The sports and entertainment industries would not exist without its passionate fan communities. This can be greatly seen in the huge market for collectible items, where fans actively engage and showcase their identity. Taking the fan experience to a whole new level through an innovative NFT ecosystem is Scott M. Lawin. He is the CEO of Candy Digital, a leading platform specializing in sports and entertainment digital collectibles. In this episode, he joins us to share all about their new digital asset company, its origins, and why they think this technology has broad appeal to a mass market audience. Scott also talks about how NFTs are transforming the fan experience, citing their sales of over 1.9 million NFTs. He then discusses the future of the sports and entertainment industries, especially as they weave into Web3 and digital ownership. The fan experience is only going to continue to evolve with digital assets. Don’t get left behind by the opportunities this present.
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Scott M. Lawin Of Candy Digital — A New Digital Asset Content Company Building An Innovative NFT Ecosystem, Plus: Ethernity, And More…
This is Scott Lawin of Candy Digital, the Web3 platform re-imagining fandom. I'm here on the Edge of NFT. I'm a fan. You are a fan. Let's enjoy another great show.
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NFT-curious audiences, stay tuned for this episode to learn how Candy Digital is leading the charge in sports and collectible NFTs to deepen fan connections and expand the rich legacy of collectibles, why you should check out our social for a chance to win one million Ethernity Stones, your ticket to the next amazing collector's experience, and our guest's secret to cornering the childhood lemonade stand market through mergers and acquisitions. All this and more on this episode.
Before we move on, don't forget that our Outer Edge LA event returned to Los Angeles in March 2023. Do you think you missed out? You can now catch up on all the discussions, presentations, and more by heading over to Watch.OuterEdge.Live and register with your email address. You will have access to over 60 captivating conversations and performances. Binge watchers are welcome. Netflix, look out. We will see you inside.
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This episode features Scott M. Lawin, the driving force behind Candy Digital, a leading platform specializing in sports and entertainment digital collectibles. Scott, apart from leading Candy Digital as the CEO and COO, has an impressive track record. He founded Parametric LP, a firm dedicated to early-stage investments and advisory in blockchain, FinTech, art, and real estate.
He has held significant roles in the industry, including the Chief Operating Officer at Moore Capital Management, a $15 billion global alternative investment firm, and the same position at the Liquid Markets business at Fortress Investment Group, following a fruitful twelve-year stint at Goldman Sachs & Company. Candy Digital is reshaping the digital collectible landscape with unique NFTs that allow enthusiasts and collectors to buy, sell, and deepen their connection with sports culture and entertainment. Scott, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
It's always a special moment to hear what you've accomplished. I'm sure when you get out of bed in the morning, you might not always be a little bit tired and be like, "Did I ever do anything?" It seems like there's a lot there. Josh had a question to launch things off. Josh, what was your first one?
Let me ask Scott. It has been a long time coming having you on the show. It's great to have you as part of the original genesis version of NFTLA. I've been admiring your work in the space for quite some time. When it comes to digital collectible potential, nothing hits home for me more than the world of sports and entertainment. I would love to go back to the beginning to start things off and talk about the genesis of Candy Digital, and what makes it unique. What was unique about your approach to digital collectibles going into this business?
Without going too far back, the story of Candy's origin started in 2012 and 2013, which was when I started paying attention, doing research, and trying to get my head around what blockchain was and what it was going to become. I was still deeply immersed in the financial services world. I was trying to understand what was Bitcoin, "Was it going to be a new digital currency? Was it a store of value? Was it going to be a new transaction processing layer, a funding mechanism, a scam, or all the above?"
That started my path of understanding more about the technology and thinking about its impact and ultimately where it was going. Fast forward to 2020 along that journey, I became more active as an investor. My business partner, Mike Novogratz, had started Galaxy Digital, building the leading merchant bank in the blockchain and crypto space. In the mid-pandemic, we were sitting down and marketing to the market where was crypto from an adoption perspective with institutions. We knew that big pools of capital were starting to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
A lot of major global players were starting to build the infrastructure. There were regulatory framework discussions that were starting to be afoot. We said, "How does this technology go from being an investible asset into something that has broad appeal to a mass market audience and is focused on content?" It's understanding the power of what it means to have an authenticated ownership of a digital asset, the power that creators can have then in the ongoing royalty stream, and ultimately the role that digital identity will play in the future. I spent time thinking about art, music, and sports culture and zeroed in on sports.
