Sustainability markets, creativity, and gaming in the Hedera ecosystem (Part 2)

In this week's episode of the Hedera Corner, Genfinity interviews Dovu, a sustainability project focused on creating a marketplace to buy and sell ESG-related products, and Pixel Land, an NFT project with a gaming arm. In part two, the panelists speak about the future prospects of both projects.

Transcription

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍Bones, if you could maybe share because I don't think we really were able to get into it too much, you know, maybe even an overview of the Pixel Land ecosystem that you guys are building out.

Pixel Land – Bones - Founder
‍Yeah, I'd love to. So the vision that I have right now and kind of the way that we want to move forward, we've been for the last, I mean, almost a year basically been tinkering around with Game Dev stuff and kind of learning with the network. So I've played around with some JavaScript game engines like Construct. I really jumped into Unity really hard to try to utilize the network, and then I kind of recently in the last couple of months jumped from Unity to Unreal and kind of rebuilt where we were at with our ecosystem up from there, I just really enjoy that a lot better. Um, just, it's just a preference thing. I'm not gonna, you know, badmouth Unity or anything like that, but it's just a, I have a lot more fun, and I feel a lot more powerful into what I'm doing with the Unreal Engine. But the goal for what we're doing, um, is that you know, we want to make an ecosystem where we utilize the pixel art and have like a real Retro Gaming feel to it. And the way we're going to do that is through like a mini-game ecosystem, right? So, our first game that we're going to be dropping is going to be like a top-down racer. Or, if you've ever played old school, like old school Grand Theft Auto, where the camera is like literally, you know, looking straight down, and it's going to be a multiplayer game where there's going to be like a track, and you can, you know, get your power-ups, and you know, blow people up on the, and respawn them, and it's going to be a good time. So, I've been having a really fun time making that, so we're making good progress. I don't want to put any dates out for what it is, but the whole point of the ecosystem is one, you know, I get to exercise the ability to make the art that I want to, which is cool, and then I can also utilize the game engine to do things that we normally wouldn't be able to do, right? So, we can make in-game skins and power-ups and that sort of thing, and it's all relative, it's not super easy, but I mean, it's relatively easy to do, where we can kind of do that through the game. And there are things coming out for the ecosystem, like Blade and a couple of other things, I think a couple of other walls that are making SDKs specifically for Hedera, where we'll be able to verify your wallet and do all that as well. So, um, it's just really exciting to be able to put all of it together, and that's kind of why I was joking with the Matt Smithy's thing. I actually had, in Unity, I had it had set up, uh, where we were using another gaming backend, and you know, it would create your own user account through an email password combo, so you didn't have to actually know anything about the wallet or anything like that, it would just create an account, and you can mentor NFTs and that sort of thing. So, that's the ultimate goal of where we want to be, um, and kind of where the ecosystem is going for us. So, this is going to be the first game in our ecosystem, is this racing game, and we'll kind of build and establish on that, but the ultimate goal for me is to, you know, create a few different mini-games that we kind of feel out and see how we want to use the network. So, I don't think there's going to be like one right answer, right? This is also new, we kind of have to do things and then see how they work and then adjust them and move from there. So that's kind of the fun part about this. I don't think anybody's really got this down to a T, and we can be kind of on the cutting edge and do what we want. So that's the fun part.

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍That's been fantastic. I wanted to ask Matt from the DOVU standpoint, how many implementations do you guys have right now that are live within the sustainability ecosystem that you guys are trying to really build out? And I guess on top of that, I always like to ask people what are some of the biggest accomplishments that they had in 2022 and what they're looking forward to this year.

DOVU – Matt Smithies – Founder & CTO
‍Could you, sorry, what do you mean by implementations, in this context?

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍If you go to Dovu's site, there's up, there's a bunch of different kind of use cases that are kind of that have utilized Dovu in certain ways. If you could maybe touch base on some of those as well as, you know, touch base on the previous year and then the year moving forward.

