[00:00:00] Hello everybody and welcome to the Crypto Hipster podcast. This is your host Jamil Hasan, Crypto Hipster where I bring you founders, entrepreneurs, executives, thought leaders, artists, and today I have a sports guy with me.
[00:00:16] This is going to be really cool. So I met this man at ConsenSys a couple weeks ago and I look forward to this conversation. His name is Kyle Post. He is a mod, he's one of the top token holders at Karate Combat and he's due to fight at IFC3 in Singapore in September. Let's welcome Kyle. Kyle, welcome to the show.
[00:00:38] Hey, thanks for having me everybody. It's awesome to be here. It was great meeting you down at ConsenSys. What a great event that was. Of course we had Karate Combat 46, one of the best events we've seen so far. I assume that you made the event there? Master turnout.
[00:00:56] Amazing, eh? It was master turnout. And that was a great week and I look forward to, you know, maybe you'll be there next year.
[00:01:06] Absolutely. Yep, I'm actually located in Toronto so it's going to be a big event for me here. We also have like a few big things happening in my area at that time so we're going to try to connect all those events together and yeah, I'm really looking forward to ConsenSys 2025.
[00:01:23] We also have a big event going on here. I don't know if you're going to make it in Toronto but on August 13th and 14th we have a big blockchain conference in Toronto so I'll get you that invite as well, make sure you know what's going on.
[00:01:37] That sounds good. Thank you. And it's not construction season in August right? In Toronto? It's always construction season in Toronto. Cool. So, I want to ask you first, what's your background and is it a logical background for what you're doing now?
[00:01:56] Yeah, absolutely. I'm a martial artist so I started martial arts when I was 12 years old. Started fighting at 19 in Muay Thai, got my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu purple belt and yeah opened my own gym when I was about 25 years old called Fear the Fighter Training Academy.
[00:02:16] We partnered up with the Mac Desi's with a t-shirt company as well did all sorts of sponsorships for fighters.
[00:02:23] Things a little sour just before COVID and that's when I jumped into Bitcoin to protect a few of my assets when I was losing my gym and things like that.
[00:02:31] I put it all into Bitcoin and Bitcoin blew up for me so a lot of my focus switched over to blockchain and Web3 things as time rolled on and I kind of reverted back to you know being more of a silent investor and a fighter myself.
[00:02:46] I kind of wanted to finish my career as I'm getting a little older as just a fighter instead of a coach and an entrepreneur or business owner.
[00:02:54] So, I just kind of do some Web3 venture capitalist investments to kind of keep my time frame free so I can travel gym to gym and train and create some content.
[00:03:07] I'm going to ask you this is not part of the questions that I plan on asking you but you know there are a lot of 12 year olds 11 year olds 13 year olds who are on the fence about you know started martial arts and self defense.
[00:03:22] Encouragement you have for them. Well, it's probably the best thing that I've ever done in my life I was I was a big soccer buff when I was a child.
[00:03:31] I was, I was, you know, real athletic type, but I was getting picked on in high school quite a bit being like, believe it or not I'm six foot four now and 200 pounds but I was the smallest kid in high school.
[00:03:42] I was, I wrestled for 90 pounds and under in grade nine 10 and 11.
[00:03:49] I got pretty good by grade 11 I wasn't you know the best of the best I was you know probably you know when in 50% of my matches but in grade 12. I came back and I was six foot two and 170 pounds I just went through this amazing growth spurt and that's really
[00:04:03] when I started taking martial arts seriously in my senior year of high school. I started Muay Thai with one of the other co captains, and my life completely changed around that time I just became you know the most popular kid in school from the most
[00:04:18] I was picked on kid in school, you know and and yeah just walking around with a different, different outlook on life just being able to protect myself having confidence to do anything that I wanted.
[00:04:30] I was a high level dancer as well and had started my own like dance crews and open for guys like Chris Brown and Missy Elliott that came to town so yeah I had, I had like a lot of things that just kind of attached to getting to know people in the martial arts
[00:04:45] world and traveling around and that, and just a camaraderie ship that you gain there as well to the friends that you make of like minded people gathering together. It's a wonderful thing so if you could join any sport you know that's that's really what it's all about is
[00:04:59] joining something that you really love doing having camaraderie and just working really hard at something that you can be proud of so if martial arts isn't your thing that's okay.
