Ethereum 2.0, Burning Man and Smart Contracts w/Joel Dietz - Founder of Metamask!

We had the pleasure of having Joel Dietz on our show, a cyberfuturist, author and entrepreneur who has been at the forefront of several tech trends, including blockchain, tokenisation, AR, VR and NFT art. He founded the popular Metamask wallet, and is the most cited author on Google Scholar on "cryptoeconomics".

Prior to the creation of Metamask, he developed the first blockchain voting systems to connect real world organisations with blockchain solutions and designed the first real asset tokenisation platform. 

In our conversation with him in Dubai, we asked him all about his career path, the relation between Burning Man Festival and cryptocurrencies, Utopian principles connected to Blockchain and the future of NFT’s.

Here are some of the highlights:

The connection between Burning Man and Crypto 

According to Joel, the popular Nevada based Burning Man project which focuses on art, community and self expression is now accepting Crypto donations. A project Joel is proud to be actively involved with as well as organising Crypto Camps on site. Special tents where festival goers can connect and network with other crypto enthusiasts. 

In our conversation with him, he announces his recent involvement with “platform cooperativism movement, looking at stakeholder voting, which partly overlaps with crypto but also the broader community”. This overlap he mentions is deeply connected with people’s initial desire to join the crypto movement to improve governance models, consciousness and the rule of law.

NFT’s and Crypto Art

The world of AI and VR are two subjects Joel is deeply fascinated about. As both continue to expand and gain popularity within the tech industry, he explains to us that “the world of virtual reality is it’s own one that will keep evolving way beyond what anyone can imagine”. When it comes to NFT’s, there could be a chance of seeing them not just on human beings, but also on virtual characters. As he explained: “the first projection of an NFT is a purely digital AI creation of a person. It’s no longer corresponding to an individual artist anymore. One thing I’m excited about as well is generative art. This is basically bound to a Blockchain, and evolving along with Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence”.