EXCLUSIVE: Yat Siu believes entertainment revolution is coming – A sit-down with Yaros Belkin and Mauricio Silvestris

Yat Siu, the founder of Animoca Brands and one of the crypto pioneers, has had an interesting journey through decentralized finance. His take on different subjects surrounding the industry has come from the mind of an investor, a trader, and an industry believer. The most present conversation has not failed short of that aura and mind standing.

Yat Siu, Yaros Belkin, and Mauricio Silvestris had an industry chat at Animoca’s Headquarters in what many know as the “Satoshi room” conference hall. To this date, Animoca is a pioneer in digital ownership in gaming.

This conversation follows a Stradivarius concert in which Yat made attendance. The concert featured the “Empress Caterina” Stradivarius violin. Siu also owns the violin, which was crafted in 1708 by Antonio Stradivari. 

Siu has tied the rarity of what the crypto market is about to become. He wisely asserts, “The instrument is a naturally growing asset because of the scarcity. Stradivarius increases by about 10-15% per year historically. But of course, who cares about that? Only a certain group of people […] You might see liquidity and money, but that’s what we say. But a musician in classical music will understand the value of Stradivarius and he’ll appreciate that, but also he’ll appreciate how to value it.” 

He continues, “[…] This is the other point, which is that you need to have an emotional feeling connection to whatever you do in order to learn it well and to engage with it. It’s kind of a classic thing when Warren Buffett says, “Don’t invest in anything you don’t understand.” And that’s the same thing, right?”

Yat Siu draws a line between those who understand crypto and the rest

Yat Siu argues that the crypto and Web3 industries can only be beneficial to those who care about them and the concepts they promote. Why? This is a new industry, and to that end, to be part of the industry requires diligence to learn what the market is all about. He believes, “We need to teach money right at the primary school level.”

This is because “the world has now become split between the percentage of people who understand money and capital, who have the power, and against most of the other worlds who’s still thinking in the classic labor concept and don’t understand that actually, you know, we’ve kind of moved on from the classic labor theory.”

Mauricio Silvestris, the Co-Founder of BKSBackstage, asks Yat how he or the web3 community or brands like Animoca can communicate crypto’s value to the entertainment community and the remaining lot. To that, Yat says:

I don’t think we need to. So I think part of it has to do with the way we talk about it because, you know, you talk community, community, community. What does it really mean Right? [..] What’s really powerful is network and network effects. And in the past we had these smaller communities that actually could build a network effect. It was a community, but it was a network effect.

– Yat Siu

According to him, artists today do not have a community. It’s one way. So, it’s a one-way network effect. It’s like me to you, but the rest of the community doesn’t talk to each other.  And “So I think we should try to explain to the communities in the question of any industry that doesn’t understand Web3.”

Crypto, Web3 and the entertainment industry

The entertainment industry has changed a great deal. What remains true is that not everyone has a personal connection or relationship with their beloved celebrities. 

What’s more, the industry went to streaming and turned something that was more of a capital asset, which is the CD or an LP, into essentially something that was a rented good. So we went from ownership to renting. “And what Web 3 is doing is bringing it back to ownership and allowing capital information to take place that was taken away,” Yat Siu adds.

What’s worse? The AI revolution has contaminated the entertainment industry. Now it’s a question of: Do artists align with the new trend or fight against AI-made entertainment?

Yat does not seem worried or concerned about the fakes. For example, he says that Tron’s Justin Sun can now replicate the Banana he bought at an auction for $6.2 million. Yat argues that not everyone can do that, “just tape a banana on a wall” because they are not Sun.

To that end, blockchain is every artist’s solution. Per Yat Siu, “Blockchain gives you authenticity. In music we’re going to have a problem, as we have with art and anything else, of what’s your original source.  So, to me, blockchain preserves authenticity. And then if I have the ability, and this is where it’s exciting about remixing.”

According to him, artists need “[..] to be good at your brand management.” The same path photographers took when everything went digital.

Mocaverse and the Moca ID

Yaros Belkin asks Yat Siu to table his take on Mocaverse and the Moca ID and how they will blend to solve artist problems. To that, Yat says it’s a good take, adding, “You’re building your reputation. So if I have a Moca ID, I have a reputation, I can build on top, I now have this identity, and this identity builds value on top.”

Yat is working towards building a Moca ID one can use to build a reputation, and “ you can create scores around it as well.” What’s better? “The index is other people’s scores as well. He’s very creative, he’s very talented. He can do this, and he can do that. Then, if someone has a proposition, you can fund that proposition, which is a form of credit.”

According to these great minds, the financial market will probably last longer in the next decade. This follows the shift from new entrepreneurship to more efficient decentralization, which is more convenient than having one company do it all.

According to Yat Siu, a big power at play works well to maintain decentralization. He continues, “Without blockchain, without crypto, any decentralization effort wouldn’t work. But you can create some kind of common socialist framework somewhere. It doesn’t matter, right? You’ll be North Korea. No, nobody cares. And then it won’t be socialist. It will be in a dictatorship, right?”

Yat Siu closes with a jab at memecoins. But he remains clear that he is not anti-Memecoins. He touches on what happened with TRUMP, MELANI, and LIBRA. He adds that the current expose is “a good shift because now I think we’re going to enter, you know, there’s a bit of pain, but we’re going to enter an era where people are going to be much more interested in projects that are focused on something that they can believe in.”

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