







Blockchain startup Civic has appointed Phillip Shoemaker as executive director of its Ethereum-based decentralized identity platform.

Blockchain startup Civic has appointed Apple veteran Phillip Shoemaker as executive director of Identity.com, its Ethereum (ETH) blockchain-based, decentralized identity platform. The news was announced in a press release published Dec. 13.

Identity.com is Civic’s open-source, decentralized and tokenized digital identity ecosystem that uses smart contracts to provide on-demand, blockchain-based identity validation.

Shoemaker joins the initiative after working over seven years as senior director of the Apple App Store Review team, which he reportedly built “from the ground up, taking his team from 4 to over 300 employees,” under the company leadership of founder Steve Jobs. Since leaving Apple in 2016, he has worked advising multiple blockchain projects and startups.

The company has said the appointment comes at a “key time” as it prepares to add external organizations to its ecosystem, “both as collaborators and participants.”

According to the press release, Shoemaker’s responsibilities will include managing identity.com’s objectives and team growth, “defining the parameters around the Civic relationship,” and taking charge of establishing a “governance structure” for the ecosystem that prioritizes “trust and transparency.”

Shoemaker’s other past experiences include a role as developer relations director at the open-source, neuroscientific software engineering firm Numenta, which has been working to reverse-engineer the neocortex to study how the brain works and evolve approaches to enhancing machine intelligence.

As previously reported, Shoemaker is not the only Apple veteran to embrace blockchain innovation; in October, the tech giant’s co-founder Steve Wozniak was announced as a co-founder of recently launched blockchain-focused venture capital fund EQUI Global, having made a solid endorsement of Bitcoin this summer, arguing that it is the only “pure digital gold.”

In October, Civic announced that credit report repair service Progrexion, along with its subbrands law firm Lexington Law and consumer advice portal Credit.com were set to use its blockchain identity solution, with the Civic (CVC) native token surging 22 percent in value following the news.

As of press time, CVC is trading at $0.050, down just over 6 percent on the day, according to CoinMarketCap.