Forbes 30 Under 30 2019 CryptoNoms
It’s Forbes 30 Under 30 nomination season, the time when editors reach out to influencers for their picks in certain categories, and this year I was asked to identify blockchain leaders who were doing something truly revolutionary in advancing the technology and moving us closer to mainstream adoption. See my picks below.
Nominations are open through September 7 and you can nominate yourself or colleagues here. Apply to the region where the work is best known, U.S. or Europe. Nominees need only be 29 or younger on December 31, 2018.
Now in its eighth year, the process is more competitive than ever. With a 4% acceptance rate, you have as good a chance of getting Forbes 30 Under 30 as getting into Stanford. The only thing more competitive is Y Combinator which has accepts 1.5%, and Shark Tank which accepts less than a 1% of applicants.
Editors sift through tens of thousands of nominations to select 1200 finalists, and then a panel of judges comprised of industry luminaries select the 30 best for each of the 20 categories.
The 2019 categories are Art & Style, Consumer Tech, Education, Energy, Enterprise Tech, Finance (which includes Crypto), Food & Drink, Games, Healthcare, Hollywood & Entertainment, Law & Policy, Manufacturing & Industry, Marketing & Advertising, Media, Music, Retail & Commerce, Science, Social Entrepreneurs, Sports, and Venture Capital.
For 2018, Crypto winners included Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Founder and Olaf Carlson-Wee, Polychain Capital Founder.
My top picks for 2019 are the founders of Augur, Lightning Labs, CryptoKitties, Bitwise Asset Management, and the Head of Indiegogo’s Blockchain Platform.
Joey Krug, 23, Co-CIO, Pantera Capital, Co-Founder, Augur, Top 10 Angellist Syndicate, YC investor, Theil Fellow. Launched first token built on Ethereum, seminal work in decentralizing prediction markets, on a mission to democratize finance. Advisor to Bloom, Codex Protocol, Numerai, Urbit and 0x. @joeykrug
Olaoluwa Osuntokun, 25, Co-Founder & CTO, Lightning Labs, creating a revolutionary open protocol that will enable Bitcoin to scale. Lightning allows for payments and banking on the blockchain by leveraging the power of smart contracts to make cheap, fast, private cross-chain transactions available to anyone around the world. @roasbeef
Benny Giang, 25, Co-Founder, CryptoKitties, responsible for investigating and deploying new regional, demographic, and product growth. On a mission to bring the first billion users onto blockchain with cats! @bennygiang
Jeremy Gardner, 26, Co-Founder, Augur, Founder, Ausum Ventures & Blockchain Education Network, EIR, Blockchain Capital, EIC, Distributed Magazine, board member at Unsung, food waste and hunger-fighting nonprofit startup. @disruptepreneur
Evan Cohen, 28, Head of Investing & Blockchain, Indiegogo, raised $68 million for Indiegogo startups and launching token sale platform. Advisor to Celsius Network. Under30 Summit speaker. Former Hardware Club partner. @ecohen16.
Hunter Horsely, 29, Co-Founder, Bitwise Asset Management, backed by Naval Ravikant, Blockchain Capital, General Catalyst, and Khosla Ventures. Bitwise Asset Management pioneered the first cryptocurrency index fund andis the leading provider of rules-based exposure to the cryptoasset space. @hhorsely
Tweet your adds to @forbescrypto. Best of luck!
