Bitcoiners, welcome back to the Bitcoin Magazine podcast.
We have a special edition of the show for you today.
But before we get into it, I want to make a shout out that I
will be going to Bitcoin Amsterdam October 12th through
the 13th. In Amsterdam we are going to be
bringing back the most influential and biggest event in
Europe. To Amsterdam and we are going to
be talking Bitcoin With so many incredible bitcoiners across the
globe and throughout Europe. Bitcoin is under fire in Europe
and we are planting our flag. Europe is Bitcoin territory, so
come see us at Bitcoin Amsterdam October 12th through the 13th.
Get your tickets now. Ticket prices are going up every
single month, so do not wait less than 90 days until the
event and. For everyone who is listening,
you can get 10% off if you use promo code VM LIVE.
But with that, let's jump into this special version of the
Bitcoin Magazine Podcast. We are gonna be talking about a
competition that Bitcoin Magazine Pro is doing with
Samara Alpha, our alpha competition to find the next
great Bitcoin fund. Manager.
We have $1,000,000 in seed funding and access to the Samara
Alpha platform up for grabs for that next great performer, that
next great fund manager. And I am here with my colleague
Sean, and we are going to talk about this competition.
We're going to talk about who should be applying for this huge
prize and what winners will be getting as part of winning the
Alpha competition. So without further ado, Sean,
welcome to the Bitcoin Magazine podcast.
Let's get right into it. Yeah, this is such an exciting
opportunity to see Ki mean. I can confidently say this is
the most exciting project I've worked on since being here with
Bitcoin Magazine, and it's just an unbelievable opportunity for
all the plebs out there. If you think that you have what
it takes to be an emerging fund manager, if you think that you
have the skills you have the strategy, if your fund is doing
well, or if you just started and you really believe in yourself,
this is something you should apply for.
It's $1,000,000, but the prize is way.
Greater in value than $1,000,000 because you're also getting
access to tomorrow's signature seating platform and their
state-of-the-art software service that funds, you know,
use on Wall Street and anywhere in between.
You know, state-of-the-art technology that a typical
emerging fund manager isn't going to have access to.
But you could and all you got to do is apply.
Applications have been unbelievable so far and we're
getting close to the finish line.
So if this is something that interests y'all.
Don't hesitate, go ahead and apply.
Today the landing page is www.b.tc slash conference slash
Bitcoin dash alpha. You can see it on the screen
right here. It's super simple.
All you got to do is Scroll down and hit this apply now button.
And like I said, y'all you don't want to wait.
Applications are due on the 31st and we're getting lots of them
and there's some really awesome competition.
Yeah, so Sean, let's scroll back to the front here and maybe talk
about what the competition is all about.
You kind of jumped right into this opportunity.
Pretty much what's happening is Samara builds technology for
funds. Bitcoin Magazine actually tried
to start a fund once and we quit because it was too hard to get
everything going in time. But if we had been using Samara,
we would have been able to do it turn key.
So they came to us, they've been doing a lot in the space,
they've been investing in Bitcoin development and they
wanted to invest in a new Bitcoin fund manager, give them
seed capital and give them access to their turnkey solution
for funds. The, the seating platform.
So you know, we can go into that.
But really, you know from there we started putting this
competition together where we are trying to go out into the
Bitcoin world, the followers of Bitcoin Magazine and help Samara
find this next great trader, this next great Bitcoin fund
manager. So that's who we're looking for.
We're not looking for a new VC. We're not looking for someone
who. Has never traded before in their
life. We're looking for someone who is
allocating capital, looking for someone who's trading Bitcoin
and finding success in their strategy and looking to scale
that up. So you know that is the type of
person that we're looking to bring into the competition and
looking to give an opportunity to pitch to Samaras executive
team and win this competition. And the winners are sorry the
the finalists are going to go all the way to Bitcoin Amsterdam
which I. Started the show with October
12th and the 13th and they're going to be able to get
announced on the main stage and the winner is going to be
crowned in Amsterdam. So that's coming up quick.
