Transcript

00:00
foreign [Music] [Music] all righty we have for this session Super League uh our uh amazing amazing new naming service that just launched recently so we have here Matt and David let’s hear from the two amazing guys here yes they rock this session all right so um I’ll be back guys later and we’ll be helping out at Q a thanks man

01:03
thanks Dan uh Hey everybody I’m Matt I’m the co-founder and CEO of superlink and I’m David William Bryan I am also a co-founder of superlink uh and I think we figured we’d Maybe title this talk kind of this the story of a million names just because I think since we launched that’s the kind of conversation point that has been asked most of us and um I figured I’d just kick it off by asking David uh kind of how this whole thing got started because it’s it’s been a pretty crazy journey and I think when

01:40
you and I met uh the origin story was one of the things that really compelled me uh so yeah I’m just curious how did how did you start on this journey of a million names yeah so I mean this goes way back to very very early handshake I think it was March 2020 and I I I’d recently lost my job in theater because of the pandemic a lot of people obviously lost their jobs I lost my jobs working in theater I was I was into sort of blockchain and all that Tech on the side and sort of really into it but never sort of considered it doing

02:19
it professionally or anything like that and I was touring around theaters and lost my job and went home and I was trying to be useful to my wife and our painting my upstairs bedroom and I happen to hear a podcast between Pomp and Tyson and I was literally painting this wall and it I wasn’t even supposed to listen to it it just came on after another podcast randomly I did not know at the time it would completely change my life and so I just I’m painting the wall I’m painting this wall and I’m just hearing

02:52
this guy saying oh you know you don’t have to have.com and or dot IO you could just have whatever you want and I just literally stopped painting and I was like wait what and in the first 10 seconds of hearing that this was possible just as purely aesthetically at this point I thought well if I could have David brian.com or david.

03:19
brien then I would pick david.brien and even if a small percentage of people felt the same I could start a business right so I basically lost everything financially because of what had just happened to my theater stuff I had a couple of grand left to my name I put the paint down immediately like literally there and there was crossed the room logged on to name base and we’ve all had that moment where we’re like what is this what are these auctions yeah yeah don’t understand what’s going on why does this not work

03:55
right especially back then right it was so early I think the auctions have been going for like you know a few weeks at this point um and so at first it was just sort of buying random stuff I kind of forgot about my original thesis it just got super excited didn’t understand the auctions just buying loads of loads of stuff and then eventually I was like okay I need to rain this in or I’m just gonna buy literally everything and so I thought right let’s get structured here if I’m gonna go after last names I

04:26
need to create an index of every last name in the world and a way to value that and so population seem like the best primary metric to use yeah so made a giant index and then it was a lot easier to sort of structure um which names to go after and so literally just buckled down I thought I made a crazy or genius and probably nowhere in the middle and I just literally dedicated like 24 hours a day to just collecting as many of these things as possible I literally I’d set my alarm at like three in the morning

05:04
because you know doc Patel was coming up and like I really wanted to get it but then the blocks it was done by blocks and I’d wake up and I’d missed it five minutes before and it was just this whole like emotional rollercoaster yeah the good old days and uh and then sort of fast forward six months like everything’s picking up like the communities uh building and then they introduced like the facility for people to actually like trade these things on like a secondary market and like I woke up and I sold one of the

05:36
names and I was like holy moly like this is actually a thing because then it became like a lot less isolating yeah and then and then I happened to stumble across an article um uh that was about your hand wait wait wait hold on before we get to that I just wanna I wanna understand like did you feel like others were doing this did you feel like yeah it seemed like there was but it seemed like it was just like a bit of like everyone sort of had their own idea of like what to collect and I was like well I’m just gonna so

06:13
the thing that attracted me about last names was I I thought this is so infinite I need like a something with a supply that was like limited enough that I could embark on the crazy mission of trying to collect them all but it’d still be like a huge huge thing but then there’s still scarcity that’s quite defined within that Niche yeah so it made sense strategically um and when I stumbled across Jihan that was the first moment that it sort of I’d heard like these other things about yeah you get to own it and yeah

06:47
like all these other benefits but it was it really was aesthetic for me at the beginning I was like this makes so much more sense right uh it’s still aesthetic for me like yeah yeah that’s a magical thing yeah 100 100 uh but it did but it’s it’s it sort of morphed over time than that being like the main thing right yeah um and so uh I stumbled across an article about Jahan when he just purchased uh nft and like and then I looked up some videos of him and all the stuff he was saying I was like this all makes total sense like

07:21
started to see kind of the bigger picture about ownership and identity and like what all this meant yeah and then I I totally legitimizing it too right like in the past in the kind of broader ecosystem here’s a guy who like invested in tens hundreds of blockchain projects and this is a big deal for him and look at his track record like he’s like super early with things and then they just pan out to be correct right I was like this dude like I gotta find this dude right like he’s like The Shining Light in this

