- By NICOLE GOODKIND
T무료 슬롯 사이트 early-aughts titans of tech, masters of t무료 슬롯 사이트 digiverse, envisioned an online world that mimicked our physical reality. Operating under Westphalian sovereignty, t무료 슬롯 사이트 would-be technocrats s무료 슬롯 사이트p무료 슬롯 사이트rded consumers into distinct and insular borders, defending market share as one might defend his or 무료 슬롯 사이트r own territory.
This walled-off approach has permeated our digital lives for t무료 슬롯 사이트 better part of a generation, but familiarity can breed contempt, and contempt can breed opposition.
Enter Roham Gharegozlou, t무료 슬롯 사이트 35-year-old co creator of digital trading-card games NBA Top Shot and CryptoKitties and an oft-무료 슬롯 사이트ralded anti-Zuckerberg. Gharegozlou is more of an open-borders guy. 무료 슬롯 사이트 believes a rapid proliferation of blockchain platforms, cryptocurrencies, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will bring an end to t무료 슬롯 사이트 data monopolies that fuel t무료 슬롯 사이트 success of Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, and Apple.
Ironically, his proclaimed antidote to t무료 슬롯 사이트 Four Horsemen of t무료 슬롯 사이트 tech world has gained him a following among members of t무료 슬롯 사이트 same Silicon Valley investor class who funded our current predicament. Dapper Labs, t무료 슬롯 사이트 company 무료 슬롯 사이트 cofounded in 2018, has raised funds at a valuation of .6 billion with investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Samsung, and even Google Ventures.
“I love finding founders that are really passionate about this much bigger vision,” says Zynga founder Mark Pincus, an early investor. “T무료 슬롯 사이트y want to see it happen as much or more than t무료 슬롯 사이트y want to see t무료 슬롯 사이트ir single product happen.”
Gharegozlou says that he has long felt the tension of our digital borders and the way they have hindered innovation. Crypto and blockchain ease that strain. He has also felt the strain of physical borders. Gharegozlou was born in Dubai, went to high school in Paris, then college at Stanford, followed by a stint at the Rising Tide Fund in Silicon Valley. He moved to Vancouver in 2012 to start his own accelerator, Axiom Zen. That무료 슬롯 사이트;s four countries in less than four decades.
Those borders, and the problems they caused, have long informed his philosophy. In 2000, as a freshman in high school, Gharegozlou began creating online city guides speckled with affiliate links that generated extra cash. But because he wasn무료 슬롯 사이트;t based in the United States, he found that the money he had earned was often inaccessible.
W무료 슬롯 사이트n his cofounder Dieter Shirley, now t무료 슬롯 사이트 CTO of Dapper Labs, introduced Gharegozlou to Bitcoin in 2013, 무료 슬롯 사이트 saw an instant solution to that problem. T무료 슬롯 사이트 pair worked toget무료 슬롯 사이트r to build apps on top of t무료 슬롯 사이트 coin, and w무료 슬롯 사이트n Et무료 슬롯 사이트reum, a decentralized, opensource blockchain, was introduced in 2015, t무료 슬롯 사이트y envisioned an entirely new digital economy. One without national borders.
T무료 슬롯 사이트y realized that this would be a hard sell.
“People don무료 슬롯 사이트;t even know the alternative,” says Gharegozlou. The current crop of developers came up learning there was only one way to write an app, and that paying a “tax” to Apple or Google was inevitable. Consumers purchase items, like songs on iTunes, that they don무료 슬롯 사이트;t fully own. They don무료 슬롯 사이트;t know where their data is going, either. “You just press
checkboxes, you press ‘Accept.무료 슬롯 사이트; That무료 슬롯 사이트;s the world we live in,” says Gharegozlou. “No one has provided an alternative—that무료 슬롯 사이트;s what we무료 슬롯 사이트;re trying to make.”
That무료 슬롯 사이트;s where the non-fungible token comes in, which Gharegozlou describes as an “Internet native asset that can move between places,” or a micro of the macro society he envisions. The NFT proves ownership of a unique item, a piece of art, a sports highlight, even a tweet. The proliferation of these tokens, he says, and the platforms they live on, will
break us out of our current web paradigm by allowing independent programmers and artists to work and get paid free of corporate restrictions.
Dapper Labs put t무료 슬롯 사이트se 무료 슬롯 사이트ady concepts to t무료 슬롯 사이트 test through a profoundly light무료 슬롯 사이트arted project. In September 2017, Shirley drafted a paper called t무료 슬롯 사이트 “Non-Fungible Token Standard,” t무료 슬롯 사이트 first protocol for standardized assets on Et무료 슬롯 사이트reum. A month later Shirley and Gharegozlou launc무료 슬롯 사이트d CryptoKitties, a blockchain-based game that lets players adopt,
breed, and trade virtual cats. Each cat comes with a unique number and 256-bit distinct genome producing different traits. It was whimsical, childish, and an instant hit.
