Episode 182 - HolyVerse NFT Team

You're listening to the only place on the internet that offers the perfect blend of high quality premium cigars and cryptocurrency news and commentary. Welcome to cigars and crypto. Now here's your host, Invest New York. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of cigars and crypto. You know who it is, you're man who are. Let me tell you, I have not been putting out podcast lately. I've

been waiting for just the right moment, just the right time and just the right group of people. Today, I'm speaking with Sunny Fazio and Sam Elfara of Holy Verse NFT. Gentlemen, how are you doing today? Doing good. Thanks for having us. No problem. Thank you so much for joining me. I really do appreciate it. So, I am not one to mix words. I always like to

jump right in. I want to start out with your backgrounds. And I'm going to start with Sunny first and then round out with you, Sam. So, Sunny, tell me about yourself. How did you get into crypto? I got into crypto around two years ago. I've always been really interested in the finance space. Initially, I was really into stocks. And then I saw a lot of people

making a lot more money in crypto. So, right before I started making content, I kind of dug really deep into that realm. I did a bunch of YouTube. I mean, did a bunch of research on YouTube and such before I started making content about it. Okay. All right. Now, tell me about yourself, Sam. How did you get into crypto? Yeah, that's a great question. Well, similar

to Sunny, I also got started in the stock market realm. I started off as a discord analyst for a bunch of stock groups, just getting out of the market. I got alerts that really came during the COVID era before that. I work in private equity. And as a financial analyst for a couple other firms before that. And then, of course, due to COVID, I was laid

off. And that's how I got more into the stock market. And then I kind of saw how people were really benefiting from cryptocurrency, not just from the financial aspect, but also the innovation behind it. And that's kind of how I dealt into it. Cripp though has a way of. Enhancing and enriching the lives of both people who use it every day and speculators. It is the

future of finance. It is the future of money. And it is the future of tech. If you look further out, that's just my personal opinion. Don't hold me to it. But I think 20 or 30 years from now, people will look back at this time and say, there were a lot of things that were built and created during this time. That will be relevant to the

folks of 20 or 30 years from now. So tell me how you guys came together to start Holyverse. Yeah, that's a great question. So I stated we started off in a stock discord server. Sonny mainly worked more on the marketing side of things than I would mainly more on the analyst side. And you know, one thing led to another after we. Not necessarily got bored of

the stock market. You can never really get bored of that. But we saw a really great opportunity to grow in the NFT space in order to. You know, make a name for ourselves and build something greater than ourselves as well. And that's where we inevitably, inevitably created Holyverse. And then we just kind of grew from there. Don, I think you're muted. Sorry about that. Tell me

about the concept behind Holyverse. Yeah. Sonny, do you want to take that one? You can, you can take it. Yeah. So basically Holyverse is a Web 3 startup. We're all dedicated to providing financial literacy to all communities, including marginalized ones. That has been our mission statement from the beginning. And currently as we continue to build out our platform, we intend on adding more NFT collections to

our metaverse so that we can start tackling other social causes around the world. And that is really how Holyverse bridges the gap between the digital and the real world. And how we continue to grow. Got you. So you saw NFTs as a vehicle to. And we're going to be able to. Doing that. Exactly. Yeah. So I grew up in a marginal, I'm not a marginalized community,

but you know, in inner city in Boston. A lot of people there aren't very smart with their money. You know, that's why I'm very big on financial literacy. And I've also always been very big into video games. I used to be, you know, an ex-exec semi professional, eSport athlete. Not really an athlete, but you know, so that's why, you know, I'm also very passionate about starting

up our video game. And I'm working very hard. I'm not. So you know, once we saw the NFT space, it was just a perfect vessel to essentially bring into fruition what we wanted to do and what we were passionate about. That's actually a great segue into my next question. During pre-roll, we were actually talking about your video game. Tell me about it. Yeah. So are you

going to go Sam? Yeah. The video game is a play to earn style. It's kind of a combination of call of duty zombies meets. Castel crashes where the whole basis of the game is to get to as high of a round as you can. And every round you get to your earning our utility token known as holy. And that is basically the play to earn aspect

of the video game. So the better you are, the more, quote unquote, money you're making from it. And this is how we incentivize people into buying and holding our NFTs and reaping the benefits being a part of our ecosystem. Okay. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the token in just a second because now my gears are turning. So tell me how the NFT works with

the game. Does it work with the game? Yeah. So each NFT basically is a ticket or a character, as we would say, into actually playing the game and reaping the benefits from it. We will allow people to still play the game for free as a guest. They just won't be able to as stated earlier, reap the full benefits of the play to earn style. But holders

of our NFTs can actually rent out their NFTs to other people so that they could use them and earn some utility tokens. Now that concept is one that I've never heard of. Now mind you, I'm old school. Right. So part of these interviews are learning opportunities for my listeners, but they're really learning opportunities for me. So how does one rent out an NFT to someone else?

