Experts

Partner of Placeholder VC, co-author of Cryptoassets, formerly led crypto ARKinvest.

Investments

Organizations

Placeholder VC

Chris Burniske

Creator of Beaker, long-time Node and Web programmer, and distributed systems enthusiast. Previously developer in the Secure Scuttlebutt community.

Paul Frazee

This is a blog for everyday techies building real systems people use, and their still-with-it-and-technical CTOs. It's a blog for thinking people who want to build better systems. That often requires questioning current practices. I have worked hard to improve the state of the art in blockchain tech, as well as the overall cryptocurrency community.

Emin Gün Sirer

Entrepreneur, investor, and writer helping to build the bitcoin / digital currency ecosystem. Founder of Messari, and formerly an entrepreneur-in-residence at ConsenSys, and founding team member at the industry's most active investor (Digital Currency Group) and largest media brand (CoinDesk). Working on new ventures and angel investing.

Ryan Selkis was the Managing Director at CoinDesk, a site providing the latest news, analysis, and insights in the cryptocurrency and blockchain spaces. Prior to CoinDesk, Selkis was the Director of Growth for Digital Currency Group, an investment firm focused on the crypto space. He holds an MBA from MIT School of Business.

Ryan Selkis

Charles Hoskinson is a Colorado-based technology entrepreneur and mathematician. He attended Metropolitan State University of Denver and University of Colorado Boulder to study analytic number theory before moving into cryptography through industry exposure.

His professional experience includes founding three cryptocurrency-related start-ups – Invictus Innovations, Ethereum and IOHK – and he has held a variety of posts in both the public and private sectors. He was the founding chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation’s education committee and established the Cryptocurrency Research Group in 2013.

His current projects focus on education people about cryptocurrency, being an evangelist for decentralization and making cryptographic tools easier to use for the mainstream. This includes leading the research, design and development of Cardano, a third-generation cryptocurrency that launched in September 2017.

Charles Hoskinson

Igor Barinov is an award-winning blockchain expert known for pioneering developments in blockchain enabled notary. Igor is currently a project manager of POA Network, a foundation that launched POA Network, which is open, permissioned and public blockchain network based on Ethereum protocol with Proof-of-Authority (PoA) consensus reached by independent, pre-selected validators. Igor devotes all his time to innovating around blockchain scalability and making open networks more affordable for businesses.

Prior to POA Network, the developer and serial entrepreneur co-founded Block Notary, a notary for the digital age built on blockchain technology. Data records produced through Block Notary products can be used as self-authenticating evidence based on State of Vermont’s blockchain application law. He also developed the first Know Your Customer (KYC) application recognized by the state. Concurrently, he built several closed PoA-based networks for various businesses. Insights from these experiences laid a foundation for POA Network project.

Igor holds more than 16 blockchain and computer programming accolades and won blockchain hackathons at the Consensus, Texas Bitcoin Conference, BitHack, and Distributed Trade. He also holds 12 professional certifications in programming and data science as well as deep learning in the design of memory networks, implementation of generative models, design and training segmentation systems and neural translation systems from the University of San Francisco. Igor graduated from Russian State Technological University with a degree in material science, studied computer science at Lomonosov Moscow State University and attended Blockchain University.

Igor Barinov

Ari Paul is the CIO of cryptocurrency hedge fund BlockTower Capital. Prior to his time in the crypto space, Paul was a portfolio manager for the University of Chicago's endowment, as well as a derivatives trader. He is interviewed about his views on crypto regularly by publications like BusinessInsider and Forbes.

Ari Paul

Meltem Demirors is a cryptocurrency investor, advisor, and advocate, with a unique blend of experience in both legacy & blockchain-based finance and cryptocurrencies. On the legacy finance front, Ms. Demirors worked with some of the largest companies in the world, mainly on financial risk management and capital efficiency. On the blockchain-based finance side, she has had an intense focus on portfolio management and network development, beginning in the early days of cryptocurrency ecosystem development.

Meltem Demirors is the Managing Director at Digital Currency Group, which invests in (and advises) 100+ bitcoin and blockchain startups.

She is a member of the Global Future Council on Blockchain at the Davos World Economic Forum; building products CoinShares; investing, advising, lurking in trollbox; and is also an advisor and teacher at MIT and the University of Oxford.

Meltem Demirors

Formal Verification of Ethereum Contracts.

Yoichi Hirai

Dr Garrick Hileman, head of research at Blockchain, co-founder of Mosaic, research associate at the London School of Economics.

Garrick is best known for his research on monetary and distributed systems innovation, particularly cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. 

Garrick was ranked as one of the 100 most influential economists in the UK & Ireland. He is regularly invited to share his research and perspective with public sector institutions, including the CIA, US Army and Naval War Colleges, Federal Reserve, Bank of England, and the Financial Stability Board, as well as media, including the BBC, CNBC, FT, WSJ, and NPR. Garrick is frequently sought as a speaker.

Notable cryptocurrency and blockchain research publications include the "2017 Global Cryptocurrency Benchmarking Study" (University of Cambridge) and the "2017 Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study" (University of Cambridge). He also created and published the CoinDesk "State of Bitcoin" and "State of Blockchain" reports from 2013-2016. Garrick's other research interests include sovereign debt, financial crises, financial repression and prudential regulation, black markets, and systemic risk. He completed his PhD in economic history at the London School of Economics under the supervision of professors Albrecht Ritschl and Niall Ferguson.

Garrick's teaching includes developing the UK's first university taught class on blockchain technology at the University of Cambridge, and teaching on numerous executive education programs and other classes for Cambridge, Oxford, Columbia, Northwestern, and the London School of Economics.

Garrick has worked for 15+ years in the private sector with both start-ups like Blockchain and Mosaic and established companies such as Bank of America, The Home Depot, IDG, and Allianz. Garrick’s technology experience includes co-founding a San Francisco-based new venture incubator and IT strategy consulting for multinationals. Garrick has served on the boards of directors of both publicly traded and private companies, and he has worked or consulted in a wide range of industries, including banking, technology, online media, specialty finance, insurance, business services, retail, non-profit, education, and government.

Garrick’s volunteer work includes serving as a Big City Mountaineers guide for at-risk urban teens on backcountry excursions in the Sierra Nevada. He also was a founding member of the record-setting PolarVision expedition, which raised funds and awareness for sight-related charities.

Chris Burniske

Partner of Placeholder VC.

Chris Burniske Introduction

Chris Burniske Work Experience