07:51
situation and so I literally tweeted at him I was like the girl something you might think is interesting and then you know got in the DMS got on Zoom with him and then it turns out that I was losing like the auctions to like the big name things I really wanted and I was like absolutely like gutted about it and I was sort of getting the long tail of like all the other names and uh and then once I got on with Jahan he was basically like the guy that had been like beating me in these auctions and then it turned out that like we were

08:27
super like aligned on this like thesis and then it was just like this makes total sense to like team up and like do something together yeah and then and then it was a case of like under his guidance basically sort of improving like um the way I was going about getting them and like just taking it like more more seriously and more professionally yeah and that was sort of the next phase where it went from like having a hundred thousand to like a few hundred thousand you know and uh things really started to scale

09:02
and then we reached a point where we kind of had all these names but hold on before we get to that so okay when I spoke with Jahan uh he had basically said you know I was going after the short tale of names and David was going after the long tail of names is that right was that an accident we’re like do you know voltage ahead what it was it was like I was time Rich cash poor and he was the opposite so it made just made logical sense that the allocation of names like fell into those two buckets but you need you need if you’re ever

09:43
going to build a project you need the smaller amount of names with the biggest population but you’d also need like sheer volume of names lower population so it made total sense to just align and we didn’t we weren’t even called super Link at that point we’ve just like teamed up and we just like well I just buckled down checks him in Japan just stayed on track but the the tough thing about it was you know like I’ve watched candy con like every year that this has been on but I’ve never like been able to

10:15
get involved because it was so hard to have a conversation with people in the community knowing that like I’m accumulating all of these things over here and like you’ve got to kind of keep your cars close to your chest because you obviously want to at some point you’ve got to kind of come out there and be like this is what you did so how does this feel right now it’s it honestly man like I was saying like when we launched it’s just like a massive relief yeah you know what I mean it’s just like because

10:41
you know I’m super passionate about handshake I’m super passionate about the community and I feel like we’re building something awesome that can literally benefit everyone but not being able to discuss it for like years because I just didn’t want to be in the chats like having to lie about stuff like it was just so just you know got my blinkers on got my head down and got got the job done basically and then and then then uh what happened was Johann calls me he’s like I think I’ve found the person who’s

11:13
gonna be able to like steer the ship and you know when we form this into like a proper company move things forward and that was the you and so I got so we got on a call yeah and we just clicked straight away and then what was that like oh man it was so good because it was like I knew we were building this like amazing like asset but I’m not that guy like I’m not like a tech CEO like I’ve I have a major imposter syndrome like in this world and I think it’s like I can bring what I can bring to it and that’s sort of the

11:48
Viewpoint from like the every man it’s like how does this translate to a product that the every man is gonna like understand and and like but you know you’ve built companies and successfully and it’s like that’s like a whole other sphere to me you know yeah I mean you were equally blowing my mind in that conversation because I think Japan hadn’t prepared me for quite the scale of it yeah and so and and honestly you know it sounds funny and maybe not the right thing to say here but like you know I’d sold the

12:26
last company to GoDaddy uh I didn’t work on the domain side of the house at GoDaddy I I wasn’t that excited about domains to be honest what got me interested was actually the digital identity side um and realizing like well actually the current kind of web 2 domain world maps to like businesses there’s like 350 million traditional web 2 domains that’s about the number of small businesses in the world but here we have blockchain domains that can be you know can be your Sovereign digital Identity or decentralized digital

13:01
identity it can work as your wallet it can work as a website it could work as an email it could work as a phone number like that feels like something that every uh Internet connected human on the Earth is going to have it’s inevitable inevitable yeah when did that Penny when did that penny drop um at some point I mean you know again not sounds funny to say it but like Unstoppable started talking about digital identity and others in the handshake leaders leaders in the handshake Community started talking about digital identity who were selling

13:41
domains selling slds started talking about this being digital identity and that’s kind of where it that’s kind of where it clicked for me uh because my interest originally so months before we talked I had gotten into handshake but it was through mining it was through mining HMS I I had known Japan he’d kind of turned me on to mining um and actually what also got me excited and I know you think this is funny is the Emojis and who knows what happens with Emojis but I just love it just for everyone watching not a fan of

14:18
emojis sorry I love them I love them and so I got my hands on a few kind of Single Character emojis and then you know fast forward some months talking with your hand he says you got to talk with David um we got on great and I just thought like well actually this is so interesting because what you need to make this project work is critical mass right you need a certain amount so that like there can be a place to go to get this and you also don’t want to have some like like you actually want the ability to partner with lots of

