Building The Future Show - Radio / TV / Podcast

Kevin Horek: look forwardto the
show today with have Ben Piri.

He's the founder and c
e o at Memory Gardens.

Ben, welcome to

Ben Peer: the.

Thanks for having me, Kevin.

Glad to be here.

Kevin Horek: Yeah, I'm excited
to have you on the show.

I think what you guys are doing at Memory
Gardens is really innovative and cool.

But maybe before we get into all that,
let's get to know you a little bit better

and start off with where you grew up.

Ben Peer: Perfect.

So, uh, the name again is Ben.

I grew up, uh, in, uh, Tel Aviv in Israel.

Oh, cool.

Uh, been there half of my life and, uh,
migrated to the US in my early twenties.

So half of my life through childhood
was in Israel, but most of my,

uh, adulthood was, uh, here in,
uh, Texas, in the United States.

Kevin Horek: Okay, very cool.

So what made you come over to.

Ben Peer: So when I grew up, um, I always
heard how great, uh, the United States is.

You know, you watch tv,
you get the influence.

I also had, uh, some part of my
family that have been living in, uh,

tus Tucson, Arizona for many years.

Ah, and, uh, throughout my life I've
been pumped on how great the United

States is and always had like this
dream to come and, and try it and

taste it and see, is that really
what everybody's talking about?

And, um, during my early twenties, I got
a relocation, um, offer from a company

that I used to make point of sale.

Uh, it used to call Rele and it was
acquired by n c later date, uh, they

offered me to come to Texas and, uh,
helped them with setting up a new office

and, uh, set up all the, uh, systems, uh,
for servers, network security, et cetera.

I've never been to the US a
day in my life before then.

Wow.

But the opportunity sounds amazing and
interesting, so I'm like, Hey, let's see.

Let's try it.

Let's see how it goes.

And, uh, jumped on that and, uh,
three months later found myself back

in my bags and, uh, move into the US

Kevin Horek: a amazing.

So let's step back for a second.

You, you went to college.

What did you take And.

Ben Peer: So college actually I took
here of the United States, not in Israel.

Uh, so, okay.

In Israel, um, the journey usually
is that you have a high school.

Yeah.

And once you are graduating from high
school, a military service is mandatory.

Ah.

So I have done my, uh, free
years of military service.

I was in the, uh, military police,
uh, in Israel, uh, doing a lot of,

uh, computerization of the citation
and fugitives for the military police.

I walked with ibm, um, doing my
military service, where later I got

a job over there where afterwards
I went to Lake and came to the us.

So there was, uh, no time to
college, uh, before I came here.

And I joined a community college
once I was here in the US already.

Okay.

So

Kevin Horek: what if
you're already working?

What made you want to go back to school?

Ben Peer: Honestly, I thought I
needed a degree, but, um, as I went

for the studies and I went for that
community college experience, I

realized I really didn't need that.

And it was an at waste of time and money.

Yeah.

Kevin Horek: Uh, like I don't have a
degree either, and I've done all right.

So I, I, like, I get there's pros and
cons to getting one and not getting one,

but I, I think especially in tech, uh,
in my experience, you don't need one.

And it sounds like you share the same.

Ben Peer: I, I, I share that sentiment.

Yeah.

So the challenge I see with higher
education is that most of the information

being taught is stale information.

Yeah.

And that information that is not
fully transferrable to the, uh,

uh, walking environment or the
tech environment that that exists.

And the value sits more on getting
hands-on technology and getting

certification from professional vendors
like, uh, Amazon, Google, uh, you name it.

So I am, I'm a big believer in
education, but I'm a believer

in customized education.

I personally hold over, uh,
2000 of, uh, certification from

various professional institutions.

Uh, but, um, the, the grid self
is, is just a piece of paper

that is not really worth it after
you show for the first employer.

And since I already had a job at that
point, that was, uh, pretty well advanced,

I never got any benefits from getting
that, that, uh, higher education.

No, I, I think that's

Kevin Horek: really good advice.

So walk us through the rest of
your career up until coming up

with the idea for memory gardens.

Lynn, let's dive.

Ben Peer: Sure.