DOVU – Matt Smithies – Founder & CTO
‍Oh yeah, of course. So, in terms of kind of our projects, I think really kind of exciting thing is every single project that you see on our list has been sourced through us and each one of those has like a complete order trail. None of this carbon has been taken from third-party registries. You can click on any one of the projects. They keep Bulgarian couple and the family Fruit Farm. They recently had an update of carbon in their project, but like one of the coolest features that came out last year and Justin's on the call right now and you can hear this is the creation of our audit trail and how we display that. And so like if you basically creep in, you can actually see the audit trail which is the exact steps that every single project has kind of gone through and you can see the visualization of timestamps align itself. That timeline process is extremely impressive just to see how open and transparent it is and so that was a huge, um, piece of the puzzle for us to solve last year, and that's working directly on top of the Guardian, like we were talking before earlier. Around decentralized identity, so yes, moving forward, it's all about how can we rapidly onboard projects, how can we create systems around that, and that's where a lot of our focus is at the moment. You have like a wizard, you know, how can you self-report you have a million tons of carbon in your backyard, and how can you sell that, and how can you get linked to the rights measurement companies or mrv Companies from satellite imagery to on the grounds verification, and so that is something that we're very excited at the moment about.

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍That's awesome. I'd also like to ask, I mean I, and I'll ask Binx and Bones the same questions here in a second, but from a partnership standpoint, um, for from Dovus aspect, any Partnerships that you guys have facilitated that that kind of excite you? Any that might be, I always like to see if I can get any Alpha drops, anything you might be excited about moving forward?

DOVU – Matt Smithies – Founder & CTO
‍There are always things that I am excited about, but unfortunately, I have to be very tight-lipped about the big names, yeah, I had to try, you know, I always have to at least try, so you know, I would love to say, you know, that there's companies in the top 100, you know, whatever companies look, world, but you know, you know, but anyway, I would honestly say that working with Timeless, over the last year, over the last six months really has been wonderful, and that marketing like kind of dropped today, I'm sure some of you.

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍Strength together, I wanted to ask Matt real quick from Dovu's standpoint, a similar question and thanks for bringing that up, Banks. I was actually going there anyways with the cross-chain stuff. What are the availabilities as far as what ecosystems Dovu can deal with from a sustainability standpoint and who can potentially use some of the Dovu services you guys offer? Is it just Hedera? Can you maybe tell the audience a little bit?

DOVU – Matt Smithies – Founder & CTO
‍Yeah, of course. So, Hedera is our primary network when it comes to building product. All of our products are built on Hedera and any kind of utility and such will use it non-stop. However, that doesn't mean that the token itself is in cross-chain. We released initially back in 2017 our token and that's the associated token and from that, it has extended to BSE, Polygon, and obviously, Hedera. That's something we're always going to have, but in terms of product and functionality and utility, it makes sense for us to only be on Hedera and unless another chain appears that's more efficient, but I think that's kind of unlikely at this point right now. But yeah, the main focus is all on Hedera for our products.

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍So, I want to ask Binx and Bones, you know, for anybody that's interested in learning a little bit more about Pixel Land, learning a little bit more about the gamification aspects that you guys are starting to move into, and by the way, Bones, super congratulations on that. When we talked, like I said, we did an interview probably maybe eight months ago, talking about kind of the onset of the Pixel stuff, and I know you guys were just doing the rebrand with Pixel Land and the Numskullz stuff, and now, now you start to hear gamification. It's super cool to see kind of the thread of innovation, the, you know, your personal path and Banks's personal path with the project. It's amazing for people to learn more. Where's the best place to go? Is it to follow on Twitter? Is it joining the Discord? Is it a site? Would love to hear.

