Deryushev Mikhail Dmitrievich

Chou’s 2021:

Chou has told blockchain news outlets that he expects crypto to take off in the coming year with the launch of more social tokens. The Rally executive believes content creators could help drive adoption in the space, should they consider becoming more independent from centralized platforms. Rally’s and Forte’s powerful use cases could launch Chou further into the spotlight in 2021 as decentralized gaming and content creation continue to grow.

Chou’s 2020:

2020 saw Chou speak at the Unitize virtual blockchain conference in July.

Having established in 2019 a $100 million fund to support game developers with Ripple’s developer ecosystem project, Xpring, Forte expanded significantly in 2020 as online gaming boomed amid governments issuing shelter-in-place orders and more and more people working from home. Game developers Hi-Rez Studios, nWay, Magmic, DECA Games and Netmarble began integrating Forte’s blockchain platform.

Rally likewise grew with the launch of its “Creator Coin,” a cryptocurrency for influencers, as well as its Taki video platform for fans to interact with celebrities.

Biography:

Kevin Chou got his start in e-sports gaming as the founder and CEO of Kabam, which was eventually sold for $1 billion. His journey into the crypto space began in 2018 when he co-founded blockchain ecosystem Rally and served as its CEO for two years. The firm allows content creators, developers and others to take control of their own digital economies.

Chou later founded Forte, a game-centric blockchain platform, where he currently serves as chairman in addition to his position at Rally.

The Rally founder believes that Bitcoin has done “a great job of pioneering” the discussion around decentralization by making people and businesses aware that it is feasible. However, he has acknowledged the role the decentralized finance boom has played in establishing a path away from centralized projects.

Ardoino’s 2021:

Cointelegraph expects greater mass adoption of crypto to continue in 2021. With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing into the new year, global interest in alternative financial instruments such as crypto will most likely remain, and we expect Tether’s growing market cap to continue to surprise us. The numerous central bank digital currency projects developing all over the world aren’t likely to adversely affect stablecoins like Tether in 2021. And since decentralized finance is still fairly new, we expect Ardoino, as Bitfinex’s chief technology officer, to continue to help drive its adoption by adding support for various DeFi projects and tokens, and perhaps launching new services for clients.

Meanwhile, 2020 was also a significant year for Bitfinex, which launched a number of new products — including a staking service, institution-grade custody services, an open-source peer-to-peer streaming protocol and a market surveillance tool — and it carried out efforts to improve liquidity, all under the technological supervision of Ardoino. The exchange also made headlines for processing one of the largest Bitcoin transactions ever.

Ardoino’s 2020:

The market cap of the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin Tether remained one of the hottest topics in 2020; it increased fivefold, surging from $4 billion to over $20 billion in a single year. Over the summer, the average daily transfer value for Tether surpassed that of Bitcoin and PayPal. Under Ardoino's technical leadership, the company also launched Tether Gold, a stablecoin backed by gold. While the company faced criticism of its reserve policies and for not burning its Ethereum-based tokens, Ardoino publicly defended the company’s decisions.

Ardoino started with major crypto trading platform Bitfinex in 2014 as a senior software developer, and after two years, he was promoted to chief technology officer. He also serves as chief technology officer of Tether — the largest stablecoin by market capitalization — which is closely associated with Bitfinex.

Biography:

Since childhood, Paolo Ardoino has been passionate about computers. He started coding at the age of eight and later enrolled in the University of Genoa’s computer science program, from which he graduated in 2008. While conducting research for a military project, Ardoino became deeply involved with cryptography and discovered distributed systems. In 2012, he read the Bitcoin white paper and was inspired by the idea that people could take care of their own wealth without banks or other intermediaries, and that the millions of unbanked and underbanked worldwide could have access to financial services.

Neuner was also responsive to industry issues triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. In late March, Neuner launched a $10 million emergency fund to help companies struggling with the economic impact of the pandemic. Neuner’s Runway Fund subsequently announced a partnership with major content marketing agency MarketAcross to provide public relations and marketing services for those affected.

Neuner’s 2021:

Neuner plans to build his Crypto Banter platform, which aims to be the world’s first crypto-focused streaming platform available 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. As cryptocurrency adoption continues to grow and mature with new industry entrants like PayPal, there will certainly be more demand for Neuner’s crypto and blockchain expertise in 2021.