WHY SOFIA, BULGARIA?
SPEAKERS
Will Shannon has been contributing to the Lido DAO for two years, now as the Head of Strategic Initiatives in the Node Operator Mechanisms (NOM) workstream. His current focus is on coordinating the Simple DVT Module and integrating Distributed Validator Technology via testnets and mainnet onboarding.
Previously, he worked in Institutional TMT Equity Sales and studied Finance and Accounting.
Andrei leads DeFi at LI.FI, an innovative transaction router API enabling seamless DeFi asset exchange across all chains. Proficient in DEX aggregation, bridges, and solvers, he drives sales efforts for enhanced swap functionalities and collaboration. Top wallets like MetaMask and Phantom trust LI.FI for multi-ecosystem asset bridging.
Chris is the CEO of Summer Finance (ex. OasisApp), one of the largest DeFi Dapps that enable users to borrow, lend, and multiply assets across multiple DeFi protocols. Before that, he was a Product Manager for the Maker Foundation. Chris is passionate about helping teams create products that users love and use every day.
A ZK cryptography researcher at OpenZeppelin, performing ZK research and audits. Before OZ he was a cryptography engineer at two Web3 start-ups and a lecturer in security and privacy at the University of Edinburgh. Vesselin holds a PhD in cryptography and is a co-designer of the ZK-friendly hash function Anemoi.
After a decade in capital markets and e-commerce, Noelle discovered Bitcoin in 2014 and hasn’t looked back since. She has led CoinDesk's research division and served as Head of Market Insights at Genesis Trading. Currently, she focuses on her research project, "Crypto is Macro Now," exploring crypto's integration with traditional markets.
Qi Zhou is an active Ethereum ecosystem contributor (ethresear.ch / magician), has a PhD from Georgia Tech, and is a former engineer at Meta, Google, and EMC. He coauthored EIPs-4804/4972/5018/5027/6150 and focuses on Ethereum's DA and L2. Qi received multiple EF grants, including Vitalik’s grant on cross-L2 bridge and OP Stack grants on fault-proofing.
A DeFi connaisseur, following the space since its inception, active on a personal and community level with the organization of DeFi-focused meetups in France and his blog tokenbrice.xyz. He is currently leading DeFi Strategy at The DeFi Collective: a non-profit supporting true DeFi.
TOKENBRICE
Head of DeFi Strategy
Darren has been a blockchain entrepreneur since 2011 across exchanges, payments, protocol, and investment in Latin America, Asia, and Europe. He was formerly Sr. Advisor for the Cardano blockchain venture wing Emurgo, and led business development for one of the world's first multi-currency crypto exchanges TradeHill in 2011. He is also an active advisor and angel investor.
Zahary was a long-time contributor to the Nim programming language before becoming the first member of the Nimbus team in 2018. In 2024, he co-founded Blocksense to reimagine how the blockchains and the real world can interact through bi-directional communication.
Eleonor Genova is Nexo’s Head of Communications, leveraging over 15 years of experience in strategic communications. A blockchain enthusiast since 2016, Eleonor has spearheaded campaigns for top financial institutions and major consumer brands. Her background also includes managing large-scale music productions, highlighting her versatility and broad industry expertise.
Dimi Stalimirov is the Director of Brand Marketing at Nexo, a wealth-building platform for digital assets. With over 15 years of experience in marketing and advertising, he specialises in brand strategy, creative direction, and digital marketing. At Nexo, he leverages his expertise to elevate the company's global brand identity, increase visibility, and drive customer engagement.
Nikolay Angelov is a VP of Engineering, overseeing nine engineering teams at Nexo
responsible for products such as the Nexo Card, Earn Crypto Interest, and the Instant Crypto Credit Lines among others. A self-taught coder and blockchain developer, Nikolay began programming in 2007 and has since developed several blockchain solutions. He is also an experienced public speaker, having presented at conferences such as Java2Days, CodeMonsters, Black Sea Chain, Eth Dubai, and EthCC.
Krum, or as people know him "pashov" has done, led or been part of over 100 smart contract security audits. This has resulted in billions of dollars of user funds protected and secured. His team has audited protocols like 1inch, Ethena and LayerZero. His mission is simple - prevent as many hacks as possible, before the vulnerabilities can even reach production environment.
Ingo is founder of KILT Protocol, an identity protocol that provides secure and practical infrastructure for enterprise, government and consumers. Previously he served as CTO of Hubert Burda Media and IT Project Director at Axel Springer. Ingo is also a member of INATBA and the DIF.
Alumni of the Warsaw University of Technology, Pawel has over twenty years of experience as a software engineer and has been developing Oracles for MakerDAO & Chronicle since 2020. Pawel is a core proponent of the global Ethereum community, the Co-Founder of ETH Warsaw, a regular speaker at Web3 events, and a three-times prize winner of the ETH Global Hackathon.
