What is The Future of Base? - CEO Jesse Pollak

Transcript

My creator coordin's coming. I I'll just tell everyone like, "Wow, that's working on it." >> There's a right way to do this and there's a wrong way to do this. And I think you're kind of depicting the evolution >> and everyone at home has their remote control and they can literally control what happens on the stream. >> Welcome back to the real. This is your home to learn from the biggest guests, the brightest minds at the tip of innovation. Our goal is to help spread the collective knowledge of everyone in our community. We are breaking crypto out of its echo chamber and taking it to the real world. Jesse Pollock, welcome to the Roll TV, man. Big day for us. Good to have you on.

>> Glad to be here. Thanks for having me, guys. >> We're unveiling control the stream today. Robbie, you are our stream controller of the day. As if you were calling in as a fan and audience member. We've been building behind the scenes. Look at that. Tips coming in. >> The tips are rolling in. >> Robbie, give us the backstory, man. You went to Base Camp. You've been working with Brad and the team. How'd this come about? and then Jesse and and the three of us can go back and forth and unveil some of these features. >> Yeah, happy to. Well, it started long before Base Camp without Jesse's knowledge. Uh someone on our team um named Zach, who's been helping us for a little while uh introdating creators. He has a history at Tik Tok.

So he reached out to us. He's like, "Hey guys, um, you guys are really good at what you do. You like to stream." This is recently after we had started the Rollup TV. How can we work together? And we we basically explained our vision to close the gap between fans and creators to really build a a platform in which fans and creators were able to connect and we as creators were able to see what our fans wanted to what they wanted to see um, and have them closer to us and really get that that two-way interaction. So we started ideating we we kind of rough scoped out what these features could look like and he was like hey you know this makes a ton of sense um we would support this in the form of a builder grant. So we got a builder grant and we actually just used all of

that to uh spend on resources and engineering and developers to ultimately build out control the stream. The guys at builder garden helped build this out on a technical front and so that's what you guys see today. Um, then after we had some MVP, I went to base camp. Absolutely tremendous conference by the way, Jesse. I mean, I don't know, there's probably a whole event production team at Coinbase, but it was just one of the best, most thoughtful and and well-curated events that I had been to. When there was panels, everyone was at the panels. When there was other things to do, everyone was doing other things.

It was just a beautiful place. It was Vermont. There was really not much else going on. Everyone was just 100% focused on the conference. And and so we demoed this mini app at the workshop at base camp and everyone loved it and and it was essentially all anyone would ever need to go live and and run a stream on bass in a in a very onchain forward way. So it got me fired up. We're just we're we're just getting started. We just have a few plugins now. And so that's kind of what we're here to talk to you about. Talk talk talk to you about the streaming economy. Talk to you about bass and uh show you why we're so fired up.

>> I love it. And I I'm fired up too and I'm glad you had an awesome time at Base Camp. That was my experience as well. And you know, when you guys came to us and said, "Hey, here's here we want to do some streaming stuff. You know, we think streaming is going to be a huge part of the the onchain economy." And we're kind of in the like let's let's go make it happen across a bunch of different places. And you know, y'all have been building a a a brand and a a stream. And uh no better people to figure that kind of stuff out than people who are doing it every single day. And so I'm super fired up about this. Um, I'm seeing some tips are rolling in. Uh, and excited to, you know, see how you guys roll this out, uh, with your community and how people

do more stuff on chain with streaming. >> Yeah. And so, as as you may know, we go live pretty much every day, Monday through Friday. We're live for a few hours. And so, don't mind me if I'm on my phone because I'm actually using the remote control that all of our fans can use. And that that's the whole concept here is that we have the TV show. You're on the TV show. Welcome to the rollup TV. And everyone at home has their remote control and they can literally control what happens on the stream. And Jesse, we our imagination is the limit here. I am so fired. Like I'm excited to get creative with these plugins because I can imagine people doing absolutely ridiculous things and having a lot of fun doing it.

for instance, like auctioning off the ability to come on the stream, the ability to ask questions, play music, put tweets up on the screen, like do all kinds of things as they're using the remote control, make make clips, make cuts, make memes and gifts, launch tokens as a result of what they see on the stream. All of that is within the realm of possibilities here. And so one of the ones that we're most excited about is actually and by the way after Jesse's stream we're gonna we're gonna go to Lemon who was from Builder's Garden. He helped build all this out and it'll really be live. We'll be live.

Everyone can use it right now. >> Yeah. >> And so >> let's see it Rob. Let's see the uh tips rolling in. >> Your favorite one? >> Oh my favorite one. >> All right. And I'm I'm curious to hear Jesse's thoughts about this. So, we've got what we call the bull bear meter, also known kind of a sentiment meter. And so, what we've got here is the ability to pop up uh a prompt on the screen. For instance, will the base app go let's say let's go let's go big or go home. Will the base app be a top 10 app in the app store >> by end of year?

