In this special episode of the Casper Podcast, we take you to the bustling scene at Token 2049 in Singapore, where we had the opportunity to catch up with some of the industry's most dynamic builders. Host Joe Benso sits down with Sander Görtjes, the founder of HelloLabs and executive producer of Killer Whales, to discuss the evolution of the show since its launch last year. Think of Killer Whales as Shark Tank for crypto—where the most promising projects compete for the chance to impress a panel of judges and secure support.
In this special episode of the Casper Podcast, we take you to the bustling scene at Token 2049 in Singapore, where we had the opportunity to catch up with some of the industry's most dynamic builders. Host Joe Benso sits down with Sander Görtjes, the founder of HelloLabs and executive producer of Killer Whales, to discuss the evolution of the show since its launch last year. Think of Killer Whales as Shark Tank for crypto—where the most promising projects compete for the chance to impress a panel of judges and secure support.
Sander shares behind-the-scenes insights into what’s in store for Season 2, including a greater focus on diverse Web3 projects and partnerships that will appeal to both newcomers and veterans in the space. You’ll hear about the addition of well-known faces like Jonathan from CoinMarketCap and George from CryptosRUs as judges, along with some unexpected “alpha” on which meme coins and cutting-edge AI projects to watch out for.
Later in the episode, we sit down with Fred Hsu from D3, the company pioneering the tokenization of traditional and blockchain domain names. Fred shares the groundbreaking work D3 is doing to bring next-gen, Web3-enabled domain names—like .cspr—to the Casper ecosystem, making it easier for users to transact and build their identities across the decentralized web.
Whether you're curious about the future of blockchain entertainment or looking for new ways to build in the decentralized world, this episode offers an engaging blend of conversations, project insights, and plenty of excitement for what’s ahead in Web3. Tune in to catch it all!
[00:00:00] Joe Benso: Welcome to the Casper podcast, where we take a deep dive into blockchain technology and speak with those who are building the future of the decentralized web. I’m your host, Joe Benso, and on today's show, we’re recapping our recent trip to Token2049 in Singapore. There, we had a chance to catch up with Sander Gortjes. He’s the founder of Hello Labs and the executive producer of Killer Whales. If you don’t know, Killer Whales is basically the Shark Tank for crypto. Let’s listen in on that conversation.
[00:00:32] Joe Benso: Sander, we’re here in Singapore at Token2049. We were here last year at the Killer Whales launch party, but a lot has happened since then. Please bring us up to speed on what’s happening with Killer Whales and Hello Labs.
[00:00:45] Sander Gortjes: Oh, wow, it has been a crazy year in many different ways, right? The market went up and down, but we launched Killer Whales back in February and March. We had a lot of good feedback on it, and also a lot of learning feedback, but we were just very proud that we were able to push Killer Whales out. We put it on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, and reached about 600 million people with that. If you look at what’s happened between Hello, Killer Whales, and 2023-2024, we’ve recorded a second season with a lot of focus on bringing better projects in—projects that show the width and the dynamics in the entire Web3 space.
[00:01:23] Sander Gortjes: I always say, for someone watching Killer Whales on Apple TV from their recliner at home, we want them to understand, okay, there are memes, there is DeFi, there are degens, and there are NFTs. We’re trying to paint that entire picture. We had a lot of focus on making sure that the culture gets transmitted to the people at home, watching it, and potentially coming in. We’re trying to grow the space, so more projects, more prize money, better whales, and even more entertainment. We’ve worked hard with the entire team.
[00:01:50] Joe Benso: Tell us a little bit about Season 2 and maybe give us some Alpha on what projects we can look forward to seeing and what to expect.
[00:01:57] Sander Gortjes: Yeah, it’s going to be a lot of fun. We definitely looked at bringing in some really cool meme coins, maybe some meme coins on a new chain that also has its roots in a big exchange. We thought if we brought on some of the biggest memes, that would definitely appeal to people. These guys are there, and they’re making an impact. There’s also some fighting going on in the show, so some people might like it. One of the key whales is getting beaten up on the show, so it’s going to be a lot of fun to see.
[00:02:27] Sander Gortjes: For the rest, we have a good mix of beautiful AI projects, and GameFi projects. There are a lot of different appealing projects coming onto the show, and you guys will see it as we start dropping the trailers at the end of October.
[00:02:45] Joe Benso: That’s great. You’re giving projects the airtime to get exposure for mainstream audiences, which is one of the reasons why Casper is a proud sponsor as a blockchain sponsor for the show. You have a lot of really great partners for the show. Casper is obviously a blockchain sponsor. Tell us a little bit about the benefits that projects coming on board can get just by pitching their projects for Killer Whales.