Yeah, that's a good question. So using basically the technology that we're creating, it says easy as just clicking a few buttons. An individual would have one of our NFTs in their crypto wallet. They would connect it to our website. And then they would go to our landing page within the video game. And it would simply say rent out and then you would just click that button.

You pick the NFT you want to rent out and you'll see the gains that you potentially could make off of it. Okay. So the holder of the NFT. Rinse out the NFT and they get paid for renting it out. Correct. Because some other user out there would then come to our platform, see which NFTs are being rented. And the he or she could pick one and

you know, depending on who the holder of that specific NFTs, they would be reaping the benefits from it. Okay. This slip. I like that. Kind of like an order book for NFTs. Essentially, yes. Okay. Now tell me the tell me the games that you said your game is like because I'm old school. So those games all seem like super new to me. Okay. Well, are you

familiar with Call of Duty? That I am. Yeah. So there's there's like this mini version in Call of Duty called Call of Duty zombies. It's a very, very popular version of Call of Duty. We essentially are taking that concept and putting it in our own graphics and theme and tying it with what Castle Cratchers was and their look. So it's a really, really cool fun game.

It is eight bit, but in high definition 4k quality of our, you know, video game mechanics. So people are having a good time. It's fun to look at and it's friendly, but it's as stated earlier. A lot of fun, as I would say, with what we're building. All right. Before we go further, right? Shout out to all the old hates like me who remember Atari 2600.

Atari 5200 with the 8 big games. Um, I think we'll, I think this will be really nostalgic for us. So I want to encourage you all to go out and grab this in a T so that you can play the game. Now tell me the name of the game because I did not ask you that upfront. Yeah. So the name of the game is HVP game.

It stands for Heroes, Villains and Pets, HVP. And essentially, we plan on continuing to make more video games on our metaverse as we populate our world more, but keep things simple. HVP game stands for Heroes, Villains and Pets, which are basically the NFTs that we sold to, uh, to the public. All right. You're clear of why because you were reading my mind. So tell me about

the concept of the heroes, Villains and Pets. Of course. So we had the heroes and Villains. They're both considered primary characters. So they have a supply of 3,333 each. Um, we sold those to the public. And now they are, you know, trading at a relatively fast pace on the open market. Um, and then the pets are the secondary character. They have a supply of 6,666. Um,

so it's basically like having one pet for each hero in Villain. Um, and that's basically what we've created. Um, there are other forms of digital utility that you can check out on our white paper where you can also earn our utility token from it. Um, through those NFTs. And our essential goal is to build out this many video game, the HVP game, um, build out our

financial literacy, social costs, and then, you know, do our digital token sale for the HVP token. Um, and then that will all lead us to starting our next NFT set. We'll, where we're going to have another three NFT populations and then so on and so forth. But again, to keep things simple. That's how the heroes, Villains and Pets, um, kind of mingle with one another. Outstanding.

That's actually great segue into my next set of questions. Tell me about the token sale for the holy token. Yeah. So holy token is our utility token. Um, and that is actually something we're not selling to the public via a digital token sale. We're actually going to be selling our governance token, which is called HVP token. Um, with that being said, the funds raised or generated

from HVP token sale will be put towards creating a liquidity pool. For holy token and HVP, it basically makes HVP and holy token have a value to it. Um, so we have two currencies. One is a utility token, but which is holy. That is what you use to earn through the video game. You can use it to buy other accessories in game items and all that

really cool stuff. And it has a dollar value to it. And then our second token, which is the governance token. This allows people to vote on community led events regarding the heroes, Villains and Pets. And that's called the HVP token. And we're planning to start the public sale for that, um, you know, not until a couple of months after the launch of our video game, which

should be around July. And that's when we're going to start generating some more revenue for our startup and keep things moving. I appreciate the clarification. Thank you so much. So it's the HVP token that's going to be going through the token sale soon and governance. When I think of governance, I think of voting, right? What, what types of governance are attached to the HVP token? Yeah,

absolutely. So there's going to be votes and elections that are going to be held where community members can actually vote for a mayor, a vice mayor, and then city council members, as I would say, of their, uh, metaverse land. So the heroes, Villains and Pets are given a, uh, their own land in our metaverse. And within that metaverse, they have their own game that we've built

for them. Um, they have their own digital land, as I stated, with their own social costs. And they get to elect a mayor, a vice mayor, and some city council members to be the leaders of that area. And then there will also be other publicly held votes, such as what to do with their autonomous organization, um, what types of digital buildings they want to build, what

types of improvements they want to see in our, in their mini video game. And so on and so forth. So if you will, imagine a world where kind of like how our planet is functioning, except we're actually making it digitally speaking and tying social causes to it, which is how we bridge the gap between the digital and the real world. You're really clear, Voint, man, because

you, you answered all the question I was going to add that I was going to ask. And then you started off with the next question I had. Tell me about the social causes that you're championing. Now I know that you stated our financial literacy, but in your metaverse can people support the causes of their choice? Yeah, absolutely. Um, and we're making it very, very public, which

