approach
you
guys
have
taken
in
particular
translating
and
having
that
in
local
native
language
is
fantastic.
Great.
Thank
you
roon.
Should
we
go
to
you
because
it's
quite
a
different.
Actually,
you
know
background
and
way
that
you
came
to
near,
but
what's
your
story
and
and
why
near
and
what
you
do
for
near.
I
I
Also
before
then
had
my
own
startup
back
in
2006
actually
never
made
it
to
the
unicorn
status,
but
learned
a
few
bits
and
pieces
from
that,
and
I
left
google
in
july
18
and
joined
joe
lubin's.
50
million
dollar
fund
called
consensus
ventures
and
for
me,
what
really
triggered
that
was.
I
was
organizing
an
event
for
the
ex
google
community
at
the
google
offices
in
london
in
november
17..
I
I
remember
this
day
clearly
because
it
was
the
day
before
bitcoin
hit
10
000
and
we
had
probably
130
crazy
young
people
in
the
room
going
absolute
bunkers
about
whether
it
was
eat
or
bitcoin,
which
was
gonna.
You
know,
survive
and
win,
and
I
was
like
I
wasn't
sure
if
I
was
worried-
or
you
know
excited
about
this
sort
of
crazy
vibrations
and
vibes
in
the
room.
But
I
was
like
I
gotta,
I
gotta
understand
this
better
and
yeah.
I
was
really
driven
trying
to
understand
this
sort
of
phenomena
and
yeah.
I
Seven.
Eight
months
later,
I
was
on
my
way
out
and
going
deep
down
the
rabbit
hole
with
the
you
know
with
with
my
job
there
at
the
consensus
ventures
and
part
of
it
was
also
like,
driven
by
the
fact
that
you
know,
I
thought
we
needed
to
change
and
begin
to.
You
know
google,
from
the
inside.
I
saw
this
amazing
company.
I
Amazing
people
also
felt
like
there
is
a
a
deeper
need
for
change
in
society,
and
now
there
is
a
potential
technology
to
help
put
sort
of
more
power
in
the
hands
of
you
know
the
people
so
to
speak,
but
also
having
worked
with
a
lot
of
ex
google
startups
over
the
years
and
I'll
come
back
to
sort
of
my
story
with
with
ilia
there
in
a
second.
But
I
felt
for
me
really
like
what
was
frustrating
was
there
were
so
many
great
ideas
out
there.
I
There
was
so
much
potential
and
you
know
smart
people,
but
they
don't
always.
You
know,
get
the
help.
They
need
in
order
to
actually
execute
and
try
out
solving
those
problems
they
see
right
and
for
me,
the
big
problem
was
also
like
how
funding
is
sort
of
you
know
being
or
was
organized
and
still
is
to
a
large
degree.
Today,
where
I
look
at
the
vc
model,
as
most
people
know,
it
is
dead
and
I
felt
like.
I
Maybe
there
is
something
here
where
we
could
apply
this
sort
of
next
generation
internet
technology
to
to
actually
sort
of
unlock
that
potential.
And
you
know
it's
never
as
simple
as
you
as
you
think
it
is,
or
it's
not
the
same
as
you
know
what
it
looked
like
in
the
past.
But
clearly,
I
think
we're
we're
onto
something
here
and
it's
already
happening
we're
right
in
the
in
the
middle
of
it
but
yeah.
I
think
that's
sort
of
the
the
bigger
context
I
got
to
know
of
near
end
of
18.
I
At
that
time
we
called
it
the
goo
guild,
which
was
basically
a
guilt
for
you,
know
googlers,
ex-googlers
and
friends,
and
that
then
sort
of
organically
evolved
into
running
one
of
the
first
validator
nodes.
We
participated
in
stake
wars,
that's
still
running
very
successfully,
this
sort
of
near
dedicated,
validator
node,
and
I
think
for
for
for
people
new
to
to
sort
of
the
world
of
blockchain
and
the
next
generation
internet
that
we're
building
here
for
me
was
like
okay.
