BitFury Enhances Its Advisory Board by Adding Former CFTC Chairman Dr. James Newsome and Renowned Global Thought Leader and President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy Hernando de Soto

BitFury Group, the leading Bitcoin Blockchain infrastructure provider and transaction processing company added Dr. James Newsome, ex-Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and former CEO of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and Hernando de Soto, the President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), to its advisory board.

“The forward thinking approach by BitFury founders and management team regarding education, regulation and support for the entire Blockchain community are perfectly aligned with my views. I look forward to working with the BitFury team to continue to build upon our tremendous momentum.”

Dr. Newsome was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate to be at first a Commissioner and later a Chairman of CFTC. As Chairman, Newsome guided the regulation of the nation’s futures markets. Additionally, Newsome led the CFTC’s regulatory implementation of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA). He also served as one of four members of the President’s Working Group for Financial Markets, along with the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairmen of the Federal Reserve and the SEC. In 2004, Newsome assumed the role of President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) where he managed daily operations of the largest physical derivatives exchange in the world. Dr. Newsome is presently a founding partner of Delta Strategy Group, a full-service government affairs firm based in Washington, DC.

Hernando de Soto heads the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, named by The Economist one of the two most important think tanks in the world. In the last 30 years, he and his colleagues at the ILD have been involved in designing and implementing legal reform programs to empower the poor in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and former Soviet nations by granting them access to the same property and business rights that the majority of people in developed countries have through the institutions and tools needed to exercise those rights and freedoms.

Mr. de Soto also co-chaired with former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, and currently serves as honorary co-chair on various boards and organizations, including the World Justice Project. He is the author of “The Other Path: the Economic Answer to Terrorism”, and his seminal work “The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else.”

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Jim Newsome and Mr. Hernando de Soto to our advisory board,” said Valery Vavilov, CEO of BitFury.

“Blockchain can streamline financial transactions by helping eliminate the cost and cut back time for clearing and settling financial assets. The Blockchain can also enable real time auditing of financial transactions to prevent fraud and malpractice. In addition, we are pleased to announce opening of our representative office in Washington, D.C. to stay close to regulators and decision-makers,” Vavilov said.

“It is an honor to be selected to serve on the Advisory Board of BitFury,” commented Dr. Newsome. “The forward thinking approach by BitFury founders and management team regarding education, regulation and support for the entire Blockchain community are perfectly aligned with my views. I look forward to working with the BitFury team to continue to build upon our tremendous momentum.”

“At the recent Blockchain Summit, Mr. de Soto presented his theories and perspectives on how the use of Blockchain technology can solve the systemic problems in regards to wealth and poverty. It is a very serious issue, as billions of people in the world have no documented property rights,” commented BitFury CEO Valery Vavilov. “Mr de Soto’s expertise as a prominent global thought leader and human rights activist is invaluable.”

“I am delighted to accept BitFury's invitation to join its Advisory Board,” commented Hernando de Soto. “This group combined with Blockchain technology is undertaking what may just be one of the most significant contributions to the history of organizing knowledge. 300 years ago knowledge was organized locally and it was too risky to trust anyone beyond that territory. Since the ongoing Industrial Revolution began, and globalization took off, most progress is the result of gathering, selecting, contextualizing and making knowledge available on a large scale so that humans worldwide can trust each other. No exaggeration: what we know today is composed of the data we can remember and BitFury is on the forefront of organizing and storing knowledge digitally in a transparent and secure manner that can be tested for truth. BitFury is on to something critical, and as an independent thinker I have a few thoughts and it makes complete sense that I come on board to learn and contribute.”

BitFury has also established a technical advisory board bringing on Jeff Garzik, CEO of Dunvegan Space Systems and one of the five original Bitcoin Core developers and Paul Brody, Americas Strategy Leader for the Technology Sector at Ernst & Young and renowned IoT expert.

"Valery Vavilov and the BitFury team impress with their engineering excellence, competent execution and a strong dedication to the Bitcoin ethos of transparency. This aligns very strongly with my own values on transparency and ethical operation, and I am very pleased to join the BitFury Advisory Board," commented Bitcoin Core developer Jeff Garzik.

"The future of Blockchain is more than financial technology, it's about securing a world of billions of smart devices. BitFury has a unique understanding of the scale and scope of the opportunity combined with their deep expertise in hardware and software,” said Paul Brody, Americas Strategy Leader for the Technology Sector at Ernst & Young.

“We are welcoming Paul Brody and Jeff Garzik to our newly established technology advisory board,” said Valery Vavilov, BitFury CEO. “Paul is a renowned evangelist for the use of Blockchain technology for the IoT and Jeff keeps the integrity of the Bitcoin Core. We are grateful for the opportunity to tap into this wealth of knowledge and expertise.”

Other members of the BitFury advisory board include former deputy assistant attorney general in the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and a former federal prosecutor Jason Weinstein; Samsung Electronics president and chief strategy officer Young Sohn; former chairman and CEO of UMC Dr. Jackson Hu; and founder and partner of Binary Capital Jonathan Teo.

About BitFury Group

BitFury Group is the leading Bitcoin Blockchain infrastructure provider and transaction processing company. Founded in 2011, BitFury has management offices in San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Amsterdam, as well as data-centers in Iceland and the Republic of Georgia. BitFury derives sustainable advantage through its custom-made application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), optimized to achieve the lowest power consumption coupled with the highest processing metrics – the parameters that drive mining margins. BitFury has an impressive track record, having successfully delivered several prior generations of silicon and has a roadmap to at least double performance-per-watt every 6-12 months. BitFury’s management team and board include seasoned industry veterans with a history of execution in silicon engineering, operational build-up and capitalizing businesses.

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