As privacy takes center-stage in the public debate, the Ki Foundation, a blockchain-based platform creating privacy-oriented products and services, is adding the personnel support necessary to help their company meet the moment.

As reported by CoinDesk Movers & Shakers, the Ki Foundation announced the on-boarding of Dr. Ben Livshits, chief scientist of Brave Software, as an advisor to the blockchain privacy project.

Please Note: This is a Press Release

As the chief scientist for the Brave Browser, Dr. Livshits helped create one of the first privacy-focused blockchain products to gain mainstream traction. Dr. Livshits is also an accomplished academic and researcher hailing from the Imperial College of London, with over 100 academic papers and patents under his belt.

The Brave browser has more than 5.5 million monthly users, and its native token, the Basic Attention Token (BAT), is one of the most prominent digital currencies with a market cap over $400 million.

By automatically blocking ads, trackers, and other unwanted content, the Brave Browser is actively protecting their users’ privacy while creating a faster, more personalized browsing experience. For instance, users can directly compensate their favorite publishers using BAT.

The Future is With Privacy-first Products

Dr. Livshits brings his expertise honed while developing products like Brave directly to the Ki Foundation’s initiatives. For example, the company offers the Ki Device, a decentralized smart Homepod that uses a decentralized operating system and a dApp store to provide a privacy-focused alternative to other smart home devices.

For his part, it’s evident that Dr. Livshits sees an opportunity in joining the Ki Foundation at a time when privacy-focused products are becoming increasingly compelling in the wake of data disasters at Facebook and other prominent companies.

Commenting on joining the team, Dr. Livshits notes:

“Ki Foundation is one of the most exciting projects there focuses on both blockchain and user privacy. With the focus of hardware and a strong leadership team, Ki has a strong opportunity to leapfrog ahead of the competition.”

The move is making a buzz in the broad crypto ecosystem, which clearly sees privacy as one of the technology’s most obvious users cases. In a tweet, CoinDesk Movers and Shakers acknowledged the partnership.

Ben Livshits @convoluted_code, the chief scientist at @brave and an associate professor at Imperial College London, is joining the French blockchain project @Ki_Foundation as an advisor. pic.twitter.com/rhCr8EHi3S — CoinDesk Movers & Shakers (@CoinDeskMovers) June 25, 2019

Privacy by the Block

In addition to creating smart devices, the Ki Foundation is developing a the Ki Blockchain and the Ki Ecosystem, two initiatives committed to proliferating smart home technology while preserving personal privacy.

The Ki Blockchain enables open development for a decentralized marketplace and dApp store while also helping users monetize their extra computational power, storage, and connectivity. On the platform, users can monetize these components without compromising privacy.

The company is hoping that Dr. Livshits can offer his intellectual and technological expertise to these programs.

Réda Berrehili, CEO and founder of the Ki Foundation, acknowledges his role in the company’s platform development: “I am excited to welcome Dr. Livshits into the Ki Foundation. His knowledge and proven expertise garnered through his academic experience and work with Brave will allow us to fulfill the Ki vision and safeguard our users’ privacy.”

In many ways, there is an urgency to the Ki Foundation’s work. While Europe’s privacy regulation, GDPR, gained significant attention when it went into effect last year, more than 80 countries have adopted similar regulations. At the same time, there is a growing demand for privacy-minded products for which consumers have few options.

Much like Brave browser and the Basic Attention Token reoriented internet browsing to make it less exploitative, developments at the Ki Foundation could bring that same experience to smart home devices. To accomplish this, both platforms are borrowing from the expertise of Dr. Livshits, who is making his mark on privacy-first products and services.