A report by LATTICE80 on the people to know and follow in blockchain globally. Includes founders, techies, people in government and regulatory bodies, and more.

What an year 2017 it has been for blockchain technology! We went from explaining the technology simply as ‘distributed ledger technology’ to a more simpler ‘the technology behind Bitcoin’ (which is not necessarily more descriptive) – all thanks to everyone and their uncle talking about the rapid skyrocketing prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ripple and Ether. The mainstream media amplified this craze with pens running out of ink and worn out keyboards becoming a common sight in newsrooms, while ‘retail investors’ joining the cryptocurrency trading craze to make a quick buck.

Fabric Ventures reported that decentralised projects raised $5.6 billion by way of Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017. Access to capital using this model helped many projects to crowdsource their funding, while this fundraising model remains largely unregulated leaving a scope for several scams that have been reported through the days. Investors join in expecting high returns when tokens gain acceptance over time. Average return from all ICOs combined was around 13 times the original investment in dollars, while ETH and BTC grew by 7.7 and 4.9 times over the year respectively. Access to capital also does not ensure that a project will be successful on all fronts. Out of 913 token sales studied by Fabric, 435 (~48%) completed successfully, 347 (38%) sales did not report their results, and 131 (~14%) couldn’t meet the minimum threshold targets.

This growth in popularity of blockchain technology has resulted in the technology being called by some to be the most revolutionary development in modern times.

Ripple‘s solutions like RippleNet aim to increase the speed of payment transactions at high volume. Likened to the SWIFT messaging system, RippleNet decentralises processes using xCurrent, xRapid and xVia.

Fujitsu in its partnership with IOTA demonstrates how component and process data can be tracked and unalterably saved to the IOTA Tangle in a Supply Chain Management context. Taipei City government in Taiwan has partnered IOTA to develop its Smart City Living Lab project with initiatives like TangleID – to relieve citizens from worries of identity theft or fraud whether through voting, providing background medical record information, or by using any government-related service – while also exploring the areas of inter-organisation and inter-city data exchanges, and healthcare.

Ethereum remains to be the most popular blockchain platform for the development of dApps (decentralisedApps). In January 2018, it was reported that 91.2% of token market capitalisation was owned by the Ethereum platform.

Blockchain technology companies are innovating to disrupt the traditional way of doing things. The potential of the technology is now recognised and accepted by large organisations and governments (even if they remain sceptical about cryptocurrency). Forward thinking regulators are studying ways to allow for innovation to continue, as respective governments explore and adopt the technology themselves. Leading this charge are people from all over the world.

LATTICE80 presents this report on some of the most important people involved in innovation and growth of the blockchain ecosystem that you must follow to follow this technology into the future.

Close to half of the people featured in this report are from the United States, 24 from the United Kingdom and Europe, 16 from Asia, and 22 women out of a total of 100 leading the blockchain ecosystem.

In case you think we have missed someone or wish to suggest a correction, please drop us a line on info@lattice80.com.

Name

Company

Title Country Twitter Linkedin Adam Ludwin

Co-founder and CEO

Chain United States Addy (Artem) Crezee

CEO

BlockShow Russia Ahmed Bin Sulayem

Chairman

Executive Chairman of Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) United Arab Emirates Alex Fork

Founder

Humaniq Luxembourg Alexander Tapscott

Co-founder

Blockchain Research Institute Canada

Alexi Lane

Founder and CEO

Everex Thailand Andy Kwangwoo Song

Vice President

Samsung SDS Korea

Anne Connelly

Blockchain Faculty

Singularity University Canada Arthur Hayes

CEO

BitMEX Hong Kong Ashish Gadnis

Chair Financial Inclusion Working Committee

Wall Street Blockchain Alliance United States Avi Cohen

Co-Founder and CEO

The Floor Israel Balaji Srinivasan

CTO

Coinbase United States Barry Childe

Head of Distributed Ledger and Cryptocurrency technology

HSBC United Kingdom Barry E. Silbert

Founder and CEO

Digital Currency Group United States Blythe Masters

CEO

Digital Asset United States Brad Garlinghouse

CEO

Ripple United States Brian Armstrong

Co-founder and CEO

Coinbase United States Brian Behlendorf

Executive Director of the Hyperledger Project

The Linux Foundation United States Brian Forde

Senior Lecturer

MIT Sloan School of Management United States Brock Pierce

Co-founder

Blockchain Capital LLC United States Cameron Winklevoss

Co-founder and President

Gemini United States Cathy Mulligan, Ph.D.

