Climate-tech founder Max Song on how a Nasa internship inspired intergalactic goals

Like what AI is in 2023, “NFT” was the buzzword of 2021—until it wasn’t. The bubble burst, and the prices of these non-fungible tokens—unique digital assets—came crashing down.

For Hong Kong-based founder Max Song, this was a moment we entered the Trough of Disillusionment on the Gartner Hype Cycle. But while NFT developers may have failed at their experimentations and implementations of the tokens, Song says it doesn’t erase the great potential of the underlying blockchain technology.

Song, who started climate-tech company Carbonbase to build one of Asia’s leading carbon registries, believes that NFTs can incentivise positive climate action. His plan is to incentivise hundreds of millions, if not billions, of people to care about climate change through them. 

Read more: Asia’s first digital carbon registry: A partnership by Carbonbase, The Hbar Foundation and ImpactX

He explains how he’s making it work in the latest episode of our Crazy Smart Asia podcast, mixed with conversations about his experiences of purposely living homeless in Paris for a month and walking around Burning Man with a cardboard sign saying “Will code for food”, and why entrepreneurship is his path to spiritual enlightenment.

Here are a few excerpts from the conversation. Click the audio player below to listen to the full episode or subscribe via Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.