Team Concordium brings together outstanding researchers, software engineers and business leaders from all over the world and we are proud to introduce them to the rest of our community. Today we would like you to meet Bernardo David.

Bernardo David

Who are you?

I’m originally from Brazil have lived around Denmark, Israel and Japan on and off for almost 10 years now.

Even though I fell in love with all of these places, I ended up coming back to Denmark and joining the IT University of Copenhagen as an associate professor.

The first time I lived in Denmark, I was doing my PhD at Aarhus University, so coming back to Denmark but this time to Copenhagen felt both familiar and exciting.

When I’m not trying to solve cryptographic problems, I can usually be found hanging out with friends downtown or cooking some brazilian style barbecue at home.

Music is also a big part of my life and I’m also listening to something while chilling or working. I also play classical piano and modular synthesizers.

How did you get into the blockchain?

I’ve been working on cryptographic protocols since my undergrad years but at first I didn’t pay much attention to blockchains and cryptocurrency.

Blockchain systems first caught my attention back in early 2016 when a friend started working for a company building what became the Cardano cryptocurrency.

I ended up also joining the Cardano project as a scientific consultant and helped design some of the first proof-of-stake blockchain protocols and randomness beacons.

What sparked my interest in the blockchain world were the many interesting scientific problems and puzzles that had to be solved to make these systems truly secure and efficient. Of course it also helped noticing that I could apply my background in cryptographic protocols to solve these problems in interesting ways.

Bernardo David

How can the world benefit from Blockchain?

I believe decentralized permission systems have a huge potential to revolutionize the way we ensure democratic access to fundamental services and do business.

Well designed blockchain applications can fill in a gap left by centralized services and financial systems that simply don’t offer enough scalability and reliability.

Even more than filling this gap, decentralized applications can open up new ways of constructing (and interacting with) digital finances and services.

How did you get involved in Concordium?

I was actually there at the inception of Concordium, when I introduced Lars to the researchers from Aarhus University who partnered up to start the company.

At this time I was working at the Tokyo Institute of Technology and consulting for the Cardano project, so after making this introduction I didn’t get involved any further.

When I came back to Denmark, it was an obvious choice to start working with Concordium and COBRA, since I really like the idea of a regulatory compliant blockchain.

Besides working on cool problems, it is also an opportunity to work even closer with the COBRA people, with whom I have already been collaborating for a few years.

Now I even have a Concordium funded PhD student at ITU, who is helping us solve these tricky problems.

What would you like to see blockchain doing in the future?

In a nutshell, I think smart contracts can really make business smarter and our lives easier.

Once we have privacy preserving but yet accountable smart contract systems, we will be able to build applications that make sure services are delivered promptly and reliably while doing away with unnecessary middlemen and boring tasks.

Why should everyone follow Concordium’s journey closely?

Concordium has taken up a very challenging but equally important goal: building a truly regulatory compliant blockchain system to enable real large scale business applications. This will certainly be an exciting journey with lots of science and engineering happening on the way, so I’m sure it will be interesting even for those not really into the whole blockchain scene. Of course the best part will come when we achieve our goal, which will for sure enable a lot of cool applications as well.