From NFT.NYC 2024 in New York City, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Sam Whitaker, the founder of Quixotish, a newly launched startup focused on the usage of blockchain to drive the success of charities and non-profits. Given how Blockchain Journal is focused on implementations of blockchain meant to drive new or improved business outcomes for big brands and enterprises, Quixotish's first customer – St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – caught David's eye as one of the most well-known non-profits on the planet. During the interview, Whitaker explains how Quixotish's novel blockchain-based approach to driving charitable donations works.
The general idea, as Whitaker describes it, is for a charity like St. Jude to curate donations of valuable blockchain-based assets (e.g., NFTs) and then for the charity to conduct an auction where those assets are sold on the secondary market with the proceeds flowing to St. Judes as fiat currency. On the surface, it sounds pretty simple. But it's also important for donors to know that when they're dealing with a relatively anonymized address on a blockchain, that address actually belongs to the intended charity. In other words, it can be a bit more complicated than it sounds.
To ensure accountability, Whitaker highlights the steps he took with St. Jude, including the video recording of wallet setup sessions involving St. Jude representatives and the subsequent publication of these videos on Quixotish's platforms. The interview touches upon the significance of St. Jude's reputation and operational scale, framing it as the "Google" or "Apple" of the charity world, given the charity's multi-million dollar daily cash flow. Whitaker underscores the hospital's commitment to providing free care to children and openly sharing its research.
Towards the end, Whitaker discusses the practical aspects of the auction, including its timing and accessibility to both crypto and fiat currency users by virtue of St. Jude's reliance on a combined NFT marketplace and custodial wallet solution from Magic Eden. By supporting crypto users across a long list of public blockchains as well as non-crypto users who prefer to deal in fiat currencies like the US dollar, he underscores the initiative's inclusivity, welcoming participation from individuals regardless of their familiarity with blockchain technology.
To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:
https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-quixotish-is-helping-st-jude-charity-raise-money-blockchain-technology
The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHr3gx8Jy78
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From NFT.NYC 2024 in New York City, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Sam Whitaker, the founder of Quixotish, a newly launched startup focused on the usage of blockchain to drive the success of charities and non-profits. Given how Blockchain Journal is focused on implementations of blockchain meant to drive new or improved business outcomes for big brands and enterprises, Quixotish's first customer – St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – caught David's eye as one of the most well-known non-profits on the planet. During the interview, Whitaker explains how Quixotish's novel blockchain-based approach to driving charitable donations works.
The general idea, as Whitaker describes it, is for a charity like St. Jude to curate donations of valuable blockchain-based assets (e.g., NFTs) and then for the charity to conduct an auction where those assets are sold on the secondary market with the proceeds flowing to St. Judes as fiat currency. On the surface, it sounds pretty simple. But it's also important for donors to know that when they're dealing with a relatively anonymized address on a blockchain, that address actually belongs to the intended charity. In other words, it can be a bit more complicated than it sounds.
To ensure accountability, Whitaker highlights the steps he took with St. Jude, including the video recording of wallet setup sessions involving St. Jude representatives and the subsequent publication of these videos on Quixotish's platforms. The interview touches upon the significance of St. Jude's reputation and operational scale, framing it as the "Google" or "Apple" of the charity world, given the charity's multi-million dollar daily cash flow. Whitaker underscores the hospital's commitment to providing free care to children and openly sharing its research.
Towards the end, Whitaker discusses the practical aspects of the auction, including its timing and accessibility to both crypto and fiat currency users by virtue of St. Jude's reliance on a combined NFT marketplace and custodial wallet solution from Magic Eden. By supporting crypto users across a long list of public blockchains as well as non-crypto users who prefer to deal in fiat currencies like the US dollar, he underscores the initiative's inclusivity, welcoming participation from individuals regardless of their familiarity with blockchain technology.
To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:
https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-quixotish-is-helping-st-jude-charity-raise-money-blockchain-technology
The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHr3gx8Jy78
Lead Author of the NFT Standard Predicts NFTs Will Melt Into The Fabric of Our Everyday Lives
Blockchain Journal with David Berlind
25 minutes 18 seconds
1 year ago
Lead Author of the NFT Standard Predicts NFTs Will Melt Into The Fabric of Our Everyday Lives
In this fascinating bit of tribal storytelling, BlockhainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Will Entriken, the lead author of the NFT standard (technically referred to as the ERC-721 specification) at the NFT.NYC conference in New York City.
