The world of cryptocurrency is still new, and we all need guidance. Paying attention to people who understand the technology and can explain what’s going on could be helpful. Here are ten crypto gurus you just have to follow.
- Charlie Lee
Charlie Lee is the creator of Litecoin, the silver to Bitcoin’s gold. He was born to Chinese parents in Ivory Coast but moved to the United States when he was thirteen. He studied computer science at MIT, then worked for a couple of software firms before joining Google. It was there that he first came across the blockchain. He sees Litecoin not as a competitor to Bitcoin but as a complement to it. He hopes that people will use Litecoin for everyday purchases while using Bitcoin for large international transactions. Follow Charlie @SatoshiLite.
- Ran Neuner
Ran Neuner came to cryptocurrency from the world of marketing. Between 2001 and 2015, he built Africa’s biggest sales and marketing agency, eventually selling it to the French advertising firm Publicis. Now enraptured by blockchain technology, he presents the Crypto Trader show for CNBC Africa. You can find his videos on his website CryptoManRan.
- Peter Kent
Peter Kent has written more than 60 books on topics covering technology, business, and online marketing. He has now created a video course called Crypto Clear: Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Made Simple. He explains how to buy, sell, and store cryptocurrencies securely. He’s a great place to turn when you’re looking to learn crypto fast.
- Jimmy Song
While Peter Kent explains cryptocurrencies to mainstream audiences, Jimmy Song is a programmer who talks to other tech people. He worked on Bitcoin Core, and was VP Engineering at Armory, the Bitcoin wallet. He’s now the editor of Bitcointechtalk.com and the author of Programming Bitcoin, a guide to coding the cryptocurrency. His Medium posts are a must-read.
- Vinny Lingham
Vinny Lingham is a serial entrepreneur and one of the investors on South Africa’s version of the Dragon’s Den TV show. His companies have included Gyft, a mobile gift card company; Yola, a website-building firm; and more recently, Civic, a blockchain-based personal identity firm. His personal website, VinnyLingham, is occasionally updated but a rich source of important thoughts about cryptocurrencies. You can also find him @vinnylingham.
- Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng Zhao came into the world of cryptocurrency from conventional finance. He wrote software for the Tokyo Stock Exchange and for Bloomberg Tradebook, before founding Fusion Systems, a Shanghai company that conducted high-frequency trading for brokers. From there, he moved into crypto, first as CTO of OKCoin, then as the founder of what would become the world’s biggest exchange, Binance. He tweets a lot.
- Laura Shin
Laura Shin was a senior editor of Forbes who was given the cryptocurrency beat. She’s now branched out on her own, publishing a newsletter and the Unchained podcast on all things crypto. For anyone interested in the blockchain world, her podcasts are unmissable.
- Patrick Byrne
Patrick Byrne is the founder of Overstock, an online retail giant that was also one of the first big Internet firms to accept Bitcoin. But Byrne isn’t limiting himself to accepting payments in cryptocurrencies. He’s also investing in a number of crypto ventures. His Medici Ventures conglomerate, a subsidiary of Overstock, contains companies that use the blockchain to secure identities, build land ownership records, protect elections, and manage agriculture, among other uses. He doesn’t tweet much but he does sometimes take part in debates and talks.
- Taylor Monahan
Taylor Monahan started her tech career as a Front End developer. When Ethereum launched, she and her partner started MyEtherWallet to help people create paper wallets and use the Ethereum blockchain. Three years later, Monahan left to set up MyCrypto, a cryptocurrency wallet. She tweets but also posts regularly on Medium.
- Justin Sun
Justin Sun might just be most famous for bidding $4.5 million to pitch his cryptocurrency platform TRON to Warren Buffett. Before creating TRON, Sun had been an advisor to Ripple and was the CEO of BitTorrent. If you want to know what information Sun believed was worth paying $4.5 million to share, you can join the million-plus people following his Twitter account.
