Fintech CEO: Monte Python Star’s Parody Illustrates Absurdity of NFT Craze While Hundreds of Thousands Die of Malaria

Last week, Monte Python Star John Cleese took to Twitter to offer up his own NFT, an iPad drawing of the Brooklyn Bridge. The bidding started at $100, with a Buy-It-Now price of 69,346,250.50. Bidding has rose to well over $30,000.

“The irony that he’s selling the Brooklyn Bridge is lost on some, but the iconic actor’s message is one that we should really fully digest,” opined Richard Gardner, CEO of Modulus, a US-based developer of ultra-high-performance trading and surveillance technology that powers global equities, derivatives, and digital asset exchanges.

In an interview, Cleese commented on the NFT craze, saying that “technology is changing and moving so quickly that we can’t even see we’re standing in quicksand as we stare at a bunch of pixelated JPEGs, wondering what they might sell for next.”

“The crazy thing about NFTs, and all blockchain-based technology is that we’re focusing on the shiny object in the room when, in fact, there’s so much value sitting right in front of us. Cryptocurrency has the ability to change the way that the world transacts its business, especially across borders and for the unbanked masses. The limits of blockchains are greater than we’re even considering. It could even help us stamp down malaria across sub-Saharan Africa,” Gardner noted.

A 2017 PricewaterhouseCoopers paper illustrated that the counterfeit pharmaceutical market is extensive, being over $150 billion annually. A 2015 study for The American Society for Microbiology showed that ~10% of all drugs in circulation are counterfeit. Anti-malaria treatments are among the most counterfeited. A 2017 WHO study estimated that “incremental deaths in SSA due to substandard and falsified antimalarials comprise approximately 2.1% to 4.9% of total malaria deaths, or approximately 3.8% to 8.9% of malaria deaths relating to cases seeking treatment.”

“Counterfeit pharmaceuticals could be a relic of the past,” said Gardner. “Using blockchain technologies to prove authenticity, especially if you combine that technology with artificial intelligence like we have, that creates a technological barrier to counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Health officials any place on the planet could verify the authenticity of medication — simply with a scan of their smartphone. That isn’t theoretical. That’s something that could save countless lives. But, instead of talking about how to combat malaria, the press wants to talk about selling Tweets or digital trading cards for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars. Imagine if those investment dollars went into something credible?’

Modulus is known throughout the financial technology segment as a leader in the development of ultra-high frequency trading systems and blockchain technologies. Over the past twenty years, the company has built technology for the world’s most notable exchanges, with a client list which includes NASDAQ, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, Siemens, Shell, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago.

“Obviously, we’ve been talking about Covid for the past year, and there’s no doubt that Covid is a public health emergency. However, it’s worth noting that, in 2020, Africa faced 2.4 million cases of Covid with just over 50,000 deaths. But, every year, malaria kills 400,000 people across the globe, with more than 90% of those deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. The crisis is real, and, if we could stop even 5% of those deaths by eliminating counterfeit pharmaceuticals, that’s something worth talking about,” said Gardner.