So I'm gonna step one, step backwards.

Um, sure.

When, when I was, uh, a teen, uh, back
in Israel, um, my parents had a very

strong mentality about, um, you want to do
something, you want to buy something, you

need to go, you need to earn that money.

You need to do it on yourself.

Okay.

So ever since I was young, I was
running my own small business for an

IT computer repair business, helping
set up small businesses, um, and, and

home offices, uh, for networking, for
compute, uh, printers, you name it.

Um, mostly basic it, so that,
that was the first business I had.

And when I started the military service,
I couldn't continue with that business.

I had to shut it down.

That's a requirement when
I joined the military.

Um, and afterwards I went
for the corporate route.

So post-military service, there was I b
m following by a relex, uh, employment

that relocated me here to the us.

And in lic I started as the person
who is managing all the active

directory exchange and then moved
to firewalls that was security.

And later I joined, um, another small
financial institution that is, uh,

doing, uh, VC investments in Texas.

Help them with a network security and
network configuration for about a year.

Um, once that was over, I went
to a company called Checkpoint.

Uh, checkpoint is one of the biggest,
uh, firewall manufacturers out there.

Uh, they are one of the top
dogs, and in that environment,

I got exposed to Benny High-end
customers, uh, such as, um, T-Mobile.

Uh, Brazil is another big, uh,
telecom provider in South America.

Nordstrom and a lot of other accounts,
uh, that they got assigned to, uh, support

and assist, uh, with implementation of
network security and perimeter firewall.

Um, did my trenches in, uh,
checkpoint for about, uh, four years.

And from there I moved to a
company called, uh, D tcc.

Uh, DTCC is a organization that many
people don't know about, uh, but

everybody uses them at the end of the day.

So every stock that you traded with
Robin, All this settling, uh, for that

stock that it moves from point A to point
B is done under, uh, D T CCC umbrella.

So D T CCC is taking care of all the
settling for, uh, stock trading for the

New York Stock Exchange, for example.

So every stock that move
hands, D T C C handles that.

Interesting.

Um, did a design for all the
network and, and perimeter security

over there for a couple of years.

Um, and that's where cloud started
to, to happen, uh, before that

cloud was, was there, but it wasn't,
uh, really looked at or adopted.

It was a very niche technology and started
to become more and more interesting as,

um, I went through the journey in D T C.

And then I got an opportunity to,
uh, start working for a kpm g s

and help them to do a lot of cloud
architecture and cloud design.

So I jumped to that opportunity, joined
to kpm, g u s, assisted them with

designing and architecture, architecture
of all the Google Cloud infrastructure.

Uh, back in the day, uh, KPMG s
was only an Azure Azure shop, and

they were looking to add another
cloud providers into the portfolio.

And I'm the one who was leading
the, uh, Google Cloud, um, effort

from that, uh, perspective.

Cool.

Um, my manager back there, um, eventually
left and he moved to JP Morgan Chase

and he put me with him eventually to go
ahead and do something very similar to

JPM G but in JP Morgan Chase in that.

Got it.

Yeah.

But throughout all my career,
uh, blockchain has always been,

uh, a big part of my life.

Um, mostly the nightlife
and not during the daytime.

It was kind of like a side thing and a
hobby, uh, for I think over 10 years now.

Wow.

How did you get into it then?

I was giving technical support to
my friend who was trying to buy some

things online and that, uh, online
merchant was only accepting Bitcoin.

Okay.

And that's how got exposed.

I'm at, what is that
Bitcoin, how do you buy it?

What it is.

And back then it was all, uh, used
in a platform that, uh, you might

familiar called Mount uh, Antigo.

Yeah.

So everything was done in Antigo in
those days and Bitcoin local, it was very

different than what it is today for sure.

Kevin Horek: Sure.

So walk us through coming up with the
idea for memory gardens and what made you

actually decide to go ahead and build it?

Ben Peer: So memory gardens came to
life, um, when one of my family, uh,

passed away, family members, oh, sorry.

Um, so like I said, originally
I'm from Israel and, um, we, we

are, are following traditions
of, uh, uh, the, the, the Jewish.

Uh, beliefs and in, in Judaism
when someone is passing away, a

burial is done within 24 hours.

