With the ever-growing community of NFTs, Ethereum may no longer be enough. Enter Polygon, an easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Not only is it more efficient than Ethereum but it’s also more economical. Join hosts Jeff Kelley, Eathan Janney, and Josh Kriger as they talk to Sachi Kamiya and Masha Prusso of Polygon. Sachi runs the $100M Polygon Ecosystem Fund. Masha is the Head of Events at Polygon and is also a Partner at Story VC. Listen in to learn more about Polygon and its future plans for blockchain gaming. Find out more about the Polygon Ecosystem Fund and the future of NFTs today!

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Listen to the podcast here

Sachi Kamiya & Masha Prusso Of Polygon – Ethereum’s Internet Of Blockchains, Plus: $10 Mil NFT Sale, Twitch’s Game Centric NFT, NFT Search Surpasses Crypto, And More…

All you NFT curious readers, check out this episode to learn how Polygon is kicking its growth into an even higher gear.

Which of our favorite topics surpassed crypto in search volume this Christmas season?

Why would a flight pass around the world with special stops at the best ski slopes be a game-changing experience for our guests? All of this and more in this episode. Enjoy.

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This episode features Sachi Kamiya and Masha Prusso of Polygon, the leading platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Polygon launched Polygon Studios, a $100 million fund. The gaming and NFT arm of Polygon focused on growing the global blockchain gaming in the NFT space and bridging the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.

Sachi Kamiya runs the Polygon Ecosystem Fund, a $100 million fund that focuses on investing in projects across DeFi, Web 3.0, gaming and NFTs. In addition to strategic investments into other projects and funds, the fund has invested in top projects, including YGG, WinZO, Blockade Games, and Splinterlands, to name a few.

She also manages the Polygon Venture Capital Network. Masha Prusso is the Head of Events at Polygon. She is also a partner at Story VC fund, investing in blockchain startups and helping to boost growth with PR. She cofounded Crypto PR Lab, a leading PR firm in the space, and Defy Trends, the data analytics platform for crypto traders. Welcome to the show, folks. It’s great to have you both here.

Thank you.

I don’t think there has been a day where I have been talking about crypto with somebody that Polygon doesn’t come up in conversation, whether it’s DeFi advancements you all are leading or what is going on in the NFT front. We are excited to have you both on the show to delve into that topic further and learn about each of you in the process. That’s a great way to start the conversation. How did you each find your way to Polygon?

I started with Polygon in July 2021. I’ve got introduced to the team through Crypto PR Lab cofounder of mine, Alexandra Karpova. We were running a PR firm and fund for some time, but then it was time more of a passive business for us. We were looking for new opportunities to join Polygon on the Public Relations Marketing Events team was amazing, especially with Polygon rising quickly and getting known. Mark Cuban investing in Polygon was everywhere, and then I met the team. My Cofounder in Crypto PR Lab went to work on the marketing team of Metaplex, a Solana project, and I joined Polygon then.

To give you some background, in college, I majored in Electrical Engineering, and then I switched over to finance afterward. At that point, I was looking for something a bit more technical. Blockchain was a right fit for me at that point. I was fortunate enough to meet Sandeep right when Polygon was rebranding itself from Matic into Polygon. He converted me into crypto and inspired me to pursue something within crypto. That was the first leap of faith that I ended up taking.

At that point, they were in the process of setting up this ecosystem fund. They were also starting to set up Polygon Studios, which is a separate entity to onboard Web 2.0 projects into the Web 3.0 space. That was the initial trigger or start. Polygon has been growing at an exponential pace since then. When I first started, there were 600 dApps built on Polygon, then there were 3,000 or so. It has been an incredible amount of growth.

Polygon NFT: When you think about Polygon, you think about Ethereum, sidechain, or second-layer solutions. Polygon is an Ethereum scaling solution for developers to develop their infrastructure.

One of those dApps is one of the top NFT gaming dApps in the world, Splinterlands. That’s pretty awesome.

