Last week, Eric Pulier, Vatom Inc.’s CEO and Founder, announced the Vatom NFT Platform. He explains how this platform brings to fruition a five-year journey to accelerate the evolution of the World Wide Web with dynamic NFTs called Vatoms that extend across AR & VR.
Q: You are widely known as the inventor of NFT's. How did you come up with the concept?
I was excited about blockchain technology and how it could change society, but frustrated with the pace of adoption and complexity of the enterprise use cases. So I put forward a simple question— instead of mining tokens that look exactly like one another, what if we could mint tokens that would not only be unique but could come alive with 3D graphics, animation and sound and be fully programmable, combinable and redeemable. No one has ever "seen" a bitcoin, and one is just like another. A non-fungible, programmable token could be anything from a ticket to a prescription bottle to a bespoke work of art. My first goal was to make a digital beer that you could pass between individuals, that would get warm if you left it out, and cold if you combined it with a refrigerator object. If you gave the digital beer to the bartender, you would get a real one. This was the inspiration. What if we could make virtual objects hold real world value? What if we could extend reality with a new canvas for human imagination? I coined the term "Vatom" to mean "virtual atom", the dissolution of the boundary between the physical and digital. From there I was lucky enough to hire an incredibly talented team who solved key technical challenges and built the first experiential, programmable digital objects. The Vatom is powered by a utility token called VEE, and some of the largest companies in the world including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Verizon, Nestle, Pepsico, Vodafone, Intel and many others have deployed over 30 million Vatoms to over 2 million wallets. Over the last year, we've completed the final elements of the vision to create a massively scalable and fully customizable NFT Metaverse.
Q: What is your company's mission?
Our mission is to bring humanity together online by extending the Web to become a massively scalable online social world with dynamic, interactive digital objects.
Q: What is different about the Vatom vision from other NFT companies?
From the start, we focused on "engagement" rather than speculation alone. The current frenzy to get anything minted as NFTs in a play for quick money is not sustainable and will result in a sizable market correction. But just as the Web faced skepticism in the wake of the dot-com crash in 2000, only to rise even higher to touch every aspect of our lives, so too will digital objects of value emerge as the most significant advance in human engagement since the advent of the Web itself. NFTs are the killer app of blockchain, opening paths for trillions of dollars of value. Because they are programmable and network-aware, Vatom NFT's become conduits to connect with consumers.
Brands, companies, and creators have one thing in common-- a need to better engage with their constituents in an authentic, value-based manner and build direct, long-term relationships. Every single one has the same goal— 1st party data, personalized connection, long-term loyalty, and ultimately revenue. By combining programmable digital objects of value (Vatom NFTs) with a social canvas that extends our current model across AR & VR, we are ushering in the next generation of human engagement. Vatom empowers creators, brands, and companies to activate, engage, and monetize audiences like never before.
Q: Who are your heroes?
My dad for instilling a sense of infinite curiosity and potential.
My brother for actually inventing everything I get credit for.
And Inspector Gadget for having so many cool toys.
Q: What do you do for fun?
＊ Go to my blues club in Santa Monica, Harvelles, that I own with some amazing friends.
＊ Seek out the best eggplant parmesan in every city.
＊ Make AI-driven Vatoms and set them free to change the world (and make it more fun along the way).
