Since the improvements in the IOTA protocol and all the possibilities of use that this has opened up, we are witnessing an incredible increase in the number of development projects related to IOTA.
We thought it was a good idea to name this series of interviews as WAGMI* Interviews and highlight IOTA community projects that are emerging or have been with us for a while now and the people behind them.
Opening this section, we are going to interview ThomasQv. You probably recognize him by his Charlie Sheen avatar and because he will be the main host of the Moonaco Meetup when IOTA gets to the moon.
Thomas recently started a Podcast on Spotify called Moonaco to raise awareness of IOTA through talks with people in the IOTA ecosystem. A few weeks after launching it, the podcast made it into the top 10 tech podcasts in Germany.
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Leer en Español
Hi Thomas, how are you? It’s great to have you opening this series of interviews. I would like to start by asking you about yourself, where do you live, your professional background, how long have you been in the IOTA community?
Hi, I’m great!. As for me, I now live in Norway, where I work in the offshore industry. In my spare time, I spend a lot of time within the IOTA Community.
I joined the IOTA Community back in 2017 at the same time as many other people, because someone told me that Russia was promoting IOTA. I quickly realized that this was false, but I’m glad they told me because that’s how I discovered IOTA.
So since 2017, I have been an active member of the Community through thick and thin.
How did you come up with your Podcast? Did you expect seeing it in the TOP 10 ranking of Tech Projects at Spotify? Did you expect the response you got?
The Podcast started as a joke actually within the speculation channel on IOTA’s Discord. But, I thought about it for a while, talked to a few people about it and everyone said I should do it. So, that’s when I reached out to some people to see what it would take to do it, the costs and the amount of work.
The community was very helpful and helped me come up with a fantastic logo and intro. Everyone I invited to the podcast said yes right away, so I decided to go ahead with it. Then one day, I saw that Moonaco was in the Top 40 Tech Podcasts in Germany. I thought that was great, and only a week later, the podcast was at number 3! That blew me away. I wasn’t expecting it at all. But, since the price drop happened, so did the interest in IOTA and in cryptocurrencies in general. So I can actually see how the sentiment is within the community on the amount of plays the episodes get.
I did really not expect the response that I got. I thought I would have to send 100 texts to people begging them to come but everyone agrees right away.
How else do you think IOTA can be more mainstream? How could the community help make this happen?
IOTA has all the pieces to become mainstream, and then some. But it lacks awareness and enthusiasm. Other cryptocurrencies spend millions on boosting their brand, while IOTA is simply on the sidelines and only high-tech people understand and see it. We can see new crypto tokens pop up and have 10x the followers that IOTA has even though IOTA existed for many years. This is simply because these new tokens is pushing hard on the awareness side.
So that’s mostly why I wanted to start the podcast, to be a source of information for people to understand IOTA. The Community could always participate more in public by discussing and giving people facts, rather than hanging out on a closed server and talking about it. But again, that’s not for everyone.
Do you think we communicators are doing a good job in spreading the word of IOTA or Cripto in general?
I think those who actively spread IOTA info are doing a great job. We just gotta focus on having the quality of the content we push. It has to be factual, real, and easy to understand. But we lack the people helping to push this info. Because a great article isn’t worth much if it’s the same 20 people that are sending it to each other.
A little birdie told us that SoonLabs will give you an exclusive on Moonaco Podcast, we know you can’t give us a hint, but how nice that two projects can boost each other like that…
The people behind SoonLabs have been around the community for years, just like me. I can see the quality of what they are building and the least I can do is help spread the word and get the word out about their project. Because, as I said before, if no one knows about a project, it will die. So I try to support them when I can, and they do the same for me. As you’ll see in the Moonaco episode, the guys at Soonlabs were kind enough to give a big announcement on my podcast before posting it themselves. I really appreciate that because it builds excitement and anticipation for both the Podcast and Soonlabs. So best of luck to those guys, lots of interesting things to look forward to there.
What do you think about IOTA, its evolution and how far it has come today?
