Pratik Gauri, CEO of 5ire, on Earning Money by Doing Good, and More | Ep. 373

Cryptonews Podcast host Matt Zahab recently sat down for an exclusive chat with Pratik Gauri, the founder and CEO of 5ire, a fifth-generation blockchain ecosystem, built from the ground up with the United Nations (UN)’s sustainable development goals in mind.

Gauri discussed the intersection of profit and purpose, the concept of earning more money by benefiting the world, and how 5ire enables this.

He talked about the novel sustainable proof-of-stake model, its profitable ESG-as-a-service model, and the major (past and upcoming) milestones on the project’s path.

Earning Money by Doing Good

Gauri had built eight companies before 5ire. His goal has always been to impact a billion people positively, he told Matt.

After exiting the last company, he identified his niche – the Fifth Industrial Revolution.

This is when he realized he wanted to work at the intersection of profit and purpose, or money and impact.

Gauri wanted to “prove that people can make money while doing good.” Actually, the more good they do, the more money they make, he said.

Therefore, 5ire was his entry into the cryptocurrency/blockchain/Web3 space.

“I was motivated by how you can impact a billion people, but not through philanthropy because I wasn’t rich,” he said.

Gauri doesn’t even believe in that concept – he finds it unsustainable.

The concept he does believe in is empowering people so that they make more money than they’re currently making.

Million empowered people doing well will empower ten million more, which will continue to spread exponentially.

Through the process of building the eight companies, Gauri realized that integrating blockchain and crypto would expedite the progress and give power back to the community.

It is capable of providing a tool for financial inclusion and monetary improvement.

“This is where the banking is going to go. This is where the data storage is going to go,” Gauri remarked.

Never Done Before: Sustainable L1

The 5ire team decided to invent something never seen before, Gauri told Matt. They created a sustainable proof-of-stake model, embedding sustainability into the Layer-1 infrastructure itself.

It works to reward and incentivize sustainable practices from the core of the blockchain.

This is basically a nominated proof-of-stake (NPOS) with an ESG layer stacked on top.

The validator using more sustainable options receives more points, hence higher chances to validate the block and make more money.

“If you’re sustainable, you end up making more money in the whole ecosystem of 5ire versus if you’re in some other ecosystem,” said Gauri.

In a typical proof-of-stake, the rich get to validate the blocks and get richer, and the poor keep going poor. It’s very hard to bridge that gap, Gauri argues.

Therefore, 5ire came up with this sustainable proof-of-stake to “give an element to sustainable behavior.”

The team gives weightage to both NPOS and ESG.

“And now that weighted average helps incentivize sustainable behavior from bottoms up,” the CEO explained.

The model also includes a “unique” ESG score.

In fact, its ESG-as-a-service is a big revenue model for the project. Per Gauri, it is already working well with institutional clients and some Fortune 500 companies in the UAE and other countries.

The Journey Has Just Begun

However, blockchain is not cheap. Building a good product takes time, money, and a large team of technical engineers.

Building a blockchain comes with a set of challenges.

For example, 5ire had to scrape their blockchain two times before the final version was ready.

Also, finding and retaining good talent is very difficult.

Additionally, there’s the challenge of raising money.

However, 5ire’s idea “resonated with a lot of early investors.” About 250 investors invested between $100,000 and $200,000 each.

The team hit the goal and started building the technology. Then an investor on the equity side wanted to invest $100 million on a $1.5 billion valuation, which gave them a unicorn status.

The team, however, returned the money, saying they didn’t need as much. Once they’ve listed the token, they would make money. Additionally, they’d collect gas fees once the mainnet goes live.

In December 2023, the team did the IEO on Bybit, followed by listings on other exchanges. “We’re going to do some more listings now in this bull market,” Gauri said.

When it comes to the mainnet, 5ire has made some key partnerships, including the Indian government and a state government in the United States.

They’ve also accomplished milestones on institutional adoption and retail sides, the CEO says.

Additionally, more than 200 dapps are going to be building on 5ire, “so I think the journey has just begun for us.”

Hopefully, he added, the entire crypto market will go from $2.5 trillion to $5-6 trillion. 5ire would get good liquidity for dapps, which would give them a high total value locked (TVL).

And the message remains the same, he says. “You can actually make money while you do good. Even if you have something built on sustainability around environment, friendly stuff, you can still make money.”

What is Next for 5ire?

As for what awaits the project in the near future, Gauri noted that the token is listed on four exchanges and will get further listings in the next few months.

Next, the team is working on adoption and getting good projects. The biggest focus is AI and RWA.

The third biggest focus is the native DEX. “We’ve been building it for a long while now, and we are launching it very soon,” Gauri said.

Additionally, the team is working on “a funny meme launchpad.”

Lastly, the project offers a large, $10-million grant program, while the next one will rise to $25 million.

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That’s not all.

In this interview, Gauri also discussed:

• professional life before moving into crypto;
• investing in crypto;
• the challenges of building a blockchain: bear market, talent, team, and investors;
• integrating AI into your own L1 blockchain;
• the drivers of the bull run this season: AI, RWA, and DePIN;
• sustainability approach: how 5ire minimizes the carbon footprint;
• combining profit and purpose – the secret sauce of business;
• environmentally responsible blockchains.

You can watch the full podcast episode here.

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About Pratik Gauri

Pratik Gauri is the founder and CEO of 5ire.org, a fifth-generation blockchain ecosystem built with the United Nations (UN)’s sustainable development goals in mind.

It is one of the world’s fastest-growing unicorns that achieved the coveted billion-dollar valuation less than one year from the day it was founded.

Gauri conceptualized the term the Fifth Industrial Revolution, or 5IR, as a founding principle for shaping a for-purpose world that combines sustainability, innovation, and business viability.

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