# Bruce Pon

> Bruce Pon is a Canadian entrepreneur based in Singapore, co-founder and CEO of BigchainDB and a co-founder and board member of Ocean Protocol. His career connects automotive finance and international consulting with blockchain infrastructure, digital attribution and markets for data. He previously co-founded Avantalion and ascribe, and has an engineering degree from the University of Saskatchewan and an advanced executive certificate from MIT Sloan.

- **Role:** Co-founder and CEO at BigchainDB; Co-founder and Board Member at Ocean Protocol
- **Organizations:** BigchainDB, Ocean Protocol, ascribe, Avantalion, Daimler Financial Services, Accenture
- **Nationality:** Canadian
- **Education:** B.Sc. in Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Advanced Certificate for Executives in Management, Innovation and Technology, MIT Sloan School of Management
- **Known for:** Co-founded ascribe, a blockchain service for registering and transferring digital creative work., Co-founded BigchainDB, combining database capabilities with blockchain asset and control features., Co-founded Ocean Protocol in 2017 to support data sharing and monetization.

## Career timeline

- **1993** — Met future collaborator Trent McConaghy at the University of Saskatchewan.
- **1996-2002** — Worked as a consultant at Accenture.
- **2003** — Joined Daimler in international financial-services project work.
- **2009** — Co-founded Avantalion, a consultancy working on banks and financial-services businesses.
- **2014** — Joined Trent and Masha McConaghy full time to build ascribe.
- **2015** — The team developed the BigchainDB blockchain-database project.
- **2017** — Co-founded Ocean Protocol; BigchainDB demonstrated AVDEX with Toyota Research Institute and MIT Media Lab.
- **2018** — Announced the handoff of BigchainDB software governance to IPDB Foundation and a company focus on Ocean Protocol.
- **2020** — Discussed the launch of Ocean V3, Ocean Market and datatokens.
- **2024** — Ocean joined Fetch.ai and SingularityNET in the ASI Alliance.
- **2025** — Ocean withdrew from the ASI Alliance on October 9; Pon published his account of the split on October 23.

## Achievements

- Co-founded ascribe, a blockchain service for registering and transferring digital creative work.
- Co-founded BigchainDB, combining database capabilities with blockchain asset and control features.
- Co-founded Ocean Protocol in 2017 to support data sharing and monetization.
- Participated in the 2020 documentary Cryptopia.
- Has given guest lectures at Oxford, MIT Media Lab, Columbia University and ESMT.

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — On April 30, Pon and co-defendants filed a motion to dismiss in Fetch Compute, Inc. et al v. Pon et al. This is a procedural event, not a finding on the allegations; the public docket snapshot runs through that date.
- **2025-10** — Ocean Protocol Foundation announced its withdrawal from the ASI Alliance on October 9. Pon published The ASI Alliance from Ocean’s Perspective on October 23, disputing allegations and explaining his position.
- **2024-12** — Appeared on Convoco’s podcast to discuss crypto adoption, Bitcoin and the relationship between blockchain and AI.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ponbruce/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/brucepon

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/bruce-pon
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-21