NEXT with John Koetsier

Will NFTs be a trillion-dollar market by 2030? Or will they vanish in a blazing explosion of hate from all the naysayers?

(I might give even odds on each side, actually!)

In this episode of TechFirst I chat with Rarible chief product officer Alex Salnikov. And yes, he’s aware that there’s way too many bored apes, yacht apes, space apes, technicolor apes, and all other kinds of crypto mishmash digital art that are vying for the stupid money that is out there chasing NFTs.

But, he says, half of all digital commerce doesn’t need to have a physical component at all. And that would transform the future of commerce. Using, of course, the foundation built by today’s NFTs.

But we’re early. In fact, we’re just now in the “Cambrian explosion,” Salnikov says, which will birth a massive amount of innovation and completely change the face of commerce, crypto, and how we buy, own, and share the things we want.

Links:

Rarible: https://rarible.com/

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So you got a great deal on your brand-new mutant ape yacht puppy NFT? But is it legit?

DeviantArt is now scanning 5 million NFTs a week. Every month, it's finding  40,000 stolen, infringing, fraudulent NFTs. In other words, the people minting the NFTs don't actually own the images in the first place ... somewhat ironically since the whole idea of an NFT is prove ownership.

NFTs are clearly the new gold rush (you have mine, right?) But where there’s gold, there’s thieves and opportunists, and apparently, that’s just as true of NFTs as crypto in general.

DeviantArt is the world’s largest art community and has been around since 2000. It now has over 61 million members, and it's getting involved to ensure its members' art doesn't get stolen.

In this TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with DeviantArt CMO Liat Karpel Gurwicz and COO Moti Levy.

Sponsor:

SMRT1, a Smart Vending Machine Platform that transforms traditional vending hardware into "Smarter, Better, Faster" automated retail kiosks, a convenience store without the store.

Links:

SMRT1: https://smrt1.ca/

DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

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How soon will we have robot surgeons? Health care has gone remote lately, but in reality, most of it is fairly simple: video conferencing during Covid.

But just recently for the first time ever a robot surgeon at Johns Hopkins University performed abdominal surgery on soft tissue. Granted … it was on a pig, not a human … but STAR, or Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot, was a success. And that means there's significant hope that robot surgeons are not only possible but a reality.

Unfortunately, it might be a decade or two before this is normal. But technology does advance quickly ... and we need it to. Healthcare is unevenly and inequitably available both globally and nationally, and cheap, fast, effective surgeries would be a huge boost to health care outcomes.

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we chat with Tamir Wolf, CEO and co-founder of surgical intelligence platform Theator.

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

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Studies say you can prevent about 50% of mental health challenges if you catch and address them early. Doctors from Cincinnati Children’s hospital are using the world’s second-most powerful supercomputer to help solve mental health right at the start: when we're kids.

This is a big deal.

About 13% of us suffer from some form of mental health disorder ... that’s 971 million people globally. And it’s only gotten worse since Covid.

In this TechFirst with John Koetsier, we meet and chat with Dr. John Pestian, who is leading the effort.

Links:

Cincinnati Children's hospital: https://www.cincinnatichildrens.org

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

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Thinking to type sounds interesting to most of us. Crazy and futuristic, yes, but also freeing and fast. But for those with massive spinal cord injuries or degenerative diseases, it's an absolute lifeline.

In this TechFirst, we chat with Marcus Gerhardt, CEO of Blackrock Neurotech, about a brain-computer interface they've invented, "installed" for people who cannot use their arms or legs anymore, and enabled typing, speech, and the use of robotic arms to feed themselves and more.

Blackrock's tech enables thought-to-text typing at 90 characters per minute with 94% accuracy (just imagine what Dr. Stephen Hawking could have done with this) and gives tetraplegic patients the power to move a prosthetic arm, grab a glass of water, and drink by themselves again for the first time since their tragic accidents.

Links:

Blackrock Neurotech: https://blackrockneurotech.com

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

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Can we save the coral reefs by 3D printing more? Not reefs themselves, of course: those are built by living creatures, the coral ... but by 3D printing the substrate that corals can attach to and kickstarting the process of reef construction.

