Personal Details 

 
Thomas J. Ackermann, born 1962 in Germany, currently living in Berlin, Germany, after having lived in the US for 18 years (LA, Silicon Valley, Dallas) 
 
Education 
 
BS in System Analysis; Bachelor of Law in Macroeconomics, Economics at Westfälische Wilhelmsuniversität Münster, Germany; Bachelor of Law, Taft University, Irvine, California; other education includes a management training course and serving in the German army 
 
Professional experience and achievement 
 
Thomas has spent years building Internet-based technologies, including his town’s first ISP, the Shockwave delivery infrastructure, the first mirror sites and the first working distributed denial of service defense. 
 
Interests 
 
Big Iron computers and computer history (Thomas volunteered at the CHM at Moffet Air Force Base, owned a Cray and used to collect first generation Ethernet switches.); Unix/Linux; his German student fraternity, KDStV Sauerlandia 
 
First experience with cryptocurrencies
 
Thomas built a digital currency and the company around it to revolutionize barter trading by turning it from a two-way trade to a three-way trade by using Barter Dollars, an internal, global currency for trading outside the fiat currency system. 
 
His company acquired every barter company in the US, two in Canada and one in Australia. By the turn of the millenium, barter was a $64 billion market. 
 
Role in the Bitcoin community 
 
Thomas is the Chief Technology Officer at Bitcoin Brothers, Berlin. That company brings massive computing power to Bitcoin as a currency at affordable prices. He hopes the company can help support Bitcoin in its bid for wider acceptance over the next few years.