Christian Ferri is the co-founder and CEO of NFTPro™ . He’s a former Practice Lead at PwC where he advised Fortune 500 clients including Walmart, AT&T, HP on product innovation and process improvement. Since 2010, Mr. Ferri is a recognized expert on DLT and digital currencies. He’s a limited partner in Protocol Ventures and advisors to companies such as Atari, Lottery.com, and Sapien Network. He’s a guest lecturer at Cornell University and has keynoted at over 60 events, including the World Economic Forum, S&P Global Platts, and the Blockchain Economic Forum. Best Selling Author of the book Blockchain & Made in Italy, he’s often also a guest expert on CNBC, CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, and Forbes. He received his MBA from Cornell University and lives in Palo Alto, California, with his wife and son.
What was your journey like to get where you are?
Started 10 years ago as the leader of innovation practice at PwC. Led several client engagements with Fortune 500 companies on blockchain integration and adoption. Had my own consulting firm, advising over 5 dozen of fortunes on DLT, dozen board seats, LP in 2 funds. When NFTs came out In 2017, I believed that NFT would revolutionize how records will be transacted over the internet, and the web would never be the same, adding a wealth of new use cases and transforming commerce, society, and work. Specifically, I’ve seen the majority of these use cases coming for enterprises so I started a company called BlockStar to enable large companies to transform their operation, commerce, and interactions with NFTs. Over the years, BlockStar becomes NFT Pro, the #1 NFT as a service platform for enterprises.
In a simpler phrase, what is your company exactly doing?
NFTPRO™ is the #1 enterprise white-label NFT solution for global brands, making NFT campaigns seamless, easily executed, and on-brand. We help global enterprises strategize, create, sell, and distribute NFT-based digital authentic assets thanks to our enterprise-grade platform, proprietary methodology, and enterprise-level support. Brands can engage communities, drive new revenue streams, and boost cross-sales of physical products while ensuring complete company control, sustainability, and global regulatory compliance.
What about Metaverse are you most excited for in the future?
When the DOD invented the internet back in the ’60, the sole purpose was to create a communication tool, not a commerce tool nor a tool that is meant to transfer authentic, trackable information among parties. The web’s DNA has always been a tool to connect parties over simple data. In the ’90s and the advent of online payment, e-commerce was born with companies such as eBay and Amazon.
In reality, it’s not electronic commerce, but a simple proxy to physical commerce: you buy online and receive your goods at home. NFT change that: they add a layer over the Web that allows parties to transact authentic, tracible, programmable records, enabling a host of new use cases before not possible.
Why should we be paying attention to the Metaverse?
Because in 5-7 years, every single transaction of records over the internet will be tied to an NFT, from real-estate transactions, identities, voting, taxes, virtual commerce, software licenses, asset transfers, and more.