Pixel Land – Binx - Founder
‍Definitely follow on Twitter, hop into the Discord. We're always around, happy to answer any questions. Right now, our website is not up. We're kind of waiting to be able to add more information about the gaming aspect before we go live. So, yeah, best place to reach us, our DMs are always open. We have information about the project and our Discord. So, definitely hop in there.

Pixel Land – Bones - Founder
‍Yeah, I mean, the goal right now, too, I mean, it is, you know, we're down in the bear market right now, and I'm kind of just working really hard to get all this stuff out and put in place where I don't think we really want to put much out until we have, like, a really solid trailer and some good graphics and that sort of thing, where we can have it where it looks, you know, exciting or kind of trying to play it a little close to the chest, and maybe just have a better product to put out instead of kind of leaking things piece by piece. I'd rather have something that's a little more, exciting, right? Because like we could definitely put out some stuff now that's like gameplay, but it's all like Alpha type stuff where it's not, you know, it's not polished in the way that I would like it to be, from a standpoint, you know? I mean, I think sometimes you only have like one chance to make a good impression type thing and, and especially in the gaming community, I'd like to be able to attract, you know, a lot of Hedera native people. But I think if we can put out a good product and a good trailer and things like that. You know, maybe we could stand a chance to bring in a lot of people that are not crypto native or maybe from other chains that just want to have a chance to jump in and play our game. So that, that's really the goal with it. You know, the game gamification part of this is, is a big step in it, but we also want to attract, you know, more people than than just the people that are here. We want to have a product that's exciting for everybody to play and easy to onboard people.

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍I have to give both you guys a shout out too. I don't know if you saw, but I know you guys participated on Saturday. There was a cross-chain charity event for St. Jude's, and it was nine different ecosystems. I'm probably gonna miss a couple, but it was, uh, XRP, Hbar, Vchain, Algorand, Solana, Chronos, Flare, Songbird, and, Cardano. I'm there's one more I'm definitely gonna miss, but anyways, um, I know you guys contributed into that, and I believe it was like between $6200 and $6600 that was raised for St. Jude. So awesome to see you guys contributing into that and to see so many ecosystems really coming together to pull for a great initiative. So I wanted to give a personal shout out to you guys for that. That was awesome. I'll ask Matt the same question, so Matt, anybody that's interested in learning more about Dovu or getting into contact potentially for whether it be partnerships or questions or anything else, is it the Twitter, is it the site, is it an email?

DOVU – Matt Smithies – Founder & CTO
‍Yeah, so Discord is usually the better place, at the moment. That's where we have the most communication. Of course, you can do Twitter, but I really want to urge everyone to have a look at our website, so there's dovu.earth and naturally, the Dovu Market we've overhauled quite a lot of the design. We've integrated lots of different ways for individuals from different parties with different skill sets - from buyers, suppliers, or even kind of MRV providers - to actually come in. And if any of those kind of segments are related to you, then you could actually fill out some type forms, and the team will reach out to you and kind of start building and see if it's a fit for you. You know, if you want to sell some carbon or if you want to buy some carbon, or even if, like, no one will be on here, but like, even if you own, like, let's say, a satellite company and you want to record carbon, we're open to anything, really. And like Discord, we have developed a really strong community over the last year, and most of the time, you can just write messages in that, and they can kind of get back to you. And but if you do need me, you can reach out to me on DMS or make an issue or something of that along those lines. I normally can't normally can't get back to you. I'm quite, immediately because I'm quite busy, but I'll do my best to get back to everyone I can.

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍Well, I'd like to say, a gigantic thank you to Matt from Dovu, again, dovu.earth, and to Binx and Bones from, uh, from Pixel land. It's been really awesome to, uh, watch all the projects kind of to continue developing over time. Again, we do these Twitter spaces every Monday at 3 P.M Eastern Time. I think that we have, oh, I think that we have Shane Higdon, of the HBAR Foundation coming up over the next couple of weeks. I think we're packed out for the next three weeks. But it's always a pleasure to talk and get updates, uh, from all of the community and the ecosystems that are willing to come on to this, Hedera Corner spaces. And, uh, thank you guys so much for joining. We really, really appreciate it. Thanks, Matt and Bones. Always a pleasure. Nice talking to you, Matt, by the way. I think this is the first time I've been able to, uh, able to talk to you vocally. So, always a pleasure. And, oh, uh, Matt, uh, real quick before we go, can you talk a little bit about, we were talking Creator economy? Tell us a little bit about Little Einstein.

