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In this episode of The Edge of Show, hosts January Jones and Josh Kriger dive into groundbreaking developments reshaping the Web3 and AI landscape. They explore Google’s new Layer 1 blockchain designed for banks and financial institutions, addressing concerns around centralization and privacy. The conversation then moves to Wyoming’s historic launch of the first state-issued stablecoin, setting a precedent for the future of digital finance in the U.S. Next, they tackle a heated topic as Elon Musk takes legal action against Apple and OpenAI, raising pivotal questions about AI market competition and decentralization. Finally, special guests Jason and Zach Francis, co-founders of Helm, join the discussion to share how their innovative platform brings trust and transparency to AI-driven marketing, helping businesses stand out in an increasingly noisy digital world. This episode offers deep insights into how Web3, AI, and regulatory shifts are converging to shape the future of technology and commerce.
Key Topics Covered
- Google’s Layer 1 Blockchain:
A deep dive into Google’s universal ledger built for banks and institutions, its focus on regulation and compliance, and the implications for decentralization, privacy, and competition in the blockchain space. - Wyoming’s Historic Stablecoin Launch:
Discussion on Wyoming’s Frontier Stable Token (FRNT), the first U.S. state-issued stablecoin, its governance, benefits, and challenges related to public sector involvement and oversight. - Elon Musk’s Antitrust Case Against Apple & OpenAI:
Analysis of Musk’s lawsuit claiming that Apple and OpenAI are monopolizing the AI market, exploring its potential impact on innovation, competition, and the future of decentralized AI. - Helm’s Approach to AI Trust & Transparency:
Jason and Zach Francis introduce Helm, a platform designed to merge AI-driven marketing with real-world reputation signals, helping businesses build authentic content and establish trust online.
Episode Highlights
- "Google is betting its trusted brand will allow finance to experiment with on-chain assets without crypto-native risks." – Josh Kriger
- "Wyoming is leading the way in public sector stablecoins, bringing transparency but also new questions about oversight." – January Jones
- "Musk’s lawsuit could define the AI market and set the first legal precedent for competition in this space." – Josh Kriger
- "Helm is fusing AI with real-world proof, helping businesses scale content without losing authenticity." – Jason Francis
- "Trust is the currency of the future, and Helm ensures brands stand out in AI-driven search results." – Zach Francis
People and Resources Mentioned
About Our Guests
Jason Francis and Zach Francis are the co-founders of Helm, a cutting-edge platform dedicated to revolutionizing how businesses build trust and transparency in AI-driven marketing. By combining customer reviews, case studies, and authentic reputation signals, Helm helps companies scale content while maintaining credibility. Their work is shaping the future of online visibility, ensuring brands thrive in both traditional search and emerging AI-powered discovery channels.
Guest Links:
Transcript:
January Jones: Welcome to Hot Topics on the Edge of Show. I'm January Jones. Here with my co-host, Josh Krieger.
Josh Kriger: Today, we're diving into Google's new Layer 1, Wyoming Stablecoin, and Elon Musk is claiming antitrust against Apple and OpenAI. Lastly, we'll bring on our partners Jason and Zach Francis from Helm to talk about trust in AI.
January Jones: And this episode is brought to you by Realm. Realm crafts insurance solutions that give businesses and dynamic industries like Web3, AI, alternative medicine, biotech, and the space economy, the protection to innovate and thrive. Where emergent industries have previously battled uncertainty, Realm is making innovation resilient. A quick note, the views expressed by Edge of Company do not necessarily reflect those of Realm.
Josh Kriger: This is another production on the edge of company, a rapidly growing media ecosystem empowering the pioneers of Web3 tech, culture, and innovation. Let's get started.
January Jones: Okay, well, Google Cloud is building a universal ledger, a layer one blockchain for banks and financial institutions. It uses Python for smart contracts, and it aims to be a neutral platform open to any institution and not tied to one company's payment system. Since this news broke yesterday, many crypto users are worried about centralization, a monopoly by Google, and it could lead to censorship and less privacy, which goes against a lot of what blockchain has been about in the past. But it's moving fast. It's already working with big players like CME Group for tokenized assets, and it has a 2026 launch plan. So I think this is just the start of seeing traditional big tech making a push into the blockchain space and counting on their brand to attract traditional finance, you know, go with someone you know. So do you think we're witnessing the birth of a whole new branch on our blockchain tree, Josh?
