Gregory Maxwell

Updated Jan 26, 2024 at 7:13 p.m. UTC

Gregory Maxwell is an American computer scientist, a bitcoin core developer and the former chief technology officer of Blockstream. Maxwell was also an early contributor to Wikipedia and was previously employed at the Mozilla Foundation. 

Maxwell, along with several others, founded Blockstream 2014 to build financial infrastructure and applications based upon bitcoin. In 2014, Blockstream raised $21 million to help push forward bitcoin’s development and to work on ‘sidechains that could facilitate the transfer and exchange of assets from bitcoin to other blockchains, and could also help bitcoin scale its transaction capacity.

However, Blockstream has historically been a contentious organization within the crypto community. Some in the community have asserted that Blockstream is a threat to bitcoin’s decentralized nature, while others praise it as a necessary given that bitcoin’s core technology has historically suffered from a lack of well-funded developers

Maxwell departed Blockstream in 2018 to focus on code developing bitcoin smart contracts.

Resources

Maxwell image via Lwn.net

Authored by John Metais

This article was originally published on Apr 27, 2020 at 4:29 p.m. UTC

Disclosure

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.


Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.