Okay, so when my grandfather was sick
before he passed away, I was trying to

go and get to see him before he expires.

And unfortunately I missed
that, uh, by a day and a half.

Oh, that sucks.

So not only that I missed,
uh, to say goodbye.

I also missed the funeral
because of the 24 hours.

Right.

And when I was, uh, um, grieving
afterwards, I came across a book

from, uh, Dan Edelman, uh, called
Sam and Dan Edelman have a quote over

there that I really connected to.

Um, he's saying that every
person have free deaths.

Uh, the first is when the body
cease to function, and the second is

when the body consign to the grave.

And the third one is when that name
of that person is spoken for the last.

Right.

So with my journey, I kind of like
missed on the two deaths from my

grandfather, and I wanted to find a way
that the fur death would never happen.

I wanted a way to memorialize my memory of
him as a person and his memory as a person

on how he's been viewed by other people.

And I want to find a
way to do it, fortuity.

I want to do it one time, make sure
it's set up and know that I don't

have to worry about it ever again.

So the, the thought was, how can I
do something similar to a tombstone,

but something that is a little bit
more data and show a little bit more

about the person than, uh, those
only a few words that you can go

ahead and write on the tombstone.

How can I create something that
is long-lasting and is respectful

and bring his memory back to life?

And, and that was the, the ker
that started, uh, memory garden.

Um, that, that incident that I
mentioned with the burial that

I missed was pre covid, right.

Um, so then Covid started
and death was all around us.

Um, if you do, if you wanted, and if
you don't, um, even if you didn't have

anyone in your family that got sick,
uh, you had thoughts about what, what,

what can happen and, um, what will
happen if something happens to me?

So I thought, what type of a legacy
or memories do I live for my family

if God forbid something happens to me
tomorrow and I just drop on the floor?

I wanted, um, a way to kind of
like keep myself alive to a degree

and my memory for my daughter.

And hopefully that she will have
that when she's older enough to

understand that and maybe one day
she can show that to her kids.

So that really connected to what I want to
do for my grandfather by creating a time

capsule that can capture those memories
that are so precious to us and make sure

that those memories are available for our
loved ones after we are no longer here.

And that's what drove
memory gardens in the.

Kevin Horek: Very cool.

So walk us through how people sign up
and actually use the platform and then

maybe talk about some of the technology
and blockchain tie in without getting

maybe too technical as you're doing

Ben Peer: that.

Sure.

So blockchain is complex.

Um, it's not easy to use.

It requires a lot of understanding.

And if, uh, if you ever try to set
up a wallet or an exchange, you see

that there is a lot of due diligence
and you need to do it the right way.

Otherwise you might lose your tokens, your
data, whatever you have in the wallet.

Um, the hurdles of a new user
into the web, FreeSpace and

blockchain, uh, emer, immersed, so.

You need to read a lot.

You need to figure out a lot by yourself.

Then you need to go ahead
and go to an exchange.

Open an account, K Y C A M L, move some
money to that exchange, buy some tokens.

There is a lot of learning curve, right?

Um, thinking about the solution
of memory preservation.

We have more people around the world
that don't know blockchain than people.

Sure.

Uh, consumers don't care for
a very steep learning curve.

They want something that
they can use, uh, fast.

They want something that is easy to
use and that is accessible to them.

A high level of, uh, high bowels of
entry is not palatable for anyone.

So when, when I thought about
memory gardens, I wanted a way.

Every person.

It doesn't have to be a web
free, advanced user can go ahead

and use what we are developing.

Um, having something that is uneasy
as playing Angry Birds or, or, or any

type of, uh, silly, uh, uh, random
game on, on your iPhone is gonna

be as easy as using our product.

That's where the challenge started is how
do you take something that is so complex

and bring it to the common people that
don't want to understand the complexity?

And I was Dr.

Uh, I was, um, taking a lot of
inspiration from Tesla and from

electric vehicles and the inspiration
that drove me from that, uh, side.

You can go from a car burning,
uh, vehicle into an ev uh, car.

And under the hood, it's,
it's very, very different.

