Blockchain pioneer nChain has announced the appointment of Bitcoin Foundation Executive Director Jon Matonis as its new Vice President of Corporate Strategy. In this position, Matonis will support nChain’s business growth by developing commercial relationships, and evaluating opportunities for strategic investments and acquisitions. Jon Matonis is recognised as a leading Bitcoin researcher and is a non-executive board director for several companies in the space.
Matonis was also a founding director for the Bitcoin Foundation which served as a first non-profit trade association originally chartered to provide financial compensation for voluntary protocol code developers and to promote the vision of Bitcoin worldwide. His career has also included senior roles with Sumitomo Bank, VISA International, VeriSign, and Hushmail.
Additionally, Matonis created the general price index for bitcoin known as the Bitcoin Price Index, hosted the largest bitcoin/blockchain conference to date in Amsterdam during 2014, and enlisted seven regional chapter offices to the Bitcoin Foundation from countries such as France, Germany, and Bangladesh.
Arthur Davis, Director of nChain Holdings Limited, commented: “Jon was immediately attractive to nChain. During his notable career, he has consistently led the integration of financial services and cryptography. His work has included foreign currency trading for Visa International, financial platform sales for RSA’s VeriSign – securing its first $5 million in revenue – and end-to-end encrypted messaging for Hush Communications where as CEO he recruited PGP’s Phil Zimmermann as Hushmail’s Chief Cryptographer. Jon’s philosophy for the Bitcoin protocol and network is fully in line with nChain’s vision of on-chain scalability with decentralisation, advanced native scripting for the construction of smart contracts, and a dedicated move away from monolithic software. We are excited to have Jon’s deep industry experience on our team, and look forward to working with him to achieve our vision for the Bitcoin blockchain.”
Matonis remarked: “The resources and funding in place at nChain provide a unique opportunity to reshape the existing landscape of Bitcoin protocol influencers. It is imperative that we move towards a status quo where the actual protocol standard is separated from its primary reference implementation, similar to the existing architecture of the Linux kernel and its low-level abstraction layer. The gradual elimination of trusted third parties from our economic and legal infrastructures belies a serious and unprecedented reorganisation of many legacy social structures. The winners will be those select individuals and entities that finally liberate themselves from the current centralising, rent-seeking chokepoints. I am excited to work with nChain to support growth of the blockchain ecosystem for everyone’s benefit.”
In line with this view, nChain advocates for the formation of a neutral standards organisation to coordinate and manage the bitcoin protocol and technical standards which in the long-term will result in a more robust software design and a flourishing of compatible implementations.
In his role with nChain, Matonis will also continue providing thought leadership on blockchain technology. In 2011, Matonis was named Person of the Year by Digital Gold Currency Magazine and in 2015 he was appointed to the Editorial Board for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology journal Ledger. Currently, he is noted on the lists for both the Top 100 Fintech Influencers and the Top 100 Blockchain Insiders in the Crypto Sphere.
