Bitcoin STX Executive Director of the Stacks Foundation - Brittany Laughlin

Brittany Laughlin. Here's a little bit about Brittany. Brittany Laughlin is the executive director of the Sachs foundation, a nonprofit that supports developers and entrepreneurs looking to build web applications on Bitcoin.
Super cool. So we're going to be talking about Sachs foundation. We're going to be talking about Bitcoin today. Also she's a professor on blockchain and regulation at Cornwell law in New York city. Her profession right now is the executive director at the stacks foundation, Brittany, they, you so much for joining me. How are you?
I'm great. Thank you so much for having me. I do think this was like a divine connection. I'm so glad we got to meet Miami and we get to talk here today.
My pleasure. Yeah, definitely. I agree. And speaking of Miami, I mean, we'll just jump right to it. There's Bitcoin, Miami coming up and your obviously going to be there. Do you want to tell us about like your role and what you're going to be doing a Bitcoin Miami coming up and what are the dates? Exactly.
Yeah. So Stax is actually running a conference in conjunction with Bitcoin Miami. So that Tuesday and Wednesday is Bitcoin unleashed, which is the stacks global conference that's in April 4th and fifth. And then it kicks off into Bitcoin 2022, which goes through the weekend. So we would love for people to join [email protected]. You can get tickets they're going fast, but yeah, we'd love to see more folks there. It's a great place to connect with folks building on Bitcoin, learn about DFI, learn about the different ways that you can bring NFTs and other creative projects to life. So if you're involved in crypto or you're just getting started, we'd love to see you in Miami.
Great. And when did you get involved in Bitcoin and the blockchain?
Yeah, so I actually started as an investor on the VC side and we first started talking about what we call Bitcoin tech in 2014. So that's when I bought my first Bitcoin. We invested in this little company called Coinbase and I wanted to try out having a Bitcoin wallet. I of course bought a TV, but, but definitely not enough because Bitcoin at that time was $200, which now, you know, we see it around like 40,000. But yeah, so my journey started a long time ago. I actually was an early investor in Blockstack, which is now part of stacks foundation, but I didn't into full-time working in crypto until three years ago. And this was actually during a bear market prices were down, there was this crazy ICO bubble, but I just felt like the most creative people were entering into the crypto space and wanted to build things.
And that seemed way more interesting to me than just getting hyped about token prices and kind of like the get rich quick themes that had kind of emerged in 2017. So I've been with the stacks ecosystem now for three years running the foundation, which I started about a year and a half ago. So it's been a really great ride to just see all these new builders enter the space, the rise of NFTs and the creative crypto economy. So I'm really excited that, you know, it still feels very early, but I've seen so much growth just in those three short years.
Oh yeah. Well, that's exciting to hear that it's still early because you know, I've been a one year is like my reunion right now when I released my first NFT, when people, you know, sold his piece when Blough revolutionized the music industry and then Grimes sold her, her auction, her new album on nifty gateway, two weeks later that I first got involved in 2018. But circling back around, you mentioned some like a web Sri lingo. So you mentioned bear market and I've been seeing right now, oh, bear market. They're like, oh yeah, it's going to happen any day. And I saw the theory. I'm like, oh yeah, it's your is back's at 3000. It went from like so low to high. So can you explain what bear market is for those who are new to the hearing, the lingo of the web three?
Sure. So in crypto there's a lot of price volatility. You can probably just, you know, even if you look at the charts of Bitcoin, which, you know, like I said, I don't know, seven years ago it was $200 and now it's around $40,000. It is written waves up, which people call a bear market like people are, or sorry, a bull market. People are very bullish on, on, on the asset. And then the bear market is when there's like, the price is going down. So in the end of last year, Bitcoin got to just over, I think like 64,000 us dollars. And now the price is around 41,000 us dollars.