My cofounder is Mike's brother, Matt Novogratz. Matt had been at Galaxy, building a sports business there. We looked at the role physical collectibles played in people's identity in the community and as a broader collectible market store of value and said, "We see a future with physical, fractional-physical, and ultimately digital collectibles. There's a natural progression there." If we can think about the sports industry with billions of global fans and super passionate communities and a collectibles business that people are already engaged in and understand, we think that's a great path to onboard the next 1 million, 10 million, and 100 million people into the space.
That was the genesis of how Candy got started. It was looking at what we thought frankly was going to be a longer progression into a digital-only world sitting in 2020. I like to say that unless you were in the crypto space, very few people knew how to spell NFT. It wasn't something that had captured the zeitgeist yet for most folks. 2021 changed that. We pivoted toward developing our digital-first strategy and then serving with our first partner, Major League Baseball. That was the fire that started Candy's growth.
Here's the next question here. Major League Baseball has been a big part of what's going on with what you're doing. In your mind, how are NFTs transforming what's going on with baseball fans and their experience?
We have always approached the space from the perspective that we think NFTs aren't just the next-gen version of the physical trading card. We see it as an evolution, but we think of NFTs and the role that digital assets will play in any content relationship as something that can enhance and extend that experience of being a fan. Let's talk about baseball in particular.
We have developed a series of core products at Candy with our partners at Major League Baseball. The first is very much a digital trading card. We call it our ICON card, which is trading card 3.0, a digital ticket, a commemorative asset that starts to tie people's experience back to being at a live event, watching the game, or watching it on TV, and then a video component that captures those special moments.
We're thinking about those not necessarily as distinct separate products, but starting to think about how these digital assets start to build that loyalty engagement and fan value both for themselves as a collector for the community, and then ultimately for that relationship with people's favorite team or player. We're still in the early days of that. We started out with our digital ICON collectibles. They have a lot of the same types of scarcity and rarity features that traditional physical trading cards do. They come in blind packs but they are much more dynamic assets.
They incorporate static imagery, video, audio, motion graphics, and signatures, and they change over time. We use the power of smart contracts and the blockchain to pump real-time data into them. Every time those players play a game, those stats update over time. They have their own characteristics as collectibles. They also become items that our collectors can use in challenges and to solve puzzles. There's an engagement component of being able to not just complete a set and unlock something unique, but also to use those in an online trivia game that changes over time and builds people's loyalty scores and engagement scores.
Ultimately, the things that we're working on with baseball and exploring now are taking those assets off your computer screen and out of your phone and digital wallet, and giving them value in the stadium. You can see the world as our fans and collectors. New people come into the space. Not only have you collected a handful of your favorite digital icon players, but you've been to a number of games. You redeem digital tickets.
Let's say you're a Mets fan. The Mets now know that Josh is a huge Mets fan. Before he goes to the game, his NFT of Pete Alonso catches on fire. He has an opportunity to go early to batting practice, and maybe meet Pete ahead of the game. Eathan, you're sitting out in the right field. Your favorite player hits a home run there. Suddenly, you're airdropped with a video moment of that home run that commemorates your experience at the game. Those are the things that we're working on building and where we see the future of fan engagement going where digital assets aren't just things in and above themselves, but they relate to what that fan experience is.
That's fun. We've got a fun sponsor called Swoops. We have a digital basketball team. We get digital basketball players. We get to play against other teams. The players are NFTs, but I can imagine the next level of what they're doing is why not have actual trading cards where there are multiple instances for those particular players? We can own the player but then other people could trade the card and have fun with that experience. Maybe there's a partnership in order. There's so much potential here. It opens up the possibility of collectibles to a new domain of fans. Some people might have been, "There are physical cards. I don't get it," but then once you can engage and interact, they're having a lot more fun.