One has a lot of mechanism, very complex,
uh, makes pollution, uses gas to power,

uh, have a gear system, a lot of things.

And you go to the EV and you have
a lot of simplicity under the.

Different engine, different energy
type that it consumes, but the

consumer can switch between one of
the two and, and he can choose to be

ignorant on what makes the cow move.

It doesn't need to know that it's,
it's, uh, electric, that it doesn't

have a planetary gear system.

And that half the stuff under
the hood that he had in the old

car doesn't exist in the new car.

He just opened the door.

He steps into the driver's
seat, press the button.

Use the pedal steering wheel, start
and join and, and, and using the ride.

So the experience of moving from solution
A to B doesn't require any relearning

and retraining for the customer.

So that was our north style
on developing our platform.

So in a nutshell, what we are
doing to, to accomplish that, we

are obfuscating all the blockchain
technology from the customer.

It's there, but it's under the hood.

You don't need to operate that directly.

You only operate the interface and you
only operate the application itself.

And everything that is, uh, unique
to the blockchain world is hidden,

and we are taking care of that to
make your life simple as a customer.

So consumers that want to use memory
gardens, all they need to do is to

download our mobile application.

Once they download the mobile application,
they can log in with an email.

Memory gardens will create the customer
a wallet behind the scene, uh, that

is linked to that email identity.

Okay.

And when the customer decide, for
example, that he wants to have a

subscription with us and he doesn't
want to use the free tier option,

he's paying us with credit card.

We are a monthly subscription service
anywhere from $3 to 1299, and depends on

how much you are paying, the more data
and more features you're going to get.

Right.

Um, Whenever you upload the content to
memory gardens and you're trying to upload

a picture because you want that picture
to be safe opportunity, we gonna take

that content picture or video and we gonna
write it on your behalf into a blockchain.

And right now we are using
two blockchains to do that.

We are using a product called Awe.

Awe is a blockchain that drives,
uh, what's called the perma.

It's a unique, uh, decentralized
blockchain for storage that guarantee

immutability of the data for 200 years.

So everything that you write into
that blockchain, essentially you are

prepaying for 200 years of storage,
and that makes the file that you

uploaded undeletable and destructible
and immutable for a very, very long.

Right.

So the family moments, those memories, you
can upload a memory guidance application.

We gonna write it to you for
you to making sure it cannot be

deleted or destroyed, and that it's
there of future two generations.

Now we also offer an option to allow
data portability and data freedom.

So let's assume that you
upload a picture of grammar.

And for some crazy reason, you now
want to use a picture and grammar

in your decentral end room or in
other, uh, metaverse applications.

We can also meet you on E L C 7 21,
uh, token with picture of grammar,

and then you can take the token
and you can use it in any other

ecosystem outside of memory gardens.

The data is yours.

You own the data and you can
use it anywhere you see fit.

The main downside of using that and
making the N F T is that when you do

that, you are making that content public.

So it's not good for all pictures,
uh, because not all content should

lose, uh, privacy and be public.

Kevin Horek: Right.

Interesting.

Okay, keep going.

Sorry.

Ben Peer: Um, We, we are believing
that storing data is part of the

challenge or part of the problem.

Um, storing data is, is, is a great
task by itself, but storing data and

not having anyone calling the data back
or actually reading the data makes the

point of saving it kind of like mute.

It's like, why would you save
something if nobody read?

Or if you saved someone and nobody with
because it's boring or inaccessible, then

does it really matter that it's saved?

Is it really even saved?

So we wanted to find a way to make
content consumption a little bit

more interactive and interesting.

Around that.

We developed a 3D galleries, and
those galleries are basically

your showroom for your data.

You can take all the pictures
and videos you upload to memory

gardens, and you can decorate those
galleries with the content that you

own and you upload to the platform.

So you can create a hall, which is kind
of like a museum or a gallery, or even

something that looks like a house that
is now decorated with your memories.

And you can go ahead and create more
connection between individual moments

to elevate them to a meaningful.

Kevin Horek: Very cool.

So walk us through, uh, a little bit
of the, the tech behind what, what's

happening, like, because, okay,
so you say you can create an N f t

blockchain, you create me a wallet.

