Roham Gharegozlou, Chief Executive Officer of Dapper Labs, States That Many Aspects of Life Are Non-Fungible | Episode 377

Cryptonews Podcast host Matt Zahab recently engaged in a revealing discussion with Roham Gharegozlou, the Founder and CEO of NFT powerhouse Dapper Labs and a Board Member of the Flow Foundation, the non-profit organization managing aspects of the layer-1 blockchain Flow.

Gharegozlou elaborated on the notion that the cryptocurrency sector and genuine ownership extend beyond mere currency, asserting that many elements of our everyday existence are non-fungible and that NFTs have yet to experience their significant mainstream breakthrough.

He mentioned the revival of CryptoKitties and highlighted that FLOW saw a greater number of contracts deployed in the two weeks following its major update than in the preceding two years combined.

Ownership is More Than Currency: Most Aspects of Life Are Non-Fungible

His previous venture, Axiom Zen, engaged in extensive experimentation, beginning to “explore” Bitcoin in 2014.

The team shifted their attention to Ethereum, which represented “the promise of a decentralized computer” that allowed developers to create any application.

However, the applications available at that time did not meet their expectations, the CEO noted. They were primarily “essentially cryptocurrencies” – speculative assets that individuals purchased during ICOs, anticipating a price surge.

Nonetheless, the Axiom Zen team was intrigued by the idea of genuine ownership, where holders maintain control over their assets, and developers create tools without needing permission.

“That appears to be a much larger concept than just currency,” Gharegozlou contended.

This perspective led the team to develop CryptoKitties based on the belief that “crypto encompasses much more than currency.”

Flow Community Rewards Season 1 has commenced!
Season 1 Roadmap:
App Rewards
Points System
Rewards Store
Now it’s time to interact with apps, earn boxes and keys, and unlock points to redeem rewards in the forthcoming rewards store. pic.twitter.com/Dxitv5zeW4

— Flow (+) (@flow_blockchain) October 1, 2024

The CEO stated, “most aspects of your life are non-fungible.”

While money is fungible, family, friends, homes, vehicles, personal data, and the billions spent annually on digital assets within games – representing individuals’ entire digital identities – are all non-fungible.

At that time, there was no method to represent non-fungible items on a blockchain like Ethereum.

This realization led the team to establish the concept of a non-fungible token and the inaugural NFT standard: ERC-721.

Happy #NFTDay everyone!
Today marks 7 years since the term Non-Fungible Token was coined by @dete73 and the ERC-721 standard was launched!
Learn more about the history of NFTs and how to celebrate today in this @opensea article https://t.co/9ptPqcNO9t

— NFT Day | September 20 (@OfficialNFTDay) September 20, 2024

They released it in September 2017, “but not many people showed interest until we introduced something exciting on top of it.” That was the initial version of the highly popular CryptoKitties.

CryptoKitties Live

In the process of developing CryptoKitties, the team recognized their desire to explore the gaming sector and incorporate the idea of collecting.

Collecting is “intrinsic to nearly every mobile game. Moreover, if you consider it, [it’s been present] since the beginning of human civilizations, with individuals collecting seashells on the beach and [using them as] currency.”

However, once the game was launched, the new NFT standard “essentially dominated Ethereum.” A significant portion of the network’s computational resources was directed towards breeding kitties.

“We received threats from individuals attempting to conduct ICOs. It was an interesting time,” Gharegozlou remarked.

At this juncture, they understood that, while the technology held promise, it was challenging to utilize. Determining the appropriate actions at any given moment was a labor-intensive task for users.

However, scalability posed an even greater challenge. Breeding a single cat rapidly escalated from fractions of a cent to hundreds of dollars.

some of you don’t know that this cat was ethereum’s original scaling problem pic.twitter.com/yD895ml2wu

— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS – rsa.eth (@RyanSAdams) September 12, 2024

“And that disrupted many aspects of the game economy and convinced us that we needed to construct the next-generation network,” the CEO stated.

This ultimately resulted in the creation of FLOW and significant products like NBA Top Shot.

But CryptoKitties continues to thrive!

The team recently unveiled a new version of the game as the initial step towards a broader CryptoKitties universe.

This universe will allow users to transfer cats from the original CryptoKitties and gain “much more capabilities at a significantly lower cost.”

New @CryptoKitties game just dropped.
Logging off to grind ZEN for the rest of the day.
Don’t @ me if your ZPS is under 20k. https://t.co/jjSwWfbQez

— Flow (+) (@flow_blockchain) October 1, 2024

No, NFTs Haven’t Had Their Big Mainstream Moment Yet

NFTs are far from obsolete.

In fact, “I don’t believe we’ve truly experienced genuine mainstream NFT excitement yet,” Gharegozlou stated.

Although NFTs were prevalent in the news during 2020-2021, acquiring an NFT remained a challenge.

One of the problems was the complexity of the process, but the costs were also a significant barrier.

The CEO mentioned that at that time, certain crypto and blockchain firms would “assist” celebrities in purchasing their first Board Ape due to the difficulties involved in the process.

