decentralized-identity
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Burnt
Burnt is a New York-based Web3 company and the core team behind XION, a Layer 1 blockchain built to make crypto invisible to everyday users. Founded by Anthony Anzalone - better known as the artist-provocateur 'Burnt Banksy' - the company uses 'generalized abstraction' to remove wallets, private keys and gas fees so that people can sign in with an email or a face scan and pay in USDC. Burnt has raised more than $36M from investors including Animoca Brands, Circle Ventures and Multicoin, and pitches XION as consumer-grade infrastructure for brands like Uber, BMW and others. In 2026 the XION network rebranded to Verona.
DeFi Devs
DeFi Devs is a Miami-based blockchain and AI development company that serves as the lead community developer of the Accumulate Protocol, an identity-based, delegated-proof-of-stake blockchain built for decentralized finance, digital identity, and enterprise tokenization. Founded in 2021 as a subsidiary of Inveniam Capital Partners and led by Factom founder Paul Snow, the firm builds infrastructure for cross-chain atomic transactions, human-readable addresses, and hierarchical key management, positioning Accumulate as an 'Internet of Blockchains' that bridges regulated real-world assets onto decentralized rails.
qikfox Cybersecurity Systems
qikfox Cybersecurity Systems is a San Mateo, California startup building what it calls the 'tool shed for a trustworthy Internet.' Founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneur Tarun Gaur after his mother lost money to an online scam, the company makes a privacy-first Smart Browser and Safe Search engine that deliver real-time scam and phishing protection, ad and tracker blocking, and biometric/PIN locks - without collecting browsing history or product analytics. qikfox claims to be the world's first browser to bake in both decentralized identity and quantum-resistant cryptography, and has since layered in an AI Copilot, 3D web, and knowledge-management features aimed at the emerging agentic web.
Colin Gounden
Colin Gounden is the co-founder and CEO of VIA (VIA Science), a Somerville, Massachusetts company building decentralized, quantum-resistant data and identity protection software used by global utilities and the U.S. Department of Defense. A Harvard biochemistry graduate turned serial founder, he previously built and sold a technology services firm with clients like Royal Dutch/Shell for roughly $97M (1999) and founded and sold the analytics firm Grail Research (2009). Since 2016 he has steered VIA from clean-energy analytics into privacy-preserving Web3 security, raising a $28M Series B led by Bosch Ventures in March 2025.
World
World (formerly Worldcoin) is building a global "proof of human" network for the AI age. Created by Tools for Humanity and co-founded by OpenAI's Sam Altman and CEO Alex Blania, World lets people prove they are a real, unique human online without revealing who they are. Users verify with the Orb, a custom iris-scanning device, and receive a private World ID plus access to the World App, World Chain (an Ethereum Layer 2), and the WLD token. The pitch is simple: as AI makes bots indistinguishable from people, the internet needs a privacy-preserving way to tell humans apart from machines.
Tarun Gaur
Tarun Gaur is the Founder and CEO of qikfox Cybersecurity Systems, a San Mateo-based startup building what it calls the world's first browser with integrated decentralized identity and quantum-resistant cryptography. With 24+ years spanning Microsoft, Deloitte, and HP - and one successful exit (Tringapps, 500 employees, acquired 2018) - Gaur launched qikfox in 2019 after his mother was scammed online. Backed by Tim Draper with $1.1M in seed funding, qikfox charges $180/year for an invite-only premium browser targeting everyday consumers who want safety, security, and privacy baked into the foundation - not bolted on as an afterthought.