# Trent Van Epps

> Trent Van Epps is a person who works in the Ethereum ecosystem on community, strategy, and product-related roles and publishes writing about Ethereum topics.

- Canonical URL: https://iq.wiki/wiki/trent-van-epps
- Categories: People in crypto
- Tags: Ethereum, Developer, Founder, Influencer, Speaker
- Created: 2026-09-26T02:41:47.786Z
- Last updated: 2026-09-26T02:41:47.786Z
- Source: IQ.wiki — the world's largest blockchain and crypto encyclopedia (https://iq.wiki)

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**Trenton "Trent" Van Epps** is an American ecosystem contributor to the [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) [blockchain](https://iq.wiki/wiki/blockchain) who works on protocol coordination and community programs. He is associated with the Ethereum Foundation, the nonprofit that supports the development of [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum), and with [Protocol Guild](https://iq.wiki/wiki/protocol-guild), a collective that funds [Ethereum's](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) core protocol maintainers.[\[1\]](#cite-id-xylk7hfupp)​[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc)​

## Early Life and Education

Van Epps studied architecture at the University at Buffalo, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system, where he completed a Bachelor of Science in Architecture between 2010 and 2014.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc)​[\[1\]](#cite-id-xylk7hfupp) During his studies he accumulated a series of academic distinctions from the university and its School of Architecture and Planning. In April 2014 he received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence, an honor recognizing students who combine academic achievement with other accomplishments; he was among 15 students selected from the University at Buffalo's roughly 30,000-strong student body.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) Earlier he was awarded the Design Excellence Award in April 2012, and Hyatt's Student Excellence Award in April 2011 for design work and commitment to craft.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) 

Alongside his coursework, Van Epps held several university positions. He worked as a Solar Decathlon intern at the University at Buffalo in the summer of 2014, where he designed a website and branding, contributed to competition design development, worked on transportation research, logistics and fundraising, and helped assemble the competition home in Irvine, California.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) He served as a research assistant to Professor Joyce Hwang's practice, '_Ants of the Prairie_' between October 2014 and May 2015, contributing to grant proposals, model making, conceptual design, graphic design, and copy editing for the publication _Beyond Patronage_.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) He also worked as an Intersight assistant at the UB School of Architecture and Planning in early 2014 and as a resident advisor for UB Campus Living from August 2012 to May 2014, managing a floor of 30 residents.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc)​

## Career

### Architecture

Before entering the crypto industry, Van Epps spent several years working in architecture and design. His earliest professional experience was an internship at Smith+Associates Architects in downtown Rochester, New York, during the summer of 2012, where he carried out site surveys, renders, floor plans, and concept boards, and helped prepare client presentations.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) After graduating he worked as an intern architect at Architectural Resources PC, a Buffalo firm specializing in behavioral health, higher education, and healthcare architecture, from September 2014 to August 2015, supporting project managers with architectural visualizations, Revit modeling, surveying, construction documents, and proposals.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) He was also a graphic designer for the Buffalo Architecture Foundation from September 2014 to March 2015.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc)​

Between October 2015 and April 2016 he founded and curated Atelier Million Billion, which he described as a "spatial research/action collective producing modest proposals for problematic extremes."[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) From December 2016 to November 2018 he worked as a design associate at Staach, a design services firm in Rochester, New York, handling project management, spatial branding, architectural design, and drawing set management while moving physical products from client fielding through construction.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc)​

### Crypto and Ethereum

#### Fission and Whiteblock

His first crypto role was as community and content specialist at Fission, a Vancouver-based software company building identity, data, and compute protocols, from April to June 2019.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) There he bootstrapped early marketing and research processes, curated social media and a weekly newsletter, produced content for the company blog, and engaged the [InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ipfs) community to recruit alpha testers for a product launch on the Heroku platform.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) From August 2019 to February 2020 he was a community coordinator at Whiteblock, a Los Angeles software development company, where his work centered on engaging existing crypto communities and their stakeholders, attending [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) core developer calls to integrate with the community and raise brand awareness, and coordinating events, demos, and product introductions.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc)​

#### ETHGlobal

From March 2020 to February 2021, Van Epps served as Community Manager Lead at [ETHGlobal](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethglobal), a company founded in 2017 that runs hackathons, teaches developer skills, and strengthens developer communities focused on building on [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum).[\[1\]](#cite-id-xylk7hfupp)​[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) During this period he documented several of the organization's programs and produced its developer research. He wrote about HackMoney, described as [ETHGlobal's](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethglobal) first online, long-form event, in a July 2020 retrospective, and covered ETHOnline, a month-long program in October 2020 combining a hackathon with weekly summits.[\[3\]](#cite-id-pnezhmnrz3) He also produced the ETHGlobal Developer Survey Report for 2020, published on December 31, 2020, and ran a "Survey Spotlight" series drawing on survey data, with entries dedicated to [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) co-founder [Vitalik Buterin](https://iq.wiki/wiki/vitalik-buterin) and to Aparna Krishnan in April 2020.[\[3\]](#cite-id-pnezhmnrz3)​

#### Ethereum Foundation and Protocol Guild

Van Epps has worked with the [Ethereum Foundation](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum-foundation-ef), the Zug, Switzerland–based nonprofit organization that supports [Ethereum's](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) development, in a protocol-focused capacity beginning in March 2021.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc) His association is described as that of an "Ecosystem Person" contributing to the protocol.[\[1\]](#cite-id-xylk7hfupp) In December 2021 he took on a strategy role at [Protocol Guild](https://iq.wiki/wiki/protocol-guild), a collective that channels funding to the maintainers of [Ethereum's](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) core protocol, and he has continued in that role.[\[2\]](#cite-id-r2a6cmbjkc)​

## Writing and Publications

Van Epps has published a body of writing on [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) through his Medium account, covering both technical explanations and community programs.[\[3\]](#cite-id-pnezhmnrz3) In October 2020 he wrote "_How they relate: ETH1x, ETH2 and Rollups_," explaining how the different components of [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) would exist alongside one another until being merged, an early attempt to clarify the network's transition architecture for a general audience.[\[3\]](#cite-id-pnezhmnrz3) The same month he published "_Ethereum's Dark Forest is worth cultivating,_" arguing that the permissionless nature of [Ethereum](https://iq.wiki/wiki/ethereum) carries costs but is necessary and beneficial.[\[3\]](#cite-id-pnezhmnrz3)​