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3air weekly AMA, 2nd March 2022 @5pm CET
AMAs & Spaces

3air weekly AMA, 2nd March 2022 @5pm CET

This is a transcript from our weekly YouTube live AMA:

Anita Mlakar: 00:29

Hello everybody and welcome to 3air’s weekly AMA, I am really happy to have you here. My name is Anita Mlakar and with us today will also be Sandi Bitenc, CEO of 3air. Ruba Aramouny will also be with us. She’s the head of marketing and we have a surprise guest who we will announce in just a few seconds. But first of course don’t forget to click Like, share this AMA with your friends, write a comment, hit the bell icon to get notifications, subscribe to our YouTube channel. And you’re welcome to be a part of our community on Twitter, on Discord and on telegram.

01:10

Let me start like we always do with just a short introduction of 3air and the project of bringing broadband internet to Africa.

01:19

So 3air blockchain platform will provide an easy to use blockchain based ISP management system with integrated proven security, transparency and low fees needed to operate a successful telecom. So, the whole project is divided into three stages, Create a market with building on broadband infrastructure in Africa with K3 partnership, building the blockchain ecosystem and expanding the platform with additional functionalities and onboarding multiple ISPs.

01:53

So, for our development, we have chosen to build on SKALE blockchain, cities of Africa are vibrant, dynamic and full of people running around with mobile phones. Yet there is almost no true broadband connectivity, cities have grown too fast and without real connectivity plans. So now it is impossible to dig trenches like cables and provide fast and stable Internet. The lack of internet in this region has also social and economic impact, including the way citizens interact with their government, with businesses and of course, with each other and 3air’s vision is to make broadband connectivity available to the masses, that is easy to access through its blockchain based platform and we are introducing the project every week getting together in our AMAs every Wednesday at 5pm Central European Time and then every Monday again, I think it’s 4pm now on Twitter and we will be talking about it also today.

02:52

So first let’s welcome Sandi Bitenc, the CEO of 3air.

Anita Mlakar: 02:57

Hello, Sandi.

Sandi Bitenc: 02:59

Hello, Anita. How are you?

Anita Mlakar: 03:04

Hello, Sandi. I’m good. I do hope my connection will be good because I’m not at home, I am not in Slovenia today. So, we’re doing it a little differently but let’s just hope that we will be able to hear each other and that you will be able to hear us and of course to see us but Sandi, I’m sure you have a real good connection. So, there is no problem with that. We are not alone today, Sandi, first Ruba Aramouny is also with us. And I would like to invite.

Sandi Bitenc: 03:31

I want it to be a surprise for Ruba also.

Anita Mlakar: 03:35

Then don’t tell me.

Sandi Bitenc: 03:40

Today we have like a whole German team. We can speak German, right? (wir können auch deutsch sprechen, oder?) I think you’re in Germany. And our surprise guest, he’s living in Dubai right now, but he is Austrian, originally and Ruba is kind of from Germany, living in Belgium. She grew up in Dubai. So, it’s all the mix but everybody here speaks German today. We can make a German show.

Anita Mlakar: 04:16

Okay, we will answer all the questions in German (wir werden alle fragen auf deutsch beantworten).

Sandi Bitenc: 04:25

Let’s have it in English.

Anita Mlakar: 04:28

Yeah, of course. So, thank you. I see that a lot of you are also with us. sending greetings saying hello. And Sandi. First of all, did you see how I used it, when I was announcing the project? I was thinking about the right three fingers. Sandi, just before we also introduce our special guest. Just tell me how are you?

Sandi Bitenc: 04:57

I’m fine. I’m actually pretty good. Got some rest. I heard that on the last few calls. I was really looking exhausted, but I did get some sleep now. And I actually got to the pool yesterday. And that was so I’m living in a house that has a pool downstairs and I’ve been back to Dubai since end of September. This was actually the first time that I went to the pool in all this time. So, I did take a bit of rest, it was an hour of kind of off and listening to some podcasts and that what is it.

Anita Mlakar: 05:40

That is good, because you need to rest, we need you on the project but you’re active all the time, you are resting a little bit, but still so much going on Sandi, big announcements and with everything going on the project. So, you are active.

Sandi Bitenc: 05:59

Yeah, we are now upping the game a bit. So just coming up to the launch in April. Now, things are going to start picking up. So, a lot of stuff is going on in the background.

Anita Mlakar: 06:19

Yes, it is.

Sandi Bitenc: 06:20

So today, one of the announcements is coming out today and I think it’s going to be a month full of good things.

Anita Mlakar: 06:31

Okay, so now I think it’s time that we invite first Ruba, I already said it, so maybe I should wait, and she was also part of the surprise.

Sandi Bitenc: 06:43

We’ll just put Ruba in just to say hello. And then we’ll take her out again.

Ruba Aramouny: 06:50

Hi, everybody.

Anita Mlakar: 06:53

Hey Ruba.

Ruba Aramouny: 06:53

Thank you for having me. because of a special reason that I cannot tell anyone yet.

Sandi Bitenc: 07:03

Okay, I would say like when you feel about it, you just jump in the call and just surprise us.

Ruba Aramouny: 07:11

Okay, I will.