We have some of the top protocols, especially in the gaming metaverse space. OpenSea is integrated with Polygon, for example. I don’t think too many people know that. It’s pretty exciting.

It’s a similar story echoing. “We have got functional businesses. We don’t have to necessarily work with these places like Metaplex and Polygon, but we are so enthusiastic about it that we want to be a part of it.” That’s exciting about the crypto space and NFT space. It’s the passion and enthusiasm people can have to be working on these projects. We can all say that this is part work and a majority of fun as well. I would like to hear more about Polygon and give our readers a little bit more of a deep dive. What would you say is most people’s first point of contact with Polygon? How do they tend to go down the rabbit hole in getting involved with Polygon?

When you think about Polygon, you think about Ethereum, sidechain and Layer 2 solution. Polygon isn’t an Ethereum-scaling solution for the dApps development and infrastructure. Developers can use Polygon. It’s much more efficient, cheaper and more economical. The transactions are much faster than Ethereum. For any users like you and me who do yield farming or any other things in the DeFi space can use Polygon on MetaMask, for example.

When you go on MetaMask, you can choose between ERC20 and Binance Smart Chain. You can add Polygon. It’s another chain for retail investors and crypto users. Also, when you buy, sell or Mint NFTs, Polygon is also a solution for you. We are not competitors to Ethereum. We are a scaling solution. We are helping Ethereum to be faster.

Any input on that, Sachi, in terms of how people find themselves being integrated with what Polygon is capable of?

Some people may be using some DeFi applications on Ethereum. They realize each transaction costs $30 or $50. That would be their initial trigger to go onto Polygon or other solutions. Another way is also through gaming, which was the way that I was also introduced to Polygon. One of my friends mentioned this application called Decentral.games, where you can play slot machines and also some different gambling games in the metaverse. That was my first exposure to Polygon.

There’s also this other application called Polytrade. It makes bets on the markets like who is going to be the next president of the United States, for example. That’s built on Polygon. The user interface is so smooth that people don’t even realize that it’s built on the blockchain. There are multiple ways in which people can get exposed or end up using Polygon without even realizing it.

The gaming solution seems like a huge one. First of all, gaming has already been here, and it’s here to stay. NFTs are being integrated with it. Also, the metaverse is growing as well. It makes sense to have a solution. If you are going to have many transactions, there’s a certain point at which Ethereum becomes unrealistic, and it’s a losing battle. It’s beautiful to have a structure that you can build upon easily like that.

That’s what Polygon also stood to benefit. Polygon was one of the earlier players versus its competitors. The pain point of building on Ethereum was the high gas prices. As a result, a lot of these applications needed an alternative. At a certain point, Polygon was the only solution at that point. We started early, and then we were able to build out this big ecosystem.

We have been familiar with it for a long time but it started blowing up and gaining traction in public awareness around the world of NFTs and crypto. We love to see the name Polygon pop up in so many conversations. It’s cool. We are big fans. We are all about NFTs here in this world. One of the things we always like to understand is how you were first exposed to the NFTs. What was that experience like for you? Was it an a-ha moment for you or more of a slow burn? We always want to know that. Sachi, how about you?

Polygon is much faster and more economical than Ethereum. Click To Tweet

My first exposure to NFTs was also a metaverse built on Polygon, Decentral.games. They have these NFTs where your character can wear a fur coat or some wearable in that game. You can mine more tokens by wearing that NFT coat. That was before there was this whole explosion of Steve Aoki doing an NFT drop. At that point, I honestly didn’t realize how big NFTs would become.

Masha, how about you?

My first exposure was back in 2017 and 2018, when CryptoKitties became well-known. I met their one of those Founders, Benji from the CryptoKitties Studios back in Vancouver. I visited their office. They were 100 people by then. Within a few months, they were already 200 people. I learned about this back then in Canada.