I was browsing a little bit the internet for stats. I came up with this stat. There's an increase in fandom from 35 to 44 than there is from 18 to 34. I imagine that MLB looked at what you're doing as an opportunity to tighten that relationship with younger fans that are into gamification. Along that line, you crushed it with your token sales and a pretty astonishing achievement there. To what extent was that tapping into the zeitgeist of the younger fan versus the more traditional fan?
It's pretty interesting. Most people would expect that our fan base skews younger given the interest in blockchain and digital anything. The reality is it's balanced. We have 18-year-old collectors and 65-year-old collectors. The core of our collector base is in the late 20s to mid-30s. Some of our largest collectors have been collecting for years. They're huge baseball fans. They collected cardboard and memorabilia. One of the comments that one of those collectors made to me that's always stuck with me is he was a specific collector of cigarette cards.
The Honus Wagners, if you're familiar, were the very first baseball cards, which were giveaways in cigarette packets. He said, "If I had a time machine, I would snap my fingers, go back, and buy every one of those that I possibly could if I knew what I knew now about physical card collectors and collectibles. That's why I'm in this space. I know that digital collectibles are going to become hugely important over time. I want to be on the ground floor, help be part of that movement, and build this next phase of what collectibles and fan engagement is about."
Getting into the details there, how exactly did you pull off such a big sale? It's over two million token sales.
We sold that. We're over 1.9 million NFTs at this point. That's not just with Major League Baseball. That's also with our other partners at NASCAR, WWE, Netflix, Getty Images, and college athletes. Our approach to the space was that sports content, entertainment content, and media content all have different approaches. All have passionate fan bases, but they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.
I can be a fan of Stranger Things and also be a huge Yankees fan. I can watch NASCAR races on the weekend and still collect photography. Creating ecosystems for our partners and creating the right product structures that resonate with their core communities is important, but there are also some interesting synergies across those different partnerships. When you add it all up, it's about two million.
I should clarify. We're talking about non-fungible tokens. NFT is not your traditional token that sometimes people associate with. It's a very special type of token that we love dearly on this show.
I love that story about cigarette packs. When you say, "Know what I know now versus know what I know then," it's interesting to think you would throw away the actual product or the actual cigarettes. They keep the collectible. It says a lot about collectibles and their value over time.
At the core of how we think about our products and how we work with our partners, this is ultimately about digital identity. It's about the things that you own that tell your story and connect you to stories and communities that have shared values and interests. That's what gets us excited. It’s not just about what we have done but where the future is going and the role that NFTs are going to play in that.
Are there any more words on how NFTs are allowing people to strengthen the connections and bonds they're looking for with players and the sports that they love?
We try every day to think about how we bring more of that value to our collectors. We've got two examples. We had a group of collectors down in Atlanta to meet with the player Mike Harris. Those collectors are not just fans of Mike and the team, but they have collected across all of the different products and teams. That was an IRL experience that they wouldn't have otherwise had if they were going to baseball games or buying cardboard cards.
We had a meet-and-greet with Pete Alonso from the Mets. Pete was an early player who discovered Candy and started buying our products and trading our products. He's a Candy ambassador. It's the same type of thing. It's a small group of our fans and collectors who got to have that one-on-one experience with Pete. We want to do more of those things.
Baseball has been a great partner. They're excited about the future of Web3. The Baseball Hall of Fame helps with that. We would love to do those things every day. They're harder to organize than you think. We try to balance that out over the course of a season and think, "How can we cross that digital-physical and digital-experiential divide in a meaningful way?"
That's great. While you're at it, Scott, I know you have a lot of free time. Can you do something about getting the Red Sox into a less competitive division? This AL East is killing me. What's going on here? The records of our teams are all better than every other division practically. It doesn't make any sense. The Red Sox would be almost tied for first place if they were in the center.
