00:00:00 Chris Pederson
An important piece of it separates blockchain from let’s say typical computing or or servers. Conventionally speaking is the decentralized nature. You know, where you have, you know a centralized company like a Google or Alphabet or a Facebook. You know a lot of the giants today, right? And they started with a OL or whatever back in the Navy, you have information to centralize and essentially then controlled us by the corporation owning that and now when we get get into. Data and the transfer of information and who’s owning your information and and advertisers and free, free e-mail right that the cost of your entire life of of information. Blockchain is set up in a way that is, you know, a public Ledger essentially of that information, but rather than it being owned by wanted, you know, individual party or group. It it verifies, let’s say a transaction like a simple you know I’m sending you $10.
00:01:01 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn, and I’m excited to have you join me as I interview community members and business leaders from the communities in which I live, work and serve through my business Kooler Garage Doors. We’re going to bring you highlights on characters in our communities. Why? Because community matters. And I want to know more about who is behind our business and leadership in order to understand and support the community fabric that our relationships make up. And collectively, we can build stronger communities that support our lifestyles, our youth and our health. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast. I’m your host, Matt Kuehlhorn. Today, I’m sitting down with Chris. Chris. Pederson, he’s an entrepreneur. He’s a owner of a family owned events and rental service based out of Minneapolis or Medina, Minnesota, been a part of renewable energy and he’s working on a development in Medina. Is that right? The reason we’re talking today, we’re actually beaming in from Indianapolis, so Chris and I have been attending Gary Vee’s week, which is all about NF T’s and Web 3.0 space, which is relatively new technology based on blockchain. So I’m going to be extracting some knowledge because I want listeners to understand a little bit more about what NF T’s are. These are coming and it’s really interesting early adopters right now, but I think over time. We’ll see this more and more and we’ll all have an understanding of what NFT’s are in about 10 years. Five years, baby, Right. Chris, thanks for joining.
00:02:48 Chris Pederson
Well, thanks. Thanks Matt for having me and thanks for getting us down to the econ year. I think without you doing that we we might not be sitting in this space a couple blocks away from from Lucas Oil Stadium, so.
00:03:01 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah.
00:03:01 Chris Pederson
That was exciting and obviously you and I met last year when you were. In Minnesota, attending Econ there, which I actually didn’t attend even though I was in my home state, those would fund me and your son, and I’m picking you guys up from U.S. bank Stadium.
00:03:17 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So yeah, at a thrilling bowling competition.
00:03:21 Chris Pederson
Yeah, you have to bring him out. He’s me bringing it up. If you lost, I don’t know. Let’s move on.
00:03:29 Matthew Kuehlhorn
So yeah, we are literally blocks away from Lucas Oil Stadium where this entire event goes on if you haven’t. Been following or even know of Gary Vee. He’s an individual that moved into the space couple of years ago and he launched his NFT project, V Friends, which this is a representation of the prudent polar bear that my son and I bought together. And that’s why we’re here. I’m here more out of curiosity, but you’re actually in the space. You’ve got a project going called Egonots. Yep.
00:03:59 Chris Pederson
So our project is called Order of the Egonots we founded it in. Early 2022. So we’ve been going for just over a year. I had a little experience with Aetherium, some trading and some friends that were in the space. And over time kind of made sense to to try to like you said, become an early adapter of frankly a technology that I didn’t fully understand and and still don’t truly fully understand the implications of. But believe it’s a space, it’s going to drive a lot of industries forward in ways beyond just the artwork that we’re seeing right now. With with actually our development projects. So when we found it over the egonauts, the projects you know in a nutshell is a a tribute to the heroes of blockchain technology. So we create art based on influential figures in the space and those influential figures obviously have BIOS and backgrounds and their own life stories behind them and we try to incorporate different pieces and traits in the art. That reflect the lives of those. So yeah, we started with the Talak Buderin and we did CZ Next and when our series three was good, old Elon Musk and Gary Vee was actually our four series. And it’s been a lot of fun because going through the project and coming up with some of these traits, I’ve actually got to learn a lot about these figures as well and about their backgrounds. And I and I think it’s important that people start to know who these people are as people and individuals and entrepreneurs and pioneers. Honestly, in a lot of ways, the same way, you know, maybe in the 80s with a, you know, Paul Allen or you know Bill Gates or Steve Jobs were at the forefront of something that a lot of people don’t understand then and I feel.