I met the Founders of Lucky Maneki. It’s a crypto cat but it looks like they are a Japanese symbol of luck, like a cat with their hand. I was helping these guys with their public relations before they gave the project to DAO. That’s how I received my first NFTs. They were dropped on my MetaMask. I went to OpenSea and found two cats sitting there. I’ve also got an NFT flower as a birthday present, and then I felt like, “That’s a great idea to give NFTs to your friends as gifts.”

The market had been slowing down a little bit in the world of NFTs in September, October, and November but there was a big spike in December 2021. We were reading all different articles about this and talking about it on hot topics that people are giving NFTs as gifts to all kinds of folks. It’s not just NFT lovers but family and friends. It’s a thing.

I’ve got a Tom Brady Autograph NFT from my girlfriend, who is very thoughtful. It was a surprise NFT. I had to push a button, and it opened up. It was his rookie card. It was pretty awesome and cool. That did kick things off, and the market seems to be warming up again. Sachi, tell us a little bit more about what you are looking at in terms of an investment thesis and how you are planning to collaborate with AAA gaming companies that are looking to break into this space. There are a lot of games, and the conversation has been, “How do we up the quality of these games that user experience attract traditional gamers and make them realize that blockchain games are awesome?” I’m curious what your thoughts are on that particular topic.

In terms of the investment thesis, we set up the fund with the ultimate goal, being we want to improve the Polygon ecosystem. Our focus is in investing in tier one AAA-quality type of projects in general because we do believe in this positive feedback loop, where if we have a lot of high-quality games or projects building on Polygon, then we believe that in turn, it attracts even more high-quality games, developers and projects to build on Polygon. In turn, it ends up growing the ecosystem, which is our ultimate goal.

We have been doing a lot of collaborations within the gaming side. We are consistently in talks with a lot of gaming companies to try to help them onboard onto the blockchain space. We are also working with a lot of the top gaming VCs like Galaxy Interactive, Makers Fund, and Transcend because they have that gaming expertise within the traditional space but they are also actively looking to break into the blockchain space because there’s honestly so much potential. Especially on the NFT side or play-to-earn, there are many concepts or areas of innovation.

Those are the three areas that we have been focusing on. An ecosystem fund is a tool for us to attract a lot of these high-quality type projects. We are consistently collaborating with a lot of these gaming companies or gaming partners to help them onboard onto Polygon or at whatever capacity to help them integrate blockchain into their games. We are also working with a lot of gaming VCs because they also can identify talents and projects that have a lot of potentials.

We were checking the news on things. It looks like Polygon has acquired the project Mir through ZK Tech. We are curious what intel we can get on how that integration plans to pan out with project Mir.

We have been bullish with ZK Technology. We think ZK Technology is the future in terms of scalability. It’s the same thing in terms of ZK Technology. That’s why we have been aggressive in terms of acquisitions. The first acquisition we did was Hermez. There was also Nightfall, which is more of an enterprise ZK solution. There’s an acquisition of Mir. This is more long-term. In terms of having a workable product, it’s probably going to take a year or so to develop that.

Polygon NFT: The fund was made with the goal to improve the Polygon ecosystem. Investing in AAA quality projects will attract even more high-quality games and developers to Polygon.

We think we have an edge over competitors because if you look at our competitors like Avalanche or Solana, they haven’t been active in terms of acquiring a ZK Technology company. Within ZK Technology itself too, there’s not that much talent. There are not that many people who get a PhD specifically within that field. That puts Polygon at an advantage versus its competitors in the long-term.

It’s very forward-thinking, as we have seen from Polygon. It’s being early on with things about what is to come.

Speaking about forward-thinking, what else is on the roadmap for Polygon that you are excited about? What can you tell us, maybe something that’s around the corner that hasn’t been that publicized yet?

To continue regarding the ZK-rollups, what is exciting is that apart from all the companies Sachi mentioned, we also acquired Miden. It’s another ZK-rollup protocol. Our goal and mission are to deploy the full $1 billion for the ZK-rollup technology. About half of it is already deployed. We are looking for more companies and developers in the ZK-rollup space. For any developers reading this blog and working on ZK-rollup technology, Polygon is the answer. Come and talk to us. We would love to help you and see what you are building.