That's good. Really big, Jesse. >> All right, we'll put it up. >> I'm ready. >> All right, we confirm in the base app. Do a little Touch ID. Super easy flow. There's a little maybe a little one two second delay. >> Yep. >> And then we'll see it. >> So you'll see it on the stream. Will base app be top 10 in the app store by the end of the year? >> Yeah. Yeah, >> this isn't just showing up. >> Bull post. >> Bull send me. Bam. Yeah. So, we got work to do to be fair. We got work to do, but I, you know, I'm I'm always an optimist.

>> So, we got a QR code here, Rob, where you could scan in and vote directly on the base app from your base app account. And the goal here is to to encourage as many people as possible to come use the base app when interacting with the show. We want to drive people to the base app, download the base app, use the Bass app, get rewarded by using the base app. We actually just announced Koshi yesterday, uh, which is going to be our official prediction markets partner. Imagine a world where we integrate Koshi. You know, they're still kind of offchain, but we can bring some of their market onchain, do it on on the base app. You see tips rolling in. Jesse's fired up.

So, this is the MVP. >> I love it. It's an awesome MVP. And I think I think the thing that this really shows is just like the power of when you bring together live streaming with this programmable platform that we're building on base. It's like you literally can make it so that um the the people who are part are are watching the stream can participate in the stream. And not only can they participate in like simple ways like a vote, which I think is cool, but then they're also going to be able to participate in like more complex ways like, you know, building a complex money system basically of like, you know, stake some money on your vote. That's like, you know, one tap away. Or um, you know, like place a live prediction, that's one tap away. like the the money platform that we built on base is like

purpose-built for this kind of interactive engaging experience that y'all are are kind of designing here. >> Yeah, Jesse. So we had this broad kind of view here that the real-time nature of streaming with the kind of compressed attention spans as well as the desire for for short-term or for short form content uh as as well as feeling closer to your you know host or to your person of choice that you want to listen to is very important. How do you view onchain allowing us as creators to get closer to our fans to our audience? I know we've shown this, but maybe more broadly, holistically, what is your thesis on onchain being this gap or or the bridge between the fans and the uh creators?

>> Yeah, you know, I I think we said from the beginning that we think onchain is going to be kind of the next generation of the creator economy. And there's two big reasons for it. One is that um you know, on the monetization side, when you look at the creator economy today, the the thing that makes the internet work is creativity. It's from all of us. But when it actually comes to the money that is made from that creativity, 95% of it is going to these big platforms. And so creators are basically getting cut out. Um, and onchain creators can can earn like it it flips. You basically have 95% of the value going directly to creators, which is a whole new kind of like experience. The the other thing that we think is really radically different is in the web two world like you're in

someone else's walled garden. They control your graph. They control who you can talk to. they control what connection you have to your fans versus onchain because it's this open platform because you own your content you can have that direct relationship. So if you want to design a new way of engaging with fans exactly like you guys have done that's not something where it's like oh god like we need to go get some big centralized platform on on board. It's like no we can literally build it or there's going to be other people who build it for us and then we can plug it in. And I think that ability to just like own your own relationship is going to be something that so many creators like have a aha moment on where they're like, "Wow, this is 10 times better.

You're telling me that I earn 10 times more and I can be 10 times more connected and all of that can enable me to build 10 times better experiences for my fans. Of course, I'm going to stream on chain. Of course, I'm going to post on chain." And so, I think it's very early days. And it's people like y'all who are kind of here at the early days pioneering trying to figure out how do we kind of like put all these pieces together in a way that clicks. But once it clicks, and I think we're close, we're going to be off to the races because it is that much better. >> Yeah. We we like to think of ourselves as uh one of the most innovative media companies in crypto, the fastest growing media company in crypto. And and this technology and this platform is part of

how we showcase that. This is something I said at the demo in Base Camp. Twitch does not have this. Kick does not have this. Rumble does not have this. This is all on bass. And this is all because Bass is a platform in which you can build things. It's meant for developers and and to build apps that are currently not possible anywhere else. >> Yeah. And I think the kind of crazy thing about it is that you guys like built this, you know, not quite nights and weekends, but like it's the it's like a side project that you guys have done over the last few months to like bring about a vision that you had. And that that like the fact that the bar like the the the the ability for y'all to do that is like such a statement about what's possible right now. It's

like you have an idea and then you can bring it to life. And it's not something where it's like you need to go raise millions of dollars and you need to go like invent a whole totally new technology platform. It's like no like literally you can dream it and then you can make it happen and you can do that like nights and weekends. You can do it as a experiment for the stream. Like you can just make that happen. It's awesome. >> Introducing extended exclusively on Stark a nextg per trading platform live today with 50 plus trading pairs from crypto to tradi. You get the best experience on chain today. Deposit in the community vault for attractive returns EMV compatible and engage in unified margin spot trading lending and per trading. Definitely Jesse, I'm curious about your perspective of the

