James Ferguson is one of the co-founders of Immutable X, a layer-2 scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain. He has a background in game design and software development, and has been involved in the blockchain industry since 2015. ^[1]

Early Life & Education

Ferguson has a double degree in commerce and law from the University of Sydney. During his studies, he took a year off to pursue coding in San Francisco. ^[1][2]

Career

Ferguson started his career in 2015 as the cofounder of Rivlr, an e-sports tournament platform that allowed people to play their online multiplayer games for prizes. Afterwards, he founded Shopyak, a platform used to build single page stores. ^[1]

Immutable X

In 2015, James and his brother Robbie Ferguson were introduced to Ethereum and recognized its potential for the enablement of smart contracts. These contracts are programmed and unalterable, which is why the Fergusons named their business Immutable. ^[2]

After the launch of CryptoPunks, the brothers saw the potential of NFTs.

“CryptoPunks was what I would call a proof of concept for a crypto collectible. We thought it was very cool, but for us, the idea of taking that and combining it with video games was so obviously a better system.”

In 2018, they founded Immutable, a layer-2 scaling solution for games based on Ethereum. ^[2]

“I think all the value in the world – or most value in the world – [will end] up being under the hood, backed by blockchain technology.”

Immutable started as Fuel Games, which was responsible for producing NFT-based games such as Gods Unchained and Guild of Guardians. The company underwent a rebranding in 2019 to Immutable. ^[2]