Tokenization, Privacy and Damien Hirst Art with Adi Ben-Ari, CEO Applied Blockchain

Tokenization, Privacy and Damien Hirst Art with Adi Ben Ari from Applied Blockchain

Applied Blockchain, founded by Adi Ben-Ari in 2015-16, has grown from a startup to a significant player in the blockchain industry. With his background from Lloyds Banking Group, Ben-Ari has led the company to 70 employees, delivering over 100 blockchain applications for clients ranging from Shell to innovative startups. Innovative Project Showcase: The conversation highlighted the groundbreaking Damien Hirst "The Currency" project, which exemplified blockchain's potential in art and finance. The project merged 10,000 physical artworks with NFTs, generating $20M in initial sales and an impressive $100M in secondary market trading. Buyers faced a unique choice between keeping their NFT or redeeming the physical artwork, resulting in a near-equal split between digital and physical preferences. The project, featured in a Netflix documentary, demonstrated blockchain's ability to revolutionize artist royalties through automated secondary market payments. Technical Innovations: Ben-Ari emphasized the transformative potential of atomic swaps, enabling simultaneous exchange of assets and payments, while smart contracts serve as trustless escrow mechanisms. The focus on balancing public verification with commercial privacy emerged as a crucial theme, particularly for businesses requiring transaction confidentiality while maintaining blockchain benefits. Privacy Solution Development: The podcast introduced Silent Data, Applied Blockchain's newest solution leveraging trusted execution environments. Set for Q1 2025 launch with partners Archax and Tokeny, this technology addresses the fundamental challenge of maintaining privacy in blockchain transactions while preserving the integrity of validation systems. Future Outlook: Ben-Ari envisions continued convergence around Ethereum technology and emphasizes the importance of roll-up architecture for scalability. He draws an intriguing parallel between blockchain's current state and pre-ChatGPT artificial intelligence, suggesting the technology stands on the brink of a similar breakthrough. The potential intersection of AI and blockchain technologies emerged as a particularly exciting frontier for future development.