actual mini apps within the base app. Right. So world TV control stream is now a prominent mini app. It's it's featured on the base app. Obviously these feature sets are exclusively available on the base app. What is the vision for supporting creators and supporting up and cominging businesses who want to build onchain, who want to build on base, you know, featuring them on the app as mini apps? I is there a is there a broader bigger picture vision that you have for the mini apps? Jesse coin to a trillion. >> We're just having fun now. >> My creator coin's coming. I I'll just tell everyone like I'm working on it.

I'm working on, you know, I want to make sure I do it right, but I believe every creator is gonna have a coin. And uh I'm I'm not afraid to go out there and make it happen for myself. And of course, it's, you know, a little slower, but um uh we're going to do it. And you know, I don't know if we'll go to a trillion, but I'm excited to I'm excited to just continue kind of like breaking down barriers for people and normalizing the fact that it's okay for creators to earn in the new economy. That's like, okay, that's great. >> I'm bullish. And and the denominator is going to zero, so who knows? the numerator could go to a trillion. And so, so Jesse, one of like a very, you know, on a more serious note, one of the things that I I went to Base Camp

thinking was >> is like about this creator coin economy. And Andy and myself, we're creators. You're a creator. Like, >> we've been bouncing ideas like how to do this, right? Is there a reality? We don't want to ruin our reputation. We don't want to come off as shortsighted. We've been doing this for 5 years. Like, how do we properly do this thing? >> Yeah. Yeah. I mean, my my take on this is that where we're heading is is creator capital markets where where creators will have coins, uh, where content will be, you know, valued in the free market with coins as well. Um, I think we're in this kind of transitionary period right now where two things are true. One is that there's still a lot of stigma on this. Um, and, you know, think back to where we were like 6 months ago when when we first

started talking about creator coins and people were telling me like, "What are you talking about creator coins? Everything is a memecoin." And I got so much for saying no, like actually you guys like they're different things. And so I think like that transitionary period of people realizing, oh wow, coins are this powerful tool that can be applied to these different segments from a tokenization perspective and creators are going to be a massive segment because creators are one of the lifebloods of our global economy. Um I think that's the first shift that's happening right now. And I think I think the second shift that's happening right now is people are realizing that if you just have like a creator coin that doesn't actually do anything, like that's not a recipe for success either.

Like you can't just like yeet out the creator coin and then be like, "Okay, now that's just going to work." No, like it actually has to be integrated into the the journey and life cycle of the creator. And this is why I'm so excited about, you know, this experiment that you guys are running here. I'm so excited about the stuff that Zora is doing where they're actually figuring out how do you integrate the creator coin into the way creators work. So, you know, here it's like you guys are going to be able to use the the coin to token gate participation on the stream. Are you be able to use it for for staking for prediction markets? You're going to be able to use it for voting. You're going to be able to use it for tipping. Like that's a ton of sources of demand for

the creator coin. You know, what Zora has been saying is like what's the biggest source of demand for the creator coin? It's actually your content. And so by pairing the creator coin to each content coin, every time someone buys a piece of content, consumes it, that's actually driving demand for your creator coin. And so where I expect this to go is like you guys will do a stream. It'll have all this interactivity around the creator coin that you can do in there. Then that stream will end. It will get coined as an asset and then people will clip all of that stream that will all get paired back to the creator coin and everything will drive value back to their creator coin. And so I think this to me is kind of like the next frontier is like we we've basically normalized this idea in certain segments but

there's still a ton of stigma. We have to push through that and then in order to push through that we need to bring more and more of this like real utility and real value acral mechanisms to the creator coins such that creators can do what they love create and then they can have that value that they're creating acrewue back to their underlying coin. >> I love it. I mean that that that answers a lot of the the kind of questions and just kind of hesitancy that that I've had. It's just been like, okay, there's a there's a right way to do this and there's a wrong way to do this. And I think you're kind of depicting the evolution of creator coins and and it feels like we're we're we're getting ready to take that next step where, you know, I think I've seen some podcasts do

like, you know, some buybacks with ad revenues, for example, very kind of like baseline thing. But if there's a way that this could be integrated into the stream, into base app, into the interactions, then it becomes almost like a, you know, in the future, I think there will be there'll be a stable coin for Starbucks and Walmart will have their own stable coin, but it'll all kind of come together. But this is just like the rollup coin or the rollup kind of form of currency if you're participating in our economy. >> So yeah, Jesse, any kind of further suggestions or thoughts as to how to properly think about building this flywheel, you know, are are very much appreciated. Yeah. Well, the the first thing I'll say is that um I think that like your your intuitive feeling that you want to do this in the right way is

