Top 200 Blockchain
Authors And Influencers

Vitalik Buterin is the creator of Ethereum, cryptocurrency blockchain network. He has been actively involved in the Bitcoin community as a writer and developer since 2011, and as co-founder of the popular Bitcoin Magazine (first issue in May 2012) along with Mihai Alisie. Vitalik Buterin launched his historical white paper about Ethereum in November 2013 and described it as “cryptocurrency 2.0″.

Don Tapscott is one of the world’s leading authorities on the impact of technology on business and society. He has authored 16 books, including Wikinomics which has been translated into over 25 languages. Alex Tapscott, a globally-recognized investor, advisor and speaker on blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. His book Blockchain Revolution published in 2016 and is, one of the first books making blockchain mainstream and is according to Harvard Business School’s Clay Christensen, “the book, literally, on how to survive and thrive in this next wave of technology-driven disruption.”

Andreas M. Antonopoulos (born 1972) is a Greek-British bitcoin and blockchain technology and research author, advocate and evangelist. He is a host on the Let's Talk Bitcoin podcast and a teaching fellow for the M.Sc. Digital Currencies at the University of Nicosia. His books and research have contributed to make blockchain and bitcoin mainstream.

Timothy Cook Draper (born June 11, 1958) is an American VC investor, and founder of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Draper University, Draper Venture Network, Draper Associates, and Draper Goren Holm. He is one of the biggest and first blockchain bitcoin evangelists and investors. His most prominent investments include Baidu, Hotmail, Skype, Tesla, SpaceX, AngelList, SolarCity, Twitter, DocuSign, Coinbase, Robinhood (company), Ancestry.com, Twitch and Focus Media.

Changpeng Zhao (aka “CZ”) launched Binance in July 2017 and has since grown it into the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange for retail investors. It’s a long way from when he was flipping burgers while studying at McGill in Montreal. In addition to steering Binance, CZ has also become a social media personality in his own right with his trademark “funds are safu” launched into the crypto-meme hall of fame.

Brad Garlinghouse is the CEO of Ripple since 2015 and also sits on the firm’s board of directors. Prior to working at Ripple, Garlinghouse was the CEO of file collaboration service Hightail. Garlinghouse also served in senior positions at Yahoo and AOL and holds degrees from the University of Kansas and Harvard University. Garlinghouse is also an angel investor in several firms including AI firm Diffbot and staffing platform Wonolo.

Joseph Lubin is a co-founder of Ethereum and the founder of ConsenSys, a full-stack, global blockchain company and the world’s leading Ethereum accelerator. Lubin has established himself as a guiding force in the fast-growing blockchain industry and a powerful advocate of decentralized technology.

Perianne Boring is the founder and president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world's largest trade association representing the blockchain industry, which she established in 2014.

Roger Keith Ver (born January 27, 1979) is an early investor in bitcoin, bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of bitcoin. He has been known as "Bitcoin Jesus" for his promotion of bitcoin. He now promotes Bitcoin Cash.

Tiff Hayden is a co-founder of Casheer, Inc., a free mobile payment processing platform for merchants and consumers. She is also a member of Bitcoin GNO, an online community for women involved in Bitcoin, and a member of The Michigan Peace and Liberty Coalition. She’s a famous liberty advocate and fintech enthusiast. From 2013 she has been CEO of Ripple.

Matthew Daniel Green is a cryptographer and security technologist.He specializes in applied cryptography, privacy-enhanced information storage systems, anonymous cryptocurrencies, elliptic curve crypto-systems, and satellite television piracy.

Dinis Guarda is a leading global author, academic, influencer. Dinis has as written multiple books, created a bank, and been advising regulators, governments and behind top 100 digital currencies. Dinis created companies such as Ztudium that created the blockchain AI software blocksdna, used by a central bank in Africa, Blockimpact, and digital platforms openbusinesscouncil.org, intelligenthq.com, hedgethink.com, and tradersdna.com. He has been working with the UN / UNITAR, UNESCO, Hyperloop Transportations. European Space Agency, Philips, Saxo Bank, Mastercard, Barclays and governments.

Warren Whitlock is a digital business development strategist. He is also a Director/Advisor in the business of future tech. Focused on exponential growth in blockchain, media, and e-commerce.

Peter McCormack is a popular cryptocurrency journalist/podcaster based in the United Kingdom.The What Bitcoin Did Podcast is a twice-weekly show where Peter McCormack interviews leaders in Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrencies. He covers topics such as Freedom, Human Rights, Censorship and Bitcoin.

Born and based in Colorado, Charles Hoskinson attended the Metropolitan State University of Denver and the University of Colorado at Boulder to study analytic number theory prior to moving into cryptocurrency via industry exposure. Hoskinson’s professional experience includes founding three crypto-related ventures: Invictus Innovations, Ethereum and Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK). He was also the founding chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s education committee and established the Cryptocurrency Research Group in September 2013.

Jon Matonis is an e-money researcher and crypto economist focused on expanding the circulation of non-political digital currencies. His career has included senior influential posts at Sumitomo Bank, Visa, VeriSign, and Hushmail. He is a former Executive Director and board member of the Bitcoin Foundation.

Sally Eaves is a Global Strategy Advisor on Blockchain AI FinTech and Social Impact. She is an award-winning thought leader in innovation, digital transformation and emergent technology, notably blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. A member of the Forbes Technology Council, Sally is also an accomplished author with regular contributions to leading business, technology and academic publications.

Formerly a pioneer in cybersecurity with the launch of McAfee Antivirus software in the 1990s, John McAfee has since walked a long, strange and notorious path in his life and career. Since returning to the U.S. from a storied stay in Central America (notably Belize), McAfee has focused on two ventures: running for President as a Libertarian candidate and founding/advising a range of cryptocurrency ventures. In November 2017, he made the bold prediction that Bitcoin would reach $500,000 by the end of 2020.

Marketing & Business Strategist for Hire. Blockchain & Cryptocurrency Podcast Host. Author. Keynote Speaker. Comedian.

Meltem Demirors is Chief Strategy Officer of CoinShares, an investment firm that manages $750M in assets, and is a trusted partner to investors and entrepreneurs navigating the digital asset ecosystem. She is a founding member of the World Economic Forum Blockchain Council and testified before the House Financial Services Committee on digital currencies. She is an advisor to the MIT Media Lab.

Elizabeth Stark is a blockchain entrepreneur, educator, and open internet advocate. She is currently CEO of Lightning Labs, an organization which aims to scale blockchains. Elizabeth Stark was formerly a researcher at the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

Erik Voorhees is the founder and CEO of shapeshift a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Prior to Shapeshift, Voorhees headed marketing efforts at BitInstant, one of the first crypto exchange services founded by Charlie Shrem. Voorhees also co-founded Bitcoin wallet, payment processor and broker Coinapult.

Thomas Power is a Futurist Speaker and a Blockchain and Social Media Coach.

Dr. Johannes Drooghaag is the CEO of Spearhead Management, in Germany. He is an accomplished speaker in the areas of Executive Leadership, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Agile Business Management. He has authored many publications on areas of High-tech, such as Cybersecurity, as well as other business related topics.

Tim Swanson is the founder and director of research at Post Oak Labs. He was previously a visiting research fellow at the Singapore University of Social Sciences as well as at Sim Kee Boon Institute at Singapore Management University. He worked in East Asia for more than six years and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a graduate of Texas A&M University.

Ben Horowitz is a cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The Hard Thing About Hard Things and What You Do Is Who You Are. He also created the a16z Cultural Leadership Fund to connect the greatest cultural leaders to the best new technology companies, and enable more young African Americans to enter the technology industry.

Balaji S. Srinivasan is an angel investor and entrepreneur. Formerly the CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, he was also the cofounder of Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase), Counsyl (acquired by Myriad), Teleport (acquired by Topia), and Coin Center.

Jameson Lopp is BitGo’s team lead of the software engineering group. BitGo is the security service for virtual assets that is headquartered in Palo Alto, CA. Jameson Lopp’s Bitcoin career started in 2015. He has also created a fork of Bitcoin Core called Statoshi. As of November 2018, he was the chief technology officer of the crypto startup casa. Lopp is most notable for his decision to live off-the-grid, which has been written about in The New York Times.

Ryan Selkis is an entrepreneur, blogger, and former venture capitalist. He is currently the founder and CEO of Messari in New York City, a firm that is building an open data library for the crypto asset class. He has founded two separate Bitcoin ventures. He is the managing director at Coindesk

Zooko's birth name is Bryce Wilcox May. He is an American Colorado-based computer security specialist, cypherpunk, and CEO of the Electric Coin Company (ECC), a for-profit company leading the development of Zcash.