I
There
is
this
sort
of
proof
of
stake
or
variations
of
it
right,
which
is
sort
of
going
to
be
the
dominant
player
or
mechanism
to
to
run
these
future
generation
protocols
or
like
the
layer
of
the
internet
right
so
for
me,
it
was
sort
of
like
a
no-brainer
to
try
to
get
involved
in
that,
and
also
there's
a
huge
untapped
sort
of
topic
here
around
governance.
How
do
we
secure
all
these
things?
I
It's
just
like,
there's
so
much
to
learn
and
do
and
long
story
short
that
evolved
into
move
which
is
sort
of
a
fun
dedicated
to
founders,
building
on
near
or
with
the
new
stack,
and
you
know
we
want
to
support
the
most
ambitious
founders
as
early
as
possible
and
yeah
super
excited
about
the
the
time
we've
we
spent
with
you
know
near
and
the
ecosystem,
and
also
what's
actually
ahead
of
us.
So
so
yeah
the
future
is
bright.
Thank
you.
Marika.
A
Well,
thank
you.
Thank
you,
so
two
very
two
actually
very
different
stories,
but
which,
in
a
way,
are
also
contributing
differently
originally
to
the
new
ecosystem
claudio.
I'm
actually
curious,
like
when
you
look
at
your
region,
which
is
a
massive
region.
Actually,
what
are
some
of
the
exciting
stuff
that's
happening
in
in
latin.
H
Yeah,
so
so
definitely
for
us
is
it's
we're
tied
at
the
hip
with
educating
right,
because
at
the
end
of
the
day,
we
have
to
understand
that
this
is
a
change
of
paradigm
and
while
right
now,
like
the
new
generation,
entrepreneurs
are
launching
on
the
sas
space
or
in
the
fintech
space.
This
gives
a
has.
This
creates
a
gap
for
the
new
entrepreneurs
coming
in
or
being
being
taught
on
on
the
in
the
whole
region.
H
H
Where
now
you
can,
you
can
launch,
and
you
can
do
a
community
launch
and
there's
yes,
there's
an
opportunities
to
raise
funds,
but
also
to
be
self-sustainable
from
day
one
if
you
grasp
on
the
power
of
communities-
and
I
think
that
shows
a
good
example
of
what
lucio
and
myself
built
with
metapool,
which
we
launched
on
mainnet
without
no
backing
or
no
safety
net
at
all.
We
take
a
hail
mary
on
it
right
and
at
the
end
of
the
day,
we
found
out
that
the
new
ecosystem
was
supporting.
H
We
built
something
that
was
needed
for
the
community
and
the
community
backed
us
up
and
also
a
couple
of
the
early
early
near
employees
as
well.
They
saw
what
we're
building
was
something
that
was
valuable
ecosystem,
and
so
we
think
we
can
replicate
that
in
the
whole
region.
There
are
some
low-hanging
fruits
out
there
that
may
seem
solved
for
more
of
the
western
hemisphere
likely,
for
example,
for
us
off-ramp
and
on-ramp
payments.
H
To
be
honest,
so-
and
this
goes
with
the
narrative
around
building
bridges-
and
so
that's
one
of
the
key
things
we're
building
right
now,
so
it's
bridges
around
around
educating
any
anyone.
That's
interested
in
understanding
what
this
change
of
paradigm
will
be,
and
so
we're
not
we're
focusing
on
different
aspects,
not
just
only
on
the
technical
savvy
but
people
that,
for
example,
teachers
right.
H
H
People
do
not
know
what
to
do
if
they
control
their
own
assets,
and
so
we
need
to
teach
them
and
then,
when
you
teach
them
how
to
build,
then
that
that
creates
a
flywheel
effect
where
more
people
get
get
attracted
to
it,
because
they
could
say.
Okay,
I
can
build.
I
can
build
my
own
future,
there's
programs
that
that
will
teach
me
how
to
how
to
fish
right
and
so
in
the
pond.
The
pawn
is
really
big.
So
definitely
there's
a
lot
of
things
going
on
on
the
on
the
creative
sides
of
we've.