the correct intuition, right? Like people coming and like saying, "Hey, I'm just going to like yeet this out and like not really think about it and I'm just going to make money as a result of it." Like that's not going to lead to a good outcome. And I think that we've seen a little bit honestly of that over the last few weeks where it's like people have gotten burned a little bit and they feel like, "Oh, this actually isn't working for me." because there has been this like almost exttrinsic motivator of like the north stars to make money rather than the north stars to figure out like how do I use this technology to do the thing that I love better which over time will make me money and I think that that's the first thing is like what I'm seeing is that the the people who are thinking best

about this are the people who are intrinsically motivated and who are saying I love streaming or I love posting I love creating and I want to figure out how do I use this new technology to do that better and to make it so that I can do that thing even more and over time that's going to lead to a good outcome for me. Uh and so I think that that mindset of like doing it right, being here for the long term, being intrinsically motivated is super super core to what's going to make this successful. And I love that you guys are thinking that way. And I'll just say like any creators out there who also think that way, come talk to me. Like I want to help you do this the right way.

That's literally my whole thing. It's what we've said on about Bass from the beginning. It's the the ethos that Coinbase has brought from the beginning is like we're gonna do it the right way and maybe it'll take a little bit longer and maybe we'll miss out on the like short-term retention spike fads, but in the long run it's going to lead to better outcomes. So that's the first thing. >> The second thing that I'll say is that um it is going to be emergent, right? Like we are going to figure this out like in real time a little bit. And so, you know, I I think the the the the flip side of doing it the right way is you could interpret that in a in a way where it's like doing it the right way means we need to like maximally figure everything out up front. And like I

think that's where you end up getting into like, oh, like in order for the creator coin to work, you need to like have the revenue streams go back to the creator coin and like we need all of this like off-chain complexity to make that happen. And my intuition is that um these value acrruel mechanisms will be a little bit more emergent than that. Like people will launch creator coins and maybe they'll have one or two value acral mechanisms and then over time more will be layered in, right? So you'll have clipping and those will get paired. You'll have the the live stream use cases, those will work. You'll have, you know, ad revenue that starts to like funnel back and that kind of like mechanism is going to kind of gradually emerge over time. And I don't think that that's necessarily an environment for every creator to kind of like get

started. But I do think that for creators who are independent, who are uh uh excited about being at the frontier, um being a little bit comfortable with that emergent reality and saying, "Hey, like I know that I'm doing this right because that is my intention, but that doesn't mean I have to have it all figured out." I think that that's going to be the sweet spot where you're going to see a lot of people who bring those things those two things together and basically like pave the way for everyone else. And that's been my ethos personally of like I'm a creator. Like I'm I'm a builder, but like I'm also a creator. Like you can you guys see me on Twitter, you see me on Instagram and Tik Tok and Zora. Like I'm trying my best out here to create. And I feel like I

have a duty to like live a little bit in this this this gray space because I feel like me figuring out in real time is going to help the rest of the industry figuring out in real time. And I think that like folks like y'all and many others also um you know can play a really important role in in kind of like helping us work through this emergent reality to get to kind of like better and better tools for creators to make these things a part of their livelihood. Um, and so again, I'll just say like super grateful for all of the the work that you guys are doing pushing the boundaries and um, for other creators who want to be pushing the boundaries too, but want to be pushing boundaries with creativity in a based way that feels right and authentic to them that

has a long-term perspective like I'm here to help you. Um, and we want to make it so that there's a safe space for you to do that experimentation. That safe space is going to happen on base. >> Yeah, it will. And and Jesse, just be before you go, I just want to really emphasize one of the things you said is that you feel like you have this duty. You're compelled to figure it out so that others can also learn from your figuring it out process. This is a a a core tenant of what we do here at the rollup. Our core virtue is this curiosity that drives us. We're cur we're genuinely curious when we're talking to people. We're trying to learn ourselves because we have a thirst for knowledge.

We want to go out. We want to learn things. We also want people to come back and learn from us and therefore it it does create this symbiotic flywheel that ends up acrewing value for everyone. It creates this abundance mindset. And so all that to say, thank you for creating base. Thank you for coming on the show and helping us figure out this process, figuring out your own process and teaching us to teach others. It it's really what this is all about. >> Yeah. Well, thank you guys. Um excited to do it and it's still day one. We got a lot of work to do. Um, we definitely haven't figured it all out, but I think if we all show up with this attitude of like we're gonna do things the right way, we're going to take risks, but in in the direction of learning, um, we're

going to be able to get a lot of good done in the world. >> I'll see you in the timeline, man. >> Thanks for having me.