Boston Blockchain Guide

Can Boston become the hub for blockchain innovation? Boston is already leading research in cryptography, cybersecuriy, distributed computing, and economics, all of which are essential to blockchain technology. There are 35 universities in Boston and tens of thousands of talented students eager to work on new innovative technologies. There is even more talent and resources to be found across the Greater Boston community. At the same time, Boston is a such small city that all the universities, research laboratories, co-working spaces, meetup groups, startup incubators, government centers, and venture capital firms are often within blocks of each other.

Because of these attributes, Boston has quickly grown an expansive blockchain community across the city. What follows are all the blockchain companies, innovators, initiatives, Twitters, Mediums, Slacks, subreddits, GitHubs, Telegrams, and Meetups you should get to know if you want to dive head first into the Boston blockchain scene.

Boston Blockchain Companies

• Adjoint — Developing smart contracts and distributed ledger technology for the financial industry with security and privacy at its core.
  Website, Twitter
• AirFox — Launching AirToken, tokens redeemable for mobile data.
  Website, Twitter, Medium, Reddit, Telegram
• Cambridge Blockchain — Giving users control over their personal identity through blockchain.
  Website, Twitter
• Caviar — Dual purpose crypto and real estate investment fund and crowdfunding platform.
  Website, Twitter, Medium, Reddit, Telegram
• Circle—Using open Internet standards and blockchain to send money like a text.
  Website, Twitter
• Commonwealth Crypto — Building infrastructure to enable blockchain companies to secure and scale their products.
  Website, Twitter
• Cognate — Leveraging blockchain and other technology to provide affordable trademark protection to all.
  Website, Twitter
• Eximchain — Using blockchain to bring efficiency, transparency, and security to supply chains.
  Website, Twitter, Medium, Slack, Telegram
• FirstBlood — The world’s first blockchain powered eSports platform where players can challenge each other and win rewards.
  Website, Twitter, Twitch
• Flipside Crypto — Investment clubs for cryptocurrencies.
  Website
• Level K — A team of engineers focused on decentralized application development and promoting blockchain within the Boston community.
  Website, Twitter, Medium
• LibertyX — The largest cash-to-bitcoin network in the US. Introduced America’s first bitcoin ATM.
  Website, Twitter
• LBRY — A free, open, and community-run digital marketplace.
  Website, Twitter, Reddit, Discord, GitHub
• Sia — Decentralized cloud storage.
  Website, Twitter, GitHub
• Solidified — Audit platform for smart contracts.
  Website, Twitter, Medium, Slack, GitHub
• Talla — Launching Botchain, blockchain solution for autonomous agent communication.
  Website, Twitter, Medium
• Tengu — Using blockchain to offer decentralized financial services to customers worldwide.
  Website, Twitter
• Token Labs— Developing tools for digital currency payment services for web and mobile.
  Website, Twitter
• TokenReport — The world’s largest database of cryptocurrency information.
  Website, Twitter, Medium, Telegram
• Voatz — Lets users participate in voting from their smartphones using real-time ID verification and blockchain technology.
  Website, Twitter

Boston Blockchain Innovators:

