Let’s talk events… TechCrunch events: we’re confirming five more names for our upcoming blockchain show on July 6.
Joe Lubin, a co-founder of Ethereum and the founder of ConsenSys, Enigma founder and CEO Guy Zyskind, Monaco CEO and co-founder Kris Marszalek, EximChain CEO and co-founder Hope Liu, and Jim Fruchterman, CEO and founder of Benetech, will all join us for the show — the first TechCrunch event dedicated to the topic of blockchain.
TC Sessions: Blockchain takes place in Zug, the Swiss Canton located just outside of Zurich, which has come to be known as ‘Crypto Valley.’
Zug isn’t just a regulatory haven where startups come to file paperwork and leave, it’s becoming a destination that blockchain startups are moving into to take advantage of the growing community and a forward-thinking, fast-moving regulatory approach.
Beyond these fives names announced today, the event will also feature the following speakers:
- Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum
- Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance
- Balaji Srinivasan, CTO of Coinbase
- Roham Gharegozlou, the founder of smash-hit blockchain game CryptoKitties
- Brian Behlendorf, executive director of the Hyperledger Project
- Leanne Kemp, founder and CEO of Everledger
- Jun Hasegawa, CEO and founder of Omise and OmiseGo
- Mona El Isa, CEO and co-founder of Melonport
- Colin Hanna, associate at Balderton Capital
- Galia Benartzi, co-founder and head of Business Development at Bancor
- Gert Sylvest, co-founder of Tradeshift and GM of Tradeshift Frontiers
You can get your hands on tickets for the event — they’re priced at 495 Swiss Francs, or around $500 — from the website here.
Jim Fruchterman — founder and CEO of Benetech
As founder and CEO of Benetech, Fruchterman is focused on exporting tech innovation outside of Silicon Valley. He is a former rocket engineer who founded two machine intelligence startups that were acquired by public companies.
Under Fruchterman’s leadership, Benetech has created and scaled multiple software for social good enterprises spanning human rights, education, and environmental conservation. Fruchterman continues to explore and develop new and exciting ways that software and data can address unmet needs and create lasting social change.
Hope Liu — co-Founder and CEO of EximChain
EximChain is a software development company focused on supply chain applications. From supplier credit to inventory management, Eximchain helps businesses connect, transact, and share information more efficiently and securely. Eximchain’s mission is to provide blockchain-enabled tools to transform the global supply chain by integrating SMEs and increasing transparency.
Liu has a B.A. from Peking University and MBA from MIT. Previously, she handled cross-border transactions at UBS Asia for 6.5 years. She is the Lab Lead of the North America Blockchain Association and has been working on Eximchain from the MIT Media Lab since 2015.
Joseph Lubin — co-founder of Ethereum and founder of ConsenSys
New York-based ConsenSys produces developer tools, decentralized applications, and solutions for enterprises and governments that tap into the potential of Ethereum.
Lubin graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His past work has included stints with the Princeton Robotics Lab, Blacksmith Software Consulting and Goldman Sachs, while he has worked on projects that include the development of autonomous music composition tools, and autonomous mobile robots for a private research firm.
Lubin also spent time in Kingston, Jamaica, where he worked on music industry projects. Two years into that, he co-founded the Ethereum Project and he has been working on Ethereum and ConsenSys since January 2014.
1 May 2018; Joseph Lubin, Co-Founder of Ethereum & CEO, ConsenSys, on the Center stage during day one of Collision 2018 at Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. Photo by Diarmuid Greene/Collision via Sportsfile
Kris Marszalek — co-founder and CEO of Monaco
Monaco is developing a crypto-enabled debit card and digital banking app. The company raised over $25 million in an ICO in 2017 and it says it is “rolling out” to Asia, Europe and North America. Monaco began offering its service in a closed beta in March, with plans to offer a Visa card and, further down the line, credit and investment products tied to crypto.
Hong Kong-based Marszalek previously exited two companies, including e-commerce platform BeeCrazy (sold to iBuy Group in 2013) and location-based platform YiYi, which was bought by Motorola in 2010. Following the BeeCrazy sale, he joined the management team of iBuy, which later became Ensogo.
Guy Zyskind — founder and CEO of Enigma
Enigma is a blockchain-based protocol that uses privacy technologies to enable scalable, end-to-end decentralized applications. The company was incubated at MIT Media Lab, and it raised around $45 million in an ICO last September.
Zyskind received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Tel-Aviv University. Before Enigma, he was CTO of Athena Wisdom (now Endor), an MIT spin-off focused on network analysis research and Big Data.
