About
Sveinn is a co-founder and the CEO of Monerium, the first company authorized to issue e-money on blockchains.
Previously, he helped start a bioinformatics company, a telco, a mobile software company, invested in a PCR-based point-of-care testing platform, worked at a biopharmaceutical company, and advised and invested in Arctic Ventures in Stockholm and IQ Capital I in Cambridge (UK).
Sveinn is a co-author of Minting Money With Megawatts which describes the economics of Bitcoin mining and was published as a cover feature in the Proceedings of the IEEE and as an iPython notebook on Github. The article was selected as a “noteable writing” in the The Best Writing on Mathematics in 2017. Additional peer reviewed publications are listed on Google Scholar.
He is also a co-author of two commissioned reports, Blockchains and the future of finance (May 2016) and Bitcoin mining - Global payments processing using Icelandic energy resources (August 2013).
Other writings include blogs and op-eds on subjects at the intersection of technology, commerce, economics, and science. Recently curated content on Medium includes:
Sveinn holds a PhD in Physics (Boston University), a MS in Economic Systems (Stanford University), a BS in Applied Physics (Columbia University), and a black belt in karate.
Events
Notable presentations, keynotes, and panel discussions:
- Digital money on blockchains, Boston University Alumni & Friends, December 3, 2020.
- Programmable money and the future of the enterprise, Consensus Distributed, May 12, 2020.
- The future of digital finance, Stockholm Fintech Week, Stockholm, February 20, 2020.
- e-money for online transactions, Coinscrum, London, October 2, 2020.
- The benefits of e-money and blockchains, The IMF, Washington DC, September 23, 2019.
- e-money for blockchains, Copenhagen Fintech Week, Copenhagen, June 17, 2019.
- The future of e-currency, Stockholm Fintech Week, Stockholm, February 13, 2019.
- Quantifying barriers to entry of proof-of-work, MIT Sloan School, Cambridge, MA, October 17, 2017.
- Blockchain as the game changer for payments, Payments International, London, September 14, 2017.
- How to mine bitcoin profitably, Scaling Bitcoin, Montreal, September 15, 2015.
- How to mine bitcoin profitably, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, April 17, 2015
- DLD Innovation Festival - Fintech, Tel Aviv, September, 2014.
- Bitcoin and the future of money, Bitcoin Scotland, Edinburgh, August 23, 2014.
- Legal and regulatory challenges for Bitcoin, CoinSummit, London, July 2014.
- Bitcoin and the future of money, Islandsbanki Wealth Management, Reykjavik, April 23, 2014.
- Bitcoin for microstates, CoinSummit, London, July 7, 2013.
Press
Select press clips and interviews:
- Monerium to Issue E-Money on the Algorand Blockchain In New Partnership, Cointelegraph, January 21, 2020.
- How Iceland’s Banking Collapse Created An Opportunity, Forbes, December 23, 2019.
- Out of the blocks: what Monerium’s e-money licence means for fintech, EuropeanCEO, August 21, 2019.
- Monerium gets licence to issue e-money on blockchains, Sifted, June 18, 2019.
- Consensys invests in blockchain e-money, stable coin venture Monerium, Ledger Insights, November, 2018.
- Bitcoin exposes the weaknesses of the existing financial regime, IamSatoshi, January 23, 2014.
- Virtual currency, BBC World News, March 1, 2014.
- Virtual currency, BBC Newsnight, November 23, 2013.
- Virtual currency, BBC Business Edition, November 19, 2013.
- Virtual currency, BBC World Business Report, November 18, 2013.
- And how would you like to pay, sir – cash, credit card, or Bitcoin?, The Guardian, July 7, 2013.
- Why Digital Freedom Matters - Bitcoin London 2012, New Internationalist, December 1, 2012.
- Referendum on Icesave, BBC Jeremy Vine Show, June 23, 2011.
- Referendum on Icesave, BBC Today Programme, April 8, 2011.
- Letter from Iceland, The Financial Times, November 14, 2008.
- How Nokia Chased Top End of Market, Got Hit in Middle, The Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2004.
Personal
Sveinn has lived in Reykjavik, New York, Boston, Tallahassee, Palo Alto, and London. Currently, he and his family split their time between Reykjavik and Boston.