Nicolas Vescovo

Nadim Kobeissi is an applied cryptographer based in Paris. He is a Senior Applied Cryptography Auditor at Cure53 and founder of Symbolic Software, a consultancy with 300+ engagements for clients including Coinbase, Mozilla, and the Ethereum Foundation. He created the protocol verification tools Verifpal and Noise Explorer, teaches an Applied Cryptography course first offered at […]

> be Ray Youssef > spawn NYC, son of Egyptian immigrants > grow up broke, even homeless at one point > 1999: launch ringtone startup aka “Napster of ringtones” → millions/month > discover problem of “unbanked” teens can’t pay > build social media platform w/out ads → disgusted it’s turning into proto-OnlyFans → ragequit > […]

The only relevant formal education I got was in primary school, when they taught me to read and write. After then I discovered, that I’m unable to make anything by hands and that I don’t have the guts for politics, I started to live on programming, design, lectures and movie production. Presently I work as developmenr security consultant and a wisdom disseminator for hire in the area of Central Europe and adjacent countries. I’m longest serving Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for ASP.NET in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Also I’m founding member of the Society for prevention of cruelty on computers and for mutual understanding of silicone and carbon based forms of life.

Ann Brody is a researcher and ethnographer who recently completed her doctoral degree focusing on decentralized governance. Her work explores the complex ideological terrain of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), alternative governance experiments and digital utopianism, privacy practices, and the political imaginaries that animate crypto movements.