This week, our CEO Vitalijs Zalovs, had not one but three special guests, as he was joined by Esketit co-founders, Matiss Ansviesulis and Davis Barons, to sit down and talk to Kristaps Mors, the creator of the highly popular Telegram group ‘High-risk Investments‘ and investor, who likes to dig deep. Kick back, relax and enjoy this week’s insightful yet hilarious episode. Available on YouTube, Spotify and coming soon to all your favorite podcast platforms.

Vitalijs Zalovs: So today we have another episode for the Esketit video series where we meet P2P investors. Today, we have decided to do it in a bit different way as we have Kristaps Mors today with us. Esketit co-founders, Matiss and Davis, have also decided to join our conversation, as we all know Kristaps, and that’s why we think that this conversation should be interesting and at the same time funny. Kristaps, who are you?

Kristaps Mors: Hey, so my name is Kristaps. I’m a co-founder of a couple of companies. One is working on digital marketing software as a service platform, and the other one is working on crypto mining. And in my free time, I sometimes create some kind of content about financial platforms or other stuff either on a blog or do some videos, and sometimes I get attention from

some journalists as well. 

Vitalijs: OK, OK, that sounds interesting. And I think many of our investors also remember you from all the blogs and all the materials that you have been doing in regards to P2P. So how did you start your journey in p2p and what are you doing with that these days?

Kristaps: So I think I started with P2P, I don’t know, 5, 6, 7 years ago when Mintos and Twino appeared in Latvia. 

Matiss Anšviesulis: Do you still have investments in Mintos and Twino? 

Kristaps: Personally, no. But from one of these companies that I mentioned, power mining that one has exposure in Mintos still.

Davis Barons: Before we went live, we were just chatting a bit, and you said that P2P generally is kind of a bit boring, and all the folks on your [Telegram] group have moved into discussing crypto and stuff. Why is that? What’s your opinion? 

Kristaps: Well, I guess the audience that I attracted in some way was interested in high interest and high risk, and that, of course, sometimes results also in a high loss. But yeah, so these guys mostly then are now focused on stocks on crypto where you have a higher risk, higher potential gain, and P2P for many, I guess, is too boring and too slow. 

Matiss: Because it kind of makes money consistently every month. 

Davis: Yeah, that could be boring. 

Kristaps: Well, depends on the platform. But it’s also, in most cases it’s like a slow way how to lose money and a boring way (laughs). 

Matiss: But you yourself moved completely away from P2P investments or just from those two platforms you mentioned?

Kristaps: My personal accounts are almost close to 0 on all platforms.

Matiss: I hope after this podcast we have some Esketit investment from your side.. No pressure. 

Kristaps: I have big exposure in Esketit from power mining.

Vitalijs: So that’s good that you touched Esketit. So I think we can a bit continue the conversation in this regard. So what do you think what was the points that made you start to invest in Esketit, and maybe what other investors should think about when they make a decision about starting investing with Esketit? 

Kristaps: I think the main thing was the good track record of Creamfinance. And I also think when I set up these investment portfolios, I tried to usually get most of the exposure from Creamfinance and don’t touch Jordan loans, which I consider way more risky.

Matiss: Let’s address this issue. Why?

Kristaps: Why are they risky? 

Matiss: Yes. 

Davis: Why are they more risky than any others? 

Kristaps:  Because you don’t provide the group guarantee from Creamfinance, right? 

Matiss: We do from CreamFinance, we don’t from Jordan, you mean? 

Kristaps: Yeah, from Jordan loans.

Matiss: Yes, true. But let’s say, would your sentiment change if we said, OK, now there’s a Jordan group, it’s like an LLC in Latvia, and then we have a group guarantee from that entity? 

Davis: With the same financials. 

Matiss: It’s not. 

Kristaps: But it doesn’t matter. I mean, whatever you set it up, if this is like a new entity, it doesn’t have this track record of Creamfinance or the same investors, the quality of reporting.

And so on. 

Davis: I mean, considering I always looked at it from the perspective, the group is usually a legal structure, and then you know it consists of all those individual countries, loan originators, right? As long as they’re profitable independently, it’s fine. The group is safe and sound. You know, as long as they’re not profitable independently… 

Matiss: Group doesn’t matter. 