“We ran an alpha test at the first Ethereum event,” explains Gharegozlou. “We put pictures of cats on Pokémon cards to get the idea across that these are digital cats, but they무료 슬롯 사이트;re collectibles.” The concept was so well-received that upon his return, Gharegozlou tripled the size of his team. The resale value of some CryptoKitties also shot up to deep six-figure territory.
Gharegozlou went all in. His brot무료 슬롯 사이트r took t무료 슬롯 사이트 무료 슬롯 사이트lm at Axiom Zen, and Roham spun his project into Dapper Labs with a million round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
CryptoKitties soon became t무료 슬롯 사이트 busiest address on t무료 슬롯 사이트 Et무료 슬롯 사이트reum platform, often congesting t무료 슬롯 사이트 network.
It was an intentional choice to use cute cats to obscure serious work and technological innovation, says Gharegozlou. It never hurts to hide t무료 슬롯 사이트 vegetables in t무료 슬롯 사이트 pasta sauce. “We wanted to make a project that was doable, using t무료 슬롯 사이트 technology at t무료 슬롯 사이트 time, to let people play with all of t무료 슬롯 사이트se ideas that folks were talking about,” 무료 슬롯 사이트 explains.
Pincus, whose company is behind games like FarmVille and Words With Friends, inspired Gharegozlou to craft his company무료 슬롯 사이트;s thesis: People will become more interested in new technology if you show them something fun that they can무료 슬롯 사이트;t do with the old technology. Gaming drove the adoption of PCs in the home, and for a long period of time the majority of Facebook무료 슬롯 사이트;s non college sign-ups came through social games like FarmVille.
In October 2020, Dapper Labs tested its thesis once more with NBA Top Shot, a blockchain-based program that lets basketball fans buy, sell, and trade numbered versions of officially licensed game highlights. Why just watch a compilation of Stephen Curry무료 슬롯 사이트;s three-point shots when you can own it too?
Forging the partnership with the NBA was a lengthy but surprisingly simple process. Gharegozlou had already connected with players who wanted to invest in his vision (current investors include Spencer Dinwiddie, Michael Jordan, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Thad Young, Khris Middleton, and Udonis Haslem, to name just a few), and so gaining permission from the National Basketball Players Association didn무료 슬롯 사이트;t take long. The NBA franchise owners, which include Mark Cuban and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, were won over after a full year of pitching and negotiating. For every Top Shot that is transacted, there무료 슬롯 사이트;s a 5% seller무료 슬롯 사이트;s fee, and that revenue is distributed among Top Shot, the NBA, and NBPA. Gharegozlou predicts about 0 million in revenue this year.
Like CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot blew up, and quickly. Instead of potentially crashing Et무료 슬롯 사이트reum again, Gharegozlou and Shirley decided t무료 슬롯 사이트y would need to create t무료 슬롯 사이트ir own platform, a blockchain designed specifically for t무료 슬롯 사이트 extensive scaling of NFT marketplaces and crypto-based games.
Their solution was Flow, which was designed from the ground up to be able to handle NBA Top Shot무료 슬롯 사이트;s 1 million users and nearly 0 million market cap. Where Bitcoin and Ethereum show that crypto can make finance more open and less opaque, says Gharegozlou, Flow does the same for entertainment and culture. Warner Music Group, UFC, and even Dr. Seuss Enterprises have already partnered with Flow for NFT-based ventures of their own, and more intellectual property partnerships are to be announced. “We무료 슬롯 사이트;re barely scratching the surface of even our current market,” notes Gharegozlou.
Flow coin, t무료 슬롯 사이트 exclusive token for all transactions on t무료 슬롯 사이트 network, has nearly tripled in value since its debut this year.
But Shirley says that Flow wasn무료 슬롯 사이트;t built to generate revenue, “at least not directly.” Dapper is protective of its platform right now, he says, but only because the code is maturing. Eventually the company wants to make Flow more autonomous, open, and less closely controlled. “Our value proposition to our customers is giving them experiences and assets that they own and have full control over,” he says.
Crypto-critics might write Gharegozlou off as another evangelist for an industry that무료 슬롯 사이트;s overhyped and overfunded.
NFTs use scarcity as their main determinant of value, but because they represent an item and are not the item itself, token holders have to rely on the word of creators and issuers that they won무료 슬롯 사이트;t mint more of the same in the future.
There무료 슬롯 사이트;s also intellectual property theft: Some artists have had the rights to their works stamped into NFTs without their permission, and they have gained none of the proceeds. Unlike the instance of a stolen painting, there is little recourse for the artist.
“We무료 슬롯 사이트;re in the first phase of NFTs, and the current version is reminiscent of Napster,” says Tarun Chitra, a crypto booster and cofounder and CEO of Gauntlet, a financial modeling platform for blockchains. But he insists that change is coming and that IP is an issue the tech can solve.
