Three of the Blockchain biggest movers and shakers on Techcrunch Video. Not to be missed.
- Vitalik Buterin is a programmer, writer, founder of Ethereum, the decentralized web 3.0 publishing platform and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine, a website and print magazine that covers bitcoin-related topics. In 2014, Buterin won the World Technology Award for the co-creation and invention of Ethereum. Buterin was born in Russia, grew up in Canada, and currently resides in Zug, Switzerland. Buterin became interested in bitcoin in 2011, and co-founded the periodical Bitcoin Magazine that year.He serves as head writer for the magazine, and has written about bitcoin-related topics for other publications, including Bitcoin Weekly. He is a co-creator and inventor of Ethereum, described as a “decentralized mining network and software development platform rolled into one” that facilitates the creation of new cryptocurrencies and programs that share a single block chain (a cryptographic transaction ledger). Buterin has contributed to a number of other open source software projects. He also works as a developer on the cryptocurrency marketplace site Egora.
- Steve Waterhouse is a partner at Pantera Capital, focused on Blockchain and Bitcoin investments. Steve was a cofounder and CTO of RPX (Nasdaq: RPXC) and previously Director and founder of the Honeycomb product group at Sun Microsystems. He has been an advisor to many successful startups and serves on the boards of Bitsamp, ChangeTip and Speak-with-me. He holds a PhD in Engineering from Cambridge with a focus in speech recognition and machine learning. Steve is an avid waterman and loves the kelp filled cold waters of the Pacific west coast.
- Austin Hill is the co-Founder & Chief Instigator of Blockstream. Blockstream was founded to develop new ways to accelerate innovation in crypto currencies, open assets and smart contracts. They have come together because they believe in the potential of bitcoin and blockchain technology to have a significant, positive social impact. He is also an active investor. In 1994, Austin founded one of the first Internet providers in Canada, Total.Net (Sold to BCE Emergis in 1997). After that, he co-founded Zero–Knowledge Systems, the largest and most funded research company focused around cypherpunk technologies for privacy, anonymity, and electronic cash. The company also pioneered anonymous networking technology and invented cryptographic identity trust metric systems. Since leaving Zero–Knowledge in 2006, Austin has been an active angel investor, social entrepreneur focused on meaningful games and gift economies. Austin has been involved in the founding of hundreds of companies as an investor, founder, board member or, more often, as an instigating participant.
