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Gemini Host
Welcome to the Crypto 101 podcast presented by Gemini, your bridge to the future of money.
Bryce (Co-host)
All right, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Crypto 101 podcast. I am super pumped for our guest in our conversation today. You guys know me. I'm your co host, Bryce. As always, joined by my notorious compadre across the country, staying dry. Hurricane season in Florida, Brendan, it's not blowing you away?
Brendan (Co-host)
Nah, can't blow me away. I'm here to stay.
Bryce (Co-host)
You were forged in the gales of hurricanes over there, so nothing scares you.
Brendan (Co-host)
I welcome them. I've been through a crypto bear market. A hurricane can't hurt me.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, no, it's crazy. I'm in. I'm over in Cali and, you know, we get earthquakes and so, you know, a couple of weeks ago, there was a big earthquake that my wife and I felt. It was like the first time, like we would. We're together, like feeling the same earthquake. And I don't know, maybe it was just the price of bitcoin breaking out to new all time highs or causing that, but no, there's. There's a lot of crazy stuff going on in this world. And. And Charlie, you are joining us. You're the CEO and founder of Permission, and you guys are on the cutting edge to this earthquake, this explosion of AI and data. And I think it's just incredible what you guys are building. So I'm very happy that you're on the show. And how are you doing, Charlie?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
I'm fantastic. And thank you so much for having me as your guest.
Bryce (Co-host)
Absolutely. Look, you guys are building some really incredible stuff in the crypto and AI space, but let's just backtrack and get our audience acquainted with who they're listening to. So, Mr. Charlie Silver, tell us all about how you kind of broke into the crypto industry and what you were working on before that and kind of why crypto was the great kind of your magnum opus, if you will.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, well, I've been around for several decades, you know, in tech and this space. So I'll give you the long story. Starting out, I've been an entrepreneur for several decades. And in the early dot com period, I built a company called RealAge. RealAge. For people that are over 40 or 50. They'll recognize it because we were one of the leading health media companies. And we had this test called the real age test that told you how healthy you were in this metric called real age, your biological age versus your chronological age. But at the end of the day, we collected hundreds of data points and then we would ask permission to the individual if they would like to receive more information about how their real age can be younger. And for people who opted in and said yes, which was about 60% of the audience, the response rate wasn't a little better, it wasn't 5 times better, but it was over 10x better when somebody grants permission to use their data to communicate with them. Well, we went on to lead health media. We were one of the largest health media organizations. We had 60 million users and I ended up selling the company to hearst for over $100 million. This goes back over 12 years ago. But what it led to was this notion of data has tremendous value and when you ask permission, you get people's cooperation and engagement better than anything before. So that sets up the business model. But in terms of my interest in crypto, it goes back decades because my first job out of college, I worked in the US Congress. I was a Senate and a Hill staffer for several years. When you're on the inside in Washington, you see what the corruption and you understand the money printing enterprise. You understand how the Fed and the US Government work together in this Ponzi scheme that you know is unsustainable. So when I first read the white paper of Satoshi Nakamoto, I go, well, absolutely. We need a new form of value that the, the current value system created by the Federal Reserve and in concert with the government is unsustainable. So that's how I got excited about crypto.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, it's so crazy just to me, like, because crypto embodies like so many different things, like all mashed up into one. Like you said, sort of that countercultural movement against sort of government overreach and government control. It's like it's got that, but it's also got like the tech bros really excited, you know, because it's got, you know, the most cutting edge sort of developers. You know, it's got the bankers over excited over the guys like Tom Lee, the private equity analysts, like the public market analyst. Like all everybody's excited about crypto and blockchain because it really is the perfect marriage of tech and value. And I think you share this like everything's going to be on chain, whether it's stocks and bonds and commodities or all of your data, it's going to be on chain. It's going to be fully transparent and audible to those that you're able to grant permission to. And so I really want to break down for our audience what permission IO is because, you know, in the world of chat, GPT and, you know, perplexity and all these different applications, you're, you, you know, you're using these things and they're kind of taking a lot of data. They know about you. And I don't know. I mean, we opted in because we agreed to the terms of service, but we're not getting compensated for that. We're, we're literally paying, you know, ChatGPT or whatever, and then they're taking our data, they're marketing to us, and all that kind of stuff. So break it down for us. What's going on? With permission.
