In this sponsored episode of the Edge of NFT series, we feature Umair Masoom, the Founder and CEO of Myco, a pioneering global blockchain-based video streaming platform. With nearly 20 years of expertise in marketing strategy, digital transformation, and blockchain innovation, Umair delves into the forefront of Web3 technology. He discusses how AI is facilitating media decentralization, enhancing community engagement, and promoting equitable monetization for creators. Explore the transformative capabilities of NFTs and the groundbreaking influence of AI on the content industry. Join us for insightful perspectives on the future of Web3 and the vibrant intersection of AI and blockchain technology!

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This episode is brought to you by Myco, the world's fastest growing Web3 streaming platform.

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Please enjoy!

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Listen or watch this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Myco, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Castbox, Iheart Radio, YouTube, YouTube, Amazon, Audible, or on your favorite platform. Remember with Myco.IO you earn for your attention.

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Key Topics Covered:

◆ Myco is set to transform the streaming landscape by establishing a “viewer economy,” allowing users to earn rewards for content consumption, thereby empowering both viewers and creators.

◆ The platform has experienced rapid growth, amassing 10 million users and streaming significant sports events such as the Cricket World Cup, with a goal of reaching 14 million users by the tournament's conclusion.

◆ Myco aims to transition its entire video infrastructure to an on-chain model by the end of 2025, although this presents substantial technical hurdles regarding scalability and performance.

◆ The company is developing a regulated crowdfunding platform that will enable viewers to invest in film and TV projects, initially launching in the UAE with plans for broader expansion.

◆ Myco’s strategy emphasizes building a large user base that can earn rewards before introducing more complex Web3 functionalities like crowdfunding, effectively using popular content to gradually onboard users into Web3.

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For the full transcript, see further below. 

People and Resources Mentioned: 

• Umair Masoom Linkedin
• Myco https://myco.io/ 

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About Our Guest + Headshot: 

• Bio: Umair Masoom Usmani is the Founder and CEO of myco, a groundbreaking blockchain-based video streaming platform. With nearly two decades of experience in marketing and business strategy, he has held leadership roles in media and entertainment. A proponent of blockchain innovation, Umair launched Myco to empower viewers through a decentralized content economy, significantly impacting the streaming landscape. His work has garnered recognition in major media outlets globally.
• Twitter: Umair myco
• Instagram: umairmasoomusmani
• LinkedIn: Umair Masoom Usmani

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Disclaimer:

This is not financial or tax advice. Edge of NFT content is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Whenever making financial decisions, we recommend doing your own research and talking to your accountant for financial advice. Disclosure: From time-to-time we may feature sponsored content for which we receive value and we may share links for which we receive a commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. See our full Disclaimer (https://www.edgeofnft.com/disclaimer), Terms & Conditions (https://www.edgeofnft.com/terms-of-use), Privacy Policy (https://www.edgeofnft.com/privacy-policy), and Copyright Notice (https://www.edgeofnft.com/copyright-notice) for details. 

Full Episode Transcript:

Umair Masoom: Hey, this is Umair Masoom from Myco, where we're rapidly taking streaming to a whole new level with a truly decentralized content platform, which is for everyone. And you're tuned into the Edge of NFT, the show which is exploring the next level of Web3 technology for everyone. Keep listening.

Josh Krieger: Hey, Web3 curious listeners, stay tuned for today's episode to learn how Myco is flipping the script on how content creators, sports streamers, and independent filmmakers engage with their audiences and advertisers. Also, why is Myco aiming to move its entire video infrastructure on-chain by 2025? And what does that require? Lastly, what unique independent films did our guest suggest you check out? All this and more at the Edge of NFT. Cue the intro.

Josh Krieger: Welcome to the Edge of NFT, the podcast that brings you the top 1% of Web3 today and what will stand the test of time. We explore the nuts and bolts of the business side and also the human element of how Web3 is changing the way we interact with the things we love. This podcast is for the dreamers, disruptors, and doers who are pumped about this ecosystem and driving where it goes next.

