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Appointed as elementum's CTO since 2018, Sven Schumacher was one of the first members that shaped elementum and its innovative technology since the beginning. A software engineer with a great passion for art, technology and entrepreneurial spirit, in this latest edition of "Meet the Team" you get a better understanding of the people behind the Swiss NFT platform that only offers you curated NFT drops by pioneers of computer art.
Q: What was the first NFT you bought/got gifted (by whom) and when? Sven: On May 22, 2019 I purchased “breath” by Robert Hruska.
Q: What is your favourite NFT drop and/or project on/by elementum? Sven: It was a true honor to be a part of Frieder Nake’s genesis drop “HOMAGE TO GERHARD RICHTER” and to make such a pioneering artist accessible to a global audience.
Image below: Clip from Frider Nake's sold-out Genesis NFT drop “HOMAGE TO GERHARD RICHTER”, available on OpenSea (link here)
Video of Frieder Nake discussing his Genesis NFT
Q: What did you do before you joined elementum? Sven: I have always been drawn to the startup world and worked as freelancer and founder in a variety of industries such as e-commerce, online TV, gaming and education technology.
Image from left to right: Tom Rieder, CEO, Ricardo Gurnari, former COO, and Sven Schumacher, CTO
Q: What attracted you to the space and why is that? Sven: I find the idea of enabling people to own assets in the digital space in an open and distributed way that is not controlled by a few influential institutions extremely powerful. The blockchain allows us to directly connect creators with communities and provides a new set of revolutionary tools to organize, monetize and distribute content and services. I’m truly excited to discover all the new ways this technology will propel us forward as a society.
Q: Who is your favourite NFT artist and why? Sven: As a software engineer with a strong flair for aesthetics I’m very impressed by Tyler Hobbs’ work. As one of the most influential figures in the generative art scene he has repeatedly shown that he’s able to push the boundaries and keep people engaged despite challenging market conditions.
Image below: Tyler Hobbs, Fidenza #61, included in the "Ex-Machina: A History of Generative Art" exhibition and online auction at Phillips in London, 13-20 July 2022. Curated by Georg Bak.
Q: What is your favourite quote/observation about the NFT space? Sven: Going back to what initially attracted me to the space I really like this quote from Naval Ravikant: “If you're skeptical about the idea of owning digital property, then you're not only denying capitalism on the internet .... You're saying we're not going to have a collectively owned future. We're going to have a government-owned future and corporate-owned future.”
Follow Sven Schumacher on LinkedIn link here. PFP PEPEEVO