Disclaimer and Disclosure: These thoughts and opinions are my own and this is not legal, financial or investment advice. Do your own research. I do not represent nor have I conducted extensive due diligence on the companies listed below and I've added them without their expressed permission because I like what they are "buidling." As stated, do your own due diligence. At the time of publication, I do not have an investment interest in any of these companies.
(There is a soft introduction to blockchain at the bottom of this article. It is meant to help you dip your toe in the water. The world of blockchain is far more complex than what I've written down there, but it's a good, gentle start. I'll be creating a much longer "Introduction to Blockchain" article and video in early May 2024).
The thing about Buffalo is it's cheap, quick, and centrally located to the places I like to visit like Toronto, Chicago, and, of course, New York City. That last bit is where I was able to build a nice bit of business because my former law firm, Dunsmoor Law, PC, (RIP, more about that here:) was able to be extraordinarily less expensive than my Manhattan counterparts. So, when I began getting calls in late 2016 before moving to Charleston, WV with my ex-fiancé (more on that in that first link) about Initial Coin Offerings or more famously "ICOs," to say I was reluctant to deal with what were almost always securities violations around that time is an understatement. Now at this point in the game, my firm was around for about 2.5 years before this "ICO boom" and when I say I had already seen my fill of scams and federal securities violations in the capital markets, I can tell you I more than enough had my fill for this new ICO thing. I will preface all this and say I believed in Bitcoin and had barely a drop back in 2013 during the Mt. Gox headache but, I had forgotten about all of this "revolutionary technology" as it didn't seem to be going anywhere that my primitive brain could see other than "magic internet money." But, that all changed with one former client…
"Dude. No fucking way. There's no way that works either." I said or something to that effect. (I'm a former securities lawyer so using profanity is how I make sure my clients, regulators, investors or anyone else knew to remember the words coming out of my mouth.) "The SEC will be all over that."
Now this gentleman who shall remain nameless, challenged me on this by doing what lawyers hate. Flipping the questions around on me. "Well, damn man then…" he said confidently and cocky, "how would securities work on a blockchain?"
(Noticeable auditory pause)
"Well, that's an interesting idea…" I said as my brain began to recalculate after this new input. No one, at this point that I know of, had asked this question. Sure, how do we comply with securities laws but not just comply, how do we add securities to blockchain. Mind. Blown.
And that was it. That's when I truly became a blockchain believer because anyone, and I mean any damn one in traditional finance ("Trad-Fi") from retail to institutional traders (and this was before GameStop mind you), broker-dealers, transfer agents, equity crowdfunding platforms, venture capitalist, angel investors, and almost everyone except the bankers (more on that in another blog post) will tell you that Trad-Fi is broken. "It’s great!" They will proclaim with evidence to the contrary. You'll make a lot of money if you play your cards right but it's broken when you get down to the core of it all. Now this isn't a capitalism sucks argument this is a market efficiency argument (and for my math nerds you know the market has been proven to be inefficient using some high-level math) but it's a "can we make it better, faster, fairer, and more amazing" argument and that answer is a resounding "Yes!" and I've believe it was one of the reasons we moved to T+1 and possibly 24/7 trading. (New “T+1” Settlement Cycle – What Investors Need To Know: Investor Bulletin, SEC Staff, March 27, 2024, https://www.sec.gov/oiea/investor-alerts-and-bulletins/new-t1-settlement-cycle-what-investors-need-know-investor#:~:text=Under the new “T%2B1,transaction will settle on Tuesday and New York Stock Exchange tests views on round-the-clock trading, Jennifer Hughes, April 22, 2024, https://www.ft.com/content/31c3a55b-9af9-4158-8a49-4397540571bf)
Now the detractors will say blockchain does none of that. That most of what we have built so far is sharing pictures of kitties or titties (shoutout to all the amazing folks using the "titties" element to fight breast cancer; links below) and we technically "own" but that the data is rarely stored onchain. And that sending each other magical internet beans for god knows what isn't a revolutionary idea. But, in reality just like the Greeks missed the steam engine and the Chinese fireworks makers missed the gunpowder's use cases, blockchain is more than just magical internet money. Though it does that very well, too. (An introduction on that at the bottom)
What it gives us the ability to create as silly monkeys in clothes who hoard all the bananas for ourselves is to create markets that cannot be manipulated. It can usher in a world that is transparent, safer, and fairer. A prime example of this is it will, eventually, not require securities lawyers to write super dangerous, bar-license-pulling, possible criminal charge having Rule 144 opinions.