Tuur Demeester is an independent investor and newsletter writer. He has a background in Austrian economics, the school that specialises in the study of boom-and-bust cycles in the economy. He is a founding partner at Adamant Capital, a fund with a decades-long outlook on the future of Bitcoin. He is regular speaker at Bitcoin conferences worldwide and an early bitcoin investor. Demeester is also the co-founder of the Rothbard Institute, a Belgian think tank.

Oliver Bussmann is a globally recognized technology thought leader and driver of large-scale transformation at multinational organizations. The Founder and CEO of Bussmann AdvisoryAG.

Barry Silbert is the Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group. A pioneer in bitcoin investing, Barry established himself in 2012 as one of the earliest and most active investors in the industry. Prior to DCG, Barry was the founder and CEO of SecondMarket, a venture-backed technology company that was acquired by Nasdaq.

Jeff Garzik is a futurist, entrepreneur and software engineer. Jeff is co-founder and CEO of Bloq. Jeff serves on the board of Coin Center, and the advisory board of BitFury, Bitpay, Chain.com, Netki and WayPaver Labs.

Adam Back (born July 1970) is a British cryptographer and crypto-hacker. He is the inventor of hashcash, the proof-of-work system used by several anti-spam systems.

Emin Gün Sirer is a Turkish-American computer scientist. He is currently an associate professor of computer science at Cornell University, co-director of IC3. He is known for his contributions to peer-to-peer systems, operating systems and computer networking.

Preston is an attorney at Byrne & Storm, P.C., where his practice focuses on early-stage technology companies with complex cross-border legal issues, including industrial cryptography, cryptocurrency and interactive computer services businesses.

Justin Sun, born in 1990, is a tech entrepreneur, the founder of the cryptocurrency platform TRON and current CEO of BitTorrent. He is also the former chief representative of the Greater China area of Ripple; founder and CEO of mobile social App Peiwo.

"Dr Craig S Wright is an Australian/Antiguan computer scientist, businessman, and inventor, who is the creator of Bitcoin and author of the Bitcoin white paper. Dr Wright is one of the earliest minds behind what we now know as blockchain technology, and established nChain to unleash the technology and its intended purpose—now preserved in the form of the Bitcoin SV Node reference implementation and Bitcoin SV. He is the Chief Scientist at nChain, Dr Wright oversees the scientific functions of the company, including basic and applied research projects and the development of new processes, technologies, and products. Dr Wright has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of information technology and security. He has been a lecturer and researcher in computer science at Charles Sturt University, authored many articles, academic papers, and books, and spoke publicly at conferences on IT, security, Bitcoin, and other topics relating to digital currency. Many of Dr Wright’s research findings and publications continue to be presented at academic and business conferences. "

David Gerard is a crypto journalist. He writes the cryptocurrency and blockchain news site Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain, and is the author of the 2017 book Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain: Bitcoin, Blockchain, Ethereum & Smart Contracts.

Nic Carter is the Editor of Crypto Fundamental and Castle Island Ventures. Before joining Castle Island, Nic Carter worked for Fidelity as their first cryptoasset analyst, where he devised research perspectives on public blockchains.

Vinny Lingham is a South African Internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder & CEO of Civic - an identity protection and management startup.

Charles Lee is a computer scientist, best known as the creator of Litecoin. He serves as the managing director of the Litecoin Foundation.

Joshuwa Roomsburg is the CEO of ChainLeak.com & JaxonMarketing.com. He has spent 10 years working with some of the biggest athletes and celebrities to build their brands online.

Alex Tapscott is a well-known author, investor and public speaker focused on blockchain, cryptocurrencies and other emerging technologies. Tapscott co-authored the international best-selling book Blockchain Revolution with his father, Don Tapscott. Alex is also the editor and a contributor to the upcoming book Financial Services Revolution: How Blockchain Is Transforming Money, Markets and Banking.

Neel is a Product Manager at Google and studied Computer Science at Harvard University. He worked previously at Microsoft and Khan Academy. Neel founded the Civic Digital Fellowship, the first paid tech internship program in the federal government.

Simon Taylor is the Co-Founder and Blockchain expert at the FinTech consultancy 11:FS. He is also the host of In addition Simon is a co-host of both Fintech Insider the #1 Business Podcast in Europe and Blockchain Insider the fastest growing business podcast and the home of Blockchain knowledge.

Jasmine Birtles is an internationally-recognised financial expert, TV presenter, best-selling author, journalist, columnist and speaker. She is the founder of MoneyMagpie, a UK leading website for money-making ideas, plus money-saving and money management help.

Riccardo Spagni is a cryptocurrency developer based out of Plettenberg Bay, Western Cape, South Africa. He is well known as a Lead Maintainer and a Core Developer at Monero. He also co-founded Tari, an open source blockchain platform for digital assets.

Stephan Tual is the former CCO of Ethereum, the next-generation blockchain that raised $18.9m as part of the world's second largest crowdfunding event, now valued at over USD 90 billion. He is an internationally recognized expert in smart contracts and decentralized blockchain applications. He is also the Founder of Atlas Neue (https://atlasneue.com), a revolutionary take on a development and financial services company which creates and supports exciting ventures in the blockchain space. Stephan Tual is the Founder and COO of Slock.it (http://slock.it), a project at the intersection of the IoT and blockchain. Stephan has three startups under his belt and brings 25 years of enterprise IT experience to his enterprises. Before discovering the Blockchain space, Stephan held CTO positions at leading data analytics companies in London with clients including VISA Europe and BP.

Bruce Fenton is the Founder/ President of Atlantic Financial / Atlantic Financial Blockchain Labs and the Founder and CEO of Chainstone Labs. He was a Board Member and former Executive Director of the Bitcoin Foundation. Founder of the Bitcoin Association. Fenton is also the host and founder of the Satoshi Roundtable retreat, an exclusive, invitation-only retreat for leaders in the blockchain industry and organizer of the first Dubai Bitcoin Conference.

Kevin Werbach is an American academic, businessman and author. Since 2004, Werbach is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on the intersection of business, policy, and emerging technologies in areas such as broadband, blockchain, and big data.

Paul Vigna is a markets reporter at The Wall Street Journal. Currently covering bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain technology. Author of three books, he has more than 25 years experience in journalism.

Efi Pylarinou is a global Fintech influencer and an independent Fintech/Blockchain advisor. She holds a Ph.D. in Finance and is a seasoned Wall Street professional. She is No.3 influencer in the finance sector and No.1 woman influencer, by Refinitiv Global Social Media 2019. Efi is an international Speaker on Fintech and Blockchain business trends. Co-founder and author of Daily Fintech.

Kevin Weil is the co-creator of Libra and vice president of facebook's Calibra project. l is the Vice President of Product for Facebook's blockchain initiative Calibra, which seeks to build a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people.

Brock Pierce (born November 14, 1980) is an American entrepreneur known for his work in the cryptocurrency industry He was part of founding venture capital firm Blockchain Capital (BCC). Pierce was elected Director of the Bitcoin Foundation in May 2014. but the organization announced its insolvency in July 2015. Pierce is an early investor in Bitcoin and one of the largest investors in the Ethereum crowdsale. He is the founder of IMI Exchange, the world’s leading digital currency marketplace for games, with annual sales exceeding $1B and investors such as Goldman Sachs, which was sold in 2016 for more than $100M. Pierce founded ZAM, one of the world’s largest media properties for gamers, which was acquired by Tencent in 2012. He founded IGE, the pioneer of digital currency in online games, achieving revenues exceeding $100 million in 2006 and sold in 2007 and he is also a co-founder of D10e, GoCoin, Blade Payments, Five Delta (sold NASDAQ: SRAX), Xfire 2.0, Playsino, Evertune, GamesTV, and DEN. He also advises Airswap, Bancor, BitGo, BitGuild, BlockV, Bloq, DNA, Element Group, Metronome, Shyft, and tZERO.Pierce is a sought-after speaker who has spoken about the power of blockchain technology and decentralization at global events and institutions.

Jerry Brito is executive director of Coin Center. He was a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and director of its Technology Policy Program. He also serves as an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University. His research focuses on technology and Internet policy, copyright, and the regulatory process.

Kyle Torpey is a freelance writer and researcher who has been following Bitcoin since 2011. His work has been featured in VICE Motherboard, Business Insider, NASDAQ, New York Post,The Next Web, American Banker, and other media outlets. You can view all his work at kyletorpey.com.

Vlad Zamfir is a digital analyst, an Ethereum developer and blockchain architect and member of the Ethereum Foundation.

Adryenn Ashley is a serial entrepreneur, speaker, and investor. Her latest venture, Loly.io, is a blockchain based dating app focusing on sexual compatibility. She is also an international speaker and co-founder of Slay Ventures.

Arianna Simpson is the founder and managing director of Autonomous Partners, a fund focused on cryptocurrencies and digital assets. She is also a venture partner at Crystal Towers Capital, a venture capital fund, and previously spent time at Facebook and BitGo. As of 2020 she is joining Andreessen Horowitz as a deal partner.

