This is a list of people in blockchain technology, people who do work in the area of

Blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

and

Cryptocurrency A cryptocurrency (colloquially crypto) is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. Individual coin ownership record ...

, in particular researchers, business people, and authors. Some people that are notable as

programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...

s are included here because they work in research as well as programming. A few of these people pre-date the

invention An invention is a unique or novelty (patent), novel machine, device, Method_(patent), method, composition, idea, or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It m ...

of this technology; they are now regarded as people in blockchain technology because their work can be seen as leading to the invention of this technology.

A

* Gavin Andresen, former Bitcoin lead developer * Andreas Antonopoulos, author of ''Mastering Bitcoin'' * Jeremy Allaire, CEO and founder of the

digital currency Digital currency (digital money, electronic money or electronic currency) is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital cu ...

company

Circle A circle is a shape consisting of all point (geometry), points in a plane (mathematics), plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the Centre (geometry), centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is cal ...

and Chairman of the Board of

Brightcove Brightcove, Inc. is an American software company based in Boston, Massachusetts, that produces an online video platform. Founded in 2004 by Jeremy Allaire and Bob Mason, the company went public in 2012, and in 2025 was acquired by Bending Spoons. ...

B

Brian Behlendorf Brian Behlendorf (born March 30, 1973) is an American technologist, executive, computer programmer and leading figure in the open-source software movement. He was a primary developer of the Apache Web server, the most popular web server software ...

, Executive Director of Hyperledger Project *

Brendan Blumer Brendan Blumer (born 1986) is an American-born Cayman Islands–based entrepreneur. He is the CEO of the tech company Block.one, which developed the EOS.IO blockchain platform. Early life Blumer was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. When ...

, CEO of Block.One *

Vitalik Buterin Vitaly Dmitrievich Buterin (; born 31 January 1994), better known as Vitalik Buterin (), is a Canadian computer programmer and co-founder of Ethereum. Buterin became involved with cryptocurrency early in its inception, co-founding ''Bitcoin Ma ...

, founder of

Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (abbreviation: ETH) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-s ...

Adam Back Adam Back (born July 1970) is a British cryptographer and cypherpunk. He is the CEO of Blockstream, which he co-founded in 2014. He invented Hashcash, which is used in the bitcoin mining process. Life Back was born in London, England, in July ...

, author of Hashcash and CEO of

Blockstream Blockstream is a blockchain (database), blockchain technology company led by co-founder Adam Back, headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, with offices and staff worldwide. The company develops products and services for the storage an ...

C

Wences Casares Wences Casares (born 26 February 1974) is a Silicon Valley–based financial technology, fintech entrepreneur. He is the founder of Xapo#Full reserve banking, Xapo Bank, and also founded Internet Argentina, Wanako Games, Patagon, Bling Nation, ...

, CEO of

Xapo Xapo Bank is a private bank headquartered in Gibraltar, which operates globally and is licensed as a virtual currency , virtual asset currency provider by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. As of 2023, the company offers stock market t ...

David Chaum David Lee Chaum (born 1955) is an American computer scientist, List of cryptographers, cryptographer, and inventor. He is known as a pioneer in cryptography and privacy-preserving technologies, and widely recognized as the inventor of Digital cur ...

, computer scientist, cryptographer and blockchain pioneer.

D

Wei Dai Wei Dai ( zh, c=戴维 or zh, c=戴伟) is a computer engineer known for contributions to cryptography and cryptocurrencies. He developed the Crypto++ cryptographic library, created the b-money cryptocurrency system, and co-proposed the VMAC ...

, creator of b-money; inspired the creation of

Bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

Satoshi Nakamoto Satoshi Nakamoto ( – 26 April 2011) is the name used by the presumed pseudonymous person or persons who developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin's original reference implementation. As part of the ...

F

* Hal Finney, the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction

G

* Tony Gallippi, founder of BitPay, a global

bitcoin Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; Currency symbol, sign: ₿) is the first Decentralized application, decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 when an unknown entity published a white paper under ...

payment service provider A payment service provider (PSP) is a third-party company that allows businesses to accept electronic payments, such as credit card and debit card payments. PSPs act as intermediaries between those who make payments, i.e. consumers, and those who ...

. * Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of

Ripple Labs Ripple Labs, Inc. is an American technology company which offers enterprise blockchain products on the XRP Ledger and other networks. Originally named Opencoin and renamed in 2015, the company was founded in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, C ...

* Kofi Genfi, co-founder of Mazzuma * David Gerard, author of ''Attack of the 50-foot Blockchain'' in 2017.

