Hello Adam!
Hello there, how are you?
Good thanks, my name’s Natassja from Diversity in Blockchain and as you know, we’re doing a series of content in order to educate people and open up the channels of networking. The last guest left a question for you! How do you keep yourself safe online with regard to identity/scams/data?
Honest to goodness, I thought about that recently. I thought, That is going to be the future of Web3. I have not been working on that problem, but I know some companies that are! What you need to do, and this is very, very broad, you could have your own NFT that you can use to control all of your data and put it all in one place. You can use it to prove you’re the person that’s on a guestlist to a party, you can use it to show your doctor that this is your actual health data. A lot of people from Philly have been working on problems like that. I do think that the future of Web3 is going to be about identity protection. You own your identity and nobody else can take it from you. I think that is where Web3 is going to be the most valuable in 5-10 years, probably 3-5 years!
With the rate that things change!
Right! You know, it’s one of the biggest value-adds that Blockchain can provide to society. Obviously, I care about solving crime with Blockchain technology but I do think that’s one of the big ones.
Alright, so tell me a bit more about this solving crime then. Where’s your space in the Web3 space?
OK, so I use Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) — Blockchain — to collect live audio, video, and metadata of crimes in real-time, and in real-time stream them to a public Blockchain anonymously with a cryptographic intellectual property that we created, so that way, nobody can fake the data, not ex-presidents, current presidents, none of them in the EU or Jeff Bezos. If there is a use case for information that can never, ever, ever be corrupted, why don’t we use it for violence and prosecution? That’s where I got into the Blockchain space.
How would it actually work, would you download an App, you witness something happening, and you press record?
Pretty much, that’s how average citizens like you and I would interact with it. You download an App, that’s your entrance into this ecosystem, you push a button when you’re in danger or you witness a violent crime, and you can also use a secret safe word that only you know — like Angry Hippos in Alaska — hope my phone isn’t around here so it doesn’t start sending! Something you would never say in public but you now use to keep yourself safe and it starts that live stream of audio-video to the Blockchain while calling 112 — I know you’re in Spain — or 911 here in America. And then alerting your loved ones, your friends, and your family with the live audio, video, and location.
I know I sent you a list of the standardized questions but I’m already going off-piste.
What? You sent me a list?
Imagine, I just saw on the news a couple of days ago here, a neighbor had recorded an assault of a woman, and I’m wondering how the data privacy there plays out? Or does that go out of the window when you’re committing a crime?
It does go out the window when you’re committing a crime. I only know American laws, I don’t know certain privacy laws in the EU. We are GDPR compliant, we can be GDPR compliant with our technology because we stream this data anonymously. I can get into the technical aspects of that but it’s a little more boring. So In America, if a crime is being committed, even in that person’s home, you can record data automatically. There is a 1976 Wiretap law for phones in America, so there are four states in America that still have this law, but if there’s a crime happening it’s irrelevant. You can record data in public even if there is no crime being committed, so there is no problem with privacy in that case.
How did this idea come about? Your idea?
Oh yeah, it was my idea. Um, after I organized a voter registration event in Harrisburg, PA, the capital of Pennsylvania, I was attacked when I left. Somebody crushed the back of my skull with a cinder block, robbed me, and then tried to threaten my friend with rape. I was in a coma for a while. A year after the attack, they brought the guy to trial, he was covered in my blood, had my money in his pocket, and was picked up by police right away. My friend testified, I remember nothing because I was in a coma. With all that evidence, the blood, and my friend’s testimony, he was acquitted by a jury. At that moment, I knew I was never going to let that happen to someone else, and that’s why I use Blockchain. Because I’m only trying to solve a problem and it’s a f****** perfect use case.
Definitely. Do you have a technical background to be able to develop all of this or are you putting in the ideas to a group?
It’s an idea and I brought together a lot of smart people. Before I was attacked I was an actor, out in the Bay Area. After the attack, I was in a coma and I have a disability from the day I was attacked. And now I just focus on running this business. I brought on my co-founder, and my advisors, we’re very close friends, with like 20 years of experience in technology, together we are building a better world.
Is it available now then? Can somebody download this already?
It’s a platform for 911 operators etc, but it’s an App for how you and I distribute that data to people we want it to go to. We’re in Beta right now, so you can download it! You can go to www.zeersafe.com, and you can download the beta and provide feedback to us. Yes! Please don’t use it right now if you’re experiencing a dangerous situation, but you can use it to record your boss being an a******, or something like that. That stuff will work, but right now, calling 911 is not enabled, we just call the test number 933. But I would really appreciate feedback so we can build a better product because we are going to market right now.
What’s your timeline then? Where do expect to be with it and when?
