Blockstream Hires Online Security Pioneer Christopher Allen

Blockstream has hired cybersecurity pioneer Christopher Allen as its standards technology and identity operations expert. He will contribute to the company's open source Hyperledger blockchain project.

The venture startup, known as a provider of enterprise tools focused on bitcoin blockchain technology, was one of 10 emerging companies to join the open source ledger ( Hyperledger ). The move was followed by a series of informal moves by company insiders to jointly propose its technical vision. Blockstream is the most obvious choice for Bitcoin Core wallet (   Bitcoin Core is the largest financial supporter of the Bitcoin ecosystem and the main volunteer development community.

In Allen ’s statement, he implicitly stated that Blockstream has widely absorbed blockchain protocols and technologies, so he hopes it can become a leader in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Allen said:

As part of a larger blockchain community, Blockstream’s Technical Standards Group will realize the shared vision of its members — increasing market share, introducing public goods, aligning investments, and seeking mutual support, which is the true purpose of being a leader in the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Blockstream ’s hiring news was announced today, and the company’s talent pool has also recruited veteran coders - hashcash developer Adam Back , Confidential Transactions developer Greg Maxwell , and Segregated Witness developer Pieter Wuille .

Allen is best known for co-authoring the Internet Engineering Task Force Internet Draft for Transport Layer Security, which secures much of today's e-commerce, and for co-founding Consensus Development, which helped invent the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology for Netscape in the 1980s, which became a widely used communications security protocol.

Allen’s work at Blockstream will focus on working with internet standards organizations such as W3C, IETF, and Oasis on technical standards, decentralized identity, and strategic planning, the company said .

Note: W3C World Wide Web Consortium, IETF Internet Engineering Task Force, Oasis Organization for the Promotion of Structured Information Standards

Blockstream has raised $ 7.5 million in venture capital from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Khosla Ventures, Real Ventures , AXA Group and other organizations and individuals. In 2016, Blockstream announced a strategic partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the top four accounting firms, to provide blockchain technology services to its clients.