00:05:47 Luke Hylton
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00:06:25 Matthew Kuehlhorn
That’s right. I would agree with that and I’ve heard it referenced. You know the blockchain era right now is similar to the Internet of the 90s. Those very new people were there was a mix of fear and excitement and just ignorance not knowing and it kind of formed. It was iterated over the years into. Commonality of nowadays where we all know about the Internet. So it’s really interesting, really space. I want to get into NFT’s breakdown blockchain a little bit for our listeners. Before I do that, Chris, I want to go through the the normal Kooler Lifestyle piece. Can you give us a quick summary, give us context, where did you grow up? And I’m going to time you. I’m going to give you a couple minutes here.
00:07:10 Chris Pederson
That’s a good idea.
00:07:11 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Where did you grow up? And let’s let’s start there and then. And then move forward.
00:07:15 Chris Pederson
Sure, sure. So I grew up in Plymouth, MN suburb just West of Minneapolis. About 1520 minutes started working for the family equipment and event rental business when I was 11. I was very ineffective, but my dad said I had to work and so I was working really at the the party event rental stuff, so cleaning floors, but setting up tents, tables, chairs, stuff for people’s outdoor events like graduation parties, weddings, corporate events. I did that all through high school as a summer job. After that I went to graduated from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Yeah, I was a badger. That was great experience. My degree was in communication arts, which obviously was was a degree. After that I got into a startup in the sunglasses industry. Yeah, selling primarily to the aviation pilots, aerobatic pilots, race pilots, pilots we’ll call it. And then from there went into renewable energy and actually Co founded a hydrokinetic turbine company called Vertera Energy. So exists today. I’m no longer a part of the company, but I Co founded that with Ted Christopher the inventor. He’s doing really great. He’s stuck with it for 15 years now. And they are not on the prototypes now one that went into some solar as well. I kind of pivoted with the company and the Minnesota based company I love working with locals I called solar pod. Their claim to fame was a technology that doesn’t put holes on the roof. So the the owner of the company was a is a engineer and and developed a way to to essentially put. Systems on roofs that don’t put all the holes in using a counterbalance on the Gable of the roof did that for quite a while and during that time also moved to Medina, MN, where my wife and I started a family. My daughter is actually 7 now, and he’s here in the other room at the combo. Yeah, that was.
00:09:27 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Kind of treat to hang out with.
00:09:28 Chris Pederson
Well, it was. I was inspired by you bringing your son Taj last year and having having somebody you know. A young kid and I think he was 10 last year attending an event like this said you know what, why can’t I do that this year. So yeah so when Lexie was born we were we built a house in a sub development and just so it happened I was in the community where I was doing editing for the local magazine and during that time the. The community was growing. It continues to grow. And so we started a magazine that focused on stories about the community by the community, hosted a lot of in house events around town to bring sponsors, residents, business owners together that still continues to exist today. We used to do it monthly, but after COVID hit we we dialed way back and now we’re only doing it about twice a year. Yeah.
00:10:24 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Let me pause you there and I guess I’m curious. Because I I know that your development that’s going on is very community based as well and it’s intended to bring value into the community and be a a hub of information innovation resource. And I’m curious in referencing community, is this drive coming from you growing up, is this coming from parents? Where does the community component that?
00:10:57 Chris Pederson
Sure. It’s a great question. I’ve asked myself that sometimes as well. A lot of it I think comes from growing up in an area working for us, you know, small family business. I was founded in 1979, I was born in 81, so it’s been there all my life. And when you’re interacting with that type of retail business, that’s very frontfacing. People are coming in and renting Bobcats and stuff for their weddings and backyard work and moving and. You start to just, you know, naturally develop relationships among a localized community and on top of that, you know, relatively social person. My whole life, I really like meeting people. I like hearing their stories. I’ve always liked writing. So I think you know over time through being at an event rental company where you’re having a lot of parties and and are in that space and then. You know, being in a community like Medina that I live in now where it’s 2 1/2 miles from where I work and it just happens to be 100 feet from the site, we’re building this development. And so it’s an idea I had for quite a while to build a, well, the venue piece. But really I was just seeing in our community like a lot of communities, I think across America, suburbs, especially commercial development turns into a lot of national change, let’s say. You know, you get your insurance company, you get your bank on the corner. You get a lot of things that frankly might be making money for the people owning the property or have some sort of purpose for the companies that buy into that. It doesn’t necessarily provide a lot of local recreational value, or at least nothing that 1 keeps money in the community because a lot of it is outside money coming in. Like I said, change. And then and then the experience itself, you see, you know, a very cookie cutter, you know, strip mall with. You know, a large big box is an anchor or a grocery store or something. And I we had a piece of property that happened to be our family for 30 years. My dad and uncle owned it and it was coincidentally within 100 feet. Like I said of the neighborhood, we decided to build those 18 acre properties. Been sitting there for a long time.
