Zilliqa, the high-performance, high-security blockchain platform, announced the significant appointment of software tech industry leader Dr. Ben Livshits as Chief Executive Officer, effective 11 October 2021. Throughout his career, Dr. Livshits has spent over two decades at some of the world’s most pioneering tech companies that have shaped the internet as we know it today — from Microsoft to Netscape. During this time, he has established a track record in building and leading teams that have delivered applications and infrastructure designed for commercial deployment and mass adoption. Many of these outcomes were based on cutting-edge research successfully deployed to lead to novel industrial outcomes.
In his role as CEO, Dr. Livshits will be driving Zilliqa’s global strategy, growing its footprint within the crypto space as well as increasing the market penetration from East to West, as new markets across the world establish themselves as crypto-friendly economies. He plans to establish initiatives that expand the capabilities of blockchains to new areas of finance, such as the burgeoning DeFi sector, digital content creation and distribution, and new ways to connect Zilliqa to real-world applications such as high-value NFTs.
Dr. Ben Livshits, newly-appointed Zilliqa CEO, said: “From addressing one of the industry’s most prolific existential challenges of scalability to the tangible impact it’s made in nurturing new talent, Zilliqa has played a vital role in shaping Asia’s blockchain industry. I’m thrilled to be joining the team during this pivotal time in its growth journey to realise its ambition as a leading blockchain of choice on a global scale.”
Prior to joining Zilliqa, Dr. Livshits served as Chief Scientist at Brave, the company behind the Brave browser, renowned for placing user data protection and security at the heart of its infrastructure. He built and led the company’s research division from the ground up, leading a multidisciplinary team across the globe to help create the world’s first practical privacy-preserving ad targeting and delivery system as well as a number of other technologies based on cryptography and machine learning. During his time at Brave, the company has dramatically increased its user base, becoming one of the largest projects in crypto by the number of users. At present, Brave serves almost 40 million users and over 1 million content creators in its ecosystem.
Simultaneously, Dr. Livshits will continue to push Zilliqa’s growing endeavours to the next stage by establishing a more data-driven ethos at Zilliqa, combined with a strategic talent acquisition drive from Q4 2021 onwards. With the aim of reinvigorating marketing and monetisation methods across retail, gaming, sports, and art, he will enable Zilliqa to sustainably make bold investments into creator economy-based projects. His leadership and profile within the industry are sure to strengthen Zilliqa’s commercialisation strategy as a leading layer-1 blockchain distinguished for its usability, massive user adoption, high-volume transactions, and ability to appeal to groundbreaking projects across all verticals.
Dr. Livshits’ published academic research and work have played a significant role in driving the privacy mechanics in some of the world’s foremost internet companies, including Intel, Netscape Communications, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. A holder of a PhD in computer science from Stanford University, he published over 100 papers in areas of programming languages, compilers, computer security, and web applications, developing software infrastructure that was eventually transferred to many commercial Microsoft products. With his academic specialisations in blockchain technology, security, and privacy, he has taught at MIT, University of Washington, and Imperial College London.
The Zilliqa board and entire team are excited about the new appointment. Much like the rest of the blockchain ecosystem, Zilliqa has come a long way since its earliest days. With his experience in startups, large corporations, and academia, Dr. Livshits’ leadership will enable Zilliqa to accelerate the adoption of Zilliqa as the platform of choice across the globe.
Renowned in the industry for being the first public blockchain and smart contract platform to be built on a sharded architecture, Zilliqa offers high-performance without compromising security and decentralisation. Over the past year, the company has since embarked on high-profile enterprise partnerships in the creator economy, including blockchain-powered social networks and non-fungible tokens. The move is part of the company’s strategic direction to raise its profile globally as Zilliqa pivots towards providing more in-house content production support to enterprise and brand partners. As a testament to its commitment to this new brand direction, the company has made several strategic hires including a creative director and 3D designers.
About Zilliqa
Zilliqa provides highly-performant, scalable, and secure blockchain solutions for enterprises and decentralised applications. Founded in 2017, Zilliqa was developed by a team of global business and industry experts, experienced scientists, leading engineers, financial services specialists, and venture creators. Committed to developing innovative and scalable blockchain solutions with a user-centric approach, Zilliqa is driven by the mission to catalyse and transform digital infrastructures across global communities and industries. Zilliqa’s technology has served as the backbone for use cases across the arts, asset securitisation, content creators and the influencer economy, decentralised and open finance, digital advertising, financial services, incentivised marketing, and sports.
To date, the Zilliqa blockchain has processed over 25 million transactions since launching its mainnet and is home to a flourishing decentralised application ecosystem of over 200 projects.
For more information, visit: zilliqa.com