[00:03:11] Sander Gortjes: Yeah, that’s a good question and also a very hard one. I think Casper solves, to a large extent, some of these questions that we get around this space. If you look at the projects that are coming onto the show, it’s a mix of very well-established projects all the way down to projects that still need to do their TGE. There are even projects that don’t have a token. In terms of crypto thinking, there’s a very wide range of projects. Some of these projects really require advertising support, but most need technology and infrastructure. They need to have a well-documented and well-based team to support them, and that’s where I think Casper comes in.
[00:03:49] Sander Gortjes: Casper supports the show with a grant system, so any project that comes onto the show, we make sure they’re aware that they can build on Casper. There’s also a possibility to participate and get in contact with you guys and make sure they actually start applying the technology they need. The support there is super important. It’s one of the most overlooked things in this space, but we’re very happy with Casper being on the show and providing that type of support.
[00:04:22] Joe Benso: It’s been great for us as well. We’ve been at a number of these conferences where projects have come up to us, asking how they can pitch for Killer Whales. We actually did an on-site pitch at Paris Blockchain Week previously that turned out to be really successful in terms of getting projects involved and gaining exposure. We’ll see if they make it on any of the seasons coming up, but it was great to see those pitches and the excitement around the show. It’s really great to see what you guys are building for entertainment and for mass adoption. Tell us a little bit about the judges you have for Season 2 and what we can expect.
[00:05:02] Sander Gortjes: Yeah, we wanted to go bigger, crazier, and with an even wider appeal. We looked at Season 1 and asked, “What can we improve? What can we do better?” It came down to bringing in more legitimate people from the space, but also a bit more of the degen crowd. We had a good conversation with CoinMarketCap, and their CMO is now coming onto the show as well. It’s the first time ever for CoinMarketCap to actually push a face to the front of the scene. Jonathan is doing that, and he performed really well. He’s also really funny to be around because he’s a good old English lad, so it’s going to be a lot of fun.
[00:05:44] Sander Gortjes: We were very happy to get on board George from CryptosRUs, who is a well-known figure in the space. He has a very OG crowd but also a very strong opinion, and that’s what the show needs.
[00:05:57] Sander Gortjes: On the more degen side, we wanted someone who could talk a little bit more about what the show is actually about and put it in context. We could only think of one guy, and we were lucky enough to sign him on—TradGuy. TradGuy is a born natural talent, very organic in the way he presents the show and hosts it. He does the voice-over and a little bit of the explanatory part of the show, so you’ll be seeing that in Season 2.
[00:06:26] Sander Gortjes: And last but not least, Mika is coming onto the show, bringing that female power, bringing that Degen spirit, and just having a lot of fun. She knows how to act, so there’s going to be a lot of entertainment coming to the show with her. We’re very happy with these four guys and girls coming on board. It widens the wheel group to about 15 people, which also allows us to rotate the Whales based on the project so they can give the best feedback to the people at home.
[00:06:57] Joe Benso: Amazing. Sander, a couple of questions here. How can people, if they have a project, get involved and pitch their project? What are you doing here in Singapore, and where can people see the show?
[00:07:09] Sander Gortjes: Yeah, well, we are whale hunting, baby. We are looking for the good whales, looking for the good projects. We’re partnering up with a lot of different partners in the ecosystem, searching for more and more projects. Whenever a project comes up to me here, for example, they often ask, “How can I get on the show?” The answer is very simple: fill out the form on the website, hello.one/killerwhales, and you can just apply. We’ll look at the application and get in contact with you. We do a couple of interviews and have a look at whether you’re a good match to be on the show.
[00:07:45] Sander Gortjes: Another way is to go through the Casper team. You guys are an official search partner, and whoever comes through you, we just prioritize them in the conversations we’re having. It’s good to note that we have about 350 good projects applying to be on the show every year. It’s not like there are just 20 projects that we pick and choose from. In the end, we need to narrow it down to around 50, and with those, we do the interviews. So, anybody that comes through Casper, for example, we at least know that you guys have spoken to them and vetted them, so the quality is higher. That’s one of the biggest benefits you have as a project—you can get referred through Casper.
[00:08:30] Joe Benso: That’s amazing, and it works both ways. It’s great to see projects that have the ambition to pitch on the show and the support they can get from your partners and from Casper. We’re really looking forward to seeing the next wave of projects in Season 2 and beyond that. So, any last words on what we can expect for the rest of the year or what you’re excited about for the next season?
[00:08:55] Sander Gortjes: Yeah, I’m very excited about the show. We’re going to drop the trailer at the end of October, and it’s going to be mind-blowing. I’ve looked at the episodes, and I was laughing, rooting for the people. But on the Hello side, which is also important to our team, we introduced the slogan “Killer Whales is powered by Hello”—Hello of course being our token. We’re building a lot of solutions for the community there.