So it's quite a dip compared to its high. So that's why people like, oh, it's a bear market. People are, you know, they're not buying it or they're, they're not as excited about it. But if you look at Bitcoin relative to a year ago, the price is substantially up. So I think it's one of these where you'll see swings in the price, but there's been a lot of appreciation when you have like a longer time horizon. And you know, there's a lot of people looking just to make quick money when we're in what we call a bull cycle because everyone's buying and everyone's making money. I think the real builders come out when we're in a bear market, because, you know, you have to kind of see the price going down and have to, you know, maybe people aren't as excited about it when you put it a hundred dollars one day and it's only worth $95 the next day or something like that.
Yeah. Very cool. And everything you're saying, I just want to, like for the person tuning in, we're just sharing our experiences here. This isn't financial advice whatsoever. We're just caring and sharing our like, you know, experiences with one another and kind of just honoring the moment of, you know, history in the making. Yeah. And then also another lingo you mentioned a bit ago was defy. Can you explain defy to the person turning in?
Yeah. So DFI is just short for decentralized finance. And what it means is instead of using a traditional system, like a bank to have like money or take out a loan or do blending, you can use these protocols to do that. And so if you have something like tether, which is a, a coin that pegs close the us dollar and you wanted to borrow money against it, you could do that. So instead of going and borrowing from a bank, you could do with tether and some of these existing networks that are out there. So defy has been a very popular category for crypto because people view a crypto as an alternative to us dollars or any kind of Fiat money.
And so they want to be able to use that money in ways that they use normal money like credit and debt and different instruments like that.
Very cool. Very cool. Thanks for sharing that. And just a little sidebar, cause I'm kind of excited, but so you mentioned in 2014, you bought your first Bitcoin. So I'm a collector of NFTs, which I'm excited about, but I wanted to, you know, dabble and I haven't yet, although I, you know, got into this space in 2018 and then my girlfriend, she was, you know, Google was having these conferences and she was having these lanyards and it was all about Bitcoin. And in the midst of it, there was some cool energy, but I just was so disassociated from it. Anyway, long story short, the eight coin came out like a few days ago. So I don't know if you did or not, but I'm like, okay. And I put some money into it just to have it sit. Cause I know, you know, the reputation it has and some of the people behind it.
So I hate it was my first time ever doing it, you know, w who would have thought I would ever be a person to do that, but I did. I just went for it and it was fun. And it was really easy. I did it through Coinbase. And so since I had my Coinbase set up, I was able to, just to like dip in and get it. So it's there. So I'm just sharing that because you were talking about your first investment and burn 20, 22, but that was my first investment. So we'll see how it goes. Any thoughts on, on that or,
Yeah, I think it's, I think it's really interesting. I definitely am paying attention to what they're doing, because I think what the founders like Hugo labs, which helped create the assets that are associated with eight coins, I think they're doing, they're pushing the whole industry forward. Like they're thinking about building this very exclusive membership community based on ownership of NFTs, like their apes or punks. And then the aid coin does make it more accessible because if you can't afford a multimillion dollar crypto punk or crypto Abe, either of those, then maybe you want to get exposure to this new brand through eighth coin.
So I do think it's, it's really interesting. I know there's a lot of price speculations. So, you know, me personally, I was like, I, I'm not smart enough to time this market or understand. Cause there is a lot of volatility, but I do think that as soon as there's more utility for the token, that to me is a really exciting time to get in similar to using stacks. It's like some people purchase their first Stax tokens because they want to purchase an NFT. Like they want to go to hae layer. They want to support an artist. They know, so, you know, they can use their credit card, but they may also opt to purchase tokens to get into an asset like that. So it's less about token price and it's more about, you know, the things that you want to do in the network, which is to me the most exciting part too.
And then we'll have it in the show notes, but people can follow stacks on Twitter and, and the website. What is the website for stacks and, and where people should go to learn and read more about stacks.