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Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
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Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, Permission and it's interesting we launched this permission IO but we're actually in the middle. In the next two weeks, we've changed our domain to Permission AI because AI is this transformative tech that since the start of the dot com era, since the start of the Internet, this is the first fundamental change and AI is that transformative change. But at the end of the day, permission was founded with one principle, that data has value and that individuals should receive that value instead of all of the publishers and all the major platforms that capture your data and then they're the ones that monetize it and individuals don't get a piece of that action. And so permission, everything that we do from the development of our crypto ask, everything that we do is focused on allowing individuals to finally receive monetary value for their data and control who gets to use it.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, and it's a big idea and I feel like at the end of the day it's going to be the advertisers that are really going to be excited about getting this data. Is that really who's using it? How does this kind of change the landscape of digital advertising sort of in the, in the context of, of this AI explosion?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, there's several components to it and it will happen in stages. Ultimately, the world of digital advertising is going to become an agent to agent experience, meaning AI agents, which are just pieces of software to conduct tasks, is going to dominate the Internet. Everybody is going to have a personal agent and you can get the permission agent at permission I go and get your personal agent, the permission agent and that businesses are going to all have agents. So take any company seeking customers. What they do today is they advertise programmatically on the Internet, but, but very soon they're going to have agents seeking those customers and they're going to connect to individuals agents and they're going to make a deal. Our, our logo is a handshake and that and, and any business agent who wants to connect with an individual, their agents are going to do it and they're going to make a deal. And that's where value is exchanged. That's where the business agent is going to ask permission and offer real value in exchange for data and engagement. So that's the future and it's coming very, very, very fast.
Brendan (Co-host)
So I want to make sure that I understand this correctly because I want the audience to truly kind of put themselves in our shoes here and make sure that they're following along. But this agent to agent protocol, or this A2A protocol, is the idea that we all as individuals are going to have a form of AI through agents representing us, and then these companies are going to have agents on their end. And what we're going to get to is a point where say my AI agent can interact with some sort of like retail or institutional agent and then they can kind of go back and forth. Is that kind of what we're getting at here?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Absolutely. And it's coming so fast. The ada, a protocol developed by Google, is now an open source project and it's totally designed to work with any agent. I mean, whether it's a chatgpt, anthropic perplexity, you know, grok, any agent built on any platform will work in the A to A environment.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, it's, it's kind of crazy. Just like on that point, like. So I want to know if I'm listening to this right and understanding this right, you're going to have companies that have these AI agents that are going to go out and seek sort of my AI agent, if you will. So like I'm going to have like no longer like a travel agent or I don't know, my American Express booking agent or like all that kind of stuff. But it's all going to be like these little AI bots that are just on my behalf that I'm commissioning.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Absolutely. I mean, instead of, okay, so the world of the Internet today, you know, people typically start with a search. You know, go to Google and search for a hotel or airline, you know, or other. But very soon, and it's happening faster than we can imagine, is you're going to have your own AI agent that says, hey, find me a boutique hotel in New York City, you know, what's the best deal? And that agent will execute that task. And that goes for shopping, travel, you know, just information, requests, anything that you go online for. Instead of starting with a Google search, you'll start with your AI agent.