Davis: The group doesn’t really matter. And we’ve seen this restructuring happening in the Skanste street business group, where this is quite evident. But I mean, yeah, it makes sense. Creamfinance is profitable all the time on the group level, Jordan is not; it’s a valid point, nothing to add.

Kristaps: I’m not saying it’s the business that is bad or what. I don’t even know. I have no idea Matiss: My only thought is that how I’m thinking about it is like kind of to go back to what Davis said this is if the loan originator is sound, profitable, you have decent financials and kind of decent disclosure and team, etc., etc., then effectively that is equivalent to kind of a guarantee to repay because the group guarantees there is anyway nothing but a collection of loan originators. And so, in that case, the only difference is that there’s one loan originator. And then if you have a group guarantee and in that group, you have several loan originators that are profitable, if one fails that you have invested in, another one could bail you out. Then I kind of see the point. 

Kristaps: These are differences, but there are two other key differences, I think. One is that this is Jordan… 

Davis: So what?

Kristaps: It’s not like a Baltic country or European country. So it’s a bit more exotic place. 

Davis: There’s some prejudice in this now. 

Matiss: Yeah. I mean, if you were Jordanian, you would say the other way around, you know? (All laugh) 

Kristaps: Yeah, well, yeah. 

Matiss: A country of 10 million people, they have a pretty good GDP per capita, stable country, OK. It’s a monarchy, right? 

Kristaps: It’s not in Europe. So that’s my point. Could still be stable. But if whatever they decide there, that’s it, that’s their way of doing business. 

Matiss: So then, you invest only in Europe? Let’s say if you looked at a peer-to-peer platform, whether it’s Esketit or anything else, would it only be European? 

Kristaps: No, but let’s say if there’s a group like Creamfinance or Sun finance or whatever and there you have at least some, let’s say European somewhat stable countries.

then it’s a bit different if you have OK one…  

Matiss: …let’s call them familiar. 

Kristaps: Yeah, yeah, exotic countries and that’s one point. But the other, the biggest point is this track record of how long Jordan’s business has been operating. So and that’s the same with Creamfinance, like how many years is that going on? 

Matiss: Makes sense. No, no, for sure. Sure makes sense. 

Davis: But about the prejudice, I mean, I was just discussing with one guy lending businesses in Africa, and he said something about I think it was Botswana, maybe I’m wrong, and my

first impression was, OK – this is the middle of Africa, it has to be trashy. But what he pointed out is that that’s one of the most stable and the richest countries in Africa, which I didn’t know and obviously I was considering. 

Matiss: Exactly. You think just because you think Africa is trashy or something. 

Kristaps: No, no. My point isn’t that some countries are trash, but let’s say you take the richest country in Africa or Asia or whatever and…  

Matiss: …and compare that to European… 

Kristaps: …. but when you want to, let’s say, reach some kind of, let’s say, you have an issue of getting money back from that country, right? 

Matiss: Like you want to exercise your claim rights? 

Kristaps: Yeah, yeah, and stuff like that. So it will be way more difficult than in Europe where everything is…

Matiss: …. could be a longer trip for sure. And that makes sense. 

Vitalijs: Yeah, I think as we have already started our conversation about the risks, so maybe what other Esketit risks our investors have to consider?

Kristaps: I guess the main thing is regulation. So Esketit is a company in Ireland, right? So basically, I’m sending my money to some small entity in Ireland… 

Matiss: Can we edit this out? (laughs) 

Kristaps: …that probably has no employees there. So I’m basically trusting you guys. 

And I don’t have an issue with that. But let’s say if there is some kind of issue and you, I don’t know, start doing drugs, and you don’t care about anything… 

Matiss: Oh we do drugs anyway (all laugh) 

Kristaps:… But if you decide, OK, we’ll just buy a boat and go… then go, go to Zimbabwe and that’s it. We’re staying there then that’s it. I’m f*cked. So there is no regulation. There is no one that I can go to and say, hey. 

Matiss: Let’s address this situation, regulated versus non-regulated, in the context of how Latvian platforms got regulated in recent years. Let’s take like a generic one named X, right, it’s regulated and has the same setup

and everything. And both of the founders decide to take drugs and go on the boat to Zimbabwe, right? How is an investor better off in one case and worse off in another case? 

