Primer: Will Weinraub’s daughter is a collector of blind bags — small and collectable toys hidden inside opaque packaging. When Will realized that the blind bag toy market is an emerging market, he started Cryptoys, the digital version of the toy market. In this episode of the Zima Red Podcast, learn about Will’s background and what he is planning with Cryptoys.
Background
Born and raised in Miami
Got his start in tech when he was 12. Visited various topic-based chat rooms on AOL
Was a wrestling fan. Someone in the wrestling chat room wanted to make a wrestling fan site for 100 bucks. He responded to the offer and was paid by cheque in in the mail
Went back to the chat room and offered his services again. Took on another 5 clients at $100 each
The entrepreneur bug bit him at that point
For his second business, he helped people at the Miami Beach community to get on to eBay
After graduating from Florida State University, he started his first venture-backed company, LiveNinja, a video chat marketplace
LiveNinja was acquired by IDT Telecom. Spent some years with them
Now he’s building cryptos with OnChain Studios
Process Of Building Wrestling Websites
Had to find tutorials using Yahoo. Best way he learned was to right click and view the source code of other websites
Got his mum to drive him to Barnes & Noble to pick up the only HTML book they had in store
There were 3 free hosting sites at that time:
Geocities
Angelfire
Tripod
Geocities had the best HTML editor and UI of the three
“Thanks to the combination of all those factors, I was able to build some pretty shitty looking websites in the 90s. But nonetheless, decent enough to get paying customers basically.”
- Will Weinraub
When Did He Dive Into Crypto?
While building LiveNinja in 2012, his co-founder, Alfonso, suggested that they should buy some Bitcoin as it is very cheap
Found the concept of Bitcoin interesting, but as he was focused on building LiveNinja, he didn’t pay attention to it
2 years later, they hired professionals to take high quality videos to create their video profiles. One of these professionals was a Bitcoin expert who spoke passionately about Bitcoin
Bought a little bit of Bitcoin at that time
Went down the rabbit hole in 2016/2017
2018 was the big all-in moment for him when he saw CryptoKitties for the first time
Thought Process On CryptoKitties
Growing up, he was a big comic book and trading card collector
Got ingrained in him that certain things are more valuable than others
CryptoKitties was the first project that showcased digital scarcity
“So when CryptoKitties launched, it was the first example to me that showcased digital scarcity, that showcase digital collectibles and really a framework in place that can make this possible, to do all the things that we did as collectors, as kids and comic books and trading cards.”
- Will Weinraub
Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist, wrote a blog post that people should pay attention to Dapper Labs. This made him dive deeper into CryptoKitties
OnChain Studios
Formed OnChain Studios to be the parent company of Cryptoys this year
His 8 year old daughter and 7 year old son are obsessed with blind bags over the past few years
Blind bags are toys that you can buy for $20-30 at a Target/Walmart. Inside it, there’s a random toy, with some toys being rarer than others
“It's literally what the toy space is like being held up on is this blind bag surprise unboxing trend and every major toy company has their own variant now of blind bags, and my kids wanted all of them.”
- Will Weinraub
He looked up the company and realized that this is an emerging market
“So one day, in late 2018, my daughter screams from the playroom and she's like Dad! Dad! Come quick! Come quick! Oh my god, I found it! I found the ultra rare, finally I found the ultra rare! I go into the playroom. First of all, there's like plastic and confetti everywhere because these things freaking explode when you open them. And inside is a gold glittery plastic doll from one of her favorite toy collections. She's like this is the one, this is the one I've been looking for, like hundreds of dollars later here she's finally found it. And she looks at it for a little bit. She's super fascinated with it and she throws it into the bin with the other toys that she's collected. There's really no utility or entertainment beyond the collectability of it. But the rush of excitement had her hooked on like finding them.”
- Will Weinraub
Went to his daughter and suggested making a digital version of blind bags. His daughter wanted it to be more interactive, where she can play games with them and do different things with them
Started building this side project together with her daughter to introduce her to tech
His co-founder and CTO of LiveNinja, Emilio, also had a daughter around the same age
Pitched the idea to his LiveNinja co-founders and they are all on board building the project
Cryptoys
Introduction
The first digital and NFT-native toy company
Interactive digital toys that can be taken into different applications and environments to be played with
Besides collectability, there will be worlds, environments, and games with play-to-earn mechanics
They are trying to create a consumer-friendly package for people to collect digital toys, without them having to touch crypto
Want to be the on-ramp for a lot of consumers to experience blockchain and play-to-earn for the first time
The characters they created have their own backstory. Also working with brands to do licensed collectables on the Cryptoys platform as well
One-Liner For Cryptoys
The first NFT that’s animated, interactive, and intelligent
It’s like a Tamagotchi on steroids
Why Would Consumers Want Cryptoys?
