Today’s Biggest Influencers
ust like any other industry, crypto is filled with various kinds of influencers and significant figures. Some of them are known to be popular pioneers in digital assets, while some have gained legitimacy much more recently through their personal success. Anyone who believes that they understand crypto should know these names and why they’re significant. Let’s go over some of the most popular figures in the world of cryptocurrency.
Nick Szabo
First up on our list of the most popular people in the crypto world is none other than Nick Szabo. Szabo is a colossal figure not just only in the cryptocurrency community but also for his work in cryptography and digital currency in general. The coinage of the term “smart contract” is attributed to him. Smart contracts are a central part of the Ethereum blockchain ecosystem. His digital currency “bit gold” was in many ways a precursor to Bitcoin. Though it was never implemented, bit gold shared a lot of similarities with the core protocols on which Bitcoin is built on.
With degrees in both computer science and law, and an intense fascination in the history of money, it is no surprise Nick Szabo was ahead of his block time. His ideas on the history and future of money, including the role of cryptocurrency, are well documented on his blog. Satoshi acknowledged that Bitcoin was based on Nick’s work, but many believe that Satoshi is, in fact, Nick Szabo. Although he has been accused of being Nakamoto many times before, Szabo continues to deny each claim and further emphasizes the notion that there will be no further conjecture on who Nakamoto really is, given that he wanted to stay anonymous since the beginning.
Tim Draper
Tim Draper is a renowned VC and angel investor. He is the founder of Draper Association which specializes in seed-stage investment in “extraordinary projects.” Tim has been an avid participant in the crypto space. He bought 3,000 Bitcoin after US Marshalls shut down the notorious Silk Road platform. Tim is something of a lucky charm for ICOs as his association with any ICO often leads to a successful crowdfunding exercise. He backed the Tezos project in 2017 that raised over $200 million. He also supported and invested in the Bancor project which raised over $150 million. Tim has also been vocal in calls for the SEC to provide a favorable regulatory framework for ICOs and cryptos in general.
Draper has been pretty bullish of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency as a whole going into the future. In fact, he has predicted Bitcoin’s price to hit a whopping $250,000 by 2022! It’s worth noting that Draper had predicted Bitcoin’s price to surpass $10,000 three years ago, and sure enough, it did so and even more. As the dust continues to settle, Draper had held off on making any more predictions which could very well send the crypto community into a frenzy.
Draper continues to see great potential for cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, as he made clear at the Intelligence Squared debate in New York at the end of April. In a debate with crypto-critics, Draper said that the magnitude and importance of bitcoin and the technology behind it surpass major technological epochs such as the Iron Age, the Renaissance, and the Industrial Revolution.
Source/More: The 5 Most Popular People in The Crypto World – CoinBundle – Medium