Brendan (Co-host)
And you know, this makes sense. And maybe it creeps some people out that are like, oh, this sounds like some sort of futuristic AI from a movie or something. But you know, this stuff really is becoming a reality. And I think it makes the most sense because who is going to know you better and who is going to know more of what you want? Is it going to be this travel advisor that you speak with for 15 minutes over the phone? Is it going to be someone like that that you outsource, or is it going to be this artificial intelligence that you interact with on a daily basis? And I know that for a lot of the listeners, you, you all can relate. There's probably things that you all have told ChatGPT or Grok or some of these AIs that you haven't even told, like your family members about. And so I know that you know, these AI systems can know people better than I think a lot of their friends and family already know them. So what makes more sense, right, is it this bot and everything that you put into it, you talked about it reserving a hotel or going on vacation, or we can think about all the different use cases. Who, who is going to know exactly what you like? And then you go back to it and you say, well, it remembers that you like this kind of food, maybe you don't like trains, maybe you like to take a car as transportation. And it's able to learn from everything that you put into it to optimize it towards your exact experience. And so my kind of wraparound point for this is just, it seems like that's the next logical step, right? Because almost nothing is going to know you better than these things and they're able to learn from what you tell it.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Brandon, you nailed it. That's exactly right. The permission agent, and there'll be lots of other agents, personal agents out there, but it's going to connect to your social media, it can connect to your financial records, it can connect to your health information. It's going to know you better than you know yourself. And that's exactly right. It's going to be able to work on your behalf to do whatever you needed to do. And. But AI is going to finally be the place where individual data is going to be compensated for that. You know, the Internet, for the first 25 years, nobody got paid for data except for publishers and platforms that collected it. Now individuals are finally going to get paid for their data, and it's worth a lot. It's worth a lot. I mean, could be thousands of dollars a year.
Bryce (Co-host)
For individuals and into their pockets and essentially.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Exactly, exactly. It's a real asset. I mean, data is, you know, I hate to use this cliche, but it's true. It's oil. It's the oil of the information economy. And instead of big platforms just taking your oil without compensation, AI is finally the use case that's going to enable individuals to really receive the value for their data.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, no, it's, it's super interesting and like kind of to Brendan's point and to your point, like just about all this data, they're going to know you so well, they're going to be able to serve you with the best ads and then serve you with the best experiences in real life. But they know so much about you and like, people get scared about that. They're like, well, if they're going to know all this stuff, I'm not even going to talk to them. You know, Google already knows so much about us from our tracking history and all that kind of stuff. But now you're saying Google's AI is going to know my heart, my soul, my, you know, my every wish and desire to. So people might just be repelled against that. How does permission kind of alleviate maybe that worry?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, once you have the permission agent, you're in control. You own your.
Bryce (Co-host)
So permission. You, you can't go and look Bryce Paul, what does he really think about? You know, certain sensitive things. You can't, like Charlie, you and your team can't go look at my permission chats, is that right? Or can you?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
No, you've only allow the individuals in control. You decide who gets to use and see the data. You decide and the individual decides and they're going to decide. It's a commercial arrangement that if you want Nike to have your data, you're, you're like, that's your decision and you're going to make that decision based on what they're willing to compensate you for it. I mean, if you're shopping for a car, a credit card, a mortgage, you know, insurance, home improvement, just about any commercial engagement that you're looking for your data is worth tremendous amounts. And understand that there are hundreds and thousands of companies capturing that data and then reselling it and they're the ones getting paid $500 a record, a thousand dollars. If you're looking for a mortgage that's worth a couple thousand dollars, I mean people capture that and then they sell it and you don't get anything now.
