BitFlyer Adds Computer Language Co-Creator as Advisor

BitFlyer has hired the co-creator of a programming language as an advisor to help with its scaling and enterprise blockchain efforts.

Tom Love, co-creator of the programming language Objective-C – perhaps most notably used by Apple for its OSX and iOS operating systems – will advise the cryptocurrency startup on both strategic and technology initiatives, chief operating officer Bartek Ringweski told CoinDesk in an interview.

Ringweski said bitFlyer particularly hopes to leverage Love's experience in order to help it build on its 'miyabi' private blockchain, which he called "the fastest blockchain in the world" capable of handling 2,000 to 4,000 transactions per second.

The company now hopes to create a "programming language that would let developers interact with miyabi, and that is more familiar to them as if it were a traditional database," Ringweski explained.

Asked what this language might look like, Love told CoinDesk:

"I have a strong bias toward things that are simple, clear and easy to understand, and that are successful. So I hope to help bitFlyer in exactly those same ways."

Love started his career at General Electric Company and has also held executive management positions at ITT, IBM and Morgan Stanley, but the role at bitFlyer will be his first endeavor in the blockchain industry.

Despite this, Love said the company is a natural fit.

"I've had a history of connecting myself with important technologies dating back to the 1970s, and this looked like a similarly important and significant technology," he said.

Ringweski said Love's experience will help the company expand, though it already offers exchange services in 43 U.S. states, Japan and the EU.

"He's a great person to help us on the technical front, but we can also benefit from his experience on the business and regulatory side," Ringweski said. "He's worked in highly regulated spaces."

"I have a history of working inside large companies and starting small companies that have made a difference," Love explained to CoinDesk, adding:

"So, I have a wealth of experience and a wealth of contracts that I can call upon to be helpful to the company in a variety of ways, like I've been for other companies in the past."

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