[00:05:08] Pick something though pick you know playing an instrument or you're learning calculus or learning how to code martial arts was for me I was super super good at it I was winning the trophies bringing home the medals so it was something that was very encouraging
[00:05:23] for me and kept me out of out of the trouble that I was getting myself into here and there. And, you know, when I when I had a fight or or or tournament booked it was you know eating the salads every day getting the green teas and making sure all my vitamins and sleep was in
[00:05:38] I'm stretching every day. So it definitely puts you on the on the track to positivity in your life and gives you goals and bars to reach so yeah, it's something that everyone should consider. And if like I said if not martial arts you know treat anything like martial arts if it's painting or, or, you know, anything just pick something and get good at it.
[00:06:00] Great. Thank you. My, my fortune just got into growing and crew this past year so he loves that so amazing. Yeah. So I want to talk about karate combat. What is that all about, and including you know the up only system.
[00:06:19] All right karate combat was born about six years ago.
[00:06:24] Although karate token is only one year old now, the league developed first and a good friend of ours he still doxed. We call him only LARPing him and his his college roommate Adam they got together and started off karate combat as as kind of a project to get into Web3 so they always
[00:06:48] they always had the idea of turning a karate league into a governance token. However, it took them a little bit to build the league so about a year ago, karate token was born off the league they finally had about I'd say about 40 events or so, or maybe
[00:07:04] 35 events or so with really high level karate guys like they scoured the globe to find high level black belts they only invited black belts into it, and kind of created a hierarchy system of who was who needed to fight they got the titles involved almost
[00:07:24] And so they created you know this league, and then they introduced karate token so 77 billion tokens were born on aetherium, and 70 or 33 billion tokens were born on hadara.
[00:07:38] There was a web application built that you can visit on your computer PC, and there was a mobile application built that you can use on your Android or Apple device. The Android and Apple devices run on hadara.
[00:07:53] And then the web is run on aetherium. So that's the differentiation there, you can also buy these tokens on several exchanges to use so the token now being accepted governs the rules of the league, of course within the unified mixed martial
[00:08:10] arts rules. So anybody that are holding these tokens now has a chance to go on the governing website and propose a rule change. For example, we've changed the size of the gloves the gloves started off at six ounces, I guess that wasn't enough blood for everybody, we changed it
[00:08:26] down to four. And it happened within, you know, the rule was proposed within a few weeks we all voted on it it's token weighted whoever's holding the most tokens kind of has a higher a little bit of weight and their vote.
[00:08:39] But as, as, as, as we go on the, of course it spreads out a little bit over the holders as the value gains as more people comes in, it kind of becomes more of a fair governance system. However, right now.
[00:08:54] There's been about I'd say 10 or so rule changes to the league and a few rule changes actually to the token itself so the token model is also governed by the token holders so there's a few different utilities involved with the token that are attached to the
[00:09:11] The third utility that I'd like to talk about is, is my favorite utility out of all of it. And that's the leaderboard. This is under looked by everybody because it was kind of just introduced a few months ago, because the league is actually not owned by anybody,
[00:09:27] It's, it's a, an ownerless entity and governed by the token holders. There's a board that that oversees the governing site, but they really have promised the token holders that they're going to implement to their best ability everything that the token holders propose.
[00:09:47] So, so the leaderboard is basically the kickbacks that the owners would typically get in a sports league. The box seats, the best seats in the house, they're going to kick all of that back to the token holders themselves.
[00:10:07] So I'm one of the top token holders but you have to actually play the game up only gaming to get on this leaderboard. The more tokens you win the higher up on the leaderboard you get, and the more kickbacks, you're going to get for playing so the top 10 those guys get free VIP
[00:10:25] pit side tickets to every single event. They're flown out, they get a fighter hotel stay the same as all the fighters are staying at. They got tickets to the after parties. They get special invites to all sorts of different pre fight conferences and events.
