Emin Gün Sirer is a Turkish-American computer scientist, software engineer and thought leader whose research over the last 20 years has focused primarily on network security, operating and distributed systems, and digital currencies. Back in 2003, he designed the first cryptocurrency based on a proof-of-work protocol, Karma, preceding Bitcoin by six years. He is also known for his research on selfish mining, characterizing the scale and centralization of existing cryptocurrencies, and having proposed the leading protocols for on-chain and off-chain scaling.
For 14 years, Sirer was an associate professor of computer science at Cornell University. He was also the co-director of the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts at the university. While at Cornell, Sirer and his team of doctoral students founded Ava Labs and incubated the Avalanche network project with the purpose of developing an alternative blockchain technology for the financial sector.
Avalanche is a smart contract, layer-1 platform that is fully compatible with Ethereum assets and apps. It is focused on transaction speed, low costs and eco-friendliness. Attracting developer attention early, Sirer’s team worked to tackle issues of security, decentralization and speed in a single blockchain network. In 2020, the Avalanche consensus protocol became open-source and the network issued its native token, AVAX, completing its first public token sale.
Sirer enjoyed the growth of the Avalanche network and community as it made significant headway toward cross-chain interoperability. In early 2021, Ava Labs launched the Avalanche Rush DeFi incentive program, which sparked developer interest and led to the growth of an active ecosystem that now has over 500 decentralized apps available. Some of the projects that built on it include Chainlink, SushiSwap, Tether, Circle and The Graph. The network has grown to have more than 1,200 validator nodes staking tokens. As Avalanche became more popular, its corresponding AVAX coin began to catch the attention of crypto users — especially once the Avalanche Bridge, which allows users to easily move assets between Ethereum and Avalanche, and the Avalanche Wallet became available.
Several NFT marketplaces launched on Avalanche in 2021 as well, with the “Avalanche Party Animals” and “AVAX Apes” collections seeing the most trading activity and amassing large communities. Sirer has said that to him, NFTs “make perfect sense as a fundraising mechanism.”
Avalanche’s initial goal was to dethrone Ethereum as the new hub for smart contracts. Thus, it can be expected that Sirer will keep working to make Avalanche a true competitor to Ethereum that rivals the blockchain in terms of use and network value. Sirer’s vision for blockchain to achieve both high performance and eco-friendliness will remain Ava Labs’ guiding principle for achieving mass adoption. And as the Ava Labs developer team expands, more DAaps will likely be built on the Avalanche blockchain in 2022.
As a thought leader, Sirer regularly participates in conferences and summits to talk about the sustainability of blockchain and can be expected to continue being an active voice within the community this year. In March, Ava Labs will host the Avalanche Summit in Barcelona, Spain for developers, researchers and makers building on the blockchain.
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