Daniel Street on Crypto Bitz: Relica, BSV and all things Bitcoin

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Relica co-founder Daniel Street recently guested on the Crypto Bitz podcast to talk about Relica, BSV, and all things Bitcoin. Let’s take a look at what insights he shared.

Relica

The conversation opened with a discussion of the current Relica team and roadmap. Street shared that the team consists of four devs and a designer as of now.

He then got into the inspiration behind Relica. According to Street, they wanted to build a better Instagram. Whereas Instagram depends on ads and selling data, and only around 1% of the user base earns money from it. While Relica allows everyone to earn because of micropayments via likes, follows, comments, and saves.

Data ownership is the key, and as we learn a little later in this conversation, NFTs will play a key role in how it works. The team also presented at CoinGeek New York and discussed what Relica is and what it will become in the future.

Why BSV? 

Crypto Bitz host Britney asked why the Relica team chose BSV. The answer was simple, and it’s one we’ve heard time and time again: BSV is the only blockchain that works and scales right now. Street also mentioned that the team wanted to build on a protocol that isn’t being changed and tinkered with every six months.

He also shared another fact that we’ve heard from multiple developers on BSV. The team initially considered Ethereum, but after considering the fees, they determined it was impossible to use for their intended purposes. They didn’t want to issue a token on Ethereum because they preferred to use cash (BSV), and so they chose to build on the original Bitcoin protocol restored.

Why the name Relica?

An interesting tidbit that many could be unaware of is that Relica was originally called Memento. Street says the team went back and forth a few times, but in the end, they chose Relica because it means something like a keepsake; a relic.

What about NFTs in Relica?

If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the digital currency industry, you’ll have encountered non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at some point. The host nicely led Street into a conversation about how NFTs will play a role in Relica.

“Everything will be NFTs,” he replied. For example, shops might drop NFT tokens for half price on coffee outside their shop on the map, and when users discover and collect them, they can then bring friends along for a coffee in real life. Other examples could be the likes of CryptoFights dropping weapons on the map, which can then be used within the game.

This will open up new ways for businesses to market to potential customers, and it will enable the formation of new businesses that previously hadn’t existed.

In the future, NFTs will be hidden inside Relica’s signature treasure chests. When users discover them, the NFTs will be theirs to keep. In time, these NFTs can even earn revenue for Relica users. Imagine posting one to your Relica wall and earning a micropayment every time someone likes or comments on it. That’s where Relica is going, Street explained.

Would Relica consider using any other coins, or is it BSV only?

“Let me know which coins can facilitate micropayments, and we’ll look into it,” said Street.

Street’s answer to this question spoke volumes; Relica was built with micropayments in mind, and right now, BSV is the only one capable of enabling them.

When pressed on the issue of whether integrating other digital currencies might be an option in the future, Street allowed that something like Solana might be viable but that Relica prefers BSV because it’s electronic cash, and Solana is a token that will ultimately need to be traded on an exchange.

This point is worth picking up on because it hints at the bigger picture of where Relica and the BSV ecosystem are going. When users earn revenue in apps like Relica, they might be able to make purchases with what they earn rather than converting tokens on exchanges and then spending fiat. Street gave the example of using RelayX cards to spend BSV in real stores.

BSV is so revolutionary people can’t grasp it yet

“The forks will be forgotten. BTC and BCH will die.” – Daniel Street

In the final section of the podcast, a discussion on BSV more generally, Street said he believed people would someday look back and laugh at the digital currency space in its current form. He likened refusing to use BSV because you dislike Dr. Craig Wright to refusing to use the internet because you dislike Tim Berners-Lee.

Right now, Street added, because the technology is so new and revolutionary, people don’t even understand it. “Craig had to come back five years after he released the white paper and explain how it works,” he reminded us. And still, only a few got it.

Britney from Crypto Bitz reminded us that there was a massive pushback against the internet and that initially, people thought it was a fad that would pass. She said she thinks Bitcoin (BSV) will go through a similar boom and that in 15 years, it will be commonplace to use it.

BTC is not Bitcoin and it’s not decentralized

Finishing up, Street took aim at the Bitcoin protocol fork BTC. He highlighted how some people criticize BSV for being controlled by Dr. Craig Wright and Calvin Ayre, but this is false. In reality, a few BTC devs and Blockstream keep changing the BTC codebase. In what way is this decentralized? He went on to explain that they only call it a store of value and digital gold “because they broke it,” and it could no longer be used as a peer-to-peer cash system.

However, Street believes that the misunderstanding around Bitcoin is an early advantage for firms like Relica. Silicon Valley will move across in time as the penny starts to drop, and it’s important for early BSV builders and developers to gain a foothold before they do.

Read the latest ebook, BSV Blockchain as an Enterprise Cybersecurity Framework.

Also watch CoinGeek New York presentation, Relica: Be On the Map with the BSV Blockchain