And Sean like we talked about the deadline is coming up really
quickly. I think this, this program is
going to be posted very shortly here, but July 31st is the
cutoff. So from that point on we have a
extensive. You know, kind of pitch
competition that goes on with the finalists as well as some
due diligence before we fly everyone out to Amsterdam and
and and crown the winner. So Sean, I don't know if you
want to go back to the landing page, if you want to add some
more color here, but ultimately I think it's a really exciting
competition, obviously huge implications for the winner and
I think it's a great collaboration between Samarra
and Bitcoin Magazine Pro. Yeah, CK it it's an unbelievable
collaboration. You know what?
What Samara has been doing in the space for a while now,
they've been looking for investors as part of their whole
business model is to look for talented emerging fund managers
and people that have that strategy.
And now they're trying to do this in a very big way with
Bitcoin. And, you know, they put their
money where their mouth is. It's it's evident when they
donated, I believe it was $150,000 to Brink.
For Bitcoin development and Bitcoin is something they
believe in and they see the value of this emerging asset
class. And now they've partnered with
Bitcoin Magazine Pro to help someone that's listening to this
get their fund off the ground and going in a big way.
And like you said, you know, this is, this is not for a VC or
or anything like that or a media conglomerate.
This is for a person with a strategy or a group of people
that are starting a fund, so. You know, it's the track record
is a little bit flexible, but you need to be able to prove
that you have some track track record on paper.
But beyond that, the Sky's the limit.
You just need a good strategy and self belief and you could
have $1,000,000 in access to Samara's signature seating
platform. So Sean, let's just scroll
through this landing page so folks can, so folks can kind of
see all the information that we're presenting here.
So obviously Y'all had the opportunity to see the intro
here, the award again, the winners going to get $1,000,000
in seed capital. So that way they can bootstrap
their startup hedge fund and on top of that, like we said,
they're going to get access to Samara management.
Seating platform and all the other resources that they make
available to funds who are operating within their
ecosystem. Sean, do you want to jump over
to Samar's landing page so we can take a little bit more of a
look into what is their seating platform and how it can be
useful to folks who are trying to trade and manage a large
amount of money in Bitcoin? Yeah, CK, we can look right here
at Samaras landing page. They have digital assets.
They have a digital assets platform 3 pronged system.
The flagship fund that they have is their multi strategy fund and
it provides access to diverse markets and it's basically just
cryptocurrency hedge fund that's actively managed.
Then they also have the seating platform, which is going to
drive a lot of value for the winner of this particular
contest. And it's just going to allow
them to harness their deep networks and help the new
startup Crypto manager demonstrate their potential and
connect with others of similar expertise and use their
technologies. And then we also have the
middleware solution, which is some state-of-the-art PAAS
technology. It's a service that they can use
and it's going to put them right up there with the capabilities
of the big boys. And a lot of smaller emerging
funds and fund managers just really don't get an opportunity
like this, especially not for free.
So this, you know, I can't state enough that this prize is much
more than just the $1,000,000 cash they're given.
Yeah. So just to give a little bit
more color, you know the the Samara seating platform and
their overall turnkey solution, that is what will be.
Delivered to the winners with the turnkey solution.
You know, we discussed with folks from Samara, you know
about what you know comes with that.
That is the ability to, you know, have a bank account to API
into all of the different major exchanges and platforms that
Bitcoin trades on. It is the ability to in the
future use. ChatGPT esque interfaces in
order to code up programmatic, programmatic trading and it's
really a turnkey all in one solution for leveraging a a
hedge fund. It's everything that you need
and on top of that they're trying to seed a lot of
different great strategies. So they're trying to network and
and connect managers as well with a great group.
Of different skilled managers, So Samara is looking to do more
than just create SAS. They're also looking to invest
in great strategies and cultivate a great community
around it. And like Shawn said, we can
maybe jump over to the Bitcoin Magazine article.
They are committed to Bitcoin, so Bitcoiners founded the Samara
platform and Samara Alpha, and from there they have a group of
institutional traders and fund managers who are operating it.