00:13:09 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, yeah, this is good. And I want to tie this back into NFT’s too. And so let’s let’s. Remove the veil of blockchain and Nft’s real quick because again I think the NFT projects that I see being successful are about building community. So now I’m starting to see this thread dude, and we met through Gathering the Kings a mastermind, which is another form of community right.
00:13:37 Chris Pederson
Yep, there’s similar many words.
00:13:39 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, it is very similar and that. NFT space, you know, the V friends, this is pulling in thousands of people into the Lucas Oil Stadium this weekend and it’s a community. And let’s just, so here’s how I explained blockchain. I’m going to test it with you. I don’t think we need to get super technical with everybody, but for the listener to understand blockchain. I have the analogy that it’s very similar in a lot of ways to the Internet, which means that it’s a bunch of computers, servers if you will. That are connected and talking to each other. The blockchain happens to be the same, very similar servers and computers running on a specific code if you will. But instead of the Internet just passing information back and forth, these computers actually verify and check off transactions and information.
00:14:33 Chris Pederson
Yep, I think that’s a I think that’s a good way to describe, and I think an important piece of it separates blockchain from let’s say. Typical computing or servers conventionally speaking is the decentralized nature where you have a centralized company like a Google Alphabet or a Facebook. A lot of the giants today, right? And they started with AOL or whatever back in the maybe you have information decentralized and essentially then controlled us by the corporation owning that and now when we get into. Data and the transfer of information and who’s owning your information and and advertisers and free, free e-mail right that the cost of your entire life of of information. Blockchain is set up in a way that is, you know, a public Ledger essentially of that information, but rather than it being owned by wanted, you know, individual party or group. It it verifies let’s say a transaction like a simple you know I’m sending you $10 whereas A centralized bank would be required to say my $10 is now in that’s bank account and it’s no longer in mine. So that bank says yes this is true. Well with with Bitcoin you know which was really the first to break you know break ground in the space it was it was peer-to-peer without requiring a bank or a centralized you know third party essentially to verify. Right now they did that was through blockchain and this idea that rather than having an individual bank looking through all these things which obviously has been critical important to you know where we are today as a modern society. It’s also come with that you know a lot of constraints. Yeah those constraints around you know centralized information and money has caused number one a lot of people to be kind of sidestepped or or put on the fringe of of you know. Let’s say developing countries versus versus first world. Oh, a blockchain. And with Bitcoin in this example you have rather than that bank verifying you have. Essentially you’re running a very simple code. Actually you need computer can really run it, especially in the beginning. Now it requires pretty high end machine to verify this information and they call it mining, right? So proof of work meaning. There’s work being done that is validating that I gave you that $10.00, but rather than it being a bank like a Wells Fargo, it is a group of computers operating essentially all over the world that are running this software.
00:17:06 Matthew Kuehlhorn
That’s right. And just to make a point there to distill it, it’s thousands of computers saying yes, that transaction happened and and because of that it gets decentralized to use those words and it is public verified. By thousands of computers. So it’s very very, if not impossible to hack and therefore it can be more trusted.