H
We
have
a
chat
group
with
more
than
3
000
people
from
all
over
the
world
in
our
discord
and
also
spanish
speaking
as
well
right
because,
as
you
understand,
and
if
you
you've
gone
to
california,
you
don't
have
to
speak
english
if
you
talk
spanish,
most
likely
somewhere
on
the
other
side
of
the
counter
of
the
taxi
or
whatnot
they'll
talk
to
in
spanish.
So
it's
a
broad
language
that
is
mostly
filter
out
throughout
the
globe.
And
so
we
want
to
leverage
that
and
and
build
those
bridges.
H
A
I
I
mean
one
part
is
definitely
like
being
a
european.
You
know
for
years
we
always
like
valuation
and
rounds
and
unicorns.
You
know
compared
to
us.
They
were
way
ahead
of
the
curve
right
and
a
part
of
that
was
obviously
talent
was
based
on
on
location,
and
I
think
now
also
knowing
claudio
and
his
team
really
well.
We
are
fortunate
to
be
to
be
supporting
them
from
the
early
days.
You
know,
talent
is,
is
everywhere
right
and
people
can
work
from
anywhere
right,
most
often
right
and
nothing
beats
meeting
in
person.
I
There's
no,
no
doubt
in
that
right,
but
I
think,
and
also
where
the
regional
hops
from
from
from
the
near
side.
You
know
it's
incredibly
important
and
if
I'm
not
mistaken,
actually
we
have
the
first
near
london
meetup
on
on
thursday,
so
you
should
definitely
ping
sandy
and
mark
from
the
near
team.
If
you
want
to
get
involved
in
that
or
join
up,
but
but
yeah.
I
I
think,
like
that,
that
you
know
we
are
like
a
sort
of
the
funds
is
incorporated
in
the
uk,
but
we
have
you
know,
founders,
and
you
know
people
we
work
with
are
from
anywhere,
and
that
goes.
You
know
also
from
the
other
direction
right
and
I
think
that's
where
you're
also
looking
at
you
know
the
the
funds
from
that
side
of
thing
like
whether
it's
crypto
or
not
also
coming
from
us
and
investing
in
the
region.
I
Right
and
I
think,
that's
you
know
it's
changing
the
the
rules
of
the
game-
a
bit
for
the
existing
players,
but
I
think
you
know
that's
great
right,
and
that
is
all
the
ultimate
game
and
it's
the
same
for
us
as
well.
We
have
to
be
aware
of
that
and
I
think,
like
we're,
trying
to
to
some
degree
to
maybe
this
is
sort
of
more
near
specific
right,
but
like
what
we
saw
near
wasps
a
year
ago,
I
mean
it
evolved
a
lot
as
a
technology.
There's
the
technical
execution
has
just
been.
I
You
know
on
the
spot
and
the
hopes
high,
that
you
know
the
team
will
continue
to
do
that,
but
also
like
from
an
ecosystem
point
where
we
feel
there
is
a
lot
of
attention.
Now
we
have
to
drive
less
inbound
than
we
like.
We
had
to
do
a
lot
more
outbound,
so
to
speak
before
than
we
do
today,
but
I
think
we
still
like
what
really
excites
me
is:
there's
an
opportunity
to
actually
build
as
well
right
and
maybe
there's
a
small
story
here
to
share
with
you
know
the
audience
as
well.
I
We
actually
had
a
press
release
lined
up
and
we
had
some
grants
lined
up
and
then
one
week
before
someone
told
us
about
metapoor
and
we
were
like
hey,
hang
on
a
moment,
they're
way
better
than
us
they're
way
further
than
us,
and
we
don't
want
to
compete
here.
We
just
want
to
see
these
sort
of.
You
know
core
components
in
the
ecosystem.
You
know
being
built
out
so
yeah.
We
quickly
canned
our
project
before
and
then
you
know
we
reached
out
to
the
medical
team
and
yeah.
I
So
I
think
you
know
we're
trying
to
have
that
sort
of
builder
approach.
Where
we
see
you
know,
we
can
drive
that,
but
we're
also
dependent
on
that
others.