Anita Mlakar: 07:15

You will be special today but Ruba, it’s always nice to have you, I always like to have chat with you. You have a lot of information and still it is so nice to look at you?

Sandi Bitenc: 07:33

I’m not saying anything.

Ruba Aramouny: 07:35

Exactly! let’s skip ahead.

Anita Mlakar: 07:41

Okay. Thank you. Thank you and jumping in any time. Now, do have this special announcement and we were talking about it a lot in our channels, of course, trying people to guess who will be joining us today and why. And now I think it’s really time to call up our special guest. Let’s reveal who today’s guest is. He is CEO of Dubai based FinTech firm iBLOXX and his name is Domenik Maier.

Anita Mlakar: 08:15

Hello, Domenik.

Domenik Maier: 08:18

Hey, Anita. Hey, Sandi. Hey, everyone. Nice to be here. Thank you for having me.

Anita Mlakar: 08:25

Hello. Just a short introduction, Domenik, before we start talking about it. And of course, you will be doing this also saying what is going on and why. But the firm designs, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms. I read that on the net, to manage active trading models for a variety of instruments across traditional and now also crypto commodity markets and so on and so on. You have of course, a lot of experience in that field. Domenik, maybe just for starters, would you also do a short introduction of what you are doing?

Domenik Maier: 09:06

Of course. Well, thanks again for having me on. I’m Domenik come from Austria. As Sandi mentioned, I have a long history in the derivatives trading and financial markets, it’s almost 20 years now. And we are a professional market making firm, algorithmic trading firm. We basically support top projects that are listing their own tokens in the whole process, we are very boutique we choose a very, very small amount of projects that we’re working with. We are not an off the shelf market maker. We turned down I would say about 95% of the clients and we are in a fortunate position that we can actually pick and choose the projects and we chose up to partner up with 3air because of the money potential that you actually have. And we’re really happy to support you guys in your whole journey to become a leading crypto service provider.

Sandi Bitenc: 10:21

It really is like this. So, I don’t even remember if you took anybody else in the last month here, everything that I hear is just like all the projects were turned down. So, I’m really happy that this happened. And it was really amazing talking to Domenik. Although I need to say we met, the first time that Domenik, he heard about the project when I was presenting at Crypto Valley, and he was like, really got impressed. So, once we actually got together like a bit more personally and started talking, then Domenik had like, 15 minutes, and he was like, ding, ding, ding. And everything made sense, right?

Domenik Maier: 11:11

Yeah. Well, I would like to correct that. I was actually very impressed what you guys do from the first time I saw it. I just didn’t see the crypto connection. I mean, you’re providing Internet in Africa and I thought you have like this amazing philanthropic project, where you’re basically allowing people in Africa to gain access to the internet, because that’s how it was presented. You are very tech savvy and that’s how I saw, and I was like, wow, this is an amazing project. I wish I could get involved actually because we are very much supporting philanthropic projects. And that’s something where, where I was very interested, it’s one of the main reasons why we actually working with you guys.

11:55

What I didn’t see at that time was because of all the technical background that you guys have, how crypto comes in. And then I realized wait a second, you’re providing not just internet for people that have no internet access, you’re providing all the uses about that. Like I mean, banking for the unbanked, any one of your clients can basically open up this app and then pay internet with your application, he can start saving money, he can start investing money. In Africa, people, they don’t have access to banking. This is huge and this is life changing for kids in Africa or for adults that are that are looking to get out of poverty. I mean, let’s face it. You know the numbers better how many percentage are unbanked in Africa and when once I saw, okay, the potential between 3air, that’s when I wanted to be involved and I wanted to support you guys in your journey, basically.

Anita Mlakar: 13:02

That’s a thing that you are saying about 3air. Sandi, how does that feel?

Sandi Bitenc: 13:10

It’s always really nice to hear this and I also need to say, it’s always nice talking to Domenik because he has, not only knowledge about his stuff there, he is a genius in that part, but he also understands basic project, and he has the ability to really present it straightforward and really easy with just a few words.

Domenik Maier: 13:42

Thank you very much. That’s nice to hear. Thank you, Sandi.

Anita Mlakar: 13:47

So, Domenik what is it that you’re doing for companies, when supporting them?

Domenik Maier: 13:54

I mean, our support as I mentioned, we are not a stand up market maker we of course, we have all the algorithmic trading expertise in general market making and using our algorithms and our machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms. We utilize all of that but market making, in the traditional markets, in the stock markets, in the futures markets, or even in the cryptocurrency markets normally work different meaning we don’t engage with the client directly.

14:25

I used to basically engage only if the exchangers. so, I go to an exchange I work out and agreement with them they give me obviously a favorable commission rate and I just trade there. I trade whatever currency I want to trade, whatever token I want to trade whatever stock I want to trade, right. And as a market maker, you’re always providing liquidity. Your job is to basically earn the profits between the bid and ask spread and make the token liquid and the currency or the underlying liquid, decrease the spread so people can buy it and sell it freely. that’s the core business with a market maker does.