Kristaps: I think in other cases, it could be a bit more difficult to just cash everything out and disappear. It could, and you could get more faster, some kind of

guys on your neck… 

Matiss: ….FKTK (FCMC, Financial and Capital Market Commission) guys…. Yeah, this means that the investor with your sentiment would feel more secure with extra transparency and extra control mechanisms? 

Kristaps: If you would compare the platforms that we have in Latvia, the biggest ones and for example, we have Twino, which is already regulated or kind of is regulated, but they have a ton of issues so with their markets, and I think they will either go to zero or someone will acquire them. But so just because you’re regulated, it doesn’t provide any kind of guarantees that this is a good investment.

And there is another side that if you are regulated, you also have to spend a ton of money on compliance, on legal stuff. And if you have to hire 10 guys, pay them, I don’t know, 100K per year, so that means that you as an investor also have to pay these guys. So you are either getting lower interest or high risk. So there are both sides from that. 

Matiss: Yeah, an exceptionally well-informed investor we have in the studio, what can I say? No, no, it makes sense.

Vitalijs: Kristaps, I know that you have also tested our crypto functionality, so we have started our conversation the with some crypto topics. So what do you think about Esketit crypto functionality?

Kristaps: I think it’s great from one side. Also, I have to point out that when I enabled it… No, I didn’t need to enable it. It’s on by default, right? The function is on by default. And the stuff that is not on by default is, I think, the 2-factor authentication, right? So anyone basically can, if I get access to any of your investors’ accounts, I can cache everything out. Correct? 

Vitalijs: Yeah, that’s a valid point. So investors, all the investors who are using crypto functionality… 

Kristaps: So basically, if you have this functionality on, I would suggest you need this two-factor…

Matiss: …as a mandatory. 

Kristaps: Yeah, that’s what minimum requirement. 

Davis: Do we have it? 

Kristaps: Because on other platforms where you don’t have access to crypto, you can get access to my account, but you can’t really do anything. You can just send the money back to my bank account, and that’s it. So there’s no real risk. But if I hack your e-mail, phone, or whatever, I can log in, cash out, and say goodbye (laughs). 

Matiss: (sarcastically) So you need to hack only three things. e-mail, phone, and Esketit account. 

Kristaps: No, no, I mean, I need only one thing, basically. I don’t even need to hack. I can go to your computer, check your Chrome passwords, and that’s it. Log in and cash out. That’s not OK.

Vitalijs: That’s why the 2-factor authentication always has to be turned on. 

Kristaps: No, it depends, of course, on your own policy and so. But maybe you don’t have such a case yet, but I think that’s only a matter of time. 

Davis: So if anybody wants to take unnecessary risks, he can switch off 2-factor authentication. Matiss: Yes, exactly. 

Kristaps: But which is switched off by default, right? 

Matiss: So by default, you’re saying it should be switched on, and then you can switch it off?  

Vitalijs: Especially if you use crypto.

Kristaps: Or maybe you should turn off the crypto by default if most of the users don’t use it, and if you click it that OK, I want to use crypto, then platform asks you to first enable this two-factor identification or something like that. 

Matiss: Makes sense, makes sense. 

Kristaps: But yeah, in general, I think it’s a good thing to have, and it’s an advantage over other platforms that most of them are afraid of crypto. 

Matiss: And I don’t know, maybe Davis wants to talk a little bit because you were the person behind the idea, and it seems to be working very well, even though the investors, in the beginning, were not clear why we kinda did it. 

Davis: What you just said, people are afraid of crypto. You know, you mentioned crypto and then people sometimes go bananas. But then there is the distinction between using stable coins and then investing in sh*t projects and doing high-risk projects again or whatever. And here, we use it only as a means of payment. That’s very important and as a means of transfer, which is convenient for many people. Back in the day, when there was no concept of stablecoins, we were thinking of how to do this with bitcoins, but then the volatility was so high, and there wasn’t really any mechanism for how to do it. Then a year later, the whole D5 thing emerged.

And it was quite obvious to do that. It is good that people like it and people use that. I think we’ve also made it quite user-friendly, and soon it’s going to be fully automated. It’s not yet fully automated. 

