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Sachi Kamiya & Masha Prusso Of Polygon - Ethereum’s Internet Of Blockchains, Plus: $10 Mil NFT Sale, Twitch’s Game Centric NFT, NFT Search Surpasses Crypto, And More...
With the ever-growing community of NFTs, Ethereum may no longer be enough. Enter Polygon, an easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Not only is it more efficient than Ethereum but it’s also more economical. Join hosts Jeff Kelley, Eathan Janney, and Josh Kriger as they talk to Sachi Kamiya and Masha Prusso of Polygon. Sachi runs the $100M Polygon Ecosystem Fund. Masha is the Head of Events at Polygon and is also a Partner at Story VC. Listen in to learn more about Polygon and its future plans for blockchain gaming. Find out more about the Polygon Ecosystem Fund and the future of NFTs today!
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Sachi Kamiya & Masha Prusso Of Polygon – Ethereum’s Internet Of Blockchains, Plus: $10 Mil NFT Sale, Twitch’s Game Centric NFT, NFT Search Surpasses Crypto, And More…
All you NFT curious readers, check out this episode to learn how Polygon is kicking its growth into an even higher gear.
Which of our favorite topics surpassed crypto in search volume this Christmas season?
Why would a flight pass around the world with special stops at the best ski slopes be a game-changing experience for our guests? All of this and more in this episode. Enjoy.
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This episode features Sachi Kamiya and Masha Prusso of Polygon, the leading platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Polygon launched Polygon Studios, a $100 million fund. The gaming and NFT arm of Polygon focused on growing the global blockchain gaming in the NFT space and bridging the gap between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0.
Sachi Kamiya runs the Polygon Ecosystem Fund, a $100 million fund that focuses on investing in projects across DeFi, Web 3.0, gaming and NFTs. In addition to strategic investments into other projects and funds, the fund has invested in top projects, including YGG, WinZO, Blockade Games, and Splinterlands, to name a few.
She also manages the Polygon Venture Capital Network. Masha Prusso is the Head of Events at Polygon. She is also a partner at Story VC fund, investing in blockchain startups and helping to boost growth with PR. She cofounded Crypto PR Lab, a leading PR firm in the space, and Defy Trends, the data analytics platform for crypto traders. Welcome to the show, folks. It’s great to have you both here.
Thank you.
I don’t think there has been a day where I have been talking about crypto with somebody that Polygon doesn’t come up in conversation, whether it’s DeFi advancements you all are leading or what is going on in the NFT front. We are excited to have you both on the show to delve into that topic further and learn about each of you in the process. That’s a great way to start the conversation. How did you each find your way to Polygon?
I started with Polygon in July 2021. I’ve got introduced to the team through Crypto PR Lab cofounder of mine, Alexandra Karpova. We were running a PR firm and fund for some time, but then it was time more of a passive business for us. We were looking for new opportunities to join Polygon on the Public Relations Marketing Events team was amazing, especially with Polygon rising quickly and getting known. Mark Cuban investing in Polygon was everywhere, and then I met the team. My Cofounder in Crypto PR Lab went to work on the marketing team of Metaplex, a Solana project, and I joined Polygon then.
To give you some background, in college, I majored in Electrical Engineering, and then I switched over to finance afterward. At that point, I was looking for something a bit more technical. Blockchain was a right fit for me at that point. I was fortunate enough to meet Sandeep right when Polygon was rebranding itself from Matic into Polygon. He converted me into crypto and inspired me to pursue something within crypto. That was the first leap of faith that I ended up taking.
At that point, they were in the process of setting up this ecosystem fund. They were also starting to set up Polygon Studios, which is a separate entity to onboard Web 2.0 projects into the Web 3.0 space. That was the initial trigger or start. Polygon has been growing at an exponential pace since then. When I first started, there were 600 dApps built on Polygon, then there were 3,000 or so. It has been an incredible amount of growth.
Polygon NFT: When you think about Polygon, you think about Ethereum, sidechain, or second-layer solutions. Polygon is an Ethereum scaling solution for developers to develop their infrastructure.
One of those dApps is one of the top NFT gaming dApps in the world, Splinterlands. That’s pretty awesome.
We have some of the top protocols, especially in the gaming metaverse space. OpenSea is integrated with Polygon, for example. I don’t think too many people know that. It’s pretty exciting.
It’s a similar story echoing. “We have got functional businesses. We don’t have to necessarily work with these places like Metaplex and Polygon, but we are so enthusiastic about it that we want to be a part of it.” That’s exciting about the crypto space and NFT space. It’s the passion and enthusiasm people can have to be working on these projects. We can all say that this is part work and a majority of fun as well. I would like to hear more about Polygon and give our readers a little bit more of a deep dive. What would you say is most people’s first point of contact with Polygon? How do they tend to go down the rabbit hole in getting involved with Polygon?