14:51
people as well so that you have a community and it felt like that was always the question that was always the question like do when do we like announce this when we’re at like 25 of the world 40 of the world like where like where’s the sweet spot but when you think on your first instinct you think I should own them all that’s the best strategy but it isn’t the best strategy is own a super meaningful chunk and then partner with a bunch of other people who share the same mission yeah which is exactly how it’s played

15:22
out and it’s it’s just so cool how organically this has happened with like the different people involved you know and it’s like it’s so nice I just want to say to the people watching it’s been awesome when we’ve been like we’re here like this is what we’ve done like it’s been so positive and so supportive and like yeah it’s just thank you thank you to everyone watching because it’s like it’s it’s been it’s really been really good really really good and honestly because you know I feel

15:53
like we’re in this phase in the community where you know it’s important that we sell slds it’s important that the whole Community sells slds but the the utility of those slds is still Limited right and it’s it feels to me like it it’s critical that at this stage we go deep on Integrations uh and you know to the point of the apply for an hns ring in your city today like you know I think if there’s if there’s anything that I would hope to kind of ask in the audience or love to get folks involved

16:28
in it’s like how do we get out there and create the Integrations because you know the exciting piece here is the utility it’s um you know David I feel like you saw that day one I mean you you know when when we go out and we ask people about this and or we tell them like hey you don’t need.

16:48
com you don’t need dot IO and in fact it’s not just a website it’s all these other things you know this is for a 21st Century Bank account Etc people’s eyes light up right they’re the mainstream user who doesn’t even know crypto gets super excited about that um yeah it’s drill into people to want to own their identity yeah gosh perfect way to say it um sorry I cut you off again Mark well no but you’re right like well that’s our mission right how do we make it super easy for everyone to own and use their their identity and I feel like we’re

17:23
kind of in the own phase uh and even like the early part of the own phase right it’s like the you know the community we as a community are still figuring out how do we decentralize slds we’ve decentralized tlds but now we need to figure out how do we decentralize slds and uh there’s various Solutions right impervious has done a great job um I know name base is coming out with a great solution scene too uh you know there’s going to be multiple Solutions but we’re still in the own and we need to get to the use right

17:56
um and yeah I think you know one of the places I guess I feel like there’s a lot of focus on websites within the handshake Community um and that’s a great place to be focused uh but I also think maybe we should be focused on the wallet side of things um yeah I know for you know for us as a company that’s something that really excites us um you know I think for instance coinbase’s announcement this morning about wallet as a service and there’ll be many more of those I know Firebox is working on

18:26
one too like that stuff is stuff that handshake should jump all over um and I think honestly my view is we have the opportunity to be like a cross-chain namespace that uh you know allows anyone to own and use their digital identity and it’s going to take a lot of work to get there and so it’s funny because I think like I see two sides of the coin here one is like the amazing beautiful kind of Journey that you and Jahan uh have taken to get us here and then the other is the amazing beautiful Journey that you and me and Johann and the rest

19:00
of the team need to take to get us to the kind of how do we use these things because it’s critical so Matt we’ve only got a few minutes left billyville yeah do you want to do you want to show stuff you want to show some stuff quickly oh gosh okay um yeah we’ve got we got carried away all right did I tell you uh you did you you absolutely did um okay so if you haven’t already been there encourage you to jump on to uh you know superlink.

19:39
me uh we’ve put a lot of time and effort into trying to design a really professional experience here um you know you can quickly and easily do uh you know a search for any kind of first name last name combo if we don’t have your name I’m so sorry but we’re working on getting it um we’re also going to be offering an alternative um if you want to kind of benefit from uh you know the utility that we’re gonna be building on kind of the superlink ecosystem but we don’t have your name yet we’re going to be offering you kind

20:11
of a three-letter uh alternative to to purchase and and less expensive opportunity as well um the other thing I wanted to say here is like so search for name it’s here get a name um we are announcing a handy con uh referral code so pop onto superlink plug in handy con it’s already applied here but if you go to checkout um you can apply it right here under discount code uh just plug in handycan hit apply you’ll get 20 off um it’s worth mentioning as well Matt the the price of names varies right you’ve brought up a random name here

20:55
yep we our pricing is very accessible uh pricing so I mean you a lot of names are as low as 20 you know yeah most most prices are twenty dollars if your name is you know something that ends in Smith it’s or Chan it’s you know going to be more expensive it’s based on population and and demand um so the other thing that is awesome is um if you bought your name or you haven’t bought your name we don’t have it buy a name for someone that we do have and gift it um you can just tap in here click on uh gift this name

21:33
you plug in uh their name I’m just going to gift it to myself so that I can maybe show it to you on a different account typical map I think to myself it’s Bad News Bears um now let me hop oh yeah let me hop into the other account and show you how that looks to be gifted while you do that I’m going to plug everything so yeah we were obviously on Twitter uh at Super League me and obviously the website is superlink.