ZK-rollup technology is one of our biggest focuses. It’s also NFTs gaming and play-to-earn. What I have seen from AAA gaming companies is that they are a bit reluctant to come to blockchain and crypto, and give trust. Also, because of the prices that sometimes, if they will use blockchain, it will cost them $100 to $200 on Ethereum to use NFTs and blockchain in their games. If they turn to Polygon, all these fees are pretty much waived. Millions of dollars will be saved. We also called Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony to look more into the blockchain gaming space and use Polygon.

It’s pretty exciting on the ZK front and all those different fronts. Anything in the way of products or features that you will be releasing as it relates to the Polygon platform? Anything that you could tell us?

We are in the news.

Given the size of the platform and the capabilities, it makes sense to start to do what you are doing in terms of bringing on folks like ZK Technology and others to add to the team and the capabilities of the company and continue to grow.

To take a step back, we heard about how you’ve got into this space and what you are excited about with Polygon. We would love to look around and ask a little bit more about what excites you in the industry as a whole with NFTs. Are there any projects that you are inspired by? Is there anything in the future of metaverses and NFTs that has you pumped?

I would love to add the interoperability of metaverses. I never thought about one metaverse being connected to another metaverse. The Sandbox is being connected to Decentraland. That’s already in the works. It will be the same with NFTs, too. Technically, some projects are also working on being able to transfer an NFT from one metaverse to another metaverse. That’s exciting.

In terms of the industry as a whole, I’m looking forward to what is going to happen in the next cycle. When there was initially the first hype with NFTs, I thought it was pretty two-dimensional. There wasn’t that much utility for those NFTs themselves. It was that first hype where a lot of these celebrities were doing these NFT drops. NFTs and gaming went quiet for a little bit. There was a second cycle where you saw a little bit of innovation within the NFT space.

The metaverse can be another stream of revenue for artists. They don't have to travel to be on stage anymore. They can just perform in front of their zoom screen. Click To Tweet

Some of these NFTs would have utility or if you hold this NFT, you can attend certain events or mine coins. There was another dimension added to these NFTs. I would be curious to see once we pass this cycle and then go into the next cycle what innovations there will be within the gaming metaverse and also the NFT space. It’s an exciting place to be. When I first joined, there were only 600 dApps built on Polygon, then there were over 3,000 or so. It’s growing at an exponential pace.

I’m pretty excited about the metaverses and the different wearable items, where you can wear different things on the metaverse. You can sell and buy them. There are brands like Adidas, Nike, and Dolce & Gabbana, which was launched on Polygon for Dolce & Gabbana. They are getting into this space. We will have our avatars in the metaverse. Polygon is doing a metaverse event. It’s going to be a big event with Kevin Hart and some of the celebrities talking at these events. It will be a collaboration between Polygon and some of our gaming NFT metaverse projects. Our metaverse fest, we will let you know when it comes.

I’m also excited about the different artists who can perform in the metaverse. There is this company, Animal Concerts. They organize the shows. I was in LA for Alicia Keys’ private concert, the one who sings this famous song, New York. They stream those concerts of big artists and put them on the metaverse. For artists, it’s another stream of their revenue. They don’t have to travel far away to make million dollars singing on the stage anymore. They can be at home in front of their Zoom screen and perform. This is pretty revolutionary as well.

We love those guys at Animal Concerts. I’m looking to collaborate with them soon. We will be able to share that news with our readers. They are great and what they are doing is revolutionary. I couldn’t agree more.

We had a great time with Busta Rhymes out in Miami. That was a fun party put on by that crew. Shout-out to Animal Concerts. There are many cool things. We are huge fans of Polygon and everything that you are doing. It’s exciting times. I’m also pumped to see where many of these acquisitions and collaborations end up going for the company. You are already on a rocket ship, and you have been on one for a while. You could take it to a whole other level. I’m excited about that.