Josh Krieger: Welcome to the Edge of NFT, the podcast created by Jeff Kelly, Ethan Jenney, and myself, Josh Krieger, featuring a variety of top-notch guests and other hosts. It's another production of the Edge of Company, a quickly-growing media ecosystem empowering the pioneers of Web3 tech and culture, responsible for other groundbreaking endeavors like the Outer Edge Innovation Festival in Los Angeles and Riyadh. Today's episode is sponsored as part of Meteor Partnership and features Umair Masoom Ousamani, the visionary co-founder and managing director of Myco, the world's fastest growing Web3 streaming platform. Under Umair's leadership, Myco has secured the rights to stream the ICC Cricket World Cup and the launch of paid subscriptions in the USA. Lumiere's innovative approach and dedication position Myco as a trailblazer in the Web3 and media sectors, driving community participation and equitable monetization for creators. Myco is the world's fastest-growing Web3 streaming platform, revolutionizing the digital media landscape by introducing the viewer economy. Launched in 2021, Myco now boasts 10 million users and has revolutionized the streaming industry with its viewer economy, empowering both viewers and content creators. The platform supports over 1 million user-generated videos, 100-plus live-streamed sports events, and has funded 200 original projects. With a mission to decentralize media, Myco is transitioning its infrastructure on-chain by 2025, aiming to enhance data storage and consumption. Hey, Umair. How are you doing?

Umair Masoom: I'm good, Josh. It's so good to be here. It's good working with you.

Josh Krieger: Yeah, it's been a journey. I still have very fond memories of our time in Riyadh, which I guess was almost, I guess a little over a month ago, but seems like so long ago with all the travels going on and how fast this industry is moving.

Umair Masoom: Yeah, and we keep seeing each other, right? Every time you're in Dubai, every time I'm in Riyadh, we're always meeting each other, which is great.

Josh Krieger: Yeah, and for our listeners, we're really thrilled to have Myco as our video partner for Outer Edge Riyadh. They taped all of our sessions and we'll be airing that content in the future. So thank you for your support there.

Umair Masoom: You're welcome. You know, we're very proud of this partnership. And as you know now, the Outer Edge content is also there on our fast TV channel. This is Myco TV. So yeah, you know, we've got so much synergy here and it's just great.

Josh Krieger: Yeah, we're super excited to reach new audiences that you all have cultivated with your channel. I'm really hoping some people go from cricket fans to Web3 fans because they join because of cricket and then they watch our podcast and they're hooked, you know?

Umair Masoom: That's the idea. So, you know, I think when Web3 started evolving into consumer case studies and, you know, consumer use cases like gaming and streaming, you know, there was initially a term that you might remember, which was play to earn. And there was some competition to Myco. There were a few platforms that came up with the tagline of watch to earn. And that's where Myco said that, no, it cannot be watch to earn. It has to be watch and earn. Because at the end of the day, this is the entire idea of what you just said, Josh, that people have to come in to watch cricket or football or to watch a film or a show that they love or to follow a content creator that they follow on an existing platform like YouTube or TikTok or Twitch. And then, you know, within that journey, they realize that now they're part of the Web3 world or the Web3 economy because everything that has been built in terms of the Web3 layer is so seamless. It's so natural that, you know, the transition from Web2 to Web3 becomes organic to them. And that is where then they start exploring the world of Web3. They start looking at, you know, other projects. They start looking at investment opportunities. They start looking at great content like the ones that you produce, which is obviously Web3 native. And that is fundamentally the entire idea behind scaling Myco to a level that you see it at today with more than 10 million users and these hundreds of thousands of videos showing everything from the Cricket World Cup to the Premier League to all the other popular sports and having all of those titles on the platform is to make sure that we become that bridge which brings in essentially hundreds of millions of new users into Web3.

Josh Krieger: Well, I'm hoping one day you guys will also be working with the NBA because I'm a big Boston Celtics fan. And it's been really hard to watch the games live when I've been traveling. So I'm glad to be back in LA where I can catch the finals. It's going to be a good series. We'll see where things fall when this airs. But that aside, I appreciate everything you're saying. You know, I think the watch, we've talked about this on stage and privately, the watch and earn blockchain category has been quite tumultuous, competitive, and complicated, to say the least. So I have a lot of respect for what you guys have achieved and glad to be part of the family. We'll get into all that. But first, just like, let's take a step back and talk a little bit about your founding journey and the vision behind Myco.