Josh Kriger: Yeah, I do think it signals something new is happening with corporate layer ones that are tailored for regulation, compliance, legacy finance scale. We just had Ease Protocol on the show, and we have another show with them coming up. And, you know, tech giants like Google are betting that their trusted brand and reach will allow finance to experiment with on-chain assets and workflows without the same volatility or perceived risk of cryptonative solutions. you know, folks like Ripple, I guess, have some new competition. And I tried to do some background research on the differences between these two, because I was just curious. And, you know, Ripple is focused on banks, payment providers and remittance, but Google's actually looking at broad institutions and global banks. So, you know, their neutral sort of approach to not one payment system is interesting. I think there's definitely some questions on that, as you mentioned, like, Ultimately, with great power comes great responsibility. And we've seen in the past that Google has sort of gotten into sort of contentious waters with various governments and within the technology sector for their dominance. They're just really good at what they do. And it's a little bit scary for folks from the crypto market that want to sort of ensure that there's a variety of choices in the market.
January Jones: Yeah, I mean, sometimes we set up these questions of like, is that really blockchain? But I think we have to kind of stop what we thought of it in the past, right? Because this is going to be a new kind of layer one, right? It's not going to be the layer Ethereum ones. that we've been used to in the past in this industry. And I think it's a little bit of a shakeup for the industry as a whole. While everyone's so excited about the mainstreaming of crypto, there's going to be these frictions that come along. And I think it's just going to be a bigger tent or a bigger tree with more branches. And this is kind of a different kind of blockchain, but Maybe that distinction is only going to be made within the crypto industry, right? Because from your consumer standpoint, from your traditional business standpoint, they're still using blockchain as a service, right? And so there's not much difference outside of this industry to, I think, a lot of people who may onboard this.
SPEAKER_03: For sure. What else are we talking about today?
January Jones: Well, the other big news is a milestone in Wyoming. We can tip our digital hat to them and the Wild West. Wyoming just made history by launching the very first state-issued stable coin in the U.S. It's called the Frontier Stable Token. It's paid one-to-one with U.S. dollar, backed by reserve, and it's gonna be running on seven blockchains. As of this recording, it is not yet available, but Wyoming is the state to watch for crypto these days, They've passed over 45 pieces of blockchain legislation. And now they have this first public sector digital asset that could rival USDC and even PayPal's PYUSD. So Josh, what do you think about this?
Josh Kriger: Well, it's thoughtful. It's interesting. You know, the FRNT is fully reserved. It's over collateralized by two percent and it runs on seven top blockchains and it's governed by the Wyoming Stable Token Commission. So, you know, for Wyoming, this is a strong move in terms of positioning at the forefront of US digital finance. It's sort of testing the waters of a more regulation friendly environment. And there's another question when it comes to centralization. While more transparent than private stablecoins, it's overseen by government commission. And I think that raises some legitimate questions around permissionless innovation and censorship resistance, which is sort of some of the benefits of stablecoins in terms of allowing for um transactions we talked last week about you know being able to transact in the cannabis industry and what happens when you mix stable coins with uh government oversight in this direct way so um i also wonder about defi and aml compliance it's it's complicated but but you know i say kudos to wyoming for um you know, taking taking a leap here at the same time. I'm not sure it was the right leap.
January Jones: Well, I think we're going to see other states try this to Wyoming, maybe the first case, but it's going to come along. And yeah, I think it gets kind of murky because I was thinking about this and I was like, well, you know, the the administration's crypto policy now, you know, wants to make sure we can't even research Central currencies, you know, central bank digital currencies, this is different, but it's still kind of getting to that same territory. And if the federal government wants states to have more innovation and be doing these stable coins, they're going to have to let that work out. My thought is just, you know, maybe it's naive, but it's like, how do you choose what stable coin to use, right? We're going to have more and more out there. And I guess from a public benefit perspective, you know, Wyoming's is going to give a kick back to schools, right? And so maybe that's the upside of this. If we see more public stable coins, then we're going to see public benefit in those communities. And so that could be a reason to use their stable coin. versus using something like PayPal?
Josh Kriger: Yeah, it's an interesting point. And, you know, I think if there's opportunities for states to generate more revenue and that allows them to create a more attractive environment for businesses to come there, to incorporate, if it reduces taxes, I think it's gonna be hard for people to not want to support those types of environments. in some shape or form. I think this is definitely a signal that we're on to a proliferation of stablecoins to come. And it's going to create a whole new industry around stablecoin infrastructure and stablecoin interoperability and multi-stablecoin payment mechanisms. So yeah, it's going to get interesting. It's going to get spicy.