Yeah. So stacks, it's a trading asset. I think we're like in the top 60 on coin market cap, you can learn all about the token there. If you want to learn more about the network and some of the things that are happening in our ecosystem, you can go to stax.org. That's the foundation's website where I work. And then we also have stax.co, which goes through some of the basics and principles so you can understand what's happening. And then of course, on Twitter at stacks, I think we have like over a hundred thousand followers there, that's a great place to learn about like, what are the cool NFT projects on stacks? You know, what are the ways I can learn to build on stacks? What's kind of happening. They, that Twitter account captures everything happening in the ecosystem.
So that's a great one to follow.
Okay. Thank you for that. And then, so when you're actually going to get the coin it's and I seen it on the hashtags, it's M S T X. So when people say STX, if they've seen it, that stacks,
You got
It. And so I know we talked brushstrokes, but just to kind of dive in about again, like, okay, what is stacks? And then how is stacks correlated with Bitcoin? So let's take people through the process of what that looks like the foundation and how stacks came about.
Yeah. So the thought processes is that Bitcoin is like the most secure large network. So it has the most miners. It has currently the highest market cap. There's a lot of value tied in Bitcoin, but right now there's not a lot you can do because it doesn't have smart contracts functionality in it. If you compare that to something like a theorem where they do have smart contracts, people are building all these projects on top they're minting NFTs, they're creating ape coins. These are all done on the eight on the Ethereum based layer where Bitcoin, since it doesn't have that functionality is basically Bitcoin. So the idea behind stacks is what if we can help support adding more functionalities to Bitcoin by adding smart contracts, by creating these tools that developers want that creatives ones.
So chain actually ties to the Bitcoin chain, ultimately. So it's its own chain. It has its own token that you use for gas or transactions in the network, but ultimately all of your transactions on the Stax chain ultimately settle to the Bitcoin chain. So it's the way that you can create NFTs on the Bitcoin chain is through stacks. It's a way that you can participate in defy, unlocking the value of Bitcoin without actually having to move your Bitcoin out of the Bitcoin chain. So we're really excited about this vision that Bitcoin has a ton of value and it can be unlocked with utility using stacks.
And then also there's a staking, right? So like if you have stacks and it could be this NFTs through the hero, H I R O wallet, which is what I did when you introduced me to hail air. And then I have three collections on hail air right now and another one coming out in a few weeks and I've onboarded people onto hay layer. And so you do, you know, the wallet, you have a seed phrase, you never give your seed phrase to any one ever, never screenshot it. And then I have this hero wallet and it connects with hail air and it connects with stacks, which is connected with Bitcoin. So, so let's say I'm not okay spending $46,000 on a Bitcoin.
However, I'm buying, I'm buying NFTs on Bitcoin. So it's like, I'm actually owning some Bitcoin for one, but then let's talk about the staking as well and how there's earned income that way. I remember seeing that, and there were some, there was some like 25,000 prize giveaway three weeks ago. Of course I signed up, I sent it to 15 people cause I'm like that, but you could win like prizes and things of that nature. So can you explain that a little bit to us?
Sure. So the way it works is because the stacks chain ties to the Bitcoin chain. Miners actually contribute Bitcoin when they're mining the stacks chain, and this is very technical, but the outcome for the average stockholder is you can participate in stacking, which means you lock your stacks for two weeks. You say, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to put them here. I'm not going to move them. And then you can earn Bitcoin by participating. So that Bitcoin is about 10% annual yield. So we call it like APY, similar that you have on your bank account. Maybe you get like 0.2, 5% interest on your bank account. Well, this is actually Bitcoin yield.
So this is a great way to get exposure to Bitcoin because if you have, you know, a hundred or a thousand or a hundred thousand stacks, you'll be earning 10% on those in Bitcoin over the year. So you can go to stacking.club to learn more about those yields. But if you do participate, if you do hold your stocks and something like the hero wallet, you can participate in staffing there, or even okay, coin you can there, and you can see the yields directly in your wallet. So instead of having to buy back Bitcoin, you can actually earn it over time. And we've seen people one just be very excited because it is one of the few networks where you actually hold one type of token, the stacks token, and then you earn a different type of token, which is Bitcoin.