I don't think I can help you on that one. We've got more Yankees fans at Candy than Red Sox fans, but we got a decent number of those as well.
We could take the city of Boston and move it to the Midwest or something.
Whatever we have to do. It's killing me. It's crushing my soul.
Less lobster bisque, more competitiveness.
There's still a lot of the season left. We will see.
Anything can still happen. It has been a wild few years in sports. You touched on your deep relationship with MLB. There's another element of your maturation in this space, which was your partnership with Fanatics. I know that relationship has evolved. I would love to at least touch on the initial impetus for that partnership and how your perspective is rooted in a different hypothesis at this point than the Fanatics.
Fanatics was one of our first partners when we got started. When we were thinking about this opportunity and deciding to focus on sports, we said, "Who do we want to build a business with in the sports space?” Fanatics is at the top of the list. When Candy got started, it got started with Galaxy and Fanatics as early investors. As we saw a run-up in 2021, and then the market start to readjust in 2022, our view over time that the opportunity here was in the early days about digital collectibles but about Web3 fan engagement, and all the things that we think Web3, digital ownership, and decentralization can bring to the table.
In a down market, Fanatics' perspective was rooted a little bit more in their physical-first business, and thinking about the physical collectible and how digital might pair with that. At the end of 2022, we realized we're in a challenging market and will likely be challenging for a while. We see a great opportunity for consolidation in the industry, and we want to be a catalyst for that. We decided to go our separate ways from that perspective. Fanatics continues to be an investor in the business but less significant than they were before.
That makes sense. I have to imagine that in a down market, even the physical merchandise business is impacted.
I don't know the numbers but the macro environment is somewhat inescapable if you're selling products, whether they're physical products or digital products.
Doubling down on what you're good at and what you know makes sense. We're bullish on the long-term potential of this industry and digital collectibles. What you have done with MLB is a great case study. We appreciate you sharing that insight with us.
It's great to be able to hear some details there. I believe this was one of our Hot Topic stories at one point, talking about Candy Digital and Fanatics and walking through it. It's great to have a firsthand perspective. Web3 is burgeoning here. Even though we talked about down markets, withdrawals, and things like that, there are a lot of sectors still doing a lot. You see very interesting players at a time when some people are withdrawing. Where do you think this is all headed? Let's at least talk about the sports industry. What is the future role of Web3, NFTs, digital ownership, and stuff like that?
Our key thesis is that a digital asset is going to be at the center of most brand and fan engagements in the future, whether it's called an NFT, digital collectible, reward point, game piece, or whatever it is. It's the idea of ownership of that token or content and the idea that a content owner and a brand or a creator can start to have a much more dynamic one-to-one relationship with a customer and a fan. We believe that's a big idea.
Starting with digital collectibles because people have familiarity with collectibles, they can make the leap from the physical to the digital. They understand the enhancements. The dynamism makes a lot of sense but as we go forward, we're going to spend less time talking about the specifics of NFTs and drops. We’re going to spend more time talking about these connected communities that are bound by ownership. Whether that ultimately means that DAO structures will start to play a more important role, or whether it means that marketing activations and budgets drive more of these fan engagements, those are all things we're figuring out as a business and as an industry.
Specifically in sports, what we will see is that all of those different touchpoints that we talked about, whether it's buying a product, going to a game, watching something on TV, or participating in a fan poll, are opportunities for a digital record of that engagement. Whether that's ownership of an NFT, whether it's a POAP, or whether it means you're part of a smaller DAO or community that gets to have some voting on different decisions, that's where things are going to continue to go.
The pace with which they go will have something to do with the commercial opportunity that is available in the market. If we look back at what happened over the last few years, there are so many great things that happened in terms of introducing NFTs and digital assets to folks who weren't educated or interested, but there was also a lot of bad stuff that happened. The market got ahead of itself. Prices pumped way too high. A lot of people came in thinking that this was a new get-rich-quick scheme. There was a lot of wreckage on the back end of that.