[00:10:44] They get the full gear from head to toe the sweaters the gi the belts the gloves everything basically that karate has to get the whole package. So you can imagine that the value that that would add, you know, UFC one VIP ticket is you know $2,000 to sit, you know, and you're still 15 feet back from the cage.
[00:11:05] If you guys would like to scour my Twitter, I'll show you how close you actually get in the pit, you get splashed by blood and sweat. It is not like seeing an MMA fight behind a cage. This is a much better wall of view, and a much more valuable seat because I got to touch Joe Rogan you know he walked right by me shook my hand said my name, I got to walk around the pit you're not at special seating you get to walk around with the who's who of everybody.
[00:11:33] So for me, I'm kind of building my, my social media influencer followers. So for me this is almost a ticket straight to the top of of stardom really because I get to go to every event.
[00:11:47] I get to rub elbows with all the social media influencers that are already pit side that already have huge followers. I get to see guys like Joe Rogan potentially talk to him potentially interview them right like it's a, it's a, it's a big gift is what they're giving their token
[00:12:03] holders. And I think that it's one of the most valuable things that people should should consider when playing up only gaming. I think everybody should go right now start playing.
[00:12:16] After this podcast, of course, you absolutely. You could download the app you get 88 free tokens just for signing up so you can try it out for free. You also get to buy it right in the app as well which is nice, you can hit the buy button on the top of the
[00:12:30] app and it brings you right to like a credit card purchase. So, really anybody, even if you don't have web three experiences can play up only gaming with with no no real loss at risk, no real risk of loss.
[00:12:45] Of course the token price can go up or down. We are in a pretty huge downspout right now so you know me being the VC guy and of course not financial advice but it's probably a pretty, pretty decent time to pick up some more tokens here.
[00:13:00] Yeah, I'm gonna agree with you and not give financial advice and tell people that the prices are cheap. Right now. So, you know how are you, you just said how you're leveraging web three tools hadara for speed for iPhone.
[00:13:19] Your, your goal is to bring fans and athletes closer together. And you are correct. So, how are you tell how are you achieving it was was.
[00:13:29] Well, up all the gaming is has really achieved that for me, especially, I didn't know any of these fighters but now I can tell you everything about these fighters, and that's because I went back and I watched all of the old events with new eyes, not just I think I watched
[00:13:46] them. You know they were coming out every few months maybe three or four months I think I watched them live at the time, but I went back as like an investor in these guys, because I was going to make 10% potentially up to 30 or 40% more of my tokens.
[00:14:02] If I got my guess right. And that's what was really important is that you don't lose anything on your bet, but you win something when you bet. So you want to get your bet right.
[00:14:12] And that way, I went back, I looked at all these fighters, I gave my own kind of odds being a martial artist myself and a huge MMA buff I watch every MMA fight, and I also used to bet on UFC fights religiously.
[00:14:28] I'm not going to bet on karate token because, hey, I can't lose. I'm only winning. And I get to obsess over fighting is a little bit more because these are brand new fighters that I've never seen before.
[00:14:40] So I'm going to go into format of fighting with this pit wall so the aggressor is really the one that is going to come out on top here so there's another little element that I've kind of noticed in betting with karate combat.
[00:14:55] My record right now is around 78% my betting record. And that's really because I've kind of figured out that the aggressive aggressive fighters, the one that's going to come out on top here and that's really how I've been betting.
[00:15:09] Even though there's been a lot of like, you know 20% to 80% huge swings that sometimes that 20% guys actually the favorite like, but these betters are just betting kind of blinded so it's not like traditional sports betting there's a huge opportunity is kind of what I'm saying right now is there is a big opportunity for people that are knowledgeable in sports betting to kind of make a good stake here.
[00:15:34] And I think that that involves and becoming a super fan by watching all these old fights, and really doing your homework on these guys and then doing that you get emotional. When, when you're watching these fights because you've watched all the tapes of these guys you've watched the weigh ins you've seen how dehydrated
[00:15:51] and all their pre fight interviews and, and yeah you just you become a super fan that way. So having this, you know the sports app that that you can bet you can't lose it's creating super fans really really quickly in my, in my opinion.