Charlie Shrem is an American entrepreneur and bitcoin advocate. In 2011 he co-founded the now-defunct startup company BitInstant, and is a founding member of the Bitcoin Foundation, formerly serving as vice chairman.

Tyler Howard Winklevoss (born August 21, 1981) is an American cryptocurrency and Bitcoin investor, rower, entrepreneur, and founder of Winklevoss Capital Management.

Cameron Winklevoss is one of the most well-known names in the cryptocurrency space as one of the founders of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange and custody service. Cameron attended Harvard where he and his brother Tyler conceived of the social network idea ConnectU. Winklevoss would later claim that this idea was stolen by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and enter a lawsuit against the social media giant.

David Marcus is an American entrepreneur. He is the co-creator and a board member of Libra, a cryptocurrency project initiated by Facebook. He is the former president of PayPal and Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook where he ran the Facebook Messenger unit from 2014 until 2018.

Joseph Young, is a Financial analyst and investor based in Hong Kong. He is a chief editor at NewsBTC. Contributing to Forbes, CCN, and Binary District.

Michael Terpin is a blockchain investor and the founder/CEO of Transform Group. Terpin co-founded BitAngels, an angel investor network for digital currency startups. Terpin is also known for founding Marketwire, which was one of the world’s leading business newswires and which has since been merged with GlobeNewswire.

Jimmy Song is a Bitcoin Educator, Developer and Entrepreneur.

Samson Mow is Blockstream's CSO and Pixelmatic's CEO. Samson Mow was previously at BTCC, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges and mining pools in the world.

Vinay Gupta is Founder and CEO of Mattereum. Half Indian, half Scottish, and residing in Iceland he is a leading figure in the blockchain space, having co-ordinated the release of the blockchain platform Ethereum in July 2015, and was strategic architect for ConsenSys Systems, a technology hub focusing on the Ethereum blockchain and related applications.

Kai Grunwitz is Managing Director of NTT in Germany since October 2019. For the last five years, Kai Grunwitz has been responsible for the Cybersecurity business unit as Senior Vice President EMEA of NTT Security. He has worked more than 25 years in various management positions in the IT industry, including well-known companies such as Oracle and Sun Microsystems.

Willy Woo describes himself as a nomad, entrepreneur and investor following the bitcoin space and mindfulness. He blogs about cryptocurrency investments at Woobull.com.

Muneeb Ali is the co-founder and CEO of Blockstack, a decentralized computing network with 375+ apps/startups built on top. Muneeb received his Ph.D. and Masters in Computer Science from Princeton University. His Ph.D. thesis was nominated for the ACM SIGCOMM dissertation award by Princeton University. Muneeb gives guest lectures on cloud computing at Princeton and his research publications have over 1,300 citations. He is one of the main characters in George Gilder’s book Life After Google and was a technical advisor to the HBO show Silicon Valley.

Co-founder & Managing Director of Scalar Capital.

Aaron van Wirdum is a freelance journalist writing about the bitcoin/blockchain space.

Gavin Andresen is a software developer best known for his involvement with bitcoin. In 2012 he founded the Bitcoin Foundation to support and nurture the development of the bitcoin currency. He is based in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Peter Wuille is a Bitcoin Core developer and the co-founder of Blockstream. He is #2 in terms of commits to Bitcoin Core and is responsible for important improvements to Bitcoin like BIP 66, libsecp256k1, and Segregated Witness.

Trace Mayer is an entrepreneur, investor, journalist, monetary scientist, podcast host, and ardent defender of the freedom of speech. He is known for being the founder of the Proof of Keys movement. Trace Mayer holds degrees in accounting and law and has studied Austrian economics. He hosts the extremely popular Bitcoin Knowledge Podcast where he interviews the top people in the Bitcoin world and can be followed on Twitter @TraceMayer.

Peter Van Valkenburgh is a Cryptolawyer and Director of Research at Coin Center and Board Member at the Zcash Foundation.

Alex Van De Sande is the co founder of Unilogin. He was the lead designer for the Ethereum Foundation and Ethereum Development and is currently an advisor.

Wayne Vaughan is the Co-Founder and CEO of Tierion, a company that turns the blockchain into a global platform for verifying any data, file or business process. He is the co-author of Chainpoint, the first industry standard protocol for anchoring data in the blockchain. He is also a speaker about Bitcoin and blockchain technology to business and technical audiences, including presentations to the Federal Reserve, Wells Fargo, Consensus, and the Miami Bitcoin Conference.

Ryan Shea co-founded Blockstack, one of the top developer platforms in the world for decentralized apps.

Nick Tomaino (Yale SOM), Founder of 1 confirmation, Crypto Fund Backed by Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Marc Cuban.

Laura Shin is the host of the crypto podcasts Unchained: Big Ideas From the Worlds of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (http://www.unchainedpodcast.com/) and Unconfirmed: Insights and Analysis From the Top Minds in Crypto.

Spiros Margaris is a Venture Capitalist and Thought Leader in the FinTech and InsurTech scenes. He is also an artist. He is a frequent speaker at international FinTech and InsurTech conferences, and Spiros publishes articles on his innovation proposals and thought leadership. He currently has he his own VC firm called, Margaris Ventures.

Bobby Lee is the co-founder and CEO of BTC China – the first Chinese Bitcoin exchange, headquartered in Shanghai. Before he started BTC China, Bobby Lee worked at IBM, Microsoft, Walmart and other major companies in positions such as CTO, VP and SVP. Bobby Lee is a graduate of Stanford University and has a MSc in computer science.

Wenceslao Casares, also known as Wences Casares (born February 26, 1974) is an Argentinian technology entrepreneur. He is the CEO of Bitcoin wallet provider, Xapo, and founded Internet Argentina, Wanako Games, Patagon, Lemon Wallet, and Banco Lemon.Casares sits on the boards of PayPal, Libra, and Coin Center and formerly was a board member at Endeavor.

Loeffler entered the crypto industry when she became CEO of Bakkt after her 15-year-long career at Intercontinental Exchange, an operator of large, regulated exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange. She supervised Bakkt’s delayed launch, which, albeit showing underwhelming results at first, proved to be efficient and therefore crucial for the crypto market. By the end of 2019, she became the first Republican woman to represent the state of Georgia in the U.S. Congress, where she is expected to support crypto-friendly regulation.

Matt is a long-time Bitcoin developer and one of Blockstream’s co-founders, having been an author on our sidechain white paper and engineer on its design.

Anthony Di Iorio is a Canadian entrepreneur primarily known as a co-founder of Ethereum and an early investor in Bitcoin.

Ben Davenport Venture Partner at Blockchain Capital, Co-Founder of BitGo and Belugawas founded to solve the secure storage problem for companies using Bitcoin.

Arthur Hayes is the co-founder and CEO of BitMEX. He lived in Hong Kong as an equity derivatives trader. He was the market-maker for Deutsche Bank and Citibank’s Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) businesses.

Saifedean Ammous is an economist and author focusing on bitcoin, who authored the first academic book on the economics of bitcoin, The Bitcoin Standard: The Decentralized Alternative to Central Banking, published by Wiley in 2018. He is Assistant Professor of economics at the Adnan Kassar School of Business at Lebanese American University.

Dan Morehead has more than 25 years of experience in managing global macro funds, macro trading, and investment advisory services. Dan is founder and CEO of Pantera Capital, an investment firm focused exclusively on Bitcoin, other digital currencies, and companies utilizing blockchain technology.

Galiabenartzi is a technology entrepreneur, currently working on a cryptocurrency protocol called Bancor. She has been building software startups since 2005 when she graduated college. Galia Benartzi cofounded a cryptocurrency conversion company Bancor in 2017.

Antonio Grasso has engaged Digital Innovation projects for Public Sector and Private Companies from the far 2001. He is the founder and CEO of an Italian start-up company: Digital Business Innovation Srl that is an Innovative Start-up recognized by Italian Law 179/2012 active in the Research & Development of Digital Innovation Projects for small and medium businesses.He is watching close the IoT development and he is trying to design an innovative framework in the Cloud that can manage IoT device communication using RESTful architecture

Nathaniel Popper is a journalist who graduated from Harvard University in 2002 after studying history and literature and works for The New York Times covering finance and technology. He is the author of various articles and the book "Digital Gold: Bitcoin and the Inside Story of the Misfits and Millionaires Trying to Reinvent Money". Popper was responsible for covering Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley. After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, he began writing about financial technology firms such as Social Finance, Credit Karma and Square, along with continuing to cover Bitcoin, Ethereum and the blockchain.

Luke Martin is a cryptoasset trader and analyst. Luke holds a Finance degree from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana Universtiy. Experience prior to crypto includes wealth management, and FX/derivatives. He works with a vast network of individuals and institutions analysing current trends in the market.