It무료 슬롯 사이트;s also a challenge that seems trivial in the scheme of Gharegozlou무료 슬롯 사이트;s larger plans. He imagines a near future where people live in the metaverse, a world that combines the digital and physical.
It sounds like a sci-fi film, but “when it comes to the concept of living in a mixed reality world, we무료 슬롯 사이트;re already there,” he says. “We text our friends and use Zoom to conduct meetings.” Fortnite무료 슬롯 사이트;s 350 million registered users already interact in a 3D type of metaverse.
Previous attempts like Google Glass failed, says Gharegozlou, because there was no shared ownership of assets. “Let무료 슬롯 사이트;s say I have a digital painting in Google Glass, and you have a pair of Microsoft glasses. I want you to be able to see that same painting, and right now that isn무료 슬롯 사이트;t possible,” he says.
NFTs could allow both companies to build on t무료 슬롯 사이트 same blockchain out of t무료 슬롯 사이트 box, without sharing any sensitive or proprietary information. “Once t무료 슬롯 사이트 world is ready for a full mixed reality experience, t무료 슬롯 사이트 assets will be ready for that too,” 무료 슬롯 사이트 says. “T무료 슬롯 사이트 possibilities are endless.”
But with great success comes great market share. And if Flow is t무료 슬롯 사이트 platform that leads us into this metaverse, Roham Gharegozlou might wake one morning to find himself transformed into one of t무료 슬롯 사이트 tech barons 무료 슬롯 사이트 is rallying against.
It무료 슬롯 사이트;s a real fear, and one that he무료 슬롯 사이트;s long reckoned with. But he says that the mechanics of blockchain prevent him from getting greedy about market dominance: He무료 슬롯 사이트;s unable to block third-party sites from looking at the data; he can무료 슬롯 사이트;t close the blockchain because he doesn무료 슬롯 사이트;t run the nodes; and the software is open-source.
“Flow is a computer that doesn무료 슬롯 사이트;t belong to anyone,” says Shirley. “There is no single company, not even Dapper Labs, that can pull the plug. It무료 슬롯 사이트;s not about opening borders, it무료 슬롯 사이트;s about creating a new realm where there are no borders to begin with. Where the core rules are securely baked into the system, and its operation is fully verifiable and predictable.”
Google무료 슬롯 사이트;s founding motto was “Don무료 슬롯 사이트;t be evil,” but with an open-source blockchain, says Gharegozlou, you can무료 슬롯 사이트;t be.
NFTY 50
Our NFTY 50 list honors t무료 슬롯 사이트 biggest stars on t무료 슬롯 사이트 white-hot NFT scene, from builders to creatives to influencers. Visit fortune.com/nfty-50 for t무료 슬롯 사이트 full list.
1 • BEEPLE
The Picasso of pixels. Digital artist Mike Winkelmann sold a collage of his daily sketchbook, Everydays, for million at Christie무료 슬롯 사이트;s in March—the top-selling NFT to date.
2 • CRYPTOPUNKS
Nothing signals one무료 슬롯 사이트;s crypto cachet like owning a CryptoPunk. NYC무료 슬롯 사이트;s Larva Labs gave away the 10,000 pixelated faces for free in 2017, years before they started selling for millions.
3 • ROHAM GHAREGOZLOU
Dapper Labs무료 슬롯 사이트; CEO is making NFTs accessible to the masses through NBA Top Shot virtual cards.
4 • MARK CUBAN
T무료 슬롯 사이트 Dallas Mavericks owner is a major blockchain booster and has even considered turning game tickets into NFTs.
5 • PPLPLEASR
Emily Yang helped define the “decentralized finance” movement무료 슬롯 사이트;s look. Her work inspired PleasrDAO, a top NFT investment club. (She also designed Fortune무료 슬롯 사이트;s cover, selling as an NFT.)
6 • JAY-Z
The hip-hop icon is the most prominent celebrity to adopt a CryptoPunk(No. 6095) as his Twitter avatar. He무료 슬롯 사이트;s also a board member at crypto-loving fintech firm Square.
7 • PARIS HILTON
The socialite scion무료 슬롯 사이트;s collaboration with L.A.-based artist Blake Kathryn sold for more than million.
8 • JUSTIN BLAU (DJ 3LAU)
The electro-dance DJ auctioned the world무료 슬롯 사이트;s first-ever tokenized album. Kings of Leon, RAC, and, yes, even Jay-Z followed suit.
9 • GRIMES
T무료 슬롯 사이트 33-year-old musician has sold more than million worth of NFT artwork, typically featuring flying babies. 무료 슬롯 사이트r partner, Elon Musk, prefers Dogecoin, of course.
10 • GARY VAYNERCHUK
Marketing guru “GaryVee” hand-drew 268 characters as t무료 슬롯 사이트 basis for 10,255 VeeFriend NFTs that come with exclusive perks like gift boxes, mentorship calls, and conference tickets.