Manifesto & What it means to hold an iFM POAP (Secret Badge)
Interchain.FM POAP Holder’s Guide to the Galaxy
What Interchain.FM is
Interchain.FM (iFM for short) is a Joe Rogen Experience style free-form podcast operating as the Cosmos Radio Station which has been running since 2019. It serves as a portal which indiscriminately shares (super) early information directly from builders to retail listeners, providing gems of data that the broader crypto market doesn’t hear about until much later in the projects’ roadmaps. In the information age, the only advantage one player has over another is access to better information and earlier on. iFM can be used as a resource for those audiences who are seeking alpha, thus leverage, in the information asymmetry game.
Moreover, to the casual observer just speculating on the industry where there are thousands of potential tokens to evaluate, it’s hard to decouple marketed headlines from fundamentals that are based on reality. This podcast aims to help the average listener form improved frameworks for DYOR and better understanding the mechanics underneath the hood of the projects we bring on.
Who Chjango Unchained is
I’m the host to the iFM podcast who curates a set of guests to talk to so as to achieve three goals: 1) to help you get acquainted with the thinkers behind a project in a 1-hour long interview so you can skip reading the whitepaper, 2) to distill a project’s concept down into high-level laymen’s terms and break down the exact mechanisms driving it, and 3) to share this information freely to anyone who’s diligent enough to be paying attention.
I was part of the early team in Tendermint, working as a core contributor who started building the Cosmos community since 2017 (I coined the term of endearment ‘Cosmonaut’ to refer to the community), which is why I have deep knowledge in this particular ecosystem. I used to be a long-form writer who would distill technical concepts into laymen’s in blog post form (see Casper vs. Tendermint, which is still evergreen to this day). But in the modern day of competing for attention in a TikTok-dominated ADHD-inducing online environment, I knew that writing blog posts would no longer scale and I had to adapt. So I turned to podcasting, switching my medium of communication from written to audio so that my audience would no longer need to sit down and read but could multi-task and listen.
How it all started
In 2019, before anyone besides a few hundred people on telegram was excited about Cosmos, a few team members and I saw that there was a gap that wasn’t filled, needing to disclose all the exciting things that were brewing in Cosmos. I initiated a podcast with my then co-host, Christopher Goes (former IBC core dev), to fill that demand.
Today, it’s something I do part-time on the side of my full-time work (advising and helping to bootstrap new Cosmos chains).
Where it’s going
Now that it’s years past Cosmos Hub’s mainnet launch and IBC SZN v1, many Cosmonauts have spun up podcasts themselves to educate people about Cosmos! There’s Cryptocito who covers much of the high-level information about airdrops and tokenomics, Liam Connor who gives you step-by-step tutorials to claim airdrops, and so much more that has come out of the woodwork — a testament to the strong gravitational pull that Cosmos now has. The synergy with all the other podcasts that Interchain.FM continues to fill is the niche of the nitty gritty technical deep dive that doesn’t go so deep as to bore you to sleep—but just deep enough.
Content aside, our plans, which will be unfolding in the next several years, is to get a physical studio where we will fly in guests for in-person interviews like JRE and Timcast IRL.
What’s special about iFM POAPs (Secret Badges)?
Given the timing and macro-bear environment that we are in now, if you’re reading this and are a listener of iFM, chances are, you’re in the cryptosphere for any of these reasons: a) to build something with the tech, b) to be a part of something bigger, e.g. the movement, c) the intellectual curiosity.
That said, when you hold an iFM 2022 POAP, or Secret Badge, you’re self-identifying as one of our earliest listeners of the show (while my channel is still under 1000 subs). Thereby, it’s a badge that of a true believer and excellent alpha seekooooor. Therefore, I want to hang out with people like you, an integral player in this core community of builders who are aligned with a grand, singular vision: to use blockchain tech and cryptography to subvert the power centers of our current institutions. You’re not just capable of envisioning a parallel economy to that of the old guard but can build solutions that bring others into said economy. By being an iFM POAP holder, you’re signaling that you’re part of this community who share similar values.
Kevin Smith Cosmos Q&A Livestream Secret Badge
The first Secret Badge that we are launching is one that proves you’ve attended the Kevin Smith Cosmos Q&A livestream:
During the livestream, we shared a Google Form which will be used to get you onto a whitelist. You’ll need to know the “secret password” which has been given out during the livestream (hint: somewhere between the 1 and 2 hour mark). Once on the whitelist, you’ll be able to mint this Secret Badge on Secret Network marketplace, Stashh. It will cost a smol amount of $sSCRT + gas fees to mint.
Yes but what do I get for being a Secret Badge holder?
If you hold any iFM Secret Badges launched in 2022, it makes you an OG Badge holder. OG Badges get access to benefits like:
- Early-bird access to most major events our team will organize in the future (we’ve organized OsmoCon0, Cosmos mainnet launch party, Osmosis birthday party, Cosmos Mainnet NYC party)
- Invitations to be part of the action and come onstage at our next livestreams hosting Hollywood public figures and get a chance to speak to iFM’s celebrity guests
- Get whitelisted to claim (for free) or mint (at mint price) as yet unreleased Cosmos NFT collections that we’re working closely with teams to launch (coming later this year)
- (FAR into the future) iFM may (or may not) be working with certain Cosmos-based Metaverse games to give OG Secret Badge holders limited edition iFM space merch
Onwards,
Your Friendly Fellow Cosmonaut