Umair Masoom: Sure. So obviously, you know me, a lot of the people who are listening to the podcast do not. So I started my career in media and entertainment in this part of the world. And I work for some of the traditional television channels in the category of entertainment and sports entertainment. So the first decade of my life was largely within media and entertainment. And I was mostly looking after commercial operations, syndication, and content licensing and monetization as well, which is where the flair for obviously the content business and the streaming business also comes from. But then I moved into financial services and fintech. And that is essentially, you know, what led me to learn blockchain technology, you know, because fintech was like a natural migration into blockchain. And I became very passionate about crypto. So I was the head of marketing for some of the largest companies here in Dubai, I was actually the chief marketing officer for one of the largest conglomerates, when I decided to launch Myco. And I think it was a combination of my prior experience whereby I had seen the media industry really close and upfront. And my passion towards blockchain, you know, I was obviously since 2017, I was a passionate crypto investor. But my passion was not driven by the fact that crypto was making me money. It was, you know, it was making money for everyone who was an early adopter. But that was not the real thing. I think for me, it was the technology and the potential of decentralization, right? And whenever I used to apply the fundamentals of decentralization onto the industry that I loved the most, which was content and video streaming and broadcast, you know, the possibilities would always amaze me. And, you know, those possibilities would always leave me sleepless, you know, on those nights. And I would wake up thinking and I would be like, you know, this is like that perfect marriage, you know, the marriage between video consumption, the video broadcast industry, and Web3. This is like the perfect marriage, because what it does is that it addresses the problems on both sides of the equation, right? And Just to keep it very quick, what's the largest issue as far as the media industry is concerned? There are three key stakeholders within the media industry or the video broadcast industry, as I'd call it. One is obviously the consumer, which is the viewer. And this is where we came up with the idea of the viewer economy because we felt that the viewer was not empowered enough within the current content economy. The viewer does not have enough financial power. They do not have a stake within the monetization of the economy. And they don't have enough power to actually be a part of the creative process. Because so when you give financial power to the viewer through the watch and earn ecosystem that we've created, that is not the ultimate objective. The ultimate objective is that when you empower them, they are essentially going to realize that they also have the financial power to invest back into the ecosystem. which means that you can bring billions, millions and billions of investors into the content economy, which solves the second problem for the second most important actor within the ecosystem, which is the creators, because the creators and filmmakers and content producers, they do not have enough funding opportunities right now. because the funding is largely centralized, it's sitting in a few pockets, whereas when you democratize the whole process by empowering the consumer, creating a viewer economy, you're not just giving the viewer a part of the revenue, you're essentially empowering the viewer to be able to contribute economically back into the equation, invest into content, decentralize the entire financing process as far as film and TV is concerned. And that is where the key disruption is, right? Because then that solves all of the problems on the creator side and the filmmaker side, because right now in that centralized world, the creators are not getting that power as well. And lastly, that solves so many problems for the platforms as well. Because right now, there are so many platforms that are losing subscribers, losing followers, because of lack of loyalty. And being an expert on Web3, you understand that there is no better way to create absolute loyalty amongst your consumers than to work on Web3 technologies. So yeah, this is where it all came about. And then, you know, I kind of connected the dots and we were able to launch Myco.

Josh Krieger: Very cool. Yeah, it's exciting to hear sort of how these different sort of touch points all came together for you and sort of into, you know, one harmonious outcome, if you will. And you guys have continued to evolve. We'll talk about some of those things that have come up over the last year and are coming up, but I want to kind of go back to, you know, the starting point, you mentioned, which was sort of onboarding that cricket audience and I'm just personally curious. how that came about and what their response was to this new experience of watching cricket. Because a lot of these platforms have tried to start with a Web3 audience, which obviously they have the domain knowledge and they're sort of programmed, if you will, to appreciate sort of a reward mechanism. You worked with a very traditional audience there that, you know, they're normally hanging on the couch with their friends or at a bar, you know, watching the game. And now there's this new experience. So what was that sort of onboarding process like and how did they respond?

Umair Masoom: So I think for us, the most important reason for our success, Josh, has been the fact that we are not trying to build a token economy. Right. And a lot of the Web3 projects, when they try and come into Web 2.5 experiences or, you know, basically create this intersection between Web 2 and Web 3, the largest mistake that they're trying to make is that their focus is on a token economy. Whereas Myco has always been true to its objective. And the objective being that we want to drive real consumers into the Web3 world. And it was very funny because I was talking to someone and I heard something really interesting where there was a speaker in one of the conferences. And he said that the biggest problem with Web3 is that it's not a B2C industry yet. And he's like, it's a B2G industry. And can you guess what the G was?

Josh Krieger: I'm thinking about it. Yeah, I'm not sure.

