The decentralized digital economy is creating an amazing new asset class with many virtual currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and other top-ranked crypto asset coins. And the next big frontier on the forefront of the cryptocurrency era to cross is user awareness and adoption.
The entire cryptocurrency ecosystem is a massive hub of content related to blockchains, developments, projects, talks, dApps and much more. A sector this big has enormous content that is distributed, redistributed, liked and shared across the internet and served to users of the same niche.
People all over the globe are waking up to realize the immense potential of these novel currencies. The nascent blockchain technology has shifted the e-financial landscape in more ways than one, and the emerging ‘programmable money’ wave appears to be inevitable. When you combine these two futuristic forces of forward-looking phases of finance, it’s fun to start figuring out who is responsible, credible and newsworthy in the bitcoin-led economy.
Let us introduce you to some of the most prominent influencers
1. Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng Zhao is most popularly referred to as CZ in the crypto space. He is the founder and CEO of Binance, the leading and the largest exchange in the world by trading volume. Prior to Binance, he served as the CTO of OKCoin and also worked as a developer for Blockchain.info, one of the earliest wallets in the cryptocurrency fraternity.
How did he get into crypto?
After concluding his studies, he began developing software for trade orders on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. He also developed Futures trading software for the Bloomberg trade book after TSE. Fast forward a few years, he found himself working for blockchain.info and later a CTO with OKCoin. CZ left OKCoin in 2017 and started working on a cryptocurrency exchange; Binance. He was placed third on the list of Forbes’ “The Richest People In Cryptocurrency” In February 2018.
Notable Quotes- “We think that crypto has a very strong use case in less developed countries. There’s more money to be made in a more developed country, but we want to distribute crypto to the rest of the world.”
Social profiles- Twitter
2. Brian Armstrong
Brian Amstrong is the founding CEO of Coinbase, one of the first crypto exchanges in the world. Brian Armstrong was born on January 25, 1983, and grew up in San Jose, California. He is also known as the bitcoin’s guardian angel for his fervent advocacy for cryptocurrencies.
How did he get into crypto?
He worked with Deloitte and Touche as an Enterprise Risk Management Consultant after majoring in computer science and economics from The Rice University, Houston, Texas. He got introduced to bitcoin in December 2010 and laid the foundation of Coinbase in June 2012 after realizing there weren’t many crypto startups back then.
Notable Quotes- “By lowering the barrier to creating new digital currency applications, we will see an explosion in the number of ideas tried.”
Social profiles- Twitter
3. Vitalik Buterin
Perhaps the most renowned person in the cryptocurrency realm. Vitalik is the co-founder and developer of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum. He has also founded Bitcoin magazine which is quite influential and active in news and updates related to cryptocurrency.
How did he get into crypto?
He is among the world’s most successful, youngest and famous people. His father was a computer scientist who introduced him to bitcoin at the age of 17. Two years later he founded the ‘Ethereum Virtual Machine’ or the EVM, a brilliant use case of smart contracts working on top of the blockchain.
Notable Quotes- “Whereas most technologies tend to automate workers on the periphery doing menial tasks, blockchains automate away the centre. Instead of putting the taxi driver out of a job, blockchain puts Uber out of a job and lets the taxi drivers work with the customer directly.”
Social profiles- Twitter
4. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss were born on August 21, 1981. They are identical brothers and are known as the Winklevoss twins. Both the twins are early bitcoin investors, entrepreneurs and have a great influence on the crypto community.
How did they get into crypto?
Tyler and his brother Cameron founded Winklevoss Capital Management In 2012, a firm that invests in multiple asset classes and puts an emphasis on providing seed funding to early-stage startups. Being venture capitalists these twins led a seed funding round for a bitcoin payment processor BitInstant in April 2013 after which they claimed they held 1% of the entire bitcoins at that time. They still have more than $1bn of bitcoins in valuation.
Notable Quotes- “People have to start realizing that money is just a fiction, an idea.”
“With great ideas come great changes. Bitcoin’s that.”
Social Profiles- Tyler Cameroon
5. Tim Draper
Timothy Cook Draper is a seasoned American venture capitalist, and founder of Draper University, Draper Venture Network, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Goren Holm and Draper Associates. He helps entrepreneurs through funding, education and reform through added support and drives their vision to success.
How did he get into crypto?
