Emmanuel Quezada, CEO of U-topia, discusses the launch of their ecosystem, including projects like Polyglot and U-trader, as well as their upcoming token launch and partnership with Bybit. The episode delves into U-topia's focus on children in the crypto and Web3 space, their collaboration with major brands, and their plans for global mass adoption through innovative products and initiatives.
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Key Topics Covered:
- Focus on Kids in the Crypto and Web3 Space: U-topia's CEO, Emmanuel Quezada, emphasizes the importance of creating a safe and educational space for children to learn about crypto and Web3 technologies, aiming to drive mass adoption through youth engagement.
- Innovative Projects and Partnerships: U-topia's projects like Polyglot, AI integration in films, and educational web series for kids showcase their commitment to innovation and collaboration with major brands like Warner Brothers, HSBC, and Coca-Cola.
- Future Plans and Launches: U-topia's upcoming token launch, partnerships with exchanges like Bybit, and plans for an IPO in Abu Dhabi demonstrate their strategic roadmap for growth and expansion in the blockchain space.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let us know in the comments on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@edgeofnft/
Episode Highlights:
- "U-topia was a dream. I always wanted to create this perfect space for kids into the crypto and the web3." -Emmanuel Quezada (00:01:16-00:01:27)
- "I just tell them the truth and I oversimplify everything. And once you oversimplify it, guess what? You get the masses to you." - Emmanuel Quezada (00:18:07-00:18:17)
- "Forget about country. Globally, give wallets to kids, dumb down the technology so a kid can use it. Everyone will be able to use. So that's what we're doing." - Emmanuel Quezada (00:08:52-00:09:02)
For the full transcript, see further below.
People and Resources Mentioned:
- Emmanuel Quezada LinkedIn
- U-Topia Ecosystem LinkedIn
- U-Topia Website
- GDA Capital Website
- ATS Group Website
- Bybit Website
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About Our Guest:
- Bio: Emmanuel Quezada's journey is one of purpose-driven innovation. His leadership symbolizes a union between technology and societal well-being.
- Website: U-Topia
- Twitter: @u_topiastudio
- LinkedIn: Emmanuel Quezada
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Full Episode Transcript:
Josh Kriger: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Nashville, Tennessee. We are live for a very special episode with Emmanuel Quezada, the CEO and co-founder of U-topia, who's back on the show. It's been a minute since we connected in Dubai, and we have some big updates. It was such a pleasure to chat with you before. And as part of this media partnership for your upcoming launch, we want to have you on the show again. Thanks for joining us.
Emmanuel Quezada: Thank you. Yes. Thank you for having me on this show.
Josh Kriger: It's a pleasure. You're doing great stuff in the space and for humanity. We're going to dive into it. But for those at home, Emmanuel Cozada is the CEO and co-founder of U-topia Ecosystem, which is a media crypto Web3 technology ecosystem. And one of the key first projects was Polyglot, which we'll get into. And he's also collaborated with major brands like HSBC, Coca-Cola and Danone. His venture spans GameFi, AI music, and video entertainment IPs, and U-topia recently secured an investment from GDA Capital, as well as sort of an ongoing growth for the community, which we'll talk about as well. So it's great to have you back.
Emmanuel Quezada: Thank you, Josh.
Josh Kriger: It's been a while since we last spoke. Yeah, just to refresh, what kind of compelled you to start U-topia?
Emmanuel Quezada: U-topia was a dream. I always wanted to create this perfect space for kids into crypto and web3. No one talks about the kids, actually. It's interesting. Everyone wants to just create another device, take in whatever protocol, but no one is thinking about how to bring more adoption. So U-topia started as a metaverse for kids and it started to get involved into, okay, all these regulations can be applicable for all the masses. So right now we have products from children, from education to children, to D5 staking for the DGEN community, if you want to talk about it.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, I love that. You know, at NFTA, we had a K12 crypto collaboration and we had over 100 inner city youth from all over Los Angeles that we taught sort of crypto and like, they got it right away. Like, they get it fast.
Emmanuel Quezada: Bro, it's like they're playing video games all day. They understand virtual assets. They understand tokens. Like, bro, their video games have tokens. Like, it's just nothing new. It's just the blockchain in the back.
Josh Kriger: That's it. That's it. So, you know, they are the future in the present of this space. So one of your first projects was Polyglot, right? It was a 70 person team. Sounds like a huge undertaking. What was that like?
Emmanuel Quezada: So I was in Australia. I had a big portfolio of crypto and I'm like, And what I'm going to do with this money? Sure, let's do a production. So we have this amazing equipment, the same as Warner Brothers, Warner Brothers Studios, where as well I participate in Gold Coast, Australia. And we did this amazing production, more than 70 people involved. It was just a kicker for six months of ongoing production. I was the producer and the main actor. But the beautiful thing is that right now we're integrating AI into that film. And we're launching a crowdfunding campaign just to do a web series.