Co-director

Imperial College Centre for Cryptocurrency Research and Engineering United Kingdom Changpeng Zhao

CEO

Binance Malta Charlene Chen

COO

BitPesa United Kingdom Charlie Shrem

Founding Director

Bitcoin Foundation United States Chi-Hyung Song

Founder

Upbit Korea Chris Burniske

Partner

Placeholder United States Chris Larsen

Co-founder and CEO

Ripple United States

Chris Lee

CEO

OKEx Hong Kong Da Hong Fei

Founder

NEO China Dan Larimer

CTO, EOS

Block.One United States Dan Morehead

Founder and CEO

Pantera Capital Management LP United States David LEE Kuo Chuen

Co-founder

BlockAsset Singapore David Schwartz

Chief Cryptographer

Ripple United States Diana Biggs

Head of Digital Innovation, UK & Europe

HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management United Kingdom Dominik Schiener

Co-founder

IOTA Germany Don Tapscott

Co-founder and Executive Chairman

Blockchain Research Institute Canada Dr Jemma Green

Co-founder and Chairman

Power Ledger Australia Dr Julian Hosp

Co-founder and President

TenX Singapore Elizabeth Rossiello

Co-founder and CEO

BitPesa Senegal Eric Van der Kleij

CEO

C4DR (Centre for Digital Revolution) United Kingdom Erik T. Voorhees

Founder and CEO

ShapeShift.io Switzerland Eva A. Kaili

Member of European Parliament

European Parliament Greece

Gideon Greenspan

Coin Sciences Ltd

Founder and CEO Israel Ismail Malik

BlockchainLab

Founder and CEO United Kingdom Jamie Burke

Outlier Ventures

Founder and CEO United Kingdom Jason Hsu

FutureX

Founding Chairman Taiwan Jason Lee

NEM.io Foundation

Expansion Director for Australia and New Zealand Australia Jed McCaleb

Stellar

Co-founder and CTO United States Jimmy Song

Blockchain Capital LLC

Venture Partner United States Joe Seunghyun Cho

LATTICE80

Co-founder and Founding CEO United Kingdom John McAfee

Future Tense Secure Systems

Founder United States Joseph Lubin

ConsenSys

Founder United States Joseph Muscat

Government of Malta

Prime Minister of Malta Malta Joyce Kim

SparkChain Capital

Managing Partner United States Jun Hasegawa

OmiseGO

Founder and CEO Singapore Justin Sun

Tron Foundation

Founder United States Kris Marszalek

Monaco

Co-founder and CEO Hong Kong Laura Shin

Unchained and Unconfirmed podcasts

Crypto Journalist / Podcast producer and host United States Lisa Nestor

Stellar

Director of Partnerships United States Mariya Gabriel

European Commission

European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Bulgaria Meltem Demirors

Athena Capital

Founder United States Michael Casey

MIT Media Lab

Senior Advisor, Digital Currency Initiative United States Michael Novogratz

Galaxy Digital

CEO United States Mike Kayamori

QUOINE

Co-founder and CEO Singapore Min Kim

DAYLI Financial Group

Chief Strategy Officer Korea Ming Chan

Ethereum Foundation

Former Executive Director Switzerland Muneeb Ali

Blockstack

Co-founder United States Ned Scott

Steemit

CEO United States Neha Narula

MIT Media Lab

Director, Digital Currency Initiative United States Nejc Kodrič

Bitstamp

Co-founder and CEO United Kingdom Norbert Gehrke

Finetiq Limited (fintechnology.jp)

Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Japan Olaf Carlson-Wee

Polychain Capital

Founder and CEO United States Olaoluwa Osuntokun

Lightning Labs

CTO United States Oliver Bussmann

Bussmann Advisory

Founder and CEO Switzerland Perianne Boring

Chamber of Digital Commerce

Founder and President United States Peter Smith

Blockchain

Co-founder and CEO United Kingdom Rachel Wolfson

Bad Crypto LLC

Co-host United States Ran Neuner

CNBC Cryptotrader

Host South Africa Ravi Menon

Monetary Authority of Singapore

Managing Director Singapore Roberto Mancone

we.trade

Chief Operating Officer Ireland Roger K. Ver

Bitcoin.com

CEO Japan Sally Eaves

Project Shivom

Co-founder United Kingdom Sheila Warren

World Economic Forum

Head of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology United States Simon Taylor

11:FS

Co-founder and Blockchain Practice Lead United Kingdom Spencer Bogart

Blockchain Capital LLC

Partner United States Steve Tendon

ChainStrategies

Founder and Director Malta Susan Oh

United Nations General Assembly

Chair of AI, Blockchain For Impact (BFI) United States Thessy Mehrain

ConsenSys

Director, Global Product & Innovation United States Tim Byun

OKLink

Chief Risk Officer and Head of Government Relations United States Tim Draper

Draper Associates; Draper University

Founder United States Tim Grant

DrumG Financial Technologies

Founder and CEO United States Tristan D’Agosta

Poloniex

Founder United States Tyler H. Winklevoss

Gemini

Co-founder and CEO United States Vanessa Grellet

ConsenSys

Executive Director United States Vinny Lingham

CivicKey

Co-founder and CEO United States Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum

Founder Canada Xiaochen Zhang

FinTech4Good

President United States Yuzo Kano

bitFlyer

CEO Japan Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn

Least Authority Enterprises

Founder and CEO United States



This report was prepared by including nominations reviewed by industry peers and internally by LATTICE80.

Last updated: 18th April, 2018