DOVU – Matt Smithies – Founder & CTO
‍Oh my God, did you receive the package?

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍I did, I have it, yeah. You know what, I showed it, I showed it to my, so my seven-year-old, like, loves artwork, and it reminded me, I'm like a huge Princess Mononoke fan, so it reminded me of, like the, like the Woodling Spirits. So my daughter was like, "Oh my God, it looks like Princess Mononoke." So we're, we're gonna hang it, we'll put it up on our wall. I'll take a picture of it, uh, and send it to you. I'll post it on Twitter. Can you tell us a little bit about Little Einstein?

DOVU – Matt Smithies – Founder & CTO
‍Though yeah, um, well, I'm really thankful for that. It's kind of hit we reached you but yeah, um, new wingstein ensure, um, this has been a kind of a side project for us, um, and it's something that we are working towards, to add kind of more content. But the general idea is, what if an artist would answer this question, like, what if an artist who has no understanding of like tech or crypto or whatever could actually start their journey so, and kind of NFTs and almost build out this decentralized Patreon type system with passes, and so the super incubus or um, Inky's Art Club, you basically have a pass and every month you can claim like a free bit of artwork that we kind of airdrop to you. And one of the cool things we're working on at the moment, because it's constant kind of experimentation, is trying to dip our toes in with a generative kind of PVP stuff. And so, she has designed these incredible like frogs with like, like wizard frogs, and like kind of frogs with knives and things like this. And so that's something we're kind of constantly working on at the moment, um, and to have these different archetypes that are going to be spread around to all the pass holders, um, and so yeah, that's it. Like every single month for a decade, you get free artwork, and then we'll do like kind of drawers and raffles and things like that. And we've been doing it since I think last October now, but you know, like all these things, it's trying to pick your battles and kind of do it the best you can because you know, it's, it is all about trust and community and slowly building those things up.

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍I've found a lot of synergy with the initiative that you have with little ink stain, um, with um, Daddy and Daddy Hattie and what he's really tried to do through pixel drops, making making web 3, making art, making it all very accessible, to individuals. So, yeah, shout out. I mean, I saw that from you guys and I'm like, it's uh, this is a dude from dovu, so yeah, and it was really cool because, like, I had seen um, I'd seen kind of the initiative and I'm like, I'm gonna snag some of these, you know, it's, I like the artwork and I was like, it's pretty cool. I snagged a few of them and I saw you guys post and it was like, holy crap, I never win anything, so I dm'd, I'm like, I think I won this. So, yeah, you know, shout out. So if anybody wants to check out little ink stain as well, what's the, what's the Twitter handle so that we can we can make sure people can go and check it out? Is it literally just at little?

DOVU – Matt Smithies – Founder & CTO
‍Yeah, yeah, it's just that, um, just one word, littleinkstain. If you click through, you can check out her Art Club and basically the goal moving forward is to work with other artists and other kind of creatives to kind of give them their own pass in this kind of old way to distribute their artwork to about fans and things, um, but yeah, it is fun.

Genfinity – King Solomon – Founder & CEO
‍100, yeah, I know 100, and I just wanted to give you guys a shout out for that. And thank you. Glad to hear you guys talk about that as well. Super interested in seeing where everything goes from from all the panelists up here, and thank you guys for an hour's worth of your time. I know how busy everybody is in this space, really, really appreciate it as always. We'll be doing another one of these next Monday at 3 P.M. Thank you guys. We'll see you guys.