David Minarsch is a Co-founder and the CEO of Valory, a team focused on providing research, products, and services at the intersection of multi-agent systems (MAS) and distributed ledger technology (DLT), one of them being Autonolas. He is also the Founder of Centrality Labs, Azembly, and UCL FINDS; and a Co-founder of Panopy.co. ^[1][2]

Education

David Minarsch's education started with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics with Economics at University College London (UCL) from 2009 to 2012. During this time, he actively participated in various societies, including the UCL Economics and Finance Society and the UCLU Investment Society, showing an early interest in economics and finance. ^[3]

Building on his undergraduate studies, Minarsch continued his studies at the University of Cambridge. He completed a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Economics in 2013, where he engaged in activities with the Girton College Boat Club and the Marshall Society, contributing to both academic and extracurricular pursuits. ^[3]

He then attained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Economics from the University of Cambridge in June 2017. Throughout his doctoral studies, Minarsch focused on traditional microeconomic topics in the context of social and economic networks. His research, supervised by Prof. Sanjeev Goyal and advised by Prof. Hamid Sabourian, delved into topics such as intermediation in networked markets and conflict resolution.^[3]

Career

David Minarsch's career journey began with internships and part-time roles, including positions at Attaction and YouDo Holding AG in 2009 and 2010. These experiences involved market research, data analysis, and strategic planning. ^[4]

Minarsch then took on roles at UCL FINDS and as the President of the ADM Mathematics Society from 2010 to 2012. During this period, he successfully launched events, conferences, and workshops. ^[4]

In 2011, Minarsch participated in the UCL HELO Consultancy Project, where he contributed to the creation of a comprehensive business plan for a start-up offering online tutoring services. This project involved financial forecasting and collaboration with the CEO to secure seed funding. ^[4]

From February to March 2017, Minarsch worked as a Data Scientist at Yoyo Wallet, applying machine-learning techniques to classify basket item data. ^[4]

From August 2019 to January 2021, Minarsch served as the Lead Economist at Fetch.ai, focusing on research projects, software development, and team management. His work centered on the consensus and governance mechanisms of Fetch.ai's smart ledger and the design and implementation of an autonomous agent framework. ^[4]

In 2018, Minarsch co-founded Panopy, a technology company dedicated to helping individuals and teams measure their behaviors. As CEO, he led the product development and coding of Panopy's web app. ^[4]

Blockchain Career

Early Beginnings

David Minarsch was initially interested in the software side of multi-agent systems and machine learning, which got him into decentralized ledgers, blockchains, and crypto. Then as his career progressed more and more into machine learning and software development, he realized that blockchain networks were an area that could merge all of his interests including one of his focal points during his PhD, game theory.

"I think from my journey into crypto, more generally was sort of um this general interest in decentralized ledger in blockchain, sort of an interest on the software side in machine learning, multi-agent systems and then like a professional background, I'd done a PhD in game theory and so kind of it seemed like the perfect merge of three topics and I kind of got into it initially worked in various places got into building multi-agent systems frameworks and then eventually wanted to get back to my entrepreneurial rules and try myself."

Current Positions

In February 2021, Minarsch founded Centrality Labs, a company focusing on researching and developing products at the nexus of blockchain and multi-agent systems. ^[4]

His latest venture, Valory, began in July 2021, where Minarsch serves as the Co-Founder and CEO. Valory's mission is to enable greater personal and economic autonomy by integrating open autonomous systems into daily activities. Their current focus is on their autonomous application called Autonolas, a platform that offers an open-source software stack and an on-chain protocol, facilitating secure operations and incentivizing autonomous application development. ^[4]