Like, and I know you mentioned this
before, but I, I want to just kind of

reiterate this, is you set all that.

For me or the user.

And you don't have, I don't have to
worry about setting all that up myself.

Correct.

And arguably, I don't even need to
know that it got set up on my behalf.

Is that

Ben Peer: fair to say?

So there, there are two, two
answers to that question.

So let's, let's break
it down to two layers.

Sure.

We have the data layer and
we have the data ownership.

Okay, so the data layer, the the layer
that we saved on Ariv, uh, which is the

actual picture, let's say the JP file
or the MP4 file for the video, we take

those and we save it on your behalf.

We then go ahead and rotate the keys.

So even if someone comes and ask me to
do something, I can't do it anymore.

Ah, okay.

So the data is now stored and
nobody can do anything to the

data, not you, not me, not anyone.

It's not in your wallet
and it's not in my wallet.

It's just a file that is saved
and got paid by a specific

wallet at one point of time.

But now that wallet and those
keys are no longer exist anywhere.

Got it.

Okay.

In regard to the data ownership, we are
using, uh, surveys that called Magic Link.

Uh, it's magic.link if everybody
want to take a look at that.

It's a really cool product
that allows you to.

Social identities like Apple or Google
or even your email to log in, excuse me.

Once you log in into the system, um,
we Magic SDK goes and create you an

e l C 20 wallet behind the scene.

And that E L C 20 wallet is now linked
into that identity that used to log.

If you were to go ahead and mint an
N F T or, or, uh, AKA 7 21 token, uh,

for your grammar picture, that asset
is gonna be represented in the wallet

that was created based on your identity.

You can go to Magic Link and you can
actually export that private key and

input that to your own meta mask or
to anything else making it portable

wallet that you can use in other places.

Um, the wallet is not managed
or owned by memory gardens.

It is managed by magically and, and
the underlying technology that they

use for passwordless authentication.

Kevin Horek: Got it.

Okay.

No, that, that makes a lot of sense.

So what happens if I want to, I find
a second photo of grandma in your

case from maybe the same event, and
I want to add it to that gallery.

Can I still do that?

How

Ben Peer: it's set up?

Yes.

So the galleries are not atomic, uh, okay.

For the gallery itself, it's
each object is atomic to itself.

So you can add more picture to your
portfolio as time progress, and you can

then add a display of those pictures
in your gallery as time progress.

Um, The pictures themselves
were never gonna go away.

So I, I'll give you an example
and I'm gonna take it to a

different, different path.

Sure.

Imagine you got married one time
and you created an album on memory

gardens for your first wedding.

Right.

Um, you then created the gallery to
show that, uh, those pictures, and you

created a really nice wedding experience.

Then you got divorced, and then
you got your second marriage.

Now you go to memory gardens and
you tell me, Hey Ben, I want to

delete all my old wedding pictures.

It, it cannot be done.

Those pictures are always gonna be there.

You can go to the old gallery and remove
them from the displaying the old gallery.

Yes, you can do that, but the
content is always gonna be there.

It's always gonna be accessible for you.

Um, the new wedding that you had,
you can now take a new pictures from

the new wedding, you can upload to
memory gardens and you can reuse

the old gallery and basically slap
those new pictures on the walls.

Or you can actually create a new gallery
and put those pictures of in the new wall.

Um, the, it, there is a, a, a
big philosophical, uh, debate

that we have inside the company.

Um, do we need to preserve
all memories, opportunity?

Do some memories deserve to
be forgotten and not be safe?

Opportunity?

The marriage cl uh, uh,
example is a classic one.

Sure.

The fact you got married to someone in
divorce, does that mean that you need to

raise the past and delete those picture?

Are those moments are part of
who you are and what brought

you to this point in life?

So do you want to destroy in Y p
O past or should you go ahead and

preserve your past for perpetuity?

Um, what happens, for
example, in other events?

Um, one of our consumer wanted to go
ahead and create a gallery that, uh,

com commemorate police brutality,
and they wanted to go ahead and

record all moments where police.

Acting outside of the standard and outside
the way that they should have behaved.

Right.

And we were looking at that, uh,
situation and gave it a lot of thought.

