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Cryptocurrency and blockchain is no longer the future, as it is already here impacting and disrupting industries and fixing the flaws within the legacy systems.Like any other sector, crypto has its leaders and prominent names, the ones who have been spearheading the crypto revolution and making the world aware of the technology.
These people are diverse in respect of education and prior industry experience, but the visionary inside unites them as the ones who hold the eagerness and passion to think out of the ordinary.They are the ones to seize an opportunity and make the best out of it with a futuristic approach.They innovate, develop, and implement towards success and that’s what makes them stand apart from the rest.
With the whole world accelerating its way to mainstream adoption of digital currencies, this felt like the best time to acknowledge the architects behind this revolution.Here are the top 10 influential names in the crypto-sphere.
Creator & Co-founder – Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer who created the digital currency Ethereum, which in terms of market capitalization comes just after Bitcoin in value.He is also the co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine.
Buterin created his first computer game using Excel macros when he was just 7 years old and by the time, he was 10 he had started developing games.
Buterin took his liking to blockchain and studied Bitcoin, which motivated him to launch his very own cryptocurrency platform.In 2014, he successfully funded and launched Ethereum through an online crowd sale, initiating the present hype of Initial Coin Offering (ICO).Ethereum blockchain network is designed to run decentralized applications (Dapps) and smart contracts.The tokens created on the Ethereum platform are known as ERC-20.
Ethereum is an open-source code, has enabled innumerable crypto developers to build and launch their respective projects an continue to do so.
It gained immense popularity among crypto and blockchain developers as it Ethereum helped them to save both time and resources.
In 2018, Vitalik Buterin was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Basel.
Founder & CEO – Binance
As the founder and CEO of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Changpeng Zhao is one of the most prominent figures in the crypto and blockchain space.He was the CTO of OKCoin and a member of the Blockchain.info team.Zhao, popularly known as CZ has a huge following among the crypto enthusiasts who regularly follow is insightful articles and social media posts.
CZ began his career in the IT division of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, following which he joined Bloomberg to develop service for the traders, which helped him become a trading specialist.Owing to his experience in fundraising, CZ was able to make Binance the world’s largest crypto exchange in just 180 days.Post the launch of Binance, he became a billionaire in just six months and at present is one of the richest crypto entrepreneurs.
Co-Founder & CEO – Coinbase
Brian Armstrong is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, one of the major crypto exchanges in the world and the largest in the USA.
As a teenager, he studied CSS and Java, followed by a double major in computer science and economics.During his early career days, he worked for major companies as a programmer.
In 2012, Brian received his venture capital funding and went on to launch Coinbase in California.Gaining recognition as one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges, Coinbase is still one of the most popular platforms for fiat to crypto trade.
The platform allows the users to buy Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin using their bank cards.
Co-Founder & CEO – Bitmain
Jihan Wu is the co-founder of Bitmain, which is the largest computer chip company in the world for Bitcoin mining.Wu is one of the early adopters of Bitcoin, who raised funding from friends and family to buy 900 BTC in 2011.To this day, he is an ardent supporter of Bitcoin Cash, 2017 created a hard fork of BTC.Reportedly, Wu is the first to translate the Bitcoin Whitepaper into Mandarin.
His early experience is that of a financial analyst working for a private equity firm and gradually made his way into the world of digital assets becoming one of the most influential crypto billionaires..