Early Life
Eric Pulier grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey where he attended school. Since he was a child, his interest in computers began. Then, when he was in the fourth grade, he started programming. By the time he was in high school, he began a database computer company. After graduating high school in 1984, he went on to Harvard University. There, he majored in American and English literature and was an editor and wrote columns for The Harvard Crimson. He also began taking classes at MIT. In 1988, he graduated from college magna cum laude.
Pulier would then move to Los Angeles, California in 1991. In L.A. he founded the company People Doing Things (PDT). Its mission was to work on addressing issues such as education and health care. A couple of years later in 1994, Pulier would then found another company, this time an interactive agency called Digital Evolution. Digital Evolution eventually merged with US Interactive LLC in the year 1998. He would then go on to lead the creation of Starbright, a private social media that allowed seriously-ill children to chat and post with one another.
The Presidential Inaugural Committee would later select Eric Pulier to create the Presidential Technology Exhibition in D.C. in 1997. The Exhibition would be titled “The Bridge to the 21st Century.” Following it, Pulier would go to participate in forums about health and technology. Since, he has gone on to found other companies such as Desktone, Media Platform, and more.
Now, he also has become a philanthropist. Pulier sits on the innovation board of X-Prize Foundation, an organization that hosts competitions to address Earth’s largest problems.
Present and NFTs
In recent years, Eric Pulier has gone on to create the Vatom NFT Platform after five years of hard work. His NFT platform allowed users to have all sorts of new capabilities such as analytics for 1st Party data, and payment options in native form. Shopify also was added along with powerful coding that gave the AI-commanded NFT behaviors, and so much more. When it debuted, it had over ten thousand viewers at the Cannes Lions show.
With the Internet changing so much over the years, one thing for certain is that the web has become more valuable. As a platform that can connect with everyone in the world, there are some options that Pulier wants to point out for the creation of NFTs.
What to do with NFTs
- Beginning with static pages (a webpage that goes to the user’s web browser as intended), Pulier says that starting with those kinds of sites can give out databases relating to streamable audio and visual content, eCommerce, language understanding, and much more.
- Pulier states that the next generation of online users and how we engage with one another has three factors to it:
- the identity of the user
- the ownership
- a social platform that can work with augmented and visual reality (AR & VR)
- To Pulier, identity refers to one’s privacy and having the ability to own and operate their own personal data.
- Eric Pulier wanted to find a way to have true ownership of a digital good. This is done via the non-fungible token or “NFT.” These are on blockchains that reveal the ownership of the digital item. These NFTs were first proposed by Pulier in 2015 and were called “Vatoms” which stood for “Virtual Atoms.” These Vatoms are different from NFTs as they can come alive with 3D graphics, sound, animation, and more. They are also able to change the state they are in depending on outside events such as athletic event scoring or the weather.
Currently, Eric Pulier works with others within the Metaverse space. He continues working on new engagements and abilities that one can do within the Metaverse and the Internet. Not only an early supporter of it, but Pulier works on advancing Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
These DAOs are bottom-up problem-solving and decision-making groups, rather than hierarchical commands. The idea is that members of DAOs will have control of their data, vote on community actions, and earn tokens and reputation for their active role within the DAO.
Future
Pulier believes that the Internet is on the verge of another massive new change. He believes it could even be bigger than the launch of the Internet itself. Calling it Web3, Pulier comments, “Web3 will be a better web – one that gives more than it takes.”
In recent months, NFTs have been ridiculed on the Internet. They have been called Ponzi schemes and money-laundering services. Time will tell if the online world grows tired of another trendy topic. Or if it will change how individuals will communicate and act with one another.