15:02

Now we enhanced that part of the business and we drilled it down, we said, Okay, what is it that we want to achieve? Cryptocurrency markets, there’s a lot of potential and we really prefer to work with a very few selective amount of clients. So, projects like 3air where we see potential where we see also, this philanthropic aspect of what you guys are doing is amazing. And that’s one of the main reasons we wanted to get involved. And we wanted to support you. So, what we are doing is the general market making, so that making sure that your cryptocurrency is liquid, it’s freely traded, there’s a fair price to it. That’s the general part.

15:44

In addition to that, we go the extra mile, I would say, and I think Sandi can confirm that we try to help on all ends, we try to open up doors, to maybe strategic partnerships to venture capital funds, if there’s a need in capital, anything that basically supports the project or make it a success. I mean, we’re like partners in this, we want to help you become successful and we provide our expertise, in that sense. So, whether it’s opening up doors to investment funding, whether it’s providing pure liquidity on the exchanges, whether it’s providing the pure market making services that we are doing, where we make sure that the token and the cryptocurrencies is fairly traded, with a fair price that that people can buy and sell your token in an efficient way.

Sandi Bitenc: 16:44

I can for sure, attest that Domenik is going the extra miles. So, I think the last two days, we had calls with Domenik at midnight, literally at midnight, really. So, we’ve been working around the clock and Domenik is also helping us with another an additional use case for the token and they will not reveal that one yet. So that’s going to be another surprise.

Domenik Maier: 17:17

Yes, it’s another strategic partnership we’re working on for you guys to support you. This is completely obviously on top of what we’re doing. It’s like I said, we want to help you guys. And that’s what we do with all the clients, we’re trying select few that we’re taking on, we’re really going all in, and it doesn’t matter if it’s midnight or 2 in the morning. If something is urgent and needed, we’re going to be there.

Anita Mlakar: 17:41

Great! There are a couple of questions coming in, it was actually something that I wanted to ask you too, but Michael is also asking this question. What are the requirements to be chosen by you, Domenik and your company?

Domenik Maier: 17:58

They’re significant. So, it needs to be a good team, it starts always with the team. I mean, we would never take on a project, which we don’t know the team behind, or it’s anonymous or anything. It also has to do with our KYC and compliance that we are obligated to do. So, there it starts. So, we look at the team very much first, and then we look at, okay, what is the utility behind, what are these projects doing? Because, for us, we believe in in the blockchain ecosystem, that there should be some real utility, some real use case behind it. And, to be honest, it’s very hard to find projects, which provides so much value to the people and to the blockchain ecosystem than 3air. So, this is where it starts, the team, what are you doing? And then we go further and see, okay, well how are you guys getting paid because we’re not interested in projects where the owners are getting a huge pay, in the beginning or anything like that because we want longevity, we want that you’re in this for the long term, for your investors, because ultimately, we are in a partnership together. So, all of these things are critical to us.

19:21

And of course, we also look at the potential. I mean, clearly, it’s not just from a philanthropic point of view, I don’t want to make this impression because we love that part, but we are also in it obviously to earn money. And for that, we look at the potential of the project itself. So, we look at okay, well, where can we support you the best and how big is the potential of what you guys are doing?

Sandi Bitenc: 19:57

So, my question would be like, in general, there are a lot of bad project, but there are also good projects that launch, and they don’t have a successful launch. How do you see from your perspective and your line of work? What do projects do wrong when they launch their token in the beginning?

Domenik Maier: 20:21

Oh, wow. how much time do we have? Because we can talk about that until after midnight. Okay, well, it’s completely varies. Often it starts with the structuring, let’s say, you have what you mentioned, it’s a good project. So, let’s say you have a good team, and you have a good product but then often, sometimes we see what is missing is understanding the trading part of it, the investment side of it. What does an investor look at when he wants to invest into a project? You know, for example, let’s say we have projects, they come to us, and they say, and to have a great product and have a great team and everything, but they’re saying, okay, yeah, we have this price in mind, we have this amount of supply of tokens, we are going to list at an exchange, and I do the calculations, and then I have to tell them, guys, no offense, your market capitalization at listing price is $80 million. No offense, be realistic, you’re not worth $80 million, when you list. you would have to bring a lot to the table to have this kind of value.

21:27

So other investors, professional investors like us or others, they look at that. They analyze that and they see that. They compare, okay, so let’s say it’s a DeFi protocol and the DeFi protocol is they value themselves at like $50 million to start out. So, me as an investor and cryptocurrency investors, they go in and they say, Okay, well, market capitalization at start is 50 million, their biggest competitor is maybe a billion dollars and market cap. So, I have a potential of 20x. 20x sounds big but actually in cryptocurrency markets is often not that big because what’s the probability that this DeFi protocol gets to the same level or as the others. It’s rather low because the others are established. So, these things are critical you have to understand the market, you have to understand what’s a fair valuation of a project, and then go from there, basically. So that’s one of the biggest mistakes that we see.

22:34

And there we see other projects where they have completely wrong vesting schedules, for example. And they say, Okay, we have seed investors or venture capital funds, let’s say they buy at one cent, for example, that’s the listing price, that’s the price that they can buy, they invest whatever, 1-2-3-4 million in seed capital at one cent, and the project lists at 10 cent, and the venture capital funds immediately have to funds. I mean, they’re already up 10 times the investment with huge capital, they’re not going to sit on their tokens that will sell them. I mean, it’s very hard to convince an institutional investor to not sell a part of their tokens. If this is the upside that they already have. So, it’s very key and very important that you talk to your seed investors and say, Look, guys, please, let’s be in this together, this is a long term good project, you’re going to get that price. The listing price is going to be x. And also, yes, you get a discount. But let’s be realistic and we are long term investors. We can see to work together kind of like, these are like standard mistakes that we see that are happening often.