Bryce (Co-host)
No, it's, it's incredible. And like that, that's really good context for us. And you know, one of the recent things I saw, I think it was, you know, earlier this week Sometime and chat GPT or OpenAI, they kind of came out with this partnership with Spotify or not Spotify, Shopify and Stripe and they're, they're basically, you know, I kind of wanted to pull from what they were saying. They said meet customers where they are. Conversations between chatbots are the new storefront. The next era of commerce is here. So I want to get your take on all this. Maybe where would permission kind of sit in the stack? Would it kind of sit in like. Or would you guys basically be able to do something similar, have Spotify or Shopify and Etsy and different stores kind of directly integrated into permission?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, that's not our focus. Our focus is do you have the best digital twin or mini Me? Okay. The permission agent represents you as an individual, has all of your information, all of your data, and then you talk to it and you ask it to execute tasks. Now, if you play golf and you're looking for new golf equipment, you know, Nike or Callaway or Titleist, they're going to have their agents with, looking for people and looking for agents that are seeking out golf information. And they're going to connect. And that's when the exchange happens. The value exchange data in exchange for a reward. And now if you accept and you say call away, you can have your my information. You're going to be very open to receiving messages, whether it's email, other advertisements. And what's exciting too, is that crypto wallets, in my view, are going to become the new inbox. Okay? That's where Callaway is going to send you a message and communicate with you in your wallet. And I really believe, and I've believed this for years and I still believe it, that that crypto wallets will become the new inbox. And that's how businesses will communicate. Here's some crypto and here's a message and let's continue the conversation.
Brendan (Co-host)
You know, when it comes to this kind of thing, I have two questions in regards to it. Number one, is it possible to opt in at one point and then opt out at a later point? And number two, is it possible to just opt into certain things and not into others? Kind of like when you go to a new website and they want to collect your cookies and there's like a little button where you can like check certain boxes and uncheck others if you want to. Does this kind of work like that?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Absolutely. You're in control. If you opt in to a certain company and you're done with them, you can opt out. Absolutely. And you're in total control. You can opt in and opt out. You can totally decide who gets to see your data. Now it's interesting that you brought up cookies because cookies are kind of the biggest deception in the world.
Bryce (Co-host)
They sound so good and easy and tasty, but they're so nefarious.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Right, Exactly. You click on I accept cookies. What you've basically said is you can put a text file on my browser and track me everywhere. And then that publisher sells that data.
Brendan (Co-host)
Wow.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
They sell it. It's one of the biggest revenue streams of publishers online is selling their cookie consent data. And they sell it not once, twice, but dozens and dozens of times. And there are lots of buyers and don't accept third party cookies. Don't accept them because that just enables a publisher to track you and then sell your data and you don't get squat.
Brendan (Co-host)
It, it is crazy that it's your data that's being tossed around here. There. I feel violated.
Bryce (Co-host)
I feel violated.
Brendan (Co-host)
You feel a little bit violated. And the worst part about it is that it's a one way street. You get violated and then you get nothing in return for it. Besides feeling the depression of being violated, probably getting some data leaked, you know, things that you don't want online being online. And like, I guess just to play.
Bryce (Co-host)
Counterpoint, I guess what they would say is like they've told you if your product is free, then you're the customer. So you might not get anything in return. But you were able to go scroll brain rot or whatever. You were able to go, you know, use a social media app. So I guess that was what you got in return for being violated.
Brendan (Co-host)
Yeah.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
No, you become the product. If it's become the product, you're the product. And the web is very dark. I mean, how the Internet works, it's very nefarious. And combined with the fact that most of the major platforms, I mean, Elon Musk talked about this a lot, that most of the traffic reporting is click fraud. It's bots.
Allie Jackson (Podcast Host Advertiser)
Yeah.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
And, and it's just when Procter and Gamble spends billions of dollars a year on online advertising, they know that half their money is going to bots. They just don't know which half.
Bryce (Co-host)
What, What a racket. What a racket, man.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
It is a racket and AI is going to clean it up. I mean, I'm sure there'll be dark elements of it, but you know, the agent to agent protocol is going to really, really make clear that it's going to be great for advertisers because they're only going to reach people and that advertisers are now Instead of paying Facebook and you know, LinkedIn and you know, Snapchat and all these platforms, they're going to pay individuals directly and they're going to get. Advertisers are going to get better value and individuals are going to finally receive value for their data. So I'm an optimist. I think AI is going to make the Internet a much safer, better, more equitable place.