They have come a long way no doubt, but I am really curious to see how ASMB and SMR will impact the ecosystem. There are so many things coming now that have the potential of kickstarting the awareness IOTA deserves. IOTA has taken a few wrong turns over the years but that’s a learning curve everyone is going through. I believe we are on the right road now, and that everyone within the IOTA community will finally be able to get the feeling that the wait was worth it.
I don’t like to use the phrase *WAGMI*, but I do believe that what it stands for, is true. Better days ahead.
What are your plans for Moonaco? How far do you plan to go?
Moonaco can only grow if the Community can grow. The Podcast is depending on the Community to create new projects, upgrades and products which I can bring on to discuss with them. So if the Community keeps on as it has, I will be getting very busy trying to catch up on all the different things that are coming.
But, Moonaco isn’t only the Podcast. Its a goal. Moonaco original came from the long term Community idea, of having the best ever Community meetup, in Monaco.
It’s been said that 100 people will be able to join the exclusive Moonaco Meetup, where a Yacht will be rented and everyone will celebrate as a WAGMI celebration. I believe it’s said to happen once one MIOTA reaches 50$. Which is actually very very doable, even though it may sound strange because it’s far away from where we are now. But keep in mind IOTA can reach 50$ (50x from here), and only be worth ⅓ of what Ethereum is worth today.
Anything else you want to add, that we haven’t asked you or that you just want to tell the community?
I’m honored that you wanted to have a chat, and I’m looking forward to seeing our Spanish community grow because it’s a very important community.
So I can only URGE you all, to take that extra time, to try to write well-written and informed articles, tweets, Reddit posts, etc. Imagine if every Reddit post could get 1 person to read it and say «This guy makes sense, I need to read more about IOTA», then that’s enough.
Because if everyone on IOTA was able to get 1 more person on board now and then, the Community would explode. So yes, your voice matters. Try not to keep it inside the IOTA bubble. Reach out to other communities and discuss why you believe what you do. I have gone several times to other cryptocurrency discords, explained IOTA to them in a discreet, non-shill way, and several of them have been blown away and wanting to join. Because most people don’t know the facts that we know. So we need to be able to spread the word.
What are your plans for Moonaco and how far do you plan to go?
Moonaco can only grow if the Community can grow. The Podcast depends on the Community’s potential to create new projects, updates and products that I can bring to deal with them. So, if the Community continues as it is, I will be very busy trying to catch up with all the things that are coming up.
But, Moonaco is not just the Podcast. It’s a goal. Moonaco originally came from the long term idea of having the best Community meeting ever, in Monaco.
It has been said that 100 people will be able to join the exclusive Moonaco Meetup, where a Yacht will be rented and everyone will celebrate it as a WAGMI celebration. I believe it is said to happen when a MIOTA reaches $50. Which is actually very very doable, even though it may sound strange because it is so far away from where we are now. But keep in mind that IOTA can go to $50 (50x from here), and only be worth ⅓ of what Ethereum is worth today.
Anything else you’d like to add that we haven’t asked you or that you’d just like to tell the community?
I’m honored that you wanted to have an interview, and I’m looking forward to growing our Spanish-speaking community because it’s a very important community.
So I can only URGE you all, to take that extra time, try to write well-written and informed articles, tweets, Reddit posts, etc. Imagine if every Reddit post could get 1 person to read it and say «What this guy says makes sense, I need to read more about IOTA», then that’s enough.
Because if everyone on IOTA was able to get 1 more person on board every now and then, the community would explode.
So yes, your voice matters. Try not to keep it inside the IOTA bubble. Reach out to other communities and discuss why you believe what you do. I’ve gone to other cryptocurrency discord servers several times, explained IOTA to them in a discret, non-shill manner, and several of them have been blown away and eager to join. Most people don’t know the facts that we know. So we need to be able to spread the word.
*WAGMI (We All Are Going to Make It) is used in the crypto space to refer to the concretion or success of a project and also for good news.