[00:16:08] I did see, you know, the audience at consensus and I did, you know, see the audience. It wasn't Thailand 2004 at the kickboxing and then I did go to Barcelona once in 2001 for a soccer match.
[00:16:22] And I see the level of excitement and enthusiasm. And, you know, it's pretty cool. I don't see that same level of enthusiasm enthusiasm with the traditional sports like baseball and football anymore. You know, maybe just me but why is karate and combat sports more popular now.
[00:16:43] It looks like with the younger audiences with Gen Z audiences that are not tuned into old sports. What's the lay of the land.
[00:16:51] Yeah, yeah the lay of the land. I think it's pretty simple with with will bring it more to combat sports. I'm going to say that paywall is a really big difference between karate combat and all the other sports leagues, karate combat you get to watch this
[00:17:38] It's made for the fans by the fans. It's a shorter period of fight with higher quality fighting, meaning there's more interaction of punches and kicks and such. We're going to get more highlight real knockouts we're going to get more highlight real moments.
[00:17:55] So, they've done their due diligence with social media content they've hired some of the most popular web three and web to influencers to be pit side making their own content.
[00:18:07] And it's really appealing to the younger crowd. And I also want you to remember this thing's called karate combat karate is is really known here in North America is kind of the entry to martial arts it's the younger demographics that are doing karate.
[00:18:22] And as you mature as you get a little older you start learning, oh, boy, oh there's wrestling oh there's these more mature sports right so the younger guys they're all used to doing karate, you know growing up, so that really is kind of almost a, I think a selling
[00:18:38] point to that to the younger crowd that already have done a little bit of karate growing up. And I also think it's also good to make karate great again by making this a full contact sport like mixed martial arts, people are going to look up to karate again.
[00:18:52] And also it's going to keep some karate studios accountable for doing a full contact class and learning these techniques that work in real life and are effective in karate combat at a high level.
[00:19:10] I did, I never taken karate but I did one time when I was a child for a day take a four hour training and kung fu. And more like me being thrown around a park for hours. So, you know,
[00:19:28] I like that you said about streaming, you know, as a demographic is changing. That affects media that affects the future of media, and even to the point where traditional sports leagues may no longer exist right.
[00:19:43] How do you help with the future of media and entertainment streaming, I mean you mentioned streaming but how do you see the future.
[00:19:51] I think the future is really on on x, it's on Twitch it's on discord. So we've encouraged a lot of groups that that work on our open IP license agreement to start doing, you know those those live streams in their discourse.
[00:20:10] And we're actually building a different product as well on top of the IP license agreement for the fighters.
[00:20:18] It's an NFT project where the lion's share is going to go towards the fighters, it's also attached to a meme token built on hadera so it does like a buy back and burn for that community.
[00:20:28] So what I've been doing is I've been sharing hadera news for about a year and a half now on on Twitter spaces so I think Twitter spaces is like a very popular place.
[00:20:40] And what I've done is I've created a Twitter space dedicated to having the fighters and the fans connect.
[00:20:49] I'm on it every single day Monday to Friday, people can come on, talk about hadera news, mostly we have, you know a good portion of the developers on the retail side of hadera.
[00:21:01] Of course there's the governing council side and there's the retail side to that token we have all the retail guys on pitching their products like sauce.
[00:21:10] The DEXs that are built all the NFT projects built over there. So most of the users and investors on hadera come on our show daily.
[00:21:18] So with our project and that platform we've also added a shlew of all of the fighters that are now going to be coming on the show to talk about their experience.
[00:21:27] They're also some of the big dog token holders in karate because they win a big portion of karate tokens. So we think that connecting the developers of hadera with the big dog holders of karate tokens would be a very positive thing.
[00:21:42] So that's one thing that I'm doing kind of as a side project to connect that whole community together to kind of bring on other, you know like from people from Solana and Ethereum over to kind of show what hadera is kind of made up.