And they have a deep appreciation for the Bitcoin
revolution and what needs to happen for Bitcoin to be
successful. So they put their money where
their mouth is at Last spring, they noted 6 figures to Brink,
which is one of the leading organizations that are
developing open source Bitcoin software, in particular Bitcoin
Core. And you know, they're looking to
do more within Bitcoin. Again, that's why they partnered
with Bitcoin Magazine. That's why we're really excited
about this competition. And again, you know, there are a
lot of the humble stat stackers who are just squirreling away
Bitcoin, but there's also a lot of really talented fund managers
and traders out there who want to play in the playground that
is the Bitcoin markets. So Samara is looking for the
best and newest and brightest. Talent out there and they're
looking to see them. So yeah, I mean do we want to go
back and just kind of talk through this call to action.
The date, July 31st is a hard cut off because we do, you know,
need to go through some extensive, extensive
presentations from finalists to really see who is going to take
home this $1,000,000 of seed funding and access to the Samara
seating platform. But at the same time, there is
still time. So that's why we're doing this
show, to inform folks so that way they know about this
opportunity to take your trading and your fund to the next level,
to come to Bitcoin Amsterdam and get presented on the Mainstage
and to be a part of the Samara ecosystem.
Yeah. And I'll add to CK that talking
to Roy and the rest of the team over at Samara.
You know, they're really about it and they really understand
the space and they're really passionate about it.
And anyone could just give away $1,000,000.
Not many would, obviously Samara would, but they wanted to do
something a little bit extra. They wanted to make this
meaningful, they wanted to make it about the community, they
wanted to make it about the network.
And that's why we're bringing the finalists to Amsterdam,
right? There's a lot of exposure
involved. There's a lot of community
involved. They're setting them up with
their. Signature software to make sure
that they can be successful and you know, it goes back to their
history. Donating to Bitcoin core
development. You know, Samara is a platform
and an organization of people that truly get it and they're
truly for Bitcoin and they want to actually do something here
that's meaningful and add some real value to the space, not
just give money away. Well, I mean and in the money is
not being give away this is seed funding so.
Money is being invested. Money is being invested in.
In in great Bitcoin traders and that's our job, is to bring as
many great Bitcoin traders as possible to apply for this
competition. So again, if this sounds like
you are a good fit, jump on hit apply.
What is the landing page again Sean?
The landing page is www.b.tcslashconferenceslashbitcoin-alpha.
All right. And you know, I think with that,
you know, maybe we can jump over to some frequently asked
questions about the competition. So, Sean, you know, again, I,
I've been talking a bunch of folks who are interested in this
competition. They're interested in the seed
funding and they're curious, hey, I'm a VC in Bitcoin.
Is this competition for me? What's the answer there, Sean?
Yeah, absolutely. CK I've heard this question a
lot too, and unfortunately the answer is no.
If you're a VC, this competition's not for you.
We're looking for someone that wants to have a trading
strategy, someone that does have a trading strategy.
VC is great. We encourage you to keep doing
it. I think it's awesome that you're
doing it. It's a very cool world, but it's
it's not the world of this competition.
We're looking for active traders and fund managers for this
specific competition. OK.
So the next question is, hey, does it matter if I have more of
a programmatic trading strategy versus if I am making each
individual trades myself manually?
What is the platform optimized for?
Yeah, absolutely. It doesn't matter, right?
We wanna hear all the trading strategies we just want people
with. Passion and drive and talent.
And if you think you have a winning strategy, no matter
where it falls on the spectrum, we want to hear you.
If it's a good one, you're going to have a really great chance to
win. You know the competition is
steep, but we want to hear all the strategies and Samara's
platform is going to be great for helping out anything that
you can think of or strategize. Okay, Here's another one is So
this is obviously a competition that's presented by both Samarra
and Bitcoin Magazine Pro. What do people get from Bitcoin
Magazine? So Bitcoin Magazine is actually
gonna be offering some fantastic coverage of the winners.
So we're gonna run stories on the winner.
