Bitcoin Foundation executive director has accepted a role as contributing editor over at CoinDesk.
Matonis has spent several users studying and working in finance, communications and encryption. Matonis’ experience includes Chief Executive Officer of Hushmail — an encrypted email service — and chief forex trader at Visa.
Matonis also advises startups in digital currencies, gaming, mobile and prepaid organizations.
His blog, The Monetary Future, is a go-to read on the subjects of free banking, cryptography and digital currencies.
Matonis’ writing has appeared in American Banker, Forbes, Payments Source and Bitcoin Magazine.
Matonis says the editorial role at CoinDesk aligns with his pursuing interests in free markets and digital currency systems. The potential for those systems entices him, he says.
“The mission for market-based legitimacy [of cryptographic money] is closely aligned with the goals of the [Bitcoin] Foundation,” Matonis said.
The Bitcoin Foundation states its goals as standardizing Bitcoin, protecting and promoting the currency.
As the Bitcoin community grows, it needs better exchange networks and better wallets, Matonis says. Better interfaces for Bitcoin products are also needed.
That said, he believes the long-term prospects of the currency are good. Beneficiaries of a decentralized currency include nations who are limited in economic power because of “dollar and euro hegemony.”
Matonis graduated from George Washington University in 1985 with a BA in Economics and currently lives in Switzerland.