Chainlink Co-Founder Sergey Nazarov Biography: Education, Career, and Net Worth

Sergey Nazarov Biography

Educational Background of Sergey Nazarov

The creator of Chainlink, Sergey Nazarov, was born in Russia, in the year 1987. His family later moved to New York in the year 1990. Since both his Russian parents were engineers from STEM background, Nazarov was exposed to the world of computers and technology from a young age.

From video games to dismantling and reassembling cathode-ray television sets, young Sergey explored his passion for technology in various ways. The curious Nazarov dedicatedly took lessons in computer engineering from his parents and later showcased his coding skills by securing the third position in the 2006 Google Coding Jam.

Surprisingly enough, despite being passionate about technology, he completed his graduation from New York University in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and management.

After his graduation, Sergey worked as a teaching fellow at New York University Stern School of Business alongside Professor Lawrence Lenihan, the CEO of a venture capital fund, FirstMark Capital. Subsequently, he completed his internship at FirstMark Capital, followed by as a software engineer at Google.

The Journey to Establish Chainlink Labs

Sergey Nazarov, in collaboration with Steve Ellis, founded Chainlink in 2017. They worked with Cornell University professor Ari Juels to co-author the white paper on Chainlink, explaining its protocol.

In 2008, he acquired the domain SmartContract and co-founded the company under the same name. Before launching Chainlink, Nazarov has experience in 3 different blockchain companies as CEO such as QED Capital, CryptaMail, and Secure Asset Exchange. This shaped him into an individual who viewed future potential in blockchain and worked on building Chainlink.

Nazarov built Chainlink of Oracle, as a decentralized network that helps SmartContract to access real-world data in a secure manner. Initially, the Chainlink was intended to be a centralized system for information verification but later upgraded to a decentralized setup to make it more secure. The 2020 integration of Chainlink with DECO resulted in a core upgrade, and the second white paper on Chainlink was published in April of the following year.

2021 was a year that witnessed exponential growth in the Chainlink ecosystem by introducing various services, NFTs, and DeFi applications. In the recent year 2023, Chainlink Oracle has introduced its Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP). It is designed to benefit numerous other blockchain networks and utilize Chainlink Oracle.

Is Sergey Nazarov and Satoshi Nakamoto One and the Same?

Quite a mystery how Bitcoin, once priceless, hopped from one investor to another for so many years to become incredibly valuable. However, the world failed to find the man behind its creation.

The white paper of Bitcoin was published under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. The world was collecting evidence for years to reach one conspiracy theory- Sergey Nazarov is the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

Although Nazarov denied he is the creator of Bitcoin, the evidence is pointing something else. A real clincher is the registration of the smart contract(dot)com domain, which was registered by Sergey on the 25th of October 2008, just six days before the release of the Bitcoin whitepaper on 31st October 2008. The coincidence of these two big events so close to each other seems rather suspicious.

People also raised the point that Sergey Nazarov shares the same SN initials as it is with Satoshi Nakamoto. Believers claimed that in a 2020 interview, Nazarov unintentionally revealed that he was in blockchain space for over 10 years. This made clear that he began his involvement close to the time when Bitcoin was introduced.

The suspicions increased further when the fact Satoshi was using a Russian proxy to hide his identity surfaced. At the same time, Nazarov has links with Russia because one of the first companies he worked with, QED Capital, is a Russian firm. However, the mystery has not yet been solved and Sergey has not proved to be the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

Sergey Nazarov Net Worth

There is no proper information on the net worth of Sergey Nazarov. While some sources estimated a net worth of $600 million, other sources say that it is around $1.2 billion as of 2023. However, there is no latest information about the net worth of Sergey nazarov. A major part of his wealth comes from the success of Chainlink and the amount of LINK tokens he owns. Being one of its co-founders, he presumably holds the highest number of LINK tokens.

His venture into the crypto world has a profound history tracing back to his early investments in Bitcoin when it was priced at just $30 per coin. Thus, his holdings of LINK tokens, along with his other investments in other promising startups, have made him one of the richest people in the crypto world.

Personal Life of Sergey Nazarov

The entire life of Nazarov revolves around technology and codes, reflecting his areas of interest. His passion for technology keeps him busy in his own world. He has a noticeably low profile, a life away from the limelight. He shares minimal or zero information about his personal life on social media.