Back in 2017, serially entrepreneur, Marc Blinder, set out on a journey to harnessing the power of blockchain technology to make the barriers to entry a lot less challenging and limited to those with tech skills and knowledge.
The co-founder and CEO of AIKON and core contributor to the ORE Network founded his first company at 28-years old – a social network called MobilePlay. After selling, he held the Creative Director position at Context Optional. Then, before Adobe purchased the company for $400m, he set up the social business across EMEA at Efficient Frontier.
His past success, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial spirit have been proven successfulover years of starting, developing, and improving the value of businesses, so let’s hear about how he and his founding team intend on impacting the world of crypto and blockchain.
Why did you decide to enter the blockchain and crypto space?
“Currently, people are reliant on Web2 technologies. While they have advanced greatly and give people access to a world of information, they’ve become a tool for invading privacy and data farming. Now, Web 3.0, blockchain, and crypto seek to decentralize power, moving it away from large tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon and putting it in the hands of the everyday consumer, enabling them to secure their own privacy. However, as with any new technology, and in this case drastic lifestyle change, adoption can be difficult. Especially without the proper industry education. We thought, if we can make it easier for businesses and individuals to adopt blockchain technologies, using the Web 2.0 identities they’re used to using and include cross-chain compatibility, then the market potential is huge.”
What core problems does ORE solve?
“Those with little-to-no blockchain and crypto knowledge struggle to adapt and adopt these technologies. From a business perspective, it’s challenging to develop an ecosystem that functions effectively cross-chain, limiting your solution and organization to a smaller audience. Additionally, as a user without masses of tech knowledge or experience, knowing where to start establishing a portfolio of digital assets is daunting.
We want as many people as possible to access and benefit from this game-changing technology. Use cases built on the Open Rights Exchange (ORE) Network, like ORE ID and ORE Vault, work across multiple blockchains and can easily connect to the off-chain world. Consumers manage all of their assets and rights under one account instead of having pools of capital siloed on different blockchains and off-chain accounts. The best part, unlike other chains, ORE connects web 2.0 identities to accounts on multiple blockchains, creating single sign-on for cross-chain interoperability.”
What makes your project different from the rest?
“Quite simply – our team. We’re a collection of seasoned industry leaders from Ripple, EOS New York, Microsoft, and Adobe.
Tray Lewin, AIKON CTO and ORE Chief Architect, was Global Technology Strategist at Microsoft. Also, he led as co-founder and CTO of several successful start-ups, including Abaka Inc.
AIKON Head Of Strategy and ORE DAO Strategist Rick Schlesinger led Digital Asset Product at the exchange Bullish and deepened the engagement with blockchains as SVP at block.one. Additionally, he co-founded EOS New York, where he led on block strategy. Also, he’s advised many Fortune 500 companies.
Catlin Abejon, AIKON VP, Marketing and CX and ORE Marketing Strategy, previously led content and strategy at Ripple. Before that, she cut her teeth in marketing at the esteemed venture capital Greylock Partners.
We all have extensive knowledge and experience in the industry. Our specialties complement one another, meaning we can come together and formulate solutions to ever-present problems, making blockchain and crypto more accessible to everyone. To find out more about our work, head over to ore.network and aikon.com to learn more.”