Brendan (Co-host)
Yeah, I mean, I think AI has a lot of things going for it and I think there's no doubt that it already is and can continue to do a lot of good on one hand. But I think on the other hand, people are a little bit scared that I will take their jobs. And Bryce, you know, we were reading through a report together about a week and a half, two weeks ago, and it really stood out to me when we were looking at the unemployment numbers. And then for the most part it was pretty low. You look at unemployment, 25 to 54 was at 3.6% and unemployment for 55 plus was at 2.9%. I think most people would be really content with that. It's when you start looking at the unemployment rate for 16 to 24, which is conveniently these simple repeatable tasks that are typically pushed onto the entry level job market. And that's where it went to 10 and a half percent, which is really high. It's a crazy number. And so I think that's where people are starting to get a little bit scared. And right now, again, those more complex jobs don't really seem to be in harms of harm, harm's way as of yet. Maybe that changes. But I guess my question for you, Charlie, is like, what do you think about, about all this and how does AI affect our jobs and unemployment numbers globally?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, AI is no different than any new technology that has a massive productivity boost. Think about cars, airplanes, electricity, all of these things can be pointed at. I mean, if you are in the early 20th century and the onset of cars, well, all the people that are building horse and buggies are going to be out of a job. You know, you're right. Yeah. And the street cleaners that clean up the horse tongue, you know, I mean, yes, it's transformational, it will change the economy, but it's a, it's a booster of productivity. It will change things for sure and eliminate some jobs, but, but it just creates other ones. And it's no different than any technology productivity improvement. And this is no different. The economy is going to change, it will adapt, but it's only good for human Beings, new jobs get created while other ones get destroyed. I mean I don't know if you know the economist Joseph Schumpeter but he was the won a Nobel prize for, for describing the principle of creative destruction. Things get creative, they get destroyed and AI is just part of that ongoing technology advancement. But I only think it's good for human beings and will be good for productivity and human existence.
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Brendan (Co-host)
You make a good point, right because we always like to look at the negative of like oh what jobs can be taken away. And any time that there's any big form of innovation it does tend to create jobs. And people don't talk about that enough, right. Imagine if we go back 100 years and you talk about all of this. They're going to say well all these different jobs are going to be out, you know, you know, farming is going to be more optimized because of machines. We're going to need less people. That's going to bring people out of a job and you know, there's going to be all these different areas of you know, people who are making, I don't know, like weapons back then, like oh, people aren't going to use swords anymore. All these smiths are going to be out of the job and because machines are going to take those and then you go 100 years into the future and you would have had to explain to these people, no, there's going to be millions of people working on things for the Internet or millions of people creating data centers or millions of people working on creating artificial intelligence and chips and all this stuff. And 100 years ago it would not have even been comprehendable to, to have a person think that someone creating these little microchips in the future inside of a shop like that wouldn't have even been possible for someone to think about yet because it wasn't even created or a possibility. And I think that these future jobs are going to look something like that where in the moment right now we don't necessarily know what those are or how they can be. But that doesn't mean that they can't be any kind of created or that they can't be possible.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. It's only positive. I mean, technology improvements and advancements are only good for human beings. I mean, there's always a dark side. I mean, like, all humans. I mean, you know, there's good and evil. I mean, there's good and evil in everything, but technology is agnostic, the good side, you know.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, I. I totally agree. Like, I've always said this, like, on the show, you know, back when crypto was really under the gun by, like, the former administration, and like, everybody's saying, you know, crypto's being used by bad people to do bad things. I'm like, yeah, sure, there's a small percentage of bad people doing bad things with crypto, but there's a small percentage of bad people that are doing bad things with the Internet, with guns.
Brendan (Co-host)
Right.