Umair Masoom: Yeah, so he said it's business to gamblers and business to geeks. So it's basically B2G squared, right? But yeah, I found that really interesting because the problem is that if you really want to target the real consumer, you cannot expect them to change their habits from day one. So which means that if I'm a consumer who's used to watching cricket or football, I need to get the cricket or football at the same experience level. If I'm used to watching it for free, I want to get it for free. If I'm used to watching it against the subscription, fine, I can watch it against the subscription. Web3 needs to elevate that experience. Web3 needs to add something, not change that experience, not change that UI, UX, not change that customer journey. Don't try and reinvent the wheel. You need to first go into the same journey, capture the consumer, and then tell the consumer what extra you're doing with the Web3 aspect of your offering. which is exactly what we did. So our user acquisition campaigns are very simple on all the live sports that we've done, including the Cricket World Cup, for example, if you see. Our campaign is very simple, whereby we're saying, OK, here's the same piece of content that you're looking for on another platform. We're offering it to you with an interface which is almost similar. But at the same time, there's something extra that you're getting. which is that we're actually giving you a part of the economics through our watch and earn model, which means that you're actually making something as part of the advertising revenue that the platform is getting. And again, even that messaging, this I'm trying to explain to you, so it's slightly complicated, but when it comes to the consumer, it's as simple as come watch the cricket World Cup that you're looking for and earn. And even the earnings, what we've done is that, especially in the past one year, if you look at how Myco has grown, we have actually not incentivized the consumers to extract their rewards on-chain. We have actually preferred that the consumers are extracting their rewards off-chain, which means that they're getting their money in fiat, they're getting their money in their bank accounts, they're getting their money in their traditional mobile wallets. And the ramping or the on-ramping or the off-ramping that's happening is essentially happening at the backend. Myco is managing it for them in a way that they don't even realize. And this is where you tend to capture the interest of the consumer, because now the consumer is getting used to it. So all of these 10 million users that we have, hopefully by the end of the Cricket World Cup, we're targeting to be at around 14 million. But now all of these 14 million consumers, they are actually used to making a part of the revenue from the platform. So tomorrow, let's say after six months, now we have an incremental incentive for them to be able to extract their rewards in the Myco tokens with one additional step that they have to do. They're all going to go for it. Why? Because by now they know that this economy is legit. It's not an economy where there is a platform that is just minting free tokens and giving them away, because if that was the case, how would we pay them in fiat? So we've been paying them in fiat, which means that they already understand that this is a real economy. And now we're going to give them an extra incentive to come and, you know, do the same redemption of rewards within the Myco token, which is where it becomes simple for them and easy for them to understand.

Josh Krieger: Yeah. So I think one of the keys, if I'm not mistaken, to this economy working is, you know, advertising dollars that are coming in and rewarding people for paying attention, right? Like this is a fundamental shift in sort of the psychology of viewing, which I think is important to point out. You know, even if you get paramount you unless you pay for the plus, you get the commercial breaks and you pay less money for those commercials. You know, essentially, you're still paying in this case, you're flipping the script on that where you're watching this content, your time, your attention has value in society. And and then you're rewarding the user for their time, essentially.

Umair Masoom: Yeah, because remember, the user is the commodity here. You know, the advertiser is interested in the eyeball of the consumer. And, you know, this has always been my argument towards the watch and earn economy, because, you know, people are like, why would you want to pay a user? You know, they're happy watching content without being paid. And one of the things that I said always is that it's not about them being used to it. It's about this being their right. It's about this being more fair. It's about this being more transparent. It's about this being more equitable because it is their eyeball at the end of the day, which is leading to that entire advertising economy growing and becoming so big. You could have the best piece of content And if no one is watching, there is no advertiser advertising because the impression is targeted towards the eyeball that is actually consuming that content. And even from an advertiser standpoint, one thing that we've experimented with, Josh, and I think we're very successful in doing this, is so till now, the Myco platform has got almost thousands of advertisers that come in through programmatic deals, which is obviously the online ad exchanges, which are all programmatic. They're not really in our control. This is inventory that is largely coming from platforms like Google. But then there's almost 300 advertisers still now that we've captured ourselves, which is the direct ad sales model that we have. And when we've done that, one thing that we've been able to crack is that we've been able to sell to the advertisers the reasoning behind a more valuable eyeball. So we've been able to go to advertisers and tell them that, hey, listen, Myco now has created an economy and an ecosystem whereby the consumer is more engaged in power. He's empowered. He's participating. He's making money. He's being able to deploy that money back. He's part of the community that creates content. He can go fund content creators. He can vote for content creators. He feels more at home. Now, you right now are paying a $1 CPM, let's say, for an audience or a consumer who is not really interested in the ad because he's got nothing to do with this content economy. He's only interested in the content, whereas Myco has created an economy where the consumer is vested. they're more engaged. They're part of the community. Will you pay me a higher CPM compared to the $1 that you're paying to a platform where there is no engagement for the consumer? There's no extra engagement for the consumer?