Sandi Bitenc: 24:02

We need to update the things, but we did make some good changes to the tokenomics. And yeah, also, our market cap is now coming down and the launch market cap is going to be below 1 million. So that’s good that thanks for helping us out in this one, Domenik. And yeah, we also extended some vesting periods for seed and private investors for some of them. And I think we’re still in talks with some of the other private investors. So maybe we’ll get even the launching market cap even lower. So yeah, for sure. This is going in the right direction.

Domenik Maier: 24:54

Yeah, I think the changes that you made, they make absolute sense and I think they’re very good. Maybe, if I want to add some other things that are a bit technical, but those are also like some major, major flaws that we see and all like. Two things where people just- they’re not aware of the situation, and you cannot blame them because they don’t come from this investment background or trading background, especially not on blockchain trading.

25:23

I mean, the traditional finance market has been obviously, operating since a very long time but trading directly on the blockchain is a bit different. So, two things are also critical. For example, when you are listing a token, on a decentralized exchange, you need to make sure that you protect yourself from algorithmic traders from sniping bots, that buy a huge supply as the first investor because they have the technology behind, and then the price goes up, then they sell everything, then they crash the token price and things like that. So that’s one other key aspect that people need to understand.

26:05

Second aspect, when people don’t launch on a decentralized exchange, they say, oh, let’s list immediately on a centralized exchange, do an initial exchange offering. This can also be sometimes not the most ideal case. In most of the cases, I think the exchanges are very supportive and working together well. But, you know, securities lending is a big thing and securities boring is a big thing in regulated markets. I mean, that’s a part of the trading ecosystem in the traditional capital markets. And it’s also the same in the cryptocurrency markets.

26:44

So, I don’t condemn that at all but it’s important for a launch, let’s say, a project gets listed on a central exchange and if you don’t have a good market maker that knows what’s going on, what can happen, what happened sometimes on some not so good exchanges is that the tokens that were listed there for liquidity, were basically borrowed to a trading firm. And they just waited until the price got up a little bit. And then they just sold it off, they sold off tokens that they didn’t even have that they borrowed. It’s called short selling, basically and you need to work together with these exchanges and most of them are very good. It’s just sometimes mistakes can be made there. And it’s important to have a good market maker to work together with.

Anita Mlakar: 27:37

Yes, definitely. Here is an interesting opinion, a lot of good comments are coming in and here is the opinion from Michael, he said that people do not identify with products or services, because we are emotional creatures and what is missing, in his opinion, is the “why” why are they doing it? Why should I, as the one interesting in the project care?

Domenik Maier: 28:07

I think that’s more of a question for you, Sandi, right?

Anita Mlakar: 28:11

Yeah. Both of you also.

Domenik Maier: 28:15

From my perspective, I love your project. So why is to me completely obvious. I mean, you guys, 3air can change lives of people in Africa, let’s face it. I mean, if people don’t have access to internet, they don’t have access to banking. I mean, how do you grow as an economy, it’s physically impossible, if you don’t have access to the financial systems, you cannot save money, you cannot borrow money. I mean, it’s very challenging for poor countries to then develop. So, and that’s really one of the main use cases, where you guys are like, really providing something of value.

Sandi Bitenc: 29:00

Exactly. And it’s also what we’ve been talking to Domenik, so going more into what impact we actually are having there. So that’s emotional, of course, the product is not emotional. So, it’s like, can be totally just a product but what we can achieve with it, that’s for sure is emotional. So just imagine giving a child the possibility to educate himself and then get work or whatever with some products that we are coming out and connecting to 3air will actually be giving people the opportunity to also get some income to earn some money there in Africa, and that’s going to be life changing.

29:47

So, I think 3air will change a lot of lives really a lot of life. So, the impact that we might have in Africa is huge. Just looking at Ethiopia, there’s 150 million people there, and the connectivity there is not on par. So, they’re really waiting for to get some good broadband and that’s going to bring a lot of new opportunities. And just for me, it’s unimaginable. I was always kind of trying to go into helping people. For the last decade, I was working as a functional medicine practitioner besides doing jobs with software development and such stuff. So, and it was actually because it helped me a lot and I just wanted to learn it. And I did learn it, and I was helping other people. And it’s like, helping one in one but with this, we can actually help millions and literally millions.

Anita Mlakar: 31:01

I don’t think that 3air’s “why” is very transparent to logical. I think Michael was more referring in general, as I understood the question that a lot of those projects are missing the why. And I think 3air doing great. Michael is also saying that he really likes the partnership, the 3air making, people with knowledge, heart, vision, and spirit. And he says, Domenik, it’s really great to have you on board.

Domenik Maier: 31:28

Thank you!

Sandi Bitenc: 31:31

I think that’s, that’s really one of the key partnerships, if not the most important partnership that we actually made because we can have like, really, the best project there is at all, but if we don’t have somebody that’ll take care of everything that needs to go with the token, it’s not going to work, it’s just not going to work. So that’s why it’s really important to have Domenik on board.