Bryce (Co-host)
With food, with drinks, with anything. There's bad people are going to do bad things. Okay? Good people are going to do good things. You can't, you know, legislate technology out of existence because of, like, you know, some small subset of people. And so, yeah, I love what you said there. And, like, I think so many people are now getting around, like, riled up around AI and safety, and it's like, it's good to get riled up around AI and safety and data, but it's good to, like, push it forward and not, like, completely restrict it. And so what on the regulatory front are you kind of looking at that might sort of affect permission? I know we've got the Clarity act, which is like something crypto people have been on the show, but is there anything lurking in, in the AI legislation or the data legislation like that you might be privy to that we just have no idea about?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Now, when I launched Permission, it was around the same time that Europe established gdpr, the Global Data Protection Regulation. And I thought that was going to be a global trend and a trend in the US and the GDPR is basically a set of regulations that give individuals more control of their data. And I thought that was going to be prevalent in the U.S. well, the U.S. has held off on it primarily because of the strength of Google, Microsoft, Meta, you know, Amazon. But California has the California Consumer Privacy Rights act, which is essentially the same as gdpr. There is a movement in the US towards regulation about data use and the key principle. I'm not a big fan of regulation, but transparency has to be the rule. I mean, and that's what's so exciting about crypto is crypto and blockchain provides transparency and that amongst all of the things in crypto and why it will become prevalent on Wall Street. Anybody who's worked on Wall street and I have, I've started hedge funds, I've, I've started public Companies, I've launched ETFs. It's so dark, I mean it's just like the Internet. You don't know what the hell is going on on Wall street and the trading and, and, and it's so obfuscated to the public. And that's what is exciting about blockchain and crypto is the core principle in my view. Why I was so excited about crypto going back a decade is the transparency. And that blockchain gives an immutable record of transactions. And that is the big innovation.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, and one of the other big innovations I think of blockchain based systems is sort of the economic alignment via a token. And so the ask token is part and parcel inextricable, the core component of permission. And so I want our listeners to kind of get their heads around the ask token.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, ask is a token dedicated to compensate individuals for their data and to enable businesses, advertisers to ask for permission to use that data. It's had one purpose from day one. Now I've always believed and we've been very mission driven with this idea that advertisers and businesses should ask permission to use data. We have been working for years to find the right use case that can scale and the permission agent and AI is that use case. And so ask is the token that enables advertisers to request or ask permission. And you know, it struggled a bit on price but we haven't, you know, been a pump and dump scheme. We're like focused on utility and that utility has to scale for the price to scale. And so we're super excited about the permission agent. We've always sought regulation. We very early on went to Swiss finma and Switzerland was the most mature jurisdiction for regulation. And we sought regulation and went through the process through Swiss finma. And so we are fully regulated as a utility token. No insider has ever sold a token. So I'm really excited about asking and the permission agent because now it's going to scale and it's going to be reflected in all things for ask.
Brendan (Co-host)
You know, it's interesting as we've been going through this conversation, it reminds me of a past crypto project or I guess an existing one. I don't want to say it like certainly not deceased, but it reminds me kind of like an upgraded version of Brave or the BAT project. Would you say that it's similar to that? And are there any kind of key differences there?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Yeah, there's some similarities, but there's some very core differences. Look at Brave was great. They launched a browser that allowed you to browse the Internet privately where nobody is collecting any data. But unfortunately for them, they say, well, you know, if you want your data used, you can earn a bat because that's how the values exchange. You can only earn a BAT if you share your data. Well, that's kind of the opposite of privacy. We've always taken the position that data has value and that Ask should represent it. So we're not trying to bait and switch anybody. Well, be private, but. Oh, but if you want to earn something, you know, make your data available. We're. We've always been on the principle your data as value, we're here to help you earn from it.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, absolutely. And so how does an advertiser get their hands on the ask token to start, you know, working in the ecosystem? Because that ask token would then go to whoever's using the platform, correct?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, it will be fully automated at some point where an advertiser just logs on. They buy Ask to distribute it to their targeted potential customers. But now they, you know, we're the intermediary. They buy, you know, they say they want to reach, you know, X amount of people that do that have XYZ characteristics were the conduit to make that happen. So they pay us and then we convert that in the ask to distribute to the users.