Josh Kriger: So how are you going to use AI?
Emmanuel Quezada: So the title of the movie is called Polyglot. But this one in particular, we're using, actually, we're using it in general. We are an AI that allows you to lip-sync other languages. So for me, it's super frustrating that I'm watching a movie in another language, and with the audio, it's not moving. according to the mic. So yeah, that's the main one that we're doing.
Josh Kriger: So it's pretty sense. Yeah, I mean, the ability to translate in so many different languages. It's powerful.
Emmanuel Quezada: It's annoying. It's just annoying. I know you're an English speaker. But like if you see a French movie, and then you have the English audio, you will see how frustrating it is. Yeah, it's super frustrating. So, yeah, that's one thing that we're working on. But the most important thing is that we have a bunch of NFTs and we're doing this web series for kids. We have Bode, Budgie, Suzuki and we're mixing them into a web series. It's related to football. And this web series is just about a bunch of NFTs that are friends and they educate the kids on what cryptos, what is NFT, what is DeFi, what is all this.
Josh Kriger: That's great. So, you know, you've worked with some major players. You mentioned Warner Brothers. We talked about HSBC and Danone before, Coca-Cola. Yeah. How has that experience, like, contributed to your approach to sort of taking on blockchain?
Emmanuel Quezada: So I have the luck that I come from a really beautiful family. I come from the Quesada
family out of Mexico. My dad owns this company called ATS Group. And we have more than 700 clients, including Coca-Cola, HSBC, Volkswagen. So since I'm 15, 14 years old, I pick up the phone to these executives and I'm like, hello, what can I do? Okay, here you go, my dad. And I respond to emails and all this stuff. And then my dad, as an early adopter of Bitcoin, because he's a programmer and then as well, he does a little bit of Cypher coding and stuff. He just introduced me to Bitcoin and he told me, Mano, do you want to quit the university? Go into Web3. And I'm like, sure. I got enrolled into Oxford. I say no to Oxford and I just put my life into crypto. I quit another two universities and I just say, crypto is my life and I want to do this my whole life. Yeah, so my family was my biggest support.
Josh Kriger: Nice, nice. And like, in terms of those brands, I mean, they're pretty buttoned up, right? So, Web3 is fairly, like, iterative, like agile sprints, like by the day sometimes. How do you sort of balance that in terms of developing high quality products and sort of good communications with sort of the speed of Web3?
Emmanuel Quezada: Well, you have to understand what they want, right? So we provide consultancy services with ATS and as well now with U-topia. What we're doing is that we're going to the same major brands or even bigger brands. We're telling them like, okay, what do we want? Do we want more user acquisition? Do we want more customer retention? Do we want education? Like, do we really want an NFT? Like, that's really, really what you want. And they just get lost on the terminology. So what we do is that we just hyper-simplify the language. Say, we just use like corporate currencies instead of tokens or crypto, so they don't get scared. And we educate them on what is going to be in the future. And from the education, they brainstorm themselves, and they're the ones pitching us the idea. So it's not us pitching them. It's like, no, here's the education. Get creative. Let's brainstorm. Cool. Let's do it together.
Josh Kriger: I love that. Yeah. So, you know, I got to ask, like, um, there hasn't been that many washing projects that focus on, on kids, right? Like we had quick toys on the show. Shout out to those guys. Um, you know, they're doing some cool stuff. Those I reflect on, like the 300 plus episodes, like, um, you know, tiny tap, the students in great education for, for kids, but it's a fairly uncharted set of water. What's been sort of the feedback you've gotten from the community and maybe like, you know, not only Web 3, but Web 2 and sort of the intersection of kids and blockchain. Is everyone receptive? Are there concerns?
Emmanuel Quezada: Well, I fight a lot with the DGENs. I really like fighting all the time with them because I try to do everything well regulated, well structured. We partner with these governments. We were part of the occasion, part of the United Nations. So it's beautiful, right? We have really executive and governmental
connections. We cannot create anything illegal. So all the agents get mad. But as soon as I tell them, bro, we need to onboard the kids, they're like, oh yeah, it's true. How good, duh. So right now, my dream, and I know that I will do it pretty soon, but it's taking time with the regulators. We're going to launch a wallet for children. And we want to be the first wallet for children. Legal, compliant wallet for children with insurance. And it's just magical that no one can dispute that this is the key for mass adoption globally. Like, forget about the country. Globally, give wallets to kids, dumb down the technology so a kid can use it. Everyone will be able to use it. So that's what we're doing.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, I mean, you just have to do the math, right? The 12-year-old today is the 22-year-old in 10 years. And they are, so they're going to be here in Nashville at these events. Yeah, right.