A Rule 144 opinion for the non-investing crowd is when a securities lawyer gets to free your restricted stock to make it become freely trading or publicly available for resale. Every investor's dream is when one of these bad boys pays off and the securities attorney you love so much gives the opinion to the transfer agent and broker-dealer so everyone is all on the same page and there no "oopsies" and that long awaited investment exit can be had.
Now guess how much these legal opinions cost? For real guess. If you were a securities lawyer how much would you charge? Welp, you're mostly likely wrong. It's roughly about on average $2,500 to $10,000 bucks depending on the level of complexity and size of the stock. Yep, $10K and risk your bar license so boom an investor can make his exit. Not a bad gig if you know your stuff but I still know to this day lawyers that get super anxious when dealing with these especially for a new client because of the sheer amount of due diligence you have to do on the stock issuance and contracts related to the investment and between the parties. One. Single. Slip. Up. And your ass, in theory, can be sued by everyone from the client, company, SEC, FTC (if it was promotional based), IRS (lot less of these thank god) and the good ol' you get a nice orange or apparently beige now jumpsuit having, DOJ. (Technically it's the Department of Corrections that gives you the jumpsuit but DOJ offers them to you for free if you fuck up royally. Don't fuck up.) Now I love my country and I don't look good in orange (beige not so bad but still no thanks in this context, please) so I would avoid these damn things like the plague unless I knew the investor and could get my head around the deal. I was a baby securities lawyer after all and shout out to all those real original gangster securities lawyers who would answer my questions and/or double check my math. You all are my heroes.
Anyways, this is what definitely sold me. The ability to rely on a technology, in theory, to unlock the power of restricted shares to freely trading shares while harnessing the power of capital to say "yes, it is time for you to be able to exit the ride if you'd like" would be absolutely game changing! This was around the time of the good ol' JOBS Act where equity crowdfunding was in its infancy and I truly mean infancy. (We tried to work with a host of them to get them to take crypto and, well, that has just started to become a thing; see below) So having the ability to manage all this on a public chain with possibly the contracts being linked back to the individual would be nothing short of revolutionary and, to be fair, I thought we would have been there by now. There have been a lot of major strides but we are still far away from my dream, as of the time of this writing.
This revolution didn't occur overnight and as far as I know doesn't exist, yet. I worked with hundreds of blockchain projects that were trying to build real products and services on a blockchain. Everything from healthcare data, to utilizing algo-backed stable coins, early DeFi protocols and DEXs, to a project that was trying to protect and revolutionize payments to legal sex workers and end sex trafficking in the E.U. "Buidling" (sic) as a lawyer in this space requires thinking outside the box but inside the lines of regulation, and to say its complex and stressful, is an understatement. But as I stated before in my article "Fire, The Wheel, Blockchain & Artificial Intelligence," great ideas transcend themselves into other ideas. We don't just use the light bulb for illumination anymore as you read this on a digital screen filled with little tiny "light bulbs." (See Fire, The Wheel, Blockchain & Artificial Intelligence…., Jonathan Dunsmoor, March 22, 2024, https://mirror.xyz/dunsmoor.eth/-2kXzJf5jR1elaWH3lFkgcAFS4qeeVPI1_fZmpzDBG0)
So where does that leave us? Well, besides the fact the Trad-Fi markets affect you and me whether we like it or not, it almost means that we can build better, more complex yet transparent systems for the legacy systems that control our world. But we don't have to start there, and in fact, a lot of amazing other sectors are starting their revolutions now. So here we go:
Child Sexual Abuse Material & Zero Knowledge Proof – Zero Knowledge Proof ("ZK") is a form of blockchain-based technology that is being used combat CSAM by allowing a user to upload a picture to their device, that is stored locally on that device, ZK'ing it, and then that ZK'ed information to be used by Take It Down website to hunt for said picture. (https://takeitdown.ncmec.org). If this use case doesn't make you a believer, I don't know what will.