00:17:34 Chris Pederson
Give me more trust and I think and it’s an interesting term they call it trustless you know verification right where you’re rather than going to the Wells Fargo you’re essentially trusting the Bitcoin network as as as as this sitting I hate you sit anonymous sitting a it’s an anonymous network of. Computers that you don’t know who’s verifying your transaction, but it doesn’t really matter. It matters that like you said, it’s there’s enough computers all saying that this is actually valid. And so long as you maintain, you know, I guess over 50% obviously you want to maintain hire that there’s not any funny business going on that that remains A credible secure way of transferring. And I think what’s really cool about how they they work this. Satoshi, we should say the the great God of of crypto, he, you know, put together a system that incentivized people to not want to you know mess with this code right or to you know to or to act maliciously against the better interest of saying that this was a valid transaction. So when that term mining comes out, you know as you’re validating with your computer, you’re essentially running a computer that. Yes, it’s using electricity, a lot of electricity to run those verifications. Your computer is now verifying those transactions and and you don’t know what those transactions are, but you know that they’re secure. Yeah. And you know that you don’t need a third party to do that. Now that was R1 and then it’s all booter in and and you know second kind of Jan of Bitcoin people kind of came along and said let’s you know. Up this one better, let’s add another layer that doesn’t just have to do with, let’s say, financial.
00:19:20 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.
00:19:22 Chris Pederson
And adding applications and they call them dats right in the I believe your name was the that work that clean that you know decentralized applications, right. So taking that layer and saying okay, well if I can do this with money I can do this with social media. I can do this with pretty much everything you can do on the Internet but in the same decentralized.
00:19:43 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Manner. And I and I think that’s the interesting piece. So you know, a lot of folks I think are going to hear blockchain and think Bitcoin and think money or funny money or whatever they want to think, right. However, the reality is that blockchain has been technology already in use for a long time and it’s been internalized and so now it’s starting to get a little bit more into the public arena and yet. So many transactions are already verified on.
00:20:15 Chris Pederson
On a.
00:20:15 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Blockchain. There’s nothing really to do with Bitcoin. Bitcoin is just one version of this that has the the lion’s share of value to let’s you know for for exchange of money and currency and it’ll be interesting to see where that goes but then there’s so many different coins and ways of of putting value into. You know crypto currencies, but it’s also a verified transaction that has almost nothing to do with dollars.
00:20:47 Chris Pederson
And cents unlevel. See. Absolutely right. And like you said, it’s been around blockchain has and it’s really the idea that you can use blockchain. And essentially you know how I like to visualize it, It’s literally piece of information that’s put out there. So as I sent that that $10, there’s a block that gets filled that when that block is filled. It closes and moves on to the next block. That block says that Chris gave that money to Matt that exists forever in time. That’s right. It’s immutable they say, right. So it doesn’t stop. It’s it’s an incident ongoing blockchain And you know the blockchain likes to rightfully so brag that the blockchain network really hasn’t been ever shut down since it began operating, I believe in in 2009, thousand 10. Aside for maybe lost an issue around low Cox I think. But anyway the the nature of it is is is brilliant because it’s it’s not showing that I sent you $10. It’s showing that my crypto wallet addresser will call it an e-mail address right sent you that money and I don’t need to share if that was my address or not. It doesn’t really matter so long as we both know that this person to person track transaction took place and that’s what I think is one of the. The foundations of really blockchain, you know altogether is this idea of the ideas the word libertarian because it has those connotations but an individuality or being able to essentially control your own destiny around money. Specifically for you know the case of Bitcoin and not being relegated to for example, a centralized government or a currency that could be devalued like they had in Argentina and a lot of other their world countries, developing countries where Bitcoin is agnostic and. It hasn’t stopped and nobody owns.
00:22:32 Matthew Kuehlhorn
That’s right and.
00:22:33 Chris Pederson
You take that and you you start to add these other pieces into it and there’s plenty of bad actors. But at the end of the day, even with those bad actors, I think it’s ironic when certain agencies say well you know used to fund terrorism or you know some of the it’s like well the US dollar dollars have been using fund terrorism for the beginning of right or or malicious activities. The only difference is you can’t actually see where that bag of money came from.
00:23:02 Matthew Kuehlhorn
That’s right. That’s the piece like blockchain offers transparency.
00:23:06 Chris Pederson
It does. It offers transparency in a way that some people don’t like because they can’t, not always necessarily see who that was. They can’t describe you to it and they could. I mean there there’s plenty of exchanges now they’re requiring out level verification who it is, yeah, and know your customer. But yeah, it’s got the ability to do a lot that I think we haven’t seen ever in the history of.