When you think about Polygon, you think about Ethereum, sidechain and Layer 2 solution. Polygon isn’t an Ethereum-scaling solution for the dApps development and infrastructure. Developers can use Polygon. It’s much more efficient, cheaper and more economical. The transactions are much faster than Ethereum. For any users like you and me who do yield farming or any other things in the DeFi space can use Polygon on MetaMask, for example.
When you go on MetaMask, you can choose between ERC20 and Binance Smart Chain. You can add Polygon. It’s another chain for retail investors and crypto users. Also, when you buy, sell or Mint NFTs, Polygon is also a solution for you. We are not competitors to Ethereum. We are a scaling solution. We are helping Ethereum to be faster.
Any input on that, Sachi, in terms of how people find themselves being integrated with what Polygon is capable of?
Some people may be using some DeFi applications on Ethereum. They realize each transaction costs $30 or $50. That would be their initial trigger to go onto Polygon or other solutions. Another way is also through gaming, which was the way that I was also introduced to Polygon. One of my friends mentioned this application called Decentral.games, where you can play slot machines and also some different gambling games in the metaverse. That was my first exposure to Polygon.
There’s also this other application called Polytrade. It makes bets on the markets like who is going to be the next president of the United States, for example. That’s built on Polygon. The user interface is so smooth that people don’t even realize that it’s built on the blockchain. There are multiple ways in which people can get exposed or end up using Polygon without even realizing it.
The gaming solution seems like a huge one. First of all, gaming has already been here, and it’s here to stay. NFTs are being integrated with it. Also, the metaverse is growing as well. It makes sense to have a solution. If you are going to have many transactions, there’s a certain point at which Ethereum becomes unrealistic, and it’s a losing battle. It’s beautiful to have a structure that you can build upon easily like that.
That’s what Polygon also stood to benefit. Polygon was one of the earlier players versus its competitors. The pain point of building on Ethereum was the high gas prices. As a result, a lot of these applications needed an alternative. At a certain point, Polygon was the only solution at that point. We started early, and then we were able to build out this big ecosystem.
We have been familiar with it for a long time but it started blowing up and gaining traction in public awareness around the world of NFTs and crypto. We love to see the name Polygon pop up in so many conversations. It’s cool. We are big fans. We are all about NFTs here in this world. One of the things we always like to understand is how you were first exposed to the NFTs. What was that experience like for you? Was it an a-ha moment for you or more of a slow burn? We always want to know that. Sachi, how about you?
Polygon is much faster and more economical than Ethereum. Click To Tweet
My first exposure to NFTs was also a metaverse built on Polygon, Decentral.games. They have these NFTs where your character can wear a fur coat or some wearable in that game. You can mine more tokens by wearing that NFT coat. That was before there was this whole explosion of Steve Aoki doing an NFT drop. At that point, I honestly didn’t realize how big NFTs would become.
Masha, how about you?
My first exposure was back in 2017 and 2018, when CryptoKitties became well-known. I met their one of those Founders, Benji from the CryptoKitties Studios back in Vancouver. I visited their office. They were 100 people by then. Within a few months, they were already 200 people. I learned about this back then in Canada.
I met the Founders of Lucky Maneki. It’s a crypto cat but it looks like they are a Japanese symbol of luck, like a cat with their hand. I was helping these guys with their public relations before they gave the project to DAO. That’s how I received my first NFTs. They were dropped on my MetaMask. I went to OpenSea and found two cats sitting there. I’ve also got an NFT flower as a birthday present, and then I felt like, “That’s a great idea to give NFTs to your friends as gifts.”
The market had been slowing down a little bit in the world of NFTs in September, October, and November but there was a big spike in December 2021. We were reading all different articles about this and talking about it on hot topics that people are giving NFTs as gifts to all kinds of folks. It’s not just NFT lovers but family and friends. It’s a thing.
I’ve got a Tom Brady Autograph NFT from my girlfriend, who is very thoughtful. It was a surprise NFT. I had to push a button, and it opened up. It was his rookie card. It was pretty awesome and cool. That did kick things off, and the market seems to be warming up again. Sachi, tell us a little bit more about what you are looking at in terms of an investment thesis and how you are planning to collaborate with AAA gaming companies that are looking to break into this space. There are a lot of games, and the conversation has been, “How do we up the quality of these games that user experience attract traditional gamers and make them realize that blockchain games are awesome?” I’m curious what your thoughts are on that particular topic.
