Aviation · Fintech · Blockchain · AI
Frank Poncelet
From cockpit to AI — three decades of building what's next.
Pioneering Agentic AI in 2026
About
I'm a systems thinker who keeps arriving early to revolutions. My career started at 30,000 feet, maintaining Alpha Jets and Fouga Magisters for the Belgian Air Force. I taught 55 cadets through their first solo flight and specialized in composite materials and flight instruments. When I pivoted to software in 2004, I graduated 1st in class out of 80 students, then spent my evenings teaching computer science at an evening school.
At ING Belgium, I went from Java architect to leading the mobile banking team, and founded internal tech culture programs that won the Golden Lion Trophy (twice). The pattern, in hindsight: I keep showing up early to things that later become obvious.
Today I'm Operations Architect at Xplore Group and co-founder of Hyperlabs, working on blockchain for the enterprise. I've written 40+ smart contracts, created ERC721F (a low-gas template now used as an industry standard), and given conference talks in Lisbon, New York, and elsewhere, on everything from robot bartenders to crypto adoption to agentic AI.
I've mined Bitcoin, left, returned for Ethereum, left again, and came back for NFTs (still here). As an early-stage investor, I back the builders who remind me why I kept coming back. Engineering, art, and finance keep colliding in this space, and that collision is what I like working in.
Right now I am building toward agentic and physical AI: systems that do more than chat, and actually run workflows, connect to devices, and coordinate on their own.
The Journey
Blockchain & Web3
- —Rebuilt this site as a callable interface for AI agents — MCP tools, resources, and prompts served over HTTP alongside the HTML
- —Claimed on-chain identity for my AI agent via ERC-8004 (#36039) on Ethereum mainnet
- —2026: Agentic AI / Physical AI — moved from experiments to production work
- —As part of the MoonMars project, I sent my CryptoPunk pair #4706 (V1/V2) to the surface of the moon
- —Open Ordinal — Hackathon Jury member
- —2025: Web3 Advisor & Art curator for NewChic Capital Family office
- —Alternate Universes — wrapping legacy Portion NFTs into ERC-1155
- —2024: Head of Speaker Selection & Art curation for The Banana Conf Tallinn
- —2023: Co-founded Hyperlabs — Xplore Group's blockchain brand
- —Developed 40+ smart contracts, including ERC721F — a low-gas template now used as an industry standard
- —2022: Built the ERC-721 wrapper for CryptoPunks V1, which made the original 2017 CryptoPunks safely tradeable
- —Co-founded We are Dorkis — created the old-fashioned way with pen and colored pencil on paper
- —Co-founded DAO_The50 — the protest that woke up Foundation's gatekeepers. 5000 notifications. No apologies.
- —Neural style transfer as an art practice — repainting video animation, frame by frame
- —2021: Came back for the NFT revolution as an artist, but realized engineering skills mattered more — still here
- —2017: Returned for Ethereum and "programmable money" — left again as the ICO hype faded
- —2010: Mined Bitcoin in the early days — left the scene when ASICs industrialized mining
Cronos / Xplore Group / Hyperlabs
- —Innovation, pre-sales, project & program management — Operations Architect
- —Joined AIgeneers — Cronos Group's AI division, publishing AI articles and insights
- —Major Belgian bank: AI-driven application modernization — Architect
- —Baloise: Innovation week — AI-driven hackathon Facilitator
- —Major Belgian bank: Member of the Expert Advisory Board Digital Assets
- —Major Belgian bank: The Profiler — a reusable MiFID platform — Project Manager
- —Major Belgian bank: Material Blockchain — Blockchain Advisor
- —Crelan: New Mobile App — Project Manager & Strategy Advisor
- —Agentschap Natuur & Bos: digitalization of subsidy management on blockchain — Blockchain Architect
- —Co-founded Hyperlabs — Xplore Group's blockchain brand
- —Elout: Digitalization of IRL games to streaming video — Project Manager
- —Major Belgian bank: Asset management tool — Project Manager
- —Conundra: Transport planning platform — Steering Committee member
- —Epilog: MRI data processing platform — Steering Committee member
- —Descours & Cabaud: Webshop middleware platform — Project Manager & Technology Advisor
- —Pioneer: Real-time automotive telematics platform — Project Manager & Technology Advisor
- —Speaker at Devoxx Belgium — Moe Szyslak vs. The Balmer Peak
ING Belgium
- —Team Manager Mobile Banking — Delivered a new mobile security platform
- —Team Manager New Service Platform — building the next generation of ING's digital services
- —Won the Golden Lion Trophy twice (2015 & 2016) for tech culture initiatives
- —Organized ING Hackathon SYTYCC (So You Think You Can Code) for students — promoting ING as a tech company
- —Co-founded Devoxx4Kids@ING for employees' children
- —Designed and built the first native Mobile security/encryption framework for ING
- —Team Manager Mobile Banking — led the team that built the first mobile banking app in Belgium
- —Senior Java Architect — code quality, architecture documentation, production systems
The Educator
- —Part-time IT Instructor @ CVO-IVV de avondschool
- —Founding faculty — helped build the department's foundational IT courses
- —Taught Structured Computer Organisation (based on Prof. Tannenbaum)
- —Later added Network Management Advanced to the curriculum
- —Served as Promotor for final graduation projects in Network Management
Belgian Defence & Air Force
- —IT Instructor at Defence — teaching Java EE and design patterns
- —Graduated 1st in class (out of 80) in military IT conversion — Java EE, distributed computing, AI
- —Glider Pilot Instructor — trained 55 cadets to their first solo flight, and 75 for cross-country
- —Composite materials specialist — structural repairs on Schleicher & Grob glider aircraft
- —Aircraft Engineer on Fouga Magister — scheduled maintenance & team management
- —Alpha Jet Crew Chief — day-to-day maintenance in a 12-member team keeping 18 jets mission-ready
Speaking
I speak at conferences about where blockchain, AI, and the enterprise meet: digital ownership, smart contract design, getting crypto to mainstream users, and where these systems are heading.
