Eric Winer is the CTO and Managing Director of Pagoda, a core engineering team for the NEAR ecosystem. Previously, Eric was the first engineer hired by Gemini Trust Company, the first fully regulated United States crypto exchange, in 2014. During his time at Gemini, Eric helped expand the company to hundreds of employees and was instrumental in launching early support for Ethereum and other blockchains. Eric played a key role in Gemini's acquisition of Nifty Gateway, a subsidiary focused on NFTs. He later became the CTO of Nifty Gateway and was involved in several notable partnerships, including the first digital art auction by Sotheby's and the launch of Starbucks' NFT loyalty program. He was also behind Pak's sale of Merge, which set a world record for the highest price ever paid for artwork by a living artist. In addition to his work at Gemini and Nifty Gateway, Eric has also authored several comprehensive Blockchain Fundamentals courses for EmergingEd.