So I think it's one of the only that you actually earn Bitcoin. But yeah, I think that just earning is fun, but we're starting to see some really interesting use cases for that. Where what if you could own an NFT that you plan to lock in your wallet for a long period of time, you don't plan to sell it. Maybe that entity can earn Bitcoin as well because you're participating in the same sort of cycle of stacking. So we're really excited to see people building stuff like that on top.
Yeah. That's really, really exciting. And I haven't collected any stacks, Bitcoins and FTS yet, but I'm definitely going to, and I'm definitely a holder. So like, you know, when I get something I want to cherish it and yeah, so with the Bitcoin, because they know, Hey layer, they just made it. So you could connect your medic mass wallet with the Ethereum. Cause there was that division and you know, some people were saying there's the division of the Bitcoin and the Ethereum. So they just made it possible to be able to connect your Mehta mass, to be able to see your Bitcoin and the Ethereum in the same wallet. So I think, I think maybe is it for like a flex or a status kind of thing that people want to like show their NFTs and, and for them to all be together?
What are your thoughts on that? Yeah.
Yeah. I think it is great. Cause I think Ethereum has a larger network of NFTs. It's just been, they've just been offered on Ethereum longer. So we've seen an increase in stacks NFTs, which are built on Bitcoin, but a lot of people may hold NFTs in different crypto networks. I think this year we'll see a lot more excitement on these things called bridges where you can imagine like a little physical bridge between, you know, the Ethereum chain and the stacks chain and NFTs can actually move from one to the other. There's this great project called Satoshi bubbles, which started on the Ethereum chain. They built a bridge. So if you have one of those NFTs, you can actually move it to the Bitcoin chain and hold it on Bitcoin instead.
And it actually changes some of the pictures of the visual images. So these little sociables have, you know, a Bitcoin background that shows up if you move it to this chain versus keeping it on Ethereum. So I think we'll see more of that this year. Like there's already five bridges being built for the Stax ecosystem. And I think that that's super interesting as a creator that you get access to more customers who maybe they only hold a theorem or maybe they only hold Bitcoin. Now they can kind of make it easy to get a lot of, to get either one of those customers without having to choose just a single chain. Cause I think creators maybe care less about what the chain is, but they do want to make their NFTs unique to different environments, which is super cool.
Definitely. And I think having low gas fees too.
Yes. Yeah. Low gas fees. I have mentored NFTs on Ethereum and sometimes I wanted to mention NFT, but the gas price was actually more than the NFT. Whereas in stacks, the entity gas prices, I think it usually costs less than a dollar. Sometimes it's like, you know, 20 cents, you can vent your NFT. I just think that's way more accessible and it's better for artists that people don't have to spend $300 just burning money and gas fees before they can even buy your art.
Yeah. Yeah. I found out about this one platform and they were charging 15% for the commission. In addition, each one, there was a gas fee and I was like, wait a minute. And it shows on open. See, I'm like, I can go to open sea and it's free. There's no gas fees. However, when I first mentioned my NFT, my very first one a year ago, it's still up there. But now when you put something up, it's only there for six months. It, I think with their new migration of the contract, I'm not sure what it is, but now because they put a couple other things on there, it's all, there is no gas fee. The collector pays the gas fee, but it's only up there for six months, but when I did it on, so that's interesting.
And then, and then when I minted on mingle dust, it's up there forever. So it's on open sea forever. You know, even when it's, you know, it doesn't come down, there's not a, like a take-down period. So I thought that was interesting on, on stacks. And if T's, is there a time limit on different marketplaces or is it just when you put it up, it stays up and that's just how it is.