Pavel Durov’s first major business, VK, permanently changed social networking throughout Russia and Eastern Europe. After exiting the company, Durov and his brother Nikolai launched encrypted messaging app Telegram in August 2013. The app currently boasts a 200 million monthly user base. Now, Durov is making crypto headlines for his company’s embattled launch of its Telegram Open Network blockchain, which raised $1.7 billion in a pair of private token sales in early 2018.

Brian Armstrong is a software engineer, consultant, risk manager and crypto entrepreneur. Armstrong’s Bitcoin career started in 2012, when he became a co-founder and CEO of Coinbase — one of the largest and most popular cryptocurrency trading platforms, valued at over $1.6 billion. While mostly known for running Coinbase, he is also a co-founder for the GiveCrypto foundation, a charity that has raised $4 million in cryptocurrency donations for people living in poverty.

Prior to joining Business Insider in October 2008, Joe was a correspondent for paidContent.org, as well as the Opening Bell editor at Dealbreaker.com. He previously was a writer and analyst for Techdirt.com, and before that worked as an analyst for money management firm Prentiss Smith & Co.He got started writing with his own infrequently updated blog TheStalwart.com. Weisenthal graduated The University of Texas at Austin and is interested Chinese food, chess and poker.

Jack Dorsey is the CEO of Twitter and mobile payments company Square. Dorsey has been a long-time Bitcoin advocate, stating in 2017 that blockchain is the “next big unlock.” On Nov. 27, 2019, Dorsey tweeted that Bitcoin will see its future defined by Africa and announced that he would return to the region in 2020 to advance this. However, in September 2019, Dorsey also said that Bitcoin isn’t ready to be a currency due to its volatility. Before entering the world of tech, Dorsey was a certified masseur and worked in fashion design.

Michael Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Digital Holdings and a co-founder of Galaxy Digital LP — a cryptocurrency-focused merchant bank based in New York. Formerly a fund manager at the Fortress Investment Group, Novogratz is a noted cryptocurrency proponent, saying in 2017 that at least 20% of his net worth was in Bitcoin and Ether. In addition to his activities in the cryptocurrency space, Novogratz has founded and serves as the chairman of the board for Beat the Streets, a nonprofit organization that builds wrestling programs in New York City public schools.

Jihan Wu founded Bitcoin mining giant Bitman along with Micree Zhan in 2013. Wu was an early adopter of Bitcoin, having raised money from family and friends to buy 900 Bitcoin in mid-2011. He was reportedly the first individual to translate the Bitcoin white paper into Mandarin. Earlier in 2019, Wu stepped down as Bitmain’s CEO to found Matrixport, a firm that provides financial services related to cryptocurrencies. He has since resumed the post of CEO after a shakeup with Zhan late last year.

Da Hongfei is most known for co-founding the blockchain-based “Smart Economy” network Neo with Erick Zhang in 2014. Da received his education the South China University of Technology, receiving degrees in technology and English. Da worked at a consulting firm until 2013, after which he learned how to code before founding Neo. Along with Zhang, Da also founded OnChain — a commercial blockchain firm that provides services to private companies.

Caitlin Long, who had spent 22 years on Wall Street in senior roles, first came across Bitcoin in 2012 in Austrian School economics circles. She fully immersed herself in 2013 when an article on “how to” buy and store Bitcoin hit her inbox. With a passion for “honest ledgers” and the goal to make securities markets fairer by issuing and trading securities on a blockchain, Long was chairwoman and president of blockchain startup Symbiont until 2018. In 2017, she co-founded Wyoming Blockchain Coalition and, from 2018 to 2019, Long was a gubernatorial appointee at the Wyoming Blockchain Task Force, which was responsible for enacting 13 blockchain-enabling laws in Wyoming. She also chaired WyoHackathon, a nonprofit hackathon in 2018 and 2019.

Guenther is a Partner with PwC in Zurich and Leader of PwC Legal Switzerland where he also heads the Legal FS Regulatory & Compliance Services practise. He is a member of PwC’s Global Legal Leadership Team directing the firm’s global legal practise in 90+ countries as well as PwC‘s Global Financial Services Legal Leader and former Global LegalTech Leader.

Based in Copenhagen, Rune Christensen is the CEO and co-founder of MakerDAO, which issues Dai, the world’s first stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. Since 2015, Christensen has focused on establishing the vision and organizational structure of the Maker Decentralized Autonomous Organization and the economic foundations of the Dai stable digital currency. He is also fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Brandon Chez has managed to keep a low profile while running one of the crypto industry’s central websites, CoinMarketCap. Since 2013, the site has become one of the most visited sites in the cryptocurrency space and a premier source of market data. His influence in the industry was made apparent when he delisted South Korean exchanges from CoinMarketCap without warning in January 2018, triggering a $100 billion drop of the total cryptocurrency market value.

Dr Mark van Rijmenam is the author of three best-selling management books on big data, blockchain and AI. His latest book – The Organisation of Tomorrow – details how AI, blockchain and analytics turn your business into a data organization. He is the founder of Datafloq.com, a leading content platform on emerging technologies. He recently founded Mavin.org, a decentralized reputation-based content network to bring (anonymous) accountability to the internet. He holds a PhD in Management from the University of Technology in Sydney, where he did research how big data, blockchain and AI are changing organisations. He is a member of the 2Tokens project in The Netherlands, developing a roadmap towards realising value from Tokenisation.

A graduate of California State University-Sacramento, Jesse Powell has been operating in the digital currency space since 2001, when he founded Lewt — a platform that provided various account management services for MMORPG such as power-leveling and in-game currencies. In 2011, he founded Kraken, one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges. Powell is known for refusing a probe from the New York Attorney General and rejecting the state’s BitLicense framework for cryptocurrency business operating in the state. Kraken has since moved operations westward to San Francisco, California.

Heath Tarbert comes from a professional legal background with degrees from Mount St. Mary’s University, University of Pennsylvania Law School and Oxford University. He has held various prestigious government job titles, including special counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, acting U.S. executive director of the World Bank Group and various roles in the U.S. Department of Treasury. He is the current head of the CFTC, following Christopher Giancarlo (also known as “Crypto Dad” in the industry for his positive stance on cryptocurrencies).

Ted Livingston studied robotics at the University of Waterloo. In 2009, he founded Kik, a messenger app startup. In September 2017, Kik raised nearly $100 million in a token sale. Four months later, the company received subpoenas from the SEC, sparking a legal battle that has persisted to this day.

Spencer Bogart is a general partner at Blockchain Capital and leads the firm’s research efforts. Prior to Blockchain Capital, he was the vice president of equity research at Needham & Company, where he produced detailed reports and research on Bitcoin’s fundamental value proposition, price forecasts and technical advancements.

Nick Szabo has been involved in the crypto sector since the 90s, pioneering, among other ideas, the notion of “smart contracts” as well as designing BitGold, a precursor and influence to Bitcoin. Many often point to Szabo as the most likely living person to be Bitcoin’s anonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Jake Chervinsky serves as general counsel at Compound Labs and an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center. He became interested in crypto back in 2017, believing that the technology could fix many persistent problems in the world. He has become a voice on crypto regulatory issues involving U.S. securities laws, such as the SEC vs. Kik case, Ripple, stablecoins, no-action letters, Blockstack and more.

Christine Lagarde graduated from Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, where she obtained master’s degrees in English, labor law and social law. She also holds a master’s degree from the Institut d'Études Politiques in Aix-en-Provence. She served as France’s trade minister between 2005 and May 2007. On May 18, 2007, she was moved to the Ministry of Agriculture as part of the government of François Fillon. The following month, she joined François Fillon’s cabinet in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Finance and Employment to become the first woman in charge of economic policy in France. On May 25, 2011, Lagarde announced her candidacy to be head of the IMF. On July 2, 2019, Lagarde was nominated by the European Council to succeed Mario Draghi as president of the European Central Bank on Nov. 1, 2019.

An investment specialist and market analyst with an eye for the latest market trends and trading opportunities, Mati Greenspan has been involved in financial markets his entire life. He is the co-author of the book “The Complete Guide to Fintech and Investing,” and is a licensed portfolio manager in the European Union. Greenspan is known for his ability to spot and articulate investment opportunities in rapidly evolving industries. He specializes in the crypto-asset markets on which he is frequently quoted in financial news sites like Bloomberg, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal and many more.