In terms of the investment thesis, we set up the fund with the ultimate goal, being we want to improve the Polygon ecosystem. Our focus is in investing in tier one AAA-quality type of projects in general because we do believe in this positive feedback loop, where if we have a lot of high-quality games or projects building on Polygon, then we believe that in turn, it attracts even more high-quality games, developers and projects to build on Polygon. In turn, it ends up growing the ecosystem, which is our ultimate goal.
We have been doing a lot of collaborations within the gaming side. We are consistently in talks with a lot of gaming companies to try to help them onboard onto the blockchain space. We are also working with a lot of the top gaming VCs like Galaxy Interactive, Makers Fund, and Transcend because they have that gaming expertise within the traditional space but they are also actively looking to break into the blockchain space because there’s honestly so much potential. Especially on the NFT side or play-to-earn, there are many concepts or areas of innovation.
Those are the three areas that we have been focusing on. An ecosystem fund is a tool for us to attract a lot of these high-quality type projects. We are consistently collaborating with a lot of these gaming companies or gaming partners to help them onboard onto Polygon or at whatever capacity to help them integrate blockchain into their games. We are also working with a lot of gaming VCs because they also can identify talents and projects that have a lot of potentials.
We were checking the news on things. It looks like Polygon has acquired the project Mir through ZK Tech. We are curious what intel we can get on how that integration plans to pan out with project Mir.
We have been bullish with ZK Technology. We think ZK Technology is the future in terms of scalability. It’s the same thing in terms of ZK Technology. That’s why we have been aggressive in terms of acquisitions. The first acquisition we did was Hermez. There was also Nightfall, which is more of an enterprise ZK solution. There’s an acquisition of Mir. This is more long-term. In terms of having a workable product, it’s probably going to take a year or so to develop that.
Polygon NFT: The fund was made with the goal to improve the Polygon ecosystem. Investing in AAA quality projects will attract even more high-quality games and developers to Polygon.
We think we have an edge over competitors because if you look at our competitors like Avalanche or Solana, they haven’t been active in terms of acquiring a ZK Technology company. Within ZK Technology itself too, there’s not that much talent. There are not that many people who get a PhD specifically within that field. That puts Polygon at an advantage versus its competitors in the long-term.
It’s very forward-thinking, as we have seen from Polygon. It’s being early on with things about what is to come.
Speaking about forward-thinking, what else is on the roadmap for Polygon that you are excited about? What can you tell us, maybe something that’s around the corner that hasn’t been that publicized yet?
To continue regarding the ZK-rollups, what is exciting is that apart from all the companies Sachi mentioned, we also acquired Miden. It’s another ZK-rollup protocol. Our goal and mission are to deploy the full $1 billion for the ZK-rollup technology. About half of it is already deployed. We are looking for more companies and developers in the ZK-rollup space. For any developers reading this blog and working on ZK-rollup technology, Polygon is the answer. Come and talk to us. We would love to help you and see what you are building.
ZK-rollup technology is one of our biggest focuses. It’s also NFTs gaming and play-to-earn. What I have seen from AAA gaming companies is that they are a bit reluctant to come to blockchain and crypto, and give trust. Also, because of the prices that sometimes, if they will use blockchain, it will cost them $100 to $200 on Ethereum to use NFTs and blockchain in their games. If they turn to Polygon, all these fees are pretty much waived. Millions of dollars will be saved. We also called Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony to look more into the blockchain gaming space and use Polygon.
It’s pretty exciting on the ZK front and all those different fronts. Anything in the way of products or features that you will be releasing as it relates to the Polygon platform? Anything that you could tell us?
We are in the news.
Given the size of the platform and the capabilities, it makes sense to start to do what you are doing in terms of bringing on folks like ZK Technology and others to add to the team and the capabilities of the company and continue to grow.
To take a step back, we heard about how you’ve got into this space and what you are excited about with Polygon. We would love to look around and ask a little bit more about what excites you in the industry as a whole with NFTs. Are there any projects that you are inspired by? Is there anything in the future of metaverses and NFTs that has you pumped?
I would love to add the interoperability of metaverses. I never thought about one metaverse being connected to another metaverse. The Sandbox is being connected to Decentraland. That’s already in the works. It will be the same with NFTs, too. Technically, some projects are also working on being able to transfer an NFT from one metaverse to another metaverse. That’s exciting.
In terms of the industry as a whole, I’m looking forward to what is going to happen in the next cycle. When there was initially the first hype with NFTs, I thought it was pretty two-dimensional. There wasn’t that much utility for those NFTs themselves. It was that first hype where a lot of these celebrities were doing these NFT drops. NFTs and gaming went quiet for a little bit. There was a second cycle where you saw a little bit of innovation within the NFT space.