I wanted to shift gears a little bit and get your perspectives on some questions. These are our set of ten questions that we ask every single episode. They are called Edge Quick Hitters. They are a fun, quick way to get to know you a little bit better. We are looking for a short, single word or a few-word answers but feel free to expand if you get the urge. I will guide you through. First question, what is the first thing you remember ever purchasing in your life? Sachi, let’s start with you.

It was a ticket to Mexico.

Was it for a vacation or business? Anything, in particular, you could share?

I was back in college over Thanksgiving. It was a spontaneous trip that I decided to do with some of my friends. It was a lot of fun.

How about you, Masha?

I bought milk in the store. My parents would send and give me 5 rubles and say, “Can you buy the milk on your own?”

Polygon NFT: People need more empathy. They need to be able to understand other people’s perspectives and feelings. They need to learn how to be different from everyone else.

Question number two, Sachi, what is the first thing you remember ever selling in your life?

It’s pretty plain. When I was a child, I would bake a lot of brownies and cookies. The first thing I sold was I made a batch of brownies, brought them to school, and sold a couple to my friends.

Masha, how about you?

I remember very clearly my little enterprise in the Caucasian Mountains in the Caucasus near Russia. I was about fourteen. I was on the Russian National Snowboard Team. I took part in the Winter Olympics in snowboarding halfpipe. We had to go every summer to camps. I went to the camp and would finish the training about one hour earlier. I would start it early and finish a bit earlier.

I will walk to a store for about 30 minutes. I will buy a bunch of Snickers and Pirozhki. It’s a little Russian dumpling. I will bring it to the team, sell it and make a margin. All the team is tired and sweaty after snowboarding all day on the mountain. They come to their Airbnb or hotel. We usually have no food. We have to go to the restaurant. Before we go to the restaurant, it’s another three hours. Everyone is so hungry.

Me coming back with all these treats with Snickers and all the stuff I can get in the store, I’m selling it to everybody. They will be like, “Why are you selling it to me more expensive than in the store?” I’m like, “It’s because I walked back and forth. It’s my business.” Everybody bought, and it was always sold out. That was cool.

Question number three, Sachi, what is the most recent thing you purchased?

It’s an Oculus for my boyfriend. I figured that was relevant since it’s metaverse, and he is also working within crypto. It was cool, honestly. I do think the metaverse is the future. This is the Oculus 2. It will be cool to see what happens with the Oculus 3 or 4 because there are going to be many. There’s so much room for improvement for the technology. It’s the same with phones. In the initial versions, there were many improvements, and then came the iPhone. It would be cool once we reached that point with these VR headsets.

Masha, how about you?

I’ve got my first car. I only have an instruction permit. I need to have somebody sitting next to me. I’m very excited about that.

Question number four, Sachi, what is the most recent thing you sold?

The evolution of VR headsets is like phones. There's so much room for improvement and then came the iPhone. Click To Tweet

I don’t have an apartment. I had an apartment over in New York, and then it expired. Ever since then, I have been roaming around, crashing on my boyfriend’s place or traveling. I’m in Dubai for a couple of months. I sold one of my cabinets and also my bed from that apartment. That’s the most recent thing I sold.

Masha, how about you?

From what I remember, I sold some tokens on MetaMask from the project that released the tokens. It was Sidus. It’s a gaming project, which was hard. I kept the tokens but they will go out. There was a little amount. I sold all the SolChicks that I had. I was both selling it for $150, and then it went up. I’m glad I sold the token.

Question number five, Sachi, what is your most prized possession?

My most prized possession is one of my other necklaces. It’s a Japanese character, which means happiness. It’s also my name.

Masha, how about you?

It’s an iPhone. It’s hard to imagine life without a phone.

Question number six, Sachi, if you could buy anything in the world, digital, physical, service, and experience that’s for sale, what would that be?

I have heard about these passes on United. It costs $10,000 or $20,000. You can get unlimited flights to anywhere in business class also. That would be something that I would get for myself because I love traveling.

Masha, how about you?

I would buy a mountain somewhere in Colorado or around Whistler, set up a nice ski resort over there and have a snowboarding ski school on this mountain.