However, currently, “the foundational elements are in place for it to be much more straightforward.”

“I’m not a trader; I’m a builder,” Gharegozlou remarked, emphasizing his commitment to streamlining the process for the next generation of participants.

While user experience requires enhancement, builders and the culture surrounding the products in this industry must “embrace what makes the technology unique.”

The game launched just a week ago, but new players are joining every day and getting into the fun.
Join over 25,000 egg petters and get started now: https://t.co/PMXNI6cNCB

— CryptoKitties (@CryptoKitties) October 8, 2024

Billions are spent on games and other closed digital environments, effectively wasting that money.

Simultaneously, the majority of the global population has yet to have the chance to engage in an open economy.

Thus, builders must provide value back to the individuals creating it, rather than concentrating on “speculative games that harm people in the process.”

This strategy will enable millions worldwide to access their first crypto opportunity and wallet, as well as their initial exposure to a peer-to-peer network. There is no intermediary. “You’re delivering services and receiving compensation for it,” the CEO stated.

More Contracts Deployed on FLOW in Two Weeks Than Two Prior Years

Dapper Labs and FLOW are distinct entities. However, FLOW is the blockchain that supports all products, including CryptoKitties, NFL, NBA, and Disney.

Its partners include Fortune 500 companies like Mattel, along with Ticketmaster, “one of the largest Web3 projects that isn’t a cryptocurrency exchange.”

Additionally, Apple is a close collaborator, hosting several of the team’s NFT applications on the App Store.

Big news from @flowty_io : The new NFT Launchpad feature has been a massive success!
With over 70,000 mints, 700+ active wallets, and nearly 250 collections launched, the response has been incredible!
The @flow_blockchain community is showing up strong pic.twitter.com/8gnLWxiXP0

— Adrià (@adriaparcerisas) October 3, 2024

While many may still perceive blockchains as merely “token-moving machines,” this technology is designed for universal accessibility, including its DeFi components, the CEO asserted.

“The most exciting aspect of FLOW is that it is now fully EVM equivalent, meaning everything that functions on Ethereum will operate seamlessly on Flow.”

In the two weeks following the launch of this update, “we’ve observed nearly as many contracts deployed as in the entire two to three years prior,” Gharegozlou stated. “I’m quite enthusiastic about this because it indicates more developers are creating more products for our offerings, too.”

The name of this most significant network upgrade since FLOW’s inception is Crescendo.

The Flow Crescendo upgrade is unlocking the future of consumer web3
Crescendo, now live, is the largest upgrade since the genesis of Flow. It eliminates complexities for developers and facilitates full interoperability with the broader Web3 ecosystem.
https://t.co/7yHKDOQZBw pic.twitter.com/ERq8zMxqiR

— Flow (+) (@flow_blockchain) September 5, 2024

This upgrade enhances various components of the network, from the core architecture to the programming language, significantly increasing its speed.

It is “almost backward compatible because we designed FLOW to be such a forward-looking network that we reinvented the wheel in a necessary manner,” Gharegozlou stated.

Consequently, it is now considerably easier for any developer to initiate and launch an EVM product within a day, equipped with all the necessary tools.

They no longer need to be concerned about the infrastructure and can concentrate solely on developing their applications and enhancing user experience.

In September, the Flow ecosystem achieved significant milestones in developer adoption & support:
• Launched Crescendo, the largest upgrade since the network’s creation
• Featured in keynotes and panels at KBW
• Most built-on blockchain at @ETHGlobal Singapore
Full blog below pic.twitter.com/HAQM5yjBAx

— Flow (+) (@flow_blockchain) October 8, 2024

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That’s not all.

Gharegozlou also touched upon:

• the origin story of Crypto Kitties and NFTs;
• the inspiration for the NFT standard derived from real estate;
• the current state and future of the NFT market;
• the opportune moment to engage with NFL products;
• the Crescendo Upgrade;
• the implications of EVM equivalence for Flow, developers, and users;
• sports forecasts.

You can view the complete podcast episode here.

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About Roham Gharegozlou

Roham Gharegozlou is the Founder and CEO of Dapper Labs and a Board Member of the Flow Foundation.

Under Gharegozlou’s guidance, Dapper Labs created NBA Top Shot, NFL ALLDAY, and Disney Pinnacle.

He played a key role in the development of Flow, a blockchain tailored for mainstream adoption. The chain serves as the foundation for consumer Web3, attracting major brands such as Disney, Mattel, and Ticketmaster/LiveNation, with over 45 million user accounts on the network.

After establishing Axiom Zen in 2012, Gharegozlou developed numerous award-winning products and companies, including Routific and Zenhub.

During this period, his team introduced ERC-721 to mainstream audiences and coined the term ‘NFT’ with CryptoKitties, one of the first blockchain games to achieve widespread acclaim. Gharegozlou holds BA, BS, and MS degrees from Stanford University.

The post Roham Gharegozlou, CEO of Dapper Labs, Says Most Things in Life Are Non-Fungible | Ep. 377 appeared first on Cryptonews.