Anita Mlakar: 32:02

Domenik, just another question. Maybe you were talking about the team and the importance of the team. Could you tell us a little bit about your team?

Domenik Maier: 32:12

Absolutely. Yeah. We have a blockchain developers on board of course, they have lots of solidity experience, they come with all the experience that needs to be combined with trading. so, they know how to protect yourself, tokens when they’re listed on decentralized exchanges from these sniping bots, algorithmic traders, that want to do some. they’re also able to protect transactions from being front ran on the blockchain because blockchain is amazing for transparency purposes but it comes also with a caveat that may be transactions can be front run and things like that. And it’s like always a pro and con.

33:01

I know you guys launched on SKALE, there’s other opportunities there. And it’s good, your front running should not be possible there but that’s a part of the team. And of course, the other part of the team is the quant finance guys and data scientists that we have on board. quant finance, they focus on the market making itself they focus on improving the algorithms that we can get the spread down when we are listing when we’re supporting you guys to get listed on the central exchanges. I’ve seen this was also a question that I think Richard was it, who asked them if we will support them getting 3air on listed on exchanges, of course. We work with all the large major exchanges. And that’s part of our process to support you. That’s what I meant with. We’re like a full stop shop. So, we support you in anything that you need and then of course listing on central exchanges is a key component clearly. So, we’re picking up these discussions already to have you guys listed on good exchanges. And maybe for the team, I would also add we have compliance in place. That’s another part that we of course need to have.

Anita Mlakar: 34:22

Great! Ruba, hello.

Ruba Aramouny: 34:32

subliminal messaging.

Anita Mlakar: 34:35

Yeah, very important.

Sandi Bitenc: 34:37

So, what do you want to tell us?

Ruba Aramouny: 34:39

I was showing you the daily secret giveaway code. So, if you saw it, then you can go and type it in right now. Otherwise, I will say it in German, but then we give the German speakers an advantage. So, I will say it again in English in actually spoken English 2330. And you can go to our giveaway and put in the daily secret code there. If you haven’t joined it yet, it’s worth joining. Exactly that’s the link, you can win a lot of tokens and a MacBook Air.

Sandi Bitenc: 35:37

Everybody go and fill out, just click there. I think there’s a few things that you need to do. So, you need to like and subscribe and it’s like daily code. So, you go back daily, and you have more chances of winning.

Ruba Aramouny: 35:59

Exactly. I’m hopping out again.

Sandi Bitenc: 36:03

You want to tell us something else? You want to chime in on the discussion?

Ruba Aramouny: 36:09

I think there’s some really good questions in the chat that we can answer but everybody, it’s really good news that we’re partnering with iBLOXX and Domenik because they have a lot of experience. They have a lot of good connections and it’s only going to improve everything for 3air even more.

Anita Mlakar: 36:35

Yeah, great. Thank you. Ruba, it’s true. Thanks for being with us but please stay close. Okay.

Ruba Aramouny: 36:45

I’m staying close.

Anita Mlakar: 36:47

Okay. Thank you for the secret code. Sandi, I’m going to jump in. I have another question. For Domenik. Okay, Domenik, it’s from my point of view, from public speaking and public relations. How many times is not good enough pitching the reason that maybe some projects don’t come to life or not successful?

Domenik Maier: 37:19

When you say not good enough, what exactly do you mean, like the product itself? Or the strategy?

Anita Mlakar: 37:27

Yeah, maybe they have a good project, they have a good strategy, everything is working but because of the bad pitching or bad public speaking, they really don’t have a success with it. How important is that? And is it one of the main factors?

Domenik Maier: 37:45

It’s crucial. It’s absolutely critical. It’s unfortunate, the cryptocurrency markets, how they work is, you can have a phenomenal product, you can have a phenomenal team, but then maybe you’re not good in sales, and you do certain small mistakes that are absolutely vital, and your project just dies off and then we see on the other hand, you see projects with zero utility that have like really not a good product, there’s not even a team behind that you know about and they just take off and then they’re trading like billions of dollars a day and all. But a little bit of the reality that we’re living in. So, it’s just I think the ecosystem will migrate more towards to the good projects, the ones with real utility and I’m more away from projects that don’t provide anything in that space. But let’s face it, there’s so much speculation going on. And but I think slowly the cryptocurrency markets are maturing, but we see this situation a lot. So, I would say there’s a big majority of projects where this unfortunately happens.

39:07

They have everything they have a good product and good team, but they just were lacking in certain things or made certain mistakes or may be able to transport the true message because in cryptocurrency markets the investors are like thinking very simple. So, for them, it’s more like okay, what do you do? Tell me one sentence don’t give me a white paper of 30 pages. And sometimes it’s important to be able to transport the message and I have to say, at first, I didn’t get it. I was like, oh my god, this is an amazing project from philanthropic perspective, and we were thinking okay, maybe we can invest here something, or we can do something in that space. Until I learned, Oh, no, you guys are like really doing something in the cryptocurrency markets directly and not just providing internet, you’re providing really like the person with a bank account, the digital bank account in crypto Of course. Like, you’re providing banking services, lending, borrowing, identity management is mentioned and there’s maybe some other things are coming. which you are going to announce, I think, eventually.