AI MINDSystems Foundation (not yet live but set a Google alert) - For my healthcare folks, records are critical and messy, AI MINDSystems Foundation, isn't live yet, but the potential of having control of your own healthcare data is fundamental to the future of medicine, data and privacy. And while I do not claim to know all that the Foundation is doing, I know that others are also working on for the first time, making your healthcare data your own. This means that moving doctors, states, countries even having, god forbid, an accident in a foreign country could mean complete access to the healthcare information to save your life. It means having the ability to license your data out to solve for cures, treatments, drugs that work more efficiently. It could mean finding out who is responsible for all this cancer in young people.
Mintangible.io - For the creators, we've already seen the rise (and fall) of Non-Fungible Tokens ("NFTs") but as we all know they will come back into style and protecting your intellectual property rights are paramount as the "right click save" folks believe that negates all of their liability. It doesn't and Mintangible is the first platform I've seen that tackles this well. For companies, this means double checking to see what rights the offer actually has, onchain, before the deal is done. Lawyers love that.
Ticketmaster vs Literally Anyone Else – If you like Ticketmaster, I pray for you. Seatlabnft.com, while not perfect, is possibly the best ticketing app I've found onchain. (Shout out to my former clients who tried to tackle this challenge; love yall). There are many people who have attempted to fight this monopoly and lost but this is the first time we may actually have a fighting chance especially with the DOJ's lawsuit against them. (DOJ to sue Ticketmaster parent Live Nation for antitrust violations, Sara Fischer, April 16, 2024, https://www.axios.com/2024/04/16/ticketmaster-live-nation-doj-antitrust-lawsuit)
E-Commerce Shakeup: Slice.so - Imagine e-commerce with blockchain-based solutions. It's not 100% there yet but between what Slice.so has built and there is no doubt that a new level of e-commerce is being built onchain.
Mainstreet (https://mstreet.app/) - For the longest time, small businesses have had the headache of having to deal with rising credit card or debit card fees, chargebacks, and other inventory related problems. Mainstreet is attempting to solve all that in one use case. They understand that "Mainstreet Adoption" is necessary to fulfill the dream of mass adoption because if you have crypto that no one will take, what's the point?
Mirror.xyz, Attn.live, & Myco.io - Similarly, along the lines of publication and legacy media, there has been a disconnect as the conglomerates become monopolistic and continue to avoid the voice and will of the people, regardless of which side of the political spectrum you fall into and/or where in the world you are. Both Mirror and Attn.live give you the ability to help you reach your community or find your own. While Myco challenges the legacy of YouTube and has the potential to usher in what one of my former clients was attempting to do by creating a platform that allows users to enjoy and support the content creators they love so those content creators can continue to make high quality content without selling out. I'm sure anyone who has been on YouTube long enough knows the issue behind "Better Help" ad rolls and its troubled past. But, with great power comes great responsibility as Spiderman's uncle Ben said. The problem is, I think we need to get past this era of censorship to find common ground on the things that matter. We cannot do that with legacy media.
Endaoment & Gitcoin – These nonprofits have and continue to revolutionize the way that fundraising, nonprofits, and charitable organizations raise, manage, and control their funds. Words cannot express how thankful I am to learn from what they have built and model my endeavors on them especially with The Blue Rock Organization. I hope that we can all work together to find common ground and solutions to the world's problems using blockchain technology.
For my buidlers (yes that's the correct spelling in this ecosystem off of "hodl"), it means you get to have the ultimate battle of looking like the absolute wizards you all are by reigning in artificial intelligence so it doesn't overthrow us and kill us all.
As for what the cool humans around me and I are building, we are building two things that will revolutionize your lives:
Sportsvela - A regulated offering to purchase an American sports team utilizing blockchain technology which will allow retail investors to own a small piece of it all. SEC has to approve it so and pray to whomever thinks you owe some cosmic favors. If we win on this, we all win. Even if you don't like sports, you must like how sports unite everyone from all races, creeds, colors, religions, sexual orientations, and economic classes. We hope to do that, too.
The Blue Rock Organization- The Blue Rock, a nonprofit is working on the absolutely most incredible "Degen" like solutions to our three pillars of: (1) Feed people, (2) teach people, and (3) take care of the Earth all using blockchain technology to make everything more fair, more transparent, and more accurate in the resolutions to these problems that plague us all. We are trying to make sure we do not have to keep funding the same problems by finding actual solutions to the problems.