Yeah. So if you're minting it on chain, so let's say it costs, you know, you talked about open, see, I'm only six months. It's probably because in order for it to mint on chain, you would have to pay gas. And so if the artist isn't paying gas, you have to wait for a collector to actually mention on chain with stacks. You know, it might be 50 cents. So you might choose to mint it on chain and not wait. And so once it's on chain, it's, it's available forever. Whether it shows up in different marketplaces or not is up to the marketplace to decide, but it will be identifiable on the chain. So that minting and paying gas is like an important part of making sure it's actually on a blockchain, not just like sitting on a server and not there yet. So that's why, you know, we're, we're excited cause yeah, if you wanted to image like a thousand NFTs on stacks, it'd be, you know, maybe a thousand dollars, like sort of at the peak, maybe closer to a few hundred dollars, which has maybe the cost of one Ethereum gastros actions.
I think there's a lot of flexibility there. And then I think, you know, it's like, Hey layer, they're a great NFT platform on stacks. There's also SDX. And at T there's a couple marketplaces, they all have different features. They're all competing for people to want to use their platform over one or the other. But if it's on chain it's accessible anywhere and you'll be able to see in your wallet,
How many do you think there are right now? Cause I know there was like, there are sound XYZ. There's async for music, there's join Royal blouse thing. So, you know, so if you're like known origin more, if you're a photographer, so are all of them kind of one or okay, if you're a more of this kind of artist or this kind of NFT, do you prefer different marketplaces?
Yeah. I think we're seeing a lot of marketplaces because they make a transaction fee every time someone's trading in an empty or minting at a T if you go through their marketplace. So I think we see a lot of entrepreneurs thinking, Hey, this is a great business to be in. I want to be in the middleman between these transactions. So if I were a creative and I was thinking about where to host, host your NFT or to sell your NFT, I would look at, yeah, what's the percentage take rate, you know, some charge, 10%, some charge 20%. And then also like the type of community you're trying to reach. Like I do think there's like music specific. And if T platforms do a better job of displaying the music than something that like, you know, open see is meant for more visual, visual browsing.
And so they may be kind of missing out on some of the extra functionality. So I do think that there's a lot of options. So I guess it kind of depends, but I do know that things like rare bowl, they make it really easy. If you have NFTs in your wallet, you can have an account on open seat and on rare bowl and elsewhere. So you're not limited to where you post them. It's just a matter of what costs you'll pay. If you sell them on one platform versus the other
And a referable, what does that take? What's that built on?
So right now I think they support Ethereum polygon and maybe another one. So a bunch of Ethereum based chains. I do know that they've been thinking about integrating stacks as well. So we could see that integration maybe later this year, just speculation. We don't have anything in the works with them, but I know that they've, they've considered that in past.
Well, that's what I was, that's what I was gearing towards. Something like that. Cause I don't have anything on rare bull yet, but it looks cool. I know a lot of my friends who were on it like it, so yeah, very cool. You know, I know we've been talking about stacks, but what are some possibilities with stacks that we haven't brought up yet?
Yeah, I think that there is, like I said, I think this idea of earning Bitcoin is really interesting. Two of the projects I'm really excited about right now, one of them is called stacking for causes. So the idea of, you know, you're holding your stacks or owning Bitcoin, what if some of that Bitcoin reward could go towards philanthropic causes? You care about, like you mentioned, you're giving some of your proceeds to efforts in Ukraine, like making it just super easy for people to share in the wealth that they're generating with things that they really care about. So that's something that's in the works through the foundation, we're supporting some of that to make it really easy. There's also some really interesting things happening with cities and crypto.
So one of them is Miami coin. So Miami coin they've actually created a wallet for the city of Miami and people who purchase their token. Part of the rewards do go to this wallet. The mayor of Miami has gone through the legislative steps to be able to use that money. There has been, I think over $30 million raised for the city of Miami so far, they've already put 5 million of that to work for, to support low income housing. So extending free housing for more people in Miami, they're investing it in K through 12 public education, improving it there. And they have some plans to actually be able to give Bitcoin payments to all of the residents in Miami.