January Jones: I think it is. And then I think the next question is how are people going to be educated about this, right? Because you make the products, but then there's so much consumer education, literacy that has to come with these things for adoption. So hopefully we'll keep doing this, answering questions, and then we'll have more ways that people can, you know, engage safely with crypto because stable coins, you know, are kind of a way to get your toe in the water, right? Our next topic is about Elon Musk. and it might become an antitrust case against Apple and OpenAI. So Elon Musk has a startup, XAI, and he's suing Apple and OpenAI. The claim is that they've locked up the market and are shutting out competition, like XAI's own chatbot, Brock. According to Musk, the Apple store is rigged and chat GPT's deep integration into Apple's ecosystem is stifling innovation. So he's going for billions in damages and beyond the money, this case could force courts to define what the AI market is and really see the first antitrust case when we're talking about AI models. And it could set a major precedent. Josh, you know, Musk has been a big figure, of course, in this space, and now he's taking on his biggest competitor. What are your thoughts on this?
Josh Kriger: Well, you know, with with Elon's capital, he's not sort of a small player to have to go toe to toe with. Right. I'm sure Apple wasn't excited to get this news. And at the end of the day, you know this is a tech world turf war and you've got the app store and open ai and you know uh the most visible consumer brand chap gpt this is a monster combination of some of the leaders of what the economy looks like from from here and i think there's probably some folks that are excited to see you know, competitive barriers, you know, be reduced in ways that sort of position AI for a more free and democratic innovation cycle. We've already seen consolidation in the market and, you know, and there's a lot of merit to decentralization of AI and that trend certainly and how that intersects with blockchain. So, I think this could actually, um, create a healthy conversation here. It will be interesting to see how politics. Um, play into all this, because in there inherently, they will I mean, we have some. major lobbying powers here. And, you know, we know about Elon's sort of interesting history with the administration. And, you know, I'm curious if they back him or if if they don't back him on this move. But ultimately, he has a war chest and, you know, he could he can, you know, take this fight to the ground for a long time.
January Jones: Yeah, it's a battle of the titans, but it has a lot of implications for a lot of these smaller companies. You know, AI is supposed to be democratizing a lot of things. People are talking about it in every industry. And to see how this shakes out gives a big signal to all the money going right into all these other AI businesses as it starts to proliferate into everything that we do now.
Josh Kriger: Yeah. I mean, look, Grok is a popular product for some folks. They really like it. It's now integrated into Tesla cars, the X platform, even wearables. So I'm all for folks trying all the different AI technology out there and picking their favorites. And, you know, it's very easy, I'll say this, to You know just become committed to one product right if it's like right in front of you all the time. And it's the most accessible based on sort of integrations you're more likely to use it we've seen this with sort of Microsoft back in the day right and all this sort of integrations with the browser. So I think it is an important conversation to have. And I guess I'm I'm I'm happy that the conversation is happening soon and later. So the next featured topic is from a partner of the Edge Up company. And it's so exciting to have Jason and Zach, the co-founders of Helm on the show. These guys are tackling the biggest problem in AI today, which is trust. Great to have you guys on.
Jason: Thanks, Josh. Good to be here. Yeah, thanks for having us on, you guys. Appreciate it.
Josh Kriger: So, the internet is being flooded with machine-generated content, but the real challenge for businesses isn't producing more, it's actually earning credibility. With trust now the deciding factor on who gets heard, a new platform is stepping in called HALM that Jason and Zach have built, and it's designed to fuse artificial intelligence with something algorithms can't alone deliver, real proof. By drawing on customer reviews, case studies, and lived expertise, Helm helps companies scale their content while keeping authenticity at its core. Just as BlockChain introduced transparency for finance, Helm is bringing transparency to marketing, turning reputation signals into growth and giving businesses a clear path to authority online. So guys, that's really fascinating. I'd love if you could explain how you see Helm reshaping the way agencies and businesses compete in this noisy AI era.
Jason: Yeah, definitely. I mean, you got a spot on that. There's just a lot of content that's being generated on the internet right now and authenticity and trust and being able to understand that you can truly trust what the content is, is a really big, important you know, problem right now. And it's only going to get worse and worse as time goes on. So we're tackling that and trying to bring trust and bringing trust into everything that we're doing. So yeah, Helm is a new platform built for agencies and businesses to scale content without sacrificing trust and accountability. And we're doing that by infusing reputation management with content and everything that goes with AI marketing online. So, you know, infusing, whether that's capturing Google reviews and repurposing that into additional content and case studies. And then also just weaving in real live experience from our businesses that we're working with the customers into their content and everything. So.
Josh Kriger: So how do you see the perception of trust by customers shifting over time? Because you got giants like Yelp and Google reviews that dominate trust, Amazon reviews. These are the three things that I think folks like myself check all the time. And this is this is I think they've become the decisive or de facto standards for trust. Do you see that continuing to occur? And what can small, medium, large businesses do to sort of leapfrog these particular platforms and, you know, directly sort of have that conversation with audiences and create trust?