Andy Cheung is a senior executive who has worked widely in the blockchain industry across the Asia-Pacific region. He has experience working with multinational corporations such as RR Donnelley Financials and Pacific Century CyberWorks, as well as tech companies such as Huawei, Alibaba, Baidu, and Groupon. After leaving OKEx in December 2019, Cheung is now the founder and chairman of ACDX, a derivatives crypto exchange, and also the co-founder and CEO of BitWork, a blockchain consultancy. He speaks English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Afrikaans, and holds a bachelor's degree in information technology.

ed McCaleb has been an active builder of P2P technologies since 2000, when he created the P2P file-sharing network eDonkey. He founded his first digital currency venture, the Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange, before selling the company to Mark Karpeles in 2011. In that same year, he founded Ripple, where he served as chief technical officer until 2013. He is now leading the development of the Stellar cryptocurrency network. The New York Times reported that at one point, McCaleb was worth $20 billion in XRP tokens alone, making him one of the richest players in the industry.

Mike Kayamori has over 20 years of experience in senior roles in high-profile tech and investment firms such as Mitsubishi Corporation, Globespan Capital and Softbank Group. In 2014, he founded blockchain fintech firm Quoine, which launched the leading Asian cryptocurrency exchange, Liquid, in 2018.

Mance Harmon has over 20 years of experience in senior-level roles across various startups and corporations. In 2017, he co-founded Hedera Hashgraph, a next-generation distributed ledger technology that claims to possess higher speeds and security guarantees than existing blockchain solutions.

Nejc Kodrič has been instrumental in developing Luxembourg-based Bitstamp into one of the leading, highest volume Bitcoin exchanges in the world. Kodrič started the company in 2011 in his garage with just 1,000 euros. Following a $10 million investment from hedge fund Pantera Capital, the company has expanded to trade other digital assets such as Ether and XRP. In 2016, Kodrič secured Bitstamp's status as the first fully licensed digital currency exchange in the EU, and the firm has since continued to expand its operations in regions around the world.

Sheila Warren is the head of blockchain and distributed ledger technology for the World Economic Forum. Previously, Warren was the VP of Strategic Alliances and general counsel to TechSoup, a nonprofit network of NGOs providing technological solutions to other NGOs. Warren was also responsible for the formation of NGOsource, a blockchain-backed initiative focused on international grantmaking.

David Shrier is an American futurist, author and entrepreneur who has written for numerous publications including Forbes, CNBC, Newsweek, and The Asian Banker. Shrier also co-edits the MIT Connection Science imprint of MIT Press and is the author of various industry reference books in the fields of financial technology, digital identity, data governance and financial innovation. He is a globally recognized authority on financial innovation, serial entrepreneur, global educator, and government advisor. Shrier is the founder & CEO of Distilled Identity, an artificial intelligence company derived from MIT research and spun out of MIT Media Lab.

Andrew Yang is best known for his current campaign for the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. He is also the founder of Venture for America, a nonprofit focused on creating jobs in ailing American cities. Yang draws from his experience as an executive and advisor for multiple startups and his pragmatic “Make America Think Harder” (i.e., MATH) approach and concept for a universal basic income has made him a household name throughout North America.

A former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, Kathryn Haun investigated Mt. Gox and was involved in taking down the Silk Road contraband marketplace while working for the Attorney General’s office. She later transitioned to crypto investing, taking a leadership position for Andreessen Horowitz’s cryptofund.

With a career involving many technological spheres, Mike Belshe invented the SPDY protocol and is one of the primary architects of the HTTP/2.0 specification. He joined the crypto space by co-founding digital asset trust and security company BitGo in 2013.

Brian Behlendorf has seen a little bit of everything in his technology career — from early forays into electronic mailing list software to serving on the board of the Mozilla Foundation to acting as chief technology officer of the World Economic Forum. He’s now focused on growing Linux’s Hyperledger blockchain project.

After achieving his master’s degree in control science and engineering from Tsinghua University’s Department of Automation in 2007, Leon Li embarked on an ambitious career consisting of a range of senior level roles in the fintech industry. In 2013, Li founded Huobi Group, the company behind one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges operating today. Prior to 2013, Li was working as a computer engineer for technology giant Oracle.

As an active developer in the blockchain space since the Bitcoin network launched in 2009, Daniel Larimer has led the launch of several high-profile cryptocurrency platforms: BitShares, one of the first live implementations of a decentralized exchange, decentralized autonomous organization, and issuer of custom digital assets; Steemit, the first social media platform built on blockchain; and EOSIO, a free, open-source protocol designed to bring speed, scalability, and ease of use to the secure and transparent fundamentals of distributed databases. The EOSIO protocol was published by Block.one in 2018 and has since been maintained/implemented by a community of open-source developers. The developer community has built a multitude of blockchains on EOSIO, including the popular EOS Public Blockchain. Block.one does not own, maintain, or monitor the EOS Public Blockchain.

Amber is co-founder and CEO of Clovyr, a company reshaping how businesses connect to each other and the world's data. Having previously led JPMorgan's blockchain efforts and appearing on 2017’s Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list of the most influential young people in business, she “handily bridges the divide between the Wall Street and crypto sets.” Amber also serves on the Board of the Zcash Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to building Internet payment and privacy infrastructure for the public good.

Marta Piekarska is the director of ecosystem at Hyperledger, an umbrella project of open-source blockchain frameworks and related tools launched in December 2015 by the Linux Foundation. Piekarska received a Ph.D. in user-informed design of privacy tools while working as a security architect at Blockstream. As part of her role in Hyperledger, Piekarska promotes the technology at conferences around the world, helping enterprises figure out whether permissioned blockchains can be applied to their use cases. She is also the industrial director for the Blockchain Cambridge Society and serves on the advisory board for several blockchain startups.

Kris Marszalek has held a number of executive roles in ventures ranging from e-commerce solutions to mobile app development. He is a seasoned entrepreneur based in Hong Kong who has a successful track record of building and scaling companies rapidly to multimillion dollar revenues. He founded crypto debit card and payments platform Monaco in 2016, which raised $26.7 milllion in an initial coin offering in the spring of 2017. Monaco later rebranded as Crypto.com after purchasing the sought-after domain in an undisclosed deal. The company provides a wide range of financial services on its platform, including a payments app, fiat/crypto Visa debit card, crypto lending and credit, and an exchange.

Following a successful career developing the first widely used web browser, Mosaic, and founding its management software company, Netscape, Andreessen now runs influential Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz — also known as A16z — whose successful bets include Instagram and GitHub. In June 2018, A16z raised $300 million for its first crypto-focused fund, led by the firm's first female general partner, Katie Haun.

Leigh Cuen is a journalist whose work has focused on a wide range of political, social and cultural issues with an emphasis on how people adapt to the systems they inhabit and build. She has written for a variety of outlets including Teen Vogue, History Today, Mic, International Business Times, Al Jazeera, and The Jerusalem Post. She is a co-founder of ONA Jerusalem, the first Online News Association group in the Middle East. Since 2018, Cuen has focused her attention on the blockchain/cryptocurrency industry, bringing her investigative reporting experience to one of the most fast-paced tech movements. In a short amount of time, Cuen has become one of the more prominent journalists in the space.

Dominik Schiener is the co-founder of Iota, a cryptocurrency network built on a distributed ledger technology called the Tangle, which aims to be the backbone of the future "machine economy." In 2017, he co-founded the Iota Foundation and established Germany’s first nonprofit foundation that enables and fosters permissionless ecosystems powered by distributed ledgers. Dominik is currently focused on making the nascent Iota technology market-ready — and thus actualizing the full potential of blockchain/cryptocurrencies and the Internet of Things.

Stephen Pair is the co-founder and CEO of BitPay, the world's largest processor of cryptocurrency payments. In 2011, Pair co-founded BitPay because he saw Bitcoin's potential to transform payments for businesses and consumers. As CEO, Pair is involved in directing the day-to-day operations as well as setting the long-term vision of BitPay, from research and engineering to product development and information technology. Pair has 20 years of experience building software systems in the financial and telecommunications industries. Before founding BitPay, Pair held various roles including entrepreneur, architect, manager, team lead and developer. He started programming at a young age and spent much of his early career focused on programming languages, compilers, operating systems and virtual machines. Later, he developed an interest in the mechanics of financial markets, economics, and monetary systems as well as developments in cryptography. Pair has a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and holds two patents in the field of streaming analytics.

Mike Dudas is the founder and CEO of leading blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused media publication The Block, which he founded in 2018. Dudas’s professional portfolio includes executive roles in companies such as Google, The Walt Disney Company and Venmo. In 2014, Dudas co-founded partnership platform for mobile commerce Button, from which he stepped down in 2018.

Matthew Roszak is the chairman and co-founder of Bloq, a leading blockchain technology company. He is also a founding partner of Tally Capital, a private investment firm focused on digital assets and blockchain-enabled technology, with a portfolio of market leading companies including Binance, Block.one, Blockstream, Orchid, Factom and Qtum. In addition, Matthew serves as chairman of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world’s first and largest blockchain trade association. Matthew also serves on the board of BitGive, a nonprofit foundation that improves philanthropic impact with blockchain technology.