Vitalijs: Yeah, I think it’s still a week remaining. We have already automated giving unique addresses for each of our investors, and also conversion will be happening automatically, I would say in a week, and then then it will be fully, fully automated. 

Davis: And then, once we were thinking about like, OK, what are the benefits? You know, people use stablecoins to park their profits oftentimes, right? And then, you know, if they’re parked, they have either no interest or low interest. Now on the platforms, you can get zero point something, you know? 

Kristaps: No, it depends. You could get like 10-20% or more on Anchor, on Celsius. Yeah, everything that exploded, right? 

Davis: Yeah, everything that exploded. So when you get those yields, the promise of those yields, plus, you get 0 information what’s happening with your stablecoin, you know, that’s a recipe for disaster… But here, here you’re partially hedging because you’re in a Fiat world. And in the case of Jordan being pegged to U.S. dollar, so that is solved as well. I mean, yeah, we’re gonna continue developing that functionality, see where it goes. But I think bridging between DEFI and P2P, that’s an inevitable thing that’s going to happen in a couple of years. More infrastructure is being built on that, and we’re going to use that for the advantage of the investors and the platform. 

Kristaps: I think a while ago, when you had this Anchor on all this Luna stuff, it seemed like everyone expected that this just works. There are no issues. It works so stably all the time. Like everything is perfect, and you get this stable, close to 20%, yield. Then when you compare to that, you say, OK, here’s the platform, I can send my stable coins here and then like, I don’t know, 10 to 12% then the value is not there really. But now, after this all, basically all or 90% of these lending platforms that were exactly black boxes have exploded, defaulted, and stopped withdrawals and everything. So at the current time, the Esketit it seems like, oh OK, so now you can get a couple of percent, maybe DEFI or 10% here. 

Davis: Did you lose anything in this crypto crash, the recent one?

Matiss: Did you manage not to lose anything?

Kristaps: I lost the amount that the price decreased, but I wasn’t invested in Luna or

some stuff like that. 

Matiss: You have no tattoos of, like crypto platforms anywhere on your body? You know, like this guy, a billionaire guy, a New York hedge fund guy, he made a tattoo LUNATIC or something because the Luna investors are called lunatics. Yeah, and it’s like a wolf or something like that. Davis: And now he has an even better story to tell (laughs)

Kristaps: He’s got like the badge of dumbness, or I don’t know. 

Matiss: Yeah, exactly. 

Vitalijs: I think we have talked a lot about crypto. We have talked a lot, a lot about P2P, but what other investments do you do, Kristaps? 

Matiss: House?

Kristaps: Yeah, I guess in the last year or year and a half, my main investment is trying to build a house. I’m spending most of my money there and when that’s done, then I will probably maybe… 

Matiss: So the bottom line is would you build a house again, or would you buy a house? Cause now I have to consider now both options.

Kristaps: I probably would still build it, but maybe would use some of the knowledge that I’m now getting about all kinds of guys that want to mess with you and scam you, and so on. 

Matiss: Yeah, scammy builders. 

Davis: I would build again as well, no doubt. Yeah. 

Matiss: It’s in the DNA; it must be.

Vitalijs: And is this a reason why you have stopped blogging about P2P and also P2P holdings project? 

Kristaps: Yeah, but I guess that’s the main thing because it takes so much time, even if I don’t exactly build it myself. 

Matiss: Can you share a little bit about why you did it? Because I also had a video blog or vlog I did for quite a few years up until 2020. Then I stopped. Now I kind of wanted to do something a little bit different, but I had no motivation for like, I don’t know, drawing followers or you know, having people like subscribing or something. I just had some thoughts or ideas that I wanted to share. That was my motivation, and what was yours, or what was the story? 

Kristaps: I don’t know. A while ago, just for fun, I bought a YouTube channel. We just tried to experiment with it, play around, and create some videos, and I saw it basically as getting some kind of education for myself, like to see how it works. 

Matiss: Did it give you any benefit anywhere? Not the recognition, but people would see you and then maybe gain some credibility in business? 