NFT set is for which social cause. So an individual can look at our NFT sets and see how the video games are structured for them. What social cause is structured for them. Um, and they get the picture. And they can choose which one they want to be in. Obviously we'd love to have people buy into as many NFT sets as they can and as many populations.

Um, but financial literacy is mainly the first one and the current one that we're starting to build out because, you know, we have a lot of personal ties to it, just from personal experience of having a background finance and working in the discord space and teaching others about financial literacy and noticing that it's. Not readily available as you think, especially across the planet. Um, but other

causes that we're thinking of, uh, taking on and, you know, nothing set in stone, but we do have aspirations over the next 10 years or 20 years, as you'd say, um, of championing these causes, which consists of ending world hunger, um, promoting well-being for all ages, you know, ensuring education is given at a young age. Um, water sanitation for all, reducing plastic waste. Um, in the

ocean. And, um, of course, reducing any other economic inequality. So those are like five or six things just off the top of my head. Um, um, that are all social causes that are major in the planet. And unfortunately, not as much as is being done for it. And we believe using web three, um, we can get all of that done in good time or at least

make the world a bit better. And the process is perceived than achieved. The idea that you are thinking about these things and, uh, actioning ways, solutioning ways to create the world that you want around you should be applauded. Um, you're using the tools at your disposal. You're using the time, you're using the energy, you're using the now to create a world that you want around you.

So, um, I think it's a little better tomorrow and, um, my hat's off to you for that. Um, you know, a lot of people say that they want to change things and they want to make the world a better place. Um, but they're not doing anything to do about, you know, doing anything to make that happen. So the fact that you guys have put your head

together started this company, created these NFTs and are actually pushing forward to do that is quite commendable. So thank you very much. I appreciate that. Yeah. Thank you, Doctor. Yeah. And we have a lot more coming. We're very excited about it. So you mentioned the future, right? Tell me what you guys want to do in the future. Not that the causes you want to support. Right.

But what do you want? Holy verse to kind of morph in time. Yeah. That's a great question. And so I really look at it as a massive video game company. Um, in my, um, guys, you know, regardless of the social causes that we were just stated earlier, which is obviously a big part of it. But as stated, every NFT set we're building out, which consists of

three NFT populations each, which I blew the two earlier will have its own mini video game to it as well. And as we continue to build and grow, um, we do want to create our own metaverse where individuals can have their character and they can actually walk around kind of like as if it's Minecraft on the blockchain. So to speak. Um, where it's just the Minecraft

video game aspect and people are walking around and having a good time. Um, and then on top of that, we also have aspirations of creating our own Holy verse app. And in this app, we intend on individuals learning about all the social causes we are taking on specifically with financial literacy to start. Um, where they could buy cell and customize and upgrade their Holy verse assets,

their digital ones, whether it's an NFT or their cryptocurrencies. And of course they can network and connect with other people in our ecosystem. Um, so those are the three things that we intend on, um, doing in the next five to 10 years and we have a whole roadmap and plan for all of it. And we're very excited to get going on all of it. So, Sunny,

tell me where you see the future going. In the future, I see this becoming something I'm not being. I see this becoming something bigger than ourselves. I mean, I have so many large aspirations like that, you know, I just have written down on paper for very long term goals. Like ultimately creating like a video game team. That's always been a dream of mine. Having like a

house, a public Holy verse, IRL space for from members to meet up and, you know, do stuff that. You know, like the smaller video games and stuff are really just the first steps of what we're really trying to building. I'm also very excited about the learn to earn app that we just talked about where you'll actually earn our tokens for, you know, taking financial literacy lessons

and such. That really is like my favorite. I'm not going to be a part about the project. I've been posting content for about a year and a half now focused around financial literacy stocks crypto. Just trying to basically educate people. Awesome. Awesome. So I've learned a little bit about the both of you. I've learned how Holy verse started. I've learned about the HP game. I've learned

about the whole. Holy token, the HP governance token and the social causes that you support. What else do you want me and my listeners to know about you and about Holy verse? I can chime in real quick. I recently just posted a TikTok where I showed by reaction to us selling out for the first time. And a lot of people, you know, on TikTok, they're very

naive. They're very naive to NFTs and ignorant to the space. And they call it a scam and whatnot. And I see comments like, oh, the floor price is dipping. You might have to rug it soon. I look at this and I cringe. So I want people to really understand that in this space, we're here for the long term. And we have no intentions of going anywhere.

