My career path into Blockchain and NFTs was a natural one. I started my professional life in computer science, quickly moving from private companies to my own product development business ventures. Around 2015 I began to look into blockchain technology, jumping in through research and writing applications. Things quickly progressed, leading me to build in the blockchain space with my business partner. We even created our own custom blockchain, slowly unlocking our own path in the industry.
It didn’t take long for us to decide where to place our focus. We wanted to use our knowledge as a resource for businesses to understand blockchain and start building in the space. This desire to become a resource for others goes back to my SaaS days, providing the tools for businesses to build whatever they want. I love being able to say “look at this business or person making a living in part thanks to my solution or my services.” That’s powerful.
NFTs quickly became a focal point, as our interest grew alongside the industry’s interest. It wasn’t just digital art and community building that excited us, but the long-term vision for NFTs. As a software developer, it’s really interesting to see how NFTs can transform your perspective of architecture or software. Once we experienced this “aha” moment, we went all in on this path, which led to Liteflow. Now, two years in, there is a lot of knowledge to share from our experiences.
The major challenges are definitely the technical aspects of this industry. Just last week I was speaking with a friend who managed a few companies and wanted to launch an NFT. His first thought was “We don’t really know how to do that…like how can we do this kind of thing?” This is coming from someone who has been in the space for quite some time. The technical challenges are real, and he was just talking about launching an NFT collection. That doesn’t even include the critical components of adding utility or factoring an exchange with your products. Things start to get complex very quickly.
Eventually the ecosystem will become mature enough that simplification occurs, and everyone can easily participate. This is really one of our primary focuses right now. Building the infrastructure and tooling that makes it as simple as possible for people so they don’t have to worry about the complexity of blockchain. Whatever those worries concern, transaction processes, decentralized exchanges, the differences between ERC 1155 and ERC 721 token standards. We are working on technology that eliminates these technical challenges while still maintaining extremely capable and secure technology on the blockchain to future-proof applications for everyone.
A major consideration here is how infrastructure can be built in a way that increases adoption and reduces the learning curve for businesses and their developers. This is making it much easier to do great work really quickly. Doing this in a way that is future-proof requires extreme focus on developments in Web3, new features, new business models, new ways that technology is being created. For example, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the future is multi-chain. This requires new ways to make the experience seamless, no matter the chain. We are really dedicated to providing this flexibility, ensuring that the switch from chain to chain is not a massive disruptor for a business.
Many people see the big marketplaces as the only place to go. It’s similar to how people migrated to eBay or Amazon to buy their stuff. These platforms are definitely necessary, and will always exist in some capacity. We need aggregators of all different types of products and offers. People tend to forget the value in owning your own space, and this is still something very new in Web3.
Take Shopify for example, the power of these self-run internet storefronts is massive. Marketplaces don’t always need to be one central point where everything exists. There are huge benefits to smaller shops inside of the larger ecosystem. It’s not complicated, but fear exists around the comparisons and the need to compete. When you believe you are up against a massive product with thousands of features, it can seem impossible to catch up. The truth is that you don’t need the same functionality to build something incredibly powerful for you and your community.
This is the beauty of blockchain. You can have smaller decentralized entities that are accessible via multiple places. You can have your big central hub, and all of the more niche offshoots. I think this thought process comes from our Web2 brains. Just because you own a marketplace with its own settings, doesn’t mean that others have to operate in the same way. Remember, a Web3 marketplace is really an aggregator, pulling in assets that live on the blockchain, so they can exist everywhere if you want them to. This is a massive opportunity for smaller, more niche players to build something special and valuable without worrying about what the big marketplaces are doing.
If you’re looking to build in Web3, I would say anytime is the right time. Many people are concerned about the market being down, but these conditions remove people who are just here for money. NFTs are going to explode eventually. Maybe not in the way people think with insane valuations, but in terms of Web3 adoption.
We still wake up everyday passionate about helping companies build and launch Web3 products. Even when you consider the scope of the creator economy, it isn’t just businesses, its small creators. We love being able to really help anyone grow using NFTs. If you’re exploring NFTs or Web3 products, we’re here to help bring your ideas to life.
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