Micky is counting down the top 10 most influential Australians in blockchain for 2019!

Despite a pretty abysmal 12 months during which the market tanked and many companies waved goodbye (farewell Huobi Australia!) a lot has happened since our last list. We’ll reveal the top five tomorrow …

10. Naomi Brockwell

Brockwell is an Aussie with a truly global profile thanks to her videos and regular appearances at conferences around the world. She’s been making videos about Bitcoin since 2013, initially as Bitcoin Girl; she was a policy associate at the New York Bitcoin centre from 2013-2015, and produced the doco Bitcoin: The End of Money as We Know It.

She’s even coauthored a kid’s book called Billy’s Bitcoin AND she’s producing and acting in the blockchain based series Hard Fork. With 10,000 YouTube subscribers (check out her crypto music vids on NBTV) and 36,000 Twitter followers she’s a highly influential voice in the space. 66% of respondents to our totally unscientific Twitter poll on ‘top blockchain pioneers’ voted for Brockwell.

9. Sam Karagiozis

Few Australians have been as influential in the crypto space as Auscoin founder Sam Karagiozis. Unfortunately, his influence has been pretty much all bad. The muscle-bound Lambo-driving Crypto Bro was behind Auscoin – the totally unnecessary cryptocurrency that was somehow involved in network of Bitcoin ATMs. Many in the crypto community already considered it ‘Scamcoin’ even before a 60 Minutes expose saw the ICO tank.

That alone would have been enough to secure his infamy, but it has since turned out that much of his wealth came not from crypto but allegedly from importing large amounts of drugs from the dark web that were possibly laundered through two crypto exchanges he’s involved in which have since been shut down by AUSTRAC. This may or may not account for the ‘insane’ $500,000 a week turnover from his ATM business.

8. Emma Weston

The co-founder and CEO of AgriDigital, Weston was nominated by both Mark Pesce (Mark Pesce Token) and Jemma Green (Power Ledger). It’s hard to argue with their choice – Weston was recognised as the Female Fintech Leader of the Year in 2017 and named a Top 25 FinTech Influencer by Finder.com.au.

She’s also been a former director of the Australian Digital Commerce Association and is the current Director and Deputy Chair of FinTech Australia Ltd. AgriDigital is a blockchain based supply chain tracking business operating in 34 countries that helps farmers buy, sell and store grain. Supply chains are one of the most promising uses for blockchain technology.

7. Fred Schebesta

Schebesta is an author, blogger, digital marketer, media commentator and the founder of Finder.com.au. With more than 4 million visits each month, Finder.com.au is hugely influential in leading crypto noobs to exchanges, educating users about cryptocurrencies and letting them know how and where to purchase their coin of choice. Like most comparison sites though, getting a prominent placement comes at a significant cost and the company – now in ten countries – is a billion dollar business. “He works hard and uses his massive engine in Finder.com to promote the space,” said Craig Cobb.

Last year Schebesta launched HiveEx.com, which does millions each week in OTC deals, from $50,000 up to $100 million. He followed that up with crypto bill payment service HiveSpend and he’s now working on establishing Australia’s first crypto bank, offering custodianship, cold storage, escrow, exchange, spending and more.

6. Rob Morris

A serial entrepreneur, technologist, innovator and investor, Morris is the founder and CEO of technology company Prismatik. He’s invested in, or helped advise, many Aussie blockchain companies, steering them on their paths towards success. He’s a true tech veteran, having joined his first internet startup back in 1996.

“Rob is one of the quiet legends in the blockchain space, supporting many projects and mentoring them to success,” said JP Thor, the founder of decentralised services marketplace CanYa (one of our Top Ten Aussie Blockchain Projects). “He is behind CanYa, Legaler, FlexDapps, Loki and more.”

Visit Micky.com.au tomorrow to find out who made the top five!