Young, Genius, Rich: 5 Blockchain Developers Who Build the Crypto World

Even though it doesn’t feel like global adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency is around the corner, one should definitely keep in mind how far the industry has already advanced. We’ve put together a list of the best DLT-developers and other important personalities, changing the face of the crypto universe.

Vitalik Buterin is 24 years old, and at first glance, he doesn’t look like a genius and a millionaire. But appearances are deceitful, and that’s exactly who he is. One of the brightest minds of his generation, and the most famous blockchain and cryptocurrency pioneer after Satoshi Nakamoto, Buterin is behind the most important achievement of the last decade- the ethereum network. Born in Moscow, Buterin moved to Toronto, Canada together with his family. At school, he was dubbed a child prodigy, showing outstanding potential in many subjects: mathematics, programming, and economics. Later, he recalled that he added up three-digit numbers in his head twice as fast as his classmates. Time passed, and the immigrant boy turned out to be the creator of a world-scale project, but even that didn’t change his relaxed communication style.

One of the first bitcoin developers back in 2010, Gavin Andresen played a big role in introducing the young cryptocurrency to the world. There are several scandals associated with his name, and he himself no longer shows up in public - nevertheless, one cannot deny the incredible impact of his contribution. Bitcoin is considered the brainchild of Satoshi Nakamoto, but it was Andresen who turned it into the cryptocurrency we know today. Occasionally rumors are heard that the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto is Andresen, but he denies them vehemently. Andresen claims that for many years he has been in close contact with the bitcoin’s inventor. In late 2010, Nakamoto chose him as his successor. Andresen became the main developer of the bitcoin’s underlying code. The Bitcoin Foundation once paid him more than 200 thousand dollars in bitcoin for his contribution to the development of the cryptocurrency. Andresen has already sold some of his crypto treasure.

Eric became one of the first supporters of cryptocurrency - he first started a blog where he wrote about the capabilities of digital assets, and then moved from words to actions and launched the ShapeShift crypto exchange. Despite the scene he caused in the crypto community in 2017, supporting SegWit2x modernization, he still remains an influential figure in the industry.

Lightning Labs startup addresses the blockchain scalability issue. It aims for faster and cheaper transactions on a number of cryptocurrency networks. Elizabeth Stark was a guest lecturer at Stanford and Yale, talking about P2P transactions and privacy.

Riccardo Spagni, better known on the web as 'fluffypony', became the lead developer of one of the world’s most significant cryptocurrencies by accident. After the White Paper was released, it was decided to conduct Monero hard fork due to the fact that the network’s founder made several decisions which the development team did not approve of.

People’s choice award goes to a 15-year-old kid who hacked McAfee’s ‘unhackable’ unbreakable crypto wallet and ran it on Doom. Good for you! This is just a small selection of influential names and DLT developers.

There is a number of key problems that still need to be solved in the future. The strength of the blockchain is defined by the reliability of its code, so it is extremely important for developers to drive the industry forward.