Henning Diedrich has been called IBM's most knowledgeable guy in blockchain, and a thought leader in this field.
He was named architect at the IBM blockchain group, writing the first white paper for IBM's Open Blockchain project and is the official IBM liaison to the Ethereum Foundation's core development teams, helping to harden Ethereum for industrial use.
Henning frequently gives deeply technical presentations as well as highly inspirational keynotes on blockchain topics around the world. Check out his talks on YouTube. Follow @hdiedrich.
“I got into blockchain because I became fascinated by the technology, the same as with language design, database architecture or coding in the first place.
In blockchain tech, many domains coalesce that I have worked in. I started programming age 12 hacking computer games, and always remained passionate about performance and whatever resembles 'AI'. I worked in fintech, distributed databases and functional programming, domains that are all of special significance for the future of blockchain at this point. I created a compiler and virtual machine for the insurance industry, which an eternity before it, looked eerily like Bitcoin's VM. I started programming crypto stuff a decade ago.
I am evangelizer for the best distributed, high-velocity database out there, VoltDB, and suffered with them through different stabs at solving distribution. Which is what the blockchain community re-lives right now.
In a way, it's all coming together for me in blockchains. I had to fall for it.“