Zach : Yeah, it's a good, good question. And, you know, you see it also in another area that we're tackling, which is showing up in the results for searching in AI tools, like whether that's a chat GPT or rock, like you mentioned earlier, you know, so you look at what the references of those results are for AI tools that are, that are answering your questions. And a lot of times they pull from things like you're saying, Google reviews, Reddit is a huge one. They're looking for real testimonies of people that have lived the experience that the inquiry is asking about. So that's where this really comes into play. And by infusing content, whether that's long form content on your blog, or in reviews or case studies with real world experience from whether that's the founder of the business or their customers, or their team members. That's where now you're not going to only see that showing up in Google search results, but also in the AI search results that is happening more and more every single day. People are going to other AI tools rather than Google to search. So it is you know, a pretty important part that is showing up in the whole realm of search right now.
Jason: Yeah, we're really trying to wrap in together online reputation management with content and being able to do it at scale. And in a way that's repurposing content, and really bringing that trust and using the trust and and I mean, people are turning to AI more and more than ever before. Like I was just talking to my friend the other day, he said, He was in the store and he wanted to find the perfect fishing reel. And so he literally just jumped on ChatGPT, figured everything out on there, right there, and bought the exact product that AI was telling him. And so people are actually doing a lot of their research through AI. And so being able to show up inside of the AI results is going to be huge for today, but also in the future. So we're trying to get a jump on that and get ahead of that wave that's really coming and build that trust. and allow the AI tools to want to bring in and cite the specific businesses that are using this technique and infusing the real live use cases and reviews and everything inside of their content. And it also helps you get cited on other websites as well. Because let's say just somebody goes on a chat GPT to create more content and whatnot, it oftentimes will pull in You know cite other use cases or case studies from other companies and so on but if you're doing that with if it oftentimes will pull from Case studies that have like statistics or actual real live use Yes case studies and so on and so being able to have those on your website Helps get cited on other sites as well without even doing anything. So I
Josh Kriger: That's really cool. Yeah, I mean, I think about sort of trust in the context of the edge of company and, you know, we've earned it through the content that we produce, the types of folks that we've had on, the types of events that we've produced, the results of those events. There's a lot of different sources. So I'm excited to have you guys as a partner and to be able to leverage these tools to sort of ensure that we're showing up properly in these AI search results. I'm excited to kick the tires of this new product that you're launching and look forward to seeing the results ourselves. Just one last point I wanted to touch on is Google's new EEAT framework. Google's coming up a lot today. This framework is about experience, expertise, authority, and trust. And clearly Google calls all the shots when it comes to search. So it sounds like you have made a conscious commitment here to leveraging this framework to maximize results for your businesses that you work with. Is that the case? And what are your thoughts on the framework?
Zach : Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's really the backbone of, you know, what Google's algorithm chooses to show is, is like you said, the EAT experience, expertise, authority and trust and content alone, just generated through, you know, any AI tool. doesn't have that. It's just regurgitating a bunch of other content that's found online. So being able to fuse that in, like we've talked with you, Josh, about being able to take the expertise, you as a founder, and as just a very deeply studied guy in the blockchain AI tech space, and be able to pour all that information into our platform helm and then let our AI basically pull from that and use that expertise, use that real world knowledge that you have and infuse that into the content. And it does a lot of things, right? It not only signals to Google that you're, you're an authority and the content actually has helpful content, but it actually is really helpful to the users that are finding these articles in this content online when they're searching for an answer to a question they have. So it solves both, um, you know, both problems there.
SPEAKER_03: Well, cool. If folks want to try out Helm, where should they go?
Zach : Yeah, Helmseo.com. That's the website there, and they can sign up and get started right away. That's H-E-L-M-S-E-O.com.
Josh Kriger: Well, sounds good. Thanks, guys, so much, and best of luck with your launch.
Jason: Yeah, thanks, Josh and January. Appreciate it, you guys. Definitely a pleasure being on here with you guys today. Thanks, guys.
January Jones: That wraps up today's episode of Hot Topics. We cover Google's new Layer 1, Wyoming's Stablecoin, Elon Musk claiming anti-trust against Apple and OpenAI, and Helm's new product.
Josh Kriger: Thanks for joining us as we navigated the latest and greatest in Web 3 and AI. I'm Josh here with Jane Marie and our special guests today, Zach and Jason Francis from Helm. Stay curious, keep pushing boundaries, and don't forget to subscribe so you never miss what's next on the Edge of Show.
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