Obviously
it's
the
same
problem
to
be
solved,
but
now
it's
like
we
have
people
coming
to
us.
There
are
several
wallets
being
built
out
like
in
the
also
for
the
more
like
sort
of
institutional
space.
I
So
I
think
those
are
some
of
the
the
changes
right
and
there's
that
sort
of,
I
would
say
next
generation
of
startups
is
also
building,
for
you
know
the
multi-chain
world
right
that
that
we
know
we're
near
is
gonna
be,
and
it's
sort
of
thriving
in
really
well
right.
I
can
play
a
huge
role
in
so
I
think
yeah,
I'm
not
sure
that
sort
of
geographically,
but
but
definitely
something
that
I've
noticed
and
I
could
also
say
like
just
looking
at
the
numbers,
like
I
think
in
december
it
was.
I
We
think
we
looked
at
more
more
than
I
actually
assessed
more
than
50
projects
right
for
potential
investments
go
back
six
months.
You
know,
maybe
it
was
10
or
15
right.
So
it's
just
going
to
keep
evolving
like
that,
and
that's
obviously
allowing
us
or
enforcing
us
to
keep
us
on
our
toes
yeah
and
I
think
the
last
one
is
also
the
talent
right
like
so
something
that
we
we
see
a
lot.
I
Maybe
they
want
more
impact,
but
at
least
they're
hungry
to
to
build
out-
and
you
know,
build
our
own
businesses
that
entrepreneurial
grid
and
yeah
solve
problems
and
try
to
you
know,
build
the
next
generation
internet
and
yeah.
We
clearly
want
to
want
to
support
that
right
and
that's
to
me
just
some
of
these
signs
that
you
know
whether
there
is
another
curve
to
winter
or
not
like.
We
still
continue
to
see
that
inflow
of
you
know
of
strong
talent,
right
and
yeah.
That's
from
all
over
the
world.
A
Completely,
I
think,
there's
been
quite
a
few
articles
on
that
on
the
trend
of
like
from
web
2
to
web
3,
and
I
think
what
we
are.
The
three
of
us
actually
saying
is
that
the
need
of
talent
across
different
geographies
and
across
actually
different
skill
sets
is
very,
very
much
needed
great.
I
like
the
fact
that,
from
what
you're
saying
the
role
the
world
is
definitely
flattening
and
the
game
for
vc
is
changing
a
lot
and
the
builder
approach
making
sure
that
the
next
gen
startup
can
actually
be
helped
in
the
way.
A
That
means
it's
actually
something
quite
different.
Super
interesting
we're
almost
out
of
time,
but
maybe
so
one
short
guys
short
answer
right
short
answer
to
last
question:
what's
the
one
thing
that
excites
you
most
when
you
look
ahead
at
the
at
the
year
ahead,
so
claudia,
should
we
start
with
you.
H
I
Focus
everybody
should
just
really
focus,
nothing
is
is
given,
and
that's
also
what
personally,
what
excites
me
the
most
is
that
if
we
don't
do
anything
like
everybody
on
the
call
listening
like
nothing
is
going
to
happen,
but
actually,
if
we
really
pull
our
sleeves
up
and
really
do
everything
and
a
little
bit
more
in
2022,
I
really
believe
this
year
can
be
the
year
where
near
it
sets
itself.
Apart
from
from
the
rest
of
the
pack,
and
yeah
focus
is
what
is
required
and
execution.
A
Agree
so
many
opportunities
everywhere,
look
guys,
thank
you
so
much
for
being
here
today,
two
different
approaches,
but
actually
equally
participating
in
helping
build
a
very
vibrant,
near
ecosystem.
So
I
hope
to
all
our
listeners
today
that
you
enjoyed
what
you
heard
again.
Thank
you
so
much
for
joining
us
today,
more
than
ever,
what
we're
building
matters-
and
I
think,
if
you
take
one
thing
from
today-
is
that
the
ecosystem
is
vibrant.
It's
global,
it's
building
and
please
stay
safe
and
continue
building.
Thank
you.