“Accessibility is vital to securing web3’s longevity.”

Having developed a deep interest in technology by the time he was six years old, Fonz has since built several successful businesses fueled by his early passion for innovation.

Fonz entered the crypto space in 2017 as an investor, watching the world of Web3 develop from the periphery. It wasn’t until four years later that he decided to play an active role within the space; after shuttering a health credentials venture in 2021, Fonz decided it was time to go down the NFT rabbit hole.

“I thought, let’s see what these guys in the NFT space are doing,” he recalls. “Let’s figure out how to open a wallet and how to participate.”

Fonz quickly discovered many fellow degens around him falling prey to phishing scams and dodgy websites that drained their wallets and stole their NFTs. Still, he realized this after attending the first ApeFest and NFT. NYC convention that token-holders had no choice but to roll the dice and open their assets up to vulnerability to participate in community events that required ownership authentication.

As a serial problem-solver, Fonz looked towards the tools he already had to alleviate the risks associated with token verification. He realized the technology he built to authenticate health credentials at his previous company could be the foundation for a sophisticated yet intuitive solution: tokenproof.

Since its launch, tokenproof has become the leader in token-gating technology, powering hundreds of IRL events throughout 2022. It has since evolved into an essential Web3 toolkit connecting the real world with NFTs in a frictionless way that makes token-based experiences accessible to everyone who wants to harness the power of web3.

Today, Fonz has no qualms about sharing his predictions for the future and foresees a distinct shift towards utility-first NFTs that will unlock new possibilities for communities across the space to grow in exciting new ways. He also pinpoints some challenges for web3 — and, as always, offers a solution.

“Accessibility is vital to securing web3’s longevity, and friction is the biggest threat to our space,” he says, citing a lack of beginner-friendly entry points into crypto. “For example, explaining MetaMask to mom or dad, having them watch out for scammers, and so on — It’s not going to happen. We’re going to enable individuals to come into the tokenproof ecosystem by just using their email address instead of a crypto wallet.”

No excuses, then. Just an easy point of entry.