Hopefully, before the end of next month, we will have pilots running in universities. Our go-to-market strategy is in universities because much like 112 over in the EU, we have gotten a sandbox from the EENA, which is the department that’s developing and executing NG112 in the EU. They’ve given us a sandbox and it worked perfectly but now we just need the political will to distribute it to the population. It’s the same thing here in the US. There is a US$15 billion infrastructure pipeline from the federal government to build NG911 capabilities for the call-takers. But they don’t have that technology yet. We built the technology in preparation for that US$15 billion, but you know who can use it right now, is universities. All we have to do — I mean there’s a bit more to it than this — but is substitute 911 with the emergency call number for your university.
You’re going from a party back to your dorm, and then somebody starts following you, and you don’t feel comfortable. Activate Zeer, your campus security officers can see where you are and can see the live video, and if you need help, they’ll come and help you. This is what 911 and 112 are going to look like but there’s a lot of money that needs to be distributed and we need to pass the laws to make it happen. It’s coming, but we’re just a little ahead of the curve.
You did say you have a disability from the attack, do you think that held you back from doing more?
It’s made it difficult some days. I have memory issues and brain damage from the attack. But what I have learned is that people with disabilities have had to live with their disability for some time, and we always find a way. If you are committed to solving a problem you find a way. My life has been completely upended, and I've had to adjust everything I do, every day. Some people were born with their disabilities. They’ve learned over the years how to live with it. We are already problem solvers! That’s my experience. I’m always adapting. Just recently I came up with a solution for my memory problems and I'm testing it out.
Maybe outside of crime and your particular solution, where do you see the future of this technology as a whole? Other ideas in the pipeline?
Oh yeah, lots of ideas in the pipeline sister! We received an SBIR Phase 1 contract from the United States Air Force last year. The same IP that we developed to record crime and nobody can dispute the data, can be used to record war crimes, to record satellite imagery of data in warzones, it can be used to record interviews with journalists, you can prove that it was never deep faked!
Oh, like even for fake news? Certainly insightful. What do you wish you knew sooner and some of the barriers there?
You did tell me that one in advance and I kind of already answered it, for me, it’s adjusting to my disability day after day. I get better at it, but that’s the biggest thing for me because if I grow, my company grows. Besides that, right now it’s the market entry point. And with the market entry point comes the preseed investment. Stacks Ventures has been amazing. I could talk all day about the Stacks Community, but they are the lead investor for our preseed round, but that was committed before the market lost trillions of dollars. That’s made it difficult in some ways but that’s not going to stop me. The two barriers right now are that looking at the market, we need the market entry point we think we have some. And then and a preseed raise. Those are our biggest barriers right now. We have our team, working for on average 200$ per month. But we believe in what we do and it’s more important than any of us. Together we can succeed. We know that this mission is so much bigger than us.
It’s a fantastic initiative, when I started reading about it and chatting to you I just wanted to learn more. Do you have another job to keep you going at the moment?
Hell no! Nobody will hire me! I’m working by myself for 30 years. I’ve always had my own side hustle, I live by side hustles.
I have another question that isn’t on the list. Sorry I really have thrown you in at the deep end today! Where did the name Zeer come from?
Interesting question! I was going to name it something more like My Life, My Story. You can’t take away from me what really happened. But my very close friend, Bob Cohen, who helped invent the name Swiffer in the 90s, he’s a positioning expert, and he said Zeer will be whatever you make it be. What I do in my life is surround myself with genius people, and then usually defer to them if they have a suggestion. So I was OK, Bob!
Does it mean anything?
It did not when we thought of it but later, I researched it. It can be somebody’s name, in Middle Eastern areas particularly, but it probably goes back to it was an Asian miner refrigeration technique from the 12th or 13th century. Using evaporation to cool things within an enclosed space. It’s still used today. It’s called a Zeer pot!
I like it, it sticks with you. Anything else you’d like to share today?
I do have some insights into diversity. Well, this is a side note. Sexual assault is a problem that we can help mitigate more quickly than anything. After the guy was acquitted, I knew my life had changed, and over the next month or so I was like Where is he-said-she-said a problem? Sexual assault. Still prevalent, even after the #MeToo movement. Anything that’s captured on this, you can’t fake it. So that’s one of the places we can do a lot of good.
Now, I believe that one of the most important things for an entrepreneur or anyone is just to keep learning. I also think it’s important that we remember as a leader that everyone deserves the right to meaningful work. If you shut doors on certain cultures, genders, sexualities, or anything else, you really are shutting doors to your future ROI. It’s been proven again and again and again that the more diverse your team is, the more money you make.
We’re looking into that at the moment as well, better ROI is well-documented but there may be more advantages for diverse companies. Did you have anything else to add?
I will end with this because it’s important to me. Lead with your heart. Whatever you do in life, do it from your heart. And I think you’ll find the right path if you do.
Thank you. The last thing I’m going to get you to do is to leave a question for our next guest!
OK, I don’t know who your next guest is…
… Me neither.
What is the most significant social impact solution using Blockchain technology right now? I’m sure there are a lot, but I don’t always see them on the market.
It’s going to be interesting to see! I will let you know what our next guest says!
My follow-up to that is, If there isn’t something on the market like that what would you like to see from a social impact perspective?
Thank you for coming on!