Born in Kazakhstan, Vladimir Okhotnikov had no idea how much his life would change – film director, seller of dietary supplements, master of the tea ceremony, founder of the DeFi platform, and creator of the metaverse
Who Is Vladimir Okhotnikov and Why He Has So Many Fans and Haters: Only Important and Interesting Facts
Vladimir Okhotnikov is a successful entrepreneur and innovator in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi) who is constantly surrounded by controversy and debates.
Vladimir was born on March 27, 1978 in Kazakhstan. As a teenager, he encountered strong influence from the state. He had to live in conditions of goods shortage, censorship and restrictions on freedom. The lifestyle was centered around the communism ideology and collectivism principles. However, Vladimir managed to break out, becoming an expert in virtual reality technologies, in the field of DeFi and GameFi.
The family of Vladimir Okhotnikov moved to Naberezhnye Chelny from Kokshetau in 1980.
At first it was hard, Vladimir recalls. His mother worked as a salesman, and his father was a famous athlete and coach, master of sports in Greco-Roman wrestling. Under his leadership, Vladimir was actively involved in sports from childhood and proved himself to be a talented wrestler, subsequently becoming the champion of Tatarstan.
Vladimir witnessed the collapse of the USSR at the age of 13, and clearly remembers the reality of that event and all the details that accompanied the young guy. According to him, “this is what pushed me to a better life.”
From his youth, Vladimir showed interest in art. After graduating from school, at the age of 16 he moved to Moscow and entered the All-Russian Institute for Retraining and Advanced Training of Motion Picture Workers (VIPPK), where he studied to become a director.
Dreaming of cinema, he was faced with a choice. On the one hand, Vladimir was eager to make a good movie. But his reverent attitude towards art and fear of distortion of facts led to a desire not to obey other people’s rules. He didn’t want anyone else to direct his work or life.
“…Let’s talk about transparency. This mainly concerns business. Transparency means we trust each other and are in control of the situation honestly. But it’s up to you to decide how open you are: if you want to reveal everything, that’s great, but if you want to keep some information about yourself behind the scenes, that’s fine, too. You decide what to do,” Vladimir Okhotnikov about blockchain in the article “Confidentiality and Transparency of Crypto Business”
From 2000 to 2010, the young businessman achieved significant results in the Tianshi company, which specialized in dietary supplements. According to Vladimir, “this was a promising direction.”
Soon he built a team of specialists and for this he received passive income for a long time. However, changes in company policy brought down his first business.
At the same time, in 2003, Vladimir delved into the art of the tea ceremony, completing training and working as a tea master from 2004 to 2009. He could be seen in prestigious establishments, among which the Tea Culture Club in the Hermitage Garden and Tea Height deserved special attention.
He later combined his skills and passion to represent in the Galaxy Mate the Argentinian drink Yerba Mate, an ideal meditation and wellness tea that quickly gained popularity. In a short time, Vladimir became a leader here too. But once again faced with changes in company policy, he was forced to leave the project.
In 2016, a turning point came – a new milestone in the life of Vladimir Okhotnikov
At the age of 38, Vladimir found himself at a crossroads – he did not know where to move next. An ambitious guy, steadfast and not broken under pressure of failures, he began to explore a completely new field for himself.
“…Now bank cards and payment systems like Payeer, PerfectMoney, Advanced Cash seem commonplace. Then one could only dream about it...”, Vladimir recalls the times when payments were made exclusively in cash.
Accustomed to being at the forefront of innovation, Vladimir Okhotnikov became acquainted with cryptocurrency, which was initially considered by many as a tool for one of the Internet projects. Then he did not yet know about the Bitcoin halving,
the release of Segregated Witness (SegWit), the progress of the Lightning Network and the successful ICO crypto projects Waves, Lisk, ICONOMI, Golem Network, which attracted millions of dollars of investment.
Having immersed himself in the research of cryptocurrencies and blockchain in 2018, Vladimir considered the enormous potential of the technology.
In 2020, together with like-minded people Sergei Maslakov, Gleb Million and Lola Ferrari, Vladimir founded Forsage, a digital financial management platform.
The moment turned out to be good – just at this time, the total trading volume on decentralized exchanges (DEX) exceeded $120 billion, and the market capitalization of stablecoins increased more than fivefold, approaching $30 billion. This was the best time to start, and Vladimir Okhotnikov made the right decision.
The platform quickly gained more than 2 million users worldwide. However, at the beginning of 2022, Vladimir decisively left the project due to disagreements with the strategy promoted by his partners.
From the first steps in business to the creation of a large-scale DeFi platform
One of Vladimir’s boldest goals is to take the world of gaming to a new level, where interactivity and gameplay will surprise players. According to him, “blockchain games will only be in demand if they become exciting, otherwise gamers will quickly get tired of the idea.”
In 2022, he made a historic breakthrough when he proposed building a metaverse that could combine business, leisure and education in virtual reality.
A year before, in 2021, Vladimir Okhotnikov began developing a completely new decentralized platform, Meta Force. The project turned out to be popular, as it was one of the most promising in the DeFi niche.
Meta Force soon began to take on the characteristics of a metaverse based on a simulation of reality. Over the past few months, various business services have been introduced, including the Force NFT Marketplace, Mobile Wallet App, Academy Force.
As of February 2024, the number of users on the platform was 1,699,640 with a total income of $1,735,792,115.
Now Vladimir Okhotnikov considers gamification to be the main direction: “…A way to attract the attention of gamers to products and services, using elements of the virtual world. Instead of regular tasks, you complete missions and earn points. For example, a player receives points for successful completion, and power for helping others.”
There are plans to launch the game on the blockchain. Introduce the concept of GameAF into the everyday life of gamers. Take gamification to a new level, with the ability to purchase real goods for cryptocurrency.
In the meantime, Coindesk, Cryptopotato.com, Bitcoin.org, Finance.Yahoo, Binance and many others write about Vladimir Okhotnikov.