So I think that's super fascinating, like this idea that like as a collective, we can improve the places where we live by joining together and even small yields from multiple people can add up to something really big and meaningful for communities.
So Miami coin is on Bitcoin. Yep.
Yeah. So it's built on stacks, which yeah. Then ultimately settles Olympic. Wow.
Very cool. Yeah. I remember last year it was sometime last year, like something happened in San Francisco and the mayor of Miami sent out a tweet and then he's like, I'm here to help. Let's go. Like what can we do? And like a lot of people in San Francisco left and they moved to Miami, I think it was like April last year, then he's like, let's go. I remember. I was like, cause I was like in it, like researching and stuff. So that's really cool to hear what you just said and the possibilities of it being in multiple states and internationally around the world, you know, every single collection I have, I always gift 20% to paying it forward with something that aligns with the project and the people involved.
Cause you know, money's important and I, you know, we have to, we get to eat and make a living and it's fun to collect money and make money, but there's also like an energy and a synergy. And I really find, cause I grew up running cross country. So short-term, medium-term long-term goals and having like the longterm, the vision, but as a cross country runner, like what I do as an individual affects the team, the whole, so I have my score, but then the whole team. So the psychology of NFTs, the psychology of web three, like finally it's like I'm meeting real friends here. I feel like I'm like really connected with my purpose. Now I'm going to get vulnerable, but it's like, I can really connect with people.
And like, they're just like, yes. And it's like, the people are doing like what you're saying. And you know, like I have a friend Ash, Cooper, Kerns, she brought non-profits to, you know, to crypto and she just released some of her stuff. But like, you know, there are people who are bringing healthcare and nonprofit and you know, they're like, oh yeah, it's a trying, it's an uphill battle. That is. But, but it's like, it's the only way we know, you know what I mean? But the communities in the beautiful story that you shared, there's a multi-dimensional projects that are in the works that are already going, that are doing amazing things paying for to really help people in a lot of ways. So I know there's a lot of people who just don't understand yet and get it yet, but for us to be on the forefront and just like talking, I mean sharing and I mean you're gorgeous and young.
So, you know, we're still very young. So we're going to be able to really see, you know, over the next five years, how we're going to be really helping humanity and the planet. So that really, really means a lot to me. Thank you for sharing that.
Yeah. Well thank you for sharing that too. I think that is the wonderful thing is like we can bring our full selves to this environment where it's like, you know, it's great to build stuff and it feels really fulfilling, but it's also great to share stuff and share learnings and pull more people in and help them find like where's your passion, there's a community for you. Let's find where you belong and help you express yourself creatively, you know, use your skillsets however you want. I agree. I think it's been a real gift to be able to be in this industry. And there of course are lots of people who are in it for just the money or there's a lot of people looking to, you know, like feel like a winner and you know, oh, I got the best NFT and I made all this money, but I think that's like a very small percentage.
I think there are a lot of people who are very heart-centered first. So if you're entering the industry, you're new to it. Keep looking and find the community that resonates with you and the people that resonate with you. They're out there. They might not be the first ones you meet, but don't take one in conversation with someone in crypto as like the only way that there is. So I'm glad you're bringing this voice to more people about, yeah, you can show up who you are and the things that you care about matter here too.
Yeah. And, and for the person toony and I have a pink sheet. So if you just go to my website, dot com and put in your email, I have an automation that sends you a pink sheet of divine, feminine energy, who I admire and respect that I've learned along the way. Brittany is definitely on that pink sheet. I probably need to update it and organize it a bit better because there's so many different sectors like photography, music, like like different formats and stuff. Yeah. Very cool. Tell us more about teaching in New York. How long have you been doing that?
