Business
What I love most about Fireblocks is how you can use it as a building block and create your own innovations on top of it. Without Fireblocks’ blockchain security and key management in the background, we couldn’t call ourselves an enterprise-grade NFT platform.
Kevin Lehtiniitty Co-founder, Chief Product Officer & Chief Technology Officer
Fortress Blockchain Technologies is the first enterprise-grade, cross- chain, embeddable NFT platform built for major issuers of NFTs. Its API-driven minting engine is secure and scalable, making it the perfect choice for major consumer and entertainment brands, metaverses, agencies, and other institutional NFT creators.
Client Challenges
Launching an enterprise-grade NFT minting engine for major brands and celebrities
Highlights
- Launching an enterprise grade NFT minting platform for brands and celebrities
- Finding a battle-tested tokenization infrastructure with multi-layer security
- Finding a flexible, end-to-end solution
- Building on a wide range of blockchains
- Enabling easy integration for client widget deployment
Security is paramount for major brands and high-profile creators. So when the blockchain custody experts behind Fortress Blockchain Technologies decided to launch an enterprise-grade minting engine, security was a top priority.
Kevin Lehtiniitty, Co-founder, Chief Product Officer & Chief Technology Officer at Fortress Blockchain Technologies, explains:
If you’re a major brand or celebrity, the last thing you want is your smart contracts getting hacked and your NFTs taken over. They’ve spent decades and lifetimes building their brands, and they don’t want to put that brand value at risk.
To succeed in their new venture, Fortress would need to find a battle-tested tokenization infrastructure that would protect smart contracts from cyber attacks, internal collusion, and human error.
Kevin quickly vetoed the idea of trying to create an in-house signing infrastructure that would meet Fortress’ high security standards.
We were never going to build our own proprietary MPC algorithms. That’s a fulltime job for a good sized company. Doing it ourselves wasn’t viable.
At the same time, Kevin and his team wanted to avoid partnering with multiple vendors and platforms or using retail-grade options to provide an end-to-end solution.
“We didn’t want to manage three to five vendors just to do all the things we wanted to do,” says Kevin. Kevin also wanted an infrastructure that could support a wide range of tokens, blockchains, and assets.
We believe in a multi-chain future. We don’t think it’s going to all be Ethereum or even all Ethereum and layer 2s. We wanted a signing infrastructure layer that supported tokenizing assets onto a wide range of blockchains.
Just as important was the ability to scale without being constrained by out-of-the-box features and functionality.
“We wanted the ability to innovate and take charge of our own destiny with a platform that we could use as a building block,” says Kevin.
Integration was also a key consideration. Kevin and his team needed to create a platform that celebrities and brands could plug into for a wide variety of use cases, from monetizing fan engagement to offering fan rewards. The list of potential platforms was long, including websites and marketplaces as well as almost any conceivable app, from social media to music to event ticketing.
In short, what they needed was a proven, all-in-one tokenization infrastructure that the team could build on top of without undermining security for its enterprise clients.
If you’re a major brand or celebrity, the last thing you want is your smart contracts getting hacked and your NFTs taken over.
Fireblocks Solution
Tokenization engine
Kevin had partnered with Fireblocks before, so he recommended the platform to his team without hesitation.
“It’s always nice to work with partners you know, respect, and have history with,” says Kevin. “That was a big selling point.”
He knew that Fireblocks uses MPC-CMP multi-layer security to provide institutional-grade custodial technology, which put his key management security concerns to rest.
Fireblocks provides us with the infrastructure we need for MPC algorithms, security, transaction signing, and all those things.
Fireblocks also has the flexibility Kevin and his team needed to innovate and build additional functionality.
For example, the team created smart contracts that are customized for particular clients and use cases. “The ability to create smart contracts, and have Fireblocks secure the minting and contract ownership, is a really important example of how we’ve leveraged the flexibility of the platform,” says Kevin.
The team also built a content vault on top of the Fireblocks’ platform to hold public and private NFT data. If a NFT token represents sensitive information, such as health records, that information is kept private and secure in the vault.
Fortress also developed a NFT widget that celebrities and brands can use on websites, marketplaces and apps to make NFTs for their fans without incurring high transaction fees.
Fireblocks also supports a wide range of blockchains and tokens, which means Kevin and his team don’t have to deal with multiple vendors.
“With Fireblocks, we’ll be able to tokenize assets for Solana, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Arbitrum, and all the others. Consequently, our clients will be able to choose blockchains based on what’s best for the business—not our capabilities.”
Partnering with Fireblocks has also inspired confidence in Fortress’ clients, which helps differentiate them from competitors.
“We’re the only NFT minting engine secured by Fireblocks right now,” says Kevin. “That really resonates in the market.”
Kevin and his team also appreciate the support they’ve received from Fireblocks as they move closer to production. In fact, Kevin credits Fireblocks with helping Fortress get to market faster.
“With Fireblocks, we’ll be able to tokenize assets for Solana, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Arbitrum, and all the others.”
Results
Successful launch
With Fireblocks as its blockchain security infrastructure, Fortress Blockchain Technologies has successfully reached the live beta stage of its launch and is moving steadily towards production.
Kevin credits Fireblocks with giving his team the ability to focus on taking the business through the next phases of launch instead of worrying about security.
“Because Fireblocks is handling the blockchain security, we can focus on building NFT minting and customer-facing functionality—and sleep better at night,” says Kevin.
Today, Fortress is primed for the multi-chain future Kevin foresees. It’s already minting Ethereum and Polygon, with Solana coming soon.
Because Fireblocks is handling the blockchain security, we can focus on building NFT minting and customer-facing functionality— and sleep better at night.