“Tim purchased his first set of bitcoins after being persuaded by Peter Vincennes, CEO at Coinlab. Peter introduced Draper to bitcoin after which he purchased $250,000 worth of BTC on Mt. Gox.”
Notable Quotes- “Bitcoin frees people from trying to operate in a modern market economy.”
“I grew up in Silicon Valley when it was a bunch of apricot groves, and now it’s this centre of incredible activity. So I have this sense of what technology has done for this region, and I want to spread it to the world.”
Social Profiles- Twitter
6. Mike Novogratz
Born on November 26, 1964, Michael Edward Novogratz is an ex-fund manager and he has also been ranked a billionaire by Forbes in 2007 and 2008 consecutively. He was priorly a partner to Goldman Sachs and remained at the position for 11 years and has flown helicopters in the US army as well.
How did he get into crypto?
“Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, a cryptocurrency investment firm through which he says he made $250mn form crypto.”
Notable Quotes- “The debate is over, Bitcoin won. It is now seen by people all around the world as a legitimate place to store their value.”
Social Profiles- Twitter
7. Ameer Rosic
Ameer Rosic is a serial entrepreneur, investor, blockchain evangelist and marketing professional. He is an avid speaker and has spoken about blockchain and cryptocurrencies in various universities such as Mars and Western. He is a prominent blogger and educator in the blockchain field and the founder of crypto education platform Blockgeeks
How did he get into crypto?
He got into crypto early in the last decade and when he found out that the community is lacking in educational content related to the blockchain and cryptocurrencies he built blockGeeks to impart relevant education to beginners in the space.
Notable Quotes- That’s what BlockGeeks is about. I live in Toronto and we have a really robust Blockchain community in Toronto. We have a huge Bitcoin crew over here, we have Hyperledger, and I am lucky enough to know Vitalik (Buterin)’s father Dmitry who is my business partner at BlockGeeks.
Social Profiles- Twitter
8. Ben Horowitz
Source: Product Hunt
Ben Horowitz is an avid crypto investor, analyst, co founder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz aka a16z. He has vast experience in both software development and management that has helped him manage a firm this big with his years of expertise in crypto currency and development.
How did he get into crypto?
“In 2009, Horowitz and Andreessen launched Andreessen Horowitz to invest in and advise early-stage startups and technology companies and later expanded their investments in tokenized blockchain projects.”
Notable Quotes- “As a startup CEO, I slept like a baby. I woke up every 2 hours and cried.”
Social Profiles- Twitter
9. Kathleen Breitman
Kathleen is the CEO of Tezos, a smart contract platform. She founded R3 a consortium of more than 70 financial firms before founding Tezos in 2017 with her husband.
How did she get into crypto?
Kathleen’s husband Arthur got her interested in Bitcoin. She garnered extensive knowledge in blockchain technology and released a white paper in 2014 addressing the weaknesses in the blockchain protocols at the time and proposed solutions on eliminating them.
Notable Quotes- “Pretend Internet money if you will is kind of like this great cyberpunk pipe dream that was never quite realized in the 1990s but obviously has a lot of implications if you consider how we make transactions on the web today.”
Social Profiles- Twitter
10. Roger Ver
Most popularly known as ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ he is probably the first one who has invested in any bitcoin startup. He is the CEO of Bitcoin.com and is a huge proponent of digital currencies. He is a quite polarizing and controversial figure in the crypto industry.
How did he get into crypto?
He got involved with bitcoin soon after its inception and his investment portfolio constitutes Blockchain.com, BitPay, Zcash, ShapeShift, Kraken and Purse.io and many more. He is an avid speaker and shares his insights on different crypto related channels. His social channels are a rich source of information and insight on various important issues related to blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Notable Quotes- “If it is something particularly useful and for some reason is having trouble getting funding from traditional sources, I may be interested.”
Social Profiles- Twitter
So to conclude we can say, the trends are always authenticated and spread by the niche influencers by the niche influencers who have deeply engaged communities within the crypto fraternity. Having a strong reach and presence on Twitter, Telegram, Facebook and Youtube, they often have polarizing effects on the entire markets and can kick start a buying or selling frenzy among investors. These influencers can sometimes prove to be the driving force behind a certain asset and make it boom or tank in valuation. This is quite similar to the term referred to as FOMO and FUD which we mentioned earlier in one of our articles.
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