I’m starting off on a new enterprise in June 2023. I’m going to be the full-time CTO (Chief Technology Officer) for Blockpliance , a cryptocurrency compliance service provider! This is building off of other work I’m done in academic cryptocurrency research (e.g., Analyzing the Sustainability of 28 ‘Blockchain for Good’ Projects via Affordances and Constraints ) and some small contributions to the bitcoin core client.
Blockpliance offers tools and services to help financial institutions, crypto companies, and government agencies better understand and manage risk in blockchain transactions. The platform detects, monitors, and investigates digital asset risks while providing users with an easy-to-understand source-of-funds analysis and a proprietary cryptocurrency compliance score. Additionally, the platform facilitates collaboration between institutions and regulatory agencies without revealing private wallet owner details. Blockpliance provides a range of tools, from know-your-transaction services to enriched wallet data and ledger navigation, to help organizations make informed decisions before transacting in crypto. The platform is suitable for banks, money service businesses, wire remitters, credit card issuers, crypto exchanges, digital wallets, NFT platforms, and DeFi providers. The goal of Blockpliance is to provide the insights needed for institutions to safely engage with the new financial system, mitigating risk and enabling educated transactions.
So far I’ve built the whole thing with the help of a team of student computer science interns from Princeton University and Westmont College. We are building on top of a lot of technologies such as Docker, AWS, Django, QuickNode, which are a blast getting to know in depth. We have also already received a handful of awards such as winning the FinTech MassChallenge startup competition. We are actively in that cohort now, sponsored by State Street.
I am planning on a one-year commitment at this point, but the world is a crazy dynamic place, so who knows what will actually end up happening.