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me and we also have a private Discord which you gain entry to if you if you grab a name so if you buy your name come into the Discord join the community uh we’d love you to join us and as Matt said if you’re unable to join the community at the moment because we don’t have your name that problem is being solved imminently um so yeah we’d love to to see you all in there and just reach out to us like you know we want to hear from you if you’re in the community say hi introduce yourself um yeah I get on map uh no I don’t know

22:45
um what’s happening but what I do want to show is actually yes if I can make it work it’s worth saying as well like when we built the site um it was important that we thought about the mass Market here like it’s not obviously a crypto blockchain products right um I I believe that we’re we’re capable of bringing forward the sort of iPhone moment here where you know you get to put this amazing thing handshake that we all believe in in abuse beautifully aesthetically pleasing product that the masses will understand

23:30
right and so we hope that um the community can sort of get behind us with that um and we feel super positive about it totally yeah and I just wanted to reiterate what you said earlier David in terms of thanking the community like you guys have been amazing um seriously appreciate it I know there are some questions in the chat um let’s quickly do that let’s see what do we got there’s so many okay a lot of people searching for Elon dot musk yeah so we get all the searches logged and as you can imagine interesting stuff gets

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uh honestly I thought about getting musk it was available at some point for 200 000 hns uh now it’s like some insane um uh I feel like we’ve run out of time or we’re imminently running out of time someone asked why did you choose a forever model uh let’s see if you have some surnames can I use superlink to give to others is it free um the names so maybe that’s a good point Fernando like we do have a partner program and you know the whole point of the partner program is to get our coverage as close to 100 as we

25:04
possibly can get to and to share the earnings you know of those tlds with the partners um if you I’m not sure if this is what you’re getting at but if if you have any of the surnames that you want to partner with us you know feel free to choose the slds the names on that surname that you want to keep because you know we have talked to a lot of folks whose last name is the name that they own and they’re happy to partner but they’ve got 10 members of their family that they want to keep that name for so you know we

25:36
think that’s that’s a critical piece of the puzzle um and I guess if you know if you’re a partner and you wanted to gift some slds you know that would fall into the same category non-latin alphabets yeah so funny Colin I got that asked earlier today too on Twitter DMS um it we do not yet um I don’t see any reason why we couldn’t uh we just haven’t I think I think the the main thing is like the sheer scale of what we’ve set out I don’t know if we even mentioned this but what’s the latest figure on how

26:14
many last names we have now because I don’t think we actually mentioned that I think it’s one point it’s over 1.4 million now yeah so and we’re only in half the world so as you can imagine just doing that and then you start going into different alphabets and stuff it’s obviously like massive massive tasks so I’m Mike hey David yeah good evening good evening how’s everybody I’m catching this uh session it’s amazing um I think everybody I’m reading the chats everybody’s really proud to see

26:48
superlink you know I think building on handshake right yes I can’t tell you what a relief that is like the amount of times in the last three years I’ve been like is everyone gonna hate me when I when I announced that like just being over here not saying anything for like three years but like it’s honestly just like so nice to hear stuff like that means a lot yeah yeah you can see some great feedback um yeah and I think a lot of people myself like you mentioned I mean I have my my surname I think a lot of people

27:20
it’s like one of the first things people get is their surname so you know I’m I’m talking to Matt about putting it into the into the bucket um I think you know like he said I have my name my children I built the sites for them already so um I don’t know if there’s more kids coming but I just what’s the policy for my future kids you know yeah just preserve a list of possible names to see you guys grow and uh and well I think everyone here is here to support you so thanks thank you so much Mike that’s awesome

27:54
thanks for having us man yeah no thanks too I know and if you came in sponsoring too I really appreciate that and you know your growing startup here and we we all we all uh really appreciate everything so um yeah I mean I think we’re a little bit at time but there’s some raised hands I mean there’s lots of questions I think what did you say how to reach out I mean I know you have your website is that the best way or maybe a lot of people were wanting to support and chip in or partner or whatever probably before I know you have a

28:27
partner link on the site is that the best but you know the best thing you can do honestly is buy a name for a friend spread the spread the word bring him into the Discord we’re going to be bringing utility Fast and Furious like that’s okay that’s what that’s what this is all about yeah I bought a new I I think I made a video too and I uh I bought my friend’s name to get to him and then I got to the Discord and everything so that’s great um yeah so if everybody could trip in especially with the discount you just

28:54
dropped just handycon right the coupon code that’s it clean and simple handicun nice and simple thank you so much all right I think we gotta wrap at this point I think Ann’s in the other room and uh I really appreciate appreciate both of you and Japan of course too so and best of luck and we’ll be following your journey see ya cheers see everybody next session [Music]