It's, should we do something
like that or should we don't.

Imagine a police officer that have been
walking in the field for 40 years and

then he got going to a riot or situation
that put him outside of the comfort.

And then all the psychological
pressure, uh, makes him act in a way

that he should not have been acting.

Should we go ahead and record that
moment for opportunity and set it in a

gallery that everybody can see the worst
day of his life in his worst behavior?

Is that something that
should be recorded forever?

Is that something that
should be there in 50?

Is that something that his kids and
grandkids should be able to see one

day or those are the type of memories
that we should fade with time.

And, and there is arguments
for both sides here.

Yeah, that's,

Kevin Horek: it's an interesting dilemma.

Yeah, that's, that's fair.

Um, yeah, so I, I'm curious though, with
galleries, like, how do I share it with,

Other members of my family, because if I
create something and then say I pass away,

how do I make sure that the galleries
that I've created, you know, live on

Ben Peer: that?

That's a great question.

So I'm gonna break it down
to a couple of, of, of areas.

Um, where we are today and where we're
gonna be in about a year is gonna

be very different on the offering.

Okay.

So right now, as we're speaking on March
8th, Galleries are not immutable forever.

Okay?

The galleries are just a representation
and a view for your content.

The content is told forever,
not the galleries how?

However, our intention is
that we are gonna make those

galleries also for perpetuity.

The thing is that whenever you do
that, the gallery will need to kind

of like be kind of like locked.

Right.

And then it's not gonna be
changeable at that point.

Right?

So you lose some elasticity and dynamic
when you do those type of things.

Um, in regard to sharing with the family.

Today you can generate a shareable
link from the application.

Okay?

And you can send that link to
anyone that you want, and the person

with the link can click on that.

It'll bring up the application, and
then it can navigate in the gallery

in a view mode to see all the content.

Um, this also gonna be updated in the next
six months because we see galleries as.

Cohabited, uh, for, for, for
the display of the content.

And what I mean by that, that if we
have a family, I don't want to create

a gallery and then invite my wife or my
kid just to view that I want to have the

gallery kind of like as a shared album
in iCloud right in, in, in, in photos.

I want everybody that is
delegated and approved to be

able to add stuff to the gallery.

And then you can create a, a living
space that everybody can contribute

and everybody basically have a
voice to go ahead and put what is

important for them on the wall.

Are we gonna have some mechanism
to make sure that there is no junk,

kind of like auto approval for some
people and for some other people.

You can go ahead and approve content
before it's actually gonna go on the

wall, allowing you to create a ga
somewhat of a living organism, uh, as

Kevin Horek: the gallery.

Yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense.

So I'm, I'm curious to know, like, because
obviously you've been in blockchain a

long time, and I think memory gardens
is the perfect example of when to use

blockchain and MFTs and, you know,
web three and all the other buzzwords

that are kicking around right now.

But what advice do you give to people?

When they're trying to decide,
because I've, I've been in meetings

before where it's just like, oh, we
need to add blockchain to our app.

It's like, well, do you
really need to do that?

Like, just because like there's pros
and cons to using any technology, right?

But it, it seems like when something
new comes out, people want to just

adopt it and sometimes it makes sense
and other times it doesn't make sense.

So do you maybe wanna talk about.

Or give advice around when somebody should
adopt a blockchain or, or kind of some of

the other new technologies that, you know,
you've been playing with for a number of

Ben Peer: years.

Sure.

So blockchain at the end of the day
is a decentralized ledger, right?

Right.

It's, it's a data ledger that is
permissionless and trustless, um,

that give you a lot of great function.

But does everything have
to be your blockchain?

A hundred percent know, I always tell
people that for every, uh, piece of

data that is written on chain, you
usually have at least 10 pieces of

content or data that is off chain.

Um, most website that are web free
projects, they still have a MongoDB for

users, user sessions, user data analytics.

Not everybody, everybody and
everything needs to be on.

Writing stuff to blockchain
because of the nature that is.

It's, it's spread and it's trustless.

That means that the data lives in
many places at once, and it's good

for some use cases, but it's also very
expensive and very costly in addition

to other, uh, technical, uh, limitations
like speed, uh, size, capacity, and,

and a lot of other small things.