H

Charles Hoskinson Charles Hoskinson (born 1987) is an Americans, American Businessperson, entrepreneur who is a co-founder of the blockchain engineering company IOHK, and the Cardano (blockchain platform), Cardano blockchain platform, and was a co-founder of the ...

, co-founder of

and founder of Cardano

I

* Ruja Ignatova, founder of

OneCoin OneCoin is a Fraud, fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme conducted by Offshore company, offshore companies OneCoin Ltd (based in Bulgaria and registered in Dubai) and OneLife Network Ltd (registered in Belize), both founded by Ruja Ignatova in con ...

, a

pyramid scheme A pyramid scheme is a business model which, rather than earning money (or providing Return on investment, returns on investments) by sale of legitimate product (business), products to an end consumer, mainly earns money by recruiting new members ...

promoted as a cryptocurrency.

K

* Dave Kleiman associated with Craig Wright

L

* Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple

M

Blythe Masters Blythe Sally Jess Masters (née Levett; born 22 March 1969) is a British private equity executive and former financial services and fintech executive. She is a former executive at JPMorgan Chase, where she was widely credited for developing the ...

, CEO of Digital Asset Holdings

N

, the name used by the unknown person or people who designed

* Nii Osae Osae Dade, co-founder of Mazzuma

S

* Emin Gün Sirer, professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, who studies distributed and peer-to-peer systems * Jorge Stolfi, Brazilian professor at the

University of Campinas The University of Campinas (), commonly called Unicamp, is a public research university in the state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Brazil. Established in 1962, Unicamp was designed from scratch as an integrated Research institute, researc ...

, cryptocurrency skeptic *

Nick Szabo Nicholas Szabo is an American computer scientist, legal scholar, and cryptographer known for his research in smart contracts and digital currency. Personal life Szabo currently resides in Seattle, Washington and is married to Michelle Szabo. ...

, computer scientist, cryptographer, and legal scholar known for his research in digital contracts currencies.

T

* Alex Tapscott, co-author of ''Blockchain Revolution'', CEO and founder of Northwest Passage Ventures, an advisory firm for early-stage blockchain companies *

Don Tapscott Don Tapscott (born June 1, 1947) is a Canadian business executive, author, consultant and speaker, who specializes in business strategy, organizational transformation and the role of technology in business and society. He is the CEO of the Tapsco ...

, co-author of ''Blockchain Revolution'', CEO of Tapscott Group, co-founder of Blockchain Research Institute

V

Roger Ver Roger Keith Ver (born 1979) is an entrepreneur who was an early investor in Bitcoin, Bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of Bitcoin, and sometimes known as Bitcoin Jesus. He now primarily promotes Bitcoin Cash. He previously was CEO ...

, Bitcoin Foundation co-founder, promoter of Bitcoin Cash

W

Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (born Bryce Wilcox; 13 May 1974 in Phoenix, Arizona), is an American Colorado-based computer security specialist, self-proclaimed cypherpunk, and ex-CEO of the Electric Coin Company (ECC), a for-profit company leading the de ...

, creator of the crypto coin,

Zcash Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency based on Bitcoin's codebase. It shares many similarities, such as a fixed total supply of 21 million units. Transactions can be transparent, similar to bitcoin transactions, or they can be shielded t ...

Gavin Wood Gavin James Wood is an English computer scientist, a co-founder of Ethereum, and creator of Polkadot and Kusama. Early life Wood was born in Lancaster, England, United Kingdom. He attended the Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He graduated from ...

, co-founder of

Jihan Wu Jihan Wu (; born 1986) is a Chinese billionaire cryptocurrency entrepreneur. Together with Micree Zhan, he co-founded Bitmain in 2013, which has become the world's largest computer chip company for bitcoin mining, with US$2.5 billion in revenue ...

, co-founder of

Bitmain Bitmain Technologies Ltd., is a privately held company, privately owned company headquartered in Beijing, China, that designs application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips for bitcoin mining. History It was founded by Micree Zhan and Ji ...

Z

Micree Zhan Micree Zhan or Zhan Ketuan (; born 29 January 1979) is a Chinese electronics engineer and businessman. He is the co-founder and CEO (with Wu Jihan) of Bitmain, the world's largest computer chip company for cryptocurrency mining. In 2018, Hu ...

, co-founder of

Changpeng Zhao Changpeng Zhao ( zh, s=赵长鹏, p=Zhào Chángpéng), commonly known as CZ, is a Chinese-born Canadian businessman. Zhao is the co-founder and former CEO of Binance. He resigned as the CEO in November 2023 after pleading guilty to a money lau ...

, founder of exchange

Binance Binance Holdings Ltd., branded Binance, is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. Binance was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao, a developer who had previously created high-frequency trading ...

References

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See also

References