Daniel Larimer is an American software programmer and a cryptocurrency entrepreneur. He is the Co-founder of EOS developer Block.one, crypto platform BitShares, and the blockchain Steem. ^[1][9]

Dan Larimer is also the creator of the Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) consensus algorithm, Graphene technology, and the author of the book More Equal Animals^[6].

Early Life & Education

Dan Larimer was born in Colorado and he spent his formative years in Florida and Virginia. He learned computer programming from his father while still in elementary school. After finishing college, he joined a handful of friends to launch a virtual reality company. In an interview with yBitcoin Dan Larimer said:

“We did well and made money every year, but we closed it down after five years and went on to other things". ^[3]

Dan Larimer received a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) in Computer Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2003.^[2]

Career

Encounter with Satoshi Nakamoto

Dan Larimer discovered Bitcoin when he googled “decentralized currency” and Satoshi Nakamoto's name popped up. Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym for the developer of Bitcoin, whom he soon began regularly communicating with before developing his own twist on Nakamoto’s blockchain technology in the form of BitShares. ^[3]

"I wanted to create systems that would actually give us freedom that were entirely nonviolent so I've made it my mission in life to find free market solutions for securing life, liberty and property and one of the very first things that you need to do if you want to secure your life, liberty and property is we need to have a money that's not controlled by the people who can print it and debase it and and use it to enslave us" ^[10]

Bitshares

In 2013, Dan Larimer founded BitShares alongside Charles Hoskinson. BitShares was originally named ProtoShares, it is a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) that enables users to trade cryptocurrencies as well BitAssets, tokens that are pegged to real-world markets. It is organized as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). ^[7]

Steem

In 2016, Dan Larimer left BitShares to co-found the blockchain Steem and the application Steemit, a social network that uses blockchain technology to reward users for their content. After co-founding Steemit together with Ned Scott^[19], Larimer served as CTO of the platform until March 14, 2017. ^[8]

Block.one & EOS

In 2016, Dan Larimer met Brendan Blumer and the duo started working on Block.one^[9]. Block.one is a publisher of decentralized applications as well as open source software where decentralized applications (EOSIO) can be built on top of. It is a company registered in the Cayman Islands, which began offering EOS tokens in June 2017 to the public, raising over $4 billion during its ICO. ^[9]

Dan Larimer serves as the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Block.one. He is responsible for leading the development and engineering of the company’s blockchain-based products and services, including the EOSIO protocol. ^[5]

"EOS is something I'm building so that I can build future applications on it. It's designed to be extensible, programmable and high-performance"

On December 31, 2020, Dan Larimer left Block.one and announced on Block.one social network Voice.com:

"I will continue on my mission to create free market, voluntary solutions for securing life, liberty, property and justice for all. I do not know exactly what is next, but I am leaning toward building more censorship-resistant technologies." ^[14]

However, Larimer returned to Block.one in January 2022 with a 'Multi-Year Plan to Revitalize EOS'. Since resigning from Block.One, Larimer and his team of engineers at ClarionOS remained key active members of the EOS community. ^[15][16]

An Austrian Economist

On January 4, 2015, Dan wrote a blog post explaining his position on economical theories: "Why I am an Austrian Economist - Take 1"[[11]] - (#cite-id-lxktizp3aoq).  The blog and principles of Austrian economic were criticized by many, along with Vitalik Buterin, one of Ethereum's founders. Vitalik responded with a paper written by Bryan Caplan of George Mason University titled “Why I am not an Austrian Economist”[[12]] - (#cite-id-by36m2egp56). Caplan began as an Austrian economist and then switched after 8 years and a Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton.

Dan Larimer presented arguments in favor of Austrian economics when he wrote:

"I am a very principled individual and am not easily impressed with fancy math. I like the Austrian approach to economics because it is an approach based upon principles and deductive/inductive reasoning." ^[4]

After two days, due to solid critique from Bitshares Talk forum folks, he wrote another post ‘Why I am an Austrian Economist’[[13]] - (#cite-id-hljroumk89r). There he reinforced:

"I am an Austrian economist because it is the only theory of economics that is compatible with my mission to find free market solutions to secure the life, liberty, and property of all."

Fractally

In January 2022, Daniel Larimer introduced Fractally, a new project aimed at delivering the original vision for EOS from 2017. Fractally combines a decentralized exchange, a social media network, a high-performance smart contract platform, and fractal governance. ^{[20] [21]}

The project was built on lessons learned from Larimer's previous blockchain ventures, including BitShares and Steem/Hive. Larimer is credited with coining the term "Decentralized Autonomous Company (DAC)" in 2013, which evolved into the widely used term Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). ^[22]

Fractally aimed to produce a powerful and easy-to-use application on EOS, incorporating advancements in automated market makers. Fractally integrated principles of decentralized governance outlined in Larimer's book, "More Equal Animals – The Subtle Art of True Democracy." These principles were tested through the Eden on EOS community, which hosted elections involving hundreds of people. Fractally hired John Williamson, the founder of the EOS-based blogging application Violet.garden, to help develop a well-governed social media platform on EOS. ^[21]

With funding from the EOS Network Foundation (ENF), Fractally also took on the role of maintaining Mandel, a community-driven fork of EOSIO. Larimer stated that the Mandel code fork was the "shortest path to EOS independence" and the "first step on a multi-year plan to revitalize EOS." A white paper detailing the vision for Fractally was announced for release on February 22, 2022. ^{[20] [21] [22]}

Personal life

Dan Larimer's father is Stan Larimer^[18] who worked for Boeing, and with whom he founded Cryptonomex Inc.^[17], a blockchain technology consulting business. His interest in blockchains began in the early days of Bitcoin. ^[5]