Polygon NFT: You can actually create a DAO and buy, for example, a castle. There would also be tokens that represent part ownership of the castle. Then people would just come together and hang out there.

Question number seven, Sachi, if you could pass on one of your personality traits to the next generation, what would that be?

I’m not sure if this is a personality trait but it’s empathy. It’s being able to understand other people’s perspectives or feelings. That comes from me living in Japan and being different from everyone else. I had to adapt and also understand other people’s perspectives. That would be a personality trait to pass on.

Masha, how about you?

I would pass a few. It’s being responsible and standing for your word. If you say something, you do it. That’s an important one to grow for people and things to work.

Question number eight, Sachi, if you could eliminate one of your personality traits from the next generation, what would that be?

It’s stubbornness. I work hard to get to the end goal but sometimes, if I can’t get to that end goal, then I start to become stubborn and frustrated with myself. That would be something that I have to balance out more.

Masha, how about you?

It’s good to be patient. Things come in their way, and I’m pretty impatient. I want everything in now. Sometimes it’s good because I can get things done but sometimes you are like, “Be patient.”

Question number nine, Masha, what did you do before joining us on the show?

I was working here and drinking tea. I also went to an IV lounge to get an IV. It’s when you do vitamins and all kinds of work, biohacking things into your veins. I’m pretty big on IVs and I try to do it every month.

Sachi, how about you?

Be responsible and stand for your world. If you say something, you should do it. Click To Tweet

I was looking at the Polygon Ecosystem Founder Studios’ portfolio and keeping track of which projects have already had their token generation event. I was looking at how much we have made per project.

Question ten is the last one. Masha, what are you going to do next after the show?

I will get my Thai food delivered, have a call with a life coach, and then go home.

Sachi, how about you?

I’m probably going to go watch some Netflix and relax a bit.

Are you knee-deep in a particular series or anything?

I watched the entire first and second seasons of The Witcher. I don’t know if you have seen that series yet, but it’s good. It’s pretty addictive. I recommend it.

That’s it for Edge Quick Hitters. I appreciate your answers there. That was a lot of fun. For the hot topics, we’ve got a couple.

Let’s hit it. The first one, LinksDAO NFT Sale Books First $10 Million Toward Buying an Actual Golf Course. Maybe this is your way to your mountain, Masha. We will see. “Country clubs and NFTs collided Sunday when LinksDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, became one step closer to buying its own crowdfunded golf course. The DAO successfully sold out all of its debut collection of NFTs, raising $10.5 million to fund the project’s operations. Further capital will have to be raised to buy the actual golf course, said Project Lead Michael Dudas.”

I have noticed this. I’m sure a lot of people have that like, “NFTs have turned into this interesting next-level Kickstarter.” It’s certainly a lot different than Kickstarter. You can integrate everything there is within a Kickstarter campaign into an NFT project and more and do all cool things with it. What do you think, Masha? Should we do this for your ski resort?

That would be amazing.

Polygon NFT: Twitter is definitely one way to get more immersed within the crypto space. You can also learn more about Polygon there.

This seems like a natural combination. You have got old regime and old country club concepts. You have got this Web. 3.0 crowd that wants to upset the applecart. I’m not surprised about this. I have heard ruminations of people I know that wanted to do this. I don’t know if they are a part of LinksDAO or not. If they are, congrats. If they aren’t, there’s still room for many more country clubs to turn into DAOs. This is interesting. I saw an article that someone is trying to buy Blockbuster. DirecTV owns it now and turns it into a streaming service again. These are fun examples of what is possible in Web 3.0. Sachi, any thoughts on it?

A lot of these ideas float around whenever I go to a lot of these crypto conferences. I remember one of my friends mentioned creating a DAO where they would buy a castle. This DAO would have these tokens, which would represent ownership or part of that castle. People would come together and hang out at the castle, which I thought was an interesting idea.