We've worked really hard on this project dealt with a lot of unbelievable problems that will ultimately be in the Holy verse movie when we make it. Because I know that will happen with the drama that we've been through. And yeah, Sam, you want to expand on that? Yeah, to expand on what Sonny was stating besides the Holy verse movie one day. But I really think a

big thing that I hope people understand about us is that we're not just an NFT project. We may use NFTs and digital assets as a means of bringing to life our social causes and video games. And Metaverse. But we are a Web 3 startup for utilizing Web 3 technology where Web 1 was the 50s to the 90s. And then Web 2 technology was the internet age

where the whole, you know, bubble happened. And now we're in the Web 3 era where it's really, you know, it's like a couple of years old now. So it's still very new relatively speaking. And we're just utilizing that technology to bring to fruition everything that we just talked about earlier. So I hope individuals are really happy. We're more willing to learn about it and kind of

understand that there is a massive market for it. You know, major investment banks have stated that it's a future trillion dollar industry in 10 years. You know, you can just see it with our discord community. Just to give you guys some numbers on how we've been doing. We've generated about $5 million in four months. We have a quarter of a million people are in our discord

community over nearly half a million people on TikTok. And we haven't even been doing a massive marketing campaign for about a month yet. So closer to two months now. So a lot of it has been organic and we have a massive plan for the next six months for two big marketing campaigns that we believe are going to more than double our family and our community size.

And get us really to selling as many tokens as we can and generating as much revenue through our digital token sale and continuing to grow. So I hope that kind of is something your users and listeners really know about us. So we're having a deficit in a channel.rees.sh, we could carry out gosting and drinking our coffee and now we're seeing that. Let it out. It's great.

It's surreal at points. Crazy. Yeah, definitely. So I'm going to start with you, Sonny. Tell me where you see the future of cryptocurrency, blockchain technology and NFTs in the next three to five years. In the next three to five years, you know, I definitely agree with a lot of the more major influencers in this space as you know, a lot of the projects now will essentially

go to zero. You know, a lot of them are very overvalued and don't provide too many, there's too many projects right now that are too based around hype and not as much around utility. And that's where I really do think the technology will go. You know, the kind of like meme coins and pumps and all that stuff will will age out. And then this technology will

three to five years, you know, 95 is not 99% of NFT projects, cryptocurrency projects will fail. But that's with any sort of innovative thing that's being created. You know, you have to weed out the less good ones, as I would say, or the bad ones. And it essentially opens the doors for the ones that are really going to innovate and revolutionize the space. It literally means

that it's a bad thing. But overall, it's really going to help a lot of people. And I think right now, we're not even close to our fullest potential. I mean, Ethereum is really only used for creating pictures and JPEGs. And it hasn't really tapped into that whole market of, you know, real life utility, bringing the world to becoming a better place. You know, governments have inferior

elections and all these other social causes that Ethereum was originally built for. That's just one cryptocurrency out of thousands. And I think our project with at least Holyverse and our startup is working to bring all of that to fruition, especially with it being something that's been negated for so long. Outstanding. Love hearing your thoughts, gentlemen. Folks, check it out. If you want more information about the

Holyverse project, make sure you jump into their discord and find a link to follow them on Twitter. Gentlemen, where can we find you guys online? Yeah, so check out. Go ahead, Sonny. So for the Holyverse, you can find us at Holyverse NFT on Twitter, Holy NFT on Instagram and TikTok. And then for my personal social media, it's real talk stocks. Likely, I'll be changing my name

to Sunny Fast soon, you know, to grow up my own personal brand. And then Sam, you can tell your social media. Yeah, yeah, I would also say make sure to check out our website, holy NFT.io. It's holy NFT.io. So very easy to remember. It's just holy then NFT.io. And then my social media is or just melphara 123. Melphara 123. It's just my original first name and

then my last name 123. So that's where you can check us out. But definitely check out the website. I think you guys were all really liking. How standing. Anything else that you want to share before we wrap up, gentlemen? I would say just stay tuned. We got a lot of big things coming. Definitely check out our website, our discord. And we hope to see you all

more active in our chats. Eventually. And we'll go from there. You heard them folks. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Sam, Alphara and Mr. Sonny Fazio of Holyverse. Gentlemen, thank you. So much for your time. I so appreciate it. Thank you so much for having us on. Thank you, Dante.