Ben de Waal

Ben is Samantha’s Dad - he first discovered Bitcoin in 2010 and after mostly ignoring it for a year, stumbled across it again around a year later and was shocked enough that it still existed to finally start spending some time understanding it. Ben has had several roles in the Bitcoin space and currently works as the Vice President of Engineering at Swan Bitcoin. Nearly 25 years in software development and engineering management, focused primarily on system architecture. Discovered Bitcoin in 2010; rediscovered it in 2011; more actively involved socially/professionally since 2013; living on Bitcoin since 2017; working in the Bitcoin space full time since 2018 (after spending around 3 years struggling to get Bitcoin projects going in his previous company). Aside from his "day job" as VP of Engineering at Swan Bitcoin, he also does consultancy primarily focused on Bitcoin adoption in business operations for medium to large enterprises. Previous "day jobs" in the Bitcoin space have included:

• Head of Technology Development at CoinBau (now bankrupt mining hardware manufacturer from Germany)
• Head of Software Development at Northern Bitcoin (now renamed Northern Data)
• Senior Engineering Manager Lightning Labs

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