Big entertainment properties and sports properties are ultimately brands. They want the right brand experience for their customers. They want to continue to build that loyalty and that trust. It's going to take a little bit of time for us as an industry to come together and continue to build that trust and that infrastructure for the next round of fans and customers to come in at scale.
I love that you pushed out a lot of potential opportunities for other brands outside of MLB. It begs the question. What does your roadmap look like going forward? Are there any partnerships, collaborations, and new features that you're excited about and can speak to at this point?
The interesting thing is despite the market is very different than it was a year ago, we have more incoming interest in partnerships and opportunities than we did even in 2022. There are a couple of reasons for that. You had lots of capital and lots of companies created from thin air. On the back end of a more challenging market, a lot of those players will pivot their direction, shift their focus, or may not be around. There's a smaller number of credible long-term partners, content owners, and brands we want to do business with.
We're very selective about who we bring on as a partner and how we think about it. Since we know this is a business that takes a lot to do well at scale, we want to make sure that we aren't distracted from our existing partners. We think there are lots of opportunities to continue to bring new people into the space and deliver value to our customers and our partners.
We also want to make sure that it's something that we think is scalable and repeatable. We never ended up doing any of the one-and-done releases because we wanted to make sure that there was a story there for our customers and our community that was bigger than just a one-off drop, and then moving on to the next thing. That's a long way of saying that I expect to bring some new partners in the short term in the entertainment space. We're having some conversations with some other partners in the sports space that could be very significant long-term relationships.
That's awesome stuff. Let us wrap that segment up. It's very informative. There were lots of great stuff, history, details, and foreshadowing of interesting new developments. Let's get onto Quick Hitters. This is a quick and fun way to get to know you a little bit better. There are ten questions. We're looking for a short, single-word, or few-word response, but feel free to expand if you get the urge. Are you ready, Scott?
First question, what is the first thing you remember ever purchasing in your life?
A record album by Queen.
Classic. Do you have a favorite Queen track?
It's hard to argue with Bohemian Rhapsody.
Is it appropriate to say Fat Bottomed Girls?
That one comes to mind but it's Bohemian Rhapsody because it's played a significant role in so many different points in my life.
I remember first hearing that song, trying to play it on the piano, and singing along. What a classic. I got from my brothers those classic rock developments. They passed it along to me. That concept of rock crossing over into opera is amazing. It's completely well done. It's so creative and imaginative.
It was a radical song at the time, for sure.
Question number two, what's the first thing you remember ever selling in your life?
I started selling lemonade when I was in third grade. I cornered the market in my neighborhood. That was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey.
Are there details on that? That sounds interesting.
He had a prime location on the street.
He bought up all the lemons from the store.
He was at that crossing walk that everyone had to go through.
I was selling lemonade, and there were other kids selling lemonade. One of the other kids had a better location. I went over there and said, "We should sell lemonade together." We recruited other kids selling lemonade. We consolidated into one place. We figured we would make more money together than separately. Plus, that kid had better lemonade than I made.
I love those early M&A roots. That's great. Next question, what is the most recent thing you purchased?
Was there any price-fixing then involved? I'm kidding.
There's no price-fixing. We haggled hard for tips though. The most recent thing I purchased was a series of prints from the Bouroullec brothers from the wrong shop over in the UK. Aside from NFTs, I'm a big art collector.
Art continues to go up in value historically. It's one of the strongest appreciating assets we have.
I'm addicted to things that are visually dynamic in my built environment. I love to rotate my art when I can.
I'm going to have to check out these guys. I wasn't familiar. It sounds like something I'll look into. What is the most recent thing you sold?
If you ask my wife, she says I never get rid of anything. I just accumulate more things. The last thing I probably sold was a car but that was pre-pandemic. It was a while ago.
My girlfriend has the same critique. It looks like you're pretty minimalistic from your office background there. Maybe she's being a little hard on you.
That was my follow-up question. Is the stuff well-organized at least?
Part of working at Candy is you have to be a collector at heart. That's everything from trading cards to comic books to art figures. We all have that in our DNA.
Question number five. What's your most prized possession of all those things you got floating around?
