Origynator Spotlight: Mike Schwartz

Origynators are Web3 creators. They are artists, directors, entrepreneurs and visionaries in animation, technology, sports, design, collectibles and entertainment. Many of these Origynators will premier curated NFT collections on the upcoming Impossible Things NFT marketplace. Others collaborate to develop unique collections powered by ORIGYN NFTs. In short, these creators are shaping the future of Web3, and we’ll feature the first cohort of these groundbreakers one-by-one.

The Architects

Earlier this month, we featured our first Origynator, Duwayne Dunham, and his creative explorations with ORIGYN Foundation. Today, we turn the spotlight on one of the architects behind the Origynators, Mike Schwartz, who is helping to spearhead the development of our ORIGYN NFT engine.

Mike’s role with ORIGYN is the latest milestone of a pioneering career in tech, finance and blockchain. VP at Goldman Sachs, Co-Founder of Genos, Partner at BCG Digital Ventures — his background covers progressive organizations across some of the largest consumer verticals in the world.

What’s at the core of this is a crystalized vision of how blockchain can transform the world as we know it.

Schwartz encapsulated this potential back in 2016 during his TED Talk in Paris:

“So what if we tore down some walls? Decentralized things? And evolved a new way to exist? You see, blockchains are ultimately about bringing the world closer together, breaking down barriers to entry, commoditizing trust just as the internet commoditized communications.”

To Schwartz, ORIGYN is both the culmination of his efforts to bring usable blockchain technology to consumers and industries, as well as the beginning of a long journey to radically transform how people transact, connect and create. Working alongside our industry partners and Web3 creators alike, Schwartz is building the architecture and infrastructure needed to design new pan-industry solutions for the benefit of society, business and government.

To accomplish this, Schwartz has leveraged and championed the Internet Computer (IC), the fast-growing blockchain ORIGYN uses to mint its NFTs and certificates of authenticity, due to its massive potential to store data and scale (among other important properties). This puts the complicated logic inside the NFT itself so that creators won’t have to worry about details like how payments work, who can have access to view their art, the process of royalties and more.

An ORIGYN NFT “…enables us to store immense amounts of data in video files or movies in their entirety, entirely on chain…. We can also house logic and code inside the NFT. Therefore the rules which govern the NFT are also entirely on-chain and in-canister. So any marketplace that interacts with an ORIGYN NFT will comply with those rule.” — Mike Schwartz, ORIGYN AMA

With ORIGYN’s approach to NFTs, Schwartz’s goal is to provide Web3 creators with the final word on how their work exists, while also delivering more authenticity and utility to consumers and businesses alike.

For more from Mike Schwartz, follow him on Twitter. And stay tuned for more Origynator and leadership spotlights coming soon here!

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