Background
Adam Ludwin is a technology entrepreneur whose work has included enterprise blockchain infrastructure and consumer NFT products. He co-founded Chain in 2014 and later helped build Mint Fun. His current personal website lists here.now and other projects as his present work, while identifying Chain and Mint Fun as earlier ventures acquired by Stellar and Zora respectively. This profile distinguishes that history from his current activity rather than carrying forward an outdated executive title. [1][2]
Biography
Chain was founded by Ludwin, Devon Gundry and Ryan Smith. The company's focus was enterprise-grade blockchain products and infrastructure for financial organizations. Its 2018 corporate announcement described a customer and partner ecosystem that included major financial institutions, placing Ludwin's early blockchain work in the institutional technology market rather than solely in consumer cryptocurrency trading. [2]
A CFA Institute-hosted interview with Ludwin, dated December 2017 on the page, provides a contemporary account of that phase. It identifies him as Chain's founder and CEO and describes his earlier venture-capital work in financial technology. The discussion concerned cryptocurrency's uses and limitations, including skepticism about parts of the token market. That interview is a historical record of his role and thinking, not a current investment recommendation or evidence that he still leads the same business. [3]
Chain and Interstellar
In September 2018, Chain announced its acquisition by Lightyear, a commercial entity focused on Stellar. The combined company was to be called Interstellar, with Ludwin as CEO and Jed McCaleb as CTO. The announcement said the Stellar Development Foundation would remain independent. It also described plans to connect Chain's enterprise products and customers with Stellar's public ledger. These are distinct organizations and roles; Ludwin's Interstellar appointment did not make him head of the Stellar Development Foundation. [2]
NFT Products
Ludwin later worked with Luke Miles on Context and Mint.fun. In a July 2022 interview, the two appeared as Context co-founders and discussed Mint.fun as an NFT minting aggregator. The product brought together information about collections being minted on Ethereum and provided a common interface for discovering and minting them. That work addressed a different part of the crypto market from Chain: consumer discovery and access to onchain creative projects. [4]
His current personal site lists Mint Fun among projects acquired by Zora. The live Mint.fun website now explicitly says the service has been sunset and points visitors toward Zora. It is therefore presented here as a past product, not an active service that users should expect to access through its former interface. Neither the earlier product discussion nor its acquisition establishes a present executive role for Ludwin at Zora. [1][5]
Current Work
Ludwin's own website currently directs readers to here.now. That project's website describes hosting for artifacts created with software agents. This is included to keep the profile current, without recategorizing a general software-hosting product as a blockchain protocol. The available primary sources support saying that Ludwin is building here.now; they do not establish a more specific corporate title that needs to be added here. [1][6]
Why Katharos Follows
Ludwin's career connects two identifiable areas of cryptocurrency development: enterprise infrastructure and consumer NFT tools. The useful thread is product design across different audiences and stages of adoption. His profile also shows why a directory should track acquisitions and product closures rather than preserve old company titles indefinitely.
Areas to Follow
Enterprise blockchain infrastructure; digital-asset product design; NFT discovery and minting interfaces; and changes in the relationship between software platforms and crypto applications.
Category
Investment & Founders.
Current Position
Technology entrepreneur building here.now and other projects; former Chain co-founder and CEO. [1][2]
Photo Credit
Steve Jurvetson, “Circle and Chain,” Goldman Sachs Tech Conference, 13 February 2018, via Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Cropped from a two-person conference photograph and resized to 16:9 JPEG; no padding, retouching or synthetic alteration. Source [7]; license [8]. No endorsement implied.
Source Notice
Prepared from current project websites, a company-issued announcement and direct interviews, checked 5 November 2026. Historical titles and discontinued products are identified as such.