Kain Warwick

Kain Warwick is the founder of Synthetix, a synthetic asset issuance platform built on Ethereum. Synthetix specializes in minting and creating synthetic tokens and it is one of the biggest ecosystems in decentralized finance (DeFi).

He is also the Co-Founder and CEO of blueshyft, a retail payment network of over 1200 locations across Australia. blueshyft has become the largest cryptocurrency payment gateway in Australia, processing tens of millions of dollars in transaction volume.

Warwick is a graduate of Waverley College (1996 - 1998).

He attended the University of New South Wales where he earned a BSc in Genetics in 2000.

Early in his career, Warwick was an IT Manager at Whatcard.com, Cameras Manager at Harvey Norman, an Assistant Tennis Coach at The Bay Club Company, and Pro Audio Manager at Guitar Center. From 2005 to 2009, Warwick was the Guitar and Vocals of The Lie Society, a band based in Boston and played throughout the Northeastern United States.

In 2009, Warwick was the Founder of Pouncer a live auction site exclusive to Australia. From 2010 to 2012, Warwick was a Franchisee of the Australian-based retailer of electrical, computer, furniture, entertainment and bedding goods retailer Harvey Norman.

In January 2013, Warwick was the Founder of Ai, a specialty music retailer that operated online to deliver the best prices and service on music equipment in Australia. In February 2014, Warwick became a Project Manager at White Labelled, a digital media firm for Australian businesses. Warwick is an Advisory Board Member & Investor to The Burger Collective and Advisory Council Member for the Australian Digital Commerce Association.

In April 2014, Warwick became the Co-Founder and CEO of blueshyft, a platform that supports a number of services, including over the counter bitcoin purchases, deposits into digital wallets and logistics solutions. In December 2016, Warwick founded Havven, a decentralized payment network that uses a stablecoin that allows users to transfer value online without the need for a central authority.

Founder

Synthetix

Dec 2016 – present time

Sydney, Australia

Founder & Non-exec Director

blueshyft

Apr 2014 – present time

Sydney, Australia

Advisory Council Member

Blockchain Australia

Nov 2017 – present time

Sydney, Australia

Advisory Board Member & Investor

The Burger Collective

July 2016 – present time

Sydney, Australia

Author

Bending Metal

Nov 2016 - Dec 2017

Sydney, Australia

Project Manager

White Labelled

Feb 2014 - Oct 2014

Sydney, Australia

Founder

Ai

Jan 2013 - July 2014

Sydney Area, Australia

Franchisee

Harvey Norman

March 2010 - Dec 2012

Founder

Pouncer

Jan 2009 - June 2010

Sydney, Australia

Guitar/ Vocals

The Lie Society (Band)

Oct 2005 - Sept 2009

Greater Boston Area

Pro Audio Manager

Guitar Center

Jan 2006 - Aug 2008

Greater Boston Area

Assistant Tennis Coach

The Bay Club Company (formerly Western Athletic Clubs)

Sept 2002 - Aug 2005

Cameras Manager

Harvey Norman

Feb 2001 - Jan 2002

IT Manager

Whatcard.com

Feb 2000 - Dec 2000

Balancer Labs; part of a $24.5M raise (8-6-2021).

BarnBridge. Participated in a $1M seed round for BarnBridge (14-9-2020).

BitDAO; part of their $230M private funding round (17-6-2021).

BoardRoom. Participated in a $2.2M raise for BoardRoom (13-10-2020).

Cozy Finance. Part of a $2M raise for Cozy Finance (3-9-2020).

Element Finance; took part in their Series A raise of$32M (19-10-2021).

Euler; part of the $8m raise (25-8-2021).

Illuvium; was part of a $5M investment round (12-3-2021).

Lido; participated in a $2M seed round among many others (15-10-2020).

Maple Finance; participated in a $1.3M raise (12-2020).

Opyn; participated in a $6.5M raise (4-2-2021).

Polymarket. Participated in a $4M raise for Polymarket (19-10-2020).

RabbitHole. Participated in an undisclosed round (3-12-2020).

Zapper. Participated in the $1.5M seed round, among many other participants (27-8-2020).

After being one of the few successful 2017-era initial coin offerings to survive the 2018–2019 altcoin bear market, Warwick stepped down as Synthetix’s “benevolent dictator” as the project transitioned to a decentralized autonomous organization governance structure on Oct. 29.

Together with the founding team and other community members, Warwick was able to grow Synthetix to become one of DeFi’s “blue chip” projects. Synthetix was one of only five DeFi unicorns, with over $1.2 billion in the total value of Ether locked in the project. The SNX token also scored massive gains during the year, increasing sixfold and reaching a new all-time high in December.

Warwick has identified the first three months of 2021 as being an important period for the project. According to the Synthetix founder, much-talked-about features like “synthetic shares” for U.S. stocks such as Apple and Tesla should happen before the end of the first quarter of 2021.

Warwick has also led efforts to deploy and test a layer-two version of the Synthetix platform, as well as a complete overhaul of the protocol’s escrow contracts as part of the Synthetix v3 migration event.