Note: Written by XION World.

XION is the first Layer-1 blockchain built specifically for mainstream adoption, with the complexity of abstract cryptographic technology. Its developer, Burnt, has raised over $11 million from top investors such as Animoca, Circle, Multicoin, Spartan, and HashKey. Recently, XION's founder Burn Banksy appeared on the XD Academy podcast to discuss his personal growth, entrepreneurial experience, the original intention behind creating XION, and the current development progress of XION.

The following is a condensed version of the conversation, compiled and translated by XION World.

Host: Please introduce yourself to everyone.

Burnt:

Hello, I'm Burnt Banksy. I got this nickname because I burned a piece of art by the graffiti artist Banksy.

About two and a half years ago, I bought a Banksy artwork, burned it, and released it as an NFT. This event received coverage from major news media such as CBS, Forbes, BBC, and TechCrunch. Some people may find it funny, but my real intention at that time was to introduce NFTs, a form of cryptocurrency, to retail users and mainstream audiences.

That's my origin.

Host: How much did you spend to purchase Banksy's artwork?

Burnt:

$90,000.

Host: So, did this happen before you created XION?

Burnt:

Yes, this was before XION. XION has only been established for 18 months.

I burned Banksy's artwork before the $69 million NFT auction of Beeple. It was around February 2021.

Host: Let's delve into this story. From what I've heard, you were exposed to NFTs early on and tried to promote NFTs like physical items, burning physical items and concentrating all value on digital ownership. Is that correct?

Burnt:

Yes. First of all, I really liked the idea of NFTs, not only because I owned CryptoKitties, CryptoPunks, and other NFTs myself. Going back to the early days of NFTs, I was just as interested. When NFTs first emerged, I paid attention to them. It was like art on the internet, the first time in history that art appeared scarce in a digital form, which was fantastic. So, I wanted to see if burning a physical item and releasing it as an NFT would retain its value.

Host: So, how much did the NFT eventually sell for?

Burnt:

I auctioned it off for ETH, and the final bid was approximately $400,000. I did not sell these ETH and still hold them.

Host: It turns out that burning a physical artwork and releasing it as an NFT ultimately became an extraordinary business strategy. That's cool. Let's get back on track. I want to know how you initially got into the crypto industry.

Burnt:

Well, it's the era of cryptocurrency now. The reason I entered the crypto industry is that the CEO of Injective and I were mining Ethereum with mining rigs in our university dorm. Honestly, we mined a lot of cryptocurrency at that time, and DeFi represented by Uniswap was also in its early stages. That was my first exposure to cryptocurrency. I just started with mining.

Host: When did you first hear about cryptocurrency and when did you become interested in it?

Burnt:

I think everyone has their own Crypto story. One of my high school classmates bought drugs on the dark web "Silk Road," which also introduced many people to Bitcoin for the first time. But since then, I found Bitcoin very interesting. It wasn't just a passing interest like playing video games. When I grew up, in college, I realized that Bitcoin could make me money. So, my classmates and I bought a bunch of GPUs for mining. At that time, not many people even knew what mining was. Looking back now, that experience was really cool. But I got caught by the school; they thought I was hacking into the school network, so I was forced to explain to the school board what cryptocurrency was, and then I was banned from returning to the dorm. Looking back, we should use cryptocurrency more responsibly, work to legalize it, and do something beneficial to society, rather than taking advantage of free electricity and exploiting society.

Later, I joined the core community of Crypto, where some are users, some are validators, and some are developers. Although we have different roles, the feeling of wanting to "revolutionize" will never stop.

Host: If you could summarize your interest in cryptocurrency in one word, what would it be?

Burnt:

Just as many people like to summarize the characteristics of cryptocurrency as cooperation, collaboration, digital scarcity, anonymity, transparency, and autonomy, I believe that at a fundamental level, cryptocurrency is trustless, unnecessary, and eliminates the need for trust. Code is to some extent the law of Crypto. So, I would choose the word "Trustless."

Host: There are many people creating educational videos and podcasts about cryptocurrency, just like us. We are working hard to help people interested in cryptocurrency quickly understand the terms and participate in the crypto ecosystem. It is well known that the field of cryptocurrency is not very user-friendly for non-technical users. And most people who truly understand cryptocurrency, I feel, often have high motivations, such as making money, because they have to filter out a lot of junk information to get truly useful information. What was your process of learning about cryptocurrency like?

Burnt:

This question is interesting, just like many of the problems we want to solve through XION.

I also lost my cryptocurrency because of clicking on phishing links, but using real money to make mistakes is not good for an industry.

The process of learning about cryptocurrency goes back to when I was mining in college, because I needed to learn about Proof of Work (PoW), Proof of Stake (PoS), Ethereum's transition from PoW to PoS, and what deflation means. After I founded the company Burnt, I had to learn programming languages like Rust and understand the differences between these languages.

So, you just need to know what your ultimate goal is, what makes you passionate, whether it's becoming a user, a staker, or a node? Once you find your goal, then immerse yourself in your own research, and you will be passionate about it in the process. You don't have to learn everything about this industry; learning the part that interests you the most is the best.

Host: That's indeed a very good advice. Let's get back to the topic. Next, let's talk about XION. Is this your new project?

Burnt:

Yes. So, from the previous conversation, we can understand that the current user experience in the crypto industry is terrible, with high barriers for new users, complex terms, and a huge learning curve. All of these will hinder the widespread adoption of Web3.

