On this week’s Silicon Valley Insider (#SVIN), Keith Koo’s guest is serial entrepreneur Dirk Lueth, Co-Founder of Upland a Monopoly-like mobile game built on blockchain that connects virtual worlds (called metaverses) to their corresponding physical world addresses.

Dirk explains how in Upland, a game powered by blockchain, the player doesn’t need to know anything about cryptocurrency or crypto wallets to play and interact with the game. The app is available on IOS and Android platforms.

During the show you will find out:

• What does Monopoly and the Netflix show “Stranger Things” have to do with the creation of Upland?
• The similarities and differences between gaming concepts like Minecraft, Fortnite and Second Life (and how Upland has a strategic partnership with Second Life in order to provide “fiat out” services for extracting the value of cryptocurrency from the Upland metaverse.
• Want to try the game? Sign up using this link to get a sign-up bonus of 6,000 UPX (Upland’s in-app currency a ~$6.00 USD value) https://discover.upland.me/siliconvalleyinsider

On this week’s Cyber-Tip Keith discusses the recently announced Robinhood trading platform’s hack that affected over 2,000 people and how their two-factor authentication was also being compromised.

On the Pivot, Dirk and Keith discuss what the future may look like when virtual worlds and physical worlds further blend together. Dirk envisions a future that incorporates our virtual lives with our real lives.

More about Dirk Lueth

Dirk is a serial entrepreneur and an early adopter of Blockchain and related technologies, based in Silicon Valley. He co-founded European and US-based companies in the FinTech and digital media spaces, including the Financial Times Deutschland and Forbatec, which has been acquired by SunGard (today NYSE:FIS). Dirk mentored over 30 startups through his work at the German and Swiss startup accelerators in Silicon Valley and is a frequent speaker/panelist about Blockchain and platform economics. He has studied Business Administration in Frankfurt and Paris and received a Ph.D. from the European Business School in Germany where he wrote his doctoral thesis about private and state-controlled currencies.

More about Upland.

Upland (https://upland.me/) is a metaverse that combines real and virtual worlds, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade virtual properties that are mapped to actual addresses. Upland follows the principles of an open market economy, using blockchain technology to ensure true ownership of digital assets. Available on iOS, Android, and desktop devices, Upland is a top-five gaming Dapp according to DappRadar.

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