Ruba Aramouny: 40:22

So that’s actually a really important question, Domenik, for you, you are already seeing some changes that people are not super interested in random coins without a utility anymore, and that they’re moving more towards real world utility tokens.

Domenik Maier: 40:42

Yeah, happening. But I would say it’s still a big amount of investors that more jump on like hype. They’re like, Oh, what’s the next big hype project. But I would say the more sincere investors, they all look at utility. What’s the purpose? What’s the problem that you guys are trying to solve? And like I mentioned, you guys, you guys really have something amazing there and I love the story.

Anita Mlakar: 41:19

That’s good. Bravo.

Ruba Aramouny: 41:21

People in the chat, agree.

Domenik Maier: 41:24

People agree. Yes.

Sandi Bitenc: 41:25

Yeah.

Anita Mlakar: 41:27

Yes, they do. Domenik, another question. Where did you get your knowledge? I mean, how does one become Domenik Maier? What we have to do?

Domenik Maier: 41:39

Wow, that’s a long okay, the AMA is going to take quite some time. Well, let me give you a short a breakdown of my background. Originally when I was young, I actually wanted to become a professional athlete. Unfortunately, I had injuries and that didn’t work then I had 11 surgeries, so my professional career was basically over by that and in school then our school wasn’t too challenging for me. So, I was always the kid that sat in the last row in the corner, hiding and my friends were doing sports betting right. So, they were like all like betting on soccer. And I know nothing about soccer. I watched the World Cup that’s about it, and a lot watch a little bit of the Champions League, of course, but I am not very in depth with all that.

42:30

So, I was playing basketball and I was betting on certain things, but basketball you couldn’t bet on. So, I was betting on tennis, which was a bit of a hobby and that was the time of Andrew Agassi, and the Austrian guy Thomas Moster was trying to become world number one, he was competing with Pete Sampras, and Agassi. So, one day I placed this bet on, of course, that Thomas Moster will win. So, I placed his bet and then I walk in the city, and I see this book keeper because my odds were like 190, meaning if I invest $100, I get $190 back or so in that time, it was schillings in Austria. And then I walk in the city, and I see a different bookkeeper providing an odd of 210. And I was like, Oh, damn, I should have placed a bet that this guy because I would have gotten them to under $10 back or in the amount in schilling and this did not let me stop thinking. So I was back in class, it was lunch break. And I was like, Okay, how is this possible? How is it possible that this bookkeeper pays 190 and this guy pays 210. So, what I did was I placed another bet, that Thomas Moster will lose, and I calculated a certain amount that I have to invest. So, I somehow stumbled upon sports arbitrage betting.

43:58

so, at the end, what I did all day long in class, I hope my math teachers forgive me, I was basically looking for these bets in sports because there’s only one there’s only one outcome right? In tennis. Either my guy wins, or my guy loses. Thomas Moster wins or Andrew Agassi wins, there is no tie. So, I looked for these bookkeepers where Thomas Moster has a odds. So, I placed a certain amount of Thomas Moster and in the same game, I went to a different bookkeeper and placed a bet that Andrew Agassi wins and one of them wins. I mean, it has to its tennis, It doesn’t stop with a tie. So, no matter what happened, no matter who won, I won a fixed amount. It was like 5-6-7-8 sometimes 10%.

44:48

So, these are differentials were there and that’s how I got actually into the market. So, I was starting to make some funny money as a student and that got me hooked. So, my injuries kept going and I knew, Okay, well, sports and basketball wouldn’t not be my career anymore. So I was in the sports betting, but that became more and more difficult later on but that got me hooked because that was like, Okay, well, hold on a second, there’s the same stock is trading on in Frankfurt and etc. And it’s also trading on the New York Stock Exchange, they’re not trading at the same price because on safe line, Deutsche Mark versus on the US stock market, the same company in US dollars, if you change the exchange rate, it was not the same price. And that’s how I got into the financial markets and then from that on, I was completely hooked. I read every book on the world. But my library when I was moving, actually to Dubai, which is over a year ago already. I was really sad because at first, I had to throw away quite some books. And then I put some of my books in the basement of a house in Austria, that’s always when I moved somewhere. My Library is the hardest thing to transport because it’s like, I own about over 1000 financial books is only financial game theory, financial markets, math, programming, all of that stuff.

Anita Mlakar: 46:21

Amazing story! And I knew there was this amazing story behind you and behind all of it. And also, I see comments, what a great story. And it just makes me think that maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on my son, when he’s not being totally into school, listening to it.

Domenik Maier: 46:42

School wasn’t too difficult for me, I have to say, but I was more like the type of person that just tried to get by. I knew when it was important to have good grades. So, then that’s when I focused and studied, and I was okay after grade. Now, let me focus on basketball again, or, in that case, already, like the sports betting stuff. That was interesting. It was fun.

Anita Mlakar: 47:10

Someone was asking which position did you play in basket?

Domenik Maier: 47:14

Well, I’m sure, I play point guard/shooting guard, you know, So yeah, unfortunately, I stopped growing when I was 14. I’m like, 185. You know, that was also another issue. I was too short, but I have a couple of friends that really made it. They made it into the NBA, and they were very successful. Nobody’s playing anymore. I’m too old, unfortunately and my friends also too old.