Kathleen Breitman is the co-founder of Tezos, a blockchain-based smart contract platform with an on-chain governance mechanism to coordinate and push upgrades to its network. Previously, she was a senior strategy associate for R3, a blockchain consortium of more than 70 financial firms. She has also worked at Accenture, Bridgewater Associates and the Wall Street Journal.

Eric Larchevêque is the founder and former director of La Maison du Bitcoin (now Coinhouse), an initiative established in 2014 aimed at the promotion of cryptocurrency-related projects, such as the first decentralized digital currency purchase counter in Europe. In 2014, Larchevêque also founded Ledger, a company that provides security solutions for digital assets and blockchain applications. Ledger was under Larchevêque’s directorship until 2019, when he stepped down from the role.

J. Michael Arrington is the founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch. He is also the founder of crypto-centric venture fund Arrington XRP Capital. Magazines such as Wired and Forbes have named Arrington one of the most powerful people on the internet.

Bart Stephens is a co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Capital, the earliest and most active VC firm investing exclusively in the blockchain technology sector and the first to raise a venture fund through an initial coin offering. Stephens has 20 years of experience as both an operating entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. Prior to Blockchain Capital, Stephens was a managing partner and co-founder of Stephens Investment Management, a family-owned and -operated hedge fund and venture capital firm. His professional background also includes executive positions at companies such as E-Trade Financial Corporation, Oncology.com and Ivanhoe Capital.

Marco Santori is an attorney who had previously been a partner at Cooley LLP. In February 2018, Santori left Cooley LLP to become the president and chief legal officer of Blockchain.com, a long-time client and a well-known wallet startup in the industry. Santori is known in the legal world as the developer of the Simple Agreement for Future Tokens, a legal framework intended to make initial coin offerings compliant with regulations without extensive legal filings. In 2013, he became the chairman of the regulatory affairs committee at the Bitcoin Foundation, after previously representing the trade group during the New York State Department of Financial Services’ BitLicense hearings. Santori was also a key figure in shaping Delaware’s blockchain strategy.

Bryan Bishop is a Bitcoin Core developer who worked at LedgerX from 2014 to 2018. Bishop and Max Berry, a former lab scientist at a biotech company, are now starting a company focused on the production of designer babies and human germline genetic engineering. Bishop refers to himself as a transhumanist, believing that technology can improve humans in profound ways. In 2016, Bishop came up with a way to delay Bitcoin transactions before receiving them, known as “the Vault.”

Helen Hai is leading Binance’s Blockchain for Charity initiative, which focuses on using blockchain for social good. She also serves as the United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s goodwill ambassador for industrialization in Africa. In addition, she is the founder of the Made in Africa Initiative, which advises African governments on the promotion of industrialization and investment. Hai was trained as an actuary in the United Kingdom and has nearly 25 years of international experience in FTSE100 companies. Hai holds a bachelor’s degree in actuarial science and a master’s in actuarial management from CASS Business School in London and an executive MBA from Insead and Tsinghua University.

Peter Todd is a Bitcoin enthusiast and expert, consultant and leading developer related to cryptocurrency and blockchain software at Bitcoin Core, which is considered to be the official client application for operations with Bitcoin. Peter Todd is famous for his profound knowledge of the security properties of the Bitcoin network and other decentralized technologies. He holds a degree in integrated media. His career started as a software developer, but now he is the chief scientist at Dark Wallet and Mastercoin. The main direction of Peter Todd’s work is in the design of Bitcoin’s application framework and in providing security for the whole network. On his Twitter, Peter frequently posts his comments about some crypto novelties or events.

Olivier graduated as MSc in systems engineering, policy analysis and management at Delft University of Technology on the topic of discrete simulation models as support for continuous process improvement. Throughout his career he worked in various industries, always in roles responsible for both business strategy/process improvement on the one hand and IT development on the other, leading operational and IT teams. During his executive MBA at Nyenrode/Kellogg/Stellenbosch he started in the banking industry. In that time he first came into contact with blockchain and immediately saw the potential, so here the blockchain deep dive journey started.

Kamales Lardi is a digital transformation strategist and dynamic keynote speaker. She helps companies leverage digital disruption to create new opportunities for business and generate revenue. Kamales has 17 years of experience in corporate strategy formulation, business process optimization and technology implementation. The convergence of these experiences have made her well positioned to lead digital business transformation initiatives across various industries. Since establishing Lardi & Partner Consulting GmbH in 2012, Kamales has advised companies across various industries such as UBS, Swiss Federal Railwas (SBB), Pfizer, Victorinox and Sanitas Insurance among others. Kamales is a published author, lecturer, as well as member of the MBA Advisory Board at Durham University, UK. She has recently been appointed as a startup mentor for the F10 Fintech Incubator & Accelerator sponsored by the Swiss stock exchange.

"Kaihan Krippendorff is committed to helping organizations and individuals thrive in today’s era of fast-paced disruptive technological change. Kaihan is known for his ability to turn difficult concepts into easy-to-understand ideas that drive meaningful outcomes and actions. He is an internationally recognized thought-leader, battle-tested consultant, and sought-after keynote speaker on the topics of business strategy, growth, transformation and innovation. Kaihan began his career as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company before founding the growth strategy and innovation consulting firm Outthinker. Growth strategies and innovations created through Outthinker have energized countless organizations, teams, and individuals all while generating over $2.5B in revenue for many of the world’s most recognizable Fortune 500 companies. An accomplished author, Kaihan has written four books on business strategy, growth, and transformation, most recently Outthink the Competition (John Wiley & Sons). For his forthcoming book, Driving Innovation From Within: A Guide for Internal Entrepreneurs (Columbia University Press, 2019), Kaihan deeply researched and interviewed more than 150 internal innovators and leaders in nearly every conceivable industry."

Preston Byrne is a partner at Anderson Kill, where his practice focuses on early-stage technology companies with complex cross-border legal issues, including industrial cryptography, cryptocurrency and interactive computer services businesses. In his free time he is a fellow of the Adam Smith Institute. In his past he was a securitization and derivatives lawyer with the London offices of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and Norton Rose Fulbright. After BigLaw he co-founded and was COO of early enterprise blockchain startup Monax and a partner at Byrne & Storm, P.C., a boutique technology law firm.

Vijay Raghunathan is the co-founder of Praying Mantis, a technology startup working on emerging technologies like Digital Twins, AI, and Blockchain. Prior to the startup, Vijay spent 18+ years in the corporate sector handling various techno-commercial portfolios in the Telecom, Fintech and ICT sector. In the past, Vijay has been associated with companies like Subex, Neural Technologies and Ushacomm.

In a career spanning 25 years, Samiran has held key roles at Microsoft, Dun & Bradstreet, IBM and TCS. Some of the senior leadership positions he has held recently are Chief Digital Advisor at Microsoft India and APAC Head of Technology for Dun & Bradstreet. Prior to that, during his 14 years at IBM, he did multiple roles across Consulting, Sales, Global Delivery, Solutioning, Research and Product Development. He took a one year sabbatical from IBM to work at the National Institute for Smart Government on several e-governance projects including the Aadhaar project.

"Driving Global Strategy, Product Management and Business Development for IBM Research Innovations in ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / MACHINE LEARNING / DEEP LEARNING: IBM Watson/Core AI science, engineering and technology - applications for industry use cases (Financial, Healthcare, Government, Telecommunications, Retail) BLOCKCHAIN: Trusted Digital Identity, Hyperledger Fabric, Smart Contracts, Consensus, Privacy, Trust SECURITY: Next Generation Cyber and Cognitive Security for Cloud, IoT, Mobile, Big Data Capabilities and Solutions for Finance, IoT, Healthcare Industries, Adversarial AI

Venture Capitalist and Family Office investor for the past decade and am committed to building a more equitable, diverse and transparent future through investment in new technologies. I wrote the book “WTF is happening - Women Tech Founders on the Rise”

"Matyas Zaborszky, Author of the 6 Proven Steps to Attract ICO Investors (www.6steps.online), ICO / STO Marketing & PR Strategic adviser, ICO Global Communication, STO Global Communication, mentor, investor, entrepreneur, university lecturer. Has been reading self-developing materials and business-related books since the age of 16. Dedicated to self-improvement and creating value. Through his own experiences he interprets human mechanisms and way of thinking, which is the central scope of his interests and activities."

I am a global customer success executive and board advisor who delivers value through multi-faceted perspectives for driving growth, solving complex challenges and turning around underperforming organizations. I’ve honed the ability to improve and scale business models that have accelerated multibillion-dollar revenue growth and profitability through my career across private, early-stage startup and pre-IPO to Fortune 500 companies including Oracle, Adobe and Marketo. I’m known as a strategic thinker with a record of building successful organizations and driving innovations through deep customer understanding, Enterprise scaling and digital transformation. My experience in boardrooms makes me ready to assist startup to mid-cap boards and companies reshape their strategy, transform customer experience and prepare for IPO.

