Blockleaders Podcast

CEO and founder of coinweb.io, Toby Gilbert speaks about his new project PACT SWAP

Wesley Ellul, President and Head of Strategy of Technotainment talks about the intersection of entertainment and technology - blockchain technology

Dominick Schmidt, Polygon Miden - Scaling Privacy with Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Polygon Miden’s Approach Dominik Schmidt, co-founder of Polygon Miden, believes that privacy is both a human right and a practical necessity for scaling blockchain technology. Speaking at the DCC Shielding Summit, Schmidt outlined how zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) allow users to execute transactions privately while improv...

Lasha Antadze, founder of Rarimo - Verifiable Anonymity for Everyday Use: Rarimo’s Identity Innovation Lasha Antadze, founder of Rarimo, showcased how zero-knowledge identity systems can transform privacy during his talk at the DCC Shielding Summit. "We focus on verifiable anonymity—proving who you are without revealing more than necessary," he explained. Rarimo’s technology allows users to tap th...

Mark Bungard, head of Product Partisia - Privacy and Transparency in Action: Partisia’s Real-World Use Cases Mark Bungard, Head of Product at Partisia, highlighted the transformative potential of combining privacy and transparency during his talk at the DCC Shielding Summit. "For privacy to be real, you also need transparency," he explained, emphasizing the balance between protecting sensitive dat...

Yannik Schrade, CEO of Arcium - Unlocking Confidential Computing: Arcium’s Push for Privacy and Usability Schrade described decentralized confidential computing as the "missing link for distributed systems" during his talk at the DCC Shielding Summit. Schrade emphasized that confidentiality is essential for unlocking advanced use cases, including confidential AI and DeFi, while ensuring sensitive...

Martin Leclerc Dev Rel for iEXEC - Simplifying Privacy Through Confidential Computing: iExec’s Mission Martin Leclerc, Developer Relations at iEXEC, emphasized the importance of making privacy-enhancing technologies both accessible and secure during his talk at the DCC Shielding Summit. "Privacy must be built by design and be user-friendly to ensure trust," he noted. iEXEC focuses on confidential...

Jovonni Martinez, Agoric - Bridging Security and Accessibility: Agoric’s Developer-Focused Approach Jovonni Martinez, Developer Relations Engineer at Agoric, views the balance between security and usability as key to blockchain adoption. Martinez highlighted Agoric’s unique approach: leveraging JavaScript-based smart contracts to make privacy-preserving technologies more accessible to developers....

Adrianne Youngman, CEO of Partisia Blockchain - Unlocking Privacy with Better User Experience: Partisia's Vision Adrienne Youngman, CEO of Partisia Blockchain, believes that privacy and usability can coexist to drive innovation. Youngman highlighted how self-custody of data can enhance user experiences while ensuring security. Using multi-party computation (MPC), Partisia enables users to perform...

Shahaf Bar-Gellen, CEO of COTI - Privacy by Design: COTI's Approach to Balancing Security and Usability Shahaf Bar-Geffen, CEO of COTI, believes that privacy should be the default in blockchain technology—intuitive, seamless, and non-intrusive for users. Bar-Geffen emphasized the importance of "selective disclosure," a framework that allows users to share only the information they choose while mai...

Henry De Valence, CEO of Penumbra - Bridging Privacy and Usability: Penumbra's Vision for the Future of Blockchain In an era where privacy and usability often seem at odds, Henry de Valence, founder of Penumbra Labs, offers a compelling approach to balancing both. Speaking at the DeCC x Shielding Summit, de Valence highlighted the importance of aligning cryptographic systems with user expectations...

Jakob Kronbichler is the CEO and Co-founder of Clearpool ($CPOOL), the leading DeFi credit marketplace for institutions backed by leading investors, including Sequoia Capital and Wintermute. Since launching in 2022, Clearpool has originated over $590M in loans to some of the largest institutions in both TradFi and DeFi, including Wall Street giant Jane Street and listed firm Flow Traders.

It’s not often that a CEO gets voted in by his peers, but this is the starting ground for Nik Christodoulakis, CEO Enosys, a position he holds carefully. Three years ago he was CTO for Enosys (then called FLR Finance) leading the technical development of the company. The previous CEO left in unexpected circumstances and the remaining team voted him into the position. “They persuaded me that I was...

