Top 15 people to follow on #CryptoTwitter

zero-1729 (25)in #crypto • 6 years ago (edited)

Note: I use the word Crypto to collectively refer to Cryptocurrencies and their underlying Blockchain technologies. And yes, you can buy a fraction of a Bitcoin.

As Christmas approaches, Bitcoin, some Altcoins, or Blockchain based platforms are sure to be part of the many conversation openers. One thing is certain though, whether you are at a Christmas party, dinner, or some other shindig, it will be a bit awkward when someone approaches with "Do you think Litecoin is Bitcoin's true threat and not Ethereum?' or "Are you also considering buying Bitcoin" and you reply "Ethereum... is that a movie or something..." or "Bit-what?". So it is probably a good idea to have some understanding of what they are talking about. And what better way to orient yourself with the rapidly moving world of Cryptos than following the industry movers and players on Twitter. Because the Crypto world is still a relatively new scene, a lot of people have their own take on it and let's face it some of these ideas/opinions are no more than echoes of confusion, delusion or symptoms of FOMO. So to help you navigate through #CryptoTwitter I have made a curated list of people who (in my opinion) do have important things to tweet.

Whether you are interested in the theory behind Cryptos, Blockchains, Cryptography, trading Bitcoin or other Altcoins, following up on the developments in the world of Cryptos and such here are the top 15 people to follow on #CryptoTwitter :-

Note: The list is not in order of importance.

Vitalik Buterin @VitalikButerin

Co-Founder Ethereum

You have probably heard of Ether (the cryptocurrency that powers Ethereum) or Ethereum (the distributed Blockchain powered computing platform). To save you time from trying to figure out how to use GitHub (since its an open source Project) it's probably best to just follow the Co-Founder himself. Whose back story is one worth reading.

Vlad Zamfir @VladZamfir

Ethereum Core Team & Casper Lead

The Ethereum team plans to move away from the traditional Proof-of-work consensus used by Bitcoin to a Proof-of-stake consensus. Vitalik and the Ethereum team have been at work researching and improving their Poof-of-stake implementation which they dubbed "Casper". It would probably be best to also follow Vlad who is sometimes referred to as the face of "Casper" as well. He is a core Ethereum team member and Casper lead who is writing the version of Casper that would be implemented after Vitalik's sometime in 2018.

Gavin Andresen @gavinandresen

Founder Bitcoin Foundation & Former lead developer Bitcoin Core

Gavin is probably The Bitcoin pioneer.

"Originally a developer of 3D graphics and virtual reality software, he became involved in developing products for the Bitcoin market in 2010, and by 2011 was designated by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of Bitcoin, as lead developer on Bitcoin Core, the reference implementation for Bitcoin client software. In 2012 he founded the Bitcoin Foundation to support and nurture the development of the Bitcoin currency, and by 2014 left his software development role to concentrate on his work with the Foundation."

Adapted from his wikipedia page.

Charlie Shrem @CharlieShrem

An American Entrepreneur, Bitcoin pioneer & Founding member Bitcoin Foundation

Andreas M. Antonopoulos @aantonop

Author, Entrepreneur & Hacker

Check out his publications.

Nick Szabo @NickSzabo4

Creator of BitGold (a direct precursor to Bitcoin) and smart contract pioneer

Parabolic Trav @parabolictrav

Bitcoin HODLer

Charlie Lee @SatoshiLite

Creator of Litecoin & ex-Director of engineering at Coinbase

Bitcoin has quite a number of short comings which is expected seeing as it was the first Blockchain based decentralized cryptocurrency. High Transaction fees, time taken to complete transactions, scaling, etc. This is what prompted Charlee Lee, an early Bitcoin enthusiast to create Litecoin.

Ari Paul @AvriDavidPaul

CIO of BlockTower Capital

Elizabeth Starkness @starkness

CEO & Co-Founder Lightning

Elizabeth and the Lightning team have been working on a 2^nd layer off-chain solution called Lightning which is intended to help speed up transaction time on the Bitcoin & (now) Litecoin network. They have already tested atomic swaps between Litcoin and Bitcoin this year. They hope to make Lightning the HTTP of Bitcoin. Lighning will hopefully be fully adopted sometime in 2018.

Fred Ehrsam @FEhrsam

Co-founder Coinbase

Zooko Wilcox @zooko

Cryptographer, Founder & CEO ZCash

Definitely worth keeping an eye on ZCash in 2018. They have a number of surprises. And while you are at it you should read up on Zooko himself.

Chris Burniske @cburniske

Partner at @placeholdervc & Co-Author Cryptoassets

Jameson Lopp @lopp

Cypherpunk, Creator of statoshi.info & Engineer at @BitGo

Naval Ravikant @naval

CEO and a Co-Founder of AngelList, previously Co-Founded Epinions

Has invested in dozens of companies, including Twitter, Uber, Yammer, Stack Overflow and Wanelo.

Quick Note

If this is not the first "Who to follow on #CryptoTwitter" article you have seen you are probably wondering why Roger Ver didn't make the list. Quite simply put, Roger is irrelevant.