Bio
Christian Catalini is the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cryptoeconomics Lab and a research scientist at MIT. He is also a co-founder and chief strategy officer of Lightspark. Previously, he was a co‑creator of Diem (formerly Libra), chief economist of the Diem Association and head economist of Meta FinTech. Christian is an advisor to Coinbase, Algorand and Delphia, and independent board member at Hivemind Capital. Since 2013, Christian has also been a member of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Technology Advisory Committee. His academic research at MIT focuses on blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies and he previously worked on the economics of equity crowdfunding and start-up growth, as well as the economics of scientific collaboration. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto (Rotman School of Management), and M.Sc. (summa cum laude) in economics and management of new technologies from Bocconi University, Milan, Italy. In 2018, Christian was appointed as a Faculty Research Fellow in the Productivity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research.