Shiv Shankar is a technology executive and entrepreneur known for his work in blockchain infrastructure and zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography. He is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Boundless, a decentralized protocol for ZK proof generation, and previously served as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at RiscZero, where he was a key figure in the development of the Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine (ZKVM). ^[1]

Education

Shiv Shankar holds a Master of Science in Computational Finance and Risk Management from the University of Washington (2021–2024) and a Master’s degree in Economics from Purdue University (2019–2021). He completed undergraduate studies in Computer Engineering at the National University of Singapore (2007–2011) and also studied Business Administration at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (2007–2011). Shankar attended St. James' School in India, where he completed the Indian School Certificate Examinations (1994–2007). ^[6]

Career

Shiv Shankar's career is rooted in database systems and spans both traditional technology and blockchain sectors. He began in software engineering and leadership roles at Microsoft (October 2011 – May 2014), Lookout (May 2014 – July 2015), Grab (July 2015 – January 2017), Amazon (February 2017 – May 2018), and Lyft (June 2018 – July 2021), gaining experience in building markets for both physical and digital goods. His transition into the Web3 space included a role at Coinbase (July 2021 – June 2022), where he led engineering teams focused on country-specific launches and QR code advertising, followed by a position at Ava Labs (June 2022 – December 2023), supporting the Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain and its Layer 1 protocol.

Shankar then joined RISC Zero, serving as Vice President of Engineering (December 2023 – November 2024), Chief Information Officer (November 2024 – May 2025), and briefly as Chief Executive Officer of Boundless within RISC Zero (May – June 2025), where he oversaw product and engineering teams and led the development of the company's ZKVM technology. In June 2025, he founded Boundless Network to advance the operationalization of zero-knowledge proofs and currently serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Earlier in his career, he also founded Credit Mobile (January – July 2010), a micro-finance startup, and held a student leadership role at the National University of Singapore (June – December 2008). ^{[1] [2] [3] [6]}

Media Appearances

Talking Tokens Podcast

In September 2025, Shiv Shankar was featured on Talking Tokens, where he discussed his work as CEO of Boundless, a protocol for verifiable compute across multiple blockchains powered by RISC Zero's zkVM technology. He explained the role of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs in enhancing privacy, scaling applications, and enabling cross-chain interoperability. During the episode, Shankar also described the launch of Boundless’ mainnet beta on Base with support from the Ethereum Foundation, and the use of proof-of-verifiable-work to reduce costs and improve user experience.

Seed Club

Shankar also appeared on the Seed Club podcast 11 AM w/ Seed Club. In the episode, they discussed Boundless's technology, which uses a ZKVM (Zero-Knowledge Virtual Machine) to allow developers to write zero-knowledge programs in high-level languages like Rust, making the technology more accessible.