Israel has long been hailed as the “start-up nation” due to the large amount of successful tech companies that have been founded in the area, such as ICQ, Wix and Waze, to name a few. Despite just having a population of 8.1 million, there are more Israeli companies listed on NASDAQ than any other country except China.
Recently, blockchain technology, which was introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto’s whitepaper for Bitcoin, has exploded in popularity. Blockchain technology guarantees greater transparency, security, and decentralization. The blockchain operates by spreading a continuous growing ledger of records, which are time stamped over a wide array of private computers across the world. This assures that the records cannot be altered, deleted or manipulated.
New uses and implementations for blockchain tech are being found and just like with the internet revolution, Israeli captains of industry are at the helm of its innovation.
Below I have compiled a list of the top 25 Israeli influencers in the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
Eyal is a cofounder and the product architect of Bancor, a Decentralized Liquidity Network that allows you to hold any Ethereum token and convert it to any other tokens in the network, on-chain, with no counter party. The Bancor Foundation raised $153 million worth of ether by selling its digital tokens (the for three hours on June 12, making it one of the largest token sale in the world. Previously he was a founder of MetaCafe, Israel’s fastest growing video sharing site reaching over 50m uniques at its peak. Previously, Eyal founded Contact Networks, one of the first social networks in 1998. Eyal has been an outspoken thought leader on cryptocurrency in Israel and is a talented piano and bass musician.
Guy is also co-founder of Bancor. Previously he was a venture-backed technology entrepreneur for over 15 years. CEO of Mytopia (acquired by 888), Founder of Particle Code (acquired by Appcelerator), AppCoin and active angel investor. Guy discovered the blockchain in 2011.
Moshe is the founder and co-ceo of Sirin Labs. Sirin Labs is the developer of FINNEY™, the first open source blockchain smartphone and all-in-one PC. Moshe has played an active role across the development of SIRIN LABS, specifically in defining product functionality and underpinning technology. He is also both chairman and co-founder of Singulariteam, a prominent Israeli tech venture capitalist vehicle focused on blockchain and cryptocurrency. Moshe is an accomplished serial entrepreneur in the technology sector.
Meni is the chairman of the Israeli Bitcoin Association since its foundation in 2013. The IBA seeks to increase Bitcoin awareness in Israel and to educate the public on how to store, trade and accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. Rosenfeld is a mathematics M.Sc. graduate of the Weizmann Institute of Science. He founded Israel’s first Bitcoin exchange service, Bitcoil, in 2011 while performing mathematical research on the algorithms that underlie the functioning of the Bitcoin and blockchain system.
Guy is the CEO of DAGLabs, a company which seeks to solve blockchain’s scalability challenge by using blockDAG protocols. BlockDAGs are Directed Acyclic Graphs of blocks. Previously Guy was the CEO of Spondoolies-Tech, a global provider of cryptocurrency mining equipment. His industry experience includes many years of involvement in and contribution to the Israeli and Global Bitcoin communities.
Galia is the head of Business Development at Bancor. Previously she was a venture-backed technology entrepreneur for over 10 years as co-founder and VP of Biz Dev at Mytopia, Particle Code and AppCoin. EIR at Trinity Ventures, Venture Partner at Founders Fund, bridging the technology landscape between Silicon Valley and Israel. Galia has an M.A. in International Monetary Theory and is passionate about blockchain’s promise to increase access to opportunity globally.
Uriel is the CEO of CoinTree. CoinTree is a leading cryptocurrencies venture capitalist group that also deals with investment banking and blockchain development. In the past Uriel was the Co-founder and CPO at Visualead, an Israeli O2O and IoT startup with investors such as Alibaba. Formerly a team leader in Mellanox, a leading Israeli high-tech company. Holds BSc summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering from the Technion university.Uriel is the CEO of CoinTree. CoinTree is a leading cryptocurrencies venture capitalist group that also deals with investment banking and blockchain development. In the past Uriel was the Co-founder and CPO at Visualead, an Israeli O2O and IoT startup with investors such as Alibaba. Formerly a team leader in Mellanox, a leading Israeli high-tech company. Holds BSc summa cum laude in Electrical Engineering from the Technion university.
Leonid is currently serving actively in various technical positions in several blockchain based companies such as CoinTree, Kik Interactive and Orbs. He is regarded as a leading Israeli expert in the field of cryptographie. He is described as a leading security engineering currently focusing on system security, cryptocurrency systems, and various blockchain protocols and implementations.
Nimrod is the CEO of Simplex, a company that provides Bitcoin exchanges, broker websites and wallet applications with a fully protected fraud-free platform for selling Bitcoins via credit card. Nimrod’s career spans two decades of experience and knowledge. He is well respected in Israel’s startup scene for his proven ability to lead large scale top notch software projects. Nimrod is a board member of the Israeli Bitcoin Association. Nimrod holds a BA in computer science from IDC Herzliya, Israel.
Yoni is the CEO of eToro, the world’s largest social investment network that now offers a variety of cryptocurrencies to trade and invest in. Yoni holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Management and an MSC in Computer Sciences.Yoni was included by Financial News in its prestigious Fintech 40 ranking and by City A.M. as a Fintech 100 top influencer.
Jonathan is a co-founder and CEO of Game Protocol, a decentralized gaming economy based on the following core pillars: a fundraising platform, a game store, developers tools, and a coworking community. Jonathan has over 7 years of experience in the online gaming industry. Jonathan is the founder and CEO of Gamytech, a company that has distributed mobile and PC games to millions of users. Jonathan has a technical understanding of the blockchain as well as a deep knowledge of the gaming industry.
