A self-made millionaire by 16, <\/b>Jonathan Manzi is no ordinary entrepreneur.<\/b> Now 31, the past 15 years have seen him start an energy drink business but shutter it once he realized that there wasn\u2018t enough of the required kava-plant ingredient in the world to feed his ambitions of competing against Gatorade. <\/strong><\/p>\n Becoming the youngest bar owner in San Francisco at 22, Manzi went on to create a robotic FedEx-like printing office with his company INK and later launch Beyond Protocol, a blockchain that styles itself as the \u201cinternet\u201d for the Internet of Things (IoT).<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s a biometric suit that records the vital signs of Cage The Elephant\u2019s lead singer or an electric vehicle charging system spreading across Slovenia, Manzi the magnificent continues to create opportunities for machines and devices to talk and interact via blockchain as they emerge from the old internet.<\/span><\/p>\n Manzi grew up in a small town in Massachusetts \u201cnear Salem, where the witch trials happened many years ago.\u201d His first foray into business came about while in high school in 2007 when he started an internet marketing company called Vintage Network based on ad serving technology. He says the challenge and joy of problem-solving \u201cgot me working 20 hour days to continue to build it.\u201d Solving problems was not the only reward, as Manzi found himself a millionaire at a mere 16 years of age.<\/span><\/p>\n Of such wealth at a young age, Manzi explains that he largely compartmentalized his success, buying only a used BMW in order to go snowboarding in New Hampshire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a kind of a sense of \u2018I\u2018m doing something different versus others, but I hope you know I still feel very connected to the others,\u201d he explains of his experience of trying to live a normal teenage life as an internet millionaire. Eventually, he found \u2018his people\u2019 \u2014 entrepreneurs and hacker-types.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe had a $5 million in revenue by the time I finished high school\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As he finished secondary education with a multi-million dollar business, Manzi felt that he had pigeonholed himself in \u201cthis kind of niche internet marketing world.\u201d Wanting to move beyond its limits, he applied to Stanford believing that it was \u201cwhere all the innovation was happening.\u201d Predictably enough, he was accepted.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As Manzi started his management science and engineering and philosophy degree in 2009 in the depths of the Great Recession, he sold his stake in Vintage Network as it faced turbulence due to businesses cutting their marketing spend. He soon also decided to drop out of university because though he enjoyed the academic environment, he felt he \u201ccould probably read those books and do it on a different schedule\u201d while continuing on his entrepreneurial journey.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n One of the projects he dreamed up was an energy drink created with kava, a fruit indigenous to the South Pacific, which he says lowers the stress hormones in athletes, a claim supported by research Manzi participated in at Stanford\u2019s Human Performance Lab.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, Manzi discovered a roadblock after one of his schoolmates traveled to Tonga on a kava buying mission only to find out that the supply chain was limited in such a way that \u201cif we were to have the success of Gatorade, it would be impossible nearly impossible to consistently supply\u201d enough kava to keep stores stocked. To further complicate matters, the plant and its sale are heavily regulated in many countries.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Next, Manzi looked to get involved with a printing kiosk business in Slovenia which aimed to replace print shops. He worked with the company\u2019s founder Denis Benic to bring the firm to Silicon Valley with Manzi taking a CEO role. Still, after spending three months in the capital Ljubljana trying to get the expansion deal through, the board rejected his plan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite this, he\u2019d convinced Benic, who soon left Slovenia, to live in Manzi\u2019s apartment while building a new business called <\/span>Ink<\/span>, \u201can automated FedEx office,\u201d together. \u201cIn the meantime, I bought a bar in San Francisco and I was the youngest bar owner at 22,\u201d Manzi recalls of the few months before Benic arrived.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Manzi knew about and \u201cphilosophically celebrated\u201d Bitcoin since 2012, having previously followed the \u201clibertarian\u201d <\/span>eGold<\/span> project while he was in high school. Despite this, he did not see it as an attractive investment and instead \u201cbacked into\u201d blockchain technology through the cybersecurity needs of HP printers related to his printing business, in which he worked to make enterprise printers less hackable through a system of validating nodes and hardware signatures. Soon, he began to believe that blockchain was the answer to \u201cthe number one issue in Internet of Things (IoT) and will be over the next decade,\u201d that is, the question of how exactly interconnected devices will be able to best talk to each other in a reliable way.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGetting into blockchain was an exercise in finding a solution for HP\u2019s cybersecurity problems and getting immersed in things like provenance and supply chain management.