Sharat is an author, keynote speaker, blockchain evangelist and educator. He has advised many blockchain startups in Identity Management and Fintech space. Sharat is also volunteering as President of India Chapter, Government Blockchain Association, a global non-profit organisation helping governments across the world understand and adopt blockchain.

Gokul Alex is a Blockchain Educator, Enterprise Architect, Data Scientist, Internet Technologist, and Quantum Computing Researcher with strong expertise on Artificial Intelligence, Distributed Computing, Digital Transformation, Epistemology, Innovation Management, Social Entrepreneurship and Semiotics. He is contributing to the global blockchain ecosystem as the ambassador for Hashgraph and ZCash, has authored four patents and published numerous articles and blogs and is an advisor to numerous Startups, Funds, Communities, Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations, Social Networks, Regulatory Bodies and Business Consortiums. Alex is currently researching on the industrial applications and emerging frontiers of Quantum Computing and exploring the contours of Post Quantum Cryptography.

"International award winning marketing technologist, analyst, and consultant with 15+ years of digital marketing and sales experience. My passion is in solving problems using modern marketing tactics, data focused strategy, and applying the right technology at the right time. I use this experience to help companies from startups to multinational enterprises find solutions to their marketing and sales problems.Marketer, father, entrepreneur, husband, international speaker, car guy, traveler, technologist, traceur, data analyst, martial artist, strategist, and rock climber. Not quite sure what order :) I am the current Vice President of the Association of National Advertisers, B2B St Louis Chapter. Through the ANA, I push local marketers to higher levels of learning by organizing advanced level marketing conferences and events, such as Not Just Another Marketing Conference and Ad Addicts. In my free time, I love spending time with my wife and 2 children, working on my 100 year old Tower Grove brick home, fixing my 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo, traveling the world, and rock climbing. I am also known to wake up at 5am to play with new marketing technology and work on my data science and analytics capabilities."

Tone has worked on Wall Street for almost 10 years starting as a Risk Analyst at Bear Stearns and later becoming a VP at JP Morgan Chase in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. His expertise is in Economic Trends, Trading and Risk Analysis. Ever since getting involved in the Crypto Currency ecosystem in early 2013, he has been very active in spreading the relevance and importance of this technology as it helps promote economic freedom. Tone has been featured in several Documentaries like Magic Money & Bitcoin - Beyond the Bubble. Tone is now an independent content creator at ToneVays.com, his YouTube Channel and is the organizer of 3 Conferences: Unconfiscatable, Understanding Bitcoin and The Financial Summit for traders & hedge funds. Tone holds a Masters Degree in Financial Engineering from Florida State University along with Bachelor Degrees in Mathematics and Geology.

Phil Champagne is Managing Director of Wren Investment Group, LLC, a firm that invests in real estate with equity funding from financial partners. He graduated from the University of Sherbrooke, Canada. His background in software engineering combined with his interest in history, investments, and macroeconomics (Austrian School of Economics) naturally led him to explore and then become a passionate advocate of the Bitcoin technology and its social implications. He became interested in Bitcoin in 2012. He currently lives in Raleigh, NC.

"Mahesh Sashital is an entrepreneur with over 20 years of software engineering and product management experience, developing, leading, and launching projects and products at Fortune 500 companies as well as startups. His expertise includes next-gen technologies such as Blockchain, IoT, RPA and AI/ML, in addition to the years of ""traditional"" mainstream technologies such as Java, Oracle and Web Services. As founder of the Houston Blockchain Association, Mahesh was instrumental in increasing membership of the organization to over 100 in a few short months. He has cultivated relationships with numerous organizations in Houston, including the City of Houston, University of Houston, Houston Exponential, as well as startups and Fortune 500 companies. As cofounder of Smartereum, Mahesh helped grow the blockchain and crypto news site to over 250k unique users a month in less than a year. He has spoken at numerous Blockchain conferences around the world, including Dubai, London, Santa Clara and Houston, among others. Mahesh also has extensive experience working at companies such as J.P.Morgan, Ford and Chrysler, and has a thorough understanding of the tech practices at such large companies. "

"Company founder / writer / journalist / content creator / digital marketing advisor Winner of Irish Web Awards 2014, best Science & Technology category Winner 2016 Littlewoods Best Ireland Blog for Digital & Tech Based in Ireland for over 20 years, excellent network of contacts. Write regularly for IrishTechNews, Sunday Business Post, Irish Times, G+D, Dublin Globe, Tweakyourbiz, UCD Innovation Academy, Digital Skills Academy, IBM Since moving to Ireland, I have started four companies, two coops and one national sporting organisation."

CTO at Ripple. Skilled in assisting companies with strategic planning in emerging technologies such as distributed payment systems and secure computing. Expertise in cryptography, computer security, and software development particularly for startups and quickly-growing, small companies.

Matt is a former cofounder and Chief Decentralization Officer at D10E, the world’s leading conference on decentralized technologies, philosophies and social organization. He serves as an advisor to Network Society Labs, Humaniq, Securrency, and Loci and has been involved in several early-stage blockchain startups, including Ubiquity, Trive.news, and The Sun Exchange. He has since worked for the Department of Energy at the Uranium Disposition Services and George Washington University. McKibbin became interested in Bitcoin and blockchain technology in 2012 and has been a decentralization advocate ever since.

Jeremy Allaire launched Circle, a finance company that aims to bring Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to the mainstream. In March, Allaire said during an interview with Fortune that stablecoins will prevail and that he welcomes Facebook’s plans for its own stablecoin. In May, Allaire wrote in a blog post that the crypto space needs more regulatory certainty and that the definition of cryptocurrency is too broad. Allaire graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he double majored in political science and philosophy.

Chris Larsen is a serial entrepreneur who has co-founded a number of technology start-up companies. He has been active for more than 20 years in the technology industry as an Angel Investor and a Business Executive with a portfolio of several successful enterprises within his career. He cofounded Ripple in 2012 to facilitate international payments for banks using blockchain technology. Apart from his role in executive positions, Larsen is also an advisor/board member for a number of enterprises like Qifang, Betable, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC). According to Forbes, Chris Larsen is the richest cryptocurrency co-founder in the world.

Jackson Palmer is an Australian entrepreneur and technologist best known for creating the infamously successful “joke” cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Currently based out of San Francisco, Jackson works as a Product, growth and data geek at Adobe and is very active in the cryptocurrency space, both as a coder and technologist.

Akon spent most of his early childhood in Senegal, which has an enduring influence on his creative and entrepreneurial pursuits. Akon is a Grammy-nominated musician and successful philanthropist. His Lighting Africa initiative has provided electricity to 15 countries in Africa. He is currently a major proponent of cryptocurrencies and currently has plans to launch his own cryptocurrency, Akoin, which will be used to power the economy of a new "crypto-city" in Africa.

Pierre Rochard worked as a Securitization Consultant for Deloitte from 2013 to 2014. He then started working at BitPay as an Accountant. From 2015 to 2016, Pierre worked as a Senior Accountant & Programmer for Hudson River Trading. Since 2016, he has been working for Axial.

Full-time Bitcoin entrepreneur, researcher and industry spokesperson since 2013. Cypherpunk Bitcoin Maximalist. Builder of financial software and services for Bitcoin. Former public policy analyst and free-market economist. Master's Degree in Public Policy, King's College London

Parth Detroja is currently a Product Manager at Facebook. He has previously worked at Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM. He is also a keynote speaker and a best-selling author on blockchain. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Cornell University.

Alan Silbert has more than 20 years of experience at top, regulated financial institutions now building a regulated cryptocurrency and security token trading platform at INX. His primary background was in commercial banking - risk management, underwriting, negotiation, portfolio management, and closing of senior debt transactions. Led debt transactions up to $200 million. He worked with multiple regulatory bodies in the U.S. on banking, lending, cryptocurrency and security token issues. He founded and built the startup company BitPremier from concept into the leading Bitcoin luxury marketplace. Alan has extensive knowledge of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Peter Smith was among the initial wave of entrepreneurs to venture into the Bitcoin space. In 2011, he co-founded Blockchain.info (now Blockchain.com), a block explorer and interface to the Bitcoin blockchain. Shortly after, the company created one of the first multi-platform mobile wallets. Since then, Blockchain.com has reportedly registered over 40 million wallets and expanded its range of products with a lending desk, custody service, exchange and hardware wallet.

Michael Parsons, FCA runs Bitcoin Bytes and is a qualified entrepreneurial Chartered Accountant (FCA) with over 25 years experience in the banking industry; commercially-minded with both internet and bank startup experience. He is Banking Management Consultant for two of the “Big Four”.

Nik Bougalis is a Cryptographer, software engineer and enterpreneur working at ripple. Co-founded @codelaboratories.