Entriken is a pivotal figure in the history and development of blockchain-based NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Without his Herculean efforts, the ERC-721 spec as it's known today might not even exist. The same might be said for the current process of ratifying any ERC spec. ERC stands for "Ethereum Request for Comments," a phrase and community-driven consensus process that harkens back to the time-tested RFC (Requests for Comments) process used by the Internet Engineering Task Force to set standards for Internet protocols like the Transmission Control Protocol (the "TCP" part of "TCP/IP"). During the interview, Entriken describes how an entire open source political, deliberation, and development process had to be scaffolded before a standard like ERC-721 could be brought across the finish line. That scaffolding went on to benefit other ERCs, the standards that sit behind the Ethereum public blockchain and that are often used as the basis for the standard specs found on other blockchains. Entriken explains how his history of working at Google on Linux-related open source projects prepared him for the role he played in establishing a standard process for ERC ratification while applying that process to the ERC-721 spec for NFTs.
Entriken didn't just play a pivotal role in the development of the ERC process and 721 spec – he is the first to very humbly give credit to others who were involved in the work. He was also the first to mint an ERC-721 compliant NFT under the name "Su Squares."
As the conversation progressed, Entriken and David explored the diverse applications of NFTs beyond the realm of art and collectibles. They discussed how NFTs could revolutionize supply chain transparency, corporate accountability, and consumer trust. Entriken emphasized that while NFTs serve as the underlying technology, the true value lies in the principles they embody, such as transparency, authenticity, and verifiability.
Looking towards the future, Entriken outlined a vision where NFTs seamlessly integrate into commonplace transactions, becoming as ubiquitous as the databases that currently underpin many daily interactions. Much the same way we don't talk about how databases are integral to our everyday lives, he envisions a shift away from a conversation about NFTs as they transition into a somewhat hidden infrastructural role. Of course, for this to be true about NFTs, it must also be true of blockchain as well.
To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:
https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/lead-author-nft-standard-predicts-nfts-will-melt-fabric-our-everyday-lives
The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygg7WcAcj1o
Blockchain Journal with David Berlind
From NFT.NYC 2024 in New York City, BlockchainJournal.com editor-in-chief David Berlind interviews Sam Whitaker, the founder of Quixotish, a newly launched startup focused on the usage of blockchain to drive the success of charities and non-profits. Given how Blockchain Journal is focused on implementations of blockchain meant to drive new or improved business outcomes for big brands and enterprises, Quixotish's first customer – St. Jude Children's Research Hospital – caught David's eye as one of the most well-known non-profits on the planet. During the interview, Whitaker explains how Quixotish's novel blockchain-based approach to driving charitable donations works.
The general idea, as Whitaker describes it, is for a charity like St. Jude to curate donations of valuable blockchain-based assets (e.g., NFTs) and then for the charity to conduct an auction where those assets are sold on the secondary market with the proceeds flowing to St. Judes as fiat currency. On the surface, it sounds pretty simple. But it's also important for donors to know that when they're dealing with a relatively anonymized address on a blockchain, that address actually belongs to the intended charity. In other words, it can be a bit more complicated than it sounds.
To ensure accountability, Whitaker highlights the steps he took with St. Jude, including the video recording of wallet setup sessions involving St. Jude representatives and the subsequent publication of these videos on Quixotish's platforms. The interview touches upon the significance of St. Jude's reputation and operational scale, framing it as the "Google" or "Apple" of the charity world, given the charity's multi-million dollar daily cash flow. Whitaker underscores the hospital's commitment to providing free care to children and openly sharing its research.
Towards the end, Whitaker discusses the practical aspects of the auction, including its timing and accessibility to both crypto and fiat currency users by virtue of St. Jude's reliance on a combined NFT marketplace and custodial wallet solution from Magic Eden. By supporting crypto users across a long list of public blockchains as well as non-crypto users who prefer to deal in fiat currencies like the US dollar, he underscores the initiative's inclusivity, welcoming participation from individuals regardless of their familiarity with blockchain technology.
To watch the video version of this podcast or read its full-text transcript, go to:
https://blockchainjournal.com/interview/how-quixotish-is-helping-st-jude-charity-raise-money-blockchain-technology
The video can also be watched on Blockchain Journal's YouTube Channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHr3gx8Jy78