Josh Krieger: Yeah, you have a more, you know, instead of a consumer that's checking their phone, maybe during commercial breaks, they're actually, you know, willing to pay a little bit more attention to these commercials, because they have at the end of the game, naturally, they're going to be more invested. So we have a lot more to cover. So let's flip the script and talk about the content creators. In addition to large organizations like the Cricket League that we talked about and other sports leagues that you've onboarded, you have podcasts like Edge of NFT and other types of content where content creators are empowered to, sort of reach additional audiences that maybe they wouldn't have access to and sort of be rewarded for that. I'm curious sort of how this sort of relationship is structured, how content creators are able to sort of maintain control over their work, and what success stories you can share so far.

Umair Masoom: So I think the beauty of a Web3 model is that it is fair and it is so transparent that it works really well for third-party publishers and content creators. And when I say content creators, I'm also talking about, you know, all of those entities and institutions like yourself, Josh, that are sitting on thousands and thousands of watch hours, you know. example, other examples are for example, there's a TV channel sitting somewhere in Kenya, you know, they've got like 1000s of watch hours in their library, and they don't know how to monetize that content on digital. Right now, the only option that all of these institutions have is traditional a word platforms like YouTube or Twitch, and they can go and upload content on those platforms create their own channel. But they know that when they do that, the advertising dollars that are coming in on their content, they're only making 50% of it because 50% is being taken away by the Web2 platform. Whereas in a Web3 economy, what we're saying is that the revenue only gets distributed between the content publishing person, the entity that owns the IP or distributes the content on the platform or licenses the content, which, for example, in the case of the Cricket World Cup, since Myco has paid for the license fees, Myco becomes the creator or the publisher. But in the case of Edge of NFT, Josh is the owner or Josh and team are the owners of that content, and they have their own channel within the Myco platform. So why should Myco keep 50% of the revenue that drops in on your content? Myco is only a decentralized platform, right? And this is exactly what we're trying to inculcate, which is a 65-35 split of net revenues. Obviously, after the cost of the infrastructure is deducted, the net revenues are distributed 65-35. 65 goes to the creator, which is still 15% higher than what a creator would get on YouTube. And the remaining 35 goes to their viewers, which means that we are actually empowering the creators to build their own community. So yeah, that's how it's really good for the creators. The other thing also that we do is that we don't have any minimum barrier to entry. Why should a creator have to wait for 1,000 watch hours or 5,000 subscribers before they can actually get their first monetization? So on Myco, the very first impression that gets delivered on your content, you already are making 65% of the ad dollars that are dropping in. And it's a very simple economic model, which is built on Web3 fundamentals. So the last thing you asked is about a case study. I think a great case study is all of these new partner channels that now we have, you know, on the platform, you know, things like ESTV, which is, again, one of the largest eSports channels. You know, we have Willow TV now, which is actually how we are expanding into the US and North America as a whole, including US and Canada, which is also a partnership. It's a rev-share partnership.

Josh Krieger: So while we wait, what type of content do they have?

Umair Masoom: So for example, Willow TV is largely a cricket channel. It's a TV channel that broadcasts cricket.

Josh Krieger: All those diehard cricket fans that are landlocked in the US now have a way to sort of enjoy cricket.

Umair Masoom: Exactly. And again, the most interesting thing here is that while we've paid millions of dollars for the cricket rights here in Southeast Asia, In the US and Canada, the rights are still staying with Willow TV, whereas Willow TV, which is a TV channel, is using Myco as a distribution platform because they believe in the fundamentals of a decentralized economy. They feel empowered on it, right? And which is the beauty of what we are creating.

Josh Krieger: Nice. Fast forward, we mentioned at the beginning of the show that you have this ambitious target to move Myco's entire infrastructure on chain by 2025, which is just around the corner at this point, I guess, seven months away as we're sort of filming this conversation. I'm really curious, what are the sort of challenges in achieving this goal and what benefits are you anticipating?