My most prized possession is a sculpture by the artist Kaws, if you're familiar with him. He's a street artist who has become in many ways an Andy Warhol-esque figure of creating multiples, taking his visual art, and turning it into physical art. He's done his first NFT project not too long ago. I've got a great wooden sculpture, which is one of a very small number. That's probably the most prized piece in my collection.
That's very appropriate. The next question is this. If you could buy anything in the world, digital, physical, service, or experience that is currently for sale, what would that be?
Is this personal or from a business perspective?
You could choose how to answer it however you like. You could do both if you want.
I would probably want the private keys to a very significant digital wallet but I don't know if those are necessarily for sale.
It's an interesting thing. Instead of having a token or a bunch of tokens, it’s a wallet. You get to look and see, "What are the cool things I got in there?"
Following various wallets and seeing how those collections change, who the tastemakers in the space are, and where trends are going is part of the beauty of blockchain, but being an owner of those assets is also significant.
If you could pass on one of your personality traits to the next generation, what would it be?
Curiosity. It's what I tell my kids all the time. The world is a fascinating place that is constantly changing. Regardless of what you want to do, keep asking questions, learn more, get interested in the things that you're not doing, and understand why other people are interested in them. That makes not just a path to success but it makes for a much richer and more interesting life.
In dynamic times with AI and everything shifting in the world, if you stay curious, there's always going to be an interesting path forward for yourself.
I heard an interesting interview with Elon Musk. He was saying, “It's not what are the answers. It's what are the right questions"
On the flip side, if you could eliminate one of your personality traits from the next generation, what would it be?
Procrastination. I've done okay so far fighting the urge to procrastinate but I like to do a lot of things at once. I find that getting them all done sometimes takes a lot longer than it should.
Does that mean that like me, you have a lot of tabs open in your browser at all times?
Yeah.
It's not an isolated problem. It's something that other entrepreneurs experience as well.
I blame it on my curiosity. There are lots of things I'm interested in but then I'll get to them later.
That's probably a common set of traits in the Web3 community. All of us are pretty curious folks. We get excited by all the innovation happening around us. We want to take part in all of it, but there are only so many hours in the day. At some point, everyone does have to sleep.
Although one of our previous guests did want to purchase the ability not to sleep or something like that.
I didn't know that was a choice. I thought you said it was available for sale.
I don't know if it is available for sale but they asked for it. The last two questions are simple ones, and then there might be a bonus or two. Question number nine, what did you do before joining us on the show?
I was in the middle of negotiating a fairly significant strategic deal.
You're making deals. Question number ten, what are you going to do next after the show?
I'm about to jump into my executive committee meeting. You're sandwiched between two serious business meetings, but that turns out how it happened for me to work out.
Hopefully, this is letting loose a little bit of stress here. I've got two bonus questions. We will hit them quickly. That would be fun. Here's the first bonus question. Have you gotten any insane perks from working with all these iconic brands and personalities? Is there a special moment? Is it just board meetings and negotiations, and other people get to hang out with sports celebrities?
There are lots of great perks to working with sports and entertainment companies. If you're a fan, you go to the World Series, the Super Bowl, or the All-Stars game, meeting some of the actors or the curators of a Netflix show or Getty Image collection. Those things are all fantastic. We try to spread the wealth within the company as well. We've got people who are front and center in those relationships. Those are great parts of being in the business.
Here's the last bonus question. This will be funny. What's your go-to procrastination activity?
Wordle and crosswords.
Wordle is a good one because it usually doesn't take that long even if you lose.
It's pretty quick but you can go deep in crosswords.
Thanks for participating. Let's move on to the next segment. Let's head on over to Hot Topics. This is a fun one. Our sponsored spotlight Hot Topic features Adrian Baschuk of Ethernity. He is the CCO and founding partner of Ethernity Chain, a leading NFT platform, and founding producer of Crypto Banter. Adrian's versatile career in tech and media has led him to the forefront of the NFT space. Adrian, welcome to the show.
