How Jon Fisher Is Crafting Carbon Neutral NFTs That Give Back
The Silicon Valley-based serial entrepreneur’s new ViciNFT company helps design, develop and manage carbon neutral NFTs that support charities.
Presented by Grit Daily
The NFT craze seems to be finally over. After months of bad news for the crypto space, filled with news of celebrity crypto scams, crypto giants going bankrupt, and increasing calls for crypto regulation, people now understood that crypto is not meant to be a way to get rich quickly. However, no one should get confuse the end of the NFT craze with the end of NFT technology, which is very much here to stay.
The increasing awareness around NFT and crypto scams has resulted in an unprecedented cleanup. Now entrepreneurs, investors, inventors, and philanthropists can focus on taking advantage of the full potential of the technologies. One of the people leading the charge in this regard is Silicon Valley-based serial entrepreneur Jon Fisher, the mind behind startups like CrowdOptic, Bharosa, NetClerk, and AutoReach.
Jon has been well known in Silicon Valley for being a pioneer who’s often at the forefront of innovation and taking risks others won’t. For example, he was one of the first people to make use of augmented reality (AR) to develop what is now called “intelligent live streaming,” which effectively “allows you to look through walls.” Today, Jon has been especially interested in technologies like NFTs, combining them with his interests in philanthropic endeavors.
ViciNFT was born as a result of this interest and Jon’s cooperation with other entrepreneurs like Vit Kantor, Richard Smith, and Jordan French. The company helps individuals and organizations design, develop, and manage NFTs that are not only carbon-neutral but also help support charities. To date, ViciNFT has sold over $15 million in NFTs in partnership with names like American singer Michelle Phillips, the Napoleon Hill Foundation, Jed Diamond, and Kathie Lee Gifford.
“Technology should be all about making life easier and better for as many people as possible. You can see what crowdfunding has done for people all over the world over the past decade when it comes to achieving their dreams and getting the help they need, ” Says Jon.
“To me, NFTs seems like the continuation of many existing technologies with the additional range that the decentralization of blockchain technology brings both in terms of applications and reach.”
Jon Fisher’s heartfelt commencement speech at the University of San Francisco in 2018 has been watched and read by over 10 million people over the past 5 years. With it, not only were Jon’s philanthropic views in full view for the world to see, but they would also be immortalized in two NFTs in partnership with an American multinational publishing company Wiley.
The NFTs would sell for a total of around 16 ETH and see 25% of the proceeds being donated to education and ocean cleanup efforts. While these were not even close to being the most expensive NFTs sold in 2021, their sale kickstarted ViciNFT’s charity efforts.
“Not everything in Silicon Valley, or any industry, or life for that matter need be portrayed as home runs or strike-outs, success or failure. It’s just what you hear about so often because it’s what sells newspapers,” said Jon in his commencement address.
“You can have an idea that doesn’t yield a better way to do your job or give rise to a new company but changes your life. What’s that worth? I agreed to join my primary school board, which changed my life.”
Few speeches by entrepreneurs can better encapsulate their own stories and motivations. The fact that Jon had come up with the idea for it seven years before he shared it with the graduates is not only impressive but also reflective of Jon’s character. Most people will change their way of thinking and acting over a period of seven years. Jon’s motivations and actions, on the other hand, are immutable… quite like an NFT.
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