Umair Masoom: Yeah, I believe end of 2025. And when we say by 2025, it's the end of 2025. Okay, so giving ourselves a little bit more latitude there. But see, again, it's a very challenging ask. We are all working towards this because fundamentally we can't create the largest video streaming app or the content super app as we like to call us when the infrastructure is actually hosted on a Web2. a server like Amazon or AWS or Azure or all of these partners that we're working with, even Huawei now we're working with. So we can't really call ourselves a decentralized streaming platform until the infrastructure also moves online. Also, even if we just take a step back and we try and understand the entire concept of a decentralized video economy. I think the biggest problem that exists today is that when a content creator, when you today publish your content on Instagram or Facebook, and again, this is not specific, I'm not talking specifically Facebook or Meta, I'm just giving an example, is that when you publish your content as Edge of NFT on Facebook or Instagram, you're saying, you know, that content is sitting on my channel, it is my content. But really, is it your content? Unless that content is hosted on chain, is it really your content? No, because that content is hosted on a server somewhere, which is in someone's control. If that person wants, they can take it off, right? Whereas if the content was hosted on chain, there would be thousands and millions of more validators which were contributing to that bandwidth, which is essentially hosting your content. which would mean that you being a part of that network, because you would also be a part of that network, you would really own that content, right? So from the perspective, the fundamental perspective of really disrupting the video streaming industry, it is not possible until a video streaming platform, which is built at scale with hundreds of millions of users, hopefully, Myco, will get there in the next three to five years, as we envision. needs to be on chain, you know, all the infrastructure, all the storage, all the consumer data, all the user data needs to be on chain, because if the user wants to monetize it, if the user doesn't want, they don't monetize it. The third party should not be allowed to go and monetize the user's data. But again, that protection is only possible if it's hosted on chain, right? So now coming back to the, you know, how realistic it is.

Josh Krieger: Yeah, the challenges, like what goes into making that happen?

Umair Masoom: Yeah, so what goes into making that happen is the fact that, you know, while there is so much talk about the blockchain technology, and again, there's great momentum, there's great movement, but in terms of scalability, unfortunately, right now, there is no single blockchain out there, there's no single video, even storage infrastructure, Web3 firm out there, that can actually serve to Myco's requirement of having, let's say, a million concurrent users on our ICC World Cup stream, which is happening right now today.

Josh Krieger: You know, even we see how projects like, you know, ordinals is already clogging the pipes and how the pipes can even get where polygon with NFTs. So we're talking about streaming. You know, it's a whole different level from like even music NFTs, which are, you know, audio only for three to five minutes. This is a massive amount of bandwidth.

Umair Masoom: Yeah. So again, there are some great companies that are doing great work. And my objective here is not to say anything negative about the hard work and the effort that is being put in, because there is a lot of people who really believe in decentralized infrastructure. But at the end of the day, right now, the reality is that if you were to move all our infrastructure today onto a chain, it would fail. And even the solutions that are there right now. So, for example, there is a company that is doing really well. It's one of our partners. We've worked with them in a few cases. We're trying to expand on the partnership. It's called LivePeer. you know, there are obviously other companies like Theta, even Gala Chain now that is working on decentralized node storage infrastructure, and a lot more players that are coming in. Even today, you know, I had like, at least one or two interesting calls in that regard, which are, you know, all new frameworks that are coming up, you know, some are layer two, some are layer one. But the problem is that A, it's the scalability. B, it is when it comes to live content, there's at least a seven-second delay on, you know, in terms of on-chain streaming infrastructure. So even if we try to move our live videos right now on-chain, we're seeing that there's a delay of five to seven seconds compared to the Web2 counterparts, which right now we can't afford because, you know, it's a very competitive environment, right? However, having said that, now that's the negative and the challenge. However, having said that, I know that there are some really great projects out there, especially some layer ones, that are working on building some really scalable infrastructure. And they have targets to complete a few things by the end of this year. And if that happens, then, you know, Myco will be able to expedite our migration. We are doing the migration as we speak. Some of our content already is being hosted on chain using some of our partners. But at the end of the day, the simple way of saying this essentially for me is that we are not the internet provider here. We are the website that needs to be hosted on the internet. So similarly, when it comes to a Web3 streaming platform like Myco, We cannot get into building the infrastructure ourselves. We have to wait for the best infrastructure to be created by one of those blockchain partners that we're very closely working with. We're speaking to everyone who's involved, everyone who's working on this use case at this point in time. And I am confident that it is going to happen by the end of this year, that we will start getting those scalable solutions out there. But if the bandwidth is not created, then at the end of the day, this challenge that Myco has will obviously be a fundamental challenge and we won't be able to deliver on our 2025 timeline.