Oleg Andreev is is the protocol architect at Interstellar (previously Chain). He is a software developer with interest in UI design, software architecture, information security and crypto-anarchy.

Stefan Thomas is Chief Technology Officer at Ripple, a company building a global financial transaction network using blockchain technology. Over the years he has done more than almost anyone to popularize the cryptocurrency and blockchain space producing educational materials that introduced millions to the technology. He was an early contributor to Bitcoin and created a widespread set of open-source libraries called BitcoinJS. He was one of the people responsible for designing the Interledger Protocol.

Antony Lewis works at R3 as Director of Digital Assets, responsible for getting traditional and new financial assets recorded on Corda, the blockchain for business. Formerly, he was the Director of Research, focused on blockchain and DLT in Asia, responsible for crafting R3's strategy for getting cash on ledger and central bank digital currencies, and understanding and explaining the implications of this fundamental step towards unlocking the promises and power of blockchain technology for business.

Michael Casey is an author, researcher, teacher, mentor, communicator, advisor, former journalist at Dow Jones and Wall Street Journal, public speaker and an entrepreneur. He is currently the Chief Content Officer at CoinDesk, Inc., the leading news, events and data provider for the blockchain and digital assets industry as well as an advisor to MIT Media Labs's Digital Currency Initiative and a senior lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also an advisor to multiple businesses and non-profits. Casey is also the founder and chairman of a soon-to-launched media company called Streambed Media, whose videos will be authenticated with breakthrough cryptographic and blockchain technologies.

Alex Sunnarborgis an American venture capitalist and a founding partner at Tetras Capital. Sunnarborg graduated from the University of Florida in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in finance and afterwards started his career as a Debt Investment Banking Analyst at Raymond James. From 2015 to 2017, he was the Founder & CFO at Lawnmower, an investment and market research platform for the crypto asset class. In 2017, he served as a Research Analyst at CoinDesk.

Adam Ludwinis is an American investor and known financial consultant who is the co-founder and CEO of Chain, a network that partners with financial firms to build blockchain networks. After graduating from UC Berkeley, Ludwin became an associate and later a leading business consultant for The Boston Consulting Group. During grad school he was Business Designer for company called IDEA for several months. While in New York, he worked as a venture partner for RRE Ventures for four years.

Cryptographer and technology expert David Chaum is known for founding DigiCash, the world’s first digital currency secured by cryptography. His work inspired a generation of research and development into cryptocurrencies long before the term itself was explicitly used. His work in blind signatures and credentials in public key cryptosystems is in the DNA of Bitcoin and everything that has followed since. He is currently working on Elixxir, an anonymous messaging and payments app targeted for wide-scale adoption.

Sergio Demian Lerner has been one of the most prolific thinkers in the cryptocurrency space. He audited the source code of Bitcoin as well as of Ethereum. In the past years, he came up with many innovative ideas that brought anonymity, scalability and more features to the open blockchains. He co-founded and is currently working on RSK — an open-source smart contract platform secured by Bitcoin.

Jack Mallers is a developer and designer who built usable apps like jackschess and others. He is currently crafting consumer experiences at VC-backed startup Label Insight. Mallers is fascinated by Bitcoin and has worked on projects like ZeroHouseEdge, the first online-gambling experience with no fees or limitations. Mallers was also a nationally-ranked chess player throughout high school, and was the 6th man for the 8th ranked basketball team in the state of Illinois.

Jeremy Gardner is a young Bitcoin millionaire who is the quintessential poster boy for the idea that Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and blockchain is an arena dominated by white males between the ages of 20 and 40. Gardner became a self-made millionaire by virtue of being an early adopter of Bitcoin and investing heavily in cryptocurrency back when it still went for a few hundred dollars. He dropped out of university twice and left the political arena to focus on his work in cryptocurrency. He is a self-proclaimed Bitcoin evangelist and has been involved in a number of notable crypto and blockchain projects including owning the famous Crypto Castle in San Francisco where he regularly houses upcoming crypto entrepreneurs and enthusiasts.

Donald McIntyre is a former financial consultant who has worked at both UBS Securities and Morgan Stanley who later started several companies in the fintech sector, receiving investments from prominent VCs such as SoftBank and Carlos Slim. In 2012 after learning of Bitcoin, he initiated a blog and podcast about fintech and blockchain. In 2015, he founded Etherplan, a global wealth management platform on Ethereum, and co-founded Global Financial Access Inc. with Nick Szabo, a blockchain pioneer. Since December of 2018 Donald has been working on researching, writing, communicating, and coordinating various activities on the Ethereum Classic ecosystem.

Melanie Swan is a Research Associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies and a Technology Theorist in the Philosophy Department at Purdue University. She is the founder of several startups including the Institute for Blockchain Studies, DIYgenomics, GroupPurchase, and the MS Futures Group.. She is a faculty member at Singularity University and the University of the Commons, an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, and an invited contributor to the Edge's Annual Essay Question.

Daniel Krawisz, is an author writing about bitcoin and blockchain and a co founder of Nakamoto Studies Institute. His Interests are in Philosophy, information theory, machine learning, physics, mathematics, evolutionary biology, Austrian economics, cryptography and psychoanalysis. In 2011, Krawisz realized the currency’s price could only be explained in terms of the network effect. Since then, he has been writing articles about the sector, particularly on Bitcoin economic fallacies and delving into technical issues to help think about ways to build better Bitcoin nodes.

Connie Gallippi has worked with non-profit organizations for over 14 years, specializing in strategic consulting, policy, funding assistance, and program management for environmental organizations in California. Gallippi founded the BitGive Foundation after learning about Bitcoin in its early years, recognizing its tremendous social value and the potential for capital formation, and having a desire to benefit charitable causes worldwide.

Luke Dashjr, known in the Bitcoin world as Luke-Jr, is a Bitcoin Core developer and the founder of Eligis mining pool. He has made over 200 contributions to Bitcoin Core, and maintains the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals section on GitHub. Released in 2014 , Dashjr’s BFG Miner has become one of the most widely used implementations of Bitcoin mining software. It supports a wide range of mining hardware and is available on Mac, Windows, and Linux. He has also contributed to Segregated Witness, a proposal that among other improvements increases Bitcoin’s transaction capacity.

Michael Goldstein is the founder and president of the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute. The Satoshi Nakamoto Institute preserves the crypto-anarchist tradition which is different from the libertarian anarchists. Goldstein also co-hosts the Noded Bitcoin Podcast. He focus in issues around Bitcoin, strong cryptography, and society.

Alyse Killeen is a Venture Capital Investor and Managing Partner at StillMark Co. with seed stage to pre-IPO investment experience in enterprise and consumer technologies. An international speaker on blockchain, sharing economy, and IoT, Alyse has presented at events including the IMF SKBI Conference 2016 and TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing 2015. She is a Mentor at Plug and Play Tech Center Accelerator as well as at the Alchemist Accelerator. She is a member of New York Fashion Tech Lab’s Expert Network, a Venture Partner at Vinetta Project, and a member of the Board of Directors at BitGive. In 2015, the UN Foundation named her a Top 70 Bay Area Digital Leader. Alyse founded City Fellows Consortium (2015) and Women in Venture (2013).

Min Kim is one of the most prominent experts in the South Korean blockchain, cryptocurrency, and ICO spaces. Formerly, he worked with DAYLI Financial Group as Chief Strategy Officer and helped the company establish itself as one of the top fintech companies in the world. There, he began exploring blockchain technology, which made him one of the most important South Korean experts on blockchain.

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Sarah Hody in advisor to entrepreneurs, established tech businesses and innovators on a variety of regulatory matters, primarily in the fintech and blockchain industries. She was an in-house regulatory counsel at Coinbase, a digital asset exchange company, where she managed the company’s money transmission licensing programs, negotiated and drafted agreements on global payment services integrations, and evaluated risks and advised business teams on commercial partnerships. Sarah Hody also has experience with non-fungible tokens (NFTs), token crowd sales (ICOs), asset-backed digital tokens (including stablecoins), peer-to-peer lending, corporate governance, Bank Secrecy Act compliance, FINRA arbitration and financial services litigation.

Lawrence Nahum is a technology entrepreneur, Bitcoin expert and executive. He is Blockstream's Chief Architect and previously served as the CEO and founder of GreenAddress, a prime Bitcoin services company that offers a very advanced multi-signature Bitcoin wallet. Before getting involved with Bitcoin and Blockchain, Lawrence was a technology Vice President at OTC financial services leader Markitserv.

Christian Decker is a Bitcoin enthusiast who is considered to have completed the first PhD dissertation about Bitcoin. His research at the Distributed Computing Group at ETH Zurich led to the creation of a number of protocols including PeerCencus and Duplex Micropayment Channels. He is currently working towards the creation of the Lightning Network specification and a reference implementation of the protocol.