BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, May 18, 2022 — Shyft Network (“Shyft”), a public protocol designed to validate identity and power compliance directly into blockchain data, today announced that Bryan Bishop, a renowned Bitcoin core developer, technologist, and veteran of the blockchain industry, is teaming up with Shyft’s core development team to collaborate on strengthening the global network security, scalability, and interoperability.
Mr. Bishop’s decision follows the launch last month of Veriscope, Shyft’s open-source, decentralized solution for the Financial Action Task Force’s Travel Rule, which requires the collection and exchange of customer data to ensure adherence to international rules against money laundering, sanctions evasion and other malicious activities. Veriscope enables digital asset exchanges to comply with the Travel Rule seamlessly and efficiently and solves for the corresponding “Sunrise Issue,” whereby exchanges in varying jurisdictions come into compliance with the rule at different times than their counterparties.
Thomas Borrel, Chief Operating Officer of Shyft, said, “Bryan is a brilliant engineer whose significant experience as a developer and blockchain consultant will be extremely additive to our talented team of technologists and compliance professionals. We are excited to have Bryan help us strengthen our counterparty data transmission infrastructure, solve other complex security challenges, and continue to bridge the gap between permissionless and permissioned systems.”
Mr. Bishop said, “Veriscope is a necessary step towards continuing to bring crypto into the existing financial system. Travel Rule has presented an enormous regulatory challenge to the crypto industry, and it’s through open-source projects like Veriscope that I believe the industry will be able to come together and coordinate to solve the Travel Rule problem. It’s critical that we get this right, without increasing risk or harming users. Shyft has built out a platform to do just that, and I look forward to helping bolster the platform with more security for a variety of assets.”
Prior to Shyft, Mr. Bishop served as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Custodia Bank (previously Avanti Bank & Trust), a Wyoming bank specializing in digital asset payment and custody solutions for US businesses. Previously, he was an early technical hire and Senior Blockchain Engineer at LedgerX (now FTX US Derivatives), where he helped build the first federally regulated bitcoin derivatives exchange. He continues to serve on the Board of FTX US Derivatives. Mr. Bishop is a longtime software engineering consultant and contractor and has worked on behalf of companies including Blockstream and Genomic Prediction. Recently, he launched Webcash.org, a Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency without a blockchain. He was one of the first to receive the original Bitcoin email from Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 and currently advises and consults companies in need of his expertise.