Bryce (Co-host)
Okay, that makes sense. And when, you know, when, when this sort of transactions kind of go through, does permission make any money? How does, you know, permission kind of sit here? Do they take a fee? And then does any of those fees kind of go to sort of reinforcing the market or buying back the token or adding liquidity?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Yeah, every time an advertiser wants to reach an individual, we tell them what it costs. They just, to make it simple, it costs a dollar. Well, the vast majority of that dollar goes to the individual via ask. We go into the market to buy that ask to distribute it to the individual. So that creates real demand for Ask. We're looking to make 20%, you know, of that transaction. So of that dollar, you know, the lion's share goes to the user via ask, and we go into the market to buy the ask to distribute it.
Bryce (Co-host)
Okay, that makes sense. And is it on? I think I saw it's on the base network. But then when I Was reading through some of the documentation, I also saw Layer zero was mentioned. So can you tell us a little bit about the architecture?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Yeah, well, we. Our token is runs on with Layer 0, which enables it to run on any blockchain. But when you open a new account on permission that's registered on base, we are a huge believer first in Ethereum and then the layer twos of Ethereum, that is the network that will dominate you go out 5, 10 years, it's going to be, I mean there'll be other networks, but the Ethereum and the Layer twos are going to be the dominant player, dominant ecosystem. So when you register initially on permission, you receive Ask and it's registered as a base new wallet. So. But again, Ask can be traded on any blockchain.
Bryce (Co-host)
I love it. And kind of in conclusion and wrapping things up, what's next for permission? The Ask token, kind of. What are you most excited about? What's in the pipeline?
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Well, I'm so excited about the permission Agent. This is our product and we're just launching it this week to the public. It's been in development for a long time. And you know, we want people to register, get the agent, get your own Ask domain that we offer at very low cost. So you could be Bryce Ask and Brandon Ask. That will be your new Web3 domain and your wallet address. Because I think Web3 domains are going to be the new email addresses.
Brendan (Co-host)
And.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
You can start earning Ask.
Brendan (Co-host)
And.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
We'Re really excited about just growing the user base of permission agent holders. And as this eight world unfolds, I think we're going to enable people to earn quite a bit from their data. So that's what gets us excited.
Bryce (Co-host)
You know, Charlie, one of the things that you told me in a past conversation was the most important thing for anything is timing. And I think that you guys have the perfect timing for permission. A world where AI is on the upswing. We got crypto, you know, in Q4, which is going to have a big upswing. We've got a great sort of economy that's starting to resurge and some cycles that are starting to move higher. Charlie, I think you guys are nailing the timing here. So we're excited for permission and we welcome you back anytime. We really enjoyed this conversation and anything that you want to leave our viewers with before we close out.
Charlie Silver (Guest, CEO and Founder of Permission)
Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting the way you, you mentioned it. It is absolutely the right timing, but you know how you get, you know how you become an overnight success and you get the Timing, right? You work your ass off for 10 years, so that's how you get the timing right.
Bryce (Co-host)
Yeah, you just, you gotta just be there, stay in the game. Charlie, you are an absolute definition of perseverance and innovator. So we're really excited about permission and everybody at home listening. Check out the show notes. You'll be directed towards exactly where you can get involved and find out more information. Thank you so much, everybody, everybody. And we'll talk to you guys next week with another great guest.
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Hosts: Bryce Paul & Brendan Viehman
Guest: Charlie Silver (CEO & Founder, Permission)
Release Date: October 14, 2025
This episode explores the transformative intersection of AI, data ownership, and crypto rewards. Bryce and Brendan interview Charlie Silver, founder and CEO of Permission (formerly Permission.io, now Permission.AI), about the evolving landscape where individuals regain control over their personal data and are compensated for its use through blockchain-based incentives. The discussion dives into the potential of “agent-to-agent” (A2A) protocols, the Permission Agent, the ASK token, and what the future might hold for privacy, digital advertising, and the broader implications of AI-powered personal agents.
