Daniel Dabek

Daniel Dabek is an American software developer and the founder of the companies Safex, Balkaneum, and Xcalibra; he is also the CEO of Safex and Balkaneum.

After attending Fordham University for just six weeks, Dabek dropped out and went to work for a Wall Street trading company. He became interested in software engineering after realizing the difficulties in manually trading electronic markets. Dabek then began consultation work for hedge funds in the United States; the work included scientific computing, natural language processing, peer-to-peer networking, distributed price analysis modeling, and prediction algorithm optimization. Dabek also produced trading execution algorithms and price following systems.

In 2015, Dabek founded the blockchain marketplace project Safex, where he also serves as the chief architect. Safex, short for Safe Exchange, is a digital contract marketplace in which a user can create a cryptographic version of something and transfer it to another user via message or sale. It is built using the SAFE Network, an autonomous data network, as a back end that enables the transaction to clear between the buyer and the seller, without a centralized party handling it. With no open ledger to the Safe Network, transactions are anonymous and only known to those involved. This prevents merchants from recording the user's location, protecting their privacy. Safex has created two cryptocurrencies: Safex Cash, a coin able to be mined through a home computer and usable in the Safex Marketplace, and Safex Token (formerly known as Safe Exchange Coin), used to register sales accounts for the marketplace. Token holders also share the proceeds of a five percent fee that Safex charges on the platform.

In early 2021, Plaintiffs Dabek and Safex sought a preliminary injunction to enjoin Defendants Safeth and its founders Joseph and Cynthia Lathus from infringing on Safex's trademarks and from making disparaging written or oral statements about Dabek or Safex being engaged in a scam. Dabek claimed that Joseph Lathus had at first independently promoted Safex and later approached Dabek in 2019, asking to be hired as a marketing consultant, which Dabek refused. According to the plaintiffs, this resulted in Lathus attempting "to steal the Safex Trademark" by founding a competing cryptocurrency exchange with similar characteristics to Safex. Lathus also began spreading defamatory statements about the company and Dabek, alleging that Safex was an exit scam akin to the Silk Road. On January 26, 2021, the motion for a temporary restraining order against the defendants was partly granted on the basis of trademark infringement and partly denied on the basis of the defamatory statements.

Dabek founded Balkaneum in 2017. He also holds the position of CEO. Balkaneum is an open-source software development company aiming to be the developer for open-source software and blockchain in the Balkans. Balkaneum assisted in the development of the Safe Exchange marketplace.

Xcalibra is a cryptocurrency exchange founded by Dabek in August 2019. Cryptocurrencies available for purchase include Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Safex. Xcalibra was permitted to launch in Colorado in March 2022 and plans to expand its platform nationwide.

Dabek moved to Belgrade in the mid-2010s after living in San Francisco for three years. He chose Belgrade after determining it was the most developed city nearest to Liberland, of which he is now a representative. In March 2018, he organized a press conference for the opening of the Liberland representative office in Belgrade.

In 2017, Dabek was a consultant and developer for the crypto token Dascoin, which was later found to be a scam.