Emmanuel Quezada: There's a bunch of kids around. There's a bunch of kids running out KOLs on TikTok with millions and millions of followers talking about NFTs. I'm like, yo, you need to want it. Because, yeah, for them to own MetaMask, it's super illegal, especially in the United States. If you're in the United States, don't own a MetaMask if you're under 18. Super illegal, so we want to provide a safe space. When kids lose passwords, it looks like these private keys. Rather, we want to provide a simple app for them to have these tokens. So that's the future of U-topia.
Josh Kriger: Well, we talked about the wallet. You've got some other cool projects you're doing. You mentioned some sort of trading product that you just launched?
Emmanuel Quezada: Yeah, so right now it's live. You guys can go to u-trader.com. We create with the help of Yellow. Later on, I will explain why it's Yellow. So we create these amazing decks, the centralized exchange with all the centralized exchange functionality. So you can do all the trading, you can block bots. It's just like the MetaTrader 4 for the traders, the MetaTrader 4 for WebTree. Super easy to use, a Google account, done. You do all your trades and by the end of the day, when you clock off, all the funds get back to your MetaMask. So you don't have the FTX uncertainty. And what chains is it compatible with? Right now we're on Linea. We're integrating BNB. We're integrating Ethereum. And we're fighting to integrate Tone, but Tone is not making it easy at all. So, Tone, if you're hearing this, help us. Your wallet is hard to integrate.
Josh Kriger: But, you know, like, it would be great to get Tone on board. Obviously, they're doing something right with gaming. We just talked about Hamster Combat. Yeah. 250 million users in like a series of a few months.
Emmanuel Quezada: Yeah. Tried it? I tried. Right now, I think that we're going to do a partnership with NotCoin. No, I'm not going to watch the first one. It's interesting. Later on, I can explain to you how it really works. The real business model behind it. It's a big surprise. It's a massive surprise. But I think that soon we're going to see what this is about.
Josh Kriger: All right. A little bit of pre-alpha here.
Emmanuel Quezada: Mate, it's way more complex than people think. Way more complex. It's not tapping at all.
Josh Kriger: Yeah. Alright, so I'm gonna get the scoop tonight from Manuel, and then I'll fill you guys in eventually. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Emmanuel Quezada: No secrets. It wasn't me. If he knew the secret, it wasn't me.
Josh Kriger: So let's talk a little bit more about your upcoming launch. There's a token sort of in the future, obviously not financial advice, but what's going on there with the big TGE?
Emmanuel Quezada: Well, we've been running Utopia for three years and a half, and I've been dreaming about this. Like seriously, I cannot sleep more than five hours. frame about TGA, TGA, TGA, like my brain is just focusing on this and it's going to be focusing on that forever.
Josh Kriger: We should turn those dreams into some IP and do some pretty fun dreams.
Emmanuel Quezada: No, so now that we have the TGA coming, we have seven exchanges lined up. We're in a conversation with top exchanges, you know, Binance, Bybit, all these ones, OPEX. And right now, we're super excited to see what is going to be the future of Viewpoint. We have a massive community behind us, ready to pump. Over 10,000, right? Way more than 10,000. We're reaching, just one AMA did two million. We have a lot of support, so yeah, it's coming well. Two million? On what channel? That was on Twitter. Okay, yeah, let's go I saw saying yeah, like that was insane just blew up. Yeah, what's that? At the beginning I thought it was like 40-50 people and by the end of the call the CMO of the company was like yeah It was a reach out of 10 to me now. Wow. Well, who goes to the AMA? It's a new DAO that is coming. Oh M3. Yeah M3. All right.
Josh Kriger: Shout out to M3. That's right. M3 is cool Yeah, getting it down on Twitter.
Emmanuel Quezada: Yeah, they're crazy So, yeah, no, the TG is seriously where I'm obsessed. Like, I'm just dreaming about it and I think that it's going to be a beautiful, beautiful opportunity for everyone. And once that we're alive, people will see what Utopia is really about. I'm prepared to show the world what we can do.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, you know, often we do content series with partners after THE because a lot of folks don't appreciate that the hard work just begins at THE. Like, essentially all this work that you've done, you understand this. This is just the beginning.
Emmanuel Quezada: Yeah, I know. It's time to go to Bullock. I literally created a Twitter account like two weeks ago. I didn't have a Twitter account, so like... Be your own? Yeah, my own, because I'm just too busy working that I don't have time for social media, but I'm prepared to go to the world and tell them what is utopian. Yeah, and who is EQ? Who is EQ and where is he coming from?
