Alexander Zaidelson is the former CEO of the Beam Foundation and the founder of Beam Privacy. He is an entrepreneur and investor with experience in blockchain, cybersecurity, and software development. ^[1]

He is also the co-founder and board member of various startups, including Nareos, Wikitup, and WeFi. ^[2]

Education

Zaidelson pursued a Master's in Applied Linguistics from Saint Petersburg State University, which he completed from 1994 to 1999. ^[1]

Later, he pursued an MBA from Tel Aviv University, specializing in Finance and Entrepreneurship from 2000 to 2004. In 2016, he returned to Tel Aviv University and completed his studies for a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Philosophy by 2018. ^[1]

Career

Since 2008, Zaidelson has acquired a wide range of professional experience in various positions and industries. He founded Wikitup, a desktop dictionary application, where he served as CEO. Zaidelson transitioned to Vice President of Product Management at WeFi, leading a team that delivers user-centric analytics and on-device customer experience management. ^[1][3]

In 2016, Zaidelson joined CIRTech Fund as a Principal, concentrating on supporting technology leaders and innovators spanning multiple industries. He later assumed the position of CEO at Beam, a scalable, confidential cryptocurrency platform. ^[1][3]

Subsequently, Zaidelson engaged in advisory roles at realizeMD, PerfectScale, and UNI.DIAMONDS, where he also held the position of Chief Data and Product Officer. His journey continued with a role as Director of Product Management, specifically for Investor Solutions, at SimilarWeb. ^[1][3]

In 2022, Zaidelson took on the dual roles of Founding Advisor at Agora Labs and Head of Business and Data at VirtuSwap, showcasing his blockchain research and data modeling expertise. ^[1][3]

In August 2023, he became the CEO of SCRT Labs, the founding core development team behind the Secret Network. ^[1][3]

Interviews

Privacy and Crypto

In a 2019 interview with trade.io, Zaidelson explained how Beam will differentiate itself from other cryptocurrencies. He said: ^[4]

“BEAM is first and foremost a scalable and confidential cryptocurrency. So today, we know there are around 2,000 different crypto coins, but the absolute majority of them are fully non-confidential, fully transparent. So whenever someone uses Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or any of the other well-known coins, they need to realize that their transactions are observable and will remain on the blockchain forever.”

He went on to explain why he chose Mimblewimble as Beam’s privacy protocol: ^[4]

“MimbleWimble, as a protocol, actually solves the problem…a system where it has all the benefits of the blockchain, it’s fully permission-less, decentralized, proof-of-work, but, it gives you full confidentiality, so nobody can see what you’re doing, who you’re sending to and what you’re sending, and it does that without the penalty of scalability. So the blockchain is actually much smaller, than that of bitcoin.”

Zaidelson later attended Deconomy 2019 in South Korea, where Block Monster Labs interviewed him. He shared his views on the value of privacy: ^[6]

“The value of privacy is actually having control over your information. We even call privacy part of your sovereignty, so if you have the full sovereignty, you need to be able to control what you own but also to control the information about what you own.”

In 2020, Cointelegraph interviewed Zaidelson. When discussing how Beam’s confidential DeFi differs from others, he said: ^[5]

“They are built on Ethereum, which is an antithesis of privacy. Beam Confidential DeFi will offer evolved functionality plus financial privacy and all that with great usability and ability to audit transactions.”

He went on to explain the target audience and the future of DeFi: ^[5]

“everyone needs privacy, so eventually, everything will move to confidential DeFi.”