The DLT Science Foundation (DSF) is committed to driving the growth of distributed ledger technology in business and society. The DSF achieves this aim by empowering education, innovation, and research through its academic network and partnerships with industry leaders.
The DSF expands knowledge transfer from academia to industry, promoting the adoption of DLT in business, government and society.
Our foundation operates as a global, decentralised entity, much like the technology we promote. A network of world-leading experts from around the world pools their knowledge and expertise to deliver the DSF's vision.
The DSF team works tirelessly to further its mission, developing educational programmes, supporting researchers, and acting as a hub for startups, universities, and knowledge-transfer institutions. The foundation stimulates innovation through activities such as hackathons, commercialising research, and much more.
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At the DSF, we believe that the effectiveness of innovation ecosystems is directly proportional to their complexity. As such, our mission is to cultivate an open and collaborative network that fosters a highly sophisticated ecosystem.
This ecosystem is built on the exchange of information and knowledge among academia, industry, and government, as well as the co-creation of new knowledge and innovative ideas. By promoting a diverse and interconnected network, the DSF strives to drive the growth and advancement of the field of distributed ledger technology.
Our vision is a world where distributed ledger technology fosters trust in third parties through transparency, in which data can be verified by anyone. Where open collaboration between academics, government, and startups breeds innovation, and the value created flows more horizontally across participants in the network.
The DLT Science Foundation was founded and is led by Dr. Paolo Tasca and Nikhil Vadgama, born out of their desire to speed up the adoption of distributed ledger technology (DLT) in both business and society and to facilitate complex, non-linear interactions and co-creation processes between academia, industry, and government.
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Prof. Paolo Tasca is among the world's most influential economists, renowned for his groundbreaking discoveries and the development of theoretical frameworks in distributed systems.
Dr. Paolo Tasca is a globally renowned blockchain economist and Professor at University College London, with a specialization in distributed systems. He is also the esteemed founder of the award-winning UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies. Complementing his academic accomplishments, Dr. Tasca boasts an impressive track record as a seasoned blockchain entrepreneur, with multiple successful exits. His extensive expertise in blockchain technologies has led him to serve as a special advisor for an array of international stakeholders, including the United Nations, central banks, and various governmental and industry entities.
Nikhil Vadgama is an education pioneer in the realm of emerging digital technologies, with extensive industry experience in financial technology.
Nikhil Vadgama holds the position of Programme Director for the acclaimed Master in Financial Technology at University College London and serves as the Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies. Boasting a wealth of experience collaborating with international stakeholders from government, industry, and central banks, Nikhil's diverse background encompasses roles in the fintech, real estate, and education sectors. Most recently, he took on the role of Chief Data Officer at a burgeoning challenger bank called Twig.
The DSF is supported by a network of leading industry and academic experts from across the globe.
Caterina Rindi has been involved in the peer-to-peer, blockchain, and open-source ecosystem since 2013, lending this expertise to to start-ups, foundations, and corporate clients in industries spanning fintech, P2P collaborative economies, consumer products, governance, academia, and healthcare. Her current role is the Director of Community and Developer Relations for the Open-Source Team at G-Research. Caterina speaks Italian and Spanish, and is regular speaker on the DLT conference circuit.
Marcus Treacher is a global payments and blockchain expert, with 30 years' experience building international businesses focused on digital and emerging technology payment infrastructure. Marcus has held global leadership roles with household names such as Citigroup, HSBC, and blockchain disruptor Ripple, and has served on the boards of SWIFT, CHAPS and RippleNet. He currently sits on the board of CB Growth Holdings, the parent company of ClearBank, and RTGS Global advising on strategic growth.
Aya brings enormous advisory expertise to the DSF in both the public and private sectors given her active involvement across multiple web3.0 focused accelerators and VCs either as Founder, Partner or Advisor along with her position as an expert evaluator of blockchain projects for the European Commission. A polyglot who speaks eight languages, Aya’s Computer Science degree provided the perfect foundation for exploring the blockchain space as early as 2014, working for ABN AMRO Bank.
Daniel Heller is Head of Regulatory Strategy at RTGS.global, leveraging his extensive experience in financial regulation and compliance, which includes working at Fnality International, as Head of Regulatory Affairs and Executive Director at the IMF.
Daniel also serves as an Independent Board Member at the Astana Financial Services Authority, CFO at Bitlumens and as a Research Fellow at the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies, highlighting his DLT credentials.
As head of the UBS Next Incubator, an internal corporate accelerator, Samuel is ideally placed to help the DSF bring novel DLT-focused ideas to market, Having joined UBS in 2019 as the Head of the DLT Center of Excellence, UBS was recognised by Forbes as a Top 50 company in the field of blockchain. Previously head of the blockchain strategy at Refinitiv, a global provider of financial market data and infrastructure, he also co-founded the Crypto Valley Association in Switzerland.