In terms of other things that are more common, one of my friends is working on this house called Alpha House. It’s a working space that’s based specifically in New York. It’s a place for people to come together, hang out and share projects or ideas within the crypto space. It’s a very common idea. I have seen a lot of people work on that, especially a general common area for working together. It’s like WeWork but in the Web 3.0 space.

Also, if you think about those DAOs purchasing things together, you think of how normally we have been doing it. For example, there is a temple of light. It’s a house in Tulum. There are about 50 owners. Everybody put a little bit of money. They renovated it. They are going to sell it for 3X the amount of money they put for renovations and the cost of the property. There are 50 of them and maybe 10 main managers and 40 investors. They have the temple of light in Tulum. What is the difference between this temple of light being acquired by these people and being managed by this community and DAO? I don’t see a difference.

I hope these DAO property ownership groups can do an improvement upon my condo association. That’s all I’m saying. Let’s get onto the next one. This one is cool and exciting for all of us here. Global search interest for NFT surpasses crypto for the first time ever. “For the week ending on Christmas, global searches for the term NFT have surpassed crypto, according to Google Trends. The sharp increase in search traffic for NFTs offers a clear indication that digital collectibles have entered mainstream consciousness with transactions on OpenSea, the most popular decentralized platform for NFT auctions and drops, surpassing $10 billion.”

What is interesting to me about this is that we have seen this has been an incredible year for NFTs. In some senses, I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m wondering like, “What is going to happen for 2022? Is there going to be a new something else that captures people’s attention and takes the stage?” It’s interesting to see that it’s almost like there’s evidence here that maybe we are getting started with the exposure NFTs are getting in mainstream culture.

It’s a good segue to the NFT LA event from March 28th to 30th, 2022. We will be discussing what is springing up in the spring for the NFT future. That’s remarkable news. It’s not something I would have expected necessarily in 2022. NFT is one of the new words being added to the dictionary. The big brands joining the foray at the end of the year is a sign of interesting things to come.

Do you follow stats like that, Masha? Defy Trends is a big part of your history there. How do you look at keywords like these that come up in your day-to-day life?

For Defy Trends, we are looking into social media, Twitter, Telegram, and all kinds of apps. We have AI mechanisms, data scientists, analysts, and robots doing it and seeing whether it’s bullish or bearish, depending on the crypto and what is going on with the NFT space. We are partnering up with some of the cool projects in the space and providing them with data analytics.

If anyone is interested in free analytics for your company or exchange platform, reach out to Joshua, and he will connect you to Defy Trends. In general, I’m reading the news. I like reading what Misari has or into the blog and seeing what the trends are. In NFTs, the DAO is a big trend. It’s exciting to see what is going to be the next big thing.

NFTs are a way to onboard more people within the crypto space. Before, it can be hard to wrap your head around what DeFi is. For me, it was a bit more intuitive because I was working in traditional finance, and I know what APY, bond, and interest rates are. A lot of that lingo also transfers over in DeFi. I don’t think the average person necessarily uses those terms.

NFTs are a way to kind of onboard the mass population into the crypto space. Click To Tweet

NFTs are an easy way to wrap around your head. Having an image on your phone and showing it around your friends, that’s a lot easier to do. You can’t show your Ethereum to your friends. NFTs are a way to onboard the mass population, which is the next step with crypto because I don’t think it has reached mass adoption yet.

Even some of the projects that are pure fun, it’s some of the PFP projects or the projects where maybe there isn’t much utility even. It’s fun because that gets people into the space. That’s the door that you walk through, and then you start to go down the rabbit hole. Everything changes once you do that for most people. That’s what it’s about to me.

I always remember when we had Major Dream Williams on the show. He said something interesting around what you said, Jeff. He said, “Follow the cool. You can’t buy cool. All the monies will always follow where the cool is.” It’s interesting to keep track of that. That’s it for hot topics, folks.

We talked about a lot of things. We know there are tons of fans, followers, and many people that maybe weren’t as familiar with some of the coolest things you are working on at Polygon. Where should they go to stay abreast of everything that’s happening there to follow all the ins and outs?