Some of these NFTs would have utility or if you hold this NFT, you can attend certain events or mine coins. There was another dimension added to these NFTs. I would be curious to see once we pass this cycle and then go into the next cycle what innovations there will be within the gaming metaverse and also the NFT space. It’s an exciting place to be. When I first joined, there were only 600 dApps built on Polygon, then there were over 3,000 or so. It’s growing at an exponential pace.
I’m pretty excited about the metaverses and the different wearable items, where you can wear different things on the metaverse. You can sell and buy them. There are brands like Adidas, Nike, and Dolce & Gabbana, which was launched on Polygon for Dolce & Gabbana. They are getting into this space. We will have our avatars in the metaverse. Polygon is doing a metaverse event. It’s going to be a big event with Kevin Hart and some of the celebrities talking at these events. It will be a collaboration between Polygon and some of our gaming NFT metaverse projects. Our metaverse fest, we will let you know when it comes.
I’m also excited about the different artists who can perform in the metaverse. There is this company, Animal Concerts. They organize the shows. I was in LA for Alicia Keys’ private concert, the one who sings this famous song, New York. They stream those concerts of big artists and put them on the metaverse. For artists, it’s another stream of their revenue. They don’t have to travel far away to make million dollars singing on the stage anymore. They can be at home in front of their Zoom screen and perform. This is pretty revolutionary as well.
We love those guys at Animal Concerts. I’m looking to collaborate with them soon. We will be able to share that news with our readers. They are great and what they are doing is revolutionary. I couldn’t agree more.
We had a great time with Busta Rhymes out in Miami. That was a fun party put on by that crew. Shout-out to Animal Concerts. There are many cool things. We are huge fans of Polygon and everything that you are doing. It’s exciting times. I’m also pumped to see where many of these acquisitions and collaborations end up going for the company. You are already on a rocket ship, and you have been on one for a while. You could take it to a whole other level. I’m excited about that.
I wanted to shift gears a little bit and get your perspectives on some questions. These are our set of ten questions that we ask every single episode. They are called Edge Quick Hitters. They are a fun, quick way to get to know you a little bit better. We are looking for a short, single word or a few-word answers but feel free to expand if you get the urge. I will guide you through. First question, what is the first thing you remember ever purchasing in your life? Sachi, let’s start with you.
It was a ticket to Mexico.
How about you, Masha?
Masha, how about you?
Masha, how about you?
Masha, how about you?
Masha, how about you?
Masha, how about you?
Masha, how about you?
Masha, how about you?
Sachi, how about you?
Sachi, how about you?
That would be amazing.
Important Links:
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LinksDAO NFT Sale Books First $10 Million Toward Buying an Actual Golf Course – Article
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Global Search Interest for NFT Surpasses Crypto for the First Time Ever – Article
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Major Dream Williams – Previous episode
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Raphael Signal – Twitter
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iTunes – Edge of NFT Podcast
About Masha Prusso
Masha is a public relations and business development specialist, founder of two companies with an overall revenue of 500K USD in the first year of operations. She was awarded a full LLM scholarship at UC Berkeley, then moved to the Bay area from Zurich in 2017.
In 2018, Masha founded Crypto PR Lab powered by Millennium Communications. She worked in public relations and events with cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain protocols, decentralized marketplace and other tech startups and tech conferences. Crypto PR Lab received two acquisition offers.
Masha started to explore cryptocurrencies when her mentor, a former Lehman Brother trader, asked her for help in his new company, his algo trading exchange for bitcoin Exgate, in 2014. It was an unofficial internship where she learnt a lot and got enthusiastic about bitcoin.
Masha worked as a corporate lawyer for Clifford Chance LLP and Gowling WLG in France and Monaco. As a relationship manager for UHNWI in 2015-2017, Masha represented UBS and HSBC private banks in Switzerland.
In 2006 Winter Olympic Games, Masha represented Russia as the youngest participant in the halfpipe event. She was also a Champion of Russia in snowboarding two consecutive years.
Masha holds 3 Master degrees in Business Law (Sorbonne, UC Berkeley, University of Nice) and speaks four languages: Russian, French, German, and English.
About Sachi Kamiya
Sachi Kamiya is the VP of Investments at Polygon Ecosystem Fund, a $100 million fund investing in projects across DeFi, Web 3.0, gaming, and NFTs, which includes YGG, WinZO, Blockade Games, and Splinterlands. She also manages the Polygon Venture Capital Network.