Sandi Bitenc: 47:44

let me tell you something. Anita is also playing basketball. That’s now the second woman that you met from Slovenia in this week that was playing basketball.

Domenik Maier: 47:58

Yes. Amazing.

Anita Mlakar: 48:02

This is now a veteran League, you know, when the head wants, and the body can’t do it.

Domenik Maier: 48:09

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and my body can’t. Unfortunately, my body can’t do it anymore. If I want to do some sports, I go play golf. That’s about the safest sport that I can do. Because 11 surgeries is quite a lot. I don’t want to do a 12th. So, I’ll focus on golf. But right now, there’s no time for golf, unfortunately.

Anita Mlakar: 48:29

Yeah, I can imagine. You are in Dubai right now. That’s a change, coming from Europe and Austria but Sandi has the same story. It’s maybe now in the last year, but still. What is the feeling in Dubai? Not only business, but how do you feel there?

Domenik Maier: 48:47

I love it. I mean, I absolutely love it. I met the most amazing woman here in Dubai, that makes my life very special. I love the city. I love the people here. It’s so multicultural. I love the government as well. I think from that perspective, they did a phenomenal job of building this city. Let’s compare the United Arab Emirates with, for example, Nigeria, the kind of resources that they had, I mean, they had less resources than Nigeria, and what the United Arab Emirates government built in these years that I mean, that’s phenomenal. There is no comparison to that. So that’s the part when I mean, I really have a lot of respect for what they built here. A lot of respect for the government. Although I don’t want to be too political in that sense, but I think that part of it needs to be respected. I think they did a phenomenal job. You have everything here, the weather is amazing I love it. You know because I’m really like a summer type of person. Okay in the high summer it’s pretty hot but like I would say nine months of the year are stunning here. You have really good places you can go to the beaches, you can relax. There’s everything. there’s so many things that you can do in Dubai. That’s really like nice. I would say the best example that Dubai is really like a special places. My mom came visited me in November, I think it was. And she was like really surprised how nice Dubai is and the variety that you have here from people, the friendliness, the security, there’s so many things that make this a very special place.

Ruba Aramouny: 50:48

Yeah, and I think what’s also really important is, especially for 3air but also for I’ve looked in anybody in the blockchain industries that they’re really trying to facilitate crypto companies right now, more and more crypto companies are moving their finances building and office there. So, it’s becoming more and more relevant also to connect with people in the crypto space, as well.

Domenik Maier: 51:17

Absolutely! I mean, iBLOXX is more than just in Dubai. We’re also located in Europe, in Bulgaria and in Liechtenstein. So, I do a fair bit of traveling still and managing multiple companies. We have a team in Liechtenstein and in Bulgaria as well. So yeah, but absolutely the Dubai or the Emirates governments, they’re really advancing they’re really driving the blockchain ecosystem. That’s another thing where I think they really stand out.

Anita Mlakar: 51:54

Thank you very much, Domenik, it was so amazing to have you here. Sandi, Did you want to add something?

Sandi Bitenc: 52:00

No, I know that Domenik needs to go, he eat away, overshoot the time that he wanted to spend with us but that was really a nice AMA it was fun, it was educational, and I’m really, I can just say you welcome to the 3air family. And thanks for all the support up until now. And I think that the whole 3air community really needs to be grateful for the job that you already are doing, and especially that you will be doing in the next month. That’s got to be so important.

Domenik Maier: 52:41

Thank you. Thank you very much, I really appreciate you all and this is going to be a fun journey together. Thank you so much. I wish you a great evening. Bye. Bye, everybody.

Sandi Bitenc: 52:50

Bye.

Anita Mlakar: 52:51

Bye and thank you for being with us. Oh, my God, that was amazing. And time just flows when you have such an amazing conversation. I just look at the time. It’s almost an hour. Can you believe it?

Sandi Bitenc: 53:09

Yeah, it really went fast.

Ruba Aramouny: 53:12

Flew by. But super interesting also to hear his take on how the crypto market is evolving. And hear him talk from his perspective of an outsider about what he thinks of 3air and how he compares us to others. So, it’s really nice to hear from Domenik as well.

Sandi Bitenc: 53:33

Yeah. And I think we will have him on the call a few more times, for sure. He needs to come on. He has so much knowledge.

Anita Mlakar: 53:52

Yes, I think now everyone was just, you know, looking at this says, Oh, I would like to be like that. You know, another Domenik and have all the experience and all the knowledge but what’s important is that 3air is doing really important job. Very important project. We were talking on our last twitter spaces about the importance of digital identities. This is a whole new and a big subject and this is something that we should talk more about. right Ruba and Sandi? But we do have only a couple of more minutes. And just tell me, should we say something about it? Should we leave it for the next AMA? You know, and to go deeper into it?

Sandi Bitenc: 54:37

I think we can take a few more questions, if there is something but I think it was really a nice AMA we shouldn’t go over an hour I think so.

Ruba Aramouny: 54:52

Don’t forget to enter your daily secret code.

Sandi Bitenc: 54:55

Exactly. And you actually have Ruba on the call. That’s also not happening every day. So, I think if you have a few questions for Ruba, but whatever comes up, that’s really interesting you, just come and ask the question, and we’ll answer anything.