Made them super compelling from the playability aspects, aesthetics, and the overall enjoyment of interacting with them
Some people would want to buy it as an investment while others want to play the game
They are creating original IP that they think will have a big impact
Building a media arm around their IP, with investors with strong ties to Hollywood
How Do People Play With Their Cryptoys?
Creating a Cryptoyverse — an open world environment where players can take their Cryptoys and do different things with it
It has different items, structures, buildings, and games in there
Mario Party is a good analogy — using mini-games that are 5-10 minutes long to create accessibility
They are creating the games in-house
Trying to figure out a more accessible framework to churn out really cool experiences that people can take their Cryptoys to
Games have a shelf life before gamers jump to the next new game. Hence, their focus is on creating the infrastructure to launch plenty of fresh experiences and mini-games
Cryptoy owners will have a say in the direction of the games they are building
Talents & Skills
Each Cryptoy comes with talents and skills
Skills can be improved through training over time (e.g. playing archery in a mini-game to level up archery skill)
Talents are something that we are born with
Gems are NFTs that are used to make your Cryptoys more talented
“You're gonna have a panda on day one that could do certain things. But then maybe on day 60 or day 90, you might have the only panda that could run, jump, and shoot this way and the only panda that could speak Mandarin and Portuguese, there's lots of different things that we'll be able to bake into it so that your panda is truly one of one and unique.”
- Will Weinraub
Can combine talents and skills together to make your Cryptoys unique
Deciding Which Blockchain To Be On
Decided on the Flow blockchain
When CryptoKitties launched, the Ethereum blockchain was congested and there were issues with gas fees
Crypto is also something scary for a lot of people
Flow was accessible and user friendly
NBA Top Shot showcased Flow to the masses. Made it easy for people to just use a credit card to make purchases, without needing to mention it is a NFT
“A grandparent or a parent needs to be able to buy a Cryptoy for their grandson or a child and do so easily. And let's face it, Grandma's not setting up a Metamask wallet, logging into Coinbase, verifying her identity, waiting two to three days for Coinbase to say okay, Grandma, you can buy Ethereum and then transfer it to her MetaMask wallet. There's too much friction there. So we want the most affordable, accessible and easy to use platform and blockchain to do so.”
- Will Weinraub
With Cryptoys, they want to take a similar approach to what NBA Top Shot is doing
Will Cryptoys Have Any Embedded Social Features?
Will have a lot of social features in both the web app and the actual Cryptoyverse
Doesn’t think that there will be a replacement for Twitter and Discord
What Is Their Moat?
They are really passionate about storytelling and creating engaging stories
It’s not just a game. It’s also something that people will watch on their Apple TV with their family members
Will continually provide value for their customers and collectors to create rich, engaging experiences
Will The Future Be Multichain?
Thinks that multichain will play a big role in the future
His Grand 5-10 Year Vision
Trying to create the Nintendo of the NFT space
Nintendo is one part a video game platform with its own IP, another part an entertainment company (e.g. shorts, animations, movies, etc.), and a final part a collectables company
They are creating across these 3 different pillars of gaming, entertainment, and collectables
Thoughts On The Current NFT Market Environment
Feels a little frothy like the late 90s where everybody was creating dotcom companies
The 10,000 avatar profile picture projects are getting saturated
There will be new entrants that come and go
There will be a winter and another bull run after that. Important thing is that good companies continue building in the winter to create the next supercycle
Believes that we are in the dial-up modem phase of NFTs
Single Favourite NFT
His apes
The Bored Ape Yacht Club really showcased the power of NFT community
The energy and connections that he made from being part of that community has been impactful
Most Controversial Thought On NFTs
We are going to experience a pretty significant down market
Thinks that there’s going to be a lot of fraud targeting new entrants to the space
Correlation Between The Crypto And NFT Markets
Thinks that there will always be a correlation between the overall crypto market and NFTs
Thinks that new entrants to NFTs are super visual and that projects can connect to them emotionally
Possible for some visually appealing projects without much substance to rug pull at any particular point
If He Could Improve One Thing In The Space
Reduce a lot of the shilling that is happening in the space
Advises new entrants to the space that everyone has their own agenda and to be careful
NFT Ecosystem In 3 Years
Going to see millions of new entrants into NFTs
His big belief is that gaming is going to be the on-ramp to get mainstream masses into the NFT and crypto space
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