Thank you. It's great to be here. I've followed the show forever. I've known Josh for a long time. You guys do a great job. I'm happy to be here.
Thanks. It has been great to follow you along on your journey too. There hasn't been an event I've hit around the globe where I have not seen your smile.
That's very true. It's part of doing business here. It's a global community. We like to stay at the forefront of everything that's going on. The key to that is IRL connections. We make it a point to be present for most things happening in the industry.
There's no better way to catalyze serendipity than being there in the moment with the right folks.
You miss 100% of the swings you don't take. You have to be there.
Speaking of alpha, we've got some alpha on this particular episode with what you have coming up with the upcoming Stones Store launch. It's going to have a pretty special impact on the community shopping experience. Could you tell us some more about it?
At Ethernity, we're here for the long term. There were a lot of late-stage projects and 10,000-avatar PFP things that jumped in with no roadmap, but we look at ourselves as a huge ecosystem. We don't just have one single product offering, but we have cultivated the community through a number of ways, including DeFi aspects and stone farming, for example.
At Ethernity.io, you can go and make an account. It's super easy to connect your wallet because that's our Web3 wing. Users have been farming stones for a long time. That's our in-site currency. You can farm them and trade them, and buy NFTs, physical goods, and experiences. We have always tied physical goods and experiences to all of our collections and our drops. Upcoming, we now have the extension of that. It's going to be a 24/7 365 operation. It's not just drop-specific, "On this date and time at 12:00 noon, you can go and redeem stones to get highly exclusive NFTs or experiences," but rather it's going to be a marketplace that's always on. We're calling it the Farmer's Market.
Here on the Edge of NFT, we have an exclusive giveaway. We're announcing one lucky winner that will be randomized using Chainlink probably. You will be able to sign up and get one million stones. We are launching in mid-June 2023. You can automatically get one million stones or trade in for a bunch of different things that you will see upcoming.
That's super generous. Thanks so much. We usually like to share that at the end of the segment but we are so excited. You jumped the gun. We let it out of the bag.
I'm feeling like one million digital stones is a whole lot better than one million stones. We were talking about slutter previously on the episode. This is much appreciated that we're not talking about the physical thing. Thanks for that.
There we go. There are no stones in the bag.
I also enjoy the Farmer's Market concept. I always go to a good farmer's market. Tell us about the progress of Exorians Universe. Particularly, you got the comic series launch. You're getting engaged with Comic-Con. We would love to hear how that's coming along.
Ethernal Labs is our parent studio. Ethernity.io, our Web3 marketplace, is one vertical. Exorians Universe is a specific IP that we are launching. It's a huge undertaking. This is going to be a massive effort. We're kickstarting it with a comic release. We're releasing it first as a comic series with huge names attached like Scott Snyder, Frank Tieri, Ryan Smallman, and others who are huge in the comic business, and the comic world. This is a precursor to all things NFT because so many artists evolved out of the comic space. These are OGs and big names that have come together and written in an entire series.
We're getting ready to start first the comic series release, which will be on Ethernity.io. That's launching at Comic-Con in the last week of July 2023 in San Diego. From there, it's going to evolve into a multimedia universe. We're going to have our Exorians game that's already being built out in partnership with Thomas Vu from Riot Games. Game development is underway. We've got our betas.
We premiered it at NFTLA with Josh and the team. That's percolating and building. This is the first big step for public consumption where you're going to get covers. We've got our Ashcan version. We're going to have artists signing at Comic-Con. People are going to get the physical copies in hand and signed originals, as well as all the digital versions that we will be releasing monthly moving forward through 2023 and 2024.
That's exciting stuff. I remember that moment on stage when Nick showed the preview. He was a little bit nervous because he is such a perfectionist in everything but there are some oohs and aahs in the audience. It's pretty impressive gameplay. Could you elaborate a little bit more on the gameplay and character development side of it for those who weren't able to be there in person for the preview and where you're going with the game itself?
