Inaugural Technical Advisory Board
July marked the first round of the Interchain Foundation’s revamped funding program. This includes ongoing updates to its infrastructure, a new quarterly cadence and additional oversight from a group of “external experts” as the Technical Advisory Board (TAB). The results have been inspiring and produced a tightly curated group of projects and endeavors that work towards fulfilling the ICF’s mission & vision. Keep an eye out for an upcoming post that outlines each of the exciting projects.
Introducing the Inaugural Technical Advisory Board
This quarter is the first time we’ve brought formal oversight from the wider community into the Interchain Foundation’s funding process. This group is composed of ecosystem contributors from around the world, who bring expertise in one or more of the following areas:
- Research & Engineering
- Business & Product
- Community & Social Good
The TAB’s task is to review and comment on funding recommendations made by the ICF Board of Management to the ICF Foundation Council. The Interchain Foundation is a Swiss Non-Profit that strives to ensure the highest level of quality when evaluating funding proposals. The extra layer of accountability provided by the TAB ensures that a diverse set of perspectives considers all projects and topics, ensuring a stellar list of funded projects.
For the duration of the 2020 funding cycle this initial group will work together with the Board of Management and Foundation Council to determine an effective system for rotating membership that ensures lively and effective contributions in subsequent years.
Without further ado we’re proud to introduce the 2020 composition of the Technical Advisory Board.
Anna Rose
Anna Rose is the co-host of the Zero Knowledge Podcast and co-founder of the zkValidator. Previously a startup founder in the interactive video space, she now focuses almost entirely on privacy technology and the zero knowledge research community.
Deborah Simpier
Deborah Simpier is the CEO of Althea Network, a decentralized ISP provider which is contributing to the Peggy Eth Bridge Module for the Cosmos-SDK. She’s a small business veteran and has been active in the Pacific Northwest mesh networking and net neutrality scene for several years. Before she became co-founder and CEO, she was Althea’s first user.
Dev Ojha
Dev Ojha is a researcher and co-founder of Cosmos validator Sikka. He has been involved with security engineering since high school where he got started with competing in CTF-style tournaments. He currently works with Professor Alessandro Chiesa on constructing a novel zero-knowledge proof system called Aurora. He is also an active member of the Blockchain at Berkeley organization and previously worked at Tendermint Inc. He has many open source contributions to different cryptography libraries and programming languages.
Erica Kang
Erica Kang is the founder and CEO of KryptoSeoul and organizer of the BUIDL Asia Blockchain conference and Cosmos Hackatom Seoul. At Stanford University, Erica majored in International Policy for a Master’s Degree. As an avid communicator, she is passionate about connecting diverse parties in the blockchain industry.
James Prestwich
James Prestwich, curry enthusiast and founder at Summa, a blockchain interoperability and cross-chain communication company as well as the Cross-Chain Group, an industry resource and working group dedicated to furthering research, design, and implementation of cross-chain architecture. Formerly, he was a founder at Storj; an open-source project building decentralized, secure, and efficient cloud storage service.
Kwun Yeung
Kwun Yeung is a co-founder and operator of the Cosmos validator Forbole, the open source block explorer Big Dipper & the decentralized social network Desmos.
Rick Dudley
Rick Dudley is the president of Vulcanize Inc. which has received multiple Ethereum Dev grants and helped dozens of projects develop their protocols.