Roy Hui, LightLink and Nathan Lenga, Elektrik LightLink is a brand new Layer 2 Solution building on Ethereum and Elektrik is the very first decentralised application building on its blockchain. Elektrik is an innovative decentralised exchange focusing on providing an unrivalled trading experience with minimal fees, advanced tools and improved capital efficiency via a unique AI-driven machine learn...

When faced with the question, how to protect crypto, OG Brock Pierce is circumspect. He points out that not everyone is in the same place. “Early noobs looking to begin their journey might go to Coinbase and purchase their first $20 or $50 worth of crypto and it’s not an investment in crypto, but an investment in yourself. However, the moment you have a material investment – and that is a differen...

Dmitry (Dima) Buterin, avid supporter of Ukraine, serial entrepreneur and father to Vitalik Dmitry Buterin has always been outspoken and prone to using humour to make his point. He has lived through great change in his native Soviet Union before relocating to Canada in the 90s. There he has openly criticized the brain washing of the old Soviet era and increasingly the dictatorship of Valdmir Putin...

Matej Zrimšek – Co-founder and CTO of Akshun (The Unseen Agency) Called one of the tech-hottest CTOs in Web3 by his co-founders, Matej Zrimšek, certainly has the receipts. Holding a Bachelors in Computer Science, he went on to earn a double Masters in Computer Science and Mathematics. “I also love algorithms and cryptography, so while my early career was in Life Sciences and included robotics prog...

Bumper your crypto and defend against price drops Bumper is an innovative DeFi protocol that protects the value of the crypto you hold from bear cycles and market crashes and simultaneously preserves gains when the price climbs. Set the price you want to protect and if the market crashes, your asset will never fall below that price. Importantly, if your asset price pumps, you’re still capturing th...

Ben Appleby, co founder and chief product officer with The Unseen Agency As a freelancer all this life, Ben Appleby knows good people when he meets them. And so it was with his co-founder Richard Kieswich. As soon as they met, Appleby knew this man was smart and he wanted to work with him, so relying on the adage that it pays to employ (or co-found with) people that are smarter than you, he did. T...

Marieke Flament almost passed up on the chance to move into Web3 in 2015 because in her mind bitcoin was connected with illicit substances. She was approached by a headhunter who wanted to pitch her to a bitcoin startup. “And I thought they’d got the wrong number. I did not want to work for drug dealers.” However, curiosity got the better of her and she decided to investigate further – to ignore t...

Web3 is a wonderful cornucopia of people from all walks of life, sharing passions and looking at the transformation world of blockchain, NFTs and AI to create new experiences and adventures. Fitting right into this eclectic mix is former playwright, rugby player, sustainable food mogul and TV presenter Richard Kieswick. In his adventures along the way to Web3, he peaked hard. His play has run on t...

Abel Sebhatu, CEO and co-founder of Atrivr.ai – his promise is that even your granny can use this platform Fascinated by NFTs, Abel Sebhatu decided to fix the issue of complexity and difficulty surrounding their production. In short, he wanted the process of creating an NFT to be as easy as sending a message. His background is technical, having studied mathematics and mathematical engineering, and...

Maria Matyushina does not do comfortable. Instead, she enjoys pushing herself in new experiences and challenges. This is reflected in her hobbies where she thrives on extreme activities such as paragliding and parachuting.  Next on her bucket list is diving with manatees.  “I don’t do these activities every week but I love a challenge and a new adventure,” she says.  The same love of adventure has...

Thibault has over six years’ experience working in traditional finance, as a portfolio manager and leading business development initiatives for a Swiss currency overlay firm ($30bn in AUM). Thibault has been in the crypto space since 2017 and made his way full time in 2021 after a career break and moving to China to learn Mandarin full-time. At Bifrost, Thibault manages Strategic and Business deve...

Matthew de la Hey, inploi   It pays to understand the people behind the company, in this case Matthew de la Hey, co-founder of inploi , in order to understand the corporate ethos of the company.   Coming from South Africa he understood first-hand the unfairness of life and wanted to make a difference.   “South Africa is a very complicated place, as well as a very beautiful place, with one of the m...