【Exclusive interview】AIKON CEO: Having Real Use Cases Is Key To Blockchain Mass Adoption

AIKON is a blockchain solutions provider whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology.  In an interview with Bitpush,  AIKON CEO Marc Blinder talked about his view on the crypto industry.

According to Blinder, there are about 50 million people who use blockchain applications out of 5 billion users on the internet. We are only 1% to mass blockchain adoption, a feat that took us a decade to reach; however, Blinder believes the hardest step has been taken.

 “Then to get from 1% to 50% takes the next decade, and then maybe from 50% to 100% matrix, the next decade…it’s not like it’s gonna take us 100 years, because of the way technology tends to accelerate as it gains momentum.”

This is where companies like AIKON come in: they help people adopt blockchain technology.

Earlier in September,  Aikon had raised $10 million in a Series A equity funding round led by institutional blockchain investment firm Morgan Creek Digital. Other investors included Up2 Opportunity Fund, Hestia Investments, Yugen Partners, Mighty Capital, Alpha Edison, and Think+ Ventures. In addition, Blizzard and Valanche Fund joined as a strategic investor and partner while Mark Yusko, CEO of Morgan Creek Capital Management and Managing Partner of Morgan Creek Digital, and W. Scott Stornetta, Venure Partner at MCD and Partner at Yugen Partners, were appointed to AIKON's Board of Directors.

According to Blinder, a big part of what makes AIKON unique is its ease of use. ORE ID, AIKON’s most important product, for instance, allows users to start earning digital assets right after they log in with a Google ID, Apple ID, or Facebook account. Furthermore, AIKON’s ease of use does not compromise its security. The chips that AIKON uses to sign transactions are always encrypted on the hardware, which means private keys will always remain hidden.

Yet, a big challenge for AIKON, like many other crypto companies, has been a lack of regulatory clarity surrounding crypto. This has pushed a lot of innovation overseas. Blinder hopes Congress will pass a law that offers a specific regulatory framework around crypto.

In addition, the government sees tokens as financial products, which means they are subject to strict scrutiny. Instead, Blinder hopes that utility tokens could be treated as revenue.

“If you’re doing something on the blockchain with its software, you’re generating revenue, pay taxes on the revenue you generate…every business already does this, every software business already does this. So it would work just the way things already work…It’s a clear regulatory regime for utility tokens and also creates more jobs here in America, said Blinder.

As a result of financial regulation, a lot of companies and innovations have been going into the financial industry rather than other categories. This has, in turn, created a split market with the big money finance market on one side and the small money gaming stuff on the other.

As for AIKON, Blinder believes its success lies on building higher plateaus than the last.

The key? To have real use cases, like an NFT marketplace or an NFT gaming platform, that have a valuable use to people.

“It’s about developing sticking use cases that set a new floor on the industry,” said Blinder.

By Katie Lin and Susan Feng

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