• Alex Oberhauser — Co-founder & CTO of Cambridge Blockchain.
• Alex Shvayetsky — Co-founder and Partner at Caviar.
• Alok Bhargava — Co-founder, COO & Head of Product at Cambridge Blockchain.
• Anders Brownworth — Chief Evangelist at Circle.
• Ariel Ekblaw — Researcher at the MIT Media Lab & Digital Currency Initiative. Projects include “MedRec: medical records on the blockchain” and “Solar-mining on the Bitcoin blockchain” projects.
• Ben Jones — Associate at Underscore VC, with a focus on blockchain technology.
• Chelsea Barabas — Head of Social Innovation at the Digital Currency Initiative.
• Chet Manikantan — Founder & CEO of Tengu. President of the Boston Chapter of the Government Blockchain Association.
• Chris Taylor —Working with NRG and the IDEO CoLab to produce a solar panel which issued renewable energy credits on a blockchain. Helped launch the Energy Web Foundation and the MIT Cleantech Committee.
• Chris Whinfrey — Co-founder of Level K and the Boston Ethereum Developers Meetup.
• Chris Yim — Co-founder & CEO of LibertyX.
• Dave Aiello — Co-founder & CEO at Token Labs.
• Dave Balter — Partner at Flipside Crypto.
• David Vorick — Co-Founder of Sia.
• David Fragale — 2015 MIT Sloan Fellow, advisor to several large blockchain projects like AidTech.
• Dazza Greenwood — Visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab. Building out the MIT.edu/Blockchain research portfolio.
• Drew Volpe — Partner at First Star.
• Eduard Kotysh — Founder & CEO of Solidified.
• Erick Pinos — Student researcher at the Digital Currency Initiative. President of the MIT Bitcoin Club.
• Ethan Heilman — Founder of Commonwealth Crypto.
• Evan Schwartz — Co-Inventor of Interledger, Engineer at Ripple.
• Havell Rodrigues—Co-Founder & CEO of Adjoint.
• Galen Moore — Founder of Token Report.
• James Lovejoy — Lead Developer of Vertcoin.
• Jamie Goldstein — Founder & Partner of Pillar. Led a seed round investment in LBRY and Talla.
• Jeremy Kauffman — Founder & CEO of LBRY.
• Jinglan Wang — Executive Director of the Blockchain Education Network.
• Joe Zhou — Founder & CEO of FirstBlood.
• John Kelleher — Co-founder of Level K and the Boston Ethereum Developers Meetup.
• Kirill Bensonoff — Founder of the Boston Crypto Traders Meetup group. Founder at Caviar.
• Mark Weber — Researcher at the Digital Currency Initiative and Fellow at the MIT Legatum Center.
• Matthew Commons — Co-founder & CEO of Cambridge Blockchain.
• Michael Casey — Senior Advisor at the Digital Currency Initiative. Chairman & Columnist at CoinDesk.
• Mike Calvanese — Co-founder of Level K and the Boston Ethereum Developers Meetup.
• Neha Narula — Director of the MIT Media Lab Digital Currency Initiative.
• Nimit Sawhney — Founder and CEO of Voatz.
• Patrick Murck — Lawyer and expert on bitcoin and blockchain-based technologies. Co-founder of the Bitcoin Foundation.
• Richard Dulude — Principal & Investment Manager at Underscore VC.
• Rob May — CEO of Talla.
• Silvio Micali — Researcher and Professor at MIT. Co-inventor of the zero-knowledge proof and leading the Algorand project.
• Thaddeus Dryja — Researcher at the Digital Currency Initiative. Developer on the Lightning Network.

For ease of access, you can subscribe to the Boston Blockchain Twitter List which contains all of the Twitter accounts of Boston blockchain companies and innovators.

Boston Blockchain Groups/Initiatives

• Boston Blockchain Events Newsletter — A weekly email on Sunday night listing all the cryptocurrency and blockchain events in the Boston area for the following two weeks.
  Boston Blockchain Meetup —Meetup group for learning the potential of blockchain and to share ideas with the community.
• Boston Crypto Traders, Investors and Entrepreneurs — Meetup group for Boston area cryptocurrency entrepreneurs, traders and investors.
• Boston Ethereum Developers — Meetup group for anyone interested in developing decentralized applications on the Ethereum blockchain.
• Cambridge Blockchain Meetup — Meetup group focusing on highlighting the latest and greatest blockchain research happening in the Boston area and beyond.
• Cambridge Bitcoin Meetup — Meetup group for all to talk and trade Bitcoin in a friendly welcoming environment.
• Decentralize Boston — Slack group for the shared Boston blockchain community.
• Digital Currency Initiative — Group at the MIT Media Lab focusing on cryptocurrency and its underlying technologies.
• Future of Blockchain — An initiative by Underscore VC to deliver quantitative perspectives and actionable insights about blockchain technology.
• Government Blockchain Association (GBA) Boston — Helps government and public sector organizations understand and implement blockchain technologies.
• HBS Blockchain, Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency Club — Promoting cryptocurrency innovation within Harvard and Harvard Business School.
• MIT Bitcoin Club — Student group dedicated to supporting Bitcoin education and ventures at MIT.
• Pillar’s Boston Blockchain Calendar — A Google Calendar curated by Pillar VC to keep everyone informed about upcoming blockchain events.
• Proof of Drink —A group led by Pillar VC where blockchain innovators can share information / insight / articles others are learning from.

A lot of stuff already, but let’s not stop there. There’s still a lot of work to be done for Boston to become the blockchain capital of the world.

Am I missing anything? Anything new come out since publishing? Let me know and I’ll update.

Thank you to Sathya Peri and Ben Jones for reviewing drafts of these posts.

Thank you Michael Casey and Neha Narula for welcoming me into the Digital Currency Initiative community and accelerating my blockchain path.