Yeah, so I teach in Cornell law school and that's been really fascinating because I am not a lawyer by trade, but I did work with stacks as we went through a regulated process to make it in compliance with what the sec required for tokens. Now we're one of two projects who did that in the U S. And so going through that process, learned a lot about it and recognize that law students who are studying now are coming out and they're the next lawyers. And they're the ones who are helping build the case law for this whole industry. And if they don't understand sort of the fundamentals, it's easy to dismiss it as something not important or, you know, only read about scams or some of the, some of the, you know, edge case, bad things that happen.
So I was really honored to be able to be invited to Cornell and talk about what does the technology do? What does it enable and help lawyers understand that and in their learning so that when they go out in the world and they're interfacing with a crypto deal, or someone's worried about taxes, or what about like lawsuits? Like all of these different areas of law are to be impacted by crypto. So it's been a really fun class to teach. I co-teach it with them with a lawyer in front of mine. She's actually the general counsel at get coin now. So she's finally on the web three space, but it it's just great. I feel really lucky that I get to see the crypto view from new eyes, especially from the legal aspect.
Very nice. That's a, that's a great team to have there, speaking of, kind of diving deep here, cause I'm not sure how it is. I know, I know like manifold XYZ, you know, people are, you know, encouraged to have your own smart contract. So how has that with stacks and Bitcoin, someone creating their own smart contract and putting it on the platforms?
Yeah. So we have our smart contracts are written in clarity and it's a smart contract language. Maybe you've heard of solidity. This is the one built for Bitcoin and stacks algorithm also uses it. And so we have a free clarity universe, so you can learn clarity, pick it up. A lot of the smart contracts are open source on GitHub. So you don't have to start from scratch. And then if you have questions, we have a great community to help out. It's free. It's all open source, free free school, free technology. So we've run them in cohorts right now. Our next cohort I think is kicking off in the next month. We do also have the videos. So if you want to go self-paced, you can do it that way.
I recommend the cohort. Cause you got to like a lot of, you know, interaction with other students. But yeah, we at the foundation, we want education to be free. So we are, we make sure that that's available and we're working with more education partners in web three to get clarity everywhere that we possibly can.
Okay. Well speaking of, I'm just going to add some double-down value here because my team, they had me tic talking right now. So I have to do, I have to do a video Dave for five months, but after what Gary V said, you kind of remind me like a Gary V type and a little bit total boss, but he's like yo like four times, four times. So I'm going to, I'm going to be doing a lot more Tik TOK videos. And I think of me cause I would love to join the cohort. I would love to learn as much as I can about building my own smart contracts and with what's happening in the world, then know what I want to do as an educator because they say, once you're a student in your learning, but when you're a teacher and you teach someone, then you get to learn twice.
If I'm taking it in and learning it as we go along, I can be a brand ambassador and an educator and share what I'm learning and it'll, I'll retain it better. And I can share with other people while I'm onboarding them and set NFTs and stacks and Bitcoin and stuff. And I could be a pioneer with my voice and that'd be really exciting and kind of gives you more ammunition to be more, a part of a collective, more purposeful being. And then just really excited to kind of like show up to the mark, you know, to show up for myself and like knowing I have a responsibility and a duty to share it with other people. So please like think of me. I would love to participate in that coming up.
Yeah. I love that. And also just to mention that at Stax, or we do have grant for people who want to build stuff or create stuff in the community. So as you were saying, Hey, I'm going to create 50 Tik TOK videos about clarity, smart contract. You could put that in a grant application, you could apply for funding. You know, those grants sort of start at like, you know, $500 thousand dollars. They go all the way up to a hundred thousand. Those are usually some big projects. But yeah, I think we've approved grants where someone made multiple YouTube videos for the Polish community. And I think it was a few hundred dollars grant. They were going to do it anyway, but this also just helped them on the production value and everything too. Yeah. Apply for a grant, stax.org.
The grants are open. You can apply at any time.
I'm going to do that. I'm going to brainstorm different ideas and stuff, but I'm going to do it. So anyone listening take action. And then when they get the grant, do they get paid in Bitcoin and stacks? They get paid with crypto.