We will also be posting a special preview with you here in the show. You will be able to share that with the community. This is big stuff. This is not a fly-by-night. I use sometimes the term 10K PFP project that was spun up between a couple of people. This is a massive Web3 game being built. You will be able to use in-game assets. It's taking the storyline and the characters of Exorians Universe with leading comic artists and publishers that we have teamed up with, and then taking that into a Web3 game.
You're going to have an affinity and an already-known connection to these characters and their storylines, be able to play in-game experiences, and then use NFTs as in-game assets. It's the extension of what the entire Web3 industry is moving toward and building in these last couple of years. There have been so many experiments, iterations, and things that have succeeded incredibly well, and other things that have failed. This is the long-term drive toward progress in what this industry can become.
I love it. Is there a particular character that you can personally relate to more than the others based on a wild hairstyle, or maybe they always carry a pack with them or something?
Kai is our lead character. People will be drawn to him instantly. People will see this cast of characters as something like the Guardians of the Galaxy. There's some comic relief. There are some apocalyptic times, crises, and challenges these characters are facing. People will be able to identify that, play that, and participate in these missions in ways that other games can't.
I checked out that preview. It looks like a fun universe going on there. We would love to talk about this forever but we're in a limited time slot here. We would love to know before we jump here where the audience could learn more about your work at Ethernity.
Always check out our site, Ethernity.io. Find us on Twitter @EthernityChain. We have a huge following there, as well as on Instagram @EthernityChain. We do have our app coming out. That will be in the fall. This will be a huge seminal moment for us as well. That's the third product offering that we're rolling out under Ethernal Labs. It will be available on the App Store and Google Play. There are a lot of exciting stuff and announcements to come there. There are a lot of crossovers and new licenses and IPs that we will be launching as well.
That's exciting stuff. That brought the heat to this Hot Topic segment.
I try to always.
Thanks for the giveaway too. I'll be looking out for that on the socials.
Thank you.
Catch you later. We're about to wrap up but before we do, let's make sure we do a little bit of a shout-out. I understand you had someone you would like to shout out before we wrap.
I'll give a shout-out to the team at Palm NFT Studio. This is an interesting time in the business. We're spending a lot of time talking to other folks that we respect. They have the right program and the right approach to the space. I have a lot of respect for that team. I'm giving them a big shout-out.
That's very nice. We had them on the show. Finally, we're going to start wrapping up. The quintessential penultimate question is this. Where can the audience go to find out more about you and what you're up to?
Go to www.Candy.com to see everything that Candy has to offer from all of our various partners, collections, challenges, and engagements, and then follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Eathan, we do have a giveaway from Candy Digital that we will be putting out on socials. Scott, do you have any more insights on the details there that you can share with us?
We are giving away packs of our baseball products. These are blind pack collectibles of some of the most important and exciting moments in the history of baseball. We're partners with Major League Baseball, but we're also partners with the Baseball Hall of Fame. It's exciting for collectors who are excited about the future in the current state, but look back to the past and have an opportunity to participate and own some of those special moments too.
Thanks for that generosity. I'm sure our audience will appreciate it.
We have reached the outer limit at the show. Thanks for exploring with us. We've got space for more adventures on this starship, so invite your friends and recruit some cool strangers that will make this journey all so much better. How? Go to Spotify or iTunes, rate us, and say something awesome. Go to EdgeOfNFT.com to dive further down the rabbit hole. Look us up on all major social platforms by typing EdgeOfNFT, and start a fun conversation with us online. Lastly, be sure to tune in next time for more great NFT content. Thanks again for sharing this time with us.
Important Links
- Candy Digital
- Watch.OuterEdge.Live
- NFTLA
- Galaxy Digital
- Swoops
- Fanatics
- Ethernity
- Crypto Banter - YouTube
- Exorians Universe
- Ethernal Labs
- @EthernityChain - Twitter
- @EthernityChain - Instagram
- Palm NFT Studio - Previous episode
- Twitter - Candy Digital
- Facebook - Candy Digital
- Instagram - Candy Digital
- Spotify - Edge of NFT
- iTunes - Edge of NFT
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