The first way is to follow some of the cofounders on Twitter. That’s where all crypto lives. There’s also Raphael, who is one of my colleagues. He leads a lot of data analytics on Polygon and posts a lot of interesting stats. I remember he posted something on Twitter about how the number of daily active users on Polygon surpassed Ethereum, which is incredible. Twitter is one way to get more immersed within the crypto space and also learn about Polygon.

We also have a blog site where we consistently post new announcements or developments that are happening within Polygon. We also went into detail about our Mir acquisition, for example, and what that means for Polygon and what the technology itself is. That’s also a very useful resource. Those are the two sources of information. It’s Twitter and also the Polygon blog website.

We have reached the outer limit at the Edge of NFT. Thanks for exploring with us. We have got space for more adventures on the starship. Invite your friends and recruit some cool strangers that will make this journey all so much better. How? Go to iTunes, rate us, and say something awesome. Go to EdgeOfNFT.com to dive further down the rabbit hole.

Remember, we always invite you to co-create and build with us at Edge of NFT. We are unlocking a whole new way to connect and collaborate through our own NFT drop, Spirit Seeds, leading to Living Tree NFTs, which will light the way to our event, NFT LA. It’s one of a kind immersive and unforgettable experience at LA Live in Los Angeles from March 28th to March 30th, 2022. Check it out at NFTLA.Live. Move quickly on early bird tickets as they are live and selling out fast. Lastly, be sure to tune in next time for greater NFT content. Thanks again for sharing this time with us.

Important Links:

• Polygon
• Polygon Studios
• Polygon Ecosystem Fund
• Story VC
• Crypto PR Lab
• Defy Trends
• Alexandra Karpova
• Metaplex
• Splinterlands
• OpenSea
• MetaMask
• Decentral.games
• Polytrade
• CryptoKitties
• Lucky Maneki
• Galaxy Interactive
• Makers Fund
• Transcend
• Mir
• ZK Technology
• Hermez
• Avalanche
• Solana
• Animal Concerts
• LinksDAO NFT Sale Books First $10 Million Toward Buying an Actual Golf Course – Article
• Kickstarter
• Global Search Interest for NFT Surpasses Crypto for the First Time Ever – Article
• Major Dream Williams – Previous episode
• Raphael Signal – Twitter
• The Polygon Blog
• iTunes – Edge of NFT Podcast
• Spirit Seeds
• NFTLA.Live

About Masha Prusso

Masha is a public relations and business development specialist, founder of two companies with an overall revenue of 500K USD in the first year of operations. She was awarded a full LLM scholarship at UC Berkeley, then moved to the Bay area from Zurich in 2017.

In 2018, Masha founded Crypto PR Lab powered by Millennium Communications. She worked in public relations and events with cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain protocols, decentralized marketplace and other tech startups and tech conferences. Crypto PR Lab received two acquisition offers.

Masha started to explore cryptocurrencies when her mentor, a former Lehman Brother trader, asked her for help in his new company, his algo trading exchange for bitcoin Exgate, in 2014. It was an unofficial internship where she learnt a lot and got enthusiastic about bitcoin.

Masha worked as a corporate lawyer for Clifford Chance LLP and Gowling WLG in France and Monaco. As a relationship manager for UHNWI in 2015-2017, Masha represented UBS and HSBC private banks in Switzerland.

In 2006 Winter Olympic Games, Masha represented Russia as the youngest participant in the halfpipe event. She was also a Champion of Russia in snowboarding two consecutive years.

Masha holds 3 Master degrees in Business Law (Sorbonne, UC Berkeley, University of Nice) and speaks four languages: Russian, French, German, and English.

About Sachi Kamiya

Sachi Kamiya is the VP of Investments at Polygon Ecosystem Fund, a $100 million fund investing in projects across DeFi, Web 3.0, gaming, and NFTs, which includes YGG, WinZO, Blockade Games, and Splinterlands. She also manages the Polygon Venture Capital Network.