Kristaps: Yeah, I think only the stuff that you mentioned, like recognition sometimes or maybe I was sort of being [perceived] as some kind of expert somewhere, and then I get asked some questions. But that’s about it. So, at least if you focus on the Latvian audience, there is no real value for yourself. 

Davis: Nobody did the digging as you did. I remember back in the day, you liked digging. 

Matiss: It was great. Now, what’s the name of this guy… Jakub? He did also kind of like a bit of a sharper video and a bit more digging, etcetera. But yeah, these articles were super cool. 

Davis: What was, in the times when you did digging, the most controversial thing you kinda understood? 

Matiss: Were you afraid to write it? I was just curious. 

Kristaps: I think this juicy fields thing, that was the craziest one. I’m not sure if you are aware of it, but there was basically a scam or Ponzi scheme that promised that you could invest money in growing marijuana. You bought virtual plants that are supposedly somewhere grown, and then you get yield, and you freeze your money — the longer period you freeze your money, the higher the yield you get like, 40-50% or more. 

Davis: But it was meant to grow real plants? 

Kristaps: Yeah, yeah, exactly. 

Davis: In the States somewhere? 

Kristaps: I think they marketed this as they partner with different kinds of companies. Some of them actually had licenses, some were fake. 

Matiss: It all went bust or what?

Kristaps: Well, I wrote about them a couple of times, I think, and it was quite clear it’s a complete scam. 

Matiss: But it was an intentional scam? 

Kristaps: Yeah, yeah, completely and it was super clear. And only like 1 year and a half later, it just closed a couple of months ago. 

Davis: An unintentional scam is called a mistake. (all laugh)

Kristaps: But the interesting part was that when I started to dig, and some info somewhere appeared that you get to some kind of people that seem not like typical financial scammers but Russian criminals, and then later some guy also did some real digging and actually found I think all the passports, all the documents of all the guys that were involved and actually he said these are fake passports and fake documents. So the guys there were prepared really well. 

Davis: And how much did they take away? Do you know? 

Kristaps: I think it was hundreds of millions. 

Matiss: Takeaway, right? 

Davis: Wow.  

Matiss: So we still have some to go. Yeah. 

Kristaps: And most of it was probably crypto not really that well traceable… 

Matiss: Oh my God! 

Kristaps: …and super dumb investors. So it’s just a combination of hype because cannabis is legal in some countries, right? 

Matiss: But there were red flags in this, right? 

Kristaps: A ton of red flags! 

Matiss: I’m just thinking if you’re so stupid to kind of invest in scams that are pretty evident, you kind of deserve to be f*cked, you know. 

Davis: That’s one thing. But then again, it’s like, OK, people still haven’t figured out — I think every generation does it themselves, right? It’s that you cannot have a no risk, high yield combination. It just doesn’t work, you know? 

Matiss: 20% percent Luna… 

Kristaps: Well, you know, it’s now different each time.

Matiss: Every time people think that, yes, now it is possible with these algorithmically traded, stable Unicorn encrypted f*cking crypto coins, it is finally possible! 

Davis: Well, some people actually make it, you know, they ride the wave of hype and, you know, upcycle if they exit the right moment…

Matiss: Yeah, but that’s just luck or good trading… 

Davis: But it happens less often than it does for sure.

Davis: In the group, thousands of participants there obviously discuss investments, crypto, P2P, stocks, all of that stuff. Are you aware of like that they’ve been organizing some, I don’t know, pooled investments, some groups, some joint investments, club deals — you name it. Because that should be sufficient to do something like this.

Kristaps: I’m not sure. I think it’s more that they discuss among themselves different platforms or different ideas about crypto and stocks, and that’s that. 

Davis: No more questions for me. 

Vitalijs: So maybe for other people who didn’t understand what you were talking about just now, it was about the Telegram group ‘High-risk investments’ that Kristaps started some time ago.

What are other social channels where people can follow you, or that’s the only thing?

Matiss: Tinder (laughs) 

Kristaps: Sometimes I use Twitter, but that’s about it. Twitter. Telegram.

Davis: So after you finish the house, you’re coming back into the investigative part of investing and research and all that?