00:23:27 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, so certainly there’s a lot of hype around NFT’s and you have the order of Egonauts, which is an NFT project. And so, and NFT, as I would explain it in as much layman terms as possible, as it’s a collectible, it’s actually NFT for nonfungible token, but it really is a digital collectible. So I have a digital version of this polar bear. It sits in my wallet. I can’t necessarily, I mean, I could show it off and show it to you, but I just know that I have it and there’s some value in it. Now, on a utilitary basis, I get access to Vcon for three years. So my boy and I came last year, we came this year, we came will come next year. And there’s really no ticket cost because I’ve already paid for the ticketing. Owning this right now, I can also sell it and it transfers on the blockchain. So it’s verified, transparent. It’s not a tangible thing that I can actually hold or destroy. It’s a digital thing, right? And there’s. Some uniqueness to these NFT’s. I think that there’s a lot of hype right now and a lot of speculation that can occur. But there’s also surrealness so that I see NFT’s being the way that we purchase our event tickets in the very near future, if not already. Like actually we are already. I bought it NFTM and an event. You’re creating the order of egonots and. My understanding is that holders at some point in time might have access to events at the Community Center that you’re building.
00:25:00 Chris Pederson
Right, and that’s exactly it. So order. The Egonauts is a longterm project. A lot of these NF T’s are quick up and down. And aren’t they? They trade them quick. The utility might be access to a some sort of a blockchain game with us. We looked at it from a very longterm perspective. I like building community. I like the physical nature of things as well. Obviously with with Bitcoin and and theory of NF T’s, the crypto space, there’s a lot of virtual components to it. And you know between Discord and Twitter and people being able to interact in these communities, trading NF T’s, using them as profile pictures that kind of show, you know, which NFT they own. Yeah, I think it is great with a project like ours what what we’ve done is this development that we’re building which again it’s 100 feet across the street. We we just got through our city approval. So final plat approval we just received actually a month ago now from the city of Medina, which is a huge step. That was two years of work and it’s to build on this 18 acres, multiple sites, but the main site is a 32,000 square foot arts and entertainment menu. They’ll have a Conservatory, a full glass Conservatory as part of it you know. Technologically very modern. Ballroom aspect, lodging 2 floors above it, 14 rooms, not huge, but boutique lodging, boardwalked around it and that facility will be home to order the egonats. And by home I don’t mean that this NFT project is related to owning a piece of this venue, but because myself and independent partners are working to build this venue. That venue will then be the place where we host annual and likely much more often smaller popup events as a membership utility to those in the order the so a physical space using a virtual, you know, technology, all the while driving people towards a building that I and my partners are designing with my back on the environmental space with my. Closeness to the community and frankly care to build the development. Like I was saying the ones I was talking about before these conventional, you know, strip malls that that nobody really wants to go to and Amazon is frankly destroying anyway right now or I should say being into submission with this. Not only is our building, but we’re going to have an onsite child care bill which will have you know, be run independently by an operator. You want to have a restaurant on site there, you want to have a. You know, another mixed kind of use building but really have this amenity rich surrounded by a boardwalk, beautiful buildings, high value to the development itself and really a place for community can go and gather and and have a space that they actually enjoy coming to. And isn’t just about the commercialization of how could can you get people in and out of this space based on you know the demographics of the area. And whatever the developer and the brokers are deciding that is the fastest, quickest way to make a buck and then move on to the next cookie cutter and and do another water. Sure. And with our project, I’m particularly excited with order the Egonauts because what we’re finding and it’s taking time, it’s not a achievement it’s you know 1/8 commit. And what that does is it creates a level of commitment It’s and a barrier of entry because what we really are trying to attract, there’s only a 12112 supply total. And we haven’t released them all yet is that we want to get a group of people likeminded enough individuals but from diverse backgrounds, the care about community, they care about, you know, building sustainable business models will be incorporating renewables. Obviously my background there is is pushing me towards understanding that component and trying to incorporate those things, creating events around education, you know, excitement, entertainment around the blockchain station and in general he no speakers. In many ways similar to what Beacon is but on a much smaller scale and and in a in a different environment. Yeah and and for many you know different reasons that aren’t aren’t always the same I guess as something like this. And in many ways it’s it’s a place for people to gather and and frankly start to try to bring this idea of blockchain to a more local level. And in an area like Medina it’s a highly educated area. There’s a lot of schools around it. That’s starting to get integrated into schools. If we can be a hub, we can have