Stilyan Mitrev began his career in corporate environments while exploring Web3 as a hobby. In 2021, he transitioned into the space professionally by joining a metaverse-focused DAO. Today, he serves as a Product Manager for VillageDAO at Consensys, leveraging his expertise to drive innovation in decentralized communities.
Elena Tzvetinova is the COO of Eunice, a London-based tech company revolutionizing crypto risk management. Elena has over two decades of experience in financial services and regulation, spanning banking, markets and fintech. Prior to joining Eunice, she worked at one of the world’s largest financial institutions for over a decade and led some of their most significant innovation and regulatory change initiatives.
Vyara is a web3 & human rights lawyer based in Sofia, Bulgaria. She is a Senior Policy Expert with the European Crypto Initiative (EUCI) - a Brussels-based non-profit that aims to shape EU regulation to favour open, permissionless, decentralised applications leveraging blockchain technology and a PhD candidate focusing on legal automation through the use of smart contracts.
Svetlin has an M.A. in Law and is a Certified AML Specialist. He specializes in cryptocurrency law, focusing on company formation and payment rails. He has also worked on an investigative team combating financial fraud and scams.
Previously, he led the onboarding and compliance team at a major payment service provider and headed the legal division of a fintech company. He is currently a legal counsel and regulatory expert for Llama Risk.
Vanina is a marketing director at Serotonin - a breakthrough marketing firm and product studio for transformative technologies. She has been working in marketing longer than she cares to admit, and for the 8+ years she’s been helping various crypto/blockchain/web3 projects ranging from crypto wallets, adtech dapps, infrastructure companies, DePIN and much more.
Mark Cachia founded Scytale Ventures in 2017 and launched his first Venture Fund, Scytale Horizon, combining his extensive financial industry experience with technological know-how and blockchain expertise. Originally from New York, he spent over 20 years in various roles in financial markets and asset management in the US and Europe prior to 2017.
An ex-regulator at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority and ex-advisor to UK Parliament, Diana built global compliance programs at top-tier crypto exchanges Crypto.com and Bitget. Diana is now Head of Compliance at NexeraID. She has PhD in Economics and have authored many policy papers and research articles.
David Prinçay is currently serving as the CEO of Binance France and EU Marketing lead for Binance. With a robust background in finance and technology, Prinçay has been instrumental in navigating the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrency exchanges and increasing the adoption of cryptocurrency. Under his leadership, Binance France became the first major global crypto exchange to receive Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) registration from the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), signifying a milestone in compliance and regulatory adherence within Europe.
Michael, co-founder of Euler Labs, helped launch Euler in 2021, which became the third-largest lending protocol on Ethereum by 2023. Despite a major exploit in March 2023, Euler recovered all funds within three weeks, marking one of the largest DeFi recoveries in history. The protocol is set to launch its v2 in Summer 2024.
Michael holds a PhD from Oxford University and is an expert in Ethereum, lending systems, DeFi, and modularity.
Koray is leading the next wave of innovation in decentralized finance at ether.fi Cash. As a blockchain & finance visionary, he is aiming to create the first ever non-custodial crypto credit card that borrows against your whole portfolio. Rather than just following trends, he is setting them, seamlessly merging traditional finance with blockchain technology. Koray has previously founded several blockchain and TradFi startups.
Áron is a full-stack developer specializing in JavaScript and the Swarm decentralized storage network. Active in Web3 since 2018, he develops open-source projects to enhance Swarm, focusing on intuitive APIs and robust developer tools. Áron is passionate about scalable, secure, and efficient decentralized storage solutions.
Ivan is helping DAOs leverage their assets for resilience and growth through karpatkey. For the past three years, he led ecosystem growth at Aragon and before that, he led OTC lending & prop trading at Nexo. Ivan is always up to talk about incentive alignment, governance and value capture/accrual models in crypto.
amplice is head of telegram chats at Gearbox, a protocol that aims to become the leverage layer for all of DeFi. In his spare time he is a DeFi power user, mediocre coin punter and unprofitable angel investor. He is also known for making funny videos for projects he likes.
John is a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur and builder, focused on DeFi, tokenization, digital assets, and Web3. He has been investing/building in the crypto and digital assets space for over 10 years, having worked in decentralized finance and exchange/brokerage businesses. John helped found MANTRA, a Layer 1 blockchain for RWA tokenization and has raised tens of millions of dollars for various ventures while working with a dedicated team of 75+ builders worldwide.
An accomplished marketing professional with rich experience in finance, Web3, and IT, Lejla is currently the Strategic Events & Partnerships Director of the media outlet BeInCrypto. Her expertise lies in driving transformational growth by establishing and maintaining high-impact events and partnerships.
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