So, Can you go ahead and use
your Bele car to move a house?

Yes, you can.

Should you?

Probably not right now.

If you just want to go ahead and
move your deed of your house from

point A to point B using your beetle
car, that that's a great use case.

But start moving furnitures.

Probably not.

And, and we've, the reason I'm taking
that bit example, because that's the

size of a block in, in most blockchains,
you can't put too much into that.

And every time you have to to drive, you
have to pay tall, you have to pay gas.

It's not cheap.

Right?

So are there other alternatives?

Prob, possibly.

Yes.

So you need to really think about, do my
project, need a decentralized trustless.

If the answer is yes,
then okay, let's start.

Look at blockchain.

And even when you look at blockchain,
there are many other options out there.

People are very focused on public projects
like Ethereum and Polygon, Solana,

you name it, all the layer ones, twos.

But there are a lot of private blockchain.

Our banks and other big
organizations are using Quo.

They're using Hyperledger.

You don't need to have a public
blockchain in order to use, uh,

decent, central alleged technologies.

And I think a lot of the
people don't realize that.

Um, in my mind, it's only gonna be a
matter of time until Amazon and all the

other other companies are going to use
blockchain for some of the components.

But those not gonna be public blockchain.

They're gonna be private.

I think the best use case I saw
for blockchain being used is by,

uh, general Electric Avionics.

They have the own private blockchain
that they use to track all the

aircraft parts that they use, going
from the shop, uh, to the mechanic,

uh, to the field, um, manufacturer.

All the chain of supply is fully tracked
by blockchain, allowing them to know

exactly who touched the part where.

And there is no way that this,
this ledger can be a mess with.

It'll always be true and honest.

So if something, God forbid
happened, uh, the traceability and

the investigation on where the path
was, who made it, and all those

informations will always gonna be there.

Kevin Horek: Yeah.

Interesting.

That is actually a really good use case.

Very cool.

So I, I'm curious, where do you take.

Memory gardens from here.

Like, you don't have to like, talk about
anything that you're, you don't wanna

talk about, but it, it, there's so much
possibility that you could, you could

go with this and, you know, you could
add in maybe some AI and some machine

learning around some of this stuff.

Like where do you see the industry
and kind of Web three and blockchain

going and how does that relate to
what you're doing at Memory Garden?

Ben Peer: So the question with the AA
is a good question and I can see memory

gardens integrating ai, um, to possibly
talk to loved ones who passed away.

Sure.

Um, will memory gardens be the one who
makes that product or will we partner with

someone else or integrate it as an S sdk?

Um, that's to be determined.

Okay.

You can't do everything
and be good at everything.

Hundred percent.

Uh, sometimes you have to like
compliment your product with

partnerships and, and other add-ons.

So possibly the AI of a lab, one who
passed away, uh, will probably gonna be

argumented by other technologies in other
companies that are stronger in that area.

Makes sense.

Uh, for us, for memory gardens, I
see the future, um, as being the

gateway to decentralized storage.

I would like us to disrupt the
industry and to allow every, every

person in the world access to
permanent storage on blockchain.

Very similar to how Dropbox.

Disrupt the industry by allowing
consumer to access enterprise

grade cloud-based storage.

Cause cloud-based storage was there.

What Dropbox came in and did, they
stayed on top of S S3 buckets in AWS

and made it super simple that every
person can upload files, can show

files, but on the backend, those files
are now stored on the AWS system.

Right?

We wanna do something very similar,
but using the decentralized storage.

Yeah,

Kevin Horek: that makes sense.

Interesting.

So I'm curious, because this
is still like the space is

still new for a lot of people.

Is there any other advice you
would give entrepreneurs looking

to build something in web three
that, is it similar to web two?

Is it different?

I get these are just kind of buzzwords,
but I think getting advice from

people that have been doing this
for a long time is actually really.

Ben Peer: So I think the real
question one should ask himself

is who is the target customer?

Yeah.

And what's the ideal consumer persona
that you are building to, right.

If you are building to someone that
is a web free user slash web free

dig, um, What you build and how your
build is gonna be very different if

you are building it for the consumer.