In this TechFirst, we chat with marine biologist Astrid Kramer and 3D printing expert Nadia Fani about their crowdfunding startup, Coastruction.

Scientists say we've lost half the world's coral reefs, and that puts a quarter of the world's fish at risk. Astrid and Nadia are trying to help reverse that, with the help of 3D printing and local groups all over the planet. Their proposed 3D printer uses sand and other local materials, and can adapt the size and shape of the substrate to local needs as determined by depth, tide, waves, shoreline, and more.

Links:

Coastruction: https://www.coastruction.com

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

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Have you taken a flying Uber yet? We're in the middle of a flight revolution.

In the past two years, there's been $5 billion of investment in personal drones, multicopters, autonomous helicopters, and vectored thrust aircraft. 129 different companies are developing almost 170 different air taxi, cargo, vertical takeoff or landing craft. Many of these, 65%, are doing electrical power and 25% are going with hybrid power models. 

So what's happening here? Why has investment almost 10X'd in a little over a decade? And why is cargo drones so hot, while air taxis are so cold?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, we're chatting with Daniel Shaposhnikov, partner at Phystech Ventures.

Links:

Phystech: https://phystech.vc

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

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What if plants could tell us when pests are attacking them, or they’re too dry, or they need more fertilizer. One startup is gene engineering farm plants so they can communicate in in fluorescent colors. The result: a farmer’s  phone, drone, or even satellite imagery can reveal what is happening in hundreds of acres of fields … 

That leads to better food, fewer crop failures, and more revenue for farmers.

In this TechFirst with John Koetsier we meet Shely Aronov, CEO and founder at InnerPlant, and chat about what plants say, and how farmers can understand their messages.

Links: 

Innerplant: https://innerplant.com

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

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Five days ago, gaming giant Take-Two bought Zynga for $13 billion. But before that, Zynga bought Chartboost for $250 million.

What's going on?

Why is a gaming company buying an ad network?

And what does this say about the future of games and media?

In this episode of TechFirst, we chat with Zynga Chief Product Officer Scott Koenigsberg and Chartboost CEO Rich Izzo.

Questions we discuss:

Zynga bought an ad network for $250M. A decade ago that would have sounded insane. Why?

We know Zynga for games. But you’re not the only combination of gaming and adtech. What’s driving this merger frenzy and consolidation?

How does having Chartboost make Zynga better? How does having Zynga make Chartboost better?

Are there downsides?

Competitive issues?

What’s evolving in tech and platforms that is changing the competitive landscape?

What kind of platform that you can build will be well-optimized for the future state?

Zynga has acquired other gaming studios as well. What’s the goal?

Mobile was a phase-shift in technology that privileged some platforms and networks and deprioritized others. What’s the next one … do you have metaverse bets, and what kind of timetable to you envision there?

How will this change your business?

Planning to still be acquisitive?

Links:

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

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Livestream shopping is a $66 billion business in China, but only a $1 billion business in the U.S.

That’s likely to change soon if Facebook, Google, Amazon, Twitter, TikTok, and many other massive platforms have their way. Tech giants are investing huge sums in building live-streaming shopping in the web.

Will it work?

In this episode of TechFirst with John Koetsier, I chat with Elma Beganovich, 50% of the iconic influencer duo Amra & Elma. Former lawyers and economists, now entrepreneurs, they started their own influencer marketing agency and have over two million followers.

A major focus now: livestream shopping.

We chat about why it’s happening. Who does it. Why people shop via livestream. And where it’s likely to go.

Links:

Amra & Elma: https://www.amraandelma.com

Support TechFirst with $SMRT coins: https://rally.io/creator/SMRT/

Buy $SMRT to join a community focused on tech for good: the emerging world of smart matter. Access my private Slack, get your name in my book, suggest speakers for TechFirst ... and support my work.

TechFirst transcripts: https://johnkoetsier.com/category/tech-first/

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