Josh Krieger: Thank you for your candor and sort of breaking that down for our listeners. It sounds like you're the ideal test subject for the winner here or the early sort of winner that can sort of do this. You're quite the stress test. And, you know, if this does become possible, this would be a major leap in sort of innovation of our industry. So I'm certainly rooting for it. Let's turn our attention to the filmmaking crowd for a moment. I know that you're passionate about filmmaking as am I, and it's been exciting to see the pioneering work of Web3 filmmakers like David Bianchi and Miguel Faust, both of whom have been on our show. Tell me a little bit more about how you're approaching sort of, I guess, let's just call it crowdfunding for lack of a better term, for film and what sort of, how the community shapes the selection of funding of these projects. Because there are other platforms as well that are focused on this. I'm curious how you guys are doing this approach.

Umair Masoom: Sure, yeah. So again, by the way, when we started, and this is when I was alone at that time, we didn't have our co-founders. It was very early in 2021. When we started, one of the very first AMAs that I did, I said that I truly feel the pain of filmmakers and creative professionals that are struggling to find funding. One day we want to build Myco like the Kickstarter for filmmakers, right? So the funny thing is actually that is where it all started. We wanted to be the Kickstarter for content creators and filmmakers, which is crowdfunding. But we realized very soon, initially we had a program called MSEEDS, which was, you know, if you go on YouTube, you'll be able to find my face somewhere there because I used to host the MSEEDS show myself. And this was essentially a YouTube show where we could, you know, we had these applications from the community. So every week we would get around 40 or 50 applications from independent filmmakers. We would shortlist seven or eight top out of those based on community voting. The community would go up for it. upward, downward on the platform. We had a beta platform at that time. And then the seven or eight that were really good, we would invite them to a show, which I used to moderate. And there were like six or seven good industry professionals who were like the judges. They would come in. And these filmmakers would come and pitch their projects. And we would fund, every episode, we would fund one or two people. And this is just the starting of where Myco started. I'm talking about June, July 2021. But then soon enough, we realized that and again, I mean, like I've met David Bianchi also in one of the panels that he was doing. I know he works closely. He's worked closely in the past with my partner Bill McKenzie as well, who's one of the co-founders. And again, he's been part of the decentralized film three movement all around the world, not just with Myco. But the problem was that the funding dried up, because the community stopped really funding at scale. Once or twice, it was fine, because there was this hype, oh, there's a film being made. I want to participate. But what Myco faced, I think everyone within this entire film three financing domain, whether it was First Lights, whether it was DCP in the US, I think the film scored in LA. I don't know if you know them, but they're also working on the same thing. It dried out. Why? Because the audience set was very small. It was the same set of people like you and me who had some money and who really wanted to contribute to this film three movement. They would go and deploy some capital at Myco, they would go deploy some capital at First Pipes, go deploy some capital somewhere else. But really, it was not scaling up, right? And this is essentially where I decided that we need to focus first on enlarging the use case, enlarging the audience base. And what is the easiest way to bring millions of investors into content, millions of crowd funders into the content industry, is to first give them an economic stake. How do you expect someone to start investing into an economy that they're not a part of? Right. So we decided that, OK, for the next year or two years, we're going to focus on first making the viewers part of the economy. Once they become a part of the economy, then we will go to them again and we'll say, OK, now we have a regulated crowdfunding platform, which is MycoStarter, which we're working on in parallel on the regulation side. But at least now, first, you need to build a loyal base of at least 20, 30 million users, out of which at least 50% are financially empowered and actually feel that they're part of the content economy. And then you offer them the crowdfunding platform. And then you bring in all of those independent filmmakers and creators and top creators and filmmakers to start raising funds through them. But if you try and raise funds through that selected set of 30,000, 50,000 people globally who are already vested into crypto and NFTs and Web3 technology, and they have so many other investment choices as well. It's not going to work, right? And that's why we took a step back. And now we started working on film society. So one of the largest accomplishments that Myco has is obviously the Dubai Film Society. I'm sure you know about it, Josh. But it is the largest collection of independent filmmakers and film students in the UAE. Every film school in the UAE is part of it. We do our meetups every two weeks. We've got around 300 aspiring filmmakers as part of the community. But again, we have been building that community. We've been doing those events. We still haven't offered the mass market product that we're working on because that needs to be first regulated by WADA, which is something that we're working in parallel. I believe that by the time we bring that product to the market, we would have already had millions of users who actually figured out how to be a part of the content economy. And then they will be willing to go invest and invest back into the content economy, which is where the crowdfunding becomes successful.