Anita Mlakar: 55:15

Okay, Ruba baby. Just a question. From me, we still cannot participate in this ultimate giveaway.

Ruba Aramouny: 55:24

No. Unfortunately not but there’s so much participation. It’s really fun. Because when the code is posted somewhere very late at night, European time, people start asking in the telegram channel, where’s the code? Has anybody seen it yet? And it’s quite fun to do it. So, I think it makes sense to maybe post it a bit earlier before people start freaking out. Today, it was earlier during the AMA. And, yeah, but it’s really fun to watch. But unfortunately, Anita. There is no chance for us to get in. We’ll be disqualified.

Anita Mlakar: 56:06

Okay.

Sandi Bitenc: 56:08

Do you know how many participants we have already?

Sandi Bitenc: 56:16

I see it. It’s over 31,000 entries already.

Anita Mlakar: 56:24

Wow, really? great.

Ruba Aramouny: 56:28

And today’s secret code was claimed by seven people. So that means not everyone on the AMA actually went over and put it in. I hope you understood my Chinese.

Sandi Bitenc: 56:41

We’re not it any anywhere else. So that’s it. So, you have the advantage if you watch the AMA, and you only have 24 hours to put in the code. So, tomorrow, then there will be another one.

Anita Mlakar: 56:59

Ruba, we have two more minutes, and someone said, Richard, give us a small update on the marketing.

Ruba Aramouny: 57:07

Okay, so we’re heavily focused on right now is bringing out more of the aspect of the value that 3air provides after giving internet. So now, 3air has brought that point across we are known as the token and the chain platform that will bring people internet. And now we want to focus more on the end result or all of the possibilities that, that bring. So digital identities and banking for people who were previously not online and didn’t have access to an identity and didn’t have access to a bank account. What does it mean for them? And how will they be able to use 3air to connect and join the global economy? And also, yeah, a few other announcements that are coming, that I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s something that we’re heavily focused on right now. content wise, also branding wise. So, we have a lot more going in that direction.

Anita Mlakar: 58:17

Okay, just another short question. Do you disqualify people if they post fake photos in contest?

Ruba Aramouny: 58:24

Yes. So, the system already does a good job of disqualifying fake accounts and duplicate entries and we also check if something is flagged or if something looks suspicious, we take them up.

Anita Mlakar: 58:43

Okay, thank you very much Ruba.

Sandi Bitenc: 58:46

This is actually the previous one. So, this is when we gave away an iPhone 13, there were a lot of people that also won the tokens and that’s the 3air family. So that’s kind of amazing watching so many people around the world actually identifying already with rear and that’s really amazing.

Anita Mlakar: 59:21

Really amazing.

Sandi Bitenc: 59:23

That goes on and on and on and on and on. It’s like crazy.

Anita Mlakar: 59:31

Should we add hours today? Maybe if we just you know, show the sign. And someone maybe takes a photo? I know that we cannot be in the contest but still.

Sandi Bitenc: 59:44

of course, we can always post the picture, for sure.

Anita Mlakar: 59:51

Wow, look at that. It’s really great. And all the ideas, thank you. Thank you for doing that and thank you for being the part of community. Thank you for making it stronger. If you’re not in any of our community yet, of course join discord, Telegram, and Twitter, we are there all the time for you. interesting discussions are going on there. And if you miss the code, maybe someone will tell it to you. But still, we are there, which is important. And let’s do this three now, maybe, and someone can maybe they will take a picture and then Ruba. Are you with us?

Ruba Aramouny: 1:00:40

I was thinking of as hesitating of doing the code again, just in case.

Sandi Bitenc: 1:00:47

I really share this somewhere screenshotted.

Ruba Aramouny: 1:00:52

But it’s funny because people don’t share the code. They just say I found it. Yeah, it’s somewhere but they don’t share the code. So, it is quite competitive.

Sandi Bitenc: 1:01:02

They should not. At first, they were sharing it. The codes have a purpose. It’s not just we’re just giving away everything. You need to work a bit. And the one that works the most should get the best price. And that’s it.

Ruba Aramouny: 1:01:18

Yeah, a big one for us. That will add value to the community to you who is involved in 3air is sharing. So even if you have completed the sharing tasks on the giveaway already, just share again, keep sharing 3air because that’s really what spreads the word out to more audiences and gets in front of more people than if it’s just our accounts that share it. We’ve already used that. So, when you share it, and you have your entire network that sees your post, that will help quite a bit.

Anita Mlakar: 1:01:54

Yeah, because sharing is caring.

Sandi Bitenc: 1:01:58

Exactly. Also share this video, like, subscribe to our YouTube channel. And yeah, we’re here every Wednesday at 5pm Central Europe time. So, watch us because it does pay. Yeah.

Anita Mlakar: 1:02:18

Thank you for being with us today and we’ll be back soon. Bye.

Ruba Aramouny: 1:02:23

Bye.

Sandi Bitenc: 1:02:24

Thank you. Bye.


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3air is the world's first blockchain platform that helps individuals and businesses thrive on WEB3 with broadband internet. We're on a mission to bring blockchain and banking to the next billion.

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