[00:21:55] There's a reason why karate chose hadera to be built on. It's one of the most secure, fast and best networks that really exist out there. So we'd like to showcase that by bringing all these fighters into our into our X-based portal to connect with everybody.
[00:22:11] So yeah so I know you have your token is you know actually I thought it was just two things, threefold, the NFTs. So you really have a robust ecosystem for your token and not just speculative right.
[00:22:31] So how can people use if it's not your token, your example to drive their projects and their businesses using your model? Yeah, yeah so there's a there's a an open license IP agreement that anybody can use for web three and web two products for karate combat.
[00:22:53] So if you if you contact us via Discord you can get all the details on that. It's basically 20%. So whatever 20% of the revenue looks like goes back to karate combat and basically you can build any product whether it's a web three game is really what they're encouraging.
[00:23:10] NFT projects to help the fighters or help karate combat as a league or say you just want to add you know karate characters to your existing platform or your existing NFTs.
[00:23:22] You guys, anybody can do that basically by by adhering to the open license agreement. It's a pretty simple process. You just contact only LARPing will send you the agreement couple signatures where you go.
[00:23:36] Yeah, just like any traditional any traditional contract except for they just I don't think they really say no to many many things are really starting to build a lot of a lot of different partnerships I can name about 10 that have already built on this IP license agreement.
[00:23:54] And it's all sorts of it's everywhere we see stuff on Solana, Ethereum, we have Bitcoin, Ordinals that are doing stuff as well. So lots of different different projects coming over to to see kind of what karate combat is doing. Very cool. I like it a lot.
[00:24:13] So that's, that's what that's part of the alpha. You said you are when I met you, you're, you're going to call my show and drop some alpha. I love the alpha you dropped so far.
[00:24:22] Yeah, pieces of your, your match. Do we look forward to seeing in the near future. So, karate staking. So, in order to combat the.
[00:24:33] I'd like to say it's on the background we kind of call it a snapshot dump people buy a lot of karate token right before the snapshot dump afterwards.
[00:24:41] They're going to add a staking mechanism to up only gaming. So it's not going to be like traditional staking you're still going to be voting on who your favorite fighters are, it's just going to be open for longer periods of time now.
[00:24:53] And this is going to encourage a larger reward for people who participate in that. So I think that that's a huge alpha that's being built in the background.
[00:25:03] The token holders voted on it and there's a working group building that product out right now as we speak. We also are going to look forward to karate combat in Miami, it's going to be at Universal Studios.
[00:25:16] Mid June, it's kind of good the cards going to be dropping any frickin second now so watch the karate app. You should, it should be should be there, probably within the next week or so.
[00:25:29] That should be an amazing event especially with the visual graphics being at Universal Studios so I really look forward to that event. That's next year. This is your. Yeah. Awesome. Wow. I can go I will.
[00:25:51] Yeah, I believe they changed they changed the San Paulo Brazil event to Orlando Florida. Okay, very good for your own Orlando latest month please check out this, please check out the events gonna be awesome right. Yeah, it'll be Casey 47. Cool.
[00:26:08] I'm excited about what you guys are doing it sounds wonderful. And I want to thank you very much for talking to me today. Coming on the show and I have, you know, one last question for you.
[00:26:22] And it's how can people find out more information about karate combat about you about, you know, becoming play up all the gaming and how can they start, you know being part of this ecosystem and process and everything.
[00:26:36] So, the way to get started guys, everything is on that karate combat app so just go to your app store and your phone download the app. If you don't have a phone and you're a little outdated you can just go right on karate combat website, and you can play right on the mobile app, you can get
[00:26:52] Right, so you can either play by filling up with karate tokens on on your meta mask or in right in your in your blade wallet, or in your h bar wallet.
[00:27:04] Anybody can play it just watch out for those snapshots there 48 hours before the event that's a very important thing to remember. Don't wait till the day of the event to buy your tokens and load them up you need to have those in right before the snapshot.
[00:27:21] Yeah, I think that that's, that's pretty simple as that just make sure you got your karate tokens loaded up in your wallet ready to go before that snapshot. Awesome. Thank you very much for your time today. Thank you very much. You have a great day.