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n The problem, according to Manzi, is that \u201cTCP\/IP protocol \u2014 the internet \u2014 did a fantastic job connecting nodes and servers but it never anticipated a moment like this,\u201d he says, explaining that everything from satellites in the sky to smart pills that track vitals inside someone\u2018s body needs to be able to identify themselves. \u201cYou have the information superhighway, but you don\u2019t identify the cars on it,\u201d Manzi says of the current internet \u2014 but with blockchain integration, each unit can become connected.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In 2018, Manzi co-founded Beyond Protocol to serve as a way for devices to better connect and communicate. He explains the Beyond Protocol thesis as a \u201cblockchain providing a structure and a platform for IoT to achieve its full potential,\u201d emphasizing that it is very natural for these two technologies to function together with blockchain effectively providing the environment in which the \u201cthings\u201d of the internet can function.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cDevices now, for the first time, can kind of open up and start talking to each other because of the technology that blockchain provides.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n So far, the protocol shows promise as demonstrated through some interesting applications that Manzi has spearheaded. Earlier this year, the company <\/span>partnered<\/span><\/a> with Vanderbilt University to create a biometric suit that can track a person\u2019s vital signs and, by extension, mental health. The suit, made using 3D printers and containing various sensors that communicate with one another on Beyond Protocol, was tested on stage by lead singer of the band Cage the Elephant Matt Schultz as part of his campaign to raise awareness for mental health. Though it looks like a cross between medieval chainmail and a futuristic spacesuit, Schultz is able to jump on stage without hindrance.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Beyond Protocol x @CageTheElephant<\/a><\/p>\n Matthew Ray Shultz, frontman of CTE, which won Best Rock Alum at the 2020 Grammys, dons a 3D printed suit produced in collaboration with @beyondprotocol1<\/a> that measures his biometric information, and allows developers to build apps on top of it pic.twitter.com\/9OOssJSakq<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Beyond Protocol (@beyondprotocol1) October 3, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2018s a good way to illustrate how blockchain can be used with data coming off of devices,\u201d Manzi says. He goes on to explain the cybersecurity value of using blockchain to validate the signatures of individual devices to protect against hacking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fu<\/span>rther, he adds that blockchain integration allows for the entire dataset to be cross-validated in such a way that knows which devices have accessed which data and, by extension, which has had access to specific pieces of information. This allows for a higher capacity in privacy protection, at least in theory, because such an arrangement can ensure that unauthorized components can not and have not gained access to specific data. This, however, can represent a double-edged sword because it is conceivable that the full tracking data could end up in the wrong hands after it is uploaded onto a computer.<\/span><\/p>\n The true purpose of the suit comes from the data which, when collected and combined, can result in the building of customized applications to benefit the wearer. \u201cDevelopers can come in and say to Matt, \u2018here are some different applications that I can build based on your vitals,\u2019\u201d Manzi explains.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2018s say he\u2018s getting a little agitated. The biometric suit could trigger a vibrating pulse to the wrist area to suggest that he, for example, calms his breathing down,\u201d Manzi explains regarding the suit\u2018s function.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Functions like these carry potential benefits in areas including mental health, with Manzi adding that performers face immense stress while on tour and the ability to track stress levels can be beneficial \u2014 doubly so for someone like Schultz who has a history of battling depression and is now active in promoting good mental health.<\/span><\/p>\n How cool would it be if such a suit could be used in conjunction with a metaverse avatar, such as one created using the<\/span>\u00a0\u201cPolish Elon Musk\u2019s\u201d portal to the Metaverse<\/span><\/a>\u00a0or even one performing in a 3D <\/a><\/span>Animal Concert<\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Another recent proof of concept can be found in Manzi\u2019s co-founder Benic\u2019s native Slovenia, where Beyond Protocol has partnered with the European Union Commission to set up an eBike charging station outside Parliament in Ljubljana.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n (1\/3) Beyond Protocol’s technology has been selected to power European Union green initiative. Alongside partners, Beyond Protocol has deployed an eBike solar powered station in Slovenia, with a systems architecture built from blockchain technology. The station is located in\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/RLvG32IB8O<\/a><\/p>\nTeenage millionaire<\/h4>\n
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The journey continues<\/h4>\n
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Beyond Protocol<\/h4>\n
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Talking cars<\/h4>\n
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