[01:33-04:58]
"When I first read the white paper of Satoshi Nakamoto, I go, well, absolutely. We need a new form of value…"
— Charlie Silver ([03:50])
[08:38-10:10]
"Permission was founded with one principle, that data has value and that individuals should receive that value instead of all of the publishers and all the major platforms…"
— Charlie Silver ([08:38])
[10:10-15:41]
"Ultimately, the world of digital advertising is going to become an agent to agent experience, meaning AI agents, which are just pieces of software to conduct tasks, is going to dominate the Internet."
— Charlie Silver ([10:10])
"Instead of starting with a Google search, you'll start with your AI agent."
— Charlie Silver ([13:18])
[15:41-19:40]
"It's a real asset... data is, you know, I hate to use this cliche, but it's true. It's oil. It's the oil of the information economy."
— Charlie Silver ([16:49])
[22:10-23:55]
"You click on 'I accept cookies.' What you've basically said is you can put a text file on my browser and track me everywhere. And then that publisher sells that data... not once, twice, but dozens and dozens of times."
— Charlie Silver ([23:11])
[24:39-25:26]
"Advertisers are now... going to pay individuals directly and... advertisers are going to get better value and individuals are going to finally receive value for their data."
— Charlie Silver ([25:26])
[26:16-31:10]
"Technology improvements and advancements are only good for human beings. I mean, there's always a dark side... but technology is agnostic."
— Charlie Silver ([31:10])
[32:43-34:45]
"Transparency has to be the rule. And that's what's so exciting about crypto... blockchain provides transparency... and immutable record of transactions. That is the big innovation."
— Charlie Silver ([33:32])
[34:45-41:40]
"It's had one purpose from day one... advertisers and businesses should ask permission to use data. We have been working for years to find the right use case that can scale and the permission agent and AI is that use case."
— Charlie Silver ([35:08])
[41:52-43:39]
"We want people to register, get the agent, get your own Ask domain... I think Web3 domains are going to be the new email addresses."
— Charlie Silver ([41:52])
"How do you become an overnight success and you get the timing right? You work your ass off for 10 years."
— Charlie Silver ([43:39])
On the problem with cookies:
“Cookies are kind of the biggest deception in the world... Don't accept third party cookies. Don't accept them because that just enables a publisher to track you and then sell your data and you don't get squat.”
— Charlie Silver ([23:11])
On A2A agent economy:
“Very soon... you're going to have your own AI agent that says, hey, find me a boutique hotel in New York City... That agent will execute that task.”
— Charlie Silver ([13:18])
On data as oil:
“Data is... the oil of the information economy. And instead of big platforms just taking your oil without compensation, AI is finally the use case that’s going to enable individuals to really receive the value for their data.”
— Charlie Silver ([16:49])
On the future of crypto rewards:
“Crypto wallets will become the new inbox... that’s how businesses will communicate. Here’s some crypto and here’s a message, and let’s continue the conversation.”
— Charlie Silver ([20:32])
| Segment | Timestamp | |------------------------------------------------|------------------| | Introduction to Charlie Silver & Permission | [01:33-04:58] | | Data value and user compensation model | [08:38-10:10] | | AI's personal agent revolution & A2A protocols | [10:10-15:41] | | Privacy, opt-in/out, cookie deception | [22:10-23:55] | | Broken ad economy & fraud | [24:39-25:26] | | AI and the future of jobs | [26:16-31:10] | | Regulation and transparency | [32:43-34:45] | | The ASK token and tech architecture | [34:45-41:40] | | New Permission Agent & vision for Web3 | [41:52-43:39] |
The conversation is optimistic, ambitious, and slightly rebellious—mixing hard-nosed skepticism of today’s digital economy with hope for a more equitable, transparent, and user-empowering future.
The promise of AI-powered personal agents + crypto rewards: control, privacy, and real economic participation for ordinary people.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in:
Actionable Takeaway:
Explore the new Permission Agent, claim a custom ASK domain, and envision a future where your data works for you, not the platforms.