Alon is the CEO of CoinDash. a leading crypto social trading platform. CoinDash is set to bring blockchain tokens to mainstream by making the interaction, handling and trading accessible. Alon started his blockchain carrier 5 years ago as a developer, contributing code to many of the know open-source project and continuing to lead the development of P2P multis wallet. Alon is passionate about changing industries by bringing blockchain technology to the masses.
Stas leads the technology strategy and partnerships effort for the WINGS Foundation, a Swiss non-profit focused on decentralized finance and governance systems. Stas has 15 years of extensive experience in engineering, development and management of software, cloud services, healthcare, video streaming, blockchain, and social products and services. Stas describes himself as an entrepreneur, Crypto enthusiast and a Life hacker.
Amos is the co-founder and CEO of Colu, a venture capital funded start-up that uses blockchain technology to help people reclaim economic power by creating local currencies and building local economies. Amos has a background in the finance and FinTech industries, and having worked for the world’s leading social investment network, he channeled his passion for disruptive technologies into establishing the world’s first bitcoin 2.0 movement, ColoredCoins, in 2012.
Yonatan is the founder and CEO of Matchpool, a company that builds social products that incentivise people to positively connect with each other within communities. Yonatan has 6 years of experience in the Blockchain industry. He successfully managed a portfolio of diverse cryptocurrencies. Previously, he co-managed a long short hedge fund focused on securities.
Yaniv is a co-Founder and Chief Editor of Geektime, the largest international tech blog located outside the U.S. Geektime is actively covering the Israeli blockchain industry and organizing relevant summits and events. Before founding Geektime, Yaniv managed a team of IT professionals in advising large and small companies on infrastructure, large systems management and information security. In addition, Yaniv previously wrote for a variety of magazines and newspapers on technology, Internet and gaming. Yaniv holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Derby, as well as a Most Valuable Professional degree from Microsoft in information security.
Ori currently serves as the Head of Marketing of Gladius, a decentralized solution to protect against DDoS attacks by allowing you to connect to protection pools near you to provide better protection and accelerate your content delivery. Ori is a digital marketer with over 10 years of experience in PR, SEO, and content marketing. He is a cryptocurrency enthusiast who has been trading altcoins for several years. Ori has been involved behind the scenes in a countless number of successful marketing and business development ventures, and has advised many ICOS and blockchain startups in 2017.
Guy is the co-founder and CEO of Enigma Protocol, a second-layer, off-chain network that aims to solve the two biggest problems for blockchains: scalability and privacy. Guy has over 10 years of software development experience. Guy received his B.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Tel-Aviv University and a M.S from MIT, where he also served as a Research Assistant at the MIT Media Lab where he also taught the first engineering class about blockchain technology.
Maya is the VP Product of QED-it, a company that offers a privacy program for distributed ledgers. Based on zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP). Maya has been in the blockchain space for years. She headed Business Development for Coin Sciences. Maya has experience in banking IT, private equity & supply chain.
Adam is the CEO of Zen Protocol, a blockchain built for finance and designed for peer-to-peer trade, giving users control over their financial assets. Adam is a finance grad from the IDC, an Israeli army reservist, and an old hand in Bitcoin.
Ophir is the founder of Stox, a company that positioned to be a world-leader in prediction markets using cryptocurrency. Ophir is a co-founder of invest.com. He has extensive experience in online investments and financial markets. He is entrepreneur with a strong track record of developing market-leading products and services, including technology start-ups and real estate development. He has occupied several leadership roles in companies in UK, Cyprus, Hungry, Middle East Georgia and Thailand.
Noam is the CEO of the DAV foundation. DAV is blockchain project that aims to create a computer network that connects self-driving vehicles to everyone on that network. Noam is a senior executive, strategist, and investor, with a strong expertise in blockchain, cryptocurrencies and encryption. In 2003 he created the world’s first smartphone encryption system distributed in over 50 countries. Noam is an aviation enthusiast and a multi engine rated pilot.
Nir is the CEO of Coti, a decentralized payment solutions combining the best of traditional features and the secured, immutability of the digital system. Nir has over a decade of experience in the payments industry. He previously served as General Manager for PAY.COM, held senior product management roles at SafeCharge, and Klarna, and was a Co-Founder of AnalysTrace, a B2C fintech start-up. Nir holds a B.Sc degree in communication engineering from Ben-Gurion University and an MBA from Tel-Aviv University.
Dr Greenspan the CEO of Multichain, a venture-backed an open source platform for private blockchains for enterprise use. Dr Greenspan started coding as a child and selling his software in high school. He conceived and built many successful websites, including Copyscape, the leading plagiarism search engine, and Web Sudoku, the most popular sudoku online. Gideon has a BA and PhD in Computer Science (Cambridge + Technion) and an MA in Philosophy (London). He teaches software entrepreneurship at two universities in his hometown of Tel Aviv.
Zachary is considered one of Israel's most influential cryptocurrency figures, having transitioned to blockchain technology in its nascent period. Previously working behind the scenes on many major Tel Aviv based projects in the industry, Zachary founded Trusti in September 2017, a cross-chain infrastructure project focused on the provision of identified and accredited crypto wallets for the exchange of regulated assets among identified parties.