Today we are featuring an interview with Sten Martin. He is an interesting fellow formerly of some very trendy tech startups. I first met him working on an NFT project for a friend of mine and I wanted him to talk about the NFT space. I’ve been studying web3 and the associated technology for some time and he is a true expert in this new technological frontier. So, today we’re going to explore the non-fungible token and what that means for artists (like me!). This is the first of two interviews on this subject.
1) Hi Sten, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your background in science and tech before we dive into NFTs!
I was first introduced to Bitcoin back in 2012 when I was still in graduate school. Over time, I began to attend meetups at a local restaurant that accepted Bitcoin as payment. It was here that I realized that building a future career in crypto was something that I would look to do. After I finished my post-doc, I went to work for SALT Lending, at the time was the first crypto lending company. After SALT, I went on to co-found Equa which was a digital rights management platform for company treasuries. While at Equa, I attended a few conferences between 2019–2021. It was clear at these conferences that NFT technology was advancing in the number of use cases and represented a future bright spot in blockchain.
2) How did you first get involved in the web3 space?
When I left Equa, I began thinking about Web3 and NFTs a lot, specifically how can I become involved and build a company. I decided that I wanted to create a company focused on monetizing onboarding companies, their shareholders, and customers to Web3.
3) Why don’t you tell us what is an NFT?
In its simplest form, an NFT is a certificated piece of data that is provably unique and that demonstrates provenance, and its history of ownership on an immutable public ledger. Owning an NFT allows you to prove ownership of what the NFT links to (image, video, music or even your house).
