Luis Cuende is a software developer best known for co-founding Aragon. He has appeared on Forbes 30 under 30 and MIT TR35 and was recognized as the best programmer in Europe under the age of 18 by HackFwd. At the age of 18, Cuende published his first book, called “Tengo 18 años y ni estudio ni trabajo: ¡monto empresas y vivo haciendo lo que me gusta!". ^[1][2]

Early Life & Education

As a teenager, Luis Cuende developed a strong interest in astrophysics, which led him to teach himself the subject. His father, a software developer, introduced him to technology by giving him a Fedora 7 CD, sparking Cuende's fascination with programming. This interest led him to develop Asturix, a free software system that gained recognition at Campus Party Europe 2010.^[2]

Cuende went on to win Hack-Now, a contest identifying top young programmers in Europe. He later founded Holalabs, a startup aimed at revolutionizing internet user interaction, and after selling his shares, he launched Cardwee upon moving to Madrid. ^[3]

"And I got into open source because I felt it was like this incredible, very powerful way that you can create code and you could basically create new stuff that people all over the world can use with almost no investment. You have a laptop and that's it. And for me coming from a humble family, that was mind blowing. It was like, I don't need money to explore my hobby. I can just have a laptop and then grab code that other people have done."^[3]

Career

Cuende began his career in the field of free software, founding Asturix, a Linux distribution, at 12. Later on, he co-founded Stampery in 2014, which initially provided blockchain timestamping services but was later rebranded as Witnet, a decentralized oracle network. ^[2]

Aragon

In 2016, he co-established Aragon alongside Jorge Izquierdo and served as a core contributor. Aragon is a significant player in the field of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), which grew assets under management from zero to $1bn. Aragon's platform is used by Ethereum-based financial entities such as Lido Finance and Curve. ^[4]

"I got into crypto in 2011. Back then it was just Bitcoin, not crypto really, but I saw this very liberating tool that could actually free people from financial slavery. I think financial slavery is a very powerful kind of slavery that we are living in today. And people like my parents who have been working their whole life for banks and that just didn't really seem right." - he said in an interview with Decrypt ^[5]

Aragon's core features center around three key aspects: decentralized governance infrastructure enabling communities to make collective decisions; modular design providing customization options for governance mechanisms; and an emphasis on transparency, with all decisions and transactions recorded on the blockchain for accountability. ^[6]

Cuende has participated in the creation of the whitepapers for Stampery, Witnet, and Aragon. ^[4]

In July 2023, Cuende founded CitizenX and serves as the president of the company. ^[7][2]

Investments

Cuende is an angel investor who has collaborated with other angels such as Balaji Srinivasan, Snoop Dogg, Ryan Hoover, Alexis Ohanian, Ashton Kutcher, and venture capitalists including a16z, USV, and Placeholder. ^[4]

Some of his investments include Anytype, APY.vision, Babylon, Dune Analytics, Gelato, Guesser, Molecule, Sarcophagus, Syndicate, PWN, Rally, Ramp, and Texts.com. ^[4]