Dr. Boris Battistini is a Director at Metellus AG, a private investment office in Zurich, specialised in venture capital, private equity and direct investments. He was a Senior Research Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and a Co-Founder of the ETH Corporate Innovation Lab. He was a Co-Founder and Board Director of the Swiss Finance and Technology Association and led the Global Corporate Venturing Initiative of Bain&Co and ETH.
The DSF Grant-giving Committee is comprised of a group of highly regarded experts in the blockchain industry who work together to support the Foundation's mission to advance the field of blockchain technology. This independent and impartial body of specialists provides insightful recommendations to the DSF on the most critical areas to fund within the blockchain sector. The goal of the Committee is to ensure that the Foundation's grant-giving initiatives are focused on advancing the industry and delivering meaningful impact to the community.
Sitting committee members include:
Niall Roche is an active web3.0 entrepreneur and academic, founding The Building Block venture builder, and holding CTO-in-Residence at the UCL School of Management, teaching DLT, data science, software and data engineering. Niall is a member of the Construction Blockchain Consortium, the Hedera HashGraph TechCom and a Research Associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies. He used his DLT experience to deploy the first proof-of-concept property transaction with the UK Land Registry.
Ben Livshits is a Professor at Imperial College London, and an Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington in Seatte. Known for his work in software reliability and security Ben worked for a decade as a research scientist at Microsoft Research in Seattle and was introduced to DLT technology in 2017 working as Chief Scientist for Brave Sofware. Author of award-winning academic papers, Ben has registered dozens of patents and multiple tech transfer awards for research application.
Ralf Glabishnig is a serial investor and entrepreneur in the blockchain space, founder and main shareholder of 15 companies across tokenisation, securitisation, crypto-payments and provenance with investments in more than 40 startups. Ralf played a pivotal role in the building the blockhain ecosystem on Switzerland - as founding member of the Crypto Valley Association and the Swiss Blockchain Federation - a model he has successfully replicated in the Middle East through the “Crypto Oasis”.
The Scientific Committee of the DLT Science Foundation is composed of accomplished academics and researchers who advise the direction of research at the Foundation. The committee consists of one representative per University Network Member (rotated every year), plus the Head of Science and Board Directors of the DSF. They leverage their expertise, backgrounds, and networks to identify key areas of scientific exploration in the field of blockchain and distributed ledger technology.
Sitting committee members include:
Francesco is Assistant Professor of Finance at the University of Birmingham where his work focus on integrating DLT into socio-economic processes. He teaches Blockchain and Financial Applications within the MSc FinTech program and serves as Research Associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies. Francesco holds a PhD in Economics jointly awarded by King’s College London and the National University of Singapore. Before joining academia, he worked at J.P. Morgan and UBS.
Tomaso Aste is a professor of complexity science at University College London (UCL), where he is also founder and Scientific Director of the Centre for Blockchain Technologies (UCL CBT), head of the Financial Computing and Analytics Group, and vice director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Financial Computing & Analytics.
Claudio J. Tessone is the co-founder and Chairman of the University of Zurich (UZH) Blockchain Center. He is also a Professor of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies at the UZH Informatics Department, as well as the director of the Summer School: Deep Dive into Blockchain and the Certificate of Advanced Studies on Blockchain.
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John Augustine is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, where he co-founded the Blockchain Lab and the Cybersecurity Centre. Previously, he held roles at the Tata Research Development and Design Centre and at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Carsten Sørensen is an Associate Professor in Digital Innovation at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where he is also the founder of the mobility@lse research unit. He is furthermore a Senior Editor of the Information Systems Journal, as well as an Associate Editor for Journal of the AIS and the e-Service Journal.
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Nicholas MacGregor Garcia is a lecturer at the National University of Singapore (NUS) where he teaches and develops the curriculum for fintech, blockchain, and AI governance and ethics.He is also the Co-Director of NUS Fintech lab where he fosters collaborations between industry and academia to nurture a knowledge ecosystem.He has a Ph.D in Philosophy from NYU Stern, a Master's in Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon University and BS in Chemical Engineering from Berkeley.
The DSF Scientists concentrate on conducting comprehensive in-house research, encompassing diverse subjects such as DeFi, governance, tokenomics, and more. Serving as a vital link between the DSF and the University Network members, they foster collaboration and provide assistance in research initiatives. Additionally, the DSF Scientists play a crucial role in shaping grant themes and evaluating grant proposals. At present, the team comprises five dedicated DSF Scientists, each hailing from various locations around the globe.
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Dr. Jiahua Xu is a Lecturer in Financial Computing at UCL, where she teaches Blockchain Technologies and Machine Learning in Finance. She is an award-winning researcher at the university's Centre for Blockchain Technologies, and serves as the Programme Director of the MSc Emerging Digital Technologies under the Computer Science Department. Author of over 10 academic papers in DLT, Dr. Xu teaches FinTech courses at numerous prominent global institutions.
