Eli Ben-sasson

Eli Ben-Sasson is the Co-Founder and CEO of StarkWare Industries, based in Netanya, Israel. Before transitioning to the commercial blockchain sector, he served as a Professor of Computer Science at the Technion and completed postdoctoral research fellowships at both MIT and Harvard University. As a foundational researcher in cryptography, he co-invented the STARK proof system and the Zerocash protocol, subsequently serving as a founding scientist for the privacy-focused Zcash cryptocurrency. Under his leadership, the Sequoia-backed StarkWare reached an $8 billion valuation in 2022 while developing Layer-2 scaling solutions for the Ethereum network. In February 2024, he assumed the chief executive role and oversaw the official launch of the Starknet decentralized network alongside its native STRK token distribution. His current focus remains on advancing zero-knowledge proofs to enhance the computational scalability and security of decentralized blockchain ecosystems.