To address these issues, we built XION as a universal abstraction layer for Web3. In simple terms, we want to abstract everything new users need to learn, such as signatures, interoperability, Gas, payments, and other complex terms/concepts, so that they can simply enjoy the benefits of cryptocurrency.

Ultimately, we want to provide a seamless Web3 experience for mainstream users. That's XION.

Host: How did you accomplish this?

Burnt:

You may have heard of account abstraction, ERC-4337. XION also has its own protocol-level version of account abstraction.

In addition, XION is unrelated to signatures, which means you can use Ethereum signature curves, Solana signature curves, or even use FaceID on your iPhone for signing.

We have also abstracted the concept of interoperability, allowing all other Layer-1 blockchains to connect to the universal abstraction layer of XION.

We have also abstracted the concept of payments. As we announced previously, XION has a strategic partnership with Circle, allowing everything on XION to be priced in USDC. While XION can accept any token like a traditional public chain, using USDC allows users to directly use credit and debit cards for on-chain transactions.

Furthermore, since we use Smart Contract Accounts (SCA), users actually do not need to store private keys in their browsers, which means they do not need any wallets. Users can log in to SCA using common Web2 login methods such as email and phone number, making on-chain transactions easier than ever using a mobile phone.

Ultimately, we want to create a Web2 experience for Web3, where mainstream users will not even realize they are using blockchain and cryptocurrency. I believe this is the only way for Web3 to truly enter the mainstream world.

Host: Thank you for your answers. I've heard many surprising things, but the most confusing for me is how you enable users to use credit cards for on-chain transactions?

Burnt:

This is one of my favorite parts. We have been building XION for 18 months, and to be honest, giving Web3 a Web2 experience is very challenging. We always joke that we are just trying very hard to mimic Web2. We have signed multi-year credit card processing contracts with companies like Stripe and Checkout.com, and because everything on XION is priced in USDC, we can use Circle's CCTP to handle one-to-one currency exchanges, such as converting USD to USDC. If you want to buy an NFT with a credit card, when you click to purchase, the USD in your credit card will be sent to the USD/USDC pool, automatically exchanged for USDC, and then exchanged for the NFT.

Host: Why abstract away the knowledge of cryptography?

Burnt:

In fact, we spent quite a long time building on Solana, and we developed many early standards for Solana, such as NFT standards and digital collectible standards. I love Solana, I love its community.

But you know, it's so difficult to bring mainstream audiences into the crypto industry. It's like explaining to a friend, "Hey, let's buy an NFT," and they say, "Okay, how do I do that?" Then we have to explain the process to them, "You have to download a Coinbase, then buy SOL tokens, and transfer them to the Phantom wallet." But with XION, mainstream audiences no longer have to go through these cumbersome processes.

Building XION is more about our own development, because we built a product on Solana with over 30,000 active users per month. But the real problem is that after the SBF incident, cryptocurrency and Web3 became an untrustworthy industry. For mainstream audiences to believe in cryptocurrency again, to believe in the benefits of cryptocurrency and Web3, they need to see it with their own eyes. We want to present Web3 in the simplest way possible to them.

For ordinary people who can't even distinguish between stocks and bonds, they don't need yield aggregators, they don't need 100x leverage perpetual DEX. Mainstream users using Web3 will definitely not be achieved through DEX.

Host: So what do mainstream users need?

Burnt:

A completely new concept they haven't seen before.

We won't build a better Netflix, we won't build a better Spotify, we won't build a better eBay.

I believe the concept of collaboration and co-ownership in Web3 is the best. Like five people from around the world collaborating to create and release PFP NFTs, selling them, with a common motivation to make the NFTs successful, and then they will work hard to promote the NFTs and receive equal rewards. The users who buy the NFTs then have IP and can use the IP to create their own things. It's incredible. Let's apply this concept everywhere, such as in applications like Galaxy, which aims to involve the community in the development of a project, where users can receive NFTs for each participation.

Host: We won't build a better Netflix, why do you think so?

Burnt:

Because I believe Netflix is already the best. You might develop a better way to watch movies using blockchain, or a better way to produce movies for independent film artists, but I think the goal of Web3 is not to improve what we already have, but to improve what hasn't become better, that's innovation.

Host: What's next for XION?

Burnt:

Another testnet, like another version of the current testnet. To be honest, there are many new L1 testnets that end as soon as they are good enough for the mainnet, even if they don't meet the goals. But often they encounter more problems after going live on the mainnet.

For me, we want to build a stronger ecosystem during the testnet. Currently, there are 10 to 15 applications deployed in the XION ecosystem, but that's not enough. Additionally, ensuring that these applications align with our vision is most important. We don't need the common L1 trio of DEX, NFT market, and yield aggregator, which repeatedly appear under different names on different L1s. Just like our partnership with Circle, they can be deployed on the backend of XION to ensure that mainstream users don't see these things.

END>

About Burnt and XION

Burnt is developing the future of Web3 by introducing XION, the first Layer-1 blockchain built specifically for consumer adoption through the abstraction of complex cryptographic technology. Burnt has raised over $11 million from top investors such as Animoca, Circle, Multicoin, Spartan, and HashKey.

Official website: https://xion.burnt.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/burnt_xion

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/burnt

Telegram: https://t.me/xion_announcements

Follow XION World for more information about XION.

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