Josh Kriger: So are there any sort of milestones after TG that you can speak to or sort of high-level roadmap plans?
Emmanuel Quezada: Yeah, so we're going to be doing a lot in the United States in 2026. The FIFA World Cup is going to be happening here. I cannot tell you much of what we have prepared, but that's the future goal. I'm preparing for an IPO. In the next two years, I hope that U-topia can do a strong IPO out of Abu Dhabi. And right now the main focus is just launching the token, launching the network, and bridge as many chains as you can with Layer 0. For people that don't know what Layer 0 is, it allows you to make your token compatible with other tokens. and just go and start creating as many products as you want. So if you have a startup, you're looking for investment, you're looking for tokens, you're looking for a network, you're looking for partners, you can come to U-topia, you can enroll, and we'll support you to create really good compliant products for the masses.
Josh Kriger: That's great. When it comes to sorting out the geographic distribution of your community and where you think these products will get adopted, what are your initial thoughts? I mean, obviously, Asia, early adopters in the gaming space. Super. But, you know, TinyTap is in Israel and, you know, European communities are really pioneering around education. Like, where do you see the democratic for this type of ecosystem?
Emmanuel Quezada: For me, it was extremely impactful. Two months ago, I went to Malaysia, and we hosted a dinner. And part of the community came, right? So they're like, OK, I'm sorry. And this old 60-year-old lady, she's a cool girl. She's cool. She's part of my community. So I'm like, I almost cry. I'm like, wow, I'm super proud that I reached this demographic. I'm not talking to the DJ boy, whatever. It's the only thing that I do trading and watch videos all day. No, I'm talking about the cooks from 60 to 70 years old in Malaysia. They barely speak English so I can just pay respect and say, thank you for supporting me. Like, bro, that was like crying for me. So we have all types of communities.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, and how do you attract such a broad sort of base? Is it sort of the broad entertainment IP approach that you think is going to enroll these masses?
Emmanuel Quezada: I have two rules. Don't tell lies and don't play around. You can substitute play with other words. I have those two rules. I just don't play with people. I just tell them the truth and I oversimplify everything. And once you oversimplify it, guess what? You get the masses to you. Just tell the truth, simplify everything, everyone will understand we're humans. And the language barrier is not a problem. Right now we have more than nine or ten languages that are distributing our content. Yeah. Thai, Russian, Hebrew.
Josh Kriger: Yeah. Very cool. So, I know you're talking to these exchanges, you're working on some unique plans moving forward, but you already have something going on with Bybit?
Emmanuel Quezada: Well, sure. So, I think that I can say this, U-topia is super proud to be the first launch pool on Bybit. This is... So what does that mean, Launchpad? So everyone, it's an alpha, everyone should start researching what is this super new, super, super new. Normally what you do, what you did in 2017, you do an ICO, you put it on your website, everyone sends Ethereum, you get a token. In the last bull run, you get into a Launchpad, you take some tokens, you get part of the community, you invest early, then you get vesting, and then you get the token. And now there is this other thing where we put a pool of a big amount of tokens, people take the tokens and then they get the tokens back. So that's a new, let's say that is a new launch path. But yeah, it's called Launchpool. So yeah, that's U-topia, the first one. There are a lot of big players doing the same. I can tell there are a few launched, but we'll be changing their business model to Launchpool pretty fast. It's pretty good.
Josh Kriger: I mean, obviously, regulations change. Exchange is always adapting. It makes sense to sort of make sure you do things by the book and sort of push the envelope, right?
Emmanuel Quezada: Mate, it's not even hard. It's simple. It's not even hard. Just read basic. Just read the law.
Emmanuel Quezada: pay a good lawyer like yeah watch a video like i don't know yeah get it get it here yeah yeah yeah they have good content just do it
Josh Kriger: It's exciting, man. Really looking forward to sort of seeing what happens with this beautiful ecosystem you're building for the kids. If folks want to dive down the rabbit hole, get involved in U-topia, where do you recommend they go first?
Emmanuel Quezada: Go to the apes. Watch them. And they are going to put the links of Utopia. Go to Twitter. I think that that's a low-hanging fruit. Telegram if you're a kid or YouTube if you and if you're a kid Just don't get crazy. Don't purchase anything. You said okay to yourself, watch our videos on Twitter. They're fun. They're nice cartoons. No, nothing crazy. Nothing bad on me Super safe for children that doesn't most important thing right now
Josh Kriger: Right on. Well, always a pleasure.
Emmanuel Quezada: Yes. Thank you, guys. Thanks for your community. And thanks for posting me again from Dubai to the United States, bro. Was a long journey.
Josh Kriger: Absolutely. And yeah, let's have some fun in Nashville. Yeah. Thank you, guys. See you soon.
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