[00:09:22] Sander Gortjes: This is the first year that we’re going to build upon the Killer Whales brand and really put it into the Web3 space, building token solutions, utilizing token utility, and also leveraging the entire network we’ve built over the last year. I’m very excited about that and looking forward to just dropping the show, getting people talking about it, and getting people enthusiastic about Web3 in general. We’re going into a bull run, right? So, this is the best way to promote ourselves and the best way to get new people into the space. It’s going to be an epic 16 months, for sure.
[00:09:56] Joe Benso: Lots of buzz building around the project. We’re proud to be sponsors of the show, and thanks, Sander, again, for meeting us here in Singapore. We’re looking forward to the week and the season coming up.
[00:10:07] Sander Gortjes: Likewise. Always a pleasure. Thank you.
[00:10:13] Joe Benso: Thanks to Sander for taking the time to catch up with us here on the Casper podcast. Next, we had the chance to sit down with Fred from D3. They’ve partnered with Casper to help tokenize Dot CSPR domain, and soon they’ll be making those available to the Casper community.
[00:10:31] Joe Benso: Hi Fred, we’re here at Token2049. Tell us about D3 and what you guys do.
[00:10:36] Fred Hsu: D3 is a domain name company. Our mission is to tokenize the world’s domain names. Everybody has visited Amazon.com or maybe seen ABC.xyz, or numerous startups using these extensions in their browser. We’re also working on the next generation of top-level domains (TLDs) for major Layer 1s, Layer 2s, and Web3 ecosystems. We recently launched communities like Near Protocol for Dot NEAR, Dot Ape for the ApeCoin DAO, and also a personal favorite of mine, Dot Doge for the Doge IP owners.
[00:11:11] Joe Benso: That sounds amazing, Fred. I’m very familiar with the Dot Ape ecosystem. Now, tell us what you have in store for the Casper community.
[00:11:19] Fred Hsu: We’re really excited about working with the Casper community. You’ll be able to buy these Casper name tokens with the .cspr extension. We’re going to be minting them on Casper as well. Think about them as a universal identity—a name, like a domain name, that will be able to work across Web3 and also Web2.
[00:11:38] Fred Hsu: There are other communities issuing Web3 names, such as .eth by the ENS project, but we’re excited about Casper because it’s going to work for 5 billion people—not just for within the 1 million or so daily active users within Web3.
[00:11:52] Joe Benso: When you say it’s going to work for 5 billion people, what do you mean by that? What are the things people can do with a .cspr domain, or an .ape domain, that they can’t do with a traditional .com domain?
[00:12:04] Fred Hsu: One day soon, in the near future, JoeBenso.casper will be able to send money to Fred.ape, and vice versa. A name is still the best universal method, in our opinion, to send money back and forth, whether that’s for wallets or even for personal identity outside of wallets. We’ve all been there. We’ve seen these long, complicated addresses. I think I read last year that there was $32 million of lost assets in 2023 simply because people messed up or had their wallet addresses spoofed. There’s got to be an easier way to do it, and domains have been around for decades. There’s no reason why we can’t use that old plumbing in a universal way for this new-world Web3 use case.
[00:12:52] Joe Benso: Can you tell us where D3 is headed? It sounds like you have a lot of experience in domain names. What are some of the things you’re working on for D3 moving forward with this new asset class?
[00:13:02] Fred Hsu: Yeah, check out our website, d3.in—letter D, number 3 dot in. We’ve already onboarded 20 million real domains. Think about them like .docs, .net. I think that itself is more than two or three times the amount of Web3 name systems out there. Those are real valuable assets, and we’re going to be making a lot of network announcements coming up.
[00:13:26] Fred Hsu: As I said, our mission is to tokenize and financialize the entire internet layer, which is something that’s never been done before. We’re excited about being at the forefront of that with our partners like Casper, Ape, and many others.
[00:13:39] Joe Benso: Awesome, Fred. This is super exciting stuff. It’s great to see you here in Singapore. Once again, we’re at Token 2049, and it’s really valuable to sit down and talk face-to-face about the details of what so many builders are doing in the space. It’s super exciting what D3 is doing, and Casper is a very proud partner. We’re looking forward to the Casper Name Service and really looking forward to seeing what you’re doing to expand the entire ecosystem—not only through Web2 but also Web3. We appreciate what you’re doing for the communities in this space.
[00:14:12] Fred Hsu: Thanks a lot, Joe. Looking forward to it, too.
[00:14:17] Joe Benso: Well, that’s all the time we have today for the Casper podcast. Thanks to Sander from Killer Whales and Fred from D3. In the meantime, keep building, and we’ll see you on the next episode of the Casper podcast.
