Anthony Di Iorio

Last updated
Anthony Di Iorio
Born
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University)
Known forCo-founder of Ethereum

Anthony Di Iorio is a Canadian entrepreneur primarily known as a co-founder of Ethereum and an early investor in Bitcoin. Di Iorio is the founder and CEO of the blockchain company Decentral, and the associated Jaxx wallet. [1] He also served as the first chief digital officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange. [2] In February 2018, Forbes estimated his net worth at $750 million–$1 billion. [3]

Contents

Early life

Di Iorio grew up with two older siblings in north Toronto, Ontario. [4] He graduated with a degree in marketing from Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University). [3] Di Iorio began developing websites during the early 1990s, [5] and eventually entered the rental housing market as an investor and landlord in Toronto, Ontario. In 2012, he sold his rental properties to invest in Bitcoin, and began to organize companies in the field of cryptocurrency. [6]

Career

Di Iorio began his career working in marketing at a machine manufacturer before he went on to work for his family's patio-door-making business in Woodbridge, Ontario. The family business was sold in 2008, and Di Iorio’s father supported him as he launched a short-lived geothermal drilling company. [3] [4]

He first learned about bitcoin from a podcast called Free Talk Live in 2012. According to The Globe and Mail, he "had an anti-authoritarian streak" and  questioned "the fundamentals of mainstream economics." Di Iorio bought his first bitcoin the same day for $9.73. He created the Toronto Bitcoin Meetup Group which held its first meeting at a pub in the same year. [4] As the Meetups grew from about eight attendees to hundreds, Di Iorio formed the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada. [4]

In 2013 Di Iorio founded a Bitcoin wallet Chrome extension called KryptoKit, with Steve Dakh, who created an app for web browsers that allows users to pay for products and services using the cryptocurrency wallet. [7] KryptoKit was later joined by Buterin, Erik Voorhees, and Roger Ver in 2014. [8] In 2014 Di Iorio co-founded the cryptocurrency platform Ethereum, [9] that has been valued at $7 billion [6] and had a market cap of $1.6 billion in 2017. [5]

In 2021, he stated that he intended to leave the crypto market due to "safety concerns." [10]

TSX, Jaxx, and boards

In January 2016, TMX Group hired Di Iorio as the first chief digital officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). [2] [11] In February 2016, Di Iorio announced the launch of Jaxx, a unified platform that provides wallet services for both Bitcoin and Ethereum. He left his position at TSX to focus on Jaxx. [12] Di Iorio is the founder and serves as CEO of Decentral Inc., the developer of Jaxx. [4] [13]

Di Iorio has been involved in the development of a rating system for initial coin offerings and attempting to unite various cryptocurrencies into one financial ecosystem. [14] In a series of articles published in February 2018, Forbes named Di Iorio among its list of the top-20 richest people in cryptocurrency. [15]

Related Research Articles

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Litecoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. Inspired by Bitcoin, Litecoin was among the earliest altcoins, starting in October 2011. In technical details, the Litecoin main chain shares a slightly modified Bitcoin codebase. The practical effects of those codebase differences are lower transaction fees, faster transaction confirmations, and faster mining difficulty retargeting. Due to its underlying similarities to Bitcoin, Litecoin has historically been referred to as the "silver to Bitcoin's gold." In 2022, Litecoin added optional privacy features via soft fork through the MWEB upgrade.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitalik Buterin</span> Russian-Canadian programmer (born 1994)

Vitaly Dmitrievich Buterin, better known as Vitalik Buterin, is a Russian-Canadian computer programmer, and co-founder of Ethereum. Buterin became involved with cryptocurrency early in its inception, co-founding Bitcoin Magazine in 2011. In 2014, Buterin deployed the Ethereum blockchain with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin.

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References

  1. ↑ Wong, Natalie (June 21, 2018). "Ethereum Billionaire Looks to China for Next Big Crypto Winners". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  2. 1 2 Daly, John (2017-02-01). "How blockchain technology could revolutionize the markets". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  3. 1 2 3 Younglai, Rachelle; Chambers, Stephanie (June 20, 2018). "Cryptocurrency tycoon buys $28-million penthouse in former Trump Toronto hotel". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Pachner, Joanna (November 27, 2018). "Livin' large with Canada's crypto king". Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  5. 1 2 "Meet the banker, venture capitalist and eight others changing the way we think and work". Financial Post. 5 April 2017. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  6. 1 2 Brownell, Claire (27 June 2017). "Vitalik Buterin: The cryptocurrency prophet". Financial Post. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  7. ↑ Biggs, John (2013-12-10). "KryptoKit Lets You Pay In Bitcoin Instantly On Almost Any Webpage". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  8. ↑ Eha, Brian Patrick (2014-01-06). "This Bitcoin Wallet Service Just Added 3 Major Players to its Roster". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  9. ↑ "Ethereum co-founder Anthony Di Iorio says crypto wallets are the new browsers". BetaKit. 2017-11-06. Archived from the original on 2017-11-06. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  10. ↑ "Ethereum Co-Founder Says Safety Concern Has Him Quitting Crypto". Bloomberg.com. 2021-07-16. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
  11. ↑ Lou, Ethan (2016-03-04). "Canada's TSX hires Bitcoin guru, studies currency's technology". Reuters. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  12. ↑ "Bitcoin guru leaves Canada's TSX to focus on blockchain venture". Reuters. 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  13. ↑ Wieczner, Jen (2018-06-15). "Dreaming of a Crypto Christmas With Ethereum Cofounder Anthony Di Iorio". Fortune. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
  14. ↑ "Di Iorio and Shrem to offer token rating service and Jaxx Unity reward coin". 4 July 2017.
  15. ↑ "The Richest People In Cryptocurrency". Forbes. February 6, 2018. Retrieved 2019-04-28.
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