Latest from Benjamin Schiller
Shayne Coplan: He Took Prediction Markets Mainstream
In so doing, Polymarket's founder demonstrated a real-world consumer use case for crypto, earning him a spot on CoinDesk's Most Influential 2024 list.
Helium's Frank Mong: Building Out DePIN's First Big Success Story
Helium was a DePIN long before DePIN was a word. Long-time COO Mong is gratified to see (literally) a thousand projects emulating its economic model in 2024.
Fairshake: Crypto Titans Use Old-School Dollars to Turn Tide in Congress
The industry went from pariah in Washington to being a top political player in less than two years, thanks in part to unlimited spending and hard-nosed tactics.
Tigran Gambaryan: The Star Crypto Investigator Kidnapped by Nigeria
The star IRS investigator-turned-executive was unlawfully detained by Nigeria and charged with tax evasion for Binance. His case shocked the crypto industry.
Donald Trump: The Crypto President
His July speech at the Bitcoin Conference, in Nashville, was a turning point for crypto, promising an easier path for the industry heading into 2025.
Cynthia Lummis: Laser-Eyed Lawmaker
The Wyoming senator has been a major crypto supporter since joining Congress in 2021. Now she’s the leading advocate for creating a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Optimism’s Jing Wang and the Widely Adopted OP Stack
With Uniswap, World, Kraken, and Sony’s Blockchain Labs all adopting Optimism technology, Optimism was a clear winner in the Ethereum scaling race this year.
Mahesh Ramakrishnan: The DePIN Cheerleader
Decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) took off bigtime this year, and EV3 Ventures’ Ramakrishnan was at the center of it all.
Balaji Srinivasan: Spreading the Network State
With renewing public institutions on the agenda, the Network State could be an idea whose time has come. If so, Srinivasan will again have been prescient.