2026 · Lisbon
NFC Summit 2026
The Death of the Human Middleman: AI Agents, RWAs & the Automation of Everything — duo keynote with IrishNFTgal
2026 · Berlin
Dappconn
The Death of the Human Middleman: AI Agents, RWAs & the Automation of Everything — duo keynote with IrishNFTgal
Watch on YouTube →(opens in a new tab)2025 · Lisbon
NFC Summit 2025
Mass Adoption: The Final Frontier — duo keynote with IrishNFTgal
Watch on YouTube →(opens in a new tab)2024 · Tallinn
NFT Tallinn — The Banana Conf
ERC-6551 Token-Bound Accounts — duo keynote with IrishNFTgal
Watch on YouTube →(opens in a new tab)2024 · Brussels
ETHcc — 0x499
Decentralized Masterpieces — NFTs and the Future of Art — with IrishNFTgal, Ioana Surpatean, Yiqin Zhu & Zarina Izy
2024 · Dublin
ETH Dublin
NFT panel with John Crain & IrishNFTgal
Watch on YouTube →(opens in a new tab)2024 · Lisbon
Non Fungible Conference
Soulbound Tokens — The Future of Identification and Recognition
Watch on YouTube →(opens in a new tab)2023 · Lugano
NFT Fest Lugano
Ordinals or NFTs? On-chain or not?
2023 · Copenhagen
Nordic Blockchain Conference
Soulbound Tokens — The Future of Identification and Recognition
View on Sessionize →(opens in a new tab)2023 · Biarritz
NFT Biarritz
Panel — Bitcoin Ordinals: The New Age of NFTs? — With John Karp, Benjamin Mauger, Benjamin Cohen and Quentin de Beauchesne
2023 · New York
NFT.NYC 2023
The Future of NFTs and Their Regenerative Role
Watch on YouTube →(opens in a new tab)2023 · Lisbon
Non Fungible Conference
Panel Discussion on Ordinals
View on Sessionize →(opens in a new tab)2023 · Tallinn
NFT Tallinn
Soulbound Tokens — The Future of Identification and Recognition
View on Sessionize →(opens in a new tab)2022 · London
NFT.London
Low-gas Smart Contracts & ERC721F
Projects
Agentic & Physical AI Systems
Designing and prototyping agentic AI systems that do more than chat: running workflows, driving devices, and coordinating with each other. This is where I'm spending my energy in 2026.
ING Mobile Banking
Led the team that built the first native iOS mobile banking app in Belgium for ING. What started as a first became the everyday banking channel for millions of Belgian users.
Crelan Mobile App
Project Manager & Strategy Advisor for Crelan's new mobile banking app (2022–2024), responsible for delivery from start to launch.
Major Belgian bank — MiFID Platform
Project Manager of The Profiler, a reusable MiFID compliance platform for asset management.
ERC721F
Open-source low-gas NFT contract template, now widely used across the industry. Cuts minting gas costs substantially compared with the reference ERC-721 implementation.
Visit →Hyperlabs
Co-founded Xplore Group's blockchain brand in 2023. We build enterprise blockchain solutions, including on-chain asset management and subsidy processes.
Visit →Natuur & Bos on Blockchain
Digitalized the Flemish forestry agency's subsidy management process on blockchain, making every subsidy decision traceable and auditable.
We are Dorkis
Co-founded a collection of 4,724 hand-drawn NFTs — dorks, goofballs, and weirdos created the old-fashioned way with pen and colored pencil on paper. The community is for everyone who's ever been called a dork.
Visit →CryptoPunks V1 (Wrapped)
Built the ERC-721 wrapper that brought the original 2017 CryptoPunks back to life. A community-driven recovery of the first-ever Punks smart contract — now safely tradable with 51K+ ETH in total volume.
Visit →Get in Touch
Interested in collaboration, speaking engagements, or just want to connect? Let's start a conversation.
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