a space that we know through the order of the Egonauts, even though it’s not the primary use of the space, the venue and this is a multimillion dollar venue. We’re not going to host Egonaut events there every single day and and be able to sustain. But the Egonauts as it being the headquarters, me being a controlling interest and operator of the of the building will allow us to use it I believe as a hub to drive education awareness advocacy. Around blockchain around newer technology you’ve been talking a I and how some of these technologies are going to have to integrate with hydroponic you know agriculture and conservatories the classroom in medical and renewable energy and sustainable architecture and and using that as a as a platform and and the community with order the egonauts where we start to attract those type of people that want to be a part of that community that can interact obviously. Through Discord and through Twitter and through cell phone and whatever. I mean I’m docs. I’m not part of the the group that likes to hide as the founder. But it is a longer term project and we you know our our, our facility likely won’t be open until 2025. Yeah when it is we will have done it the right way and that’s that’s where I feel a lot of confidence in the project is just and and it’s really sending those expectations I think and that was one mistake I personally made at the beginning. Was thinking that we could do these things faster than we could. Sure. And and now you know we’re we’re being seen as a project that is actually continuing to do what they say they’re going to do. And if anybody who comes to Medina, I’ll take him to the site. I’m 100 feet from the project. My, you know my my wife and children live by it and businesses down the road. I run the local magazine. There’s a lot more riding on this project and and getting all the way to the finish line and making this the way we want it to. And then just the NFT.
00:31:39 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah. And you bring out a couple of things. I want to make some points and then we’ll start wrapping up because I know we could talk forever on this and just get you going, man. Yeah, the, the pieces to know for the listeners are, you know, NFT’s right now are new and there’s some hype and there can be some bubbles. And I think if anybody’s really curious about it, go do some homework. To do at least 1020 hours researching NF T’s different projects and then see what’s underneath. So there’s going to be artwork, there’s going to be utility, there’s a collectibility, and there’s utilitarian component to an NFT. There’s lots of hype. And like you mentioned, there’s projects that bubble up just for the flip. They’re trying to make some quick coins and and flip out artwork and then there’s some real. Collectible style artwork of real artists that are in for the long haul. There’s also real projects that like the order egonauts are in for the long haul and they’re going to come with some utilitarian. I think the artwork is super creative as well, so it’s a combo, right? And I think that’s an important piece. So if this is new, go do some homework and then really see what’s underneath of any project before truly investing in anything.
00:33:06 Chris Pederson
Yeah, 100%. I mean that’s the best advice anyone given that after he says do the research, do the homework. If your buddy tells you this is going to go up big, he’s either she he is either a on the inside of that and is part of the pump and and then artificial one where the goal is to frankly leave somebody else holding the last bag. Or they’re ignorant and believe that they actually know more than everybody else and that somehow this project is going to be huge because they said so. Yeah, if they’ve done the research, maybe they can confidently say that, but do it yourself, because I’ve found most of the time, especially the space moving this fast in a society that has the attention span, you know, of a mouse that. You want to really take the time yourself if you want to get in this space because in his it can be dangerous and people have lost a lot of money and and and done some pretty foolish things and frankly it it’s it’s created a a negative aura around the space especially and and the and the public image that these NF T’s and crypto are you know start Society of scammers were plenty of those there but.
00:34:17 Matthew Kuehlhorn
But the the point I want to make on this is that. The projects that attract me, at any rate, are because they build community. And when we look at it that way, sure, I could consider myself invested, but I’m not in it necessarily for a return, although I kind of am. But it’s decades. If it if it’s going to play, it’s going to be decades. The more important piece is that I’m collecting these items that really start becoming or defining my identity. They cool. I stand for. I stand for community, innovation, disruption for the greater good, right? And so now I’m starting to collect things just like I do in my house. And this is probably the coolest thing. So you know, as a 46 year old, I did not grow up playing the games my kids grew up playing. They grew up things. So they already have this understanding of collectibles. They put stuff in the backpacks of their video games and. Now, as this generation comes into the workforce, it’s kind of normal to collect digital items, right? And that’s why the NFT pops up and is so applicable, because not only is it a collectible that young people already know and have done, but now it’s a utilitarian.
00:35:32 Chris Pederson
Piece it’s got exactly. No it’s and it’s come it’s come so far. I mean Diablo, you know was a game computer game back then. I remember I had an old elementary school buddy you actually would high school time but. Would sell these rare items that you would find in, you know, the game.