Josh Krieger: Very cool. So I'm really excited about that long-term vision to create the necessary sort of overall market for this type of product. Right now, the 200 original projects that you've funded, that's been, just to clarify, directly through Myco, not with sort of crowdfunding?

Umair Masoom: Some of them have been through crowdfunding. So we have an ongoing program called MycoLab, which is not regulated. And this is the one that's going to be replaced with the regulated platform once it is live. But what happens with MycoLab is that filmmakers and creators are allowed to come and request funding. They're allowed to go and submit their pitch. Whereas we expect the community to only fund 35% of the cost. So let's say it's a $10,000 project. We only expect the community to fund 3,500 because right now in an unregulated environment, we cannot offer the community to get IP or revenue. because otherwise that would go into a security regime, as you understand, and, you know, these things that we have to be very careful.

Josh Krieger: Right, and that's, yeah, I mean, that's been the conversation that's happened at Outer Edge in LA as well, in terms of, you know, there's still limits right now without going through that extra work in terms of what's possible. And Will that, will getting that clearance allow folks to participate in the crowdfunding globally or will it be restricted to certain regions?

Umair Masoom: So right now, obviously, we are starting with UAE, hopefully, as soon as we get the license. So we are starting with UAE. But the idea is then to, because again, here we will be working with the authorities. And when I say authorities, we're talking with the government authorities. We will be working very closely with them to really bring this to the public.

Josh Krieger: This could really start to interrupt, but I'm just thinking up. allowed here. I mean, this could change the, I guess, the market dynamics of filmmaking in UAE, right? I mean, theoretically, this could be really exciting and bring a lot of new filmmakers to UAE because they have access to this platform to make films in a way that sort of changes the UAE participants from just film goers to you know, limited partners in, you know, perhaps some of the world's greatest feature films. So it's pretty exciting. I'm just kind of putting two and two together here.

Umair Masoom: Yeah. And also, again, the good thing with this entire region is that, I mean, like you've traveled to Riyadh, you've traveled to Bahrain, I'm sure. You know, this entire region is very receptive to, you know, using technology disruption for public benefit, right? And I think this entire video streaming, video funding, content financing use case has been seen as one of those use cases, which is for the broader good of the society, because it creates opportunity for so many creative professionals out there. And it's also great for the consumers in terms of engagement. So I think the progression is not going to stay within the UAE once we are able to announce this officially and move forward and launch our new platform for the crowdfunding. We will be able to take that into other markets, you know, nearby us, because again, the mindset is very similar. We already have, because you do understand because of the cricket, we've got a very strong audience base out of Pakistan. And we've already launched the Film Society in Pakistan just recently, around two, three months ago. Although the Dubai Film Society is now almost two years old, but the Pakistan Film Society, we started around three months ago. with the objective that we understand that as soon as we're able to now start this massive movement in UAE, we will be able to expand in other territories close to us. We're also working on starting Film Society Saudi Arabia as we speak. So yes, things are looking really exciting on that front as well.

Josh Krieger: Very cool. Well, we want to sort of get to know you a little bit better. But before we move on to the next segment, I just wanted to ask you briefly if there are any specific projects using Web3 technology outside of what you're doing at Myco that you're watching or that you're excited about personally.

Umair Masoom: What I'm excited about, I think I'm really excited about, as you would surely understand, I'm really excited about decentralized storage and infrastructure. So yes, I really love what Lightpeer is building. And I've had a few conversations with Eric. I know last night I was doing spaces with my community and he attended. He's a really sharp guy and I have massive respect for those guys. I think they're doing something fabulous. And obviously, you know, I will come back to Republic because at the end of the day, you know, I love the vision that the Republic team has, because, you know, what I'm trying to do to the content industry, I think they're trying to do to the entire investment landscape, which is a huge vision. It's a very, very big vision, you know, but I love how they're approaching this entire proposition. And, you know, obviously, they're one of our closest partners for the past two years.

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