Our Team
Dan Boneh
Faculty Director
Dan Boneh heads the applied cryptography group at the Computer Science department at Stanford University. Professor Boneh's research focuses on applications of cryptography to computer security. His work includes cryptosystems with novel properties, web security, security for mobile devices, digital copyright protection, and cryptanalysis. He is the author of over a hundred publications in the field and a recipient of the Packard Award, the Alfred P. Sloan Award, and the RSA award in mathematics. Last year Dr. Boneh received the Ishii award for industry education innovation. Professor Boneh received his Ph.D from Princeton University and joined Stanford in 1997.
Jonathan Padilla
Deputy Director
Jonathan Padilla is a founding member of the Stanford Future of Digital Currency Initiative and currently serves as Deputy Director. Over the past four years he has dedicated his energy to the revolution occurring in fintech and blockchain. His work on digital asset regulation has been used by the Financial Stability Board and earned him a spot on the 2018 List of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Law and Policy. Outside of his role at the Initiative, he lead blockchain strategy at PayPal where heading up that firm’s Blockchain Research Group. Prior to that, he has advised major tech firms on the regulatory landscape and macro level trends impacting blockchain. He has also consulted for Fortune 100 firms on integration of blockchain technology to their operations on both supply chain logistics and finance. Jonathan graduated from Harvard College with a degree in government and from Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government with a Masters of Public Policy as a Startup Nation Scholar with a full scholarship. He was a 2018 Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University where he earned a Masters in Economics and Management. There he wrote his thesis on blockchain and cryptocurrency regulation.
Atticus Francken
Outside Researcher
Atticus Francken is a native of Illinois and a serial entrepreneur with multiple successful ventures spanning energy, education, and fintech. He co-founded his first venture in college, which still operates today. This includes a depth of work in renewable energy finance and development. In addition, Atticus has deep experience in public policy, serving in roles at the White House and Federal Reserve Board of Governors. He has also served in institutional investment roles, including Ullico and as Vice President at CleanCapital. As a founding member of the lab, he will be working on commercialization of new technologies, partnerships, public policy, and interfacing with central banks and multilateral institutions. Atticus graduated from the George Washington University in Washington, DC with a degree in Economics and Mathematics and is an incoming Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University.
Dylan Olivia Hunzeker
Outside Researcher
Dylan is an investor at Struck Capital Crypto. Prior to Struck, she was an investment analyst at Iconic Holding GmbH, an asset management firm specializing in cryptocurrencies and digital asset strategies based in Frankfurt, Germany. At the firm she specialized in searching for and due diligencing cryptocurrency hedge funds as well as potential venture capital investments. Previously she worked at Eigen Capital, a Beijing-based hedge fund for digital assets where she helped build out the OTC and market making desks by developing a new technology for atomic swaps (among other workstreams). Her research on cryptocurrency (specifically staking networks) has been published in Ledger, Carnegie Mellon’s computer science journal, and by the City University of New York. Dylan received her BA from Columbia College of Columbia University in the City of New York in Human Rights and Comparative Literature and her MBA from Tsinghua University in Beijing where she was a CSC Scholar and a Tsinghua Exemplary Student Scholar on a full scholarship, and where she wrote her thesis on the future of blockchain innovation in both the U.S. and China
Tony Chan
Advisor
Tony Y. Chan the Managing Broker at North American Real Estate Investment group. He is also the Chairman of the City of Redwood City Canyon Neighborhood Association. He is co-founder of Pledge, one of the earliest on-chain gaming platforms. He has started crypto investment since early 2017. Tony also did 21 high tech angel investments which gives 25% return. Tony is the creator of a popular app: “One Chinese a Day”. This app was the #1 paid educational app at the Amazon app store. He was also the founder of Facio software, the redberry company in China. Tony helped the company grow from 0 to US$2mill in sales in 3 years. He and his company were interviewed by Businessweek. In 2003, Tony worked at Rhapsody networks where he was responsible for storage management. This company was acquired by Brocade Communications for US$175MM. Previously, Tony was at Vitalsigns Software, Inc. where he was responsible for Vital Suites, which received a Network World award. This company was later acquired by Lucent Technology for US$128MM. Tony started his career at Microsoft and was part of the Windows 95 development group. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley and his Master’s degree, also in Electrical Engineering, from Stanford University.