Welcome to AIKON // Tray Lewin, CTO
For serial entrepreneur and CTO, Tray Lewin, the future is blockchain.
Tray says what is happening with blockchain is analogous to the web rush that took place when people were building everything as a dot com.
“Blockchain is not a phase,” he says. “While there’s a lot of experimenting going on right now, there are norms and patterns being created that will persist for decades and affect the way we build technology for the very long term,” he explains. “The next step is building applications on top of the blockchain. There’s enormous interest, a land rush happening. With new, exciting technology, people get the fear of missing out so they dive in and start building their early apps. A lot of companies have been building barebones apps that fit the protocols, but users couldn’t use them, or they were too ahead of their time. So that’s where things are at currently with the blockchain.”
What brought Tray to AIKON?
“Personally, I’m really interested in participating because there is a serious need to bridge the way real people use technology and the very technical nature of everything blockchain. There’s a real dichotomy here.”
Before coming on board with AIKON, Tray was offered a slew of opportunities to run other companies, and was even thinking of launching his own startup. But ultimately, he says that AIKON has the solution that “fits perfectly” with the native key attributes of what it means to run on blockchain.
On his role as CTO of AIKON:
Tray says being a good CTO comes down to understanding how people work, appreciating their differences, and knowing what aligns their motivating factors.
“I’ve used the phrase ‘career anchors’ in the past, which is really important,” says Tray. “Some people want security. Some people want money. Some people want challenge. Some people they want autonomy. And then everybody has a unique mix of that. Ultimately in a startup, you’ve got to balance these different motivations and keep everybody challenged. I really believe, everybody needs to stay challenged. We all need a mission that excites us about coming to work everyday and conquering new technical challenges.”
Tray has founded three software companies, his first company was a startup that was primarily creating voter elections software. While holding post there, in true startup fashion, he served as the company’s CEO, chief architect and chief product guy.
“What I learned about the CEO role is that what I really love is product and coding, and I couldn’t do those things as CEO. So I founded another startup when I came to the Bay Area that gave me that got me back into that pure startup tech role again.”
Working in a purely startup tech ecosystem over the years, has allowed Tray to keep his mind and hands on the pulse of emerging technologies that fully encapsulate the concept of true disruption.
By the end of last year, Tray had committed to dedicating his career toward to help build a company that can leverage the attributes of blockchain with the vision of decentralization. With fortunate connections, and perfect timing — he was led to AIKON, where we feel lucky to have him.
On the future of decentralization:
AIKON is committed to serving the decentralized economy. To do that, we’re building a series of products and tools to support API developers and the new global economic operating system. So why is that so important?
“Ultimately, decentralization makes a flatter planet. And while there may be an equal distribution of talent across the globe, not everyone has the same access to markets,” says AIKON Chief Technology Officer Tray Lewin. “With AIKON, people who are capable developers, anywhere in the world, will be able to monetize their work without having to have all the trust structure required now. Wherever there’s value, it can be delivered with the lowest possible friction into the global economic system unconstrained by local issues and unnecessary complexities.”
At AIKON, we’re thrilled to have Tray’s insights and expertise, as we work together to build a better future — for everyone.
To explore more about how we’re building our products at AIKON, make sure to sign up for our email newsletter, and join Tray and team in conversation on our Telegram channel.