Listen to this articleDartanyon A. Williams, known to his friends as simply DAW, founded DuckPond Technologies, Inc. in February 2019.
Under his leadership, DuckPond Technologies develops disruptive technologies designed to improve and enhance the quality of life with a focus on consumer protection in the payment network and cybersecurity industries.
A serial entrepreneur, Dartanyon is also the founder of Duckkoin Cryptocurrency and WADCET Non-Fungible Token Technologies. DAW enjoys the writing process as well and is the best-selling author of the two-volume autobiography “The Master Identity Thief: Testimony and Solutions of an Expert Witness.” He’s currently working on his sophomore literary project titled “ENTREPRENETICS: The Proven Formula for Identifying, Categorizing, Prioritizing, and Actualizing Your Entrepreneurship,” which is slated for international release in April of 2023.
DAW says his mission is to be a vessel through which servanthood is perfected, which service to humanity labors to combat the evils of worldwide fraud through new and improved fintech products aimed against card fraud, data breaches, and identity theft — which he points out has been the fastest-growing crimes in the US for more than 20 years.
We recently sat down with Dartanyon for a short interview discussing DuckPond Technologies, the new products he’s developing, his plans for the future, and to whom is he compared as an up-and-coming Visionary Technologist.
Q: So tell us what you’ve been doing with DuckPond Technologies to develop new products? What are you working on?
Dartanyon A. Williams: Thanks so much for asking, because I’m proud to say we’ve got some great things in process!
First and foremost, we’ll be releasing a mobile sports game in August of 2023 in commemoration and celebration of the 50th anniversary of Hip-Hop as a culture and global phenomenon. The gaming app will be readily available on the App Store and Google Play and is the first of 10 planned games in a series we call Hip-Hop Sportz, where you can play sports in preferred locations around the world in colorful environments infused with the culture and attitude of hip-hop. The first game will be Hip-Hop Golf, and I’m proud to say it’s looking great! The game is being designed as a decentralized consumer-first technology and will also have immersive virtual and augmented reality capabilities, crypto programming, and non-fungible, scalable digital real estate transactions. Our development milestones are on task and target and all of us at DuckPond are very excited.
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Q: That sounds great! What products are you developing aimed at consumer protection and cybersecurity?
Dartanyon A. Williams: We have several that are in the preliminary stages of development now. We have VirtuVoter, which is aimed at improving the reliability and ease of voting for private enterprises, public organizations, corporations, and democracies. With VirtuVoter, we’re going to deliver a technology-first remote voting experience that voters, enterprise companies, and governments around the world can trust.
That’s because it has built-in biometric technology for user authentication, end-to-end asymmetry encryption for digital transactions with blockchain capabilities, and options for surveying, video conferencing, and live remote voting — all on a single platform.
Another one we are really excited about is CNPN Datacode. Essentially, we’re developing a payment card security product that’s scalable across multiple verticals. In fact, CNPN Datacode has the best of both worlds: as a B2B offering it’s designed for centralized institutions but it decentralizes the B2C transactional relationship by empowering consumers to take ownership of payment card security via the human element of three-factor authentication combined with our patent-pending Tri-thentication technology. CNPN Datacode is game-changing. At DuckPond we like to think of it as a disruptor.
Q: Why do you feel so passionately about creating new and better ways to protect consumers?
Dartanyon A. Williams: I think the best explanation of that is my memoir, which tracks my own experience learning how to master payment card fraud, check fraud, and identity theft before becoming a consultant and innovator that helps others, much like my friend Frank Abagnale, who was moved to enough offer an endorsement for the book.
But that’s only the beginning. I understand the broader context surrounding digital fraud and consumer protections, and it seems so clear to me that we need to do better. The various forms of identity theft and payment card fraud represent the fastest-growing segment of crime in America. It’s been that way for decades, yet we remain decades behind in substantially improving how we fight fraud and in educating Americans about self-protection so that we can prevent these crimes in the first place.
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Q: In technology circles, you are being compared to Robert F. Smith of Vista Equity Partners and David L. Steward of World Wide Technology. How do you feel about these lofty comparisons?
Dartanyon A. Williams: Before I share my appreciation, I must first unpack the fundamental flaws inherent in such comparisons. If I may ask, not who but what are the comparisons being drawn from? I venture it’s the color of our skin. Otherwise, if we’re comparing the substantive stuff of ambition, aspiration, acumen, and acuity, all of which are necessary ingredients for visionary ingenuity, then why not draw a comparison between Robert, David, Elon, Jeff, Bill, Mark, and myself, for starters? Nah, the comparisons both limit and categorizes success based on color instead of capturing what speaks to success regardless of ethnicity. The comparisons also amplify the marginalization of minorities in the tech industry. Look, David and Robert are notable pioneers, distinguished visionaries, and accomplished businessmen that are worthy of the same accolades this wayward world so readily bestows upon Warren Buffet and other billionaires. To even be remotely compared to either Robert or David at this stage of my embryonic existence in the tech space is humbling indeed, as there are others far more deserving to walk in the mere shadows of these two industry giants. However, I make no apology for being a brainiac whom Yahweh has gifted with the ability to see the end from the beginning.
Q: Some have said that you are a genius. Do you think that you are?
Dartanyon A. Williams: The difference between intelligence and ingenuity is that the latter is the result of a harder work ethic. I do not claim to be a genius in any measure, by any supposed standard or stretch of my imagination. However, I do the work that providence requires of geniuses in order to manifest the promises of fervent prayer, persistence, patience, and prudence. In other words, I’ve learned to listen to, wait on, and walk with Yahweh, in whom there is no fear of ignorance or the presumed substance of pretentious intellectualism. Obedience engineers ingenuity and ingenuity of the heavenly type is established revelatory knowledge reception and dissemination. Translation: Divine afflatus and inspiration are direct influences on my thought process and the fruit that begets therefrom.
