George Danezis
George Danezis is the Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Mysten Labs, the company behind the Sui blockchain and Walrus Protocol. He is a computer scientist and Professor of Security and Privacy Engineering at the Department of Computer Science, University College London. [1][2]
Education
George Danezis pursued his education at the University of Cambridge, earning a PhD in Computer Security and Cryptography in 2004, enabling him to work as a Professor later on at the College of London. Prior to his doctoral studies, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science at the same institution.
Proficient in English, but also French and Greek, George attended the European School of Brussels, where he completed his European Baccalaureate in 1997.[1][2]
Career
George Danezis co-founded Mysten Labs together with Evan Cheng, Adeniyi Abiodun, and Sam Blackshear, and is currently the Chief Scientist.
Additionally, he holds the position of Faculty Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute. With over a decade at University College London, George has been a Professor of security and privacy engineering since 2016 and previously served as a Reader in Security and Privacy Engineering.
Earlier on, George worked as a Research Scientist at Facebook, contributing to the Novi team. He also advised at Vega Protocol, and co-founded Chainspace, leading as Head of Research for almost a year.
George's academic journey includes 6 years as a Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, starting as a Post-doctoral Researcher. Prior to that, he was a Visiting Fellow at K.U. Leuven and held roles at Cambridge University.[1][2][6]
Publications
George Danezis' publications include "LOGAN: Membership Inference Attacks Against Generative Models" (2019), shedding light on privacy vulnerabilities, and "Coconut: Threshold Issuance Selective Disclosure Credentials with Applications to Distributed Ledgers" (2019), addressing privacy concerns in distributed ledger technologies.
Additionally, "Scoping the Cyber Security Body of Knowledge" (2018) reflects his involvement in shaping the discourse on cyber security. [6][7][8]
Awards
In 2014, George was honored with the designation of Fellow of the British Computer Society, a distinction bestowed upon individuals who exhibit dedication to advancing standards, strategic leadership, best practices, and the encouragement of these principles in others.[5][2][1]
Walrus Protocol
George Danezis is the brainchild behind Walrus Protocol, a decentralized storage solution that aims to reinvent how data is stored and secured in Web3 environments. The protocol is built on the Sui blockchain and introduces a novel data encoding algorithm called Red Stuff, which provides significant advantages over traditional storage methods.
Walrus Protocol's Red Stuff algorithm is designed to be fast, capable of encoding gigabytes of data per second. It employs a unique dual encoding scheme that allows for efficient reconstruction of missing data chunks without downloading entire files, making it more resource-efficient than traditional approaches.
The protocol stores data by splitting files into many small chunks distributed across storage nodes, providing resilience and the ability to reconstruct files from available chunks through reencoding. This approach results in storing approximately five times less data in the network compared to traditional methods, while maintaining security and decentralization.
Walrus Protocol is designed to support various applications including:
- AI datasets storage and verification
- Blockchain history storage
- Websites and rich media content
- Social networking applications
- Ticketing and subscription services
The protocol has already seen practical applications through projects like Walrus Pass (a ticketing and subscriptions app) and Link Forge (a social networking app) developed during the Breaking the Ice hackathon.
The Walrus Protocol has secured significant funding, with the Walrus Foundation raising $140 million in a fundraising round led by Standard Crypto. Additional investors include a16z crypto, Electric Capital, Creditcoin, Lvna Capital, FTDA, Protagonist, Karatage, RW3 Ventures, Comma3 Ventures, and Raptor Group. [9][12][10] [11] [12]
Interviews
Insights from George Danezis #01
On March 1, 2025, the ETHDenver YouTube channel aired an interview in which George Danezis discussed his perspective on decentralized storage within the blockchain ecosystem. He described the Walrus project as a potential solution to data loss issues in Web3 environments, where connections to NFTs and decentralized applications (dApps) can disappear due to centralized storage and incomplete on-chain records.
During the discussion, George Danezis explained that Walrus is designed as a decentralized blob store integrated with the Sui blockchain. This integration ensures that associated media, metadata, and audit logs are stored on-chain, thereby addressing concerns over data disappearance. He noted the use of erasure coding technology, which is intended to improve data integrity and availability while reducing the cost of data replication.
George Danezis also mentioned the platform’s interface that allows developers to manage data storage, retention policies, and governance structures through smart contracts. This feature supports the development of decentralized applications that incorporate both on-chain governance and off-chain media components.
The interview further referenced existing partnerships related to Walrus and described applications ranging from decentralized music distribution to content storage. Additionally, George discussed how adding storage nodes could increase overall capacity and data operation bandwidth, while also mentioning plans for encrypted storage solutions.
According to the interview, Walrus is intended to provide an infrastructure for data storage in the blockchain space that may help address issues associated with centralized storage and data loss. [13]
Walrus and Sui #02
On February 10, 2025, on the Altcoin Daily channel, George Denezis, co-founder and chief scientist at Mysten Labs, provided an overview of developments in blockchain technology within the Sui ecosystem. He noted that Sui has achieved a total locked value of $1.8 billion and has experienced measurable growth in scalability and efficiency within the decentralized finance framework.
Based on his background in computer science and previous work with projects at Facebook and Ethereum, George described the integration of scalability, programmability, and user interface elements as distinguishing factors for Sui. During the discussion, he presented Walrus, a decentralized blob storage protocol that is integrated with the Sui network. Walrus is intended to offer a distributed storage alternative to conventional centralized solutions by using a network of storage nodes to maintain data reliability and integrity.
George outlined several technical features of Walrus, including its ability to ensure data authenticity and provide privacy measures for various applications such as AI model verification, media asset management, and the storage of social network data.
The discussion also mentioned the collaborative opportunities within the blockchain sector, with an invitation extended to developers and entrepreneurs to contribute to the ongoing development of the Walrus platform. According to the interview, such collaborative efforts are viewed as integral to the future evolution of decentralized applications, with the goal of achieving a balanced ecosystem for smart contracts and economic models.
Overall, the interview presented an account of the current status and intended applications of both the Sui network and the Walrus protocol within the context of blockchain technology. [14]
