Anthony Di Iorio, a Canadian entrepreneur known as an early Bitcoin investor and co-founder of Ethereum, has announced that he is distancing himself from the crypto world due to safety concerns.
With his withdrawal from the crypto space, Di Iorio will be selling his blockchain firm, Decentral Inc., and cut off ties with several other crypto startups that he’s been involved with since 2013. Di Iorio announced his retirement from Decentral two years ago, leaving as a part of the advisory board. However, he soon came back to the firm to play a management role.
Decentral is a Toronto-based innovation hub and software development company which has launched products such as Jaxx, a digital asset wallet, among other decentralized applications. Jaxx currently has over a million users.
It was also in 2013 that Di Iorio founded KryptoKit, a browser wallet, and the company was since joined by some of crypto’s earliest developers, including Erik Voorhees, Roger Ver, and Vitalik Buterin.
Di Iorio’s early engagements with Buterin later led to the initial conception and crowdfunding of Ethereum’s development in 2014 and eventual launch in July 30, 2015. Di Iorio was responsible for the initial funding of the project, and the Ethereum blockchain as envisioned by Buterin was birthed, co-founded by Charles Hoskinson, Joe Lubin, Gavin Wood, Mihai Alisie, Amir Chetrit, and Jeffrey Wilcke, among many others listed as co-founders of the non-profit organization (Ethereum Foundation) and blockchain smart contract protocol (Ethereum, $ETH).
According to Di Iorio, he believed that he would be ‘safer’ if he distanced himself from crypto. Di Iorio declined to further comment on the matter of his personal security, instead saying that his ‘risk profile’ was one the main reasons for his retirement from the crypto world.
“It’s got a risk profile that I am not too enthused about. I don’t feel necessarily safe in this space. If I was focused on larger problems, I think I’d be safer,” he shares.
According to Di Iorio, he would now be focusing on a philanthropy venture, a new organization that would address “large problems” by using the same principles he developed as a crypto entrepreneur.
“I’m a crypto guy and I don’t want to be known as a crypto person,” Di Iorio shares. “I want to be known as a problem solver.”
Prior to the announcement, Di Iorio has been engaged with venture-capital investments alongside working as a startup advisor. For a brief period, he also held responsibilities as chief digital officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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