Yep. You get paid in crypto. So that's a great way to get stocks. And then you can stack them for Bitcoin or you could use them in the community. Exactly. They could go by your NFT with their stocks.
And then it's energy of, you know, on a psychological level, like the community supporting one to get more into web three, without feeling like they're dipping out of their own investments and their own struggles because of the FOMO and the trauma on the generational blah, blah, blah, and all the brainwashed from web two. So it's a great opportunity to be a community builder and have the grant support. So this is really prolific for anyone who hears this. This is awesome. Yeah.
Well I have to see somewhere applications then. That's great. Cause we're, we're really excited. It's up to your imagination, you know, what do you think the community needs and yeah. Make it happen
1000% and I'm circling back around. Cause I know what I was going to say about Hey layer is, and I don't know if other platforms are like this, but what I really liked because it was talking about psychological aspect with the seed phrase in the wallet and you know, it can be very confusing for a lot of people. Like, especially if they have like autism or ADHD or mental health issues and are not go with the electronics and you know, it's not just for like the generation to get involved, but there are people who have shortages in that area. So I think it's really cool with, with, Hey layer, how you can still, you know, get involved and use a credit card and then segue your way into like web three instead of like doing that traumatic, like leap and jump middle ground beside tailored.
Are there other platforms that have that as well with stacks?
Yeah. I think that there's more that are integrating it. I think like Sox, nft.com that's on their roadmap as well as so definitely check them out. Like I said, if you follow us at stack set or you can check out some of the other places, but I know Hey layer is really leading the way there. I think they're a fantastic team and doing some really, really cool stuff.
Yeah. And they did the accelerator program. They were like the very first ones are maybe one of the very, only ones who, who did that accelerator program. So they're just definitely like creme de LA creme in that 1% of, you know, sophistication. And I just, I'm so grateful that I showed up to our Basel to Miami and met you and you're like, oh, you gotta meet all. And then I had no idea that, you know, she was gonna then be on a panel, you know? So it was just meant to be, and, and I'm here, you know, for you for stacks, for hail air. And I mean, you're here for me and, and that's what it's about. And I wish that for people tuning in too, cause you know, for them to check out stacks and lair the platforms and the people, I mean, that's, if you want the people, you know, the sophistication, the class, the community, you know, these are the good people I feel to, to get involved with and to be a part of for longevity.
And that's how I am. I'm more of like a person who looking for the long game here.
Well, thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm really excited. I
Know me too.
It's been fantastic.
Yeah. Any last words or wisdoms thoughts that you want to get out there, programs anything and then ways for people to, you know, get in touch with you. Yeah.
So I'd love to see you guys in Miami or first week of April, if you're able to join us Bitcoin unleashed.org. And if you want to follow along updates on stacks on Twitter stacks org, you can learn more about our grants program, our free clarity, smart contracts, university, and all the other great things that are happening in our ecosystem. So I hope to see you guys there, or you can follow me on Twitter directly. B R underscore, TT, and Y my DMS are open, happy to chat and hopefully help you find the right place where you can express yourself and what three.
Beautiful, beautiful. Thank you Brittany, for being here and she's all over the place and please subscribe. If you're not subscribing already share this on social media platforms, leave a comment, let us know what you learned. Shoot me an email and go to the website. You can see all the collections I have on hay layer because of Brittany and there's three collections of right now. And Hey, jump in even, you know, if you don't have a crypto wallet yet you can get it on a debit card or credit card and you can pick up your first NFT on stacks and Bitcoin. That would really, really mean a lot to me. If you take a screenshot and you send it to me, I'll give you a shout out on the podcast.
Okay. So you take a screenshot, you send it to me and I'll make sure Brittany sees it and knows about it as well. All right. We'll tune in next week. Thank you so much for being here. Bye-bye thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time over and out.