We're gonna do follow-ups six months out and a year out to
just check in on you, see how you're doing.
Obviously, if you're a finalist, you're also going to get some
publicity along with that as well.
You'll be our guest in Amsterdam.
You'll get some coverage from being a finalist, but for that
winner you're going to get an awesome deal with some publicity
coming out of Bitcoin Magazine, even a year out from winning
this contest. Awesome.
Yeah. And I mean, I think just, you
know, being associated with this competition and winning, I think
that's a huge, huge plus. Last competition, our last sorry
last question I got for you is like what are the qualifications
really. I know on the site you know it's
talking about 25% annual bias returns.
You know what what are the the hard cut offs here for folks who
who want to try their hand at this competition?
Yeah, the only two hard cut offs are that you have some provable
track record of some sort. And that you're focused on
Bitcoin. We, you know, we don't want
altcoins, we don't want stocks, bonds, any sort of other asset,
Bitcoin focused and some sort of provable track record.
You know, obviously with different unique strategies,
things fluctuate, right? People are going to have
different metrics that they hit, but we're looking for the
vision, we're looking for the strategy.
And so the two non negotiables there are that you can prove
some sort of track record and that your interest is in
Bitcoin. All right, Sean, so I know I
said that that was the last question, but I guess this is
the real question. What's the application process
like when someone hits apply, what can they expect?
Yeah, the application is super easy.
You just hit apply now. It takes you to a very quick,
simple to fill out Google Form and that's our stage one form.
So just fill out that information as descriptively as
possible, give us as much detail to work on here.
And then, should you move on to that second stage, you'll
receive an e-mail from myself on behalf of the competition team
inviting you to apply for a second form.
And the second one will be a bit more detailed.
It'll go into a little bit more nuance of your strategy and some
of the metrics that you hit. And from there, if you should
move on, you'll actually get to do some awesome.
Calls with the Samara team themselves and it's going to be
a awesome environment to just kind of share with them where
your heads at what your strategy is and that'll be where they
have the vetting process to arrive at their finalists that
we bring to Amsterdam. All right.
Well, Sean, thank you so much for coming on the show, talking
about this competition again, This is the first time that
Bitcoin Magazine has done a competition like this.
We won't. You to Samara Alpha for coming
on board and and you know really inspiring it.
You know we want to give a huge shout out to everyone in the
community. Thank you for listening.
If this sounds like a great competition for you please jump
over to B dot TC forward slash conference forward slash Bitcoin
Dash Alpha and apply the day again.
That cut off is July 31st 2023 so.
People always procrastinate. People always apply late.
Don't make that be you, OK? Apply today.
Make sure you get through that process.
And if you're a finalist, you're going to Amsterdam, so that's
awesome. And if you win, that's
$1,000,000 in seed funding that has access to the seeding
platform and much, much more. Sean, any last words before we
wrap this one up? Yeah.
Thank you so much for having me. CK, it's been a pleasure.
It's been great to share this with everybody.
And like CK said, I can't emphasize enough, the 31st is
the cut off. If you wait till then, we can't
help you. So you know, we want to get this
in the right hands. We want to showcase some awesome
strategies. We know that our audience is
some of the best and brightest minds in the space.
And so it could very well be one of you listening right now that
is going to win this $1,000,000 in seed funding.
So it'd be a shame if you don't fill that out by the 31st.
So don't even wait, Just go do it now.
That's what I want to leave the audience with.
You know, this is an awesome opportunity.
Just jump on it. All right, Sean, thanks again
for coming on. To all the listeners, thank you
for listening to this special edition of the Bitcoin Magazine
podcast. If you are a Bitcoin trader,
make sure to apply. I think there's a great
opportunity. And for everyone else, come to
Bitcoin Amsterdam, October 12th through the 13th.
It's going to be absolutely incredible.
It's going to have its unique European flavor and of course,
Bitcoin Magazine signature event execution.
We bring together the best and the brightest.
We put on the best. Events in the world for Bitcoin,
so until then, I'll catch you guys later.