That is a not web free consumer.

Right?

And if it's a web free consumer, you
can go ahead and have the wallet,

the approvals, all the traditional
stuff that we already know.

You can have a really crappy user
interface and user experience

because us the insurance
don't really care about that.

We see a new shining toy and we
immediately try to play with that even

though it looks sometimes, uh, weird and,
and doesn't play the way you expected.

We still like to try that because,
uh, we, we are, uh, entrepreneurs

and, and we are people who like
to try and vet new technology.

When you're talking about the
traditional customer, it's the,

uh, the, the opposite of that.

Don't gimme me new stuff.

Don't move my cheese.

Make it as simple as possible.

Don't make me learn new things.

Make it work the simplest way possible.

So very different core mentalities
on building the product and how

you're building it based on who
is going to use the product.

Kevin Horek: Yeah.

No, I, I think that's
actually really good advice.

So, I'm curious, I wanna dive a
little bit deeper into memory gardens.

You just launched a new website.

You just launched a new mobile app.

So walk people through, do they
have to do everything online?

Do they have to do everything on the
mobile app or can they do it uh, in both

Ben Peer: places?

So right now everything
is all for the mobile app.

Okay.

Uh, last year we did
have a web application.

Okay.

Uh, but we decided to go ahead and move
to a full blown mobile application.

One of the reasons is that the,
uh, system requirements and the

amount of data that we need to.

Present to the user.

Using the galleries do not behave
very well in browsers that have

a very low RAM allocation, right?

And when you're talking about mobile
devices, that becomes a point of friction.

So moving to a full-blown app
so we can have access to more

memory and better memory.

Utiliz uh, organization
was a key point for us.

So today only, uh,
mobile app is available.

Our customers need to go ahead and
download their mobile application.

Um, they then need to go ahead
and put their email address.

Once they're put in the email
address, they're gonna get an

email with authorization token.

They need to click on that, uh,
button in the email, go back to the

application, and at that point they
are signed up to memory gardens.

And they're part of our premium,
uh, uh, uh, tier, uh, where they're

gonna get the first 100 megabyte
for free, plus one free gallery.

And every month they're gonna get another
five megabyte added to the quarter.

So they can use that to write, they
can always choose to pay us, and then

they're gonna get anywhere between a
hundred to one gig of data every month.

The key point to understand that
our subscription service is for new.

And that means that if you get,
for example, a hundred mega every

month, that means that every month
you can write a hundred megabyte

of new data, what you wrote.

You never have to pay for that again.

Even if I close memory gardens
or something happens, your data

is always going to be there.

It's been paid for for 200 years.

It's stolen our wave, and no one
can take it away from you very.

Kevin Horek: Makes sense.

So I, I'm curious then, how
did you guys raise money?

Are you self-funding?

Walk us through that

Ben Peer: self-funding at the moment.

Okay.

Um, I'm bootstrapping the
company since, uh, 2022.

We are doing our seed round right
now, trying to raise some, uh, funds

in order to expand on the application
and the offering, uh, around the

galleries, uh, including some of
the staff that I, I mentioned.

Kevin Horek: Makes, makes sense.

But, uh, we're kind of coming to
the end of the show, so how about we

close with mentioning where people
can get more information about

yourself, memory gardens, the apps,
and anything else you wanna mention?

Ben Peer: Yeah, so check us out.

Memory gardens.xyz.

This is our website.

Um, we have the links for the
application download, um, in the website.

At the moment, the iOS
is still in test flight.

We expect the full launch for the iOS
will be available by the end of this

month, but it's still available for
consumer to try it to buy a test flight.

Android is already on the Play
store, so you guys can go ahead

and grab that and give it a try.

We are looking for any type of feedback.

So if any of the users that try
our app have anything to say,

good, bad, please hit us up.

hello@memorygardens.xyz.

We would love to hear
what you have to say.

Kevin Horek: Perfect, Ben.

Well I really appreciate you taking the
time outta your day to be on the show and

I look forward to keeping in touch with
you and have a good rest of your day, man.

Ben Peer: Thank you, Kevin.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Okay, bye.