We will discuss these a lot more in the next month. Buckle up, baby!
Shout out again to all those that helped me along this journey and actively debated me with everything from crypto, DeFi, NFTs, stablecoins, etc. I enjoy playing Devil's advocate and I'm a Luddite for too many things but those who have been willing to teach and help me learn the error of my ways, well I'm forever in your debt. And, dear reader if you are that contrarian, especially if SEC, CFTC, or other regulatory agency in your bio, please come talk to the real ones in this space. I can point you in the right direction. It's not all just scams and crap. There's the future of the world being built in these caves.
Other amazing companies in this space you need to have a look at that are related to this industry (in no particular order. I will make more posts like this about these amazing companies and others regularly):
CryptoMondays (https://cryptomondays.io) - to learn
Dwealth.education (https://dwealth.education) - to learn
KoreConX (https://koreconx.com)
Paxos (https://paxos.com)
DIBSCAPITAL (Dibscapital.com)
Akemona (https://akemona.com)
Farcaster/Warpcast (https://farcaster.com)
(If I missed you, please reach out and let me know. If you know me, you know my memory is shot.)
And if you want to learn more and see what is being built, don't forget to come hangout at the killer trifecta that is The Futurist conference, ETHWomen & ETHToronto in August. Get 2 for 1 ticketing here until April 26th 11:59 ET: https://www.futuristconference.com/
If you are building something dope and want me to highlight it in the next post, or if I can help in any way, please reach out. We are all in this together and the good, hard-working folks must stand united against the scum and scammers that plague any new industry. A black eye on one of us, is a black eye on all right now. Thanks to SBF and Do Kwon, et al.
Lastly, all this amazing technology that is verified on a blockchain means that we can start affecting everyone in so many positive ways they are almost truly unimaginable. And, I firmly believe that if we do it correctly, and utilize this technology for good, they will say it was an evolutionary necessity to get us silly humans to cooperate better and lead us to conquering the stars.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
Using Blockchain & Breasts to Save Breasts (Please do your own research. I haven't vetted these, but this is to give you an idea of what is being done): The links are down below because Mirror hates me right now. I have no idea why. If you want them for whatever reason, just message me.
Brief Introduction to Blockchain: For those with no background in this complex world, I'm going to write an introduction to Blockchain blog early next month. However, if you cannot wait that long, here is what I highly recommend:
Update all the software on your operating system! Android devices, and even iPhones, can be hacked. Do not invest more money in crypto than you're willing to lose, especially until you understand how to stay safe in Web 3.0.
NEVER EVER connect your wallet to anything until you're familiar with the potential consequences of connecting to a malicious link (hint: you could lose all your assets).
Search for the following apps in the appropriate app store (avoid using Google search, as the first link could be fraudulent; more on that later) and download the highly-rated versions:
a) The Coinbase app (the Centralized Finance one, not the wallet; however, you can download the wallet too if you wish) to easily buy crypto and participate in their earn-and-learn program, where you learn about different cryptocurrencies and earn small amounts of crypto as a reward.
b) Trust Wallet (my current favorite wallet) because it offers self-custody. Remember, if you lose your passphrase (those 12-24 words), you're totally screwed. Store it somewhere safe, or consider it gone.
c) Send the crypto you've earned through Coinbase to Trust Wallet to understand the differences and processes. Ensure that you're sending the same cryptocurrency on the same protocol (check the icons and names). If you have questions, contact me or use your Google-fu to double-check.
d) If you want to try out a new wallet called Daimo, which gives you $5 for signing up, use this link: https://daimo.com/l/invite/dunsmoor-123 (Yes, I get $5 too).
This is just level 0. The world of crypto gets much more complex from here, but this serves as a simple introduction to the technology discussed above. If you have any questions, I'm always happy to help where I can. Stay safe!
<NFTs and crypto provide fundraising options for breast cancer awareness, Rachel Wolfson, October 13, 2022, https://cointelegraph.com/news/nfts-and-crypto-provide-fundraising-options-for-breast-cancer-awareness
https://cryptotitties.fun/
https://opensea.io/collection/crypto-titties-collection
Jonathan Dunsmoor