Kristaps: I probably will create some new content, maybe reviews or whatever, but most likely, they will not be focused on P2P. I think I also got quite bored like – you see the same sh*t all over again… 

Matiss:(sarcastically) … same beneficial owners, goddamnit again! (all laugh)

Kristaps: That as well in some cases, but it’s just… In the beginning, when I look at different kinds of platforms, I try to figure something out, I kind of have a feeling that I learned something new, but when you look at these scams again and again, and if you spend time on it, you feel like you’ve become dumber, not smarter. 

Davis: So you’ve looked through all of them throughout your ‘career’— let’s call it that. So what is the main distinguishing factor on which platforms and which loan originators

are gonna last and which ones are not? I think you have some experience or gut feeling understanding of that. 

Kristaps: I think in the end, it’s super simple: profitability, track record, the reputation of the team and that’s it. A couple of key things. 

Matiss: For the record, all of these things we have, yes? Good.

Davis: Through how many cycles of crisis we went? 

Matiss: Quite a few. 

Davis: Yeah, quite a few — three at least; three major. 

Kristaps: I think one of the reasons also that I’m not that interested in P2P anymore is that it seems like it’s too simple. Meaning you can select a couple of platforms to invest and the rest are complete trash. So there is no need to… I don’t see at least any need to

research something or look at some new fancy platform with no volume, no track record, no reports and try to figure out or rate it or whatever. It just doesn’t make sense. So why would you touch something new and take huge risk for the same premium? 

Davis: Excitement? 

Kristaps: Yeah, maybe. Maybe for someone that works. Diversification? But that doesn’t end well for most of this diversification in peer-to-peer. 

Davis: Well, and I think it’s good that you say it because a lot of young guys, they don’t listen to the greats here, you know? Squared-shirt kinda old guys with experience that kind of say the same, but they simply can’t relate. And then they think, OK, this guy doesn’t know what the f*ck crypto is and what the f*ck p2p is. And then they’re like, OK, I’m smarter than everybody else. And I’m going to try this new company on the block that promises the best. Not a good idea. 

Vitalijs: Yeah, I think we have had a very interesting and productive conversation. 

Matiss: Very productive. 

Davis: Productivity. That was the key. (laughs)

Vitalijs: I think just one last question before we finish. So maybe, Kristaps, do you have any questions to ask me or maybe the founders of the platform? While they are still here and present. 

Kristaps: While they’re not leaving on a boat, right?

Matiss: I was gonna say — before we leave on a boat. 

Davis: It’s sh*tty weather today (all laugh)

Kristaps: Maybe you have some kind of new plans, new countries, new boats?

Davis: New countries, yes. I mean, we’re actively looking into the Gulf region. We think that’s a region with high potential, but that’s from the loan originator side. From the Esketit side, it’s still very simple. I think Jakub asked the same question — where will we be in five years. We actually can’t answer that question because, for now, we focus on the profitability of loan originators, making sure that everything’s safe, the usability is good. Probably,

and we’re still discussing, but that’s not decided that we’re gonna look at the opportunity to onboard third-party loan originators. But again, for them, the main criteria is going to be the safety and soundness of their business model. We did due diligence now in a couple of them, and then it’s really interesting when you look at it from the other side. OK, you start thinking currency risk, country risk, credit risk, management risk, OK, you know all of those things

have to be and can be managed differently. So, you know, if we do that, we’ll try to

eliminate as much as possible of them at the very beginning of onboarding. So for next year, that’s that. I guess nothing extraordinary is planned.

Matiss: More cool interviews with cool investors only. 

Davis: We’re gonna do that more. 

Kristaps: And you should participate as well!

Davis: But there’s a challenge. You said P2P is boring, and I agree with you. I mean it’s boring, and you know, Aldous Huxley, I think, said, ‘The success is boring, and it’s hard to compare to the volatility of…

Matiss: Yeah, that’s the typical thing with trading and investments. It should be boring, it should be predictable ideally, and so on. You get your excitement from f*cking boats and other areas. That’s a criticism to the point that, yeah, it’s kind of boring. It’s, in a way, very good, it’s predictable, it’s passive… 

Davis: ….exactly, but that gives us a challenge on the content side, you know, you can’t talk about the boring stuff all the time. 

Kristaps: Well, what are your thoughts on inflation?