00:35:47 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, to people, that’s.
00:35:48 Chris Pederson
Right. And I was right. Are you kidding? You’re selling this sword that you found that anybody could go and find for $100. Yeah. And then you see now. And it’s like, well, kids will go and buy skins for Fortnite and they’ll spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on on on literally just, you know, pixel changes.
00:36:05 Matthew Kuehlhorn
That’s right.
00:36:06 Chris Pederson
That and you know or some sort of attribute, but it is, it’s, it’s absolutely that and that’s where I think NFT is like you’re saying the utility. Is a really fun thing to bring in and and to start to see and even with us like the community. One quick example I’ll give is even even in the last couple months I’m one of the holders of the Negonaut. He he owns a local board game company and it’s actually a pretty large board game company and he understands game theory and balancing of games and he’s really been intrigued by NFT’s. They have got it. I mean they have a the base of appointments. They have 25 employees. But nobody in there knows how to write Solidity code for an Ethereum, you know smart contract. Yeah. Well guess who the order of the Egonauts has. We’ve got a guy who’s amazing yet and he’s part of our team and now they’re talking to each other. Is that going to better than order the Egonauts? Doesn’t really matter. It already is because they’re already talking. They’re already connecting. I know now that you know that off grid you know and do Dunnancy here are going to. Likely develop a relationship and work on things outside of this. That is going to benefit their own interest, but it’s going to all have rooted in order the Egonots and like you brought up, you know, Gathering the Kings mastermind. Yeah, it’s the same concept of really bringing these good people together and you all rally around, you know, maybe a centralized impetus, but you bring the right people together and you know, the sum of all parts grows.
00:37:38 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, and it, yeah. That’s awesome. Hopefully for the listeners we get a little bit of understanding and break it down. So it’s not so far out like blockchain is here. You’re already engaging it whether you know it or not. NFT’s are around community building primarily I think and it’s not a an investment flip. I would not recommend that and if this is all new to you, go do some work because I think in the future brands, businesses, companies, they’re all going to have NFT’s. Just like they all have websites, but just like in the early 90s, they didn’t all have websites and there was some fear, confusion and in curiosity at the same time. So this is just an early time for this entire space. Chris, I really appreciate kind of breaking it down. How do people reach out to you? How do we learn more about the order of Econauts or even this community development that you’ve got going on?
00:38:34 Chris Pederson
Sure, I’m so. So the best way would probably be to start following us on Twitter. That’s at Egonox NFT and then the development. I mean if you well, if you own an Egonot you pop into our Discord, you can start to communicate that way and with the development follow us on Twitter, send a message on there and I might even you know give on my cell phone and I’ll give a phone call and we can talk about the developments. But I mean or if you want to take the time like honestly a lot of people have started to do with our project because they. Want to do the due diligence You talk about they go on, you look on the city’s website and it’s all there. Several plans. It’s like these are, these are real things that are happening, you know. And so the site is off of Hwy. 5520 miles West of Minneapolis and it’s on the north side of the highway and it’s on 18 acres, twelve of which are wetland and the rest we’re building on and it’s going to be beautiful and people will start to see it here’s.
00:39:36 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, I love it. But I really appreciate your time. I know they’re about to open up the stage at Lucas Oil and we should walk a couple blocks and get back into the mix.
00:39:45 Chris Pederson
They should. We got to get back in there. Well, thanks again Matt, for having me. It was nice to do this, especially at a place like this where there’s a memorable connection that comes with doing it in a different place during this.
00:39:56 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Yeah, there’s only been just a small handful of live podcasts that we’ve done for Kooler Lifestyle. So this is.
00:40:02 Chris Pederson
It is lightly fun.
00:40:04 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Not, not in the moment live, but you and I are sitting here versus you being in Medina. I’m Colorado. Yeah. So appreciate your mail.
00:40:12 Chris Pederson
I appreciate you too, Paul. Talk soon.
00:40:16 Matthew Kuehlhorn
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to the Kooler Lifestyle Podcast. We count on your subscriptions, your likes, your shares, and I encourage you to do that. Now, if you’re watching on YouTube, go ahead and subscribe. Lower right hand button. If you’re on audio, download this. Share it. We look forward to having you on the next one.