Tech
Martin Köppelmann of Gnosis Chain is fighting to keep crypto technology on track
Martin Köppelmann, Berlin-based co-founder of Gnosis Chain, has no problem speaking his mind. In addition to building some of the largest blockchain tools on Ethereum, he is also considered a thought leader: a philosopher-developer with strong opinions on how blockchain technology can evolve without compromising his core ethics.
Like many early blockchain enthusiasts, Köppelmann first learned about Bitcoin (BTC) in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. He had become intrigued by a new German political group, a branch of the Pirate Party, that had a unique approach to group decision-making. “It was supposed to be a member-driven party, and they had this concept, ‘liquid democracy,’ where by default everyone can vote on everything,” Köppelmann explained in an interview.
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Köppelmann joined the Pirate Party in 2010 as members were considering whether to vote in favor of a eurozone bailout package for Greece, whose economy was in free fall.
“We need to delve deeper into how money works, how the central bank works,” Köppelmann recalled. “I hadn’t thought much about these things before,” and exploring how money works and what it is was “how I discovered Bitcoin.”
Köppelmann’s first blockchain company, Fairlay, grew to become the largest bitcoin-based prediction market before he sold it. “Over the years I’ve become quite skeptical of bitcoin in many ways, but certainly, at that time, I was kind of a bitcoin maximalist,” Köppelmann said. “I concluded pretty quickly that bitcoin is great because it shows that other forms of money are possible, but the concrete form of bitcoin is not necessarily what I think is best for humanity.”
Today Köppelmann is most closely associated with Ethereum. After meeting Joe Lubin, the Ethereum co-founder who now runs Consensys, a research and development company behind the popular Metamask crypto wallet, Köppelmann became excited about the potential of programmable smart contracts and launched Gnosis, a betting marketplace for the Ethereum ecosystem.
“The predictions were never successful,” Köppelmann said, “but the infrastructure was ultimately successful.” Gnosis eventually purchased and merged with xDAI, another blockchain, to create a privacy-focused “side chain” to help augment Ethereum’s capabilities. Derivatives of Gnosis, such as Safe (a popular multi-signature wallet solution) and CoWSwap (a MEV resistant exchange protocol) have been extremely successful regardless of their main project.
In addition to becoming a key builder in the Ethereum ecosystem, Köppelmann has also emerged as one of its most vocal critics, often denouncing projects, infrastructure and technical upgrades that he believes fall short of the network’s founding ideals.
Köppelmann raised the alarm bells on the issue of censorship more loudly, expressing concern that some elements of Ethereum’s infrastructure – particularly the block that assembles most blocks – are bow to government sanctions in a way that is at odds with the main philosophy of the network.
“For a long time I have been very aligned with the broader Ethereum research community,” reflects Köppelmann. “But at least on this topic of censorship or MEV, my opinion was a little different from where Ethereum was going. I certainly didn’t agree with that.”