Matiss: I mean, it doesn’t concern me. I’m rich, I don’t give a sh*t. (all laugh) 

Matiss: Sorry.

Kristaps: If you look at the fact that the inflation in Latvia and the Baltics is over 20%. 

Davis: It could be more so…

Kristaps: So you invest money, right? You earn a 12% yield, but you still lose money. 

Davis: But if you don’t invest, you lose 20% already. 

Kristaps: Then you lose 20%, yeah. 

Davis: But this is horrible. I think people that you know they’re spending on basic needs if it makes most of their income…. this is horrible. I don’t even want to know what’s going to happen this winter when the utility bills kick in… I think that’s still, you know, an unwanted scenario, but I mean, what can we do about it? Like literally? You know, there’s nothing. 

Matiss: Become a politician and…  

Davis: We’re not doing that one. 

Matiss: For me, it’s also like these macroeconomic things, it’s not much you can do about it unless you’re in a position to kind of really make a difference. But that’s very rare. And it’s super unfortunate. And to be honest, it’s just, I mean, like how people with average, let’s say in the Baltic States, average or below average income… how do you have any quality of life with such an increase in prices? Insane. But nevertheless, there are countries, for example, Sri Lanka, which are kind of infamous now, and we were a bit unfortunate to be there, but now it looks much better. But you know, if you see, if you think that we’re having struggles in Europe and in countries that are very civil, then if you go outside to more third world or like underdeveloped countries then, you understand that it can be much, much worse and we pretty much have nothing to complain about. So that’s always a perspective which is very valuable to get, and we have that fortune when we operate in these different places, different countries to have a real perspective 

Davis: And that the situation teaches to, you know, whoever’s the first-time investors and they’re getting into it that life ahead is not going to be rosy. So you better get your sh*t together when it comes to finances. You know, that’s the message pretty much. 

Kristaps: What about your finances? Do you invest in crypto, in sh*tcoins, in Luna? 

Davis: I did. 

Matiss: I did as well. 

Kristaps: In Luna or what? Or some other sh*t? 

Matiss: I don’t know where I messed it up (all laugh)

Davis: But yeah, my story is very simple. So before this mega crash, I started heavily investing in November. 

Matiss: (mockingly) Heavy!  

Davis: …heavily investing in November, December and then, you know, then there was… 

Matiss: And then January and then February and then crash! 

Davis: Yes, it’s somewhere in March. I was thinking, it cannot be worse than this. It cannot be worse than this! And then, you know, there was some trading involved, and there was like a lot of leverage involved….And then, long story short, all of it is gone by now. (all laugh)

It’s like, aaand it’s gone. It’s gone. But, you know, now I’m laughing about it. But it took a while to digest. You know, for two days I was out like, you know, in my bedroom, closed curtains. I was quite depressed. But, you know, then you understand, OK, things like that happen.

You know, take the lesson out of it, uh probably don’t do it that way again because you know crypto was not the mistake. 

Kristaps: …leverage, probably. 

Davis: There was leverage, there was timing, there was greed, there was also this element of you know — I’m smarter because I know all these smart guys that are in there for a long time; they’re *experts*…. which was not true again. So a lot of lessons from that, which is fine.

It’s like, OK, the next wave I hope I’ll ride out better than this one. 

Matiss: My two cents. For me, for example, crypto is still – because I’m not an expert and I don’t have the time, or I don’t prioritize the time to understand it well enough,–  I treat it as a casino. So I put in the money if I lose it, OK, that’s what it is. It’s just a bet. You know, it would be bigger or smaller. That’s pretty much that. And then peer-to-peer for sure. I mean, obviously, we’re kind of biased, or let’s say we have our own lending company that we can lend to and generate income for ourselves and so on. So it doesn’t make sense to kind of like lend necessarily elsewhere. But let’s say,  a peer-to-peer as a product where you lend to good loan originators, I think, it’s like super, super good when you know what you’re doing, and that’s it. And then I have some real estate — also fun experiences which we can talk about offline.

Vitalijs: I think that’s it. Thank you, Kristaps. Thank you, Matiss and Davis. 

Matiss: Kristaps, thanks. Much appreciated. Thanks. Much appreciated. 

Kristaps: Thank you for that. 

Davis: Welcome next time!