Muneeb Ali is a

Pakistani-American Pakistani Americans () are citizens of the United States who have full or partial ancestry from Pakistan, or more simply, Pakistanis in America. They can be from different ethnic groups in Pakistan like Punjabis, Punjabi or Muhajir people, Muhaj ...

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and internet entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Stacks, an open-source

smart contract A smart contract is a computer program or a Transaction Protocol Data Unit, transaction protocol that is intended to automatically execute, control or document events and actions according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. The objective ...

platform for

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 ...

. He is known for the regulatory framework that resulted in the first SEC-qualified offering for a crypto asset and for his doctoral dissertation which formed the basis of the Stacks network. He is a co-author of Protothread and Proof-of-Transfer (PoX) consensus.

Career

Ali studied Computer Science at LUMS and received his PhD in Computer Science from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 2017. Ali co-founded Stacks (formerly Blockstack) with Ryan Shea and went through

Y Combinator Y Combinator, LLC (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm launched in March 2005 which has been used to launch more than 5,000 companies. The accelerator program started in Boston and Mountain View, Californi ...

in 2014. His work mainly focused on sensor networks, blockchains, and cloud computing. Ali was a technical advisor to the HBO

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...

show, and appeared in the

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

Rizqi Presents: Blockchain show. In 2019, he convinced the SEC regulators to allow his company to start a token offering under Reg A+ exemption, becoming the first to do so. In 2020, Ali released a legal framework for non-security status of Stacks.

References

Living people American computer scientists Pakistani emigrants to the United States 21st-century American businesspeople Princeton University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) {{Compu-bio-stub